Ch.7676. Legion of Avengers: Field Test (1)

After making a certain resolution and retrieving my vampire avatar…

Not long after, I already received word that the “rideable golems” I had ordered for my believers were completed.

Of course, sending a messenger directly for such trivial matters might diminish the messenger’s dignity, so I sent Lisa to receive the offerings and check on things. The golem she directly transported to me was…

‘Impressive!’

Unlike the punishment golems that looked like mere lumps of stone, this one clearly showed careful attention to its exterior design from the outset.

Its surface was carved to look like neatly stacked rectangular stone bricks, without a separate head section.

It was also significantly larger than the punishment golems, standing nearly 5 meters tall, with enough space on the upper body for several people to ride without issue.

As a result, this golem resembled a moving tower or turret, and could likely serve such a purpose on an actual battlefield.

One could mount a medium-sized ballista on top with someone inside controlling it, or equip the protruding arms with crossbows while leaving the loading to the riders. Even just giving it shields or blunt weapons and positioning a few spearmen on top would make it essentially a small mobile fortress.

According to the manual Lunifer sent, the golem could detach its upper tower section in emergencies to specialize in close combat, and if an aura user rode inside, the golem could also use aura.

In other words, this magnificent golem could serve as a second body for seriously injured warriors burning with revenge, giving them another chance to return to the battlefield.

Of course, this golem wasn’t perfect in every aspect as a weapon.

There were psychological issues for warriors trapped inside a stone mass, forced to live a non-human life, and to be installed inside, one’s body had to be modified beyond the point of no return.

Furthermore, those installed—or rather, those who rode inside—could only be removed after death. Thanks to Lunifer’s considerable efforts, the rider could fight without pain, but…

The price was quite steep in exchange.

Even if Gracus had built a successful business based on modern knowledge he learned from me, spending his entire fortune would only be enough for a few hundred of these at most.

Therefore, we had to limit riders to intermediate-level warriors or above, but then the problem was finding intermediate warriors with irreparable serious injuries.

‘What should I do about this…’

As I was pondering how to handle this, a brilliant idea suddenly struck me.

‘Ah, right. Those guys!’

The idea was to use my believers among the gladiators in the arena as intermediate warriors to install inside.

According to Lunifer, professors at the Magic Academy had the authority to receive severely injured gladiators as a kind of experimental subject.

Gladiators were weakened by magic-blocking shackles, but they were fundamentally intermediate-level warriors, which made them quite useful.

Of course, having such authority was one thing. In reality, humans who had spent their entire lives at desks would never use such authority, with extremely rare exceptions…

According to Lunifer, occasionally they would take in particularly vicious criminal gladiators, claiming they were “humans lacking love,” and use them as punching bags.

I requested Lunifer to bring them in to serve as riders for the rideable golems.

Normally, even severely injured gladiators were still slaves taken as war prizes, so they didn’t receive elaborate treatment.

Therefore, if they were injured during gladiatorial matches:

Popular and cooperative gladiators might have intermediate priests called to heal them cleanly, but uncooperative or ordinary gladiators would only receive minimal treatment from lower priests to keep them from dying.

In this process, gladiators who lost limbs would be healed in that state, and restoring them to their original condition would require a high-ranking priest to attend to them all day…

Naturally, these gladiators’ bodies were essentially ruined by their harsh daily lives, receiving verdicts that even magic couldn’t fully heal them.

In such cases, entering a golem might be better, depending on their own will.

※ ※ ※

Anyway, having made this decision, I immediately put it into action.

After hearing from Lunifer that it was possible and confirming his positive response, I had Bjorn ask the gladiators, and their responses were quite positive as well.

Once someone became a gladiator, they were destined to die eventually. The opportunity to avoid this fate, even if it meant becoming a stone mass, and to take revenge on the Rom Empire, was viewed positively by many.

Particularly among older gladiators, many were more positive about the prospect of changing bodies than other gladiators, so I happily told him to begin the work, while…

‘Time to lay some groundwork…’

Ahead of the coming day of vengeance, I wanted to test the current combat strength by mobilizing the Avenger Legion.

The Avenger Legion.

Originally Gracus’s private army, they had grown through my blessings and full support to become the medium infantry of the Revenge Order.

With delicately adjusted blessings that enhanced their physical abilities to the limits of human capability, skills and combat techniques honed daily under the guidance of the Angels of Vengeance, plus various weapons supplied by manifesting items from my divine realm into reality…

With 1,200 formal soldiers, 300 trainees, and recently even a few awakened aura users, they could rightfully be called the strongest “infantry unit” of this era, but…

Realistically, they had only trained so far with almost no practical experience.

I wanted to give them real combat experience, so I decided to take the Avenger Legion to a hidden dungeon with very unique entry conditions.

《Gracus, can you hear me?》

‘…?!! Yes, I hear the noble voice of the Great One!’

《Good. Then I command you. Select 500 exceptional soldiers from among my troops who cannot use aura, and send them to the sanctuary.》

‘Yes, of course! They are warriors dedicated to the Great One. If you command, they will naturally follow your orders!’

So I instructed Gracus to personally select and send 500 elites, and before long, 500 armored men and women assembled at the Blood Sanctuary.

Coming to the Blood Sanctuary, a place equivalent to my holy ground, these Avenger Legion soldiers had every reason to be excited, but…

While there was a slight air of excitement, they maintained strict military discipline.

‘The continuous investment has paid off, indeed.’

It required constant consumption of significant faith to provide customized blessings to each individual, supply equipment, and maintain the summoning of Angels of Vengeance and Blood Warriors as instructors, but…

Now, seeing their disciplined appearance, I was quite satisfied.

From their formation maintained without the slightest movement, to their mental readiness, to their actual combat capabilities—everything was excellent.

They were truly worthy of being called “Avengers.”

“Greetings, soldiers of the Avenger Legion. I am the Messenger of the Great One, and I will be commanding you for a while.”

I decided to personally command them, even bringing out this embarrassing relic of my past.

The Avenger Legion was quite surprised by “my” unexpected appearance and murmured briefly, but quickly realizing this was disrespectful toward me, the noise soon subsided.

Satisfied with this response, “I” opened my parasol, stood before them, and…

“Let us depart, soldiers.”

With those words, I led them toward our destination.

The method of transportation was simply teleportation.

I had modified one of the eight passages extending from the sanctuary into a mobile warp gate, which I had pre-configured to connect to the vicinity of our target dungeon.

The dungeon I had chosen to give them practical experience was—the “Army Dungeon,” an unusual dungeon where armies faced off against each other.