Cthulhu Gonfalon

“Annihilated the frontline troops of the Church of the God of Aristocracy?” asked Olian upon hearing this piece of news. She could not hold back a smile. “Well done! Now, we have the winning edge!”

Both churches had started out with their own strong points, but the Church of the God of Aristocracy had a longer history and thus, more experience and expertise, it had a certain advantage over the Church of the God of Knowledge. Using numbers to estimate the odds of winning, both sides would probably be at a ratio of 40 to 60 percent. But after a few rounds of crossfire, especially after the frontline troops of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was just wiped out, there was a switch. The ratio was still at 40 to 60 percent… However, the 60 percent chance of winning now belonged to the Church of the God of Knowledge instead.

After a good laugh, Olian recomposed herself. Once again, she regained a calm and stern demeanor.

“Advantage” and “victory” were two different things, without needing to mention the 60% chance of winning, even if it was a 99% chance of winning, so long as there was no real victory, then there was not much practical significance.

And she also noticed that it was no small problem on her own side either.

The Oracles certainly did possess a very strong explosive force. The power of this wave of attack was quite spectacular. But to back up such an onslaught, an astonishing consumption of power was required. At that moment, many Oracles were falling into exhaustion. If they did not pause for a breather, they would not be able to continue fighting. Or even if they did catch up on rest, their explosive force would not be the same as before, where they easily fought with the aggressiveness of a wild storm of fierce wind and torrential rain.

The Church of the God of Aristocracy was dealt with quite a harsh blow, but it did not lose any of its Legendary Masters. That would mean the church was not bruised with any major injuries at all. To such a big church that had been established for several hundreds of years, with its multiple temples built all over the world, so long as it was not a massive number of around 10,000 men under the command of its Legendary Masters being killed in one go, any number of deaths smaller than this would not be considered a big deal at all.

So the hustle and bustle of the battle currently at play would surely produce a certain outcome. But coming to a conclusion on which church would emerge as true victor of this battle—it was still too early to tell.

“Kabbalah! You got to speed up!” Olian commanded.

With a wry smile, Kabbalah nodded. However, he simply could not think of any way to speed up further. The Oracle-summoning team under his leadership could, on average, summon thrice within a minute, which was already a speed that could be considered unbeatable. Yet he was asked to speed up further? How much faster did he have to be in order to match expectations?

On the other side, Lion also allowed the capital warship level Oracles to reduce their frequency of attack for the time being so they could rest. She herself continued to advance forward to get to somewhere close to the enemy camp so that she could observe it carefully.

After watching it for a moment, she frowned.

Founded 300 years ago, the Church of the God of Aristocracy was truly deserving of its reputation of a well-established church. Moreover, it had the Church of the God of Royalty, which was established more than 3,000 years ago, as its predecessor. Although its frontline troops had been annihilated and only three of its Legendary Masters managed to escape, no one panicked at all. On the contrary, within a short minute, everything was reorganized. The combined divinity formation had been readjusted, and the magical shield was re-built.

The magical shield this time around was different from before. It was very colorful and divided into several regions. Upon scrutiny, one could see that even the internal parts were divided into multiple layers. Obviously, this was an adjustment made with respect to the previous attacks.

With such a magical shield in place, if the Oracles were to focus their attacks on one particular point, most certainly, they could break the shield. But they would not be able to bring it to the point of utter collapse, which would in turn, bring about a magical antiphase.

“This is going to be a great challenge ah…”

Lion sighed. With a wave, she used her mind to command the Oracles to adjust their formation and method of attack. Then a continuous stream of less powerful cannons poured towards the direction of the magical shield.

She wanted to make use of this method to probe into the second layer of defense put up by the Church of the God of Aristocracy. She wanted to find out if there were any loopholes that she could make use of.

A moment later, she had a conclusion and thus commanded the Oracles to launch another round of attacks with the aggressiveness of a wild storm. Countless cannons ceaselessly bombarded the magical shield that was safeguarding the formation of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, causing it to waver and shake like water waves. A moment later, the magical shield broke apart, resulting in a few gaping holes.

Beneath the shield, the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy wore a solemn expression. She looked coldly at the messy pile of injured members sprawled all over the place then looked over to the Legendary Masters who were all in deep frowns and could not help feeling angrier and angrier. It was very apparent that a majority of these Legendary Masters had already made up their minds to withdraw, because expecting them to fight such a life-and-death battle was simply out of the question.

So long as they were willing to fight hard enough, the situation would not have deteriorated to such a point!

She fought back the urge to roar. Taking out an exquisite wooden box, she placed it before the statue of the God of Aristocracy and kowtowed to it before opening the box.

The moment the box was opened, a furious roar that sounded like the cries of dragons and tigers resonated within the people’s hearts. It was as if there were countless roaring primeval beasts charging out from the inside.

However, upon composing oneself before taking a look, there were in fact no such beasts or demons inside. There was only a single precious stone exuding a brilliant glow to be found.

“The Jewel of the Heaven’s Wrath?!” exclaimed the connoisseurs among the Legendary Masters and high-level Clergymen, as they all gasped in surprise.

This precious stone, called the “Jewel of the Heaven’s Wrath,” was made by the God of Aristocracy back when he assassinated the God of Royalty and then collected all the divinity dispersed all over the place after the death of the God of Royalty. It was placed right before the statue of the God of Aristocracy at the headquarters of the church all year round to absorb the power of beliefs. Once it was used, there would be a force as strong as that of a real god striking a blow, which was almost reaching the limit to what the human world could accommodate.

Over the years, it was only used a few times, yet every time it was used, it would never fail to vanquish the enemy.

The Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy wanted to make this situation formal and proper, and thus she had specially brought along this precious treasure. Originally, she had thought this treasure would not be required; yet she had not expected that the faintly discernible premonition that hit her before they set off for this battle to come true. Now was truly a time for this treasure to be used!

Coldly, she surveyed her surroundings. Then she took the Jewel of the Heaven’s Wrath out of the box and lifted it high.

“God’s wrath would be the heaven’s wrath. God’s punishing hands would thus be heaven’s punishing hands!” she shouted at the top of her voice while holding the jewel that was glowing with a most radiant splendor. She continued to shout, “In the name of God, receive heaven’s punishing hands!”

In the blink of an eye, a dazzling golden light rose from the center of the divinity formation of the Church of the God of Aristocracy and transformed into a gigantic fist. Then it hurled itself mercilessly towards the Church of the God of Knowledge.

This was the legendary divine spell, Punishing Fist of Heaven.

This spell was very famous. It could almost be one of the legendary divine spells with the highest “appearance rate.” Going through its history, at least a dozen or more churches had used it. It was powerful and had a stable structure. So long as its spellcasting procedure was complete, there was no need to worry about a counter-spell or the spell being cracked. Also, this divine, gigantic fist might seem clumsy, but it was in fact, extremely agile. It could even track its opponent. There was no other way to counter this spell. Blocking its attack was the only way to work against it.

But to receive such a forceful attack with brute strength alone was easier said than done!

This spell could bring about a large, explosive amount of magic in one go. Its power was extremely shocking. Also, theoretically speaking, there was no limit on its power. The more power injected into casting this spell, the stronger it would be. In history, there had been churches gathering thousands of clergymen together to pray, then finally, a Legendary Master would host a ritual for the spell. There was even record of an occasion where once the Punishing Fist of Heaven was executed, an entire city of a sizable scale would be completely smashed flat to level ground.

Attention, it was completely smashed flat to level ground, and not even piles of debris or ruined buildings were left lying around.

Such a feat was difficult to achieve, even for the greatest killing weapon on Earth, the nuclear bomb!

Both Lion and Olian knew of this divine spell. The moment they saw that golden gigantic feast appearing, both their expressions changed.

There was no time for careful consideration. Immediately, Lion commanded that all the Oracles direct their attacks towards that gigantic fist. Now was no time to be prudent over the use of magic. Every bit of magical power to be spared must be used. Otherwise, if they could not manage to block that Punishing Fist of Heaven, all of them would not live to see tomorrow.

Olian was in no position to worry about the internal injuries she had sustained just a moment ago. Once again, she launched her most powerful defense spell, where a Golden Shield appeared once again and positioned itself right above the formation of the Church of the God of Knowledge.

She had just completed casting the spell, only to find that the golden gigantic fist was already pitching itself against the almost-raging cannons fired by the Oracles and was slowly smashing into them.

The two legendary divine spells crashed into one another.

There was no earth-shattering noise, nor was there any vigorous explosion. The Legendary Golden Shield gave one violent shake, then disappeared without a trace. The Punishing Fist of Heaven, on the other hand, lost its brilliance and dimmed. Subjected to the firing cannons of the Oracles before it could even fall to the ground, it dissipated completely.

As a result of this one blow, Olian’s body started to shake violently. She could only get to her feet most grudgingly with the help of the Oracles by her side, but blood was already flowing from her eyes, nose, and ears, painting her fair-skinned face into a hideous scarlet red.

She wanted to speak, but the moment she opened her mouth, without even saying anything, she spewed countless droplets of blood.