The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 198 Defense
The news of the fall of the Black Ice Great Wall's western ice-free bay and the southward advance of the demon army reached Lutia even later than the news of the Frostwind City army's northward march encountering and being completely annihilated by the main force of the demons. What followed was the devastating news that the eastern watchtower camp of the Great Wall had been surrounded by two demon armies advancing from the north and east.

Sitting in the half-ruins of the cathedral after it had been cleared, Eric's hands and feet were ice-cold. It took him a while to remember to ask, "Did Her Highness the Princess escape?"

The messenger, who had risked his life to fly back from the border, shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either.

"His Highness gave me this message and told me to set off immediately."

He brought back only a verbal message; Natalia had no time to leave any written record.

"What was the situation like over there before you left?" Eric asked again.

The messenger was filled with anxiety, and a nun beside him cast a calming spell on him. After a while, he was able to speak:
"When the news of the annihilation of the Frostwind City army reached the Far East camp, the magic array on the seabed of the Unfrozen Bay had just been destroyed by the demons, and His Highness was leading people to defend the bay... The demons coming from the west arrived too quickly, and by that afternoon they had already approached the camp. It was at that time that His Highness ordered me to leave with the message... During the southward flight, I saw another demon army heading north in that direction."

Eric remained silent for a moment.

"Even if West Ice-Free Bay fell, didn't a single person escape alive? Was there no prior warning?"

The winged man looked blank. "I don't know... nobody knows what's going on over there. The camp in the east hasn't received any news."

Eric waved his hand, signaling someone to take the long-hauled messenger to rest, and then fell into deep thought, though this contemplation did not last long.

"Your Highness..."

Archbishop Dorian, who had also rushed over upon receiving the news, was covered in sweat. "Will Duke Edgar be able to bring his army back to Lutia in time?"

"There's still time. Demons can't fly."

Eric glanced at him, then took out another letter. "Uncle's letter arrived this morning. Their army is rushing towards Lutia, crossing the mountains of Otville and Holtdam."

Edgar took some effort to win over the governor of Otville, but not too much.

He used their friendship as a bridge to communicate with his old friend, trying his best to persuade him to abandon his desire for peace and join forces to resist the demons. However, he was refused, so he had no choice but to place another sword at the end of this bridge.

Absolute military control, coupled with Edgar's appointment as military commander of Lutia, finally convinced Governor Otwell to abandon his wishful thinking and reluctantly head south for a vacation with a dozen chests of gold coins and an "escort" team.

Dorian took the letter, wiping the sweat from his brow as he read it, and seemed somewhat comforted when he put it down.

But he couldn't help but say, "How could the Black Ice Wall have fallen so quickly..."

"With few people and scarce supplies, the Princess has done the best she can in the east... As for how the defense line in the West Ice-Free Bay collapsed so quickly, unless survivors can be found, it can only be attributed to insufficient defensive capabilities."

Eric stared blankly, unconsciously biting his fist. "I only hope Your Highness remembers my words..."

"What?" Dorian asked.

“It’s nothing. I just hope Princess Natalia can return to Lutia alive.” Eric snapped out of his thoughts, thought for a moment, and asked, “Has the Holy See responded?”

Dorian shook his head. "There are no letters."

Eric smiled.

"I even voted for that old bastard during the secret meeting... though it doesn't really count anyway."

He cast his vote for the old saintess.

Dorian quickly covered his ears. "Your Highness, please say something useful..."

“Continue to write to all the churches and monasteries in Northria, Hotdam, and Guladia, and ask them to send people to support Lutia.” Eric paused. “Just say that I was assassinated in Lutia and need protection. That way, when the Pope wants to settle scores later, they will have a reason to do so.”

Dorian covered his ears, but not completely, and heard clearly. He let go and asked, "Do you want a knight or a nun?"

"Of course, whatever kind of people come."

Eric looked at him. “Knights can participate in the battle, and monks and nuns can provide logistical support. Of course, those old fogies who only know how to recite holy scriptures and church precepts should not come. If they dare to say a word against me, I will kill their whole family.”

"……I see."

Dorian got up to write a letter, but Eric called him back.

"Your Highness?"

"I've been busy these past few days and have forgotten to ask if Cardinal Basil has escaped back to the Holy City. I haven't seen him since I woke up."

Dorian's face darkened. "Your Highness, Cardinal Basil wanted to make amends, so he personally led a pursuit when Sinmag escaped, and perished along with those valiant knights."

"..."

Eric opened his mouth, paused for a moment, and then prayed softly, "May your soul have reached the Kingdom of God and enjoy eternal peace from now on."

Dorian also offered a prayer, then left.

Eric slumped into his chair and bit his fist again.

A short while later, a knight hurried over and said, "Your Highness, the Emperor requests your presence in the palace."

"I see."

The emperor had probably also received news that the border guards had been nearly wiped out, including his youngest sister.

At this point, Eric was too lazy to put on airs as a saint and rode alone to the palace to see the emperor.

Upon meeting him, the emperor asked him where Edgar was.

Eric did not believe that his uncle had not informed the emperor of his movements. The emperor was only asking now because he wanted a reassuring answer from him. So he said that Edgar and his army were not far from Lutia.

One or two days, three or five days, that's not far.

The emperor seemed somewhat relieved, and then asked, "Holy Maiden, have you heard about the Black Ice Great Wall?"

Eric pursed his lips. "I just received the news at noon, Your Majesty."

"Is Natalia still alive?" the emperor asked, looking at him.

"The chances are very high."

"Really?" The emperor leaned forward.

Eric took a deep breath. "I've left Your Highness with several senior knights from the Convent of Saintess as guards. If the Great Wall falls, they will fight to the death to help Your Highness escape."

The emperor leaned back, and after a while, tears streamed down his face.

“Natalia… I shouldn’t have let you go to the North.”

Eric also had a sister, so he felt both disgust and sympathy for the emperor's weakness, and thus said nothing and simply stood there.

After a long while, the emperor finished crying and said to him, "Holy Maiden, if Duke Edgar defends Lutia this time, I will also make you a duke, and your titles as uncle and nephew can be passed down to each other."

The emperor's newly drawn cake was covered in cowardly tears, and Eric struggled to suppress his disgust, having no desire to eat it at all.

He replied calmly, "Let's talk about the rewards after we defeat the demons."

"...Does the Holy Maiden think Edgar can't protect Lutia?" The Emperor became uneasy instead.

Eric wanted to say that the chances were slim, but to appease the emperor, he shook his head. "Your Majesty is overthinking it. What I mean is that I want to focus on the present."

“The saintess is right… I take it back now, but I won’t forget it.”

Eric bowed his head. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

“I should have known sooner that there was such a loyal family as the Chimino on the border of the empire.” The emperor looked at him. “If you weren’t the saintess, I would have wished Natalia could have married you.”

"..."

Eric paused for a moment.

His only hope now is that Natalia will come back alive.

“Your Majesty, I have some matters I would like to discuss with the commander of the Lutia city defense forces. If you have nothing else to say…”

The emperor quickly waved his hand, "It's alright, it's alright, Holy Maiden, go ahead."

Eric didn't lie to him. After leaving the palace, he went to find the commander of the city's defense forces and asked how his construction of fortifications at a pass dozens of miles to the north was progressing.

They were to defend Lutia, but they couldn't just retreat to the outskirts of Lutia at the outset and let the first battle take place outside the city.

To enter Lutia from Northria, unless you take a long detour, you will inevitably pass through a valley, which is also where the Hero's Road is located.

Holding that position would provide a significant buffer zone for Lutia. This wasn't his original idea; the Delan Empire had already built a pass there when it first established its capital in Lutia. However, the demons hadn't been able to break out of the Northern Demon Realm since then. The pass's true glory, however, came during the civil war between princes and their descendants…

Now, several hundred years have passed, and the place has long since fallen into disrepair. Even the people stationed there were dismissed by the former emperor. The main purpose of sending people there now is to rebuild on the original site.

"Repairs and reconstruction are being expedited, and supplies are being transported there."

“Alright, Marshal Edgar will lead a portion of his troops to garrison there, and the church will assist you in implementing a scorched-earth policy.”

The so-called assistance mainly involved having the clergy persuade the civilians near the pass to leave, encouraging them to take away any supplies they could carry.

He spoke for a while with the commander of Lutia's city defense forces, who then invited him to personally inspect the pass.

Looking at the sky, Eric decided to set off now so that he could return before dark. As they passed the cathedral, Elise rode up behind him.

The two left the city through the east gate. The large pit had already been filled in, and the city wall was being rebuilt as quickly as possible.

A significant number of students from the Lutia Magic Academy were brought over to cast spells that turned soil into stone, providing building materials. Another group cast reinforcement spells between every two city wall bricks to strengthen the defenses—since they had nothing better to do.

Eileen was among them; as Eric and Elise rode by, she was shaping a pile of yellow earth into stone bricks.

"Eric, where are you going?"

“Let’s inspect the northern pass,” Eric thought for a moment. “Eileen, come along too; we might need you. We shouldn’t be short-handed here, right?”

"No shortage."

Eileen clapped her hands and mounted his horse.

Did you wipe dust off my clothes?

"Nonsense! I used magic, I didn't mold the bricks with my hands, so where would the dust come from?"

On the other horse, Elise looked at the black handprint on Eric's lower back without saying a word.

The three rode their horses at full speed, and after more than an hour, they arrived at the pass north of Lutia.

This is a long, steep slope, offering a commanding view and greatly enhancing the defenders' defensive capabilities. Four checkpoints are established from top to bottom. Of course, the most important defensive fortification is still the first checkpoint; the subsequent three checkpoints are designed to ensure that the first checkpoint can be recaptured as quickly as possible if it falls.

When they arrived, the Lutia city defense troops who had been dispatched were working hard to rebuild the city walls.

“With this height difference, the rolling stones alone would be enough to give the attackers below a run for their money,” Eric said, standing in front of the northernmost pass and looking down.

Elise looked at the mountainside beside her. "Could the demons come around from this side of the mountain?"

"It's steeper over there, and they'll send people to guard it then. It'll be even harder to break through from the bottom up."

Eric mounted his horse again, passed through the pass to the north, then turned around, looked up, and raised both arms to the sides.

"This place is easy to defend and difficult to attack. If the demons give up on heading south from here, they can either go east, bypassing hundreds of miles of mountains, or go north, bypassing even more mountains. No matter which route they choose, it will take a considerable amount of time. And the longer they are delayed, the more troops Lutia can gather... I must say, Lutia really chose a good place."

Eileen sat behind him and leaned forward. "Is Eric talking to me?"

“I’m talking to myself.” Eric lowered his arms. “Give myself more confidence that I can protect Lutia.”

Eileen hugged his waist. "It's okay... Uncle is here, we'll definitely be able to protect you."

“Hmm…” Eric looked down at her hands and turned them over. “You brat, you said your hands weren’t dirty.”

He inspected the pass and found that the soldiers stationed there were all working diligently, either building fortifications or quarrying stones and logging to stockpile defensive supplies. He had nothing to say, but he encouraged them and told them that the army was coming soon to reassure them.

"Eric said I could help before he came. In what way?" Eileen asked.

Eric pointed to the hillside north of the pass, where only some trees nearby had been cut down. “I don’t think they had time to cut down the trees here. You can burn them all, but you have to control the fire and not let the flames spread too far.”

"Set the mountain on fire?"

"Hmm, we can't leave the demons with readily available timber. Is that possible?"

"of course."

Eileen arrived between the two mountains outside the pass, raised her staff, and began to spin it as if stirring the sky while chanting.

A fire dragon surged from the tip of her staff, growing larger with the wind. With each swing of her staff, the fire dragon grew larger, and soon the entire fire dragon became bigger and bigger, flying higher and higher.

With a wave of her staff, Eileen stopped the fire dragon from circling and plunged into the forest.

It was already summer, and the mountains and forests were humid, but wherever the fire dragon passed, the trees caught fire, smoke billowed into the sky, and the entire northern hillside was quickly turned into a sea of ​​fire.

“If there were a police station down the mountain, even if your uncle were a duke, he couldn’t save you…” Eric muttered, gazing at the wildfire.

"Ah—what did you say—"

The burning forest crackled and popped, and the intense heat surged from all directions, making it impossible for Eileen to hear his words.

Eric yelled back, "Nothing—just keep it under control, don't let the fire spread to the other side, and don't let it go too far—"

"I know--"

Eileen raised her staff high, staring intently at the fire dragon darting across the mountain. Sweat poured down her forehead; this was a spell that was both energy-consuming and required intense concentration for her.

As the flames, spreading in all directions, reached the mountaintop, she suddenly raised her staff, and the flames at the summit surged into the sky, transforming into another fire dragon that soared high before plunging headlong into another unburnt forest.

The flames roared and burned for over an hour under Eileen's control, turning a large area of ​​the hillside north of the pass into a pure black landscape, with most of the sky filled with rising smoke and dust.

"Is it enough?"

"That's enough." Eric looked into the distance. With such a long distance, the demons would have to spend a lot of time just logging and transporting the timber, making it even more difficult to attack the pass.

Controlling the last two fire dragons to fly into the sky and dissipate on their own, Eileen plopped down on the ground and swallowed hard.

"I'm so exhausted..."

"You've worked hard." Eric wiped the sweat from his sister's face.

“Luckily you found the right person. Glug glug glug—” Eileen took the water bag from Elise and gulped down half a minute of water. “Otherwise, it would take more than two days to burn down this half hillside.”

“Do you think I don’t know how good my sister is at playing with fire?” Eric’s smile was somewhat complicated.

"Humph."

Even after the wildfire had burned down, smoke was still rising from the forest. Eric wasn't worried about it reigniting, because Lutia's rainy summer climate was taking effect; a large cloud had drifted over, and heavy rain would fall soon.

As darkness fell, the three hurried on horseback back to Lutia.

Halfway there, heavy rain started to fall.

"a ha ha ha--"

Eileen, soaked in the rain, hugged Eric's waist and laughed.

"Don't laugh like a witch who just killed someone and set fires."

Back outside the north gate of Lutia, Eric didn't go in, but instead circled the city walls until he reached the south gate.

It was already dark, and the heavy rain had not stopped. The south gate was filled with people and vehicles leaving in the rain, almost blocking the road into the city.

Holding Eric's shoulder, Eileen wiped the rain from her face. "Where are they going, Eric?"

“Let’s flee south,” Elise said.

"Do they think Lutia can't be defended?" Eileen asked again.

Eric shook his head, said nothing, listened to the pouring rain and the sounds of weeping and cursing, watched for a while outside the moat, then turned his horse around and returned to the city through the east gate.

"You guys go take a shower right away, I want to see if you need anything from me."

Back at the cathedral, where rain was pouring down, priests and nuns were running around in the rain, but Eric had nothing to do for the time being.

He looked up at the rainy sky, then climbed up to the second floor, which had become the roof, and went to Sinmaguna's office, where only half of the wall remained and the walls were almost completely burned away.

After pausing for a moment, he picked up a piece of paper from the ashes, which had been burned down to the size of a palm.

"…Sinmag, I have decided to dedicate my life to the study of the soul… My future achievements will certainly not be inferior to those of you who became a charlatan halfway through life… If you want to find me, come to Bardo's Cottage in Castelfer…"

(End of this chapter)