Be that as it may, Xi Wei wasn't going to be so reckless as to just descend and help his believers destroy all their enemies.
Therefore, according to his past habits, he first used the Eye of God to find the group of former believers who were imprisoned, intending to understand the current situation in the shortest time possible.
In the end, he realized that the believers he had assumed to be gamblers were different from what he had imagined.
Although they looked rather disheveled, and their armors and weapons were tattered due to lack of maintenance, it was clear that they were standard equipment belonging to a certain organization based on their every move and the tattered but tattered equipment.
After comparing the records left in his divinity, Xi Wei immediately realized that the believers were more troublesome than he had imagined.
They were the original founders of the Church of Games, survivors of the fallen kingdom of Tierra.
☆
In the dense forest that was usually uninhabited, there were dense shrubs and towering trees everywhere. The canopy of the trees covered the sky above the forest, causing the entire forest to appear incomparably dark. If it weren't for the sunlight that stubbornly penetrated through the canopy and cast spots of light on the forest, it would be difficult to tell whether it was day or night.
At the moment, a young girl dressed in martial attire was sprinting along a narrow path in the forest. Her light blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail swayed with her every step, and the golden hue was even more dazzling than the sunlight.
Beside her, there were several people with extraordinary skills who seemed to be guards protecting her.
Suddenly, the young girl tripped over an aerial root on the ground and almost fell. Fortunately, the eldest of the guards reached out to support her.
"Thank you, Uncle Carlo."
The young girl thanked him, panting and sweating profusely from the long run.
"It's my duty, Your Highness."
The man seemed much more relaxed than the young girl, and answered seriously and rigidly, "There's quite a distance between here and Lancaster, and it's difficult to track them in the forest. Let's rest for a bit."
"And here I thought that our base in Lancaster would be destroyed by the rebel kings' armies …" The young girl stopped trying to be brave, and instead of sitting on the ground, she simply found a tree to lean on, looking rather disgruntled. "To think that we would be forced to this state by an evil god cult that popped out of nowhere."
"… Because the God of Games has abandoned us," the middle-aged man said flatly.
"That's disrespectful, Uncle Carlo." The young girl smiled bitterly.
Be that as it may, she had no intention of blaming him, and was more self-deprecating than anything else.
In fact, even though they, the survivors of Tierra, still worshipped the God of Games according to their old customs, almost everyone knew that the God of Games had abandoned them.
Come to think of it, it made sense. Even when Tierra, a great nation at the height of its power, was invaded by foreign enemies and was on the brink of destruction, that god did not show even the slightest sign of miracles. Now that there were only a handful of them, it was even less likely that the god would take pity on them.
"Compared to that, how did the evil god cult know that we were hiding in Lancaster?" The young girl shook her head, having long since gotten used to the cruel reality, throwing aside her distrust towards the God of Games. "They clearly couldn't even find the Rebel Kings' spies …"
"If that's the case, I can answer your question, Miss Leah."
A shrill voice with undisguised malice suddenly rang, and the young girl and the others promptly went on alert.
But soon, their vigilance turned into deep despair.
Many people wearing black cloaks and bizarre black-and-white masks appeared from the lush forest around them.
The young girl couldn't be more familiar with them — they were the cultists who had taken down the secret base of the Tierra survivors in Lancaster!
And now, the young girl and the others were completely surrounded by the cultists.
The one who spoke was probably the leader of the cultists. He slowly stepped out of the crowd and raised his right hand, his black cloak slipping off to reveal his scarred right hand.
On the index finger of his right hand was an insect that looked like a large purple fly. The insect was rubbing its large compound eyes with its front legs.
"Those are Black Corpse Flies. They are tamed magical pets, and while they are useless in combat, they can precisely identify the stench of corpses on every believer of Lord Rotten Bones," the cultist said smugly. "It's too easy to use them to track you."
Before the young girl could process what was going on, the guard beside her screamed in pain. She turned in a panic, only to find that Carlo, the middle-aged man who had been keeping a straight face, had suddenly cut down one of the guards.
"Wait, Uncle Carlo, what are you doing?!" The young girl exclaimed in panic.
"Don't you get it? The scent that the Black Corpse Flies are tracking is that of Carlo, the captain of your guard!" The cultist leader laughed maniacally. "Uncle Carlo, whom you respect immeasurably, has been with us since the very beginning, and has become a believer of Lord Rotten Bones!"
"How is that possible …" The young girl was in disbelief.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness."
Carlo's face was expressionless as usual, and there wasn't a hint of apology on his face. "You should know that my wife and daughter died in the war to defend Tierra. I can't forget the terrible state of their corpses even now … I've been tormented by the flames of vengeance every moment of the last few years, but I know the difference between an army protected by a god and one abandoned by a god after the war. The weak God of Games couldn't help me with my vengeance, which is why I've sold my soul to a god who could give me the power to avenge myself. "
"So in the end, I'm just a stepping stone on your path of vengeance, Uncle Carlo?" The young girl's body shuddered, feeling as if she had fallen into an icy cavern after being betrayed by the person she trusted the most.
"To be precise, it's a token of allegiance. We'll train you well and gift you to a noble of the Empire, the Princess of Tierra. I'm sure that title would get us a lot of good stuff from those fat pigs, "the cultist leader interjected." That's what they like. "
"I won't let you have your way!" The young girl bit her lip and drew her sword.
The other guards followed suit, pointing their weapons at the cultists and the 'former' captain of the guard who had betrayed the church.
"The other women we gave you as gifts said the same thing. But that's fine, we have people who are good at that." The cultist leader didn't seem to mind the weapon in the young girl's hand at all, instead becoming even more spirited. "After some time, you'll become as tame as them."
"I'm sorry," Carlo said dryly, before raising his sword at the young girl.
"Retribution will befall you for betraying the god," the young girl said, trembling.
"I once believed in the God of Games as much as you do, but he did not help Your Majesty when Tierra fell, nor did he help me when my wife and daughter were killed by the rebel king's army," Carlo said coldly. "That is why he would not help you now, Your Highness."