chapter 23
Episode 23-The Holy War
“Sa… Save me!”
As soon as we entered the village, the villagers came out and knelt down to pray.
Many people were killed by blind arrows, but since they still boasted more than 100 people, they might have tried to rebel against Lempria’s army at least once, but they knelt down and begged for their lives unconditionally.
With that amount of people, they could have rebelled at least once, but they just knelt down and begged.
The opponent had more people than themselves, but they were all armed.
There was no way for humans who had only been engaged in production to defeat a well-trained army.
Some people were seen fleeing the village, but Lempria, seeing the sight clearly, did not stop them.
“Ouch!”
The woman praying in front of her collapsed beside her.
Lempria said as she kicked the bloody woman with her feet.
“Kill them all.”
“Nuna, don’t bother those who have no will to resist.”
“I won’t say it twice. Kill everyone in this town.”
As Lempria opened her eyes and looked behind her, her men could only brandish her spears.
Lempria’s charisma was as intense as that.
It took less than 20 minutes for more than 100 villagers to be slaughtered.
It could have taken longer to confirm this since there could be someone pretending to be dead.
Even taking that into consideration, it was truly a great thing to massacre all the villagers in less than 20 minutes.
“Imp, do you think my decision is too drastic?”
“Uh, the other side showed us a willingness to surrender. But did we really need to kill all these people?”
“If these were the only people we had to deal with, we could just leave the village alone. But that’s it.”
Isn’t this town the end?
“At least 20 pieces of fragments are scattered across the northern part of the forest. In order to devour all the villages in the northern part, we must learn how powerful and merciless God Lemfra is. Otherwise, the blood will only increase. .”
“Are you planning on killing everyone who rebels against Lemfra?”
Lempria nodded her head.
“Of course I have to die. Living a life of rebellion against Lemfra is worse than dying right now. But unlike this village, if the other side surrenders first, then there will be no massacre.”
The imp nodded her head as if he finally understood.
I didn’t like killing all the people in a village, but it was only because I wanted to make a strong first impression of Lemfra-sama, and I was somewhat relieved to hear that I wouldn’t do it in the future.
“Then let’s go in. For the great crusade that will follow tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
I stood vigil according to the order I had planned in advance.
Tonight was very quiet.
***
Lempria’s army began encroaching on the village in the northern part of the forest very quickly.
Lempria’s army was only about 200, but the number of people in the village they were attacking was also only around 200.
Until now, humans who had only been producing could not overcome the proper soldiers.
“I believe in Lemprasin. Please spare my life!”
“What we are saying is not to believe in Lemphra as one of the ordinary gods. We are asking if you can believe in our god Lemfra even while degrading your god to a spirit.”
200 Armed men threatened and asked, but no. There was no one who could answer that.
The problem was how to continue the faith in Lemfra.
Lempria has come up with a fairly sophisticated solution to this.
“Listen carefully. You are the missionaries who will spread the legend of Lemfra in this village from now on. If any of the villagers do not believe in Lemfra and rebel against you, you are free to kill the villagers.”
Leaving one soldier in each village, he appointed missionaries to follow them.
In order not to feel a great moral responsibility in punishing the villagers, those who were in a weak position in the village or those who were the first to say they would submit to Lemfra were nominated.
Lempria’s method had a great effect.
Even with the investment of only one soldier per village, they were able to perfectly control one village.
It was thanks to their very weak faith in their own god and when Lempria first attacked the village, it imprinted them with proper fear.
Lempria traveled to many villages in the same way.
All those who opposed Lemfra were killed.
The gods of those who shouted complete surrender from the beginning were made into high-level spirits.
The god of those who shouted surrender only after attacking first was made into an intermediate level spirit.
During the massacre, the gods of those who succumbed were made into lower spirits.
Although the gods they believed in were demoted to mere spirits, they quickly got used to it.
In their view of faith, this was possible because their god was not an absolute god from the beginning, and their god also submitted to Lemfra and lowered himself to the position of a spirit.
As the legend of Lemfra was expanding at an incredible speed, the rumor continued to spread north through countless villages.
Every time we passed a village, the story was twisted a little bit, and when we finally arrived at the village with the greatest power in the northern plains, Lemp was portrayed as a complete evil god.
“An evil spirit appeared in the south. Is it okay to stay like this?”
A woman asked a man in a village full of people peacefully walking down the street.
Her name is Yumire, a woman called the god of time in a myth.
“I checked yesterday using divine power. Even if the evil spirits appeared, there are only about 200 troops. In the outskirts, there are not enough resources to train soldiers, so the number of 200 feels high.”
The man named himself Gad.
In the system of polytheism, where countless gods are scattered, he accepted many gods as his subordinate gods at an early age and proudly put his name on the position of the god.
Unless they were completely outskirts, they were aware of the existence of Gad, and even if they did not support him in the vicinity of the village he ruled, they acknowledged that Gad was the supreme god to some extent.
He’s not sure if he’s a trustworthy god, but he was one who had nine gods under him.
If more time passes like this, he will be able to confidently rise to the position of the supreme god in the mythology of the plains, which is made up of polytheistic religions.
Like Zeus in Greek mythology and Odin in Norse mythology.
Since he had the belief that he would rise to the highest level, there were nine gods who stood beside him, risking his own status to fall.
Now he will be known as a cowardly god who bowed his head to other gods, but when it comes to the end, he will eventually become another supreme god next to the supreme god.
For him, who had a strong following and strong influence, the news of an evil spirit appearing on the outskirts of the plain was not that important.
The environment on the outskirts of the plains is not so good. The climate is dry and there is not much food, so I went and confirmed that I couldn’t raise troops.
That’s why the mere appearance of 200 armed people calls them evil spirits and is frightened.
However, an army of about 200 was an army that could easily be created by gathering only the troops of the gods under his command. It wasn’t that difficult to make 200 soldiers if only 20 people were gathered in a village.
Therefore, Gad was not at all afraid of evil spirits.
“Didn’t you say that you kill all those who don’t believe in you? You can issue an oracle about that. Emphasize the benevolence of the gods. How can a god who kills humans without giving them a chance just because they don’t believe in him can be called a god? ?If you bring it down from the evil spirit to the position of the devil, the fear of the residents will be greatly weakened.”
“Okay.”
After Yumire tapped Gat on the shoulder, she returned to her village.
‘Evil God Lemfra.’
If it was a crisis, it could be seen as a crisis, but to him, the current situation rather felt like an opportunity.
The uneasiness created by the appearance of the evil spirit will unite people under his name.
His thoughts were completely shattered after hearing that the people of the village ruled by the evil spirit believed in the evil spirit as a creator god and began to worship him.