Leon did what he said he would. He swung his Eagle Sword again.
It seemed like there was no difference from the last time. Its aura was still that of the eagle wings spread across the sky. But if one looked carefully it was evident that compared to a minute before, the sword seemed alive. It was like a real eagle instead of a sword.
It was a unique eagle, neither fierce nor handsome. It was only huge and lively. It could almost cover the sky when it spread both its wings. But when it flew it was an ordinary eagle without even one bit of greatness.
The sword’s aura suddenly broke through the long sky and pushed towards the Orc Emperor’s flag. The elder of the church straightened up and raised the staff of imprisonment up high. He gave a shout as blood flew out of his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. A circle of red light shot out from the staff of imprisonment like a flame. It acted as a shield, blocking the direction of the sword’s aura.
This time, the collision between the sword’s aura and the red light was not as shocking. Both sides appeared stubborn. They did not disappear, even on collision. The eagle from sword’s aura chirped as it flapped its wings and moved forward. The red light made a boiling sound and its color seemed to fade and evaporate, its volume constantly reducing.
After a few seconds, the red light finally disappeared. The aura of the Eagle Sword did not change much. It continued moving forward, dashing straight toward the elder of the church.
Red light emanated fiercely from the staff of imprisonment, but the elder of the church vomited blood in a violent way. His entire body was crooked. In a moment he had shrunk into a wrinkly pile of garbage. It seemed that the staff of imprisonment was absorbing his entire life force as well as his flesh and blood.
After completely absorbing everything from the life of this expert, the red light on the staff of imprisonment shone so brightly it could almost be seen throughout the world. Within the red light, the six skulls tied on the staff head floated, each of them growing bigger than the size of a human.
They opened their bony white mouths and bit towards the sword’s aura.
The sword’s aura moved immediately, and the eagle turned around to bypass an oncoming skull as its other wing flapped away another one. The battle array that the six skulls arranged had a void, so it flew through it. Although the skulls immediately gave chase they were one step too slow. It had almost bombarded the golden flag of the Orc Emperor.
Leon finally smiled.
The powers of the true Eagle Sword were really different! Especially when he suddenly received that gush of strength. The Eagle Sword was brilliant, and with its powers, he could probably fight those weaker Gods. He might even win.
Regardless of how strong the Orc Emperor was, he could not escape death or injury. The Orc spirits would deflate greatly after losing their leader, and they would have to retreat. Then this violent war could finally come to an end.
But in the very next moment, Leon knew that he was very wrong.
As the Eagle Sword came at him, Junero Tiger sighed deeply.
“In the end, I still need to use my martial powers!”
His body made a cracking noise. Then he welcomed the sword’s aura with a swing of his fist.
His palm was white and long; no one thought of this tall tiger man’s fists as weapons.
But it was his fist that knocked out the aura of the Eagle Sword. The sword’s aura crumbled and disappeared in front of his fist with a sad wail. The fist was completely unharmed.
Leon almost could not believe his own eyes. He stared at Emperor Junero and asked, “Who exactly are you?!”
“Junero Tiger,” the Orc Emperor calmly replied as his body floated into the air.
His face was full of regret. But there was also the sense that he had let go of a heavy burden. He had finished a long mission, and even though the ending was not as he wished, he had indeed lightened his load.
“Impossible! Everyone knows the Orc Emperor is not an extreme expert!” Leon frowned and said.
“Just because everyone knows something does not make it true,” Junero said, smiling. “But it does not matter what is happening. Everything is coming to an end.”
He looked down on both sides of the people who were completely stunned by the turn of events, and towards the battlefield covered with dead bodies. He sighed deeply and said to Leon, “It seems like the war is not going to progress anymore.”
Leon watched him cautiously; he didn’t dare lower his guard.
He did not know what exactly was happening with this Orc Emperor, but his expert instinct told him that his opponent was strong. Unimaginably strong! It scared him and made his shoulders and legs tremble uncontrollably.
He had heard about Junero Tiger from His own Highness and His Highness of Steel Lion. He knew that this fellow was conservatively estimated to be a demigod expert. It was possible he was even at the level of a real God. But Leon felt that with the help of the three awakened artifacts, his ability would be no less than some weaker Gods. He who could make him tremble, even slightly, was too strong!
Leon wondered how such a strong fellow could stay and fight on the main plane., Leon was an expert from the top of the legendary realm and had the help of the three artifacts. Even if he could not win against an opponent, he could at least run away. So he tested out Junero’s abilities. Junero refused to take action no matter what, which further confirmed Leon’s suspicions that he was more than he seemed.
There were two options. It was possible that Junero’s abilities were so strong he had already exceeded the allowed power limit on the main plane and could be bombed by the thunder of Godly punishment once he fought back. The other option was that Junero was the clone of an Orc God. They had no combat power at all until there were special circumstances.
Leon thought he had the absolute advantage. With his current abilities, he was close to the allowed limit on the main plane. As long as he stayed inside the main plane he thought he didn’t need to fear anyone but a higher being. But Junero shattered this confidence.
But where exactly did this Junero fellow come from? Leon thought. Could he be… the direct clone of the Main God in the Orc God System, “Sky Devourer Canine” Lefon?!
The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. But he was also smart enough not to mention it. If his guess were true, then the fact could make the Orcs in the battlefield ecstatic. The human army was already tired and could not defeat an Orc army lead by a God.
Not unless he called for backup.
No! He could not!
He shook his head hard and threw the shameful thought aside, stomping it out of existence.
As the deacon of His Highness Void Mask, it was already wrong that he left Garth City alone to come and fight for the Eagle Kingdom. He could not ask His Highness to save the Eagle Kingdom and start a war with the Orc God System, whom he had just patched up diplomatic relations with not long ago. It would be a shameless act. Even thoughts of it made him feel shameful and furious!
Since he could not ask His Highness for help, there was a possibility he would not beat the clone of Sky Devourer Canine.
Perhaps it was time to end this war indeed…
He breathed in deeply, trying hard to make his voice sound full of confidence. “Do you want to end this war? I think it would be a good idea. As a matter of fact I have something that I need to do elsewhere, and it is not convenient for me to stay here for too long. How do you want to finish this?”
Junero smiled. There was a calm that could be sensed through the entire world within his smile. He saw through the inner heart of his opponent with ease.
“Both sides will retreat,” he said. “We will draw the boundary line between our countries based on the control lines we had before the beginning of the war. We must agree not to engage in any wars for at least 20 years. What do you think?”
“So you want me to give up the contributed fortress of Iron City?” Leon said with a frown. “I can give up the land, but I will never give up my people!”
Junero smiled again. “Why would I want those people? I will give them back to you.” He sighed gently and said, “Initially I wanted to experiment and fuse the races together. But the results have been disastrous instead. Perhaps in this life, the more you chase after something, the harder it is to accomplish.”
It seemed Junero’s enthusiasm dulled, then gradually descended. He returned to the Orc war flag and gave a command to retreat.
Leon finally breathed easy. He gave retreat orders as well.
This had been the largest-scale war in a few hundred years. It had involved and killed many, and the curtains finally closed on it.
Meanwhile, inside the Pantheon Temple, the King of Order finally had the results from the voting he organized.
The voting process had a few twists and turns. For example, there was an instance when they had already voted for the Goddess of Twilight to reign over the position, but then regretted it and wanted to vote for the God of Fire Elements. There were quite a number of Gods who did this, but the great King of Order allowed this behavior and gave the impulsive ones who voted wrongly a chance to change their votes. This caused delays for some time. Now the results were finally out.
In the sky above the Pantheon Temple, two groups of bright light confronted each other, one red and one white. The red represented votes cast to the God of Fire Elements, and white represented the votes cast to the Goddess of Twilight.
Although every God could vote, not all Gods’ votes were equal. The deity of that voter decided the value of each vote. The higher the deity was, the higher the value the vote was. For example, the votes of those with strong divine powers like the God of War and the God of Justice had ten times the value of those with weak divine powers, like the God of Eclipse.
But there were very few with strong divine power. The Gods who occupied the majority of the Pantheon Temple were those with weak and slight divine power. Their votes were the ones that could decide the final results of the election.
In the end, the God of Fire Elements gained a rather large victory.
Naturally, the result made some happy and some sad, but it was not unexpected. At first, most of Gods didn’t see that the God of Light had just killed the Sun God as the God of Conspiracy had warned.
After that, everyone leaned toward choosing God of Fire Elements to be the Sun God’s successor.
When all the Gods cast their votes, the King of Order sternly looked at the entire Pantheon Temple to make sure that nobody wanted to switch anymore. Then He announced the final results.
“According to the voting results, I will divide the Sun God’s clergy. The two parts of dawn and dusk will be given to the Goddess of Twilight, and the other times will be handed to God of Fire Elements,” he said. “However, I will keep one-third of the clergy, and I am not giving it to anyone. If there is anyone else who can achieve enough understanding in the field of Sun, then look for me to inherit this part.”
After the majestic King of Order made this somewhat unique judgment, the corner of his mouth rose up in a smirk.