Chapter 392: Curtains Fall (1/2)

While most Players acknowledged that Edward was their commander during events, that title was not officially given (by the God of Games). Even the Knights of the Roundtable-leaders with the highest authority in the Church of Games were not acknowledged by all Players since their group was only formed recently.

As such, several Players would decide to fight alone or not take part in the event quests.

Terry and Jom were an example of that.

They never were near the Crookes refugee camp in the first place, but had run off to investigate the trail of the undead high elf and coming to know Kristina, an agent of the Temple of Glory in the process. Then, when the hill-folk began their assault, Kristina was swindled by Terry and Jom into believing that those tribes were intent on burning and pillaging the Valla Empiresince banditry was something the hill-folk did in the first place.

After confirming that droves of hill-folk were indeed approaching Valla, therefore startling whereas beasts and magical creatures in the mountains into a great migration, Kristina promptly returned to the Temple of Glory to report her findings.

While the Temple of Glory was not the official religion of the Valla Empire, they had established themselves with strong footholds there for years, and was only next to the Brilliant White Church in terms of influence.

Moreover, since they were no match for the Brilliant White Church when it comes to political intrigue and powerplays, the Temple of Glory were mostly based at frontier cities

—which would be the first cities caught by the hill-folk’s assault.

As such, new grudges combined with old grudges once the Temple of Glory saw that their bases in the Valla Empire would be caught in the hill-folks’ rush, in addition to their past dissatisfaction for being the only church whom the hill-folk didn’t share their booty with. As such, the ever-bad-tempered Temple of Glory promptly dispatched their wyvern knights and one sizeable detachment of their sacred corps led by Kristina.

After Angora posted the information that he got out of the Hill Shaman Kaven Mor and the God of Games kept it pinned on top of the forums, Terry and Jom immediately guided Kristina to ambush one of the remaining tribes of hill-folk with inch-close precision!

Even though the Temple of Glory’s forces was still outnumbered by the hill-folk, they had a lot more people compared to the Players. Moreover, the wyvern knights and the sacred corps were a standard military force with each individual believing in the God of War, which meant one could easily imagine their strength.

In addition, unlike the Players, the sacred corps had no orders to capture the hill-folk, and would directly kill them on sight.

The hill-folk were simply no match for the Temple of Glory’s sacred corps despite having the Lord of the Peaks’ blessing, crumbling easily under their assault even though they had their leader with them. As there was not much difference in the power of their sacred arts, the leader’s head was hacked off by the captain of the wyvern knights squadron in two moves and placed on his lance as a show of force.

The other hill-folk was left dumbstruck: our leader is gone, what about us?

Hence, without any way of retaliating, they were routed entirely and reduced to no more than ordinary thugs, their numbers culled without end by the Temple of Glory’s military.

“Woah. The armies of the major religions are quite scary…”