In the rugged Gloom Mountain Range, Bishop Lemont ran as fast as he could.
He tore off the hem of his robe and threw away the bishop's crown that was a hindrance when he was moving in the forest. He also used the ornate staff that represented the authority of the Holy See as a crutch to open up a path on the rugged mountain path and maintain balance. He felt that he had never been so embarrassed in his life. The huge sense of defeat and humiliation made him angry, but he did not dare to release this anger at all. Because the pressure brought by the constantly rising and powerful Chaos magic power was still tightly clenching his heart.
He ran all the way into the depths of the forest, to a place where he could no longer see the battlefield. Only then did he dare to stop and look back at the path he had taken.
Even though he could not see, he knew that the Knight of the Holy See was dead. Even if they were not killed by the unimaginably powerful energy creature, they must have died in the burning Holy Light. Bishop Lemont, who had sacrificed his comrades to escape, did not feel guilty at all because he believed that everything he did was for the greater good. The existence of the Knight of the Holy See was to sacrifice his life for the Lord, and a regional bishop was to ensure the survival and development of the Holy See. It was natural to use the former to ensure the safety of the latter.
After breathing heavily for a while, Bishop Lamont finally caught his breath. He raised his head and looked at the dark mountain road surrounded by strange dead trees. His expression suddenly became confused.
Why did he escape? Why was he so scared? Why was he so weak?
Lamont was perplexed, and in the midst of great perplexity he suddenly realized that something was wrong with his mental state.
He was indeed a person who cherished his life. Moreover, among all the regional bishops of the Church of Holy Light, he was one of the weaker ones. However, no matter what, he was still a regional bishop. Even if he was forced to retreat due to the extremely dangerous situation, he would not be in such a sorry state. He would not run all the way like a stray dog because of fear!
Bishop Lemont suddenly clenched the scepter in his hand. A thin layer of sweat seeped out from his forehead. He realized that his thoughts might have been affected by external factors. Something, something that could not be resisted by the Holy Light barrier, had entered his brain and magnified some of his personality weaknesses, causing him to completely lose his ability to make judgments on the battlefield. This caused him to face today's defeat without doing anything.
Otherwise, with his strength, even if he could not fight against the terrifying energy creature on the city wall, he could at least cover some of the Knight of the Holy See as they retreated. At least, he would not have lost so miserably!
"Come out!" Bishop Lemont suddenly shouted. Rays of Holy Light shrouded him, increasing his resistance to various magic effects. Even so, he did not feel safe at all. He could only shout to increase his confidence. Even though he clearly knew that this abnormal behavior of shouting was proof that he was affected. "Come out of my head! I know you are here! Come out! "
After shouting like this several times, only his own voice echoed in the mountain path. This old bishop could not help but begin to doubt his own judgment. But just as he was about to give up, a female figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
It was a woman wearing a white robe with purple edges and holding a lamp in her hand. Her robe revealed her identity: a Priestess, and most likely a High Priestess. However, the style of the robe was different from any of the orthodox religions on the continent. Lemont used his religious knowledge to judge for a long time and vaguely guessed that the robe might be the style of the Church of the Eternal Rest from 700 years ago.
The Priestess with the lamp had a gentle and quiet smile on her face. Her smile was reminiscent of a "mother's" and seemed to have some kind of disarming power. Even though Lemont was already on high alert, he almost relaxed when he saw her smile. Fortunately, at the last moment, he bit his tongue and used the pain to ensure his ability to think freely.
He knew that the woman in front of him was not really standing there. He could see, at the edge of the lifelike figure, the outline of some dreamlike movement. He knew that what he saw was only an illusion, an illusion in his mind, projected into his vision. No one but himself could hear or see the woman with the lamp.
In the eyes of others, it was very likely that he was just looking at the empty space on the mountain path with vigilance.
"Who are you?!" Bishop Lemont clenched his scepter and tried to calm down. He knew that he did not have the initiative at all. An opponent who could directly implant such a clear illusion into his mind was a power that he could not resist. It was almost as irresistible as the violent energy creature on the city wall of Cecil. He did not even expect the "woman" in front of him to respond.
But the woman still spoke. Her voice was as gentle and tranquil as her face. "Bishop Lemont, I'm glad to see that you are still alive."
"Who are you?" Bishop Lemont repeated his question. "What do you want?"
"High Priestess of the Eternal Rest, Selena Gerfen. I hope I didn't scare you," the woman said with a smile.
"The Eternal Rest?!" Bishop Lemont was shocked. "You … What do you cultists want to do?!"
"There are not many opportunities to 'capture' a high priestess," Selena Gerfen seemed to be patiently answering Bishop Lemont's question, but her answer was obviously not what Lemont wanted to hear. "We spent a long time to plant the seed in the bishop of the Church of Holy Light, but your performance disappointed us. You foolishly challenged the wanderers and the power they built. We had to act in advance and 'rescue' you before you completely lost your value."
"Plant the seed …" Bishop Lemont was shocked and angry. Suddenly, he realized something. "You have already done something to my mind?! What do you want?! "
"We used to have many plans, but now you have little value left. We can only make the best use of you," Selena Gerfen sighed softly and slowly walked towards the terrified Bishop Lemont. "Mr. Bishop, I need to borrow your brain. We need to see the changes of your god in the past 700 years."
…
The continuous explosions in the south of the city had finally stopped. This was also the end of the day's battle.
Gawain glanced at the Pioneer's Sword next to him. The longsword leaned against the table quietly. It hadn't been used in the battle for the entire day.
The enemy's strength was worse than he had expected, so he did not need to come out to save the day.
Heti pushed the door open and walked into the room. "Ancestor, the invaders on the southern city wall have been annihilated. Except for one who escaped, all of them were annihilated. Except for the temporary power outage in two blocks in the southern city, we have no casualties."
"Very good. It seems that Kamel can get the experimental data he wants." Gwen already knew the situation on the battlefield, but after hearing Heti's report, he nodded and said, "This way, the direction of the war will basically not change."
"I still can't believe … we won just like that …" Heti still had a look of disbelief on her face. She had received information from the northern and western frontlines. This war, which was supposed to be vast and difficult, was actually won in such a short time. This was beyond her imagination. Even though Gwen had shown full confidence in winning the war, she had always thought that her ancestor was just reassuring people. At this moment, she still had a question. "Ancestor, actually, I have a question … How did you know that the Vatican's Knight would attack from the southern city wall?"
Of course, she saw it with the satellite's magic environment imaging, but she could not say it out loud.
Gwen touched his chin and said with an expression that said, "Excluding the northern and western sides, if someone wants to attack us, they can only choose the eastern route to the mines and the southern route to the Gloom Mountains. The mines are not a good choice because once they attack from there and fail to take down Quarryton, Cecil's main city will be alerted. They will lose the advantage of surprise attack, so they will definitely choose the Gloom Mountains."
Gwen paused and continued, "The Gloom Mountains are very close to the southern city wall, and the complicated terrain makes it easy for them to hide. Even if there are sentries patrolling, the high-ranking Transcendents can rely on the terrain to hide very close to the city wall. More importantly, the main force of Earl Hosman's army is attacking from the north of Cecil's territory. Under such circumstances, a surprise attack from the other side is the normal plan."
Heti was convinced by Gwen's analysis and no longer had any other doubts. She just said with a hint of worry, "Ancestor, I'm very worried about the enemy who escaped. If the intelligence is correct, it is very likely that he is the regional bishop of the southern diocese of the Church of Holy Light. Although the Church of Holy Light's influence in the south is weak, it is still very powerful. Their regional bishop is now leading the Vatican's Knight to attack Cecil's territory in the name of crusading against evil. This is no longer as simple as helping the nobles in their war, but it is equivalent to declaring war. Now that the bishop has escaped … I don't know how much trouble he will cause."
Gwen raised his eyebrows and looked at Heti with interest. "If it were you in the past, you would be worried about the adverse effects of our war with the southern diocese of the Church of Holy Light. But now, it seems that your attention is no longer on such things."
After being reminded by Gwen, Heti also realized the change in her way of thinking. This lady who was always worried about the Cecil family could not help but smile bitterly. "I don't know why this change happened. By the time I realized it, we were already at war with all the nobles in the south. Why should I worry about the southern diocese?"
Gwen smiled and shook his head. "Don't worry. Before the war, I sent Solderlin and an elite team to the Gloom Mountains to wait for orders. They should be …"
Before Gwen's voice trailed off, Solderlin's voice came from outside the door. "The bishop is dead. We found his body."
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