NOVPUB"I have let you down this time, Your Excellency Saintess Lucia... I will look for another candidate," the Pope shook his head with a sigh. The right candidate was not easy to find, for faith and talent were key, but they were not everything.
In the past ten years, the only qualified person was Edwell.
Alas...
As the Pope was pondering, Judgement Chief Joshua approached, gazing towards the Holy See’s Holy Maiden and respectfully bowed. "Your Excellency Saintess Lucia!"
Saintess Lucia placed the dragon fruit that she had nibbled a few bites back onto the offering table, softly suggesting that next time they should change the tribute, before finally turning to Joshua with an indifferent remark. "It seems that even you have failed."
Joshua knelt on one knee as if he hadn’t witnessed the Holy Maiden’s rude act of putting the nibbled dragon fruit back on the offering table, and like a monotonous machine, recited the results of the war. "The imperial fleet lost a total of one hundred and forty-three warships and did not achieve any substantial victories..."
Listening to Joshua’s report, Lucia’s pretty green eyes narrowed, her tone turning incrediblyld. "Tell me, what exactly happened... As far as I know, most of the powerful Wizards should have already gone to the kingdom, meaning the defenses of Wizard Land should be unprecedentedly weak..."
The Empire’s first fleetnsisted of more than three hundred warships, all latest model sailing warships, carrying over eighty thousand elite imperial troops, as well as nearly a thousand Priests. Crushing the defenseless Wizard Land should have been effortless!
And what does ’no victory at all’ mean?
With so many dead, half of the imperial fleet destroyed, surely the enemyuldn’t remainmpletely unharmed? 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝙗.𝒄𝒐𝒎
Even if you were tommand with a stupid camel, youuldn’t produce such results!
Joshua began to describe the experiences at sea. "In fact, we euntered obstacles in the Mist Sea before we even reached Wizard Land. Those Wizards have developed a new type of steel warship, which, at anservative estimate, weigh at least several thousand, no, perhaps tens of thousands of tons and travel at speeds more than three times that of the sailing warships..."
"Wait... Steel warships weighing thousands of tons floating on the sea surface? And they move so fast? Are you sure you didn’t see it wrong, that it’s not some kind of Visual Illusion?" The Pope frowned anduldn’t help interrupting Joshua’s words, somewhat suspecting that the other party was telling an outrageous story.
Howuld steel ships possibly float on the water and move several times faster than sailing warships? That defies the laws of how the world operates!
"I am certain!" Joshua asserted sharply and runted the entireurse of the battle in detail.
Especially the enemy’s use of a peculiar long-range tactical method, staying forever about one kilometer away with their thrice-greater sailing speed, and then suppressing them withntinuous, powerful firepower without giving them a chance to approach or escape.
That was why the fleet suffered heavy losses without making any headway.
"This is just like a pack of cunning hyenas!" the Pope saidldly, but even when trying to put himself in Joshua’s position, heuldn’t think of any good solutions right away.
Joshua had already tried to use powerful legendary Divine Arts, but those ships just smoked their way out of reach, making them impossible to hit. In less than half an hour, the steel ships would re-emerge from the mist andntinue their artillery suppression.
Having the flying Cardinals chase them wasn’t a good idea either because they didn’t move as fast as the steel warships and would just be worn down by successive barrages, wasting their Divine Energy.
Ofurse, the First Fleet was not so utterly suppressed; the obstruction of the Mist Sea was also very important. Without the fogvering the entire sea area, the situation would have likely been much better.
"After that, I used thirty ships as a price to design and surround the wizards’ fleet, but their reinforcements arrived too quickly..." Joshua said with regret, as it was his only chance to severely damage the fleet made of steel.
However, after weighing the pros andns, Joshuauld only choose to retreat. He had seen these alchemynstructs that floated in the air in secret reports from the kingdom. Not only did they fly high and fast, but they also had the ability to cast ’hellfire’ on the ground. If they had pursued, everyone except for him and a few cardinal bishops might have died there.
It was undoubtedly a losing deal...
"It seems we all underestimated these wizards," Lucia huffed.
In her eyes, the wizards hiding on that broken island were nothing more than a nuisance, like a group of rats burrowing into holes, not impacting the overall situation. As long as the other side dared to show their heads, theyuld be easily annihilated.
Only the Evil Gods beyond the Space-Time Gate and the foreign demons were the real enemies of the Church...
Therefore, upon learning that the wizards hadnquered the kingdom, the Empire dispatched two punitive forces in succession, attacking from both sides, aiming to eradicate this threat in one fell swoop!
Yet, they did not expect to suffer such a terrible defeat...
These novel weapons also aroused great curiosity in Lucia. She remembered that a few years ago Kahimo did not mention such steel warships to her, and those alchemynstructs called aerial battleships, were said to have a speed of only twenty to thirty kilometers per hour.
Now, this figure had increased five to sixfold.
All the new-style weapons seemed to have popped up only recently...
"Most of the Divine Punishment Army is still fighting those demons in foreign lands. Do we need to call them back?" the Pope suggested. The threat posed by the wizards had reached a point where they needed to focus all their efforts to eradicate itmpletely!
"No!" Lucia shook her head, "Those wizards indeed have some trickery in group battles. Let’s not waste our accumulated elite forces any further."
"Didn’t the Empire diver a giant tribe during the westernnquest war auple of years ago? Since they don’t have much talent for Divine Arts, let’s use them as expendables for this war," Lucia said pensively.
Giants have thick skin and immense strength. With the blessing of Divine Arts and equipped with special iron armor, they should be able to withstand the bombardment and smash those fleeing iron boxes.
It’s just that they eat too much, which is a bit of a logistical pressure...
"This time, I will take action myself!" Lucia said, straightening her expression solemnly.
"Saintess Lucia, even though those wizards are troublesome, they aren’t worth your..." Joshua interjected, suggesting that it would be both a sign of impetence and neglect for the Church’s Holy Maiden to engage in battle.
"It’s fine. This body has already reached its limit. It’s just the right time to put it to good use," said Lucia casually, ald light flickering in her star-like eyes as if she had spotted prey.
