When the plot-skips players into the game world

Without a doubt.

...That is the might of the Sixth Power Level.

That holy and fanatical demeanor made Hebashia's face slightly change, her small head tilted back for a moment.

"Such a presence... I thought I was seeing the sublime adjudicators again."

She couldn't help but whisper.

Hebashia did not shy away from admitting her fear of Don Quixote's power, yet her words sounded like praise.

"Sublime adjudicator... It sounds like the name of a warship."

Aiwass asked with great interest from the side: "Just like 'Cruel Preacher' and 'Oathbreaker Annihilator,' they are names of the same type."

"Indeed."

Hebashia nodded: "This was technology that existed only in the Dark Age... or rather, should only have existed then. Heavy-armored paladins clad in blessed armor, existing solely for slaughter. If I remember correctly, they should have all been abandoned before humans were born."

She gazed downward with a mixture of nostalgia and sadness.

In a daze, she seemed to see the past of the Holy Nation—

Towering-like giants, akin to pure white towers that could move.

They were war machines with trees transformed from elves as the core, covered with church-like external structures, sitting down to form a fortress city. Each one could move on land or in water, as a heavy war fortress... Within each could live close to ten thousand people, and just the cannon ports numbered three hundred and thirty-three, capable of chanting in three thousand levels of resonance when deployed.

These were war machines used to fight against the fifth power level sea monsters, demon beasts, and dragons. Against the monster masses of the fifth power level, only fortresses of this specification had significance.

That is the true form of the "Oathbreaker Annihilator."

Not a traditional warship... but an amphibious moving fortress.

And once near the enemy, the "Oathbreaker Annihilator" would release a large number of "Sublime Adjudicators."

Inside these heavy armored silver-white humanoid armor, about three meters high, were skilled and devout paladins. They relied on the strength supplemented from within the "Oathbreaker Annihilator," launched out like comets toward the beast masses.

Just their landing could destroy a large area of the ground.

The dust rising, the earth shaking... Hebashia would never forget it in her lifetime.

With the protection of these highly mobile transcendent beings, the cumbersome Cruel Preacher warships could be considered safe. These turrets provided support fire at sea, or helped intercept aerial forces, while injured or damaged sublime adjudicators would be transmitted back to the fortress under rays of light for healing and repair.

In the era before humans were born, elves were the rulers of the world.

The enemies they faced back then, any one of them was far superior to giants—even giants were part of the alliance line at the time. And in such an environment, elves relied on their extraordinary force to kill all enemies, opening gathering places on earth, thereby having the chance to establish the unified and permanently neutral Eternal Church State...

The fear other races had for elves was cultivated around that time.

It was precisely for this reason, under the elves' protection, that the newly born humans managed to survive without facing extinction.

In the era where hundreds of beast masses rampaged the earth, "genocide" wasn't an empty threat, but something that happened every month.

"Then why, are the sublime adjudicators also canceled now?"

Aiwass asked with some confusion: "If 'Oathbreaker Annihilator' was dismantled due to high maintenance costs... it's just heavy-armored paladins. Isn't the Holy Nation still retaining the Paladin Legion now? If this regiment could be kept... even just keeping the armor would serve as proof of the Holy Nation's past glory, wouldn't it?"

Hearing Aiwass's words, Hebashia froze for a moment.

Such familiar words, she seemed to have heard them somewhere...

"—Why should these great things be abandoned? Isn't it a waste? Moreover, they are evidence of the Holy Nation's main force against beast disasters, and a part of its glorious history... Without them, how will we prove to future generations the cruelty of those wars? Without them, if the Holy Nation is invaded by foreign forces in the future, how will our descendants protect themselves then?"

In a trance, Hebashia seemed to hear her own questioning from back then.

And her mouth moved by itself, saying what Hermes once said to her:

"...Because the Holy Nation does not intend to leave others with an impression of being 'belligerent' and 'dangerous.'"

Hebashia said softly: "Every war the Holy Nation participates in is a 'necessary war.' It is for the continuation of other civilizations, for those weaker races, that the Holy Nation chooses to enter into this cycle of mutual slaughter. Now that the issue has been resolved, we should step back from it, and not covet the status and glory brought by this sublime power.

"When holding a hammer, everything seems like a nail. Neutrality is the core principle of the Holy Nation, and force is only used to ensure the possibility of neutrality... not reversed, like a lofty adjudicator, using force to interfere with other nations. That fundamentally does not count as a Country of Devotion, sons of the Great Tree.

"Elves are meant to make people forget past memories. The races surviving that war do not become superior simply because they experienced it, nor more sublime, more significant, nor should they be rulers of those newborn races in the new world... like humans.

"All races are equal. When fire gathers together, it will shine brighter, this is civilization.

"Suffering is not worth singing praises for, the spirit of hardship in war, the will to endure suffering is worth singing praises for—and these traits do not need these scarred slaughter machines to prove 'it once existed,' but should be conveyed through the words and deeds of future citizens of the Holy Nation... to make it 'remain in the future, continue to exist, forever exist.'

As for the Holy Nation being invaded... Hermes answered like this at the time.

"—In this world, the principles of the path are the Source of Power. If the Holy Nation has not deteriorated, still unparalleled as the Country of Devotion, it can protect itself without relying on these ancient technologies. Just as wisdom begets wisdom, love begets love, devotion will also beget devotion... If the Holy Nation succeeds, then future other civilized nations should all worship that sacred fire, thereby reducing their purity, unlike dragons and demon beasts pure in essence. Then it would be even more impossible for them to defeat the Holy Nation."

This essentially should be the 'heart of devotion' contaminating other paths.

Saying this, Hebashia glanced at Don Quixote again.

He still stood tall and proud, silently protecting Aiwass.

That glorious and sacred demeanor did not waver a bit due to Hebashia's words.

—He clearly did not agree with Hebashia's words, yet he did not debate nor get angry. He guarded by Aiwass like a statue. No matter what thoughts surged within him, they did not affect his holy duty of protecting his master at this moment.

"Truly... so alike."

Hebashia whispered.

Just like those sublime adjudicators of the past... no, exactly the same. Even the style of the armor was the same.

The Papal Guard of that era was just like these emotionless "statues," cold, resilient, silent, and vigilant.

Completely different from the Papal Guard now who regard it as an honor, a profession. They see "guarding" as a mission. It surpasses life, surpasses ethics... surpasses their own principles, surpasses personal life. It surpasses everything.

And now, amid the long passage of time, even the Holy Nation has grown softer. This empire, persisted from the Dark Age to the present, has now become more "humane."

Although Hebashia also feels, this might not necessarily be a bad thing... after all, the Source River of the Path of Devotion is "civilization."

As believers of The God Who Burns Body and Pursues Darkness, detaching their fangs and integrating into civilization is also a very important step.

Even Candle Master himself has grown accustomed to harming himself, how can elves as sons of the Great Tree live alone?