[VRMMO] Chaos Doctor-Chapter 430 - 429 – Crumbling empire – Part 2.

[Current location: Capital city of the holy empire – Holy castle – Throne room]

"What do you mean we are forbitten from going?!" – shouted the Daughter Of Justice as all four children of the holy emperor has gathered.

"It is as I've said, no means no." – said the holy emperor as he sat on his throne.

"Then what!? You want us to see another holy city just burn!? Watch our people get hunted down like game while our sacred grounds burn to the ground?!" – snapped back the Daughter Of Justice.

"…"

"You are saying that, but do you really think that you will make a difference?" – asked the holy emperor.

"WE WILL! JUST-"

"NO! YOU WILL NOT!" – shouted the emperor as he snapped at his daughter.

"I understand that you want to protect your people! Your nation! And your faith!"

"But you all failed 3 times already!"

"You being there only buy few days! But in the end all 3 cities were conquered!"

"Then why don't we just take back one of the cities that the vampires have conquered? I mean, their main army is nowhere near it, right? With us it should be somewhat easy?" – said the white-haired girl with sleepy expression.

[Daughter Of Loyalty – Magda Kielich]

"No…. It will be impossible." – said the nervous Daughter Of Mercy.

"T-the holy cities have been completely destabilized and had its main function completely negated."

"Even if they had conquered the city, they would still provide us with energy…. Unless the enemy target this very specific aspect of the holy cities…. And that is what they did."

"Even if we were to reclaim the holy cities…. It would take us weeks or maybe even months before they could return to their original state."

"Hm…. Then what about the docks again?" – asked the sleepy girl.

"Now?! They don't bloody need those! They have already brought enough of their forces to our empire…. Besides, getting from here to the docks would take too much time and I'm not talking about traverse distance alone in here."

"We would need to fight both dragons and vampires… While also sometimes dealing with the demons and their fallowers who had decided to join the war."

"…"

"So…. What?" – asked the sleepy girl.

"Are we just going to stay holed up in here? Is that really the only way of doing things?"

"Aren't you like our main strategist when it comes down to the war? Didn't you come up with some plan?"

"The metal, ship, plane, thing the thing is the main problem, right?"

"Then has anybody came up with the way of dealing with it?"

"…"

"There is one…. But the enemy is avoiding it." – replied the worried holy emperor.

"The divine judgment."

"Once they get close enough to the capital city, we would be able to rain the divine judgment on top of the ship, damaging and possible making it stop in tracks…. However, the enemy is making sure to avoid it by going after out holy cities first."

"They want to reduce our power as much as possible, before then going straight for the heart of the empire."

"It is quite obvious if we consider how the organization has been moving that this is their goal…. But….Fuck." – said the Son Of Will.

"We straight up don't have anything to counter them!"

"If only those fucking wind dragons didn't get wiped out beforehand, we would have at least some means of attacking that place directly."

"But wouldn't other dragons hunt down the wind dragons then? I mean, from what I know the wind dragon clan and the god of wind's church was pretty much wrecked by the dragons before the demons arrived, right?" – said the sleepy girl.

"So would they really make any difference?"

"…"

"She is right, they wouldn't." – said the Daughter Of Justice.

"But we also can't just stay here! We need to move! Now!"

"Without a plan? Without course of action or anything like that?" – asked the Son Of Will.

"We have nothing."

"As much as it annoys me to admit it, it is for the best if we just-"

"Tch."

The Daughter Of Mercy instantly got up and tried to leave, only for the two high ranking paladins to block her path.

"Jeannn." – said the holy emperor.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm really sorry."

"But there is truly nothing you can do."

"You can't stop the vampires on your own."

"Then what about these bastards?! What about the other churches?! They are sending their adventurers their way, but we don't really see a direct support from them, huh?! Where is it?!" – said the Daughter Of Justice as she turned towards the holy emperor.

"Face it!"

"We had been betrayed and abandoned!"

"The only ones with us is our goddess that has not abandoned us!"

"And now what?! Are we just hiding like a bunch of cowards?!"

"Once they destroy that city, they will come here, if your predictions are correct!"

"…"

"You are to not leave the capital city, under any circumstances." – said the holy emperor as he raised his hand, signaling the two guards to stop guarding the door.

"End of discussion."

"…"

"Tch." – the Daughter Of Justice stormed out of the throne room.

"…"

"I understand. I will make sure she won't leave." – said the Son Of Will as he then gave chase after his sister, before moments later the remaining two children of the holy emperor also left the throne room.

"…"

*Sigh*

(This is not going great for us one bit.) – thought the worried holy emperor.

(I've thought we would figure out something by now…. But so far? Nothing.)

(All of our plans, sabotages and everything we did to get rid of that ship ended up in failure.)

(To make matters worse, we had lost 3 of 5 holy cities…. And soon we will lose the 4th one as well.)

(In the passing days, the faith of our people straight up crumbled apart…. And this in turn caused the miracles of the goodness to weaken.)

(And that not affected her as well…. Us all who has bathed in her light are also feeling the effects.)

(My power has been reduced…. Robbed away from me.)

(And this also includes all of my children that bears the goodness blood.)

(With how things are going, we will lose not only our power, but also authority.)

(Even if we were to try and restore it now, it wouldn't matter…. Since the enemy made sure that our territories are infested with corruption and monsters…. Making sure that we wouldn't be able to gather any form of faith from the said territories.)

(But how?!)

(How are we in this situation?!)

(We are one of most powerful empires in the whole world!)

(We are the ones that are blessed directly by the mother of light! We are her chosen ones!)

(And yet….And yet…. During the course of a single war…. Our entire nation has been reduced to this?)

(We faced monsters, nightmares and demons alike…. But we always prevailed.)

(We destroyed the heretics and their symbols of faith.)

(We won, over and over again... And now we are just going to lose?)

"…"

"Mother of light…. Please hear my prays…. Please guide us and answer our call in this nightmarish time."

"Please guide us."

[Meanwhile: The city]

"Next." – said the guard defending the entrance gate.

"?"

"Adventurers?" – said the guard as he noticed a group of hooded adventurers.

"Yea, we are noncombatants merchants." – replied the adventurer at front.

"Uhu…. Take off the hood now." – said the guard as he placed his hand on the sword, showing his distrust to the group from the get go.

The group of players took off their hoods, before moments later a second guard approached the group, while holding list and bounties of wanted criminals, ranging from NPCs to players.

"…"

"Clear." – said the second guard before then walking away.

"….Why? Why a merchant like you coming here so suddenly?" – asked the first guard who was still doubtful of the group.

"Well, last deal before leaving, you could say." – said the leader of the group.

"Will all the hell going lose, we are just going to run away as soon as we sell the last batch of our product."

"Hell, we even had some encounter with some random vampires popping up from one the villages that we crossed before coming here."

"….And what are you selling?" – asked the doubtful guard.

"Well, potions." – said the man as he ordered two cat girls to take out a bunch of potions from their inventory.

"…"

(Looks real….) – thought the guard who was inspecting the potions.

"…"

"Alright. You clear." – said the guard as he gave back the potions.

"But remember, with how things are going, the merchants are somewhat watched right now." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"So don't do anything funny or you will either end up getting kicked out or straight up thrown into prison."

"Got it?"

"Y-yes sir." – said the nervous leader.

"Good. Next!" – said the guard as the group of the players entered the city.

"…"

"Dammit." – said female dwarf player.

"Why the hell we waited so long for us to enter this city?!"

"Well, they are making sure that you are not transformed dragon or the infected vampire." – said the tall human woman.

"If you were either one of those things, they would definitely murder you on the spot."

"Still, I wasn't expecting for them to not notice our discuses."

"Just where the hell did you obtained this disguise potions, Coin?" – asked the tall woman who was non other than Stone himself.

"Well, they are extremely good…. But the problem with them is that they are consumable….And they have very short duration of just 30 minutes." – said the pinkish white cat who was sitting on the party leader shoulder, who was in reality Coin in her cat form.

"We already wasted a lot of time on the check point, meaning that the discuses will soon wear off." – said the leader of the group who was none other than Arthur.

"We need to hurry."

"The moment they wear off, we will end up having our asses hunted by the holy empire."

"So before that happens, we need to get our hands on the Daughter Of Mercy before anybody notices."