While the war was going on, Azaroth stayed in the Sacred Ice Aurora Valley Sect and concocted pellets in peace for his subordinates to grow.
Tiana's direct subordinates were in the middle of their breakthrough now. He was pretty sure that it would take them just one month to stabilize their cultivation.
Azaroth naturally took care of his carnal desires rather frequently with Tiana's assistance.
Fortunately, Yrellea had handled most of Azaroth's carnal desires after advancing to the Demon King rank. If not, Tiana would have most likely experienced a near-death experience.
While he stayed in the Sacred Ice Aurora Valley Sect, Azaroth kept his vision on the battlefield between the Sinyalian Kingdom and the Glerian Kingdom.
After the entrance of the princes' factions, Azaroth ordered his subordinates to return. Noah, Ralph, and Sargan were ordered to head towards William's spot.
William was still staying in a hidden clan within the Eastern Mountain Range. That location was shielded by spatial arrays and sensory blocking arrays, which would prevent anyone from discovering those hidden clans without someone guiding them.
Fortunately for Noah, Ralph, and Sargan, they were guided by William and easily reached his position after roaming for a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, Laura led her Noble Guardians in gathering survivors from the towns devastated by Azaroth.
Laura was providing them with food and shelter. This, in turn, made the survivors very grateful and voluntarily became her followers.
Their task wasn't very difficult. All they had to do was spread some information to Laura. This helped in spreading Laura's propaganda much easier.
Laura was eventually contacted by a King's envoy when she wandered around, aiding people.
The King's envoy delivered his message with reverence and clarity. This displayed the king's attitude towards Laura. If anyone else was in place of Laura, they would have squealed in delight.
It was a big thing for the Ruler of a Kingdom to contact you. And more so if he wanted you to do a task for him while promising handsome rewards in return.
However, Laura had been expecting this envoy for quite a while. Azaroth had already informed her of what to do after this envoy came.
The king wanted to use Laura's newfound prestige to improve his image. For that, Laura had to publicly praise or support the king. Naturally, the king wasn't stingy with his rewards.
The king promised her a very rare set of bow and quiver that invoked Laura's greed. This bow would boost her wood ardor and also add the sharpness attribute to Laura's attacks.
This meant Laura's arrows would have a piercing effect, and it would be challenging for the enemy to block them!
However, Laura couldn't go against Azaroth's order. She quickly released this information to her lovely and faithful followers.
She informed them, "Today, I was visited by the King's envoy. He is still in that guest tent for those who want to meet him. He has given me the choice of either supporting the king or dying. He mentioned that I am too famous and if I don't support the king, the king will kill me."
"But is that the right thing to do? I am just helping people who need assistance. I have never asked for anything in return. I just like helping you all. Yet, I receive such threats… I truly do not know how I should respond. If I don't support the king, they will act and kill me. I am not scared of dying, but I don't want you to be on the receiving end of the king's fury."
She continued speaking some more nonsense for the next half an hour, and the public's reaction could be easily anticipated. The entire public was outraged at those words and immediately rushed to the tent where the king's envoy was staying.
The king's envoy was actually killed in a stampede of nearly thousands of people. The sleeping envoy never imagined that the people would actually rush at him in the middle of the night.
The next day, King Tryfon Rellas heard a piece of news spreading in the Glerian Kingdom. The news mentioned King Tryfon Rellas threatening Laura with her life to improving his image.
This news was merely the trigger for multiple other rumors to emerge. These rumors stated how the recently destroyed towns harbored Anti-Royal Factions, and the king might have destroyed them to prevent them from growing.
This rumor caught fire rather quickly, and the public opinion of the king worsened greatly. At this point, even if the king wanted, he couldn't improve the public's opinion of him.
The effect of those rumors was quickly witnessed as multiple righteous administrators and officials of the king resigned the next day. They couldn't serve such a greedy and wicked king.
The king was completely overwhelmed by this negativity. He couldn't understand how his actions were interpreted so badly. Just why did that woman named Laura do this? Why would she reject him and fabricate everything?
"Does she belong to the Anti-Royal Faction?" The king wondered aloud. If so, that would make a lot of sense.
He gritted his teeth in anger, "I can't kill her as it would only confirm those rumors. I need to do something else."
The best thing the King could do at this moment was to do nothing. He had to endure all these rumors without reacting.
Even Azaroth hadn't expected the king to actually endure at this moment. But this was also fine. He didn't want the situation in the kingdom to devolve too suddenly.
He knew that the king hadn't used all his forces in this war against the Sinyalian Kingdom. Actually, the king had only used up half of his forces. He was gathering even more soldiers for his reserve force in case of an emergency.
This emergency could be the sects suddenly attacking the Royal Capital of the Glerian Kingdom!
However, what no one in the entire Glerian Kingdom or the Sinyalian Kingdom expected was for the Lamhilhan Theocracy to join this war.
It had been nearly 2 weeks since the war officially began between the Glerian Kingdom and the Sinyalian Kingdom. On this day, the Lamhilhan Theocracy suddenly waged war on the Glerian Kingdom!
Azaroth was caught off-guard by this scenario. But it wasn't just him; even the entire Sinyalian Kingdom, including Shun, was astounded to hear this news. No one had anticipated that the Lamhilhan Theocracy would get involved in this war.
After thinking about it, Azaroth believed there was a fair chance the Radiant Church had tracked down Margeria and Dylan. They must have already gotten all of the crucial information from Margeria!
Margeria couldn't betray Azaroth, so this meant that the Archangels of the Radiant Church used a technique, forcing her to disclose everything.
As Azaroth thought deeply, he realized that the Radiant Church must have not gained much information from Margeria. The only thing they knew was Azaroth and Nudar's appearance. They didn't know Azaroth's exact location or information about his retainers.
'Good thing I was somewhat prepared for this situation,' Azaroth thought with a smile.
The best countermeasure to deal with a Celestial was to use a Demon. And fortunately, Azaroth had one in store for the Radiant Church.
However, he couldn't use this trump card from the very beginning. He had to let the situation turn a bit more chaotic. The Monarch of the Glerian Kingdom would likely use his trump cards before Azaroth.
Azaroth's guess was true. The Monarch of the Glerian Kingdom was much more terrified and startled compared to Azaroth.
He didn't care about it anymore and planned to use his trump card. He visited the Royal Cemetery while holding an Ancient Turquoise Jade.
The Monarch of the Glerian Kingdom activated that Ancient Turquoise Jade with his Ardor. A blue light was released from that Ancient Jade which fell on two graves.
The ground trembled slightly as that light fell over those graves. Soon, two large black boxes emerged from the ground. From afar, these black boxes looked like coffins.
The Monarch of the Glerian Kingdom bowed to these boxes and spoke respectfully, "Great Ancestors. Please wake up and save the Glerian Kingdom from an unprecedented catastrophe."
