Chapter 365: Apostle Of Iron and Steel

’Apostle of Iron and Steel, huh?’ Adrian thought to himself, quickly recalling the lore from the original novel. ’If I remember correctly, she was a minor angel who operated under the God of War. She was pretty strong in the lore, but she never actually involved herself in stuff like this or sent anyone down here to fight.’

He frowned slightly.

’So why is she sending people down now? Could it be because of me? I mean, this guy did just announce that he is here to judgement on me or whatever... I don’t know anymore.’

Adrian took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

There was no concrete information on Apostles in the original webnovel since they never really appeared in the main storyline.

’But if this guy is just hovering up there helping the enemy army instead of attacking me directly, it means that there is a limit to his strength,’ Adrian reasoned. ’He must not actually be that strong. If those angels and their apostles could use their full strength here, they’d easily be able to kill me in a fraction of a second.’

Adrian brought his hand up to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully.

’If he actually had the power to fight me and my entire army by himself, he would just do it. But doing that would probably go against the rules of this world since the higher-tier Angels and Demons can’t just send overpowered avatars down here whenever they want. If they did, it would ruin the balance of this world. After all, summoning heroes from other worlds instead of the heavens or hell was a way to go around this rule but this guy isn’t a hero for sure.’

He let his hand drop.

’But even this alone is bending the rules of the world. So I’m pretty sure that someone from the Demon side will probably send someone down soon to counter this. It’s just a matter of time.’

"Why do they like complicating things so much?" Adrian muttered aloud in annoyance.

He looked back at his own front lines. Some of his soldiers were looking up at the glowing Apostle with hesitation.

Adrian immediately raised his hand high into the air.

"Do not worry about this fake Apostle!" Adrian yelled, projecting his voice across his army. "The God of Prosperity is always with us!"

To his surprise, the moment the words left his mouth, his Draconic Mana Veins violently surged.

A massive wave of ambient mana was violently sucked directly into his body, even though his mana pool was already completely full. Strangely, he didn’t feel any strain from the overcharge.

Then, he saw it.

Faint specks of golden energy began floating up from his soldiers. They looked like tiny, glowing bubbles of pure light. Thousands of them rose from the Oresfall army and converged directly onto Adrian, sinking without any issues into his chest.

Adrian suddenly heard the familiar chime of the system, and a blue screen materialized in front of his face.

[Alert: Foreign Faith Energy detected inside Host’s body.]

[Warning: Host’s current physiology cannot permanently contain this form of energy.]

[Query: Would you like to temporarily expend the gathered Faith Energy to cast a mass-scale buff?]

Below the prompt, a long list of selectable options appeared.

[Option 1: Mass Enhance Defense]

[Option 2: Mass Enhance Reflexes]

[Option 3: Mass Enhance Vitality]

[Option 4: Mass Enhance Mana Capacity]

[Option 5: Mass Enhance Mana Regeneration Speed]

[Option 6: Mass Enhance Physical Strength]

The list went on for a while.

Adrian quickly scanned the options.

’All of my guys are already wearing top-tier armor and are carrying heavy shields made by the dungeon,’ Adrian thought quickly, ’Boosting their strength isn’t efficient since most of them are just low-rank knights. Their weapons aren’t enchanted either, so hitting slightly harder won’t make a massive difference against an enemy like them.’

He looked back at the first option.

’But their armor and shields are already incredibly solid. Boosting their defense or vitality is the safest play here to keep casualties low. Yeah, defense is the better option.’

Adrian mentally selected the first option.

[Executing: Mass Enhance Defense.]

The system didn’t show exactly how much of a percentage boost the buff provided, but the moment he selected it, he felt the change.

He felt a sudden, surge of energy wrap around his body. He didn’t feel overly powerful or physically stronger, but his skin and muscles felt subtly different. It was incredibly hard to put his finger on exactly what had changed, but he just inherently knew that his defense had spiked dramatically.

And all of his soldiers felt it too.

The Oresfall army felt the buff settle over them and also their armor, and they roared in unison.

The massive war cry echoed across the plains, completely drowning out the lingering golden light of the enemy Apostle. The drummers positioned at the back of the formation struck their massive drums even harder.

The heavy, booming rhythm accelerated and the army began to march slightly faster.

Dum dadum dum dum.

Dum dadum dum dum.

Dum dadum dum. Dum dadum dum. Dudum dadum dum dum.

High above the battlefield, the white-robed Apostle looked down at Adrian and gritted his teeth.

Hearing the Oresfall war drums suddenly speed up their rhythm, he couldn’t help but bite his own lower lip out of sheer, boiling anger. He looked down at his own Avarice soldiers. They clearly hadn’t noticed the subtle shift in the opposing army, but he knew exactly what was going on.

His mind flashed back to Reiji, the so-called ’Hero’ who was currently just focused on messing around with women instead of leading his men.

"Well... not like he would be useful anyways..." The apostle thought as he let out a soft, frustrated sigh and slowly floated back down to the ground.

He landed on top of the fortress wall and looked at the soldiers.

"Stop shooting arrows," he commanded, his voice booming. "It is useless."