Wai smiled, exhaling a cloud of smoke.
"After a thousand years of war, every kingdom and nation had gotten tired of Chi's control. They formed a coalition against the Great Chi Empire. Greater Britannia. The small Tsaria Kingdom, which would later grow into the massive Tsar Empire. Vinlan. Zirael. Africanus — tribes from the wealth-lands of the west to the water tribes in the east to the beast-taming tribes in the south. Rajputana brought the northern Bodhira Monks, the eastern Shashu Staff Warriors, and the western Tigeral Riders. Dune Island brought the Sand Rays."
"Damn," Titi said. "The whole freaking world. Shit — a thousand years of oppression'll make that many enemies. Hahaha."
"Yes, you're right." Wai exhaled again. "Violence breeds more violence. And violence conjures hate. And hate is... like a stain. A rot. A corruption. A festering malice that needs to be itched. And the Shènjī Dynasty gave the world something to itch."
She started repacking her pipe.
"Baba, get to the end, please," Rin said. "I have things to do."
Wai threw a slipper at him. He dodged, tilting his head just enough out of the way.
"Boy! Don't you ever rush your sweet grandma." She kept packing the pipe. "But if it's for you, I'll rush through it, my sweet boy."
*She's never that nice to me,* Titi thought.
Wai continued. "Maximillian's grandson — King Maximillian the Third, also known as Gilgamesh, one of Britannia's legendary warrior kings, wielding his famous diamond-encoded arming sword, Galgano — launched one of the greatest land invasions in Margerina's history. A coalition army three million strong."
"Three million?" Titi cut in. "Ain't no way they had that many, Grams."
"Girl, don't interrupt me again, or you'll get the other slipper."
Titi laughed, ducking behind the counter. "Aight, Grams. Chill. I got you."
Wai took a puff. "Where was I. Oh, yes. Three million strong, with ships massing around twelve thousand, sailing through waters that were mysterious at the time, converging on the Lo Deng Sea — which you'd know today as the South Chun Sea. Ships came in from the southwest and the southeast, all converging on Lo Deng Beach in south Chi.
"The Battle of Lo Deng. Three million coalition troops against six million Chi troops — and not just regular troops. A lot of Viatra users scattered through that army. Even the lead strategist, One Fe, pushed his Viatras to the limit, seeing minutes into the future, watching how the coalition would land on the beach before they did. Countered with Muti catapults — fire, earth, metal, magma — launched at the incoming ships before they even reached the sand. Destroyed a couple hundred outright. Cost the coalition thousands of men.
"The coalition answered with front-facing Muti air cannons — compressed air at destructive, invisible speeds, slamming into the beach, sending Chi men flying. As the ships drew closer, Muti mines went off — ice freezing whole ships before they exploded, chained lightning detonations, Leviathan blue-fire explosions setting the water itself burning. Barely slowed the armada.
"As coalition soldiers came ashore, Chi arrows found their marks. Heads. Necks. Chests. Legs. Toes. Hands. Eyes. Any part of a body left exposed, blinded by black Dragmascus-tipped arrows striking with lethal precision. Coalition men fell by the thousands — but still poured onto that beach. Seven armies against the best land force on the planet."
She laughed, smoke coming out her nose.
"Don't stop now," Titi said. "This is getting good."
Wai repacked her pipe, took another puff. "The Battle of Lo Deng is still remembered today as one of the bloodiest battles in history. People just call it LD now. Both armies clashed on that beach in outright slaughter — Chi's straight Dragmascus swords against Britannian claymores, Rajputana and Africanus spears, Vinlan's Dragmascus Elfberhts, Dune Island scimitars, Zirael's legendary Espada de Agua — the Water Swords — and Tsaria's lightning hammers and ice axes, the Securis Glacieis and the Martillo de Relámpagos.
"Blood and Muti stained the sand. The battle raged for days with no end in sight — until the coalition slowly started taking the beach, with Emperor Junji watching from a hill above."
"Who's Emperor Junji?" Titi asked.
"Miura's grandson. If Miura held the empire together — Junji would be the first Emperor to start pulling it apart."
"Ahhh."
Wai took a puff. "No matter how many plans, counters, strategies — Junji couldn't stop seven armies attacking at once, each with its own doctrine, all somehow coherent together. A nightmare to fight. Still, he held them at bay where it mattered.
"Til something unforeseen happened. Something not even the coalition saw coming.
"Smaller subjected clans — offshoots of the Shènjī bloodline, with their own eye abilities, branched off from the main Viatra line, diluted into different oculars — clans that had been mistreated and hated for centuries. They saw their opening. Started rebelling. Seizing territory across the Chi continent, forcing the army to split its forces to put them down.
"Emperor Junji pushed for peace with the coalition. Signed a treaty that cost the empire its Rajputana territories and Africanus, left the Great Chi Empire holding only the Chi continent itself — but bought him time to handle the civil war at home. Put down the rebel clans in just three years, with help from a smaller clan called the Tokoyami. Masters of the shadow arts. They'd later be absorbed into the Shènjī Empire but stayed a major clan in their own right — founded by Kishimoto's own brother, Kentaro, while he was helping build the empire."
"This part I never heard before," Rin said.
"Wasn't important. You were young. Til now." Wai looked at him. "Shadows are moving, child, and you aren't the only one moving through them. There's a great darkness still hungry, still moving pieces into place. And you're just a thing in its domain."
Rin nodded quietly.
"Instead of giving them land or titles," Wai continued, "what do you think Junji did to the Tokoyami?"
"I don't know," Titi said. "Something that made them fight harder?"
Rin, almost cutting her off, said quietly, "He betrayed them."
"Bingo." Wai exhaled. "He killed their greatest warriors. Stole the shadow arts for the Empire's own use. Impregnated every mother and daughter the Shènjī Clan could get their hands on, trying to breed superior children — and did the same to every other clan in Chi. Absorbed everything into the Shènjī Dynasty.
"By this point the Dynasty had been around a thousand three hundred years, and the world already knew them as the Black Clan.
"Emperor Junji's son, Urasawa, took the throne after his father's eighty-year reign. People never much liked Junji. His son was different. Urasawa actually cared about his people, about the country — strengthened everything, extended the Celestial Divide. But underneath all that, his curiosity knew no bounds. Especially about the human soul. About evolving the Viatras past Stage Two — past Shōen no Me."
She looked at Rin.
"Do you know where he got his test subjects from? There was no war going on at the time."
"The smaller clans," Rin said.
"Bingo." Wai smiled through the smoke. "Inadvertently setting the stage for—"
"The Second Eye War," Rin finished.