India's Three Champions vs. Hot Spring Pass's Three Champions 1/5
On the wide official road, two carriages sped by, with Queen Gogo and High Priest Helen in one, leading the way.
Samael drove the chariot filled with the women of the mountain village, bringing up the rear.
Along the way, as the car bounced around, Gogo and Helen naturally couldn't help but whisper among themselves, cautiously discussing some cryptic and confidential matters.
Even though the two carefully set up a barrier, this protection was nothing to a certain deity hidden in the group. Their conversation naturally fell into Samael's ears without missing a single word.
As they continued their journey, Samael subtly probed the group of women behind him, and their corroborating information became increasingly clear, the details of which were now connected in a coherent narrative.
As fragments of information pieced together, filling in the gaps in his mind, the ancient serpent gradually sketched out the current war situation in northern Greece. His brow furrowed more and more, and his expression grew increasingly grim.
The situation in Greece is truly complex!
Several months ago, the Iliad War began.
The Persian army was ambitious and attempted to conquer all of Greece in one fell swoop. To conquer mountainous Greece, Persia had to advance by both land and sea. The navy could not only transport supplies for the army, but also conduct naval landings when necessary to encircle the Greeks.
As the two Persian kings Darius I and Xerxes led their armies to conquer all directions and subjugate the Lord of all races, they each led their troops, advancing by land and sea, supporting each other.
Xerxes and Persia were not simply reckless and aggressive; long before the war began, they sent Persian envoys disguised as merchants to lavishly bribe and subvert some city-states along the way.
With the Persian army now pressing in, this strategy of offering both money and treasure has led to the swift fall of many city-states. The heads of several hardline city-state King have been chopped off by the Persians, dried, and hung on the heads of the envoys' warhorses as a deterrent to pressure the Greeks.
For a time, Greece felt a sense of impending crisis, and people in all its states were filled with anxiety.
However, the Egyptians betrayed the Persian army, causing it considerable losses. Seizing the opportunity, the Persian navy decisively defeated the Greek fleet in the Battle of Salamis.
This victory against overwhelming odds, a counterattack seemingly aided by divine intervention, naturally greatly inspired the Greeks, and their will to resist soared to unprecedented heights.
However, after suffering a setback at sea, the Persian army quickly regrouped and launched a land offensive, conquering more than a dozen peripheral city-states with overwhelming strength.
Soon, Thessaly, the northern coastal region of Greece, became the first to be affected.
In an effort to protect itself, Thessaly summoned powerful city-states such as Athens, Corinth, Mycenae, Thebes, Macedonia, and Sparta to join forces. They hastily assembled a coalition of over 10,000 Greek soldiers and gathered Divine Blood Hero from various city-states in the Tempe Gorge near Thessaly. They successfully used the complex terrain of Greece to halt the Persian advance and repel several enemy attacks.
However, the Persians, having stabilized their position, continued to amass and reinforce their troops, and many Divine Blood Hero even appeared in their army. This completely negated the Greeks' slight advantage of having elite troops.
Among them, three foreign heroes were recruited by Xerxes and treated as honored guests. They fought several battles, causing the Divine Blood Hero to suffer heavy losses.
At this moment, as Samael listened to the descriptions of the three foreign heroes by Gogo and Helen, familiar figures gradually appeared in his mind, and his eyes flickered with a deep glint.
If I'm not mistaken, the three who appeared in the Persian army should be from the Indian Pantheon: Karna, son of the Sun God Surya; Rama, king of Kosala; and Jinako, a girl possessed by the stone god Ganesh.
Samael frowned, deeply wary of this.
As far as he knew, these three were all at the level of gods. Leaving aside Jinako was a lazy bum, the origins of the first two were quite mysterious.
India has two great epics that span the divine and heroic periods: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
The former is about the fateful struggle between the brothers Arjuna and Karna, while the latter is about the tragic love between King Rama and his wife Sita.
Coincidentally, Arjuna, Karna, and Rama, who have been associated with the Hindu gods and heroes throughout the Indian age, are intricately linked to the supreme triad of Hindu gods: Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu.
Arjuna received guidance from Shiva, the god of destruction; Karna possessed the blessings of Brahma, the god of creation; Rama was simply a reincarnation of Vishnu, the God of Order.
Their strength is not much less than that of Gilgamesh.
Now, two of the three Indian gods, Rahula, have appeared in the Persian army, which makes Samael wary and deeply suspicious of the Indian gods' stance.
Besides the fact that the Divine Blood Hero are relatively weak, the Greek fortress of the Tempe Gorge is not impregnable either, and has its own fatal flaws.
A prince from Macedonia once pointed out that there were mountain paths in the valley that could be used for flanking maneuvers, and that the Tempe Gorge was easily infiltrated by the Persian army from other directions. The Greek coalition had to divide its troops to defend the valley, which further weakened its own strength.
As the Persians pressed closer and closer, and with the arrival of reinforcements such as the Meteor Legion and the Mystic Lamp Sorcerer, the Tempe Gorge quickly deteriorated, and it could only struggle to hold on, its manpower being rapidly depleted.
Soon, the mountain path marked by the Macedonia prince became the Persian's breach, forcibly torn open and exposing the allied forces' backs to the enemy's attack.
Fortunately, a fat man named Caesar, at a critical moment when the lines were on the verge of collapse, devised a feint, boldly pretending to lead "Roman reinforcements" to attack the Persian flank. This fooled the enemy, allowing the allied forces to preserve their strength and withdraw calmly. Thessaly thus fell.
Currently, the Greek coalition forces are moving to their next defensive position, which is located at Artemisium Cape in central Greece, and... Hot Spring Pass!
During the withdrawal, Leonidas the King of Sparta in charge of commanding the land coalition, sensed that the situation was dire. Based on the advice of a fat Roman and a Macedonia prince, he secretly sought help from Mount of Ares.
However, several attempts to release carrier pigeons and dispatch scouts all failed, leaving no trace.
Left with no other choice, Leonidas had to send a message to his wife, Gogo, ordering her to personally go to the Acropolis of Athens to gather troops and support Hot Spring Pass.
In order to persuade the stubborn old men in the council chambers as much as possible, this wise and decisive queen not only emptied the royal palace's coffers, but also brought in Sparta, Helen Spartan high priestess of the Temple of the Moon Goddess, who was blessed by the gods and was said to have close ties with a certain important figure in Athens.
Leonidas, the Gate Guardian Caesar, the Roman Caesar; Alexander the Great, the Macedonia Conqueror King Alexander!
Damn, luckily Greece's military strength is weak, but their military strategy is not. They have two top talents who are good at military administration and tactics. Otherwise, with their limited manpower, they would have collapsed long ago during the retreat from the Tempe Gorge.
However, the defense of Tempe Gorge was due to the mountain path; the fall of the Hot Spring Pass will also be due to the mountain path.
Fate, sometimes, really is something you can't escape...