Uncle here isn't your average office worker!

Roy looked at the Pope in astonishment.

His political experience was indeed insufficient, to the point that he forgot about this feasibility.

Although he couldn't use tens or hundreds of thousands of lives to justify the necessity of this meeting, he had something else that could replace it: "deterrence."

The weapons he obtained from the law, left behind by previous civilizations to forge the defense perimeter of Terra, even excluding massive weapons like the orbital cannons, the surface turrets, the missiles buried deep underground, and so on, were enough for Roy to form a strategic deterrent.

This is similar to the deterrent methods used by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in a previous era. If a country possessing deterrent weapons insists on convening a meeting regardless of the cost, would those countries without checks and balances dare not attend?

Roy finally nodded: "Let's do it that way then."

"I will leave it to His Holiness the Pope to convey the message of the conference to all countries. In the meantime, I will make a sufficiently noticeable commotion."

As Roy spoke, he turned his gaze southward, towards Iberia.

Volume 1: Chapter 285 The Lateran Conference (Part 2)

"Did you receive the message from Iberia?"

Victoria, the Duke of Gaudottin's Palace. The magnificent palace is now comparable to the Iron Palace in Lentinium, which has been uninhabited for many years.

As one of the few Grand Dukes who currently hold real power in Victoria, the Duke of Godottin, like the other dukes, received letters from Iberia and Lateran. The person she was corresponding with was another Grand Duke of Victoria, the Iron Duke Wellington.

Upon hearing Duke Godotington's words, a hint of seriousness flashed across Wellington's aged face, and he replied:

"Received. The Great Tranquility is a disaster. My army is on its way."

Duke Godottin paused slightly in his swirling of the wine glass, his expression a mixture of curiosity and amusement as he pressed on with the question:

"Duke Wellington, do you really believe the Iberians? You want to send Victoria's soldiers to shed blood in a foreign land? You should know that Victoria is already struggling to survive. Our great capital, the city of ten thousand cities, Londinium, is still in the hands of a group of mercenaries with impure motives."

No sooner had she finished speaking than the Iron Duke's face revealed undisguised disgust and contempt, and he rebuked her mercilessly:

"If it weren't for you, how could the country have fallen to this state! A bunch of Sarkaz warmongers, what right do they have to occupy Victoria's territory! Bah! Insects!"

"Don't be so temperamental, old man, it's bad for your health." Even though a few verbal attacks couldn't affect Duke Godotin's mindset, such blunt insults still made her feel uncomfortable. She put away her smile and asked calmly, "I'm asking about your attitude. Of course, we should help with the disaster in Iberia, but at this critical juncture, you're sending troops to Victoria. Can I say that you've already given up on this competition for Londinium?"

The competition for Lentinium was only superficial; what the grand dukes truly coveted was the long-vacant opportunity to represent Victoria and speak in Victoria's name.

In this competition, the Iron Duke Wellington was undoubtedly the strongest rival. He had won the War of the Four Emperors, destroyed the Gallo Empire, and was second to none in Victoria in terms of both military strategy and prestige. He also governed the vast Tara region, and his soldiers were battle-hardened, their raw strength unmatched. If he were to withdraw, the entire situation in Victoria would change dramatically.

But the Duke of Wellington had no intention of getting bogged down in these intricate details and interpretations of political coded language with the Duke of Godotington. He refuted them directly:

"I have no interest in discussing such matters with you. Victoria is my homeland, and I will naturally do everything in my power to restore its glory, in my own way. As for your so-called competition, well, that's just how it is."

He raised his hand and decisively hung up the phone. The screen in front of Duke Godotin went black, just like her face at that moment.

"That old bastard," she muttered under her breath, but that was all.

At least she got the information she wanted, and for the time being, she no longer needed to worry about the Duke of Wellington causing trouble in Lentinium.

She had ample time to send Grey Hats to infiltrate and have the Cumberland maids find an opportunity to smuggle out the Kings' Breath. Once she had the national sword, she would have the key, the legitimacy to which she could claim authority.

As for what happened in Iberia, she had no intention of getting involved in the so-called Second Great Quiet.

Yes, the ocean was too distant for her; the destruction of Iberia would be of no concern to her, and as for whether the Great Tranquility would affect Victoria, she thought it impossible. Even if it did, it wouldn't matter.

Unlike Iberia, Victoria, once she wins the competition, is a complete and unified Victoria who can handle any disaster, no matter how horrifying it may sound—that's the confidence Victoria gives her.

Sea monsters? Let's give them a little Victorian fortification shock!

As for the invitation from Lateran to convene a conference of all nations, she ignored it, as did the Duke of Wellington.

They were all intelligent enough to see Laterano's purpose in sending messengers from all nations: they simply wanted to secure a small corner of peace in this chaotic era. Duke Godotin wouldn't mind handing over a corner of this land to those whimsical angels. As for the international council, that was nothing more than children's games.

Is it necessary for a true giant to set foot in a child's playground?

"Your Grace, news has come from Letania and Casimir that the National Council and the Queen's Voice have both announced their participation in the Universal Conference. Moreover, the attendees will be Grand Knight Commander Russell and the White Queen, respectively."

Duke Godottin: "?"

What's wrong with these two families? Have they gone mad?

The alliance a while ago could be explained by guarding against Ursus, but what does it mean to go to the All Nations Conference in Laterano now?

And all those who went were heads of state, so why would they give them face?

"Should we send some people too?"

The man in the grey top hat inquired respectfully.

Gao Duoting pondered for a moment, then gently shook his head: "Let's see how things go. If other grand dukes send envoys, then send one too."

"I'd like to see what kind of mess the Sakortas can pull off."

...............

Iberia, the front line.

The central defense line of the courtroom.

Before the second Great Quiet erupted, no one could have imagined that Iberia's defenses would only hold for twelve hours before being pushed to the Inquisition's central command. After the second Great Quiet erupted, no one could have imagined that a section of the Inquisition's central command's defenses would withstand such a massive sea monster attack for over six hours.

The Tribunal has no way of knowing the current situation across Iberia. All communication lines have been cut off by the overwhelming number of sea creatures. No one knows how they did it. Perhaps a large number of terror fish accidentally dug through the city's lines while moving, or perhaps the sea creatures have evolved to this level of intelligence and know to target the human command system.

All people know is that, at this point, sleep has become a luxury, and every judge must be on high alert lest their crumbling defenses collapse in some moment of carelessness.

In the war room of the courtroom, Elene had to shout hoarsely just to get her voice through the roars of the sea monsters and into Dario's ears:

"Teacher, Grandmaster Carmen still hasn't responded!"

Dario nodded without making any further sighs, and simply said, "Let's keep in touch."

Communication with Saint Carmen had been cut off three hours ago. Dario didn't believe anything bad had happened to his teacher, but the situation was indeed deteriorating. Human strength was no match for the relentless, relentless attacks of the Sea Serpents. Even if an Inquisitor's hand cannon could instantly clear a street of swarms of swarms, two, three, ten more would immediately follow. The Inquisitor's ammunition was limited, but they were simply impossible to kill completely.

So far, only Letania and Kazimir have responded to the letters of appeal sent to various countries. To be honest, this is already quite gratifying. After all, in such a desperate situation, it is a great surprise that there are still countries willing to lend a helping hand to Iberia.

However, the encouragement from this relief was limited. Neither Kazimierz nor Letania could instantly transfer soldiers; mobilization and marching took time. The arrival time of reinforcements given by the Queen of Letania and the Grand Knight Commander of the Kazimierz Overseer was at least half a month and seven days, respectively, and this was based on the fact that the vanguard of the Golden Law Guard and the Silver Spear Pegasus Knights marched extremely fast.

Iberia doesn't look like it can survive seven days at all.

Dario was past the age of believing in miracles. But in these past few hours, overwhelmed with work, he had to think and pray like a girl Eleanor's age, hoping that a prince charming would actually descend from the heavens and bring about a miracle!

Suddenly, a powerful melody filled the sky!

PS: Lateran Conference: Tathagata.

Volume 1: Chapter 286 I Still Want to Use a Railgun

Fear fish, an overwhelming swarm of fear fish.

Reptiles, jets, broodstock—all the species Roy had ever seen were there, and there were many species he had never seen before.

They clung to the smooth outer walls of the courthouse by means of the ever-spreading swirls, constantly dismantling and corroding this last Iberian fortress with their chitinous shells or various projectiles.

Without protection, the fortress, based solely on its structural integrity, probably wouldn't have lasted an hour. But the court has yet to fall, because it is fought within by fearless judges.

Even when Roy was still some distance from the Inquisition, he could clearly see flashes of light and hear the deafening roars coming from its direction. It was the sound of the Grand Inquisitor's hand cannon firing! Each time the cannon fired, Roy would see a cloud of carapace debris and minced flesh raining down into the sky, and a path of charred, bloody flesh would appear within the dense net of the Terrorfish!

The gunfire never ceased, and the Grand Inquisitors continued to resist! Iberia continued to resist! This was undoubtedly the most encouraging news Roy had heard in the past two days.

This means that humanity still retains influence in Iberia, that the catastrophe has not yet escalated, that the Great Tranquility, as he suspected, was not the most horrific catastrophe of all, and that the Terran civilization has officially demonstrated its resilience.

Roy believed that this was a scene that would resonate even with a steadfast remnant of the past like Trevor Friston.

Nothing is more brilliant or beautiful than the spark of civilization.

"Phew, I made it. Now it's my turn."

Roy pulled out his phone and turned off his somewhat out-of-place Kazimierz rock music on the battlefield. He raised his hand, and a transparent screen, like a module system, appeared before his eyes.

This is the ability that the control of the weapon terminal of the previous civilization brought him; simply put, it is a convenient projection of a consciousness.

The exact principle behind it is unclear, but it is certainly convenient to use. Commanders with administrative privileges can directly retrieve the weapons they need from those operational armories without having to go through layers of communication and verification, which is incredibly advanced.

Even Roy felt a little uneasy about the advanced technology. But thinking about it, it made sense; Trevor Friston must have given him the highest level of authorization. In the past, lower-ranking officers usually had to go through communication and wait for approval from their superiors before they could use weapons. But this was the end of humanity; any spark of humanity could be the leader of a new civilization in the future. Granting them the highest level of authorization was a reasonable and necessary move, albeit out of necessity.

The types and numbers of Terrorfish are countless. As far as Roy knows, these marine creatures have powerful evolutionary abilities. If a Terrorfish or Sea Spawn is not killed instantly, and given time to return to the main group or pass on knowledge, their population will quickly develop resistance to that weapon. At that time, they will be able to resist and assimilate even Originium.

Therefore, the required weapons must have a wide range sufficient to cover all the Sea Creatures here and extremely high lethality, so as to kill all the Sea Creatures instantly and not give them a chance to upload.

The first weapon that fit Roy's criteria was a nuclear bomb.

As a civilization that had already entered the interstellar age, the old civilization's research on nuclear weapons had reached an unimaginable level. Although Roy did not see those terrifying weapons such as the "100-mega-class nuclear bomb" in their arsenal, he was already astonished just by looking at those dangerous items that were roughly divided into levels such as "anti-city", "anti-continent", and "anti-plate tectonics".

But this option was the first one to be ruled out. After all, there were still quite a few judges here, and Roy couldn't afford to blow them all up.

Even if Roy manages to bring the Sealings together, the radiation from a nuclear explosion would be a huge problem. Roy's moral compass is such that he wouldn't even do something as basic as dumping nuclear wastewater into the ocean, let alone dropping a nuclear bomb.

Wide-range, highly lethal, and pollution-free.

After much deliberation, Roy made up his mind.

As expected, we still have to choose the railgun.

As for how to lure the sea monsters together, that's simple.

"Rohinnant!"

.............

"Master, master!"

Elena rushed into the office again, her voice filled with obvious surprise.

Her body was stained with foul-smelling blood, and her once healthy-looking face bore several wounds, but this did not dampen her excitement in the slightest.

"Hai Si has resigned!"