Stonewood Fortress was the second largest city of Bardi Empire’s Eternal Hope Province. As the final defensive barrier for the entire province, losing it would be the equivalent of losing the entire Eternal Hope Province.
And not long ago in the “Holy War,” the Bardi Empire just happened to lose this important defensive barrier.
Once this flourishing, well-known province was lost, approximately two million citizens landed in the enemy’s hands, along with an equivalent amount of resources and land.
Bardi’s eastern front against the Holy Church lost their battle too quickly. It was so quick that the citizens behind them didn’t even have the time to retreat. Even the duke of the Eternal Hope Province became the Holy Church’s hostage. Meanwhile, the Holy Church also obtained its greatest glory and biggest victory in recent times.
Unlike the poorer provinces that Bardi had recently annexed, the Eternal Hope Province had a very large population and abundant production of food, medicine and crafts. It had been an important domain of Bardi ever since several centuries ago. Losing this province not only dealt a great impact to the Bardi royalty’s reputation and authority but also a huge blow to Bardi’s overall situation.
When the Holy Church’s unexpected reinforcements, the Cloud Giants and angels, arrived, the heretical Bardi warriors and evil dragons were easily defeated. Cardinal Stephen, who had been on the verge of committing suicide, ready to take the blame for everything, felt as if the Gods themselves were on his side. He could only think of himself as the lucky one who had the favor of the God of Holy Light himself.
Actually, even the Holy Church’s higher-ups weren’t expecting to win this particular battle. Even Gordon, the seventh most famous warrior on the fairies’ rankings, had refused to continue leading the Holy Church’s armies. And so the Holy Church sent over the controversial Cardinal Stephen to take all the blame for the “stealing the credit” incident. More importantly, the main reason was that not a single other Cardinal-level leader was willing to take up the role of commanding the Holy Church vanguard in this fight.
“Since you’re already taking the blame for that, then just take the blame for this matter too.”
However, as this matter shows, suddenly obtaining a leadership position wasn’t always good for obtaining achievements. It was likely the leader ends up taking the blame. However, if the leader was lucky enough, taking the blame would instead be transformed into obtaining achievements.
Neither side of this battle expected the Holy Church to win. But at the critical moment, the Cloud Giants from legend suddenly appeared and located the evil dragons hidden within the Bardi camp, dealing them a great blow.
And then another “allied reinforcement” arrived, but their arrival made everything clear to the Holy Light’s army.
“Angels! Holy angels! Our God of Holy Light is taking care of us!”
Through countless religious stories, humans’ worship of angels had been endlessly reinforced. These creatures of Order had long since left the mortal plane but represented unmistakable divine will whenever they appeared.
Even during Emperor Yongye’s long reign, the Holy Church had been able to explain things away as ‘the Gods’ trial for humans.’ That was why everyone didn’t lose hope even though the Holy Church allied armies lost back then. Such belief in the Holy Church had been formed over countless generations, and as the purest, holiest and most perfect of creatures in legend, the angels attracted the whole world’s attention the moment they appeared. Simply because these angels joined the Holy War on the side of the Holy Light army’s vanguard, every day throngs of Holy Light believers would travel thousands of kilometers to join the war effort.
These angels had strange appearances. They were covered all over in strange golden armor that masked even their faces. Their explanation was that “we’re still unable to get accustomed to this tainted world,” which was accepted by the Holy Light believers. After all, it was considered impossible to fake the angels’ white feathers which gave off a golden glow.
In fact, it should be said that the Cardinals and the great majority of priests had sunk into a mysterious religious fervor the moment they saw these existences which possessed powerful abilities over Holy Light and Order. The angels wielded longswords wreathed in Holy Light as they slew evil heretics in front of everyone.
It wasn’t at all Halent’s fault for losing. An entire major squadron of five hundred angels had arrived to support the Holy Light army. Every adult angel would only be slightly weaker than an adult dragon, and a fully equipped angel warrior wouldn’t be any weaker than the Gold rank.
The Holy Church’s entire allied army’s higher-ups no longer even discussed this war although it hadn’t yet ended. They didn’t even consider strategies about how to use their forces. Their hearts were filled with joy at what they believed to be their imminent victory. They believed that the angels’ pure swords would assist them in cleansing the filthy heretics. These heretics that were filled with so many sins would all be burned at the stake.
This type of religious fervor wasn’t only spreading through the higher-ups. Even the ordinary soldiers and Holy Light job class members were filled with fervor towards the Holy Light, wanting only to slaughter their enemies.
“…Something seems wrong here.”
Only very few Holy Light job class members were able to calmly analyze the situation. One such person was “Miracle Hand” Estrada, who had just recently arrived at the battlefield. He had originally refused to participate in this battle until Pope Caloma gave him a direct order he couldn’t refuse. Estrada forced himself to come to the battlefield at the very end of the deadline given to him, but he didn’t expect that he would see such a sight here waiting for him.
Although Estrada had never seen an angel before, he had plenty of knowledge about angels due to his contact with the angel half-blood Aivla as well as Roland. Although these five hundred angels radiated pure Holy Light, the feeling they gave off wasn’t like the warm sun. They were like icy sword blades, a completely different feeling from Aivla and Roland’s Holy Light.
“Even though Aivla’s Holy Light is very pure, her Holy Light also contains the raging fires of her anger. This makes her Holy Light especially effective against the undead. Meanwhile, Roland’s Holy Light purity is incomparable throughout all of history and can even be used as lantern lighting. However, his Holy Light isn’t aggressive—it’s just like the harmless sunlight. And when I last saw him in the Northlands, his Holy Light purity seemed to be even better than in the past, but its sunshine-like warmth didn’t change one bit. That Holy Light wouldn’t reject any life to share in its warmth.”
All powerful individuals would have special quirks about their own energy. Any of that person’s overflowing energy would contain the person’s emotions and specialties. The Holy Light itself would be no different from any other Holy Light, but it would become different once human hearts and souls were involved. Not a single person would have identical Holy Light wavelengths to another person. Yet the five hundred angels in front of Estrada not only had exactly identical Holy Light wavelengths, but their Holy Light also seemed to lack living creatures’ most basic emotions. It seemed as if these angels were using Holy Light as nothing more than an emotionless tool.
Any others would be scared witless by the angels’ astonishing amount of Holy Light, as every single one of these angels were Legend or stronger. However, the “Strongest Holy Knight” had reached the peak of understanding of Holy Light. Estrada was even capable of sensing his own disciples’ talent and moral character through their Holy Light wavelengths, which was why he had been particularly fond of Aivla and Roland. It was also why he found it difficult to accept these angels that had suddenly descended to the mortal plane.
“…During battle, the pupils of their eyes reacts only instinctively. There’s not a single hint of passion in their Holy Light. Their Holy Light wavelengths don’t shake one bit even if one of these angels is forced to the brink. They are emotionless. Are these really the gentle and kind angels from legend? They’re basically… basically…”
Estrada didn’t allow his thoughts to show on his face. However, as he thought about this mystery, he was hesitating. Ever since he had come into contact with Roland and his Concept of Law in the Northlands, Estrada had been gaining new realizations and ideas although the Holy Church’s higher-ups were becoming more and more on guard against him. At the very least, Estrada now had a much more moderate and reasonable viewpoint of the Holy Light.
The Strongest Holy Knight’s well-honed combat senses told him the truth behind the angels’ icy-cold golden armor and holy white wings: that these angels didn’t seem like any normal living creatures.
“…They are like mass-produced, completely emotionless killing machines. They don’t even blink when faced with a brink. They don’t feel glory at sacrificing themselves. They have an utter coldness as if they see everyone around them as disposable objects. When they see other angels dying, they react as if they’re merely seeing a weapon being damaged.”
Estrada didn’t say these words, which would be considered heretical, out loud. And he wasn’t the only person to think in such a way. Unlike the priests that were now in a mysterious religious fervor, most Holy Knights were usually busy with their work and assignments. They weren’t able to enjoy a comfortable life in the church like priests and Cardinals typically could year-round. Holy Knights roamed the lands, eliminating evil wherever they saw it. Even the Holy Knights that protected a local holy sanctuary would need to come into contact with ordinary townsfolk every day. The Holy Knights were far closer to ordinary people than priests and thus had their suspicions about the angels’ behavior on the battlefield.
But the next event caused the Holy Knights’ suspicions to become a huge fissure.
“Cleanse? Slaughter the entire city? Slaughter the entire province? That’s what the angels requested? Are they joking? That’s two million people! That’s two million human lives!”
******
While the mega empire Bardi was stuck in a quagmire, the semi mega empire Auland seemed to receive an opportunity. Of course, the prerequisite was that they first make it past this huge wave.
After three months, the Queen of Storms noticed that she apparently wasn’t being targeted by Ayer and that it had just been her own misunderstanding. She also sensed her Sea Tribe worshippers to be weakening in their faith after several successive losses, so she unhesitatingly took part in combat once again.
Countless giant ocean waves brought great disaster upon all of Auland’s cities that bordered the sea. Although the Sea Tribe warriors that came along with the waves were unable to permanently stay on land, the food and wealth they plundered was more than enough to sustain these new Sea Tribe members that entered combat. This was because they weren’t as gluttonous as their counterparts that had already been fattened by staying in Rain City. The combat achievements on these other fronts also gave these Sea Tribe leaders the right to immigrate to Rain City.
Some of these unfortunate sea-bordering cities managed to withstand the onslaught, while others were destroyed by the ocean waves. Residents still in their sleep would be slaughtered. Perhaps one should even thank the Queen of Storms’ kindness as she at least didn’t send out her typical sea monsters to slaughter ordinary humans.
But from another standpoint her sea monsters were all being kept busy by the combat situation at Rain City. The Queen of Storms had already sent out every single sea monster under her command, with none more to spare.
If the seaside Auland residents were like cows and sheep awaiting slaughter at a butchering factory, then the Rain City’s frontlines were a pure meat grinder.
The Sea Tribe and the Queen of Storms were now counterattacking with full force. The seawaters had once more begun rising, bringing with it many Sea Tribe members and sea monsters. Mountainous whale monsters were actually treated as one-time disposable siege weapon sledgehammers. Their bodies would be crushed under the broken castle walls’ rubble. However, any room opened by the invaders would be slaughtered without a single survivor.
In less than two short days, the smaller bases outside the larger fortresses had all been lost, and the sea waves and giant sea monsters turned the trenches of warfare into ponds and swamps.
When Auland’s elite squadrons and powerful individuals tried their best to overturn the situation, they discovered, to their astonishment, that not only were large numbers of Storm Shamans continuously summoning more sea waves but a certain blue-skinned woman was personally commanding the tempo of the sea waves’ attack.
“…She actually used an incarnation to join a battle between mortals? She’s using her divine power to slaughter mortals? Just how shameless can this Goddess be?”
Since it was now the Holy War, the taboo against True Gods directly interfering in mortals’ affairs had been lifted. However, the Queen of Storms remained the only example of a True God who did so. From a certain standpoint, it was like an adult becoming incredibly serious when fighting against children or a small animal. All the other Gods would probably make fun of her for this, but right now the Queen of Storms was indeed acting rather shamelessly.
However, the result of her shamelessness was obvious. With her personal assistance, the Storm Shamans extended the area of influence of the rainstorms from just Rain City. Countless numbers of Sea Tribe warriors arrived together with the rainstorms, making things difficult for the defending Auland soldiers on the battlefront.
Yet the Auland warriors fighting in the swamp suddenly witnessed a wonderful turn of events.
“…The sky is clearing?”
As the humans cheered in astonishment while the Sea Tribe stared in disbelief, the unending dark clouds started dissipating, out of the blue. Sunlight, which had since been scarce, illuminated the blue-skinned woman’s face, revealing her shock, disbelief and even fear.