1043 Intense Poison Part 1 (2/2)

Most Holy See forces encountered were in small bands, numbering to a 1,000 or 2,000, with several mages among their ranks. What Saleen brought with him however, were all elite troops armed with magic equipment, with more than 20 mages among their ranks. Moreover, half of the mages were sorcerers.

The most terrifying thing about his force however, was the War Drum of Fear. He was in a hurry to reach Guderian City, and as such, he beat on the drum at any chance he got when attacking. When he found his enemies to be a little too strong, he simply went about unleashing the pests within the drum.

Pests were beings of around grade-6. The Holy See soldiers they fought however, consisted mostly of peasants. While the elites among their ranks were indeed fearsome, they amounted to less than 200 in a band of soldiers numbering to about 1,000.

Saleen practically went on a killing spree as he made his way towards Guderian City. As most of the Holy See forces were gathered at Guderian City and the central parts of the north, Saleen was already several hundred miles away by the time they were done gathering their forces.

Jalin came to understand why Saleen behaved as he did when he sparred with her. The concept of mercy or holding back was nonexistent in Saleen's mind when he was in battle. Saleen would not hesitate to bring his enemies down, regardless of who he was fighting. Jalin was perceptive enough to tell that Saleen would still do the same if she were to fight Saleen again. Whether her mask would work again or not, was completely outside Saleen's consideration. Saleen would have simply cast two consecutive Death Impacts just to prevent her from running away.

It became understandable as to why the pope wanted to get rid of that particular king so badly. Said king was one who knew no restraint when dealing with enemies and was also one capable of growing at frightening speeds. If the pope was unable to kill Saleen off soon enough, Saleen would probably go about building an empire, an empire which was out to oppose the Holy See—a replica of Qin.

Saleen did not think himself to be the brutal kind. The slaughter that he went about performing in battle was far less stressful to deal with psychologically than what he pulled with Ironwall City. He went so far as to think that there was little to lament about if he actually ended up dead. Such was the battlefield.

The entire northern region of Qin was engulfed in the fires of war. Many villages were destroyed along the way. While the Lord of Glory loved his adherents, his adherents however, apparently had no love for their own brethren.

Most Qin villages had forts, and said forts managed to stay rather intact throughout the war. The Holy See used cruel, venomous means. They slaughtered any village they encountered before surrounding the forts and launching poisonous items into the forts.

Most who died by the hands of the Holy See were peasants, personal guards of nobles, and regular army units. None of which would have garrisoned such pea-sized forts. From Saleen's perspective, such battles were all watered-down versions of the Battle of Ironwall City. They were replicated countless times by the Holy See.

The Qin people did not have a habit of letting their flock graze out in the open. Most livestock kept within villages were poultry and pigs. Saleen did not encounter any surviving humans along the way and did not find surviving livestock anywhere. What he saw being strewn all over the place were bones, enough to have the winged skeleton build an army of spirits.

There was no such thing as a just war. In wars, one was only allowed to pick a side, there was no right or wrong.

From the Holy See's perspective, all who refused to convert to the faith of the Lord of Glory were mindless barbarians and were seen to be little more than animals. Adherents to the Holy See's faith were brought up spoon-fed with such idealisms from youth. The pope would have easily been able to gather millions to form armies for launching holy wars.

The Tanggulasi Empire had the largest population. With the God Grace Duchy considered, the total population amounted to about 200 million. Most of said 200 million were adherents. Each and every one of them was more than willing to go to battle to fight for their god. When they died such deaths, they would then be allowed passage into heaven, an easier route to take than dedicating themselves to prayers throughout their lives.

Saleen was in a hurry, and he deemed the speed at which they moved too slow. If he did not have the personal guard army in tow, he would have made it to Guderian City a long time ago. The 1,000 strong army nonetheless proved useful to Saleen. He came to witness instances where mages worked in tandem with regular soldiers.

Even without him around, the army would still have been able to carve their way through any army numbering less than 10,000.

It was fortunate that the army consisted of true cavalry units, where every soldier rode a formidable warhorse. In other places, such horses would have been reserved for use by military officers. The warhorses, which were equivalent to grade-3 demonic beasts, possessed running endurance and load capacity well above that of regular horses. Saleen saw that none of the soldiers had spare horses to switch to.

Saleen lacked horses, and as such, his armies consisted mostly of infantries. Such amounts of warhorses made Saleen very envious.

The Golden Plains grew special feed meant for such warhorses instead of human food. Food supplies of the Grukos were naturally the responsibility of Holy Rock City.

Saleen arrived on that day at a place about 200 miles away from Guderian City. The Holy See's 500 thousand strong army set up camp spreading out tens of miles south of the city itself.

The camp was built sparsely, to limit casualties dealt by massive scale magic attacks by mages. Since Alchemy City's intervention, the Holy See had suffered multiple heavy setbacks. Three to five sorcerers, after all, were more than enough to wipe out regular troops in tens of thousands.

”Jalin, Theisio has yet to show up. What do you think we should do?” Saleen held his horse back as he gazed at the far away camp. Jalin did not possess skills like Elemental Eye, and as such, had no idea what Saleen was looking at. Saleen was observing, trying to figure out if it was a plausible move to bring his drum into the fight in the Holy See army's camp.

Jalin halted her steps on the hill and thought for a moment before asking, ”Saleen, what do you think then?”

Arbola rescinded Jalin's authority and left Saleen in charge of everything, so long as he remained bait instead of flying straight for Guderian City alone. Saleen went killing many of the Holy See's men, and yet Theisio did not turn up. Any further from where they were, they would have run straight into the Holy See's main camp. It was impossible for their 1,000 strong army to tear the camp apart and head straight for the city.

”What should we do?” Jalin had no idea.