Chapter 321: Aya’s Mouth Job (1/2)

Chapter 321: Aya’s Mouth Job

Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy

There was no surprise that Dragon City Guards were victorious. Since Aya killed Faceless One, the war has actually evolved into a one-sided ma.s.sacre. The Holy Light Religion was totally routed. They fled in panic from the center of the barrack area, but under the guide of the Caliburn, coupled with their previous resentment, Dragon City Guards didn’t let go even a single one of them. They pursued them until fifty kilometers outside the city before gradually stopping.

At this point, the casualties on the side of Holy Light Religion were around seventy to eighty percent of their total initial army that partic.i.p.ated in the war. The elite force of Holy Light Religion in Brettonia that was acc.u.mulated for over a hundred years has more or less vanished. The city has turned into rivers of blood. The initially smooth and tidy streets were now covered in blood. Everywhere there were corpses of priests in their holy robes. At the same time, the fierce battle inevitably would also injure the innocent—not all civilians had withdrawn from the city, so there were always some unexpected cases. For a time, Dragon City reeked with blood and cries of grief shook the heaven. It was truly an appalling scene.

The nature of war is brutal, so no one was surprised about this scene. Because if the winner of the war was Holy Light Religion, they would not be lenient towards Dragon City Guards either. Instead, they would have set up a large-scale cleansing. Therefore, even though many people were unwilling to bear this slaughter, it was inconvenient to say so.

For example, the very awkward former Archbishop Rowan was caught in a deep contradiction.

As the former Archbishop, he belonged to the Holy Light Religion camp, but when later he revealed his ident.i.ty as the member of the Priory of Zion, he became the sworn enemy of the Holy Light Religion. In line with the principle of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, in the final slaughter stage, Dragon City Guards never took aim at Rowan. Of course, this was also because of the decades of good ties between Rowan and Dragon City Guards. In the whole city, Rowan’s reputation was very good that even Dragon City Guards were very reluctant to put their hands on this old man.

However, for Rowan himself, it was hard for him to accept this leniency, because the dead people were already too many. As the local Archbishop, Rowan has always regarded the Holy Light believers in Dragon City as his own children. But now, all of these children have become corpses.

Did they do something wrong? Of course not, simply because they have no choice. Faceless One’s tyrannical action was overflowing that if he had made excessive demand, they would surely revolt. Nevertheless, after the war started, all of their actions were involuntary.

They didn’t do anything wrong, yet they all died a violent death. However, could this be blamed on Dragon City Guards? Obviously not. They were more innocent than the Holy Light Religion force. Being cut by the sword of the holy war from the sky, and then being surrounded by the force of Holy Light Religion in the barrack area, from the beginning to the end, did Dragon City Guards have any choice at all?

If one must be blamed, naturally it would be the Faceless One. However, it was a great dereliction of duty for the Archbishop to fail to protect all the people.

And for such a dereliction of duty, what qualification did he have to survive?

In fact, Archbishop Rowan had already thought about committing suicide. Although the teachings of Holy Light Religion prohibited this behavior, in desperation, he has no other choice.

However, a young man who self-proclaimed as the Saintess’ spokesperson found him and dismissed that thought in one sentence.

”Your life is no longer your own, if you’re feeling guilty, then use your last years of life to do some practical action to atone for it.”

Death was just an escape. Courage to keep on living was better than facing death. Rowan deeply sighed but finally said nothing.

In addition to Rowan, everyone needed to bravely face the future. After the fierce battle, both sides were mutually hurt. Although Dragon City Guards won the war, their losses were not that much better than that of the Holy Light Religion camp. Roughly only half of them survived, of which, there were still many who lost their ability to fight forever.

The whole Dragon City also suffered a huge loss. In the final stage of the war, countless buildings were destroyed—many Holy Light Religion followers relied on the nearby buildings (as a natural barrier) to defend, and the response from Dragon City Guards were to directly destroy the man along the building. In the process, it was inevitable that civilians were also injured.

That night, Bedivere floated in the air and wordlessly viewed his own city in bird’s eye view. Although it was unlikely that Dragon City would be reduced to ruins, but his decades of work... seemed to have been in vain.

”But, in the end, it’s a win.” Bedivere closed his eyes. ”It’s a dream-like victory, I never even considered the possibility of winning. So, what to do next?”

”Hahaha.” A hearty laughter sounded beside Bedivere. ”The next step is, of course, to continue to win until Brettonia is reunified and the church of Holy Light Religion is completely expelled!”

For this kind of rhetoric, after half a day, Bedivere had already developed high immunity for it. Not to mention that the speaker wasn’t really the monarch that he determined to serve, but merely a mysterious Nine Regions cultivator.

Therefore, there were not that many feelings in Bedivere’s reply. ”That’s easy to say, but Holy Light Religion will not give up easily. The next battle might erupt at any time, yet we only have a weary army. Look around you, we don’t even have a single ally.”

This war was indeed a miraculous victory, however, the next situation was even more dangerous. The church did not expect to suffer this kind of heavy loss, so how could they be willing to give up? Even if at this time their main force was dealing with the trouble brewing in the Eastern City States, they would certainly allocate their energy to deal with the Dragon City rebellion.

And compared to Dragon City, a piece of ruins that had lost most of its fighting force, Holy Light Religion had a lot more resources at hand. After operating for more than a hundred years, the majority of forces in Brettonia already had relation with Holy Light Religion. As long as the church promised them enough benefits, by virtue of prestige and trust of the number one church in the continent, they would naturally be willing to be their p.a.w.n.

Bedivere did not take lightly of these wolves that might degenerate into church lackeys. Moreover, Dragon City was simply too rich. Whether it was in terms of equipment and texts for those with professions, or in terms of gold and silver for the average person, the acc.u.mulation of this wealth in Dragon City was far from that of other cities. Now, under this lose-lose condition, this wealth was a naked enticement for them.

”If we have a little bit of carelessness, they would rise and attack us. But right now, we haven’t even handled our own affairs properly.”

After the fierce battle, in addition to silently licking their wounds, Dragon City also faced a critical problem, which was their morale.

In the previous battle, Dragon City Guards were basically united. Except for the minorities who defected after their families were threatened, most showed an amazing cohesion. However, that was just an instinctive response to self-preservation. Now that the war was over and the crisis was lifted, the contradictions were inevitably exposed.

People who used their heads could see that Dragon City was currently facing a dangerous situation. Right now, it could be said that Dragon City has just gone through a narrow escape, but n.o.body wanted to experience that once again.

”The grace of being nurtured by Dragon City, I think we have already paid it in full today. So, do we need to continue to tie ourselves here, waiting for death?”

”Yeah, I’ve just came back from scouting outside the city. There are armies of other cities that are slowly gathering. Seriously, I don’t think we can fight anymore.”

These kind of words quickly spread inside Dragon City, wavering the morale of the army. At the same time, for the ordinary people of Dragon City, this was also a very frightening night.

Within the city, the bloodstain has yet to disappear, which filled Dragon City with murderous intent. In the religious area and the Cathedral, the lights were dim. Outside the city, no one knew how many forces were eyeing at them. Although the war was already over, the battle might erupt at any time. The atmosphere in the city was filled with anxiety.

At this time, they needed someone to come forward to ensure the people and stabilize the situation.