The air was filled with a pungent burnt smell, as well as a strange stench of ionized air.
Quite a large area of the forest had been burned. Something wrapped in powerful heat had once wreaked havoc here, destroying thousands of ancient trees with its high heat, leaving behind a scorched trail of smoke and heat. As far as the eye could see, there were charred tree trunks lying on the ground, explosion craters of varying depths, and still smoldering flames in every corner. A thick layer of ash covered the scorched land like grayish-black snow.
At the edge of the fiery land, the Black Forest was wriggling and healing, as the giant trees and shrubs that were snapped by the shockwave rustled and grew back at a speed visible to the naked eye. But their healing was clearly hindered, as only the vegetation at the edge of the scorched earth was growing, and in the areas that were completely destroyed by the flames, there was no sign of recovery.
The powerful life cycle of the Black Forest was actually stopped by the power of Gorgon's Abyss. The Empire had spent centuries to 'dig' out Greenway at the edge of the Black Forest, but a Lord-class Gorgonian demon had easily and permanently destroyed an area deep within the Black Forest.
This surprised even the Knight of the Broken Blade, Graeme, who knew a lot about Gorgonian demons.
Looking at the still billowing smoke and showing no signs of healing, the dark-skinned warrior had a look of disbelief on his face. "I've been away from here for a long time … Why haven't the burnt Black Forest been reborn?"
"Is this abnormal?" Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. He thought it was caused by the power of the Gorgonian demons, and was a normal phenomenon in this world, but he did not expect Graeme to be so surprised.
"Something's not right." Graeme nodded. "While there have never been any Gorgonian demons wreaking havoc in the Black Forest, scholars have never stopped studying them, and in theory, the Gorgonian flames should not be able to destroy the life cycle of the Black Forest, but the forest in this area shows no signs of recovery … Something's not right."
Lily, whose mind was usually filled with novels, spoke up. "Maybe that Demon Lord has the protagonist template, and has a 'domain' ability."
"What's a domain?" Graeme was confused. "Some kind of magic?"
"Don't mind her, the temperature here is high and her mental state will be affected." Hao Ren pulled Lily aside as he observed the charred woodland in front of them for any signs related to the 'demons'. "Come to think of it, we have dealt with demons quite a bit, but we don't know much about Gorgons. Are they very territorial?"
He and his companions had frequent dealings with demons, including, but not limited to, fighting the landlord, playing mahjong, eating hot pot, eating barbecue, and asking demons to change gas tanks every now and then. Hao Ren dared to say that he was at least a master in demonic knowledge.
"Territorial awareness? Not only are they strong, the Gorgonian Demons are insane in this aspect. As long as they set down their roots in a place, unless you smash them into pieces, you can forget about reclaiming the land, and even getting close to that land is a delusion. "
As Graeme spoke, he unsheathed his weapon from his waist, which was the strange-looking black metal club. The armor on his body glowed with a faint, almost undetectable halo. The dim light flowed between the gaps of the armor, and the short stick made a buzzing sound. Then, two red beams of light that were one meter long suddenly extended from both ends of the stick.
Hao Ren was searching for traces of the enemy when he saw the Broken Blade knight pull out his double-edged lightsaber, and was shocked as he blurted out, "Wait a minute, don't you Broken Blades have to say who is with whom the Force is before you fight?"
Graeme was on high alert, and was confused by Hao Ren's interruption. "What is the Force? We are with only the knight's oath and the princess's glory … "
"Oh, it's fine, your weapon is too much of a distraction." Hao Ren quickly forced a smile to hide his awkwardness. "Speaking of which, you Broken Blades don't usually team up with outsiders right?"
Graeme frowned, not knowing why Hao Ren was concerned about this. "The Broken Blades usually work in small groups, and rarely team up with anyone other than us. Is there a problem with that?"
Hao Ren looked at Graeme as he placed his double-edged lightsaber behind his back, and bowed in a cautious posture. He nodded slightly. "No wonder, that thing you guys use isn't very safe. The people standing behind you can easily be stabbed to death when you retract your sword …"
Graeme felt that he would go crazy if he continued to talk to this strange guy. What is the purpose of the Basilica of the World Tree? Are the people that come out of there all out of their minds?
Just as these thoughts that had nothing to do with the battle were churning in his mind, a sudden sense of alertness gripped his nerves.
His combat instincts, honed through countless battles, allowed the veteran to make the right choice: he shouted a warning, and at the same time, his body burst forth with his fastest speed, leaping to the side in the nick of time. At the same time, he swung his lightsaber to block the attack!
Two dark-red rays of light shot out from afar almost at the same time he made his move. One of the rays hit the spot where he was originally standing, and melted a creaking hole in the ground, while the other ray was blocked by the lightsaber, and after changing direction, it hit a black pine tree in the distance, breaking it in half.
And Hao Ren had already noticed the enemy before Graeme gave his warning. His shield system instantly activated, and he raised his psionic gun that he had already taken out from his dimensional pocket, and fired three shots in the direction of the scorched earth in the distance.
The three blue light beams hit something in the air, and the seemingly empty air suddenly condensed into large pieces of blue crystals. Then, a strange thing that floated in the air revealed its figure and shattered into crystal dust that filled the sky.
"Optical, magnetic, and thermal combined stealth." The MDT completed its analysis of the target in an instant, "But gravitational and information wave detection is effective. More targets detected, marking!"
In Hao Ren's vision, a dozen blurry red figures suddenly appeared in all directions, and they were rapidly closing in on him.
These should be the 'splits' that Graeme had mentioned before, something that split from the Gorgonian demons, and was something between a weapon and a living being.
How could they have such extraordinary stealth abilities? Why did Graeme not mention such important information?
Just as the question popped up in Hao Ren's mind, Graeme shouted, "Oh no! This is not the enemy we encountered before, there are other Gorgon Lords in the Black Forest! "
"F * ck me, this is no longer a problem of misinformation!" Lily jumped up and screamed, and in the middle of her scream, she suddenly sensed danger from the side, and without thinking, she kicked to the side, and with a loud bang, a blurry figure was kicked out of stealth, and with a series of sparks and screeches, it flew past Hao Ren's eyes.
Even though she maintained her human form, with her ears and tail still intact, Lily's brute force was not to be trifled with.
"Beware, it's not just the long-range model," Vivian immediately reminded, and at the same time, with her as the center, a faint electric 'Ring of Static' spread out in all directions, and as the ring spread, the figures that were hidden in the air began to reveal their blurry silhouettes.
Tiny sparks covered their bodies, and interfered with the stealth ability of these 'splits'.
Everyone drew their weapons, and cast their best spells as they began to fight the manifested splits, and Hao Ren's gaze was drawn to the split that was kicked away by Lily.
The split landed not far from him, and unlike the first attacker that was disintegrated into crystal dust by the psionic rays, it maintained a relatively intact structure, and even though there were obvious cracks and cracks in the middle, its basic form was still discernible. It looked like a crooked lobster, shrouded in a rapidly weakening electric light. A complex carapace with clear metallic characteristics covered the surface of this monster's body. Its upper body had several appendages made of alloy, and at the end of each appendage was a scorching blade of light. However, its lower body didn't have any limbs that could be used for walking or support, only a few circular devices that emitted a faint light.
Hao Ren recalled the moment when the monster was kicked away by Lily, and realized that the glowing circular devices were used for levitation.
Low-altitude levitation, high-speed stealth, and photon blades — Hao Ren quickly summarized the characteristics of these 'splits'.
And looking at the metallic body of the splits that was shrouded in a cloud of electricity, Vivian could not help but mutter to herself, "No matter how I look at it … it doesn't look like a living thing."
The splits had stealth and high-speed characteristics, and with the combination of photon blades and laser beams, it made them extremely lethal to normal soldiers, but thankfully none of them were normal soldiers, and even the weakest of Charlemagne's personal guards had the ability to take on these Gorgon cannon fodder.
Various magical halos intersected in the charred forest as they blocked the laser beams, and the enchanted swords formed an impenetrable wall as they blocked the ambushes of the agile melee units, and taking advantage of that gap, Vivian, Hao Ren, and Lily quickly cleared out the splits.
Rheia did not intervene the whole time. She felt that these "little things" were not a threat at all, and even without transforming, Lily could headbutt all the enemies there. So, she chose to watch from the sidelines and focused on her main body's training session.
But at that moment, Hao Ren heard a low rumble coming from above.
Graeme, who was using his lightsaber to slice a split in half, heard the sound and his expression changed. "It's the Gorgon Lord! It's here! "
Hao Ren immediately turned towards the direction of the sound, and a massive shadow rose into the sky from the other side of the charred forest.
It was a behemoth that looked like a manta ray, and was at least three hundred meters wide. It was shrouded in lightning and clouds, and like the splits, it had the appearance and body structure of a living creature. However, its entire body was made of metal, and runes and energy flow could be seen flowing between the metal that was constantly moving.
That was the so-called 'Gorgon Demon'.
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