The soldiers continued to shoot arrows, but these arrows fell into the enemy's army and did not cause any waves. Some skeleton soldiers even used their shields to block the arrows. After several rounds of volleys, the skeleton army controlled by Cleopatra had already forced its way into the city. Only then did the soldiers of Ellaeus see the true face of these enemies.
"Are they all bones?"
"Gods above! These people are all dead!"
The soldiers looked at the white bones beneath the armor.
I was immediately frightened.
When the commander saw this scene, he felt as if his heart was being tightly grasped. He had expected that the guy must be the Spartan oracle, but this oracle was too weird. Why could he summon so many bones from underground? But the commander could feel that if these bones rushed into the city, it would be a very terrible thing. So, the commander said loudly to the officers around him:
"Don't panic! Don't be afraid! Since these enemies are just bones, they shouldn't be afraid of arrows. Pick up the stones and wood in your hands and smash them! We must not let such enemies enter the city, otherwise, the people behind us will face a catastrophe!!!"
"The enemy has an oracle!"
At this time, some officers could no longer sit still.
The centurion took off his helmet and looked at the army of bones approaching the city wall. His whole body was shaking. "We can't win... We absolutely can't win. Did you see that girl? She has a two-pronged fork in her hand. It is the symbol of Lord Hades. This means that we will all die today. Lord Hades' oracle will take us all to the underworld!"
"Shut up!!!"
The commander drew his dagger.
Then he pointed at the soldier.
"The underworld does not welcome cowards like you. Even if we have to die, we will fight to the last moment!!! Lord Hades will definitely not hate warriors like us. If a coward like you dies in such a humiliating way, your soul will never be able to enter the underworld under the guidance of Lord Hades, but will be directly fed to the three-headed dog of Tartarus!"
The commander's words were deafening, and those who shared the same idea as the officer probably made their own choices. The cowardly centurion shook his head helplessly and put on his helmet again.
"I never thought that my last battle would be against Lord Hades' Oracle. It would be great if Lord Rhodes was here at this time."
"God bless you..."
Although the army of Arras was in a state of sadness as a whole.
But they were no longer afraid of death in such a battle, and if they gave up now, it would be too early, so the soldiers and officers prepared again, they picked up stones from the city wall and threw them down when the army of bones began to approach the city wall. These weapons were very effective against the skeleton soldiers, and when the stones hit their heads, the skeletons of these skeleton soldiers could not support it and instantly turned into a pile of fragments.
After the wide logs rolled down from the city wall, they cleared a path along the slope of the Wall of Eraeus, directly clearing a path through the army of bones. Countless skeleton soldiers were broken in half by the logs and turned into a pile of rotten fragments.
“This trick really works!!!”
The officers looked at this scene in surprise.
The commander also breathed a sigh of relief.
The round wooden stakes have always been an important weapon for defending the city. Ordinary armies can dodge these wooden stakes, but the army of skeletons has no intelligence and naturally has no way to dodge them. The soldiers of Erasius were encouraged and pushed the logs down from the city wall. These logs cleared a path through the army of skeletons. Every time they saw this scene, the morale of the soldiers was boosted.
Cleopatra stood not far away and watched this scene, the smile on her face did not diminish, because she knew what would happen next. So, Cleopatra raised the fork in her hand again, and the black mist condensed on her fork at this time, and then flowed towards the battlefield.
When the black mist gently floated over the shattered skeleton soldiers, a chilling scene occurred. The piles of bones that had stopped moving overlapped again. The soldiers of Arras were desperate to find that the skeleton soldiers slowly stood up from the ground, picked up their weapons, and walked towards Arras City again. Only then did they realize that these white skeletons could not be completely defeated. In order to deal with them, they had to deal with the oracle.
But do they need ordinary soldiers to kill the Oracle?
It’s crazy to think about it.
"It's over..."
The commander of Eraeus took off the general's helmet on his head and threw it aside. His almost 50-year-old, slightly old face was looking at the skeleton soldiers who had begun to climb the city wall with surprise and despair. The officers and soldiers behind him also began to retreat. They had the courage to fight, but they might not have the courage to fight against the infinitely resurrected skeleton soldiers.
"We are dead..."
As the skeleton soldiers climbed up the city wall.
The commander couldn't help but say this.
Then he raised the dagger in his hand and rushed towards the enemy.
The Guide of Hades
The battle under the city of Arras was almost one-sided, with skeleton soldiers constantly climbing up the city walls, and the Arras soldiers on the walls were gradually devoured in the resistance. Just like the navy soldiers on their warships, when facing these skeleton soldiers, they had no way out and could only be hacked to death or smashed to death by these weapons that had already decayed to the depths.
These skeleton soldiers probably could not have imagined that they, who had died on the battlefield of Troy, would now appear in this world again and experience a bloody siege. The Mycenaean coalition and Trojan soldiers, who had once been enemies, now gathered together and attacked Eraeus.
The endless stream of skeleton soldiers like a tide easily overwhelmed the fragile defense of Eraeus. Facing these movable dead, the soldiers of Eraeus were under great mental pressure. When they found that the city walls were full of skeleton soldiers, these humans had no way to hold on any longer. They ran down the city walls in panic, trying to give themselves a last chance of survival by escaping.
And this time.
The commander of Sparta said with some concern:
"Lord Oracle, is the battle over now?"
"Do you think these bones can be summoned at will?" Cleopatra turned around and looked at the Spartan commander with a smile. "These bones have been sleeping underground for so long. When they appear in this world again, what they need is the vitality from the living. If there is no way to obtain vitality, they will not give up."
"what do you mean……"
Hearing this, the Spartan commander's heart skipped a beat.
"We want to occupy Araeus, not turn it into an empty city!"
"Really? That's your army's request. What does it have to do with me?"
Cleopatra turned around, and she gently placed her fork on the shoulder of the Spartan commander, then smiled and said, "After all, the mission given to me by Lord Archidamos was to help you unify the Gallipoli Peninsula, and he did not tell me to save the lives of everyone in Eraeus. If he wanted to do that, he should have sent Raisander, not me."
"Yes! I understand!"
I don't know if it was because of Archidamus, the king of Sparta.
It was still the heavy double-pronged fork placed on his shoulder.
The Spartan commander finally surrendered. He could only accept the current situation. Cleopatra looked at the city of Araeus. No one knew whether she would have mercy on the innocent people in Araeus. Some people could only listen to her helpless words: "All power will eventually have to pay a certain price. Lord Hades needs more souls to be led into his underworld, so he also needs me to do this."
Cleopatra's senses were connected to all the skeleton soldiers, and she could clearly feel what they were doing in the city of Araeus. These soldiers, who once defended the interests of their city-state, now pointed their weapons at civilians who had no ability to resist. Cleopatra could only gently tap the ground with her fork, as if doing so could reduce her uneasiness.
And the Spartans, they all looked at this woman in fear.
In everyone's impression.
The image of the oracle has always been that of a warrior like Brasidas.
Cleopatra in front of us is the oracle of Hades. The breath of death lingers on her, making people suffocate. She is different from the oracle in everyone's impression. She is the spokesperson of the King of the Underworld, which will make all enemies very scared, and will also make any living person very scared...
The battle ended at sunset.
When the sun sets.
There was no sound in the city of Eraeus.
The Spartan commander was very nervous. He did not dare to lead his troops directly into the city of Araeus, fearing that he would encounter those skeleton soldiers. So he walked to Cleopatra and asked, "My Lord Oracle, is the battle over now?"
"correct."
Cleopatra pulled down her hood.
"My mission has been completed. You can enter the city now."
"……Yes!"
So the Spartan commander led the coalition forces to the gate of Eraeus, which was easily opened. When the soldiers entered the city, the bloody smell almost made them vomit. If the battlefield just now made people see what a battlefield of the dead is, then the scene before their eyes was a living hell on earth.
Cleopatra did not enter the city. She just sat on the big rock before. The night wind blew from the land to the sea, carrying the scent of soil and grass. Cleopatra felt such a wind and couldn't help wondering in her heart, can these land breezes bring these souls from this earth to the underworld?
As the oracle of Hades.
Cleopatra was also very conflicted.
She also didn't know why Lord Hades took a fancy to her.
People were filled with panic and fear towards him, even to the point of hostility. After all, no one liked death. Even though he was an oracle, unlike oracles like Brasidas and Lysander, who were popular and respected, he, the oracle of Pluto, always did not get the respect he deserved and was even rejected by Brasidas.
Respect this kind of thing.
Cleopatra didn't really care.
She herself was a helot, a Helot, and a slave in Spartan society. She had lived in hunger, poverty, and oppression by the Spartans since she was a child. She had witnessed her father being killed by Spartan soldiers, and she even felt that one day in the future, she would definitely die in such a massacre.
Such Cleopatra.
What respect can you ask for?
Being able to survive is the greatest luck.
As fate would have it, Lord Hades found Cleopatra and gave her this power, and the final result is what it is now. At first, she thought there was nothing wrong with it, but later she gradually discovered that things might be much more complicated than she thought.
The sixth section, the fifth section, captured Cestus
Cleopatra always had a question.
Why would God grant his power to the oracle?
What is God’s purpose?
Did they want to spread their fame and get more people to believe in them, or did they simply think it was more interesting to do so, or did they have a deeper purpose? Cleopatra never believed in gods. If the gods were really just and kind, then why did the Helots have to endure hundreds of years of oppression and rule by the Spartans?
Whenever the Helots were whipped and slaughtered, even the education of Spartan children included stealing and attacking the Helots. In such a desperate life, the Helots never stopped praying and pleading with the gods.
When Cleopatra was a child, she saw her mother kneeling on the ground and praying to Demeter, the goddess of harvest, for a good harvest, but famine still occurred that year. No matter which god she prayed to, it had no effect, and all the prayers were just to seek comfort in her heart. This is what Cleopatra thought when she was a child. She did not believe that there were no gods in this world.
But she is a person who does not believe in God.
But he became an oracle.
This is really ironic.
Cleopatra had long accepted that she had become the oracle of Hades. Now that the battle of Eraeus was over, her mission was complete. Next, she should embark on a journey back to Sparta and continue to be hidden in the city of Sparta. Oracles like her really can't appear in this world casually, otherwise, there will always be some unexpected problems. Moreover, the Spartans, especially the Spartan King Archidamus, don't want to show up often.
As long as Cleopatra is obedient.
The fate of the Shiloh people will improve.
This was Archidamus' promise to Cleopatra. As long as Cleopatra could stand firmly with the Spartans, the harsh conditions of the Helots would be abolished, and they would be treated as ordinary slaves, without any indiscriminate killings or any oppression against the Helots. Just because of this, Cleopatra would unconditionally accept any request from the Spartans.
So... everything that's happening now.
Cleopatra thought it was worth it.
…………………………Dividing line…………………………
After the army led by Hilde set out from Byzantium, it took five days on the road, heading southwest from Byzantium, and finally arrived at the dividing line of the Gallipoli Peninsula. According to the direction indicated by the map, Hilde knew that it was not far from Cestus.
But in order to avoid unexpected situations, Hilde did not choose to split her troops into two groups, but led her army directly to attack Cestus. She planned to capture Cestus first and then consider attacking Cardia. In this way, when all her troops were in her hands, even if she encountered the main force of Sparta and the mysterious oracle, Hilde would be fully capable of dealing with them.
Just as Hilde expected.
Cestus was a ghost town.
There were no troops stationed in the city, only about a few dozen people were left to take charge of the city's security.
When Hilde led an army of nearly 20,000 people to the city of Cestus, the people in the city immediately opened the city gates and welcomed Hilde's army in. The people of Cestus knew very well that the total population of their city-state was less than 20,000, and they had no chance of winning against such a huge army.
Such a choice is undoubtedly rational.
And after Hilde entered the city.
He immediately called over the consul of Cestus.
Cestus was a city-state controlled by Sparta, but Sparta's ability in internal affairs was almost extremely poor. All city-states controlled by Sparta were in a laissez-faire attitude. As long as you are willing to stand with the Spartans, no matter what system you have, the Spartans will be willing. Therefore, Cestus has a lot in common with Athens in terms of system, and also has a citizen assembly and archons.
This is actually related to the establishment of the Peloponnesian League.
Athens was indeed a prosperous and powerful city-state in Greek society, and it was also very powerful in culture. Because of this, Athens had an arrogant mentality. The most common thing was that the Athenians liked to control the politics of other city-states. In the Delian League, most of the members of the Delian League were controlled by Athens, whether it was the archons of the city-states, who were secretly selected by Athens, or simply directly supported the soldiers who supported Athens to become tyrants. The Athenians had very strict control over the alliance and the politics of other countries.
The Spartans were different.
Sparta was a very Buddhist country.
They stood up against the Athenians because the hegemony of the Athenians threatened the safety of the Spartans. Those members who stood with the Spartans, namely the Peloponnesian League, maintained a considerable degree of independence. The Spartans would not interfere in their internal affairs, but would only require the members of the Peloponnesian League to cooperate with their own army in military command. There was nothing wrong with this, after all, the Spartan army was famous throughout Greece.
It can be said that the Peloponnesian War was initially a war launched by city-states in the Peloponnese Peninsula to oppose the hegemony of Athens. Later, it evolved into a struggle for hegemony between the Spartans and the Athenians. However, on the whole, the Spartans actually occupied the highest moral point. Almost all Greeks knew that the backward, decadent, feudal, and oppressive Sparta was actually the real defender of the Greek world, while Athens was the real sinner who oppressed the entire Greece.
It is also because of this that the consul of Cestus did not think of Hilde as a liberator. Instead, she thought that Hilde was an enemy and a sinner who opposed Sparta.
When he came in front of Hilde.
The consul always held his head high with pride.
"Are you the Archon of Cestus?"
"Yes."
"Then you should know who I am, right?"
"Hilde, the Queen of the Byzantine Kingdom."
The consul was not polite in his words, but Hilde did not get angry. Instead, she continued to ask, "Then do you know why I attacked Cestus?"
