Chapter 685: A Bloody Mess

Hodeceus floated silently by the side of the crystal mine, which faced the now drastically changed Sacred Mountain. The seismic “remodelling” had since died down, yet the real chaos was just about to begin. The knights and werewolf cavalry who successfully retreated under Marshal Ophra’s lead had returned to the main camp in Hodeceus. They rendezvoused with the other generals and cardinals who were manning the floating fortress. But as they sought to finalise their next course of action, the various factions fell victim to infighting.

Before Ophra could even take off her cuirass, she, Uruk, and a few other leaders—still drenched in the enemy’s blood—sat at the front of a long table. She appeared like the goddess of war as she sat there and looked on at the rather rowdy atmosphere. The seat next to her belonged to the Pope and it was now empty.

“The Pope has been martyred.” Cardinal Orben looked at the seat beside Ophra. His rune covered face was rather emotionless, but there was a tinge of dignified stiffness. “The Pope could not have possibly survivef that explosion. Plus, there was no trace of his spirit after that.

The meeting hall door was pushed open as a robed figure walked swiftly into the room. He was a cardinal, one of those who had to calm the nerves of the ordinary soldiers and believers with the a few other clergy. The clamour outside was obviously weighing on him. “Things are still a flux outside. The Pope’s martyrdom shook the faith of many, plus the fact tha even with his sacrifice that the evil god had managed to escape without a scratch. We need to come up with an explanation for this.”

“What about the Goddess? Anything from her?” Ophra turned towards Big Beardy who was seated silently on the side of the table. From the moment the Pope had martyred, the pious ascetic was deep in thought, trying to communcate with the Goddess. She was hoping that with the ascetic’s special mental ability to mend the connection with the Goddess and the long prayers would bear some fruit.

Big Beard open his eyes slightly as he looked at the marshal. “Her voice is blurry, but it is certain that the Pope had spoken with her before his martyrdom. His action is probably in line with her will.”

Cardinal Orben immediately nodded. “Alright, we can start from there at least…”

“The explaination can come later. The most pressing matter is how do we tell His Majesty.” Prince Hoffman suddenly interjected. His head was glistening from sweat but this time around, he did not bother wiping it off. “His Majesty needs to know if the kingdom is still safe. That black thing had escaped, unscathed I must add. You can spin it to say that it was the Goddess’ wrath that scared it away, that will only work for the masses. His Majesty needs an even clearer answer. Will the thing come back? And if it does, how do we face it?”

The question Prince Hoffman asked was piercing, a stark contrast of the smiling bald guy character he is known for. This was however the way he operates, and as he finished his sentence Uruk spoke.

“It’s a mess at our place as well. The collapse of the Sacred Mountain is a massive shock to the tribes, and we also need to explain how an evil god was hiding in the mountains all these while. So, for a time, the tribe nations will be recalling the mercenary companies in Holetta.”

Due to their fierce nature and martial talents, the werewolf tribes were able to export their fine troops and commanders as an important means of revenue. Their mercenaries can be found on all corners across the south of the continent. Furthermore, the tribal nation had excellent relations with the Kingdom of Holetta, even during the time of Kayton the Third’s uprising, he had a loyal band of werewolf warriors with him. As such, even the Holettaen’s standard army had many werewolf bands in it, some of them even hold office in the army.

Ophra frowned. “That’ll affect Holetta’s security, and goes against the previous accord.”

“We will not void the accord, but the situation demands it.” Uruk’s expression stiffened, his voice stern. “We are only reassigning a part of the soldiers, to solve our urgent need for manpower. After the peak had collapsed many towns within the vicinty was affected, and many other places are at risk of avalanches and aftershocks.”

Uruk gave Ophra a glance as he left the last part out: Holetta is mighty kingdom, surely this won’t affect you?

As Uruk finished the generals and cardinals present too started discussing the situation. Some was doubtful of morale, some was worried about doctrines, some was talking about diplomacy, or to amend the map and texts because there was a need to measure the highest peak of the southern continent again…When Lady Ophra heard the last part, she buried her face in her palm as she massaged her temple. If at all possible, she did not want to get involved in this as she only belatedly realised that she had gathered a rabble here at haste and in this situation, it was quite literally too many cooks spoils the broth.

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“My word… I’m really b ad at this.” The Lady Marshal shook her head. “Even whe the king died it wasn’t that chaotic…”

The sweatdrops from Prince Hoffman’s bald head really streamed down this time. “Marshal… this… is not the time for that…”

“I know.” Ophra sighed as she looked up and slammed the time. “SILENCE!”

Perhaps the hall was too big and this was the first time her slamming the table was not effective. A few ministers were still having a heated discussion with their fellow generals. Seeing how it was, Lady Ophra took her longsword out, still sheathed as she slammed the table again. “SILE…”

Before she could finished, a crash followed and the table shattered into pieces.

A few of the ministers immediately followed the table and crashed to the ground: They were too engrossed with their arguments and were pretty much on the table already.

Lady Ophra blinked, as she shuffled awkwardly. “The table sure is fragile?”

The old werewolf Elson rolled his eyes. “Oh stop with your excuses. This is not the first time.”

“Well that’s that.” Ophra waved it off. “It doesn’t affect anything anyway, and at least will stop you lot from continuing your crap. Do I need to even remind you lot? This is Hodeceus! The kingdom’s most powerful floating fortress. Even the lowliest of soldiers here are the elites of the country! Elites, hah! Just look at you lot. Panicking over something like this? And you deemed yourself worthy to step foot on here?”

After having their ego bruised by the Lady Marshal’s terse words, the hall fell silent. Lady Ophra gave a nod of satisfaction. “That’s more like it. Lets lay things out, and solve it one by one. We’ll do what we can, what we must and I frankly don’t give two hoots about who’s losing what. Everything won’t matter when that Black Fortress comes back again.”

Having said her piece, she tuirned towards Uruk and Cardinal Orben. “My apologies. I may have overstepped my boundries. I have no control over the church or other nations but let me remind you lot. Before that Black Fortress, your religion or nationality does not matter.”

Cardinal Orben’s expression changed immediately the moment the missing Black Fortress was mentioned. “The key problem is still that evil god’s weapon. It is an awesome weapon, and even the Pope’s martyrdom could not destroy it, only to drive it away. If it was to make a comeback, our efforts are in vain.”

“Didn’t you say that the outsiders have gone to solve this?” Prince Hoffman looked that Ophra. “Why are there no news till now?”

“This…” Ophra was at a loss of words to explain. “They’ll probably be in touch soon. If anyone could do it, it is them. After all, they were the one who took out the First Born.”

Even as she said that, Ophra was not fully confident. She only have a vague knowledge of Hao Ren and his crew’s powers and background, and she had no idea how the ‘ Black Fortress’ even came about. She only relied on her experience with them solving issues in the past to trust them with the job of destroying that monstrosity. She wondered if she should call for Becky, that silly mercenary had spent the most time with the outsiders, and knew more about them than Big Beardy. As she pondered on the idea a flash of light appeared in the middle of the hall.

“Don’t worry about the Black Spaceship.” Hao Ren led his crew out of the white light. “I’ve more important things to tell you all.”