It didn't take much time for the Erdtree Army to deal with the orcs, and the entire army continued to move forward at the expected speed. Arriving in the Southern Territories two days after the orc assault, they arrived at the first major city, Riley City.
This time Marika led an army of 6,000 people. Although it could not be called a large army, it was still a force that could not be ignored by the raided city of Riley.
Marika led the army to stop a few kilometers away from the city, while she observed the defense forces on the city wall with clairvoyance. As she expected, the soldiers on the wall all looked very surprised. Although they had been on guard since the arrival of the Erdtree Army, with just one day, the defenders did not have much time to prepare. But now that they saw that the Erdtree army was almost reaching their walls, they were naturally panicked.
"Looks like things are going our way for now. Then let the golem guards launch a blasting giant crossbow to give them a shocking blow!"
After observing the defense distribution of the defenders, Marika used telepathy to give firing instructions and coordinates to the exiled soldier officer in charge of guarding the golem. New type telepathy and grace combined made communication as fast as radio contact, and even more effective. As long as Marika concentrates her thoughts, she can convey her thoughts to her target without any deviation. This ability is really useful when out at war.
The officers who received the order immediately used the grace authority given to him by Malika to control the golem guards to launch long-distance strikes. This is another benefit of the grace, that is, Marika can distribute part of the grace to the subordinates who have been blessed, and of course she can take it back at will. Each officer will be assigned a few functions of the grace according to his/her position, and the function these officers get is the authorization to control the golem guards.
The golem guards bent their bows and set arrows under the control of the officers, and the giant spear-like explosive crossbow bolts were mounted on the bow of the colossus, ready to go. After the officers took out the binoculars to confirm the strike coordinates, they manipulated the golem to aim at the target, saw the timing, and then...
"Fire!"
The huge bowstring made a vibrating sound, and under the orders of the officers, giant explosive crossbow bolts hit the soldiers on the city wall with terrifying kinetic energy. Soldiers noticed the giant crossbow bolts flying and scattered for cover, but even if anyone managed to get past the bolts, they would be caught in the ensuing explosion. Soon the defenders of Riley City were blown up by the fragments in the crossbow ammunition container, causing heavy casualties. The officers tried to organize a counterattack, but the Erdtree Army was a few kilometers away, far beyond the range of their longbows of only more than 200 meters. Therefore, the defenders can only try to find thick covers, hoping to escape the next burst of fire.
Seeing that the defenders of Riley City were suppressed, Marika asked the golem guards to continue suppressive fire on the spot, leaving some knights to protect the mage and important members on the carriage. While herself took the leading charge and remaining 6,000 troops to break through the walls of Riley City.
The Golden Tree Army marched without hindrance. All the defenders were showered by the explosive crossbow arrows and couldn't raise their heads. They couldn't counterattack the Erdtree Army. They could only pray that the golem guards would run out of ammunition as soon as possible. But it's a pity that Marika's army had already marched to the city gate. The golem guards stopped shooting to prevent accidental injury to friendly troops.
Marika was not at all happy at the thought of the untold deaths that would result from the next battle. She doesn't mind killing a depraved noble like Bass, but she is afraid they will be ordinary knights and soldiers to meet them later. Her New type powers had made her sensitive to the emotions of others, especially the final breath of the dead. Marika didn't know whether these people were poor wretches who followed orders or villains who harmed the people, but now she had no time to tell and could not regret it. The most she can do is to order the soldiers not to harm civilians and surrender soldiers in advance. This is war.
Marika sighed deeply, and then took out Mjolnir from the gate of Babylon which she had drawn in the previous gacha pull. Gate of Babylon is the signature skill of the Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh. It stores the prototypes of all noble phantasms of the world, and there are so many treasures that the hero king himself doesn't know how many there are. Only a few of his favorite weapons have been recorded by him in the treasure house. So when he fights, he usually just uses several portals of Gate of Babylon and fires his Noble Phantasms like cannonballs according to the level of the Noble Phantasm. After Marika obtained the Gate of Babylon, she stored all her weapons in it, and the system could instantly search and locate what she wanted from Gate of Babylon's unimaginable inventory and hand it to her, unlike Gilgamesh, who can't find any weapon he wants instantaneously.
[The author recommends BGM: "Neil: Automata" OST-Song of the Ancients, Atonement]
Thor's Hammer feels heavy in Marika's hands, but it's not too heavy compared to her own stone hammer, so she can handle it easily. Marika silently felt and absorbed Mjölnir's power, her eyes also sizing up its appearance. The surface of the God of War version of Mjolnir is different from that of the Marvel version, with complex Nordic runic inscriptions all over it, adding an ancient sense of sacredness.
This process only took Marika a few seconds. Marika turned her attention back to the city gate.
The design of the city gate is similar to that of the original Uro Castle, but the maintenance and quality are obviously much better. It seems that the lord of this city is at least smarter than Bass, but his days are also numbered.
Marika hooked the belt of the hammer with her right hand, and began to rotate the hammer in a circular trajectory at high speed, imitating Thor's rotation of the hammer in the Marvel movies. As the hammer spun, Marika channeled her rune power into it, and Mjolnir's surface also began to flash with powerful thunder. Marika aimed at what appeared to be the weakest spot on the wall, and threw it hard.
Mjolnir flew straight towards the city gate with roaring lightning. The moment Mjolnir touched the city gate, a large amount of energy burst out. Thunder scattered in all directions, and shattered the supposedly solid city gate.
"Attack." Malika ordered flatly and at the same time stretched out her hand to recall Mjolnir. She could not feel any excitement from fighting against these miscellaneous soldiers. However, the exiled army behind her didn't care, and they rushed into the city under the leadership of the generals. Marika followed on horse and rushed into the city. When she entered, she noticed that there were dozens of charred corpses within the area where the city gate was blasted. Perhaps they were some unlucky soldiers who were too close to the city gate?
The battle ended without any suspense with the victory of the Erdtree Army. The Exiled soldiers poured into the city and immediately formed a street fighting formation in a disciplined manner. Their fighting power was stronger than that of the Godrick's soldiers, making the defenders in the city counterattack look like headless chickens. And to make matters worse, there are powerful generals and Banished knights on the front line crushing any attempt at retaliation. Marika herself was also not far from the front line, using the Gates of Babylon to launch noble phantasms to bomb the enemy. If she wore red colored contact lenses and added "mongrel" to her vocabulary, it would be a perfect genderbend Gilgamesh cosplay.
Anyway, this one-sided battle confirmed Marika's guess that ordinary soldiers and knights in this world were weak in fighting power.
Einar was shocked by the power of the Golder Order. Although he had heard about the strange power of the Golden Order, there was still a big difference between what he saw with his own eyes and the rumors. After the battle started, Einar stayed by Marika's side. After all, he must also serve as a guide and couldn't easily risk himself on the frontline. The storm ash of war masted by the exiled soldiers and Banished knights are enough to beat ordinary soldiers and knights to the point of being unable to fight back, and there are those generals who are like Gods of war on the front line, facing the ordinary defensive forces of Riley City , It's no wonder the army of Riley couldn't win.
But Einar thinks the scariest one of them all is Marika. Although he is only a small city lord, he still has enough eyesight to barely see that the swords, spears and axes shot out by the golden portal are not ordinary weapons as is the short-handled hammer before, all of them are high level magic weapons. And Marika was able to shoot them as projectile as if they were worth nothing, which made Einar deeply shocked by Malika's wealth and magnanimity, and the most terrifying thing was not these. Although he is a newcomer, as Marika's subordinate, Einar has also received Grace, so he understands the effect of it. Instant messaging that ignores distance, body enhancement, 24 hour surveillance and an unforgeable identity certificate. Whether it is fighting a war or governing a country, Einar believes that Grace is the perfect magic spell that can bring about miracles. Einar thought that even the royal mages of the kingdom couldn't create such magical spells, could they? But he couldn't tell if it was a spell or not. In any case, he is very glad that he is on the right team.
The battle for Riley City was over in one day. The rest is the aftermath. The civilians were naturally spared, and the spared civilians were quickly brought under control because they were afraid of the vicious-looking exiled soldiers. The city lord of Riley City was also captured without even a chance to escape from the city lord's mansion because of the lightning-fast advance speed of the Erdtree army.
The surrendered soldiers were not abused, but were gathered in an orderly manner. Accustomed to the cruel treatment of prisoners of war by their medieval contemporaries, they were not used to such peaceful treatment suddenly, and they were even more suddenly more uneasy wondering if the Erdree Army was planning something more terrible.
As for how to appease the people, Marika has a simple and crude solution. She set up sites of grace at key points around the city, and used these sites of grace as similar network signal stations to directly Grace to every citizen in the city. When the people were still surprised by the new mysterious power in their bodies, Marika directly comforted the people with telepathy. The telepathy accurately conveyed Marika's thoughts to the minds of every citizen in Riley City, allowing them to understand that they would not be harmed. Although they still didn't fully trust the Erdtree forces, Marika's spiritual message also calmed them down operation amazed Einar again.
Although Marika can force the people to submit to her through brainwashing, that would be no different from her old self in the Lands Between. As a reincarnated, she cannot bear to deprive the people of their free will.
After roughly controlling the situation in the city, the system finally sent a reminder that the task was completed. Marika was finally able to take a break after fighting and a busy day to draw a gacha pull. This time the reward of the Multiverse gacha were: the armor of the goddess Rhongomyniad (B), manufacturing technology of Viking warships (E), cotton growing and processing technology (E)