Ch.126126. Fallen Legion

“Phew, it’s over.”

A little while later, in a hidden space of the Divine Realm.

I breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the fortress had evaporated due to the nuclear magic cast as Magica’s ritual, thus concluding all declarations of war.

All “declarations of war” were successfully completed without issue, blowing away six major strongholds, and everyone was able to secure some nice “side benefits” as well.

“Hmm-hmm-hmm~hmm-hmm-hmm~hmm-hmm-hmm!”

Humming happily at the perfect results, I smiled contentedly as I gazed at my newly acquired Fallen Legion—the Legion of the Black Sun.

Fallen Legion.

True to its name, it was an Imperial Legion corrupted by evil power, appearing occasionally in the game as somewhat impactful common enemies.

Their role is to serve as troops recruited and commanded by evil gods or demons in the material world, as these entities lose power when sending their own minions into reality.

Rather than independently forming an army of mortals like my Legion of Avengers, evil gods typically corrupt and utilize the legions of the Rom Empire.

In reality, there’s a behind-the-scenes reason to standardize the evil god faction’s common soldiers through palette swaps… but let’s set that aside for now.

Anyway, the total strength of the Legion of Black Sun I’ve recruited is about 6,000 soldiers, with roughly 5,000 civilians among them.

In addition, there are about 100 officers and mid-tier combat forces combined.

Some of them were killed by orcs during the early stages of my invasion, but after resurrecting them using souls and revealing the truth, most were successfully recruited.

However, the legion commander, whom I had assassinated, remained stubborn until the end, and I had no choice but to kill him—a significant blemish on my record.

Nevertheless, considering everything, having a legion join me was excellent news.

At once, my followers increased by 10,000, along with 100 mid-tier forces that I had been lacking, plus about 6,000 professional combat personnel.

This alone was cause for joy, but the combat capability of these forces is also considerable.

Of course, their combat power and quality might be inferior to my Legion of Avengers, which I’ve nurtured by pouring in divine faith…

But in exchange, they possess diverse military specialties and excellent experience, with a relatively shorter training period and well-established systems making reinforcement easier—a significant advantage.

Moreover, while their combat power might be outmatched by the monstrous Legion of Avengers, which has transcended low-tier status, objectively speaking, the Legion of Black Sun is still a tier-1 army in this world.

Furthermore, looking closely, they are actually stronger than they were during the Imperial era.

The blessings bestowed during the process of “corrupting” them through temptation, the magical power granted upon joining me—magical-muskets in the form of laser-shooting spears.

Thanks to this, they were instantly upgraded from ancient Roman legionnaires to something akin to line infantry, but the truly strengthened unit was none other than the Black Sun Legion’s cavalry.

The cavalry, numbering a substantial 1,000 compared to the 5,000 infantry, gained powerful enhancements from their equipment to their war horses.

Starting with cavalry lances—special magical-muskets designed for mounted troops—their armor also evolved from crude iron plates to partial plate armor.

The most significant changes occurred with the War Horses, which were corrupted alongside the legion.

Naturally, these war horses received blessings like other fallen legionnaires, and under their influence, the horses underwent transformations almost to the point of becoming a different species.

Their bodies swelled to sizes comparable to modern draft horses, while pairs of curved horns resembling those of mountain goats grew from behind their ears.

Under the influence of evil magic, their hooves glowed red, and claws or sharp horns sprouted from the extremities of their bodies.

These war horses, transformed almost into magical beasts, uniquely had their souls intertwined with their riders.

To use an analogy, it was close to a familiar relationship through magical contract, allowing these horses to be resummoned after death and enabling almost perfect unity of movement through their soul connection.

Thanks to all this, I could confidently assert that I had gained power worthy of recognition as a legitimate faction.

※ ※ ※

And it seemed I wasn’t the only evil god to secure a Fallen Legion.

Most notably, Horus, the Evil God of Fear, had acquired a legion through deception, appropriately named the Horror Legion.

While they’re currently just imperial legions with changed banners, as Horus actively uses his blessings, they will become increasingly corrupted over time.

Under the pretext of easily resolving conflicts through psychological warfare that induces fear in enemies, they will torture or brutally kill prisoners in front of enemy lines.

Going further, they’ll adorn themselves with skulls and human skin to generate fear, or even adopt human shields made of living prisoners as official weapons.

Knowing this future, I couldn’t help but feel disgusted in many ways.

Meanwhile, Fanima, the Evil God of Despair, had also brought in a Fallen Legion from somewhere, calling them the Raven Legion.

True to their name, these soldiers were possessed by Fanima’s blessed raven beasts, growing raven wings on their backs and becoming raven beastmen. Completely transformed from their Imperial Legion days, they now specialized in high-speed mobile warfare based on flight capabilities.

Using the despair-inducing passive ability characteristic of Fanima’s monsters to break enemy morale, they split into small units to sweep across the battlefield attacking enemies.

However, to enable flight, their armaments inevitably became lighter, ultimately making them more of a special force specialized in guerrilla tactics rather than frontal warfare.

In direct contrast to Fanima’s high-mobility, guerrilla-specialized legion, the legion of Marus Area, the Evil God of Plague, focused on heavy infantry.

Named the Plague Legion, with “plague” attached as with Marus Area’s other subordinates, most legionnaires had mutated through plague-blessings to become plague soldiers.

Like other plague deity units, their most distinctive feature was being slow yet sturdy.

Compensating for the worst-level defense (for their tier) with toughness and regeneration, they stubbornly endured and refused to die unless attacked with fire, their weakness.

In this state, they spread various magical plagues around them to wear down enemies, while finishing them off with close-combat abilities that, while not top-tier, were at least average.

Their lack of mobility was compensated by cavalry mounted on plague-mosquitoes or giant rats instead of horses, and if necessary, they could deploy other minions.

And perhaps the most peculiar legion would be the No-Named Legion of [ ], the Evil God of Misfortune.

Originally ordinary members of the Imperial Legion, they “unfortunately” received [ ]’s blessing, causing their existence to be half-forgotten by the world.

Even they themselves completely forgot their past and names, with their very sense of self becoming blurred, turning them into [ ]’s puppets.

The only fate remaining for them was to move according to [ ]’s instructions, unable to even recognize their own deaths—a miserable and unfortunate existence.

Yet even their situation might be better than that of the legion completely transformed into slaves—the slaves of the Evil God of Conspiracy.

Ensnared in Magica’s plots and sold into bondage, they became Slaves of Fate.

Originally a specialized Imperial Legion formation focused on cavalry, they consisted of 1,000 heavy cavalry and 3,000 light cavalry, active in large expeditions.

Then one day, a certain military mage was dispatched to this unit.

This mage was an astrologer skilled in foresight and prophecy, who uncannily predicted crises for the legion and communicated them.

As the astrologer’s predicted crises actually materialized, despite being an external dispatch, he was treated almost like a staff officer of the legion.

As time passed, the legion’s dependence on prophecy increased, and the astrologer was worshipped almost like a divine apostle.

At this point, the astrologer proposed a ritual to bestow his prophetic power to all legion members, and the legionnaires, believing him completely, prepared sacrifices and performed the ritual…

But of course, it was a trap.

The legion’s soldiers ended up offering their souls to Magica with their own hands, and by the time they realized the truth, it was already too late.

In the end, they fell into the abyss as karmic retribution for trying to glimpse fate.

After summarizing the fallen legions that had fallen into the hands of evil gods, a very important question suddenly occurred to me.

As many as six legions (about 30,000 soldiers) had fallen, even more soldiers had died or been injured, and more than ten cities had been completely shattered by the evil gods’ declarations of war.

With such severe and serious damage inflicted…

How exactly was the Pantheon responding to this declaration of war?