Chapter 146 Chapter 146: This Is War
Chapter 146: This Is War
War—such a word is a very distant and unfamiliar thing for most people living in peaceful times.
Countless people who have experienced war have depicted its cruelty in their stories. While language can convey emotions, it has its limits; it cannot truly make those who have never experienced war understand the brutality of real war.
Those people can speak freely, those people can do as they please—because they have never truly experienced war, and most likely will not come into contact with it either.
They simply forget that there is no such thing as so-called peace in this world. The peace they experience is merely forged by others through war. Or rather, while they enjoy peace, others are enduring inhuman wars on their behalf.
Because if you do not limit your perspective to the individual, but instead elevate it to the level of nations, civilizations, planets, and even the entire universe... you will find that war is happening at all times, and true peace has never existed.
Because as long as there are people and material existence, contradictions over resources will arise. And when these contradictions escalate, rising from the individual level to the collective and even beyond, then war occurs.
From this perspective, as long as humans remain human, life remains life, and this world remains a material world, war will never cease.
But does it really benefit most people? The power to wage war will always belong to only a small minority—just like how the general of the Xianzhou Luofu wants to campaign against a certain Abundance race that once harassed the Xianzhou. And you, as a Cloud Knight, are the main participant in the war, but do you have the right to refuse?
—Clearly, you do not.
From the perspective of most people, launching such a war does not seem to be a major fault. But what if this Cloud Knight is a new recruit who just joined the army not long ago? He has never experienced the pain inflicted by that Abundance race, yet tragically perishes in a war whose occurrence he could not control in the first place?
Such a chain of hatred that will only continue to spread unless one side is completely annihilated—can it really be considered a righteous thing?
Of course, some will clamor that blood debts must be paid in blood—after all, those who ultimately have to participate in the war and likely lose their lives are not them. Naturally, they can speak freely.
Moreover, in fact, most wars occur without any reason or justice—just like one civilization coveting the wealth of another. Their leaders decide to plunder it, and in the end, only those so-called leaders reap the rewards, certainly not the soldiers bravely fighting on the front lines.
Just like how 'Honkai' silently descended upon Earth. And the people of Earth could only be forced into a protracted tug-of-war with it lasting who knows how many tens of thousands of years... No one knows exactly how many people have been lost because of it, nor do they know where the beneficiaries of such a war lie.
But humanity clearly does not have the right to refuse war... Not even those Herrschers and Honkai Beasts do.
And as for the scene unfolding before everyone at this moment...
"Of course I haven't forgotten that scene. I just didn't expect a similar sight to appear before me so soon..." Little Elysia rarely temporarily shed her previous lively demeanor, which made Kevin wish she hadn't.
If the scene just now in the Artisanship Commission could be compared to a disaster film like an earthquake or tsunami, then the sight unfolding before everyone at this moment is completely a scene of hell on earth—
Presumably, the specific scope of the Alchemy Commission isn't much different from that of the Artisanship Commission. And knowing that the Cloud Knights would surely attack, the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus must have already made thorough preparations.
So on such a vast battlefield, one can imagine just how many... corpses it can hold?
The architectural style on the Xianzhou always carries a certain natural beauty, with greenery like trees naturally visible everywhere. But at this moment, this beautiful scene instead makes the severed limbs scattered all over the ground appear even more eerie.
Figures completely wrapped in branches and twigs, similar to the monsters Kevin encountered earlier at that stronghold, are almost everywhere. Most of them vaguely still retain a 'human' appearance but were brutally ground down in the meat grinder-like battlefield until their terrifying regenerative abilities were exhausted. Their final state is imaginable.
Apart from these, what covers the ground more are creations of the Ambrosial Arbor like those Xuan Deer from before—but these mass-produced-like species clearly did not receive the blessing of the Ambrosial Arbor. They too age, fall ill, and die like normal lifeforms, just as they lie there motionless now.
The only thing worth being grateful for is probably that compared to these two types of corpses, the remains of Cloud Knights are actually the smallest group. A rough estimate shows a ratio of about one to five; no matter where you look, this can be considered a great victory.
But no matter what, those who have passed are gone... They can never return.
"I can't take it anymore, Boss Kevin... This scene is really terrifying!" Little Pardo directly hid behind Kevin, not even daring to lift her head a little.
This has almost nothing to do with courage. When humans see the corpses of their own kind, their brains release certain danger signals. This is also a kind of self-protective measure humans developed during evolution.
Of course, Little Pardo's courage is indeed quite small.
"It's over, why is it another horrifying scene like this... Although I know it's not the right time to say this, I really want to go back and live a plain, lazy life!"
The states of these few girls upon seeing this scene aren't very good. Only Kevin remains highly alert. He glances at the mist continuously spreading upward from the distant seaside, then quickly walks over to a Cloud Knight corpse nearest to him, slowly crouching down to examine it.
The orderly silver armor on this Cloud Knight is now covered in all kinds of scars. Among them, the most fatal one is naturally the sword wound on his chest that almost cleaved open his entire torso.
But the nature of this wound...
"This... this... How many injuries did he suffer before falling? Such incredible willpower..."
"Not quite right, Pardo... This Cloud Knight took his own life."
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