City of Sin

Book 5, 7

End Of The War

The son of Neian couldn’t believe himself in that moment. He, who had the blood of the God of Valour flowing within him, actually knew fear? What even caused this? The first thought was the Beetle Queen, but then he remembered that a brother had fought with and injured her. That was the reason he had even given chase.

Regardless, this Child of God knew that killing Aquila was now the only way to win this war. He gripped his longsword tightly and advanced into the poisonous mist, his divine aura counteracting the corrosion. As he took step after step, the edge of his blade began to glow a dazzling gold. A single slash seemed to cut the mist apart, clearing up the area around the broodmother.

As the powerhouses following behind stepped into the clearing one after the other, their eyes opened up in shock. Behind the giant bug floating in the sky was a colossal organism that looked like a beehive. Countless holes were opened within, and at its peak one could see a deep shade of black.

Seeing that specific colour, the son of Neian felt a strange sense of familiarity. However, he could not recall where exactly he had seen it before. Unfortunately, he wasn’t given much time to think; the worm nest opened up countless holes to release hundreds of sinister monsters in various forms. There was no aesthetic value to these beasts at all, their forms distorted and random, but they still managed to fly and walk with perfect balance. They seemed to have emerged directly from one’s nightmares.

“A cursed Child!” the son of Neian shouted, his blood-curdling shriek echoing throughout the Land of Turmoil. It would have been far more harried if he had noticed the sinister warrior with long black hair that stepped out from the very top. That one was glowing an intense shade of black.

......

It was a catastrophic day for Neian’s forces. More than half of his powerhouses had been killed off in the ambush, and the second child he had sent to follow the Beetle Queen had disappeared alongside the remaining experts.

The mortal war thus came to a close. Amidst the rifts in spacetime, the Land of Turmoil now seemed like a sleeping beast of myth that had opened its mouth after a long time. The very thought made those of the Church of Valour feel extremely restless.

Richard only received the news after two months had passed in Faelor. With six sets of messengers appearing at the same time, he quickly realised that Faelor was time-locked and held a small ceremony with Noelene to fix it. Perhaps it was because this involved a contest of power over planes, but the Dragon readily gave him the option of breaking the lock and allowed him to finish things quickly.

Unfortunately, all of his followers and soldiers were still in Blackrose Castle. He sent a long-distance message for them to rush over immediately, rushing over to Faelor with only Fuschia in tow. He would have hesitated to show her his secrets before, but Alice was now an ally and partner.

He was cursing to himself the entire way. He had assumed leaving just enough forces to delay for a few weeks would have been enough; with Mito and Kellac around, they could stall for time as he brought his rune knights back into Faelor to wipe out his enemies. He hadn’t considered the same phenomenon that had saved him from Raymond would now harm him instead.

The first thing he did after stepping out of the portal was asking about the current date. The answer made his heart sink at once; more than three months had passed since the first messengers had been sent!

However, as he rushed out of the Lighthouse of Time and flew into the sunset sky, he suddenly froze in mid-flight. Bluewater seemed completely fine, with the two new churches even completed. He could even see the marble steps from a great distance and the statues of the three goddesses set at the top. The sunset light had made it seem like the world was on fire, but that was common in the Bloodstained Lands.

Even if he had come upon a city completely in ruins, he wouldn’t have been as surprised as he was now. Wasn’t there supposed to be a holy war? How could Kellac or the broodmother possibly fight off the combined forces of so many countries? What was this all about? The city didn’t even seem to have been burnt by the fires of war. One couldn’t even sense an atmosphere of preparation!

As Richard watched on blankly, Fuschia followed him up into the sky. She raised her brows in surprise at the grandeur of the city, but when she saw the three churches she suddenly lost control of her flight for a moment and almost fell to the ground. Turning a base into a city was one thing, but having churches as well was something different entirely! This meant Richard had either subdued some of the deities of this plane, or he had completely deceived them. Regardless, this was an astonishing achievement that should not have been possible within only a few years.

As the two floated back down, the soldiers guarding the gates had already called over the officer on duty. However, Kellac and Zendrall were still out leading troops and Mito had been injured so gravely he was currently recuperating in seclusion. The officer that did come over didn’t have much status at all, so he wouldn’t be able to answer all of Richard’s questions.

However, Richard suddenly recalled that there was someone he could ask. He gestured for the dazed Fuschia to follow as he walked towards his residence, trying to get in touch with the broodmother. However, it took many repeated calls for her to answer.

“What happened?” he eventually asked after she responded.

“Nothing, just some minor problems, it’s already resolved.” The broodmother’s tone was inexplicably indolent, as though she was a lioness who had just eaten her fill. All he could sense from her was a strong desire to sleep.

“Minor trouble? You mean a holy war?” Richard pressed.

However, the broodmother seemed too lazy to answer. She just allowed their subconscious connection to update him on her situation for an entire ten minutes before she spoke again, “I guess it was called a holy war. Many people came over, but they’ve been fought off. I heard the divine kingdoms of the three goddesses are safe as well. Neian should have lost a lot of people.”

“Fought off? How many came? Were there a Child, an avatar? How many powerhouses, and what about our losses?” Richard started sending question after question to her as he scanned through the new information.

“There aren’t any more troops in the Bloodstained Lands. We even pushed tens of kilometres back into their territories before withdrawing. I think they had several tens of thousands or something. And what is a Child or avatar? There were some powerhouses, but they all escaped after a few died. A few thousand of your soldiers fought to their deaths, and my losses have been replenished already.”

The broodmother’s reply rendered Richard speechless for a moment. With the cloned brain stationed in Bluewater, every drone was basically an eye for the broodmother. With her outstanding intellect, her grasp on numbers was far beyond his own. In the past, all her analyses were accurate at every digit, but now she was handwaving everything. It was as though she was a muddle-headed rookie!

However, before Richard could reprimand her a line of information caught his eye. The broodmother had actually reached 370 units of divinity in storage, something that he couldn’t understand. Right before he had left, she had used all but ten units to advance to level 8. It left him ecstatic, but also extremely surprised, “Where did you get so much divinity from?”

“A strange fellow barged into the Land of Turmoil one day and I ate him. After that, there was a lot more divinity.”

“What kind of fellow?” Richard pressed, forcing himself to calm down despite her cloudiness.

“Very strange... ” the broodmother’s choice of words was growing more and more sluggish, “Master, I’m very sleepy. I need to sleep. Sleep is good...”

Richard still hadn’t managed to get any real information before the light that represented her in his sea of consciousness dimmed. However, just before their connection froze he noticed that she had reached 371 units of divinity. Confident that he hadn’t read it wrong the first time, he started wondering whether even sleeping helped her absorb divinity now.

However, most powerful creatures hibernated in crucial phases of their lives. This wasn’t the first time the broodmother herself was doing this, so he suppressed his curiosity and tried to look for someone else to ask exactly what had happened in the past three months.

For a while, he felt somewhat strange. In the past, he could always perceive the emotions and location of most of his followers with a single thought. Now, however, his followers were in Norland and the broodmother was deep asleep. A sudden wave of loneliness flooded over him.