Hearing the exclamation, the soldiers of the Guardian Knights of the Church of Light turned their heads in unison and looked at the mountain peaks in the night.

Under the darkness of night, a group of blazing and bright fire rolled down from the top of the mountain and struck at the camp of the Guardian Knights with lightning speed.

Vaguely, they could barely make out that it was a wooden barrel filled with flammable materials that had been pushed down from the top of the mountain by the enemy and rolled down.

As for the enemy's figure, it was completely covered in the darkness, and their number and hidden location could not be seen at all.

Such a scene obviously far exceeded the expectations of the soldiers of the Church of Light.

They stood up in panic, threw their rice bowls aside, kicked the barbecue grill in front of them, turned around and ran away.

However, the Guardian Knights are, after all, the elite force of the Church of Light. They have received special training on weekdays. When they escaped, they still remembered to pick up the weapons that were still on the ground and did not push them.

Then, the moment they all evacuated, the barrels rolling down from the mountain hit the camp heavily; the tents, barbecue grills, benches, rice bowls... were all reduced to ashes at this moment.

"What a risk!"

The soldiers were deeply frightened and their clothes were soaked with cold sweat during their escape.

Even if they are instilled with concepts like "devout believers should dare to sacrifice their lives for their beliefs" every day, when they really have a brush with death, they will still feel the instinctive fear from their bodies.

But the nightmare didn't end there.

In just a few minutes, dozens of burning barrels rolled down to the Church of Light's camp from all directions, turning the camp into a sea of ​​flames.

Although the temperature in the extreme northern ice sheet is extremely low, with water almost turning into ice, this flame seems to have some mysterious power, even if the cold wind howls, it will burn more and more fiercely and never go out.

"Oh my god, that's wildfire!"

"What? Wildfire? The legendary secret weapon of the Dark Temple?"

"Damn! Isn't it true that wildfires are rare? Why are they everywhere!"

"Damn it! The Dark Temple came to raid our camp! How did they know we were stationed here?"

"..."

Wildfire is a flammable liquid unique to the Dark Temple. Its flame temperature is extremely high. It is a secret weapon created with the help of the power of the God of Darkness. Once it is ignited, it will never go out and can even burn on glaciers.

and burning on the water.

Over the years, the Dark Temple has been able to survive under the siege of the Church of Light even though it has lost the power of the Divine Familiar. Wildfires have contributed greatly to this.

However, although wildfire is powerful, it is extremely difficult to make and its quantity is scarce. Even the Dark Temple does not have much inventory.

Therefore, this offensive of the Dark Temple can definitely be regarded as a massive undertaking.

At this moment, the soldiers of the Knights were completely lost in the fire. There were flames in all directions, and they had no idea where they could escape.

As for Bilton, the commander of this operation, he was still standing on the high platform, with a rare and extremely shocked look on his face.

"No! This is impossible! This must not be true!

"After I received the instructions from the Archbishop, I marched secretly all the way to camp here. The route I traveled, the address where I camped... I didn't even tell my attendants this information. Those people in the Dark Temple...how did they find out?

Here?

"Is it possible that...as those pagans said, the evil god they believe in is omniscient and omnipotent?

"Everything we have done, the encirclement and suppression plan we planned...can't be hidden from the eyes of that evil god?"

"And...they actually stocked up on so much wildfire?"

Thinking of this, Bilton couldn't help but shudder.

Facing an unknown evil god, even his devout faith in the goddess of light could not suppress the fear welling up in his heart.

As for the "Holy Light Blessing" ability that Bilton has always been proud of, he had no time to use it and was unable to use it at all.

After all, the enemies are hiding in the darkness, invisible and intangible. Even if the soldiers' combat effectiveness is strengthened with "Blessing of Holy Light", they can't fight with wildfire!

The final result may only be to accelerate the speed at which they trample on each other in chaos and kill each other.

A bitter smile appeared on Bilton's face. He knew that he had underestimated the enemy, and the archbishop and the pope had also underestimated the enemy. The price of underestimating the enemy was the loss of the initiative and the change of offensive and defensive positions.

He's finished.

The Guardian Knights are finished.

Under the dark night, the fire flickers on and off, changing colors. Gray smoke floats in the air, and raging tongues of fire spread across the sky. The air is mixed with the fishy smell of blood and the burning smell of burnt fat, like stew.

broth. The shouts of the soldiers and the roar of the flames also waxed and waned in the howling wind.

"Great goddess! May you show mercy so that your devout believers can be freed from pain and no longer tortured by fire..."

Looking at the scene in front of him that was like a hell on earth, Bilton clasped his hands together and chanted softly.

He was unable to save these comrades who had fought side by side countless times. He could only silently pray that they would suffer less pain when they left and find rest in the kingdom of the goddess of light.

As for himself, he was already prepared to die.

I don't know how much time passed, but the fire gradually faded away.

The embers are like fireflies, dancing in the air accompanied by rolling heat waves.

"I'm actually not dead..."

Bilton looked up at the boundless night, and then looked down at the corpses on the ground. As the only survivor, he didn't know whether to be grateful or sad.

Then he saw, in the vast and endless darkness, a person walking slowly towards him, stepping on the scorching blood on the ground.

The darkness surrounding this man made it difficult for Bilton to see his true face.

"I am Delphi, the high priest of the Dark Temple. Answer me a few questions and I will let you live." I heard the man say in a cold tone.

"I'm not afraid of death. If you want to kill, just kill." Bilton said without thinking. This is the answer that every Knight of the Church of Light would give reflexively.

"Then...how about dying under the power of my Lord's divine favor?"

Bilton was silent.

The reason why he is not afraid of death is because he knows that as a devout believer in the Church of Light, after his death, his soul will return to the Kingdom of the Goddess of Light and receive the redemption he deserves.

But if the other party relies on the power of the God of Darkness to directly obliterate his soul...

That means that he will cease to exist completely.

"Great goddess, I'm sorry..." He muttered silently in his heart.

Then, Bilton slowly raised his hands.

"You ask." He said with a sad smile.

At this moment, looking at Delphi shrouded in black mist, he even envied his comrades who had died in the wildfire.

They were martyrs who died gloriously, but they themselves became traitors to the Church of Light.

"Very good," Delphi said lightly, seemingly satisfied with his current attitude, "My first question is..."

…………

ps1: The description of the battle scene draws on the side description technique of the Battle of the Blackwater River in "A Song of Ice and Fire". It means that the big scene is really difficult to write. I wrote it two or three times today before I came up with a slightly satisfactory version.
Chapter completed!