Chapter 237 - Situation
Roy, Julia, and Fat Tiger left. After the Sky Storm Altar crashed into Ulambus and destroyed it, there was nothing in this city that could stop Roy.
However, Roy did not take the seven Dragon Balls away when he left. To Roy, the true function of the Dragon Balls was to guide him back to this world. Now that he had successfully come here, they were useless.
Moreover, Roy was certain that after this battle, the fact that the Dragon Balls had actually summoned a demon would quickly spread throughout the entire world. At that time, the righteous and good factions of Ashan would probably destroy the Dragon Balls at all costs.
Of course, this did not rule out some ambitious people who wanted to borrow the power of demons, and they would do everything possible to dig out the Dragon Balls… But in any case, Roy had already achieved his goal, so he did not care about the rest.
Among the bookshelves that Julia brought out from the library, Roy managed to find a military map of the kingdom of Bracada. After careful examination, Roy finally determined his location. His previous worries were indeed reasonable. Ulambus was a central city in Bracada. From the map, there were two larger cities along the way to the border of Bracada. They were fortress cities that had accumulated massive military forces for defense. The reason why Ulambus had a relatively small number of troops and population was that the city had been constantly sending troops to the fortress cities.
After discovering this, Roy rejoiced. He would not have been able to escape so easily if there had been tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Academy troops in this city…
Now that Ulambus was destroyed, this situation would absolutely anger the kingdom of Bracada. In addition, his demon identity would certainly attract its attention, and it would definitely send troops to surround and suppress him. Therefore, it was unwise to stay in this city and wait for death.
After carefully studying the map and some documents, Roy found that it would be a little troublesome if he wanted to go east to the newly established kingdom of the demons, Eeofol. Because if he went straight, he would need to cross an extremely large desert. This desert was called the Desert of Death on the map, and it was an important barrier between Bracada and Eeofol. It was precisely because of the existence of this desert that the demon army could not invade Bracada.
This Desert of Death was remarkably vast, and it was said to be over a million square kilometers. Even if Roy and the others flew, it would be very difficult to cross this desert.
However, there was an advantage in taking the route of the Desert of Death. He would be able to avoid the armies and cities of Bracada completely. Roy estimated that if the kingdom of Bracada wanted to surround him, it would definitely send a message to the fortress cities in front of him in advance so that they could prepare to fight against him, a demon. Now, Roy only had Julia and Fat Tiger by his side. He would not be able to charge through such heavily guarded cities with large armies.
Therefore, they did not think too much about it and went on their way.
Just as Roy, Julia, and Fat Tiger flew away and set off, the fleeing Galib appeared from a teleportation platform in Silver City, the capital of Bracada.
As soon as he came out, this artificer hero, who had promoted from a djinn, immediately floated toward the place of the Circle of Nine. His panicked appearance made the mages and apprentices who saw him look at him with their mouths agape in surprise.
At this moment, in the hall of the Circle of Nine, the secret mages who ruled all of Bracada were having a meeting. There were patrolling iron golems outside the hall, and at the entrance of the hall stood two tall titans as guards. When Galib stumbled and wanted to rush in, the titans stopped him.
“Get lost!” Galib said angrily to the titans. “I have important news to report!”
Upon hearing this, the titans looked at each other but still let him in. After passing, Galib charged into the meeting hall.
Bang. The sound of him knocking open the door caused the mages in the hall to go over in surprise. Without waiting for them to ask, Galib shouted, “Demon! A powerful demon has appeared in Ulambus! Nathir has died in battle! We need to send troops immediately!”
Galib’s words caused a commotion in the entire hall, and mages who had been sluggish immediately became tense.
“What’s going on? Galib, slow down!” said the mage elder who presided over the meeting. “Why did a demon suddenly appear?”
Galib calmed his breathing and said, “It’s the Dragon Balls! The Dragon Balls that we collected some time ago were basically a trap! Those damn beads probably have nothing to do with the Seventh Dragon but are spatial positioning coordinates! When we tried to study these beads, a Gate of the Abyss opened! A powerful demon appeared first, followed by a fallen angel and… an enormous three-headed hellhound!”
Although Galib was in the Sky Storm Altar instead of the square at that time, he had already figured it out during his escape. It was understandable that a demon was sealed in the Dragon Balls, but then a fallen angel and an enormous hellhound appeared. This did not seem right. That black portal did not look like a spatial channel for when a seal was undone, but more like a Gate of the Abyss used by demons to summon and teleport troops.
“What?!” The mages were shocked. “Are you sure that it was a Gate of the Abyss?!”
“Most likely!” Galib nodded.
“Damn it!” A white-bearded elder mage could not help but slam his fist onto the table in front of him and curse. “How could you experiment so recklessly?!”
It was not that the mages of Bracada were making a big fuss. There was actually a reason why they were so afraid of the appearance of demons.
In the history of the Ashan world, in the 40th Year of the Seventh Dragon, the Seventh Dragon, Sar-Elam, sacrificed himself to seal the demons in the underground world, Sheogh. From then on, the demons could only travel to the surface during the days of lunar eclipses, and the key to the seal was Sar-Elam’s own head—the divine artifact, the Skull of Shadows. This divine artifact had incomparable power and had always firmly pressed the demons into the underground mystic realm, preventing them from leaving.
In order to prevent the demons from escaping from Sheogh through using the lunar eclipses, the seers of the Blind Brothers of Ashan had always shouldered the responsibility of being prophets, and they calculated and predicted the time every lunar eclipse appeared. Once the lunar eclipse was about to arrive, they would warn the various races of Ashan to guard against the invasion of the demon army.
However, in the 969th Year of Seventh Dragon, which was the first time Roy was summoned to this world, the sixth lunar eclipse in the history of the era of the Seventh Dragon had happened, but it was a lunar eclipse that the seers had not predicted!
The appearance of the lunar eclipse had caught the various races of Ashan off guard. The demons of Sheogh swarmed out, attacking and destroying cities all over the continent, especially the kingdom of Erathia. It was jointly attacked by the demons uniting with the Dungeon faction’s dark elves, almost causing the entire country to fall.
Although four years had passed, and the invasion of the demon had been temporarily repelled, the demons were not expelled back to Sheogh. But instead, they occupied a piece of land on the surface world and established the kingdom of Eeofol.
Afterward, the mages of Bracada had been studying the demon invasion. During their investigation, they had discovered that the reason why the prophets of the Blind Brothers did not predict the sixth lunar eclipse was that the lunar eclipse was simply artificial. Demon Lord Kha-Beleth, who commanded the massive demon army of Sheogh, seemed to be plotting an incomparably huge scheme!
After the demon invasion temporarily subsided, the lives of the various races on the continent had not been easy. For example, Erathia was currently in a divided state. The domestic forces were now divided into the Queen faction and the Nephew faction. And the kingdom’s rule had still yet to be determined… The mages knew that it was very likely that the next round of demon invasion would arrive. So they had been trying to figure out what Kha-Beleth and his subordinates wanted to do, causing them to feel tense involuntarily when they heard the word ‘demon’.
Now that the demons of Eeofol had yet to be resolved, a group of stupid mages in Ulambus was still boldly experimenting at this critical moment and had attracted a powerful demon. If this matter spread, Bracada would probably be harshly condemned by the various races of the entire continent, like last time when it caused the orc incident…
A commotion broke out in the meeting hall, forcing the elder in charge of the meeting to knock his gavel on the table. Only then did the noise finally quiet down. “Silence! Silence!! The matter has already happened, and looking into who is responsible is no longer helpful. What we need to discuss now is how to make up for it!” An elder stood up and said loudly, “I suggest that we immediately dispatch troops to rescue Ulambus!”
“Seconded! We must kill that demon before he obtains an army!”
“Yes! We can’t let this news spread!”
The mages quickly made a decision. But before they could discuss how many troops to send, a djinn broke into the hall and brought news that stunned the mages.
Ulambus has been destroyed?!
Upon hearing this news, the mages present could not help but feel dizzy and see black.
It’s over! A city has been destroyed. There’s absolutely no way to hide such big news!
Silent. The scene was silent. After a long time, an elder finally sighed. “Report this news to the kingdom of Erathia and the wood elves of AvLee. At the same time, send the order to all the fortress cities at the border to get them to guard against the demon. Once found, the demon must be eliminated at all costs! If we allow this powerful demon to go to Eeofol and obtain an army, I’m afraid the forces of the demons will expand to an unimaginable extent…”
“But will the demon cross the Desert of Death to Eeofol?” someone suddenly asked. “If he passes through the Desert of Death, we’ll be helpless.”
“Don’t worry. Some time ago, we received news that traces of Necromancer Arantir were found in the Desert of Death. Although the undead of the kingdom of Heresh have never been on good terms with us, Arantir is indeed a true scholar. He is a loyal believer of Asha, and when it comes to dealing with demons, he is the same as us. If that demon really chooses to go to the Desert of Death, Arantir will definitely take action…”