The leading Cardinal Nix looked at everyone present and spoke solemnly.
"Everyone, according to the spies' report, the two cities on the empire's border have now been captured by wizards. Those evil minions are slaughtering and killing the Lord's believers wantonly, and now they have reached deep into the heart of the empire, preparing to spread pain, disaster and death to the entire continent!"
"The end of the world has come! Behind us is the Holy City. You and I have no way to retreat..."
Under Knys's sorrowful narration, tens of thousands of cavalrymen couldn't help but show fear on their faces, but soon Knys' voice became louder and louder, ringing in everyone's ears like a huge bell.
"But we don't need to be afraid, panic, or terrified! The great Lord is watching from heaven right now, watching everyone who is fighting a desperate battle for the Empire and the Church!"
“Death and faith are the keys to unlock the kingdom of heaven and bring the soul to eternal peace!”
"Shout out now, the Lord's most pious people. The end of the world is not worth fearing. Our sacrifice will be engraved in the long river of history. In the not too distant future, the Lord will descend from heaven, dispel the haze of the end of the world, and turn the world into an eternal pure land..."
Knicks' impassioned speech made the Cavaliers present forget the panic and fear in their hearts. They raised their weapons, shouted loudly, and vented their inner madness and determination.
"Kill those blasphemers..." "May the great Lord dispel the haze of doomsday and turn the world into a pure land!" "May the glory of our Lord shine upon all things!"
At this moment, everyone abandoned their fear of death. Even though everyone knew that defeat and destruction would be waiting for them, there was no hesitation.
Because death is not the end of suffering but a ladder to heaven.
In the Lord's kingdom, there is no illness or aging. The rivers there flow with fragrant wine, the wheat fields will automatically produce full ears of wheat without the need for cultivation, and the branches of every tree are hung with juicy steaks... Everyone will live in magnificent mansions and enjoy endless peace and joy.
Amid the shouts of the crowd, Knicks suddenly dismounted from his horse, knelt reverently on the ground in the direction of the holy city, kissed the soil beneath his feet, and chanted the name of the Lord.
More and more people spontaneously dismounted to perform their final pilgrimage, praying that the great Lord would protect them and enable them to achieve the final victory.
Amid the increasingly loud prayers, a ray of milky white light emerged from the direction of the holy city.
A faint divine light shone around everyone, and a fanatical emotion gradually occupied everyone's mind. At this moment, they all felt the Lord's gaze, and there was only one thought left in their hearts, which was to use the swords in their hands to chop down all the enemies in front of them who dared to block them, and defend the Lord's glory with blood and life...
"Praise you, my Lord, your power makes the stars dim!" Knyx responded to the Lord's gift, then stood up, led tens of thousands of cavalrymen to mount their horses, pointed their swords forward, and shouted loudly.
"Now... Charge!"
"Charge, charge!" Accompanied by roars, tens of thousands of cavalrymen urged their horses on at the same time, charging forward like a landslide or tsunami.
Just at the end of the horizon, a steel torrent consisting of thousands of armored vehicles has appeared in everyone's sight. The wheels rolled over the earth and rocks, raising clouds of flying dust. Under the ferocious armor, there were machine guns mounted, and the muzzles were flashing with cold light, as if they could fire a deadly barrage of bullets at any time.
Of course, Nix knew that this was a new weapon developed by the wizard, with powerful defense and offensive capabilities, but he believed that under the power of the Lord, nothing was invincible! Even if the final outcome was defeat, he would do his best to give the enemy the heaviest blow...
The charging cavalry got closer and closer to the advancing steel torrent, and soon crossed a dangerous distance - two kilometers!
The roar of artillery sounded first, and hundreds of shells flew into the sky, and then fell from the sky like a meteor shower.
"God is with you and me!" Knyx raised his sword high and shouted loudly, and the divine light that appeared around everyone immediately gathered together.
The ten thousand divine punishment troops who had taken the divine grace potion were at the forefront, with a large number of priests and bishops as the core, and an exquisite divine magic array was quietly unfolded.
An invisible magical barrier appeared out of thin air, immediately covering tens of thousands of cavalrymen. Fierce artillery fire bombarded it, creating ripples and obvious cracks on it, but they were quickly repaired.
Relying on the divine power of thousands of priests and bishops, Knicks led tens of thousands of cavalrymen and advanced rapidly despite the attack of artillery fire, and soon they were within a range of one kilometer.
At this moment, hundreds of red rays of light shot out from the enemy's formation, and almost instantly destroyed the layer of divine protection.
In the rapidly generated high temperature, the iron ball that was burned red, deformed and almost melted quickly passed through the entire array. No matter whether it was the silver armor on the knights or the divine light flashing around them, they were as thin as paper under such terrible speed and power.
A Divine Punishment Knight in the front row didn't even see how the light came flying towards him, and he and his mount were turned into a ball of blood mist and fragments...
Such scenes happened in every corner of the battlefield. There was no pain and no howling, because everything happened too fast. In a blink of an eye, there were more than a hundred death roads full of flesh and blood in the cavalry array. The strong smell of blood filled the air, which made the cavalry team charge forward even more frantically.
However, this was just the beginning. After using electromagnetic cannons to defeat the divine defense, the airships lost their stealth and appeared in the sky. The bomb bays at the bottom suddenly opened, and projectiles the size of a human head fell towards their heads.
Considering the subsequent battlefield cleanup, the airship was not loaded with white phosphorus fire, but these projectiles were equally deadly. The huge grenade exploded again in mid-air, and the shrapnel inside scattered over most of the battlefield. In the violent explosions and flames, nearly 10,000 cavalrymen died directly under this round of attacks! The machine guns and gun barrels mounted on the armored vehicles also rang out simultaneously.
Continuous artillery fire, flying iron balls, shrapnel showering the sky, fierce crossfire, countless Divine Punishment Knights were blown into pieces every second, falling in rows like wheat being cut.
However, under the influence of powerful magic, they completely forgot about fear and escape. Perhaps only at the moment of death could they break free from this frenetic state.
Seeing his colleagues falling in front of him one by one in the attack of artillery fire, Knicks' heart was filled with endless anger. With red eyes, he shouted: "Charge, charge, end the doomsday, kill them!"
"Kill, kill them!" "End the Doomsday!" "Heaven...Heaven is coming!"
Tens of thousands of God's Punishment Cavalry roared and rushed recklessly into the steel torrent formed by the armored convoy in front of them, trying to crush them completely with the powerful impact as they had done in the past when they defeated the rebels and believers of the evil god!
However, they soon discovered how unrealistic their previous fantasies were. The lance blessed with divine power pierced the armored vehicle at high speed, making only a small dent. Then a huge reaction force bounced back along the bent lance, and there was an immediate scene of flying blood and flesh, and people and horses falling to the ground.
The priests and bishops mixed in with the cavalry also used their magic to blast deep dents into these lumps of steel, but their effect was limited to that.
With the power of the bishops, if they were in good condition, they would not be unable to do anything to a lump of steel, but most of the divine energy in their bodies was used to defend against artillery attacks, and they had no time to pray for the blessing of divine power. There was no way to break through the armor's protection for a while.
Only a few cardinals such as Knicks could easily blow up the armored vehicle and destroy it, but such a conspicuous existence soon attracted special attention. Dozens of electromagnetic cannons bombarded him directly, turning him into a ball of bloody mist.
As the targets of the attack, except for a few armored vehicles that were hit on wheels or weak points and forced to shut down, the others did not even stop. The cold and solid armor was like a moving wall, crushing the enemies blocking the way into pieces, leaving only corpses all over the ground, and blood gathered into a river that slowly flowed across the front line.
"Are they crazy? Why don't they retreat like this?"
Seeing tens of thousands of imperial legions rushing towards the steel torrent without fear of life and death, and then being crushed, but still rushing forward one after another, Raphael and others who were observing all this with farsighted magic on the airship felt their scalps tingling. So far, they have killed five waves of legions sent by the church to block them.
The number of people each time is neither more nor less, approximately around 40,000 to 60,000 people.
As for the significance of dividing the troops, he roughly guessed some of it. One of the purposes was to prevent them from using [Skyfall] to kill all the people in one go.
But attacking in batches like this is almost the same as committing suicide! The church should be very clear about this, but it still sends people over continuously.
"Perhaps they want to use these people to consume our ammunition and magic power reserves, and gain some advantages in the subsequent decisive battle." Harov speculated.
Hundreds of thousands of lives in exchange for war preparedness?
The wizards present couldn't help but frown, feeling a chill rising from the soles of their feet to their hearts.
If this were true, the madness and cruelty of the church would be beyond their imagination, but it had to be said that after six consecutive wars, more than 70% of the various ammunition they had stored for a year had been consumed.
Fortunately, their most core combat preparations were not used, and the wizards' magic power was always maintained at a considerable state. The four legendary wizards, Lynn, Vittorio, Harof, Aurora, etc., did not take any action.
Firstly, such a small situation can be handled by the kingdom’s army alone, and it can also train new recruits. Secondly, they need to stay in the best condition to deal with possible threats.
According to their intelligence, the church has at least three legendary clergymen, hundreds of cardinals, countless bishops and priests, plus a false god of unknown strength, whose strength is actually much stronger than theirs.
"It is also possible that these legions are pawns thrown out by the church to delay our progress." Lin En guessed thoughtfully.
But this was obviously meaningless. Under the crush of thousands of armored vehicles, these imperial legions who came to die couldn't even stop their advance.
The longest stay was when seven cardinals led tens of thousands of people to guard a mountain forest.
As a result, he ordered airships, fighter planes, and artillery to carry out several rounds of bombing for several hours, and then used an armored convoy as a vanguard to drive directly over and crush everything.
Six punitive armies, more than 300,000 elite troops, plus the border legions that attack the kingdom from other directions in an attempt to force them to send troops for rescue, should be all the conventional forces that the empire can muster!
Lin En stared at the Imperial Knights below who were suffering heavy casualties and making fearless efforts in the face of a group of impenetrable iron lumps until the last moment of their lives. He felt a little emotional.
It has to be said that in the study of psychic magic, the gap between them and the church is very obvious.
Lin En could imagine the psychological pressure that such a mixed army of divine magicians and divine punishment knights, which was not afraid of death, would bring to the enemy. It was no wonder that the church and the empire were able to rule this continent.
It's a pity that the swan song of the old times ends here...
Just as he was thinking, the battle below quietly came to an end. After thousands of armored vehicles suffered one-tenth of damage, 50,000 imperial cavalry had completely collapsed.
The entire plain turned into a slaughterhouse, with burning corpses everywhere and incomplete armor, weapons, and armor everywhere.
The steel torrent shows no sign of stopping. There will be special people in the rear to deal with these troubles, and all they need to do is move forward, forward, and forward again!
Target the Holy City!
Midnight soon arrived, and the Kingdom Army, which had been running for several days, finally stopped and prepared to rest.
The straight-line distance to the holy city is less than 60 kilometers now. If we leave our supplies behind and travel light, we can reach the city in no time if we set out tomorrow morning.
Proper rest before a big battle is obviously necessary.
Lin En looked up at the sky. A bright moon was hanging high in the sky, shining so brightly that every wizard could sense the existence of the magic tide.
But he remembered that today shouldn't be Sunday...
(End of this chapter)