After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

"...Perhaps we can start from this point to learn more about him?"

She muttered to herself.

I glanced at the calendar. I realized that time was running out for Ysgard.

..........

Meanwhile, in the land of Eden.

After assisting Elena and the magical dolls with some checks, Lady Lalumia curiously lay on the table, waiting for Elena to give her an answer.

Elena simply shook her head at this:

"Question: Lalumia's divine power is similar to magic in a sense... In fact, strictly speaking, it's not that only clergy can use divine power... The reason for this restriction is actually more of a limitation set by the gods themselves?"

“That’s natural. Giving divine power to a child who isn’t a clergyman is as dangerous as letting an infant use a knife, you know?” Lalumia shrugged. “Priests at least know how to use this power and then use it to bring benefits to people—but ordinary people don’t.”

Unlike magic, a resource that everyone can use through spontaneous training, divine power seems to require the approval of the deity before it can be given to others.

To use a more colloquial analogy, it's like the difference between gathering materials to build a house in the wilderness and building a house in a city with government permission—[divine power] is a regulated resource. At least, that's how Elena sees it.

So, is there really a way for us to utilize Lord Lalumia's divine power?

The tiny synthetic doll looked at Lalumia with confusion.

To this, Lalumia simply smiled and stroked Elena's head, saying, "Of course."

Chapter 3: The Demons Begin an Internal Strife - 8K

On the afternoon of May 20th, under the orders given by Lalumia on behalf of Yang Hao, the hunters and elven mages, along with some golems and magical puppet troops, headed to the edge of the Demon Realm, which was the command post of the Isgard colonial army, to prepare for the next mission to save the main force of Isgard.

Although Elena was initially worried that Lalumia's "overreaching" might displease Yang Hao, Lalumia turned around and said that she would take full responsibility if there were any problems—but before that, she would.

“Elena, you need to understand one thing—as a qualified supporter, you must have the ability to anticipate his needs and provide assistance based on that, okay? Only then will Yang Hao be impressed with you... Do you understand?”

"Ken, definitely...?"

Although she always felt there was still something wrong... after gaining Lord Lalumia's "approval," Elena was, in a sense, willing to believe in the "help" the gods were giving her.

Elena chose to bow her head and accept it, while Lalumia muttered to herself—if she didn't handle the work Yang Hao had missed now, that would be a real problem.

While she did indeed use coercive measures to get Yang Hao to rest, frankly speaking, this was because the work Yang Hao had to handle wasn't complicated.

If it's simply a matter of instructing hunters and elves to prepare and proceed to a designated location, even a three-year-old could issue a similar command if they knew the destination.

Similarly, if it were simply a matter of preparing the diplomatic team to conduct diplomatic work with the Khuttod Khanate, then issuing an order would suffice.

Lalumia was worried that Yang Hao, after completing the initial task, would plan to move on to the next step... which is why he acted so recklessly. But if it were Elena... hmm?

We still need to let the little doll grow up more.

Lady Lalumia muttered to herself, and after confirming several times that the matters concerning [divine power] had been dealt with today, she decided to go to the border to check the situation.

With a silvery-white light, Lalumia vanished.

Meanwhile, after receiving orders, the hunters, with the help of elven mages, moved towards the command post of the Isgard colonial army. However, during the move, many hunters complained about the various problems caused by the Romans.

Even without Yang Hao and others' deliberate guidance, after Roman's God of Light desecrated the remains of the Bayerjas, the Bayerjas's perception of the Roman Empire remained in a state of precipitous decline for an extremely long period of time.

"Why did our Emperor let them go?" a hunter complained as he arranged his transforming weapon. "Wouldn't it have been better to kill them? These despicable traitors... they desecrated the bodies of our ancestors and caused us so much trouble, why didn't we do that?"

For the hunters of Bayezid, the desecration of their ancestors' remains was an unthinkable event.

They were born into an environment where even their own corpses had to be used properly, but even under these circumstances, the Bayerzans still held the corpses in the highest esteem.

They respect everyone who is willing to contribute their body for the benefit of future generations. They dare not say that they felt no sense of relief when using their ancestors' bodies, but at least they can say with their heads held high that they used every body with reverence.

They had never seen anything like the God of Light who toyed with corpses before. Even demons wouldn't play with the bodies of their own kind, yet Roman's God of Light had done so.

Admittedly, not every Roman is corrupt. After all, even within the territory of the United Kingdom, there are normal Romans like Mr. Arthur, Dr. Joseph, Princess Anna, and Miss Natalia.

But for most Bayer Georgians today, they would rather not accept outsiders from the Roman world than risk being contaminated by them.

This is why they complained quite a bit about the arrangements made for Yang Hao and the others, but in the end they gave an understanding reply:

"If I asked you to kill those Romans, would you be willing? How would you deal with millions of people... Besides, doing so might upset Miss Natalia and the others."

“Miss Natalia…yes, the Chief Justice, the little princess, the doctor in Gaparia who drives logistics crazy, and the head of the weapons research department are all Romans…sigh. If it's because of them that I'm sad, then I can understand…”

"After all, both Her Majesty Theresa and Her Majesty Yang Hao are soft-hearted... at least that's how I see it. They clearly have plenty of ways to sacrifice lives for greater gains, but in the end, I haven't seen either of them betray our allies..."

"After all, it's just about making money. Our country is short of money everywhere right now... And frankly, aren't we still willing to help them unconditionally? But speaking of which... is the Roman Military District okay?"

A hunter posed a question that drew the attention of the other hunters and the elven mage waiting for them to prepare.

Despite the attention, the hunter wielding the bizarre weapon—a modified version of a transforming axe combined with a Bayer Zans small-caliber rifle—simply shrugged.

“After all, if I remember correctly, the area we’re heading to is right between the Demon Realm and the Roman Military Region—and the Roman Military Region is sandwiched between us and the Hutto Khanate. Under these circumstances, is it really okay not to take out the military region first?”

The hunter's confusion silenced everyone present. After all, their objective in this military operation was indeed to rescue the main force of Isugard—but if their rear was attacked while rescuing the main force, the consequences would be dire...

To put it in layman's terms, it's like when you're unbuckled to pee and someone suddenly delivers a deeply ingrained, visceral "thousand-year kill" to your empty rear... Although it doesn't actually harm your life, it's still disgusting.

So, can't we just take down the Roman Military District while we're at it?

Every citizen of the United Nations was disgusted by the potential betrayal they might suffer, and it was at this moment that the elven mage in charge of communications said that it would be better not to act without the orders of the emperors.

"After all, His Majesties may have their own plans, and doing our job is the greatest support we can give them."

"That's true..."

Only after the elves' persuasion did the hunters finally settle down.

5月20日的下午6点整，拜耳佔斯的猎人小队与精灵法师团共计40余人携带着20只先进的机炮哥雷姆与飞行哥雷姆抵达现场。

Before the dizziness from the teleportation spell had worn off, the hunter Lawrence left the spot where they were stuck in the adhesive, carrying his weapon and standing tall as he checked the situation with the personnel from the Isgard colonial army who had come to take over.

“I am Lawrence, the captain of the Hunter Squad. We are here to gather intelligence before assisting in the rescue of your main force.”

Lawrence's straightforward self-introduction earned a nod from the man in front of him:

“I am Captain Kaiser, one of General Piss’s adjutants. From today onwards, I will be in charge of communications with you… Didn’t Lady Nia come with you?”

"Nia? Ah...she might come by herself. After all, the black dragon's near-magic immunity has caused us considerable trouble with teleportation. If nothing unexpected happens, His Majesty will also arrive with her...so what's the situation on the ground?"

"Please come with me."

Lawrence ordered the other hunters to stand by on the spot. He then commanded the elven mages to treat the evacuees of the colonial army to confirm whether the mutations could be cured. At the same time, he personally accompanied Captain Kaiser to inspect the condition of the Isugard colonial army camp.

The result was, naturally, very... terrible.

From what the hunters observed, the vast majority of soldiers who had retreated from the front lines showed signs of corruption to varying degrees. This corruption would assimilate any normal living being into a demon or something similar, and it was obvious that the Isgardians did not have the same level of resistance to corruption as the Bayrzans.

During the long underground war, the Bayergans also evolved some special abilities to fight against demons in the unique underground environment... If you have to be precise, the current Bayergans cannot be said to be pure humans.

But thanks to this, they are able to withstand corruption for six months to three years.

In contrast, the people of Isgard could only last for a month or even less than a week.

"Thank goodness we arrived early!" Hunter Lawrence thought to himself, watching the elven mages busily treating the wounded, only to quickly fall into a stalemate due to insufficient local magic. He then stepped forward and told the elven mages to go back first.

“Go back first and have the mages waiting in Constantinople and Gaparia help send over some of the magic storage devices.”

"Ah? I see... That makes sense. Without a magic storage device, if the local magic were to naturally regenerate, more than half of the people here would be corrupted into demons... Alright. Let's go back now."

The elven mages nodded, then used quick single-target teleportation spells to leave.

Captain Kaiser was amazed:

"In your army, can military resources such as magic storage devices be moved around at will?"

Faced with Captain Kaiser's curiosity, Lawrence merely gave a faint smile: "Yes. In our United Nations, as squad commanders, we have the authority to utilize some of the country's containers."

In the current military system of the United Nations, in order to better leverage the initiative of commanders at all levels, commanders will receive a certain number of freely disposable [resource points] based on their rank and status.

With abundant military resources, commanders can freely use their resource points to obtain various reinforcements from within the country according to their needs—such as more Golem troops, support from elven mages, or even directly request assistance from magical puppets from the Kingdom of Eden.

In a sense, under relatively relaxed circumstances, they don't need to foolishly wait for orders and supplies from their superiors. They have a certain degree of freedom of action; as long as they don't violate the objectives given by their superiors, they can choose to either bombard the target area to smithereens with artillery or slowly whittle it down at night through assassinations... Tactically, the on-site commander has a very high degree of freedom.

This directly changed the United Nations' military, giving it far greater strength and flexibility than conventional national armies... at a cost.

Money has become even scarcer.

Applying this to the current situation, while Lawrence can indeed freely utilize some of the magic storage devices... the consumption of those devices also means the United Nations will genuinely lose a portion of the resources it gains from foreign trade.

However, on the other hand, war is an expensive business... so in a sense, as long as victory is achieved, everything will be fine.

Lawrence sighed inwardly. After all, who could guarantee their country would always be victorious?

"...In short, your main force, which is deep inside, will be in great danger," Lawrence said. "The speed of the [Corruption] is much faster than I imagined...but His Majesty and the others also need time to lead the main search and rescue team to the scene—so you...must be prepared for your comrades at the front to be assimilated into demons."

Lawrence's sudden remarks silenced Captain Kaiser, who was already looking serious.

He glanced at the mutated warrior who was waiting for the elven mage to return and treat him, and then at the anxious soldiers who were casting hopeful glances at the hunters of the United Kingdom.

He opened his mouth, but what came out in the end was not a plea, but a question:

"How long did they take?"

As a professional soldier, Captain Kaiser naturally understood that soldiers will always encounter situations that cannot be stopped no matter how much they cry and shout.

For example, wounded soldiers, lacking medical care, die painfully from infected wounds; for example, reinforcements unable to reach the front lines in time due to road conditions can only arrive and silently witness the battlefield littered with dead and wounded; for example...

In general, as a soldier, he was well aware that many things could not be changed according to human will.

Naturally, the main search and rescue personnel from the United Nations were also deployed. The Issugard colonial army was already incredibly fortunate to have rescuers at all; if they were to beg them to speed up their efforts or deny them rest, it would only further humiliate their already submissive stance...

Thinking it over, it seemed better to stand tall, accept the facts, and wait for good news than to whine and cry for help like a fool. Captain Kaiser pondered this, but the time spent waiting for the hunter's reply still felt agonizing.

After a while.

The hunter shook his head and said:

"A week at the shortest, a month at the longest—that's the current situation for you evacuated soldiers. As for those inside... I don't know if you can understand, Captain Kaiser."

"Yes?"

"It's like the difference between someone who has just been burned and someone who is put in an oven to be roasted. A burned person can be saved, but that doesn't mean someone who is roasted can be saved. Do you understand? So... I hope you are prepared."

“…”

Captain Kaiser understood.

The main force of the Issugard colonial army.

It's probably all over.