chapter 31: Intermission part 2

Within the Holy Church secret meeting room.

All the important decision-makers in the church have gathered, they all had a grim expression on their face, their attention was now focused on the pope.

"What do you suggest we do now? Your holiness? About the traitorous inquisitor Luminous." one of the cardinals asked the pope.

"It's hard to say." the pope answered them honestly as he shook his head.

All the cardinals too, was speechless, same as the pope himself, they too never before in their life encounter such an odd situation.

"I say we officially declare war and joined the fight." one of the cardinals slammed his fists on the table and stood up as he said those words.

"Enough with hiding in the dark." another then added.

"But what are we suppose do if our enemy who lurked in the continent decide to use this chance to start an attack on us? We always have been using assassins to fight in our battle, our troop has no real experience in full-scale warfare as these." one of the cardinals objected the decision.

"What about the demon hunter corp?" the one who propose joining the war official stated.

"Yes, those units might be powerful and has fighting experience yes, however, did you take their numbers into account? We only have so many to spare, half has been used to defend the holy land while the others are sent out to either fight the demons on the bloody island or scouring the continent for rogue demons and heretic." the cardinal who objected their proposal retorted.

The cardinal who proposed that decision remained silent after hearing the retort.

Because it is indeed correct, if they were to use the demon hunter corp full power- sure they could demolish the Evergreen kingdom, however, it would leave the holy land undefended against their sworn enemy.

He then turned his gaze upon the pope.

"We shall go with Cardinal Sith decision of using the demon hunter corp." the pope gave his answer to their problem.

"But what about the holy land, your holiness?" they asked him.

"We just need to finish them off fast and quickly returned to the holy land." the pope answered.

"Let just hope that the profits we get out from all of this are worth going through all of these troubles...your holiness." the cardinal who objected the decision spoke up and left.

They all turned their eyes on the old man that left the meeting room.

"It indeed will be worth it, even if the crystal mine is small, it is enough for us to build up another company of demon hunter at the very least." the pope muttered under his breath.

"What I did might be cruel, however, it is for the good of humanity, with the demon eyeing our homeland- I will do whatever it takes to defend it...even if I have to sacrifice thousands," he added, all the cardinals who remained there couldn't help but agree.

"Now send out the order to the demon hunter corp!" the pope slapped the table.

******

Demon Hunter headquarter.

A thousand men have lined up in a Phalanx formation, remaining stiff, and expressionless as the sun was blazing down on their head.

All the men who stood in the formation all have a similar feature, all of them had golden eyes, and tattooed face that similar to an electronic circuit.

These men look more like a machine than human, holding spears while waiting for the order.

"We have our order." the one standing in front, facing these demon hunters shouted.

"Our target this time is...the Evergreen kingdom AND the Rosen kingdom if we had the chance!" he slammed the spear hard into the stone floor, creating spiderwebs like pattern crack upon the impact.

Immediately all the demon hunter slam their fist at their heart in unison.

"For the church and our god!" they shouted.

"Demon hunter! We are marching to the Rosen army camp- I want everyone to be there within three days! Now MOVE IT!" they all picked up the backpack that placed next to their foot and began marching out.

*****

Leonard and most of everyone else was completely oblivious to the danger that headed their way, the danger that threatened the survival of their kingdom has begun its march.

Right now, the situation of the Rosen army camp was quite disastrous.

Most of their soldiers have been slaughtered in the clashes between the two kingdoms, and now with the food supplies ever slowly running short, and a rumor began to spread that there's a deadly disease within the camp, slowly killing off their soldiers.

First, it's high fever, then the feeling of weakness, bones feeling like glasses.

It does not help much since none of them received enough nutrient, most of the one who was infected, died from exhaustion in the fever stage, the one who survived pass the fever was to be left to die in a pit, in fear of further contamination.

Of course, the one who caused this plague was none other than Leonard, using the poison secreted from the corpse spear.

The atmosphere was quite grim and tense, just like a keg of power waiting to be lit.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?! First, we haven't received any news about the emergency rations and now you saying that there's a plague spreading within our army?!" Gilbert roared out in rage.

All the commanding officers stay silent out of fear.

"General...I suggest that we made preparation for the retreat." one of Gilbert advisor advice him on the idea of retreating.

"No, I won't have it- we have come too far to retreat now." Gilbert gritted his teeth as he mustered the strength to spoke those words out.

"What happened to messengers that we sent out?" Gilbert asked his intelligent officer.

"All of them has gone dark...General." the man couldn't say any further.

Then suddenly a knight ran up to the intelligent officer and whispered something into his ear.

"General! I have good news!" the intelligent officer said excitedly.

"What is it?" Gilbert asked the man with his hope up.

"The church! They have sent in the Demon Hunter corp to assist us!" the man said.

Gilbert's eyebrow raised.

"The demon hunter corp? What is that going to help? With just a dozen, it's just having more mouths to feed!" Gilbert sneered.

"No general, the church sent over a thousand of them!" the intelligent officer corrected him.

"WHAT! A thousand?!" Gilbert stood up as he exclaimed loudly.

*****

Sitting behind one of the crates, hiding from views, Leonard has heard everything that the Rosen officers and their general, Gilbert has said.

"Demon hunter huh….I think it's best to ask Luminous what this is all about."