Chapter 594: The State of the War

Loren intended to treat the Brave One just like the Battlefield Butcher, offering forgiveness time after time until he shattered every last bit of his conviction and dignity, and only then cut him down.

"I will never yield!"

The Brave One's hand was pinned beneath Loren's foot, and he couldn't even swing his demonic sword again.

So Loren used the flat of his blade to slap the Brave One across the face, over and over. With each slap, Loren forgave him once more.

Until even the Brave One's consciousness began to blur.

Anna yawned, feeling rather bored.

She had been controlling the Brave One's companions the entire time. She'd originally wanted to use them to threaten him, but Loren had refused.

After all, Loren's goal was simply to forgive the Brave One, not to actually force him into submission.

"Justice will always triumph over evil... someday..."

The Brave One used the last of his strength to utter those words, and then he was completely spent.

He still kept his eyes open, maintaining his awareness.

Loren hadn't expected him to be even more stubborn than the Battlefield Butcher, refusing to be talked into letting go even at the very end.

That might have been because the Battlefield Butcher had spent his time steamrolling the weak, while the Brave One had genuinely taken a beating.

By now, Bloody Battle had shortened by another section. If another powerful individual who could farm merit came along, Bloody Battle would probably evolve outright.

Loren sheathed Bloody Battle and drew Requiem.

"You can't even see tomorrow, so what do you mean 'someday'?"

That was the last sentence the Brave One ever heard in his life. The next moment, he was cut down by Requiem.

Anna had used Requiem to kill quite a few people during this time, and Requiem had grown stronger as well.

"What about the others?"

Seeing that Loren had finally made his move, Anna spoke up. She'd wanted to kill these people long ago.

To keep them quiet, Anna had severed their vocal cords.

"Kill them."

Loren sheathed Requiem. There wasn't even a trace of blood left on it.

"Sure thing."

Anna swung her blade in one clean, decisive stroke, and the remaining three were severed in two. Their blood was drawn out and flowed into the River of Blood alongside the Brave One's.

"Do you feel the way people treat witches now?"

Loren turned to look at Veronica and asked.

Throughout this entire time, Veronica had been watching from the sidelines, merely using her invisibility.

"Mhm."

Veronica had been playing the invisible woman the whole time, and she didn't have much awareness of how people treated witches.

But even if she realized it now, she didn't have much to say about it.

If people hated, then they hated. There was nothing she could change about it. Even if someone actually killed a witch right in front of her, she wouldn't feel much of anything.

...

"Clean up and get ready to depart."

Loren planned to head to the Lost Snow Mountains and spread the nursery rhyme he'd written along the way.

For this trip, Loren intended to bring Anna and the others along. Anna was more than capable as combat power now, Veronica's Arcane Ability was very useful, and Mirrorheart could take care of them on the side.

Ever since Loren had left, Anna had never experienced her own limits. Everyone who came to hunt her down was slaughtered to the last, and she'd never encountered an opponent who could match her evenly.

In the end, it forced the Church to simply leave her alone.

"I'll bring you along on the road, but I have to go up the Lost Snow Mountains alone. It's too dangerous up there, and besides, it won't take me long to come back."

With Loren's self-healing ability, he could easily set himself on fire and then use his regeneration to keep burning indefinitely without it even affecting his combat capability much.

Mirrorheart could do the same, even better, but her combat power wasn't high, and Loren couldn't bear to make her do it.

Anna's self-healing required blood, and there clearly wasn't enough blood on the snowy mountain. It wasn't even certain whether the creatures up there had blood at all.

Loren going up alone was the safest choice.

"While you're at it, wait for me in a nearby town, and listen to..."

Loren had originally intended to tell them to listen to Mirrorheart, but the words were barely out of his mouth when he suddenly changed his statement:

"Veronica, you listen to Older Sister during this time."

Anna had matured now and could stand on her own.

"I'll definitely take good care of Veronica and Mirrorheart!"

After receiving Loren's recognition, Anna was extremely excited.

"Alright, let's set out."

There were people and settlements along the entire route, so there was no need to bring much. Just bringing weapons was enough.

Money could be seized on the spot, and food and clothes could be bought along the way.

Unfortunately, Scarlett wasn't here. It was inconvenient for Loren to grab things now.

He'd been in a hurry on the way back and hadn't done any major shopping in the Uridia Kingdom. Right now, he didn't have many guns or bullets, just two pistols and a few magazines of ammunition.

Since he needed to spread the nursery rhyme along the way, Loren didn't fly the whole distance this time. After arriving at a nearby country, Loren first spent a hefty sum to buy a carriage pulled by a Magical Beast.

The carriage seller didn't ask too many questions. Anyone who could fork out that much money was clearly no ordinary person, and with Loren actively wanting to hide his identity, prying further would have been suicide.

After putting some distance between himself and the Gedlan Kingdom, Loren finally began spreading the nursery rhyme, specifically to mislead the Church.

The Church definitely wouldn't sit by and do nothing. They would use the timing of the nursery rhyme's appearance to deduce Loren's route and starting point.

Loren wasn't afraid of them blocking his path. Not only could the Church not beat Loren in a fight, but with the double guarantee of the Hermit card and Veronica's Arcane Ability, they couldn't detect him at all.

Along the way, Loren also received the latest intelligence on the war.

The forces that had been attacking the Followers of Pain had already retreated back to the God of Bountiful Harvest's territory. The Church had learned about Loren's interference on the battlefield and was now taking it seriously.

The Plague Church had also developed a new virus, and the Bountiful followers, who had been holding a massive advantage on the battlefield, instantly collapsed and retreated as well.

Both fronts had suffered defeats simultaneously, turning their advantage into a disadvantage.

At the same time, certain movements within the God of Bountiful Harvest's territory had finally begun to stir in earnest.

Those who didn't go to the battlefield and didn't participate in production started condemning the retreating soldiers, calling them cowards and asking why they hadn't died on the battlefield...

During the war, quite a few Bountiful followers had been captured by the Plague Believers, and one could only imagine what those people had gone through.

Because of that, they condemned the soldiers of the Bountiful Church again.

With this combination of blows, the morale of the Bountiful followers plummeted. They surrendered at the slightest setback, and before long, the enemy forces had pushed all the way to the country's doorstep.

Of course, surrendering depended on the situation. For example, since the enemy were all Plague Believers, they could surrender when facing the Bardo Kingdom, but they could not surrender when facing the Canaan Kingdom.

After a series of reforms by the King of Bardo, the nation's strength had grown increasingly formidable. War was an opportunity for him, and he had taken in quite a few defeated soldiers from the Bountiful Church.

Even under such negative circumstances, in the end, the Bountiful Church still managed to fight the other two churches to a draw.

There was no helping it. Loren had helped them for so long, and even with such unfavorable conditions, a starved camel was still bigger than a horse. The Bountiful Church could still hold the line against the combined forces of the Church of Pain and the Plague Church.

Moreover, the truly great nations hadn't even entered the war yet. The current scale was only the beginning.