The birth of the Law of Holy Light did not cause much disturbance. In the following days, the various lords remained fully focused on preparing their armies for war.
They led their soldiers through high-intensity training, continuously improving their combat effectiveness and combat skills.
However, this high-intensity training resulted in an enormous consumption of Runes, which meant even greater exploitation of the common people.
Every lord was doing everything possible to squeeze Runes from the lower-class residents.
But the problem was that the Xiao Clan's massive hoarding of Runes without circulating them had already begun to reveal its effects. A large amount of Blessings could no longer return to the Erdtree, causing a severe deficit.
According to the law of return, if the Erdtree could not recover enough Blessings, then the Blessings it released would naturally decrease.
The Golden Lineage, which relied on their own survival and the Runes generated by plants and animals, gradually found themselves unable to support the lords' increasingly intense exploitation.
However, many lords were unaware of this issue, so their tax officials still extracted Runes using the old methods.
The consequences of this chain reaction were extremely severe. A massive number of commoners had all of their Blessings drained away and ultimately returned to the embrace of the Erdtree.
In only a few short months, nearly thirty percent of the common people in The Lands Between died due to the excessive extraction of Runes. Faced with such a horrifying tragedy, no one could continue standing idly by.
Although it was not uncommon for tax officials' miscalculations to result in serfs being completely drained to death—in fact, every year there were commoners who died from Rune exploitation—
the number of deaths occurring recently was simply too astonishing. Such large-scale fatalities had already dealt a heavy blow to the Golden Order and produced far-reaching consequences.
The source of the Golden Order's power was the vast population of the Golden Lineage. Although the deaths of countless commoners provided abundant nourishment to the Erdtree in the short term, in the long run it was no different from slaughtering the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Temporary benefits may have been gained, but the future flow of resources would no longer exist.
The return of such a massive number of commoners to the Erdtree accelerated the decline of the Golden Order. The Erdtree only maintained its peak condition for a few short months before once again beginning to wither, and this time the decay was even more severe than before.
Large golden leaves continuously fell from the Erdtree, covering the entirety of the Royal Capital, Leyndell. Everyone could truly feel that the Erdtree's lifespan was nearing its end.
However, the decline of the Erdtree did not cause the lords to reduce their oppression of the common people.
On the contrary, they became even greedier and crueler, extracting the commoners' Runes even more recklessly and without restraint.
The reason behind all of this stemmed from an invisible chain of suspicion. A single question spread through the hearts of all the lords:
Who exactly had stolen such an enormous amount of Runes, leading to the decline of the Erdtree and the deaths of countless commoners?
And the most reasonable explanation was that certain lords, disregarding the lives of the common people, had been frantically exploiting Runes in order to rapidly strengthen their military forces.
This first caused the deaths of large numbers of commoners, which then reduced the Erdtree's Blessings. The reduction in Blessings further worsened the amount of Blessings available to ordinary people, ultimately resulting in widespread mass death.
But the key issue lay here: the person who first caused such large-scale deaths among the common people must possess an enormous quantity of Runes.
And if those Runes were converted into military power, then the threat posed to the other lords would become fatal.
Furthermore, all the lords understood that while a large population of commoners represented tremendous future development potential for a territory, The Lands Between was now already divided into two major camps:
the Demigod Allied Forces and the Grace-Given King's Defense Army.
No matter which side ultimately won, the other side would inevitably suffer catastrophic losses.
Even if a territory possessed immense future potential, that was still only potential for the future. Only by converting that potential into immediate combat strength could victory in the coming war be secured.
Human nature is inherently selfish, especially among those lords who had long grown accustomed to oppressing others.
If the Second Leyndell War ended in failure, they would inevitably lose all of their current power and wealth.
They would never permit themselves to lose their current status because of a fleeting moment of compassion.
Rather than handing over their valuable commoners to outsiders after defeat, it was better to use those commoners to develop their own strength and win the war first.
As long as victory could be achieved, the lost commoners could always be replenished by plundering the defeated.
As long as the war could be won, they could continue maintaining their ruling status and acquire even more commoners and territory.
Thus, under the influence of this chain of suspicion, the lords became increasingly ruthless toward their own people, even resorting to desperate large-scale massacres.
Some lords, after completely exhausting the populations within their own territories, immediately turned their attention toward neighboring domains and carried out brutal slaughter against the commoners there.
This vicious cycle spread continuously like a plague, plunging the entire world into chaos and bloodshed.
Chaos rapidly began spreading throughout The Lands Between.
Faced with this situation, neither Radahn nor Morgott could remain calm.
What they wanted was not a ruined and devastated The Lands Between.
If the noble lords were allowed to continue descending into madness, no one knew how many innocent commoners would die.
Thus, both sides reached a tacit understanding and began gathering their respective armies, preparing for the final decisive battle.
And with that, the Second Leyndell War officially began.
…
…
On the side of Radahn's Allied Forces, the Redmane Knights led by Radahn, together with Rykard's Carian Knights and mages, formed the vanguard.
They assembled their massive army on the Altus Plateau by ascending through the Grand Lift of Dectus.
Following behind them were Malenia's Cleanrot Knights and Miquella's Haligtree Army.
After the war to subjugate Liurnia ended, Malenia the Valkyrie did not lead her forces back to the Consecrated Snowfield. Instead, she chose to rest at the Shaded Castle near Volcano Manor.
Upon receiving Radahn's summons, she immediately led her army from the Bridge of Iniquity outside the Shaded Castle and headed directly toward the forest outside the Allied Forces' encampment.
At the same time, the Volcano Manor faction led by Xiao also received the summons.
The overwhelming combat power of the Dragon Legion was impossible to ignore, and naturally Radahn would not overlook such a powerful aerial force.
Xiao led the Serpent-Men Legion, the Godskin Apostles, and the Dragon Legion, assembling the army near the Seethewater River of Volcano Manor before personally leading the dragons toward the outskirts of the forest.
Meanwhile, shortly after Radahn's Allied Forces departed, another group also arrived at the Altus Plateau through the Grand Lift of Dectus.
The leader of this group was none other than Godrick—the one who had rebelled during the First Royal Capital War, was hung up and beaten by the Grace-Given King, and ultimately had to rely on Marika's divine artifact to disguise himself as a woman in order to escape from the Royal Capital, Leyndell.
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