Throne of the North.

Chapter 319 The Cursed Royal Family, the Road Finally Built
Twin Cities, in ruins.

The living believers knelt quietly in a circle, their hands clasped in front of their chests, their heads lowered, and they continued to recite and pray.

In the center of the circle they formed were nearly 20,000 corpses, all covered in white robes. One after another, believers walked among them, lay down quietly, and covered their entire bodies with the clothes of faith on their bodies.

What can be seen is that almost every one of these believers lying on the ground has a crack on their head, while the believers who are alive and praying around them have intact heads, at most with bloody horrors on their bodies, but under the healing magic, their injuries are nothing.

Their silent prayers, along with their calls, passed through the dusk, through the night, and into the dawn of the next day.

When the first rays of morning light shone down, all the corpses on the ground, those dead believers of the dawn, began to burn with holy flames.

"The great Lord, the glory of the morning sun, will lead them into heaven to enjoy eternal life."

Pastor Soto stood here solemnly with his gray hair, watching devoutly as the power of the morning light took away all his dead believers.

In this extraordinary world, a world with real gods, such miracles make the surviving believers even more devout and fanatical.

However, Pastor Soto knew that these believers might not live for too long. Too much of their vitality had been consumed in this war. Even if they survived, they could only live for two or three years at most. Those who consumed less energy might be able to live for seven or eight years, but no longer.

They will not have any doubts, but will think that it is the Lord of the Dawn who called them and led them to the eternal heaven to serve the great Lord because they participated in the holy war.

They will spend the next few days without any illness or disaster, and then go to the Lord of Dawn peacefully.

One miracle after another will make the majesty of the Holy See even greater. This holy war will ultimately be their victory...

Thinking of this, Pastor Soto fell silent. He didn't know whether this holy war was a victory or not. Although they had eliminated countless followers of Dusk, He still escaped. And that Williams, the guy who was watched and blessed by Dusk, might not necessarily die.

This result was not what he wanted to see, and he didn't know how to explain this matter to the Holy Mountain.

The Pope may not know that the Dusk God has lost part of his consciousness and that his own magic has consumed his divinity. The Pope may not be able to sense the God of this world through the Holy Mountain.

"As long as I don't tell anyone, no one will know..."

Someone saw Hernan leave... Thinking of this, Pastor Soto had a headache. He couldn't wait to return to the holy mountain to bathe in the holy light and cleanse his body of the gaze of dusk.

But he might not be able to leave now. If Hernan and Williams come back again, he might never be able to leave the Holy Mountain and will be imprisoned under the Holy Mountain to atone for his sins.

Thinking of that outcome, Pastor Soto couldn't help but feel fear.

He looked at the Twin Cities. Most of the city had been destroyed, but it still seemed not enough at the moment.

"This is the land of faith of a foreign god. The evil being spreads faith here and makes mortals his followers. This is an unforgivable sin. This land has been tainted with the breath of heresy."

He began to speak, and soon the clergy around him began to call out enthusiastically.

"Burn it!"

A huge fire burned in the ruins of the Twin Cities. Except for the huge broken gap in the city wall, all the buildings were knocked down and destroyed. The only survivors of the Twin Cities watched the Vatican destroy their homes. Apart from the pain, they dared not to resist.

They were afraid that they would be treated as heretics and thrown into the fire and burned to ashes like those who were clamoring.

The fire continued to burn for three days even after tens of thousands of Vatican believers left. During this time, the natives of the Twin Cities tried to put out the fire, but they were limited in manpower and could not extinguish the increasingly raging flames. Instead, a group of people died again in the flames and thick smoke.

The vast sky was also stained with a layer of haze because of the fireworks of this city. The Holy See's holy war would not cause the loss of anything to the Holy See, but the Kingdom of Andara would completely lose a big city connecting the east and west.

Thousands of civilians were displaced, and their final destination might be to become slaves in one of the territories, or to continue living in another place with the last bit of money they got from the Twin Cities.

The city under the thick smoke was ultimately left with only its superficial splendor. No, even the surface was no longer glorious. The large gaps on the east and west walls were the remains of the holy war of faith.

The army of the Holy See will go west to help Daryl's noble army fight against McReynolds, but those believers will not be included. Only the real extraordinary people such as knights, priests, and missionaries belonging to the Holy See will not be too many. After all, the Holy See in the Kingdom of Andara does not have its own army.

Their power is paid by the Holy Mountain and the Andara Kingdom in the south, and they often use the army within the kingdom to do things for themselves. However, this time it is a holy war, and they are facing a civil war in the Andara Kingdom. In addition, the balance between the Holy See and the Empire has tilted between the royal power and theocracy in the south, so the Holy See needs to use its own power to solve the problem of heresy.

However, the blessings and empowerment brought by divine arts may allow the war in the west to gain the upper hand. The Church and the Kingdom are so deeply entangled that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other, and priests in the war are not uncommon.

Now that Grand Duke McReynolds has chosen the Empire and the King has chosen the Holy See, the priests will of course stand on the King's side and strengthen the army's combat effectiveness.

The only ones Grand Duke McReynolds can rely on now, apart from himself, are the Empire's Violent Elephant Legion and some magicians and alchemists borrowed from the Empire's nobles to fight against the clergy of the Vatican.

If the Griffin Legion had not remained powerful, there would have been almost no chance of the Grand Duke winning.

It would be impossible for the Griffin Legion to fight against the entire kingdom alone without suffering heavy losses.

The Grand Duke could not think of this, but Ryan had already seen it clearly.

After the followers of the alien god Surtur were completely annihilated, Ryan believed that the only threat within the kingdom was Grand Duke McReynolds. Even the four noble lords in the south were defeated by the Violent Elephant Legion and were no longer within the scope of threat.

"The war in the kingdom is only about to end with a compromise between the king and the grand duke. Either the royal authority will be gone, or the grand duke will lose his powerful griffin army."

However, any result would represent the weakening of the Andara Kingdom's national strength, and it would probably become the weakest among the eight kingdoms.

At that time, they would either rely on the Holy See with all their strength, or become puppets controlled by the Empire...

The king chose the former, because at least his power would not be lost too much. It has always been a tradition to have theocracy riding on one's neck. The old king had never experienced the feeling of being controlled by royal power, so it was not surprising that he chose the Holy See.

"At present, it seems that the king will win against Archduke McReynolds, but the price will be high. The Kingdom of Andara will lose countless sovereignty, and the authority of the Holy See in the world will be further enhanced. It may even recruit a direct Holy See army in the territory of the Kingdom of Andara."

This was almost foreseeable, and Ryan didn't know if there would be any extra variables.

He seldom comes back to the frozen land because the accumulated snow is difficult to handle. The North Gar River at the foot of the Rhino Horn Mountain is already full of snow. The weather is still cold and the accumulated snow will not melt.

Snow mountains have already piled up on top of the glacier. If the materials are transported to a farther place, the cost will be high and many people may die.

"Burn it."

Ryan ordered that the snow be melted with fire, wasting a large amount of firewood and even consuming magic crystals.

"If the snow and ice don't melt, it will only bring more snow."

Ryan went to the reclaimed mountains again. These mountains were designated for terraced fields, and most of the snow was piled up around them, leaving vast land.

"When the weather warms up, we can go to the swamp and dig out the silt. We have to repair the road anyway, so we can use the extra silt to bury the land and make it fertile."

"All seeds must be planted one palm apart!"

Ryan's arrival made the pioneering team very nervous. He didn't need to say anything sensible. He just needed to show the majesty of the lord, which would naturally scare these serfs and then they would hurry up to cultivate the land.

"After North Wind Avenue is repaired, we will have to make use of those construction workers to repair the frozen soil. Also, many houses in the villages were collapsed by the snowstorm this winter. We also have to build stronger and more reasonable villages for them." Ryan had a headache. The larger the population, the more rushed he felt even if he was just setting the general direction.

No wonder the nobles either have to be powerful themselves or control the authority within the territory, so the road to transcendence is short.

He hadn't had any knight training for several days. The North Wind Avenue was experiencing its final relief. He traveled through the short Griffin Mountains. Even without the monsters, the mountains and forests that had not been disturbed by humans for hundreds of years were still rugged and random. He asked Count Pascal for a batch of gargoyles, but it still felt not enough. Ryan was about to throw those gargoyles in to practice hard.

There were countless underground caves in the mountains and forests. Even the knights didn't know how many times they had missed their steps and were in a very embarrassing situation.

Sometimes Ryan couldn't help but feel fortunate that his people were not the pampered natives of the Empire, but the people from another dimension who had experienced many years of disasters in the North and lived a complete life.

Even after becoming knights, they still worked hard and did not feel much resentment or dissatisfaction because they were thrown into road construction by Ryan. If they were knights born and raised in the empire, they would probably have been talking behind their backs, saying that this noble lord did not treat the knights as human beings, but as cattle and horses.

After returning to the Frozen Territory, Ryan did not even stay in his castle for long. He continued back to the East Avenue. His horse galloped on the new road. Feeling the cold wind blowing across his cheeks, Ryan felt much more refreshed.

The news from the Andara Kingdom in the east came faster and faster. He could now receive letters from Viscount Fragoso almost every day in the construction team. The other party wrote so frequently because he was worried about the situation in the kingdom. If it failed, he, the Viscount, would die in front of the king.

He was terrified and panicked. Even though he had been preparing for several years, he was still uneasy about this civil war and betrayal, so he wrote a letter to Ryan to vent his emotions.

Ryan didn't mind. At least through these letters, he kept an eye on the situation in the Andara Kingdom. From being completely in the dark at the beginning and knowing only a few pieces of intelligence on one hand, he could now skillfully name more than 80% of the nobles in the kingdom.

The more he knew and the more intelligence he had, the more accurately he would be able to analyze the direction of the Andara Kingdom and how he could participate in it and gain benefits.

His original idea was to wait until the road was repaired and then obtain the wealth of the kingdom in the name of friendship and trade, and to help the kingdom regain its vitality and prosperity.

However, as his recent exchanges with Viscount Fragoso deepened, and the attitude of this Viscount, whom he had never met, who was almost willing to marry his daughter to him, Ryan gradually realized that the decline of the royal family did not actually begin in recent years.

There were already signs of this more than ten years ago, but the king at that time was still strong. His wisdom and bravery made the nobles in the kingdom united. No noble thought of opposing any order of the king. Even if they stayed in the palace, the nobles respected the king's authority and admired his hard work over the past decades, which had stabilized the kingdom's land and wealth.

At that time, no noble would have thought of today, but as the king grew older, the hidden dangers of the kingdom under his control were gradually exposed.

For example, if the royal family loses its legend, this is a serious matter, but if the king's authority is still there, this may not be a desperate situation.

The key lies in the fall of the Extraordinary Legion.

It is said that in a certain discovered alien world, the extraordinary legion fought with the demon followers from the abyss for nearly ten years, wasting countless manpower and resources, causing the extraordinary legion belonging to the royal family, the former knights of the palace, to all perish in a war.

Without the legend that could make the final decision, and without the extraordinary legion that could suppress armies from all sides, the royal family began to focus on maintaining a balance.

It is better to weaken the enemy than to strengthen yourself.

Perhaps in the beginning, the king had thought about using the kingdom's resources to re-establish the Knights Templar Corps, but time was running out. He gradually found himself getting old. If he were young, he would have been able to force the new extraordinary legion to unite into one.

However, the aging king was unable to suppress and control the knights of a new era. After all, the knights must have been summoned from tributes from various nobles.

After he discovered this problem, he was left with only one option, which was to weaken the overall strength of the kingdom and bring everyone back to the same starting line, so that the royal authority could continue to be maintained.

Although the offspring are a bit useless, they can still grow up in such an environment and wait for the next generation and the next generation of kings to make Andara rise again.

But the only thing he miscalculated was that times had changed, and Grand Duke McReynolds would never allow the Griffin Legion to fall, even if he remained loyal to the kingdom.

The end result was that the negotiations between the Grand Duke and the old king broke down, and civil war gradually broke out as both sides were desperate.

“So, it’s not just Grand Duke McReynolds who is dissatisfied and suspicious of the royal family.”

"The other nobles in the kingdom only stood on the king's side due to the old king's remaining power and their own loyalty to the royal family."

"In fact, there have long been many conflicts in the kingdom, between nobles and nobles, between nobles and the king, and between lords and the common people living in the city."

"And... the number of extraordinary people in the Andara royal family is constantly decreasing. It seems that they have difficulty maintaining a strong extraordinary inheritance. None of the king's descendants, the princes, are knights or magicians."

Ryan thought about the information sent by Fragoso and couldn't help but be shocked by the result.

The royal family is unable to give birth to new extraordinary people.

Their bloodline, the unbroken heritage of their once powerful knights and magicians, was cursed and turned into a ruin that prevents them from embarking on the extraordinary path.

This is the most terrifying contradiction in the kingdom right now. If the royal family is no longer extraordinary, can they still be the object of the nobles' loyalty?
This is also the reason why the old king was so stubborn in wanting to weaken the extraordinary power of the entire kingdom.

He was afraid that without the extraordinary, the royal family would no longer be a royal family, so he was crazy and wanted to smash the extraordinary trump cards of other nobles to maintain the dignity of the Andara royal family.

"The curse from the devil in the abyss destroyed the Palace Knights and cursed the bloodline of the Andara royal family so that they could not embark on the extraordinary path."

"As a result, the legend fell, and the extraordinary power of the royal bloodline became fragile. Their rule over the kingdom is gradually disappearing."

"The nobles gradually became dissatisfied with the benefits given by the king because he was oppressing the nobles' wealth every year."

"If he died..."

Ryan could now imagine that the Holy See must have tried every possible means to keep the old king alive.

The new king, Hernan, is no longer possible, and no one knows whether he is dead or not. Among the remaining princes, no noble will surrender to them and kiss the land in front of the king.

The loyalty of the nobles is wavering.

At this moment, Ryan suddenly felt that Grand Duke McReynolds might not lose.

The nobles were wavering on both ends of the scale. They were also thinking and trying to make a choice.

This would make the war less intense.

Ryan seemed to see himself entering the Andara Kingdom in another identity.

Inside the camp, inside the tent, Ryan collected the Viscount's letters one by one and arranged for them to be sent back to the Frozen Territory for storage. This represented the friendship between the two nobles. They were not shameful assassins who would burn the letters after reading them.

These are the foundation for the Ryan family's future. In-depth communication with every noble represents the trust between both parties, which can become part of the right to speak.

Not long after the servant left, thunderous shouts were finally heard from the front, and soon, Master Ryan also got the news.

"The road is open!"

When Ryan came to the front, the powerful sanctuary, Mr. Alchemist Rose, was floating in the thick air. Metal particles surrounded him, wandering like long snakes, and finally sank into the mountain below, stabilizing all the soil, stones and mud.

(End of this chapter)