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

The parish seemed to realize that if they allowed the elves and demons to complete the trenching project in front of the Demon Forest, their next attack would be a one-way trip to certain death.

Therefore, they chose the most unwanted tactic of filling in the trenches.

That is, using people, using corpses, and using near-limitless courage under the influence of divine arts and drugs.

They even filmed the pastor. It was as if a high school gang of delinquents, in self-defense, had reported the most marginalized member to the homeroom teacher; had the supreme commander of the Northern Expeditionary Force on the other side already turned against his own officers?

But it must be admitted that it is indeed very effective.

With the help of elven magic, Yang Hao could clearly see the infantrymen raising their shields and charging into the trench amidst a hail of arrows. Many of them even lost their footing when they jumped into the trench and fell to the ground, unable to even struggle before being trampled to death by those above.

All the dead believers turned to stone. This special divine magic created an ever-extending "bridge" for the Northern Expeditionary Force along the central route of the trenches.

Although the stone bridge can only support a hundred people advancing in formation at a time, and although its length is less than half the width of the trench—this is enough. Its construction speed is faster than the speed at which the elves and ancient trees dig the trench, and once the bridge is connected to the other end of the trench, it will mean the day of the decisive battle when the Northern Expeditionary Force launches its general offensive.

"It's terrifying. Why would their people be willing to do something so crazy for a god?"

Fen, standing to the side, frowned. Before Yang Hao could answer, the nun who was silently praying on the other side remarked:

"After all, hallucinogenic drugs, combined with the lash of faith, and some divine spells like the [Courage Spell]—with the support of a large number of believers providing enormous divine power, even an eight-year-old child would have the courage to raise a sword and charge at a dragon."

"...Can hallucinogenic drugs really make humans go to such extremes?"

“Some people can’t even eat without talking to another man. If they can’t even give up something as small as this, let alone highly addictive hallucinogenic drugs.”

"Hehe... I can understand that. After all, there are people who keep saying they want to abandon the god they believe in."

"Each each other."

Sparks flew between the two women, while Yang Hao merely frowned and watched as the believers' army turned into stones on the ground amidst a hail of arrows, and then the priest, having lost his followers, was shot dead by riflemen.

He watched as the priest's corpse also turned into those almost indestructible, hard stones, then thoughtfully looked towards the distant camp of the Northern Expeditionary Force and said:

"It seems that the priest didn't willingly go to his death, but was forced by someone of a higher rank... Theresa? What exactly are those petrification spells? And I'd like to ask, is there an absolute hierarchy within the clergy system?"

"Huh? You're asking about that?"

Theresa blinked, a mixture of joy and helplessness flashing in her eyes:

"If I remember correctly, the Petrification Divine Art is a variant of the high-level divine art called Stone Armor in the [Cult of Light] divine art system. However, it seems that the barbarians did not fully obtain all the systems of Light after usurping the throne. Not only are they completely ignorant of healing divine arts, but they can only use the [Stone Armor] after improvement to increase the weight of corpses, which can be said to be very rubbish."

However... there are still some commonalities. 【Stone Armor】, as a wide-area, group-buffing divine spell, can only be used by bishops in the Bayern Empire, and each user must have at least 100,000 followers providing divine power—in other words, the one casting the Petrify spell on these poor souls is also a bishop. Moreover, this spell not only consumes a large amount of divine power, but more importantly, it causes immense physical exhaustion for the bishop himself.

Speaking of bishops, we must mention the hierarchy of clergy—although there is no absolute superior-subordinate relationship in our system, the orders given by higher-ranking clergy to lower-ranking clergy are very binding.

To put it simply, you know you don't have to obey your mother's orders, but if she asks you to buy apples one day, you still have to pay for them yourself and obediently buy a bag of apples.

"Oh..."

Teresa's explanation made Yang Hao fall into deep thought.

Divine spells that can only be cast by bishops are extremely taxing on bishops, not to mention that they probably have flaws, as they can only be cast on corpses... Is it really that simple?

Yang Hao pondered, if he were the bishop of the Northern Expeditionary Force, leading a group of demoralized and poorly equipped conscripts, and allowed to cast the Stone Armor spell on the [corpse], what would he do?

What would he do?

His Majesty the Regent looked at the army of believers charging towards them once again in the distance and murmured: This is the seventh wave today.

Then, he suddenly realized something.

Only corpses can be affected by the modified Stone Armor spell of the Church of Light.

So...

"Theresa! Tell me... divine magic, is there any category in the divine magic system that can bring a corpse back to life?!"

In case the Church of Light is not without developing a new system of divine arts.

Instead, they've separated the divine magic system from the "Light" and started researching the "Corpse" system instead?!

Cold sweat poured down his back, and his throat went dry. Yang Hao knew he was daydreaming, but what was happening now forced him to make the worst-case scenario his way!

The Church of Light, the God of Light who usurped the power of light—he might...

A method has been developed to make the most of corpses!

"Ugh?"

Teresa was stunned by Yang Hao's roar.

She instinctively replied: No, impossible! Light is a combination of concepts that represent the instinct of living beings to live a better life. Even if you say that all living beings in the world no longer have any desire for light, the divine power that comes from light itself cannot be applied to a corpse!

Because there's simply no compatibility between them! The concept of light and the manipulation of corpses are completely incompatible; it's simply impossible...

......

She suddenly froze.

Theresa suddenly realized that there are three major systems of divine magic.

Firstly, there are concept gods represented by "Light". They possess different systems of divine magic based on their own concepts, and there are compatibility differences between these divine magics.

Just as you can't make the god of fire unleash water magic, or the god of light unleash the goddess of night magic—conceptual gods have their own "compatibility," and if the compatibility is incompatible, they absolutely cannot unleash it. This is the ironclad rule of conceptual gods.

Secondly, there are usurpers, represented by the [God of Light]. Since the usurpers seized the power of the Concept God, they would naturally also plunder the Concept God's divine power, thus creating the issue of [compatibility]... Therefore, Theresa believed that within the Light God's system of divine arts, which inherits the power of light, it was impossible for the category of [bringing the dead back to life] to exist.

Because the compatibility is completely incompatible! It's simply impossible!

But Theresa forgot that there was a third system of divine magic.

That is, it allows for greater freedom in mastering divine arts.

"[Faith in God]...What the hell...How the hell could I forget?! The God of Light has been worshipped for so many years! Even an ant should be worshipping a god by now! How could I forget that—!!!"

[Faith in God].

Belief in God grants one the power of freedom.

Although it is certainly not as powerful as the concept god.

But the advantage of faith in God is that as long as there are believers, they can freely shape their own divine power and create new systems of divine power.

Cremation is not permitted in the Church of Light; powerful and influential believers will offer lavish burial as a form of burial.

In the Church of Light, even the most sinful person can become a devout believer if they can fulfill the Church's mission, thus forgiving their past and being granted the right to be buried.

The Church of Light preserves the integrity of corpses as much as possible—under normal circumstances. At the same time, they will do everything in their power to protect the bodies of powerful warriors.

The Church of Light has one of its most important doctrines regarding death: only those with intact bodies can ascend to Heaven.

In contrast, [Light] allows cremation and does not believe that the integrity of the [corpse] is a standard for comforting the dead.

In other words...

in other words...

Does the Church of Light place too much importance on corpses?

No, I don't value it too much.

Rather, it's because the usurper God of Light, after becoming the god of faith, created a divine magic system that was primarily built around [corpses]!

No wonder the Church of Light didn't inherit the healing magic of Light! It's not that they didn't inherit it, but rather that their hidden system of corpse magic would violently conflict with the healing of Light. Therefore, the Church of Light simply abandoned the existence of healing magic and instead focused on making support magic more like that of corpses!

The so-called "corpse stone armor technique" is their latest achievement! In other words, those "corpses" in the central trench are not harmless at all!

They were the Northern Expeditionary Force's trump card! A group of soldiers made up of corpses!

Thinking of this, Mother Teresa turned deathly pale. Who could have imagined that such darkness lurked beneath the seemingly glamorous exterior of the Church of Light? Even if everyone had witnessed the followers of the God of Light eating people, no one had ever imagined that their god could be so insane!

Yang Hao, with a solemn expression, ordered the Ling Clan to control the Golems to stop digging the trenches and instead dig out and discard the petrified corpses—but this was destined to be futile, because the corpses were bound and protected by divine magic, and as some stones disappeared, others would be replenished, making it difficult to simply break them and take them away.

Furthermore, the layers upon layers of corpses, resembling twisted and intertwined petrified vines, further increased the difficulty of the task.

In order to destroy the stone bridge as quickly as possible, Finn even ordered the ancient elven tree to use its power to slowly pull the entire stone bridge out of the ground and to slowly push it away with its magic. Just as she was about to slowly advance the stone bridge toward the northern expeditionary force's position, suddenly, the stone bridge supported by the tree roots began to sway.

At first, there was only a slight shaking.

But then came a violent shaking. The petrified corpses broke apart, severing their links, and plummeted from mid-air into the depths of the trench, writhing and stiff on the ground like patients having an epileptic seizure, trying to get up.

The demons who went to help were stunned by what they saw. Instinctively, they used their swords and axes to hack at the corpses that were beginning to move again. Not only did the axe blades break when they hit the corpses, but the cracks on the corpses were also slowly healing.

Is the stone's recovery speed reduced because of the start of the event?

Yang Hao ordered the messenger to sound the bugle.

Because it was accompanied by the activities of the undead soldiers.

In the distance, the banners of the Northern Expeditionary Force appeared before the Monster Forest defense line as the twilight sun set.

More than half of them were militiamen carrying pitchforks and farm tools. But for some reason, those militiamen were all covered with a thick layer of stone armor.

Priests and the Guardians of the Faith were scattered throughout the legion, raising their banners high. Within the legion, those soldiers who had not been turned into undead soldiers, empowered by drugs and divine magic, pounded their shields with their weapons, letting out beast-like roars.

There was also a griffin rider in the sky. They were clad in armor, carrying huge crossbows, as well as spears and warhammers for close combat—these white-robed, proud sons of heaven who shouted the name of their lord were the pride of the parish, and their appearance on the battlefield meant that the final battle had begun.

"A bunch of fucking lunatics!"

The nun beside him cursed, her face contorted with despair. As a member of the clergy, she saw things much more clearly than Yang Hao.

Those conscripted soldiers weren't really corpses. The reason they seemed more agile than the guys in the trenches was because they were practically half-dead.

Is this the true divine magic system of the Church of Light?

Theresa gritted her teeth and left the front lines. She knew it was time to return to her post and fulfill her duties.

Fen glanced at Yang Hao, then smiled wryly:

"If we win this most disgusting war in the history of the elves, would you be willing to let me wander around with you?"

"Let's talk about it after we win."

"hehe."

She teleported away. She also returned to her post, where she would personally coordinate the work of the elven commanders and lead the elves to defend against the attack of the distant, frenzied enemy.

Yang Hao stood still, watching the sedan chair being carried in the distance.

He knew that this cruel scene was orchestrated by the bishop in the palanquin.

He was confused. He wondered, "Is this the 'heaven' that the Church of Light hopes to reach?"

"Is this the god you worship, Cecilia?"

Yang Hao drew his command sword, raised it high, and then slashed it sharply.

The booming of cannons echoed behind them. Bathed in the twilight sunlight, the [Fire Rain] streaked into the sky in an orange-red trail, plummeting towards the vanguard of the northern expeditionary force.