Summer came rather early in the tenth year of the Dawn of Newborns.
It had been raining furiously in the central region of the continent for two weeks. After a short but "substantial" rainy season, the temperature rapidly rose, and midsummer arrived in the blink of an eye.
However, the rapid end of the rainy season wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Perhaps many people wouldn't understand, but although the rainy season caused a tremendous amount of trouble for the local residents' war preparations and logistical preparations, it was actually the dimensional invaders who suffered the most.
From a certain standpoint, war was the fairest of all. Both sides would suffer equal pain and difficulties. The rain made it difficult for the local armies, and the devils, demons, and ogres who were already in a difficult logistical situation to begin with were now stuck in a quagmire.
Very few people would consider whether or not the omnipotent devils and demons from myths would also require logistical supplies when they came to the mortal world. It seemed as if they could fill their stomachs by eating human corpses, but in reality, not only did they require supplies, they required an astonishing amount of them.
Although demons always shouted about how they would "eat you" and "devour your soul", there were actually very few demons who would actually devour humans on the battlefield. After all, intelligent creatures would have an instinctive discomfort with devouring other intelligent creatures. More importantly, they were also creatures with a sense of smell. If they had a choice, they wouldn't really like smelly raw flesh.
Low-level demons weren't picky, so they didn't need to worry about not having enough "food". The more intelligent and high-level demons were, the more they would need ordinary food in order to satisfy their soul's endless thirst.
As for the devils, they would always look down on "beasts that ate raw meat" and would do their best to maintain their so-called elegance. Even when enjoying the souls of mortals, they would do their best to maintain their elegance and benefit by using cutlery, knives, and forks …
Not only did they need cooked meat and bread, mid- and high-level devils even needed medicine, wine, and tobacco that had special senses. These things were all rather expensive luxuries.
If this was the Chaos Abyss, no matter if it was a demon or a devil, no matter which Chaos Abyss they were conquering, they wouldn't need to worry about logistical problems. Even if they didn't have enough supplies, the little onibabas and other dimensional merchants would take the initiative to follow them. And victory would also bring plenty of spoils of war, which would naturally include supplies.
Lose? If you lost, you would become someone else's spoils of war. There would be no meaning in thinking about such things.
But this time, it would be impossible …
The entire mortal plane was an enemy. Apart from lunatics and evil cultists, nobody would have any good intentions towards invaders from the lower planes, not to mention trading with them.
The Lord of Tyranny's assassination had not only boosted the devils' morale, Roland's attack had directly shattered the devils' relaxed attitude as if they were on vacation, as well as a stable dimensional teleportation portal. The former had displayed the Devil Lord's pitiful state for all the devils to see. All devils that entered the mortal plane would have to consider their own futures. Actively participating in battle would have completely different effects than passively summoning the devils.
As for the latter, it wasn't just a matter of having four Dimensional Doors left after destroying one. The destruction of one Dimensional Door directly caused a complete imbalance in the energy balance of the Dimensional Doors. Spatial cracks and shockwaves exploded simultaneously. Not only was the exit to the Chaos Abyss destroyed, but the other Dimensional Doors would have to wait until the spatial fluctuations were balanced before they could be used again.
This greatly delayed the devils' invasion. This was especially so for the sly and selfish lower plane residents. They had a perfect excuse to watch the situation develop. They could choose to become deserters, or listen to orders but not do anything.
The human generals wouldn't miss such a rare opportunity. After receiving news of the devils' invasion, they immediately commanded their armies to attack with the royal dragon knights at the vanguard. They didn't hesitate to pay any price.
Since the devils' leader was recovering from his injuries and no one was supervising him, the devils' already weak leadership naturally fell into chaos. Many of the devil armies on the frontlines could only fight on their own. They had just arrived in the mortal plane, and they still needed to adapt to the environment. This was especially so since most of the lower planes didn't have any rain. This made the unprepared devil armies suffer losses.
Of course, this was only a loss. After all, the Devil Lords were leading devil armies. Their imaginary enemies were angels and Dragons to begin with. It was already quite the bullying for mortals.
Devils' natural elemental magic resistance and magical abilities meant that most devils had a certain amount of spellcasting ability. This difference in individual combat strength gave the human elites a taste of what it felt like to be cannon fodder.
Both sides suffered astonishing losses. Perhaps this was luck brought about by misfortune. After that bitter battle in the rain, the human elite Knight's resistance to battles in water and rain had greatly improved.
Some devils hadn't seen rain for hundreds of years. Their natural resistance to acid and fire was useless against natural rain. Plus, they weren't familiar with the terrain. It was a terrible feeling to be surrounded by enemies on a dark, rainy night. Once they were scattered, it was easy for them to flee.
It was impossible to calculate the number of casualties on both sides. That was because nobody knew how many corpses had sunk into the swamps and swamps of the rain. However, the human generals were unable to handle the fact that the elites were like cannon fodder.
But at this time, the human generals hoped to make use of their short-term advantages to expand the battle. No matter how many losses they suffered, they gritted their teeth and persevered. The devils also knew that reinforcements would only come if they persevered. The supervisors and domain lords behind them wouldn't be easy to fool.
The devils had just arrived in the mortal plane to enjoy themselves, yet they had to "roll around in the swamps with bumpkins." Many devils were filled with regret. This also caused problems in recruiting soldiers in the lower planes.
For the demons, this was only the beginning of the disaster.
The devils took over the undead's territory, as well as the undead's mess.
Asolivis, the undead capital that had been accidentally created, wasn't suitable to be the undead's main headquarters. That was because it was too close to enemy forces — the wood spirits' Forest of Dreams was right in front of them.
In the past, the undead army had suppressed the wood spirits, forcing the wood spirits to rely on the Forest of Dreams' geographical advantage to passively defend. But now, the situation had changed. The wood spirits were actively attacking. Even though they didn't have a large number of troops, they were a true threat to Asolivis.
Even without a battle of attrition, the wood spirits only needed to send people to the outskirts of the battlefield to restrain the devil armies. Not to mention, the wood spirits had received requests from Bardi and the other countries to send out battalions and fleets that would be enough to last several years in a major battle.
To the west was the Forest of Dreams, which had become a meat grinder. Ten years had allowed the wood spirits, a Silver Species, to reach the peak of the world. And these ten years hadn't been peaceful. Although the wood spirits hadn't fought to the death against the undead, they hadn't stopped. Not only were all the wood spirits that had grown up in the fires of war an expert at defense and forest warfare, the Contract Heroes that had been on the defensive for an entire ten years had also become quite powerful.
In terms of individual combat strength, the wood spirits, together with the magical plants and geographical advantages, were still able to suppress the devils. But the existence of the Forest of Dreams made it impossible for the devils to obtain a decisive victory from the very start, since their foundations were unstable.
To the east were the Bardi Knight and Dragon Knight who were doing their best to defend their homeland. They were the elites of the elites, and they were willing to pay any price to protect their homeland. Plus, they had sufficient logistics and could afford to fight a war of attrition.
The devils were simultaneously dealing with two major threats. By the time the frontlines were fully spread out, the entire battlefield was already larger than many small and medium-sized countries. The complicated battlefield terrain was a living hell for supply convoys, especially since the Dragons had taken away control of the skies. Sending supplies to the frontlines was like sending a suicide squad to the execution ground. Whoever was chosen would die.
In the end, the Devil Lords and powerful devils personally moved out in order to maintain the supply lines at the frontlines. However, they ended up becoming high-priced prey for the devils.
The logisticians and supply officers' nightmares had only just begun. The overly long and complicated supply lines showed the devils' weaknesses. The Forest of Dreams gave the Contract Heroes a large number of missions to ambush supply convoys, allowing the new generation of Contract Heroes to enjoy the fun of grinding points.
The wood spirits were now overflowing with wealth. The top ten on the monthly leaderboard would receive a large bonus reward.
However, it was likely that the wood spirits would be unable to catch up to this month's number one ranking. That was because the moment that person's name was at the top of the leaderboard, everyone lost the will to compete.
"Roland Mist? Why is he in the Forest of Dreams? Why is he grinding points? "
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