Those time travelers that year

This caused the sky to darken instantly after the white dragon tamed by the frost giant took flight, and snowflakes began to fall. Soon, a blizzard descended upon the area.

This blizzard was caused by divine power, and by a deity herself. Although the deity is in a terrible state, the sudden change in climate she caused is something that mortal mages are not capable of dispelling.

This also includes those voters.

Or rather, at this moment, the faces of these voters looked extremely grim.

Even with explanations from their own mage advisors, noble lords unfamiliar with this field might not be able to grasp the current situation. However, skilled spellcasters would understand just how dire the situation was.

Divine power cannot be dispelled by them. Under such circumstances, no matter how much the soldiers participating in the battle try to boost morale or cast courage spells, they will still feel a trace of fear. And this fear, for a god of the evil faction, can be harvested as faith.

A deity in saintly form cannot access the Sea of ​​Force, nor can they replenish their divine power with the Force it provides. However, in the material world, the formula of faith = divine power still exists.

It's equivalent to having an extra buff that continuously restores mana even before the actual battle has begun.

The coalition forces truly had a blind spot in air superiority, leaving them completely unprepared. To resolve this awkward situation, once again, the glory of the goddess Manny enveloped the area.

Another batch of scrolls or magical items were used, and celestial messengers, celestial griffins, and other celestial creatures appeared in a dazzling display of positive energy.

These celestial beings were summoned down, bringing with them a surge of positive energy that dispelled the gloom in the hearts of the allied soldiers, greatly boosting their morale and simultaneously solving the problem of aerial combat.

But that's not enough. Even if this world war doesn't have the concept of favorable timing, location, and popular support, these long-lived chosen ones know that the true controller of the sky is the winter goddess Oryl, who is hiding on the side of the frost giants.

These celestial beings, after being suppressed by the rules of the prime material world, may also be suppressed by Orluel, and their combat power will not be very high.

After discussing it, the voters jointly cast the Dragon Covenant. Under the great power of the goddess Manny, the figures of the golden and silver dragons appeared in the sky above the allied forces.

Now that the preliminary preparations are complete, the war has begun...

...Seriously, don't these guys ever consider praying to Goddess Manny?

646. Backward bumpkin

It's no wonder that these bumpkins, who worship an even more bumpkin-like deity, have always been out of touch with the times and, under their influence, have rejected the birth and development of advanced civilization.

They believed that magic and divine arts could solve everything, and that with the protection of an even more uncultured group, these uncultured people would always be the rulers. Scholars blocked valuable knowledge from flowing to ordinary people, and knights boasted of their nonsensical martial prowess, considering themselves superior.

Wizards and priests, wielding mystical powers, looked down upon these people from a high vantage point, and even higher up were the rulers known as 'gods'. But these beings had never truly contributed to the world; on the contrary, under layers of interference, civilization not only failed to develop but actually regressed.

Thousands of years ago, during the Netheril era, facing a vast number of orcs, the archmages resorted to building floating cities. Relying on the powerful strategic strength of these floating cities, along with numerous inexpensive yet high-quality magical items, they repeatedly carried out large-scale massacres of these barbaric civilizations, ultimately creating the Netheril Empire at its zenith.

In that era, all the barbaric civilizations that challenged the Netheril Empire were hunted down countless times by the armies led by these archmages. Each act of resistance was ruthlessly crushed in the face of the unquestionable air superiority of the floating cities.

But times have changed. Faced with the same large number of frost giants that pose an even greater threat, humanity can no longer find the floating city that hangs in the sky, and even the number of spellcasters has decreased generation after generation.

The threat they face is no longer the simple, primitive civilization that the archmages once confronted.

Above, amidst the swirling snow, celestial creatures summoned and metallic dragons arriving through the Dragon Pact soared from the ranks of the noble alliance. Faced with these sudden enemies, the white dragons that had taken flight from the frost giants' side were initially panicked. As a disgrace to the dragon race, they were merely wild beasts at this age. These tamed ones could even be called hunting dogs.

Forced by Orluel's will, these low-intelligence creatures had no choice but to reluctantly face the celestial beings and the metal dragons. The two sides became entangled in the air and fought each other.

Blood fell from the sky, and in a single exchange, the White Dragon suffered heavy losses.

This is not surprising. These are just wild beasts. No matter how bad a metal dragon is after it grows up, it is still a qualified spellcaster. As for celestial creatures, they can definitely cast spells, and even if they can't, they have various supernatural powers.

The white dragon is just a wild beast.

This scene infuriated Oryur, who was hiding among the frost giants. Even though it was common knowledge that the white dragon was useless, it was still too embarrassing for him to be so useless that he was easily defeated upon contact.

As a result, the blizzard raged even more fiercely.

For the white dragon, this level of blizzard was nothing, but on the other hand, apart from the silver dragon, the increasingly large blizzards were becoming unbearable.

But there was nothing they could do but grit their teeth and continue fighting the white dragons under the influence of the blizzard. Unfortunately, even with the advantage in combat strength, they couldn't easily defeat these white dragons due to Oryl's interference.

At this moment, on the ground, the noble alliance and the frost giant army finally began their first battle.

If firearms existed, they could definitely give the frost giants a good beating first. Even bronze cannons firing exploding shells would be better than arrows; given the level of technology in this world, they could certainly manufacture them.

Some might argue that this is a magical world where magical professions represent true power, and that technology is utterly useless. According to this logic, wouldn't bows and arrows surpass firearms in both firepower and range?

The truth is, ordinary bows and arrows don't have a very long range. While bows imbued with magical power can certainly increase their range, and certain special skills of various professions can also endow arrows with powerful destructive force, that requires money and top-tier talent with such abilities.

The sound of cannons can bring in a fortune, but top talents cultivated through various high-level magical items and equipment, requiring a great deal of time and effort, are extremely rare, and cost far more than cannons.

Artillery can be mass-produced, but top-tier talent cannot. Training and arming such an individual takes decades, and the chances of success are even lower if the individual is not of long lifespan.

However, once the patterns are understood, mass production of artillery and gunpowder can begin within a few months, and can be rapidly updated and upgraded continuously...

...This world isn't the planet Azeroth where cheat codes are constantly being used. Even on Azeroth, after experiencing one war after another without stopping, both the Alliance and the Horde have long since become rife with advanced technology.

Just like here, if you exclude the chosen ones and the gods, and these armies actually clashed with the current Alliance and Horde armies on Azeroth that are recklessly using cheat technology, it would be this world that would be completely wiped out.

Without the advantage of technology, the human side was caught in a tough battle from the very beginning when fighting against the frost giants, a race with an advantage in size and strength.

The spellcasters had just launched a barrage of spells—fireballs, lightning—a flurry of evocation spells accompanied by a volley of arrows—when the frost giants who still had the ability to cast spells immediately countered.

Most importantly, the coalition's long-range attack was launched against the wind...

On the noble alliance's side, they dared not cast battlefield spells like Death Cloud, fearing that a gust of wind from Oryul would blow them all back. And aside from fire and lightning, other evocation spells did not do much damage to the frost giants.

You could mention swamps, fossilized mud, or grease magic, but the current temperature is extremely low, and it's snowing. Even if a large enough mudflat or swamp were created, how long could it be maintained in such a low-temperature environment, and how effective would it be against the frost giants?!

On a battlefield with tens of thousands of players, the so-called magic showed its fatigue at this moment. Perhaps it wasn't like this in the era of the great arcane mages, but the spellcasters born in this era, under the suffocation and restrictions of the magic network, have become overly reliant on spell slots, leading to this awkward situation.

If it weren't for the fact that they could buff themselves, these disorganized spellcasters wouldn't amount to much. No wonder the red-robed mages always looked down on the mages in the material world other than themselves.

In such a truly large-scale war, the real protagonists are the soldiers wielding cold swords. Even knights, under these circumstances, would be utterly annihilated if they dared to charge the frost giants as a group.

When the vanguard engaged in battle, the noble alliance was tragically plunged into a chaotic melee as the frost giants charged in without any formation.

Even with magical buffs, ordinary soldiers still cannot gain an advantage against frost giants. High-level professionals might be able to fight one-on-one with buffs, but soldiers with an average professional level of around 9-10, even if they are quite elite, are inevitably drawn into individual or small-team melees.

This world is accustomed to small-scale battles, resulting in a complete lack of commanders who have actually led large-scale campaigns.

647. How do "pig teammates" come about?

The lack of a commander with overall strategic control put the noble alliance at a disadvantage from the very beginning of the war. Some might question why the alliance didn't rely on its city defenses but instead chose to fight these large, hordes of frost giants on the outside.

It's quite simple; it was Oruel who forced it. Initially, the allied forces might have genuinely intended to rely on well-fortified city defenses for a defensive counterattack—the very foundation of human civilization's confidence against attacks from barbaric civilizations. However, under Oruel's influence, the weather began to turn against humanity. Howling blizzards had already engulfed vast areas of human settlements. With a god openly intervening, attempting to defend a city to the death would only result in turning it into a deathly snow cave.

In the past, if Euryl had done this, a powerful deity would have undoubtedly come to cause trouble. But now, that's not the case. The remaining mid-level and powerful deities are already blocked at the entrance of the Pantheon by the monkey. As for the other lesser and minor deities who have descended, they are either hiding from the greedy gazes of those ambitious individuals or silently accumulating power to observe all of this unfolding.

Not a single one of them was willing to come to Euryl, including those originally kind and righteous but weak and powerless gods.

They're definitely on the good side!!!

Ha ha……

This resulted in the absence of any combat power outside the material world's scale, aside from the few voters who arrived. However, it was impossible for these few voters to stop a god who had regained some of his power through fear.

Moreover, these are the gods of the Furious pantheon, renowned for their battle prowess.

If these voters actually dared to unleash a legendary spell to clear the area, then Oruel would certainly retaliate with one of his own. You might unleash a meteor shower, but as a god, Oruel could also unleash one. The frost giants could be controlled by Oruel's powerful suppression, but once the noble alliance descended into chaos, it wouldn't be something a few voters could suppress.

Most importantly, those nobles all had their own agendas and were unwilling to see all their people sold off like that.

In this situation, the allied frontline troops began to gradually crumble in the first engagement. While small-scale battles would theoretically be more suitable for humans, this time the frost giants were no longer outnumbered; their numbers were considerable.

Not long after the initial encounter, some of the nobles standing in the front ranks, their faces turning ashen, discovered that their soldiers were being rapidly decimated. In an era where soldiers couldn't simply be considered numbers, every fallen soldier represented a significant drain on their wealth. If these elite troops were to perish here, even if they defeated the frost giants and resolved the crisis, their own territories would likely be annexed by their relatively unscathed comrades.

This is nothing new; it has happened countless times before. Many wandering nobles or knights lost their ancestral lands because of this, and were forced to choose a life of wandering.

This led to a situation where, apart from a very few nobles with a certain level of military skill who insisted on keeping their soldiers from retreating and instead immediately calling for reinforcements via magical communication, some lords and nobles who could not bear the loss of their soldiers made a grave mistake—retreating.

In their minds, they had already sacrificed enough soldiers' lives. This tactic of using human lives as expendable resources had reached their limit, and they had paid a heavy price.

Then they gave the order to retreat. If it were just one or two, it would be considered a collapse of the defensive line. However, there were quite a few who thought so. In an instant, more than a dozen squads of noble private soldiers on the front line all retreated, causing the other soldiers who were still fighting to misunderstand and subconsciously follow suit.

From the air, one could see that at this moment, the first line of the entire noble alliance suddenly scattered in all directions.

This retreat, though seemingly insignificant, directly led to the complete collapse of the entire front. It left those with sufficient military expertise utterly bewildered. They'd seen incompetent allies before, but never so many. This withdrawal caused the total collapse of the first line of defense.

Soldiers in the midst of battle, seeing those around them turn and run, all followed suit. The lack of unified command created this irreversible situation.

Everyone was dumbfounded, including the voters of those nominal commanders.

Incidentally, they were merely voters; living long enough and having seen enough didn't make them competent commanders. Even they hadn't anticipated this situation. Even with magic to forcibly control them, it was impossible for the voters to control all the routed frontline soldiers.

The way these voters handled the situation was far inferior to even the most seasoned and ruthless commanders. Any commander with a modicum of sense would have ordered the execution of the retreating soldiers, using bloodshed and violence to forcibly halt the rout. Even if they couldn't stop it, they would have at least forced these fleeing soldiers to retreat from the left and right flanks of the main force, preventing them from crashing into their own ranks.

But these voters don't know that!

They are more accustomed to small-scale battles, relying on role-playing games or having others do role-playing games to save the world. Therefore, they cannot imagine how terrible it would be for a retreating army to occur on a battlefield with tens of thousands of soldiers.

Without a complete command system, without sufficient junior officers, and without the Red Army whose morale could be reversed with just a pistol and a knife, not to mention the even more terrifying military police, the outdated lordly and noble system could only become a hindrance on this battlefield.

Perhaps the nobles believed deep down that the commoners and soldiers should unconditionally dedicate everything to them, the 'nobles,' even their lives. But the problem was, they weren't the hierarchical devils of Bathory's hell; they couldn't do that.

Once the leading nobleman fled, none of the soldiers were able to hold out any longer and ran away with him.

It's ridiculous that the first line of defense, which was supposed to be full of hope, became the 'enemy' that attacked the ranks behind it.

At least several thousand, or even tens of thousands, of defeated soldiers surged forward.

Unfortunately, these soldiers weren't defeated by the frost giants; rather, they brought about their own demise through a series of coincidences. At that moment, no one was willing to turn back to cover the retreat; the lords and nobles fled even faster. The ignorant and incompetent fools ran away early, while those with common sense were utterly helpless in the face of this complete collapse of the front lines.

Meanwhile, the quick-thinking nobles in the rear camp had already realized that if these routed soldiers were allowed to rush into the battle line, they would definitely be swept along by these guys. In that case, it wouldn't just be the collapse of the first line of defense, but the destruction of the entire allied army.

648. The Chosen People of Our Lady

This is why wars involving tens of thousands of people were rare under the feudal system. The reason lies in the system itself. In an era reliant on a single excellent commander or individual bravery, an experienced commander could easily manage a few dozen men, but once the number reached a hundred, command became difficult. Only nobles or knights who had truly fought on numerous battlefields could achieve this.

When the number reaches a thousand, a series of problems arise, such as logistics, marching routes, encampments, and drinking water sources, which remain major challenges even in this magical world. While there are magical items like endless water jugs and spatial pockets, you can't expect to supply a force of thousands with such limited water capacity or small spatial pockets. If that were truly possible, it would require a legendary figure carrying a demiplane with them.

And the command system and warfare science of this world have stopped at the scale of a thousand people. This is normal. For the material world, a few thousand people is considered a city, tens of thousands is considered a large city, and the total population of a city-state or kingdom is only a few hundred thousand.

How could a total population of several hundred thousand possibly support an army numbering in the tens of thousands? Moreover, a regular army of several thousand men is considered the trump card of a kingdom with a population of several hundred thousand.

Considering this, it's not surprising that this world relies on role-playing games to save it. There's no other way; the quantity, quality, and leadership of the armies are all inferior. Despite possessing magical skills, due to a series of suppressions, only the Red-Robed Mages have used a brutal elimination system to select and train a large number of mages. Only Silvermoon City has a school for teaching magic; the rest are essentially left to their own devices.

If even a 'mage' who has mastered the core knowledge is like this, then it goes without saying what others are like.

Even so, geniuses still exist in such environments. These geniuses may be penniless due to humble origins, but they may also have a good family background, allowing them to display their innate talents.

In any world, once developed, geniuses can always achieve far more than ordinary people. Take this 'ridiculous' war, for example. The number of troops involved was in the tens of thousands; if you include logistical support and laborers, the number probably reached a hundred thousand—a scale likely unprecedented in any nation. To reach this level and maintain the allied forces from collapsing due to various problems is truly remarkable. Especially considering the so-called commander of the allied forces, that paper-thin figure from Silvermoon City, whose numbers didn't even match those of the noble lords…

This was certainly not the work of that short-sighted paper mounter; it actually belonged to someone else. Unfortunately, according to traditional rules, the credit for someone who coordinated this kind of work actually belonged to his boss, the paper mounter from Silver Moon City.

As a result, this woman, who had always wanted to establish a northern kingdom centered on Silvermoon City and whose ambitions were not small, was utterly powerless to command her army. As a chosen one, she was not merely a figurehead, nor could it be said that she lacked the ability to command an army. However, if a few hundred people counted as an army, then a coalition force a hundred times larger than that was beyond her command.

Faced with the inexplicable collapse of the first line, the elector panicked. Through the magical mirror, all the high command of the allied forces could see the scene of tens of thousands of soldiers running frantically towards the rear like a tidal wave after the collapse of the first line.