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Chapter 715: Shooting Down Gods

"You are the real Arthur Silvera?" asked Rain with a frown. "It explains everything you have said, but I never imagined such a coincidence. The Spark of Rebellion arrives in Ilios a week before the operation."

"Is this fate?" muttered Spider, as her eyes squinted at Arthur. "Maybe this was by design."

"It does not matter," said Lyle as he spread his arms. "If you give us your strength, we will have a real chance to take down this rotten empire. The odds will be in our favor!"

"I doubt the odds even know your name," said Arthur with a mocking smile. "I would never make myself a part of this rebellion."

"Why not, Arthur?" asked Rain with confusion. "Is this not what you asked the people to do? You said everyone should fight for themselves, and here we are, fighting but lacking strength."

"I asked everyone to fight, not to throw away their lives. This rebellion is… pathetic. I see a dozen reasons why it would fail and one reason you are still alive: luck. Any other reason would be that the emperor already knows of your schemes and is waiting to strike."

"That's impossible," said Lyle with a frown. "I sacrificed everything I had to prove my loyalty to the emperor. I made sure that nothing can be traced back to me."

"First of all," said Arthur as he walked around the group while looking at the soldiers, "even a common soldier knows your name. Maybe all of these soldiers would never betray you, but one of them will be forced by the circumstances, and it would be enough to spoil your plans."

"No one will flow a nameless leader," said Spider in objection. "Every one of us has lost so much because of this unjust empire, and we will do anything to take it down."

"Kudos if that was the case, but I doubt none of them has cracked when either threatened or tempted," said Arthur as he looked at their rageful faces for being accused. "I'm saying that your lack of knowledge will be your leader's strongest trump card."

"I build trust through trust," said Lyle without looking afraid of his men's loyalty. Arthur laughed at his words, and the knight frowned. "What?"

"One of your men revealed all three leaders in a heartbeat, and you killed him because he didn't obey the rules. I guess we have different definitions of trust. Trust is earned, not given. So if one of your men wants to be trusted, he must prove worthy of that trust."

"It makes no difference now, right?" asked Rain, and Arthur looked at her with a smile and nodded. "If our names have been revealed, we can't do anything about it. So, what should we do?"

"You are asking the right questions," nodded Arthur. "However, I will answer that later on. I want to point out something else. When I hijacked the ship, I realized it was sending signals somewhere every second. It doesn't take a genius to realize who receives those signals: the owner of this ship."

"We already know this, as we planned to send a decoy signal after we take over this ship. So the first step was to disable the arrays, and then we'll rush to replace the signal with a decoy one."

"You did your homework, but you think the emperor will just think that the missing reports and the emergency signal were nothing but an accident? No, he would send his Astra-rankers over here."

"That was a risk we had to take."

"A miscalculated risk. An Astra-ranker once chased me from Ilios. I got away because a giant dragon got in the way and protected me."

"Such a tale," scoffed Spider, and Arthur simply shrugged. "Are you serious? Except for the Royalty of Thiria, no dragons have been seen for the past thousands of years."

"I don't think a dragon would just come out and say he exists in a world filled with humans. And, even if it did, the world will make sure no one knows. So there's no need for mass-panic."

"And what about the signal now?" asked Rain while pondering. Arthur smiled again and nodded at her. "You took care of that after hijacking it?"

"I also tempered with the geo-arrays of the ship, making it seem as if this ship is still going on its merry course. We have until the time the ship arrives at its destination before they realize there is no ship."

"Phew, thank god," said Rain with her chest heaving. Even in this situation, the soldiers sneaked glances at her, making Arthur speechless.

"No god deserves our thanks," said Lyle, who's been quiet all this time. "Arthur Silvera. Your words are right, and we have barely survived until now. So many of our men killed themselves after being caught by the empire. However, it doesn't stop us from moving forward."

"Oh, please, go ahead as far as I care. Just don't use my name in this. I have enough on my plate already. And no, I didn't come here to save this empire, just one person. This is not fate but a simple coincidence."

"Arthur," said Rain as she stepped forward toward him. "I know we have a lot of deficiencies, but there is so little that we can do. I had to go undercover for three years before being trusted by this network of smugglers. We threw away a lot of our time for this."

"I said I wouldn't make myself a part of this rebellion, but it would be a different case if it changed. If it becomes something I approve of, then I will help you."

"We are not changing our goals," said Lyle with strong objection. However, he seemed to realize that Arthur was about to change the purpose of their rebellion, and he was right.

"Do you know what comes after the Astra-rank, Lyle?" asked Arthur after a moment of quiet. Then, he continued, "After the powerful Astra-rank is the terrifying Empyrean rank. However, not a single person in this world is said to have that rank. What reason would that be?"

"Those monsters are hiding," said Rain, as if she was giving them a fact rather than a hypothesis. Arthur paused as he stared at her, questioning how she knew this. "It's the only explanation for a rank no one attained."

"Indeed," nodded Arthur. "I thought about it before, and it doesn't make sense for the nations to stand for centuries without the ruling class changing. The victor writes history, and those stories we heard about evil armies might have been failed rebellions. Some of them got buried without anyone to remember them. The reason is simple: every powerful nation has a weapon of mass destruction."

"The mythical empyrean rank," muttered Lyle with realization. "Even if such a man backs the emperor, we must try. We have suffered far too much to back down from a defeat. That notion is not something we fear, but accept."

"You are leading these people to their death, Lyle," said Arthur with a frown. "A rage-fueled rebellion will not change a thing about this empire. The best thing we can do is show the world the true face of this empire."

"How can we do that?" asked Rain. "If you can help us, then we'll listen. We said you are the leader in the hopes that you would hear about it and help us, Arthur."

"Rain," interrupted Lyle. "We will not change the plan we carefully devised for years. Even if we need him, there is no use if we just sell our cause."

"I never asked to do that," Arthur said before walking toward Rain. "We agreed to work together, right?" he asked the woman, who nodded. Arthur offered her his hand, which she grabbed with a blush. The soldiers were shocked to see their leader blushing in the morning sun. "We will do things my way since I'm also a leader of this rebellion. The result will be the same, but I want to change the method."

"What made you change your mind?" asked Lyle with suspicion.

"The words you said changed my mind: no god deserves our thanks. I feel the same. If you are fighting with the mentality of creating your fate, then I wouldn't mind fighting alongside you."

"Then, are you going to help us?" asked Rain with surprise. Arthur turned toward her and smiled.

"Let us shoot down some gods together."