In the northern part of the Anarchic Lands, a large-scale campaign had begun.
As per Linley and Zassler’s plans, roughly seven or eight days after Linley headed off to the mysterious village, Barker and the others began to attack southwards, invading one of the Duchies controlled by the Radiant Church. The name of this Duchy was the Sherry [She’li] Duchy.
The soldiers of the Sherry Duchy were inferior in quality to Linley’s forces. Linley’s people lived very close to the Forest of Darkness, and were thus highly accustomed to violence. They had a much greater battle strength. And of course, they had the five Barker brothers leading them into the fray.
Utter devastation!
The most powerful experts of the Sherry Duchy were nothing more than three experts of the eighth rank. They didn’t have a single expert of the ninth rank. How could the Sherry Duchy possibly stall Linley’s forces at all?
Barker and his brothers were like five gods of battle as they led their ravenous troops into a slaughtering invasion, breaking past all defenses. In just four days, the prefectural city and five smaller cities of the Sherry Duchy had all been taken over. Linley’s territory had just dramatically expanded.
Gates, Hazer, and Ankh all stayed within the prefectural city of Sherry.
“They are totally unable to fight back.” Gates said loudly. “Too weak. Too weak. There’s no one here who can even slow us down.” Indeed. Even if they did meet with strong resistance, who would be able to fight in single combat against the likes of Gates and the others?
In addition, the Saint-level magical beast, the Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, had been in a state of readiness this entire time, ready to attack.
“Andrew [An’de’lu].” Ankh suddenly turned to stare at a silver-haired middle-aged man behind them. The man immediately bowed, awaiting Ankh’s order. Ankh asked, “Right now, how is the reorganization of the Sherry Duchy’s military proceeding? And what is the situation amongst the masses?”
In order to manage a country, one naturally had to use appropriate personnel. Barker and the others were only used for military conquest.
“Milords.” Andrew said respectfully. “Currently, the military reorganization has already concluded. We have placed many soldiers of Blackdirt City into their ranks as well.”
Barker and the others didn’t fully trust these surrendered troops. Thus, the only thing they could do was to try and spread them out as much as possible, preventing them from easily coordinating with each other. At the same time, they killed some people while inserting their own loyal followers.
“The Sherry Duchy has been dominated by the Radiant Church for a long time, and there are many believers in the Radiant Church here.” Andrew said with concern. “I believe if the Radiant Church was to come attack us, the masses might even rebel against us. But there are too many people here. There’s not much we can do.”
“Rebel?”
Hazer said confidently, “What are we afraid of? Threatened with death, how many waves can these commoners possibly cause?”
“Andrew, we have just taken over the Sherry Duchy. Right now, the people are still restless. We’ll have to trouble you to handle it.” Ankh instructed. Andrew respectfully assented to the order.
“Enough. You can leave now.” Ankh laughed. Soon, only Ankh, Hazer, and Gates were left.
Ankh looked at his two siblings. “The results of Mr. Zassler’s meetings have come. We are ordered to stop attacking for now, and prepare to found our Duchy half a month from now. By now, we have over ten million people under our banner.”
Hazer and Gates both grinned.
“I didn’t expect that the Radiant Church wouldn’t fight back at all. It seems they don’t want to go against us head on.” Gates laughed. “Then just like how we originally planned, we’ll continue to put on an act. Only after we publicly announce the founding of our Duchy will we continue our attack against the Radiant Church.”
The Radiant Church really was spineless. The Church indeed had convinced Hazer and Gates…that they were unwilling to face their forces head on.
…….
The golden-haired middle-aged man once again arrived at the dimly lit room.
“Lord Praetor.” The golden-haired middle-aged man said respectfully.
Seated behind his desk, Osenno’s eyes were flickering with flames. He calmly said, “Right now, Linley’s side has just taken over the Sherry Duchy. They will definitely spend quite some time absorbing it. I trust they now believe we aren’t willing to fight them.”
The golden-haired middle-aged man looked towards Osenno and said excitedly, “Are we going to attack?”
“Our attack must utterly annihilate Linley’s side.” Osenno’s voice was freezing cold. “This Linley poses an enormous threat to our Radiant Church. If he is allowed to flourish, then we won’t live to regret it. Even now, he already dares to provoke us and attacked the Sherry Duchy. Clearly…he intends to fight against our Radiant Church.”
“Since they want to fight, then we must annihilate all of the experts on Linley’s side.” His voice grew even colder, and a devilish purple light flickered in his eyes.
The golden-haired middle-aged man grew more and more excited. But then, he said in confusion, “Lord Praetor, can it be that we are going to use Saints? But wouldn’t that result in dissatisfaction from the Cult of Shadows, the O’Brien Empire, and the other sides?”
“No need to worry about that.” Osenno said coldly. “If Linley is allowed to continue to expand, then the work that the Church has carried out for thousands of years here in the Anarchic Lands is going to be laid waste. In addition, Linley himself cannot be permitted to grow further. His rate of improvement is simply too terrifying. Right now…I still have the ability to kill him. But if this continues…”
Osenno looked at that golden-haired middle-aged man. “Enough. Carry out our original plans, and begin the protocols.”
“Yes, Lord Praetor.” The golden-haired middle-aged man assented.
“Tomorrow night, nine Saint-level Angels will immediately head out…and I myself will have a good ‘meeting’ with that rat-type pet of Linley’s.” Osenno was extremely confident. He was on the same level of power as the Holy Emperor, and was a full level higher than Haydson’s.
He was fully confident in his ability to kill Linley.