Cthulhu Gonfalon

Seeing as how the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters were running towards her while causing such commotion, the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was not the least bit surprised. Instead, she was in a highly vigilant mode.

Although, throughout the whole wide world, the idea of “catching the king before nabbing the thief” would never be found in any textbook, and this was a fact that everyone knew—just like how Olian Geerteng would have been besieged by the nine Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy if she had not been absent from the start.

This was just the nature of things; it was perfectly justifiable because it was a principle of heaven and earth, and therefore, it was right and proper.

In any slightly larger-scale battle, such a situation was commonplace. So long as there was a chance, either side would be sure to first gather all their firearms to kill the opponent’s leader. This had led to the situation of top masters dominating a majority of the positions of leaders of armies. In this world, it was almost impossible to catch sight of the common situation of civil officials leading troops out to the battlefields or the situation of “scholar-generals” emerging.

Out of the nine Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the Archbishop’s capability could be ranked among the top three. Of course, this was not a weak position at all. If it were, she would be deliberately walk in the back, instead of putting on a brave front that called out to those under her lead to “Follow me.”

But even so, and even though she was a Legendary Master, when pitted against six descending gods, she still had no chance of winning.

A flicker of a smile showed at the corners of the Archbishop’s mouth. She crushed that precious stone containing a silver rune that she had been holding within her left palm all this while, and then she emitted a golden light that encircled her and started spreading outwards. This golden light kept her enshrouded even as it continued to spread outwards.

The six figures that were charging towards her stopped in their tracks with confused looks.

The Legendary Holy Domain Spell!

The Holy Domain Spell was a well-known, low-level divine spell. It would keep the spellcaster under the protection of Divine Power so that any “attacker” would first have to confront the protection given by the Divine Power with their own willpower before they could reach the spellcaster. If the willpower of this particular attacker was unable to prevail over the protection of the Divine Power, then they would have to wait for the spell to wear off before thinking of the next plan of action. Unless the spellcaster himself turned to committing certain acts that would disrupt peace, or on the contrary, if the attacker directly lost all will to attack, this outcome would not change.

The Archbishop had idealized this spell so that it would work for the gods as well. Even though the effectiveness of the spell would be weakened and its effect could only be sustained for a short period of two seconds, these two seconds were still more than enough to determine the outcome.

Within that fleeting moment where the six descending god clones of the God of Knowledge fell into a confused state, with the exception of the Archbishop, the other eight Legendary Masters made their move without further ado.

There was no need for a prior agreement. In that split moment, they could make an accurate judgment very quickly. There was no time for any delay, not even one-tenth of a second.

The moment the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters who had been accepted as descending gods were about to be wiped out, an extremely fierce roar suddenly sounded.

Countless cannon balls came falling down from the sky, enshrouding such a large piece of land that both sides were completely covered.

The Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy were under the impression that victory would soon be theirs to claim, but the sudden attack threw them into a frenzy. They hastened to change their plan of action in order to resist the attack that fell from the sky.

They had been and were still in an advantageous position, so they did not want to sustain any serious injury without rhyme or reason.

Only the two warriors who had kept mum all this while were different from the rest. They paid no heed to the cannon attacks falling from the sky and continued to advance while attacking. The injuries they had sustained did not stop them from wanting to destroy their targets.

Unlike the other few Legendary Masters, they were Sacred Warriors who were specially trained and nurtured by the Archbishop after she had assumed her position. They were truly and completely loyal to the God of Aristocracy, and they were diehard, loyal subjects of the church. To them, scoring victory and winning glory for His Majesty and the church were the true significance to their existences. Solely to achieve this goal, not to mention getting hurt, even if they were to give up their lives, they would do so without a second thought.

So positioned in the midst of blaring gunfire, the two golden lights did not budge an inch. Steady and sharp, they hacked down at two of the Holy Sons who were possessed bodies of the God of Knowledge.

Soon, the gunfire spread and shrouded the entire area. For a certain period, smoke and dust filled the atmosphere while sand and stone flew all over the place. No one would be able to have a clear view of the surroundings in such a situation.

A moment later, a Legendary Master cast a spell to summon a strong gale to disperse all that smoke and dust, and a most unbelievable scene appeared before everyone.

The six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters of the God of Knowledge might appear to be covered in dirt and grime, but they did not show signs of obvious injuries. On the contrary, the two Scared Warriors from the Church of the God of Aristocracy, who had charged towards the Holy Sons, had fallen to the ground. One look at their motionless bodies was enough to know that they had breathed their last.

But… how was that possible?!

Although it was said that the power of a god would always be far stronger than that of mortals, it did not mean that the Legendary Masters were able to be compared on the same scale as the gods. However, in the face of the idealized Holy Domain Spell, even a clone of any god would inevitably be stunned into a momentary daze. When Legendary Masters were engaged in a confrontation, that short fleeting moment of a momentary daze was more than enough to distinguish between the conqueror and the defeated!

But how were the tables turned?

For a moment, the six Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy retreated a few steps in concert without prior discussion. They even seemed to be closing the distance among themselves as they retreated, to put up a defensive stance.

Whenever there were abnormal occurrences, there had to be-be demons up to mischief. The others in the army definitely did not want to end up like the two Sacred Warriors whose lives had ended in such an inexplicably unreasonable manner!

But then, they were struck with a thought. The moment they all retreated, the Archbishop would be left all alone at the battlefront.

Although they realized that they had made a huge mistake right away and had hurried towards the direction of the Archbishop, they were still a step too late.

Seeing their chance, the six Holy Sons and Holy Daughters, who were the possessed bodies of the clones of the God of Knowledge, took off for their assault without hesitation. They charged towards the Archbishop, where the glow of the Holy Domain Spell around her had dissipated.

The three Holy Sons launched the attack while the three Holy Daughters took charge of blocking off attacks.

With three people resisting six people, the three Holy Daughters emphasized fully on defense without attacking at all. Although they were at a great disadvantage, at the very least, blocking off attacks for a short period was not an issue to them.

On the other hand, the Archbishop, whose Holy Domain Spell had just lost its effectiveness, had to face three Holy Sons who were bodies possessed by gods. Would she be able to hold out long enough?

Obviously, she could not hold up for long.

All six Legendary Masters of the Church of the God of Aristocracy were clearly aware of this too, which was why they too held back no more. With their strongest methods, all of them attacked like crazy and without any hint of hesitation.

Out of the six Legendary Masters, the berserker warrior was the most violent attacker. As a mercenary, he was someone who was very particular about professional ethics. If his inadequacy in combat power was the reason that led to his employer’s death, then even if this did not affect the remuneration he would receive, it was derogatory to his reputation. This made him feel even more uncomfortable.

He quickly wielded his huge battle axe that was accompanied by a bloody light. This battle axe was so forceful that anyone strike it made was able to split a hill, and this battle axe was slamming heavily against the wall of defense that the three Holy Daughters had built with concerted efforts.

His attitude spurred the other five Legendary Masters, so likewise, they did their best in attacking as rigorously as they could. Within a timeframe as short as two to three breaths, two out of the three Holy Daughters responsible for blocking attacks sustained injuries while one lost her life. Their line of defense was brought to the brink of collapsing.

However, in the end, they were still too late.

Right in the middle of the battlefield, the Archbishop had slumped to the ground, looking feeble and weak.

The last thing she could do was to drag a Holy Son to her grave with her.

To be able to accomplish something of this degree was already very remarkable. After all, it was one against three, and her opponent was a clone of a god, whose power could not be unleashed to full potential due to the restricting fact that this was a mortal being possessed. But to an actual mortal being, this was already an existence that was powerful beyond imagination.

The key to why the Archbishop was able to drag an opponent to her burial ground, was that she was resolute enough, and also, she was smart enough.

She started out with clenched teeth and an expression that cried out her determination to fight to her death, but when her three opponents pressed her into fighting them, she suddenly stripped herself of all defense. She’d rather risk getting killed immediately just to seize that one opportunity to launch a vicious attack on any one of those three Holy Sons.

This tactic was a success. Under such a situation where one was pitted against three, the outcome with the highest possibility would be for her to get killed while her opponents either escaped unscathed or were merely slightly injured. But now, she had successfully turned to ashes along with one of her opponents. At least in terms of combat power, she suffered no loss at all.