Chapter 928: The Exhausted Imperial Capital

“We’ve captured Havenwright. What’s the situation on your side?”

It was a rather short and simple sentence. Elizabeth placed the transmission woodpiece next to her mouth and, after she was done speaking, she gave it a light touch with her finger to transmit the message out, faraway.

At the moment, she was standing alone in the garden on the rooftop. Holding the railing, she lifted her eyes and surveyed the entire Imperial Capital from above. The capital looked extremely weary; after going through a long wait, the people had finally opened up their tightly shut doors, walking forwards with cautious and dazed expressions. They did not know what to do. The path from the west of the city until the inner city district was scattered with sporadic dead bodies and the remains of broken weapons. No one had cleared them up. Under the midday sun, they looked unusually garish; some parents hurriedly covered up the eyes of their children, going back into hiding in their homes.

In the distance, the West Gate had been crushed into pieces, hanging weakly onto the great street of the city gate. It was filled with the footprints of the Wood army.

Meanwhile, not far from the south of the palace, flames were burning fiercely where St. Peter’s Cathedral was. They buried the idols and the courtyard within them, turning them into ashes bit by bit. Thick smoke rose straight into the sky like a dancing metal rod that not even the blowing of the wind could disperse.

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A circle of soldiers surrounded the great fire, forming a blockade line to stubbornly block the believers that tried to rush in. The believers outside the blockade line formed circle after circle; most of them had knelt down on the ground. Their weeping echoed throughout the entire inner city district.

Seeing this, Elizabeth could not help but take a deep breath, turning her eyes back. After that, she heard the clamorous noises coming from below the garden; those were made by the Wood army coming and going as they cleared up the disorganized streets. They were busy taking the soldiers who had surrendered into custody and handling matters involving captive priests and things like that.

Those were just routine business after a city had been conquered.

Elizabeth was not surprised, although there were still some feelings of unreality in her heart at the moment, as though she were dreaming.

“…We’ve won.”

She lowered her eyes and quietly murmured with her lips. Not much joy could be heard from it, but there was a sort of deep exhaustion and relief.

After a long and hidden march by the army, they had finally arrived at the Imperial Capital. After she had lit up the black cross, St. Peter’s Cathedral had lost all power, and the protective barrier had disappeared automatically. The small defending troop left by the Church to guard the place did not even have the slightest hope of victory.

Half of them chose to surrender, whereas the other half resisted stubbornly, with their backs against the wall. Finally, the last remaining bishop that had stayed behind for defense died at her hands, as well as those of three other mages. Right now, although a few hours had already passed, those eyes that had been filled with hatred and resentment seemed to still sway in front of her.

Elizabeth shook her head.

A cluster of flames erupted from her hand. Raising the fire, she felt out a crumpled letter from her pocket and placed it in the fire after a moment of contemplation, letting it slowly burn up and turn into ashes little by little. Before this letter was completely swallowed up by the flames, it seemed that words such as ‘my extraordinary daughter’ could be seen on it…

As a gentle breeze blew past, the ashes drifted away and were scattered upon the Palace, disappearing without a trace.

She turned around.

“Honorable duchess, we’ve roughly searched and made arrests throughout the Imperial Capital once.” A man that looked like a commanding general walked up along the stairs and took a deep bow, before reporting. “We’ve captured a total sum of fifty seven priests that had tried to escape, all of them have already been locked in anti-magic prison cells. About twenty priests from the entire Imperial Capital were lucky enough to escape. Should we send people to pursue them?”

“It’s not necessary.” Elizabeth waved her hand. “Don’t bother with them yet, we’ll talk about that after the situation in the city has stabilized.”

The commanding general nodded, and asked again, “Then… What about the believers in the Providence District?”

Hearing that, Elizabeth sighed, revealing a somewhat troubled expression. After some thought, she said, “Don’t bother about them yet. Just increase the guards in that area. If anyone creates a ruckus, arrest them. Don’t provoke those who aren’t causing trouble.”

“Understood.”

“Also… for the remaining common people, quickly get someone to organize an announcement and let them know that we’re not some bandits or traitors. As soon as you can, reassure everyone. As for the officers and nobles in the city, put them under house arrest first. I will meet with them one by one later.”

The commanding general nodded. “As you command, honorable duchess.”

Having finished speaking, he turned and left. Elizabeth remained in the garden on the rooftop for a while longer, before finally turning around as well. Following the stairways, she returned to the aisle in the Palace.

The soldiers of the Wood army were busy coming to and fro in the aisle, but everyone who saw her would stop and bow to her in respect and honor. Elizabeth walked along the aisle, all the way to the underground prison of the Palace. A strange priest was locked in the prison; when they had attacked the Palace, this man had already been imprisoned here. He looked like he had been locked up for a very long time, and behaved in a crazy manner. It had felt strange, so he had been temporarily kept here.

“Did the Church lock you up here?” Elizabeth walked to the side of the door and asked in a soft voice, through the metal door that had been sealed up.

“Who! Who… Who are you? I’m not…” A hysterical voice sounded out from the inside.

“Honorable duchess, we’ve just done a detailed investigation and found out his identity.” When the knight by the side of the door said this, he suddenly suppressed his voice and spoke in a somewhat hesitate manner. “This man was probably locked up by the Pope, used for… that thing. It’s best if you don’t go near, he’s too dirty, in case you hurt your eyes. We should just do away with him along with the other priests.”

Hearing that, Elizabeth immediately understood what it was about.

Because of that, she shook her head.

“No, the Church isn’t completely destroyed yet. Keep them, there are other uses for him.”

As she spoke, she pushed the door open, completely ignoring the knight’s protestation, and walked into this underground room. In the underground room, she saw the priest who was wearing white, plain clothes. His body was very clean and without any signs of injuries or scars, but from the look in his eyes that seemed fearful to the point of almost being insane, she felt that the man before her eyes now had been afflicted with all types of illnesses.

After some thought, she opened her mouth to speak in a gentle voice. “Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you. Look, I’m not a member of the Church, Grant, he…”

It had been alright at first, but the moment that name was mentioned, the priest became extremely worked up all of a sudden. He pushed Elizabeth aside, moving backwards as he screamed, “No! No… Stay away from me… Devil! Get out! Don’t…”

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows.

Left with no choice, she could only wave her hand and use a binding spell to hold him in place. However, what astonished her was how an extremely frightening spiritual energy had suddenly erupted from the body of the priest the instant dark elements had surged towards the priest, causing all those elements to bounce off and resulting in the failure of the binding spell.

“How is that possible?” Elizabeth gasped in alarm, and carefully looked at the body of the priest. However, at this moment, that powerful spiritual energy had vanished without a trace, as though it had never appeared.

She felt it was extremely weird.

That spiritual energy… Without talking about other people, it was stronger than even her by multiple levels. It was as strong and robust as the great ocean, and should not even appear in the body of a young priest at all.

What on earth was going on?

Elizabeth was just thinking about getting a few more mages to come over and carefully research the strange phenomenon that had happened moments ago, when the knight outside the room suddenly knocked on the door and leaned on it, saying anxious, “Honorable duchess, chaos has just broken out in the Providence District in the city, it seems that a few bishops are still hiding there. You should go and take a look!”

“…Alright.”

She had no choice but to leave the room, rushing out quickly. As for this strange and abnormal young priest, he was to be put aside, to be slowly studied at a later time.