CHAPTER 552: CHAPTER 517: THE JUDGING KNIGHT IN ACTION_2

However, besides these, a Bishop of a Diocese typically holds a certain number of armed clergy or Defender Knights.

Although their numbers are small, they can assemble to form a group roughly the size of a Knight Order, tasked with protecting the Diocese from various demonic invasions.

Generally speaking, this group is mainly composed of Knights or armed forces who voluntarily serve Allfather’s faith; many of them are even the local nobles and their Knights.

Simply put, they are local armed forces cloaked in religious guise.

But the Church does possess real power, for instance, the Judgement Court and Defender Knights.

They form the elite force of the Church, composed of Extraordinary directly cultivated by the Church, possessing strength comparable to a regular army, and furthermore, due to the Church’s wealth and knowledge, they are equipped with far superior gear than the average kingdom’s army.

Therefore, during the cold weapons era, the Church’s Defender Knights were synonymous with well-equipped, powerful forces.

This armed strength once elevated the Church above all nations to the extent that even a King’s coronation required the Church’s blessing to have legitimacy.

However, with the rise of hot weapons, the once-glorious Knights have gradually become obsolete, both the nobles’ Knights of the nations and the Church’s Defender Knights.

Despite the Church upgrading their equipment and attempting to enhance their power and adaptability in the hot weapon era, overall, the Church’s armed forces no longer have their former deterrent force.

Yet, this comparison only applies to various countries; when facing the Evil God Sects, the Church’s Defender Knights still symbolize strength.

Moreover, because the Church achieved significant cooperation with Perfikot, the Church even established a Knight Order composed specifically of Judge Knights from the Judgement Court, and now the Church’s Knights are equipped with Steam Knight Armors.

These Church-special Steam Knights are different from ordinary Steam Knights; their armors are made with the Church’s involvement in the process.

Beyond just consecrating the armor parts, inscriptions of scriptures are written with molten holy silver on hard-to-scratch and wear areas both outside and inside the armor, or a mass and blessing are performed by a Diocesan Bishop upon final assembly completion...

In short, the way the Church used to forge fine weapons and armor for Defender Knights is now being applied to Steam Knight Armors as well.

This makes the Steam Armors equipped by Church Knights appear more splendid, majestic, and simultaneously dangerous and lethal than ordinary Steam Knight Armors.

After all, these Church folks are willing to spend a lot of money participating in making these Steam Knight Armors and consume various precious resources, certainly not for mere aesthetics.

This is one of the secret crafts the Church treasures—Divine Favor Armament manufacturing technology.

Although this part is merely a very low-level Divine Favor Armament manufacturing technology, it already makes the Church’s special version of Steam Knight Armors about 10% to 20% superior in performance and power than ordinary Steam Knight Armors, and they have special advantages against various evil beings.

If it weren’t for the return of the Ancient Gods and the existence of the Evil God Sects, neither the Victor Empire nor Perfikot would consider selling such strategic weapons like Steam Knight Armors to the Church.

In the face of the threat from the Ancient Gods, the Church’s power is undoubtedly very important; after all, only the Church has been opposing these Ancient God’s sects for so many years.

Their combat experience and these seasoned experts are extremely valuable assets.

For this reason, when the Church proposed cooperation and sent an entire Knight Order composed of Judge Knights to her, Perfikot promptly upgraded their equipment so these Judge Knights also received the treatment of Steam Knight Armors.

Now with the Evil God Sects active in the Northern Territory, these Judge Knights, initially aimed at these Evil God Sects, naturally won’t remain idle.

They, along with Judges sent by the Judgement Court, started investigating and clearing religious spreading in the Northern Territory with the cooperation of various departments.

If it’s just general folk beliefs, as long as they are not related to the Ancient Gods, it mostly isn’t a problem; they just destroy the idols, prohibit illegal worship, and fine the followers, then it passes.

As for any punishment their ruling Lord might impose on them, that’s up to the Lord.

Beyond this, considerations are not so generous.

If it’s a true Evil God Sect, then the Judge Knights will let them experience what it feels like to be hit by their now-watermelon-sized flanged maces after the upgrade.

After all, although Church Knights started almost identically in cultivation and training, as they became formal Knights, some as Defender Knights mainly acted as the Church’s face and regular armed force, while others were inserted into the Judgement Court, becoming Judge Knights specialized in combating Evil God Sects.

This difference in roles also creates differences in style and experience between them.

Most regular Defender Knights don’t have much combat experience; after the Church established dominance, these ordinary Defender Knights rarely had chances to go to war, more often serving as guards for important Church figures or honor guards for churches.

In fact, the Church originally planned to assign a group of Defender Knights as guards for Perfikot.

After all, when it comes to protecting important persons, their experience is comparatively rich.

But considering Perfikot’s need to face the Evil God Sects, the Church’s Cardinals discussed and finally sent this group of Judge Knights.

They don’t use the traditional lances or Knight swords typically for ceremonial use but rather prefer one-handed battle axes, flanged maces, and other visibly more lethal heavy weapons.

This mainly stems from the combat environment Judge Knights face; their situations don’t allow room for showy lances, and the benefits of flanged maces in close, indoor combat far exceed a fanciful-looking Knight sword.

Even in combat, hitting a Knight sword with a flanged mace works very well; you might block one or two strikes but not ten or eight.

Can’t smash through? That just means you haven’t hit enough times.

Especially as flanged maces excel in breaching doors, clearing obstacles, and smashing certain hidden areas, and being armor-breaking weapons themselves, they are prevalent among Judge Knights.

Thus, when Perfikot upgraded them to Steam Knights, the equipped weapon unanimously demanded was the flanged mace.

Perfikot readily obliged, giving them all substantially heavier flanged maces, ensuring one strike could smash even a fully armored ordinary Knight into a heap of flesh.

It must be said that these Judge Knights and Judges indeed have extensive experience in the inspection and eradication of cults; they quickly cooperated with the Northern Territory’s intelligence department to figure out what’s going on with this suddenly rising sect.

Most of them were early immigrants from lower middle classes struggling in the Northern Territory, originally unable to make ends meet on the Empire’s mainland; upon arriving in the Northern Territory, they found the harsh conditions required far more effort than in Langton to barely make ends meet, and thus inevitably began to wallow and blame fate.

Initially, Perfikot was too lazy to deal with these people, and reports concerning them weren’t even worthy of reaching Perfikot’s desk; the subordinate officials settled them as they saw fit.

But certain Evil God Sects seized upon this, sending people to incite them, luring them with the so-called Divine Kingdom.

To persuade the Northern Territory’s populace to believe them, they even fabricated stories claiming that Perfikot’s accomplishments were all due to the blessings of their Gods on Perfikot, yet Perfikot showed no respect to the Gods despite benefiting, and the Gods’ followers would inevitably campaign against her.