The Era of Gods

The wars between churches of different faiths are called holy wars, a transcendent battle beyond the mundane. Aristocratic lords can choose to participate in the holy wars, or not, and theoretically, they would not be held accountable after the war.

But this is only in theory; in practice, the aristocrats and lords of Dier Province had little room to choose.

Mixing in this little patch of land, they had no possibility to stay out of the affair. The holy war involved all believers, and many knights or soldiers under the lords were believers in the Holy Church. When the Church summoned them to war, if your men went off to fight, how could you, as their lord, stay uninvolved?

So there was no choice. In this battle, Lin Xiao was destined to challenge all the lords of Dier Province with just one territory under Afonso’s control.

It was difficult, but there were advantages, too. If he could win, especially by demonstrating an unstoppable strength on the battlefield, once the Holy Church was defeated, the entire faith system in Dier Province would collapse immediately.

The common believers would probably take a long time to be guided to change their faith, but the speed at which noble lords converted would definitely be very fast.

The most important thing was that this was a world without magic, the Holy God had not yet been born, and there was no system of divine punishment for changing faiths. Even fanatic believers could change their faith without repercussion, which presented many lords with a justifiable opportunity to convert.

Facing his challenge, the Holy Church was furious. Many bishops cursed Afonso as a heretic, unanimously calling for punishment upon the Gibson Family.

But these were loud voices with little action because at that moment, the Knights of the Holy Church in Dier Province were engaged in battle in the north with the Huck Territory, and they simply could not spare any forces now.

It was unexpected to all; it was assumed that with the Holy Church’s Knights and many opportunistic aristocrats’ private soldiers, the battle against the modest Huck Territory would be a sweeping victory. But in reality, after several months of conflict, they still had not taken down the Huck Territory.

The opponents were well-prepared and staunchly defended Hooke Castle, the original stronghold of the lord of the Huck Territory. They not only had a force of elite soldiers but also a type of powerful defensive weapon. The siege of Hooke Territory for over two months had not only failed to take the castle but had also resulted in massive losses.

Of course, the Knightly Order of the Church, having the absolute advantage in numbers, could still endure and hold out. As long as they could bear the loss of their men, conquering Hooke Territory was inevitable in the end.

The Knightly Order’s leader, Bartos, had intended to use the private soldiers of aristocrats and militia as cannon fodder to wear down the enemy. After two months, the enemy was also exhausted, and their defense had noticeably weakened. Just as they were about to breach the castle, news of the holy war from the cathedral reached him, putting him in a dilemma.

After much consideration, he wrote a letter to the cathedral, suggesting that they first focus on defense and wait for his return after quickly annihilating the opposition.

However, the plan was sound, but the plot did not develop as he had imagined.

Bartos had sent off his letter for less than two days when he received a second letter from the cathedral, bearing news that made it impossible for him to keep still.

“Heretics at the border of Viscount Feitan’s territory have defeated an army led by Viscount Feitan and Count Dyson, have taken over Viscount Feitan’s territory, and are now attacking the border outpost of Count Dyson.”

……

“This God of Life and Wisdom… which side does it belong to?”

Inside Hooke Castle, Dariel, the Child of the Spirit Realm, pondered over the secret letter in his hand for a long while without moving.

As an aspiring Child of the Spirit Realm, he valued intelligence very highly and had sent out believers to establish a network of informants early on. Thus, when Lin Xiao’s proclamation of the holy war was issued, his believers relayed the news back to him promptly.

He considered the content of the secret letter for a long while, pondering how to handle the situation.

“The other side must be in a hurry to withdraw their troops; once the Holy Knights retreat, I need to watch the situation and also investigate which side this God of Life and Wisdom belongs to, while preparing for any changes in the situation.”

As a transcendent Descender, Dariel had his own unique insight into the unfolding events, immediately understanding that Dier Province was now entering a critical juncture.

No matter whether the Holy Knights or the Church of Life and Wisdom won, it was an opportunity for him. He was already contemplating following in the wake of the retreating Holy Knights after a short rest, waiting for his chance on the edge of their final battlefield.

However…..

Outside the city, in the camp, Bartos stood silently for a short while after receiving the second urgent letter from the cathedral. About ten seconds later, he ordered a meeting with all military officers.

Ten minutes later, the somber blast of the horn resounded, and many resting knights remounted their horses and approached the city walls. All troops surrounding the city were mobilized, even the reservists were called up.

“Damn it!”

Upon hearing the war horn, Dariel who had ascended the castle walls immediately realized he had misjudged the situation; the leader of the Knights, Bartos, had not decided to retreat immediately but was instead ready to make a final push.

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A day later, despite the unabated fierce assault by the Church Knights, regardless of cost or loss, the defensively inferior Hooke Fort ultimately could not hold out and was breached.

After a great battle, the leader of Hooke Fort’s defenders managed to break through the siege with a small group of core subordinates, and the entire territory of the Huck Territory was reclaimed.

Thereafter, some opportunistic aristocratic private soldiers remained to mop up the remnants, while Bartos led the main army back to Dier City.

Meanwhile, Afonso’s great army had already crossed Viscount Feitan’s Territory and entered the lands of Count Dyson.

Upon learning of Afonso’s strength, Count Dyson chose to tighten his defenses and abandon all outlying lands to retreat and hold the core area of Dier City, preparing to defend it alongside the Holy Church. Thus, the great army arrived at Dier City without encountering any battles and encamped below its walls.

A day later, Lin Xiao arrived with dozens of Holy Warriors. From a distance, one could see the sharp spire of the great cathedral in the center of Dier City, from which a white beam of light invisible to the common eye shot up into the sky – that was the immensely dense Power of Faith.

The Dier Cathedral had been established for over a thousand years. The accumulated Power of Faith from countless believers in Dier Province over a millennium was immense. As the world’s constraints prevented the birth of Transcendents and naturally there was no such entity as the Holy God, this Power of Faith had been accumulating inside the statues within the cathedral for a very long time and in such large quantities that it could be seen from afar.

Lin Xiao had myriad thoughts about this, feeling an intense desire for that Power of Faith.

“Don’t hold back, take down Dier City in one fell swoop. I will support you,” he ordered during the pre-battle meeting, unwilling to delay and allow complications to arise.

The next morning at dawn, an earth-shattering drumbeat arose from the camp as many soldiers who had risen early and finished breakfast gathered, forming neat formations to leave the military camps and line up.

Though their numbers were not great, even after including the soldiers who had surrendered and the opportunists’ private soldiers, their total barely reached seven or eight hundred, significantly fewer than the nearly two thousand defenders on the city walls. However, their morale was exceptionally high.

In the camp, huge tents were opened to reveal massive all-metal siege rams and ballistae, as well as catapults that Lin Xiao had secretly placed there the previous night.

All were primitive but heavy, counting as high-end War Machinery in this world, all provided by the military.

The all-metal rams were covered with a thick layer of steel on the surface, capable of blocking all arrows and small stone crossbow arrows. The ram itself was gear-driven and required only a few soldiers to control and push forward, but at this moment, each ram was followed by dozens of men underneath, as the rain of arrows clattered on the rooftops, completely unable to penetrate.

The ballistae were also made entirely of metal, with a thick steel plate protecting the operator at the rear of the launch platform.

The catapults lacked such protection, remaining far in the rear, beyond the reach of any attack except the enemy’s catapults. Their only modification was an enhanced and thickened metal structure, capable of withstanding the enemy’s bombardment without deforming.

There were only two metal rams, but they proved unstoppable, steadily advancing under the arrows’ barrage until they reached and stopped inside the city gate tunnel. The giant metal hammer with a diameter of nearly half a meter was lifted and then forcefully slammed down.

“Boom!”

The massive metal hammerhead crashed heavily onto the thick wooden gates, trembled fiercely, and sent shards and dust flying.

From behind the battlefield, the huge ballistae also began to approach their firing range. These metal ballistae were modified large ballistae, with ten firing ports each, capable of launching ten crossbow arrows at once. Ten large ballistae, lined up in a row, loosed a barrage of crossbow arrows that rained down on the city walls.

With one hundred crossbow arrows in each volley, the concentrated attacks quickly suppressed a section of the city wall, and the defenders didn’t dare to poke their heads out, seeing the parapets shattered by the Fine Steel Crossbow Arrows.

The catapults launched huge stones, the size of a table and wrapped in an oil-soaked shell – set alight before launching and turning into flaming fireballs upon release.

When they hit the ground, the oil-soaked shells burst open, sending flames flying wildly, inflicting tremendous damage within the city.

At this point, the damage that the flames caused to the city was of no concern; the priority was to take the city first. Any fires would be put out once the city was captured.

Despite their primitive appearance, these catapults were highly advanced in construction and extremely precise. With a standardized operating procedure, they could accurately hit their targets as directed.

The siege had not been underway for long, and the troops hadn’t even approached when several rounds of accurate stone-hurling combined with ballista bombardment already began to overwhelm the defenders.

As a few soldiers used Divine Arts to fly and locate the enemy command inside the city gate tower, several rounds of concentrated fire brought the entire gatehouse down in rubble.

Whether the enemy’s commanding officer survived was unknown, but he was surely terrified, and the defenders’ morale plummeted.

This bombardment continued… for less than half an hour, and the city gates were forcibly breached by the ram. They did not directly assault the city but continued to hammer at other sections of the wall, while the catapults began to focus fire on a specific section of the battlements.

Two hours later, three huge breaches were blasted into the walls of Dier City, in addition to the breached city

“`