Chapter 339 - 296: The Second Year of the Grand War, Your Support Has Arrived

Within the Imperial Administrative Region.

The border world of Helunia.

As one of the few feudal worlds within the Imperial Administrative Region, the recruitment ships from the Military Affairs Department had already stopped visiting by the sixth month of the Grand War.

The bad news was that the world’s agricultural and mineral resources had been almost completely drained.

The good news was that the Mechanical Order had not been involved.

In other words, aside from the products mined and grown by the locals, the Administrative Region had not inhumanely strip-mined the entire planet into a barren wasteland.

It had not been turned into a second Verne.

Even so, the consequence of large numbers of the Defense Army being transferred away was that demon-worshipping cults ran rampant across the entire Helunia World!

Against the backdrop of Grand Lord Kles’s relentless efforts to sabotage the Imperial Administrative Region’s economic system, the Judgment Court had no time to spare for a border feudal world like this.

The capital of the Capet Dynasty, the tax settlement center for the Administrative Region.

Grand Lord Kles’s infiltration and subversion of the Three-dimensional Golden City had reached a near-fever pitch.

...

「Jade River Territory.」

As the personal fiefdom of the local Lord General, Haven Meis, the Jade River Region had always been a land of plenty where the people lived in peace and prosperity.

While it couldn’t compare to the prosperity of a Stereoscopic City, it was an idyllic, secluded paradise, far from conflict and conspiracy.

But all that changed completely when the Grand War that would decide the fate of the Imperial Administrative Region began.

Countless wicked cults sprang up like weeds that could never be fully burned away. Even after deploying his private army and calling for aid from the Defense Army and Imperial Knights, these damned Desecrators could never be completely exterminated.

They slaughtered villages, turning this paradise into a living hell for demonic sacrifices.

They brainwashed and controlled the people of the territory, using wicked demonic methods to corrupt the souls of ordinary folk and turn them into monsters.

And on this day,

After a year and three months of resistance, Lord General Haven Meis had finally failed. His private army of thirty thousand was all but wiped out. The six Free Knights he had hired bailed without a word the night before last upon hearing rumors of a Demon Mage’s appearance.

He sat slumped in a luxurious leather chair.

A glass of strong liquor was in his hand as he faced the window. Outside, the manor was already surrounded by grotesque Cultists. They let out unintelligible roars, trying to slaughter the manor guards and break in to kill him as well.

’Is this what despair feels like?’

Haven Meis felt as if all the strength had been drained from his body. His face was pale, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

He could almost see himself being hung on a sacrificial altar, beheaded and flayed by these traitors who blasphemed the Divine Emperor. At the mere thought, the right hand holding his glass began to tremble uncontrollably.

Early in its history, the Meis Family had produced a true Emperor’s Angel. As a result, the local Provincial Governor had enfeoffed them with the Jade River Region.

While they weren’t fabulously wealthy, they enjoyed a very comfortable noble life.

As far as he knew, the Emperor of the Black Mountain Empire—who was also the Lord Provincial Governor—had died in an assassination plotted by Cultists. His head had been cut off and hung outside the Imperial Palace.

He turned his head to look at the Radiant Beacon sitting on the table, a family heirloom passed down through generations.

Its flickering light showed that the device had little energy left. Yet, the distress call he had sent with it had, until now, vanished without a trace.

Forget about Emperor’s Angels or a Judge.

He hadn’t seen even a shadow of a single Defense Army soldier.

Hearing the manor gates being breached and the dying screams of his guards, his listless gaze drifted through the window to the sky. ’Great Emperor... if you can hear my prayer, please help me.’

He heard the footsteps and roars of Cultists as they burst into the room.

In his terror, he downed the last half-glass of liquor, then rose to take down the longsword hanging on the wall—said to have been used by his Emperor’s Angel ancestor in his youth.

As he turned around, sword in hand, a horde of grotesque, foul-smelling Cultists burst through the study door, brandishing their crude weapons as they lunged straight for him!

Having never even touched the hilt of a sword his entire life, how could Haven Meis have ever prepared for a scene like this?

Although he held the longsword, he was so terrified that he stood frozen in place, simply waiting for death.

Just as a Cultist leaped over the desk, raising a rusted long knife to strike him down, a silvery-white energy portal that distorted time and space appeared with shocking abruptness in his study.

A massive hand, encased in deep black Power Armor, shot out and seized the Cultist’s wrist as easily as if grabbing a chick.

Then, a squad of fully armed Imperial Knights, reeking of fresh blood, descended without any warning into his small study.

Of course,

a thirty-square-meter study wasn’t actually small, but compared to the massive frames of the six Imperial Knights, it felt as cramped as a bathroom.

In that moment,

Lord General Haven Meis saw a pale, weary face. Mysterious, dark purple lightning crackled in the man’s eyes, and the stench of blood, fresh from the battlefield, was so strong it nearly suffocated him!

A Radiant Beacon affixed to Bach’s Power Backpack was flashing incessantly.

It was a signal that someone was calling for their help.

After crushing the Cultist with one hand, Bach raised his left. A howling Spiritual Storm materialized as a high-voltage current that tore through the air. As easily as scything grass, in a single breath, every Cultist who had swarmed into the study—and indeed, every Cultist in the entire manor—died a sudden, violent death!

In front of Reinhardt, he was just an unremarkable Imperial Think Tank member serving in the Ash Guard, seemingly possessing little combat strength.

But only when a Mortal truly faced these beings who wielded immense Spiritual Power could they understand the terrifying might possessed by these demigod-like Emperor’s Angels!

Even though Bach had just withdrawn from the Demon Void Realm and was utterly spent, his Spiritual Power severely overdrawn, annihilating the Cultists who blasphemed the Divine Emperor and had driven the Lord General of Jade Stone Territory to despair was a matter of a mere thought.

Then,

Bach’s gaze fell from on high, coolly staring at the utterly stunned Mortal before him. He said in a deep voice, "Your reinforcements have arrived."

After that,

when Haven noticed a silvery glow from outside, he turned to look out the window. He saw an endless series of Teleportation Gates appearing one after another across the lands of Jade Stone Territory.

An overwhelming tide of Imperial Infantry, numerous enough to move mountains and fill seas, charged out of the Teleportation Gates in organized formations!

Mixed among them was a number of Imperial Knights so great he would never have had the honor of seeing so many in his entire life!

Not only that,

but vast numbers of Abyssal Demons also followed them out of the Teleportation Gates, immediately clashing with the Imperial soldiers. In less than ten seconds, the peaceful Jade River Region was instantly transformed into a blood-soaked, deadly warzone!

This continued until a towering figure, clad in deep black Power Armor, drenched in blood, and wielding a terrifying War Axe, stepped through a Teleportation Gate and into Haven’s line of sight.

The Emperor’s Angel who had just killed hundreds of Cultists with a mere gesture, along with the other Black Armored Knights, voluntarily parted to make way for him, bowing their heads slightly in a show of respect.

"My Lord."

And when this figure came to a stop before Haven Meis,

the poor Lord General felt as if a giant hand had seized his heart, making it difficult to breathe.

He didn’t even have the courage to look up, his mind reeling in shock.

’Divine Emperor above... I truly didn’t know a prayer in a moment of crisis would actually work! And... isn’t this level of support a bit too...’