Throne of the North.

Chapter 737 The Second Orc War (Part 23)
"The war is not over, because the orc god is not dead; He has only been defeated."

Ryan stood atop the snow-capped mountain, speaking with a sorrowful expression.

"If we want to truly end the orc war, we must not forget their gods."

Count Pascal looked at Ryan, unsure of what Ryan wanted to say, but he made a bold guess in his mind.

"Ryan, you're not planning to kill a god, are you?"

Count Pascal expressed his conjecture with some shock, puzzled by Ryan's boldness.

"The orcs' god has failed; He has left our world. Mortals can find no great being."

“Even the Empire couldn’t do it, you can’t do it alone.”

“You don’t even have the right to look at Him.”

Ryan turned around with a smile and said:
“No, Your Excellency, I have brought Him before us.”

"He is too weak, so weak that He cannot leave. He has lost the source of His divinity. Even the great being himself cannot decide whether the war in the Kingdom of God will continue or stop."

“I have decided to kill Him and end this war that has brought us disaster.”

Count Pascal's eyes widened, but he finally regained his composure.

“Ryan, you can’t do it. Killing a god is too terrible. Whether He is alive or dead, it is an eternal calamity for mortals. Everything you have will perish.”

However, the count quickly grasped the key point and was somewhat shocked.

"You brought the gods with you?"

“Yes, Your Excellency, He is to our north. My friends brought Him to us.”

Count Pascal wasn't troubled by the issue of friends; instead, he felt a chill run down his spine.

“Ryan, killing a god is not something to be taken lightly. Even if He is weakened to the extreme, you cannot kill Him.”

Ryan remained noncommittal; he wasn't sure either, which was why he had called on Count Pascal.

“Your Excellency is right. I cannot kill a god by myself, which is why I invited you here.”

"I want to invite you to join me in killing that great being."

"The confidence I can give you is that you, Count, need not worry about the curse of the gods, nor about the so-called eternal troubles."

"I need you to help me think of a way to kill Him."

"As for what happens after you kill Him, leave that to me, Ryan."

Ryan said with a smile, which was also the reason he invited Count Pascal. Could ordinary weapons kill a great god? Probably not. The knight's longsword in his hand, even if it was a legendary weapon, probably couldn't harm a god.

Just like a divine kingdom, when a divine kingdom appears, everyone can see it, but who can enter it? Unless guided by divinity, no life can enter a divine kingdom; it is an illusion.

The same goes for gods. Even now, Ryan doesn't know whether gods actually have a physical form.

What if they are nothingness?

He lacked the means to kill the gods.

And what about Count Pascal?
The count fell silent, pondering everything that was involved.

As nobles, no one can make a decision based on mere passion; self-interest is always the only thing that sustains everything.

Since killing a god was related to himself, Pascal needed to consider several things.

The first, of course, is the curse or calamity that the Pascal family might have suffered as a result.

Death is not the end for a great being, but merely a long period of slumber. Moreover, death does not affect the power that a god has already released. If He has left a curse, then that curse remains terrible and as indelible as a leech.

Ryan said he could solve it, but Count Pascal couldn't believe him just because of a single statement.

"You say you can resolve the consequences of killing a god?"

"why?"

Count Pascal certainly knew that this was a matter of life and death, and the continuation of his family line.

"My father, Earl Clayton, and I once killed a god in another world."

"He came to the tundra for my wedding."

"His purpose in coming here is to kill the gods. In addition, there is His Majesty the King of the Kingdom of Sera, that legendary magician, who is an indispensable part of the god-slaying."

Ryan spoke to Count Pascal, continuing to speak while the latter pondered.

"The royal family of the Kingdom of Andara has not escaped the curse of the gods. They are still isolated from the extraordinary. But I can help some of them to remove the price of the curse. Daryl Andara became a legend because of my help. Now, all the royal family members in Andara who are able to embark on the path of the extraordinary are all with my help."

Anyone who pays attention to this matter will know the current situation of the Andara royal family. Pascal was shocked by the relationships that Ryan revealed.

The king of the Kingdom of Sera, the royal family of Andara.

"No wonder you're so successful in the North."

Thanks to the lack of a tradition of lies and deception among the nobles, Count Pascal did not doubt what Ryan said; Ryan's invitation to him was clearly for another purpose.

Killing God.

Count Pascal's gargoyle legion also participated in the divine war in the province of Thermopylae and has not yet returned, but that is not the most important thing.

"Only the power of an equally great being can kill a god."

"If you cannot summon a great being to participate, then you need a divine artifact."

Besides the curse of death brought by killing a god, Count Pascal had many other considerations.

For example, does he currently need the benefits of killing a god?

The Counts of Pascal, the Gargoyle Legion—he needs them.

Otherwise, the count wouldn't have been able to capture so many souls from the war in the province of Thermopylae.

He was for the Gargoyle Legion.

Any extraordinary legion that is always facing certain death will not survive for long. The Gargoyle Legion has participated in many wars in recent years, especially the war against the Papacy's Redemption Army on the eastern border of the Kingdom of Andara.

The gargoyle warriors also suffered losses.

Replenishing the Gargoyle Legion's soldiers, however, is not so easy.

Gargoyles are born from mineral veins deep within the earth, through the convergence of magical power and various coincidences. However, they have suffered considerable losses in war.

Count Pascal needs to accelerate the production of new gargoyles, which means he can no longer rely on the earth to nurture them on its own.

The divine source can replace the environment that nurtures gargoyles.

Besides this, what Count Pascal needed to consider was the nobles involved in this matter.

Ryan Clayton.

The empire is currently rife with political intrigue, and no one can see clearly what the future holds after the new emperor's coronation. Grand Duke Meyers may be the most informed, but without a natural merit in supporting the new emperor, one cannot enter that circle, and one's interests will inevitably be harmed.

Count Pascal has resolved some of the conflicts within his family and with the Dawn Church. Now, he needs to gain political influence within the empire. In other words, he needs allies. Like Count William the vampire, human civilization is merging and prospering, the empire is becoming stronger, and the nobles can no longer remain aloof.

The more glorious the empire, the more the nobles needed to band together to benefit from this environment.

In this respect, Count Pascal had no other choice.

There was already an alliance between him and Ryan; this was simply a deepening of that existing alliance.

Moreover, it's not just about Ryan, but also about Clayton, not to mention that Ryan himself has already amassed considerable power in the North.

If we calculate it this way, Ryan's political group also has a considerable voice within the Empire.

Given this, Count Pascal naturally had no reason to hesitate.

"In the Pascal family, there exists a divine artifact that can help kill gods."

"But don't expect it to be like the war in the Hot Spring Province. Who would have thought that a complete set of divine remains was buried beneath the capital city?"

……

"Divine artifact" does not refer to any powerful weapon.

Any object that contains the essence of divinity can be called a divine artifact; it could be a sword, a suit of armor, or—

A castle.

The artifact that Count Pascal spoke of was Count Pascal's castle, the very castle that once easily sealed away the Black Swan assassin from the Dawn Church.

Ryan was also very surprised when he learned the answer. Count Pascal told him that this was the benefit of blasphemy. In the past, the great nobles almost all infused their castles with the divine essence because that was the best way. In addition, they used the divine essence to create extraordinary legions.

"If I can pinpoint His presence, my castle will transform into a spire and launch a fatal attack on the god."

Count Pascal solemnly told Ryan that if the first attack failed... the Count's castle could launch a second, fatal blow, a third... a fourth...

……

To be precise, the gargoyle count judged that the divine essence contained within his castle could withstand seven attacks of god-level power. After seven attacks, the divine essence within the castle would be exhausted, and the castle would become an ordinary ancient human building.

In short, Count Pascal knew very well the price of not being able to kill a god completely. Since he had killed a god, he must not leave any room for the great being to retaliate, otherwise, eternal calamity would befall their bloodline.

"Seven times will definitely be enough," Ryan said confidently.

After all, this was a betrayal, and the Orc King would never have imagined that the werewolves would rebel.

"We will win."

Ryan looked at his spiritual panel; his legendary gift was now up for grabs.

"When are you going to take action?"

This count was as decisive as ever; once he made a decision, he would go all out.

Ryan raised his head; there was still time.

"The next full moon night."

The Great Wall fortress in the north.

The war between humans and orcs continued to rage across this land, unaffected by the end of the war in Hot Spring Province.

The Orc King Shattered Bones stood in the middle of the wolf pack, enjoying the majesty of being protected, and looked at the towering human fortress in the distance, filled with resentment.

It was here that it encountered a setback, which led it to head west, but unexpectedly, it eventually returned.

“The gods are guiding me forward.”

"Is it here?"

Shattered Bones felt satisfied with the divine power within his body, and was equally pleased when he looked at the werewolf pack around him.

The werewolves supported it greatly, even offering sacrifices to members of their own kind; those strong werewolves were beings that pleased the Lord.

Since the werewolves were willing to offer their blood as a sacrifice, Broken Bones naturally acknowledged their worth and told them that the Silvermoon Royal Court was the true royal family of the orcs.

But the werewolf can hardly be satisfied with this anymore.

Their current trouble lies in the calamity of their bloodline; if the call of the wild cannot be resolved, all werewolves will degenerate into primitive beasts.

Therefore, with the passage of time, the statements made by Orc King Shattered Bones are no longer sufficient.

"Your Majesty, we will launch our attack at the next full moon."

Ardon spoke, his voice filled with cold cruelty.

Why a full moon?

"Under the full moon, the werewolves become even stronger, and we will easily tear down the human walls."

Since the answer was meaningless, he would pray diligently these days, hoping that his faith in the sacrifices would elicit a more frequent response from the great Lord.

"Those damned traitors, once I become the Orc King again, I'll make you pay!"

Broken Bones grinned angrily, vowing to remember the previous betrayal.

The war between humans and orcs was massive, and it had been almost a month since the cleanup of the battlefields in the Hot Springs province came to an end.

And after a month, another full moon arrived, the night when the bright moon was closest to the human world.

The werewolf pack was becoming increasingly agitated and restless; clearly, as the moon drew closer, they were losing control of their wild instincts.

However, there aren't many werewolves here.

Ryan had previously stated that he couldn't make all werewolves master the Call of the Wild in a short period of time; the cost of that was beyond his means.

Based on this problem, the werewolf leaders weren't fools. Instead of having the werewolf clans gather together, they dispersed most of the groups over the course of a month. That way, even if they went into a frenzy, the damage and destruction they could cause would be limited.

All that remained on this snowfield, apart from the werewolf cavalry, were cannon fodder.

It's not clear from Broken Bones that its understanding of werewolves is incomplete, so seeing this majestic werewolf army fills it with pride.

"In the name of the Lord, I will bless you with great divine power!"

"Let you break through the high walls of humanity, kill those damned humans! Loot everything they have!"

Shattered Bones stood behind the towering dire wolf, using the little divine power within him to bless the werewolf riders. It had to demonstrate its status as the orc king. Sure enough, as the divine power descended, the dire wolves beneath its feet obediently lowered their heads.

"A cowardly wolf cub who bullies the weak and fears the strong."

Shattered Bones scoffed inwardly, recalling how he had been bullied countless times when he was a fox-person.

On the same night, atop the majestic Great Wall, three powerful nobles—Lynn, Earl Pascal, King Sera, and His Majesty King McCreynoz—stood side by side atop the high walls.

"Don't worry about the orcs."

Ryan said this in response to the looming threat of war already looming in the sky.

The other two remained silent, their gaze fixed on the giant wolf standing upright beside Ryan—a werewolf, a legendary werewolf.

(End of this chapter)