They finally returned to Bubas, the city they had abandoned.
Pope The Olde ordered the Holy Army of the Sea to go north for support. The invaders who had ravaged the southeast of Legrand drew most of their troops, leaving fewer men to garrison the captured city.
On an evening with the same setting sun as blood, the Rose Rider arrived at Bubas together with the Keya Archer.
The Holy Army did not expect Legrand's counterattack to come so quickly and so fiercely. The Holy Army who was left to garrison here barely resisted the attack for less than half a day, and a city gate in the southwest corner was opened from the inside by the long-awaited citizens. The rose iron cavalry galloped in through the open city gate.
A silent massacre began. Every section of the city wall, every tower, every occupied house... A corpse with fear left in a pool of blood.
The soldiers of the Holy Army who had lost all their courage failed to escape and were trapped in the alley, kneeling on the ground and praying for their lives, willing to be prisoners and slaves. The citizens who were chasing him like hungry dogs raised stones, swarmed up, and smashed him to death. No forgiveness, no mercy, how much pain they have endured, and now that pain should be repaid.
The whole city was shrouded in blood.
It has always been shrouded in blood, and from the moment the Rose Cavalry was forced to evacuate, too many people died in the Abandoned Land. Death and destruction shattered the city and reshaped it with hatred. Everyone who survived had something like ice and fire hidden in their eyes.
"We shouldn't be here."
The person in charge of staying here is an aristocrat from the Alliance of Abyss Nations. He stood in the city hall of Bubas, watching the iron knights pouring in and hissing.
"Yes, none of you should be here."
Thrall, once the squire of General Sheen and now General of the Rose Cavalry, said that he pierced the nobleman's throat with a sword.
The autumn wind howled in the city, through blood-splattered stone walls and arches, and over corpses with fear and regret. Fresh blood washes the city that has regained its dignity. Until night fell, the sound of the soldiers finally stopped, the skinny old man, the haggard woman, and the men with fresh blood in their hands all gathered on the public square of Bubas.
In the past few months, in order to suppress the resistance in the city, the Holy Army hanged all those who offended it, and the bodies were all hung in this square.
People held up torches, and the fire was blazing brightly.
The corpses were removed one by one. Some of them were husbands who died to protect their wives from adultery, some were young girls who rose up to resist, and some were old people who wanted to protect their children. The family of the deceased knelt beside the deceased and burst into tears. Some of the deceased had no family, and their families hung with him on the wooden frame. They were put together and all wept for them.
In the end, all the corpses were neatly placed in the square, and the survivors surrounded all the unfortunate people who died, raising the torches in their hands high, as if they were candles illuminating the next life.
A Khoya archer plucked the strings and sang a sad funeral song.
It was the oldest, and belonged to Legrand himself. It was the funeral song that people sang for the knights who originally founded Legrand when they died.
This is a funeral.
There is no priest.
They don't need priests, they don't need gods.
The mourners followed the bard and sang the funeral song in a low voice. The voices came together, and the city, sharpened by hatred and anger, showed its scars in the dark night. The funeral song was carried by the evening wind and blew to the city gate.
Thrall stood outside the city gate, holding a torch as he listened to the faint funeral songs coming from the city.
The torch has limited light, and the head hanging over the city gate can only see a vague outline. After the Holy Army captured Bubas City, it did not take it down, and it seemed that it was more conducive to attacking Legrand by hanging it here.
Thrall wanted to move forward.
Someone pressed his shoulder.
"I knew you were coming here."
The leader of Keya's archers raised his head and looked at the head hanging on the city gate.
Thrall wanted to say something, but Chief Koya interrupted him.
"Don't do anything that will make his sacrifice in vain." Chief Koya's voice was low, and he handed Thrall something he was holding. "They said it was his."
Thrall caught it subconsciously, and the firelight made clear what the leader of Koya had handed him—a sword.
He was all too familiar with the sword.
At first it touched the shoulder of the blond knight, and since then it has accompanied the knight on the battlefield. Until finally someone used it to cut off the knight's head.
Thrall almost wanted to throw it away, and almost wanted to hold it tight.
He stood where he was, and the wind passed through the cold and sad night, and the leader of Keya walked away alone in the night.
The sun rose the next day and shone over the city walking through the night. Qiangwei's iron cavalry set out from the city gate to recover the second city. The first rays of morning light fell on the pale skeleton at the city gate. The nails penetrated the skull's forehead, and the skull's eye sockets were dark, watching the knights who were far away.
Thrall, we're going to...
The knight who protects the world.
… … … …
"The strength of the Sea Holy Army in the southeast is tightening, and they are starting to retreat." The house chief reported to the king the news from the crows, "The Rose Cavalry and the Keya Archer have regained lost ground faster than we originally expected. Faster. The Holy Army remaining in the southeast seems intent on sticking only to Kothsoa."
While reading the reports sent by the officers below on various affairs of the army, the king asked a few questions from time to time while listening to the report of the chief of the interior.
"It's good news."
The House Chief hoped that the report of victory from the southeast would give the king a little relief.
The king briefly wrote down a few requirements on a report on the deployment of the city defense, and then raised his head: "It's good news."
But you don't necessarily look any easier.
The Home Office thought.
The king glanced at him and seemed to know what he was thinking: "We won because the pain of this country was borne by too many people... This is not an easy victory worthy of."
The sun came in from the window and fell on the king's crown, which cast a shadow on his hair. The outline of his profile was blurred in the light, dust fluttered in the beam, and the king sat like a bronze statue washed away by time. The weight of the entire empire rests on his shoulders, from past to present to future.
Fate was too cruel to the child he watched grow up.
The heavy responsibility and mission started from the first second of his birth and accompanied him until his death, and it can never be easy. The monarch walks on a road full of thorns, and the knights around him sacrifice one by one, and he alone can never be free.
Because he was born to be king.
"Let's cheer up our soldiers, they'll be besieging the city soon."
said the king.
He had General John cut off the grain line from Porto Port to Collin County. The reserves of food in Collin County and the looting of nearby towns and villages cannot keep the Knights of the Temple up for too long. Will turn around and lay siege to Yollin County.
Although the situation was vaguely beginning to move in Legrand's favor, it also put new problems before the king.
After Siold brought together the forces scattered in the southeast, although Legrand was able to recover the lost ground, the location of Legrand's real military main force would usher in an unprecedented siege. Once Jolin County is breached and the Wang army disintegrates, the situation will be reversed again.
For the Wang army, the war turned to the defensive stage.
And this time, what they will meet is the siege of the Holy Army's nearly 100,000 troops.
While the king's military designers, led by James, tried their best to arm the military castle of Jorin to the teeth, a white eagle flew from a warship on the sea of the abyss towards the seat of the Knights of the Temple.
On the abyss strait where the chill was gradually rising, a fleet arrived at the Swan Harbor, the city of Hereid, which was in ruins due to God's punishment. This is the mouth of Legrand's most important river, the Doma River.
The three holy armies, the holy army of the sea, the holy army of the holy land, and the holy army of the frontier.
The first two holy armies had already joined the battlefield before and after, but the frontier holy army had not arrived because of the distance. However, it seems that the Holy Lord is truly blessed, and the Frontier Holy Army finally arrived at Legrand before the currents of the Abyss Strait and the turning of the wind in winter.
The warship did not make more stops at the Swan Harbor, and entered directly from the mouth of the sea, moving forward along the tributaries of the Doma River. Different from the battleships of the Holy Army of the Sea and the Holy Army of the Holy Land, the battleships of the Holy Frontier Army are not so tall and the ship is more convenient. The ship was full of soldiers and some supplies.
The Alchemist Knights had been destroyed with the Throne, and Legrand no longer blocked the force that blocked this water passage at the entrance of the Doma.
That's what The Olde was waiting for.
The tide is surging, and the Holy Frontier Army joins the battlefield.
…
Outside Jolyn.
Illinois pulled his horse and looked up at the castle, which was armed and had entered a state of defense in advance. She watched the royal flag with the rose crest fluttering fiercely on the city wall.
The city gates opened, and the king rode out of the city quickly.
"Aren't you staying?"
The king looked at Illinois and asked in a low voice.
Her child is not good at pleading, just like his father.
Illinois thought, and smiled.
"I'm the Queen of Keya. I haven't been back for so many years, so I should go see them." She said gently, looking at the king's growing face, still a little green, but the majesty of the king was very good. It covers up.
She moved her hands, subconsciously trying to reach out and touch his face, and then held back.
"Don't worry, I still want to see what you look like when you become the king of the world."
Eleanor smiled, raised her iron gloved right hand, and patted the king on the shoulder.
"You will?"
"There will be that day."
The king promised.
The queen laughed and turned the horse's head with Bachelor Keya, heading southeast.
She was wearing armor, wrapping herself tightly, and she didn't even dare to approach the king, for fear that he would notice the smell of blood being suppressed by the perfume.
The king stood silently outside the city gate, watching his mother go away.