Badge in Azure

Chapter 1447: The War that Destroyed a Country (Part 1)

Grand Duke Iron Blood did not want the Tanggulasi Empire. At least, it was not what he wanted at the moment. His army was arranged on the border of the Titan Duchy, posing as Cloudflow people in order to take the opportunity to plunder it. After the Nature Faith’s Knight Corps broke through from the front, his troops would be able to enter the Tanggulasi Empire from the south.

It was a safe method. Grand Duke Iron Blood did not need to fork out too much. Although he could not gain much for the time being and was only assisting Saleen in battle, in the long run, he wanted to overthrow the Cloudflow Imperial City. The position was far too important.

During that time, Lex handed over her credentials to Floating City and reprimanded Grand Duke Iron Blood for seizing Qin territories without a care for the alliance treaty from 1,000 years ago.

Grand Duke Iron Blood quickly repented and replied with a letter of apology. He staked his personal reputation and agreed to withdraw from the Qin territorial land. Both sides were putting on a performance. The Golden Plains were definitely aware of that. However, no one was able to say that Lex had not recaptured the territorial lands.

Grand Duke Iron Blood’s troops that numbered less than 100,000 withdrew from the coast. They boarded ships and returned to Cloudflow. However, his main forces were stationed in the south of the Tanggulasi Empire.

Lex acted quickly and readily rewarded her own men.

Prince Saleen’s territory was awarded with Kroraina. As there were no successors, the entire large Duchy was vacant. There had been a few battles for it, and the aristocrats were now practically nonexistent.

Lex’s command had received many objections from both the Houses of Lords and Commons, but no one was able to stop it.

Safilos’ objection was merely for show, but the lords’ objections demonstrated that the forces of the current Golden Plains were already under the control of the Qin Empire’s central government.

When Emperor Chanake had been around, no one else had been able to manipulate the House of Lords.

Saleen could not be bothered to talk nonsense. If anyone was dissatisfied, they could come and attack him. Although the Golden Plains secretly controlled the troops of four towns, they were unable to do anything to Saleen.

Saleen’s capital was in Metatrin. His main forces were on Floating City. They were all in places that could not be captured.

Even if they dispatched troops to Kroraina, what could they do? Could they fight Saleen’s Floating City?

Saleen was currently attacking the Holy See. If they threatened Saleen with force, they would lose popularity. Within the recent decade, the Holy See had repeatedly harassed Qin. The Qin people long held a deep hatred towards this organization.

Hence, many people even wished to join the Nature Faith to oppose the Holy See.

Most of them were victims of Kroraina’s war. From a certain standpoint, Qin’s governors were also responsible, but with the banner of Holy See acting as the scapegoat, the civilians had not thought of that.

None of the aristocrats had surrendered to the Holy See, died in battle, or led the civilians to retreat.

Because no one truly had the power to oppose Lex’s appointment, it was immediately implemented. Saleen had not assembled too many aristocrats from Metatrin. The people of Metatrin Kingdom focused their goals on the interdimensional space.

Filling in the space had been on the Southwest aristocracy who relied on Lex. It finally bore fruit.

Although Kroraina was defenseless and easy to attack, the southwest was too rural and not good for earning a fortune. The southwest aristocrats all grouped together in response to the appointment. A few descendants of aristocrats who originally lacked the qualifications to benefit had now gained a noble rank and had been dispatched to Kroraina. It was a dangerous mission, but the best opportunity to improve their circumstances.

They knew that the future of the aristocrats would not be pleasant. Hence, they tied their fates to Emperor Lex. Lex gathered mages in Bitter Water Prefecture and had assigned them to the aristocrats.

The aristocrats had spent a fortune on cultivating their personal armies and had brought them to Kroraina. The space in Kroraina was very quickly being filled. Of course, whether or not they could completely occupy this place depended on the outcome of Saleen’s battle.

Saleen’s battle was nothing special. He seemed to be having a very easy time in the borders of the Tanggulasi Empire. The most troublesome part about attacking the city was waiting for the Nature Faith’s army. After the Nature Faith’s army arrived, Saleen would fly Floating City above the targeted city and bombard it.

Even the lowest grade weapons were thrown down. There were magic fire shells, huge stones, ranged pharmaceuticals, and all kinds of low-grade scrolls.

The battle was essentially just for clearing out Saleen’s warehouse. The items would be useless in future battles. There was an alchemic factory on Saleen’s Floating City that produced new magic equipment day and night.

It was only after the targeted city’s large equipment had been destroyed and the city walls had been breached that Saleen allowed the Nature Faith’s knight corps to attack. The an attack was definitely easier. Furthermore, the Violet Angel had also been mobilized. He specialized in hitting the War Drum of Fear in the city’s skies.

Without the Holy See, and without sufficient Holy Masters, the Tanggulasi Empire’s cities were all destroyed one after another. The imperial court was terrified.

Finally, Qin Empire reacted. An army of about 300,000 people was assembled. They set out for the sake of their emperor’s reputation. The army was relatively weak compared to the four towns. They were the veterans who had gone to battle in Daliang City.

The troops came from an average background, and their combat ability was even less remarkable. The people Lex had dispatched had been sent to occupy the territory.

For the transportation of those people, Saleen used Baldur’s Gate to transfer them to the Tanggulasi Empire. Without making a single sound, they had already occupied approximately more than 20 cities.

The Tanggulasi Empire’s emperor dispatched people to send a letter to Saleen, requesting for Saleen to not attack. Saleen only responded once, demanding that the empire drive out the Holy See. He guaranteed that he would never step upon the lands of the Tanggulasi Empire ever again.

If the Tanggulasi Empire’s emperor had had the courage, he would have acted long ago. Why would he wait for Saleen to mention it?

The matter was left unresolved. The emperor knew that Saleen really had not come to go against him. A mage would never be more interested in expanded their lands than in cultivating their magic. Power and influence held very little meaning to a mage.

Even if he was an emperor, when faced with a powerful mage, he could not put on airs.

Under such circumstances, the Tanggulasi Emperor’s elite troops began to withdraw, and all of them gathered back at the imperial capital. In name, they were there to protect the imperial family, but in reality, they were avoiding battles. The advancement of Floating City was not at all swift and it was still over 1,000 kilometers away from the campsites of the elite troops. If they protected the emperor, they ought to first engage the enemy before thinking of anything else.

Everyone was clear on the fact that the end goal of Saleen’s army was the Holy City on the Glorious Plains.

The Glorious Plains were vast and the kingdom’s best granary. It had been occupied by the Holy See and the imperial family could do nothing about it. Everyone already felt that the Holy See was going to lose the battle, so they were all unwilling to continue exerting their efforts.

Because the Holy See had not chosen a Pope, they were unable to do anything about the emperor. Each parish focused its power at the Glorious Plains, and there was no one to meet them in battle.

Even Saleen had not expected the situation. A large empire was in a critical situation, but there were no aristocrats willing to devote themselves to it, nor were there any saints willing to sacrifice their lives for it.

The green-colored Temple Knights formed a storm in the Tanggulasi Empire, and more and more people joined the Nature Faith. As disciples in the Tanggulasi Empire, their fate might not necessarily be that good. Sometimes, it would be even more tragic.

Not all priests were in peak condition like Nicholas. Many priests within the Holy See were money-making tool. The Lord of Glory was originally not focused on merciless killing, but in the Tanggulasi Empire, everyone had heard of the Tribunal’s name and was so scared that they dared not speak of it.

Everything was very unexpected. The spread of the Nature Faith in Qin had been extremely slow, but in the Tanggulasi Empire, they seemed to be accustomed to believing in a religion. They did not mind what god it was.

They were pseudodisciples, but Saleen did not mind. Anyone who was willing to become the underlings of zealots would become extremely troublesome in the future.

The expansion of the Knight Corps was having a snowball effect. Saleen knew that if it continued, the day that the Myers Goddess resurrected would not be far off. The Nature Faith’s disciples were becoming greater and greater in number, while the Lord of Glory’s disciples were becoming shrinking in number.

It was also related to the religious teaching. The Goddess of Nature did not need sacrifices. The main duty of the priests of the temple was to help people treat their illnesses for free. When the Knight Corps were not in battle, they would help the villages to drive away dangerous magic beasts. The temple would even give out seeds at fixed periods and use their divine spells to help the farmers to increase their harvests.

What the Goddess of Nature wanted was only the Power of Faith. She did not lack anything else.

The Nature Faith was very wealthy. Part of it was due to Saleen’s financial aid. The other part of this was due to thievery. Of course, Myers did not support thievery. This initiative had been Don’s idea. Baudelaire had also been extremely supportive of it.

Saleen was very supportive of their antics. If the Nature Faith was too pure, it would be too difficult for him to make a move in the future.

In reality, Saleen did not hold any post in the Nature Faith, but his position in the disciples’ hearts was even higher than the Pope’s. Everyone knew that the person who expanded the territorial lands for the goddess was this king.

Floating City was too conspicuous. No one was able to wipe out the contributions that Saleen had made towards the Nature Faith.

The only thing that displeased Saleen was that the battle between religions was even more callous than his massacre of cities. Even if he destroyed the enemy’s large facilities and had the assistance of the War Drum of Fear, the Lord of Glory’s disciples did not stop their resistance. The two sides were like oil and water. It was the conflict between the two gods.

All the places the large army passed were decimated.

Saleen was unable to stop the massacre. He recalled the saints that he had imprisoned. How had religion changed them? Had it really made gentle and merciful or had it made vicious and merciless?

Between disciples of the same religion, it was the former. But between disciples of different religions, it was the latter.

At the beginning, the Nature Faith’s vanguards only had one battalion. Later, within the borders of the Tanggulasi Empire, more than 10 large battalions had appeared. Saleen’s Floating City could not get over in time, so he could only head over himself.

Within Baldur’s gate, Saleen prepared one battalion of elite troops. They were strong people who had followed him to all the temples in order to advance. There were also Bug Angel Warriors and his own temple guards. The army was to be used in a decisive battle against the Holy See.

Now that matters had come to that point, Saleen was already not planning to participate in a large battle. He was only planning to target the strongest among the enemy and gradually slay them. There was a sizeable number of strong level 12 people among his subordinates. On this continent. he could no longer encounter a true match when pitted against his enemies.

The only one he had to consider was the head warden on Black Dungeon Island, who frightened numerous head inquisitors.