War on the Path of Dawn, faith in the North

Ryan's guess was correct; the Sera Kingdom's declaration of war against the Andara Kingdom was due to the war in the South.

However, it was not because of the conflict between the Thousand Lakes Province Empire and the Church.

Instead, it's on the Path of Dawn.

According to the ancient rules of the Church of Dawn, the Path of Dawn must first go through three steps.

The first step involves at least three hundred clergy members of the Church, at the level of bishop or above, praying for three consecutive days and nights to inform the great Lord of Dawn the believers' infidelity.

The second step was to dispatch the Holy Kingdom Knights to patrol the entire land of faith, that is, all the lands that worship the Lord of Dawn, to warn any human whose faith wavered.

The third step involves the Pope praying personally and receiving guidance at Dawn on a certain day. The choice of the Path of Dawn is the most uncertain part, as guidance may be received the next day or it may take a long time.

According to some ancient noble records, the Pope once prayed for thirteen years in the church at the top of the Holy Mountain before he obtained a winding, complex road that stretched for ten thousand miles to Path of Dawn.

The price of that successful Path of Dawn was that nearly half of the Holy Kingdom Knights perished due to various troubles along the way.

They cleared away all the Magical Beast, all the evil Mages, and all the noble lords in their territories who had been exploited by their people to the point that they could only live to be in their twenties.

Then, the Faith of Dawn was once again devout.

But that's all in the past.

Choosing the Path of Dawn is now quite troublesome, but the trouble is no longer the prayers, but the noise on the Holy Mountain.

The Pope sits high above, with Cardinal Archbishop, Archbishop, bishops, and elders below him who, though retired, still wield power in certain key departments of the Church of Dawn.

They argued and quarreled endlessly until one day a conclusion was reached, and then the Path of Dawn could be decided.

This is how the Path of Dawn selection came about.

It passed through the lands of five kingdoms, stretching for 2,300 miles, and involved a large number of nobles, both large and small.

Of course, most of these nobles could resolve the issue through means other than killing, such as wealth, land, or high-quality men and women.

In a few places, the chaos could not be quelled no matter what, because the essence of the Path of Dawn is still deterrence. If nothing could happen just by collecting money, then the Church would probably have been overthrown by the Empire and the nobles long ago.

Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse, let alone the Church of Dawn, which is not even starved now; it is still very strong.

When the Holy Kingdom Knights passed by, the land was adorned with flowers, but where they went, rivers of blood quickly flowed.

In the past, every instance of this had ended with the nobles making concessions.

But this time, the Church did not have the same smooth sailing as before.

Just as the Church of Light in the Andara Kingdom in the the North was repeatedly targeted by assassinations, the Path of Dawn in the South was also blocked by hunters from the Empire, who should have been swift, by the Holy Kingdom Knight.

"Aatrox!"

Beneath a clear sky, with vast distant mountains and a radiant expanse, the Holy Kingdom Knights, a pristine white force, were in disarray on the fertile land. The Legendary Legion Commander, the Holy Knights Damon, furiously charged towards Aatrox Clayton. The pure white Holy Radiance converged in the void connecting the sky and the earth, forming a greatsword that could destroy all evil. Correspondingly, Aatrox in his Demons form was indeed as evil as Demon of the Abyss.

He launched a surprise attack on the Holy Kingdom Knights Legion, corrupting over sixty Holy Kingdom Knight, who were shrouded in hundreds of blessings, into monsters of the Abyss. This was only because they were Holy Kingdom Knight; otherwise, with the power of a Legendary figure, tens of thousands of knights here could have become monsters of the Abyss.

But this is still blasphemy.

"Damon, you can't do anything to me."

Aatrox sneered. He hovered in the sky, surrounded by dark power. He used to have to hide, but as the conflict between the Empire and the Church became irreconcilable, he finally appeared openly in the sunlight.

Seeing Damon charging towards him, Aatrox had no intention of taking the holy sword from the sky head-on; he was no match for Damon.

As the Legion Commander of the Holy Kingdom Knights, Knight Damon's combat prowess is beyond doubt. Even the Frost Dragon Arryris couldn't stop him from staying back in the Northwind Province.

Aatrox fled into the distance, pursued relentlessly by Damon. Just ten minutes after the two Legendary disappeared, and just as the Holy Kingdom Knights were about to suppress the inner Abyss power, the ground on one side rose up, and a massive subterranean worm emerged. It let out a deafening roar, its ring-shaped mouth full of sharp teeth opening wide, causing cracks to appear in the ground.

One after another, fully armed knights charged out from the passage it had opened up. They rode their warhorses into battle, and there were clearly thousands of them. Without exception, they were all wearing weapons and equipment bearing the emblem of the Florian Empire.

The key is not the number of people, but that these thousands of people, the lowest rank being Silver Knight, had no regrets about their lives in their eyes beneath their visors, and launched a fearless attack on the Holy Kingdom Knights, the leader of the ten Extraordinary Legion of the Holy the Church.

"For an unyielding glory!!!"

"For the ancient glory!!!"

The fact that they didn't mention the Empire suggests that this army, dressed in Imperial equipment, didn't actually come from the Empire, but from noble lineages they couldn't reveal to the Church.

This was a disgrace, unless no one knew it, so the eyes of the thousands of knights peeking out from between them were filled with the will to die.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

A thousand meters away in the sky, Mages chanted incantations. The battle on the battlefield was impossible without their participation, because these Mages needed to help the thousands of people suppress the various blessings bestowed upon the Holy Kingdom Knight.

Otherwise, let alone these thousand people, even ten times that number wouldn't be enough to kill a single Holy Kingdom Knight.

"Disrupt their Grand Resurrection Divine Art!"

A Mages roared in a low voice, his magic robes fluttered, and a terrible gale swirled in the sky. Then, an ancient power descended.

In the void, an indescribable face appeared. Its appearance originated from the skull of an ancient life in the hands of a Mages. The red skull seemed to come alive in that instant. Fortunately, the surrounding Mages were even more vigilant than the vigilant the Church Legion, keeping their eyes fixed on it.

The moment the gaze of the Great Being fell upon them, a terrifying, snow -Holy Radiance appeared on the bodies of tens of thousands of Holy Kingdom Knight on the battlefield a thousand meters away. They had encountered an invasion of some kind of power, and for this, a Divine Art blessing engraved as a passive skill was consumed.

"Death Engraving! These damned Mages have unearthed the remains of Great Being's fall!!!"

Some Holy Knights were enraged, but then, more of their Dawn's Blessing was inexplicably consumed—pure magical power. Around them, a group of Mages were casting spells on them.

Until a certain moment, countless transparent cracks appeared on the Holy Kingdom Knights.

That was Magic-Ban blessing, specifically designed to counter the power of Mages, yet it has shattered now.

This scene terrified the Holy Kingdom Knight, and the next moment, led by a Sanctuary Knight, they launched a counter-charge against the thousand men who were charging towards them.

"The Light of Our Lord!"

The knight raised his longsword high, and the voices of tens of thousands of people echoed behind him.

"—Light up the pitch-black Eternal Night!"

Tens of thousands of knights, their white armor rumbling across the land, stretched as far as the eye could see. Wherever they went, almost no other color appeared. Holy Radiance shone down on the land where their warhorses galloped, turning the soil snow-white. The stones before them, the battlefield they were about to reach, were all a pure white.

Like a filter, the Holy Kingdom Knight transformed this land into their home ground, their domain of war.

"Slay these heretics, and offer them as a sacrifice to the glory of our Lord!"

The indifferent Holy Kingdom Knight were able to carry out a one-sided massacre against an army of at least a thousand Silver Knight.

"The Dawn never sets, and every day is the same!"

They were radiating light, a light that should have been gentle, holy, and righteous, but on the battlefield at this moment, it was like a sharp spear, making the thousands of knights feel hot all over. Blood seeped from every pore beneath their armor, and they became weak under the holy Dawn.

If it weren't for the armor they wore, this thousand-man army would probably have collapsed completely at this moment.

The one-sided nature of the war once again demonstrated the power of the Church of Dawn to the Mages in the distance.

Fortunately, they did not rely on these people to achieve victory.

"In the South lands, even a single tree is split in two, with one half handed over to the Church. They are too weak."

The extraordinary beings from the Empire hid at the end of the tunnel carved out by the underground worms, watching the carnage on the battlefield, each one of them frowning in dissatisfaction.

"Does the Empire really need the help of these useless people?"

Some people sneered, saying that these knights showed nothing but fearlessness in the face of death.

"Therefore, they need the Empire's help."

In the center of the crowd, a tall young man clad in golden armor raised his head. His golden hair and eyes exuded nobility, and more importantly, the insignia on the chest of his armor was the Eternity Flower of Heaven of the Florian Empire's Imperial House.

He spoke, and then everyone around him fell silent.

"It's our turn. Aatrox will hold Damon back. He won't be able to come back until he ascends to his angelic form."

"Your Prince Freud, you can make the decision yourself."

The golden-armored knight before him was none other than Floyd Columbus, one of the Elector of the empire.

Just as the emperor of the empire gave another Elector Volvo, a test, the other two Elector will also face the same test.

This was the first step taken by the Elector toward the highest power in the empire, and an opportunity for them to prove their abilities to the nobility of the entire empire.

Volvo rebuilt the West Coast Fleet, which is currently the Empire's only naval force. In comparison, Floyd, who brought nobles to the South lands to hunt down the Church, received a less desirable mission.

The nobles speculated that the Mayers Grand Ducal Family was involved, since Grand Duke Mayers was the only grand duke to have explicitly stated who he was helping.

The empire was first and foremost the empire of the Imperial House and the grand dukes, and only secondarily the empire of the Imperial House, the grand dukes, and the nobles.

Therefore, Floyd needed to prove himself even more perfectly.

Looking at the battlefield ahead, Floyd did not hesitate and drew his longsword from his waist.

One of the three Elector, he possesses a pure thirst for battle.

"Kill!"

Dozens of powerful nobles burst out of the cave and were exposed to the sunlight, piercing through the Holy Kingdom Knights army like a sharp sword. Not only were they all stronger, but they also possessed a large number of extraordinary treasures. For one thing, Floyd directly tore through forbidden magic during his charge, making the earth as hard as metal.

At the same time, the Mage Corps hidden on the other side also made their move. They destroyed the Magic-Ban blessing on the Holy Kingdom Knights, and at this moment, the magic was at its most lethal.

Flames and wind blades gradually transformed into meteorites falling from the sky. Giant stone hands reached out from cracks in the earth, vines sprouted from the flat land, and the gale turned into a tornado.

The once clear sky was transformed into an apocalyptic scene by the power of these magical forces. Even the Holy Kingdom Knights were unable to mount an effective counterattack; they were the target of all these forces.

"Kill them all!"

Floyd shouted, and the longsword in his hand easily tore through the holy light of the Church of Dawn, causing the Holy Knights' eyes to widen in anger.

"The Sword of the Betrayer"

"Meaningless shouting."

Floyd decapitated the man, then frowned and looked around. He seemed to sense something, and the next moment he shouted for retreat.

"Retreat immediately!"

The sky was bright and sunny. The greatest strength of the Holy Kingdom Knights was not their individual combat power, nor the dozens or hundreds of Divine Art blessings they possessed, including resurrection techniques.

Rather, they are the only group within the Church capable of communicating with the Holy Mountain of the Church of Dawn at any time and in any place, and receiving the immense help of the faith from the Church.

High in the Sky-rank, as the sunlight streamed down, a vast expanse of Holy Radiance descended straight down, connecting with the sunlight and with every living Holy Kingdom Knight.

Sizzle~

The warhorses leaped high into the air and never fell, for snow-white wings sprouted from their backs. Not only them, but the Holy Kingdom Knight were also shrouded in a hazy glow. Gentle angelic phantoms descended, their warm, bare arms encircling the shoulders of each knight. They lay on the knights' backs, their wings becoming the wings of the Holy Knights.

The Power of Faith is terrifying. Just like at this moment, the Holy Kingdom Knight, bathed in the light of faith, has eyes that are pure white as he charges toward all the enemies around him.

"The longer they stay, the stronger their faith becomes. It's time to go."

Floyd sighed; he had only been in the battle for less than ten minutes, and it seemed he couldn't possibly kill this Holy Kingdom Knights.

Once again, the forbidden magic scroll was torn open. This thing was extremely precious, and using it was naturally a luxury. Fortunately, the honeymoon period between the empire and the Mages had become increasingly intimate over the past century.

A deafening roar echoed across the sky, and as dark clouds gathered, they brought with them strong winds and torrential rain. Their appearance significantly reduced the efficiency of the Holy Kingdom Knights in receiving faith. Then, the clouds flickered incessantly, and bolts of lightning, tearing through the void, crashed down.

In this final act, Floyd also intended to deliver the final blow to the Holy Kingdom Knights.

"Withdraw!"

Amidst the thunder, Legion Commander Damon returned, gazing furiously at the ravaged land and battlefield, and at the more than a thousand Holy Knights who could no longer fight.

Soon after, the Pope on Dawn Holy Mountain also roared in anger.

The Holy Kingdom Knights were attacked, but it wasn't just them who were attacked. Path of Dawn, extraordinary knights were constantly appearing and slaughtering the Dawn Believers. They were resisting. Those damned nobles whose faith had already wavered dared to defy the will of Dawn.

"They should obediently Welcoming the Dawn! What made them dare to defy the great Dawn?"

The Pope was furious. The nobles had lost their reverence for the Dawn and even began to resist the purification of believers on the Path of Dawn.

Since when have these damned nobles become so audacious? Do they think the Dawn cannot judge them?

And so... war broke out.

The war between the Sera Kingdom and the Andara Kingdom.

"Clearly, the Pope believes that the defeat of the Andara Kingdom has given the nobles of the Norris Continent inappropriate thoughts."

"The Andara Kingdom is a very bad example. The Faith of Dawn was damaged because of the Empire, but it was in the Andara Kingdom that things became turbulent."

The Empire is one thing, but what is the Andara Kingdom that caused the Church of Dawn to suffer a crushing defeat, and whose believers were sold back to them through slavery?

This is a disgrace, but disgrace is the least of our worries.

The key point is that the example in the Andara Kingdom showed other lands in the South that the Church was weakened and that it was not incapable of resistance.

The fierce resistance on the Path of Dawn was a consequence of the events in the Andara Kingdom, and most importantly, they theoretically succeeded.

That land is now in complete chaos. Many nobles have even lost control of their own territories. Wars have broken out in many territories, between nobles, and among clergy of the Church.

In short, everything was in complete chaos, and even the Holy Kingdom Knights' journey along the Path of Dawn was brought to a halt.

How could the Church not be furious, and at the same time, filled with murderous intent?

They want the Sera Kingdom and the Andara Kingdom to go to war, with the ultimate goal most likely being that the Sera Kingdom wins the war, while the Church of Dawn retakes control of the Andara Kingdom. At that time, many nobles in this land may have to retire early.

Hereditary power has no concept of retirement; it is only subject to unforeseen circumstances, such as death, which takes away the power that nobles were born with.

Therefore, they also dispatched an Archbishop as the vanguard of the Church of Dawn to lead the faith of the Sera Kingdom.

Now... that Archbishop is dead.

(End of this chapter)