Chapter 18: Believers, Interrogation, Preparation, The Atrocities Against the Empress

“God of Light above! Sacrifice these heretics and return to me the rich and fertile land!!”

When the frenzied and ragged believers charged into the “heretic village” they had discovered earlier, carrying the banner of God of Light, they did not find helpless maidens like fish on a chopping board. Instead, they encountered an enemy, whose antlers flashed with a harsh red light, commanding a stone giant standing resolutely behind makeshift earthen fortifications.

Under the influence of the narcotics distributed by the church and their fervent faith, the believers mistook the towering golem for a mere scarecrow in the fields.

Chanting the name of their god, they cast greedy glances upon the demon village.

By capturing these demons and offering them as sacrifices to the God of Light, they believed they could demonstrate their piety and earn favor. They even anticipated the chance to punish the demons before offering them, to show that humans, not these savages, ruled this land.

Moreover, the antlers of these demons were valuable. The bishops of St. Peter’s Cathedral were said to pay thousands of gold coins for them.

If they could obtain these antlers, they would never have to toil on barren land again. They could live happily in the capital or the cities of the diocese for the rest of their lives. This intense desire, combined with the hallucinations induced by narcotics and faith, drove these believers, now turned bandits, to ignore the demon’s warnings and charge in disarray.

There were nearly a hundred of them, and not a single armored soldier among them. They looked less like poachers and more like starving refugees from some unknown place.

No wonder the Ling tribe initially mistook these people for distressed individuals in need of help rather than ugly enemies.

Yang Hao and Teresa shook their heads repeatedly from their vantage point in the village. It was then that Yang Hao noticed the simple earthen ramparts bristling with countless spears and arrows, seemingly molded from the very soil itself.

These objects trembled in the dirt, poised like loaded crossbows. Before Yang Hao could figure out the connection between the earthen weapons and the pale-faced, glowing-antlered Ling women around him, he heard the sound of arrows cutting through the air and the accompanying wails of agony.

Looking up, he saw many people being shot into the air by the earthen spears and arrows, their bodies torn apart mid-flight.

Some were even skewered like candied hawthorns and pinned to old trees, crying out in agony, unlikely to die quickly.

The remaining fanatics’ morale plummeted, yet they continued to charge the village, shouting slogans of the God of Light.

“It’s hallucinogens—I knew it! The churches of the God of Light are filled with addictive substances gathered from the Monster Forest. I was foolish enough to think they were for treating the severely wounded!” Teresa exclaimed angrily beside him. “They used these things on civilians— No… no no no… I get it now, that divine gift, that ecstasy after atonement… the priests of the God of Light are all bastards!”

“We’re all aware of such things. The biggest problem now is surviving this attack. They have nearly a hundred people, and only a dozen have died so far. They’re about to reach the fortifications and engage the golems in close combat. We won’t have time to conjure more earthen spears and arrows, even we will be in trouble.”

Yang Hao comforted Teresa with a few words, then he swiftly jumped down from the top of the tent. While the Linguistic Spell was still effective, he shouted to the Ling women.

“Don’t form earthen spears and arrows! Quickly create barbed wire at the gaps between the walls! Hurry! As long as we stop them from crossing the walls, they’ll be finished!”

The Ling women exchanged bewildered glances, clearly not understanding what Yang Hao was talking about.

However, with Yang Hao’s explanation, they roughly grasped that he meant creating obstacles made of many tough, spiked wires tangled together.

Once again, the antlers glowed. This time, no new arrows or spears appeared around the walls. Under the surprised gaze of Chieftain Narujia, many spiked earthen wires, magically formed, intertwined and sealed off the entire surrounding area of the village.

One of the fastest charging believers crashed into the tough earthen wires unexpectedly. His body was sliced by the spikes, and he cried out in pain, swinging his rusty sickle to try to cut through the tangled wires.

But his weapon got caught in the wires when he struck with force. His companions tried to pull him out, only to leave half his face on the wire, flesh and skin torn away.

Seeing this, the believers were terrified, but an old man holding a holy book of the God of Light shouted that since they could no longer save their comrade’s life, they might as well step over his body and avenge him.

And so, the unlucky believer couldn’t even cry out for mercy before he was hung on the wire by his fellow villagers.

The believers used this unfortunate man as a bridge to attempt to plunder the heretics. 

The first one to climb quickly didn’t even make it to the fortifications before a stone fist crushed his head like a berry.

It was Chieftain Narujia’s golem. Under her control, the golem moved as agilely as a monkey, ruthlessly slaughtering the attacking believers from behind the fortifications.

She vented her accumulated grievances and anger on her enemies, crushing, flinging, and even pressing them into the ground to be pulverized into a bloody paste with the golem’s hands amid their agonizing, prolonged screams.

With every kill, she cried out the names of her abducted tribespeople. She wept, worried for their safety, while the believers, amid the brutal battle, were jolted out of their fanatical faith and the hallucinations induced by narcotics.

They trembled and screamed, turning to flee, but the golem pursued them one by one, smashing them against tree trunks, causing blood and entrails to spray from every orifice.

The few who had stayed at the back and not charged were now the fastest to flee, only to be struck down by the golem’s thrown stone rain, yet they still desperately crawled towards the forest’s edge.

Tears streamed down Narujia’s face, her eyes filled with rage and a thirst for vengeance. 

Standing on the golem’s back, just as she was about to have the eight-meter-tall giant focus all its weight on its right foot to stomp these filthy bandits into the ground, Yang Hao’s voice rang out, tinged with a kind of unbearable excitement.

“Chieftain, don’t kill them! They’re still useful!”

Chieftain Narujia paused.

She turned to see Yang Hao holding an earthen torture device.

The human man looked at the slaughtered followers of the God of Light, a look of immense satisfaction flashing in his eyes.

***

After the battle, the Ling tribe members, except for Chieftain Narujia, were using their innate magic to deal with the corpses on the ground.

If the Roman Empire soldiers handled the bodies of their enemies without impaling them on spikes for public humiliation and simply left them exposed to the elements, it was considered respectful.

It was only through Yang Hao’s reforms that the Roman Empire’s army had regulations for uniformly dealing with corpses to prevent plagues.

But in the Monster Forest, these demon folk considered it common sense to give each body an individual grave, cover it with soil, and even sprinkle some grass on top.

Even the enemy’s bodies received proper burial post-battle. This made Teresa feel that the demon folk were much more civilized than the people of the Roman Empire.

After analyzing a few Ling tribe members who seemed to have exhausted their magic during the battle and using her limited divine spells to provide some mental comfort, Teresa stretched and muttered, “Sigh! Really, we just want to live peacefully and have a few more children. Why do we always face such troubles?”

She glanced back at the chieftain’s tent where Yang Hao and Chieftain Narujia were interrogating the prisoners.

Though she wanted to be inside watching, she ultimately chose to respect her man’s wishes. After all, he said that watching would give her nightmares.

And indeed, it was true.

Inside the tent, the two fanatics, firmly restrained on the ground by Yang Hao’s earth wire net, were barely alive.

Covered in blood, Yang Hao stood, lost in thought, staring at the four eyeballs in his hand.

Chieftain Narujia, beside him, was extremely anxious.

“Yang Hao, I implore you to help me rescue my children now. Otherwise, they’ll be tortured and killed by these bandits, who are worse than savages!”

“I know. But the more critical the situation, the calmer we need to be.”

Yang Hao nonchalantly paired the four eyeballs in twos and forced each pair into the mouths of the two prisoners, compelling them to bite down and eat their own eyeballs.

These fanatics did not have high mental fortitude, but to ensure they spoke the truth, Yang Hao increased the intensity of the torture.

He had heard that the God of Light’s church punished apostates with eye gouging and bone scraping. Now, he applied these punishments to the followers of the God of Light, and before they lost their sight, he took out their holy books and burned them to ashes right before their eyes.

The combined agony of losing their faith and physical pain broke their will, and they revealed the atrocities planned to take place in Kagad Town within Count Kagad’s territory.

On March 1st, during the festival, they planned to burn the captured long-horned heretics, along with wine and some non-believers, as offerings to their God of Light to pray for the coming of the rainy season and a bountiful harvest.

It was now February 18th. 

In this world, February only had 28 days. In other words, they had less than ten days to conduct a rescue operation.

Fortunately, not a single believer had left the forest alive this time. Otherwise, the celebration might have been advanced, and the captured Ling tribe girls might already be beyond saving.

Despite this, Chieftain Narujia was still extremely anxious. 

Yang Hao was astonished that even demon folk seemed to care for their family more than the landlords of the Roman Empire. He reiterated the importance of staying calm in such times. Attacking a town was not something that could be done recklessly. It required logistics, tactics, and appropriate weaponry.

Given that they had tall giants like the golems, Yang Hao believed that breaking through Kagad Town’s gates wouldn’t be a problem. But the question remained, how many golems did they have?

Yang Hao, curious, asked questions while striking the temples of the two prisoners with sharp stones.

Never give the enemy a chance. He understood this principle deeply. After all, he wasn’t a saint, and there was no rule in the world about repaying evil with kindness.

Perhaps there were such people, but this no longer concerned Yang Hao, who had severed ties with the Roman Empire.

When faced with Yang Hao’s questions, Chieftain Narujia, somewhat embarrassed, replied, “Golems… children of stone and earth, I am currently the only one capable of creating them.”

“Huh?”

“Only I can do it. The other children can only form stone spears and arrows. Many can’t even create a palm-sized hand.”

“Alright.”

He had thought they could at least muster several golems.

Yang Hao sighed. After having Narujia erect a stone wall outside the tent to block Teresa’s view and prevent her from having nightmares, he carried the two gruesome corpses away.

This needed careful planning. But how long had it been since he had done something like this?

He felt quite excited.

Training a group of mercenaries to fight against his own enemies. He was excited.

***

Meanwhile, Priscilla had returned to the capital through the portal in Count Kagad’s territory and was now confirming the next mission with the little empress’s uncle from the Roman royal family.

“Priscilla, you can no longer be solely focused on your magical studies. With the Regent gone, the royal family needs to communicate with the diocese, secure enough funds, and purchase grain from neighboring small countries and even across the sea from Isugard under the guise of noble luxury goods. I heard you have a deep connection with Saintess Cecilia of the diocese. Please represent the royal family during this time and communicate with the reclusive Holy Lady to gain her sympathy.”

“I understand. However, Knight Robert and his men still need a few days to recuperate, and their equipment…”

“I will take care of it.”

“Yes.”

The Night Witch left the audience hall. Ever since she failed to bring Yang Hao back and witnessed the villagers brutally kill an isolated imperial knight, she had wanted to refuse such tasks.

She wanted to retreat to her mage tower and lose herself in her studies, but the Roman Empire was in such dire straits that everyone’s efforts were needed to overcome the crisis. No matter what, she had to contribute.

Communicating with Saint Cecilia… this was an extremely complex and difficult task.

Since the day Saint Cecilia disagreed with Yang Hao, she had completely secluded herself in the underground chapel of St. Peter’s Cathedral and had not appeared in public since.

“So… she is even less aware of the current state of the country than I am, and she doesn’t know that Yang Hao has already left the Roman Empire with that Teresa. Sigh, if she finds out, she might mobilize half the diocese to launch a crusade against the Monster Forest. But if she learns that it was her own followers who drove him away, the conflict between these two facts might tear her mind apart.”

Saint Cecilia was half the strength of the diocese, the earthly representative of the God of Light, the most devout believer of the God of Light.

But at the same time, she was also once Priscilla’s rival in love, although she completely disagreed with Yang Hao’s ideas, she believed she could be his guiding shepherd.

“How am I supposed to talk with her? Should I just run over and tell her that her followers drove away the man she liked, and then he eloped with another woman?”

Priscilla felt a headache coming on at the thought. Just as she reached the courtyard to get some fresh air, she spotted the former head of the court, Natalia, who had been demoted to a maid, accompanying the little empress as they enjoyed some snacks in the garden.

‘Should I go over and say hello?’

As Priscilla considered this, she noticed for the first time the little empress opening her mouth in pain before quickly closing it again.

Was it just her imagination, or did Priscilla fail to see something that should have been in the empress’s mouth?

Watching Natalia carefully prepare extremely fine and sticky food for the little empress, Priscilla, almost like she was under a spell, cast a spell on herself to hear what was happening.

“Uh…” 

At first, there was only the sound of grinding. Then came the little empress’s painful sobs.

Priscilla didn’t understand what was happening, but Natalia’s next words plunged her into an icy abyss.

“My little empress, my dear little empress, don’t cry, don’t give up. The Regent will not let you continue to suffer here, I believe in him. Now, please open your mouth gently, don’t let the wind blow on the severed part of your tongue, these cool liquids will make you feel better.”

Upon hearing the Regent’s name, the little empress, while sobbing and sniffling, obediently opened her mouth.

Inside her mouth, behind her two rows of pearly teeth, where her pink tongue should have been, there was only a severed stump.

***

Priscilla fled, her face pale. She couldn’t understand what was happening. But she suddenly realized.

Perhaps the empress’s silence was part of a conspiracy by other members of the royal family.

And now, the only member of the Roman royal family besides the empress was her uncle.