A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 225 : The North (4)

[Church Allied Forces Commence Surprise Attack on the Northern Anti-Demon Front]

[Official Subjugation Schedule Planned in Secret]

The ‘Northern Subjugation War’ had begun.

As originally planned, there was no such thing as a ‘declaration of war’.

It was a surprise invasion, and besides, a declaration of war was a device meant to keep external powers, who could intervene in the war, in check.

Excluding the two powers of the Order's Army and the Demon King's Army, there were no longer any ‘external powers’ left on the continent, so it was a step that could be omitted.

Well, even if there were, they would be too insignificant to have any effect on the war itself.

Thus, the beginning of the Subjugation War was a surprise attack by the Church Allied Forces without a declaration of war.

The justification was more than sufficient.

In the first place, most of the Demon King's Territory, located beyond the current Northern Anti-Demon Front, was once an area ruled by several Constellations belonging to the Order Territory.

It was land stolen through the Constellation hunt initiated by the Demon King.

Although it now occupied the very center of the continent, there was a time when the Order had expanded its influence with the north as its main base, so most of the northern region had originally belonged to the Order Territory.

It was land that had fallen into the Demon King's grasp after being pushed back in the War against Demons, but a war to reclaim stolen land was always just.

Of course, that didn't mean there was no opposition to the Subjugation War.

As the Guardian Cross Order's Headquarters had been delegated full authority over the War against Demons from each faction, they did possess the clear and absolute authority of the Church Allied Forces.

However, even so, as it was a Church Allied Force, it was impossible for there to be no one dissatisfied with the Subjugation War plan, which had been secretly established by the Order's Headquarters.

When many factions gather, differing opinions inevitably arise, and if those opinions are a bit strong, they are bound to become complaints.

A few factions within the Church Alliance, dissatisfied with the Subjugation War, even sent formal protest documents to the Order, stating their intention not to participate.

The biggest reason, naturally, was that the plan for the Subjugation War had been autocratically established by a single entity, the Order's Headquarters.

The next most notable reason was the opinion that tilting their forces towards one region, ‘the North,’ was needlessly provoking an escalation in the War against Demons, which was (or appeared to be) in a state of equilibrium.

Of course, it was an opinion that was difficult to call entirely wrong.

Indeed, compared to the past when the position of the Anti-Demon Front had shifted back and forth dramatically, the recent changes to the front had been minor.

Some were even saying that the war had reached a stalemate to the point where one could hope for a ‘truce’.

The intentions of the factions that sent the protest documents were also quite obvious, as most of them were located in areas that were previously part of the Anti-Demon Front but no longer were, or in adjacent regions that could become the front at any moment.

But that was an opinion that could only be formed by someone who knew absolutely nothing about the ‘War against Demons’.

‘…….’

The War against Demons had many titles.

Among them was a title that everyone knew but was rarely mentioned.

The title of ‘The Longest War Since Creation’.

In the long history of the Upper Plane, since records began, no war had been sustained for as long as the War against Demons.

And for a war to last that long, there were bound to be reasons.

During that long war, had there never been a time when the shifts in the Anti-Demon Front were so sluggish?

The answer was, ‘Yes, there had been.’

In fact, there had been quite a few times in various regions when the shifts in the Anti-Demon Front had slowed down.

Then, just because the shifts in the front had lessened, had there ever been a ‘truce’ until now?

The very fact that the War against Demons continued to this day made it obvious that there hadn't been, to the point where an answer was unnecessary.

Rather, it was like the calm before the storm.

After a period where the front's movements slowed, a major incident would inevitably occur.

The most representative of these incidents was the ‘Northern War,’ during which the Order Territory's Northern Anti-Demon Front was pushed back significantly.

At the time of the Northern War, the ‘Northern Anti-Demon Front’ was considered the most steadfast and unshakable among the four directional Anti-Demon Fronts surrounding the Order Territory—a front that could be ‘trusted and relied upon’.

It was the region that had first expanded its influence, driven out the Demon King's Army, and boasted the most formidable power.

Therefore, seeing no change in the Anti-Demon Front, the Order paid more attention and caution to the war in other regions than in the North.

The result of that was the currently lost Northern Order Territory and the annihilated Constellations.

Therefore, most of the factions belonging to the Order who had fought the War against Demons for a long time knew this fact.

They knew that a decrease in the front's movement meant that the enemy, the ‘Demon King's Army,’ was hiding something.

…Perhaps that was why.

The opinions of the factions that had sent protest documents to the Order failed to form any significant public opinion within the Order, and most factions joined the secretly planned Subjugation War without any particular objections.

‘…….’

And so, after a very long time, a ‘Subjugation War’ began.

In truth, ‘Subjugation Wars’ on a local scale, such as those by kingdoms or empires, were still being carried out.

But it had been so long since the Guardian Cross Order had conducted a Subjugation War on an ‘Order-wide level’ that it was hard to recall exactly when the last one was.

Originally, the name ‘Subjugation War’ was a type of method used to expand the Order's influence back when the Guardian Cross Order had not yet spread its power across the entire continent—that is, back when broader power structures like the ‘Order Territory’ or the ‘Church Allied Forces’ had not yet been established.

‘…….’

The appearance of the heroic figure known as the Messiah had averted a situation where they had to watch the continent's destruction with their own eyes.

However, that didn't mean all threats vanished immediately after the Messiah's appearance.

He had prevented the ruin of the Upper Plane by defeating all the primordial magical beasts that no one thought could be handled, but that didn't mean he had killed every magical beast in the Upper Plane.

The various magical beast factions that appeared after the Messiah and the Demon King who united them became a great threat to the humans of the Upper Plane.

A war between massive powers that divided the continent as it was now did not exist back then, but small-scale invasions and wars already did.

And the origin of the ‘Subjugation War’ was when a friendly faction couldn't overcome an external invasion on its own, the Order would dispatch its direct forces to help drive out the external power.

However, as the Order's influence grew, such localized Subjugation Wars became increasingly inefficient.

While the Order was expanding its influence to friendly factions through the Subjugation Wars, the Demon King's Army was also growing in scale.

Consequently, the scale of the war naturally grew larger.

As the scale of the war increased and it became a ‘constant’ state of affairs, the time it took for the Order's central army to be dispatched and return increased.

The Demon King's Army, which used to invade one or at most two places at a time, grew to a scale where it could attack multiple regions simultaneously, employing ‘diversionary tactics’ based on travel distances.

Faced with the growing inefficiency of dispatch-style Subjugation Wars, the Order began to search for another method.

Soon, instead of sending the Church Allied Forces on a dispatch basis, they adopted a method of having them settle permanently in the region, allowing them to utilize the Order's intelligence network and various other capabilities.

Of course, since the size of the army was limited, it was impossible to deploy sufficient troops and facilities in every region.

But they concluded that this could be supplemented to some extent by grouping them into the form of a ‘Church Allied Forces,’ where nearby allies would help each other.

Thus, the current broad-sense ‘Order Faction’ known as the ‘Church Allied Forces’ came into being.

This state of confrontation and continuous battle led to the naming of the continent-wide war as the ‘War against Demons’.

Since the establishment of the War against Demons, fought with a certain degree of ‘constancy,’ and the ‘Church Alliance system,’ there had only been adjustments like adding or subtracting reinforcements for the wars against magical beasts fought simultaneously in various regions.

There had never been a mobilization of a massive military force with the intention of forming a large army to drive out an external power from a single region.

However, the ‘Northern Subjugation War’ being waged now was, quite literally, mobilizing a military force of a scale unprecedented in history.

One-fifth of the total power of the Church Allied Forces.

Someone who didn't know might think, "That's it?" but considering that the Order's power corresponded to about half of the entire Upper Plane, it meant that 10% of all the power existing in the Upper Plane was being used in this war.

It could by no means be called a ‘small scale’.

Moreover, considering that the Order currently boasted the largest force since its founding, it was a war and a subjugation greater than any other in history.

That was how much effort the Order had put into planning it, even indirectly considering the ‘Saintess's sacrifice’.

‘…….’

Anyway.

The first area invaded by the Subjugation Force thus raised was the front right across from the Order's northernmost point.

The Anti-Demon Front, .

The place where the Baron of Bewitchment, ‘Siren,’ and her subordinate magical beast brigade were stationed was a rugged terrain specialized for defense.

Without needing much explanation, the fact that a mere Baron-class was holding a frontline—usually commanded by a ‘Count’-class, or sometimes even a ‘Duke’-class—all by herself, made the difficulty clear.

The Anti-Demon Front, ‘Beautiful Reef,’ was an atoll located in the center of the ‘Black Sea,’ the sea that separated the Order Territory and the Demon King's Territory.

It was situated on a path that one must inevitably pass to cross from the current Order Territory to the Demon King's Territory.

In fact, the difficulty for an ‘attacking’ force was made clear by the fact that the anti-demon army stationed here had been unable to reclaim it all this time.

If it were an ordinary sea, one could simply bypass the atoll and go elsewhere, but the Black Sea experienced a ‘Mana Turbulence phenomenon’ throughout its entire area, except for the straight waterway centered on this atoll.

From the perspective of the Order's army, which relied heavily on the ‘Divine Magic’ of its Priests for much of its combat power, crossing through any path other than the ‘Beautiful Reef’ was nonsensical.

This place was effectively the only gateway into the northern Demon King's Territory.

And to make matters worse, the Baron of Bewitchment ‘Siren,’ who was defending the place, possessed an Innate Ability related to mana interference, making it difficult to just break through.

…That is.

If it were an ‘ordinary anti-demon army,’ that is.