Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 418 Red Sacrifice
Sumu dispatched 300 Mystic Prayers to join Forrest on the west side of Kuraki, arriving at the inland town under his jurisdiction.

When they reached the heartland, they were shocked. They had initially thought the kingdom was too eager for quick success, leading to internal strife, but when they actually saw the scene in the heartland, they found it to be much worse than they had imagined.

"Please, please, give me some food!"

"My child hasn't eaten for days, he's going to starve to death if this continues!"

Outside the inland town of Via, refugees were everywhere. Among them, a woman carrying a child wrapped in tattered rags was begging for food at a soup kitchen.

To comfort the disaster victims, soup kitchens were set up outside the town of Via to provide basic food supplies.

But the soldiers ignored the woman and drove her out of the area.

Forrest flew into a rage: "Does Kuraki lack this little bit of food? A mother came begging with her infant in swaddling clothes, and you just threw her out? Are you even human?"

Because of Forrest's background and experiences, he hated this kind of bullying of civilians the most. Seeing that he was about to get angry, the town mayor hurriedly explained: "Sir, it's not that we don't give her food. These refugees have already been given relief, but they are not begging for food for themselves. They have all taken the money to support the rebels."

Take this woman in front of me, for example. Her child died long ago in the war, and there was nothing in that tattered cloth.

She came every day for the past few days, and the guards, seeing her pitiful state, gave her extra food. However, she hid all the food and took it to the rebels deep in the heart of the territory, and then returned to ask for more.

We had no choice but to expel her from this area to prevent her from affecting the refugees who truly needed assistance.

Upon hearing the mayor's explanation, Forrest was taken aback. In fact, with his senses, he should have noticed the woman's abnormality long ago, but his experience made him more inclined to side with the weak, which led him to question her.

Now that he had calmed down, he quickly realized that many other people were in the same situation, secretly taking food and running into the mountains.

"Are the rebels so popular that they can get these refugees to risk starvation to gather food for them?"

"Actually, it's not that they win people's hearts. Many refugees' relatives are imprisoned and used as bargaining chips to force these people to investigate and gather intelligence."

Asking for food was a minor matter; the real concern was that they might infiltrate the city and incite others to cause trouble. Therefore, Via dared not open the city gates and instead rescued people outside the town.

Several cities in the heartland have already been breached by collusion between insiders and outsiders. Even if there are refugees now, we cannot let them in!

Although the town mayor was not a hero, he was relatively prudent. He knew that the town's defenses were weak, but he couldn't really stand by and watch the people die, so he adopted a compromise.

Even so, as far as the eye could see, the entire plain was littered with corpses of those who had starved or frozen to death, and the sounds of wailing and crying echoed throughout the hills.

Su Mu and Forrest exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other.

The heartland is the most prosperous and wealthy part of the kingdom. Even when it was attacked by Isildur's army last time, only a part of it was affected. How could it have become such a hell on earth?
Seemingly aware of the two officials' doubts, the town mayor sighed and explained, "Initially, the situation wasn't this dire. Various territories distributed grain as disaster relief and even employed displaced people. After all, it's just grain; even after several disasters, it's enough."

However, these refugees who had been stranded in various towns and cities started rebellions, occupied cities, quickly gathered a huge army, and dragged free people into the rebellion.

They preached that light must be opened through violence, and their internal doctrines were strict; those who disobeyed were executed.

Upon hearing this, Su Mu was basically certain that it was a change of power in the bloody realm, but he never expected it to happen in the heartland.

"Didn't the kingdom's army suppress the rebels?"

“Of course, they were suppressed, but as soon as one side was suppressed, another emerged. In addition, Prince Gaunt’s search for the ruins and his expulsion of the free people from their homeland were also important reasons for the trouble.”

Ultimately, it was Gaunt who instigated the riots, but no one expected the rebellion to spread so quickly; there must have been someone behind it all.

"Have you seen Hammondal from Kuraki recently? He should be transporting materials through Via, right?"

The mayor replied almost without hesitation, "He did come to the town and even loaded several trucks with goods, intending to return to Kuraki. A few days ago, he suddenly received news of special materials and went deep into the hinterland, but then we lost contact with him. His fate is now unknown, but if he falls into the hands of these rebels, his chances of survival are slim!"

Forrest's expression was grim. After Randall lost his forging abilities, Harmondell was the most promising candidate to inherit his mantle, and Kuraki was also grooming him diligently. If they lost this forging genius, who knew when they would be able to train the next forger?

Forrest took responsibility: "It was my dereliction of duty. I should have sent more people to protect Hammondell, so that he wouldn't have been in danger."

Su Mu waved his hand: "Heroes are not cultivated in a greenhouse. If they are protected too much, they will face bottlenecks in their future advancement."

The changes in the hinterland were too sudden; no one expected them. This is not your fault.

If Hammondale can overcome this difficulty, it might help his promotion.

There's not much to say now that things have come to this. Blacksmiths are forged in blood and fire, and Su Mu thinks that Hammondal might not actually die.

"Gather the troops, I'm going to take on this Crimson Legion!"

Vya is essentially surrounded, but their remote location has prevented them from attracting the rebels' attention. Given this, Su Mu decided to take the initiative, eliminate the surrounding enemies, and incidentally uncover the mastermind hiding in the shadows.

Su Mu inherited Wayne's disguise skills and directly concealed the army, infiltrating into the mountains and forests.

The mountains and forests had been burned bare, and there were refugees and rebels everywhere, as well as rows of priests dressed in red robes.

They waved their hands, preaching the idea of ​​war to the people, and would even cut a gash in the arm of a kneeling believer and let the blood pool in a pool.

All believers must devoutly follow the priest's chanting, letting their blood flow, and even the slightest tremor will result in them being severely whipped.

"War! is the only path to justice and light. Those filthy nobles have stolen the fruits of victory and enslaved the people."

We must start a war, let the flames of war ignite the kingdom, and overthrow their rule!

"War! Destroy them! Build a new kingdom!"

【Red Priest (Crimson Castle Tier 5, Tier 2 unit, Baptism of Flesh and Blood): Attack 16 (21), Defense 12, Ammo 32, Damage 15-18 (20-23), Health 45, Speed ​​8, Large size.

Element: Crimson Aberration. Ranged Unit

Crimson Power: Allows free switching between magic and physical attacks. Melee combat damage remains undiminished and gains +5 damage and +5 attack power.

Cleanse: Attacks have a 30% chance to remove one of the opponent's positive magic buffs.

War Mobilization: When the Red Priest is present, it will make other units more enraged, reduce their defense by 5, and increase their critical hit rate by 5%. If the surrounding units are also Crimson units, the defense reduction and critical hit rate will be doubled (they will not be negative, and the minimum value is 0).

Commentary: Red priests are adept at instigating conflict, and war is the very doctrine they yearn for!

A terrifying blood-red unit; these red priests seem to have been born for war.

Unfortunately, they encountered Su Mu.

Let the mystical prayer master teach them that war is no child's play, and that provocateurs will be killed like ants.

"Kill them all, leaving no one behind!"

(End of this chapter)