“Are the three of you truly giving control of this rat swarm to Bebe?” Linley asked.
This rat swarm was simply too enormous. How could these Rat Kings give them to Bebe to control?
The Violet-Gold Rat King, Harry, said disdainfully, “You don’t understand. In the Forest of Darkness, every so often, there will be a massive internal slaughter amongst the rat swarms. More than half will die, and the weak will be destroyed.”
“More than half?” Linley felt shocked.
The third-ranked Rat King, Harvey, explained: “It’s simple. The lower-ranked the rat, the faster they breed. A single litter can contain a dozen or several dozen. How can that be allowed to continue? If that continues, the Forest of Darkness wouldn’t be large enough for them to survive in. That’s why they engage in internal warfare, weeding out the weak and lowering the numbers.”
Linley understood now.
If the rat-type magical beasts were allowed to develop as they pleased, most likely the entire Forest of Darkness would be devoured by them. Their numbers had to be controlled.
“Thus, Bebe.” The Rat King named Harvey patted Bebe’s shoulder with his little paw and said in a friendly manner, “This rat swarm is yours to control. It doesn’t matter how many you get killed. The Forest of Darkness needs to keep the number of rats under control anyhow. Sooner or later, the weaker ones will die.”
Linley couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
No wonder there were so many rats of the fifth through seventh ranks, and even several that were higher. So the weak ones had been weeded out long ago. Those grey Stoneater Rats and black Shadowmice were probably still in the growing phase.
“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely complete your mission and let more than half of them die.” Bebe chortled, then looked at Linley. “Boss, how about… let’s use these rats to take over the entire Anarchic Lands?”
“Unify the Anarchic Lands?”
Linley’s body shook slightly, but then he laughed.
“Boss, the two enemy leaders are being escorted over.” Weiss Porter and Guillermo were being brought over.
“Guillermo?” Linley looked at Guillermo. This was a familiar face.
Seeing Linley, Guillermo forced out a smile. Linley laughed calmly. “This time, the Radiant Church and Cult of Shadows have really tested my limits. Because of our agreement, I had to just watch the battle happen and not interfere.”
Guillermo and Weiss Porter’s hearts were trembling.
“It’s fine. I’ll let your Radiant Church and Cult of Shadows also learn what that feels like.”
Linley looked at Bebe and laughed. “Bebe, from today onwards, join forces with Barker. Let the rat swarm and the human army attack together. Divide into ten units and begin to attack the territory of the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows in the Anarchic Lands.”
“Yes! I, Bebe, will definitely succeed.” Bebe intentionally puffed out his chest, then issued a very proper military salute.
Barker’s eyes were shining as well. “Lord Linley, don’t worry. With these hundreds of millions of rats, uniting the Anarchic Lands will be simplicity itself.” By now, even the elite legions of the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows had been destroyed. Who could possibly block these rats?
Guillermo and Weiss Porter’s faces instantly turned even paler.
They exchanged glances, terror in their eyes. They could imagine what was going to happen.
Yulan calendar, year 10022. September.
What would later be described as the war of the ‘Ratmageddon Wave’ began. Hundreds of millions of rats, divided into ten units, each containing the terrifying number of tens of millions of rats, began to move in unison with Baruch Kingdom legions of twenty thousand human warriors.
The hundreds of millions of rats and the two hundred thousand human warriors had been divided into ten groups.
These ten groups began to attack the Cult of Shadows and the Radiant Church in the Anarchic Lands.
Rat-type magical beasts of the eighth and ninth ranks could understand human speech, and in addition, some of the eighth- and ninth-ranked experts of the Baruch Kingdom set up soulbinding contracts with some of the powerful rat-type magical beasts. This made it even easier to control the rat swarm.
The rat wave was unstoppable!
The attacking rat waves, even when faced with giant falling boulders by city guards, were able to chew holes straight through the walls. After all, the Shadowmice and Stoneater Rats often ate rocks for food. They bore straight through the walls, then swept through like a flood into the cities. The city guards simply weren’t able to stop them at all.
Wherever the rat wave passed, cities crumbled and surrendered.
Even the Sacred Legion and the Shadow Legion had been annihilated. Who could resist such a terrifying rat swarm?
The ‘Ratmageddon Wave’ was only comparable to the ‘Apocalypse Day’ on year 10000 of the Yulan calendar. In addition, the difference between this and the ‘Apocalypse Day’ was that this time… the boundless rat wave listened to the commands of Linley’s side.
This news quickly spread to the O’Brien Empire, the Yulan Empire, and the various other major forces.
At the same time, this information quickly spread towards the headquarters of the Cult of Shadows and the Radiant Church. But what could they do? After all… Linley hadn’t deployed any of his Saints to join the battle. He only deployed an army of magical beasts.
However, the number of magical beasts in his army was simply too astonishing.
94
Meeting Invitation
The Sacred Isle. The ninth floor of the Radiant Temple.
At this moment, the atmosphere was an extremely depressing one. The air was so thick and stifling, it seemed to have turned solid.
The Holy Emperor Heidens, Praetor Osenno, Zealot Commander Lehman, and Lord Fallen Leaf, the spiritual leader of the Ascetics. These four high-level individuals were all present. They were staring at the news they had received. Their faces had all become exceedingly ugly to behold.
Silence!
After receiving this news, nobody spoke. Everyone understood the grave importance this news represented. Perhaps to Linley… worldly power, land, and kingdoms meant nothing. Even if the Baruch Kingdom were to disappear, it wouldn’t mean much to him.
But it was different for the Radiant Church.
“Rat wave. A rat wave!” Lord Fallen Leaf was frowning mightily. His skinny, emaciated face had a bitter look on it. “The terrifying rat wave of the Forest of Darkness. Why do they obey Linley? This is something that had never happened before.”
Heidens spoke in a low voice. “Most likely it is Linley’s magical beast. It is that Saint-level black Shadowmouse that is controlling them.”
“Saint-level rat-type magical beasts should be Violet-Gold Rat Kings!” Osenno shook his head. “Although Linley’s rat-type magical beast is a Saint, but… the Rat Kings of the Forest of Darkness are Violet-Gold Rat Kings. All Shadowmice and Stoneater Rats there listen to the orders of the Violet-Gold Rat King race.”
This was a truth. All the experts of the continent knew this truth.
The highest echelon of the Yulan continent was the five Deities, with the mysterious King of the Forest of Darkness being one of them. In all the records of the Church, even the earliest ones before the High Priest had appeared, there were notes regarding this King of the Forest of Darkness.
The most ancient of the five Deities.
The most mysterious one.
Never showing himself. Never struggling for power.
But nobody dared to offend him. No matter how powerful, no one dared to offend him.
All the major powers knew that this mysterious King of the Forest of Darkness had one hobby; he loved rat-type magical beasts. With his help, the rat-type magical beasts became an enormous, powerful race in the Forest of Darkness, and the Violet-Gold Rat Kings became amongst the highest tier of Saint-level magical beasts.
Even Sa
int-level magical beasts such as Nine-Headed Serpent Emperors, Worldbears, and Bloody-eyed Maned Lions weren’t much stronger than these Violet-Gold Rat Kings.
“Enough.” Heidens frowned. “Enough discussion about why the rat swarm listens to Linley. What matters right now is how to resolve this situation. The situation is extremely grave. I imagine all of you understand this quite well.”
Osenno, Lehman, and Lord Fallen Leaf all maintained their silence.
Heidens glanced at each of them. “The ‘Apocalypse Day’ already caused us to lose over a hundred million believers. The Radiant Sovereign is already unhappy with the loss of so much faith energy. Once Linley takes over the Anarchic Lands, then the Church will definitely be destroyed by him. In less than a hundred years, there will perhaps be few to no believers in the Radiant Church in the Anarchic Lands.
Faith!
This was one of the most important reasons why the Radiant Church existed. They had lost a tremendous amount of faith energy last time. They had been very fortunate, for the Radiant Sovereign had not punished them for this.
But if they were to lose even more…
The repercussions would be unimaginable!
“No matter what, we cannot allow our Radiant Church’s foundations in the Anarchic Lands to be destroyed. This colossal amount of faith energy cannot be allowed to be lost,” Lord Fallen Leaf said in a low voice.
“Right. It cannot be lost,” Zealot Commander Lehman said as well.
Osenno’s lips quirked up. “Faith energy is important to us, but not necessarily to Linley. Linley most likely doesn’t have much interest in land either. We can negotiate with him.”
“Right.” The eyes of the other three lit up.
This wasn’t unresolvable.
Heidens paused for a moment, then immediately ordered, “Since that’s the case, then how about this. Lehman, you stay at the Sacred Isle for now. All matters at the Sacred Isle will be under your control. Don’t allow Linley to ambush us and destroy our headquarters. As for Fallen Leaf and Osenno, you two come with me, along with six Angel Saints.”
The emaciated Lord Fallen Leaf nodded slightly.
Osenno approved as well.
The Radiant Church had human Saints as well, but the potential of human Saints was far greater than that of the Angels. The Church would rather use the Angels as cannon fodder than allow their human Saints to die.
With the Holy Emperor Heidens as their leader, the three pillars of the Radiant Church, Heidens, Osenno, and Lord Fallen Leaf, alongside six Angel Saints, quickly flew away from the Sacred Isle and away from the ocean, heading towards the Anarchic Lands.
As for the Cult of Shadows, the importance they placed on faith power was no less than that of the Radiant Church’s.
The various Saint-level pillars of the Cult of Shadows, such as the Dark Patriarch, also headed towards the Anarchic Lands.
In the southern part of the Anarchic Lands, on a desolate official road, the massive tide of rats accompanied the human warriors in a quite orderly fashion, continuing their attacks. The hundreds of millions of rats and the two hundred thousand human warriors had been divided into ten armies.
Each army had tens of millions of rats and twenty thousand human warriors.
The main use of the human warriors was to placate the citizens of the cities. Within the twenty thousand human soldiers, there was a carriage. This was the only carriage in the entire army.
And within the carriage, there was only… Bebe!
Within the spacious carriage, Bebe stretched his two rear claws out as he lazily lay down while chatting spiritually with Linley. “Boss, five armies under my control have already taken down six prefectural cities and dozens of small cities. How about you? How’s training in the pocket dimension going? Oh, fine… I won’t bother you anymore.”
“I’m so bored.”
Bebe let out a resigned sigh.
Although Bebe was roughly two thousand kilometers away from the magicite mines, Linley and Bebe both possessed so much spiritual energy that, when combined with their ‘bond of equals’ type of soul-binding, they could still chat at such a distance. Their range was double that of Linley and Haeru’s.
Twelve years ago, Linley and Haeru could mentally talk at a distance of a thousand kilometers.
By now, Linley and Haeru could talk at a distance of two thousand kilometers. Linley and Bebe naturally could talk at an even greater distance.
“Hey, where are we? How much farther from the next prefectural city?” Bebe said loudly to the outside guard.
Immediately, the soldier pulled open the carriage window and said respectfully, “Milord, according to the maps, we have another fifty kilometers to the next prefectural city.”
“As far as that?” Bebe muttered, then closed his little eyes. “I guess I’d better take another nap first.”
“The rat swarm is coming, the rat swarm is coming!” Sounds of terror from the city walls.
Atop the walls of this prefectural city, the faces of the thousands of soldiers were utterly pale. Seeing the endless wave of magical beasts in the desolate wilderness, they were all terror-stricken. Even the city governor had giant beads of sweat appear on his forehead.
“What to do?” The city governor was totally baffled.
A nearby city manager said with terror, “Lord City Governor, this rat wave is simply too terrifying. We can’t stop them. It’s… it’s better if we surrender.” As he spoke, his voice lowered to a whisper. The soldiers of the prefectural city on the wall had all seen the enormous number of rats coming, with a thin line of human soldiers mixed in.
“Surrender, won’t kill!”
“Surrender, won’t kill!”
“Surrender, won’t kill!”
The human soldiers immediately let out an enormous unified chant. This earth-shaking chant, mixed with the terrifying, endless rat wave, caused many guards to throw down their weapons. After all, even before the rat swarm had arrived, these people had heard of how terrifying the rat swarm was.
“Lord Bebe.”
The carriage suddenly halted, and Bebe opened his little eyes blearily. Just as Bebe’s eyes were beginning to focus, his little eyes suddenly turned absolutely round, and with a ‘swish’, he disappeared from inside the carriage.
The city had already surrendered, and the countless rats had been preparing to enter the city. But suddenly, not a single rat was moving.
This was because a group of people were standing there in mid-air, the leader of them a skinny, bald man. Heidens. A terrifying aura spread out from Heidens, terrifying the below rats so badly that they all knelt down, not daring to move.
“A Saint-level expert!” The human warriors below felt a hint of terror in their hearts.
Seeing this, a hint of a calm smile appeared on Heiden’s face.
The air quivered, and Bebe, who had previously been inside the carriage, appeared in mid-air. Bebe’s eyes stared fixedly at Heidens. His voice was extremely shrill. “You damn baldy, even Osenno is standing behind you. So you are that so-called Holy Emperor of the Radiant Church?”
Damn baldy?
Osenno, Lord Fallen Leaf, and the two Angel Saints standing behind Heidens felt amused.
A hint of a faint smile remained on Heidens’ face. Like a benevolent father, he looked gently at Bebe. “So you are Linley’s magical beast. I am indeed the Holy Emperor, Heidens. Today, I have come because I hope to have a good negotiation with Linley.”
“Oh?” Bebe’s beady little eyes rolled.
“Alright. You wait,” Bebe said loudly. “My Boss is still back in the kingdom. I can’t notify him. You’ll need to wait half a day.”
Heidens smiled and nodded. “Fine. Linley can choose the meeting location as well.” Heidens’ attitude was quite modest.
Bebe’s beady little eyes rolled again, and then he said loudly, “Fine. Just stay here at this prefectural city. I’ll come looking for you in a bit.” Bebe let out a sharp screech, and instantly, the rats
below all obediently retreated out of the city, no longer attacking it.
Seeing this, Heidens, Osenno, and Lord Fallen Leaf all felt shock in their heart.
As for Bebe, he transformed into a black streak of light, flying towards the north. As he flew, Bebe began to reach out to Linley. “Boss, quick. Stop training. Something big is going down.”
In the depths of the magicite mine, a gentle wind blew past. Linley’s body appeared in mid-air, while Zassler immediately flew out as well.
“Lord Linley, the value of this pocket dimension room is definitely on par with any divine artifact.” Zassler sighed in amazement. This was Zassler’s first trip into the pocket dimension room. Just then, Linley and him had been training inside.
Zassler, having been initiated into the secrets of necromancy, knew many occult mysteries, far more than Linley did.
Zassler knew very well that a Demigod definitely would not be able to create such a stable pocket dimension.
“Enough of that for now. Just then, Barker’s magical beast notified him that the experts of the Cult of Darkness have arrived. And then, Bebe contacted me as well.” A hint of a smile was on Linley’s lips. “The Cult of Shadows and Radiant Church are both frantic now.”
“Naturally.” Zassler laughed. “Lord Linley, you don’t care about territory, but religious organizations greatly value the power of faith. If they lose a huge amount of territory, they might even have a punishment fall down upon them from the Divine Plane of Light and Divine Plane of Darkness.”
“When their soldiers attacked my territory, I endured the entire time. But now, these people have popped out. I want to see what they have to say!” Linley’s eyes had a hint of coldness flash past them.
“Zassler, let’s go.”
Linley’s body transformed into a flash of light, streaking gracefully towards the south. Zassler laughed, then followed him. Only, Zassler’s ‘laugh’, when paired with his deathly, netherworldly eyes, was simply terrifying to behold.
Baruch Rising_Book 3 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 73