"To save or not to save? This is really a problem …"
"Stop joking around. Of course we have to save him. The foundation of the Mist Alliance's trust is the alliance between allied countries. Do you really think that we can't save him?"
"To be honest, I really don't want to save him."
Although the Donglan Principality was talking nonsense, when the Sharal Autonomous Region's request for help was sent over, the Donglan Principality unhesitatingly gave up on the New Year's work that they were doing normally. They gathered their army and prepared to go to war.
The reason why I was chatting and hesitating on whether or not to ask for reinforcements was because of another piece of information.
"The Door to the Fire Plane. This is clearly a trap."
The Elemental Planes were probably the easiest planes to connect to in the mortal plane. Many mages' mage towers would use elemental pools that connected to other planes. However, those types of small elemental pools could only be used to extract elemental energy from other planes or summon small elemental creatures. Elemental magic also had to follow the most basic elemental laws. All miracles were the result of the accumulation of elemental power. Opening an Elemental Dimensional Door would naturally require an area with an accumulation of elemental energy. Opening an Elemental Dimensional Door in the deep sea, opening an Elemental Dimensional Door in a snowy mountain, opening an Elemental Dimensional Door in a place of thunder and wind, opening an Elemental Dimensional Door in an underground place … or opening an Elemental Dimensional Door in a volcano!
The warm valley of Sharal Autonomous Region had always been viewed as a miracle of nature. It was also the result of the surrounding mountains and terrain. However, no matter how much the wind was weakened by the high mountains, the low temperature in the surroundings would still come. If there was no other reason, there was no other explanation for the valley.
With the development of the area, the appearance of geothermal and hot springs "proved" to the world that there was a volcanic area underground.
Yes, it was proof, not discovery. The existence of a volcano here was recorded in the history of the Sharvins, but the Sharvins themselves would never admit it. After all, building a home on a volcano required more than courage, it required more than just helplessness.
The half-blood descendants who had been exiled back in the day were already fortunate enough to be able to find a place to settle down. The fact that this land was even able to produce food was a testament to the Gods' protection. It was far too extravagant to consider the possibility of a volcano eruption in the future.
In the geographical records of other countries, it was indeed mentioned that more than seven hundred years ago, there was once an active volcano there, and that a rather famous red dragon family lived there.
Ever since I learned that this incident was related to the Fire Elemental Plane, I had already started searching through old maps of the Northlands for volcanic areas. Since I had obtained the name of this place from the illusion face demons, many things were no longer a secret.
Perhaps that place was already a dormant volcano, but for Fire Elemental Lords, awakening a volcano was basically their specialty. Not to mention Fire Elemental Lords, even red dragons and fire archmages had the ability to do so.
However, fire elemental creatures were still the strongest in this area. Volcanoes were the most abundant fire elemental creatures in the mortal plane. For example, Emordilorcan had transformed the underground world into a labyrinth, awakening a volcano, and transforming the lava and flames into his own nest. This was a basic ability of fire elemental creatures.
In that case, all sorts of information and possible developments were right in front of us. Once Sharal's warm valley was conquered, the volcano would immediately erupt, and a tremendous number of fire elemental creatures would jump out of the volcano. Considering the current density of the Elemental Tide, it was quite possible that the fire elemental plane would appear in the surrounding area.
The moment that we failed to rescue Roland, it was highly likely that we would be dragged into the conflict. This would be the equivalent of dodging a sea of flames while challenging a powerful Elemental God in the Elemental Plane.
Fire elemental creatures would constantly enter the battlefield. Killing them would only be sending them back to their home base. This place would still be their home field. This type of battlefield was the most annoying and powerless. If there were any other possibility, I wouldn't want to face such a bottomless meat grinder at all.
"Alright, it seems that I have no choice but to go. At a time like this, we need an expert … Eliza?"
"You're thinking of someone else when you need her? How heartless. "
"Of course. Do you think that she's as free as you? Of course I wouldn't bother her for no reason. Forget it, I'll contact her later and hope that I'll be able to make it in time. At the very least, I'll give her some information … "
Back in the day, Eliza and Adam's small team went to intercept the demon wave's Dimensional Door. According to the plan, after I cast Ice Aeon, they would choose to take refuge in the Chaos Abyss, as well as take care of some other matters.
After all, most of them were of the fire element. Based on the fact that fire and ice elements countered each other, being hit by an Ice Forbidden Spell definitely wouldn't feel good. Forbidden Spells didn't differentiate between friend and foe, and there was no mercy to be had. If they were really hit by one of my Forbidden Spells, even the pure fire element Elisa and Little Red would be heavily injured. If they were unlucky, it was even possible that they would be killed by accident.
The end result was still acceptable. Little Red, who was capable of flying at high speeds, caught up to us and told us that we were safe. Little Red herself didn't return to the Chaos Abyss. She was doing her best to eat Dusk Fruits to increase her age so that she could recover her combat strength before the next trouble came.
For us, traveling to the Chaos Abyss was the equivalent of a vacation. However, as the Dragon Queen of the Underground City, Little Red actually didn't have many vacations, especially since Dragon City was filled with arrogant and aloof individuals. She would have to go back regularly to keep things under control.
Actually, Little Red had a capable and qualified substitute for the Dragon Queen — yep, her mother, the former Dragon Queen Molly. However, considering her past deeds, none of us would feel reassured about her.
Getting back to the main topic, after the order to mobilize was given, the Donglan army swiftly gathered. However, there was a slight problem.
Considering that the mountains were still sealed off by the heavy snow, it was impossible to count on the infantry's movement speed in such a situation. Furthermore, considering that there would be limited escape routes if the volcano erupted, the main army directly gave up on all the heavy and slow infantry types and chose the Winter Hunt Knight.
The Winter Hunt Knight wasn't an infantry type. Since the Mist Kingdom's royalty was holding a winter hunt, all the Knight Knights from all over the Mist Kingdom had already been gathered. The speed at which the ground forces gathered was quite fast. Also, since the various feudal nobles and domain lords of Donglan were also participating in this winter hunt, there was no lack of noble Knight Knights and their personal guards among the urgently gathered warriors. High-level Knight Knights and warriors' numbers and quality far surpassed the norm.
In just a short half a day, Diffindor had gathered more than 50,000 elite Knight Knights. If we counted the mounts as combat strength, there would be more than a thousand Knight Knights who were at least "Master" or higher. It could be said that there were several thousand pure Legend-ranked Knight Knights. When combined, the overall combat strength would be quite impressive.
Being able to participate in the winter hunt already proved that their mounts couldn't possibly be ordinary donkeys or horses that would shiver in the winter. There were military Iron Horses, magical beast mounts, pure-blooded Ice Plains Horses with thick black and white fur, and so on. There were all sorts of strange mounts. Together with the various family flags and personal battle flags, as well as the colorful armor and mounts, it gave off a rather mixed feeling.
Looking down from the sky, the entire snow-white tundra had been casually sliced apart by this mixed army as if they were cutting a cake. The entire tundra was filled with all sorts of colors. Birds would flee wherever they passed, and beasts would hide. Once they started moving as a group, the Knight Knights' auras would be quite astonishing.
However, the situation in the sky wasn't so great. Only the New Borealis seemed to be slowly advancing. There were only a few medium-sized airships escorting it, which was far inferior to the elven battle.
The originally powerful Borealis airship had just been disbanded, and the airship escorting the elven caravan was still on its way. It would take quite a while to reorganize and repair the elven caravan. Only the royal airship stationed in Diffindor could be mobilized in time.
When considering the upcoming battle, aerial superiority would be incredibly important. Since the New Borealis had just finished a long journey and battle, it was in poor condition. The only fortunate thing was that Diffindor was the Aurora Knight Legion's headquarters. When the Mist Kingdom's royalty called out to us, the Aurora Knight Legion followed us as usual. We had brought two squadrons of two hundred Aurora Knight Legion with us. This was more than enough to deal with any aerial battle at the national level.
We had also temporarily hired six black dragons and four red dragons, which would be a powerful assistance.
Unlike other enemies, beast stampedes were also part of the food chain. Dragons were at the top of the food chain, and they could use their draconic might and dragon roars to suppress and disperse small beast stampedes. And if we had to fight against fire elemental creatures, red dragons with incredibly high fire resistance and black dragons with full magic resistance would be the most suitable aerial forces.
The only regrettable part was that these dragons were still only young or middle-aged dragons. It was impossible to hire Immemorial Dragons or higher. Little Red's reputation still needed to be improved.
"… That's why I came along."
A black-haired girl was munching on a disgusting fruit. During the past two weeks, the masked Dragon Queen had become quite famous for robbing people of Justice Points. Yep, that's right. The masked Dragon Queen's figure and draconic might were far too easy to recognize. However, the victims didn't dare to complain to the Dragon Queen. Not to mention, there weren't many robbers per person, so the matter could only be left unsettled … Actually, I personally felt that the Dragons were already used to robbing each other.
She was currently sitting by a window and enjoying the snowy scenery. However, I was becoming more and more curious. Shouldn't she be running back to Dragon City and being annoyed by countless tasks?
I was indeed quite happy that Little Red had appeared in time, but I felt like something was off.
"Don't tell me that you felt like you couldn't finish all those tasks, so you just gave up and ran away … Why aren't you saying anything? Hey, hey, hey, you didn't really sneak out, did you? You're the Dragon Queen, the boss of Dragon City, the ruler of the Underground. Can you stop acting like a naughty brat who skipped school because she didn't finish her summer homework? "
"… Aren't you the same? You're so weak already. Can you even fight right now? If we're going to make the best use of everything, you should be in the backlines dealing with government tasks. Right, I can be your bodyguard. Yep, I'm your bodyguard right now. Remember to pay me by the day. "
I felt rather helpless as I looked at the Dragon Queen who was spouting nonsense and acting shamelessly. However, when I considered the fact that a super red dragon like her would have an obvious advantage against fire elemental creatures, I indeed didn't intend to send her back.
"Fine, do whatever you want. But don't even think about hiring me. Still, if your luck is too bad, your red dragons will indeed receive the best hiring fees. "
Little Red had an expression of astonishment. She was just saying it casually. Could it be that she would really be able to obtain any benefits from this rescue battle?
"Volcanoes! If volcanoes really do appear, wouldn't your red dragons be able to migrate here en masse … Why did the silly cat bite me? Cough — cough — I was just making an analogy, I didn't mean it for real. Renée, we'll definitely win! "
Behind me, Renée and the others were glaring at me with displeased expressions. If volcanoes really did appear, that would be the same as announcing the destruction of the Sharal Autonomous Region. It would seem that I had indeed jinxed such a thing in front of a battlefield.
But from a certain standpoint, I wasn't making things up. Red dragons were fire element dragons, so they liked heat and feared cold. Many red dragons weren't used to living in the Northlands, and volcanoes were the red dragons' favorite nests. If volcanoes really did appear, I could even directly build a new dragon city. Perhaps I would even be able to summon a few powerful ancient red dragons as mercenaries.
"… I was just joking. Why are you glaring at me?"
"… Do you still remember the success rate of your jinxed mouth? If I recall correctly, it's 100%. It would seem that the Sharal Autonomous Region is truly doomed. Every debt has a debtor. Everything is Roland's fault. "
"Ptui, silly cat, don't speak nonsense. You're ruining my reputation. Now that I'm predicting that we'll be ambushed by enemies, does that really mean …"
"Report! We've encountered a large beast horde! General Reid is asking for a plan. Should we go around them or attack? "
"Roland …"
"… I understand. From now on, I'll shut up … Actually, you can't blame me, right? The devils are all watching us …"
"Report! There's a chaotic reaction in the sky to the southwest. Judging from the magical radar, it should be a high-level devil in aerial combat!"
"… Today's weather is really nice. I'm going to take an afternoon nap. Remember to wake me up after the battle …"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
