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

"God of Light?! You have betrayed my faith!!"

Whether the God of Light betrayed his faith is unknown.

But one thing is certain: the divine power he unleashed was genuine.

These divine powers were simply returned to their rightful owner; that's all.

On the allied forces' position, Mother Teresa was enduring the divine power brought by the forbidden spell while desperately trying to convert it back into the power of [Light].

She never imagined that the authority bestowed upon her by the [Light] would be used in such a way? It was as if she had received a calculus textbook, only to be forced to skip addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division and jump straight to calculus in her very first elementary school math class?!

"By the light above, if you had a body, I would absolutely beat you to a pulp!"

Mother Teresa gritted her teeth as she transformed the divine power that originally belonged to light. But indeed, for a mortal to subject a nun to forbidden-level divine power was as absurd as putting the smallest condom on a donkey's club.

She had to release the excess divine power accumulating within her! If she didn't find a way to release it soon, the loss of control due to the excessive power would crush her into dust, and she would simply vanish into thin air right before Yang Hao's eyes...

She didn't want this! They had clearly agreed to live a peaceful life together, and they had clearly agreed to retire and settle down after the little queen returned! She didn't want to die here for such a trivial reason, and she certainly didn't want that bluish-haired, blue-eyed sparrow to grope her man after she died! She really didn't want to!

She looked around, caught in a dilemma: she couldn't return all the divine power, nor could she channel it into the forest behind her to harm Japaria, nor could she transfer it to her comrades on either side or to the ground beneath her feet.

She looked up at the deep black sky before dawn. This was the only way she could continue—to unleash her divine power towards the heavens.

Unconsciously, the prophecy that Finn had once told her suddenly flashed through her mind.

It seems that this November, the last princess of Bayern will send a signal to all her remaining subjects with a pillar of light reaching to the heavens... a signal to reclaim her kingdom...

No, that can't be right. It's the end of October... It can't possibly be true that the prophecy is coming true, can it?

Theresa raised her right hand towards the sky.

She did it simply to survive. She didn't harbor any intention of restoring her kingdom... It was all just a coincidence.

"It's just...a coincidence!"

Once again, a look of fear crossed her face. She was afraid of the prophecy, but even more afraid that she would die here.

Therefore, Mother Teresa gathered all her divine power in her hands and opened a channel to release it towards the sky.

At first, it was a thin white line.

Immediately following was a blazing flash of light.

Finally, what appeared was a gigantic white pillar visible to the naked eye from thousands of kilometers away. This magnificent white light captivated everyone, including the tower keeper and his descendants, who were moved to tears.

The divine power of the God of Light transformed back into the power of light. In the pure white holy light, Bishop Stephen's face was ashen.

"Impossible—! Impossible! How could a cricket heretic possibly convert the divine power of my Lord?!"

He acted hysterically like a dying old man, but before he could utter another curse in despair, the chilling magical aura emanating from the Demon Forest silenced him.

It's the elven archery master! The elf has regained his magic power, and he's charging and enchanting his arrows?!

The fear of death compelled Bishop Stephen to concentrate all his remaining divine power on his own half of the field. Not enough, not nearly enough!

After his divine power was seized by the heretics, Bishop Stephen's magical barrier was as fragile as a candle in the wind. Even removing the barrier at the rear couldn't guarantee his safety from the magical arrows. While ordering his troops to retreat desperately, he simply reinforced all the barriers on the sides to the front as well.

But that's not enough!

The elven master's arrow was aimed directly at Bishop Stephen's head! Even from hundreds of meters away, Bishop Stephen still felt unsafe!

Sweating profusely, he condensed the final barrier in front of him into a round shield the size of a plate. He controlled this shield, moving it around in front of him, and laughed maniacally, saying:

"Elves! Your enchantments are too obvious! You can't stop me from escaping back to the Holy City! Your longbows are outdated!"

Elven archery masters must perform a magical energy gathering process to carry out precise assassinations at extremely long distances. This is far too conspicuous for clergy and mages.

Just like a white halo suddenly appearing on a completely black blackboard—Bishop Stephen could tell which part of him the elven archery master was aiming at even with his eyes closed.

This is why Bishop Stephen failed to notice the archers lurking in the shadows who had not been gathering their magical energy.

They had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. They didn't fire when the Eagle Knights sacrificed themselves, they didn't fire when the passage was about to be breached, and they didn't fire when their allies launched their attack and the bishop cast his forbidden spell.

But now—

When the first rays of dawn rise from the east, when the white pillars that once stretched to the sky finally begin to thin out.

They found an opportunity.

boom--!

A gunshot rang out.

The bullet didn't target Bishop Stephen's head; instead, it flew towards the withered old man's genitals.

Bishop Stephen never dreamed that the elves would fire at his genitals. His condensed, disc-sized divine barrier moved about, paying no attention to his lower body.

The bullet shattered and tore apart his entire lower body without any doubt, and his body was thrown into the air by the impact in an instant.

The old man's final thought was:

The God of Light betrayed me.

Chapter Twelve: A Surprise Attack on the Demon City

Bishop Stephen's invasion plan failed completely. After being thrown into the air, he became a target for the elves to use various long-range attacks to vent their anger.

The result of this battle was that of the parish's 220,000-strong army, only less than 30,000 of the routed soldiers managed to escape back to the parish. On the Elven side, the losses included the Eagle Knights, a large number of demon axemen, and many young archers and some riflemen who had been urgently conscripted.

Overall, the losses were negligible compared to the casualties in the parish—but the elves were already a small population, and the demons were even smaller. Under these circumstances, the death of even one elf or one werewolf would be enough to make Yang Hao feel heartbroken for a long time, let alone more than one.

Now, the soldiers are clearing the corpses from the battlefield. To prevent a plague from spreading, and more importantly, to avoid the possibility that the Church of Light's "Corpse-Giving Divine Art" might bring chaos to this area, they have no choice but to smash the stone armor of the corpse soldiers, pull the corpses out of the stones, pile them together, and cremate them.

Yang Hao was exhausted, and Fen was too tired to care about her elegance anymore, so she sat down on the ground with Yang Hao.

Yang Hao reflected on why the battle was so difficult. Was it because the parish's trump card was too unexpected, or because his side focused too much on the development of firearms and artillery and did not prepare diversified equipment, or perhaps because he did not spend enough time on the reforms in Gaparia? Or perhaps it was a combination of all three?

While they had considered things like grenades and landmines, the former required expensive explosives that could only be produced by hand at this stage, while the latter was unnecessary for Gaparia's current needs: after all, landmines also required explosives, and Gaparia probably wouldn't be able to consider such things for a long time until the oak factory that produced explosives was "forced to mature" again.

As for the demons, did I make them do their best?

Although the demons were driven to the battlefield by their desire for revenge, they were not actually happy to have an army that had not undergone any disciplined training serving as frontline units.

After all, the essence of holding the line is simply "resistance." Even in the most perilous situations, Yang Hao demanded that these units withstand enemy attacks to create favorable conditions for the rear lines to inflict damage—but the demons ultimately succumbed to fear. If Theresa hadn't cast a Tranquility spell on them, they probably would have...

Furthermore, the Golem Grenade Launcher has shown its limitations at this stage. Against low-morale units like the Corpse Soldiers, the incendiary shells fired by the Golem Grenade Launcher are almost useless... We still need to work harder to solve the problem of the explosive mines exploding, and then produce some decent high-explosive shells.

On another note, during previous operations, we noticed the air power's weakness against the Griffin... We absolutely need to develop a carbine-type Japard rifle that can be used flexibly on the back of the eagle...

And then there's the matter of elves relying too much on magic to cast cyclical spells, to the point that I don't dare let them start unless it's absolutely necessary... Could we find a way to research and create "jars" for storing magic power? The Monster Forest, with its relatively abundant magic power, is already quite suitable for elven mages. But what if we ever have to fight a large-scale battle in a place like the Eastern Silver Mine Mountains, where there's almost magic residue everywhere? Wouldn't the elven mages be rendered useless?

......

The process of self-reflection left him feeling exhausted, and for a moment he really wanted to close his eyes and take a nap—but soon he saw the nun walking towards him with equally heavy steps.

His fatigue vanished instantly. He opened his arms to the nun, who simply rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm exhausted," the nun complained, plopping down on Yang Hao's lap. "My Lord never gives me an easy time. Since he gave me the ability to convert the power of the God of Light, why didn't he just give me the capacity to hold even more divine power? It's like giving you a straw to drink from but expecting you to drink an entire river dry—it's ridiculous..."

"Are you really okay physically?"

"No, how could there be no problem! Although I launched everything that couldn't be contained into the sky, as expected... sigh. I'm exhausted."

Everyone could see the nun's exhaustion, and everyone knew how much she had sacrificed for them in the end—but the elves were thinking more about the prophecy.

The prophecy of the Bayer Zion Empire has come true.

On November 1st, in this winter, the last princess released a pure white pillar of light into the sky, reclaiming the power of the God of Light and foreshadowing the resurgence of the Bayern Empire.

Finn pondered that he needed to make sure Gaparia was prepared. Besides, the envoy from Isgard should be arriving soon, and if the three kingdoms were all gathered together and the new bureaucratic system wasn't properly established, things could get very difficult...

But just as Finn was pondering some elven tactic of "taking the opportunity to distract Theresa with important matters so that he and Yang Hao could have more time alone," Yang Hao, who was holding Theresa in his arms, suddenly said: They must press their advantage and take advantage of the parish's morale collapse, the instability of the people, and even the gradual collapse of their faith to launch an attack on the parish, and it would be best if they could rescue the demons in the Demon City!

"Are you crazy?!"

Not only Finn, but Teresa was also completely taken aback.

But Yang Hao had the confidence and the objective conditions to realize this crazy idea—most importantly, as long as he could seize the opportunity, it would be a sure-fire way to make money!

As long as they spread the word about the existence of the undead... they don't even need to reach Saint Cecilia's ears, just spread the rumors around St. Petersburg.

The priest would immediately lock the city gates, just so that the saint wouldn't hear about the biggest scandal in the parish.

Not to mention, the biggest scandal of the Church of Light, besides its zombie soldiers, has also surfaced today.

The divine power that Teresa regained—if used for propaganda purposes, would completely shatter the centuries-old lie in the parish that "the God of Light is the only God of the concept of light." Even without a riot for the time being, it could cripple the parish.

Considering the wealth accumulated by the parish over the years, the funds needed for reforms in Gaparia, and the money required for trade with Issugard...

...OK.

There's never been a case where a counterattack in self-defense can't reach the enemy's capital—although we certainly can't penetrate your capital for now, wouldn't it be easy for us to take on the satellite cities on the outskirts of your capital?!

Yang Hao immediately devised a plan to attack the parish. Through his explanation, the two women understood the feasibility of the plan.

Fen said she would immediately send the young soldiers who were undergoing sustenance training in the rear, and if the demons were also willing, she would have them come and assemble as quickly as possible.

"However... transporting large amounts of wealth and demons will inevitably require teleportation—my mages will reform the existing elven teleportation spell. It won't take long."

Theresa was even more decisive.

She clung to Yang Hao triumphantly, posing as if asserting her dominance amidst Fen's jealous gaze:

"Wherever you go, I'll go! And to be honest, I'd be happy to show those heretics who the true 'Light' is."

"Yes. But never leave me, understand?"

Okay~

The nun kissed Yang Hao's lips affectionately, her right eye, which was turned towards Fen, was full of provocation, stimulating Fen's already jealous heart.

...........

In early November, when Bishop Stephen's defeated army and the remaining friars fled back to St. Petersburg, the bishops were like buildings that had not been built with foundations in an earthquake, swaying precariously.

Some bishops with poor mental fortitude turned pale, especially after hearing that Bishop Stephen had died a particularly tragic death. They seemed to imagine their own future death and nervously clutched their crosses in prayer.

Some with stronger mental fortitude were able to calmly inquire about the details of the scene: How exactly did Bishop Stephen die? What were the losses of the elves and demons? Were there any third-party forces involved? And so on...

The surviving knights of the Guardian Army lamented that the elves and demons had defeated them with strange weapons and tactics, and even the [Corpse-Giving Divine Art] that Bishop Stephen had painstakingly prepared could not break through the elves' defenses.

They said the elves' magic was simply too powerful. It wasn't that the believers weren't trying hard enough, but rather that the elves' magic was a miracle beyond human imagination—when it wasn't being used, everyone thought the elves were nothing special, but once it was unleashed, the entire battlefield situation was completely reversed.

They said the elves were far too ruthless. They would rather wait until they were on the verge of collapse before using their trump card than use it at the beginning.

They added at the end.