22 Chapter 22 — Aftermath

[Clean up the battlefield. Count the dead and start the propaganda campaign. Our might is enough to deter all the countries of the world]

[We can settle for a temporary peace with the Elsass Empire. We'll demand a lot of resources, and they will be forced to agree to all our conditions if they want to avoid further fighting]

During this battle, the People's Army suffered devastating, almost crippling losses. Many were killed during the fighting with Daiki and the Imperial Army, and the entire army that was sent to fight the Demon Prince was wiped out. The army was in no shape to march onwards to the Elsass Empire. Without a scapegoat, it was possible for the Third Reich to even directly collapse.

With Konrad's order, a vigorous propaganda campaign started whose effects would change the nature of the Third Reich forever. Demi-humans were blamed for the high casualties suffered in the battle. The Third Reich stated that at the crucial moment, the demi-humans had collaborated with the Elsass Empire and demons to betray the People's Army and stab them in the back!

All around the country, the people's hatred of demi-humans was manipulated with propaganda and source soldiers blending in with civilians to a boiling point. The Third Reich stated that demi-humans were now the enemy of the state. The effects were immediate. Shops belonging to demi-humans were smashed and looted, families were dragged out and many were murdered.

At the peak of their emotions, the Third Reich announced that all demi-humans were no longer citizens and were to be degraded to slaves. While Konrad wanted to vilify demi-humans, he did not want them to leave the country as they were a source of labour and population. Instead, he set up forced labour camps and rewarded them as slaves to people who made significant contributions to the country. Old or useless demi-humans were harvested in extermination camps for source points.

Meanwhile, while countless atrocities were being committed, Konrad was in his office, determining the next steps of his plan.

[This battle has highlighted the flaws of our current weaponry. Namely, the weakness of ground troops and the limited armour and accuracy of our ships. While the shells fired by the ships are very powerful, that's only if they manage to hit the enemy. While I have been compensating for this by increasing the calibre and power, I am heading in the wrong direction. With the encounter with the Demon Prince's avatar, if all their shells hit the target head-on, only a couple of Dreadnoughts would be sufficient to take it out. Instead, what happened was that even with my entire fleet firing, he managed to dodge most of the shells!]

[This is a problem with no easy solution. I could solve it by using homing supersonic missiles, but I don't want to reveal that technology to the world now, and the current industry of the country is nowhere close to producing that stuff. Maybe I could use magic to enchant the shells? Unfortunately, I have no powerful wizards and it'll take time for the magic academy to produce new talents. It's worth looking into though]

[The accuracy of the cannons can also be improved. Right now in battle, the cannons are aimed at roughly the position of the enemy and have a low hit rate at small objects, especially if it is moving. If I could increase the accuracy and have them cooperate with each other, they would be much more effective. After all, the effects of an airburst and a direct hit are very different]

[Computers would easily solve this problem, but I can't use them in the native army. The next best thing is using magic or warriors with a high reaction speed. Maybe in the future, all the warriors in the country would be cannon gunners. After all, they can play a much bigger role there than picking up a gun and rushing to the frontlines]

[Speaking of warriors, the bodies of source soldiers and the native soldiers are only human and are very fragile. They still have high combat effectiveness, but the weakness of their bodies will become more apparent the more powerful the enemy is. It would be disastrous if the enemy used sound or soul attacks, since no matter how many battleships you send, they will all be killed from within!]

Konrad remembered the fictional super soldiers on Earth. Since he could not make magic with his source power, that left him with only the technological route for super soldiers.

[First of all, power armour is not suitable. It is incredibly expensive and cannot be manufactured with the current technology. Even if it was possible, the human inside is still ultimately a mortal]

He thought of the space marines of Warhammer 40k. Their power was completely biological and came from the Gene Seed that genetically re-engineered their bodies. With additional organs surgically added and operations, their abilities were pushed to superhuman levels.

[The best thing about the Gene Seed is that it is reusable. I will look into this further] 

[The biggest problem is that apart from nuclear weapons, I have no other high-damage units]

[The damage of a nuclear weapon is too spread out since they aren't concentrated to one point. That was why a sword with the power of a nuclear explosion can deal much more damage to a single object than a nuke. I need a weapon that can deal high concentrated point damage]

[First of all, biological weapons like toxic gas can be ruled out for fighting high-powered enemies. Their lethality is not enough, and they have too much contamination and pollution. We've kind of hit the ceiling of gunpowder cannons, so the next step is electromagnetic cannons. A giant electromagnetic can become an ultimate killing weapon, perhaps even more lethal than a nuclear bomb. It also doesn't have the radiation and contamination of a nuclear warhead]

[As for a final trump card, I can use the most powerful weapon possible, antimatter. Any technological vessel to contain it is so ridiculously expensive in source points, but I'm sure that a solution with magic can be found. The price of antimatter is also extremely high, with 1 ton of it costing over a trillion source points. This is definitely a long-term plan, but the lethality of such a weapon would unparalleled. It can even be strong enough to destroy the world!]