Probably there must be factional struggles in any human political system, and the same is true for Snake Worship Cult.
Snake Worship Cult can actually be divided into two factions, the 'Cobra' and the 'Viper'. This is also due to the struggle between the priestesses of Snake Worship Cult.
Over the past one hundred years, priestesses have been sent to the Pande Continent continuously - the temple priestesses consider this a kind of assignment, and most of the priestesses sent to the Pande Continent are losers in political struggles.
These losers can be regarded as sharing the same fate. They formed an alliance in the Pande Continent and formed the "Cobra" faction.
From Snake Worship Cult followers to Snake Worship Cult warriors, and then to Cobra Warrior, they have established a different level of believers in the Pande Continent.
This is in line with Pendor's native lord culture. The priestesses are like lords, the cobra warriors are like the knights who follow them, and the Snake Worship Cult warriors are like retinues.
But these priestesses assigned to the Pande Continent are actually still loyal to Snake Worship Cult, and will also cooperate with some orders from the temple of the Amara Continent Snake Worship Cult - after all, the priestesses have been brainwashed since childhood, and even internal fighting will not affect their loyalty to Snake Worship Cult itself.
But after all, being divided into two continents, the temple cannot control the Cobra faction, and the priestesses of the Pande Continent will only obey 'part of the orders'.
The 'Viper Sect' is basically Amara Continent's local Snake Worship Cult believers. These believers come from ancient Bacchus Empire, so there is no in the system Pande Continent is so hierarchical - there was no lord culture in ancient Bacchus Empire. The status of the warriors of the Viper Sect was the same as that of ordinary believers, and the leaders were also called generals just like Bax.
Because the military and political system of the Amara Continent's native Snake Worship Cult has been in chaos for more than a hundred years, it is difficult for the temple priestesses to truly control the military power, and Snake Worship Cult gradually loses control internally.
In many cases, the orders of the temple are violated - this is normal. Few of the orders issued by the priestesses of the temple are reliable. The generals of the Viper faction respect the orders of the priestesses on the surface, and respect the priestesses who accompany the army, but they will never obey the orders of the priestesses in everything.
Under such circumstances, the authority of the temple is naturally not as good as before. If Fear Legion had not had the mission of eliminating rebellion, Snake Worship Cult would have been torn apart long ago.
But the problem is that Fear Legion is not loyal to High Priest.
In fact, not even the temple's Council of Priestesses can issue any orders to the Fear Legion.
Fear Legion has a very special status among Snake Worship Cult, and Maltis is not interested in anything other than rebellion and fighting, so naturally it cannot be bribed.
Moreover, this terrifying legion would not have any dependence on the Snake Worship Cult Temple - all of them are resurrected undead and need neither supplies nor enjoyment.
In fact, before the death of the original talented High Priest, the status of any legionary infantryman among Maltis's Fear Legion was much higher than that of the temple priestess.
Because Fear Legion was once the rebel army of Snake Worship Cult, they only did two jobs, one was to defeat the Snake Worship Cult troops who betrayed the great snake god Az Dahaka; the other was to conquer those enemies that were difficult to deal with.
Maltis will completely ignore any other commands...
This also means that the current Snake Worship Cult and High Priest in the temple basically cannot control any external military power. Only Temple Guard is considered to be under the control of High Priest.
The current High Priest actually has some ideas. After all, once he takes power, he naturally hopes to break the four-year election situation...
She wanted to control external military power into her own hands.
To this end, she used Elisa as a blade to devise a series of conspiracies.
First of all, High Priest said that Elisa absconded after poisoning all the temple priestesses, and a large-scale investigation needs to be launched.
But in fact, Elisa has always been in the hands of High Priest's trusted samurai.
Later, High Priest summoned the leaders of the Viper Faction in the temple, expressed suspicion that Elisa's rebellion was related to the army, and announced that they would investigate the rebellion.
At the same time, High Priest secretly sent Elisa into the military camp of the most powerful general of the Viper faction, thereby framed the general for conspiring to rebel with Elisa.
After all, Elisa does intend to poison all the priestesses in the temple, including High Priest - this is indeed the highest level of treason.
Since there is indeed a traitor who is a temple priest in the military camp, then Fear Legion of Maltis will naturally come forward to put down the rebellion.
So the general and a small group of Snake Worship Cult warriors who were not very obedient were killed by Maltis's Fear Legion, but Elisa 'escaped again' – High Priest thought that Elisa, a sinner who had really been poisoned, was very useful, so he hid Elisa again.
The reason for doing this is to use Elisa, the real treasonous criminal, to drive Maltis's Fear Legion again in the future - this kind of high-end rebel who can cause Fear Legion to be dispatched is not easy to find, so of course you must cherish it.
I don't know how Maltis can judge the truth and lies. Maybe Maltis can get Oracle from Aziz Dahaka to judge the truth and falsehood. Anyway, false accusations and forged orders have never been able to control Fear Legion, and the rebel Maltis who is too low-level will not pay attention to it.
But the rebellion of the temple priestess Elisa is obviously very influential. As long as the situation is true, Fear Legion will definitely take action.
After the Fear Legion killed the general, High Priest successfully placed his cronies in the general's position, and completed control of the army under the intimidation of the Fear Legion.
--She said that if this army does not obey her command, then all the soldiers will be killed by the Fear Legion as rebels, and they will not be able to live in peace even after death.
If Snake Worship Cult, as a traitor, is killed by the Fear Legion, the end will be really miserable, not just death...
Fear Legion represents the greatest fear even within Snake Worship Cult.
Because traitors or Snake Worship Cult sinners will be devoured by the Fear Legion at the altar of Snake Worship Cult - literally devoured, they will have all their flesh eaten away by Python Knights of the Fear Legion.
After having their skin and flesh eaten alive, the betrayer will annihilate the "sinful soul into the abyss" in the altar of Az-Dahaka, and eventually become the "devoured one".
This kind of 'swallowed one' is generally equivalent to the soul being devoured and the flesh and blood being eaten away, leaving only a skeleton-like body, but this body will still be driven by those Python Knights until it is completely reduced to powder.
In the eyes of Snake Worship Cult followers, this is equivalent to being unable to stand up forever and sinking into the hell of pain forever.
In fact, the Devoured One of Snake Worship Cult is very similar to Fallen One of the Dark Goddess sect.
They all lost their skin and flesh, and their souls were devoured by some kind of existence.
However, in the Dark Goddess sect, Fallen One takes the initiative to dedicate his skin, flesh and soul to Dark Goddess in exchange for powerful power. This is more like an active transaction.
In Snake Worship Cult, the devoured are all sinners of the sect, but they will also gain strength from this...
The logic on both sides is completely different, but the result is indeed the same - the devoured person and Fallen One are both fleshless and powerful walking corpses.
Obviously, the powerful power they obtained is probably just an inevitable phenomenon after becoming undead - the undead who have lost consciousness will no longer be affected by the human body's own protective mechanism, and they can exert all the power that the human body can theoretically exert.
Snake Worship Cult believers are extremely afraid of being devoured. In their teachings, this punishment imposed on rebels means that they will endure endless torture in the abyss of hell and will never be able to escape.
They are not afraid of death, but they are afraid of going to hell - most cult believers are like this. In their eyes, death is just waiting on the road to heaven in advance, but they cannot accept the "annihilation of the soul" by the gods they believe in.
High Priest successfully obtained the first army that obeyed her alone.
This is the first High Priest in many years to truly successfully seize a large amount of military power - such an achievement has greatly increased the confidence of the current High Priest, and naturally spawned bigger ideas.
But this kind of frame-up can obviously only be used once in the Amara Continent's homeland. After all, Elisa has been "fugitive". It would be too fake if it could still appear in another general's military camp...
And other generals have also taken precautions.
Besides, if Maltis finds out that this is a frame-up, he might let Fear Legion kill this High Priest and choose again...
Therefore, this High Priest set his sights on the Pande Continent.
This kind of frame-up may no longer be used in the Amara Continent, but it is logical to use it in the Pande Continent - the female priests of the Cobra faction often disobey the temple's instructions. Although this is more due to the inconvenience of news transmission across two continents, it is not unfair to say that they are rebellious.
In this way, Fear Legion can still be used as a swordsman, and Elisa, the great villain, can still be used.
On the one hand, High Priest plans to get the army of the female priests of the Cobra Faction - those female priests have all been losers in political struggles. In High Priest's view, she will definitely be able to kill or control those losers and get the Cobra Faction's army into her own hands.
Moreover, the Cobra faction basically uses the logic of lords. Those priestesses personally lead the army. There is no middleman like a "general". The Cobra faction's believers will be more adaptable to being controlled by a dictatorial priestess than the Viper faction.
On the other hand, High Priest plans to personally conquer Bacchus Empire of the Pande Continent - with such an achievement, she will surely become the true ruler of the entire Snake Worship Cult, controlling everything just like the first generation High Priest.
So she banished Elisa to the Pande Continent, and asked her trusted warriors to take Elisa to become a member of the Cobra Faction, and at the same time asked the priestess of the Pande Continent the Cobra Faction. They sent an order to besiege Imperial Port - in the name of the Temple Priest Council, Snake Worship Cult disciples of the Pande Continent were required to join their expeditionary force at Imperial Port.
This is actually to allow the female priests of the Cobra Faction to gather together under Imperial Port, and then High Priest can use the name 'Elisa to unite the Cobra Faction to rebel' Justice once again prompted Fear Legion to go out to fight against the rebellion, allowing her to capture the army of the priestesses of the Pande Continent - the same method could indeed be used again in the Pande Continent.
And this time she wants to achieve multiple goals in one step. She can not only conquer Imperial Port and create good conditions for the conquest of the Bacchus Empire, but also control a large number of troops to make herself a true dictator.
Then, High Priest launched the mobilization for the expedition to Pendor at the Temple of Amalur.
The order of the expedition to Pendor has indeed received widespread response from the Amara Continent, because Amara Continent has faced a long period of famine, and it is in line with the wishes of most believers to go to the Pande Continent to get some food.
So High Priest used the army she had just controlled as the main body to form a huge expeditionary force, gathered the Snake Worship Cult troops to several ports near the temple, and then began to mobilize supplies.
However, what High Priest did not expect was that before the supplies for the army were prepared, Pande Continent suddenly arrived with a Bacchus Empire fleet, causing great chaos in various ports.
High Priest herself does not know how to command naval battles at all, and the confidant general she just promoted probably does not know much either. Facing Bacchus Empire's fleet, she responded too slowly. As a result, a large number of warships and docks were destroyed, and the rations she had finally gathered were burned.
It may be difficult for the expeditionary force to set off now...
As a result, the trusted warriors who took Elisa to the Pande Continent lost contact with High Priest - the port was destroyed, and the expeditionary force led by High Priest failed to set off as scheduled.
On the contrary, the independent army of the Fear Legion had already set off before the accident at the port - Fear Legion did not need supplies, and they were not waiting at the port at that time.
High Priest's plan naturally went a long way.
After the trusted warriors brought Elisa to the Pande Continent, they landed at Serindil Village, a coastal village west of Imperial Port, and then lurked there. Since the expeditionary force never came and Imperial Port was never captured, they could only find another landing point.
But this resulted in them being unable to obtain follow-up instructions and implement High Priest's plan.
High Priest asked them to bring Elisa to Imperial Port, as a priestess assigned to Pendor, to join the Cobra faction.
However, the expeditionary force has not yet arrived, and Imperial Port has been in the hands of the Bacchus Empire. Although it was precariously attacked by Pande's Snake Worship Cult, it just did not fall...
Imperial Port has no way to go. These close warriors know that Elisa is the traitor who poisoned High Priest, but they can neither deal with it at will nor dare to let Elisa contact the Snake Worship Cult disciples in Pende.
Therefore, they did not dare to act rashly, but kept hiding and waiting at Serendil.
As a result, Elisa was naturally unable to join the Cobra faction, and he was not even able to meet the priestess alliance who was assigned to the Pande Continent.
This made Fear Legion not launch an attack on the Pande Continent's Cobra faction - because they did not rebel.
Maltis can indeed determine the authenticity of Oracle in some way.
Therefore, Fear Legion did not attack Imperial Port at all, nor did it stay near Imperial Port.
This legion seems to have spontaneously set a new goal - Siyuan City.
After all, Fear Legion did not need supplies, so Maltis sailed along the coastline for a few more days, and then landed from Qizha Village.
Ordinary troops cannot land from Qiza. There is no dock for large warships there, and large ships can easily run aground in the shallow harbor.
Only Fear Legion, these undead warriors who are not tired and are powerful, can forcefully go ashore directly from the gentle beach on the seaside - they do not need supplies or breathing, and even those war horses are not living creatures. As long as there is a gentle slope, they can even ride horses directly from the bottom of the sea to the beach...
Fear Legion went to the direction of Siyuan City, High Priest's fleet never came, and Imperial Port was never captured...
High Priest These trusted warriors are now even less able to carry out their missions.
Staying in one place for a long time will naturally give opportunities to prisoners. In addition, Elisa is both good at using drugs and looks beautiful...
As a result, two nights ago, Elisa gave a kiss to a Snake Worship Cult warrior who looked at her face with eyes wide open.
That was High Priest's trusted warrior. Just a few minutes after being kissed, this guy's whole body twitched and fell into a coma. He was probably hopeless - a priestess who had been trained with poison since she was a child. The poison on her red lips was basically the same as that of a viper.
Then Elisa got it and Black Iron Spear ran away.
In order to run away smoothly, she also bought a piece of leather armor that didn't fit well, and disguised herself as a follower of Snake Worship Cult from Pendor.
In fact, she had already successfully escaped.
Knowing that there were priestesses of the Cobra faction gathering near Imperial Port, Elisa originally ran to Imperial Port. She originally planned to join the Cobra faction and explain High Priest's conspiracy to these priestesses. This would definitely enable her to gain the protection and even support of the local priestesses of Pendor.
But since it was her first time to the Pande Continent and she had seen little of the world, she did not expect Pande Continent to be so hierarchical. As a result, she met a Cobra Warrior near Imperial Port - that Cobra Warrior had obviously never seen such a beautiful 'Snake Worship Cult follower', and planned to take it back to enjoy.
The result is obvious, Elisa has another victim under her red lips.
So Elisa was chased all the way to Buyulin Village by Snake Worship Cult warriors under Cobra Warrior, and then he was lucky enough to meet Risadiran.
Of course, even if she doesn't encounter Risadiran, she can probably run away. The priestess with Black Iron Spear in her hands is actually still capable of fighting...
However, when encountering an army against Snake Worship Cult, Elisa will of course try to see if she can get asylum. After all, she is not sure now whether killing Cobra Warrior will be avenged by Pan De's Snake Worship Cult disciples...
"Commander, I understand the hiss... way of thinking of Divine Cult believers, and I know how to face them... Maybe this will be helpful for you to formulate strategies and tactics..., hiss."
Elisa began to recommend himself to the lord.
"Now I roughly understand why those Snake Worship Cult disciples gave up Imperial Port and attacked my troops instead... Since this is the case, then Imperial Port is actually not under much pressure... Everyone, we have to find a way to get the troops guarding Imperial Port to come out to attack Snake Worship Cult!"
The lord really understands that the native Snake Worship Cult disciples of Pende who attacked Imperial Port have been attacking Imperial Port for three full months, but they have never seen the arrival of the High Priest expeditionary force.
However, due to the orders of the temple, the Snake Worship Cult disciples did not dare to withdraw their troops...
Now that my support army has arrived, they will of course give up Imperial Port and turn to attack themselves - no matter whether they can defeat themselves or not, they can take the opportunity to break away from this bad battle of attacking Imperial Port!