The crimson mandala seemed to grow from the flesh and blood of the Stained Ones.
In the instant it bloomed, their eyes could see nothing but the eerie flower before them; only Sailesi's soul-piercing voice echoed in their ears:
"That's all, everyone go and get busy."
Sailesi waved his hand, Stained Ones seemed to awaken from their daze, walking out of the council hall like a group of puppets.
Only then did everyone emerge from that terrifying illusion.
However, upon looking around, he found himself standing alone at the entrance of the council chamber.
Sailesi and the other attendees seemed to vanish in that instant.
At this point, the Stained Ones had lost all interest in distinguishing between reality and illusion.
If it was an illusion, then what was that spider lily I just saw, Spread from my flesh and blood?
But if this moment is the only real one, then before, was he the only one who received the Cardinal's orders in person?
With such methods, even if only one of the Stained Ones remains, how could they possibly have the mind to betray Sailesi?
The Holy Crusaders officers imprisoned for their clandestine collusion had no idea what awaited them.
Filled with fear of the Cardinal's unfathomable power, the Stained Ones, unable to distinguish between reality and illusion, departed and began to carry out their previous orders.
Meanwhile, Sailesi welcomed his last guest of the day into the empty council chamber...
The capital city of the Tree Worship Church Theocracy, Holy City, is situated on fertile land. The surrounding area is largely devoid of rugged mountains, consisting almost entirely of forested hills and plains.
The area also boasts a rich water system, allowing travel both Northern Capital, making it a transportation hub second only to Nors Port and Klaf City.
Even before the Demonic Tide broke out, this place was a rare and fertile land, and it was indefensible, making it seem very easy for an army to besiege or attack it.
Indeed, this was the case. In the long history of humankind on the main continent, in the distant past before the belief in the Tree God became widespread, many human nations had attempted to annex the Holy See and seize it for themselves on several occasions.
Many of those wars were actually successful, but were subsequently revoked for various reasons, allowing the Holy See to "reclaim" them time and again.
After repeating this process many times, the Holy See of the Tree Worship Church gained a relatively stable control over a narrow strip of land in the central part of the continent, roughly the size of half a province, which remained largely unchanged for the next few centuries.
Only after all the territories, large and small, in the north swore allegiance to the king, and the vast southern region was completely annexed by Stral, creating a situation of north-south confrontation between the kingdom and the empire, did both sides once again turn their greedy eyes to this fertile land.
However, the kingdom's and empire's plans ultimately failed.
It wasn't that the empire and kingdoms didn't want this fertile region, but rather that while the Theocracy's land was good, the surrounding area was too flat, making it impossible to hold even if conquered, and requiring annual expenditures of money and grain to supply it.
As for the other hidden reason, it is that the wars that swept across the country before greatly promoted the spread of the Tree Worship Church Cult. By the time the Empire and the Kingdom had unified the north and south respectively, their countries were full of Tree Worship Church followers.
As devout believers, they could not stand by and watch their holy land fall. In addition, there were issues with the cost of sending troops and the possibility of alliances and betrayals. In the end, the matter was dropped.
Since then, the Holy See has maintained half a province, roughly the size of a fiefdom, located in the central part of the continent, serving as a buffer zone between the empire and the kingdom.
When empires and kingdoms actually go to war, they always choose to fight in directly adjacent areas where there is no Holy See.
Since then, the land of the Holy See and the Holy City has been free from war for nearly a thousand years.
However, this record was completely broken on this day.
The person who made the move claimed to be the " Son of God".
One day in late July, just three days after the Stained Ones bishops successfully took over the Holy Crusaders, a blindingly bright light streaked across the sky, and an endless army appeared on the plains outside the Holy City.
The flat area that was once reserved for the Holy Crusaders to inspect and train was now filled with what they called rebels, and their numbers were so dense that their ranks seemed endless, blotting out the sky.
Although their faces were obscured, their awe-inspiring majesty instantly shattered the psychological defenses of the first wave of defenders on the city wall.
However, the person who started all of this was completely unaware of it, because he was busy counting the number of people in the group, checking if anyone had been left behind in Valhalla or had been unlucky enough to be caught in the teleportation array for no reason...
Rewinding to 24 hours earlier, on the afternoon of July 25th, 909 in the Royal Calendar, Ed officially announced the end of the first phase of the new large-scale long-term quest [ The Only Holy Church ].
Since its release, the game " World of Disorder " has provided Ed with many unique experiences.
City sieges and defenses, hostage rescues, espionage operations, zombie battles, map exploration, and even "search, attack, and retreat"...
Even though players' pleasure threshold has been raised considerably, this long-running quest still captivated them once again with just the first phase.
In terms of task description, the task content of the first stage is actually not complicated.
It was simply a matter of conveying Ed's will to all directions and marking the enemies who surrendered or resisted.
However, in practice, players have discovered that there are still many exciting aspects to be explored:
Who hasn't fantasized about the feeling of having a behemoth to rely on and being able to act freely?
For those towns that submitted directly, the Soul Returner naturally took over all town affairs, from disseminating government decrees and collecting taxes to conscripting soldiers and appointing priests...
Those Soul Returner had "relevant experience" in the World of Disorder or another world have transformed from their previous " Left and Right Arms " into the backbone of these towns, becoming an indispensable part of maintaining their normal operation.
For those towns that chose to put up a stubborn resistance, the Soul Returner went even further, unleashing their full arrogance and mockery towards their enemies.
From direct insults to fabricating rumors about the other party out of thin air, and then to riding Soldier Bee to fly low and intimidate the enemy, the Stained Ones can't get a good night's sleep.
Or perhaps they would scatter leaflets throughout the city and town, spreading the "gospel" of Sailesi and Antiya Lisi far and wide...
In short, thanks to the advanced culture and disgusting tactics from another world, the ancestors of the Stained Ones were quickly rendered unclean, and even their own mental state was in serious trouble.