Mage? Spell Engineer!.

Chapter 523 Historical Mission
The coalition forces gradually gained knowledge that the National Guard was dividing its forces and heading south again.

"If we retreat now, we still have room to turn around. We can rely on the mountains to resist the Valois in the north." The military attaché of the Republic of Vinaya has already begun to think about retreating: "Vinaya will never hesitate until the last moment before bankruptcy to be liquidated by the enemy."

"Bankruptcy? This is not a business!" The general of the Kingdom of Sardinia slammed the table angrily: "From the moment we set foot on the land of Valois, we have no way out!"

"That's you, country bumpkins." The military attaché of Vinaya showed his businessman's face again: "We hold a lot of Valois bonds, and we can continue to lend them money in the past, present and future. The Valois people are short of everything now.
"As long as we want, we can reconcile with the Republic in the north at any time. It's just a loss of profits, but compared to angering them and paying compensation for the dead in the war, this is a good deal."

The opinions within the "Holy Alliance" are extremely inconsistent. This is normal, as the alliance includes religious armed forces driven out by the Republic and armies from various southern countries.

The southern countries also had their own thoughts. One group was represented by Vinaya, a merchant city-state with rich and powerful trade. The other group was represented by the Kingdom of Sardinia, a filial city-state united around the Holy See of the Church of Order and Light.

How much filial piety there was was questionable. Anyway, the original largest Order Church, which led filial sons and was named after saints, had turned its back on God. The Pope thought about it and felt that the church still had some wealth, so he put it together and assembled more than a dozen divisions, thus achieving the greatest unification of the coalition forces: the soldiers wore the same uniforms.

The rest is all disagreement.

Several clergymen walked into the joint command post. They nodded to the commanding generals and then read out the decision of the Cardinal Court: "Please prepare the allied forces and prepare to attack Agnion."

This was the only resolution that everyone agreed with.

Agnon, a religious sanctuary in southern Valois, was unfortunately occupied by heretics.

When the Republic, with the support of the wizard, began to inventory church property, replenish the pitiful treasury, and confiscate the land under the name of the church, these new policies caused dissatisfaction among many people in the southern part of the Republic. Compared with the more open and progressive north, they still did not lose their way on the path of abandoning the gods.

When the coalition forces entered the border of Valois, they were surprised to see that believers in the republic had risen up and launched a rebellion against Valois with the holy land of Agnium as the center.

However, the coalition forces and the headquarters of the Church of Order in the Eternal City soon discovered something was wrong. The "Earthly Kingdom of God" organized by these devout believers refused to allow the coalition forces access and even drove out the bishop who came to persuade them. Before the National Guard turned its attention to resisting the Imperial Army, it also turned a blind eye to the "Agnion separatist forces."

The final evidence that these people were heretics was that local believers began to spread rumors of church corruption, claiming that the Pope was dying and had become a puppet of the cardinals. The worst part was that they revealed the secret of why the monastery boys farted without making any sound.
They began to break away from the church and nominated a living saint from Agnion as the "true pope in accordance with God's will."

From the accusations made by this group of heretics against the Church, it was clear that it was their own people who were causing trouble. In the end, the College of Cardinals identified the suspect behind the "Agnon Pseudo-Palace" as the former Archbishop of Valois and Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Duplessis.

This strong contender for the next pope and the most powerful charismatic of this era has disappeared from the public eye since the persecution of the church, but other bishops know that this existence, who is equal to the Grand Master, will never end his life. And the miracles performed in Agnion and being recognized as a living saint may also be the work of Duplessis.

The "false papacy" was thus placed between the coalition forces and other places in Valois. Today, the College of Cardinals finally made up their minds and declared that all those who obeyed the orders of the "false pope" of Agnion were heretical enemies and that the coalition forces should do their utmost to eliminate them.

Agnion, the newly formed Church is expecting a guest. "I didn't expect you could arrive so quickly without an airship, General Galishia."

"I have long heard of your name, Lord Duplessi. When you took charge of the kingdom, I was still a nobody. Now I have a vehicle called the Air Vehicle. If it hadn't taken time to repair the road, it would have been even faster."

The former cardinal's expression changed slightly. "The past is unbearable to talk about. Forget it. Now that the National Guard has arrived, my mission and Agnion's mission have come to an end."

"No, the new vehicles are limited, and the pressure from the empire is still there. We can't allocate more troops to deal with the reinforcements, so I hope you can ask the patriarch to issue an order to let your armed forces participate in the battle."

After the general made his request, he immediately handed over a secret letter from the National Salvation Committee and briefly explained:

"The committee and the National Assembly have realized that we have made many mistakes in dealing with religion, and that we have been too rough in the implementation process. Some commissioners have even colluded with spellcasters to rob the property of believers.
"In the future, we will reflect on our mistakes and respect the freedom of the people to believe in order and light. We hope that the Agnion Church will cooperate with the work of the committee."

Duplessi shook his head. "I won't read these. Regarding the secret letter, anyone who trusts the new church, even the most devout believers, can clearly realize that they are first and foremost Valois and will not hand over their homes to invaders."

In fact, he wanted to ask, in addition to reflection, is there any awareness of correcting and making up for the mistakes? But the former cardinal thought again, asking this question now would only embarrass the general in front of him, and it would have no other effect.

Garixia saluted Duplessis solemnly: "I feel relieved with your words."

In mid-December, the "Chant" was approaching, but even near Agnon, where the religious atmosphere of Valois was the strongest, there was not much festive atmosphere, because everyone could feel that a war was about to come here like a storm.

The Eternal City will never allow the false Pope of Agnion and his followers to safely celebrate the most solemn festival of the Church of Order and Light. Regardless of whether the coalition advances or retreats in the future, they should help the church to eliminate this bunch of heretics.

Both the new church's crusaders and the southern coalition forces began to send scout cavalry to each other and mobilize and assemble paladins.

On a high ground in the south of Valois, Rorschach, who had counted several scouts, took out a map and muttered, "This is the most likely battlefield. I don't know how big the battle will be. Both sides are generations behind the regular army in terms of tactics and equipment. The only highlight could be a civil war between the Paladins?"

Both orthodox and heretical paladins can receive God's blessing. This makes Rorschach suspect that the Lord of Order also has the attributes of a fun-loving person.

He took out a dull bead, and the content of the transaction in the Star Realm a few days ago was still fresh in his mind:
"A large-scale battle is about to take place in the south of Valois, and you need to use this opportunity to revive 'Ballan Thot'.

"And, just like you used the Transmutation Dust to shape his body, I will provide him with a nearly perfect body after his resurrection."

(End of this chapter)