Chapter 815

======[ Empire’s East ]======

Ha-shal-leur and the fanatics of Astraea swept through the Empire’s east without hesitation, piling up countless ashes.

No noble could stand in her way, as she marched forward with just cause and divine radiance. In fact, it was impossible to stop her.

What could nobles, who were at best counts or lower, do against a superhuman capable of destroying a castle single-handedly?

Even if they gathered their private soldiers to resist, those who were innocent of their crimes simply prostrated themselves before her, while the accomplices were torn apart by violence that seemed inhuman and the Light of Judgment raining from the sky.

Resistance was futile.

“Whether we die here or there, it’s the same! Charge!”

“Curse Astraea!”

The worshippers of the Evil God, who had been lurking in the shadows of the Empire, and five counts who boasted considerable power in the eastern territories (excluding Landenburg) joined forces in a desperate last stand…

“Is this all you’ve got?”

It didn’t take long for the thousands of troops they had gathered to be annihilated.

– Kwaaaaang!

Ha-shal-leur, who had obliterated the demon leading the charge with an invisible speed, walked out calmly as if taking a stroll amidst the shocked enemies. She spread the power of the Life Force Technique through the ground in all directions.

– Kwaddddduk!

With each step she took, the shadows beneath her feet spread like ink drops on white cloth, and from those shadows, hundreds of crimson spikes shot up like spearheads.

“Ahhh! My stomach, my stomach!”

“Kweeek!”

The Life Force Technique, Extreme Brilliance (棘影).

Soldiers impaled on the blood-red stakes flailed like rags on a flagpole. Torn organs mixed with fresh blood rained down, dyeing Ha-shal-leur’s entire body red.

The Empress of Slaughter, drenched in blood and entrails. To her enemies, Ha-shal-leur was an unstoppable calamity, the embodiment of a nightmare.

“Invidius! Bestow upon us your dark grace!”

The grotesque beings, resembling monsters with carapaces, regenerative abilities, and defensive magic, managed to withstand the Life Force Technique’s stakes. Presumed to be high-ranking cultists, they charged at Ha-shal-leur, swinging all manner of weapons, but—

“You guys haven’t improved at all.”

They were torn apart by a casual wave of her hand, without even a chance to scream. Like eggs smashed against a rock.

And Ha-shal-leur wasn’t the only enemy they faced.

“Ah, a demon! That’s a demon!”

“Blasphemous wretch!”

A knight, pointing at Ha-shal-leur and laughing maniacally, had his head crushed by a mace from a Paladin of the Order of Justice.

“Gweh!”

A strike enhanced by divine blessing. The knight’s skull, helmet and all, caved in, and his eyeballs were crushed against his visor.

“Gweeeeh…”

The knight, killed in one blow, collapsed, his brain oozing out from his eye sockets, nostrils, and half-crushed ears.

“Save me! Please, please save meeee!”

“Face the Sword of Landenburg! You pests who have gnawed at the east!”

A noble begging for mercy was impaled by Nigel’s holy spear, convulsing as the lightning power within Ebelond’s spear roasted his body alive.

“Lady, you seem to get stronger every time I see you. How is that even possible?”

Leonor, who had pierced a master-level knight’s forehead with her sword and scrambled his brain, looked at Ha-shal-leur, who was raining blood, and let out a disbelieving laugh.

An incomprehensible, nonsensical talent. It was as if the heavenly gods had poured all their blessings onto her alone. As if she lived in a completely different world.

“Hmm, this one’s interesting. Mixing beast monsters with a human body. Can we consider this a beastman?”

Freide pondered the taxidermy value of a monster with a human torso and the heads of a dog and a bear, sawing off its limbs.

Deciding it was useless compared to real beastmen, she eventually slit its belly and cut its throat.

Thus, the allied forces of heretics and nobles crumbled like a sandcastle swept away by waves.

A result that had been foreseen even before the battle began. There were no surprises. With Ha-shal-leur alone being a calamity, and her companions and the Paladins of Astraea added to the mix.

“Praise Astraea! Praise her sword, Lady Astika!”

“Bring order and justice to the world!”

The ecstatic cheers and praises of the Astraea faithful echoed like a choir.

In the midst of a lake of flesh and entrails, the Judge of Order calmly smiled and puffed on a magical cigarette.

—

Ha-shal-leur, wielding the authority of Astraea and her own might as a saint, reaped the heads of nobles like a harvest, swallowing vast territories whole.

Her advance sent shockwaves through the Empire’s political landscape.

In the entire history of the Empire, there had never been a case where a single noble family annihilated all surrounding nobles and annexed their territories.

The Empire’s nobles finally realized.

The Empire’s Greatest Sword. The Sword of the Starry Sky, sharper and more precise than any other sword in the Empire, had not one, but two blades.

And those blades could be swung not only against external enemies, but also against themselves at any time.

For the nobles who had regarded Ha-shal-leur as a mere beast leashed to their will, this was a shocking and terrifying realization.

“How can a saintess do such a thing…!”

“Burning lords at the stake and forcibly seizing their lands. We’ve heard the Astraea Church is full of fanatics, but this is clearly an overreach of authority!”

Nobles who heard the news from the east trembled in fear and hurled sharp criticisms at Ha-shal-leur.

“If she’s satisfied with swallowing the east, that’s one thing… but if she decides that’s not enough…!”

The sight of criminals being burned alive on the execution pyre no longer felt like someone else’s problem.

Some nobles knelt before the Emperor, pleading for Marquis Median to be punished for overreaching his authority, while others went to Duke Bien, begging him to stop Ha-shal-leur.

But—

“How do you mean?”

“There’s no justification for that.”

The two, who had long intended to purge the corrupt eastern nobles, dismissed the nobles’ pleas with indifference.

With the Empire’s ruler and the head of the noble faction tacitly approving Ha-shal-leur’s “holy war,” the individual nobles had no means to stop her.

“One who bears the Holy Mark of Order and Justice is embodying the will of the goddess on this land, cutting out the Empire’s tumors. Shouldn’t we rather offer praise for this? Though we serve different masters, as a saintess who has also received the Holy Mark, I support Lady Astika’s ‘holy war.'”

Even the church forces, led by Archbishop Elmain, went a step further, openly declaring their support for Ha-shal-leur’s actions.

Pure believers were deeply moved by the sight of sinners being judged for their heinous crimes, while more secular clergy saw this as an opportunity to suppress the nobles’ authority and expand the church’s influence.

“To hinder this… well, unless one is a heretic, a cultist, or a criminal deserving of the pyre, who could harbor such wicked intentions?”

The underlying message in Lacey’s words was clear even to a fool.

Do not hinder Astika’s holy war.

Those who hinder it will become enemies of the entire diocese.

It was a blatant threat. Those who had criticized Ha-shal-leur and sought to stop her actions retreated, drenched in cold sweat.

Thus, with a single campaign, Ha-shal-leur left a clear mark on everyone in the Empire.

The truth that if she set her mind to something, no one in the Empire could stand in her way.

The nobles trembled in fear, the knights admired her might, and the priests praised her actions.

Those liberated from the nobles’ tyranny by her, the common folk who had always been on the exploited side, hailed her as a true hero.

The submission of nobles, the worship of knights, the praise of priests, and the adoration of the people.

That was the mark of a true king.

Though Landenburg’s independence had not yet been officially declared, she had already taken her first glorious steps as the Queen of the East.

The old nickname, “Red Empress,” spread once more.

Now, it was no longer just a metaphor, but a title closer to the truth than ever.

As for Ha-shal-leur herself, she simply headed towards the Landenburg Territory with a lighter heart, having relieved her accumulated stress.