April in the Holy Empire was pouring rain.
Holy Emperor, Holy See Pope, Siold, who has this dual identity, stood in front of the stained glass window engraved with the statue of the Virgin of the Savior, watching the rain falling down the glass, and the Virgin was mournful and pitiful.
This is what Cardinal Sisien saw when he hurried in with the secret letter from the Knights. He subconsciously slowed down the pace, and the anxiety in his heart gradually calmed down. He had known Pope Theold for a long time, and in his mind, the Pope was the most determined and invincible person he had ever seen.
It turned out that his impression was correct.
The man who said to him in the seminary, I will restore the splendor of St. Peter, has now established a mighty kingdom of God, and has driven the carriage forward with a firm will.
After the Kingdom of God was established, different voices within it have always existed.
Xisian knew that in private, there were not many old nobles who were optimistic about the Holy Court. In their opinion, the Holy Court was powerful, but it was undoubtedly a fantasy to want to transition from a religion to a country. They chose to be silent, but they wanted to wait for the Holy Court to be unable to handle a series of affairs, and instead rely on them. Just like the previous King Blaise, they couldn't do without the help of the nobles.
However, Pope Theold showed his political skills not inferior to his theological attainments, and he manipulated the greedy and timid nobles like the best puppet masters manipulate a group of dolls.
At times, Scythian felt that The Olde was in fact a born monarch.
"The Lord teaches us to be peaceful, my dear friend." The Pope heard his footsteps and turned around slowly. "No matter what happens, we should maintain inner peace."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Scythian replied sternly, and he handed the battle report to the Pope, "The news from the First Legion, the port of the Lowland Alliance was attacked, and the throne was destroyed."
"It's really unfortunate news," the Pope sighed. "Our allies are not as reliable as we thought, and our enemies are stronger than we thought. How did they do it?"
"From the news that came back, the attack all happened at night, and Legrand's navy launched the attack through the thick fog. They seemed to know the layout of the port very well. Our defenders' counterattacks were all in vain, and they directly attacked the port military. Where defenses are most vulnerable."
"The astrologer."
The Pope shook his head slightly.
"They made the wrong choice."
"The Second Alliance of Astrologers." Xisian also thought of it, his face was a little ugly, "Besides, the Dragon Wing battleship appeared."
"The throne of God cannot be destroyed by the dragon-wing battleship alone."
"Yes." Sheaan was a little ashamed. "The Gorgon appeared in Eaglebeak, and she was the lodger of the Serpent of the World. We hunted her down for so many years, and we never thought that she was hiding in Walway. Among the pirates. Your Majesty, this is my dereliction of duty. If I had not made a mistake eleven years ago, I had succeeded in arresting her..."
Eleven years ago, Sisien was the one who was in charge of leading the Twelve Sanctuaries of the Holy Court to hunt down Greira.
The Pope patted his shoulder gently: "You already took the punishment for your mistakes eleven years ago, you don't need to blame yourself any more. If you want to say that, I am more responsible for this matter than you. I I didn't expect Legrand's depravity to be so complete, they have already recovered the Dragon Wing battleship, and it was my fault that the throne of God was destroyed."
"His Majesty."
Xisian was startled, and quickly wanted to explain that he didn't mean to accuse the Pope.
The Pope waved his hand and signaled him not to worry too much about it: "What about other things?"
"The city-states in the hopeless inland sea have succumbed, and the city-states that still retain the old statues of gods have been attacked by the alliances of other city-states." Sean reported.
The Burning of the Old Gods has gone a little better than budgeted.
When most city-states succumbed to the prestige of the Holy Empire, they would in turn become the help of the Holy See. This is not difficult to understand. There is a conflict of interests between the city-state and the city-state. Being able to divide the "city of heresy" through the prestige of the Holy Court is a cake that cannot be let go by other city-states.
"Furthermore, according to your instructions, we focused on monitoring Lower El, but we did not find the figure of the barbarian knights. It seems that the Grundy heavy cavalry had no intention of participating in this war. Your Majesty, why should we pay so much attention to an unfavorable mercenary army? ?" Xisian was a little puzzled.
"They will be one of our enemies."
The Pope answered.
"How are Legrand's preparations going?"
"Mr. Count of Plitani is ready, and the Balinians have boarded the ship. The judge's ship has also docked." Sison replied, he paused, and asked hesitantly, "Your Majesty, you Do you think those two families are really reliable? Although the rebellion provided us with time to fully prepare, wouldn't it provide Legrand with time to breathe?"
"My dear friend, you have confused something," explained the Pope gently, leading Scythian to the map hanging on the wall of the room. "It is not that we give the enemy time to breathe. In fact, if we can , I hope more than anyone else to fight immediately and strangle that stubborn heresy family in the bud. However, we don't have the time."
The Pope clicked on the map: "This is the battlefield where we helped Charlie and attacked Ferry III. This is the 'Battle of God's Responsibility' that we launched, and here is our purge campaign against heresy... Before and after the establishment of the Kingdom of God, we have a total of Three big battles were waged, each of which we won."
"The Lord bless his warriors."
Siseon drew a cross on his chest.
"No, it's not that the Holy Lord blesses his warriors. It's the thousand-year savings of the Holy See that protects our warriors." The Pope smiled and shook his head, "Now, every war we wage is rapidly consuming the thousand-year accumulation of the Holy See. The wealth and prestige that have come down. You are not in charge of this aspect, and you are not aware of the extenuating circumstances. In your opinion, what does our empire look like?"
Siseon replied without hesitation: "The Holy Lord's kingdom of God is as solid as a rock, indestructible."
The Pope laughed: "No, in my opinion, our empire is just a castle in the air, just like the light and shadow in the water, gorgeous but not yet rooted."
Siseon was taken aback: "Your Majesty! The Holy Master is above."
"You and I have known each other for so many years. No one else knows what the kingdom of God is. Don't you know?" The Pope shook his head imperceptibly, "We are different from any nation in the world, our people are all over the world, but the world None of us have real people. We often say that a person is a believer first and then a citizen, but the reverse is true."
The Pope's voice was steady and powerful, and he slowly paced the room.
"Having no real people means we can't slowly recover from the heavy losses like other nations. We built a strong empire through these three wars, the enemy bowed to us because of our strength, and all our glory All of them are closely related to our strength, and once we are no longer strong, all the lambs crawling in front of us will turn into wolves in an instant, devouring our flesh and blood more fiercely than anyone else.”
"Legrand is different from other lambs who will bow before him. They are hungry wolves with scars and eyes. In the face of such an enemy, even a lion must do his best. Between us and Legrand, it can only happen A full-scale, massive campaign."
"Either don't move, or wipe this country from the Western Continent."
The Pope said coldly.
"This is a fight to the death!"
It was pouring rain outside the window, and lightning ripped apart the world.
Siseon was in a cold sweat, and he finally saw a truly terrifying crisis under the strength of the days.
This is the true face of this world. In the feast of power struggle, the identities of lambs and jackals may be reversed at any time. If you don't win to the end, it will turn into someone else's meal.
"Follow your wisdom."
He drew a cross on his chest and bowed his head convincingly.
"Release the news and tell everyone that Ferry III is dead. There is no Blacy Kingdom in this world." The Pope issued his own orders one by one, "Send the message to all the city-states in the hopeless inland sea, and the city-states that still retain the beliefs of the old gods. , other city-states should launch military conquests; let astrologers make more accurate predictions of the drought that will appear in the northwestern part of the empire in late April; strengthen the propaganda of 'doomsday'... Finally, issue the 'Holy Legion' collection order."
A series of orders were murderous.
"Yes."
Siseon noted them one by one.
After Siseon withdrew, the Pope stood alone in front of the map, looking at Legrand on the map.
Some ports along the central coast of Legrand have been marked by him.
He stretched out his hand and drew a line between Swan Harbor, where Legrand changed its controller, and the small countries along the abyss, and smiled slightly.
"In this world, the most terrifying thing is the greed of people's hearts, not the tyrannical armed forces."
The Pope exclaimed.
… … … …
People who are motivated by interests can do anything.
Therefore, the king was not surprised when he heard that the Plitani family had begun to clear the "crows" from the territory. What he was more concerned about was what the Count of Plitani used to get rid of the House Chief's spies.
"The intelligence network of the Holy Court, White Eagle."
Another report was handed over to the king by the home chief.
"We have an opponent that cannot be underestimated." The king sighed, "This is a tit-for-tat."
They had just destroyed the throne of the Holy Court, and when they turned around, the Holy Court lifted up the net they had set up in Legrand—the knights that the Count of Plitany had publicly summoned in his territory, and his actions were swift.
Unlike the previous rebellion in the North, this is a treason that has been dubbed the "Holy War"
Among the reasons why the Count of Plitany organized the military operation, a very important point was to accuse the king of easily heresy, indulging witches and degenerates to set foot on Legrand, and even publicly blessing heretics. As a believer of the Lord and a subject of the king, it is necessary for him to use force to force the king to correct his mistakes.
The one who supported him was the director of the Holy See Inquisition Bureau, who had come from afar across the Abyss Strait.
The head of the trial bureau brought an "excommunication order" issued by the Pope to the king, as well as dozens of warrants for witches.
With the arrival of the chief of the trial bureau, another net was opened in Legrand.
An intelligence network against the king's "crows".
After the rebellion in the northern land subsided, the king has already cleaned the territory of Legrand and removed some of the nails placed by the Holy Court. But the time is short, and the noble territories are staggered, and the Holy Court's intelligence network cannot be completely destroyed in such a short period of time. With the arrival of the chief of the trial, this intelligence network was fully activated.
The "Hawkeye" who belonged to the Holy Court patrolled the territory of the Plitani family and the Maison family, and a war hidden in the smoke was launched between the "crows" belonging to the king.
These days, in the domain of the two families, people often see knights in full armor, led by men in gray cloaks, kicking open the doors of the tavern, from behind the bar, from the table to the seemingly ordinary People dragged out.
From time to time, a priest in the church was walking in the alley, and suddenly someone stabbed his throat with a knife.
When night falls, people do not dare to leave their homes, but they can still hear the sound of the galloping horses colliding with swords, and there are also a few faint sounds of hand cannons.
This is the battle of the white eagle and the crows.
"I have to say that with the help of the Holy Court, our Mr. Count has more brains than before."
King evaluation.
After the denunciation was issued, the Count of Plitani did not immediately gather the army to attack the royal city, but preemptively cut off the communication fortress between the king city and the eastern coast, and the eastern coast. The "forced crusade" in the mouth was shouted loudly, but what he did was to try his best to cut out the coastal coastline in the middle of Legrand.
It's not quite the IQ that a Count of Plitany should have.
The Count of Plitany joined Grand Duke Glace in "The Change of the Rose" and was a member of the New King's Party.
It is a pity that in that civil war, the earl was quickly defeated by the old men of the Duke of Buckingham, and the man disguised as a woman was able to escape the pursuit of the royalist soldiers.
Mr. Plitany's "moving deeds" once became a joke in Legrand's high society. For this reason, after the "change of the rose", the Count of Plitany almost retired from the high society, and has been shrinking in his own territory. among. It seems now that he had followed the rebellion of Grand Duke Grace, probably not because of Grand Duke Grace, but he had already fallen to the Holy Court.
After the chief of the trial bureau arrived, the Count, who used to be able to escape by disguising himself as a woman, immediately came out of his castle. He was wearing armor and holding a giant axe. He wanted to shout his bravery to the world.
However, such a move does not seem to be of any help for him to wash away his deeds.
One after another, some nobles joined the vanguard of this holy war.
"The Fili family, the Colville family..."
The king looked at the directory reported by the chief of internal affairs, and whispered the name of each one who stood in the Holy Court camp.
The Chief of the Household bowed his head and stood aside, not making a sound to disturb the king's thinking.
The king quickly went through all the lists and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes slightly in thought.
The list is similar to what he expected. The central nobles participating in this rebellion are basically small nobles, with small territories, and the hope of promotion to the title is very slim. Although the rest of the big families did not join the rebellion, they did not intend to send troops to crusade to quell the rebellion.
They stood still.
…
In Putton County, not far from Collin County, Earl Grey, like all the great nobles in the middle, rectified his weapons, but turned a blind eye to the chaos in the neighboring Plitany and Maison family territories.
"Father, are we going to wait like this?"
Earl Grey's son Shinri hurried in.
He is a young man, tall and valiant, and he has been canonized as a knight soon.
Earl Grey wiped his matching sword: "Don't they still carry it in the castle?"
The "Mount" in Earl Grey's mouth refers to the Mount family in western Putonshire. They and the Gray family can be regarded as feuding. .
"Just because they didn't move, we have to endure it?" Xinri asked.
"Father means we should wait and see."
The older brother Dale patiently explained to his grumpy younger brother.
Dale is much older than Xinri and has begun to follow his father to deal with the affairs of the territory.
It is not only the king who is concerned about the coup on the other side of the Abyss Strait. This storm that began with the rebellion in the north has already made everyone worried. As nobles, the great nobles of Legrand can clearly see the current situation of the nobles of Blaise on the other side of the strait.
They either lost their lives in the "Battle of God's Responsibility", or after the establishment of the Holy Empire, they lost their superior position, from the original status similar to the church nobility, but fell under the priesthood. This change in identity is not only a setback of dignity, but more importantly, a change in local control.
The great nobles of Legrand did not want a group of monks and priests who came across the Abyss Strait to take away the territory that had been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years. Divide a large part of it.
They don't want to be a second ex-Blasey noble.
Only the minor nobles would pour into the arms of the Holy Court so enthusiastically, because once the Holy Court wins, they will have the opportunity to turn from minor nobles to big nobles.
"But then why don't we crusade them?"
Shinri said indignantly.
"They are a bunch of traitors and despicable people."
"Can you be sure that we, or the Holy Court, won in the end? Can you resist the Holy Legion, or can you resist the arrival of angels?" Dale asked.
Just as Shinri was about to say the oath he had made when he was knighted without hesitation, Dale pressed his shoulder and shook his head.
Because during their argument, the father had wiped the longsword.
Earl Grey stood up and looked sharply at his young sons: "Of course, we are for inheritance, but it is not only for inheritance. We are nobles and Legrands. If necessary, for the sake of inheritance. Fighting for Legrand is indeed our mission. But I want you to remember—"
"War is not child's play."
Earl Grey was rarely strict, and the two brothers did not dare to speak any more for a while.
At this time, a messenger hurried into the castle hall.
He brought the latest intelligence on the rebel territory.
The fire was burning.
…
Hered is a city on the east coast of Legrand, famous for a "Swan Harbor" that belonged to the king. Although the Swan Port is not as big and prosperous as the Port of Cossauer in the east of Legrand, its strategic significance is higher than that of the Port of Cossauer.
Swan Port is located in the middle of the Legrand coastline and is the mouth of a branch of the Doma River.
After the Battle of Bouven, one of the conditions that the Blasey Expeditionary Force negotiated to return the "Moon River Fortress" was to deliver Swan Harbor and Blasey.
Three days ago, the mayor of Hrid City received a letter from Plitani asking them for food and grass.
This unreasonable request was resolutely resisted by the citizens of Hereid. The mayor therefore directly and directly rejected the request of the Count of Plitany, and it is said that the courier sent to reply also relayed the ridicule of the city of Hered to the "big men who survived by women's clothing".
Perhaps it was for his own face, or perhaps it was instructed by the head of the trial bureau. After receiving the letter, the count angrily raised the battle flag across the wasteland and approached Herid City.
As one of the royal family's cities, Hrid City did not sit idle after rejecting the request.
Soldiers raised the drawbridge, closed the city gates, and the citizens armed themselves, mocking the "Count of Ladies" - the new title of the Count of Plitany - and began to prepare to defend their city.
"May the Lord bless him not to wear a long skirt to the battlefield."
"In that way, he might really be able to kill the Quartet on the battlefield - after all, the opponent is patronizing and smiling."
The guarding soldiers talked, waiting for the enemy to arrive.
All eyes are on the battle.
Objectively speaking, even if we leave aside the particularly bad battlefield commander, Count Plitani, the strength of the Plitani family and the Maison family is not very good, and they are not the strongest family in the middle. Even if the head of the trial bureau supports him, not many people are optimistic about his action.
What will he rely on to attack Hrid City
The answer is dragon.
The Count of Plitani, clad in armor, rode on a tall warhorse, and looked majestically at the city walls of Herid, which was submerged in flames.
The sturdy city wall shattered, red flames swept up dozens of meters, and smoke billowed boulders.
The soldier's broken limbs were thrown high in the blast-like air waves, and a monstrous black figure rushed out of the broken city wall, flapped its wings and flew into the sky, roaring and spit out again at the solid tower. Fire enough to melt everything.
This is no longer a war.
This is carnage.
Even if all the nobles in the vicinity came to support them, it would be of no use. The citizens who were defending the city saw the creatures belonging to the legend.
That's a black dragon!
The roar of the dragon was furious and spread far and wide, causing the entire castle to tremble in the roar saturated with the desire to kill. A strong wind swept between the heavens and the earth, and the dragon spread its wings and hovered over the human castle. There were one or two brave soldiers holding bows and arrows, and they used all their strength to shoot iron arrows at it.
But those arrows shot with all the courage of a soldier were smashed by the wind before they reached the dragon.
The complacent Count of Plitani felt inexplicably fearful in the dragon's roar.
The head of the trial bureau looked at the black dragon who slaughtered Hrid City. He was the "attendant" that Patriarch Mason met in the heavy rain that day. He personally went to the harbor of Mason family to meet the huge ship that came from the Kuroshio. The passengers on board were only a dragon trainer in white robes. with this dragon.
"It's really violent." The judge sighed, "It's like venting hatred."
"It's not just venting hatred." The dragon trainer standing beside him chuckled, "This is the anger that has lasted for two eras."
The city of Hrid was submerged in thick smoke and red fire.
After a thousand years—
Dragon's hometown!