A group of strange and unknown soldiers suddenly walked out of the mist.
They were wearing silver-white light armor with green patterns and the same silver-white winged helmets. Their average height was about two meters, and they did not carry the usual swords or blades of the regular army, instead they had a pair of special metal gauntlets, and the gauntlets were glowing faintly as if they were hiding something.
Awenna's eyes widened as she looked at the soldiers that walked out of the mist. The patterns on their armor and the style of their equipment were completely different from the soldiers she knew of, and their average height of two meters did not look like a normal human army, and that made her curious.
But the guards on the other two caravans were not just curious, and there was no point in hiding at such a distance, and the experience of being ambushed by the imperial soldiers had made them wary of these soldiers that suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the Black Forest. Therefore, the moment both sides met, all of the guards had their hands on their weapons, and even Charlemagne could not help but activate a few of the magical equipment he carried with him to boost his confidence.
However, the strange group of soldiers did not seem to notice the convoy in front of them at all. Facing the convoy guards who were at daggers drawn, they chose to keep their eyes forward and continued to move forward along the road expressionlessly.
"Calm down," Hao Ren's voice broke the stalemate (strictly speaking, it was a one-sided stalemate by the guards), "I'm afraid these soldiers are not real."
As he spoke, the strange soldiers had arrived before the caravan, and walked past the three caravans like phantoms.
"Phantoms?" Awenna's eyes widened, "But they look so real …"
"It's still between reality and illusion …" Rheia's slightly immature voice rang out, "This is another layer of the Black Forest, and just like the mist before, it is something that does not appear in the real world, but now that we have escaped the influence of the false world, these things are just phantoms to us, and will not interfere with each other."
"What if we did not escape the influence of the false world?" Lily asked curiously.
Rheia blinked, "Then of course we will fight now."
As they spoke, the group of soldiers had already passed through the carriages and continued along the forest path. Hao Ren looked back at them. Just as he was about to say that they should follow these "phantoms" to see what was going on, the group of soldiers suddenly stopped.
They seemed to have discovered the enemy, and they instantly stared in the direction of the dense forest on high alert. A person who looked like a commander made a hand signal, and the soldiers immediately got into a defensive formation and got into a combat stance. Hao Ren saw them touch their glowing gauntlets together, and a photon shield that could protect most of their bodies instantly appeared on their left hand, and an energy blade that emitted a cold light extended from the gauntlet on their right hand.
Hao Ren was dumbfounded. "Damn … this doesn't fit the local worldview …"
But before he could finish lamenting, a sudden howl came from the dense forest, and a behemoth shrouded in black smoke knocked down the bushes along the way as it pounced out of the forest!
The behemoth shrouded in smoke was clearly a phantom, and its appearance reminded Hao Ren of the minions of the Mad Lord that he had faced before. Decaying and growing limbs, a mutated torso beyond recognition, and countless eyes and mouthparts covered its entire body. Tentacles extended out from the decaying skin as they wriggled wildly in the air, and a blasphemous roar came from the abdomen of the monster. This chaotic and deranged monster was the opposite of all reason and order, and whether it was seeing it, hearing it, or even touching it, it would drag a person's mind into the abyss of madness and darkness.
Awenna almost screamed at the sight of the monster, and she let out a short scream before clenching her teeth to stop herself from making a sound. The guards were no better, and even the battle-hardened warriors had never seen such a blasphemous and ugly creature, and they were all trembling in fear.
The soldiers with their lightsabers and photon shields were also shocked by the sudden appearance of the monster, but that was all. The commander began to yell out orders for offensive and defensive positions, while the soldiers quickly got into formation and attacked the monster from all directions.
All signs indicated that this was not the first time they had encountered such a monster.
A chaotic battle broke out as the phantom warriors and phantom monsters clashed on the wide path of the Black Forest, and the monster was clearly not just using brute force, it could spit out corrosive energy and create some sort of laser beam to attack its opponents, while the burly soldiers used their photon shields to defend, and used their surprisingly adept martial arts to slice off the monster's limbs. In the end, the commander suddenly roared, and the lightsaber in his hand turned into a long whip as it wrapped around the monster and dragged it to the ground, while the rest of the soldiers rushed forward and used their lightsabers to cut the monster into pieces.
The battle was over, and the soldiers panted as they watched the monster's flesh turn into ash under the corrosion of the black mist. One of the soldiers broke the silence as he spoke in a language that no one in L 'Haronne knew, "They have appeared here too."
"Go tell the commander what happened here." The commander said, "The rest of you, follow me to the next checkpoint."
He then looked up at the sky as if he was talking to himself, "Finally, this day has come … Once again …"
All the phantoms stopped at that moment, and slowly dissipated into the air.
"What did they say in the end?" Awenna was a little stunned. She and Charlemagne did not have a translation plugin, and were confused. "It doesn't sound like the dialect of the Dragon Empire …"
"They seemed to have expected this monster, and had sent someone to inform someone called the commander that something had happened here." Hao Ren thought for a bit, and decided to translate what he heard to Awenna. Perhaps she would have something to say about it, "Can you think of anything?"
But Awenna was still confused as she shook her head. "No … I can't think of anything. I don't recognize the insignia on these soldiers, and I've never heard of a 'commander' in any country's military establishment. "
"Is this also one of the possibilities of a false world?" Vivian glanced at Rheia. "Why do I feel that something is not right?"
"I'm not sure either." Rheia was also confused. "Logically speaking, these unrealized world lines should be extremely fragmented and messy, and it's impossible for logic to appear …"
Hao Ren glanced at Rheia, and a thought formed in his mind.
"Perhaps … what we are seeing is not just the possibility of the world's future, but also its past."
Lily scratched her head. "What do you mean?"
"Don't forget, this world is not just one cycle." Hao Ren shook his head, and this time he was using Earth's language. "If it has experienced destruction and reconstruction, then what happened in the past can be considered as some sort of 'false world line' in the current history."
As he said that, he glanced at Rheia. "Do you have any impression of this Black Forest? Before L 'Haronne was destroyed, was there anything similar on this planet? "
Rheia thought about it seriously, and shook her head. "No impression. I have been watching L 'Haronne for many years, and I know every corner of this planet very well, and I can be sure that there is no Black Forest. Unless … it suddenly appeared on this planet at the very last moment before I fell asleep. But how is that possible? "
"Is that so …" Hao Ren mumbled, and did not comment on it.
Charlemagne and Awenna looked at each other in confusion. Hao Ren and the rest had suddenly used a language they did not understand to converse, and this was obviously a secretive act, but thinking of the secrets they carried, they were too embarrassed to say anything, and so it was a little awkward.
Fortunately, the awkwardness did not last long, and Hao Ren quickly turned back to them. "We have no conclusion as well. If there is nothing else, let us continue on our way."
The siblings nodded. "Alright."
The convoy continued on their way, and followed the forest path deeper into the Black Forest, and finally arrived at the first fork.
But this fork did not appear in any records.
Looking at the fork without any signs or emblems, Charlemagne slowly took a deep breath. "Looks like … we have arrived at a place in the Black Forest that no one has ever reached before."
Awenna frowned as well. "But in theory, that is impossible …"
The Black Forest was vast and mysterious, but the paths in the forest were limited and fixed, and in the long period of exploration, the Dragon Empire's explorers and national exploration teams had measured and recorded every path in the forest, or at least every path from the edge of the forest, and had set up signs and rest points at the forks, and at some of the larger forks, there were even sentry posts. So in theory, as long as one entered from the entrance of Greenway, and did not leave the forest path, then every fork would have a guide.
An unmarked fork meant one thing: the traveler had stepped into an undiscovered territory in the forest, and there were no intersections between this area and the known paths in the forest.
"Theoretically, it's impossible, but we have just experienced something beyond theory." Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. "When we were in the thick fog, the convoy had been traveling on an endless road for a long time. Maybe we had already entered an unfamiliar territory at that time."
"Entering a foreign land is not important," Vivian said as she looked at Rheia, who was sitting beside her. "The important thing is … the whole process was hidden from Rheia's eyes."
Rheia blinked, and a smile appeared on her face. "No, perhaps it is the opposite. It should be that those who had successfully passed through the Black Forest were blinded, and we … are the first in history to walk on the right path."
(Happy New Year to everyone!! Also, double the monthly votes!! Holy moly, I just noticed that I have double the monthly votes this time! This might be the last chance for double the monthly votes before the end of the dungeon, everyone please vote ~)
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.
