Watching the Holy Alliance Army slowly retreat, Raffel felt a mix of emotions.

In his eyes, the Blood Knight and the Clockwork Cannon were the same thing, using the power of the devil to fight against the devil.

But if that were truly the case, wouldn't it mean the Holy Father is powerless, and the Holy Father's people must use the devil's power to combat the devil?

"Thousand River Valley, truly the root of all evil."

King Jiji, who was at the frontline, looked pale, as if dizzy from the heavy scent of blood.

Hearing Raffel's words, Ginijis turned his head: "When it comes down to it, it's the church's fault. If they hadn't been so oppressive, even if the Blue Blood Monastery had been discovered, throwing out a few scapegoats could have muddled the situation.

Look at the essence of the problem, the essence is that the church is too brutal in this place, that's the root cause."

"Are you saying the church is the root of all evil?" Raffel frowned.

Ginijis laughed heartily: "Humans are the root of all evil; otherwise, why would the Holy Father call for redemption?

The church itself is not at fault; the fault lies with the people consumed by greed. So in the future, priests of Leia's church must be tested and reviewed before entering!

Not only should we reduce priest recommendations, but we should also strictly investigate priests' corruption and abuse of power, ideally with a permanent institution."

Raffel nodded but suddenly froze; wasn't this the management method of the Thousand River Valley Church?

Isn't this how the Thousand River Valley regulates priests and officials?

Seemingly unaware of Raffel's strange gaze, Ginijis asked: "Not to mention this, have you tested the Clockwork Musket?"

"Tested, the light Clockwork Musket gets stuck in the flesh, the heavy Clockwork Musket gets lodged in the rib bones, and I guess the unfamiliar Large Clockwork Cannon could cause serious injuries, and the Clockwork Cannon might kill."

When saying these words, Raffel felt indescribably uncomfortable inside.

He was a Great Knight, the pinnacle of knights.

He could actually be defeated by a dead object, and in the simplest and crudest way.

Fortunately, he could still wear White Crystal Steel Armor so that unless facing the Clockwork Cannon head-on, he could ignore ordinary Clockwork Muskets.

The most powerful Kanni Di only caused him harm by lodging in the bone plates of his lungs.

After becoming a Great Knight, an Imperial Knight's body would undergo a series of mutations like a Demon Hunter.

Bony plates would grow between the ribs, a second parallel bone would grow in the arms to bear more muscle.

At the same time, they would lose all sexual desire, and their intelligence would constantly decline, requiring the Blessed Bishop to bless them to prevent them from losing intellect.

"Since the Holy Alliance can't resolve these Clockwork Cannons, you just need to continue wearing them down. Once the military morale is low enough, you can lead the Blood Knights in a charge."

In Leia Kingdom's military system, key assaults by Extraordinary Knights to conclude a battle were almost an indispensable part.

Otherwise, how could Leia dare to call itself the Knight Country?

Ginijis knew that in every Holy Alliance operation, the knights' final charge always incurred the most casualties.

This task should be left to the Blood Knights.

Ginijis always felt conflicted; the Imperial Knights were devout but not loyal enough, and the Blood Knights were loyal but not devout enough.

So the best way was to keep both forces balanced, which is the way of checks and balances.

He turned his head, but found Raffel seemingly didn't hear, his gaze entirely fixed on the sky.

Only when patches of shadow swept across the ground did Ginijis realize something.

He turned his head sharply, seeing those "giant eagles" in the sky, his pupils dilating abruptly: "Alaric, Alaric."

"Your Highness?"

"Immediately support Grey Robe Hill... go quickly!"

......

Standing next to the Clockwork Cannon, Bipp Beb Anders was praying.

He was pleading for forgiveness from the Holy Father and the Angels, he opened fire on his family and compatriots, but it was for justice, not betrayal.

There were still too many things in the world he couldn't let go of, he didn't want to die yet.

As for the dead children, they weren't his children, so why should he care?

If Horn would just lay down the church crown, peace could have come, but his greed made him refuse.

So Holy Father, all this is Horn Gallar's fault, please spare us ordinary believers.

The sunlight on his face suddenly turned cold.

Is it cloudy? Bipp Beb slowly opened his eyes, but was frozen in place.

Dozens to nearly a hundred men in leather armor were soaring in the sky, their open wings like dark clouds blocking the sun.

A series of shadows flew over his face, and Bipp Beb stared blankly.

Are those angels? Black-winged angels, has the Holy Father come to punish Horn?

Before he could figure it out, the black-winged angels had already swooped down.

"Swoosh—"

By the time he reacted, all he could do was clutch the bloody hole in his throat and slowly kneel.

"Enemy attack—"

Amid the warning horn blasts, the sergeant of the Shadow Crow Army Otto descended from the sky, weaving like a water snake through two encircling knights.

In just the instant he passed through, both knights clutched their throats, unable to stop the spurting blood.

What they held were finely crafted rapiers made by Dwarf artisans themselves.

Unlike ordinary rapiers, this rapier was like a rice thresher's awl, hollow inside.

Otto had just rushed towards the cannon position when he felt the sunlight dim, and the sound of breaking air rang out behind him.

As he stomped sideways, a blast of air exploded between the sole and the ground, and he abruptly slid half a meter horizontally.

The great sword came crashing down, splattering mud, and Otto quickly turned around. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

A tall figure, an Imperial Knight in gilded armor, was glaring at him through the mask slits.

"Prepare to be judged, devil!"

With the sword raised like a roof, the great sword slashed vertically again, and Otto lunged forward, stepping on the air to slide, once again dodging the great sword.

But this time, he was facing the Imperial Knight head-on.

The tip of the rapier gleamed coldly, emitting a whistling sound, and pierced into the knight's forearm.

Unfortunately, the penetration was not deep before the Imperial Knight clamped it with his muscles.

Otto did not continue with the assassination but twisted the rapier and withdrew it as lightly as a dragonfly touching water.

He then jumped, leaping four or five meters high and landed on the cannon's body.

With a shake of the rapier, blood gurgled from the foreheads, throats, and hearts of three surrounding gunners.

It wasn't just Otto; nearly a hundred other Shadow Crow soldiers who descended from the sky were also frantically assassinating gunners and service workers.

"Wizards, followers of the devil!"

The knight was furious, immediately drew his sword, and gave chase, but after running two steps, he felt something was wrong.

First, his vision blurred, and he could hear a heavy heartbeat in his ears.

He shook his head, the heartbeat disappeared, but then came a sharp ringing in his ears, and his face began to feel faintly hot.

Poisoned? It shouldn't be; he had the [Immunity to All Poisons] divine art blessed by the monks!

After running no more than two steps, the knight fell to the ground, curled up, his face turning red and purple.

Otto hadn't used poison; he simply injected a large amount of air into the knight's blood vessels through the hollow rapier.

Patrick had mentioned it before, using an empty water well air extraction technique to draw water, which was pioneered by the White Snow Witch, ancestor of the Shadow Crow soldiers.

Unfortunately, the witch had already passed away, and the wind spells the Shadow Crow soldiers knew merely allowed them to jump very high.

In Black Snake Bay, they were part of the fringe secret sect, discovered by Griz who reported their potential to the ry Court Barracks.

Subsequently, Selomis formed the second regiment of Black Snake Bay, gradually completing the Shadow Crow tactics in later battles, earning them the name Shadow Crow Army.

"Stop them, stop them, quickly call the monks over!"

Embracing the madness, the Shadow Crow soldiers slaughtered the gunners and destroyed gears and pins.

The Shadow Crow soldiers were bent on washing away the shame of losing their position before the battle; they had long harbored pent-up anger.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the elite and skilled gunners and service soldiers were nearly wiped out.

By then, the monks had finally arrived on the scene.

But they hurriedly flipped open the Star Book and the Gospel, unable to even start reading before seeing several clocks flying towards them.

"Click, click...click!"

Silent shockwaves erupted, causing several monks to fall to the ground instantly.

Taking advantage of the gap, Otto skated over to the monks as if he was on roller skates.

Turning his head, twisting his body, leaping and squatting, the rapier's tip drew a long bloody line across their necks.

Ultimately, this sergeant major executed a three-meter-high backflip out of the monks' formation, leaving behind seven or eight monks' corpses.

As expected, the casualties of seven or eight caused nearly fifty monks present to collapse.

They dropped their scriptures, screamed, and scrambled down the mountain, even colliding with the knights hurrying up.

Otto coughed, his muscles twitching, clearly showing that the slaughter just now had been quite taxing for him.

He looked over the gunner positions on the platform; most gunners had been killed or fled, and as for the clockwork holds, they'd been thrown off the hilltop.

Otto blew the copper whistle in his mouth: "(Encrypted Communication) Position Three taken care of!"

"(Encrypted Communication) Position One taken care of!"

"(Encrypted Communication) The sergeant major is dead, the sergeant major is dead!"

"(Encrypted Communication) Who said I'm dead?!"

After confirming that the gunner positions had been mostly cleared, Otto shouted, "The enemy is coming up, let's go!"

The Shadow Crow soldiers quickly assembled, with four or five people in the front row sprinting and kicking off, the airflow sweeping outward, lifting blades of grass.

One after another, triangular black wing shadows rose from the ground, soaring into the sky.

Like eagles spreading their wings, the Shadow Crow soldiers also deployed the mithril frame spider silk parachute wings to glide in the air.

They were only capable of jumping very high, unable to hover or pause in mid-air.

Similar to Novia, they faced challenges in lateral flight.

So, under the designs of Novia and Leonardo, they developed this small glider.

For normal people, it would be very difficult to use, but for these Shadow Crow soldiers, it was barely usable.

The only condition is they can't be too heavy, and they can't carry too much weight.

By the time Alaric led the foot knights, gasping for breath, all that was left was a scene of chaos.

The clockwork holds had been thrown off Grey Robe Hill, the gunners either dead or injured, with some having fled and gone missing.

Most clockwork cannon screws and sights were bent, with few intact remaining.

After all, Grey Robe Hill was gradually sloping in the south and steep in the north; they never expected anyone would attack this gun position.

If Alaric had been the Holy Alliance, he would never have overlooked this gun position.

But now it seems, it's another trap!

The Holy Alliance and Black Snake Bay have colluded too deeply, having produced flying devil soldiers, daring to go against the Angel!

In the azure sky, only the silhouettes of gliding Shadow Crow soldiers remained.

Sometimes they form a ┟ shape, other times a ║ shape, disappearing from Alaric's sight.

A wave of depression rose from Alaric's chest and abdomen, as he dashed in fury to the edge of the hilltop cliff.

"Come back, come back, come back!"

Pulling open a longbow, he furiously shot several arrows at the backs of those Shadow Crow soldiers, shouting hoarsely:

"Have the guts to one-on-one? Duel! Damn, despicable Thousand River Valley people! You'll end up in the Fire Prison sooner or later!"

His chest heaved violently for a while, Alaric opened his bruised lower lip from biting himself: "Go report to His Highness, Grey Robe Hill's artillery has been destroyed, gunners fled, only one clockwork cannon remains.

Please quickly send someone to repair or replace the clockwork holds, all clockwork holds have been tossed off the hilltop."