Chapter 262 March to Ionia!
At first, Levi really didn't know what had happened in Ionia a month ago.
He only knew that during those few days, Janna's power was rising rapidly, just like taking drugs. It seemed that the propaganda work of the Leader in the Twin Cities had suddenly changed from quantitative to qualitative, so that Janna could have tens of thousands more shallow believers every day than usual.
And he didn't have the time to ask Janna what was going on.
Instead, Janna ran over to him and asked, "Levi, there are suddenly a lot more believers in Ionia. Do you have any clues?"
Yes, the goddess herself is not quite clear about the situation.
Because the connection between the goddess and her believers is not as close as imagined, Janna is not omnipotent and omniscient.
It doesn't mean that as long as a person believes in Janna, Janna will be like a large mind control tower that can see all of the person's past experiences and inner thoughts without leaving any privacy.
She can only hear the believers' prayers and feel the power of faith from the believers. At most, she can determine the believers' specific location by following the source of the power of faith, but she cannot read their minds from a distance.
She can sense whether the believers' prayers are sincere and their faith is pure - as long as these conditions are met, she will respond generously to the believers' prayers and grant them divine power.
And if believers want to get more detailed help from the goddess...
It would be best if he clearly stated his identity and name, explained the whole story, and stated the details of his needs when praying.
So Janna only knew that there was a massacre in Ionia, during which countless Ionians converted on the spot and begged her for help in their hearts.
She had no idea how the Wind Leader's faith had spread, or how the Ionians had come to the idea of turning to Janna for help in their life-and-death situation.
Later, Levi sent Tam to secretly gather intelligence, and only then did he roughly understand:
"The so-called Leaders Chapter in the province of Baruo is a civil society organization that the Ionians were forced to form spontaneously in order to save their nation."
“A spontaneously formed civil society group?” Swain frowned slightly, but then relaxed his brows.
"Well... this is a 'reasonable' explanation."
Swain obviously didn't believe it.
He thought that Levi was trying to make a superficial cut with the troublesome Ionia branch in order to appease the Emperor who was bent on punishing him.
But Levi confirmed seriously: "What I said is true."
Swain: “…”
"You really didn't send people to set up the Ionia branch?"
"no."
"What about Orianna Levek, the self-proclaimed special agent of the Leader?" Swain said this name, which is now famous throughout Ionia.
Because of the leader's heroic act of stopping the massacre in the province of Baruo, "Orianna" became a banner of resistance against the Noxian Empire overnight and became a hero in the hearts of the Ionians.
However……
"She's not Orianna Leveque at all."
The real Orianna is still a trainee in Zaun's Science Equipment Department.
It is said that Victor was very optimistic about this student. The two of them got together and discussed some scientific ideas about "mechanical ascension" all day long, and also came up with some interesting cutting-edge inventions:
For example, an AI steam robot installed with Hextech native crystal that accidentally awakened independent consciousness... or something like that.
In short, the genuine Orianna is very busy now.
And the Ionian Orianna:
"Not only is she not Orianna, she is not from Zaun or Piltover."
"She," Levi said meaningfully, "is actually a Noxian who has nothing to do with us, a defected Noxian officer."
“But she and her followers can ride the storm. They are clearly the leaders.” Swain still didn’t believe it.
"Yes, they are leaders." Li Wei nodded solemnly in agreement: "But they are not the leaders we trained. Do you understand what I mean?"
Swain: “…”
A Noxian officer and a group of Ionians were able to create such ?
this……
This unbelievable truth shocked him even more than anything he had seen in Zaun before.
Because Swain knew what this meant.
This means that the leader has completed the early layout and potential accumulation, formed an ecological closed loop and self-iteration, transformed from the traditional P2C approach to a decentralized C2C model, and ultimately produced a fission reaction in the sinking market, achieving a dimensionality reduction attack on all old competing products.
In other words…
"Janna's faith is indestructible," Levi said. "Even if our Zaun leaders lose and are wiped out, with not a single person left, Ionia's leaders will stand up spontaneously in the midst of pain."
"The leader of Ionia has been defeated. The people of Noxus, Demacia, Shurima... all over Runeterra who have suffered, tens of thousands of leaders, will still take over this blood-stained banner from their predecessors and continue our unfinished work."
"As long as the great harmony of the world has not been achieved, the leaders will always have this vitality."
"Do you understand, Comrade Swain?"
Swain was silent. He understood.
It turns out that the vitality of the leader does not depend on the leader himself, but on the world. As long as there are still people suffering in the world, the leader will always exist.
Can anyone stop this force? No.
Even if they use excess profits to buy people's hearts and blind the eyes of Piltover people with a rich material life like Piltover, they can't hide the millions of "lower city people" who are blocked outside the border of Piltover and are eager to enter Piltover but cannot.
As long as seed benzene never gives up its dominance, suffering will always exist.
Janna will never die, and the Leader will never be defeated.
Even if we lose a battle, it will only mean a few more upward historical spirals.
"It seems that I have chosen the right path." Swain sighed deeply.
A big part of the reason why he chose to join was because he was intimidated by the military power of the Leader. It was a passive choice made in accordance with the natural law of the jungle in Noxus.
And now, he realized the leader's true trump card besides force, and finally realized that his choice was correct.
"Speaking of which..." Swain sighed, and then quickly thought of the Leader: "President Levi, are you going to respond to Noxus's questioning truthfully?"
"Yes." Levi nodded: "Just tell His Majesty the Emperor that the Leader of Ionia has nothing to do with the Leader of Zaun."
"This..." Swain questioned: "This will prevent people from making excuses and make it difficult for the Empire to find an excuse to start a war."
"but……"
If the Empire can't find a reason to declare war on the Zaun Leader, it can declare war on the Ionian Leader.
Aren't you cutting ties with the Ionian Leader?
Well, don’t blame me for not considering our Zaun “allies” and for striking down those Ionians who are “pretending to be leaders”.
"In fact, the Empire is already doing this." Swain said, "Darkwill began to issue orders to the two chapters in Baru Province to search for the traces of the Wind Leader a month ago, and he is also continuously drawing chapters from the main force of the Ionian Front to reinforce the province of Baru."
Swain knew very well that the province of Barou was remote, mountainous, forested, and resource-poor, and had no strategic or economic value at all.
However, over the past month, the Ionian army has slowed down its offensive in the main battlefield of Navoli Province and began to continuously send heavy troops to the Baruo Province.
This is clearly aimed at the leader entrenched in Balue.
Darkwill's targeting of the Ionian leader was clearly a tactical move, intended to force the Zaun leader to fight back.
But Levi happened to buy a Holy Sunderer, which gave the leaders of Zaun and Ionia a "Justice Cut".
" President , if you do this, I'm afraid that the leaders in Ionia will be under a lot of pressure." Swain said.
"I understand." Levi certainly knew that no matter what choice he made, war was inevitable.
Unless he could cold-bloodedly abandon Ionia's leader as a pawn and leave it to Noxus to eat.
"I know this battle must be fought," Levi said, "but Darkwill wants this battle to take place in Zaun, between you and me. He wants to use you to test me and use me to destroy you. I can't let him do that."
"If he wants to fight, then we have to choose the enemy and the battlefield!"
"I see..." As an old strategist, Swain understood immediately: "You want to maintain superficial peace with Noxus in Zaun, and then fight a 'proxy war' with Noxus in Ionia?"
"No..." He quickly discovered the biggest loophole in this plan: "I'm afraid the leader of Ionia is not yet capable of acting as an agent and fighting Noxus head-on—"
"Do you want to fight Noxus overseas in the name of Ionia's leader ?"
"That's right." Levi smiled slightly, "We in Zaun definitely want to maintain peace with the Noxian Empire and continue doing business."
"So in the conflict between Ionia and Noxus, Zaun will remain neutral."
"But..."
"The leader of Ionia is still a leader after all."
"Some of our warriors, out of faith and friendship, volunteered to go to sea as individuals to support the Ionian leader's just fight against aggression... I can't stop them."
