Every day, the situation in Eich was becoming more and more chaotic. The undead, demons, and other species from other planes would bring us bad news every day.
Meanwhile, the Holy Church was becoming more and more active. They had already sent out their "tentacles", the Cardinals, and were doing their best to show their existence on the battlefields of various countries. Of course, everyone needed free medical care and combat support, but "reinforcements" that were trying to steal their own military power and sovereignty under the guise of providing reinforcements?
I knew that this was a promise from the God of Holy Light. The Cardinal who contributed the most to the Holy Light would become a candidate to become the next Pope of Holy Light. Not only that, the Cardinal would receive eternal life in his Divine Kingdom. Although this was tempting enough to motivate these cowardly old Cardinals to take action, sometimes acting blindly would be far worse than doing nothing at all.
In the game's history, these Cardinals would take advantage of the Holy Church's reputation and the fact that Holy Light belief was common in the mortal plane. They would bring their trusted subordinates and personal guards to various battlefields, and then swiftly seize command. After that, they would do whatever they wanted.
It would already be a miracle if the minority who knew their own limits didn't randomly give out orders. At most, they would steal all the merits and make you the scapegoat. However, there were even more who thought that they were the reincarnation of the military even though they had never gone to a military academy or read any military books. They would snatch the command right the moment they arrived and give out inconceivable decisions, easily giving away the battles they had won.
"… The defeat of Xisor, who left his fortress and ambushed the undead army in the wilderness."
"… The calamity of Amur, who led his four main Knight squadrons and advanced 1,400 kilometers. He went in and out of the demons' territory several times, but didn't prepare any reinforcements."
"The tragedy of Finn, who led the Holy Light Church to open the city gates and block the beastman army. He angrily denounced the evil beastmen and preached to them, hoping that the beastmen would convert to the Holy Light. However, the beastmen beheaded the beastmen and slaughtered the entire city."
The names in the game's history weren't the locations of the defeats. Instead, they were the names of the Cardinals and Cardinals who did such foolish things. They used another method to achieve "eternity" … They had indeed left their names in history.
Of course, the human countries that had paid the tuition fee to the Holy Church finally shed all pretenses of cordiality. Since they couldn't openly reject the Holy Church, they could only find excuses to avoid the Holy Church's interference. They began to either openly or secretly reject the Holy Church's interference. In the end, they even directly shed all pretenses of cordiality and forcefully resisted the Holy Church's interference. The Holy Church's repeated failures caused the Holy Church's reputation to take a heavy blow. However, the Holy Church's initial painful lesson was irreversible.
The current situation was already far better than it had been in the game's history. The Holy Church wasn't as powerful as it had been in the past. Even the Cardinals knew that times had changed, so they would probably restrain themselves slightly. This would probably reduce the number of such "man-made disasters".
That's right, there would definitely still be "man-made calamities." The Cardinals who desired "eternity" and the position of "Supreme Pontiff" would definitely be unwilling to remain silent. They would definitely do something. Even if some countries rejected them, there would always be regions and kingdoms with strong faith in the Holy Light that would be accepted.
All in all, the situation was much better than in the game's history.
The biggest difference was that the Underground Faction didn't counterattack, nor did the humans experience cruel civil wars. The Elemental War's casualties were also within an acceptable range, so it could be said that everyone was happy. The Holy Church had also lost its supreme authority, which was the most delightful reality of all.
However, there were also good and bad things. Although Cynthia had been eliminated, the pitiful ending of total annihilation was avoided. This also broke the cycle of the Holy War on a different level. Without the will of the Chaos Abyss controlling the Chaos Abyss, it was likely that the Chaos Abyss would explode with its most terrifying power.
Of course, I had already done everything that I could. Things had already developed far better than I had expected. This world didn't belong to me alone. I still believed in the tenacity of the humans, elves, beastmen, and other species. I believed that they would be able to survive this calamity … Even if I didn't believe in them, there was nothing I could do. This world was far too large. Nobody would be able to take care of everything when faced with the entire world's flames of war.
During the day, I would grind monsters on the battlefield, and at night, I would cram on magical knowledge. Although my improvement was quite obvious, I was still unable to break through my bottleneck. What made me rather happy was that my old acquaintances had come to visit me.
"Diana, Victoria, it's been a long time … Momo, it's been a long time."
The two who appeared before me were the current higher-ups of the dark elves. Victoria was the highest-ranked priestess in the church, and Diana was the highest-ranked military commander. They were both old acquaintances of mine.
From a certain standpoint, their arrival was only natural. As the reconstruction of the Elven Empire progressed, the dark elves, as one of the four major Superior Elf species, would need to express their intentions and communicate with each other. Rather than looking for my clone Empress, who was constantly running around in circles, it would be far better to look for me and the lazy cat on my head.
If one only looked at their physical appearances, the three of them wouldn't have changed at all. After all, seven or eight years was only a short amount of time for the dark elves. However, the auras of the three of them had changed greatly.
Victoria's appearance was still astonishingly beautiful and radiant. However, her previous gentleness had vanished without a trace. Her expression was calm, and her light-white priestess robe seemed simple and plain. However, the divine power contained within it was incredibly frightening. She still had a handsome and quiet appearance, and her beautiful eyes seemed to contain a natural might. As the true ruler of the dark elves, she was becoming more and more like a matriarch of the dark elves.
Diana was much calmer than before. Her long hair was tied up in a single ponytail. Although it was obvious that she was happy, she wasn't overly excited. She only nodded slightly at me when she saw me. Her black armor was the simplest model, and the adamantine heavy sword on her back wasn't even enchanted. As she was the teacher of all Anti-Holy Knight knights, her arrival caused the Elemental Tide in the area to naturally decrease.
Momo … cough — cough — let's get down to business. I definitely didn't recognize this dark elf who was staring at me and shouting "harvest season" and "Her Highness Renée isn't bad at all. She's also a mature version of herself." It was likely that she had changed the least out of all the dark elves, both internally and externally. The past few years hadn't left any traces on her at all.
When acquaintances met, it was only natural for them to talk about the past and the future. Although we had all been subordinates in the past, I was now free of all responsibilities, so there was no need for me to act like a bureaucrat or put on a dignified front.
The dark elves didn't have any specific missions. They were simply here to talk about the past and prepare for the upcoming Elven Empire.
I also learned from them that the current situation in the Underground was quite good. Under the control of the four Underground Autarchs, more and more Underground residents were successfully migrating to the Northlands. However, what made me feel rather helpless was that no matter how much they wanted to see the sun and the ocean again, no matter how certain they were, at least 70% of the residents requested to return to the Underground the next year.
"The sky is so scary. I feel like I'm going to fall into the sky at any moment."
"The wind is so scary. There are at least several dozen different species and magical beasts in the air. I don't feel safe at all."
"It's so cold. The Underground is much warmer."
There were all sorts of strange reasons. In the end, it was already good enough that only one out of three people would be able to migrate to the Underground. As more and more people migrated, the Underground residents learned the truth. The legendary Surface World wasn't as beautiful as they imagined it to be, and their own world might not be so bad. The number of people requesting to migrate to the Underground drastically decreased.
Of course, the other side of the decrease in the number of Underground residents was that the Underground Autarchs were doing quite well.
The Underground Alliance, which nobody expected to be obeyed for a long time, became the cornerstone of the new generation as the dark elves, humans, beastmen, and Dragons gradually became one. The trade of ores brought in sufficient resources, and the Church of Law made society more stable. It wasn't a crime to eat one's fill and wear one's clothes. This boiling land of exiled people actually began to cool down.
The complete alliance of the four Underground Autarchs, along with the constantly patrolling dragons in the sky, caused those with wild ambitions to restrain their ambitions. Those who dared to challenge the entire new Underground order were either boorish people who believed themselves infallible or idiots who were eager to die.
The Underground World, which was becoming more and more peaceful, naturally became more and more suitable for the natives to live and work in peace. Trade brought in large amounts of goods from the Surface World, while special products from the Underground World could be sold for high prices. Staying in the Underground World seemed to be much better than migrating. When their own lives were obviously getting better, people wouldn't consider migrating.
Out of the four Underground species, the Underground beastmen migrated the most to the Beastmen Plains. After all, their own species lived there. Due to the Dragons being far too few in number, they still lacked a sense of existence. The dark elves, who had abandoned Rose's belief system, wanted to live in peace with the other species and even live together. Although they still needed some time to get used to each other, at the very least, the two species wouldn't fight each other the moment they met. Of course, one of the main reasons for this was that the dark elf society was gradually abandoning the slavery system.
And the busiest and most chaotic of all were the humans of the Underground World.
They were the largest faction in the Underground World to begin with. The Underground World, which had the largest population, brought with it a large population. Unlike the other species that were relatively unified, the human city lords of the Underground World were similar to the domain lords of the Surface World. They were only responsible to themselves and were already used to living in the Underground World where they were divided and enfeoffed.
It could be said that the human Underground Autarch, Anne, had it the hardest. Just mediating the conflicts between the Underground World and the other Underground Cities took her a lot of effort.
I furrowed my brows. This was indeed difficult to deal with. With Sulfur Mountain City's status, it wasn't good for her to suppress the other city lords. The human domain lords were all used to enfeoffing each other, and if she tried to be a dictator, all the other domain lords would oppose her. If it wasn't for the fact that Anne had a strong backing, she probably wouldn't even be able to keep her position.
"Looks like I'll have to find a chance to kick that brat Adam out of the Underground World and take some responsibility. He's probably had enough of hanging around outside, and it's about time for his vacation to end."
"Roland! We're back! "
This was truly the case of mentioning someone and they would come. Adam actually returned first, and before he could even enter, his voice sounded out.
"Eh? What's this little red bottle? A potion that's the same color as my hair? I'm thirsty, can I drink it? "
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