Amidst the rugged and treacherous Dark Mountain Range, Bishop Leimont sprinted with all his might.
He tore away the hem of his robe and discarded the Bishop’s Crown, which was cumberso in the forest, and used the ornate scepter that symbolized church authority as a cane to open up a path on the rugged mountain road and maintain balance. He felt that he had never been so disheveled in his life. The imnse sense of defeat and humiliation fueled his anger, yet he dared not release it at all—because the oppressive sensation from the constantly rising, overwhelmingly powerful chaotic magic still gripped his heart tightly.
Only after running deep into the forest, to a place where he could no longer see the battlefield, did he dare to slightly pause and glance back at the path he had taken.
Even though he couldn’t see, he knew that those Church Knights should already be dead—even if they weren’t killed by that powerful beyond comprehension energy creature, they would surely have perished in the blazing Holy Light. Bishop Leimont, who had sacrificed his comrades to escape, felt no guilt in his heart, as he believed that everything he did was for a greater justice: the existence of Church Knights was to offer their lives to the Lord, and a District Bishop was the foundation for ensuring the church’s strength and developnt. It was only natural to use the forr to ensure the latter’s safety.
After gasping violently for a while, Bishop Leimont finally regained his breath a bit. He looked around at the gloomy, tree-surrounded mountain road and suddenly felt confused.
Why did he need to run? Why was he so afraid? Why did he act so pathetically?
Leimont was puzzled, and in his imnse confusion, he suddenly realized that there was sothing wrong with his ntal state.
Indeed, he was a man who cherished life, and among all the District Bishops in the Holy Light, he was considered less capable and lacked personal strength, but he was still a District Bishop. Even when faced with a perilous battle situation that forced a retreat, he shouldn’t be reduced to such a sorry state, driven to flee like a stray dog out of fear!
Bishop Leimont suddenly clenched the scepter in his hand, a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead. He realized that his thoughts might have been affected by external factors; sothing, sothing that couldn’t be shielded by the Holy Light barrier, had entered his brain, amplifying certain personality weaknesses, causing him to lose all judgnt on the battlefield—and leading to his almost complete passivity in facing today’s defeat.
Otherwise, even if he couldn’t counteract the dreadful energy creature on the city walls, with his ability, he could at least cover the retreat of so Church Knights, at least prevent such a disgraceful and tragic defeat!
"Co out!" Bishop Leimont suddenly shouted loudly, layers of Holy Light enveloping him, enhancing his resistance to various magic effects, yet even so, he felt no sense of safety. He could only increase his confidence by shouting—even though he was well aware that such shouting was precisely evidence of being influenced by a consciousness disturbance, "Get out of my head! I know you’re there! Co out!"
After shouting like this several tis in succession, only his own voice echoed in the mountain path, and the old bishop began to doubt his judgnt. But just as he was about to give up, a feminine figure suddenly appeared before him.
It was a woman dressed in a white robe with purple edges, holding a portable lamp. Her robe indicated her identity: a priestess, and most likely a high priestess. However, the style of the robe was unlike any orthodox religion currently on the continent. Using his religious knowledge, Leimont pondered for a while before vaguely recognizing that the robe might be of the Eternal Sleepers Church from seven hundred years ago.
The priestess holding the lamp wore a gentle and serene smile, reminiscent of a "motherly" smile that seed to have a disarming power, even though Leimont was on high alert. For a mont, upon seeing her smile, he almost relaxed—but thankfully, at the last mont, he bit his tongue to ensure his ability to think freely through the pain.
He knew the woman before him wasn’t really standing there. He could see the lively yet dream-like wavering outlines at the edges of her figure; he knew what he was seeing was rely an illusion—an image in his mind, projected into his vision. Apart from himself, no one could see or hear the woman with the lamp.
To others, it probably seed as if he was simply standing with a wary and guarded look, staring at an empty spot on the mountain path.
"Who are you?!" Bishop Leimont gripped his scepter tightly, striving to appear composed, though he knew he had no initiative—the opponent could implant such a vivid illusion directly into his mind, it was a resistance beyond his power, much like the uncontrollable energy being on the Cecil City Walls. He had no expectation of the "woman" before him responding to him—
But the woman did open her mouth, her voice as gentle and calm as her face: "Bishop Leimont, it’s good to see you survived."
"Who are you?" Bishop Leimont repeated his question once more, "What do you want?"
"I am Selena Gerfen, a high bishop of the Eternal Sleepers. I hope I didn’t scare you," the woman replied with a smile.
"The Eternal Sleepers?!" Bishop Leimont was startled. "You... what do you evil cult followers want?!"
"Opportunities to ’capture’ a high-ranking priest don’t co often," Selena Gerfen seed to answer Leimont’s question patiently, though her reply was clearly not what the latter wanted to hear, "It took us a long ti to plant seeds among the bishop-level mbers of the Holy Light, but your actions have disappointed us. You foolishly challenged the Wanderers from Outer Realm and the power they established, so we must act early to ’rescue’ you before you completely lose your value..."
"Plant seeds..." Bishop Leimont was both shocked and furious, suddenly realizing sothing, "You’ve been ddling with my mind for a long ti?! What exactly do you want?!"
"There were many plans, but now your value has dwindled to almost nothing, we must make the most of it," Selena Gerfen sighed softly, slowly approaching a fearful Bishop Leimont, "Bishop, we’ll have to borrow your mind, we need to see the changes your God has undergone over these seven centuries."
...
The explosions coming from the south of the city finally ceased, marking the end of all battles for the day.
Gawain glanced at the Sword of Pioneers placed beside him. The longsword rested silently by the table, having never been used in today’s battle.
The enemy’s strength was even worse than he anticipated, so much so that the entire battle didn’t require him to step in to save the situation.
Aunt Heidi pushed the door open and entered the room: "Forebear, the enemy that ca to attack the South City Wall has been annihilated, apart from one who escaped, the entire army has been wiped out—besides a temporary energy interruption in two blocks of the South City District, we sustained no damage."
"Very good, it seems Kal will get the experintal data he wants," Gawain already knew about the battlefield’s situation, but after listening to Heidi’s report, he still nodded, "This way, the direction of the war basically won’t change anymore."
"I still can’t believe it... that we actually won just like that..." A hint of disbelief remained on Heidi’s face. She had received intelligence from the northern and western frontlines; this war, ant to be grand and difficult, had been decided in such a short ti, which truly exceeded her imagination—even though Gawain had previously shown complete confidence in winning the war, she always thought it was just to reassure the people, and she still had a question she couldn’t figure out, "Forebear, I do have a question... How did you know those Church Knights would attack from the South City Wall?"
Of course, it was because I saw it using the satellite’s magic-pervasive environnt imaging map—but that’s sothing that can’t be said out loud directly.
Gawain stroked his chin, wearing an expression as if "the situation is all under your ancestor’s control," saying: "By ruling out the northern and western directions, if anyone wanted to surprise us, they could only choose the eastern mining route and the southern Dark Mountain Range—the mining town isn’t a good choice, because if they attack from there and don’t capture the entire Mining Town imdiately, then Cecil Main City would be alard, and they’d lose the advantage of a surprise attack, so they’d surely choose the Dark Mountain Range."
Gawain paused and continued: "The Dark Mountain Range is very close to the South City Wall, and its terrain is complex, making it easy to hide. Even if there were sentinels patrolling, a powerful Order Supernatural could rely on the terrain to lurk very close to the city wall. And there’s one more important point: Count Hosman’s main army is attacking the north of Cecil, so in this situation, launching a surprise attack from the other side is the normal strategy."
Heidi was convinced by Gawain’s analysis and no longer had any other questions, but said with a hint of worry: "Forebear, I’m very concerned about the enemy who escaped. If the intelligence is correct, that could very well be the District Bishop of the Southern Diocese of the Holy Light. Even though the Holy Light’s influence on the southern borders is relatively weak, they’re still quite powerful. Their District Bishop now leads the Church Knights to attack Cecil under the guise of eradicating evil, which is not rely assisting in aristocratic wars but is equivalent to a formal declaration. Now that the bishop has escaped... who knows what trouble he might cause."
Gawain raised his eyebrows, looking at Heidi with interest: "In the past, you’d first be worried about the adverse effects of going to war with the Southern Diocese of the Holy Light Church, but now your focus seems to have shifted away from such concerns."
Prompted by Gawain, Heidi also realized the change in her mindset. This lady, who had been anxious for the Cecil Clan, couldn’t help but show a wry smile: "I don’t even know how I developed this change. By the ti I realized it, we were even at war with all the aristocrats across the southern regions... why should I still be worried about the Southern Diocese?"
Gawain shook his head with a smile: "Don’t worry, before the war, I had already sent Soldrin with a select squad to stand by in the Dark Mountain Range. By now, they should be..."
Before Gawain finished speaking, Soldrin’s voice ca from outside the door: "The bishop is dead—we found his body."
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