Goddess Kaleidoscope

Just as Canary III was about to fall into the woman's arms, a sinister smile of impending victory appeared on his face. But at that moment, a sharp gust of wind, like a blade cutting through the air, suddenly attacked from behind the woman.

To avoid the attack, the woman had to transform into a cloud of black mist to dodge the dark gold dagger coming from behind, but this also interrupted its soul-capturing spell.

Canary III staggered and fell to the ground, hitting his head on the floor. The impact hurt him, but he quickly regained his senses. He looked around blankly, but his deceased wife was nowhere to be seen. Then he saw his shadow guard, Byrne, who had been missing for several days, emerge from the shadows and ask him with concern.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?"

Barely dodging Bourne's surprise attack from behind, the black mist that the mysterious woman had transformed into let out a series of mournful howls. Although the attack hadn't struck a vital spot, the black blade was clearly no ordinary weapon; just passing through the black mist had caused it excruciating pain, as if it were being burned by flames.

Realizing she had run into a tough opponent, the mysterious woman didn't hesitate and turned to flee, only to crash into an invisible barrier, bounce back, and fall heavily to the ground.

When He groggily lifted His head from the ground, He saw a priest in white robes and a black-haired nun walk in. The two looked at the mysterious woman rolling on the ground, and the man calmly asked...

"Which subspace did you come from?"

"W-who are you?"

"A passing priest."

The priest who suddenly appeared was none other than Rude. With a wave of his hand, several chains of light shot out, binding the mysterious woman like a dumpling. Under the influence of the powerful divine force, the mysterious woman wailed and revealed her true form, transforming into a humanoid monster that was half-human and half-goat, possessing both male and female characteristics.

Because this thing's original form was so horrible that even Lud couldn't bear to look at it, he had to grab a sheet and throw it over it, covering the part below the neck that was hard to describe in words.

At this moment, Canary III also stood up with Burn's help. He had just been nearly charmed and was now suffering from a persistent headache due to the backlash from the forced interruption of a mental spell.

Canary III looked at the bound demons on the ground, then at Byrne and Rudd, and for a moment he was confused about what had happened.

"Lud, what exactly is going on?"

"It's obvious you were almost attacked, and I came here specifically to save you after receiving the news. It's that simple."

"help me?"

“Although you are the emperor of the empire, you are also Romian’s father. Moreover, if something goes wrong with you, things will become complicated.”

He casually pulled a vial of potion from his pocket and tossed it to Byrne, instructing him to give it to Canary III to help him recover from the backlash as quickly as possible. Then, Ludwig turned to look at the captured Otherworldly being; Shanis, who had accompanied him, was now squatting solemnly in front of him, seemingly deep in thought.

"Master, this thing... is pretty powerful!"

"???"

The bound demon was completely bewildered, thinking, "I'm already in this state, what's with you praising me? Are you mocking me?"

At this moment, Lude moved a stool over and sat down in front of the Otherworldly Demon, coldly looking at the fellow and asking.

"I'll give you one chance. Confess all your accomplices and swear a blood oath never to set foot in the Prime Material Plane again, and I'll allow you to return to the Warp alive. Otherwise, I'll..."

"I'll confess! I'll confess everything! As long as you let me go, I promise to tell you everything I know."

Before Lud could finish speaking, the Otherworldly Demon slid to its knees at lightning speed, surrendering so quickly that Lud couldn't even react.

Is this what a demon is? Well, it certainly is.

The captured demon called itself "Zaya," a succubus-type subdimensional creature. Unlike ordinary gods, these kinds of monstrous beings cannot draw power from the faith of mortals, but are often hired to work for evil gods, receiving divine power as payment. Their status is somewhat similar to that of divine messengers, but since they are not creations of gods, their loyalty is naturally not guaranteed.

The reason Rudd knew that Zaye was going to "attack" Canary III was thanks to the spies he had planted in the circle of evil gods.

When a group of evil gods visited the labyrinth, Lud used the alias "Hedtaka" to recruit several fans as his underlings, asking them to help him gather information about the "dark world."

As it turned out, these four really did help Lu De gather a lot of useful intelligence. Among them, the one that caught his attention the most was about a foot-washing organization called "Soul Eater Palace". There was enough evidence to show that the Oyster Harbor plague incident was actually caused by this organization.

At the same time that year, the Palace of Souls spread plague in many densely populated cities around the world. Except for Oyster Harbor, where the Pantheon intervened and successfully controlled the epidemic, the other cities were severely damaged by the epidemic. The most severely affected city even became a "ghost town" with no living people.

It is worth mentioning that the Soul Eater Palace is a very old organization, and it is said to have some connection with the Ratman Empire that was destroyed in the War of the Gods. The object of worship of its followers is not a named evil god, but the concept of "death" itself, and its followers are widely active all over the world.

When the Canary Empire invaded the Kingdom of Duran, the Soul Eater Palace, like a shark smelling blood, moved quickly and planned to use the same trick again to spread plague within the Kingdom of Duran. The armies of both countries inside and outside the Yordle Fortress were their main targets.

Having received the news in advance, Lud made arrangements immediately, having his hometown urgently allocate a batch of epidemic prevention supplies to the Yodl Fortress. At the same time, he wrote a letter to Nandin, who was in charge of the field medical team, asking him to do a good job in epidemic prevention. Finally, still worried, he personally rushed back from the capital.

Lud originally wanted to speak with Canary III in person, so he called on Byrne, who had been working for him for free recently, and planned to visit the Imperial Army camp at night. Unexpectedly, they happened to run into Zaye trying to control the Emperor, so they decisively took him down on the spot.

Facing Lude, whose strength far surpassed his own, Zaye revealed everything he knew. He had been summoned by the priests of the Soul Devouring Palace to use succubus magic to control important targets, thereby assisting the Soul Devouring Palace in achieving its goals.

He had already successfully captured the envoy of the Cult of War, using the envoy's own thoughts to induce him to advise King Canary III to poison Yordle Fortress. The reason for using the envoy was that the Palace of Souls did not want to expose itself, so it shifted the blame to the Cult of War.

Foot-washing groups like theirs dare not pursue fame like ordinary religions, for fear of becoming a target of public criticism and attracting the wrath of major religious sects if exposed.

Therefore, although the Soul Devouring Palace is quite powerful and has very aggressive goals, it operates in a very low-key manner. In addition, the organization has a good habit that it has cultivated over the years: "wearing disguises".

The Soul Devouring Palace has established many "subordinate organizations" around the world. When it comes to causing trouble, it uses these aliases to hide itself behind the scenes.

The reason they were exposed this time was because they ran into Lud, who also liked to use disguises. After all, most people would never guess that the mysterious and unpredictable great demon Hedtaka was the same person as Lud, the renowned saint of the Pantheon!

After recounting everything he knew, Rudd kept his promise and spared the life of the Otherworldly Zaye, allowing Shanis to personally "send" him back to the Warp.

Most subspace creatures are energy-based beings without physical bodies, and are repelled by the superplane. Therefore, in order to move freely in the superplane, these stowaways often need to construct an additional physical shell, which is jokingly referred to as a "suit".

Therefore, the method to send Zaye back to the subspace is very simple: just destroy the suits, and they will be automatically kicked out by the rejection reaction of the prime plane.

As if by magic, Shanis pulled out a large iron hammer from behind her back, swung it, and smashed it down on Zaye's head with a loud bang, creating a colorful explosion.

“Master, He passed away peacefully.”

"Hmm, well done. Process the rest as well."

"Oh."

Under the bewildered gaze of Canary III, Shanes carried a large iron hammer in one hand and dragged the headless corpse away with the other. Only then did he realize that it was unusually quiet outside the tent, and the royal guards standing at the entrance did not react at all, presumably having been "taken care of."

Regardless, Rudd saved his life, and Rudd was also his daughter's mentor. Even though they were enemies, Canary III owed Rudd more than once.

"Thank you, Master."

"No need to thank me. That demon wants to control you because its employer doesn't want to see the war end, so it wants to prevent you from withdrawing your troops. Naturally, I can't just sit by and watch those guys succeed."

"Unexpectedly, this war has attracted the attention of an evil god."

"Hehe, you'd better not let the people of the War God Cult hear you say that, or they'll definitely think you're implying something."

Seeing that Canary III was out of danger and that he had other important matters to attend to, Rudd was about to leave when Canary III quickly called out to him. Rudd, seeing his hesitant expression, immediately understood what he was thinking.

"The child is doing well now, but I can't let you see her yet."

“I understand all of that. Given my current status, if I suddenly appear in front of her, it will only bother her, and I am too ashamed to see the child. But I really miss her, so could you... could you let me see her from afar? Please, Master.”

"...I'll arrange it for you, wait for my message."

"Thank you."

After Canary III finished speaking, he bowed deeply. Rudd looked at this man who was so humble in front of him that he didn't seem like an emperor at all, and could only sigh in his heart before silently turning away.

In the following days, everything seemed "calm and peaceful." Many matters that were inconvenient to discuss openly were resolved in secret. Ironically, the most heated argument came from the headquarters of the Cult of the God of War, thousands of miles away. Several purple-robed bishops, armed with evidence obtained from unknown sources, demanded the impeachment of the current Supreme High Priest.

The reasons for the impeachment sounded very intriguing. The gist of it was that the High Priest, who came from a noble family in Canary Islands, abused his power for personal gain, misinterpreted the divine oracle sent down by the God of War, colluded with the Empire, and betrayed his faith in the God of War, which incurred the wrath of the gods.

This explanation is clearly an attempt to shift blame, and any intelligent person would understand that the Cult of War is trying to exonerate itself. Remember when the Supreme High Priest declared his full support for the Empire? The twelve purple-robed bishops below erupted in applause, shouting "Your Excellency is wise!"

In any case, this at least gave the believers a barely acceptable explanation, thus preventing a large-scale collapse of faith.

Not long after, the High Priest resigned, publicly accepted the flogging before the Colossus of War in Aegis City, and voluntarily went to the Tower of Repentance, a place specifically for imprisoning criminal priests, where he would spend the rest of his life.

In a sense, the Supreme High Priest took all the blame, but also preserved the last vestige of dignity for the Cult of War.

The Holy Church of Light stopped kicking them while they were down and instead changed its tune to speak in favor of the Church of War. Pope Saint Leonid even made a special trip to the City of Aegis to attend the coronation ceremony of the new High Priest.

The leaders of the two religions shook hands warmly in front of hundreds of thousands of believers, each with a warm and radiant smile on their face. As for what they were really thinking, that was something that ordinary people could not understand.

Meanwhile, the main Imperial forces continued their southward retreat, successfully joining up with the remnants of the Second Army. The Duran army, responsible for encircling the Second Army, voluntarily yielded a path, and both sides exercised maximum restraint.

When the main force soldiers saw the Second Legion again, they could hardly believe that these emaciated men, who looked like famine refugees, were soldiers of the Imperial Legion just like themselves.

Because Duran needed leverage at the negotiating table, he besieged the Second Army Corps without attacking, trapping them in a small town for a full month. The original force of nearly 20,000 men was reduced to less than 3,000 by the time they joined the main force, with more than 2,000 of them being taken prisoner by the Durans.

After rescuing these remaining soldiers, the main force continued to retreat south. Several thousand meters behind them, a Duran cavalry unit followed them at a distance, escorting them "politely" out of the country before stopping.

After the Imperial Legion completely withdrew to its own borders, Duran sent a delegation, and the two sides finalized a ceasefire agreement that was barely acceptable to each other in just one day.

According to this ceasefire agreement, the two countries would treat the war as if it had never happened. The Empire's troops would completely withdraw from the Durand territory, and the Empire promised not to invade again for the next ten years. The Durands would not have to cede an inch of land, but they would not be allowed to demand a single copper coin in war reparations from the Canary Islands.

In terms of this agreement, the Durans were actually at a disadvantage. Their rich land south of the Central Mountains was almost completely destroyed by the invading Imperial army, resulting in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and the displacement of millions of people. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a blood feud.

On the other hand, although the Empire also suffered considerable losses, its main force remained intact, and the losses suffered domestically were negligible compared to its enormous size.

Therefore, King Duran had no choice but to endure it, because the kingdom was really on the verge of collapse. After all, the Empire had only "not won" this battle, while the Duran had barely "survived".

In addition, it is already the end of April, and the spring planting season is almost halfway over. The southern plains, which have been affected by the war, are the kingdom's main grain-producing area, accounting for more than 70% of the country's grain output. If the war cannot be ended as soon as possible and farmers are not allowed to start planting, many people will definitely starve to death by the end of winter!

The signing of the ceasefire agreement between the two countries was held on a relatively open area on the border. The Holy Church of Light and the Church of War jointly acted as witnesses, and the monarchs of both countries and many important figures were also present.

At the ceremony, the Pope and the newly appointed High Priest were present. On the Empire's side, Canary III was accompanied by Marshal Jagger and three legion commanders, while on the Kingdom's side, King Durand and the heroes of this battle were present.

On the Kingdom's side, Lud was also in the crowd, but he was positioned at the back, accompanied by two beautiful female disciples.

Unlike the composed Shanis beside her, Romian appeared somewhat reserved. It was her first time attending such a formal occasion, and everyone around her was an important figure. Due to her childhood experiences, Romian harbored an inferiority complex about her demi-human bloodline and was afraid of embarrassing her master here.

Seeing his apprentice's unease, Lude smiled and whispered words of comfort.

"Don't be so nervous. You are my disciple, Lud, and a full priest of the Pantheon. No one here dares to look down on you. Hold your head high, stand tall, and be confident."

"Okay, Master."

Hearing Lud's encouragement, Romian took a deep breath and tried to cheer herself up.

Meanwhile, not far from her, a man closely related to her by blood was silently watching her. Seeing that Romian had grown into a graceful young woman, with a resemblance to her mother in her features, Canary III was filled with mixed emotions—joy and guilt. He desperately wanted to reunite with her as father, but dared not let his expression reveal even the slightest hint of his feelings.

Before attending the ceremony, Ludwig had sent Byrne to deliver a message to him, saying that he would bring Romian to the scene. Canary III was excited but also a little scared, so he wore the full set of imperial armor and covered most of his face with the helmet, because he felt that he owed his daughter a lot because of his involvement in Liana's death.

To the delight of Canary III, his daughter is doing very well under the protection and guidance of Rudd.

He had learned a great deal about Romian’s experiences over the past few years through Byrne, and knew that his daughter had become a priestess. Her status as a “disciple of the saint” had made her somewhat famous in the northern border of the kingdom and deeply respected by the people, which was absolutely impossible in the empire where racial discrimination was severe.

Incidentally, Byrne, who was originally a royal shadow guard, has now been recruited by Ludwig and is now working for him, also serving as a secret messenger between Ludwig and Canary III, relaying messages for Ludwig.

At the square table in the center of the venue, Canary III and King Durand stood facing each other, with the Pope of the Church of Light and the High Priest of the Church of War on their left and right respectively. This was the first time the two monarchs had met face to face.

Previously, the two sides only exchanged letters on the battlefield. Because King Duran rarely wrote many clean words on his letters, and because Canary III could occasionally see him beheading people from a great distance, he once thought that the other side would be a crude and hairy barbarian.

When they actually met him, they found that he had a gentle, baby-faced appearance, the typical look of an "honest person".

Canary III intended to say a few polite words, but before he could even open his mouth, King Durand neatly signed both copies of the armistice agreement, then turned and left without a word, leaving Canary III standing there.

Seeing King Durand's attitude, Canary III could not say anything more, silently signed the document, and then handed the agreement to the two religious leaders present for confirmation.