[Well, isn't this fun...]

Blazejudicator, Screamira, Corpse Doll, and Porcelain Doll only had to walk a mere five minutes away from the ruins of Soot Snail until they had stumbled upon a spy—well, a scout.

They spent twenty minutes trailing the elusive spy until he finally arrived at their home encampment. Evidently, it was a good thing that the kaijin opted to go stealth mode this time around.

The spy's encampment was a proper military camp, the kind that had dozen of uniform tents, several hundred soldiers milling about, and a handful of champion warriors that were all Aether Lords and above that served as the core of the group.

In other words, a proper military unit.

The moment the kaijin saw this group, they had initially assumed they belonged to the Erupting Dawn Empire since most of the intelligence that they had about this ongoing local war was that the Erupting Dawn Empire were the aggressor. The sight of the Sacred Flame Theocracy's banner flying instead shocked them a little.

However, this shock didn't last too long, as the group still had a mission to uphold.

[Alright, Screamira and I will check out the left-wing of the encampment. Doll Twins, the right side is yours,] Blazejudicator ordered.

[On it.]

However, literal seconds after they had planned out their scouting formation, the entire encampment started buzzing with activity.

[What the hell?]

[Why is everyone freaking out so—]

From a large tent at the center of a camp, a giant armored man covered in flames suddenly exited and released a powerful aura that made people feel as if their faces were right next to a bonfire. Needless to say, such a display of force caused everyone within range to stop whatever they were doing and heed whatever words were about to come out of this armored monolith's mouth.

In other words, the kaijin could sense that this individual was going to be trouble.

"Attention, crusaders!" the armored man called out, his deep voice clearly enhanced by aether. ^The time has come for us to march forward and cleanse the world of heretics once more. The people of Soot Snail have failed to comprehend the significance of their punishment before interlopers rescued them. Therefore, we have no choice but to cleanse them from this world.^

^Cleanse! Cleanse!^

As dozens of voices chanted their approval of the word "cleanse," the owner of these voices began to pound their weapons in rhythm.

[...]

[Huh...]

The kaijin watching this scene unfold couldn't help but compare the behavior of these soldiers to that of the zakos, in a negative way.

The kaijin were aware that mortals were supposed to be multifaceted beings with their own hopes, dreams, desires, and fears, while the zako were artificial warriors who would develop a singular desire that would define their very existences.

To see such beings whittle themselves down to such an artificial sameness was...disturbing.

Especially since it appeared that they got some sick, twisted buff from all of this dogmatic violence.

^We will march on the fools in the next two hours, long after they have fallen into slumber following their hedonistic feast. And in the cover of night, they shall burn into holy smoke and cinders. May their souls find their way into the Flametender's embrace.^

^Amen.^

Now that they were aware that it was time for a war footing, the members of the 55th Punishing Hounds Platoon began to prepare for war.

Ironically, they were under the watch of a cavalcade of monsters they would surely identify as demons.

…

[Okay…so we have a legion of war zealots about to march on a town for no

clear reason other than some vague notion of a holy crusade,] Screamira observed. [Should we go down there and wreak havok now or later?]

[That is up for Executor to decide,] Blazejudicator answered. [Executor, what are your orders?]

... 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Thanks to the kaijin, Zhen Liu was now more than aware that the celebrating townsfolk of Soot Snail were about to be marched on by a bunch of zealot freaks. However, given how many of them were drinking and partying, there was a very good chance they would be dead drunk by the time the crusaders arrived at the door.

Unfortunately, that included his friends.

The jovial atmosphere had surprisingly gotten Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Jinju Ren, Rianna, Olstenna, Lythero, and Antonio drunk, even though their strong innate cultivation should have allowed them to resist such effects.

Perhaps they were simply laying their guards down; perhaps they were being affected by the ambient [Chaos] that Zhen Liu and his kaijin produced. Either way, now that they were inebriated… Zhen Liu didn't want to disturb.

"What's wrong, darling? ~" Jinju Ren asked in a sweet, slurring voice. "Did your little friends find something bad?~"

If Zhen Liu told her the truth, she and the others would definitely sober up through less-than-ideal means and help with fighting off the Sacred Flame warriors. However… Zhen Liu didn't want them to do that.

While he did open up about the whole Kaijin Lord thing with his friends and family, and they had told him that they would help when he needed it, there were still moments where Zhen Liu couldn't help but to regret telling them about everything.

Not because he didn't appreciate their help, he just felt bad that he had kept dragging them through a lot of shit that wouldn't have happened had he not told them about it all in the first place.

Which was why Zhen Liu came to a decision once he took in Jinju Ren's drunken words.

"Oh don't worry about it, darling," Zhen Liu assured this buzzed fiancee. "Nothing more than a handful of jungle rats wanting a shot at all of the food. I think they're going to try and do something once everyone passes out from drunkenness."

THUD!

Emphasizing this point, Antonio had passed out after downing a barrel's worth of alcohol.

"See?"

"Hmmm."

Jinju Ren eyed Zhen Liu up and down to determine whether or not her fiancee was trying to hide something from her, but failed to discern any such behavior.

"Okay," Jinju Ren shrugged. "You and the kaijin go have fun with your rats."

"Oh, we will ."

...

'The request to attack them while their metaphorical pants were still down has been rejected. While I can see the value of attacking them now, I can't help but think it would arouse more suspicion on my end,' Zhen Liu informed the scouting kaijin. 'I know it's been awhile, but I am trying to keep things hush hush over here. Especially since it sounds as if we're going to need the whole team over there.'

[Understood,] Blazejudicator confirmed. [So what would you have us do, Executor?]

Zhen Liu's thoughts were silent, as he tried to put together a plan that would be appropriate when dealing with a whole bunch of crusaders knocking at your door.

Thankfully, he didn't need that much time.

'Alright, here's the plan...'

...One very straightforward set of instructions later...

After two hours of preparation, the 55th Punishment Hound Platoon was ready to march.

Under pale moonlight, over a hundred soldiers at the peak Aether Master stage, a dozen Aether Grandmasters, and a handful of Aether Lords marched in perfect unison with one another, while under the watchful gaze of Bishop Olmen, the only Aether King among them.

A force like this was usually enough to topple over a small city settlement in the blink of an eye. Right now, all of this firepower was about to be used to slaughter a small town of drunken people who had no reason to suspect that such violence was about to occur.

As the soldiers marched, their footsteps were loud enough to drown out the usual chorus of night time noises, while their collective aura was enough to scare away many aether beasts that would normally come to investigate or hunt such loud footsteps.

For all intents and purposes, this army of crusaders was practically invincible in their current area and very few of any warriors would be able to do anything to stop them.

At least, under normal circumstances.

As the army marched forward, several of the sharper eyed warriors at the front of the columns noticed something odd.

"Lieutenant, what is that?"

"It appears there is...someone sitting in the middle of our path forward?"

"Not only are they sitting, but they appear to be doing so with...is that a tea set?"

Several dozen feet ahead of the marching soldiers, a young man was seated at a small table with an appropriately sized teaset sitting atop of it.

Such a sight would fit perfectly in an urban setting, a camp setting, or the private grounds of an Elite's estate. However, seeing such a sight in the middle of a battleground was...beyond ludicrous.

"Company, stop!"

As such, the army couldn't help but to stop so that the leaders could figure out why there was a young man just sitting in the middle of their marching path.