Chapter 622: The Flames of Thunder
Roland had barely sat down with his breakfast at the command post when Maggie’s voice crackled from the magic stone.
“The church is on the move, coo!” Nervous. Quick. “A team has left Coldwind Ridge and is heading toward the defense line, coo!”
“How many?”
“One, two, three… five! Five of them, coo!”
Roland set down his bread. “Five?”
“Shimmery armor, Holy City banner held up high—real show-offs, coo. Should I alert the cannon markers?”
“No. Keep watching Coldwind Ridge and tell me what they do.” He put the bread back in his mouth and frowned. What is the church thinking?
“Probably begging for mercy,” Nightingale suggested, lip curling.
“If so, they wouldn’t have marched an army into Coldwind Ridge first.” Roland drummed his fingers on the table.
A day and a half later, the delegation reached the forward line. Their priest-leader announced they were emissaries from the church, sent to meet with His Majesty Roland. They carried a handwritten letter from the Supreme Pontiff.
Roland gathered the Adviser Department and the witches. “Opinions? Could this be a pure witch’s stratagem?”
Edith spoke before anyone else. “A question first: if the church genuinely offered peace, would you accept?”
“Only if they disband the God’s Punishment Army and bring every senior leader who ordered the killing of innocents to trial,” Roland said without hesitation. “But they won’t agree to those terms.”
“Then you shouldn’t receive the delegation at all.” Edith nodded. “Beyond the risk of conspiracy, the negotiation process itself could muddy your resolve.”
“Agreed.” Agatha leaned forward. “None of the five show a magic reaction, but a witch’s ability can take unexpected forms. We can’t be certain what we’re dealing with.”
Iron Axe drew a finger across his throat. “Capture them. Interrogate them. Disappear them quietly once we know their purpose.”
“Your Majesty—” Sir Eltek spoke quickly. “Graycastle is not Iron Sand City. If this leaks, it will damage your name badly.”
“I know.” Roland looked at Iron Axe. “Have them leave the letter and send them away.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The letter, once the witches had cleared it of any concealed magic, made its way into Roland’s hands. The handwriting was unexpectedly graceful. The content was more surprising still.
The Pope described the origins of the church with disarming candor, and named the great enemy of humanity—the demons. He traced the history of the Union and outlined the cycle of the Battle of Divine Will, framing it as a test placed upon mankind by the gods.
Is this the strategy? Roland thought. Scatter the enemy’s attention with buried history presented as sincerity?
The first delegation returned to Coldwind Ridge. A second arrived. Again five people; again Roland refused to meet them. The second letter went deeper—the Union’s founding before the church’s existence, the four-hundred-year cycle, the Pope’s conviction that the recurring war between species was divinely ordained.
Roland read it with contempt and an inexplicable prickle of unease.
Over the following week, Coldwind Ridge sent several more delegations. Each letter was shorter than the last, the calls to unite against the demons more insistent, and Roland more thoroughly deaf to them. The suggestion that they combine forces against a common enemy received exactly the attention he had budgeted for it: none.
When the height of summer arrived, the delegations stopped.
The army came instead.
“This is Lightning—enemy has entered Zone Nine! Repeat, Zone Nine!”
Cat’s Claw scrambled through the targeting manual, page corners blurring under his fingers. “Nine, nine, nine—”
“Move!” Rodney snapped. “Shell is loaded!”
“I’m going as fast as I can! Here—angle twenty-six, pitch fifteen!”
Nelson cranked the adjustment wheel. “Twenty-six… fifteen. Ready!”
“Fire!”
Cat’s Claw clamped both hands over his ears.
The 152mm Longsong Cannon detonated. The sound wave hit like a fist against the sternum. The ground shook under Cat’s Claw’s boots as the recoil drove the entire carriage backward, and the air itself seemed to split. This was power—not the twelve-pound infantry piece he’d worked before, but something that turned the world momentarily into noise and pressure and heat.
The only regret was not being able to see where it landed.
He sidled up to the magic stone in Leaf’s hand. “Miss Lightning… did we hit?”
“Oh yes,” the girl replied through the stone. “Nicely done.”
From her height, Lightning could assess the strike without the cannon crew’s uncertainty.
The shell had deviated roughly four meters west of the estimated impact point in Zone Nine—a wind shift, probably—but the practical effect hardly mattered. The church’s army had filled the mountain road shoulder to shoulder. Wherever the shell landed on that column, a scarlet flower bloomed.
She had watched enough shells fall to know the sequence by heart. First: a dark-red pulse of light, vivid as a struck match. Then a geyser of dirt and gravel, followed by a ripple spreading outward from the point of impact—visible, almost gentle-looking from altitude, the shock wave rendered legible by the dust it displaced. The sound arrived last, uncoupled from the image by distance, as if the explosion and its announcement belonged to different moments.
When the smoke drifted clear, the landing point was a scorched black ring. Around it: wreckage. Severed limbs. Organs and blood painting the bright armor dull red. Further out, where the blast pressure had attenuated, warriors stood for a moment without visible wounds—then buckled, vomiting blood, staggering a few crooked steps before they fell. They moved like men deep in drink.
One shell. Nearly fifty dead.
Lightning pumped her fist. “Serves you right.”
She shifted her telescope to the next zone.
“Attention—enemy passing through Zone Twelve. Fire. Repeat, fire!”
Chapter 622: The Flames of Thunder
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Roland had just come to the command post with his breakfast when he received Maggie’s report in the next morning.
“The church is on the way, coo!” Her nervous voice could be heard from the magic stone. “A team has left Coldwind Ridge and it’s moving forward to the defense line, coo!”
“How many of them?”
“One, two, three… five of them in total!”
Roland who was preparing for the frontline battle conference sat back down and said, “What? Five?”
“They’re dressed in shimmery armors, holding the Holy City’s flag up high. What a show-off, coo! Do I need to report to the cannon markers?”
“Uh… No, you just continue to keep an eye on what Coldwind Ridge will do.” Roland put the bread into his mouth, wondering, “What’s the church thinking?”
“They’re probably coming to beg for mercy?” Nightingale twitched her lips and said.
“If this is the case, the church shouldn’t send the army to invade Coldwind Ridge.” Roland frowned.
One and a half day later, the platoon reached the frontline of defense. The priest who led the troop claimed that they were the emissary delegation sent by the church to meet with Roland, His Majesty. At the same time, there was
a hand-written letter from Supreme Pontiff for the young King of Kingdom of Graycastle.
“What do you think?” Roland gathered the Adviser Department and the witches, and asked, “Could it be a trick of the pure witches?”
“I’d like to ask for your thought before this,” Edith spoke, “Will you accept their peace negotiation if the church wants to surrender?”
Roland rejected the possibility without any hesitation, “Unless they dismiss the God’s Punishment Army and bring all the senior management and those who kill the innocent to trial. However, I don’t think the church will accept this term.”
“Indeed,” Edith instantly answered, “In this case, you shouldn’t meet the emissary delegation. Not to mention if there’s any conspiracy, the negotiation process may affect your determination.”
“I agree with you.” Agatha nodded. “Even though there’s no magic reaction on five of them but the witch’s ability is very strange, no one can be sure what’s going to happen next.”
“Perhaps we should just capture them for interrogation and get rid of them secretly after we know the actual purpose of them coming here,” Iron Axe made a cut-throat gesture and said.
“Your Majesty, Kingdom of Graycastle isn’t Iron Sand City,” Sir Eltek quickly advised, “It’s better not to do so, it’s going to ruin your reputation when the news spread.”
“I know.” Roland contemplated for a while and looked at Iron Axe. “Get them to leave the letter and send them off.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Roland could not help but wonder. “What would the supreme ruler of Hermes say?”
“Is that going to be an advice or an inducement?”
After several inspections by Sylvie and Agatha, the hand-written letter by the Pope of Holy City had finally reached Roland.
Opening up the exquisite cover, the handwriting on the letter was surprisingly graceful.
And the content of the letter surprised Roland.
He described the origins and purpose of the church in an honest note and revealed the existence of the great enemy of mankind—the demon.
If he did not know the four-hundred years old secret before this, the content was probably enough to make him confused and inconceivable.
Is this the strategy of the enemy?
Confusing the opponent with the dust-laden history truth and taking it as the sincerity for peace negotiation?
As a result, after the first platoon returned, Coldwind Ridge sent another platoon of soldiers. And there were also five of them.
Of course, Roland did not meet up with them as well but asked them to simply leave the letter behind instead.
The content of the letter was more in-depth this time, and it had mentioned the Battle of Divine Will other than the brief introduction of the Union before the church was formed—the pope believed that the 400-years cycle battle of the different races was a deities ‘ test towards the mankind.
Roland was contemptuous towards this idea but he could feel a slight uneasiness in his heart.
Coldwind Ridge had continuously delegated several emissary delegation troops to send a few hand-written letters by Pope to the frontline battalion within a week time after that. The letters did not reveal too much new information, and the content was getting shorter and shorter. Roland simply turned a blind eye to the suggestion to combine the efforts from both sides to confront the demon which was written behind the letter.
The church only stopped sending any new messenger when the hot summer days arrived.
The enemy had come in full force this time.
“This is Lightning, the enemy has entered the ninth zone! Repeat, the enemy has entered the ninth zone!”
Hearing the voice that came out from the Sigil, Cat’s Claw nervously flipped through the booklet in his hand. “Uh… Ninth, ninth…”
“Quick!” Rodney shouted, “The shell is already installed!”
“It’s already at the fastest speed!” Cat’s Claw shouted, “Ah… It’s here, angle 26, pitch 15!”
Nelson quickly swang the handle. “26… 15, complete!”
“Ready to shoot!”
Cat’s Claw quickly covered his ears upon hearing the order.
“Fire!”
Jop quickly pulled the matchlock, the 152cm Longsong Cannon instantly issued a stirring roar, the sound wave mixed with the air flow blowing in the face. it was like a hammer beating on the chest of the Cat’s Claw, making his blood boil. He could feel the ground below his feet started to tremble under the activation of the huge recoil.
“This is power,” Cat’s Claw thought to himself, “Longsong Cannon is the weapon that’s more suitable for the men to operate, comparing to the 12 pounds small metal pipe.”
The only regret was that he was not able to see the scene when the shell landed.
Acting boldly, Cat’s Claw came close to the Magic Stone in Leaf’s hand and said, “Uh… Miss Lightning, did we hit the target?”
“Ah ha… Nicely hit,” the little girl replied.
…
Comparing to the rear cannon operator, Lightning and Maggie could observe the enemy’s movements and strikes taken more directly.
Lightning was floating at an absolute safe height and looking down with the telescope in her hand. She realized that the howitzer launched just now fell on the west area of the ninth zone about four meters deviated from the estimated falling point. It was probably due to the change of wind. However the actual effect was not too bad. The mighty army of the church had filled the entire mountain path. Given that, a scarlet flower would instantly blossom as long as the shell fell on top of the army.
It was just like the previous hit.
She could not see the entire process of the flight of the shell until the landing. The first thing that came into her eyes was the dark red light, following by the highly-sprung dust and gravel and a fleeting ripple spreading from the light, leaving a trail of dust. The sound of the explosion would not be heard until a while later as if both did not happen at the same time.
When the smoke was blown away, the shell’s point of fall was left with a burned black mark, and around it was a hideous mess of dead bodies; the residual limbs could be seen everywhere, and the sticky blood and organs had dyed the shiny armors with a touch of bright red color. The Judgement Warriors at a further distance looked totally different, and there were no obvious wounds on their bodies, but they were still spitting out blood and fell on the floor. Some of them could still walk for a few meters before falling, and the crooked way they walked made them looked as if they were drunk.
Only one shelling could cause the church to lose nearly 50 men.
Lightning was waving her fist happily and said, “You deserve it!”
And she shifted her gaze to the next shelling zone.
“Attention, the enemy is passing through the twelfth zone, please fire, repeat, please fire!”