"Hmm, if I were you, Kraft…" Lynn gladly took the grand stage and zoomed the hologram into Demopolis. Everyone was already interested as to what Lynn had to offer.
"I would continue to hold their armies hostage but not in chains. Instead, I would lead them around, giving them a chance to enjoy what Demopolis and Pandapolis combined can offer them as an ally instead of an enemy. That way we could perhaps continue as planned and train them for the subsequent fight against the Demon Rats in the Farming World. After all, that is the whole objective of this particular defensive raid, right?"
"That is not really how I would do it." Kraft summoned a plate with an 'X' on it, and his mood visibly soured, but Qiu Yue took out some duct tape and slapped it on his mouth like in some gag comedy. Unlike the crafty fox, she and the others didn't mind hearing Lynn out. (Even though she was already wrong from the start.) Qiu Yue gave Lynn a sign to continue.
"And while we have direct control of them, the situation in those Seven Cities might potentially deteriorate. Their cities will wonder why their armies have not come back yet or why there continues to be no news of a Demopolis invasion. That is where information manipulation would come into play. The Church Agents could potentially play this to their advantage, and take the opportunity to usurp the current city's management and take over as theirs. But we can also do the same if we act fast enough." Lynn commented and Kraft's eyes finally twinkled.
"We could use sabotage missions both in terms of information manipulation and some form of physical violence to obtain more knowledge of the situation they are in," Lynn added and she stated how she thought it would be very much Kraft's style to use his Night Foxes to kidnap a few Church Knights and use them to spread misinformation by assuming their identities.
"I do not exactly know what should be said but we could go along the lines like that Demopolis had already been conquered and the Church has been holding the Seven Cities as hostage by surrounding the Demopolis walls and are sieging them as we speak."
"Why would you say that?" Moloch asked and Lynn replied that their goal was to get the treasures and resources of Demopolis. Since the Seven Cities were in possession of the 'resources', the Church took advantage of the situation by holding the cities as their collateral. If the armies did not give the said resources to the Church, they would slaughter each and every one in their cities.
"That is not a bad idea, but telling an outright lie isn't going to help. Especially when none of the armies is being resurrected. It also only works under the assumption that the Church is going to play the bad guy when we know that they are playing the wolf in sheep's clothing." Orc General Nubwort remarked on the proposal that Lynn gave. "Besides if they found out the truth later on that we were the ones who lied, it would indirectly benefit the Church instead of us. The idea however could be refined further, assuming we have time to do so."
"Then what about if we mistreat them under the guise of the Church Agents and Church Knights? Burn their houses and unofficially declare that the Church is in control of the cities? That way, shouldn't it create some form of hate to the Church?" Qiu Yue suggested and both Moloch and Nubwort shook their heads.
"The Church would immediately cut them off, branding those few who committed the crimes as heretics. Heck, they would probably use that chance to build up their image some more, by performing some service recovery such as rebuilding new and better houses for those people. Doing that would only help the Church's position, unfortunately, their influence is too big to cause hate in a short manner of time." Moloch explained.
"Then what about pitting their armies against the church's armies?" Kiyu asked and once again the military strategists shook their heads in unison.
"The Church would just declare either the armies as converted demon worshippers or most likely go one step beyond that by claiming the Seven Cities have always been on their side. It would go against our goal of keeping them for ourselves." Nubwort replied and with so many failing opinions on what to do, they all looked at Kraft who felt disappointed by the lack of depth in their answers.
"Well, then spit out your altered master plan. And we will judge whether it is worthy of praise." Qiu Yue said with her arms crossed since she wanted to hear a satisfying answer from the Devil himself as she removed the duct tape.
"Well, you at least got the part about sabotage right. Still, I didn't expect such shallowness from all of you." Kraft squeezed through the group and put himself at the centre again. "Honestly, all of you overthink the situation. You all know that we're dealing with an enemy with lots of influence. The simpler the plan, the easier for us to execute it!"
"Yes, yes, we all know that already. Please get to the point and tell us what you propose?" Qiu Yue started tapping her feet, as the suspense was not helping at all.
"Easy, we just need to break their influence. Change people's perspective. Make people get scared of them instead of worshiping them. Once the Seven Cities feel they are incapable of protecting their citizens they will be asked to get out." Kraft elaborated as he smiled wildly. "And then we convert them to our side with a bit of 'Panda Magic'. Simple as that."
"Could you speak a bit more clearly? You still haven't told us how you intend to achieve that effect!" Qiu Yue pointed out, yet Kraft shook his index finger.
"That's the best part of the plan. We won't have to do anything ourselves. All we will need is just time…. and this." Kraft said as he pulled out a vial filled with some invisible substance. He shook it a bit and it continued to stay transparent despite the thought in the group's head that something crazy would happen. (Because it's Kraft!)
"Biochemical warfare…?" Lynn guessed out loud and they all started to wonder what kind of effects that small vial would have.
"In a way. You guys have already seen first hand how a majority of the soldiers died from the 'food' poisoning that was dealt by my Night Foxes, right? That was just an experiment and it was undoubtedly a very successful one. So what do you think will happen once we contaminate their waters and food stocks with this kind of poison?" Kraft asked and the rest began to formulate potential scenarios.
"So if the Church was there to only defend the place but not to give aid. Each city's law and order would crumble…" Moloch concluded.
"They are the Church, from everything you told us about them, they will definitely help, if only to keep up their image." Nubwort interrupted Moloch's train of thought.
"Then all we have to do is to steal those aid and supplies under the guise of citizen rebels or bandits." Qiu Yue suggested and the rest could see the repercussions of this… man made plaque.
"Now I can see why you did not want Jin to be involved. This is too dirty and he would have never approved it. You know how viruses work in general, right? They could mutate despite having the antidotes. This could spiral out of hand if we do not control this properly. I, for one, am against this idea." Lynn stood her ground and Kraft shook his head lightly.
"Who said I would use a strain of an uncontrollable virus? Would you believe me if I told you that I have sent Rei to help Kiva engineer a nano technology that could control this pandemic at the palms of our hands? I can remotely activate it if we wish to!" Kraft said while raising his right palm up, acting as a God of Destruction and yet the entire group at the War Table continued to be against his plan.
But that did not deter him until a specific individual sounded out her opinion.
It was none other than Ayse!
