Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1528: Nuanced Conflict

On one side, a vicious empire that had a justified reason for their invasion, sort of.

On the other, a peaceful theocracy that had definitely earned their karmic retribution, sort of.

And in the middle of this, a mildly greedy man was trying to steal away their main source of conflict for his own purpose.

"Ugh, why couldn’t this stupid fucking flame be found in the heart of a giant demon volcano or something?" Zhen Liu griped as he looked over the lists once more, grimacing at the thought of helping one side over the other. "At least that way, I don’t have to get involved in political intrigue...again."

This wasn’t the first time Zhen Liu had to deal with political sins of the past affecting the present, but this was the first time he had to deal with something so incredibly nuanced.

After all, all of the factions he had to deal with up until then had ostensibly villainous roles in his life and the lives of others.

The Wolfe Family may have been one of the founding families of Stone Claw, but they had sent a spy that had technically killed his ass, attempted a hostile takeover, and had hired a freaky-ass cockroach man who tried to steal the powers of his fiancee, Bellona. As such, Zhen Liu had no qualms about Frosttusk freezing their patriarch into a fucking popsicle.

The Fallen Clan were a bunch of rebellious assholes who had made things personal when they tried to blow him and his family up, so Zhen Liu had very little compunction in blowing up their giant tinker toy of a robotic lizard while also sending them flying out of the Abyssal Lands to who knows where. Granted, those motherfuckers were still running with Buzza, but that was a whole other kettle of fish.

And then there was that whole thing involving Duke Diamoror, the Cortez Company, and a whole bunch of other factions that were honestly more of Lythero’s enemies than his own, but he was friends with the guy, so they were also on the list. Especially after those aforementioned bastards started running with Lord Smoking Mirror.

Either way, these were enemies that had a clear-cut animosity between him and them. He didn’t feel bad about kicking their asses in; they didn’t feel bad about trying to kill him, and everyone involved were more or less enemies or allies. There were not collateral participants...and that was the biggest issue as to why Zhen Liu was hesitant in trying to claim this Mother Sun Flame.

It was a powerful aether treasure to be sure, and he was fairly certain that not only could it help Lythero with his issues, but it could also promote his cultivation by leaps and bounds. Hell, if the legends were true, then the properties of this flame could actually do something about his lack of aether channels.

"...why the fuck am I still thinking about that?" Zhen Liu asked himself after the thought had crossed his mind. "Because wounds always leave scars that never really fade."

Regardless of his own issues, Zhen Liu didn’t want to claim the Mother Sun Flame, precisely because there were going to be a whole mess of other people suffering from his decisions.

The main leader of the Sacred Flame Theocracy, the Sacred Fire Speaker, was able to corral the other sects and prevent them from fighting one another because they wielded the awesome might of the Mother Sun Flame. If it disappeared, the Sacred Fire Speaker would’ve lost their authority and could be promptly overthrown by the ambitious few, leading to an all-out civil war. Making matters worse, the general peasantry and lower-rung members of society that needed the church to help them survive would suffer as well due to those aforementioned sects probably stealing all that they could from the resulting fallout. In other words, without the flame, the nation would collapse.

As for the Erupting Dawn Empire...that was a powder keg and a half that was about to blow at the slightest hint of a spark. And that spark just so happened to be the well-being of their leader, Emperor Mexazuma.

During the sixteen years of constant warring between the Sacred Flame Theocracy and the Erupting Dawn Empire, Emperor Mexazuma had led more than one assault as the main spearhead. In response to these attacks, the Sacred Flame Theocracy sends their own Aether Saint to put a stop to his antics.

Normally, these battles would end in a stalemate for everyone involved. However, one particular battle actually ended in Mexazuma’s defeat. Mexazuma survived, but he had been horribly injured as a result.

The injury wasn’t exactly life-threatening...yet...but it did limit his ability to move about and fight like usual. Combined with the fact that as an Aether Saint he needed incredibly powerful aether medicines to treat his injuries in the first place, it made it so that Mexazuma’s glory days of leading armies were increasingly becoming more and more distant.

The honor of leading these armies fell to his children. His many vicious, bloodthirsty, ambitious, and cutthroat children.

If Emperor Mexazuma didn’t recover, if he died, then there was a very high chance that the Erupting Dawn Empire would...erupt.

Literally.

Into a civil war the likes of which would lead to a level of scorched earth that Zhen Liu could only compare to the fall of the Hunnic Empire or the Roman Empire...maybe worse.

"Ugh...helping one side condemns the other in ways that are uncontrollable..." Zhen Liu muttered. "Then again, it probably won’t matter to me once I leave the continent...fuck, why do I care?"

Becoming aware of his "karmic void" was both a blessing and a curse to Zhen Liu.

A blessing in the sense that he finally understood why he always seemed to roll into situations that were both incredibly absurd and yet rewarding all the same. And a curse, because now he couldn’t help but overthink his decisions...more so than usual.

After all, causing the collapse of a nation that would inevitably lead to a civil war was definitely a karma bomb in the making. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"I help an orphan; it leads to me trading blows with a criminal underlord that trafficked children. I visit an underground jungle, I end up fighting an abomination that snowballs into me learning about some sort of fucked-up conspiracy or multigenerational plot involving a psycho rogue Kaijin who may or may not be actively looking for way to supplant me...or evolve people into being Kaijin, I honestly can’t tell which," Zhen Liu muttered to himself. "And last but not least, I help a sealed swordsmen get revenge, and I somehow end up getting involved in the plots of an underworld God’s remnants and meet a false kaijin lord...how am I not dead yet?"

In Zhen Liu’s head, he had thought long and hard of the most "extreme" outcome when it came to supporting one side over the other.

If he helped the Sacred Flame Theocracy, he could very well accidentally summon yet another god to come and serve as their very real avatar of the sacred flame and caused a religious revolution. At the same time, he would condemn the people of the Erupting Dawn Empire to a terrible civil war that would definitely spin out of control.

On the flip side, helping the Erupting Dawn Empire could lead to their emperor not only getting healed, but also learn a level of chill necessary to create an empire of peace and development. This, however, would condemn the Sacred Flame Theocracy to a cultural collapse that would definitely lead to some crusader type bullshit and purges every five seconds.

And these were the "best case scenarios".

As Zhen Liu mulled over these choices, though, he eventually thought about the possibility of helping neither side and being a selfish bastard. In other words, stealing the Mother Sun Flame for himself while flipping the bird to both sides.

This would definitely draw the ire of both empires, and would add to his ever growing list of enemies.

A list of enemies that had the potential of collaborating with one another.

"I choose one side, I cause a karmic chain of events that nobody should be the victim of. I choose neither side, I end up pissing off even more people who explicitly want my head on a spike. I do nothing and...nothing happens? No, something else will probably happen," Zhen Liu said to himself.

Lythero needed the Mother Sun Flame to make this dream sword of his, and there was a very high chance that he would go off on his own to secure it even if Zhen Liu refused to help him.

The problem with this reckless action would be that Lythero would definitely die in the process.

Either by the hands of the people fighting over the flame, or even by the flame itself.

"If I can’t even help the person in front of me...then what’s the point of this new life?" Zhen Liu asked himself.

Thinking about all of these little things, Zhen Liu released a massive sigh.