Chapter 57: The Annihilation of the Redemption Army (part 2)

They pushed forward through the intense barrage, fearlessly advancing to within 600 meters of the Monster Forest despite the rain of arrows. This marked the fourth volley from the elves.

With the fifth volley imminent, the cannon fodder shouted the name of the God of Light, and the elite troops behind them also began to advance.

However, from the elven commander’s perspective, the palanquin and the group of knights still showed no signs of movement.

“Aren’t they being too cautious?!” 

The commander ground his teeth. Just then, he noticed what seemed like a second sun appearing faintly in the sky.

Could it be…

His expression changed drastically. He immediately turned and shouted to those below, “Everyone, turn back! Archers, retreat immediately! Move! Run now!”

It was a type of divine light magic meant for nighttime illumination. Before the commander could offer any further explanation, he saw a brilliant golden light burst from the trees in front of him. His shadow stood out starkly against the golden glow, and he felt the heat from the light behind him.

‘Is this the power of the priests with many followers?! A spell meant for night illumination with the power to burn skin?!’

The commander swallowed hard. Fortunately, apart from the young soldiers, no other elves were hit.

They turned, launching arrows in a random scatter for the fifth volley, then grabbed the temporarily blinded and injured comrades and retreated swiftly.

They would wait in the rear, from the edge of the Elven Forest to 600 meters back, which was the trap zone.

Many golems were shallowly buried, and the howitzer golems in the rear, already having their trajectories corrected, were ready to fire on command.

Everything hinged on the Redemption Army entering the forest and the riflemen taking down the priests and Holy Guard, signaling with the sound of gunfire.

But before that…

They had to hold their ground.

The elven commander cast a spell, putting himself in both a concealed and shielded state.

In the distance, the priest used divine magic to order the cannon fodder at the front, who were once again subjected to a volley.

“Advance! Push forward at all costs! Those with javelins and bows, launch them into the Monster Forest until our vanguard and elite troops enter the forest!”

From the formations of the four main battalions highly regarded by the priest, four groups of archers emerged and launched three volleys before the cannon fodder troops charged into the forest.

These three volleys barely hit the forest, instead, many arrows landed on the heads of the cannon fodder.

For a moment, the priest felt embarrassed. After ordering the archers to move forward a bit, he finally saw the arrows continuously flying deep into the forest.

The cannon fodder waited patiently at the forest edge, while the elite troops were still on their way forward.

Once they merged, they would advance directly into the Monster Forest and fully deploy within it. By then, the sparse forces of the elves and demons would be completely surrounded. He would achieve the great feat of defeating the Elven Kingdom even before Bishop Stephen.

The anticipation of glory and wealth draped over his shoulders made the priest itch with excitement.

But on the other hand…

“It’s not safe enough, but my divine spell is almost out of range,” he grumbled with a frown. 

As the army advanced, the number of followers around him dwindled, weakening the intensity of his spells.

What once could directly burn skin, the “Illumination Spell,” now only emitted a strong golden light.

He had to move forward, or it wouldn’t just be a matter of his illumination spell weakening further. If he left his spell’s range, the cannon fodder, deprived of divine support, would fall into chaos.

Divine magic couldn’t directly eliminate fear and pressure from people’s hearts. What it did was cover these with courage and glory.

Once the spell was lifted, all the accumulated negative emotions would erupt in an instant.

In that case, the cannon fodder fleeing would be a minor issue. Losing their sanity and turning into frenzied madmen would be the real problem.

The priest couldn’t let such a thing jeopardize his future.

Even though he was clearly out of the range of the elves’ longbows, and those archers should have been routed, retreating deeper into the forest, the priest couldn’t shake an ominous feeling.

The priest fell into thought, while the captain of the Holy Guard beside him urged that the soldiers at the front were about to fall out of the range of his spells.

“Just wait a bit longer, just a bit. I still have about a hundred meters of range left. Let’s wait. I just have a bad feeling. Tell me, are you sure the elves can only shoot that far with their longbows?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, we’ll wait.”

Mumbling to himself, the priest ordered the bearers to move him a few steps forward and then stop.

He was testing whether an arrow would be shot directly at him. To be prepared, he had reduced the output of his area spells and held a personal shield spell ready to activate at any moment.

He waited for two minutes without seeing a single arrow. Even though the army’s archers had exhausted their arrows firing into the forest, the elves hadn’t made any move to attack him.

So where was this ominous feeling coming from?

The priest wondered, while the elf commander, who had almost ordered his riflemen to open fire, sighed in relief.

The enemy priest was still just out of the rifles’ accurate range, standing precisely at the edge. He must be holding some powerful spell to protect himself—thank goodness I didn’t order them to fire.

He sighed in relief, but the sight of the mass of Redemption Army soldiers entering the forest still made the battle-hardened commander feel his scalp tingle.

Compared to humans, these guys looked more like demons. Their eyes glowed with a terrifying green light, more frightening than any wild beast. They had clearly fallen into a trance, their savage behavior—treating the corpses they carried as shields without any regard for their fallen comrades—left a deep impression on the elf commander.

Shaking his head, he turned to check on the riflemen. A few unlucky ones had their shields pierced by arrows, but fortunately, the arrows didn’t hit any vital areas. As long as the wounds were quickly bandaged, they would survive.

The commander watched those injured elves bandage their wounds with the help of their comrades. Below them, the Redemption Army soldiers surged, while the priest still showed no sign of advancing.

The elf commander started to wonder if they had been exposed. If things continued like this, the frontline Redemption Army soldiers would soon stumble upon the ambush and discover the hidden forces.

If they couldn’t take out the priest and drive those frenzied soldiers into chaos, even with the golems’ help, the elf and demon coalition would suffer heavy losses.

If the priest decided not to move forward, the commander could try attacking the Redemption Army below to create confusion and disrupt the priest’s judgment.

But if he did that, he’d lose the chance to achieve the primary goal of killing the priest and the Holy Guard.

To attack or not to attack?

The elf commander was caught between the most important target and the safest outcome. Meanwhile, the priest in the distance finally started to feel uneasy.

If this continued, the frontline soldiers would fall out of his protective range. The ominous feeling in his gut might just be a warning due to his guilty conscience. At worst, he could offer a virgin to the God of Light as penance when he returned. With this thought, the priest commanded the bearers to move forward.

However, he made sure to reinforce himself with at least two layers of personal magical shields before focusing the rest of his power on the area-wide buffs.

He needed the soldiers to advance tirelessly with the highest morale. He needed the Redemption Army fighters to bring him glory and wealth. He needed many things—and those things couldn’t dirty the priest’s hands.

‘Let them be the sinners who enrich me and kill for my sake.’

The priest’s body swayed gently with the litter, his Holy Guard knights marching sternly by his side.

He was no longer afraid of that inexplicable foreboding.

And his smug advance finally gave the elf commander the opportunity he had been waiting for.

That fat bastard on the litter was finally moving forward.

He lifted his head, raised his hand high, and then yanked it down forcefully.

All the elven riflemen, following his lead, raised their rifles. With the faintest of movements, they pulled back the bolts, chambering a round. Using their extraordinary skill paired with precision sights, they aimed at the swaying figure on the litter. Meanwhile, the Redemption Army’s cannon fodder had already penetrated 300 meters into the forest.

One soldier, now beyond the priest’s magical influence, felt exhausted. He collapsed onto a large rock barely buried in the ground, panting heavily.

Far from the priest’s divine protection, the illusion of paradise faded. It was replaced by the eerily silent forest, the pounding of his heart, and the taste of blood on his hands.

He wanted to rest for a while.

But as the priest advanced, his divine power surged back into the soldier’s body. He felt reinvigorated, seeing the angels leading him and paradise within reach once more. Just as he smiled, ready to fight for the Lord—

The world suddenly stopped.

A thunderous roar filled his ears, and the vision of paradise shattered. The Redemption Army soldiers had no time to understand what was happening, no time to question the source of the thunder above them. 

In the elven commander’s eyes, the priest on the litter was likely dead.

Four hundred sharpshooters, over three hundred .50 caliber rifles, aimed their sights at the priest from head to toe.

With a synchronized volley, the priest was dead.

The two layers of personal divine shields he had cast would normally withstand numerous fully drawn arrows from an elven archer at close range. However, facing over three hundred bullets fired from rifles, these shields proved utterly inadequate.

As the bullets shattered the shields, the priest’s body was left in shock. His attendant knights, still processing the thunderous roar from the forest, were too slow to react. The priest’s shields disintegrated.

With the shields down, the remaining bullets tore through his flesh. 

In the eyes of the elves, his body grotesquely inflated with each bullet hit, finally exploding into pieces. The subsequent bullets struck the knights behind him without hindrance.

The bullets pierced their armor, blowing apart heads and shoulders. The unluckiest knight took multiple hits to the chest and abdomen, splitting him in two right before everyone’s eyes. His upper half launched skyward by the impact, while his lower half remained on horseback. Blood sprayed everywhere, finally alerting the Holy Guard to the grim reality.

“Lord Priest?!”

They stared in shock at the bloated corpse on the litter, torn apart and flinging intestines everywhere.

Up in the trees, the elven commander roared with excitement, “Continue!”

Bang—

Another volley rang out, sending the Holy Guards tumbling from their mounts. The priest’s divine spells finally failed.

In the instant the divine spells dissipated, the beautiful visions of paradise in the eyes of the Redemption Army soldiers shattered like broken glass. They looked up blankly at the wisps of smoke rising from the trees, then down at the muddy, blood-stained ground bristling with arrows.

Without the divine spells, the morning’s fatigue hit them like a hammer.

Without the divine spells, the fear of the elven arrows surged back into their hearts.

Without the divine spells, they no longer had the courage to face the dark forest and the thunder from above.

And at that moment, someone turned to look at the chaos among the Holy Guards and the half-corpse on the litter, screaming in terror.

“Lord Priest! The priest is dead! We’ve lost! Run, run!”

Boom—

Order collapsed in an instant. The soldiers at the front, trying to flee, didn’t even make it into the crowd before arrows from behind pierced their heads.

The overwhelming rain of arrows further intensified the chaos among the Redemption Army soldiers in the trap zone.

Before they could raise their shields and cry out in terror, the thunderous roar of cannons from afar and the incoming stone projectiles shattered not only their shields but also their last sliver of hope.

In their desperate panic, some soldiers ran headlong into the Golems rising from the ground. One unfortunate soul was swatted into a pulp by the stone giant’s massive hand.

Others who tried to flee from the trap zone didn’t get far before axes from the underground struck, severing their Achilles’ tendons.

“Aaaah—waaaah—”

The wounded soldiers clutched their slashed ankles, screaming in agony. Under their horrified gaze, Demon folks wearing cheap crucifix necklaces emerged from the tunnels, their blood-red eyes filled with hatred as they stared at the soldiers.

Seeing the crucifix necklaces, the soldiers hurriedly pulled out their own crucifixes, shouting frantically.

“Friend! Friend! I’m also a follower of the God of Light! This is a misunderstanding, a huge misunderstanding—”

The Demon folk swung their axes down, chopping the soldiers into countless pieces. Raising his axe high, one of the Demon folk roared in their native tongue, “We don’t believe in the God of Light! We only believe in the Light!”