The time had nearly come for the glory of the faithful to outshine the devilry of the wicked. For too long had the war gone on in the way it had. Early victories had turned into a string of catastrophic defeats, all leading to this one nation, the Ititlis Imperial Dominion, being the last member of the Luminas Confederacy to remain. Of what once was a continent-spanning coalition, only a single solitary state remained, surviving alone and threatened on all sides by an enemy that knew neither mercy nor compassion.

Only the threat of complete erasure kept the great enemy from entering their lands, and even that was a flimsy threat at best. The barrier could only be raised for a few short months, and if it were not raised soon it would be impossible to raise it altogether for another half century. While they had counted on the evil empire invading and being obliterated by said barrier, it had not come to pass and now the foe was waiting out a defense that should have been a state secret. Those who ruled both the Imperial Dominion and the Vatican City had to wonder if there were moles and spies among them, a train of thought that led to spy-hunts of every increasing brutality and intrusion. The whole of the nation was becoming a Medieval Grimdark Fantasy version of an Orwellian Surveillance State, and no one, even those at the top, were safe.

As it was, the nation was being starved of resources. Trade ships barely got out into the sea before being attacked and either sunk or captured. Strange sea monsters haunted the coastline, making not only naval trade but also fishing and naval warfare a suicidal exercise. This was to say nothing of the monsters that emerged from the deep at random times and random places to loot and pillage coastal towns. There seemed to be a few coastal settlements that were never targeted, but they were either large coastal cities or, after being put under an inquisition, been found to harbor cults dedicated to the ruinous false gods of the great enemy.

As time passed, the populace was becoming ever more desperate. They needed guidance, they needed hope and most of all they needed food, water and money to buy them with. Ititlis had grown fat on the trade of its allies and the constant stream of pilgrims that had made their journey to the Vatican City. They had long since become almost entirely dependent on the fields of Albion, Teutonia, Rusk and Siempre Dorado to take care of the vast majority of their food and drink needs and now, with those avenues gone, they were woefully underprepared for the situation they were in.

Therefore, when word spread among the starving masses that the Church was preparing to retake the lost lands of the Confederacy and was offering food and money to those willing to aid in the war effort, people jumped at the opportunity. They had no idea what they were signing up for.

…

(Three Hours before Alexis, Elizabeth and Raziel leave the beach, five days before Kain returns home from his vacation.)

“And? How goes the recruitment?” asked a young woman in priestly garb.

“Your Holiness! We did not expect you to visit us!”

The rest of the clergy immediately bowed their heads in deference to the Pope of the Luminas Church, Pope Angela XI. The young (for a Pope) woman strode into the massive domed room with a not insubstantial number of attendants following lose behind. She was unlike many of the previous people to hold her position, having hailed not from a standard path but one of combat and conflict. She was one of the few Popes to have been a Warrior Nun before becoming what she was, and that righteous zeal and fanatical warrior spirit that she displayed during her time as a Cleric/Paladin hybrid was only intensified now that she had a war to win with stakes as high as they were.

In fact, it was that mix of fanaticism, zealotry and desperation that had led her to do what she and the rest of the Church were doing. There was the old saying, ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’, and what they were doing amounted to sacrificing around ten thousand people to ‘save’ many, many more. Those who had ‘joined’ the ‘war effort’ were hooked up to a machine fit more for a villain than a hero, all to be used as sacrifices so that the Holy Vatican City could wipe the great enemy out in a single shot. They would only get one chance to make it work, one single shot to obliterate the Abominable King, his whore wife and the entire hell-hole that was the dark city of Necrograd.

If they hit their target and all went according to plan, the whole of the Europan continent would erupt into open rebellion against the evil empire and its puppet governments. The war to retake what was lost would be brutal, bloody and painful, but victory would be all but assured. Still, they had to be very careful. If they missed their target, if the devil and his whore wife were not in Necrograd when the beam hit, all their efforts would be for naught. If their gamble did not completely pay off, they would be forced to deploy what remained of the True Hero they had summoned but a (relatively) short while ago, and they all doubted that Kevin could hold back the Abominable King, especially when the devil would be filled with rage and hate at the loss of his capital city.

“How much longer before the [Eraser Gun] is ready to fire? We are running out of time to waste.” asked Angela XI.

“We estimate it will only be a couple of days at most. Less than five, certainly.”

“How much less? Time is of the essence here; if we miss it will all be over for us and neither I nor the Goddess will not tolerate such a failure. We must win, at all costs. Now, hurry it up, for we have little time remaining before the barrier can no longer be used to hold the darkness back.”

With those words, Angela XI turned and walked off. She headed for the training ground and once there began to practice her old Warrior Nun ways, much to the disapproval of the clergy. But she gave them no mind. If worse came to worse, she would have to use her knowledge of combat, and although she did not wish to do so she had a horrible feeling in her gut that she would have to.