"I have verified it, Lord Edelweir, and the secret passage is still passable." The old Suzi said excitedly.

"After we capture the capital, I will report your achievements to the Pope." Edwill nodded, and then explained to the confused bishops.

Few people know that in order to avoid failure in the fight for the throne and end up dead, the eldest prince Harold deliberately dug a secret passage underground in the royal capital.

The entrance is in a deep well in the slums of the royal capital, and the exit is in the dense forest of the west gate.

The only ones who knew about this were the eldest prince and a few trusted confidants.

It was a pity that the evil god's followers captured the royal capital too suddenly. On the way to the secret passage, the eldest prince was blocked from front and back by two teams of musketeers, and both he and his personal guards were killed in the hail of bullets.

Only Suzi received the order and was responsible for guarding the exit, so he escaped.

After hearing this, all the bishops present realized that Edelweir had already had a countermeasure. Although the attack at noon today seemed fierce, it was actually just a test to see what tricks those evil god believers had.

"Pulson, you will lead a group of secret guards to sneak into the royal capital and wait for my instructions!" Edelweir spoke again and gave the order.

"Yes, I will obey the Lord's will!"

Pulson replied respectfully, all his previous doubts about Edelweir's poor command being swept away.

The Dark Guards are a special force carefully nurtured by the Holy See. They are not as famous as the Divine Punishment Army and the Griffin Knights, but their abilities are equally outstanding, and they are the best killers and spies.

There have always been voices within the Vatican that the existence of secret guards has tarnished the holiness of the Lord, but Purson is not one of those old stubborn conservatives. In order to deal with those insidious and cunning believers of the evil god who master strange witchcraft, sometimes he has to use some shady means.

The strongest fortress is often breached from the inside! After agreeing on a plan to capture the capital from the inside, the bishops discussed how to deal with the wizards' endless new weapons and minimize casualties.

"Although these weapons are powerful, they take some time to operate and prepare. I have observed that the shooting interval of the hand-held muskets is about one minute, but they will shoot in multiple segments to create continuous offensives, while the interval of more powerful artillery is about half a minute..." A cardinal analyzed with a serious expression.

Such a long interval was undoubtedly a huge flaw. If there were no city walls blocking the way, they would only need to use magic to protect thousands of cavalrymen and force their way through to easily win.

In addition, judging from the style of their weapons, the close combat capabilities of these musketeers should not be strong. Some bishops even arrogantly believed that only 800 God's Punishment Army soldiers were needed to kill all the tens of thousands of musketeers on the city wall.

"During the day, their vision is very wide, and they can fully unleash the power of these weapons. Perhaps we can resort to night warfare. No matter how powerful these new weapons are, it will be futile if we can't aim accurately..." a cardinal suggested.

This is undoubtedly another advantage of theirs.

Both the God's Punishment Army and the Griffin Knights, with the assistance of their own divine arts, can see in the dark and display combat capabilities that are no less than usual.

But the same may not be true for their enemies!

"It's a very good plan!" said Edwill appreciatively.

"Then let's set the time five days later!" Edelweir made the decision.

Five days? Purson thought about it and thought that would be the time for reinforcements to arrive.

…

For the next few days, tens of thousands of troops of the Holy See were surrounded outside the city. Apart from the griffin knights flying over the capital from time to time to carry out routine harassment, there was no other movement.

While Lin En was busy developing new firearms, he did not neglect the gathering of intelligence. He arranged a whole battalion of musketeers to stare at these people's every move with telescopes, and asked some psychic wizards to control some inconspicuous small animals to see if they could sneak into the opponent's tent to gather some information.

However, their enemies obviously had extremely rich experience. The entire camp was wrapped in a divine magic barrier. No matter whether it was a bird or an animal, as long as it was contaminated with magic, it would be identified when passing through.

Even the few moles that Lynn personally controlled were dug out from the ground. Their perception ability was terrifying. In the end, they could only do the next best thing and conduct exploration from a distance to assist the musketeers in their exploration work.

"Aren't divine arts and magic the same thing? Why can they easily tell the difference between the two?" Lin En was puzzled. After learning about the birth of the Holy See, this doubt has been lingering in his mind.

"I don't know much about this. I'm afraid only the speakers know the inside story." Raphael shook his head hesitantly, then lowered his head to check the two pieces of intelligence in his hand.

Whether it was the musketeers observing through telescopes or the psychic wizards controlling living creatures, the information they reported was very consistent.

In the past few days, the Vatican's expeditionary army has been busy cutting down trees in the dense forest outside the city and making new siege equipment. They are unlikely to have any intention of attacking in the short term.

"So we can take a good rest for some time." Raphael slowly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that they had indeed dealt a heavy blow to the punitive army in the last battle and established a certain deterrent, making them dare not act rashly again.

Of course, it is also possible that Edwell felt that they were a tough nut to crack, so he planned to wait for reinforcements to arrive.

"It's better not to let your guard down!" Lynn did not agree with Raphael's judgment. Sometimes the calmer things are, the more undercurrents there are.

"By the way, can we also create a magic barrier covering the entire city like them?" Lin En suddenly asked. This would undoubtedly be a good way to prevent attacks and could save them a lot of trouble.

"This... I'm afraid it's not easy." Raphael shrugged helplessly. The area of ​​the royal capital was too large, dozens of times larger than the camp set up by the Vatican's expeditionary army. The consumption of magic power would definitely be an astronomical figure. Even if these great wizards joined forces, they might not be able to hold on for long.

Using the magic stone reserves to hold on is not a solution.

Wizards are not like priests and bishops who can get the help of that false god by just shouting a few words of praise.

(End of this chapter)