No one had expected that the resource-rich and well-defended Shannatar would be breached.
In fact, the underground city had not been breached by the Dark Alliance's army from the outside, but from within.
No one had expected that the grandson of the current First Seat, the diplomat of the underground city, Doluru, would collude with the Dark Alliance.
Doluru had taken advantage of the First Seat's deep sleep to steal the key to the underground city's core, bypassing the defensive divine spell barrier of Shannatar City to secretly set up a teleportation spell formation that connected the outside and the inside of the city.
Thus, before anyone could react, a large number of Undead suddenly appeared in the city.
They destroyed the long-distance teleportation spell formation in the city, as well as the statue of Death in the Shrine of Death.
The statue of Death was the core that provided the source of power for the defensive divine spell. Once the statue was destroyed, the defensive divine spell of Shannatar City collapsed.
With the long-distance teleportation spell formation destroyed, the elves who had come to support could no longer teleport over.
Thus, the entire city's defenders and elven troops immediately fell into a situation of isolation and helplessness.
Thus, the Dark Alliance's army that had long been prepared outside the city worked together with the spies and ambushers in the city, easily opening the city gates that had not been breached for months.
The siege that should have been a grand one did not happen. The Dark Alliance quickly took over Shannatar's city walls, while the original defenders were attacked from both sides, leaving corpses strewn across the ground as they retreated into the city with difficulty.
The battle quickly turned into a tragic street battle. The defenders of the city and the Dark Alliance army that had invaded the city began to fight fiercely within the city.
However, the Dark Alliance's army had long since made ample preparations.
They had gathered an army of one hundred and fifty thousand undead and eighty thousand normal troops. They could be said to be the strongest force in the western region of the underground world.
In comparison, Shannatar's army of the Dark Alliance was too weak.
There were less than twenty thousand defenders in the city, and even the elves that remained in the city were limited in number. There were less than three thousand of them.
Under the attack of the Dark Alliance army, the army of dark dwarves and gnomes had suffered heavy losses. The elves had also died in battle, and the entire city's streets were dyed red with blood.
The remaining forces of the Deathly Still Alliance were slowly being forced into the deepest mines of the city, and they were barely holding on with the help of some sturdy fortifications …
In less than two days, the army of the Dark Alliance had taken over most of Shanatar. Only a few mines deep within the city were occupied by the dark dwarves, gnomes, and elven mercenaries.
That place was easy to defend but hard to attack. However, it lacked resources. As long as the Dark Coalition kept them there, they could only choose between surrendering or starving to death.
It could be said that the Dark Coalition had already taken over the entire Shanatar.
The original residents of the city were forcibly detained at home, and those who resisted were massacred. Chief Katla was killed by the traitor Doluru himself, and Doluru was appointed as the new chief by the Dark City Alliance and announced that the Church of Darkness and Shadows would become the new official religion of the city.
At the same time, the army of the Dark Coalition had also connected the statue of the Lord of Darkness and Shadows to the original shrine of Death, once again activating the city's defensive divine barrier.
But this time, the target of the Divine Spell Barrier had been reversed.
At this point, Sanatar had fallen.
When this news spread throughout the Deathly Still Alliance, the various cities were in an uproar.
No one had expected that Shannatar would fall so suddenly …
After the uproar, it was soon followed by panic.
Doluru of Sanatar City had betrayed them, and his betrayal directly led to the fall of the city. Then … Were the other cities like this one already infiltrated by the Dark Coalition?
In addition, Sanatar and Blade City were both gateways from the Deathly Still Alliance to the Dark City Alliance, and their geographical locations were too sensitive.
From the map of the Western District of the underground world, the overall landscape of the Western District was like a gourd with its head facing north.
The mouth of the gourd was the passage to the Deep Cave. The Deathly Still Alliance occupied the upper half of the gourd, while the Dark City Alliance occupied the lower half. The two underground cities were right in the middle of the gourd, and at the same time, were the entrances to the second layer of the Dark Region.
In this case, the defense of Sanatar and Blade City was the key to the entire war. The battle here could even decide the direction of the war in the underground world, and the final battle was likely to take place here.
If the defense was good, as long as the battle dragged on, the victory of the secular war would definitely belong to the Deathly Still Alliance.
However, if any of the cities were breached, it would open the door to the Deathly Still Alliance, and the army of the Dark Coalition would be able to march straight in, and the situation would instantly deteriorate.
But now, one of the cities had really been breached!
In a sense, it could be said that the Dark Coalition had achieved a decisive victory in this war.
After all, based on the strength of both sides, perhaps the Deathly Still Alliance could rely on the support of the elves to defend a single city, but when multiple cities were attacked at the same time, it would be dangerous.
Not every city had tens of thousands of guards like these two cities. Most of the underground cities of the Deathly Still Alliance had less than ten thousand guards.
Of course, this was also because the Dark Coalition had special means to corrupt the undead, so the Deathly Still Alliance could not use the undead army in the war against the Dark Coalition.
Under such circumstances, the army of the Dark Coalition could rely on their advantage in numbers to easily besiege at least five underground cities at the same time, and there was a high probability that they would be able to break through easily.
It was worth mentioning that considering the cost of building a long-distance teleportation circle, the Deathly Still Alliance had decided to build a long-distance teleportation circle in every city when they asked for support. However, this was not the case.
In reality, only Blade City and Shatar City, two key cities with surplus resources, had chosen to build a long-distance teleportation circle to connect to Black Rock City.
As for the other cities of the Silent Alliance, the closer they were to the mouth of the gourd, the lower the cost of establishing and maintaining long-distance teleportation portals … However, the more remote they were, the poorer they were. No matter how low the cost was, it was impossible for them to bear the cost. At the very most, they could only establish ordinary teleportation portals between them.
Of course, this was also because the Deathly Still Alliance was at most a loose alliance of cities, and it was impossible for them to effectively allocate and utilize the resources of each city.
Under such circumstances, even the Players would find it difficult to provide effective support.
Of course, in theory, the Players could also first teleport to the two key cities, and then use ordinary teleportation circles to teleport to other cities.
However, this was the crux of the problem.
Blade City and Shatar City did have teleportation circles that connected to other underground cities, but these teleportation circles were concentrated in Shatar City. Blade City only had one teleportation circle that connected to Shatar City.
This led to the fact that once Shatar City was breached, Blade City would be cut off from the other cities of the Deathly Still Alliance.
The reason why the Deathly Still Alliance had built a teleportation circle like this was that although the two cities were in key locations, Blade City was closer to the sphere of influence of the Deathly Still Alliance. There were enemies on three sides, and it was too risky to build a large-scale teleportation circle that connected to other cities …
After all, according to everyone's estimations, if one of the two cities had to be breached, it would definitely be Blade City. If they wanted to set up a teleportation portal to provide support, Shatar City would be enough.
In the end, who would have thought that Shatar City would be breached first?
After saying so much, in summary, there was only one thing.
That was, the loss of Shatar City had already announced the defeat of the Deathly Still Alliance strategically. If they still wanted to win this war, they could not rely solely on secular forces.
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