The Devil’s Cage

The thunderous battle in the clouds was still occurring.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Thorn Temple and Wealth Temple’s battle started fiercely as well.

The temple district was big but after housing the 25 temples’ grandness and large buildings that people would feel reverence for, the place looked extremely packed.

On the packed main street, the temple knights from the Thorn and Wealth temples were fighting each other, it wasn’t a messy gruesome fight but with many tactical troop formations.

It was natural that Thorn Temple suffered a disadvantage since they lost their chief knight, despite there being a few priests who stood in as support, it wasn’t much help.

Quite the contrary, the situation had gotten even messier.

The Thorn Temple priests were all believers of Lady Thorn, each of them had wills of iron and view the harshness of fate as a way of life.

Unfortunately, Lady Thorn’s divine position didn’t include anything that was related to military battles.

Therefore, the priests didn’t know how to command the knights against their enemy, and no matter how strong they were, it was useless if they didn’t possess the corresponding abilities, the messy situation might even hasten their defeat.

Hundreds of Thorn Knights had fallen, blood was flowing like a river across the temple district street, leaving less than 20 remaining knights with their shields up high, standing fast at the path towards their temple.

They stood strong and gazed at their enemy with unyielding eyes, so did the three priests behind them.

“Fellow believers! Behind us is the temple of Lady Vanessa! The archpriest and the officiant are giving their best in supporting Lady Vanessa! We cannot allow their efforts to fall short! If the enemies wish to step into our temple, they will have to cross our dead bodies!” The elderly priest chanted loudly.

The elderly priest was holding a longsword in his hand and based on the looks of it, he wasn’t at all skilled in swords but he didn’t care anymore at that moment.

He knew he had to take down more enemies, so did the two younger priests beside him.

Compared to Priest Einderson, the two younger ones seemed to have received more combat training but also because of that, their injuries were much more severe to the elder.

One of them even suffered a stab in his ribs, causing him to falter.

However, he didn’t seem to be affected by the pain, after some rough treatment to stop the bleeding, he stood tall with his sword, replying the elderly priest’s chanting.

“Guard with our lives!”

“Guard with our lives!”

…

It started from the young priest and soon spread towards the temple knights, all of their chants united to a single voice.

They had prepared themselves for the worst outcome.

Likewise, the Wealth Temple Knights had also prepared themselves for the impending victory.

As long as they could overcome the blockade in front of them and enter Thorn Temple to deliver a devastating blow to Lady Thorn, victory will belong to Lady Wealth!

“Victory will be ours! The believers of Wealth! Wealth!”

The chief knight from Wealth Temple shouted loudly, the knights around him followed.

The Knights then marched forward in unison.

Their golden armors together with the issued combat blades and pikes gave out neat clunking sounds as they marched.

The glares from their armors and blades easily struck fear in people’s hearts.

The noble’s guards who were observing from far looked ugly.

The guards knew the temple knight’s armors and weapons were instruments of destruction for commoners.

Common arrows couldn’t even pierce their armor, common leather armors were no better than cardboard under their golden swords and pikes.

“Scary bunch of temple knights eh! Fortunately, they are not that much!”

One of the guard leaders voiced out his fortunate thinking.

“If I had enough resources and unlimited funding, I could make a group of a hundred men with similar destructive power! No, it would be stronger than this!” The other noble’s guard leader said without giving in.

“If you really can do it, so what? The reason they were not blessed by the officiant with their Goddess’ power is because Lady Thorn and Lady Wealth are fighting. If they could utilize their Goddess’s power, it will be useless even if you could train a thousand or even ten thousand more men. You won’t even stand a chance!”

Another guard leader joined the conversation.

His words were filled with mockery but everyone who heard what he say didn’t voice their objections.

Everyone was silent, even though the guard leader was unwilling to submit, all he could do was show it on his face, not take actual actions.

Inside Naveya City, divine authority was the highest power around.

The fact that the council district was placed below the temple district had proven it all.

Why though?

It was because the powerful Gods were unchallenged and also because people felt reverence towards them despite having impure thoughts.

“The dust will settle soon! Wealth Temple will surely be victorious!” said the first guard leader.

His words sounded fortunate from where he stood.

As the leader of the noble’s guards, he wasn’t a poor man by any means, even though Wealth Temple had always been worshipped by merchants, nobles too worshipped the same Goddess.

In fact, the reason why Wealth Temple could expand their influence so rapidly was because of the worshiping from the nobles.

Therefore when the leader spoke, everyone else nodded. Only one or two sighed.

“Too bad, the Thorn Temple folks aren’t too shabby but after this battle, they might vanish from the history of Naveya once and for all, right?” The person who sighed said.

“Mm. Since they had fallen once, no matter how ancient their Goddess was, maintaining her current state was the best she could do. If she fails again… there will not be another second chance.” Another one who seemed to have insights replied.

“I guess it’s still some kind of honor witnessing the fall of an ancient Goddess?”

The crowd looked at each other and smiled, taking pleasure out of the misfortune.

Not only the noble’s guards alone, everyone else who had the qualifications to observe the battle thought so as well.

They widened their eyes to watch the scene unfold before them.

Then, they witnessed the scene that they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Roar!

A heavy loud roar later, a rhino mirage appeared in a flash at one end of the street.

The roar sounded like it was a battle horn and when it truly charged forward, the ground started to tremble with each step it took.

The temple district street was shaking left and right, it was similar to an earthquake!”

“Earthquake!”

“Earthquake!”

Many panicked people cried out loud but many more of them paid attention to that charging figure.

On top of the overly huge blade, a purplish bewitching glimmer was shining ceaselessly.

Wild!

Untamed!

The aura that was blasted out from the blade struck fear in people’s heart.

Anyone who caught the aura’s presence could feel the terror of the greatsword but what even more terrifying was the person who wielded it!

Wung!

Violent wind assaulted the area, the feathered mantle was dancing along with the wind while the hood over the figure’s head was unveiled.

The young face of the figure was branded in everyone’s eyes.

Just when everyone was astonished by that young greatsword wielder, the Wealth Temple Knights were all crushed!

Everyone in the path of that charging figure was sliced in half, it was as neat as cutting tofu!