Cthulhu Gonfalon

“Kabbalah, how much longer do you need over there?” Madam Geerteng could not help asking when she saw how messy the situation was.

“Not much!” Kabbalah managed to reply despite being in a pressing situation. “Just a little while longer.”

“This ‘little while,’ how long is that? Give me an exact time!” Olian Geerteng, who was of scholar origin, had been the lord of the viscount for many years. She was someone very sensitive to numbers, so the moment such a vague answer was given, she felt a little unhappy at once, and her tone also became quite harsh.

“Based on their rate of efficiency, they will just need another 27 minutes and 33 seconds to complete the summoning. Based on our opponent’s combat power, we can start the war in 12 minutes. If we can guarantee that there is stability at our battlefront, we will not fail,” replied a crisp and confident voice.

Olian was momentarily shocked as she turned around to gaze right into Lion’s eyes. Four eyes met one another. Inwardly, Olian was slightly startled.

Those eyes… This was no ordinary Oracle!

As a Legendary Master, Olian Geerteng’s strength far surpassed a majority of the mass-produce Oracles that had been summoned. Even among the elite Oracles, there were not many who were on par with her. After all, the mortal world was not a God’s Kingdom—to be summoned out would reduce that particular Oracle’s ability by a certain degree. But Olian had never seen this Oracle before, and this Oracle could evoke a shudder of fear in her. Obviously, this was no ordinary figure.

“How should I address you?”

“Lion.”

OIian frowned and nodded upon confirming the other party’s identity.

As an elector of the God of Knowledge, she knew information that many ordinary people could not possibly know, among which, was the list of elite Oracles.

At the end of that list, there were two names that were added not too long ago, one of which was “Lion.”

She knew that the names in the list were not arranged according to the strengths of the Oracles. The list was arranged according to the order that the Void Mask, His Majesty, had created these Oracles. For instance, “Lexington,” the name at the top of the list, was the first elite Oracle that His Majesty had created.

Based on impression, after creating numerous elite Oracles, the Void Mask had originally ended this matter. However, just some time ago, he created two more Oracles.

Needless to say, these two Oracles would most certainly have special abilities that were entirely different from the previous elite Oracles.

She did not really know what the other party was capable of, but since the other side had daringly said, “the war will start in 12 minutes,” then there must be a reason for such confidence.

So she laughed and gave her orders, “Hold on a little while more. In 12 minutes, we will launch a counterattack!

The army of clergymen, whose morale was sinking, suddenly regained their vigor. Almost instantly, even the voices reciting the prayers sounded louder.

In the world of spells, one’s belief was a source of power. When their morale was low, the power of their combined divinity would decrease, but the moment they regained their morale, the power of their combined divinity would greatly increase. Although this increase was not enough for them to fully retrieve themselves from their current disadvantageous position, they were still able to pull themselves up enough to make a comeback.

On the Divine Positions of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, the Archbishop, dressed so luxuriously that he seemed to be able to light up the night, wore a deep frown on her face.

“How strange… Where did that group of fools find all that confidence?”

The Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy had been following the God of Aristocracy even before he was given the title of a god. She had lived for almost 500 years since then. She had weathered countless ups and downs in her life and had since honed an extremely sharp eye. At that very moment, anyone could see the sudden boost in morale of the army of the Church of the God of Knowledge to the extent that even the power of their divinity was increased.

Yet this, on the contrary, got her wondering. The morale of the army naturally came from the boost in confidence, so where did this confidence come from?

Could it be… that the God of Knowledge had the intention of descending to the mortal world?

She secretly thought that this could be a possibility. The Church of the God of Knowledge lacked top masters. There was only one Legendary Master, Elector Olian Geerteng. Without the help of a clone of the God of Knowledge, when confronting the Church of God of Aristocracy, which had nine Legendary Masters, the Church of God of Knowledge was simply vulnerable.

Cultivating or subduing Legendary Masters was not easy. On the contrary, training a handful of Holy Sons and Holy Daughters who had the ability to sense and accommodate divinity was much easier. This time around, it could be assumed that the Church of the God of Knowledge would be bringing along more than just a pair of Holy Sons and Daughters. The unknown was how many clones the God of Knowledge was prepared to send down.

She could not help sneering at the thought of that.

Relying on the method of being possessed by a descending god, regardless of how powerful that certain god was, the clone that had descended would never be very strong. At best, it would be the equivalent of an ordinary Legendary Master. If one could kill a Holy Son or Holy Daughter who was possessed by a descending god, then the god’s clone would also be extinguished together with the body of the Holy Son or Holy Daughter. This was the kind of loss that no god could possibly ignore.

She had brought along all the top masters from the Church of the God of Aristocracy in hopes that she could tap into their top-rate martial skills to gain an advantageous edge over the Church of the God of Knowledge and force the God of Knowledge to send his clones down during the confrontation between the two churches. By that time, she would have outnumbered her opponent. Then so long as she could eliminate one or two clones, she would be able to deal with the God of Knowledge.

To defeat a god of one’s enemy was quite a remarkable contribution. It was worth it even she had to put in some effort and take some risks.

The Legendary Masters around her were all figures with much experience and extensive knowledge. Whatever the archbishop could tell or observe, the Legendary Masters would be able to do likewise. The two silent warriors would most certainly not say anything, but the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow had started their discussion.

The first to speak was the middle-aged man. He said, “It seems like a clone of the God of Knowledge is going to descend soon.”

“But we do not know how many clones he is going to send down,” the old Legendary Master said.

“A god with mid-level Divine Powers can only send a maximum of nine, and this god must be like His Majesty, one who has already reached the peak of mid-level Divine Powers. Given the deity level of the God of Knowledge, he could most probably send down a maximum of five to six clones,” the middle-aged man said. Then he started analyzing very carefully and continued to say, “Five to six god-sent Holy Sons and Holy Daughters—together with Olian Geerteng, this group pitted against us… so long as we are not careless, we can definitely win this battle. The question is, how many clones are we able to destroy?”

“That is hard to tell…” the “youth” commented. He might seem to be the youngest out of the three, but he was in fact, the leader of the trio. With a sigh, he said, “You all must know, the crux of the problem now is not whether we can win, but rather, are we able to destroy the clones of the God of Knowledge. Or to put it across more bluntly, the question to ask should be, are ‘we’ able to defeat a clone of the God of Knowledge, and… how many are we able to kill?”

He gave such an explicit explanation that the two Legendary Warriors who had kept silent all this while could not help giving him cold stares. He was trying to urge his two friends to cooperate with him to go in for the kill together!

“It’s still too early for the three of you to be considering such things,” the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy said with a smile. She continued to explain, “I feel that we should destroy their formation of Divine Positions and truly gain an edge over them before we discuss such matters.”

As she spoke, she turned to look towards the Divine Positions of the Church of the God of Knowledge. Numerous powerful spells were confronting one another high up in the atmosphere surrounding that formation. Countless light rays were convulating, colliding and tearing at one another. Sharp and piercing sounds were constantly heard.

No doubt, her men had the upper hand.

Also, this situation had been going on for quite some time. If it was not for the sudden boost in morale of the followers of the God of Knowledge, the followers of the God of Aristocracy would have already routed their enemy’s Divine Positions, and victory would have been theirs to claim.

She could not help frowning again, but soon enough, her furrowed brows relaxed a little.

No matter how high their morale was, they were still not a match for the Church of the God of Aristocracy, so all their efforts were nothing more than a futile delay.

Since her side was going to emerge as the victorious party, she did not mind waiting a little while longer.

And the trio who had just been exposed of their selfish motives merely looked at one another and laughed. There was not a hint of embarrassment to be detected in their laughter.

After living to an age of hundreds of years, their brazen attitudes had reached a level where they no longer knew what it meant to have a sense of shame.

They did not speak up further but instead continued to interact with one another via eye contact. They discussed how they could attack and destroy all those clones of the God of Knowledge to the best of their ability, as well as the tasks they could complete that would maximize their merits.

The thing was, be it them or the Archbishop, everyone seemed to paint an overly beautiful picture of the situation they wished for. They made everything seem so justifiable, as though everything was just as it should be.