To be honest, Duma has been looking forward to this moment for a long time.
Although the combat power of High Tier individual is already quite formidable, as a commander-level figure, he has long since lost interest in individual combat.
In Duma's own words, he has passed the age of being brave and aggressive, and now his favorite thing to do is drink tea and read newspapers, and solve problems with just a few words.
Of the names that couldn't fit on a single page, only a small portion were obtained through so-called individual combat strength, while the vast majority came from the kingdoms, empires, nobles, generals, and other demons he had defeated over the past millennium.
As a commander with a high success rate, Duma had his own views on many military issues.
In his view, the two factors that have the greatest impact on victory or defeat are military discipline and manpower. The former ensures that victory can be followed by another, while the latter guarantees that defeat will not be followed by another.
When he led the Demon Allied Army, he was often troubled by these two questions:
When it comes to troop production speed, Goblin and the like are undoubtedly number one, with no one daring to challenge them.
Most Low Tier demons reproduce very quickly, but the quality of their troops is extremely poor, so they can only barely win battles when they have an advantage.
After achieving victory, the wild-natured demons hardly possessed any "military discipline."
Especially those powerful demons, after believing they had made outstanding contributions, completely disregarded Duma's words, acting as if they would disobey orders even if they were beheaded tomorrow, practically bullying him, their commander.
This resulted in Duma working with an army that could not meet his requirements for a long time, and without pay, which put a lot of pressure on him.
After joining the Second Holy See, Duma was surprised to find that all the problems that had previously troubled him had disappeared!
Objectively speaking, he initially joined the Second Holy See simply for fun.
But now Duma asks himself honestly, he's already found himself somewhat unable to leave this place.
Because I'm so happy here!
The characteristics of the Soul Returner mean that manpower is never a problem.
After that special group of Soul Returner joined, military discipline became completely no longer a Duma.
Their innate level of military discipline already exceeded the requirements of Duma, so there was no need for further education or training.
Having resolved these two issues, Duma was able to freely demonstrate his highest level of skill.
Before this operation, Ed had given him a promise—
The task of wiping out the remnants of the Holy City will be entrusted to him and those special Holy Crusaders. In addition, after the battle of the Holy City, he will also be in full charge of dealing with the Stained Ones that still refuse to surrender.
If he does well in these two things, he might be sent to the Empire as a military advisor to assist in resisting the Skeleton Alliance, or stationed in the Wilderness of Chaos to join forces with the Graycast Corridor to attack the Eternal Domain.
The four-armed demon had naturally never heard the story between the "True King of Han" and the "False King of Qi," but that didn't stop him from mentally raising his rating of his boss, Ed.
Hmm, he seems much more reliable than the previous Demon King boss.
Having received Ed's order, Duma's military orders immediately began to be relayed down through the ranks.
Soon, the "regular army" of Soul Returner, trained and assigned the same skill points, began marching towards the city walls.
Although not explicitly emphasized, their long-term training in another world still allowed them to maintain a disciplined formation and synchronized steps.
This made the Holy Crusaders on the city wall completely stop laughing. In the illusion constructed by the Dream of Rebirth, these enemies with synchronized steps were regarded as a whole in square formations.
They Spread forward like a fungal carpet, sweeping away everything in their path like army ants; nothing could stop this trend, just like... just like the embodiment of the Demonic Tide.
Just seeing this Soul Returner advancing was enough to terrify some people.
By this point, Ed had essentially deployed all of his troops, leaving only the newly "official" [ Adrian Imperial Guard ] and the boy soldier Gungnir by his side.
As for the Wild Hunt, the undead army of the Stained Ones led by Motley, Ed didn't bring them along at all this time.
One reason was that he worried that seeing these guys would escalate the enemy's resistance in the city.
Although Ed felt confident of victory, he wasn't ready to deliberately increase the difficulty for himself.
As for the other reason for not bringing the Wild Hunt, it's because the Second Holy See's trade ties with the Graycast Corridor are becoming increasingly close, and these guys' greatest contribution now is to guard the production line and keep the screws in place.
Therefore, Ed has decided that once the gates of the Holy City open, he will have these two teams accompany him into the city.
The former are undeniably loyal, and it's time to reward them so they can boast about it on the forums. As for the latter, they have suffered so much, and the Holy See owes them something. Letting them walk openly at the forefront of the "pilgrimage" is a form of compensation.
The last two teams slowly advanced, Ed suddenly turned to look at Willow:
How is 'that guy' doing?
Standing on the alchemical golem's shoulder, Willow immediately understood who Ed was referring to.
Cardinal Cuiske, the one Oathbreaking Cardinal.
She leaned down to look at the alchemical golem's face, reached out and removed its visor to examine the prisoner's current condition.
Ever since imprisoning " Müller-chan " once, Willow has discovered a new use for alchemical golems.
She found that this thing was really useful as a cage. After all, the golem mainly relied on Psionic Energy Circuit to operate rather than mechanical structures, and the strength on the outside was basically the same as the strength on the inside. Unless the prisoner could turn into a puddle of water, there was no way to escape except by breaking the golem.
Ed had given her new inspiration a couple of days ago: while studying the technology her mother left behind to resist the Demonic Tide, she could also try to combine the alchemical golem with the mobile fortress.
That unpredictable guy even gave the project a strange name, something like " Kong," saying that if it were successfully developed, the Soul Returner would fight tooth and nail for it.
Willow shook her head to clear her mind of those chaotic thoughts. She looked inside the alchemical golem and immediately saw the prisoner Cuiske was already seventy or eighty years old.
This once-illustrious Oathbreaking Cardinal looked several years older than when he was first captured. Having been stripped of his exclusive symbiotic plant by Ed, he was now surviving on the plants that could be found everywhere by the roadside.
Cuiske himself knew that he was only alive now because he still had some use to him.
Now that things have come to this, it's simply a matter of the victor taking all and the loser being condemned; he has no regrets whatsoever.
Through the alchemical golem's mask, the aged cardinal finally saw the sacred and magnificent high wall once again.
"It's been a long time, Holy City..."