Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 346 - 144 Preparation Before Battle

Chapter 346: Chapter 144 Preparation Before Battle

Crossing the mountains, The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps came once again to the territory of the Weisbach family.

The villages along the way had almost all declined, with abandoned houses visible everywhere. It was only when they occasionally encountered refugees on the road to Mingxing City that everyone learned that half of the reason was due to a rat plague and the other half due to the ravages of war.

In the villages, an extraordinary mutant meant certain death, whereas at least in the cities, there were other Transcendent (Demigods) for protection. Additionally, the military recruitment officers who came to the villages were so rapacious and capricious, drawing their swords at the slightest provocation to conscript the able-bodied men. They were nowhere near as civilized as the city recruitment officers, who spoke more agreeably...

Thus, a great number of refugees began to migrate toward Mingxing City, which in some sense even accelerated the urbanization process of the Bavarian Duchy—at least, that’s what the player forums said before the timeslip.

In fact, not just the Bavarian Duchy, but as the fires of war spread over the next few years, nearly all continental nation’s rural population would be forced to move to the cities (mainly because centralization was easier for defending against the threat of war).

This was also accompanied by a large number of villages being abandoned, the habitats of Extraordinary Creatures rapidly expanding, and various mutant instances popping up like mushrooms after rain.

The group arrived at the ruins of Bettaenried, which had once been a thriving town before it was utterly destroyed by the rat plague of the Lord of Filth.

Moreover, it was here that the members of The Azure Longsword had joined forces last time to slay the lead culprit, preventing further spread of the disaster.

Although the rat plague and the plague had subsided, the townspeople who had fled did not return. Instead, a group of refugees had occupied part of the streets, holding blood-stained swords and watching from afar.

This time, walking on the Main Plane were Nora and Eleanor. The latter’s Power Armor was so imposing that the refugees quickly retreated back into the buildings and fell silent.

"Ah." Eleanor sighed.

"Ellie." Nora gave her another mental suggestion, lifting her spirits from the sense of loss.

"I’m alright." Eleanor stared into the distance at the ruins, "I just wonder when this war will ever end."

"But even if it ends, this town will take a long time to recover its population," Nora also said with a hint of emotion, "At least the original townspeople, I guess, would not want to return to a homeland where such a disaster happened."

"Why are people so fragile?" Eleanor posed another profound question.

"It’s precisely because people are fragile that we need to be stronger." These philosophical questions about life, even a battle-hardened Aske couldn’t answer, and Nora, even less so, could only respond offhandedly, hurriedly saying, "Well, it’s noon. I’m going back to cook. Let Sigrdrifa take over."

She teleported back to Fire Island. Eleanor looked up at the sky, her expression somewhat wistful.

Aske had once told everyone that from the moment they entered the R1 surveillance list of the Church Court, the All-Sight military surveillance satellites overhead had been keeping a continuous watch on The Azure Longsword Team from 6:00 to 18:00 every day.

As such, there were strict team regulations about which team secrets could be exposed and which could not be used in an open-air environment during the day.

For example, the teleportation to Fire Island was something that could be exposed, just like the Extraordinary Swordsmanship’s Star Nine Forms and Unyielding Holy Sword.

On the other hand, the Undead Illusion Sword was not to be exposed, and things like Peggy meeting her Demigod mentor Agrippina or notifying the Enchanting Demon Marquina to open a teleportation gate couldn’t be let known to the Church Court.

As for the reasons and standards of judgment, since they were overly complicated, Aske did not elaborate further, only asking everyone to memorize them.

Yet, Eleanor couldn’t help but think of another thing: that meant, when the Lord of Filth attacked this place, the Church Court also watched it happen.

So why didn’t the Church Court send someone to stop him? Didn’t they have space-based tactical weapons? Why didn’t they just launch a space-based missile to wipe out the Lord of Filth?

Why, as the beacon of civilization, did the Church Court only watch the whole process? Why could they coldly observe from the orbit more than 35,000 kilometers above the Earth’s surface as countless people died from the rat plague and the plague, as a disaster beyond the pale unfolded, razing one town after another to the ground?

Yet they did nothing?

The more she thought about it, the more bewildered, uneasy... and subtly angry she became.

Sigrdrifa teleported to her side.

"Let’s go," she called out to Eleanor.

"Let’s go." Eleanor nodded.

"Oh, over there is where we killed the Lord of Filth," Sigrdrifa looked into the distance, suddenly acting as if she had found a place of memory, and started making a fuss.

"Mhm." Eleanor didn’t really feel like talking.

"Ah, that must be nice, I wish I could become stronger too," Sigrdrifa sighed with envy. "When will I be able to advance to such a level? To possess the power to easily destroy towns and countries like the Lord of Filth did."

"Is that really such a good thing?" Eleanor couldn’t help but question vehemently. "Having such immense power, but you have to prove yourself by destroying towns and killing countless people?"

Sigrdrifa stared at her for a moment before smiling and saying, "What are you talking about?"

"I’m talking about power itself, not that I would use it for that purpose if I had it."

"Besides, if it were me who had that power, I would naturally stop those like the Lord of Filth from committing evil, wouldn’t I?"

Eleanor was left speechless by her words and after a moment of silence, she sighed, "I went too far, sorry. That’s not what I meant."

She walked on in silence, feeling even more dejected, when she suddenly heard Sigrdrifa’s voice from behind her, low and uncharacteristic of her usual tone:

"Eleanor, power itself is neither good nor evil, only its user is."

"Instead of fearing the power itself, it’s better to do everything you can to master it, to make everyone fear your power."

"Then, when you execute justice, evil won’t be able to survive, will it?"

Eleanor turned around sharply only to see Sigrdrifa grinning and pushing her from behind, urging, "Come on, come on, Aske is going to nag us again for being slow."

......

By evening, everyone had finally arrived at the shores of Starnberg Lake.

"So, the plan is as follows, does anyone have any issues?" After Aske finished explaining the tearjerker act plan, he asked everyone.

"Yes." Eleanor raised her hand, puzzled. "What if I mess up my acting?"

"If you mess up, just kill strongly," Aske said nonchalantly, waving his hand. "Fear will leave tears behind after being slain. It’s just that it has too many ways to escape, and is usually hard to corner and kill."

"Remember everyone, if we have to resort to killing strongly, Fear has several abilities: the first is Invisibility, which allows it to disappear from our sight."

"There are two ways to break it: Spiritual Body and Radiance. The surrounding Spiritual Bodies can rely on their unique perception to detect the location of the invisible Fear; and if Radiance is shone on Fear, its Invisibility will also be invalidated."

"Second is Spirit Scream which inflicts damage + Dizziness on all Spiritual Bodies within a certain radius. There’s no good way to defend against it, pay attention to my warnings throughout the whole process and be ready to distance yourself from it to reduce damage at any moment."

"Third is Fear Possession, its regular attacks have a chance to plunge the attacked into a depressive and dejected state. This kind of emotional contagion cannot be prevented by Block or Attack Parry. Nora and Medea’s Mind Shield can defend against this attack, but it requires maintaining physical contact, which is unrealistic."

"Therefore, the moment either of you notices someone showing abnormal emotions on the battlefield, you must immediately use your ability for mental suggestion, planting thoughts of joy within them."

"Thoughts of joy?" Medea asked, "Like what?"

"Last Halloween?" Nora suggested, "I remember everyone had quite a lot of fun."

"Yes, that will work," Aske nodded in agreement. "Besides, Fear can freely transform between the corporeal and ghostly, provided it’s not using its abilities. For instance, it will turn its body corporeal when it is attacking you."

"And when it’s under attack, it can become a Ghost, causing physical attacks to pass through it without effect. It can only be damaged by Arcane Sequence abilities or caught off-guard in the midst of its attacks."

"Of course, it would be best if Eleanor’s acting was up to snuff, so we could just get the tears without having to engage in a troublesome battle."

"Wait a second." Eleanor said, half-laughing, half-crying, "So the key to this operation is my acting?"

"Yes," Aske affirmed without hesitation. "It’s all on you now."

Eleanor: ...

Her expression was beyond words, and then Nora and Medea dragged her away to get made up.