The Ferdaucher Canyon was located in the northwest of the Lionheart Empire. There was a city built on a cliff here — Mirarre.
Long before Reinhardt VII led his cavalry into the territory of the Holy Alliance, two special guests had already entered this city on the cliff.
Rob and Lolo had used the teleportation circle of the Magician's Association to directly teleport here.
Baron Rosita, the governor of Mirarre, and the commander of the Fourth Royal Infantry Regiment, Backhouse, had received the news in advance and were waiting in the Magician's Association. After a simple greeting, the two immediately got to the point.
Rosita was the first to speak. "The Crack of the Abyss is about seventy miles west of Mirarre. It was discovered three years ago when my men were patrolling the area. Since then, I've been sending people to monitor the area, but there hasn't been any movement recently."
Backhouse focused on the situation of the defense. The old general's expression was grim. "Right now, we're severely understaffed. Originally, the Third Royal Cavalry Regiment was responsible for the defense here, but the Third Royal Cavalry Regiment received orders to leave half a month ago. Now, only my Fourth Royal Infantry Regiment is left. There's a total of ninety thousand soldiers, but nearly half of them are new recruits. In addition, there are also two thousand soldiers from the city defense force.
Forgive me for being blunt, but the city defense force is only capable of maintaining order in the city. "Rosita's expression was awkward. The city defense force was naturally formed by her as the governor, and Backhouse's evaluation was not exaggerated. Mirarre's terrain was special. It was surrounded by the Ferdaucher Canyon as a natural barrier, and it was relatively far from the frontlines. Therefore, the city defense force was usually very idle. Apart from maintaining order, the most they could do was suppress bandits nearby. It was inevitable that they would slack off in training. Therefore, after the discovery of the Crack of the Abyss, the Empire immediately deployed the most elite Third Royal Cavalry Regiment and Fourth Royal Infantry Regiment to guard the area. Rosita's two thousand soldiers were basically left to do whatever they were supposed to do.
"If that's the case, why don't you consider evacuating the civilians?" Lolo asked.
"It has to do with the geography of Mirar." Most of the residents in the city don't believe that this city will be breached, and no matter what, there are nearly a hundred thousand imperial troops stationed here. Right now, the garrison everywhere is facing the problem of manpower shortage. Retreating to Yarkos, which is a hundred and forty miles away is also an option, but that place is a flat plain, with only five thousand garrison troops. Moreover, they are made up of local troops and private armed forces of the nobles, so it's better to stay in Mirabar … But there are also people who are willing to leave, and most of them have relatives in other places that they can rely on. But there's still the problem from before. Due to the special terrain of Mirabar, even if we were to evacuate, the number of people that can be evacuated every day is limited. In fact, as early as half a month ago, I had already organized the evacuation, but so far, only a tenth of the people have been evacuated. "
Backhouse, who had not spoken for a long time, finally spoke up. "I personally don't advocate giving up Mirabar. This city is the only place in the vicinity that can be defended. If we lose this place, it will be even more difficult to defend against the invasion of those monsters."
Lolo felt the pressure on her shoulders. The Abyssal Crack in the Ferdaucher Canyon was the first to be discovered in the Lionheart Empire, and it was also the most dangerous of all the Abyssal Cracks. It had grown to a diameter of more than 1.9 miles, and was about to evolve from a medium to a large one. This size was enough for many large monsters to pass through, so it was even more troublesome than the one in Setta City.
What's more, not far away was the city of Mirabar, which had a population of 170,000. But since she had already promised Lionheart VII, she had to defend this place no matter what.
"That's the general situation. I've prepared a lunch for the two of you. Why don't we go there and talk while we eat?"
The castellan of Mirabar was obviously good at socializing, but the girl shook her head. "Time is of the essence. I'll have to trouble Castellan Rosita to prepare some supplies for me. Let's go take a look at the crack first."
The two did not stay in Mirabar, and refused Backhouse's kind offer to provide guards to accompany them. They arrived at the destination of their journey before sunset. According to the information provided by Rosita, the Abyssal Crack was in a small valley not far away.
From the outside, it looked very quiet. If not for the information they had received in advance, it would have been difficult to associate it with the legendary Abyssal Crack. However, the future Supreme Magus stopped after taking two steps.
"Hmm?" Lolo cast an inquiring look at him.
Rob bent down and reached out to pluck a withered stalk of grass. He carefully observed it for a moment, then said, "Be careful later. I'm afraid there's something very powerful in this valley."
Without waiting for the girl to ask, the future Supreme Magus Your Honor took the initiative to explain, "The Abyssal Crack will change the natural environment of an area, causing all living things in the area to become extinct. But it's not to this extent." Rob said as he handed the stalk of grass to Lolo.
The latter took it. At first glance, she did not notice anything unusual. It was only when she took a second look that she noticed a dark red liquid slowly flowing in the dried veins of the leaves. It looked like the blood vessels in a human's body, growing on a plant, and a withered plant at that. It was disgusting and strange.
"What's going on?"
"It's not clear at the moment. There's no record of this in the Sorcerer's Association's books." Rob paused. "The Abyssal Crack in this valley may have mutated. The thing we're facing this time is different from the ones we've faced before.
"Will it be more powerful than the Lord of the Abyss?" Lolo asked.
Human's understanding of the abyss was not detailed enough. Rob and Lolo were the only two people who had returned from there. However, the two of them were researching ways to close the Abyssal Crack and did not explore it further. Among the known monsters, only the Lord of the Abyss had the strength of grade nine. It represented the highest combat power of the abyss. However, if it was only the Lord of the Abyss, there was no reason for Rob's expression to be so serious.
Neither Rosita nor Backhouse's sentries could enter the valley, so they could only gather information about the surrounding situation. This was also the reason why the girl was so anxious to see it with her own eyes. After the incident in Setta City, Lolo realized that the present was different from the past. The accumulated knowledge about the Abyssal Crack was gradually changing.
This was not good news for the human side.
It was still unclear what kind of connection the gods had with the abyss, but it seemed that their control over the abyss was not limited to opening the Abyssal Crack and restraining the movements of the monsters.
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