Knight and Wand

Chapter 223 Heresy and Miracles

The deafening sound of trumpets, the dense footsteps that shook the earth, and the sound of siege engines turning heralded the beginning of the general offensive.

The sergeant in the siege camp in the rear shouted to the soldiers: "——Fire!!"

The ropes of a row of giant riprap machines were released, and the heavy counterweights fell from the frames due to gravity.

The huge levers threw countless burning fire bombs towards the high walls hundreds of meters away. Flames and smoke drew tracks in the air and hit the inside and outside of the city’s solid walls with precise accuracy calculated by the army engineers.

Countless exploding grease spread flames between the battlements and towers. The spreading fire forced the already exhausted defenders to scatter and hide.

Several towering ladder towers advanced synchronously. After repeated attacks, the rugged trenches filled by West's soldiers could no longer stop these behemoths. Afterwards, the soldiers with large shields followed the tower towers and slowly approached the city wall.

Teams of brave knights and soldiers filled the several floors of the siege tower. The archers on the top of the ladder tower, with the cover of the arrow tower layers, shot back and forth with the dense rain of arrows on the city wall.

There were loud crackling and popping sounds, which were the powerful arrows fired from the giant crossbow penetrating the tower cart.

A few Westerland warriors who were unlucky enough to get too close to the wooden wall had their armor pierced by the giant crossbow that was strong enough to pierce a dragon's skin. They were instantly nailed to the pole and became motionless.

The fire arrows and burning cans that broke through the air also smashed into the surface of the siege tower, and the wooden tower body was set on fire.
But these casualties were still not enough to stop the offensive launched by the siege army.

Finally, when the last giant crossbow tower in the city collapsed under the bombardment of the catapult, a series of ladder tower vehicles, like hedgehogs and full of arrows, arrived near the city wall.

The drawbridge was lowered with a bang, and the wide plank bridge paved the way for the attackers.

Through the open doors of the high-rise tower, the heavily armored knights of Lord West and the barbarian warriors from Northnia rushed out first, followed by infantrymen with shields, who were the first to climb onto the top of the city wall filled with flames.

"——Kill!! Kill them all!"

All kinds of shouts and cries rose to the sky, a symphony of blood and fire, one after another, lasting until almost dusk.

In the midst of the fierce fighting, the last defenders gave up resistance.
This last trade city close to Shuangxia City also fell to Orland. In other words, the coalition forces of Greater Westerland and the Norsemen.

After winning the victory, the army of Lord Wester did not rush into the city. Instead, they allowed the barbarians from Northonia to rush into the city and plunder the Kantadar people's wealth and slaves.

In the camp outside the city where a brazier was burning, the leading generals of the western Orlando army gathered under the commander-in-chief of the Wester coalition forces, as if waiting for something.

Ines, dressed in armor, was also among them. She held her symbolic sword and fanned her folding fan to dispel the bloody smell that lingered in front of her, although the girl had gradually become accustomed to this smell over the past few months.

After waiting for several moments, it was almost nightfall and a team of knights hurried back to the camp.

"My Lords! There is still no movement in Shuangxia City."

Upon hearing this, Count Quirgan, the commander of the coalition forces at the head, was the first to laugh.

The other nobles in western Orland also felt much more relaxed.

Count Rahman, who was petting his beloved dog, patted the huge dog's head lying on his lap, turned his head to look at Ines who was sitting not far away, and said comfortingly: "You are really amazing, little prince. You have been tossing around like this, and you have really scared the fools in Shuangxia City into turtles."

"Don't be happy too soon, Lord Rahman. The turtle shell is very hard. Since they don't dare to come out and eat the bait, we can only continue to fight hard battles next." Ines chuckled.

Earl Quilgan nodded and gave orders to the lords. "Everyone go back and rest. The lords I arranged earlier will lead 3,000 men to Usato Territory to support His Majesty tomorrow morning. Lord Rahman, your 2,000 men will stay and garrison this city with the Norsnians. The rest of you will follow me to gather north and knock on the tortoise shell of Shuangxia City!"

After the military meeting in the camp was over and leaving the crowd of men smelling of sweat and blood, Ines returned to the tent. With the help of Agatha, she took off her armor, threw herself on the blanket without caring about her image, and breathed a sigh of relief.

After more than two months of planning, I, a powerless little girl, finally gained enough respect from the lords of West.

You know, except for the second sons and illegitimate sons of nobles recruited from various households in the Knights Templar, no matter her identity as a princess or the title of Lady Xiwan that she had tried her best to obtain, the old lords in the west could not take her seriously.

Especially those old nobles of the previous dynasty who had experienced the civil war more than a decade ago. Ines knew clearly that these people would not take the little daughter born to a usurper king after the war seriously from the bottom of their hearts.

After all, his father was only the earl of Hecha County before he ascended the throne.

In terms of bloodline law, there are many relatives born to the daughters of the royal family of the last two generations who got married in Orlando.

Fortunately, with the advice of Earl Quirgon, who represented the West family in commanding the army, and the victory in three major battles, the forces around Twin Gorges City were gradually eliminated, and the Western Alliance finally accepted her battle plan.

Shuangxia City is certainly difficult to attack, but she does not intend to really have the coalition forces storm the city. Now they just need to surround Shuangxia City until the war is over.

No matter how impregnable a pass is, its purpose of existence is to protect something. According to her current deduction, when the Southern Expedition is over, Orland's southwestern border will extend a large area to the south. By then, Shuangxia City will be completely reduced to an isolated city. It will be meaningless even if it can be defended until the end of time. When the Southern Expedition is about to end, that will be the day when Shuangxia City negotiates conditions, opens the city and surrenders.

Fortunately, with the promised spoils and intelligence, they successfully reached a temporary alliance with the Norsemen.
Ines turned over and looked at the dark roof of the tent.

Otherwise, to fight against the Falcon army coming from the west of Kantadar, the troops led by West would not be able to trap Shuangxia City.

Without the Norsemen who were attacking and looting coastal cities on the southwest coast of the continent to contain the Kantadars, this plan would be impossible.

Although the rude Norse leader spoke rudely to him, it would not be a problem for him to tolerate his ridiculous words as long as the other party put in enough effort.

Of course, she could also see that this old leader from the Barlowe family of Northnia was just testing her temper during the negotiations. He was a cunning and ferocious old fox, definitely not a young man like Aorad.

It is undoubtedly dangerous to cooperate with the Northians. The conditions she put forward are likely to be offered by the Falcon family in the west of Kantadar. If there are other opportunities, she will never take this risk. She only hopes that the information that the Kantadar people have had a deep feud with the Northians at sea due to ocean routes in recent years is correct.

The information from Mr. Rotty, the great sea merchant from Dragonmaw City, has always been accurate. I hope it will be the same this time.

It would be even better if we could contact the "Flores" countries. Compared with the cunning and barbaric Northenians, those big guys with dragon horns have much better reputation among the countries on the continent, and it is heard that the Flores people's naval fleet is also stronger than Northenia.

The best part is that the Dragonhorn people have a very bad relationship with Uriah and Kantadar.

It was a pity that they were at the southernmost tip of the continent, too far away to send envoys for consultation in time.

As she pondered, the girl could only sigh that the world was unpredictable. This southern expedition came too suddenly, and she had no way to plan ahead. It was really difficult to plan everything out.
Just like what Count Rahman said about the eastern part of Kantadar.

Plague of the Undead?

Ghouls were not uncommon to her. Ines had seen Harvey demonstrate his witchcraft to summon dead bodies, and she had also seen the zombies that appeared in the Nightmare Forest.

They look scary, but in fact, that's all. As long as a soldier who has received combat training is not frightened, he can easily beat five ordinary zombies and skeletons created by magic.

As for the Knights of Arms, if they were just ordinary stupid zombies, they might not be as threatening as the same number of living soldiers.

Moreover, I heard that in the past, wizards who practiced this art all night long could control hundreds of corpses, which was a great achievement.

But hundreds of thousands or even millions? Are there so many wizards in the Western Continent?
Is it true or false? If it is true, what impact will it have on the current situation in the Western Continent?
Ines was helpless. There was too little information. She was trapped in the current war and could not send anyone to find out the truth of this incredible thing.

But I heard that this news was brought back by the Griffin Knight of the Thorn Flower Family? If it was Lord Leon, this absurd information should be credible.
The raging war to the west of the continent enveloped the land.

Thousands of miles away, the "Ferru Kingdom", which is separated from Orland by the two countries of Kantardar and Serian, has not been affected by the war in the far north for the time being.

But when the church envoys from the Holy Kingdom and Serian arrived one after another, the royal palace of the Mountain Kingdom fell into an unprecedented fierce quarrel.

The royal council lasted for several days, but the court officials still could not reach a conclusion. The old king on the throne listened to the constant debate in the hall, losing his patience and weighing the issues silently.

The two quarreling factions, one represented the lords of the southern parts of the kingdom, and the other represented the lords of the north and the priests of the Holy Sun Church in the country.

The core of the tit-for-tat was that the Kingdom of Feru had already been gathering its army long before the envoys of the Holy See and Serian arrived. The people in the mountains noticed the emptiness of the Uriah people outside the border for more than half a year, and now seemed to be a good opportunity to take back the old land in the west.

But the original plan undoubtedly conflicts with the terrible news we now know.

The army is now heading south to join forces with the brotherly alliance of the "Kingdom of Malaken" to reclaim the territory that was once taken away by the Uriah people.

Or should we accept the church's request for help and enter Serian to support our allies in the north?

"My lords, if the situation in Serian is true, what will be the use of taking back the land in the southwest from the grassland people if we don't contain the disaster within Serian? The road outside the northern border is smooth. If we wait until the disaster is about to happen and then regret it, it will be too late." The Crown Prince of Feru spoke loudly in the hall.

A lord in northern Feru echoed, "Since the envoys of Dineshien have already gone to Maraken to ask for help, the news will surely come from the south soon. Why don't we wait for the opinions of our allies? If His Majesty Maraken gives up the fight against the Uriahs and decides to send troops north to support Serian, then we cannot afford the risk of marching west alone."

The old king seemed to be convinced by the words of his eldest son and the northern vassal: "You don't have to argue anymore. The Serrians have just stopped the civil strife, and now they are in great trouble. Feru cannot remain indifferent. For a hundred years, if it weren't for the reinforcements from our northern neighbors, how could we have fought off the repeated invasions of the Uriahs? If we delay any longer, something might happen. No matter what the south thinks, we should probably repay this favor."

As he spoke, the old king of Feru stood up and raised his hand to order his eldest son: "Karl, you separate 10,000 people from the originally assembled army and go to Serian first to join the army of the High Priest Alek. If the disaster in the north is true, I will lead the entire army north to fight in person soon."

With the king's decision, the discussions subsided, and the army that had originally planned to march west quickly made adjustments under a series of orders.

Just as the Crown Prince was leading his troops to assemble.

In the mountain pass north of Feru King City, hundreds of kilometers away in the land of Serian, the dark clouds that blocked the light of the sun and the moon were slowly spreading from west to east.
Eastern Serrian.

Living in the royal city where the war had just ended, Alec sat under the sun statue in the royal temple. His old right hand trembled slightly as he flipped through the bad news and disasters coming from the west. His heavy heart became more sad and angry.

As the high priest of the Serian Diocese, he has now become the de facto ruler of the kingdom after suppressing the sudden rebellion instigated by the king with the Crusaders.

But at this moment, Alec felt no joy at all.

He realized that he might have been caught in a conspiracy.

King Serrian led the secular nobles in a sudden civil war, trying to overthrow the power of the church. This happened almost at the same time as Kantadar's eastward invasion and attack on the holy city of Rolandar.

The Kantardars who came with such a strong momentum were just pawns.

The king who rebelled against his beliefs and the secular nobles were also pawns.

Just to take the Holy City away from the Church.

Previously, he led the Holy Sun Crusaders and was trapped in the months-long Eastern Civil War. When he learned that the Holy Land had fallen and was bloodbathed, and that the Great Temple was afraid that it would be taken over by the Kantardars,
At that moment, Alec almost committed suicide out of shame to atone for the great sin of the holy land falling at the hands of himself as the high priest.

But he knew he couldn't do that, and he couldn't just die. He had to correct his mistakes, punish the treacherous king, and reclaim the resting place of the Holy Prophet with his own hands.

But the reality is that now, let alone retaking the holy city, the power at hand is stretched to the limit even to contain another sudden and catastrophic disaster.

There was no news from the towns in the west. Now he could only race against time to contact the lords of the west and lead their people to retreat eastward and build a defense line in the center of the kingdom.

The 60,000 Dinesh reinforcements sent by the Oracle Throne have not yet arrived, and the 30,000 Serrian Crusaders they have are insufficient.

Having lost the vast church wealth of Rolandar, Alec was fortunate to be able to open the royal treasury and confiscate the territories and assets of those apostate nobles to recruit as many new troops as possible to resist the oncoming disaster.

He didn't know whether he and the messengers sent by the Holy See could impress Orland in the north, Feru and Malaken in the south. Now, the troubled Serian could only fight alone.
Just when he was getting extremely worried, Alec saw his priests hurried into the temple.

"High Priest, a group of knights from the Kingdom of Dineshien has just arrived outside the city, and their grand master wants to see you." The priest reported with a strange expression.

"Have the vanguards sent by the throne arrived?" Alec felt excited when he heard this.

“They don’t seem to be the Holy Sun Knights sent by the church.” The priest couldn’t help but speak in a lower voice. He gritted his teeth and moved closer to the high priest and said, “Looking at the banner emblem, those people are from the ‘Holy Lake’. They seem to be the legendary ‘Knights of Ilaril’.”

"Holy Lake Sect?" The expression of Chief Priest Alec also became a little strange.

This group of people are a special "heretic" group in the Holy Sun faith.

They are small, but extremely unique.

Because its followers do not worship the Holy Sun at all, but only believe in "Ilariel" himself.

This heretical sect lived near the holy lake where the holy prophet was said to have bathed, and established several monasteries. They took pride in drinking the water of the holy lake and worshipped the prophet himself.

The so-called Knights of Ilaril are the most famous armed force in this small sect.

However, there is a legend that the history of this knightly order is actually earlier than that small sect itself. Some bold speculations even judge that it is earlier than the current "Holy Sun Church". Alec naturally does not believe this nonsense.

"Are these 'knights' also here to support Serian?" Although the devout Alec was very disgusted with heretics, as the high priest of the place where the Holy Prophet ascended to heaven, he comforted himself that the other party was, after all, a worshiper of the prophet, and reluctantly swallowed the critical words.

According to historical records, the church had considered banning this heretical sect that did not respect the Holy Sun.

But after personal investigation by successive Oracle Thrones, they were finally granted amnesty and allowed to exist. Coincidentally, this small sect did not seem to have any intention of expansion, so it has remained near the Holy Lake and continues to this day.

The priest hesitated and answered, "It seems that it is not about Serrian. They said that at the end of last year, a miracle happened in the Holy Lake, and the knights all heard the voice of the prophet. Now they are searching all over the continent for the holy place mentioned in the prophet's oracle."

"Holy Oracle? These heretics can also receive the Holy Oracle?"

Alec really couldn't bear it anymore, he couldn't stand any heresy like this. He didn't believe anyone other than the "oracle" who claimed to listen to the words of God. Historically, such guys were all swindlers without exception, and should be stuffed into a crematorium and burned directly with the sacred flame to prevent them from harming the world.

Shaking his head, he asked, "If that's the case, why are these guys coming to me instead of continuing to look for it?"

"They said that they have not found the holy land in the past nine months, but recently they learned that the place where the prophet ascended to heaven encountered a disaster. They thought it was related to the oracle they received, so they rushed here to look for clues. They wanted to ask you if you have heard of that strange place name." The priest replied.

"What place name?" Alec asked helplessly.

"Avalon."

(End of this chapter)