Prelude.

Hemel Plane.

At this moment, this plane was like oil thrown onto a raging fire, rapidly being set ablaze.

Ever since Huo Ling had been discovered by the Hunting God nearly a year ago, the gods of this plane had still not relaxed their vigilance.

The mortal churches within the plane had likewise remained on alert.

The outward sign of this was that the churches' guardian legions had finished recruitment and reorganization.

All manner of equipment, weapons, and consumable supplies had been taken from the warehouses and distributed among the various legions.

As a plane that had endured several large-scale planar invasions, the churches of the Hemel Plane all knew just how brutal and bloody invaders from other planes could be.

Especially toward churches like theirs, those invaders would uproot the grass and pull out the roots.

They might be somewhat gentler toward secular dynasties, but some dynasties would not escape their black hands either.

A year was nowhere near enough to make this plane lower its guard.

And Huo Ling had no desire to delay for too long. At worst, the battle would simply be more difficult. For Huo Ling, who commanded a vast undead army, that was no problem at all.

On the first-layer continent.

Countless temple warriors and knights clad in armor had armed themselves to the teeth.

Divine inscriptions had been added to their equipment, making it even more effective.

The soldiers' armor had all been dyed gold, gleaming brilliantly beneath the sun.

These soldiers stood in orderly ranks within one air harbor after another.

These airships, which traveled directly across the continent by harnessing the Hemel Plane's gravity, had all been requisitioned by the churches.

Whether they had once been military, civilian, or commercial airships, all of them now waited for the soldiers to board.