Chapter 266
Ryan opened the game, switched to the 'Avril' character interface, and immediately found that the latter was on a war-torn plain.
Battle, battle everywhere.
Ryan checked the AFK logs and learned that Avril's Moonlight Knight Order had already encountered the Arcadia army, and that the attack was launched overnight. The Moonlight Knight Order arrived at the front line a full day earlier than expected, so the Arcadia was completely unprepared.
Although the Rifle Cavalry reacted quickly enough, the speed of their charge became a crucial factor in their race against death under the Moonlight Cavalry, as the attack was carried out by Moonlight Cavalry. When the moon rose, the power of the Starry Knight fell upon the Moonlight Cavalry, and the Moonlit Night Guardian the soldiers from the power of the rifles. Then, the lances were swung fiercely, piercing the invincible Rifle Cavalry into pieces.
Those Supernatural Being who Divine Path will have their powers naturally enhanced at night.
The Moonlight Knight were all eager to repay the soldiers of Arcadia for all the humiliation they had suffered at the hands of the Augustus Empire.
The battle went very smoothly. Besides the effectiveness of Avril's attack, another major reason was Elvian's personal involvement. However, she did not show herself but secretly killed most of the officers and Supernatural Being on the Arcadia side.
How much of the fighting capacity can an army without command exert when facing an attack?
Moreover, when faced with the Moonlight Knight's extraordinary attack, the Arcadia army, having lost an equal amount of extraordinary power to fight back, quickly found itself in a one-sided situation.
Ryan couldn't help but laugh. It seemed that Elvian was also afraid. She was doing her best to protect Wildea's last Moonlight Cavalry. If it were before, this proud Queen would not have bothered to do such a thing.
With Elvian here, there's nothing to worry about in this battle. The real battle will begin when the Watcher Legion arrive with the main force of Arcadia.
The Holy Blood Army will also come then, but Ryan doesn't plan to let the Holy Blood Army attack from the Northern Federation head-on. In fact, 'Shally' has already set off with the Holy Blood Army, but they are taking the sea route instead of the land route.
According to the plan, the Holy Blood Army set off from the Nilos River, passed through the Mibysi Sea to reach the Eastern Continent, and then quickly landed at the Southern Territory sea port city of Solbia of the Arcadia Empire, which was equivalent to poking Arcadia in the backside.
The Holy Blood Army has only 10,000 men, which is the largest fighting force that can be assembled so far. Considering the difficulty of this expedition, Empress 'Vainay' spent a huge sum of money to create an expensive set of equipment for the Holy Blood Army. Judging from the cost of the equipment alone, the 10,000 men of the Holy Blood Army are equivalent to the 50,000-strong Imperial Army of Augustus.
With the added power of 'Shally' becoming the Eternal Chosen, Ryan was confident that he could crush Arcadia with these 10,000 men.
Of course, sufficient pressure must also be applied from the front. Rifle production will proceed simultaneously. After Wilder takes the lead, the Northern Federation will send 100,000 troops to join him.
Although the fighting capacity of these 100,000 troops is questionable, at least they have a number of people, right?
Their main task was to escort the more than 20,000 Moonlight Cavalry of Wilderness. If the battle could not be won in a short time, it would not matter if it dragged on for a month or two. First of all, they were fighting a defensive war, and their supplies were fully available. Secondly, even if they had to wait that long, the first batch of initial model rifles would be ready for use.
As long as basic combat capabilities are improved, the Northern Federation's numerical advantage can be maximized.
In short, Ryan wasn't too worried. Besides, he had already infiltrated the enemy's ranks. If all else failed, he could try to take down Kachina and undermine Arcadia's foundation from within—that was a viable strategy.
Compared to this, Ryan was more concerned about the situation on the Western Territory Plains. The Grand Duke was planning the 'transformation' of the Iron Blood Army, which was directly related to the future situation of the Augustus Empire in the Western Territory. If the transformation was successful, then taking over the Great Plains would be a certainty.
Well, I hope the Grand Duke and Haino get along well. The separation was too rushed, and Ryan didn't even have a chance to talk to Haino properly, which is a pity. He was originally thinking of taking advantage of the trip to the Western Territory to cultivate his relationship with Haino. With this wave of goodwill, maybe he could even throw a party in the Western Territory.
Damn it, the God of Desire has led me to this point!
"Oh, right, Motis."
Ryan quickly switched to the 'Motis' character interface.
Old Joe came out, which means that Haklem also successfully obtained part of the broken sword. Fortunately, nothing went wrong. Ryan couldn't stand the scene of sacrificing himself for something.
Haklem has already given the broken sword to Motis, but to repair the Black Sword·Elk, one needs to return to the homeland of the Deep Sea Hunter and enter the ruins of the Wild Hunt.
Although it's a bit troublesome, this weapon is a mythical item after all, so it's worth the trip. However, it will take half a month to travel to and from the homeland of the Deep Sea Hunter, so we can only do so after the war between the Northern Federation and Arcadia comes to an end.
"Since things have come to this, let's go to sleep first. We'll find another opportunity to meet with Kavanagh later. Hmm... I wonder when Caslathdi will arrive. This City of Sin will probably be gone by tomorrow."
Ryan was about to rest when he switched to check on his first wife, Lin Qi, and found that she was holding an emergency meeting at the Lin Qi Janus Church.
The reason is that the Gate of Janus has just received news confirming that Cardinal Andeni is dead.
The Cardinal is dead!
This kind of thing had never happened in nearly a hundred years. The church headquarters immediately issued an order for a full investigation. Since Andeni had died in the Kazar Plain, the Pope had given Lin Qi the task of investigating the Kazar plague. Lin Qi was directly in charge of this matter, so the investigation into Andeni's death also fell to her.
"He really did die. Rest in peace, Andeni. May the Goddess bless you."
Ryan silently recited the message to himself, then checked the AFK log and found that the message from the church mentioned the location of Andeni's death, which was the Krie Temple.
This made Ryan wary. He had heard Kava mention it before and thought it was just the Four Great Families investigating inside. Now it seemed impossible. Even if the Four Great Families had a hundred times the courage, they wouldn't dare to kill the Cardinal.
Besides, they probably don't have that ability.
"Could it be someone from the witch's faction?"
The City of Desire does not exist, so the only one causing trouble in Kazar now is the witch, who has the ability to kill Andeni.
Speaking of which Ryan was a little curious about why the witch had put on such a grand ritual. There were so many people in the City of Sin, and they had all been sacrificed. Compared to her, 'Shally' was practically a benefactor.
As he pondered, Ryan's thoughts gradually drifted away, and he soon fell asleep.
He had a dream in which he was desperately running away in a boundless, Chaos Space, with the room where the God of Desire resided behind him. No matter how he ran, the room followed him until it caught up with him, opened its door, and pulled him inside.
Then Ryan was startled awake.
"Oh dear, did you have a nightmare?"
Ryan, on his deathbed, was startled awake. Hearing the sound, he turned his head and saw Kachina squatting beside him, smiling at him.
"Ah, Your Majesty Kachina... Yes, I had a terrible nightmare. I was being chased by my enemies."
"That's right. Although the power of desire didn't directly affect you, there are definitely residual chaotic elements left. Don't worry, you'll be fine after a couple of days of rest."
"I think so too... Your Majesty, how is the City of Sin?"
"There are still remnants of both the Power of Desire and the power of chaos. I plan to go in and check the situation further."
Ryan had a sudden thought, "Then I'll stay outside and not go in, so as not to affect Your Majesty's performance. I'd like to take a look at the nearby earth ruins anyway."
"I see..."
Kachina thought about it and, considering that the elders of the City of Desire might be hiding in the city, she agreed. However, she told Ryan not to take any risks and not to leave alone.
"You promised me you'd come back to the Imperial Capital with me, so don't even think about leaving alone. Otherwise, I'll drag you back no matter where you are, and then... hehe~"
Kachina smiled sweetly.
Ryan felt a chill run down his spine. Wait, what's with this strong sense of yandere? Kachina, you're the Empress, the high and mighty Empress! Don't let yourself develop any strange traits!
Ryan immediately expressed his determination and loyalty.
After Kachina left, he also went out of the tent and quietly headed to the small grove where Kavanagh had stayed the day before.
After searching for a while, they found Kavanagh hiding in a grove of trees. Because he was so small, he was very well hidden. If Ryan hadn't had his Mental Power surged, he really wouldn't have been able to find him.
"Your Excellency!" Kavanagh exclaimed excitedly, "You're back!"
"You haven't left yet?"
"Of course, His Excellency the Envoy said we would meet here."
Kavanagh also planned to take Ryan back to the dwarf tribe. Of course, she couldn't just leave like that. If Ryan didn't come back, she planned to ask Caslathdi for help.
"Kavanagh, I need to go to the Krie Temple. Could you show me the way?"
"The Krie Temple? It's possible, but I'm worried about the dangers."
"It's okay, I'm here."
"Then come with me, Your Excellency."
Kavanagh led the way.
The Krie Temple is not far from here, less than an hour away.
It turns out that short legs don't necessarily mean slow walking; Kavanagh is quite fast, and the same goes for the Grand Duke... Hmm, the Grand Duke would probably feel very friendly if he saw Kavanagh, finally meeting an adult shorter than himself.
"We've arrived, Your Excellency. This is the place."
Kavanagh pointed to the ruins in front of him.
In the distance is a gravel road. The temple is relatively well-preserved. Statues stand on both sides of the road leading to the temple entrance, and there is a huge statue of the Spirit of Chaos directly in front.
Ryan saw the mission prompt and confirmed it was indeed the Krie Temple. He told Kavanagh to hide outside and wait, then went into the temple alone.
Relying on his powerful spiritual perception, he could sense the presence of someone active here, and there was still residual Magic Power in the air. Just as he thought, it was indeed the power of chaos.
Seeing this, Ryan became even more vigilant, his Cross Sword ready to fire at any moment, and his Ring of Death ready to be activated. If things went wrong, he would immediately become invincible, and once invincible, he could escape. This set of operations was basically unbeatable unless one was Eighth Tier Supernatural Being.
However, as he ventured deeper into the cave, Ryan did not encounter any of the witches.
"I guess they all went to the City of Sin last night, and most of them were probably killed by Kachina."
Ryan thought to himself.
He quickened his pace.
Along the way, I saw many records of temples. The murals on the walls and the sculptures on the pillars all showed the ancient charm of history. I guess this place is also a relic of the previous era, but it was fortunate to be preserved in the war of the gods.
"Is this the end?"
Ryan walked into a spacious palace and found two more doors on the left and right sides around the place, meaning that other locations should eventually lead to this place as well.
In the center of the palace was a circular platform surrounded by steps. The platform was hexagonal, with a dark stone statue at each corner. Ryan jumped up and discovered that the platform's floor was also engraved with array mechanisms.
He observed it carefully for a while and found that there were three empty positions on the mechanism, which corresponded exactly to the shapes of the three magatama.
Ryan took out the magatama and put them in one by one. When the last magatama was put in, the platform made a dull thud, and then the mechanism on it began to operate automatically.
Faintly, Ryan could hear the sound of gears turning, and then the platform opened in the middle, revealing a black wooden box.
Please place Aria's belongings inside.
Upon seeing the system notification, Ryan walked over and opened the box, finding that it already contained something.
They were three crumpled pieces of parchment, covered with writing.
Ryan for a moment, then took out the parchment and put the Witch's Journal inside.
Rumble rumble rumble~~
The box closed automatically and then sank back under the platform as the mechanism activated.
"That's it?"
Ryan glanced at the task list.
Congratulations on completing the prerequisite quest 'The Witch's Wish'.
You can Create New Character now.
[The new character is bound to the identity of a witch. Her class path is based on 'Chaos,' which can be transformed into the Balshatt Faith Path by completing quests.]
Please name the new character.
Ryan was stunned. Wait, what the heck? The Balshatt Faith Path????
July has come to a successful end! See you all in August!