After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

But Aize would like to make a small addition to it.

"Similarly, starting tomorrow morning, a special investigation office will be set up in the town square. Everyone in Lilbas—residents and slaves alike—can go there and recount the persecution they've endured over the past two years, or submit a complaint."

"All evidence will be admitted at trial, and once the verdict is announced, compensation and return will be made in the form of confiscated property of the demons and traitors."

In most cases, the so-called public trials were just a show put on by nobles or clergymen to make an example of others or let the people vent their anger, rather than a real desire for them to participate.

Aize is the opposite.

Not only are they encouraged to participate, but they can even receive compensation, turning a performative execution carnival into a "lawsuit" that is truly in everyone's interests.

In addition to calming the public's emotions, it is also to further mobilize everyone's enthusiasm so that other work can be carried out better.

As expected, this more explosive one caused great commotion among the crowd.

In addition to being surprised, many people even showed expressions of disbelief, and the discussion became increasingly loud, even drowning out the battle taking place outside the city.

This is exactly what Aize wants to see.

After all, cautious optimism and skepticism about good things are always better than being indifferent to things that do not concern you.

It was just that Bill's voice, as he squirmed and wailed like a maggot at my feet, was a bit noisy.

Aize kicked him, causing him to spit out a large mouthful of blood and lose consciousness, and then continued his speech.

"Third, we will hire militia and civilian workers to assist in the upcoming defensive battles. All hired personnel will be given additional rewards and supplies, and the work of removing the curse will be prioritized. Those who have made outstanding contributions will be rewarded according to the treatment of regular soldiers and granted imperial citizenship! The relevant registration and screening procedures will also be announced in detail later!"

A normal work-for-relief system plus a military merit reward system.

As the main purpose of Aize's series of measures, it seems a bit simple and boring compared to the first two. If it is stated at the beginning, it will hardly get much response.

But with the first two measures and the incitement laid by the earlier speech, people's emotions have reached a climax.

After a brief moment of confusion, overwhelming cheers began to resound throughout the shelter:

"For Azer! For humanity! For the Empire!"

"For Azer! For humanity! For the Empire!"

"For Azer! For humanity! For the Empire!"

……

……

The voices were uniform and extremely passionate, and even the breath of death brought by the undead seemed to be dispelled.

The speech went better than expected.

Aize breathed a sigh of relief, then slowly bowed to everyone:

"Everyone, the war is intense. I must leave here and go to the front to fulfill my duties! Please allow me to take my leave for now. I will see you at the Municipal Square starting at noon tomorrow!"

After saying that, he bowed again.

The crowd cheered again.

"Woo..."

Amidst the commotion, Rosaline, supported by her followers, slowly opened her eyes.

The overwhelming anger directed at himself had subsided, and the remaining slight disgust was also swallowed up by the surging new emotions mixed with ecstasy, anticipation and admiration, and could no longer be felt for the time being.

Rosalyn was once very familiar with these emotions.

But at this moment, they do not belong to them.

Instead, he pointed to a familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar figure not far from the previous generation, who was bowing to the crowd and then leaving through the crowd.

"Aize, you..."

A strange emotion emerged from the deepest part of the Pure White Saint's consciousness.

envy?

envious?

Not willing?

Maybe a little comfort?

do not know.

Rosaline, who was well versed in faith, never cared about or paid attention to these little noises in her consciousness.

As the carrier of everyone's faith, she must maintain the same attitude as always.

Therefore, the moment the closest believers discovered that she had woken up, the Pure White Saint had already regained her smile.

"Lady Rosalyn!? Lady Rosalyn, are you awake?!"

"Yeah, it's okay. Sorry to have made you worried."

She gently pushed away the believer who was supporting her, and stood on the ground again with her still weak legs. Then she felt dizzy and almost fell down again.

Fortunately, he managed to hold on by hitting the ground with the holy staff that he never let go of.

The believers then asked cautiously:

"Lady Rosalyn, what should we do now?"

At this time, the crowd that Rosaline brought with her when she caused trouble had already dispersed.

A few of Bill's men were either immediately arrested by the Royal Guards and taken aside, or had already quietly escaped when they saw the situation was not good.

And most of the people hired by Bill have now joined the group that is celebrating with Aize and are on the opposite side of Rosaline.

There are quite a few members of the Pure White Saint.

But at this moment, he seemed really lonely.

Rosalyn's lips trembled slightly, and then she whispered a few words in the same tone as usual:

"go back."

"what did you say?"

"Go back, back to church."

Then he turned and left.

After looking at each other for a while, the believers finally followed in a daze. With their backs to the jubilant scene, the group walked into the dim street.

"Aize, didn't you notice?"

Rosalyn muttered quietly.

"No matter how you try to awaken their consciousness, you haven't succeeded. It's just that their faith has come to you in another form."

Rosalyn was certain that faith itself had not only not been extinguished but had even been strengthened.

So, it's not over.

Things have just begun.

----------

On the other side of the tall walls of Lilbas, on the narrow plain sandwiched between the steep central mountains, countless figures are moving towards the city.

Rotten corpses of different races, skeletons, and stitched-together ghost puppets constitute the main force of this terrifying army. They advance unstoppably while making inhuman and strange noises.

This is the undead.

It seems like the embodiment of the living creature's instinctive fear of death, or like a monster crawling out of a game like Resident Evil or The Evil Within.

Appearing on such a scale in the dim night, the scene itself is enough to make people terrified.

Even Aize felt instinctively scared standing here.

As a resolute response to the demons, their old enemy, and death itself, the Royal Guards fearlessly put up an extremely determined resistance.

The light rising from the magic turret streaked across the night sky, falling into the swarm of corpses like a meteor with a dazzling trajectory, hitting directly and accurately, and blasting high-risk targets such as large and even giant puppets back into a state of rotting flesh and blood.

The Imperial magicians accompanying the army, together with the guards holding shields and forming a formation, dealt with the skeletons and zombies that climbed up the city walls by trampling on the bodies of their companions.

The battle became a simple battle between the living and the dead.

And this is exactly what the Guards excel at.

The tide of zombies were blocked by the shield wall at the edge of the city wall. They were chopped into pieces and smashed in the fierce close combat, unable to get up again and could not move forward.

"Aize, you're here!"

Seeing his arrival, Villian, who was accumulating magic power, threw the ball of light in her hand into the sky above her head.

In an instant, the dark clouds expanded and the moon disappeared.

After a brief delay, a massive amount of lightning descended from the sky, sweeping across the array of undead with an eardrum-piercing explosion, instantly turning a large number of ugly corpses into ashes.

Against the flickering background, Miss Witch rushed over and threw herself directly into Aize's arms, burying her face in his chest and venting her worries to her heart's content:

"How's things going in the city? Is it resolved? Are there any injuries? Did that woman give you any trouble? Is everything going well?"

Aize was stunned by the overly intense reaction, then he smiled softly and patted her on the back:

"It went just as planned, without a single flaw. The result was even better than initially anticipated. Who do you think I am? Don't you trust me?"

"It's not that I don't trust her, but that woman... is definitely a bit strange. Plus, I just detected some unusual activity on the faith network. How can I not be worried?!"

Villian's voice contained a lot of complaints.

Lilbas is nestled in a gap in the mountains, with difficult terrain to the north and south, so only the east and west sides can support a large-scale attack.

Aize had to concentrate on the affairs in the city, so the defense on both sides was handed over to Villian and Lysander respectively, while he went to face Rosaline alone.

Vivian knew Rosaline's evil ways better than anyone else and was worried about him going alone, so she did not agree to this arrangement, but she had no other choice.

After all, city defense is the top priority.

He could only vent his dissatisfaction on the undead army, and only when he saw Aize coming with his own eyes did he finally feel relieved.

"Even if it's a faith network, there's nothing you can't deal with once you understand how it works... Well, I'll tell you about that later."

Aize relaxed a little, then turned serious and asked:

"What about here? Is it as planned?"

"Don't worry, it's exactly the same. I killed quite a few of those disgusting magicians with rotting corpses at the beginning, and the rest have retreated for the time being."

Lilbas's position is too important at this point in time. The fact that Aize occupied this place must have made those rotten members of the Immortal Dynasty so angry that their brains would open up and even grow a few more maggots.

Therefore, once the battle begins, it will inevitably enter a white-hot stage immediately, and the death magician, who is an important long-range firepower pillar of the undead, will also be dispatched at the first time.

Aize understood this.

Therefore, when attacking the city last night, he had already surveyed the terrain of the entire battlefield and marked out several locations that could be used to deploy magicians.

So, when the battle started, Villian, without saying a word, launched a barrage of bombardment at these locations.

Even if it was a great witch, one person's strength could not fight against the magicians of the entire undead army, but this heavy blow stunned the members of the Immortal Dynasty who were in charge of the command.

Not knowing what had happened, and fearing that these precious combat forces would be wiped out at the beginning of the war, it could only withdraw the mages temporarily.

Instead, they used worthless zombies to carry out the tactics of consumption and human waves that the undead were more adept at.

There were so many of them that they could even rush to the bottom of the city wall despite the bombardment from the artillery, the Battle Magic Corps and Villian, and use their bodies to build steps here, allowing subsequent "companions" to directly climb onto the city wall.

It's just like the zombie tide in a zombie movie.

Unfortunately, this was also what Aize expected.

He reached the edge and glanced at the countless zombies piled up under the city wall. He turned to Villian and nodded.

"Okay, let's start the experiment."

"Ok!"

Miss Witch snapped her fingers, and the city wall beneath the two began to tremble.

The originally solid and sturdy wall suddenly deformed and extended, turning into a sharp and huge blade. It passed directly over the pile of zombies crowded together, and instantly chopped countless corpses into two.

Then come back, the second round, the third round...

The city wall, which originally served only as a barrier, seemed to have turned into a giant meat grinder, wiping out the defenseless undead with astonishing efficiency.

This is the result of the joint imagination of Aize and Villian.

Based on the guideline that "feet are just decorations and people above won't understand them", the walking mechanism was removed and even the arms were not needed. Only the most basic killing and driving modules were retained and then integrated into the city wall.