Eva's words made all the living beings of the Storm Empire's capital tremble. Those who were trying to escape using spatial devices or techniques had to accept the reality that nothing was working at the moment, throwing them into further despair.
What kind of punishment would the Supreme Goddess dole out? The fact that she had cast out her avatar to appear here… could it be she had come to wipe the empire off the face of the continent, as well as its people?
Many people wanted to panic, yet they held onto a thin string of hope. Amaterasu was known as a benevolent and 'good' deity, so a genocide didn't really sound like something she would do.
Eva continued her speech, maximizing the little time she had for this transformation to achieve the effect she wanted. "I am a benevolent Deity. I shall give you people of the Storm Empire the right to choose your own punishment. You shall decide between these two options."
Eva's aura became cold and abyssal all of a sudden, eliciting great fear and shock from the people. "Option A is for me to cleanse all human lives from the Storm Empire. I solemnly swear to return all the good souls among you to Susanoo, but those evil souls will be fed to the abyss, suffering eternal torment."
Her aura relaxed and became stern, but somewhat gentle, like a chiding mother. "Option B is for you to bring forth all your officials, regardless of their position, as well as all individuals who took the foolish decision to engage in the battle of the Sun Empire plus their families and close friends."
She retracted her astral projection slowly, but not before she subtly sent a light of compulsion into the minds of everyone. If she tried to force it, the compulsion would disappear at the end of her transformation.
What she had done was burn all her bloodline energy and use it as the source of the compulsion, while using her temporary powers to spread it out. The resulting compulsion was so weak that it could barely be called a speck, but it would be enough for Eva's plan.
She turned around and left with a few parting words. "I will be back in a week's time. If you have not come to a decision by then, I will choose for you."
Luxia screeched arrogantly and disappeared with a flap of her wings, only leaving behind a bright streak of light that dazzled all onlookers. The citizens of the Storm Empire rose from their kneeling positions and looked at each other uncertainly.
They shared the same apprehension and confusion in their eyes. They were asking themselves; 'what should we do?', 'did we just survive that?' and 'why did this have to happen?'.
At that moment the compulsion Eva had planted in their minds took hold. It didn't work or activate on everyone, only a select few with a specific mindset who had been most susceptible to the exact type of compulsion Eva had left behind.
In random crowds in different places, in homes belonging to extended families, in taverns and bars all around the capital, there was always one man or woman who ended up gritting their teeth with the same compulsion running through their minds, building momentum.
'Why should I have to die because of someone else's decision?'
It had a strong hold on those with little morals, or those who valued their lives above all else. Most normal people were only slightly susceptible, while kind and gentle people were strongly resistant. So too were the proud and valiant, but we all know these types of people were 1 in 10,000.
This thought began to take over the minds of those susceptible, as they began talking and grumbling in low tones. People started chattering among each other slowly as the aura of the Goddess disappeared, and they became more agitated due to what they had just heard.
"W-What should we do…?"
"What can we do? To capture those who partook in the war means us normal people will have to fight against generals blessed by Susanoo as well as Ninjas and Yokai. Can you do it?"
"Are you kidding me? If I had that kind of power, I would already be part of one of their groups. But are we really going to die like this?!"
"I don't want to die! Why should I die for someone else's selfish decision?!"
This last roar silenced the whole venue as all eyes turned to an average looking woman who wore a robe showing that she was an apprentice mage. Her words sounded like thunder in the ears of all listeners, as the compulsion placed in them feed on it and began to grow.
They were silent for a long while before those with weaker mindsets began to parrot her.
"Yeah, now that I think about it, our Empire had remained neutral in the war between the Sun and Moon Empire for so many years. Why did we break our neutrality so suddenly?!"
"I remember hearing that it was the lord and upper echelon who unanimously decided to do so after the Great Lord Susanoo was banished. They wanted revenge on Amaterasu by destroying her empire."
"!!!"
"A-Are you serious…? For such a foolish reason, they've doomed us all…!!"
Scenes like this repeated all over the capital. As the chattering became louder, the compulsion fed on their fears and uncertainties. It started to grow like a weed determined to sap the land dry in order to spread itself all over the world.
The ones most affected by it started shouting and banding together with those less affected, using their words and ideas to move the crowds. While a mob was powerful, it usually took a long time for it to grow strong, and people had to be pushed to an absolute edge to risk it all.
It had only been a few minutes since Eva's departure, yet they had been given a week. Under normal circ.u.mstances, this course of action should only have started at the end of day 2 or start of day 3, once the desperation and fear had grown, but Eva left a small compulsion to see how effective it was.
Even though the outcome would be largely the same, Eva had done things this way as a sort of experiment. The goal was for her to learn more about her psychic abilities in question and how they differed from Draco's.
So far, she knew that hers focused on manipulating and controlling the minds of others over herself, while Draco's focused more on controlling the environment and himself.
It could be seen in their strongest abilities. Mind Control, Telepathy, Projection, and Channeling in Eva's case, all of which focused on sending the mind outward to manipulate the psyche of living and even the dead – through channeling – with only Projection being similar to Draco's ability to interact with the world.
Draco's were Telekinesis, Telesthesia, Transvection, and Psychometry, all of which focused on using the mind to manipulate the world to lift objects, create a domain or levitate the body, with only Psychometry being similar to Eva's ability to interact with external minds.
Eva had no idea about the kind of damage her specific abilities could cause on the minds of others. She was still unaware of the psychic plague she had created that could wipe out all life. Similarly, she had no clue that the little compulsion she had spread around was already growing like a virus, absorbing energy and perfecting itself to carry out its initial orders.
By day 2, the Storm Empire was completely different from before. The streets were lined up with hundreds of corpses, their faces locked in the rictus of a snarl, no different from maddened beasts.
Many of them had died futilely, but some had torn off limbs, eyes, and pieces of flesh from the guards wearing livery attaching to specific lords and noble houses. In fact, some even had full corpses beneath them as they had perished while taking their enemies with them.
Women, children, and even animals formed part of this horrible scene. Blood pooled in puddles around the street, the stench of rusted iron and slightly rotting meat exacerbating the atmosphere.
Flies, vultures, and other carrion loving predators came to feast. Occasionally, a corpse would rise up and begin either crawling or staggering forward, a new undead born due to the sheer mass of resentment and death energy in the area.
What had been a bright and lovely capital just the day prior had turned into a wasteland of death and horror. Still, if one looked at it from a bird's eye view, one would notice that there were still some safe spots spread out across the city.
However, these safe spots were currently under heavy siege by citizens of all ages and types as they tried to break through the defense of the well-trained Storm Guards and the Elementalists that defended these areas.
Storm Empire's capital city looked like a zombie apocalypse from a blockbuster movie, only with the flashing lights of skills or spells raining down on the horde rather than endless bullets.
The people didn't care about dying, didn't care about their futile deaths or the deaths of those around them. They were long lost to the giant hivemind the compulsion had created after growing to a certain size, determined to carry out its creator's wishes.
It was still in infancy, so it was largely inefficient and wasted many hosts through this futile endeavor, but by day 3, everything had changed and not for the better.
The hivemind began to learn and pulled all the citizens that were non-combatants back. It left only those who were Storm Guards, Samurai, or Elementalists that had not partaken in the war at all.
It connected the minds of such people with those non-combatants among them, sharing their knowledge of skills, techniques, and whatnot that were specific to each class or person.
At first, this idea seemed meaningless as there was too much discrepancy between the talents and physiques of people, but the hivemind once again upgraded itself by day 4 to sift through the techniques and select those citizens best suited to receive them.
By day 5, the attacks on the estates resumed, but the outcome changed drastically. Unlike before where the masses were mowed down like weeds, they easily overwhelmed all defenses with their newly learned skill and techniques, with some even developing new ones based on their talents.
If one put aside the horrible cost and the specific set of circ.u.mstances needed to birth this… 'monstrosity', this hivemind thing was super useful to a guild. In fact, it was entirely possible for Eva to use her mind like her Intelligence Tradeskill and create an entire hub of minds.
Actually, that was the whole aim of her Celestial Maiden Inheritance if one looked at it deeply. But Eva was far from reaching that level in terms of bloodline manipulation. Fortunately, she would be able to achieve this in-game with her Goddess Form or the Celestial Coronet.
For now though, the officials who had huddled together behind their defenders were dragged out by the citizens and thrown into a prison inside the city. They were now moving parts of the hivemind, their original sanity and consciousness completely erased.
Even if the hivemind let them go, they would be mindless husks that were no different from vegetables. Yet the hivemind was not done, as it sent all the citizens out of the city and towards other cities, towns, and even homesteads to drag out all nobles, those identified to be part of the combat force that assisted the Moon Empire, as well as their innocent family and close friends.
Day 6 and 7 of the Storm Empire could only be described as literal hell. A typhoon passed through the entire empire in just two days that would forever be cemented in their history.
The Moon Empire and the Sun Empire got wind of this, though the reports were garbled and almost intelligible, like their agents had been rushed before they were abducted by something.
In the meantime, while the Storm Empire was going through an unprecedented calamity and the Moon and Sun Empires were trying to understand what the hell was going on, Eva was standing in front of a mirror practicing some strange poses while n.a.k.e.d.
'Erm, Amaterasu did something like this and Lucifer fainted for three days from pleasure, right? What would happen if I did this to Draco hehe~?'
