Chapter 731: Windstorm

A white sword of light slashed through the air, leaving behind only afterimages of light and a burnt smell.

I kept making fancy movements with my sword of light, filling the entire area with afterimages.

I demolished the ruin in front of me into rubble. I then slashed the rubble into dust. After that, I happily put away my bladeless Holy Light sword away in my sleeve.

Yes, that was correct. My sleeve was more than enough to act as my scabbard.

“This sword really only has a sword hilt?” Harloys asked. I nodded with certainty.

My sword didn’t have a blade. This wasn’t because it was incomplete, but rather because I had designed it without a blade to begin with. This sword of mine was a lightsaber, a design that had never been seen in this one before and which I had plagiarized from my original world.

“May the force be with you. Cough, I mean, may Holy Light be with you. The God of Holy Light is scamming (protecting¹) you.”

I was pretending to be a devout believer of Holy Light who was making a prayer to the God of Holy Light. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any audience to enjoy my performance or make comments for me.

I refocused my attention on my sword of Holy Light.

Its hilt was less than one foot long. Its color was just like white jade, and it was warm to the touch. There was only an empty opening in the hilt where the blade should have been. That was an opening I designed from which it would emit the lightsaber.

There were no extra decorations, nor was there any gem to make it look fancier. The only decoration it had was an emblem of intersecting thorns and dragon scales. The emblem also had a practical function: to prevent my hand from sliding.

I willed Holy Light to gather on the sword hilt, forming into a lightsaber.

I casually tossed out my sword of Holy Light, making it whirl around in the air as if it was an agile swallow. As it flew, it slew seven skeleton soldiers in quick succession, without even leaving behind any dust.

“Buzz!”

When Dawn returned to my hand, its blade of light which was both ice-cold yet also scorching hot was humming as if it was still unsatisfied with its harvest.

I nodded with satisfaction. As my weapon, I could find no faults with my Holy Light sword, Dawn.

“Next up, I should try mode #2…”

I reached towards the dragon scales on the sword hilt. There was a switch there which would change Dawn’s functions.

“Stop wasting time. You’ll have plenty of time to play around in the future. Help protect me right now.”

I was rather surprised to hear Harloys’ words. There were no enemies here, so why did she need my protection?

I instantly understood when she suddenly opened up her Soul World library, sending countless magical books flying around in the sky.

Harloys was currently in her young girl Gold Elf form while smiling at me from the center of her library.

“You intend to ascend to the next power level at this time? You’re going to become an Undead Emperor?”

“Stop stating the obvious. Protect me. If I succeed in leveling up, I’ll carry you through our battles.”

Harloys then began uttering an incantation, causing the flying magical books to be stirred up into a frenzy.

I had already stayed here in this ruin for one full week in order to finish leveling up to Level 4. Since I had achieved the next power level, Harloys could now do the same. It seemed that I would have to wait even longer here for her sake.

—————————————————————————————————————

It was now two months after the start of San Antonio’s civil war. This war didn’t seem to be slowing down one bit. It was rather the opposite. The war seemed to only become more vicious as battles raged on.

With this much time having passed, it was now known who was behind Duke Barrot, as well as who had been powerful enough to make the demons and humans temporarily ally with each other.

This individual was quite familiar to me. He was Sophocles the Deceiver.

This Chaos Main God Demon Lord who loved schemes and art had used a simple yet old trick to successfully fool the world.

Since two Chaos Main Gods, Sophocles and Karwenz, had been involved, it was no surprise that Maria had died due to this scheme.

As for whose situation was the most unfortunate and awkward due to this San Antonio civil war, that would naturally be myself… erm, I meant the Holy Church.

Although I was an innocent who had gotten dragged into this, I was far luckier in comparison to the Holy Church, which had lost soldiers as well as reputation.

In a normal situation, the Holy Church definitely wouldn’t have gotten involved in a country’s internal war, especially if that country was a human mega empire. Since San Antonio was a devout worshipper of Holy Light, this meant the Holy Church absolutely shouldn’t have gotten involved.

The Holy Church was a religious faction, after all. Not to mention, the Holy Light religion was the prevailing religion of San Antonio. No matter who won or lost in San Antonio’s civil war, San Antonio would still be a Holy Light worshipping country. The Holy Church wouldn’t lose anything that way.

And if the Holy Church participated in the civil war, not only would the royalty of other countries be extremely worried as this would be a precedent for religious authority to interfere with a country’s royal authority, but if the victor of the civil war wasn’t the side that the Holy Church supported, then the victor would obviously have an incredibly bad relationship with the Holy Church.

San Antonio was one of the Holy Church’s most adamant supporters to begin with. Since the Holy Church had already taken many blows to its reputation, it wouldn’t be able to afford such a major blow.

Unfortunately, this was no “normal” time at all. The Holy Church had been forced to get involved from the very beginning.

Information was leaked, accusing San Antonio’s proper successor, Princess Maria, of being a Chaos Girl who was naturally inclined to favor the demons and Chaos Faction. Plenty of evidence had been given to support this claim.

When the Holy Church’s higher-ups saw this information, they immediately felt that they had to intervene. San Antonio was one of their core areas of support. They absolutely couldn’t afford to lose it. That was how Pope Caloma and several major Cardinals were lured into involvement with San Antonio’s situation.

Pope Caloma and the Cardinals were no idiots. It was a basic political instinct to bet on both sides to win. Although the Holy Church accused Maria of being an enemy of Holy Light in public, they didn’t cut off all possibility of reconciliation. They actually sent secret envoys to negotiate with Maria.

The Holy Church’s negotiation proposal was basically something like asking Maria to make an announcement that she was cutting off all relation with the Chaos Abyss, and that she was a devout worshipper of Holy Light. In exchange, the Holy Church would cancel its display of enmity against her—something like that.

If this negotiation had really worked, Maria indeed would have agreed as she didn’t have a good relationship with the Chaos Faction to begin with, and she surely would have considered how the great majority of her subordinates and citizens were worshippers of Holy Light.

Yet, the problem appeared with the Holy Church’s envoy.

The envoy was real. He even had Pope Caloma’s personally-written letter. However, when the envoy was captured by the furious citizens, the content of the letter had been swapped. Originally, the Holy Church was just trying their best to ask for Maria’s surrender, no matter if it worked or not, but the letter was swapped for one which announced that the Holy Church was starting a crusade against the heretic Maria until she was dead.

This lit a fire in the citizens’ hearts. The mastermind behind the scenes then added even more fuel to the fire.

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Sophocles the Deceiver was a veteran schemer and mastermind behind the scenes who had been playing with schemes for even longer than Holy Light had existed. On top of this, Karwenz had been personally carrying out this scheme. With so many layers to the scheme, they dug a tremendous pitfall for the Holy Church.

Right after Maria’s assassination, Duke Barrot, who was under Sophocles’ control, stood up and announced that he would swear to take revenge for Empress Maria. It was only natural that Duke Barrot would declare war against Prince Winston and the Holy Church, who were blamed as the real culprits behind Maria’s assassination.

In a way, the Chaos Faction’s primary goal here had always been to target the Holy Chuch. Roland had just gotten coincidentally involved.

Originally, Karwenz had intended to follow the unwritten rules of the Holy War, and not personally get involved. But when he saw his older twin brother Roland here, he happily took action personally in order to give his older brother some trouble by framing him.

Looking at the overall situation, it was only natural that the Chaos Faction would want to cause trouble for the Holy Church. Just like how San Antonio was too powerful, and would thus attract far too much attention, the Holy Church was basically the Chaos Faction’s #1 mortal enemy in the mortal plane. Of course the Chaos Faction would want to make the Holy Church suffer.

Compared to the Northlands Mist Alliance that was still stuck guarding the north, the Holy Church was still the #1 most powerful faction within the Order Faction. The tremendous number of Holy Light believers also made it so that the God of Holy Light was the most undisputed powerful existence in the world, as well as an almost undefeatable existence. In that case, it was only natural to first attack the source of Holy Light faith.

San Antonio was one of the Holy Church’s most loyal supporters. Since it was a core area of support for the Holy Church, naturally the Chaos Faction would want to get rid of this place.

With two Chaos Main Gods personally arranging this scheme and taking action, even a True God would likely die. Maria had no chance of survival at all.

And now, the Holy Church’s position was becoming ever more awkward.

Duke Barrot’s subordinates were now viewing the Holy Church as the true culprit behind their former ruler Maria’s assassination. Not only that, the Holy Church’s Holy Knight squadrons and angel squadrons that they had brought along were supposed to be used against the ogres and demons in the first place, yet they all helplessly became involved in the meat grinder battlefields of San Antonio’s civil war. This was because nobody could just sit still and let themselves be killed, after all.

Duke Barrot’s faction wanted war. They wanted to become the only rulers of San Antonio. Prince Winston’s faction naturally couldn’t just let Duke Barrot’s faction trample over them. Since neither side in this war had any desire to stop the war just yet, it would be impossible for this civil war to stop.

As both sides accumulated more losses, both sides became truly enraged with each other. There would never be a true victor in this civil war to begin with.

War refugees, deserters, and adventurers. Countless such people ran away from the combat areas every day. Countless people could be seen on the roads, trying to escape the warfare.

As the civil war progressed, news about how the Holy Church was slaughtering other humans was embellished and then transmitted everywhere in the world. This naturally seriously damaged the Holy Church’s reputation as the defenders of humanity. This reputation was something that originally should have kept supporting the Holy Church no matter what.

The Southern Sect and many other factions hostile to the Holy Church would never miss this opportunity. The Holy Church was coming under heavier and heavier verbal attacks. In addition, there was now also the recent incident where Seraphim Winton had died. The Holy Church’s reputation was worsening rapidly on a daily basis.

Finally, two Gods of the Holy Church appeared on the battlefield. The emotionless Gods gave mortals the fate of death, but were unable to restore the Holy Church’s reputation…

Everyone knew that at this time, it would be best for the Holy Church to withdraw and no longer involve themselves in San Antonio’s civil war. However, this would be the equivalent of giving up on all of San Antonio. This would also chill the hearts of other Holy Light worshiping countries. That was why Pope Caloma was still unable to come to a decision.

Now, some more guests appeared on the edge of a battlefield.

A little girl who appeared to be less than 10 years old was following a figure in a black cape. They had just walked across a meat grinder battlefield, yet not a single drop of blood was on their bodies.

“Harloys, how do you feel now that you’re an Undead Emperor?”

“Absolutely terrible. I’ve never felt before that there’s still such a long path in front of me.”

It seemed like Harloys was having trouble keeping up with me in her young body. I really wanted to help out, and I offered to let her stay on my head just like how she always did in the past, but she was unwilling to for some reason.

I shrugged, and didn’t insist.

Compared to myself who already had previous experience in achieving higher power levels, Harloys had more of a roadblock in achieving the next power level. She had failed several times during the process. She took two entire months in the ruins before she finally succeeded in leveling up.

Another small trouble with leveling up was that after her physical body evolved, even though she still had cloning and transformation abilities which were even stronger than before, her true body was forced to maintain its real form.

In a way, this was a trait of achieving Level 4 power level. Although you would become undying, your physical body’s age, appearance, body shape, and so on would become relatively fixed.

Harloys had a lot of clothes magically stashed away. She looked quite cute in her lace princess dress. However, she constantly tripped and fell while walking. Without using magic to strengthen her physical body, she was nothing more than a weak and pitiful little girl.

Right now, Harloys was panting heavily. I definitely didn’t see how she could carry me, while her much shorter legs than before made her quite frustrated.

It was quite clear that it would be most convenient for both of us for her to continue riding on top of my head, yet she kept refusing to use her original method of travel for some reason unknown to me. This meant that our already slow journey became even slower because of her.

“It’s been so long. I wonder if the Northlands are alright?”

“Yes, everything’s fine there. Winter has already ended. Everyone’s working hard to plant seeds during the spring. The new seeds look quite good…”

A great benefit to having Harloys along was that her clones were the best information sources around. I was able to receive constant updates on what was happening in the Northlands.

In the past, there was a limit to the distance her clones could leave her for. This power of hers seemed to have improved after her recent breakthrough.

I felt slightly more reassured after hearing this about the Northlands.

San Antonio in the southwest of Eich was locked in bitter battle. Yet, the Northlands’ situation was far better than I expected.

Since a lot of the Holy Church’s attention and strength was now concentrated on the battles here, they naturally didn’t have much time to care about what the Northlands were doing anymore. In fact, they were probably worried about the Mist Alliance wanting revenge. The overall situation wasn’t good for them, so their Divine Northern Battlefront Alliance stopped their anti-Mist activities as well for the time being.

In a way, the Holy Church still owed me. It was a fact that they had just tried to surround and assassinate me recently. I had yet to take revenge for this.

Logically speaking, I should have casually assassinated one or two of the Holy Church’s higher-ups for fun, or at least give them a warning that touching me would require them to pay the price.

However, with the current situation, taking revenge on the Holy Church would be the equivalent of helping the Chaos Faction. It wasn’t at all my personality not to take revenge against others, but I felt rather conflicted about how taking revenge here would help my enemy. I had been hesitating over the past days, but in the end, I decided to record this grudge in my diary and temporarily do nothing about it for the time being.

“You don’t intend to join in and have some fun?”

Harloys was quite casual with her question. Ever since she achieved Level 4 rank, she actually seemed more “human” now. The death of the Elven Gods also signified the end of her hate. For the current Harloys, as long as the Elven Empire and Mist Alliance didn’t collapse, and they developed properly, she indeed had the right to enjoy her free time.

Harloys no longer had any wishes or goals. She was feeling no psychological pressure at all. Even while on the battlefield, she kept searching for wonderful foods and beautiful scenes, having lots of fun. It was as if she was on a vacation every day.

However, it was absolutely correct that Harloys was definitely able to carry me through many difficult battles now that she had successfully became an Undead Emperor after accumulating so much. Since she was my personal bound equipment, this really was an excellent deal for myself.

I glanced over at the battlefield in the distance. My magic compass’s needle was pointing at the sky. This could only mean that the magic power of those participating on both sides of the battle was ridiculously strong.

“Even True Gods have gotten involved. They’ll probably self-destruct if they lose. I don’t want to get involved at all.” I shook my head as I rejected the rather tempting advice.

Right now, San Antonio was the focus of not just the entire world, but also many different dimensions. And unlike before, it was possible that all sorts of veteran Gods would personally descend.

No matter if it was a magic battle, swarm of angels, human-wave-tactics, a True God, Demon Lord, or a Level 4 self-destructing themself, or all sorts of forbidden spells, techniques, and combination spells, they would all be highly dangerous. It really would be humiliating if I got dragged into something like that and couldn’t make my way out.

Basically, San Antonio was now the frontline of battle for the entire mortal plane. I only had myself, a sword, and a cat… I definitely wasn’t that suicidal to want to fight with only a young girl to defend me.

“They have their civil war, and we also have our own matters to deal with. This matter of Chaos Girls definitely isn’t so simple. There’s also Karwenz and Elisa…”

“Then shall we return to the Northlands? Or maybe go to Bardi?” Harloys inquired.

“We’re going to the Mage Country. But, before we leave San Antonio, I want to go talk to a certain person.”

“Who? Prince Winston?”

“No, there’s no meaning in talking to him anymore. He’s in a situation that’s out of his control. He has to fight in this civil war even if he doesn’t want to. What he actually thinks is completely irrelevant. Who I want to talk to is… Pope Caloma.”