CHAPTER 441: CHAPTER 56: DOOMSDAY IN ADVANCE

At last.

The War Law surrounding Aske formed his body in the Subconscious Ocean.

A conceptualized body.

In the first half of the War Law ritual task, a vast amount of war slaughter marked every molecule of Aske’s body in the Real Plane with war anchors.

This was also the precondition for his resurrection.

As the war laws materialize in the Subconscious Ocean, they would reassemble into his "conceptualized flesh"—correspondingly, on the Main Plane, every molecule marked with war anchors would also reorganize.

That is to say, after his death, even if the corpse was cremated and the ashes scattered to the winds,

these molecules could still reassemble into his original material body under the pulling of the war anchors, forming a collective that is a reflection of the conceptualized flesh in the Subconscious Ocean.

Finally, through this reflection, the conceptual body would merge with the material body, which is what is known as resurrection.

Aske began to slowly ascend, having sensed his material body in the Main Plane. Fortunately, that body seemed to be intact, showing no signs of ashes being scattered.

Eh?

Aske suddenly discovered that his body seemed excessively intact, even the fatal wound that should have been in his chest had disappeared.

Could it be that my corpse was taken by the demigod of the Pure Blood Monastery and they did something strange with it?

Considering that the demigod’s specialty was the Law of "Devouring," Aske speculated that if his corpse had fallen into their hands, it would likely have been eaten straightaway.

Of course, even if it had been eaten, the pulling of the war anchors would forcibly separate every molecule from within the other’s body.

The fact that this had not happened provided him with some relief.

That is to say, after his death, Peggy indeed took his "last words" seriously and managed to escape successfully with his corpse.

As for the healing of the wounds on the corpse, perhaps it was Nora who used her Life Ability to groom his body.

So, everyone must have already heard of his death by now.

Aske sighed.

The reason he had chosen to slip out alone for the task late at night was to prevent everyone from finding out about this. After all, resurrection after death was too strange and outrageous, they would inevitably be frightened and worried if they knew.

At this point... it didn’t matter anymore, it was all Peggy’s fault for secretly following him, he would have to punish her well when he returned.

At this moment, Aske had already ascended to the surface layer of the Subconscious Ocean, where his conceptualized body could exist.

The closer to becoming physical in the Subconscious Ocean, the higher one would ascend. Therefore, next he needed to take hold of his material body on the Main Plane and complete the total fusion of the two bodies. Only by being 100% materialized could he leave this place and return to the Main Plane.

So, he quietly floated, waiting for the war anchors’ pull to bring back his body from the Main Plane.

Verona City.

Peggy had killed an unknown number of Temple Knights, and the corpse in her arms was already overflowing with life force, unable to take in any more.

Around her, there were densely packed, drained corpses, and swarms of tadpoles frolicking freely in the air.

Why... Why haven’t you come back...

She stood in the middle of the corpses in a daze, holding Aske’s body in a trance.

Suddenly, she felt the corpse in her hands seemed to have lightened.

It couldn’t be...

Peggy hugged him desperately, as if trying to merge him into her own body.

However, Aske’s body still gradually turned transparent and eventually disappeared from her embrace.

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!

The heart-wrenching cries of despair once again echoed through the skies above Verona City.

The vampire girl lifted her head, her dark pupils now completely devoid of color.

------------------------------

In Solomon City, at the Ratlan Palace, the Cardinal Council meeting was underway.

The Cardinals were red-faced and quarreling, discussing "whether to use nuclear weapons ahead of schedule."

Contrary to the Emperor’s Camp’s optimistic estimates, the Church Court had already restarted production lines for drone swarms and tactical nuclear weapons at this point, signifying that the war’s end had already been decided.

Of course, using nuclear weapons to annihilate the Emperor’s Alliance was the worst-case scenario: it meant the Church had expended the most resources, reaped no benefits, and suffered massive losses of Catholic believers.

After all, the Holy Solomon Empire was the Church’s "traditional gold mine," with the majority of the Empire’s soldier believers merely swept along by the feudal power, launching an overconfident attack against the Church.

By using pressure to force the Emperor to abdicate and step down, this simple and inexpensive labor force could return to the Empire to work, once again continuously contributing wealth to the Church.

Therefore, it didn’t take much back and forth for the Cardinal Council to reach a consensus on their overall strategy:

The "Salami Slicing" tactic.

By continually upping the ante on the battlefield, they would press on the psychological bottom lines of the Emperor and the Dukes until they conceded and capitulated. This would minimize unnecessary casualties as much as possible.

As for how big the first slice should be, the Cardinals had differing opinions.

The hardliners suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on the outskirts of a small town as a deterrent to the Emperor’s Alliance; the moderates believed the consequences of nuclear bombings were hard to predict and suggested starting with a wave of drone strikes, exerting "restrained yet powerful" pressure on the Emperor gradually.

It was at this moment that an alert suddenly went off in Raphael’s monitoring system...

So, a few minutes later, the Bishops were shocked to learn that an R4 target from The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps had gone on a rampage, currently slaughtering the city while withstanding the Anti-Demon Magnetic Field!

After all, R4 level was enough to justify such extravagant feats as city butchery.

The problem was that the Anti-Demon Magnetic Field was ineffective against her, which was seriously problematic.

The Anti-Demon Magnetic Field was the Shield of Christ, the greatest safeguard of modern civilization against the Hidden factions.

Now, even this greatest safeguard had lost its absolute deterrent effect, causing the Cardinals to immediately become alarmed.

Afterward, at the Ratlan Palace meeting, the hardliners immediately gained the upper hand and overwhelmed the moderates in the debate.

Pope Innocent sat at the head of the table, expressionlessly staring at the ceiling.

The Valian Bishop was allowed to sit to his right, solemnly listening to the Bishops’ verbal exchanges.

Finally, the voting results were in, and the Cardinal Council unanimously decided to use nuclear weapons for deterrence—not just to deter the Emperor’s Alliance but also to deter a dangerous mercenary group within the Alliance.

Of course, this resolution still needed the Pope’s approval.

As the embodiment of God on earth, the Holy See had a strong veto right over any Cardinal Council decisions—although the Pope rarely exercised this power, preferring to consult with the Cardinals and initiate a second review vote.

If the second vote still maintained the previous result, the Pope would usually concede. Otherwise, exercising the veto would be tantamount to acknowledging a severe conflict and disagreement with the Cardinals.

At this moment, all eyes of the Cardinals turned toward Pope Innocent, awaiting his final stance.

"Oh," Innocent patted his forehead, "well, where shall we drop the nuclear bomb?"

The Cardinals were flabbergasted; His Majesty had been daydreaming just now?!

At this point, the representative of the hardliners revisited their pre-discussed plan and indicated that the Pope could look at the dossier placed before his table.

Innocent then absentmindedly flipped through the documents in front of him as the Cardinals watched speechlessly—suddenly, a burst of chaotic noise came from outside.

"What’s going on!" One Cardinal stood up, stepped outside and waved over the Pope’s Guard to inquire about the source of the noise.

Moments later, his eyes widened shockingly, he gestured for the Pope’s Guard to leave, then slowly turned around, his movements as stiff as if his joints were rusted.

"Fellows," his voice was slightly hoarse, carrying a still-unbelieving dazed tone.

"...The hands of the Giotto Bell jumped from 7 o’clock to 10 o’clock."