Occupying Collins City

Collins City had fallen into a disastrous state, just like Niceburg a few months earlier. The fear, despair, and chaos the people of Niceburg had endured had been completely replicated in this inland city.

Prices had soared to unreasonable levels, and many goods had become impossible to buy no matter how much money one had. The collapse of the market gave rise to violence. Once order was no longer enforced, fists became a more accessible way to obtain what one wanted than money.

The armed forces that had once maintained order had either gathered on the walls to defend the city or been drawn to the sides of various powers to protect their safety, allowing the chaos among the populace to continue spreading.

Within the ruling class, some hoped to negotiate with the New Sect Alliance in exchange for a relatively dignified end to the war.

But as the stronghold of the Horn Bay Church, Collins City was never short of religious fanatics. Chief among them was Archbishop Elvis, who stubbornly hated the New Sect he had personally driven into existence. He insisted that he was defending the dignity of the Lord of Light in the mortal world and that they absolutely could not live under the same sky as those heretics bewitched by witches.

"Either the heretics die, or we become martyrs!"

"We must cleanse the sins they have committed with the heretics' blood!"

In the church, Elvis constantly preached to the fanatical believers gathered there. His throat had become useless from his ceaseless screaming day and night, and his voice had grown extremely hoarse, but it still sounded full of power to everyone else.

The archbishop had not slept for several days. What drove his body to move now was entirely spiritual strength, not his muscles, bones, or