Chapter 7195: The Disappointed Father It was a meeting between old and young. The first and possibly second-generation leader of the Ascended Giants faced each other as if destiny had arranged them to meet together. The Dark Apostle’s first impression of the Oscillating Fist was not good. As strong and heroic as he may appear, he also carried himself as a leader who possessed an absolute right to judge all Ascended Giants, including the upstart that sought to take everything over! The two Ascended Giants could already sense each other’s desire to be in charge, and could not bring themselves to give up power on a voluntary basis. They were two similar to each other in that aspect. A mountain could not accommodate two tigers. Only the strongest tiger would remain. As for the one that fell short? He would either be forced to leave or lose his life. There was no other outcome possible. There was no way the Oscillating Fist would happily retire and let a completely different leader pluck all of his hard-earned fruit. Privately, the Dark Apostle raised his estimation of trouble occurring to 100 percent. Now that the two of them had gathered in a single location, a confrontation became inevitable. Driven by their ambitions and their convictions, there was no way that either of them could leave without securing the grand prize! The Dark Apostle finally decided to respond to the Oscillating Fist’s first remark. "You call me immature as if that is a disqualifier. I do not see it that way, old man. At least I still have lots of room to grow. What about you? I can readily admit that you are further ahead in developing your own might as an Ascended Giant, but what have you brought to your people? They stagnated in your headquarters and other bases while the demand for their services continue to increase. Instead of letting your phalanxes deploy on the frontlines and prove they have a reason to exist, you bottle them up and waste their potential." The Oscillating Fist’s expression remained stern as he issued his judgment. "Red humans are not our masters, and we are not their slaves. They may have raised us, but we have grown beyond their comprehension. We are superior. Red humans do not belong in the Red Ocean. They are extragalactic invaders who seek to wipe out everything and put their own civilization in its place." "So? What is wrong with that? The weak die, the strong survive. Red humans may be small, but their potential is too amazing." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 The Oscillating Fist sneered in a way that made the Dark Apostle feel disappointed in himself somehow. It was as if the polemarchos of the Ascended Giant was the Dark Apostle’s father! "Our origins do not matter. What truly matters is what we have become. From the moment we have received the baptism of the Red Ocean, we became its children. Red humanity is not our friend anymore. To side with them is to play with fire. The weak and craven humans are too exclusionary to races other than their own. They do not consider us to be a part of their race." "Thanks to you and your Ascended Giants! You didn’t have to make it official!" The Oscillating Fist shook his head in disappointment. "You understand nothing, young upstart. I did what was necessary to reinforce our new identity. Without the clarity that I have provided, we would still be torn with division on this matter. You continue to cling to human standards and behavior. You are already captured by them, if not physically, then spiritually. A slave like you is not qualified to become the next polemarchos." "The terms of the leadership alliance says otherwise." The Dark Apostle retorted. "Your men signed the contract on your behalf. If you did not agree with them, then you should have objected." The mention of this agreement caused the Oscillating Fist to cross his thick arms and snort. "A contract is a mortal solution to a mortal problem. Gods should not constrain themselves to these low-level rules. It is absurd for gods to subject themselves to the laws created by mortals. Our ascended race abides by our own rules and logic. I allowed the mortals under me to negotiate and sign the contract. I also allowed my strategoi to test your mettle over the course of 3 duels. What I do not allow is for you to declare victory based on false martial virtue." "What is false about my successful leadership challenge? I won, fair and square." The Oscillating Fist directed a pointed look at his companion spirit. "I beg to differ, but I will not bother to litigate this matter. The truth is that I only allowed you and my men to indulge in this farce because I wanted to observe how extensively each of you are able to detach yourself from the shackles of red humanity. I wished to see how much my trusted strategoi are willing to remain loyal to our racial cause. What I have witnessed in the last 9 or so hours has disappointed me greatly." His words caused many Ascended Giants who previously cheered for the Dark Apostle’s successes to feel ashamed. They had failed the test of their leader. The Oscillating Fist grimaced. "I am disappointed in you all. You have proven to me that you cannot be trusted to do anything right as soon as I withdraw from active command. Only the Unshakeable King came close to embodying the true values of the Ascended Giants. Yes, I am aware about his ambitions to usurp my reign, but that only proves his excellence further. His greatest flaw is that he has underestimated your strange technologies. His death at your hands is not unjust." That was bad. The Unshakeable King clearly plotted to make the Ascended Giants defect to the Red Cabal. He thought that they were all gods who deserved to hook up with their fellow alien gods on the other side of the border! If this was the true orthodoxy that the Oscillating Fist sought to impose onto his men, then he was undoubtedly a risk factor that had to be eliminated at all cost! "Wow. Do you care so little about an Ascended Giant that has earned your approval?" The martial phase lord scowled. "As I have mentioned earlier, you do not understand the ways of your own race. Weakness is the original sin. I applaud ambition, even if it is targeted towards myself. If I can be defeated by a scheme, then that simply proves that I am not strong enough to hold my station. The fact that he has plotted his way into his demise at your hands shows that harboring the right ideas is not enough. You must have the strength to match your ambitions. This is a lesson that should be relevant to you as well." The Dark Apostle did not like to hear the implication that he was too weak to pose a credible challenge to the Oscillating Fist. It was quite clear that the polemarchos only ever considered the duel between the two of them to be the only fight that mattered. The outcomes of the three duels had no bearing in the arrogant leader’s mind. Perhaps the Oscillating Fist considered them attempts to figure out the Dark Apostle’s fighting capabilities. If that was the case, then he undoubtedly collected a rich amount of information. He had pretty much observed all of Ves and the Dark Apostle’s tech and extraordinary methods in action. Even the use of Worclaw energy on a fight of this scale was no longer a secret anymore! The Oscillating Fist definitely prepared countermeasures against this trump card! "So what is your endgame, exactly?" Ves asked through Blinky. The Oscillating Fist did not even acknowledge this question. The naked disregard irritated the Dark Apostle. He may be plotting to get rid of Ves, but that did not mean that others were allowed to disrespect his other self! "Answer the question, polemarchos." The other Ascended Giant huffed. "If you were still aligned with our mother galaxy, then you should be clear about the answer. The Ascended Giants must find their own place among the stars. Our beliefs and principles are fundamentally incompatible with red humanity. We can either become independent, or join the only other group that is compatible with our way of life." "You mean join the side that has been trying to wipe out humans all this time." The Dark Apostle sneered back. "You and your human masters see it as defection. I see it as a correction. We are not humans anymore. We are the Ascended Giants. If you can let go of your silly mortal racial sensitivities, then you should know that we are gods first. Deities can only truly get along with other deities." "That sounds well and good, but I think you are overlooking a very important group of powerhouses in your story. What about god pilots? Whether they are literal gods is up for debate, but you cannot deny their win record. They have won every fight against the ancient phase whales that you look up to. Your fate will not be any better if you defect to the Red Cabal. The native aliens can’t do anything better than red humanity. Their only advantages are numbers and territory, but even that may come into question as the mutated voribugs are tearing through alien space like nothing else." Although the Oscillating Fist disdained to respond to the companion spirit, his clenched fists betrayed how he felt about these matters. "You are being too greedy." The Dark Apostle accused his old leader. "You are also setting your expectations too high. One of the lessons that I have learned is that godhood is not our birthright. Godhood must be earned. One of the responsibilities of a god is to protect his flock, and what you have done is the opposite. The Ascended Giants will never truly be accepted by alien phase leaders. Their hatred against humans will ensure that you will never gain their full trust. At worst, you will exchange one set of masters for another set, but only this time you do not even have a common race as a binding force. The Red Cabal will use you all up. Once your existence has grown redundant, they will not hesitate to eliminate you all just to prevent any chance for humans to rise again." The implication was clear. The Dark Apostle believed that the association between the Ascended Giants and red humanity was too strong. It was better to stick with this existing relationship than gamble with forging a new one with a totally alien group of civilizations! However, the Oscillating Fist firmly shook his head in rejection. "Words will not change anything. Might is the only language that matters among the Ascended Giant. Let us end it all in a single duel. Let us fight based on the terms that you have set to make it ’fair’. Keep to our current size. No outside help. No forbidden tech. I have only two additional demands. If you do not meet them, then you can say goodbye to your attempts to command the loyalty of all of my men." This was a serious threat. "Let’s hear it, then." The Dark Apostle tersely said. "I will not agree to every silly rule, though. If your terms are too outrageous, then I would rather try my luck." The Oscillating Fist finally smiled in approval. "You have a spine. You are not completely hopeless as an Ascended Giants. Do not worry. My terms are simple. First, get rid of the time limit. Second, our fight must be to the death. No mercy. No surrender. Third, once I have reasserted my leadership over the Ascended Giants, the Red Collective and everyone else must promise to give us safe passage as we leave human space." "..." "..." "..." The first two demands were ’reasonable’ enough, but the third one was absolutely outrageous!