“Must we, or mustn’t we ask the Supreme Pontiff for instructions?” Tayfun asked.
“…” Mayne slightly shook his head, forcing down the over and over rolling feeling of powerlessly within his heart. Maybe this was the Church’s test given by God, only after cutting their way through the thistles and thorns would they be able to see God’s true intentions. Opening his eyes, he had finally recovered his former serene state, “The matters of the Holy Church of Hermes shall be handed by you and Heather.”
“Don’t tell me that you want to go to the Fjord?” The old bishop stared at him with wide open eyes.
“I will lead one hundred soldiers of the God’s Punishment Army together with some of the pure witches, to thoroughly clean out the Western Territory of the Kingdom of Graycastle, afterward I will take the opportunity to deal with the witches in the Fjord.”
“But the law says…”
Mayne immediately interrupted him, “That’s only the case when an extraordinary was found within the borders of the Four Kingdoms, but now she is separated from us by the sea and furthermore also had nothing to do with our plans. Do not forget, that in the end, we are only doing this to obtain more land and a larger population, so that we can continue to expand the size of the God’s Punishment Army. And by now, it became clear that the 4th Prince is a hindrance on the path to archive the goals.”
“But…” the moment Tayfun intended to interrupts, loud footsteps could be heard from outside of the hall, startling both men, who both coincidentally turned towards the door.
Only to see the door fly open with a loud bump, and a magistrate rushing into the room in a helter-skelter manner, “Bad news, Your Excellencies, bad news!”
“Speak a little calmer,” Mayne shouted, “Report slowly what you have to say.”
“Her Excellency Heather has sent an emergency letter, a large fleet has landed on the coast of the Kingdom of Endless Winter, and by now a large force of the enemy is besieging King’s City, the situation is imminently dangerous. The other’s sea-faring vessels are all uniformly sailing under black sails, and a blue flag of a sailboat and a crown that is flying at the mast.” The magistrate seemed to be extremely anxious, “The delivered news states, that two city gates have already fallen into the enemy’s hands and Her Excellency Heather is doing everything she can to resist with the help of the followers. However, besides the enemy’s large number, they are also using the Berserker Pills!”
“What?” For a long moment, Mayne couldn’t believe his own ears. Black sails, a sailboat with a crown…
The enemy was actually the Black Sail Fleet of the Queendom of Clear Water!
Chapter 249 New Clearwater
…
The granite steps of the Kingdom of Endless Winter Capital’s temple were dyed red with blood, and the sweet and strong smell of fish within the air assaulted the nostrils.
The ground was covered with corpses — there were former members of the God’s Punishment Army, followers of the Church, people from their own side and also Sandpeople of the Mojin Clan. They had died in all kind of ways, but most of them had traces of burns, their limbs had been shattered into small pieces and their viscera spread everywhere. Ryan knew that they had died under the fire and impact let out by the fierce Snow Powder.
Whenever he took another step through the city, he felt as if he was placing his feet on a mountain of sticky guts. This battle had demonstrated that the battle will of the Church’s Army of Judges and believers could only be described as madness. Even in the face of so many drugs strengthened slaves, they still had not shrunk back at all. Rather they used their own bodies as meat shields and firmly wrapped themselves around the enemy, trying to create a chance for their comrades to cause a fatal injury to their enemy — although the pills allowed people to become all powerful and unafraid of pain, their heart, neck, and head were still crucial areas like before. Her Majesty Queen Garcia simply did not have any extra armor to equip those cheap slaves with.
If they’d not had the snow powder, it would have been really hard to say how this battle might have unfolded.
But we won… Ryan’s heart felt like it was blazing, in the end, we still won!
The flag of the Queendom of Clearwater was already flying on top of the city walls, and even the Church’s most unyielding stronghold had broken under the waves of their attacks. In this way, the Black Sail Fleet had broken apart the siege they were under and freed itself from the deadlock situation it had been in at the corner of Graycastle. Which allowed them to no longer fear that they would burn themselves out in an endless war of attrition.
Even entering the temple hall he was still able to see the picture of pure chaos, everywhere on the ground were fragments of shattered glass and streams of blood, but all of this was unimportant to him. He went directly to the woman standing at the other end of the hall and fell onto one knee before her, “Your Majesty, all four gates of the city have fallen and are now in the hands of your Black Sail Fleet, the capital of the Kingdom of Endless Winter is now yours.”
“Thank you for your trouble, you can get up.” Garcia raised her arm, holding her hand in front of him.
Ryan gently took the Queen’s hand, placed a symbolic kiss on the back of her hand, and then got up to stand on her side.
“Strange ceremony,” Kabala opened his mouth and said, “You haven’t even touched the back of her hand at all, so why then put on such a display?”
The question came so sudden, he couldn’t refrain himself from frowning, but the other side was the patriarch of the Sandstone Clan, so it wasn’t good to rudely reprimand in public, without any better option he said coldly: “This is a commonly used courtesy between aristocrats and stands for politeness and respect, to touch would show somebody’s lack of manners, but as Sandpeople you’re unable to understand this, so it’s only normal.”
“Is that so?” She raised her eyebrow, then pointed to her own neck, “We are obviously jointly allies of war, who just finished the battle a moment ago, yet you still put this kind of thing on me. The politeness and respect of your mainland people are really beyond comprehension for me.”
Kabala’s neck was enclosed by an iron ring, with a bulge in its middle, seemingly resembling an ornament, but Ryan knew that within it was a God’s Stone of Retaliation embedded. Which with the exception of a unique key was tough to undo, but this key was always in Garcia’s hands. Since the other was a witch, it was only naturally to be careful when dealing with her, but she indeed exerted herself extremely during the fight. In case they hadn’t had her method of command, Ryan was afraid that their slaves that had been carrying the fierce Snow Powder, would have never dared to charge into their believers’ strong defensive line. In the end, even after already opening his mouth, he didn’t know how to refute her.
“Well, don’t argue about such trivial matter,” Garcia interrupted. “You mustn’t forget the purpose of our coming — compared with this vast land, is it impossible for you to tolerate the stone?”
“I simply spoke without thinking the matter through,” Kabala shrugged, “I hope you will honor your promise.”