Your war hammer is too fake

"Then open it," An Jiyue shrugged. "As long as the Badlands don't turn into a third Chaos wasteland, things are not irreversible. Tzeentch made a wrong judgment on one thing. Before the Maelstrom collapses, a permanent rift is not that threatening to us. The real threat is a whole piece of highly corrupted Chaos wasteland. No matter how unreasonable Chaos is, it is impossible for it to corrupt the entire Badlands in such a short time."

"What Tzeentch relies on is nothing more than our fear that something bad will happen to the electors, which will then disrupt the entire empire. This situation has kept me in Altdorf, but the electors cannot gather here forever. With my help, the Sigmar faction and the Ulric faction have reached a reconciliation. As long as the meeting attended by all ticket holders ends smoothly and the electors go home, I will be freed immediately - in such a short time, even Tzeentch can do very little."

"But no matter how you put it, this youth version of Eye of Terror is very troublesome, right?" Evelyn asked.

"Have you forgotten that I have cracked the manufacturing method of Fuzrek's folding castle?" An Jiyue asked back, "In fact, after making some targeted improvements, the 'pocket fortress' upgraded on the basis of the prototype has begun small-scale production... As long as I want, I can slap the fortress group directly on the face of the rift. Eye of Terror? It's just a public scoring point in the chat group. Of course, if I have a choice, I still don't want to do this."

Aiwen cooperated very well and asked, "Why?"

"In order to reduce the difficulty of manufacturing, the mass-produced pocket fortress can only be unfolded once," the Jiedushi coughed lightly, "only the specially made customized ones can be transformed back after unfolding. In addition, the manufacturing process of the pocket fortress is to build a real fortress first, and then use the spell invented by Fuzrek to miniaturize it. Therefore, its production capacity is actually subject to the implicit limitations of our engineering construction capabilities. It cannot be mass-produced like making sausages."

"I'm afraid you learned this urbanization tactic from the Real Emperor." Evelyn complained.

"Anyway, I have sent people to deliver the two pocket fortresses that Xuanshui has produced to Atum," An Jiyue said. "Even though we can't mobilize a complete fleet, we still have a single gunboat."

……

Meanwhile, somewhere in the northern Badlands.

Atum stood in the palanquin on Horus' back, his dry palms resting on his forehead, looking into the distant sky. In the Priest King's field of vision, a group of small black dots surrounded a much larger black dot, which gradually enlarged from far to near. As the distance got closer, the Lord of Ka-Sabai was able to identify more details: the all-steel hull, the weapons mostly arranged in the lower half of the hull, the storm engines on both sides of the stern, and the three-star flag fluttering in the wind on the mast.

The Javelin-class gunboat is the spiritual successor to the Grasshopper II and the first ship of Anshi Zhendan that was not designed by An Jiuyue. The Army Aviation plans to use it to replace the Grasshopper-class gunboat, which became obsolete less than two years after its creation.

Escorted by dozens of carrion vultures, the javelin gunboat flew safely over the heads of countless skeleton phalanxes without being attacked. The carrion vultures guided the gunboat all the way to the location of the Ka-Sabai Legion, and then the gunboat slowly descended and hovered at a height of less than two meters from the ground.

A school marquis wearing heavy armor, probably a centurion, jumped down from the deck of the gunboat with a box on his back. Just when Atum thought that the man would fall to the ground with a thud and subconsciously activate his transformation ability that could only be used once a day, he saw the school marquis land on his feet very lightly, as if gravity and inertia did not exist.

Qinggong, this word naturally popped up in Atum's mind.

"Sir!" The school marquis passed through the tomb guards who were arranged in several square formations, ran quickly to the side of Horus, raised his head and saluted the priest king with his hands crossed: "The things entrusted by the commander have been delivered, please check them, Sir!"

As he spoke, the school marquis pulled the box from his back and presented it with both hands.

Atum stuck his head out from behind the guardrail of the war sedan, looked at the ground which was about two stories high from his head, and after thinking it over, he decided to put down the ladder and climb down. With Atum's current sturdy body, it can be said that he will not be in any danger if he falls from this height. As the king of the ancient tomb, the mummy body of Daguda, which has been processed by complex technology, looks shriveled and may even be a little brittle, but in fact, its ability to withstand blows is far better than when he was alive. The only drawback is that it is afraid of fire.

Although he is not afraid of falling, Atum certainly cannot land as easily as Xiao Hou. If he does not want to embarrass himself in front of his own skinny boys, he has to give up the idea of ​​"going against the grain".

"I received the things," Atum took the box, "but please wait a moment, there are a few people who need your help to take away."

Hearing this, the school marquis hurriedly asked, "But has Mr. Yi from Macheng been rescued?"

"It's not just him," Atum said, glancing behind the school marquis, "They're coming."

The Bronze Armored Army's forest of spears split to the left and right, with Susayb leading the way, leading a group of mortals towards Atum. When the champion warriors of the Bronze City came in front of the tomb guards, these elite warriors who were dedicated to protecting the royal family simultaneously raised their long-handled sickle-shaped swords and slammed the bronze weights at the end of the spears heavily to the ground.

"What's wrong?" Gustav, who was following behind Suseb, was so scared that he quickly drew his sword. The mercenary bodyguard he hired from Tyrell had a similar reaction: "Ian, Ian!"

"It's okay. Lord Artum is Lady Egwene's staunch ally. They won't hurt us." The swelling on his face had subsided a lot, but it was still obvious that the shadow mage had been beaten recently. He quickly comforted his companions, "Put away your weapons, especially you, Holy Grail Knight! Otherwise, these tomb guards will really attack you."

Sir Roderick looked at Ian indifferently. He did not argue or accuse, but just silently put the sword back into the sheath. Seeing this, Gustav and others had no choice but to put away their weapons.

Suseb turned around and looked at them, then said something to Ian in a language that Gustav and the others could not understand. After listening, the Shadow Mage nodded to the champion, and then said to his companions: "Next you will meet a king, be careful and don't be rude! Being rude to the king is a capital crime in Nehekhara!"

"The dead also have kings?" asked the Holy Grail Knight.

"Lord Atum was a king when he was alive," Ian glared at the man unhappily, "the warriors you see now are not mindless puppets enslaved by the evil magic of vampires. They were Lord Atum's army when they were alive, and they remain loyal to their master even after death."

Sir Rodrick did not speak again. He looked at the tomb guards glittering in the sun. No one knew what this Holy Grail Knight was thinking, not even Gustav who carried him out of the high elf camp.

After being released by Carlos, Gustav first ran out desperately, but he stopped slowly after running a short distance. He waited outside the coalition camp for a while until all the coalition troops had left the camp, even the servants and slaves were gone. Then the former explorer quickly slipped into the camp and carried out Sir Roderick's "corpse".

——As an agent serving the Elector of Westland, even though he was not a member of the system, Gustav was still told some secrets that he could know during his training in Marienburg, such as the true identity of the Lady of the Lake, the truth about the so-called Living Saint of the Lake, and so on.

Gustav was not stupid, at least he didn't think so. In the eyes of the former explorer, this mission was a complete failure. With Egwene's character, if it was just a failure of the mission, she shouldn't give too harsh a punishment. However, when Gustav thought about how much money he had spent on sponsoring the Bretonnian expedition, he would tremble with fear. You know, those shiny golden crowns were all paid for by the Elector!

How would the Elector deal with a subordinate like him who had messed up and lost a lot of money? Would he stone him to death by the Arabs, or call two good men from Northum to make him into a blood eagle? The more he thought about it, the more scared he became. At one point, Gustav wanted to run away, as far as he could, but he was unwilling to do so.

Gustav had been struggling for half his life to revive the Winkler family, but he had never made any progress until he joined the Elector. The former explorer had always been proud of his bloodline, even though his ancestor was a bastard and had no right to be named "Winkler"... In the end, Gustav gritted his teeth and forced himself to return to Carlos' tent and bring Roderek out.

His idea was simple. Since the Holy Grail Knights gained power beyond mortals by drinking the blood of the elven goddess Lilith, their corpses must have astonishing value in the field of alchemy. This could more or less make up for the Elector's losses... at least it could prevent the Elector from killing him, probably.

Considering the difficulty of crossing the badlands alone, Gustav carried Roderick back to the ruins of the city and found the dungeon where he was imprisoned. As he expected, all the Asur soldiers responsible for guarding the prisoners had withdrawn, and the former explorer successfully got Ian and his mercenary bodyguards out. During this period, the group of Druzy who were also imprisoned in the dungeon tried to persuade them to let themselves out, and Gustav responded by directly taking out the spring-loaded pistol.

Well, their equipment was also placed in the dungeon.

After dealing with Druzy's cellmates, the group just walked out of the dungeon and found a large group of undead coming towards them, led by an exceptionally tall skeleton. If Ian hadn't tried his best to stop them, they would have almost started a fight.

After both parties explained the misunderstanding, Roderick faked his death.

Chapter 440: The Gate of Hell (Part 2)

The coalition forces, with less than 30,000 available troops, divided everyone into two parts.

Three thousand of the most elite infantry and the Tyrells' stone-throwing cannons, under the command of Soryak, attacked the floating city fiercely; other troops, including all the cavalry in the coalition, about 2.6 horses, were located a little further away, relying on the ruins of the city left by the ancient Strigoi, and established a defense line that they thought was quite solid.

The once towering city walls had long since collapsed and weathered beyond recognition, and could no longer serve any defensive purpose, but the stone buildings in the city could still be used as barricades if they were repaired in time. Considering that the base of the floating city was built right next to the ruins, the most convenient route for the Tomb Raiders army coming from the south to attack the floating city was to cross the city directly.

Of course, the Tomb Raiders could also go around the city. After all, as the attackers, the Nehekhara kings held the initiative and had an absolute advantage in military strength. For this reason, the blocking force had to be divided into two parts. The mercenary general Mortensen was responsible for commanding all the infantry to build a defense line in the city ruins, while the Grand Vizier Saleh from Heka was responsible for commanding all the cavalry to roam around the city ruins and intercept the flanking troops that the Tomb Raiders might send.

When the first team of skeleton archers appeared in the sight of the living, Mortensen took the time to discuss the battle situation with Saleh who was about to set off. Both the mercenary general and the Grand Vizier agreed that the enemy would not distinguish between main attack and feint attack. After all, the undead had so many troops that they could cover every front line, and what happened next was as expected.

On the Tomb Raider side, Settra also divided the infantry and high-mobility forces into two groups. For political reasons, the Immortal Emperor announced that the Bronze Armored Army would be on standby as the general reserve of the entire army. After all, the Ka-Sabai had won countless honors in the battle against the greenskins, and Atum himself was in the limelight. If these skeleton giants (Note 1) continue to show off like this, the other priest kings who are eager for honor will have opinions.

Atum accepted Settra's request and did not even ask for compensation. He did not care about these things anyway. With the deep and hoarse sound of the horn, the ancient legion that emerged from the mottled and faded history began to attack.

As the city ruins had limited space and could not fully deploy the troops, Settra simply asked the kings to draw lots in public to determine the order of attack of each legion. Under the personal supervision of the Immortal Emperor, kings from different eras and different city-states led their own sacrificial legions and stepped into the battlefield holding high the glittering golden military emblems.

On the outskirts of the city, Settra appointed King Piehodes from Zandiri to take full command of all highly mobile forces, including skeleton cavalry, skeleton horse archers and chariots, to fight back and forth with the living cavalry commanded by Saleh.

The Tomb Kings originally thought that a duel between highly mobile troops would quickly determine the winner, while a battle in a city ruin might take a long time: the former was fought on a flat and open wasteland with a lack of usable terrain, while the Tomb Kings had thousands of chariots alone, almost the same number as the Undead Cavalry. In contrast, the remaining buildings in the city ruins restricted the deployment of troops, and the Tomb Kings' numerical advantage was difficult to play.

All the Tomb Kings and Princes agreed that they would definitely win the final victory, but before that they would have to fight the army of the living for a long time. However, when the real fight started, everyone found that it was not the case at all.

The cavalry of the living is more difficult than imagined. Due to various factors such as environmental adaptability, military system and war tradition, the cavalry under Saleh's command is actually mainly Arabs, and more than half of them are desert cavalry. These agile riders, called "Ajinki" in Araby, are proficient in using spears, scimitars and bows and arrows. Of course, this is not the point. The point is that the Arab cavalry rides the elven horses that the sultans have obtained through various channels.

Elven horses are the best war horses in the world. They are smart, brave, loyal, and swift. They can run faster than any other war horse. Of course, they are also faster than the skeleton horses used by the Tomb Kings.

As the inventor of the Screaming Skull Trebuchet, Bihodes was famous for his ruthless suppression of the desert tribes (the ancestors of the Arabs) who opposed him. However, when the priest king noticed who his enemies were mainly composed of and was eager to recreate the glory he had achieved in his lifetime, he found that his army could not catch up with them at all.

Not to mention the Skeleton Chariots, even the lightest and fastest Skeleton Horse Archers in the army could not catch up with them. What is quite interesting is that the Skeleton Horse Archers who served the Nehekhara kings were not Nehekhara people in their lifetime. They were actually mercenaries from the desert tribes...

Atum didn't know if any of the skeleton archers present had direct ancestors of the Arabs on the other side. If so, it would be a joke from hell. As a result, King Bihodes had a several-fold advantage in military strength, but was completely fooled by these Arabs who came and went like the wind. Saleh wisely separated the desert cavalry from the other cavalry under his command. The latter hid in a position not too far away as a reserve, admiring the former playing tricks on the undead.

The mission that Bihodes received from Setra was to deal with the cavalry of the living so that the other Tomb Legions that had not yet been put into battle could bypass the ruins of the city and attack the floating city. He could not just rush to the floating city without caring about anything, and the troops he had could not attack the city, even if it was only a four-meter-high wall.

The two sides chased each other, and Saleh's desert cavalry was like a piece of taffy, sticking to the troops of Behodes. Of course, the living had physical limitations and could not keep fighting him, but before Akkin and their elven horses could no longer hold on, Behodes would become the laughing stock of the entire Nehekhara.

So Bihodes made a wrong decision: he ordered his troops to stop engaging with the Arabs and try to make a huge circle to the other side of the battlefield to attack the living who were attacking the floating city.

This was a fatal mistake, but it was too late when Bihodes realized it. He arranged the skeleton archers on the outermost side, the skeleton riders with spears and large shields on the innermost side, and the chariots on the innermost side. All the units rushed forward in a group. When the undead cavalry began to move, Saleh also responded immediately. The living cavalry followed closely, including the Sipahi and Tirell cavalry who had been on standby before, and they also began to move closer.

They neither attacked nor moved away, but just stayed at a distance beyond the reach of a skeleton archer's arrows, seemingly "escorting" the undead cavalry. However, this strange and subtle situation did not last long, as groups of Araby flying carpets swooped down from the sky with the sun on their backs!

As the most famous Arab magic item, without a doubt, the Arabi flying carpet is the product of their unique spirit spell. A flying carpet can carry two to three fully armed Arabi warriors, shuttling across the battlefield with amazing speed and mobility, and then using bows and arrows and various poisonous insects to deal with Arabi's enemies.

The flying carpet troops that appeared in front of the undead neither shot arrows nor threw poisonous insects, but threw sealed pottery jars one by one. The rough pots rolled and smashed on the ground, shields, chariots, skeletons and skeleton horses. The alchemical mixture called "Nafa" inside began to spontaneously combust violently as soon as it came into contact with the air.

Bihodes painfully realized that his wrong order made the troops too close to each other. The limited number of methods was used to the extreme, and the skeleton chariots engulfed by flames became new fire sources in an instant. Even though the bloodless and tearless undead would not panic because of the flames, the entire chariot unit was still in chaos.

Without giving the undead any time to breathe, Saleh took the opportunity to launch an attack. The Grand Vizier, wearing a golden and enchanted scale armor, rode on a majestic elven horse and led the charge, with the cavalrymen in high spirits behind him. Amid the thunderous shouts of "Digeon the Great!" and "For Mirmidia!", the living cavalry ignored the still burning flames and hammered into the undead army like a heavy hammer.

When the Sipahi cavalry and the Tyrell heavy cavalry charged into the enemy formation shoulder to shoulder, everyone knew that the victory was decided and could not be reversed. Many undead were not destroyed by the living at all, but when the situation turned around, their magic power was lost as expected, and they collapsed on the spot into a pile of scattered bones. In the end, only Bihodes and his chariot guards were still standing on this local battlefield, instead of turning into a pile of scattered bones on the ground.

The priest king roared and demanded a duel with the chief of the living, and Saleh agreed. The Grand Vizier did not look like a brave warrior, at least not in the way people usually imagine a strong warrior, but the opposite was true. The duel lasted only a short time and ended with Saleh defeating his opponent with overwhelming advantage.

"What's your name, desert man?" asked Bihodes, whose hands were cut off, lying on the ground.

"Salih." The Grand Vizier answered the Priest King and swung his scimitar.

Pheodes was unwillingly banished back to Hades. When the Priest King's body in the mortal world was completely destroyed, the curse took effect. Unfortunately, Saleh was not an old worlder who lacked knowledge of Nehekhara. The magic skin hanging around his neck blocked the power of the curse.

"We have won, but the battle is not over yet," the Grand Vizier looked around at the soldiers gathered around him. Some of the faces were familiar to him, while others were unfamiliar. "Our comrades are still fighting hard, and they need support! Follow me, let me..."

"Those cowards are running away!" An angry voice interrupted the Grand Vizier's words. Everyone looked in the direction pointed by the Tyrell Knight's left hand, and they were shocked and angry to find that many living infantry were fleeing from the ruins of the city in disarray, led by the men of the "princes" from the border princes.

The "black-hearted" Lightbird, who had just won a victory with Saleh, was embarrassed to find that people from his Eagle Regiment were also mixed in... Considering the usual style of these bastards, they might have led the escape!

For a moment, the cavalrymen didn't know what to do. Mortensen and his infantrymen collapsed too quickly. Now the Tomb Raiders could pass through the ruins of the city and attack the floating city directly. They, the cavalrymen who had finally won the battle, couldn't take the initiative to collide with the 200,000 skeletons moving upwards, right?

Fortunately, Saleh immediately forced himself to calm down. He called an officer from the flying carpet unit and ordered him to fly high in the sky to have a look. A moment later, the officer came back on the flying carpet with good news: Soryak had succeeded.

"We can't abandon our comrades!" The Grand Vizier made a prompt decision: "Warriors, follow me!"

The living immediately took action. They rode their horses towards the scattered infantry, bypassed their fleeing comrades and rushed towards the undead who were chasing them. They successfully rescued some people, but unfortunately the Tomb Raiders army also reacted quickly. Groups of skeleton warriors quickly approached them, forcing the living to retreat under the cover of a rain of arrows.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Saleh ordered the troops to gather and retreat. As for the friendly troops that had not been rescued, they could only ask for their own luck. Whether they were Arabs, Tireans, or people from the border princes, everyone silently chose to obey the order, and did not move the comrades who were surrounded by the skeleton warriors again, no matter how they cursed, suffered, and begged.

After shaking off the pursuers, the cavalrymen led the defeated soldiers who were gathered back and circled to the edge of the floating city. It had been a while since Soryak himself entered the city hall. The soldiers assigned to guard this section of the city wall happened to be a group of Araby guards. They opened the city gate and welcomed their tired comrades into the city.

"What happened?" The Grand Vizier dismounted and asked while taking off his helmet.

"The high elves are casting spells, and the warlocks told me that an incredibly large wind of magic is being gathered," replied an Araby champion who followed Soryak to attack the floating city. "We are about to win, Grand Vizier."

"Before you truly grasp victory, failure will always follow you like a shadow," Saleh said, taking the water bag handed over by the champion, tilting his head back and taking a sip, "Huh... share the water and dry food, the soldiers need this."

"And what about those pagans who came back with you?" asked the Champion.

"Same. Including the infantry, you have to make sure everyone gets something," Saleh returned the water bag to the champion. "Of course, the cavalry and the flying carpet team can take more. Hmm?"

Saleh raised his head and frowned, saying, "Call all the sorcerers here and ask them." The Grand Vizier pointed to the sky above his head and said, "Is this normal?"

Right above the floating city, countless purple-red traces that looked like blood vessels spread across the sky. A faint whisper echoed in the air, and the smell of blood, flames, rot, and perfume, four distinct yet somehow blended smells went straight into the nose, making the mortals feel dizzy.

The champion who had taken the order returned soon with a horrified expression and bad news: "Grand Vizier! All our warlocks have gone crazy, all of them!"

Saleh opened his mouth slightly. Before he could say anything, a supernatural gust of wind spread from the floating city's town hall, blowing everyone to and fro. However, the gust of wind came quickly and went away even faster. When Saleh was helped to stand up by the champion, he saw a face with horns and only one eye, and green festering dead skin full of pimples.

The face smiled at him friendly, then opened its arms, as if wanting to give the Grand Vizier a warm hug.

A flash of knife light passed by, and the head of the Plague Carrier fell off, bouncing a few times on the ground. The next moment, the demon, which was about the size of a human, turned into a handful of ashes, which fell to the ground in a scattering manner.

"Everyone!" Saleh turned his body to avoid the rusty blade swinging at him. "Come closer to me!!"

The Grand Vizier looked around and saw not only the green color that was close at hand, but also red, blue, and purple in the distance. Four powerful demon armies of destruction descended upon the floating city.

The gates of hell opened at Fuzrek's greatest legacy.

……

Note 1: Although the Nehekhara are a nation, there are certain physiological differences between the Nehekhara people in different city-states, probably because each city-state has its own patron saint. For example, the average male in Ka-Sabai is two meters tall.

The author says:

Author's note: Well, this chapter has a lot of words, so it was updated late.

Chapter 441 Justice from Heaven

Holy Grail Knight Roderick, he is alive↑↓.

Gustav was very sure of one thing, that when he sneaked back to Carlos's tent, Sir Roderick had no breath and heartbeat. Although the former explorer was not a legendary figure, he had been to many places and experienced many battles in his youth, so he was not so confused as to distinguish between "coma" and "death".

After dealing with Druzy's fellow inmates in the dungeon, Gustav, Ian, and twenty Tyrell mercenaries ran into Susab with a group of skeleton soldiers as soon as they left the dungeon. If Ian hadn't reacted quickly, waving his hands to block them and shouting, "It's one of us!", Gustav would have almost shot.

After some effort to clear up the misunderstanding, the former explorer and his hired bodyguards learned that Susaibu was sent by Atum to find them. Susaibu told Ian that although the original rescue plan was cancelled due to force majeure, Egwene was not the kind of person who could sit back and watch his subordinates die, so he specially asked Atum to help rescue them.

Originally, the matter should have ended here. The javelin-class gunboat that sent Ian to the badlands would bring everyone back to Sanhe Prefecture, and they could say goodbye to this big mess. However, at this moment, Roderick suddenly woke up and asked Gustav a question: "So you are indeed a spy?"

Apparently, the Holy Grail Knight was still able to sense the movements of the outside world even in a state of suspended animation.

Former Explorer: "...So what?! Now everyone here is ours!"

Gustav didn't want to delve into why the Elector had undead allies. The impression of the undead in the Old World mainly came from vampires and necromancers. They were evil, gloomy, and terrifying, and no grass grew wherever they passed. Even though the style of the Tomb Raiders was completely different from their impression of the undead, it could even be said to be the opposite.

Even though Ian repeatedly stressed that these skeletons were allies and absolutely reliable, Gustav and his bodyguards were still on edge and did not dare to let down their guard. Especially the Tyrells. The Southern Kingdom was rarely threatened directly by Chaos, and the local greenskins were generally not very powerful. The main enemies of the Tyrells and Estalia were actually their own kind, followed by ratmen and necromancers, and then Druzy pirates. Even the Arabs had a stronger presence than Chaos believers.

Compared to the crowd who were holding the handles of their weapons, nervously guarding against the sudden change of the undead, Sir Rodrick was very calm: "I want to see your leader. Listen, there is a very terrible conspiracy behind this war, and now only you can stop it."

"I will report your request to His Majesty," Suseb said, "and it will be up to His Majesty to decide whether to receive you."

Then, the group was led to Atum. While others were still marveling at the magnificent appearance of the Tomb Raiders, Roderick ignored Suseb's suddenly sharp gaze, stepped forward and saluted Atum: "Hello, Your Majesty. I am Roderick of Bastogne, and I have brought you a warning."

"The leader of the high elves, Solyak, is a follower of Tzeentch, right?" The priest king looked at the Holy Grail Knight in front of him. "Settra and I are here. No matter what those dogs want to do, I will stop them."

"To be precise, it was Tzeentch's chief Lord of Change, Carlos the Fate Weaver," the Holy Grail Knight said in a deep voice, "This evil demon wanted to use the energy of the floating city to tear open a permanent rift."

"? That two-headed old hen is here too?... It doesn't matter, I will take action!" The mummy waved his dry right hand wrapped in bandages: "Besides, what's the point of you saying this now? Those fools who were deceived are still fighting stubbornly."

"I am willing to convince them," said Roderick, "that they are merely deceived by the devil."

"Did you make a mistake, Holy Grail Knight?" Atum stared into Roderick's eyes. "My high priest told me that some large-scale magic ceremony is being held in the floating city, and it will be completed in an hour at most. At this moment when we must race against time, you actually want us to stop the attack so that you can persuade your allies? No, no, no, Mr. Roderick, I think it will be much faster to defeat them than to persuade them."

"..."

"That guy Bihodes has really embarrassed himself this time... When he comes back from Hades, I will definitely rush to his pyramid and laugh at him as soon as possible!" Atum turned his head and looked at his personal champion: "How is the battle in the city going?"