The magical light was so bright, it appeared like a giant pillar connecting heaven and earth in the twilight that was gradually dimming, making it impossible for any creature with vision not to see it, and the soldiers on the walls of Rocky Ridges Fortress who were always alert to northern movements certainly could not ignore it.
A elite troop quickly left the fortress, following the direction of the magical light into the wilderness on the edge of Pompeii Domain, and before the light dissipated, they found the source of this unusual magical eruption.
A "statue" made of rock and crystals stood upright in the wilderness, holding a longsword and facing east, while near the statue, the soldiers discovered a boulder engraved with words.
The news swiftly reached Rocky Ridges Fortress, and the fortress mander, Sir Wald Peric, arrived at the scene before the twilight pletely turned dark. The old knight was stunned by the scene before him—he recognized the face of the statue because he had seen that young man’s face in some documents before.
"Is this statue... Marquis Belk Loren?" Wald murmured incredulously, "This..."
At first, he instinctively thought it was indeed a statue, but he quickly began to doubt and make some terrifying associations—he realized the statue was so exquisitely detailed, even down to every strand of hair and every fold of fabric, a series of crystal-clear crystals still shimmering faintly embedded in the surface of the statue, seemingly growing out of the "statue’s" "skin," appearing terrifyingly.
This made the old knight think of some recent information ing from the north.
And the inscriptions on the boulder near the statue seemed to confirm his judgment.
After carefully examining the engravings on the boulder, the reliable old knight immediately turned to his adjutant: "Knight Margarita, contact Duke Gawain!"
An urgent munication from Rocky Ridges Fortress interrupted Gawain and Daniel’s routine munication. After listening to Knight Margarita’s words, Gawain, sitting in the study, slowly took a breath.
News from the deepest part of the northern pollution area... arrived unexpectedly right before him.
Belk Loren turned into a statue? What did he experience? How did he e to be in front of Rocky Ridges Fortress? Why did that transformation occur? All these are puzzling, but vaguely, Gawain guessed some truths.
Beside the desk, in the holographic projection, the brown-haired knight was waiting for orders: "Lord, how should we handle... the situation here?"
Gawain glanced at the holographic projection—in the image behind Margarita, he saw the northern wilderness of Rocky Ridges Fortress, a statue standing silently among the rubble and weeds, illuminated by the light of the magic crystal lamps around it, in the face that had turned to stone and covered in crystals, Gawain vaguely remembered the scene the last time he saw the person.
"Check if the ’statue’ has any remaining pollution factors, characteristics are mixed arcane energy and unstable life reactions—if there are none, bring him back," Gawain instructed, not forgetting to remind, "Be extremely careful, don’t damage it in the slightest."
Though he did not know exactly what Belk experienced, he could guess some: a brave knight should not continue to be exposed in the wilderness.
After the munication ended, Gawain raised his head and looked at Amber standing beside him, the latter still trapped in a state of confusion at this moment, muttering softly: "The whole Eastern Legion... has it really ended like this?"
Gawain gently shook his head: "I’m afraid it’s not only the Eastern Legion that has ended."
Then he activated the Magic Web munication Terminal again, calling the military area’s emergency line: "Sir Philip, e to the feudal lord’s mansion."
The situation in parts of the Gigantic Tree Path Entrance was clear, the current status of the Eastern Legion had been explored, though further intelligence from Soldrin was needed for additional supplements and corroboration, many things could already start.
He did not wait long, thirty minutes later, Betty’s voice came from outside the study room: "Master! Sir Philip is here!!"
Dressed in knight formal attire, Sir Philip walked into the study. He saluted Gawain first upon entering but before he could speak, the Magic Web munication Terminal next to Gawain’s desk suddenly lit up again, acpanied by a buzzing sound.
"Hold on a moment." Gawain gestured to Philip to wait, then opened the munication device—judging by the special marker emerging in the air after the Magic Web Terminal activated, this was highly prioritized emergency munication, if not very important intelligence, it wouldn’t use this line to e in.
The munication device activated, the holographic projection above quickly condensed into a clear image, Soldrin with his golden wig appeared in the image, his face solemn: "We’ve made important progress on our side."
Gawain nodded: "Speak."
"We’ve approached the edge of the pollution zone and rescued a group of kingdom army soldiers retreating from the north," Soldrin reported quickly, clearly, "According to them, all control zones of the kingdom army at Gigantic Tree Path Entrance have been polluted by the ’Crystal Cluster Curse,’ The White City has fallen, Earl Sorin was killed in action, the kingdom army main force mostly annihilated, Duchess Victoria Wilder and her Mountain Legion are trapped in the north, current situation unknown, a part of kingdom army remnants are breaking through to the northwest direction, current situation unknown, a large group of Crystal Cluster Giants is forming an army, currently moving towards St. Soniel."
"Retreating kingdom army soldiers from the north?" Gawain was moved, suddenly thinking of the other intelligence just received, the warning from Belk Loren, "Check the blood of those people first..."
Though Soldrin didn’t quite understand, he still went to execute the mand immediately, while Gawain stood up and came to the map of Anzu next to him, based on the situation Soldrin just reported, he marked and deduced on the map.
Very quickly, the high-ranked ranger returned once again to the holographic projection, fortunately—the Steel Cavalry’s soldiers rescued from the kingdom army did not exhibit any signs of infection.
"Who is leading those soldiers? How did they e to the south of the pollution zone?"
"A knight named Mitchell, along with his small squad, was part of a larger force attempting to break through to the northwest. However, near the Purple Water River Valley, the entire breakout force encountered an ambush by the ’Crystal Cluster Legion’. The main forces were split apart, and Mitchell and his team got separated from the main body—as breaking out northward became hopeless, they began moving southward."
"Ambushed by the Crystal Cluster Legion?"
"Yes, those Crystal Cluster Infectors... although they appear to have turned into monsters, we found that they still retain rationality. However, their thoughts and cognition have pletely changed, viewing normal living beings as enemies..."
Soldrin and his Steel Cavalry really gathered a large amount of crucial intelligence.
In the following period, Gawain asked many questions in detail about the north, about the ’Crystal Cluster Infectors’, about the polluted areas, and Soldrin gave a detailed and rapid report of all the information he had gathered along the way.
Gradually, the previously foggy situation of the Plains of the Holy Spirits became clear. Gawain quickly assembled all the known information in his mind, and on the satellite map overlooking Anzu, large unclear areas were filled in and perfected one by one.
Marquis Belk Loren brought intelligence from the Eastern Control Zone and the Eastern Legion, while Soldrin obtained firsthand data from the Anzu Kingdom’s military. All the information corroborated, pleting each other. The major polluted areas, the distribution and many characteristics of the Crystal Cluster ’monsters’, the possible hiding spots and escape routes for survivors... all were piled together.
Gawain turned his head and looked at Sir Philip, who was standing solemnly in front of him—this young knight was awaiting orders.
"First bat Corps and its affiliated mechanized corps—immediately set out, target, Plains of the Holy Spirits."
"Yes!"
After a brief moment of contemplation, Gawain continued, "This time, I will also go."
"You’re going to?" The first to widen his eyes was not Philip, but Amber, standing next to Gawain. "Aren’t you..."
This disgrace to elves cut herself off halfway through, managing to restrain from saying, "last time you went on a campaign, the oute was a psychological shadow from dying on the spot." But her wide-eyed expression clearly revealed the thoughts in her mind.
"The situation is different now," Gawain could guess what Amber wanted to say, but this time he wasn’t angry, merely smiling calmly. "In the current situation, only by doing our utmost to ensure victory in the war can we have a future and hope."
He then paused briefly and sighed lightly.
"This kingdom ultimately became a mess with no easy end—it’s about time for a guy like me who crawled out of a coffin to tidy it up for them."
Ten minutes later, Philip left the feudal lord’s mansion. He was headed to the military zone to gather his officers and staff to re-organize all the intelligence and develop a more prehensive and feasible advance plan before moving northward. Amber also left the feudal lord’s mansion to arrange a series of Intelligence Agency affairs, ensuring that wartime intelligence, rear concerns, and all matters are orderly managed. Meanwhile, Gawain left his study and headed to Tiel’s room—
The sea demon, Miss Tiel, wasn’t soaking in her beloved large pool at the moment. Instead, she was entrenched on the west side of the room, occupying a large space in loops. As the door opened, she was lightly swaying her tail tip and humming an unknown tune.
That was not a sound a human could make, and the melody of the song contained many ethereal echoes and resonances like ocean waves. It sounded beautiful and mysterious, yet beyond the frequency that human ears could recognize, it seemed to possess a richer, plex auditory range only the deep-sea inhabitants could hear.
Gawain came to discuss matters with this sea demon, not expecting that she was not only awake but singing—honestly, it was rare for her to do something fitting for a ’sea demon’ that Gawain couldn’t help but ask, "Can you actually sing?"
"I am a sea demon; it’s in our nature, okay?" Tiel lightly tapped the floor with her tail tip, producing a "dodo" sound to express her dissatisfaction at Gawain’s question. Then she curiously asked, "You came for something? You look very serious... it must be important."
Gawain nodded, getting straight to the point. "About what you mentioned last time, sensing the ’food’ presence in the northeast direction, I want to know more details."
"Ah..." Tiel sighed gently, her serpentine tail sliding on the floor, her body inching closer to Gawain, "Seems like it really is important..."
...
In the deepest part of the defied Fortress, beyond the border of the material world, beyond the shadow realm that mirrors the real world, beside the defied Fortress in the shadow realm, a massive corpse remained silent as it had for thousands of years.
The giant stag, majestic as a little mountain, hovered quietly between the broken floating islands and shattered stones. Countless twisted metal remnants crisscrossed to enclose the space around this divine corpse. Around the giant stag, a layer of light charged with a sense of holiness and strength flickered subtly as if it would never extinguish. In a farther place, most of the ancient magical devices both inside and outside the defied Fortress, which had been there for a thousand years, had turned off, leaving only faint magic symbol glows slowly flickering in the darkness, acpanying the body of Amoen, the Giant Stag, that had fallen three thousand years ago.
This unchanging state of silence seemed as if it would last forever.
But suddenly, change occurred—
On that massive divine corpse, glimmer began to flow gently, and the tightly closed eyes of Amoen, the Giant Stag, quietly opened a little.
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