Chapter 383: The Appearance of the Divine Bow (1)
Chapter 383: The Appearance of the Divine Bow (1)
This had clearly begun as a civil war within the Lillian Kingdom. No one had expected that it would, in the blink of an eye, escalate into something like a world war as nations across the globe joined the conflict.Of course, no country would commit its full military force to something as trivial as a civil war. Still, it was highly unusual for armies from every nation to gather in a single country.
At first, everyone believed the war would drag on. In the end, Lillian’s economy would collapse, and regardless of whether Rukan or Rakan won, the kingdom itself would be finished.
Prices in Lillian skyrocketed without limit, and wealthy people desperate to flee flooded the borders, spending everything they had to emigrate. With both public sentiment and the economy shattered, the kingdom seemed to have no future.
Then, Crown Prince Rukan made his move. He unveiled the monsters of the Demon Capital. Rukan didn’t just control one or two, but an entire army of creatures humanity had fought against for generations. And that wasn’t all. Humans corrupted by the Demon Capital’s power, called monster-humans, began to appear as well, drawing the attention of the entire world.
At first, people were merely curious. They watched, wondering how Rukan had managed to tame such creatures. But the true problem was that his power far exceeded expectations. More than that, the mist of Liqueur also began spreading at an alarming rate.
Ten years—in that time, the mist of Liqueur covered the entirety of the Lillian Kingdom. It wasn’t as inescapable as before. Those of Master-level or higher could pass through it, but it was still devastating. The mist was so dense that sunlight could barely penetrate it. Without sunlight, crops failed to grow and became vulnerable to disease.
If that had been the extent of it, the world would never have united. After all, it was someone else’s problem. It was just a misfortune that could be exploited. However, the fog did not stop at Lillian’s borders; it began to spread outward into other nations.
Only then did the kings of other nations act, as if they had never hesitated at all. Overnight, they joined forces, declared Rukan the Demon King, and formed a global alliance army. The alliance had no intention of prolonging the war. Their goal was to defeat the Demon King within a year, so they dispatched their elite forces.
However, the war dragged on for nine long years. Even with the strongest Transcendentals and the kings, figures revered as gods in their own nations, joining the front lines, victory remained out of reach.
The reason was the existence of the malevolent gods that supported Rukan. These were beings that even powerful Transcendentals could not handle. They were entities that required kings themselves to confront, and there were four of them.
Faced with such opponents, the alliance army struggled endlessly. During this time, the public began to criticize the Samael Empire. Although it had joined the alliance, its response was lukewarm. While every other nation’s king had taken the field, the emperor alone remained absent.