Ramsden surrendered outright, and even the Noble Church's own Archbishop was captured. Edward tried to escape but was hung from a tree by an Undead Mage.
All the priests of Saral's temples combined probably didn't number 10,000. The Temple of Time and Space, however, easily dispatched about 10,000 Bishop Level priests. The number of priests signified the level of deities, and faced with such powerful divine beings, no one in Saral dared to make a sound.
The Noble Temple directly sent out a Legendary Knight. However, he was immediately blocked by William, who had become legendary at some unknown time.
In this continent, the capitals of nations each have a Main Temple guarded by two legendary figures. And other legends reside in the Mount of Gods. The Mount of Gods is where the deities once raised their divine thrones, the very foundation of deities on earth.
The God of Nobility had been a divine being for tens of thousands of years. From His Mount of Gods to Saral, even a legend would need a month to travel. Unless the God of Nobility or the Goddess of Art and Love used all their Divine Power to teleport directly, even if they rushed to Saral, they would only arrive in time for William's coronation celebration.
These two deities weren't without enemies, and they dared not do such a thing.
William was bound to be king.
After becoming a legend, the entire Saral would prostrate at his feet, cheering and jubilant. A legendary king who could live for 800 years. There would be no one left to oppose his rule.
Unless the God of Time and Space summoned William to His Divine Kingdom, the 30-year-old William would rule over Saral for a very long time.
Hill sensed the message from Fran—William was the key.
He had to remind Fran that the movements of the Undead Tribe were of utmost importance.
Fran seemed to think that the God of Time and Space would ascend to His divine throne in Saral, but Hill disagreed.
Once He officially became a god, He would have to leave this continent. Divine Power would not convert as easily as it does now. He wouldn't have put in so much effort to break the boundaries of time and space to summon players only to stop there.
And Hill himself was also preparing to meet the players who were everywhere and capable of exploiting every loophole.
William's army, after a brief rest, set out for the Saral Capital.
Before officially departing, Duke William publicly declared that from now on, Saral would not welcome the Noble Temple or the Temple of Art.
He wished that the two temples would maintain their last shred of dignity and leave Saral before his army arrived in the capital.
The Noble Temple withdrew cleanly, but the Temple of the Goddess of Love was problematic. This temple had only female priests, and on a daily basis, was protected by knights who had sworn their allegiance to them.
But these knights of Saral couldn't possibly abandon their homes and country for the so-called love.
The reason love is worth singing about in any world is because it's precious and rare.
Even though most of the female priests of this temple came from the noble families of Saral, they could not stop their fate of being abandoned.
Being abandoned by both their lovers and families also led to the collapse of this temple.
The last kindness William showed was to send a few of his Grand Knight cousins with a contingent of the Knights' Guild to escort them to Haifasardo.
People from the Noble Temple should also be guarding the border between the two countries, ready to take them over.
It's unknown whether the Goddess of Art and Love would be angry seeing her followers, who were unhesitatingly abandoned by the Noble Temple.
This Goddess had been born and relied on the God of Nobility for existence for tens of thousands of years, unable to survive independently. One could tell her status just by looking at the actions of the Noble Temple.
The saying "Without a pillar, the house falls" exists in every world.
As for this, Hill was only more determined to pursue the path to legend, for only through one's own strength can one have freedom in this world.
William slowly marched toward the capital, erecting temples of the God of Time and Space along the way.
He also publicly proclaimed His divine name and divine office:
Great deity Cronos born of the illusory space-time!
He who controls the flow of time and space, freely traversing the universe!
Pitiful people's mournful prayers reach His ears!
His merciful gaze finally turned to the mortal world, blessing the pitiful people with peace and joy!
He promises to bring fairness and justice to His followers!
Praise His name, and He is willing to bring the opportunity of education to those who spread His word!
William declared that each Space-Time Cathedral would establish a literacy class: every person could learn 200 characters at the literacy class, requiring only that you praise the name of the God of Time and Space before learning, with the rest being completely free of charge.
The Space-Time Cathedral is also willing to assert justice for disciples who suffer injustice.
Moreover, the poor would no longer have to worry about being deceived by nobles and merchants, as each Space-Time Cathedral has a likeness of the Divine Scales, where both parties could weigh their goods before transacting. This Scales would be placed outside the cathedral doors, available to all, believer or not.
This is a transaction witnessed by the deity, and violators will be sanctioned by the temple.
The God of Time and Space did not stretch His hand to the signing of contracts, leaving a way out for the God of Justice.
The Justice Temple had no response, and Fran thought this deity was planning to wait until the end.
The God of Justice started with passion, but ended up as a deity providing justice for contracts. That it took tens of thousands of years without ascending to greater divine power shows just how deep the waters are.
But He also firmly upheld the justice of the contract, which even the deities could not violate.
After Fran openly declared his divinity in front of the God of Time and Space, he sighed to Hill, "What His Majesty of Justice has been unable to achieve in tens of thousands of years, I hope this one can succeed!"
Fran was certain that as long as the God of Time and Space could uphold fairness and justice, the God of Justice would not hesitate to flock to His banner.
For tens of thousands of years, the Divine Power of the God of Justice had never changed.
As for the God of Knowledge, once it was confirmed that education would only bring about more knowledge, there was no more fuss. The universal literacy rate would only lead to a greater thirst for knowledge, which in turn would make the Divine Power of the God of Knowledge even stronger.
Adrian told Hill, "The nobility are still being foolish! Those in my family don't understand and actually asked me if charging for literacy isn't a major source of income for the Temple of Knowledge, why hasn't the temple opposed it? Does literacy affect knowledge? It's clearly the nobles! If they think about bullying and imposing arbitrary taxes again, just wait for the God of Time and Space and the God of Justice to deal with them!"
The wise ones had long foreseen the outcome of this affair. Was it because the former God of Justice and the God of Knowledge couldn't do it because they didn't want to?
It was because They lacked the manpower!
But the God of Time and Space had at least a hundred thousand players.
William dispersed teams of players throughout the newly built churches. These players, who had taken on the task of teaching, would stay in the church to start literacy classes.
Hearing this from Adrian, Hill was astounded, "Those of the Undead Tribe really have no pride as professionals! Actually fighting over the job of teaching the poor to read!"
Hill thought to himself: That must be a super lucrative task. Maybe it's enough to level up after completion! I want to compete for it too!
Fran told Hill, "William has issued an order: Knight and Swordsmen's Guilds have been established in the capital. He will appoint people to guard the two Mage Towers without Magisters and withdraw all others, leaving them to the Undead Tribe."
Hill thought: Systemic job transfer locations!
Hill got nervous. If Saral is being set up this thoroughly, is it going to become a newbie village?
This feeling of preparing for a major battle, is William planning to wage war against Haifasardo?
So when Fran asked Hill if he wanted to attend William's coronation ceremony, Hill decided without hesitation that he would go!
William had built a series of churches but never mentioned where he planned to construct the Main Temple.
William also showed no intention of holding large-scale sacrificial ceremonies.
Logically, if Saral was to be the rising place of the Divine Throne for the God of Time and Space, William should now be sending away priests from other temples. But he only expelled the opposing temples.
What exactly is the God of Time and Space behind William plotting? Where will He go in the future? Where and when will the Divine Throne rise?
These questions were driving the onlookers mad.
But even more tormented were the temples.
Saral, from now on, was going to be a place of little interest to the deities. The Temple of Time and Space would take up the vast majority of newborns in the future.
However, all the deities remained silent, issuing no divine edicts. Thus, the faithful could not simply flee without a fight.
The major temples of Saral were consolidating their forces back to the capital, all amusingly under the pretext of preparing to participate in the king's coronation ceremony.
Hill really wanted to witness this spectacle. In the bustling capital, with anxious temples and trembling nobles facing the lawless players, it was sure to offer him plenty of fun.
And moreover, among the countless pieces of information Fran had provided during this time, there was never any mention of Count Pelast.
But since he belonged to Edward's faction, he was definitely not going to fare well.
If he had simply been unfortunate due to association, Adrian would have come to gloat over his misfortune already, but since he hadn't said anything, Hill felt something unmentionable must have happened.
But it couldn't have been too terribly tragic, or Fran would certainly have told him.
Perhaps he was locked up, which is why Fran and Adrian did not mention it to him. But what difference did it make if he knew? Was Hill going to rescue him?
Hill felt that he had always been indifferent to the Perelast Family, and he was not sure why Fran and Adrian always thought he would go soft.
But Hill could not possibly go out of his way to tell Fran that he didn't care about anything to do with Count Pelast.
His interest in Pelast might even be less than that of Fran and Adrian.
So be it then, he would find out when he reached the capital anyway. Whatever the case might be, it was all brought on by Count Pelast himself.
Hill went directly to the valley to deal with village affairs. Although he didn't know when these players would arrive, he decided to get various goods ready beforehand.
Most importantly, he had to make sure the Magic Arrow Towers were well-calibrated. Who knows if these players will try kite-flying with the village defenses.
The village guards sent out by Hill were just there to switch the village gate. Every night at eight o'clock, the gate would lock, the Magic Arrow Towers would activate automatically, indiscriminately attacking any living thing that approached the village at night.
Hill hoped the players would know to obey the rules. His towers could take down even Sky Knights.
Actually, it's not a big deal; they'll learn after dying a few times.