Ermu
Chapter 619 The Unstoppable Path (Part One)
As the ship slowly approached the Old Holy City along the river, the red brick and blue tiles of the cathedral gradually emerged from the shadows of the trees.
Compared to the new cathedral on the Hermes Plateau, it looked ordinary, lacking both a spectacular chapel and a towering Tower of Babel. In terms of scale alone, it might not even be as magnificent as the cathedrals in the capitals of the Four Kingdoms. However, in the hearts of most believers, this ancient and majestic building, together with the monastery, the training ground, and the arbitration court, constituted God's palace on earth.
It symbolized the origin of the Church, the beginning of everything.
Isabella scoffed at this notion.
They would never know that the interior of the high mountain behind the cathedral was the true place of the Church's origin.
As for the Old Holy City?
It was just a smokescreen to deceive people.
After the sailboat arrived at the dock, Isabella disembarked with light luggage. The Mechanical Guard who came to greet her couldn't help but be taken aback, "My Lady, where are the other Purity Witches?"
"They will arrive a day or two later," she shrugged. "His Majesty is urging so urgently, they need some time to arrange their affairs."
"But Lady Xiluo said..."
"She wants to see everyone," Isabella interrupted, "that's right, but she didn't say she had to see everyone at the same time."
This recall order was somewhat incomprehensible. In this way, the Church was equivalent to giving up control of Dawn, without the supply of the elixir, the king would die in endless sleep. She did not understand why Xiluo had suddenly changed the previously established plan, and there was no explanation in the decree.
She is becoming more and more like a real Pope, Isabella thought with a slight displeasure.
Nevertheless, she set off immediately after receiving the order and spent a week rushing back to Hermes.
"By the way, do you know what happened in the Holy City?" Isabella turned to look at the guard behind her as she boarded the carriage.
"The Church's vanguard fought with the Graycastle army at the foot of the Coldwind Ridge," the latter hesitated, "you should ask Lady Xiluo for the specific situation."
"Could it be... the vanguard lost?"
The guard did not answer, but nodded almost imperceptibly, then mounted his warhorse and shouted to the coachman, "Departure!"
Isabella lowered the curtain of the carriage, her heart filled with doubts.
Without a doubt, there must be a considerable number of God's Punishment Warriors in this vanguard. Only when the God's Punishment Warriors suffered losses would the Church's higher-ups react.
But the God's Punishment Warriors are not immortal. When faced with damage beyond their ability to withstand, they would still suffer losses. Since the attack on Everwinter, the Holy City had successively lost nearly a hundred extraordinary warriors. She originally thought Xiluo was used to it, but now it seemed that this was not the case. The question was, how serious was the loss in this battle that made Xiluo decide to recall all the Purity Witches?
The carriage drove through the bustling streets of the Old Holy City and arrived at a camp near the Cliff of Impassability. The security here was strict, no less than that of the Cathedral. Isabella got out of the carriage, stepped into a tunnel dug along the mountain wall, passed through multiple iron gates, and entered the mountain.
Under the cold light of the Godstone prisms, the towering outline of the Supreme Sanctuary appeared before her.
Under the guidance of the guard, she went straight to the top floor of the library, pushed open the door of the circular hall, and the current Pope was standing by the window, gazing into the distance, looking lost in thought.
"It seems you've encountered a tough bone, even Dawn Kingdom has been abandoned," Isabella walked to Xiluo and whistled. "But no matter what, you should at least leave the Lady and the Black Veil there to stabilize the situation, right?"
Xiluo did not answer, but pointed to the figures below the Sanctuary and said, "What do you think they look like?"
Isabella frowned, "Does this have anything to do with my question?"
"Small, ignorant, busy all day long but not knowing why they are busy, like ants," she said to herself, "God probably sees us the same way... blindly throwing ourselves into bloody battles, then blindly
dying, without reaching the peak, it is impossible to know what the whole world looks like. Fortunately, I am now one step closer to God's will."
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"As long as I can devour the new king of Graycastle, the odds of winning the Battle of Divine Will can be increased by another fifty percent," Xiluo raised the corners of her mouth, her eyes flashing with a light never seen before, "I have a faint feeling... that God sent him to my side."
Isabella was silent for a while, then said in a deep voice, "I just want to know, in that battle at the foot of the Coldwind Ridge, how many God's Punishment Warriors were lost?"
"One hundred and fifty died in battle, and another eleven died on the way back to the Holy City," Xiluo looked at her intently, "and the enemy was almost unscathed. Neither the giant shield nor the javelin could threaten the Graycastle army's defense line."
A huge wave was immediately set off in Isabella's heart. Could a single battle cause more God's Punishment Warriors to be lost than the total number lost in capturing Everwinter and Wolfheart, plus defending against the Demonic Moon? How could a prince of Graycastle possess such power?
Witches? Knights? No, they were not worth mentioning at all. Even the Hellbeast, as large as a mountain, would die under the siege of the God's Punishment Warriors. She couldn't imagine how the other side had done it.
"A terrible snow powder weapon," Xiluo seemed to see through her thoughts, "It can be used by mortals, has a range of over a thousand steps, and its power can easily break through plate armor and iron shields. There is almost no gap in firing, and our people are completely treated as targets."
After listening to the entire course of the battle, Isabella took a deep breath, her face uncertain. After a long time, she opened her mouth and said, "So you lost."
"For the Church, it is indeed a setback, and Soli. Daar's judgment was too hasty—"
"No, I'm not referring to the battle," she interrupted, "but to what we talked about before, 'Only the winner is God's favorite.' Now it seems that person is not you."
"You think... Roland. Wimbledon is more likely to win God's smile than me?" Xiluo said calmly.
"Don't forget our purpose!" Isabella couldn't help but raise her voice, "To defeat the devils and allow humanity to continue—as for whether it is done by the Church, I don't care at all! This battle has already explained the problem. Even if you gather all your strength, defeat and devour Roland, what good will it do for this purpose? His army and witches will be massacred, and there will be few God's Punishment Warriors left. Then what? There is less than half a year left until the new round of Evil Moon!"
For a moment, she even thought Xiluo would kill her, but until the end, the other party did not react in any way.
"Then what do you want me to do?"
After a long period of silence, the Pope asked softly.