Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 365 War begins!
Lane 36, Main Street of Red Maple City.

Originally, it was the entrance to the stronghold of "Bishop Ring of Flame" Drummond. Howard, the "priest" of the Church's Holy Inquisition, and two "Triple Destiny" Inquisitors had been guarding it for a long time.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Howard looked back.

Then, he gently placed the long-handled war hammer on the ground, bowed slightly in front of him, and greeted:

"bishop."

"..."

"I sensed something unusual, Howard. You stay here and help the other Inquisitors clean up the mess here."

Luo Xiu looked at Howard, locked eyes with him, and said:
"I have already burned the body of 'Ringflame Bishop' Drummond. No spiritual energy remains. As for the remaining materials, scrolls, and equipment that can be recycled in this base, I will leave it to you to deal with."

"Don't worry, Bishop." Howard agreed, "I will make proper arrangements."

Luo Xiu nodded, then turned and left. His figure riding on the "Golden Pegasus" soon disappeared from Howard's sight.

……

On the way to the battlefield outside Hongfeng City.

While riding the golden Pegasus at a rapid speed, Luo Xiu was also paying close attention to the movements in the [Player Forum] to obtain first-hand battlefield intelligence.

The newly triggered [Dark Sky Haze (Hell Difficulty)] mission confirmed that the information previously given to him by "Thunder General" Albert was accurate.

Judging from the real-time discussions among the players, the dark army on the opposite side has indeed erected three flags belonging to the "Executioner", but only two of them actually appeared in their army.

'Silver Blood Dragonborn' Quilton and 'Storm Lord' Muset appeared in front of the battle formation - the former was a dragon hybrid with the destiny of [Red Lotus], and the latter was a giant warrior with the destiny of [Bitter Tea].

They led a group of dragon riders and a group of giants respectively, and were almost approaching the city of Red Maple.

The "Border Court" was also fully prepared. Under the command of "Thunder General" Albert, 40,000 elite infantry, 1,000 [Supreme] Knights of War, and Royal Guards had deployed in front of the city wall.

There are also crossbows and sorcerers on the battlements, and the main infantry and new cavalry regiments hidden in the city ready to attack at any time. The defenders of Red Maple City are waiting for the arrival of the enemy with a common hatred.

After learning about the information about the battle through the [Player Forum], Luo Xiu felt quite relieved.

With the strong walls and defense advantages of Red Maple City, if the two armies confront each other, the advantage will definitely be on my side. Now the only thing Luo Xiu is worried about is whether "Thunder General" Albert can withstand the joint attack of the three executioners.

Although there is no discussion about this general in the [Player Forum] yet - he should not show up yet. He will not strike a thundering blow to the enemy until at least two executioners are at the gates of the city.

According to Luo Xiu's prediction about Albert, he would not fall down easily.

But Luo Xiu also knew another thing very well. If he wanted to win the decisive battle as quickly as possible and with the least loss, he had to rush to the front line of the battlefield as soon as possible and intervene in this fierce battle before Albert was exhausted by the three "executioners"!
"..."

I was thinking about this.

Luo Xiu kept paying attention to the developments in the [Player Forum] and [Chat Channel], and at the same time opened another panel - the "Mailbox" panel.

Lying quietly there was the reward for killing "Ring Flame Bishop" Drummond.

When in the base, Luo Xiuben hadn't intended to settle the matter immediately - he hadn't yet performed the necessary 'metaphysics', and a settlement without a certain sense of ritual would be incomplete!
But I can’t care about all that now.

Faced with the threat from the three "executioners", even he had to fight back at his best - at a certain moment, Luo Xiu made a decision in his heart and gave the order to "settle".

[Kill "Ring Flame Bishop" Drummond (lv.55), gain 14423 basic experience points]

["Ring Flame Bishop" Drummond (lv.55) is 5 levels behind you]

[Kill above your level! Gain 50% extra experience points...]

["Burning Soul" takes effect, gain 20% additional experience points]

["Evil Soul" takes effect, gain 30% additional experience points]

["Extremely Evil Soul" takes effect, gain 50% additional experience points]

[The highest attribute of "Ring Flame Bishop" Drummond is "Divinity"]

[You gain: "Divinity" attribute +10]

["Noble Judgment" takes effect, gain 16 free attribute points]

[Rewards settlement, actual experience points gained: 36057! ]

【…】

["Ring Flame Bishop" Drummond is a disaster-level boss]

[Rewards for killing the disaster-level boss are being generated...]

【…】

[Kill rewards generated]

[Obtain the expertise "Gift of the Fiery Ring (Epic)", free attribute points*10]!
[Gift of the Fiery Ring (Epic): The Mother Goddess gives you the Sky-Fiery Ring - this is a gift, but also a shackle.]

[Your "divinity" attribute increases by 24 points, "resistance" attribute increases by 12 points, and the "fire" attribute damage received will be reduced by 20%.

When you use skills and consume mana, you will also consume 20% of the health points consumed in the form of "fire" attribute damage, and the damage and effect of the skills you use will be increased by 30% (the fire damage caused by "Blessing of the Fiery Ring" will not cause the owner of the expertise to fall into the near death. When the health of the owner of the expertise is less than 20% of the health limit, he will no longer be affected by the fire damage caused by "Blessing of the Fiery Ring" and will no longer have the damage enhancement effect of the expertise). 】

【…】

"……grass?"

After giving the panel to settle the instructions of "Ring Flame Bishop" Drummond, Luo Xiu, who did not perform the ritual "sacrifice", thought that nothing good would come out.

But I didn’t expect it – this time it was a colorful explosion!

This is not because the specialty [Gift of the Fiery Ring] itself is so powerful, but simply because its effect is perfectly compatible with Luo Xiu - its negative effects can be perfectly avoided by Luo Xiu!

——Because the epic expertise "Burning Steel Destroyer" obtained through the quest [Night of Molten Iron and Burning Steel] has provided up to 80% "Fire" damage reduction, plus the 20% fire damage immunity that can be obtained this time through the expertise [Gift of the Fiery Ring], Luo Xiu's "Fire" damage resistance will reach 100%!
At the same destiny level, Luo Xiu will be completely immune to damage from ordinary "fire" attributes - thus being able to receive the 30% skill damage and effect bonus provided by [Gift of the Fiery Ring] without any damage!
Sweet!

After quickly browsing the refreshed contents on the panel and thinking about them rapidly in his mind, Luo Xiu gave the panel the "confirm" instruction, confirming the result of this settlement.

A flash of light and shadow appeared on the panel interface, and the text content about this settlement slowly dissipated. At the same time, the new epic expertise [Gift of the Fiery Ring] appeared in the "Expertise" column of Luo Xiu's character panel, turning into his new power.

Afterwards, Luo Xiu added all his accumulated free attribute points to the "divinity" attribute, which enabled it to achieve a huge leap forward - truly allowing the attribute value of "divinity" to break through the "1500" mark.

Feeling that his own divine spirit was also rapidly rising, every bit of flesh and blood, and even every cell in his body was greedily sucking up the powerful spirituality. Luo Xiu closed the panel contentedly.

At this moment, the approaching Red Maple City wall had already outlined a clear outline in his eyes. He could already hear bursts of rumbling coming from that section of the wall.

The fierce fighting outside the city has begun.

……

Red Maple City Church.

After Thomas, Crocodile and other players returned to the church urgently, they received an emergency summons from their "Captain of the Holy Guard" Connor Rune.

At this time, more than 30 prospective "Saint Guardian" beta test players and more than 600 new players who had just joined the outer "Church Patrol" had gathered in the church's inner courtyard, waiting to go out of the city to carry out the blocking mission.

The "bishop" of the church, Rosso Carlos, was away, so all church affairs were handed over to the "high priest" Anthony to manage. He then counted the number of clergy who could go into battle, and led the players and clergy out of the church and headed out of Red Maple City.

Along the way, Thomas couldn't hide his excitement and was full of anticipation for the upcoming battle.

The same was true for the other beta test players around him - when they had just returned to the church to report to "Captain of the Holy Guard" Connor Rune, Captain Connor had given them a new task - to let them each lead twenty new "Church Patrol" players to form a highly mobile assault team!

Because of the players' nearly "immortal" nature, Captain Connor assigned them the most difficult tasks. They might engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy's most elite regiments, or they might divide into small groups and gradually erode the enemy's ordinary military formations with absolute numerical advantage. These are the tasks that Thomas likes to see.

While waiting, Thomas and other players have arrived at the edge of the inner wall of Red Maple City with the clergy team.

The city gate was closed, but two side gates were opened on both sides. The guarding knights had seen the clergy of the church from afar and made way for them to pass.

"High Priest" Anthony nodded in response to the Royal Guards. Thomas, who was following behind Captain Connor, felt that the Royal Guards on both sides of the road were looking at him with sharp gazes under their helmets.

They were all transcendent beings with the [Supreme] triple destiny... Being stared at like that, even as a player, Thomas couldn't help but shudder.

Soon, he passed through the side door and followed Connor across the shaky iron trestle bridge. They arrived at the gravel plain and stood on the real battlefield.

He finally saw with his own eyes what kind of enemy the Red Maple City Fortress would face this time—

He saw that the edge of his vision was already filled with yellow sand. Even though it was still quite far away, he could already make out rows of silhouettes that looked like giant trees.

It was like a row of small hills armed with steel. Thomas roughly estimated that each of them was at least five meters tall. Hundreds of huge rock-like bodies were spread out in a line, which gave a very oppressive feeling visually, just like a city wall that kept trampling and crushing everything!

——That is the [Giant Legion]!
And such military power is not only on the ground, but also in the sky.

From high above the sky, thunder-like roars came into Thomas' ears. He looked up and saw patches of red, like flames, circling and soaring in the sky!
——That’s a dragon! A dragon with a body as red as fire!

Thomas had heard in the [Player Forum] and chat channel that the attacking dark army included an elite "Dragon Rider" regiment. Although players had been discussing this enthusiastically, words and pictures were never as shocking as seeing it with one's own eyes.

"My grass..."

While looking up, Thomas subconsciously sighed, "This is the quintessence of our country."

The strength of the dark army that attacked Red Maple City this time was indeed much higher than during the internal test... How strong must the two "executioners" who led the two most elite battle groups be...

Thomas sighed as the sound of thunder continued to pour into his ears, accompanied by the ground shaking violently again and again.

The trembling feeling became more and more obvious - the "Giant Warband" of the Dark Army was getting closer and closer.

The dragon riders that were flying in the air had also lowered their hovering altitude.

Until a deafening roar resounded through the sky!

"--Roar!!!"

A ball of fire fell from the sky along with this explosive roar!
It was the largest red dragon. Its wings, which were over twenty meters long, were burning with bright red flames. Standing on the dragon's back was another silver-grey figure!
The silver-grey figure rode the red dragon and swooped down towards the battlements of Red Maple City. He seemed to be holding a giant double-helix sword in his hand, and strands of scarlet dragon lightning were bursting out from the blade!
He was approaching quickly, and Thomas could clearly feel the temperature around him rising in an instant!
Thomas also "detected" the identity of the silver-gray figure through the panel at the first moment.

——That was one of the executioners, "Silver-blooded Dragonborn" Quilton!

A huge sense of oppression had enveloped the air before Quilton's attack. Even as Thomas was detecting him, the red dragon he was riding was about to fall onto the city wall!

--boom!!!!!

Smoke and dust filled the air, red fog rose, and a huge roar came like a wave!

But the city wall was still intact, and another figure escaped from the gap in the wall and blocked the attack of the "Silver-Blooded Dragonborn"!
--clang!!!!!

That was a figure holding a huge red sword high.

——That is the current supreme ruler of "Border Court", "Thunder General" Albert!

"You finally showed up... General of the Round Table..."

In the rolling red mist, the Silver Blood Dragonborn Quilton and his dragon head covered with silver scales made an excited sound:

"I know... it was you who killed Quild! Albert!!!"

"I saw it... I saw his head! My brother's head..."

"He's dead... I'll take his place! I'll avenge him!!"

"I'm stronger than him!!!"

"Let's fight... let's bleed! Let's kill!!"

"ALBERT!!!!"

--clang!!!!!

Thomas only heard the sound of a bell ringing, echoing in the suddenly rising red fog!

The sounds like the clanging of metal were sharp and piercing. The dragon thunder and the burning scarlet flames had spread rapidly in all directions, but were mostly blocked and offset by the barriers summoned in time by the warlocks.

And at the same time.

In front of Thomas, Connor, the "captain" of the Holy Guard, had taken down his warhammer from behind and pointed it at the opposite side - towards the direction of the [Giant Regiment] which was less than 300 meters away from the city wall.

"My fellow soldiers—"

There were blazing flames in his eyes and on his hammer, and he issued his first and only order in a firm and cold voice:
"In the name of the Great Sun's Moment - the time of judgment has come!"

"--charge!!!"

……

(End of this chapter)