Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 132 In the Name of the Sun God

In order to nip the danger in the bud, High Priest Nacht made extremely thorough preparations.

Strong warriors, wielding bronze swords and spears, would fight enemy warriors and protect the priests behind them with shields.

The priests who went to war also wore amulets symbolizing the gods and held scepters. They would invoke all kinds of extraordinary powers to annihilate all evil.

As for the last one... it was Nacht himself.

Although he wouldn't necessarily rush to the front lines and die, his command from the front lines was already tantamount to a personal campaign.

Even a lion must exert its full strength to hunt a rabbit!

Recalling this ancient proverb, Nacht immediately launched a powerful counterattack.

For the warriors who worshipped the sun god, it was extremely easy to march south, since they were in the upper reaches of the river, while those who worshipped the serpent god lived in the lower reaches. This meant that they didn't even need to exert any extra effort; they could simply go downstream and conquer that region.

Such a large-scale mobilization could not possibly be kept secret, so Nacht also sent a letter directly to the lower reaches of the river as a declaration of war.

"I am Naht, priest of the Sun God! The kingdom that worships the serpent god has blasphemed against the divine with wicked rituals, challenging the might of the Sun God. The Sun God has bestowed upon me the mission of protection; his light is my sword, his grace my armor. Now, for the glory of the god, I raise my army to punish! All who offend the Sun God will be destroyed!"

A manifesto is something like this; it's simply a pretext for taking action.

However, when the proclamation traveled south and reached the hands of the four priests, they noticed something amiss.

"Nacht? How could it be him?"

The four priests looked at each other, speechless for a long time.

They were aware of Nacht's reputation; he was the chief high priest of Heliopolis, and could even be considered the foremost being below the gods.

But that's where the problem lies.

The first person below the gods is still just a human. It wasn't a god who made the move; it was just the high priest who came... Even if the high priest is indeed very strong, can he really defeat that evil ancient serpent?

"It seems we'll need to take action."

The four priests exchanged glances, all feeling the weight of their responsibilities.

Yes, that's why they endured humiliation and worked for that ancient serpent—wasn't this the day they were waiting for?

The time to toil in darkness is over; it is time to serve the light.

"However... let's not rush to expose ourselves."

While the other three were about to rise up in rebellion, the priest leader wearing the crown of snake fangs remained sufficiently cautious.

This also calmed down the other three priests.

That's definitely not something they can rush to reveal. Although they have a certain status with the Ancient Serpent, it doesn't mean they really have the strength to contend with it. If they reveal their thoughts at this time, they might be immediately crushed to death by the Ancient Serpent, which is right next to them.

Openly opposing them won't get you anywhere.

On the contrary, they were able to perform better by staying by the side of this ancient snake.

"After all, given our current positions... it would be incredibly easy for us to mess things up."

With this in mind, the four priests quickly began their work.

Since the hastily assembled team lacked any generals, the four of them had no choice but to lead the troops themselves—which was exactly what they wanted, since only by controlling the military could they start to mess things up.

Just like now, the priest who received the snake's blood and was in charge of agriculture actually led troops into battle, and all the archers who were good at shooting arrows were under his command—but judging from this sparse rain of arrows, it was probably not enough to kill a single person.

"All I need to do is shoot a couple of arrows now and then, just to make a fuss," the priest in charge of agriculture thought to himself, feeling he had done his job.

But in the eyes of Nacht, the chief priest in the opposite camp, it was not like that at all.

"What's wrong with the other side? How can they play such a disgusting style of combat?"

Nacht had been driven to the brink of nausea these past few days by the unreasonable barrage of arrows. If these arrows could actually kill, he would accept it, but what was with all these occasional bursts of arrows?

During the march, arrows were shot; during meals, arrows were shot; and just when the soldiers were about to rest, arrows were shot again. Every time the warriors raised their shields to defend against the upcoming rain of arrows, those damned archers would suddenly fall silent.

The expected rain of arrows never came, yet it seemed as if they would fall from mid-air at any moment.

Once was fine, twice was still bearable, but after several days, the soldiers were not eating or sleeping well, and they were all exhausted.

"These snake worshippers are truly insidious. It seems the evil of the ancient times is indeed real... So whose general is he?"

With some skepticism, Nacht continued his investigation.

This wasn't something that couldn't be investigated, since the personnel movements on the other side weren't exactly secretive—it was at this moment that Nacht realized that those currently fighting against him were actually priests he had previously sent out, who worshipped the sun god.

"These traitors...were they corrupted by the evil of the ancient times?"

This further strengthened Nacht's resolve to nip evil in the bud.

So, after encouraging the soldiers, Nacht continued to lead the team down the river.

This time, Nacht slowed down the march, and the warriors and priests were on guard against everything around them as they marched—and it turned out that when he got serious, this evil tactic was ineffective; at least on the way forward, he encountered no resistance.

Not only did they offer no resistance, but many people even surrendered.

Those were local militia organized by the local people. They had come to resist, and according to the militia, they were led by a priest who carried a scale. But just before the sun god's army arrived, the priest with the scale fled with his personal guard, leaving the militia behind.

"Before he left, that lord told us that as long as we surrendered, we could bask in the glory of the sun god... We are willing to cleanse the sun god of the evil ancient serpent!"

After hearing what was said, Nacht nodded repeatedly.

The fact that troops were replenished before the battle even began was undoubtedly a good thing, but there was something even better—at this moment, Nacht had vaguely discerned that the priests in the enemy camps did not actually intend to oppose him.

Although those priests appeared to have betrayed him, they were actually still loyal to the sun god and even provided him with many conveniences to make his conquests smoother.

"Looking back now, the previous rain of arrows was probably just the soldiers scaring themselves."

It was at this moment that Nacht realized that the sparse rain of arrows earlier was merely the enemy camp's own men not wanting to harm them. However, this act of kindness had startled the warriors.
"Really..."

Thinking of this, Nacht shook his head repeatedly.

However, this was definitely a good thing. After learning that the other side was also one of their own, Nacht felt that this battle would be much smoother.

However, as the march went on day by day, Nacht felt that something was not quite right.

The consumption of military rations seems to be going a little too fast.

"What's going on? Didn't we bring enough supplies?"

Nacht was quite puzzled, after all, this should not have happened at all—they had made ample preparations, and their march was along a major river, so their supply lines were practically rock solid, and there should have been no problem under any circumstances.

At least in theory, there shouldn't be any problems.

But those newly joined militiamen have an enormous appetite.

(End of this chapter)