At that moment, everyone in the church was dumbfounded.
"Where are people... people?"
The Scaife Mountains ahead tower into the clouds, with bare stone walls and nothing on them. However, they watched helplessly as the ice ship rushed straight into the stone wall, and then disappeared completely without any trace.
They couldn't believe their eyes and froze in place, not knowing what to do for a moment. Are they going to keep chanting? But... everyone is gone, where to throw the ultimate move they chanted? But they didn't dare to stop. His Majesty the Pope had just lost his temper. If someone got into trouble again, no one could afford it.
Finally, Grant stopped himself.
He looked at the mountain wall in front of him, looking stunned and silent for a long time. Then, with a cold look in his eyes, he led the people to rush towards the mountain, and even tried to "rush" into the mountain like Benjamin's ice ship. But needless to say, they all hit a big hole in the rock wall but made no progress at all.
In anger, Grant controlled the statue and began to bombard the Scaife Mountains with punch after punch, even intending to punch through the entire mountain. But... In the end, about fifteen minutes later, the portrait seemed to turn into holy light because the time was up, slowly dissipating in the air, and a deep hole was dug out of the mountain wall, but the situation remained the same.
And the weirdest thing is that they tried to sense the princess's location, but the sense told them that the princess was "in the mountains", moving slowly towards the east, and it seemed that she was not very far away from them.
But... they just can't find anyone.
In this way, the church probably spent the whole night searching the Scaife Mountains. It wasn't until they sensed that the princess had left the country along the mountains that they had to give up. The priests dragged their exhausted bodies and flew back. Everyone had their heads lowered, frustrated and fearful. They didn't know who the Pope would direct his anger towards when they returned.
Meanwhile, in Scaife's "Mountains".
"So this is where your ghosts were caught."
Under the abyss, the ice ship hatch was sealed to achieve a complete sound insulation effect, isolating the ghost's illusions. Benjamin and others sat in the cabin and headed east. They looked at the scene in the abyss, and Morris couldn't help but speak with an expression of admiration.
Across the ice wall, they could see many ghosts flying around, like jellyfish floating in the deep sea. And it was the illusion created by these ghosts that transformed the entire "Scaife Mountains", so that they could successfully escape from the church's pursuit.
—They also didn’t expect that what Benjamin said about “there is a way to escape” turned out to be like this!
"Well, the other side of the abyss is the world of the dead. We caused some trouble there before, so it's best not to get close." Benjamin shrugged and said calmly, "But... no matter what, the church won't be able to see through this place for a while. Secret, we are safe."
Hearing this, everyone nodded, with joy in their eyes as they survived the disaster.
"What should we do next?" someone asked.
"Hurry back to Coster as soon as possible, meet up with the others, and continue with the next plan." Benjamin replied without hesitation, "Just... we may have to take a longer detour."
In this way, the ice ship flew along the abyss at high speed. After about a few hours, they left the Kingdom of Hori directly and entered the territory of Ikol. And in another country, even if the church can sense the princess's location, it will be difficult to threaten them again. Therefore, Benjamin and his party came out of the abyss, then crossed the entire Icol from north to south, and finally rushed along the coastline to Koster again.
The situation is not optimistic.
Although they had just joined forces with the church, as far as the entire Pearl Lake incident was concerned, the tunnel collapsed and the Black Nightmare Army suffered heavy losses. Benjamin was only trying to make up for it as much as possible. And after this, the church will definitely not give up. This war is far from over.
That night, an undercurrent began to surge in the Horli Kingdom. Obviously, the noise when the tunnel was blown up was so loud that it couldn't be concealed, and the news spread throughout the country in an instant. There was a commotion among the people, and there were different opinions. Even several other countries knew about it and kept sending spies to inquire about the news.
And after searching the Scaife Mountains all night to no avail, the church... obviously wasn't idle either.
"The Royal Army is heading towards Coster."
Benjamin was even on his way when he received such news.
He was not surprised by this, and just said to the sound transmission wood piece: "Statistics on our losses in the Pearl Lake Tunnel, gather strength, and prepare for defense. I will rush back as soon as possible."
As the first stronghold of the Black Nightmare Army, Coster's situation is currently relatively stable. The rune defense formation guarded that place, and in the past few days, the surviving soldiers and mages in the tunnel rushed back one after another to join the large army. Various civil figures who were anti-church rushed there, and some wealthy businessmen in the country also began to contact them, willing to provide funding to jointly bring down the church.
The situation is not too bad and they can still fight. The church was obviously aware of this, so it organized a wave of troops and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to kill the Black Nightmare Army as quickly as possible.
He had to rush back immediately.
In this way, driving the ice ship at high speed, Benjamin landed on the coast of the Kingdom of Hori on the morning of the third day after the tunnel collapsed and returned to Koster smoothly.
The Royal Army has not yet attacked, but it has only been three days since he left Coster, and the scene in the city has become much more depressed. Many citizens had already fled with their families and their families in a hurry. Benjamin was walking on the busiest main road. More than half of the shops were closed, and the rest were just hanging on. People on the street looked uneasy, and more people were hiding at home, hoarding food, waiting for everything to pass.
"Why are so many people running? Do they have so little confidence in the Black Nightmare Army?"
Benjamin walked into a blacksmith shop that was still open, looked at the deserted scene inside, and asked.
"Didn't you hear? All the Black Nightmare Army were killed! Even their leaders are missing!" The shop owner didn't seem to recognize him, and said with a bitter look on his face, "If I didn't want to leave this shop, I wouldn't He ran away. That's the Royal Army! Those who can run away in this city... have actually run away a long time ago."
Benjamin looked a little solemn when he heard this.
It seems... before the church comes to call, they have to stabilize people's hearts first.
He left this street and first walked towards the Black Nightmare Army's station here.
The station is located in the south of Coast and has a large area, but it looks a bit empty at the moment. The original camp was prepared for the entire Black Nightmare army, but after the collapse, many of the tents were no longer of use. Several large warehouses were also empty, and the ordnance and grain that should have been stored inside were now buried deep underground.
"Master Benjamin! Master Benjamin is here!"
"Sir, you are finally back!"
"Many people died, they... we..."
The first second Benjamin walked in, the camp suddenly became noisy. It was as if something that had been suppressed had accumulated to a point, and the soldiers had just finished their training and began to rush toward him regardless. Those eyes filled with complex emotions made Benjamin feel unspeakably heavy.
He knew that these people were waiting for him to speak.
And he had to say something.
So, surrounded by countless soldiers, Benjamin came to the playground and slowly walked onto the high platform.