1264 Goodbye, Gaine Part 1 (1/2)
”Sharjah, why are you so afraid of me?” Fycro asked amicably.
Sharjah made his voice sound as calm as possible as he asked, ”Lord Fycro, why are you here?”
Fycro was not angry that Sharjah hadn't answered his question. He smiled and said, ”I'm here to save you.”
”Save me?”
”Indeed. Those two as**oles from the divine kingdom had probably betrayed god. What they want is the entire plane. Getting a kid to be pope and kicking you out, do you really think this is all over?”
Sharjah then said in a very angry tone, ”What more do they want!?”
”Well, your Ring of Many Gods for one. Even I would want that, let alone those two oracles.” Fycro's smile turned rather peculiar and Sharjah tensed up.
If Fycro wanted to go against him, he wouldn't be a match for him, even when armed with the Ring of Many Gods.
It was due to Fycro's powers alone that the Oracle Corps had been able to shake off the Pivotal Council's control. No one other than Fycro would have been able to arrange the seats of the seven oracles.
”Why are you shaking again?” Fycro asked. Then he said to Sharjah with a chastising tone, ”And I thought it would be a good idea asking you to be a part of the Oracle Corps.”
Sharjah did not know how to answer that. He still wasn't ready to believe the news about Theisio's demise came. He hadn't dared to take up his power back then. By the time the oracles had returned and declared Theisio's death, it had already been too late for Sharjah to do anything.
By the time he grasped what was going on, the two oracles had already kicked him out.
Sharjah had no idea if it was a fortune or a curse that Fycro wanted to recruit him. Fycro's intentions were clear. If he joined the Oracle Corps, he would not have to hand over the Ring of Many Gods. Then again, that meant that he would have to become enemies with those level-12 oracles.
”Sharjah, you lost your chance when Theisio died. Do you really want to hand the godly item to those two? Do you want to be a bootlicking holy master all your whole life?”
”Absolutely not!” Sharjah mustered his courage all of a sudden. He definitely did not want to live such a life, not even for a single day.
”Come with me then. Forget about going to Glorious City, by the way,” Fycro said, waving his hand. Sharjah carriage suddenly shot into the sky.
The internal changes of the Holy See affected the war on the mainland. Over half of northern Qin had fallen. After the devastating blows dealt by the Nature Faith's knights corps, over half of the invading armies of the Holy See had retreated to Kroraina.
The Laiyin Duchy had been invaded by the Nature Faith's knights, most of which were demons. The Laiyin army would be lost if they attacked the demons.
Things would turn relentlessly messy once if tangled with the religious armies.
In general, religious armies had no intention of taking the cities of other nations. However, if the invaded nations attacked them, it would result in a war that would wipe the entire nation out.
As such, when the Holy See went about requesting permission for additional troops or to pass through a place, Laiyin Duchy did nothing to stop them. They even sent mercenaries to help with the war effort. As a result, there were many mercenaries from Laiyin Duchy in the Holy See's expeditionary forces.
When the Holy See had been defeated and the Nature Faith had been engaged, the Laiyin Duchy had become confused. Mercenaries would remain loyal so long as they were paid. As soon as payment from the Holy See was cut off, some mercenaries had switched sides to fight at the frontlines for the Nature Faith instead.
It was easy to take on the scattered, losing armies. Mercenaries were most adept at fighting such battles.
There were nobles in northern Qin who chose to hold out, but they were in trouble due to the presence of Alchemy City. When Alchemy City had agreed to help the nobles defend their cities, they had not done so unconditionally.
With the emergence of the Nature Faith, the mages of Alchemy City requested for the nobles to refuse entry to the temple knights.
Conflict inevitably broke out. Holy Rock City did not release any statements saying that the Nature Faith was illegal. The nobles did not want war with yet another Holy See, but the mages of Alchemy City were forcing the local nobles' hands. The nobles were unable to resist due to having signed contracts.
Casualties were low when they were pursuing the Holy See's forces, but the battles with mages of Alchemy City caused the Nature Faith to lose many of their holy masters.
While a new religion is first being established, even low-level holy masters are incredibly precious.
Due to the delicacy of the situation, Saleen did not head straight to Pompeii City. Instead, he took the Floating City to northern Qin to join the fight.
The battle was spectacular. The Floating City dropped magic fire shells from above and thousands of enchanters cast magic attacks at the forces below. Countless puppets dropped rocks from tremendous heights. The rocks, dropped from a height of about 10,000 meters, ended up being more lethal than anything thrown by the catapults.
None of the northern nobles were able to resist such attacks.
The mages of Alchemy City were unable to fend off Saleen's attacks either. Equipment like the Floating City had been considered extremely powerful even in ancient times.
Even though its size was several hundred times smaller than what it had once been, and its attacks were also considerably reduced, to conventional armies, the Floating City was nothing less than a flying nightmare.
The mages dispatched by Alchemy City were all sorcerers. There were thousands of demonic spirits in the Floating City that, with the help of the magic net, were all effectively sorcerers as well. Only exceptionally powerful beings would have been able to resist such forces.