Tempest Holy War

""This war, it is a holy war! First of all, deploy an advance party and impart our mission! If they would pledge their allegiance peacefully, then that would be excellent. If they do not, then with the power of my loyal soldiers, we will show them the might of God!!""

- Edmaris Falmuth’s Edict



The Tempest Holy War was a conflict between the Western Holy Church and the Jura Tempest Federation, with the conflict being spearheaded by the devout nation of Falmuth.

Background
In the years following the disappearance of the Storm Dragon Veldora, a new power began to fill the void left by his absence in the Great Jura Forest. The Jura Tempest Federation, to the Western Holy Church, was a gathering of Demi-Humans, Majin, and other assorted Monsters, all of which were enemies of mankind in accordance to the Luminism Doctrine. Thus it was of no surprise when Pope Louis handed down the verdict of God Luminous to Cardinal and Secretary General Nikolaus Spertus that the nation was an affront to God and must be taken care of.

Cardinal Nikolaus was soon in close contact with one of his subordinates, the Archbishop of Falmuth Reyhiem. Falmuth was a national superpower with military might only rivaled by the Kingdom of Ingrassia and its King–Edmaris Falmuth–ever pious, was eager to lend his armies and spearhead the war as its Commander-In-Chief. Permission had been granted to Edmaris by Cardinal Nikolaus, and soon the Temple Knights stationed in Falmuth and Falmuth’s own armies were gathered under a single banner and began to march towards Tempest’s Capital.

Though King Edmaris expected a peaceful solution to the war, hoping that its "pacifist" leader would surrender and convert to Luminism once hearing about the authority and might of Falmuth and its God, it didn’t take long for conflict to break out between the two nations. The advance force sent by Falmuth to negotiate with Tempest, led by Royal Knight Commander Folgen, arrived to find its own Otherworlders–Shogo, Kyoya, and Kirara–engaged in combat against Tempest’s elite and declared that the nation of monsters was a violent bunch and peaceful solutions were off the table. Folgen fought them off and quickly retreated. With Folgen's report of violence, Falmuth soon prepared to handle Tempest with more forceful means.

The Temple Knights were quick to erect a Prison Field around the city, a holy barrier devised by Archbishop Reyhiem that would weaken and trap the people inside. Meanwhile Falmuth's forces, encamped not far from the city, sortied and prepared to use a show of force to make the monsters surrender. However, Hinata Sakaguchi, who had been deployed elsewhere to deal with the Leader of the Monster Nation, had failed in her personal mission and Rimuru Tempest arrived at the war's front. The leader of the monsters was nothing like Commander-in-Chief Edmaris had anticipated. They were not a pacifist like their speech at Dwargon had implied, instead being a Demon Lord-like being filled with nothing–not even sadness–but rage. The vengeful Slime went out to engage the encamped Falmuth army by surprise and by its hand, and its hand alone, all 20,000 of the army's forces were utterly wiped out without discrimination and without mercy. Only King Edmaris and Archbishop Reyhiem were spared by the heartless Slime and taken prisoner. And thus the Holy War against Tempest came to an end before it could even begin.

Several weeks later, on the morning after Walpurgis, Edmaris alongside Razen and Reyhiem had returned back to the capital city of Marris by carriage. They were escorted there by Diablo, a Daemon that they pledged their allegiences to in desperation. After displaying the horribly disfigured and grotesque visage of Edmaris, the king was healed and a message from Rimuru was delivered by Diablo. The nation of Falmuth was presented with 3 options to conclude the war.


 * 1. Pay 10,000 Stellar Gold Coins as reperations and have Edmaris abdicate the throne
 * 2. Submit to the Jura Tempest Federation and become a Vassal State
 * 3. Continue the war and have the country brought to ruin

Despite Edmaris thinking that becoming a public vassal state was the best option for his people, the various nobles of the court completely refused the option. Thus Edmaris had no choice but to abdicate the throne and pay reperations, entrusting the crown to his brother Edward and officially ending the war.

Primary Objective
The primary objective of the war, as might be guessed by its status as a Holy War, was to act in accordance with the wishes of God Luminous and deal with the monster threat that stood against her. Either through converting the monsters to Luminism, slavery, or through genocide, they were to be made no longer a direct affront to God Luminous.

Secondary Objective
The secondary objective of the war was one held solely by Falmuth and not by the Western Holy Church. They desired to annex the territory for themselves and take possession of their technologies to use as a new cornerstone for their merchants. It was this promise of lands and riches by King Edmaris that swayed many of the knights and mercenaries into battle, knowing they wouldn't be moved to fight merely on the honor of serving God Luminous alone. King Edmaris himself hoped to gain honor and fame from the war, the thought of being internationally known as a Hero King motivating him immensely.

Church Forces
The forces representing God Luminous in the war totalled around 20,000 troops in total, with Edmaris Falmuth, the King of Falmuth, acting as the Commander-in-Chief of the entire operation. They were divvied up as follows.


 * Western Holy Church Temple Knights: 3,000 Troops
 * Knights directly in service to the church and ready to wield their Holy Magic for the war effort. They were entrusted to Commander-in-Chief Edmaris by Cardinal Nikolaus and were led by Archbishop Reyhiem.


 * Falmuth Royal Knight Corp: 5,000 Troops
 * The best of the best that Falmuth had to offer. Each of its soldiers ranked at least a B and they were led by their commander Folgen.


 * Falmuth Sorcerer Alliance: 1,000 Troops
 * Elite graduates from Falmuth’s Royal Magic Academy. They were ready to deploy nigh-invincible Legion Magic at any time and were led by the Royal Arch-Sorcerer Razen.


 * Falmuth Noble Knight Federation: 5,000 Troops
 * Elite soldiers that served under Falmuth’s nobility and led by many noble sons and daughters.


 * Falmuth Mercenary Brigades: 6,000 Troops
 * Various mercenaries from throughout the nation of Falmuth that were hired by the King Edmaris.


 * Otherworlder Living Weapons: 3 Troops
 * Three Otherworlders enslaved by Arch-Sorcerer Razen. The three were Shogo Taguchi, Kyoya Tachibana, and Kirara Mizutani and each of them acted as a super-weapon, being as strong as an entire army by themselves if used correctly.

Tempest Forces

 * Main Force: 1 Troop
 * Rimuru Tempest


 * North Detachment: 6 Troops
 * Tempest’s Shadow Squad led by Souei


 * East Detachment: 1 Troop
 * Benimaru


 * South Detachment: 100 Troops
 * Tempest’s Hiryuu led by Gabiru


 * West Detachment: 4 Troops
 * A strike team consisting of Hakurou, Rigur, Gobta, and Geld

Initial Skirmish
The first hostile conflict in the war. It was initiated by the Otherworlder trio of Shogo Taguchi, Kyoya Tachibana, and Kirara Mizutani who were under the control of Arch-Sorcerer Razen. Shogo engaged with Shion, Kyoya engaged with Hakurou, and Kirara engaged with Shuna and Gobzo. They were later reinforced by a small detachment of the Royal Knight Corp led by Folgen as well as a Mercenary known as Zachariah, a secret agent of the papacy and member of the imperial guard that went rogue. The end of the conflict saw the deaths of 100 Tempest Citizens, including Shion and Gobzo as well the death of Zachariah and the 5 royal knights that accompanied him.

Tempest Counter Assault
A counter attack launched by Tempest forces several days after the initial skirmish. It was composed of 4 teams that each assaulted a different Temple Knight outpost with the aim of destroying the Prison Field. Souei and his Shadow Squad took the North point; Benimaru took the East point solo; The Hiryuu led by Gabiru took the South point; and a 4-man team of Hakurou, Rigur, Gobta, and Geld took the West point. The North, East, and South battles were all ended swiftly and without any worthwhile resistance, with only the Western detachment encountering any significant opponents. The Western detachment was met with the Otherworlder Trio and a small detachment of Falmuth troops. Rigur and Gobta focused on dealing with the Falmuth troops while Geld took on Shogo and Hakurou rematched Kyoya. The final result was a complete success for Tempest, with Shogo being the only survivor in the enemy camp as he was saved by Arch-Sorcerer Razen at the last second.

Main Confrontation
The main and final confrontation of the war, with Rimuru Tempest catching Falmuth off-guard in a solo assault from above. Rimuru made use of the newly invented Physics Magic Megiddo to attack the various armies. The technique was wholly unreliant on Magicules and Magical Power, and thus the prided Legion Magic and Barriers of the Temple Knights and Sorcerer Alliance were rendered useless. The magic came down in ten separate waves, several minutes apart, and each reaped the lives of approximately 572 people for a grand total of 5,723 casualties. Additionally, many of the beams purposefully targeted non-vital areas like the gut and limbs, spreading screams of terror and pleads for mercy across the battlefield and reducing morale.

After the tenth wave of Megiddo finished, Rimuru was called out by Commander-in-Chief Edmaris Falmuth to engage in negotiation. However, the terrifying Slime wasn’t open to any form of peaceful resolution, instead only glad to have found the king so they could stop holding back and kill the rest of the present army. Thus, without so much as a whisper, over 14,000 lives were taken by the Unique Skill Merciless. The King and Archbishop were taken prisoner while Rimuru Tempest's Harvest Festival shortly began. Even Arch-Sorcerer Razen, who secretly survived and was pretending to be dead, was noticed by Rimuru and dealt with by a summoned Daemon.

Holy Knight Activity
The prided Holy Knights of the Western Holy Church, the forces one would expect to be at the forefront of the war, were nowhere to be seen on the Tempest Front. Instead they were deployed by the papacy to undergo a mission of equal or even greater importance to the war effort. Intelligence provided by a reliable source had tipped the church off to the location of the Monster Nation's leader, Rimuru Tempest. Rimuru was unexpectedly outside of its capital city and was instead in the Kingdom of Ingrassia on private affairs. Taking advantage of this new information, the Holy Knights soon deployed from the Church's headquarters in Inglassia's capital and a strike team consisting of Hinata Sakaguchi and her strongest 6 Subordinates set up an ambush just outside the city simultaneous to the Tempest Front's Initial Skirmish. The 6 subordinates under Hinata entered into a defensive hexagonal formation and formed a Holy Field around their leader and Rimuru. With the element of surprise seemingly on her side, Hinata then engaged with the slime in one versus one combat and believed herself to be victorious. But as it would turn out, the Rimuru she was fighting had in-fact been a Body Double created just in the nick of time due to Souei's warning. The real Rimuru escaped after the barrier was removed and would soon reach the warfront just as the Initial Skirmish concluded. As for the Holy Knights, they made no further contribution to the war effort. They swiftly returned back to the Holy Empire's Capital of Lune to resume their regular duties protecting the peace.