Goddess Kaleidoscope

Fortunately, Nidhogg and Tawawa ignored the adventurers. Following Ludwig's script, the couple made a brief appearance before them and then turned to leave, continuing to maintain their mystique as "Guardians."

"Human, our race will abide by the ancient covenant and continue to guard the seal on this land, but you'd better remind your fellow tribesmen not to keep disturbing our lives."

“I will keep that in mind, you two guardians.”

After the two giant dragons finished their performance, they flew away with serious expressions. Although the humans present were completely confused, they all felt a sense of awe and wonder.

"Your Excellency, those two giant dragons are..."

"Don't ask too many questions, child. Curiosity should be kept in check."

"Uh……"

Seeing that Lude was being mysterious and refusing to answer, the adventurers present looked at each other in bewilderment. However, considering the current situation, they rationally suppressed their curiosity for the time being.

After a quick cleanup of the battlefield, aside from a few dead, the remaining wounded, regardless of their severity, recovered rapidly thanks to the recovery medicine that Lude had distributed beforehand. The group was impressed by the medicine's remarkable efficacy and consequently developed faith in the god of medicine that Lude worshipped.

Carrying the bodies of the victims, the group prepared to leave the underground city.

On their way back, the group unexpectedly encountered Hume while passing through a passageway. He appeared to be seriously injured; his abdomen, which he was clutching, was soaked in blood, and his face was as pale as paper.

Seeing this, Luther quickly took out the medicine and personally fed it to Hume.

"Thank you... Your Highness... I almost..."

"Shh, don't talk. You're very weak right now. Let's get out of here first."

Hume nodded, and Shanes, who was standing nearby, offered to carry her on her back. When no one was looking, Hume quietly gave Ludd an "OK" sign.

Following the winding stairs, the group quickly returned to the ground. By then, it was already bright outside, and they successfully reunited with the others who were waiting there.

Since Narad had been killed in action, and the other two priests of the Cult of War were not enough to command respect, Lud became the new leader of the Special Forces.

The group counted their numbers again. Before setting off, the special operations team consisted of 153 people, with 37 killed and 59 missing. Among the missing, some were likely already dead but their bodies had not yet been found, while others had simply fled after the team was scattered by the giant snake and never returned.

Considering that the main force of the lizardmen had only been lured away and was likely to return, Lud decided to leave as quickly as possible.

After the group evacuated the ancient city, the main force returned directly to Pine Village, while several agile adventurers were sent to contact the main force responsible for drawing the lizardmen's attention. They had been advancing slowly and aggressively as planned, and it was unclear whether they had even engaged the main lizardmen force.

On the way back to the city, everyone worked non-stop and returned to Songshu Village smoothly in just nine days.

When the villagers first saw that out of thousands of them had gone to war, only fifty or so had returned alive, and almost half of their horses were covered with corpses, they assumed that they had encountered some misfortune in the forest and that only these few remained.

Some village women whose sons served as militia members in the self-defense force burst into tears on the spot, almost fainting.

Fortunately, Lud quickly explained that the situation was not as they thought. They had simply split into two groups according to Priest Narad's plan, and the main force was still behind them and would probably not return for several days. The villagers' emotions then calmed down a bit.

Five days after Lud's return, the main force finally returned, but it seemed they had been through a fierce battle, with nearly a quarter of the nearly 800 men gone. However, the Pine Village Self-Defense Force was mostly intact; the dead were mainly adventurers and the refugees who had been there to make up the numbers.

Ron, who was leading the team, excitedly reported to Lud as soon as he returned that they had encountered a night attack by several thousand lizardmen in the forest (exaggeration). Fortunately, their vigilante group remembered their previous training and quickly formed an "invincible square formation" to fight back. They killed the lizardmen, who were routed and lost at least half of them (again, exaggeration), while they themselves lost less than ten men!

After listening, Ludd smiled and nodded, praising Ron a few times. He thought to himself that the "Roman phalanx" that Hume had taught them had indeed come in handy at a crucial moment.

Lude estimated that the actual situation that night was likely a sneak attack by over a thousand lizardmen against seven or eight hundred unprepared humans. Ron's three hundred militiamen, following their usual training, formed a hedgehog formation with spears and shields.

Since the lizardmen couldn't deal with them for the time being, they naturally turned their attention to the more easily dealt with adventurers and refugees.

Both sides suffered losses in this battle, with the exchange ratio likely close to one to one, and the lizardmen even gained a slight advantage. However, they failed to defeat the main force of the human side. Meanwhile, the special forces on the other side had already taken the opportunity to steal the lizardmen's home base, so the final victory was undoubtedly human.

However, they did not achieve this victory without paying a price!

Although the Grayscale Lizardmen suffered heavy losses in this "village-level war" in the border region, they were not completely wiped out. They will definitely lie low for a while afterward and may take revenge on humans in the future.

On the human side, the greatest loss was undoubtedly Narad, a high-ranking priest of the Cult of War. When the knight captain and priest on the main force learned that their superior had died in the battle to exterminate the cricket lizardmen, their first reaction was disbelief. They then suspected that the heretical priest named Rud had sabotaged Narad behind the scenes.

However, their speculation was immediately opposed by Eru and Manan, among others who had experienced the battle firsthand. They found no evidence that Lud had sabotaged the operation; in fact, he had contributed significantly to the battle, saving the lives of many of them.

What truly led to Narad's death was the failure of their initial reconnaissance; they were unaware of the existence of that terrifying giant serpent.

What moved them even more was that shortly after their return, Lud personally attended the vigil for the victims and wrote a heartfelt eulogy for Narad, which truly saddened all who heard it and brought tears to their eyes.

However, the people from other worlds did not know that this was exactly how Zhuge Liang from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms on Earth mourned Zhou Dudu!

End of this chapter

On the third day after the Valiant Army returned, a noble army of several hundred men suddenly arrived at Pine Village. They carried the banner of Earl Ramli's territory, but it was clear that there was also a whole squad of War God's Guardian Knights in the ranks.

The two leading figures were a familiar face to Lud, Jegan, the vice-commander of the Silver Wing Knights who had once assisted the great mage Hamilton in stealing dragon eggs, and a middle-aged priest dressed in a pale gold priest's robe and a tall horned hat, the latter's attire being the standard attire of a bishop of a branch of the Church of War.

Just like the police in many old-fashioned movies and TV dramas, the nobleman's army was also late to the party. By the time these few hundred men rushed to the scene, the whole incident had already been settled and could be declared over, and even Narad's "seventh day after his death" had passed.

Therefore, upon learning that he was a full month late, and that the problem was solved by the locals themselves, Captain Jegan immediately felt extremely embarrassed and cast an angry glare at the War God Church bishop who had come with him.

It was only later that Lud learned from other sources that the letter he had secretly sent to Earl Ramli’s territory for help had encountered a problem in the last ten meters before reaching the Earl’s desk.

As one of the top three most powerful feudal nobles in the Kingdom of Duran, Earl Ramli naturally has a branch of the Church of War within his territory, and it enjoys the status of a sub-district. He has established multiple temples in various places, and the temple in the capital city of Wolfhelm even has a bishop residing there.

However, while the sects and lords maintained a facade of harmony, the bishop knew perfectly well that the count actually disliked them. This fellow was the current king's most trusted confidant, and the two of them played the same game—religious balance.

Besides the forces of the Cult of War, Wolfhelm City also houses the Goddess of the Four Seasons, the Holy Church of Light, and several small and medium-sized sects, with temples of all sizes filling an entire street.

The count intended for them to check and balance each other, preventing any one of them from becoming too powerful in the area, while he himself profited from the situation.

Therefore, given this superficial harmony between the two sides, the Cult of War, besides its overt attempts to win them over, naturally resorted to underhanded tactics. Through their relentless "efforts," a secretary in the Earl's mansion was lured into joining the cult and secretly passed on information to the bishop who had personally baptized him.

This time, the secretary went even further, deliberately placing the letter from Pine Village pleading for help among insignificant official documents and burying it at the very bottom of the pile. Therefore, by the time the Earl learned that the settlers on the northern border might be in trouble, the best opportunity to provide assistance had completely passed.

After the incident, the Earl was furious and keenly realized that there must be a traitor in his residence. After a brief investigation, he found out the secretary who had secretly joined the church.

Considering the immense power of the Cult of War, and knowing that his family couldn't afford to completely break ties with them, the Earl didn't directly confront the secretary. Instead, he dismissed the secretary and had him deliver the letter of appeal from Pine Village to the local bishop of the Cult of War, thus expressing his dissatisfaction.

It's important to understand that the Earl's concern for the northern border stems not only from his sense of justice and responsibility as a nobleman, but also from his ambition to strengthen the Ramli family's influence in the region so that he can eventually bring it under his control.

As a result, the War God Cult secretly sabotaged him and helped his old rival.

However, as the old saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy.

Although the army of Earl Ramley arrived late, it was still there, which was better than the Duke in the southeast, whose army had not even been seen!

After learning the details of the incident from Lud, Captain Jegan glanced at the War God Bishop, who was also asking his own men about the situation not far away, and then whispered to Lud.

"High Priest, I have some good news for you. These members of the War God Cult are about to be kicked out of here."

"Hmm? The Earl put pressure on them?"

Captain Jegan nodded. The Earl was very angry about this incident, so the consequences would naturally be severe.

The count's meaning was clear: since the War God Cult was secretly causing trouble for him and he had caught them doing something underhanded, then this matter could be discussed properly.

The count summoned the bishop directly and conveyed his message: as long as the Church of War remained neutral and withdrew the missionary groups previously sent to the border region, he could pretend that nothing had happened; otherwise, he would not tolerate the bishop's unreasonable demands!

I believe that members of the Holy Light Church and the Four Seasons Goddess Church would be happy to stand up at this time and help them fight against the War God Church for taking advantage of their misfortune.

In order to save face and ease relations with local tyrants like Count Ramley, the bishop was forced to agree to his conditions. At the same time, another event occurred, plunging the entire Duran diocese of the Church of War into a predicament of being unable to take care of itself.

Archbishop Gerallis of the Diocese of Durand has passed away suddenly!

Five days ago, a messenger carried news of Narad's death back to the capital. The elderly Archbishop Geralris died of a sudden heart attack due to excessive grief at the age of eighty-eight.

Since only Archbishop Gerallis, as the head of the entire Duran diocese of the Cult of War, was capable of using the Great Resurrection spell, after he breathed his last, no one could save him.

Some priests loyal to the archbishop himself thought that there were other archbishops of different sects in the capital who should be able to save Geralis, but this suggestion was immediately rejected by another group on the grounds that it would be a loss of face.

In short, with the Geraris gone, the position of Archbishop of the Duran Diocese suddenly became vacant. According to the old tradition of the Church of War, in the absence of a designated successor to the previous archbishop, the position of archbishop would be selected from among the bishops of the various dioceses.

This falls under the parish's "internal affairs," and as the headquarters, Aegis City will at least not interfere openly, as long as they acknowledge Aegis City's core position within the entire Cult of War.

In a sense, this could probably be called a religious feudal system!

Jegan's disclosure of this information to Ludd was at the behest of Earl Ramley. The Earl was well aware of the power of religion to control people's hearts, and that a partnership between church and state was beneficial to rule. However, this model of cooperation had to be approached with extreme caution, and a suitable partner had to be chosen.

A powerful and wealthy sect like the War God Cult was clearly not his ideal partner; they were too assertive and wanted too much. Therefore, the Earl chose the Medicine God Cult of Lud, as smaller sects like that were much easier to control.

End of this chapter

After conveying the Earl's message, Jegan chatted casually with Lud for a while before returning to manage his troops. They planned to stay only two days before heading back home.

Jegan promised Lud that before he left, he would set aside some of the military rations they had brought for the locals. This ration would be managed and distributed by Lud's Church of Medicine, as a sign of the Earl's trust.

Not long after Jegan left, the Cult of War came knocking, and it was none other than the bishop who had "condescended" to visit the border.

The bishop, who calls himself "Ural Dunt," is the current patriarch of the Ramli diocese and a native of the area.

Hearing the other person deliberately include their surname when introducing themselves, Lud couldn't help but take a second look at them. According to the rules of this world, clergy members of various religious sects must relinquish their original surnames after becoming priests, and cannot easily revert to them even after marriage and children.

When the other party brought up his surname at this point, he was probably trying to convey some kind of information behind the surname to Lud, or perhaps he simply wanted to show off. But unfortunately, he didn't know that Lud was a complete "master of disguise" in this regard, and introducing himself in front of him would have absolutely no effect on showing off.

"Oh, I've heard so much about you."

After exchanging a few polite words, Ural noticed Lud's lukewarm reaction and his face twitched slightly, but he didn't dwell on it.

The other party stated that their purpose in coming here was twofold: first, to retrieve the remains of Narad and the others, as well as the remaining missionary group; and second, to convey their gratitude to the Medicine God Cult.

He had just learned about the incident from other eyewitnesses. Ural was very grateful for Lud's efforts and for helping to maintain the reputation of the Cult of War afterward.

However, after expressing his gratitude, Ural immediately changed the subject and inquired about the potion from Lud.

Ural had only just learned about this miraculous potion, and thus he had the same thought as Narad had before his death. However, compared to the overly domineering Narad, Ural was much more tactful, always smiling and with a very gentle demeanor.

He seemed to understand what Lud was worried about and spoke up.

“Priest Rudd, I’m here simply to discuss a business deal. I have no other intentions. There are so many mortals and so many gods in this world. I’m not like Narad and his faction, who are so greedy as to try to make everyone in this world worship only the God of War.”

In front of Lud, Ural stated that their missionary group of the God of War would withdraw from Pine Village in two days, without establishing a temple there, and would only retain a small meeting place that served as an office.

Furthermore, Lud also gleaned an important piece of information from his words: Ural and Narad were not from the same faction.

As a major international religion with over 20 million followers and influence spanning three continents, the Cult of War is not monolithic. Priests and bishops in various regions are further divided into several different factions due to differences in ideology, interests, and ethnicity. The relationship between some of these factions can even be described as irreconcilable.

As for the Cult of War, Lud had learned quite a bit from the well-informed Hume. Currently, within the Kingdom of Duran, the Cult of War is mainly divided into two factions: the Carter faction, led by former Archbishop Gerallis, and the Doug faction, led by several diocesan bishops.

The former belongs to the radical faction, advocating the supreme power of the God of War! They advocate an aggressive stance in missionary work, not only competing with other sects for territory and suppressing dissent, but also actively intervening in the kingdom's internal affairs to gradually transform the Kingdom of Durand into a theocratic state.

The latter belongs to the moderate faction, whose members are mostly from the Kingdom of Duran and have certain connections in the local area. They are more inclined to cooperate with the nobles rather than confront them, and they do not simply call for war against other sects.

Of course! This so-called moderation is largely relative. Take Ural, who is right in front of Lud, for example. He is a member of the Doug faction, but he still plants spies around the lord and provided a lot of assistance to Narad of the Carter faction in this border incident.

Lude himself did not intend to participate in the power struggles within the Cult of the God of War, not because he lacked interest, but simply because he lacked the strength.

However, judging from the information we have obtained so far, the Church of War within the Kingdom of Duran will probably be too busy to attend to anything else for a considerable period of time. The bishops of the six major dioceses are probably all eyeing the suddenly vacant position of archbishop.