Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 631: Chapter 171

This war between the Church of the God of Knowledge and the Church of the God of Aristocracy lasted longer than what everyone had expected.

Before the war, everyone had estimated that they would fight for around a few hours before a winner would emerge. Even if this had developed into a war of attrition, no matter how strong the endurance of the Legendary Masters was, they would at most last for one full day. Or it might be because both sides were reluctant to lose any of their men, and so they were dawdling for as long as they could. But even so, dawdling for three to five days should most probably be enough to produce an outcome.

But in truth, even up to half a month later, the churches were still at war.

A small-scale battle could go on for so long, and even talking about it might somehow sound a little ridiculous. It was not uncommon for the masters with extremely strong endurance to persist for long when engaged in one-on-one fights, but under a situation where there was a melee battle going on, persisting for so long was certainly not easy at all.

If someone were to sneak onto the battlefield to take a closer look, they would realize that the clergymen from both sides were, more or less, worked to the point of exhaustion. Only the indefatigable Oracles were still fighting on.

In truth, such a statement was not completely correct. Oracles would get tired too, especially when they were fighting in the world of humans. After the Oracles’ reserve of magic was depleted, they would automatically perish and return to their God’s Kingdom to be resurrected; then they would have to go through the transportation portal to return to the world of humans, where they would continue to fight the battle.

This was something mortals could never do, and not even the immortal demigods were able to achieve this. Only the Oracles who could be resurrected indefinitely could sustain such an intense battle.

“If the battle continues to go on like that, then it’s going to be never-ending!” said Bishop Garett, who was no longer able to maintain his composure of before. Now, he looked haggard with heavy eye bags and seemed to be in a slight trance. For example, under normal circumstances, he would certainly not make such a complaint.

But compared to Bishop Montero, he was in a much better condition. The elderly Bishop sat listlessly on the ground, without even the strength to stand. His eyes showed that he was obviously already in a daze.

Where am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here?

As a matter of fact, they did not lack any dietary needs, nor were they deprived of time to rest. But as the higher-ups of the Church of the God of Knowledge, they could not rest for too long. Especially when they had to protect the young people who were executing the combined divinity formation, they, being the predecessors, had to stand up and support the situation.

The fighting style of the Oracles was much too simple yet brutal. If there was no one to command them, the situation would easily develop into a tragic one with both sides dead set on killing one another. They would kill to a point where only the winning Oracles survived—this was the kind of situation that no one wanted to see happen.

The gods who had possessed bodies in order to descend to the earth had long since left, and the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters had transformed into lifeless corpses. The leaders from both churches were either dead or seriously injured, thus unable to exert themselves physically, so the weight of this heavy responsibility of directing the battle naturally fell upon the shoulders of the higher-ups.

The situation was slightly better for the Church of the God of Aristocracy as the trio of the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the jolly green fellow were taking turns going onto the battlefield. This was enough to support the commanding role, but the Church of the God of Knowledge was not faring as well. Olian was seriously injured and needed to recuperate while Shelly had just surrendered. There was simply no authoritative figure that was convincing enough. As for the young ones, no matter how outstanding they were, they were still not mature enough to lead the troop.

So the main commanding job fell upon the shoulders of the two bishops, Montero and Garett.

Directing a battle over a long period proved to be an extremely tiring matter, especially when they were at some place where they could not eat and sleep well. The aftermath of the battle, the roaring sounds, and vibrations, the suppression of Legendary Masters... such things naturally made people nervous and tired. Bearing these things for a short time was nothing much, but being subjected to such conditions over a prolonged period—no one would be able to withstand for long.

Even the three Legendary Masters from the Church of the God of Aristocracy were now starting to show signs of exhaustion.

“Exactly when is this fight going to end!” lamented the youngest one. “I just want to go home, eat well, drink well, and then sleep to my heart’s content. Just look at my face, what a sight I am!”

“There is nothing we can do, just bear with it,” the elderly man advised. “A battle of churches will never allow for an increase in manpower, we are only left with this mere number, so no matter what, we have to pull through!”

“How lightly you make it all sound. Anyway, it doesn’t matter much to you, when you are so old with skin like an orange peel... I am still a youthful man in my prime!”

“You are older than me by quite a few years.”

“Stop arguing!” said the middle-aged man, who was commanding the Oracles as he shook his hands in an exhausted manner to stop his quarreling companions. “If you two have the energy to quarrel, you might as well make good use of the opportunity to rest while I’m in command now.”

“Boss, in a place like this, where can I possibly rest!” complained the young fellow. “The aftermath of a fight between Oracles, even if you hide in the secret mansion, you can still feel it so clearly.”

The middle-aged man sighed. He knew that it was quite an inconsiderate thing to ask of them. The Legendary Masters might be much stronger than ordinary people, but their awareness was much more sensitive as well. Under such a situation, even if they wanted to rest, their instincts would make it impossible for them to take a restful break.

Not to mention the young one—even he and the elderly man were unable to sleep well. What made matters worse was that they were running low on food.

The combat power of a Legendary Master was very strong, so naturally, their body would consume much more energy as compared to ordinary people. They were able to draw and replenish energy from their surroundings, but under such conditions where they were unable to rest well and were mentally exhausted, and where the surrounding energy was in disarray because of the bombardment caused by the battle of the Oracles and the combined divinity formation, the amount of energy they could absorb was limited. They had no choice but to rely on dietary input to replenish their energy.

What made matters even worse was that these Legendary Masters seldom brought large amounts of food along with them, especially those clergymen who belonged to the churches. They could usually use several divine spells to conjure up a meal. Regardless of whether they used junior divine spells to make water or food, or intermediate divine spells to make army meals, or even advanced divine spells to make a “hero banquet,” all of these spells ensured that they ate and drank well.

But now, the magic of the clergymen was completely used to maintain their transportation portal and to execute their divinity combination in order to confront their opponent’s divinity combination.

There was simply no additional magic to make food. They could only rely on a few pieces of magic props to create some food and drinking water to sustain their lives. This food and drinking water was unquestionably enough for normal humans. For the Legendary Masters who were not in combat mode, this would suffice too. But when placed under a prolonged period of battle, to these three Legendary Masters who needed a great deal of food for energy, this meager amount was far from enough.