Chapter 57
3451 of the Blue Month, three months after the descent of the avatar of the void; the United Kingdom Alliance, a newly formed alliance of several humans and non-human kingdoms within the Wallachia continent declared war on the Four God’s Religion. Following the United Kingdoms’ footsteps, another organization, this time of that of magicians, the Order of the Magus, led by the elders from Elder Council of Nuathl also declared war on the four churches as well.
And as if not to be left out, the Red Phoenix Alliance, an alliance spear-headed by the Red Phoenix Empire also declared war on the Four God’s Religion just several days after the other two alliances made their declaration.
The declaration of war by the three newly formed alliances did not surprise a single person on the continent. The fact that they declared war on the Four God’s Religion first instead of the Sect of the Void wasn’t that surprising in the eyes of many as well. For most people, removing the tumor that was the four god’s religion first was more practical in comparison to eliminating the Sect of the Void for the sole reason that the former was in the open and could be attack at any time while the latter was hiding somewhere on the continent.
Although most people hated the Sect of the Void, the populace’s hatred for the Four God’s Religion was by no way lesser than their hatred for the sect. No, it could even be said that they hated the four churches even greater.
The reason for it being that the Sect of the Void was, despite their horrible reputation, had always been very open when it comes to their main objective; which was to allow the descent of the god of the void. The Four God’s Religion on the other hand painted themselves as the ally of the common people, a righteous organization that only have the people’s best interest at heart. It was for this reason that majority of the populace joined the four churches.
So when the news that the four major gods were quick to abandon the world and their believers when the god of the void descended, the populace felt betrayed and disillusioned. In their anger the populace mobbed together and burn down the churches and temples belonging to the Four God’s Religion. Not only that the mob also lynched and killed countless priest and officials from the four churches.
And although the populace had calmed down greatly after that event, their hatred for the four churches didn’t lessen. That’s why when the three newly found alliances declared war on the Four God’s Religion, majority of the people gave their full support – the only time it ever happened in the history of the continent.
Thanks to this support, the three alliances managed to recruit a lot of volunteer and amassed massive armies that started marching to the four holy cities. With such a massive force, the army of believers and zealots of the four churches stood no chances against the armies of the three alliances. If nothing unexpected happened, the Four God’s Religion would likely cease to exist after the war.
As for the Sect of the Void, the three alliances had also spent countless resources and manpower to locate the sect’s hidden headquarters. However, as the three alliances were focusing more on the four churches, locating the sect would most likely yield very little result. To the three alliances though, it’s fine even if they didn’t find the sect’s headquarters during the duration of the war. As long as the sect didn’t act against them while they were fighting the four churches, they could consider the resources and manpower used to locate them well-spent.
However, considering that the sect had suffered great losses when the titan Leviathan killed a few of their envoys and the destruction of the avatar of the god of the void by a mysterious god; the Sect of the Void might use the war between the three alliances and the four churches to recover before acting again. Of course it’s also possible that they would try to cause more strife and chaos while recovering. It’s just that doing so possess great risk and might even betray their headquarters’ location.
Still, whether the sect will take the risk or not would not change the fact that a war had once again erupted in the continent…
****
“Damn those heathens!”
A bald, giant of man with a mustache and a beard smashed the wooden table with his muscled hand in anger after receiving the news that the armies of the three alliances are currently marching to the holy cities. This giant mustached man was Pope Arnold II of the Church of Lueger, the god of battle and power.
On his forehead was mysterious symbol that looks very much like a third eye. It was the symbol of the god Lueger, the god with three eyes. All believers of the Church of Lueger believed in the philosophy ‘might make right.’ They also believed that violence is the best way of solving any disagreement and that the one with the bigger fist is king.
It was for this reason that there pope must be someone that looks physically strong and intimidating and not intelligent, solemn, and kind like the other three popes. Which is why, the current head of the Church of Lueger, Pope Arnold II looks like a barbarian in comparison to the popes of the other three churches.
Still, no one dares to look down on this intimidating man. His physical prowess alone far surpassed anyone in the four churches. Even all of his followers are only a little weaker than him. In terms of magic, the pope of the Church of Lueger was definitely the weakest as he could only use enhancing and strengthening magic. But even if that was the case, he was not the weakest of the four popes. It could even be argued that he is the strongest as even his limited magic could increase his already terrifying strength by ten folds.
Also, every time a conflict that could threaten the four churches’ interest arises, the Church of Lueger was the first one to act. The church’s paladins, carrying huge maces and tower shields were a sight to behold on the battlefield. And their barbarity in battle could even turn the legs of most hardened of soldiers into jelly in fear.
But as impressive as the pope and his paladins were, they could not go against three massive armies. Even the strongest of humanity could only flee with his tail between his legs in the face of such force. It was due to this reason that Pope Arnold II was seething in anger.
He might be a muscle head but that doesn’t mean he was a fool. Even he knew that his army of paladins could never stop the marching army of the three alliances. No. it’s not just that. Even if the four churches combined all of their forces, the most they could do was slow down their enemies and nothing more.
“Please calm your anger, Your Excellency,” his aide urged. How many had it been? This should be the seventh table that the pope smashes to smithereens in just a week. Honestly, he’s already contemplating of hiring blacksmiths to forge a table made out of metal.
“Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down after knowing that a bunch of heathens are currently marching towards us?” Pope Arnold II screamed with a red face.
“But being angry at the table and smashing it wouldn’t solve our problem, Your Excellency!” The aide shouted back with a large vein popping out of his temple. “Also, please think of our limited budget!”
“You damn bastard! So you’re only concern about our budget! Fine, I won’t destroy another table again. Happy now?” the pope surrendered after being reminded that they’re currently short on funds. “Has any of the popes arrived?” He asked after calming down.
“Yes, Pope Alvan III is currently waiting in the meeting room,” his aide replied.
“Alvan, huh… Understood, you could leave for now. Just send someone to look for me once the other two arrived.”
The aide bowed a little before leaving the pope seating in front of his broken table. After hearing about the armies marching towards them, Pope Arnold II had summoned the other three popes to discuss their next move.
But the fact that only Pope Alvan III out of the three popes he had summoned for the meeting arrived on time made his quite upset especially considering their current situation. Unfortunately, there’s very little he could do about it considering that the god of his church, the god of battle and power, Lueger, had mysteriously perished some time ago!
****
Somewhere in the Stein Region there’s a huge castle known as Radford Castle. The castle is owned by a duke named Radford who happened to be a member of the United Kingdom Alliance. As the armies of the three alliances marches towards the four holy cities, the leadership of the alliances held an important meeting that would hopefully strengthen their cooperation.
The reason they’ve chosen Castle Radford out of all the castles and forts of the three alliances for the sole reason that the aforementioned castle was the biggest and most fortified castle in the Stein Region – a region near the Holymark Region where the four holy cities are located.
Being a castle, Castle Radford was naturally fortified but for the sake of protecting the leaders of the three alliances, the security in the castle was strengthened to an insane level. All sorts of the enchantments were used to ensure that the castle could withstand even forbidden level magic. Aside from that the people guarding the leaders of the three alliances were all insanely powerful.
One could see that three alliances did not hold anything back and did everything they could to ensure the safety of their leaders from all sorts of dangers and assassination attempts. Admittedly such a setup was over the top and even wasteful.
Now one might ask why bother with such a meeting if they needed to waste so many resources that could have been used to strengthened their respective armies. There’s actually a proper reason for it.
To ensure that the war lean on their favor, the three alliances which includes the United Kingdoms’ Alliance, the Red Phoenix Alliance, and the Order of the Magus, decided to hold a meeting between the leaderships of the respective alliances. Actually, the real reason why the meeting needed to be held in the first place was to prevent any conflict that might arise between the armies of the alliances during the war.
And considering that the armies that are attacking the holy cities are from three different forces, it was actually a very valid concern. It would not be good for everyone involved if they lose a war that they could have easily won due to some conflict or misunderstanding that might unexpectedly arise between their respective forces.
Inside a large and heavily decorated hall is an expensive-looking rectangular table made of a special type of wood. And gathering around that table are the leaders of the three alliances.
“Are everyone here?” A man wearing a majestic-looking red armor with a black cape asked. Embroidered on the cape is an image of a red phoenix. Indeed, as most people would have guessed by now the person who just spoke was the current emperor of the Red Phoenix Empire: Emperor Darius IX!
The Red Phoenix alliance led by Emperor Darius IX is composed of the Red Phoenix Empire, and five other human kingdoms allied to the empire. Although the number of kingdoms in Red Phoenix Alliance was lesser than that of the United Kingdom Alliance, the size of their armies was almost equal. The reason for this was because the Red Phoenix Empire has the biggest active army in the continent.
The current leader of the United Kingdom Alliance, King Egbert IV of Gran nodded his head and said “Yes, all of leaders of the United Kingdom Alliance are here.”
The United Kingdom Alliance is an alliance of a dozen of kingdoms, six of which are human kingdoms, three dwarf kingdoms, one beastkin kingdom, one elven kingdom, and one gnome kingdom. As the members of United Kingdom Alliance were mostly made-up of human kingdoms, it was given that the alliance leader was also human.
It’s not that the human kingdoms looked down on the non-humans but that the alliance army was about 70% of their soldiers are humans. With such overwhelming difference in number, it would be strange if the human did not take the leadership seat.
“All of the elders of the Order are also present,” answered Elder Theodore of the Council of Elders. The remaining elders of the Council, including Elder Zelma nodded their heads after hearing Elder Theodore’s words.
As the name suggest, many members of the Order of Magus with the exception of the regular soldiers in their army were magicians. These magicians belonged to different magician organizations scattered all around the continent. Among the three alliances, the army of the Order of Magus was the smallest. But to belittle the Order because of the size of its army would be a big mistake. That’s because the army of the Order of Magus has the largest number of magicians in the three alliances. More so than that of the United Kingdom Alliance and the Red Phoenix Alliance combine!
“That’s good. Then, shall we begin the meeting?” Emperor Darius IX asked of which the leaders of the other two alliances agreed.
And with that, one of the most important meetings that could potentially decide the future of the entire continent officially begins. But as to how the meeting indeed or even what has been discussed on the meeting is a story for another time.
****
To be continued
Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion
