Heavy iron hooves shattered the tree shadows on Berely's streets. To everyone's surprise, the first to discover something amiss on Holy Radiance Mountain, and the first to reach its foot, were not the leading figures of the major powers, but a Dragon Cavalry patrol led by Enzo.
The three-hundred-man patrol charged at top speed to the plaza before the entrance to Holy Radiance Mountain. The sea of crimson before their eyes stunned them all. Even Enzo, Vik, and the others—men who had crawled out of heaps of corpses on battlefields, endured dozens of bloody clashes, and cheated death countless times—could only stare blankly at the "gentle" blood-red scene before them.
Unlike the battlefield's ringing clash of blades and axes, the thudding impact of bodies, the spray of hot blood, and the flying chunks of flesh, the bloodshed on Holy Radiance Mountain was so serene, so demure. It even carried the soft, tender air of a well-bred young lady.
Blood had been smoothly smeared across the ground and walls without the slightest disorder, as if a master plasterer had evenly spread on a layer of bloody pulp. The blood flowed quietly along the floors and walls, unhurried and orderly. Amid its cruelty, there was somehow even a trace of gentleness and tenderness.
There were no corpses, none of the mountain-like piles of twisted-faced bodies found on a battlefield.
That was because every cleric, armor and all, had been sliced into the tiniest particles, evenly spread across the ground like diced meat on a chopping board waiting to be tossed into a hot wok. At a glance, this enormous plaza—where believers usually waited for the bells of Holy Radiance Cathedral to ring before entering to worship—looked exceptionally level and smooth.
Smooth blood, flat minced flesh—everything lay evenly spread across the ground, laid