The crimson flag adorned with a gold sigil of the sun fell to the ground. The city of Attica was littered with corpses. Most of the bodies had experienced gruesome deaths, evidenced in their opened eyes and locked tongues as they stared toward toward the sky. The hollow eyes seemed to ask why G.o.d had chosen such a painful death for them, or perhaps they were showing antic.i.p.ation and yearning for Heaven
The piles of bodies extended from the foot of the mountain all the way to the city of Attica, into the city and onto its walls. Some died to swords, some to witchcraft but more than that were the deaths resulting from Leves" Plague technique. Leves had ambushed the city with an explosion that disseminated the Plague over the entire army of the Church and the city of Attica.
The bodies piled up into mountains, inspiring terror, like a h.e.l.l on Earth. Despite the stench of all of the corpses, there was not a single rat or raven scavenging the bodies. It was as if they, too, feared the terror of this scene from purgatory. The world was deathly silent, not a sound to be heard.
On the city walls were a large number of Owl Knights and in the middle of their huddle was Leves, clad in armor, as well as a few other black robed individuals. Among the black robed crowd, two of the individuals were injured. One was missing an arm, while the other had no legs, so he could only sit in a wheelchair.
On the city walls, there were marks made by multiple explosions, the remnants of witchcraft and divine incantations. The collision between Inferno and Disintegration was terrifying, especially on the east wall of Attica, which had completely collapsed, as if it had been struck by the fist of a giant.
Henry was also an apprentice wizard, and originally one of Leves" followers. He was the son of a court musician and, although he did not have as much talent as Leves, he was one of the strongest among the level one wizards. When Leves sought him ought to explain his ideals, Henry had joined him without a second thought.
Leves patted Henry"s shoulder. "Good work, Henry. Don"t worry, I will use Limb Regeneration on you later to help you regrow your legs."
Though Henry was in a cold sweat from the extreme pain, he gritted his teeth and bore it, as he still had adequate mind power left. Though this was a state near death, with no chance of recovery for normal people, to a wizard, this was nothing.
Henry rested against the city walls, as he looked down upon the corpses. "This is nothing. However, I didn"t expect such power and special abilities from the Saints of the Church of Light. What principles are at work here? Our witchcraft was actually forcefully blown away by their divine incantations. It was quite terrifying!"
Leves nodded. In the encounter with Saint Martin, he had used divine incantations to bear the brunt of the attacks of Leves and two other wizards, without losing. In the last attack, using the Judgement Ray, he had actually grievously wounded two wizards. If Leves had not preempted the attack and fled to the skies, he would have also suffered heavy injuries.
Leves never thought that the taking of the city of Attica and the battle against the fifty-thousand-strong army of the Church would go this successfully. It was definitely going to his head.
Leves stood on the city wall of Attica and looked at St. Sarl City in the distance with great ambition. "The holy city of the Church of Light, the Holy Land of countless followers. You are my next target!"
The wizards around him chimed in, alarmed. "Leves, that doesn"t seem to fit with our plans. We only want to show that we are a strong threat to the Church of Light, and to conquer the Moore Province. As long as we can hold down the Kingdom of the Church of Light, all of the other human countries will rise up, and the influence of the Church of Light will implode."
"We do not need to be that aggressive. As soon as the influence of the Church of Light collapses, we can join together with the other countries to lock the power of the Church within its own territory. At the same time, the influence of the Gathering of n.o.bles within the Crete Empire will develop exponentially. Eventually, the Kingdom of the Church will be completely deadlocked, with no chance of ever rising again."
Henry spoke from the side. "Yet, we did not expect that the Church of Light was this weak. If this is the case, why don"t we just take over the Kingdom of the Church of Light in one push?"
Henry"s words went directly to Leves"s heart. Levi directed with confidence. "That"s right. What we"re aiming for isn"t only the Duchy of Creer. We want to conquer the world and create a nation for wizards."
"Exactly. Even if the other cardinals receive the news, they wouldn"t be able to head back in time, especially as the other large countries are trying to delay them. Within the city, there are only the Pope and the Saintess. If we can take St. Sarl City, we can start the first step of our plan for world domination. The age of the Church of Light will be of the past, as we step into the age of wizards!"
Since Leves had made up his mind, all of the Owl Knights and the other eight members of the Wizard Alliance began preparing for departure. Though they had originally wanted to set up camp here, that plan was sc.r.a.pped, as they prepared to head to St. Sarl City, equipped for war.
Since victory had come so easily, they had already forgotten their fear of G.o.d and the Church. They had also forgotten that the Church had more Saints and powerful Knights of Light lying in wait for them, as well as the legendary Saintess, who wielded the divine artifact.
In Attica, there was a river of blood in the aftermath of the battle. All fifty thousand of the troops of the Church, including an Archbishop, had died within the city. His body was tacked to the city wall in order to display his horrifying manner of death.
In the dead of the night, within the Temple of Light in St. Sarl City, Pope Hodap received the message that the army of the Church had been obliterated in a single battle. He was completely shocked and in disbelief.
The elites of the Church"s army had lost in a battle of fifty thousand against a mere three thousand troops, and had been completely obliterated. Even worse, the enemy was already heading to St. Sarl City, placing the entire Church of Light in existential danger.
Pope Hodap had not slept for the entire night, as he watched over the situation in Attica. Yet, he did not expect as fast a loss as this complete obliteration.
What were these existences, who called themselves wizards? How did they wield so much power?
With the power of the Duchy of Creer, the Church could only call up a mere twenty thousand scattered troops of dismal quality. All of this mayhem was due to the existences of these wizards and the members of the Wizard Alliance, as well as their leader, Leves, and his Owl Knights.
A few days ago, Hodap had already scouted out basic intelligence about this new power, the Wizard Alliance, as well as information about their members and their ties to the Gathering of n.o.bles. The so-called Owl Knights were an army consisting entirely of Bloodline Knights. Even within the Knights of Light, the Bloodline Knights were a rare existence that were only found in specialized squads. All of the other troops were ordinary knights, who had trained to the pinnacle of their physical limitations.
The combat ability of three thousand Bloodline Knights was far beyond that of the fifty thousand soldiers of the Church. At this thought, Hodap felt a chill, causing him to stand up immediately and gesture to a white clothed priest by his side, saying urgently, "Go to the temple. I want to see Her Holiness, the Saintess."