Goddess Kaleidoscope

"Big sister, this must be a transmigration, right? Hey! It looks like he's trying to run away!"

"Run? Dream on!"

Looking at the approaching Mare in the distance, Atropos, the eldest sister, gave a disdainful sneer. She had dared to accept this mission from Venerable Rud, naturally because she was fully prepared. Once the enemy entered their ambush, not a single hair on their head would escape.

Because of the distance, Mare couldn't figure out where the attack was coming from, so he wisely chose to run away immediately and get out of this hellish place first. Mare first dove to the ground, trying to use the surrounding mountains to provide cover for himself, but he soon discovered that the enemy had laid a trap, and there were many ambushes hidden in the forest directly below him.

Suddenly, some metal constructs with shapes never seen before appeared in the dense pine forest, controlled by small, three-headed, doll-like creatures. Mare was astonished to discover that those seemingly adorable creatures, each with a green metal helmet on its head, were actually divine messengers.

Mare was not a time traveler from Earth, so he didn't know that those metal constructs that had already targeted him were called "anti-aircraft guns"!

There were a total of twelve anti-aircraft gun teams, all operated by the working-type divine messengers of the three sisters' faction. Although these adorable little creatures were individually weaker than mortals in combat, capable of being kicked far away with a single kick, they had no problem operating the anti-aircraft guns.

The twelve anti-aircraft guns opened fire simultaneously, spraying magical ammunition at Mare like water. The dense crossfire left him nowhere to hide, and he was riddled with holes in an instant before falling to the ground in black smoke, crashing with a "thud" onto a large rock.

Seeing the target remain motionless after landing, Alves led a squad of Heroic Spirits forward to check. After confirming that the target was still alive, she fired a signal into the air. Atropos, seeing the signal, breathed a sigh of relief, while her second sister, Clotho, asked with some concern.

"Big sister, we've defeated the God of War's messenger, surely that shouldn't attract the God of War himself, right?"

Kroto's worries were not unfounded; the gods could sense the death or serious injury of their divine messengers. If the God of War, Feigolai, were to personally descend to the mortal realm to attack them, even if the entire Pantheon concentrated all its divine power, it would be no match for this veteran god.

Atropos had actually had similar concerns before, so before the ambush began, she specifically talked to Lud and received some "insider information" from Lud that surprised her quite a bit.

"At least until the war is over, the God of War cannot leave his divine realm, and neither can those powerful high-ranking divine messengers."

"why?"

"Because they are entertaining a distinguished guest."

"Distinguished guest? Who is it?"

"The Holy Lord Carius of Light".

Lude had to admit that the Holy Church of Light's support was so powerful that even he was somewhat surprised. He had thought it was just verbal support, some encouragement and cheering, but it turned out they were really going to step in when needed—the Holy Lord of Light, one of the three great gods, had actually come in person! They said they were going to visit the God of War, but it was really just to block his door.

Among all the gods, perhaps only Karius has the power to force the volatile God of War to calm down.

However, this wave of reinforcements was not indefinite. The envoy who came to deliver the message to Lud told him that it would only delay the war for a maximum of half a month. The Pantheon had to find a way to bring the war to a conclusion within these fifteen days.

The current war, from its inception to the present, has expanded from one main battlefield to three that are now far apart from each other.

One battlefield was at the Yordle Fortress, where three legions of the Imperial Army's main force faced off against the main force of the Kingdom's army, personally led by King Duran. The two sides were roughly equal in strength, with the Imperial legions being more powerful, but the Kingdom had a fortified fortress to defend it.

The two sides fought for many days. Although the Empire had a certain advantage, the fortress was still firmly in the hands of the Duran army, and the Empire did not make any substantial progress for the time being.

The second battlefield was near Yanmu City in the south of the kingdom, where the Northern Alliance and the Imperial Second Army Corps were locked in combat. However, the tide of battle had turned, and the remaining 10,000-plus men of the Second Army Corps were like salted fish lying on a chopping board. Lud was in no hurry to devour them; instead, he divided his forces to deal with the Duran traitors who had defected earlier.

The third battlefield was within the Empire, specifically the Rodriguez cavalry regiment besieged in Blackrock Town. Their situation appeared dire at first glance, with the enemy's forces outnumbering their own by nearly 30 to 1, and Blackrock Town's terrain being far from treacherous, giving the impression that they could be wiped out at any moment.

However, the reality was that the imperial army besieging them launched several fierce attacks, each ending in failure. The commander of the Fifth Army Corps, who was in charge of command, was frustrated to find that he had to use the lives of his soldiers as expendable resources for trial and error in order to figure out the enemy's attack methods.

The two consecutive days of attacks were undoubtedly a tragic nightmare for the Imperial soldiers. The enemy used a ranged weapon they had never seen before to shatter the Imperial's proud infantry formations. In the first few attacks, they couldn't even get within range of the arrows before being routed.

Therefore, the Fifth Army Corps had to improve its old tactics on the spot, spreading out the originally dense formation and trying to have the soldiers charge in a dispersed formation first, and then regroup when they got close to the enemy.

However, it turned out that this tactic was purely wishful thinking. Even the most well-trained soldiers of the Fifth Army Corps could not carry out the kind of tactical maneuvers that these commanders came up with on a whim. After all, the enemy would not just stand by and watch them regroup in front of them.

After two days of fighting, the Imperial side suffered over five thousand casualties, with some soldiers hit by mortars not even leaving behind intact bodies. In addition to physical injuries, many soldiers also developed psychological problems, beginning to suffer from PTSD related to the roar of the cannons.

The successive defeats made the commander of the Fifth Army Corps begin to doubt his life. The battle had reached this point, and the emperor even sent him an imperial edict by air, instructing him to "show mercy" and not to annihilate the enemy.

The commander of the Fifth Army Corps understood that if they launched a relentless attack, with a 30-fold numerical advantage, they were fully capable of breaking through the Duran's lines, but the casualties would inevitably be extremely heavy. Moreover, the enemy was highly likely to attempt a breakout in the final stage, at which point even if they recaptured Blackstone Town, it would be meaningless without capturing the enemy's commander.

With no other option, the commander of the Fifth Army Corps could only surround the town without attacking, ordering his soldiers to frantically dig trenches around Blackstone Town. The original intention was to use them as horse traps, but they later discovered that these trenches could effectively protect them from artillery fire. So, without orders from their superiors, the soldiers dug the trenches to a depth of more than a meter on their own, essentially learning the art of trenching by enduring bombing.

The two armies stared at each other across the ditch, and several more days passed in the blink of an eye. Rodriguez counted the days on his fingers. Lud had told him to hold out for at least six days, and now it was already the sixth day, but there was still no sign of reinforcements.

Fortunately, the cavalry's morale remained high, and Rodriguez believed that Lud would not betray him, so although he was anxious, he did not waver.

Meanwhile, on the Fifth Army Corps side, the Fifth Army Corps Commander, who was constantly stressed, had not been having a good time these past few days. Every time he opened his eyes, the first thing he thought of was Blackstone Town, which he had been attacking for a long time but could not take down, and he felt a sense of frustration that made him want to quit.

As usual, the corps commander convened a meeting of his officers to discuss how to effectively counter the enemy's new long-range attack tactics. At that moment, a messenger suddenly ran in and delivered a letter with a red-covered envelope to the commander of the Fifth Corps.

The corps commander's expression changed immediately upon seeing the color of the envelope. He quickly crushed the envelope, took out the letter, and nearly fainted on the spot.

Upon seeing this, the other officers rushed forward to help their commander up. After finally managing to wake him, the corps commander jumped high and loudly gave orders to his subordinates.

"Quickly! Pass down the order: the entire army shall set out immediately and return to the capital as quickly as possible!"

"General, weren't we supposed to surround and kill those Duran cavalrymen who occupied Blackrock Town? Why are we suddenly retreating?"

"Forget about those Duran people, if we don't hurry back, the capital will be gone!"

"Huh!?" xN

He tossed the urgent secret letter to a few of his men, and the commander of the Fifth Army Corps rushed out as if his backside was on fire. The other officers picked it up and their expressions changed as well.

Just last night, a mysterious army of unknown origin launched a surprise attack on the capital city located in the heart of the empire. The enemy force was conservatively estimated to be seven or eight thousand men. They landed by boat at the inland river dock on the southern outskirts of the capital and then launched a lightning-fast attack on the city. The defending army was caught off guard and lost the south gate, allowing the enemy to advance unimpeded into the city.

The city guards of the capital probably never dreamed that this ancient capital, which had never been affected by war even during the War of Gods, would be attacked at the very height of the empire's power.

Meanwhile, most of the Fifth Army Corps, which was originally responsible for protecting the capital, had been led out by its commander to encircle and annihilate the Duran Cavalry Regiment, leaving the capital's defenses in an unprecedentedly weak period.

Although the two thousand-man squads left behind managed to protect the palace, they were unable to stop the enemy from entering the city. This city, which had a population of nearly one million and was the most powerful in the world, was captured by an enemy force of less than ten thousand men through a surprise attack. It was so easy that both sides found it unbelievable!

Soon, the cavalry regiment guarding Blackrock Town noticed that the Imperial soldiers on the outskirts, who looked like groundhogs, suddenly made a big move. They instinctively thought that the Imperial soldiers were going to attack the city again, so the whole army quickly went into battle mode. But after waiting for a long time, the other side became quieter and quieter.

At this moment, the giant dragon that had been circling in the sky descended, found Rodriguez who was guarding the city wall, and reported the sights it had just seen from the air.

"The enemy has retreated!?"

Rewind to a dozen hours earlier, in the capital of the Canary Empire, some parts of the city were still awake all night, but the river bend port on the outskirts was quiet and still.

A thick fog blanketed the wide river. The sentry on guard was drowsy and before he could notice the unusual sound of waves rapidly approaching the port, a pair of large hands attacked from behind and snapped his neck.

The imperial capital, which has never been affected by war for over a thousand years since its founding, is destined to hand over its precious first time tonight in front of nearly a million Canary Islands people!

Dozens of sailing ships flying imperial flags, carrying eight thousand Duran soldiers, stormed into the river bend harbor. The fully armed Duke Kruder leaped from his bed, looked at the imperial land beneath his feet with disbelief, and turned to the white-robed priest accompanying him.

“Master, I never dreamed that one day I would be able to lead an army to the heart of the imperialists.”

"Not only did you not expect this, but the Imperials did too. However, now is not the time to be complacent, Your Grace. I need you to command the main force to accelerate the landing here. I need to lead the assault team to seize the city gate before the Imperials can react."

"May the gods bless you, Master."

"Yes, the gods are always with me."

In just over ten minutes, the first five hundred elite soldiers and their warhorses all landed on land. Then, the men and their mounts drank the "Blood Bull Potion" produced by the Pantheon on the spot, and followed Lud, full of energy, towards the capital, which was unaware of the impending enemy attack.

It was only then that the locals finally realized something was wrong, and the first person to arrive at the scene to check the situation was the port tax officer.

The old man lived very close to the dock. He was half asleep when he vaguely heard noises outside. He was instantly awakened, put on his clothes, and rushed out.

The reason the old man was so vigilant was because his job was to collect taxes from all the ships that docked.

In the past, there had been many cases of cargo ships secretly docking at the port in the middle of the night to unload cargo in an attempt to evade taxes. Therefore, as soon as he heard the sound of a ship docking at the port, his first reaction was that someone dared not pay him.

When this guy gathered a few guards and rushed to the dock, the scene before them completely terrified them.

"Wow! Are smuggling operations really this outrageous these days?"

Before these unlucky guys could even react to what was happening, they were pinned to the ground by the ferocious Durant soldiers.

On the other side, Lu De personally led five hundred elite soldiers, openly armed and marching along the main road towards the capital. The towering city walls of the capital could already be seen from afar.

Lud had been preparing for this surprise attack for a long time. After all, it involved the mobilization of 8,000 troops, and to avoid the eyes and ears of the imperial spies, they had to be transferred in batches.

Therefore, during the siege of the Second Army Corps, Lu Deming openly surrounded the enemy without attacking, and sent men to wipe out the local nobles who had betrayed the country and surrendered to the enemy. He secretly took advantage of the opportunity of troop movement to transfer the elite forces of the Allied Army to the coastal area, where Viscount Maup's fleet had been waiting for a long time.

Although the Empire's spies had noticed some clues that the Northern Alliance was secretly moving its troops, they could never have imagined that Lud would go to such lengths, taking a sea route two or three thousand miles to directly attack the Imperial capital.

It's worth mentioning that, in order to increase speed after setting off, the fleet had the accompanying mages use wind magic to blow up the sails and water magic to create fog to cover the fleet. Thanks to the tireless efforts of more than two hundred mages, the troop transport fleet successfully reached its destination in just six days.

But the mages were all exhausted, and some even suffered from potion poisoning due to overdosing on magic potions.

Of these 8,000 men, 5,000 were from the Northern Alliance, and the other 3,000 were the remaining elite forces under Krud of Flamewood City. Among them was Masi, a former elder of the Black Hand Brotherhood and a member of the Beast Mercenary Group. This burly man with half-orc blood was now the vice-commander of the knights under Duke Krud.

In order to ensure that the Allied Forces could successfully capture the city gate, in addition to the 500-strong assault team personally led by Lud, the Black Hand Brotherhood, which had been incorporated into Lud's ranks and renamed "Brotherhood Pictures," also helped by mobilizing its intelligence personnel in the Empire to cooperate with the Allied Forces from within and without.

When the assault team arrived at the south gate, the massive and heavy main gate was slowly opening. Looking up, Ludwig could see people waving torches and sending signals down from the towering gate tower.

Massy, ​​who was standing next to Ludwig, watched for a while and realized it was a riddle from the Black Hand Brotherhood, meaning "it's done."

"Enter the city! Quickly!"

The 500-man commando team quickly entered the city, and along the way, they could see city gate guards lying dead, poisoned and scattered everywhere. Although it was cruel, this was war. Compared to the Duran villages that were brutally massacred by the Imperial Legion for resisting the invasion, poisoning was a relatively easy way to die.

After entering the city gate, Lud led three hundred men to dismount and occupy key points in the barbican to hold out for reinforcements, ensuring that the Imperial army would not be able to retake the city gate before the main force arrived. The other two hundred men split into four groups and rushed into the city to deliberately create chaos and confuse the enemy.

Climbing to the top of the barbican, Lud overlooked the entire imperial capital, a vast and bustling city that remained brightly lit even in the dead of night.

Lud then looked east and could see a huge palace complex situated on a high ground, which must be the royal palace.

This reminded Rude of Canary III, the emperor of an enemy country who was the biological father of his own disciple.

If this guy were a scumbag who heartlessly abandoned his wife for wealth and status, then so be it, and we wouldn't have to be soft on him. But based on the information we have so far, he is also a pitiful person who has been deceived and has never had any intention of harming his wife and daughter.

The real "mastermind" was the Imperial Chancellor Goethe, a pure old Canary nobleman and a thorough racist. Although he was loyal to the royal family, it was this very "loyalty" that made him unable to accept the emperor marrying a lowly demi-human.

In the eyes of such people, his actions of sending assassins to kill Leanna and her daughter, and even going so far as to massacre the village to destroy evidence, were all done with good intentions. He was like an elder who did everything for the good of the emperor, and Canary III would surely understand and be grateful to him in the future.

For an old man with his own set of unshakable values, Lu De was determined to personally visit him in person and confront him directly, having traveled all the way to the capital.

"The show is about to begin!"

Lud was shocked by the level of security in the Canary Islands capital. If the 500-strong commando team had initially seized the city gates by surprise attack because of an inside help who poisoned the guards, then it was really hard to believe that a full 30 minutes had passed since they occupied the south gate and not a single Imperial soldier had come to check on the situation.

"This reaction speed is ridiculously slow!"

On the inner wall of the barbican, Ma Xi leaned on his broadsword, his gaze filled with doubt as he looked into the city. He had assumed that once the barbican was captured, the Imperial City Guard would immediately organize a desperate counterattack, and the assault team would inevitably face a fierce battle.

As a result, everyone waited in vain, only to see flames rising one after another in the city, the work of those cavalry raiding squads.

In the eyes of Masi and his men, the capital was, after all, under the emperor's nose, but the local city guards' reaction speed was surprisingly slow. This was mainly because Masi and his mercenaries were border troops, who operated in the border area between the two countries year-round, and were therefore extremely vigilant.

But the capital city is different. It is the central heartland of the empire. The daily work of the city guards is to stand guard and occasionally catch thieves. Most of them never thought that there would be a day when the emperor's capital would be invaded by a large-scale enemy army, so when the time came, they had no idea what to do.

The garrison's combat effectiveness and vigilance were decent; as soon as the commotion broke out in the city, the commander urgently assembled the troops. However, the main force of the Fifth Army Corps was still more than a thousand miles away in Blackstone Town. The two thousand-man squads left behind, not knowing exactly how many enemy troops were attacking, could only reinforce the palace as soon as possible to ensure the safety of the royal family members.

At this moment, in the western part of the inner city, a concentrated residential area for the emperor's nobles and wealthy, the residence of Chancellor Thomas Goethe was located in the central part of the western district. This most important minister of the empire, second only to the emperor, was standing on the rooftop balcony in his pajamas, his brow furrowed as he watched the escalating unrest in the city.

At this moment, the mansion's steward rushed over to report the intelligence they had gathered to his master.