When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 707 - 665: Frontline Situation

"Die, witch!"

The tall Armored Soldier, with a ferocious expression, adopted a rooftop stance and fiercely swung his heavy sword towards the slender witch before him.

The witch appeared to be in her twenties, with a head of short brown hair, and wore a thin iron breastplate. In her hand was a slender rapier.

On the city wall bathed in the red glow of the sunset, the light around the witch rippled like water, and even approaching her one could feel a wave of heat.

Treading on the sandstone-paved walls of Solaburg, stepping over the severely injured and twitching companion on the ground, the Armored Soldier's heavy two-handed sword sliced through the air, so powerful that even the hilt bent slightly.

The wind it stirred lifted the witch's brown short hair.

The witch, with her back to the soldier, seemed to hear the sword's whistle through the air only then. Yet she didn't even turn her head, merely transformed the rapier in her hand into a stream of light, piercing the throat of a soldier in front of her.

"Ignoring me?! Witch!" In his fury, the soldier's sword accelerated, targeting the witch, "Fine! Hm..."

"Clang—" The sword blade struck the ground, sending sparks flying. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The familiar sensation of a blade meeting flesh didn't occur; instead, the resulting imbalance nearly caused the soldier to fall.

He stumbled forward a step before regaining his footing.

"Eriksen, you hacked it wrong!" a companion, engaged in a fight with the other Black Snake Bay Warriors, turned his head and shouted angrily at Eriksen.

"Impossible!" Staring at the witch who only had a slight injury on her arm, Eriksen momentarily lost focus on the battlefield.

He distinctly remembered striking the witch. Logically, he should have been able to cleave her in half, so why was there only a scratch on her arm?

As the witch turned, something more despairing happened. Under the sunlight, the thumb-length wound began growing tendrils of flesh.

These tendrils connected with each other, and within a single breath, the original wound was nearly healed without even losing much blood.

"Devil's power, it's devil's power, you will be cursed eventually!" Eriksen screamed, once more raising his longsword, wildly slashing at the witch again.

"Hmph."

With a sneer, enveloped in distorted light, the witch lightly raised her hand, at her fingertips suddenly appeared a mass of black mist.

The black mist swirled, seemingly absorbing the golden-red light of the sunset, causing the water-like rippling light around the witch to pause for a moment.

In the next second, before the soldier could even grasp the shape and size of the black mist, he felt a searing, tearing pain in his chest.

Looking down, the intense light in an instant melted the weak point of his armor, the molten iron dripping, spilling onto his chest laid bare.

Others could even see the beating heart amidst the mangled flesh.

"Devil, devil!"

"It's that witch falsely claiming to be a Phoenix!"

"Master? Master! Why are you just watching?!"

Abandoning the corpse before her, the witch Selomis, gripping a rapier, dashed towards another embattled wall segment.

Along with Eriksen, over twenty corpses fell around the Phoenix Witch, most of them seasoned Imperial Great Swordsmen who had breached the city walls.

In such a warm and pleasant evening, meant for strolling and chatting.

But on the walls of Solaburg in the Southern County, thousands of Black Snake Bay Warriors and Combat Mages wielding obsidian greatswords and scimitars fought fiercely against soldiers climbing up ladders.

The wall was full of bobbing heads and swinging longswords, Imperial Soldiers in shiny silver armor clashing shields against the gaunt Black Snake Bay Warriors.

Jars full of poisonous creatures fell at the feet of the Imperial Soldiers, and light and toxic smoke from the red and green dragon's breath rose continuously.

Standing beside the prayer wagon, the monks loudly recited scriptures, suppressing the spells of the Wizards.

The Imperial soldiers' ladders were repeatedly toppled over, crashing to the ground with deafening roars.

Soldiers halfway up plummeted down, screaming as they fell, breaking their spines on impact or crashing into the spear phalanx of other soldiers.

Under the distorted light, Selomis's rapier seemed like a streak of light, each thrust accompanied by a short, sharp scream of pain.

Yet even so, more guards and soldiers climbed the ladders, swinging blades and swords, surrounding her back.

"Damn it."

Withdrawing the rapier from the neck of a guard, Selomis cursed angrily, able to feel the ripple halo of light on her body slowly dissipating.

Fortunately, before the sun fully set, the Imperial army's camp sounded the retreat horn. Watching the tidal retreat of the Imperial army, Selomis's face showed no sign of joy.

Since the January invasion of Black Snake Bay, the frontline situation had steadily deteriorated, with many Secret Faction and Wizard Clan members defecting to serve as guides.

The battle line retreated all the way to Solaburg, and then it stopped.

The siege of Solaburg lasted for more than half a month, and although the army of ten thousand in Clove Corridor couldn't breach Solaburg, it caused considerable casualties.

Meanwhile, the Secret Party villages and strongholds in Southern County are being gradually wiped out by the Church.

To prevent morale from continuing to decline, Selomis had no choice but to personally enter the fray to stabilize the battle line, after all, she was the only Witch who could fight in Solaburg.

"How long can the provisions last?" Selomis gazed at the sunset, quietly asking the adjutant beside her.

"At most five days before the new batch of provisions arrives," the adjutant's voice was hoarse and deep. "Our Warriors have been continuously fighting for fifteen days now."

Selomis closed her eyes. She could feel the rapier in her hand trembling slightly.

Seeing that Selomis didn't reply, the adjutant gathered his courage and whispered, "Should we consider asking for assistance from Northern County or Thousand River Valley?"

Selomis opened her eyes and glared fiercely at the adjutant: "What for? Bringing wolves into the fold? We are only short of weapons, equipment, and provisions, yet he refuses to give them.

He not only refuses to give them but also watches the battle line pushing to Solaburg, hoping we'll beg him, but I won't."

Taking a deep breath, she commanded the defense arrangement, wiping sweat with a towel, and proceeded toward the command center in the city.

Inside the command center, Selomis slumped into a cushion, took a big gulp of fruit wine, and then asked, "How's the situation in Northern County? Have the provisions and weapons arrived?"

"Not yet, they're still busy with the Northern County Council matters," said Istria with a smile. "The Northern County Secret Party Council held its first meeting not long ago and managed to reduce hundreds of Secret Parties to just 25 major and minor Secret Party Alliances."

"The Church couldn't accomplish it in a hundred years, but this Saint's Grandson managed it in just one month," Selomis grumbled discontentedly, "Instead of playing these tricks, it would be better to figure out how to quickly send some provisions over."

What Istria casually mentioned about the successful convening of the Northern County Council was definitely not as simple as anyone who had seen the intelligence would know.

Starting from mid-month, Horn, Solan, and Louise began individually speaking with Secret Party and village elders to explain, and held multiple meetings with the Wizard Clan.

Even two days before the council convened, Horn had to publicly demonstrate the Griffin Cannon blasting the castle.

Under the carrot-and-stick policy with a Griffin Cannon in one hand and grain in the other, the Secret Parties finally surrendered some of their power.

"I must say, they did indeed manage to estimate and control the general population of Northern County through this method," Istria's long, thick white brows came together, obscuring her pupils from view.

Istria's white hair was different from Moliat's in that hers was caused by congenital albinism.

After awakening as a Witch, the Mana altered her body, greatly improving her health, but the weak eyesight caused by albinism was congenital and couldn't be compensated or cured through Mana transformation.

Upon hearing this, Selomis picked up the intelligence report on the table and started reading silently.

According to the intelligence obtained, the Northern County Secret Party Council had a total of 52 seats, implying that Northern County had at least a population of 1.04 million, roughly 200,000 households.

After establishing the Northern County Secret Party Council, the first two resolutions passed were the appointment of the County Governor.

This crucial position of Northern County Governor naturally attracted competition from multiple parties, making the process highly suspenseful.

After the voting concluded, Louise was appointed County Governor, and Solan was appointed Village Magistrate.

The whole process was fair, just, and open, to everyone's surprise.

Once the Northern County Council convened, Horn immediately designated the former Red Copper Fortress as a commercial port, and the 30,000 tons of grain prepared in the warehouse flowed downstream.

The grain consistently originating from Joan of Arc Castle, passing through Horn Town and Red Copper Fortress, entered Long Embankment City.

30,000 tons of grain quickly filled the once hungry Long Embankment City halfway, followed by Saint Scythe Monastery using this grain to start signing treaties with Black Snake Bay villages.

The content mostly involved Saint Scythe Monastery signing agreements with them to plant economic crops like sweet boughs and purchase after the rainy season.

And County Governor Louise then adopted Horn's classic relief-for-work model, employing the wild populace with this grain to repair river channels, docks, and roads, facilitating future material transportation.

At the same time, due to the consolidation of Secret Party forces, Alchemists previously scattered in rural areas began entering towns, congregating, and setting up Alchemy Workshops with loans from the Imperial Saintess Bank.

Moreover, many young Alchemists, upon receiving recommendations from Saint Father Order Monks assisting administration, boarded ships headed for Dragon Language Alchemy University in the Court Barracks.

Even Selomis had to admit, after this transformation by the Saint's Grandson, the previously lifeless Northern County indeed had a hint of vibrant prosperity.

Amidst this series of complex events, there were two matters that made Selomis' expression turn grave.

The first was that the County Government started learning from Thousand River Valley to implement assessment and review systems, recruiting a batch of Wizards either talented or resource-rich into the County Government.

County Governor Louise's first act upon taking office was appointing eight Village Magistrates, who also served as Tax Collectors and Local Recruiting Officers.

The second matter undeniably furrowed Selomis' brows.

The Northern County Council passed a resolution: to form the Northern County Holy Axis Guard, totaling 4,500 people, with the affluent region providing food and pay, the impoverished area providing manpower, and the Holy Axis providing officers, training, and weapons armor.

Northern County wants to form its own standing army?