The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 873

Chapter 872
Giants Stepped into the Children’s Playground
Eivass did not immediately head to Star Antinomy but waited a few more days in the Holy Kingdom.
After all, Fafnir and Helchin had only just reunited, and it would be somewhat inappropriate to separate them again so soon. Helchin had not yet met his son.
Fafnir also requested this of Eivass—because she saw that Helchin’s Dragon Lance had decayed to the point of being unusable, she planned to forge a brand new lance of her own for Helchin.
As a dragon with a long lifespan, she had mastered a part of the Dwarf’s Artificer techniques. This was also the reason she could craft equipment.
…As for what materials she intended to use, Eivass chose to remain blissfully ignorant.
However, Eivass’s mana was not sufficient to maintain Helchin in a combat state for extended periods. Therefore, apart from their reunion, Helchin generally traveled in a mana-conservation mode.
But Rhine seemed to prefer his father in his spectral horse form over the elven specter clad in silver armor.
It was said that he was initially quite afraid of Helchin and had always avoided him, not daring to speak to him. However, after Helchin transformed into a horse, he gradually began to play with him.
By April 4th, Rhine could already ride Helchin around joyfully.
Although Rhine was considered an adult by elven standards, as a dragon, he was still a child and somewhat naive.
Helchin was also very happy, pulling Rhine around every day. The father and son quickly bonded. It seemed Helchin had explained things clearly to Fafnir, so she no longer forced Rhine to train daily. This made Rhine even more grateful to Helchin and more affectionate towards him.
It wasn’t until April 5th that Helchin’s new lance was forged.
And with the Great Philosopher’s Holy Day Ritual concluding yesterday, the Holy Kingdom entered another month-long period of downtime.
Eivass’s previous arrangements began to be diligently executed:
As the ancient factories rumbled to life once more, the Holy Tree’s blood was continuously extracted and infused into various facilities. Brand-new warships began to be constructed with high efficiency, and the sealed, dust-covered ancient war techniques were reactivated.
Ever since the war ended and the Holy Kingdom was established… with the advent of the Supreme Holy Crown, the Holy Kingdom’s Paladin legions no longer had numbers.
With the Eternal Pope in place, the Holy Kingdom was virtually impossible to invade, nor was there any necessity to invade other nations. Coupled with the Heavenly Candlemaster Envoy’s directive to act as a “guardian” observing the development of civilizations, the Holy Kingdom did not require immense military might. Excessive strength could potentially incite fear or hostility among the populace.
Consequently, the Holy Kingdom had not publicly recruited new Paladins for over three thousand years, relying entirely on generational succession.
Even after the advent of the “Professional” system, the mystical arts related to the Paladin profession were never disseminated externally. Relying solely on the characteristic ability of Priests and Paladins to mutually transform, a select few Third Tier human Priests, after rigorous screening and trials, were permitted to directly advance to Paladin as a specialized profession—Bishop Mathers, for instance, became a “Guardian of the Sacred Tomb” in this manner.
However, the fundamental Paladin profession remained firmly under the Holy Kingdom’s control.
This was to prevent the proliferation of “Paladin,” a combat profession characteristic of the Holy Kingdom, to the outside world—thereby avoiding potential trouble for the Holy Kingdom. Even within the Holy Kingdom itself, very few individuals became Paladins.
Before the establishment of the Holy Kingdom, the number of Priests was far less than that of Paladins.
—Until now, everything had reversed once again.
“If the Holy Kingdom’s purpose is no longer observation and guardianship, but rather to act as a leader and protector, to defend the World in the face of a great crisis, then the Holy Kingdom requires greater strength—not just the individual powerhouses like Cardinals who lead, but a systemic armed force.”
Eivass said.
The plan of the Ring Heavenly Envoy was bound to come to fruition, as the Ouroboros Ring ritual was born from the greed in people’s hearts. As long as someone desired to become powerful, to become the King of the World, the Ouroboros Ring ritual would always manifest…
Even if the Fallen Heavenly Envoy foresaw this scheme and found a way to disrupt the Ouroboros Ring ritual at Star Antinomy, it would merely result in him ultimately advancing to the Endless Knot, as depicted in the painting, and then seizing Eivass’s essence before the Doomsday.
At that point, Eivass would be even less capable of confronting the Pillar Gods.
It would be far better to embrace the Ouroboros Ring ritual—to utilize the Heavenly Envoy Fragments to further evolve the Beast of Sin!
However, this would necessitate addressing another matter.
The Heavenly Envoy who was brought down, in their attempt to transform the Material Realm into a domain suitable for themselves, would almost certainly result in widespread devastation. While Eivass’s ultimate goal was to confront the Doomsday, that did not mean these innocent lives could be sacrificed—similar to the concept of “premature death.”
This Ascension Ritual further solidified Eivass’s conviction while also making him aware of his own shortcomings. He was still prone to falling into the trap of “premature death”… because it was a trap that the Ring Heavenly Envoy had already fallen into, and from a certain perspective, they were, in essence, the same person.
What was effective against the Ring Heavenly Envoy was equally effective against Eivass.
Now, having sobered up, Eivass realized that this matter had to be dealt with—even if he could defeat the descending Heavenly Envoy himself, the descent of the Heavenly Envoy would bring about disaster.
The descent of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy would lead to a massive invasion of demons into the Material Realm. And with Eivass’s personal strength alone, it would be impossible to purge them all—firstly, Phantom Demons did not fear death, and secondly, his mana was finite. Moreover, a single person could not possibly defend against all demon legions everywhere.
To preserve his strength to confront the Fallen Heavenly Envoy, he needed allies and partners.
And the Holy Kingdom was the most suitable entity for this task.
When the Fallen Heavenly Envoy descended, various Heavenly Envoys might descend simultaneously across the World—even Eivass, as powerful as he was, could not be in multiple places at once to protect everyone. He could not teleport, and he could not defeat all the Heavenly Envoys before they wrought disaster. Therefore, keeping this secret and attempting to “solo the dungeon” was selfish.
As the saying goes, “teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” At such a time, it was inappropriate to view the “Doomsday crisis” as his own secret, to hoard it jealously, and to revel in the solitude of being the sole savior—rather, it should be shared. At the very least, the existence of the Doomsday itself should be shared, so that people would be prepared, and the machine known as the Eternal Holy Kingdom could begin to preheat and operate.
The World could never be saved by one person alone. If this World required the sacrifice and sweat of one individual to be saved, then it was already doomed.
Even the sun, which illuminated the heavens and earth, could not cast its light upon all corners of the World simultaneously.
The sun would eventually set, and move to illuminate other skies. But even without seeing the sun, people knew it existed; with the knowledge of the sun’s existence, there was hope for tomorrow.
Eivass merely needed to provide hope to the people—with preparation and hope, humanity would save their own World.
And he would only need to tackle the most formidable challenges!
Now, the Holy Kingdom had reactivated the organizational structures of the three Paladin legions: “Wardens,” “Purifiers,” and “Instructors,” as well as the auxiliary legion “Protectors” outside the Path of Devotion, and had begun a comprehensive recruitment drive.
The recruitment requirements were for individuals above the age of adulthood and below the age of old age, with no restrictions on gender, origin, race, or path. However, all soldiers would need to undergo rigorous assessments of will and morality.
Even if they could not participate in the Heavenly Envoy battles, they could at least help clear out minor threats—even in a game, such large-scale wars would always involve allied forces.
Perhaps in some games, allied soldiers were powerful enough to win without the player’s intervention; in others, allied NPC soldiers were quite weak and would certainly perish if left unattended; and in some, both sides would engage in a superficial battle of attrition, fighting endlessly until the player intervened. But regardless, it was never the case that only the protagonist fought against an entire legion.
Even confronting the Fallen Heavenly Envoy in a game, it was only after the “Disaster of Tree and Amber” concluded, and with the friendship of the Elves obtained, and with the assistance of the Holy Kingdom, that the adventurer party had a chance to approach the Victorious Palace dungeon, where the Fallen Heavenly Envoy resided, amidst the interception of overwhelming demon legions and human traitors who had sided with the Fallen Heavenly Envoy.
At the very least, even if these individuals were incapable of clearing minor threats—they could protect civilians and combat natural disasters.
There had to be some hope for the people… at least they shouldn’t be facing an overwhelming enemy force with no one on their side.
As the Holy Kingdom’s actions became increasingly less concealed, fear began to spread further in other nations.
They started to realize that the Holy Kingdom was serious this time.
It wasn’t a joke, nor was it merely a change in past customs… the Elves were truly about to undertake something significant.
Something that the Fifth Tier Cardinals and the Pope’s Guard alone could not accomplish;
Something that required the reactivation of ancient technologies, long sealed away from the era of war.
It was like giants stepping into a children’s playground.
Humanity had not personally witnessed the glory of the Elves’ peak era, but other races had.
Before the Heavenly Candlemaster Envoy established the Church, the Treefolk were known for their belligerence.
Now, the awakening of the Eternal Holy Kingdom caused this stagnant, peaceful World to begin flowing once more.
The course of history changed at this very moment.
(End of Chapter)