Fleeing the sea was not something the Holy See had never done before. When the anomaly appeared in the sea a thousand years ago, the Holy See had ordered Transcendents to stay away from the ocean.
But even then, only Transcendents had stayed away from the sea. Mortal nations had remained along the coast, and even the Church's cathedrals had not left. They simply no longer had Transcendents stationed there.
Why had they suddenly chosen to retreat entirely this time? As though some unstoppable monster lurked beneath the sea.
The Pirate King?
That monster had drawn out the pollution of the entire Storm Ocean. It had certainly caused quite a commotion, but that was all, wasn't it?
Fishmen and sea urchins were indeed absurdly powerful in the ocean, but once they reached land, their combat strength was nothing special.
Even a tiny island like Castel could hold out. There was no way the Empire's vast army could not defend itself.
Theus had spoken with Alexei before. The Imperial Army had fully switched over to firearms. Though they were crude muzzle-loading guns, they were more than sufficient for fighting monsters.
Besides, the Empire had a large number of Transcendents. The Banshees of the Mechanical Cathedral were still using steam rifles, whose power was not much weaker than artillery.
Castel had not even managed to manufacture artillery yet.
Theus suppressed his curiosity and continued listening to the voices in the link, only to find that they had already begun discussing Gwen.
French Fries: "So Gwen, she still..."
Scepter: "Mm. Since she hasn't responded for so long, she's probably no longer with us. The place she was in was the very center of the war. I heard the fighting in the Northern Territory was the fiercest. Many towns have been reduced to nothing