The witch thought I am a Demon God
Chapter 1036 - 529: The Emperor’s Duel

Chapter 1036: Chapter 529: The Emperor’s Duel

A week and a half later, the number of Black Death infections had increased, but the primary focus of the nations was still on the war provoked by Frank, and the Church, originally in charge of managing the various cathedrals in this regard, gradually shifted its attention to collecting funding and supporting the financial situation of the Empire.

The Great Lord of Black Death wreaked havoc in the Magic Black Forest, creating batch after batch of Beings of Light, but the various nations within the Magic Black Forest were treating it indulgently.

At the same time, Emperor Aoyue III and French Emperor Louis XI conducted three ordinary-scale battles inside the Imperial territory. The Frank Empire won twice, and the Holy Empire coalition forces won the last one.

The military forces of both parties were progressively concentrating.

After determining the stance of the Alsace Kingdom, Frank invested three hundred thousand troops into Imperial territory, while the number of the Imperial coalition forces was also around this figure.

But the Frankish Army and the Imperial Army were incomparable.

The Frankish Army was entirely loyal, they communicated in the same language, and their quality was extremely high, while the Imperial Army was simply a disorderly mob.

If it were not for the battle being in Imperial territory, and also because of Aoyue III’s valiant fighting, they probably wouldn’t have been lucky enough to win that last time.

But a series of defeats had already made the Imperial lords inside the territory panic-stricken. Under the leadership of the Rhein Duchy, at least more than fifty Little Earldoms united, and under the pretense of parliamentary voting and election, formed a Rhine Federation, declared independence from the Empire, and formed an alliance with the Frank Empire.

Anyone could see that this was an act to severely weaken the Empire by carving out a large chunk of its flesh.

The next day, Aoyue III declared war on this so-called Rhine Federation. The Emperor’s one hundred thousand troops entered the legal capital of the Rhine Federation, the City of Rhine, leaving the Universal Law there, constantly polluting that piece of heaven and earth, preventing the fragmented Law held by the Rhine Federation from effectively unifying, transforming into a new Law.

The contaminated land produced a series of bizarre phenomena, causing at least fifty miles around the City of Rhine to be affected—parts of the river water turned highly toxic, the land became barren, the sky distorted, and nearby Law was torn apart, leaving the City of Rhine as unprotected against the Black Death as if it were stripped of protective gear.

On that day, most of the five hundred thousand people in the City of Rhine were manipulated by the Great Lord of Black Death after losing the protection of the Law.

Countless were infected by the Black Death, and their bodies deformed or died, while an extremely small number of chosen people gave birth to Beings of Light within their bodies.

Streams of light soared into the sky, flying towards the heavens, like ribbons of silver silk hung in the sky, an extraordinarily splendid and beautiful sight.

Yet who could imagine that behind such a grand and beautiful scene, five hundred thousand people had died.

But Aoyue III also did not succeed in eliminating the traitors, as the government of the Rhine Federation had already taken advantage of the chaos to relocate, moving onto the territory of the Frank Empire.

This meant that Emperor Aoyue III’s fury, instead of helping, aided Emperor Louis XI of France, turning what was originally a relatively autonomous Rhine Federation into a toy in the hands of Frankish people.

Immediately, Aoyue III angrily wanted to strike back, leading his large army to attack the Lorin Duchy, which had been occupied by Frankish people within Imperial territory.

This Lorin Duchy could originally be considered as a direct vassal of the Emperor.

Yet unexpectedly, it was captured by Frankish people.

At this moment, on the borders of the Lorin Duchy, where the heavens and earth were torn and twisted, Aoyue III in his military tent slammed the table furiously, "Damn that Ivita, I courted him so much in the Imperial Parliament, I helped him so much, yet he still chose the wrong side. After I deal with Frankish people, I’ll deal with him, and there will be no chance for reconciliation."

Duke Gugel’s face bore a wound that nearly split his forehead, "Brother, about this, I have good news to tell you, just this morning I received information..."

"Ivita has been hit hard by retaliation from the Ross Empire, and he is now severely injured and no longer appears in front of the people of Alsace."

Emperor Aoyue III was stunned for a moment.

Then he broke into a triumphant grin.

"Good, good! Heaven is helping me too; Ivita deserves it."

Aoyue III snorted, "I despise those who betray me the most, this is his retribution. Without Ivita causing trouble, I can fight with all my might, destroying the Emperor of Frank, without worrying about someone else profiting from it."

"I must organize an all-out war."

"The longer it drags on, the more disadvantageous it is to me."

Aoyue III looked at the map, considering the battlegrounds of the Ross Empire and the Pagan Empire, "Now it seems that the Alsace Kingdom has been completely knocked out of the competition, becoming irrelevant."

"As the scale of the war escalates, small countries can only become the sacrificial pawns between large countries."

"The Ross Empire and the Pagan Empire, unexpectedly, have been able to fight back and forth, truly surprising me."

Duke Gugel’s lips twitched, "It’s just the Ross people filling the battlefield with their lives. From just the frontline, it seems there is back-and-forth, but looking at the casualty ratio, it feels truly cruel."

...

Inside Louis XI’s Lorraine’s Palace, he too had received this intelligence. Louis XI had already paid a heavy price, unable to successfully assassinate Ivita; looking at this report, his heart filled with immense joy, he suddenly turned to the Chief Justice and Archbishop, "Do you think this is true?"

"Can Ivita be so easily assassinated by someone from the Ross Empire? The Ross Empire is far away. Their Monarch is even a woman; do you think they really have the capability to injure Ivita to the extent that he dares not appear before people?"