Chapter 697
Every day, the situation in Eich became more chaotic . The undead, demons, and all sorts of invaders from other dimensions would cause bad news to be brought to us on a daily basis .
The Holy Church was also becoming ever more active . They had already sent out many Cardinals in a tentacle-like manner, spreading everywhere . The Cardinals were doing their best to grab as much attention as possible on the battlefields in countries everywhere . Of course, everyone would want free reinforcements and healing support, but when such "free" help came with the requirement that you cede military authority to the Cardinal, then it would be unwanted .
I knew that the Cardinals were so motivated because the God of Holy Light had promised them that the Cardinal with the greatest accomplishments would become the candidate to become the next pope, as well as obtain eternal life in the God of Holy Light's divine kingdom . Although such promises caused even the greedy Cardinals who valued their lives above all else to start moving, sometimes, blindly taking action would be worse than not doing anything at all .
Back in the game's history, the Cardinals had taken advantage of the Holy Church's reputation and how common Holy Light worship was in the mortal plane to go to all the war areas with their personal guards and swiftly steal the commanding military authority for themselves . The Cardinals then started doing whatever they wanted .
There were a few Cardinals who knew that they understood very little about military strategy, so they left the command up to the original commanders, which was a great thing . However, such Cardinals were an extreme minority . Most Cardinals were the type who would steal all achievements possible while placing all blame on others . Even more common was that even though these Cardinals had never been to military school before or even read a single military stratagem in their life, they all believed themselves to be military geniuses . They would instantly steal the right to command and then give inexplicable orders that would cause easily won battles to somehow be lost .
"…The defeat of Cardinal Xisor, who left a sturdy fortress to instead try and ambush the undead outside in the open . "
"…The calamitous defeat of Cardinal Amuer, who led four knight squadrons in forcefully marching 1,400 kilometers, traveling in and out of demon-controlled territory several times, and losing because he didn't prepare any supply lines . "
"…The pitiful case of Cardinal Feen, who opened up the castle gates in front of a beastmen army, and angrily tried to personally scold the evil beastmen and teach them their wrongs, trying to convert them to the Holy Light . However, the beastmen instantly cut off his head and easily slaughtered the city due to his opening the castle gates . "
These were all names from the game's history . These Cardinals had done such ridiculously foolish things that they achieved "eternity" in a different way… that was how much of a mark they had left on history .
Of course, the human countries finally had enough of the Cardinals after learning enough of a lesson . Although the human countries couldn't directly refuse the Cardinals, they found plenty of excuses . They started either obviously or covertly refusing the Holy Church's interference, and by the end of the Holy War, plenty of human countries even directly resisted the Holy Church's commands . The Holy Church also suffered a severe blow to its reputation after countless failures . However, the terrible losses incurred by the Holy Church's Cardinals taking command early in the war would be impossible to recover from .
Now, things were far better than in the game's history . The Holy Church was no longer the only ruling religious force in the land . Even the Cardinals understood that times were different . They would behave slightly less arrogantly, so such disasters caused by the Cardinals would be fewer .
Of course, there would still be some military disasters caused by the Cardinals . The Cardinals definitely wouldn't be content to remain silent, as they desired "eternal life" and the position of pope . They would definitely still want to take military command . Even if some countries would now reject them, there would always be human countries with steadfast belief in the Holy Light that would accept them .
But regardless, the overall situation was still far better than in the game's history .
The biggest difference was that the Underground Faction hadn't attacked, nor had there been a cruel human internal civil war . The losses from the elemental war were also within acceptable limits . This was all great news, and the fact that the Holy Church had taken great hits to its reputation already was also a really wonderful fact .
But, there would always be advantages and disadvantages to everything . Although we had eliminated Goddess of Chaos Cynthia already, which stopped the certain bad ending where everything would be annihilated, this had also broken the eternal cycle of the Holy War . The Chaos Abyss was no longer under the control of the will of the Chaos Abyss . It was likely that the Chaos Abyss would send out its most explosive, unrestrained amount of power ever .
Of course, I had already done everything that I could . The current situation was already much better than I had originally expected . This world didn't belong to myself alone . I still trusted the resilience of the humans, elves, beastmen, and other species . I believed that they could survive this upcoming calamity… And even if I didn't trust in them, there wasn't much else that I could do . This world was far too big . No individual would possibly be able to deal with everything when the entire world was at war .
During the days, I continued to grind experience against fire element creatures, and at night, I continued to absorb magical knowledge through Harloys' soul books . Although my improvement was quite obvious, I still was unable to make a breakthrough . But, what made me happy was that some old acquaintances came to see me .
"Diana, Victoria, long time no see… Momo, long time no see . "
The highest-ranking individuals of the dark elves had just appeared in front of me . Victoria was the high priestess of all dark elves, who held the highest religious authority . Diana held the highest military authority of all dark elves . They were both old acquaintances of mine .
In a way, it was only natural that they would arrive here . As work continued on constructing the new Elven Empire, the dark elves would need to express themselves and communicate as they were one of the four Superior Elf species . Rather than going to find the extremely busy clone Elven Empresses, it would be far more effective to simply come find myself and the lazy cat on my head .
If I only judged my three visitors by their physical appearances, the three of them seemed almost the same as before . This was because eight years would be almost nothing to a dark elf . However, there was a great difference in their auras .
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