Witch Troupe and the Undead

To reiterate, if a terrorist organization spends at least several years planning and infiltrating, prepares the ritual a week in advance and keeps it a secret from everyone, and then pays such a high price just to sneak in and humiliate the church, then you can't really say whether the Church of Light is too weak or they are too strong.

“This can’t possibly be just targeting us; there’s definitely some kind of conspiracy we don’t know about.” Bishop Megavin (Deputy) placed his hands flat on the table, and the nobles and other bishops or similar officials of the legitimate churches present all had equally gloomy and unpleasant expressions.

Compared to the church, which could simply close down, the nobles reacted most violently. After all, the church could simply pack up and run away, abandoning the parish and declaring it a forbidden land, even though the cost would be extremely high and might even shake the church's authority. At least they could actually run away.

However, under the feudal system, nobles could not run away. At the very least, neither the nobleman nor his eldest son could run away. If you ran away, you would be stripped of your noble title and fief. As the old empire proverb goes: "Only those in the castle are nobles."

In other words, within a fiefdom, only those who control the manpower, financial resources, and military forces of that fiefdom are considered nobles. Once they leave their fiefdom without bringing enough troops with them, they are nothing more than fat pigs.

As for mobilizing troops to leave Tallinn, that depends on whether their good neighbors are willing. Besides, the old emperor is not even dead yet, and you dare to mobilize your private army to start a civil war? Whether you are rebelling or not is not up to you, but up to your good neighbors and the emperor.

Let alone the fact that we've only discovered traces of the demon and don't even know what the demon's purpose is, even if it were a real great demon leading 666 demon soldiers to block the city's entrance, we would have no choice but to grit our teeth and fight our way through. At most, we could send our young son and wife away, which would be the worst we could do.

Of course, not being able to escape from Tallinn and Rock Tower County does not mean that one cannot leave the city. Question: Apart from the city lord himself, where are the true ancestral homes of most of the other fiefdom nobles or honorary nobles?

Once you understand this question, you'll understand why the city lord and his close knights had the worst expressions.

They cannot escape the city of Tallinn, but that does not mean they cannot leave the city. If it were truly the Great Demon leading his demon army to attack, most nobles would think that if they could not withstand the attack, they would flee to their ancestral homes in the countryside to avoid the storm.

Moreover, unlike cities, which combine production and living facilities, the ancestral homes of these nobles were true castles and fortresses. Although the living conditions were extremely poor, they served as a way out in such circumstances.

And I won't be held accountable afterwards—as a military nobleman, what's wrong with me returning to my fiefdom and gathering my vassals and knights to defend the castles and fortresses located in the wilderness? Of course, you have to choose a suitable battlefield for a defensive war!

“Bishop Megavin, are you sure this is the reaction of a high demon?” the city lord finally couldn’t help but ask. “Can you tell us what kind of enemy we are dealing with?”

Is it a small matter that I can handle myself, or a major matter that requires assistance from other parts of the Empire? "I don't know, but it comes from the deeper realms of Hell." The deeper realms refer to the other levels of Hell besides the first three levels. The first three levels are the so-called shallow realms. The further you go in, the greater the restrictions become, and the stronger the demons become, getting closer to being "gods."

Bishop Megaven displayed three items. The first was a "holy silver badge" cast in pure silver and cooled and shaped with holy water. This unique material has corresponding religious symbolic meaning and is also effective in identifying blasphemous forces such as demons.

Now, the badge, carved in the shape of a unicorn's head, is completely charred, and when Bishop Megaven dipped it into holy water, it separated into a large number of blackish-purple flame-like particles.

"Hellfire, it is indeed the reaction of hell demons, and it happened recently," the city lord's advisor whispered in the lord's ear after examining the holy water bottle. "At the very least, Lord Megavin was not lying. Demons have indeed infiltrated the town recently. As for whether they were summoned inside or outside the city... that's hard to say."

“Yes, I agree with Bishop Megavin’s opinion,” Priest Claycher nodded in agreement. Although the two churches had many contradictions and conflicts, they were united on the issue of demons. After all, they were both orthodox churches, and opposing and eliminating demons as much as possible was a kind of religious correctness.

The second item was a holy seal that had been completely blackened, with ominous purple marks remaining on it. "This is the consequence of the discovery ritual we performed last night. Our Lord's holy seal turned into this state in just three breaths, which means it is a demon with 'power'."

Power is the power corresponding to a blessing. Not every demon has its own power, but every demon with power is qualified to become a "lord" of a certain level of Hell, also known as a sub-lord.

Of course, all lords have powers, but having powers does not mean that anyone is a lord. There are also great differences between them. But one thing is certain: this demon is definitely not an ordinary minion.

The third item was a book radiating holy light. "This is the Book of Demonic Names, one of the holy covenants of our Lord. Through it, we can know the true names of most of the demons in the shallow realm and banish them."

The book contains no words; rather than being a record book, it is more like a consultation terminal where one can ask questions of the Holy Lord. By imprinting the traces of a demon on the pages, one can obtain the demon's image, true name, and abilities, but this is limited to demons in the shallow realm.

The demons of the Deep Realm have begun to reveal a slight "divine" aspect, and the essence of this aspect is clearly something that neither the Holy Lord nor other gods can explore and reveal to mortals without any side effects.

“I suspect that the demon’s true purpose may be this holy book in your possession,” Priest Claycher said slowly. “Normally, this holy book would only exist in the most secure ossuary, protected by the remains of many forefathers and the blessings of God. You would only take it out under very special and severe circumstances.”

"...Damn it!" The city lord leaned back uncomfortably. "So, we've been tricked!?"

Because now, these idiot members of the Church of Light have actually taken this holy contract, which can reveal the true name, weaknesses, and forms of most demons, from the sealed vault of the Hall of Bones, just to prove their innocence and to regain their lost prestige after the Holy Knights were humiliated by being hung in the square!?

"I guess, probably, how long will it take to reseal this holy book now?"

“A week…” Bishop Megavin’s facial muscles twitched a few times. Why hadn’t they thought of this possibility?

In order to locate the demon who dared to slap the church in the face in the shortest possible time, this sacred object was decisively used. Only now do we realize that the summoner who orchestrated all of this may have wanted them to do this, which is why they used such a ridiculous way to humiliate the church.

For a Hell Warlock, possessing a demon's true name allows them to transform that demon into their own familiar through a specific familiarization ritual. Furthermore, if they also have information on the demon's form and weaknesses, they can completely turn that demon into their servant. Moreover, there is no limit to the number of demons a Hell Warlock can use. However, most Hell Warlocks find it difficult to sign too many contracts and obtain too much demonic power.

However, having this holy covenant means they have a contact list of all the powerful demons in the first three levels of hell. They no longer need sacrifices and various complicated methods to open the gates of hell, and they can almost rely on luck to see if they can get a small reward from the demons.

Instead, they can directly extort them, forcing these unfortunate demons to hand over their power. In the hands of the Church of Light and other churches, this holy book is nothing more than a sacred relic to assist in exorcism, but in the hands of the Hell Warlock, it is a demon version of the "Records of Officials"!

Almost everyone present had thought of this. Summoning a great demon to humiliate a paladin was an insult to everyone's intelligence. However, doing such a thing for this holy book, just to make the Church of Light, which was completely enraged, spare no expense to bring out this holy relic to track down their opponent, was quite reasonable.

"Moreover, the fact that they specifically chose demons from the Deeper Realm to do this means they were prepared to seize it by force, and... this holy covenant doesn't reveal the true names of the demons from the Deeper Realm, does it? Moreover, the ones doing this might not necessarily be the Hell Warlocks themselves, but could also be the Greater Demons and Demon Lords they serve."

After all, demons wouldn't mind having more slaves and servants under their command. At the very least, knowing the true names of these demons and drawing power and faith from them, much like the relationship between a chief god and his subjects, is perfectly normal behavior.

"So, what is your church thinking? Why does it take a week to reseal, but only one night to unseal?!"

A noble baron loudly questioned, "Now everyone's stuck in a rut. If we immediately pull them back to seal them, it will take at least a week. If something goes wrong along the way, such as the sealing materials being stolen or people being injured, it will take even longer."

"Alright, I understand why the Church did this," the city lord said gently. The reason for the quick unsealing is that if you really need to use this holy relic, it's practically impossible to have a week. Therefore, the requirement is to unseal it in the shortest possible time, take it out to look up the demon's true name and characteristics, and expel the demon.

The sealing process takes a long time to prevent theft and damage, so the seal needs to be reinforced layer by layer. This reinforcement naturally requires a lot of time, manpower and resources. When it is time to reseal, the crisis will have passed, and there will be enough time to do it slowly. There is no need to rush.

"What's worse is that if the other side planned all of this, they must have prepared other contingency plans. I don't think your seal is necessarily safe. Who knows, your seal key may have already been leaked."

“Impossible! We…” Bishop Megavin roared, before being interrupted by Priest Kleishel, “Nothing is impossible. After all, until yesterday, I still thought it was impossible for your paladins to be ambushed and kidnapped by a great demon—it just sounded too outrageous!”

Unless this paladin is some incognito holy son or the next pope. But now that Bishop Megavin has taken out the holy book, let alone Priest Clercile, even some cultists among those present would probably think that his action completely satisfies the motive of getting a great demon to take action.

"I guess the use of this holy relic isn't so difficult either?" Priest Kleishel pressed on, which made Bishop Megaven's face turn completely black. Indeed, there was no difficulty. As the saying goes, when you want to use this holy relic, the simpler the procedures and processes, the better. Otherwise, with layers of approvals and applications, time would be wasted long ago.

"Alright, now we all understand what the intruders' purpose is, so what's the plan?

“The only thing we can do is strengthen our defenses, and it would be best to mobilize all our forces, especially since we cannot be sure whether the summoner came from outside or inside,” Bishop Megavin said after calming himself down. “Therefore, it is best to guard against it at all costs until the Holy Covenant is sealed again.”

"What if the demons come knocking on our door again?"

Under normal circumstances, people wouldn't be so distrustful of the Church of Light, but the day before yesterday, your guardian paladin was kidnapped and severely humiliated in front of his own church. Now you say you can prevent demons from taking this holy book from your house by being on high alert? Look at what you're saying!

"The fact that they chose this method to force us to retrieve the Holy Covenant shows that they lack the confidence to break through the Holy Bone Hall, or at the very least, they are not prepared to pay this price."

"Of course, it's also possible that the agreement between the great demon who helped and the summoner was only this far along," Clayshire said, not adding insult to injury.

After all, this joke wasn't funny to the nobles and priests of Tallinn. Who didn't have a few of these strategic and tactical relics? Today you laugh at Megavin, tomorrow he might be laughing at you!

It's not impossible that, given the devil's cunning, he might use a feint to attack another church's relic storage site while everyone's forces and attention are focused on the Church of Light's relic hall and concentrating their efforts on sealing the holy covenant.

In a sense, they are like a group of banks facing a group of robbers who are well-organized and have the resources to act quickly. So far, no one has proposed a plan to help the Church of Light overcome this crisis and to concentrate all their efforts to seal the Holy Covenant as soon as possible.

As for the demon and the hell warlocks who cooperated with the demon, they didn't think too much about this possibility. Everyone tacitly kept quiet about it. Just kidding, given the universally hated status of hell warlocks, if they were a little less cunning, they would already be on the execution platform of the church. How could they possibly pull off such a big stunt?

As for the great demon who didn't think too much, what great demon would act without using their brain?!

"Puff puff puff!" The black horse shook its head, feeling a bit uncomfortable in its nose, as if someone was talking about it. However, it didn't want to investigate because of its previous mistake, which had led to the emergence of a sect that worshipped the Horse-Headed Saint.

For demons, forming cults is not shameful, it's even cool and has a badass vibe, but... your cultists have created a legitimate religion for you.

It's like a group of gangster bosses getting together, and everyone else's henchmen have mohawks, punk hairstyles, leather jackets, nails, and smoky makeup, while your henchmen come out wearing pink dresses and waving magical wands—it's socially morbid!

So, to avoid being so embarrassed that he committed suicide, Lao Ma decided to use the "out of sight, out of mind" strategy: ignore it, don't look at it, and pretend it has nothing to do with him. Otherwise, he would die of embarrassment before being mocked by other demons.

Chapter 149 Outwitting and Outmaneuvering the Air

Tallinn has four different religious factions. The two largest are the Church of Light and the Holy Land of the Moon Goddess. Then there is the "Secret Meeting in the Forest" of the Forest Goddess, which is only believed by a very small number of people and does not even have a fixed church, but only an abandoned warehouse rented out for daily gatherings. There is also the traditional ancestral spirit worship of the Rock Tower tribe, which is only believed by the Rock Tower tribe and is roughly similar to an ancestral hall in ancient China.

Of these four religious forces, only three were most concerned about the invasion of the great demon. The followers of the Goddess of the Spring were not even informed of such a major event. Their highest-ranking priest in the area was just a novice priest, and even if they were invited, they probably wouldn't have much say.

Of course, if the great demon's plot succeeds and summons a large number of demons to attack the city, given their small number of followers and the fact that the entire city has at most two spellcasters, no one else would think it would make any sense to call them along.

Besides religious forces, those who have been notified so far include Lord Clayber, the city lord, his trusted nobles, several barons in the southeast of Tallinn, Lord Talos of the neighboring city of Loom, and the president of the Arcane Society. They did not even notify the elders of the Tallinn people.

"Bang!" The council chamber door was violently pushed open, followed by a metallic scraping sound. A "giant" at least two meters tall stomped menacingly on the clean floor, leaving a trail of muddy footprints.

“Cooper…” The giant strode toward the count on the throne, his right fist clenched as if he were about to punch him in the face, but he held back. Instead, he grabbed the rather bloated fat man and yanked him off the throne. “What the hell are you doing?!”

"Let me go, you..." Count Clayber used almost all his strength to swallow the word "Mudblood," "I'm your brother!"

"Tch!" The giant tossed him back, then glanced at his close advisors and the knights who had already placed their hands on their swords. "A bunch of useless trash!"

“Your Excellency, I hope you will retract those words, otherwise…”

"Otherwise what? Little knight?" The giant tilted his head slightly, counting on his fingers, making a crisp sound as if his bones were stretching. "A duel?! That would be great. Let me see just how much you trash have improved since that incompetent old man died."

"Enough! This isn't your Iron Shield Fortress, this is Tallinn City, and I am the lord here. You'd better show me some respect," Count Clayber straightened his collar.

“Ah, I almost forgot. Yes, this is your territory. However, it’s hard to say how long you can sit in this flamboyant chair. I hope that when I come next time, this place won’t be a ruin scorched by demonic fire. If that happens…” The giant revealed a ferocious smile, “It would be quite troublesome for me to clean it up. After all, as you know, the territory of Rum is lacking in everything.”

Rune is the name of a mineral found in the border region between Rock Tower County and the Northern Provinces. The word means "runestone" in the Rock Tower language. This mineral is used to refine a unique, pale blue, transparent metal. It is an inexpensive material for rune forging and can also be used to forge alchemically enhanced weapons.

Although it is a crudely made item compared to true alchemical weapons and enchanted equipment, lacking any special magical effects, it is indeed a type of "magical equipment" that can penetrate the resistance of ordinary monsters. Simply put, it is roughly equivalent to a "+1" weapon or "refined" equipment in D&D.

Because of the presence of this mineral, almost nothing grows on the land of the Loom territory. They can only rely on mining, then refining the metal "Frost Iron" for export, and purchasing food from places like Tallinn. Although the two territories are not far apart, their economic and living conditions are completely different, like a slum and a mansion of the rich.

"Clang!" In response to the giant's provocation, the sound of swords being drawn echoed throughout the hall.

"Stop it, all of you!" Count Clayber shouted, for he knew all too well what kind of person his half-brother was: strong and resilient, who, as a pioneering knight, had carved out a territory on his own, which was now the territory of Loum.

As someone who could forcibly carve out a territory in the wild lands near the northern provinces, relying on force, and even being hailed as the "last pioneer knight," his martial prowess was absolutely incomparable to that of the knights under his command who inherited their fathers' status, armor, and military achievements.

“Talos, I don’t want to argue with you, but this isn’t between us now. After those demons destroyed Tallinn, your Iron Shield Fortress won’t be spared either. We all know what kind of creatures demons are.”

They only need the souls of humans or intelligent beings for unknown reasons. They have no need for human faith, worship, or anything like that. Or perhaps... they do this simply to satisfy their own perverse pleasures and to harvest more souls.

For demons, soul essence is the basic material for building their future divine kingdom. As for faith, it has no meaning or value to demons who have not yet ascended to the level of demigods or demon overlords, just like money is to beasts that have not yet developed a society.

"So, what exactly did you do?!" Talos barely suppressed his anger. As a pioneering knight, he knew all too well how difficult demons were to deal with. Most of the time, the Empire's demon hunters and the Church's Inquisition did not actually kill demons, but rather exorcise them.

This "exile" means making the demon feel bored and overwhelmed by the immense cost, so it simply returns to hell on its own. Cases of actually killing or forcibly exiling demons are relatively rare. Furthermore, it primarily targets ordinary demons; as for powerful demons, in human history, successful killings are few and far between, and instances of forced exile are even fewer.

“This wasn’t my doing, Bishop Megaven, you tell me!” Count Clayber was also furious, but the Church of Light was indeed the Empire’s number one religion, so it was a difficult situation. He could only grit his teeth and clean up the mess, and even if he didn’t want to, he had no choice, since a demon had appeared in his house.

"It's like this..." After about half an hour of explanation, Count Talos stroked his rough chin and roughly understood the situation. "In other words, you were tricked by a demon. The demon attacked and humiliated one of your paladins, which led you to use some kind of holy relic in order to find this audacious fellow. And the demon's goal was to make you hand over this holy relic?"

Count Talos lowered his hand, the heavy armor on his body clanging metallically with the movement. "Where did you all come from, three-year-old children? When you're bullied, you go back to get reinforcements, pulling out whatever you can without a care, not even considering whether it's useful or a threat to the other party?" As he spoke, he stared intently at Count Clayber, clearly cursing the bald man while also subtly criticizing the monk.

"Alright, what do you plan to do now?" Facing the ashamed Bishop Megaven and Count Kreber, who had nothing to do with him, he finally sighed. It wasn't out of any nonsense about brotherhood, but because Tallinn City was in trouble, and his connection with the Empire was cut off. At that time, the food problem alone could drive him to a dead end.

Moreover, it's already early autumn. If we delay any longer and wait until late autumn to erupt, then I'll be in real trouble. Even if those hell sorcerers and cultists eventually leave after harvesting enough sacrifices, what about the rest? The autumn harvest is just around the corner. If we ruin the harvest, where will they get food?

“I need your help, Talos. We’re not sure if they’re after the Holy Relic, or if they’re using it to stall us while their target is some other sacred artifact, or…”

"Other strategic objectives, well, considering the cost of summoning the Great Demon, the enemy's strategic objective shouldn't be your vulgar castle or simply holding a blood sacrifice in Tallinn." As a pioneering knight, Talos was self-taught in military science. Of course, without some skill, trying to expand territory on the frontier would be pure nonsense.

“Therefore, I need your men. The only reinforcements I can find are you,” Count Kreber said earnestly. “And so do you. If I perish, you will be completely without any help. Moreover, no one knows what those evil hell sorcerers are planning. If they intend to turn the entire city of Tallinn, or even the entire Kreber territory, into a giant sacrificial ground, even your Ironshield Fortress won't last long.”

This is why Talos decided to come and see what this little brother was up to. As for why he didn't ask for help from the northern provinces, the reason is simple: for Tallinn, the northeast and due north are the lost capital. Just think about it, even the combination of the Little Witch and Old Ma had some trouble, so you know this is a dead end.

Seeking help from the south, however, leads to the Lord of Greendale in Lywood County, a geopolitical situation that is extremely complex.

Simply put, Tallinn and Rock Tower County are both considered "bitterly cold lands," much like the difference between Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces in the Northland—the good news: they're not on the border; the bad news: aside from not being on the border, they're pretty much the same. (This is based on medieval and early steam-age standards, not modern conditions.)

In contrast, the southern Lywood County was roughly equivalent to a good place like Hebei Province or the North China Plain (relatively speaking). So, before the empire conquered this region and transformed the original Principality of Rock Tower into the present-day Rock Tower County, the relationship between these two families was roughly equivalent to that between the Ming Dynasty and the Tartars.

Rescue? It would be morally superior for them not to kick you when you're down, but to rob you again after the devil has left.

Therefore, the only option was Talos, the half-brother of the Lum settler in the northwest region. However, the latter was in an awkward situation. To the north were mountains, and beyond the mountains were plateaus. The terrain was roughly equivalent to that of western Sichuan. Even before the railways and highways were built, it was extremely difficult to navigate there, let alone in that era.

Not to mention, you're going to buy food from those border territories that are at a much higher altitude, equivalent to the Frostlands of the North in Siberia, where they fight orcs every day? Are you serious about this plan?

To the south lies Tallinn, and to the east is the Lost Capital. The only alternative is to go west, but the vast, unexplored Black Forest makes this route no easier than the others.

“The population of Lum territory is not large, and I also have to guard against those mountain trolls coming down to plunder. Therefore, I can only give you 200 soldiers and 5 knights. My knights are not comparable to trash like you,” the other party sneered.

Five knights might seem like a small number for a count's territory, but he only had about 20 knights under his command. Don't misunderstand, it's because his fiefdom and income could only afford to appoint that many knights, or rather, support that many "knights".

In reality, he had quite a few "squire cavalry" and "heavy infantry" with the strength of knights under his command, but he simply couldn't afford to confer the titles of so many knights. He couldn't even afford the money for the ceremonies, let alone the equipment.

If it weren't for the fact that his territory produced frost iron, a cheap magical metal, he wouldn't even have been able to equip his twenty or so knights. The good news is that his territory at least doesn't lack warhorses or war beasts.

"In return, I need 20 enchanted armors and 50 enchanted longswords, of any quality. In addition, I need you to sell me at least 6000 bushels of wheat or other equivalent crops at the lowest market price after this fall harvest."

That's about 90 tons of grain, which is enough for him to feed his men through the winter. Moreover, this is the lowest market price, and the money saved can be used to purchase other grains from other territories.

"Furthermore, you must not obstruct my caravan or collect commercial taxes!"

“That’s impossible!” Count Clayber knew very well that tax exemption was absolutely out of the question. If he agreed to this condition, he would soon find himself unable to collect a single penny of commercial tax from the market.

"Alright then, at least you can't charge my grain caravans any taxes."

"Hmm, three years. I'm only giving you this right for three years."

"Deal." Talos nodded in satisfaction.

"So when will your people arrive?"

"One day, at most one day."

"Damn it, you brought an entire army!?" Count Clayber was shocked. What kind of useless soldiers were his border guards!? A day meant that the enemy's army was less than 50 kilometers away from Tallinn.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" Talos waved his hand irritably, then turned and left without bothering to say goodbye.

"My lord, this damned barbarian! Compared to him, even the orcs of the wasteland seem like civilized people."

"Alright!" The count waved his hand, signaling his men to shut up. If any of them were capable of fighting, he wouldn't have to put up with this. Outside the city, Count Talos's caravan.

"A great demon..." The count, having removed his armor and revealing his muscular upper body, sat in the carriage, two maids massaging his shoulders and neck. "Are you sure it's a great demon?"

“Yes, sir, according to our understanding, this is the result of the Church’s examination of the sacred artifacts, and the sacred covenant has also been proven to be something from the Deep Realm,” a woman shrouded in a gray robe said.

"So, this has nothing to do with you?"