Moral superiority is something many countries fighting a war want to have on their side, as it makes their situation slightly easier.

When a nation has moral superiority, it allows them to show how righteous they are to their citizens, who, knowing the sacrifices they were making, will want to support their nation or civilization, reducing the need for propaganda that is usually required to receive the same amount of support.

Although most of the support is not monetary, it is psychological, but that makes it all the more important because it removes the need for the nation to keep the citizens calm and positive about the war, as they themselves will be doing that on their own, and might even result in an increase in recruitment for their fighting forces.

It also allows the nation to do very atrocious things, more than they would previously have been able to get away with, if they are doing it under the protection of moral superiority. The citizens of that nation will always point back to the things that were done to them first as justification for what they were doing. Although their civilization's actions might be over the top, the justification and moral superiority will allow their citizens and supporters to continue backing them even harder.

Those were the grounds that the Conclave wanted to be on, and although it might or might not be true, nothing was stopping a civilization from fabricating and massaging the messaging to gain moral superiority, so they instantly got to work. They spread the video of the destruction of the capital of Nymari, branding it as a response to Nymari betraying their promise and siding with the enemy, using the empire's medium: VR.

It was a deliberate move to spread it in that manner, as it allowed for two things for the Conclave: the first being to test and see how the empire was going to react regarding the messaging, and the second being the opportunity to reduce their mana expenditure after coming to the realization that despite their surprise attack catching the empire off guard, the war was not going to end as fast as they expected. Taking the possibility of it turning into a war of attrition, they started reducing the needless expenditure of mana, despite having enough of it in their reserves.

The videos and statements spread very fast through VR, as the people logged in were already attentive, looking for any news or information regarding the war from both sides. The reaction was mixed, as many of the Nymari citizens were yet to be aware that their civilization had even surrendered when they then came to learn about their capital being nuked out of habitability. With the Conclave being the ones to release the news, it allowed them to control the narrative of how it was digested, so in an instant, the Nymari were painted as traitors, and their bombing was celebrated by the rest of the civilizations while the Nymari were still coming to terms with the situation.

The Conclave Central Command had avoided mentioning the other civilizations that threatened to leave in order to allow them to crawl back after seeing the warning, albeit with a few penalties, but it was enough of an opening for them to return while also making it clear to anyone still inside what would happen to them if they decided to leave and regret their decision.

…………………….

CLANG!! BANG!! TUCK!!! FWAK!!!

The sound of a room being destroyed was heard from outside the door of the admiral's room in one of the Nymari fleets that were stuck inside the Oort cloud.

They had just received the news of the destruction of the capital. As the best of the best fleets from Nymari, it meant that the leadership structure and the majority of their soldiers were from the capital city, with both them and their families residing in it. Hence, the news was the worst they could receive, second only to learning that their leader had surrendered to the empire.

Had it just been news, they would have had a semblance of hope that some people managed to escape, but the video evidence that was attached to the news removed any hope of someone escaping. Before the bomb exploded, no ships were escaping, and as a civilization that had no wormhole technology and relied on others in that aspect, it meant that everyone in it was either dead or in the middle of dying from radiation.

Those who now had confirmation of their loved ones' deaths didn't even know what to do or who to be angry at, as their previous allies were the ones who had killed them, while the Terra Empire was the one who had caused it by forcing the surrender.

"Mom, I'm coming to you very soon. Don't worry," one of the Nymari soldiers said as he watched the sensor data showing the imperial fleet approaching them.

Being inside this spatially locked bubble protected them from the retaliation of the Conclave fleets, which some of their other fleets had experienced when the news of their betrayal reached the other civilizations' fleets.

He was not the only one who had lost the motivation to fight. Despite orders being given to prepare to fight the oncoming imperial fleets, very few of them followed, as the majority of them had lost their reason since their families were killed after their civilization betrayed and left them in the dark about it, leaving them to fend for themselves while in the middle of an enemy prison.

"I said, prepare the weapons! We came here for the sake of our people's interest, and even if those at the capital are dead, there are still other star systems with our people whom we need to do our best to fight and go back for! Don't let the current situation hold you back, so prepare the fucking weapons!!!!!!!!!" the Nymari fleet admiral shouted, trying to motivate his fleets despite knowing that the chances of them leaving the spatially locked Oort clouds were less than zero, as fleets from stronger civilizations had already fallen in front of their sensors.

"SIR!!!!!! Look at this!" a communication officer shouted just as the admiral was about to continue with the next part of his last-stand motivational speech. Before he could even respond, the communication officer set the footage he was talking about on the main hologram that previously contained the sensor data, showing a video posted by the Terra Imperial Government's VR account.

The video was the only response from the Terra Empire, posted once the previous Conclave news and video were deemed to have reached the largest audience, which they themselves had aided in spreading. But that little response alone was enough, as it was like pouring water on an oil fire.

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