The Mytikas. He knew that such an action, if produced solely by force, would be vain, i.e., a hydra decapitation, with the regeneration of two new monsters in the previous position. Their capability was not based in raw power or arcane power; it was much more subtle, and much more pervasive.
The Mytikas were not a single unified entity, an achievable stop and destroy. They were, indeed, much more multifaceted, much more disturbing: a disjointed system of powerful families, wealthy merchants, secret learned men, and secret groups. Their ability did not come from troops or show of magic itself and lies in their extraordinary, almost supernatural awareness of how the world is an intricately interwoven system. They had mastered the art of subtle influence, manipulating events from behind the scenes, shaping societies, economies, and even the flow of magic itself, all without ever revealing their hand. They were the puppeteers of the strings of world affairs, making war and profit out of it.
They created a society in which strife was present all the time, not by direct acts of violence, but by creeping and secretive controls on trade (between ports as well as between countries), on political alliances and, most of all, on flows of information. They had mastered the art of sowing division, feeding upon existing grievances, and fanning the flames of prejures to hold societies at war, all the while dispensing the spoils. They palmed themselves off through and through as global misery profiteers, their wealth and power growing at each and every war, every economic downturn, every (uneasily manufactured) realignment of the power balance.
Nyx realized that to truly dismantle their power, he had to expose not just their existence, but their methods. He had to unravel the intricate web of deceit they had woven over centuries, revealing the mechanisms of their control to the world. He gathered evidence of their manipulations, meticulously documenting their influence on past events, revealing their secret agendas, their carefully crafted narratives, and the subtle ways they had shaped history to their advantage. He described money movement, the machinations of power, and the quiet change of political allegiances, back to the Mytikas.
information. He shared his evidence in a carefully crafted network of sources from which he could derive confidence, by leaking documents, by making intelligence intercepts and by other less conspicuous means, by directing journalists and historians towards the right truth. He let the evidence speak for itself, by letting people witness the sheer scale of the Mytikas's reach and the subtle ways in which they had been weaving their way into the fabric of global events for their own gain. He disclosed their mechanisms of control, providing evidence of their use of fear,greed,and prejudice,to control large populations, their use of propaganda and disinformation,to influence the thinking of the public, and the ways in which they had penetrated positions of power,so as to have their opinion,on policy.
This exposure, to a much larger degree than did any military success, was the actual suffering of the Mytikas. The power behind it, kept secret and controlled, spilled over in the face of public outcry. The light of truth, however painful, was their undoing. Their carefully constructed web of influence unraveled, their control over world events diminished, and the world, finally aware of the forces that had been manipulating it from the shadows, began to awaken. Once derided as paranoiac, the murmurings of conspiracy, became the thundering blast of anger, screaming for vengeance, screaming for change. The unraveling had begun.