Chapter 148: Descent (1)
Dense trees gradually obscured the sky. Gnarled roots intertwined, and the occasional roar of a beast echoed from deep within the mountain range.
"I'll head up the mountain first, then," Selena said.
"I'm all set on my end too," Lynn said easily.
Selena walked up the mountain. Halfway to the summit, she activated a summoning array and called forth her Wizard Tower. As the tower doors opened, a massive number of Lizardmen poured out. The ones with the most vividly colored scales emerged first, their scales rapidly shifting to blend into the surrounding environment.
The Lizardmen melted into the mountain forest like a sprawling field army.
Lynn turned to look in another direction toward the foot of the mountain.
That was where the kobolds and gnolls lived.
Both kobolds and gnolls preferred living underground. They liked digging tunnels and dwelling in caves, though gnolls were far more vicious and cunning than kobolds.
Gnolls didn't like digging their own tunnels; they much preferred plundering the ready-made burrows of other races.
Lynn took a summoning array and the Sea God statue from his coat, placing them on his left and right respectively.
A few corpses were simply arranged over the summoning array on the left. The dead bodies tangled together, contorting into a raised archway.
As Lynn activated the array, the archway gradually took shape.
On the other side of the summoning array, a demon answered the call.
The corpses on the ground gradually shriveled as the array absorbed all their flesh and blood essence. Only blackened skeletons remained, fusing together one by one.
A deep, blood-red vortex formed in the center of the archway, and a tall figure stepped out. It was the Abyss Lord and elven Blood Queen, Dyo. However, this was not her true body, but a clone.
These sacrifices alone were not enough to summon an Abyss Lord.
But close behind her came a massive horde of demons.
High-Tier Demons marched out of the summoning array one after another. The sacrifices sustaining the gateway flickered unsteadily, and a dense web of cracks surfaced across the archway, leaving it teetering on the verge of collapse.
Normally, summoning demons required a price far steeper than a standard summon, as a portion of the flesh and blood essence would be pocketed by the "summoned" as a sort of convenience fee.
But relying on his relationship with Dyo, Lynn directly used the bare minimum standard.
Dyo looked at the summoning array. The sheer number of summoned demons had exceeded its limit, pushing it to the brink of collapse.
Dyo fell silent for a moment. On the other side of the array, across a massive plaza where countless demons were shoving each other to line up, a pillar of blood-red light plummeted from the sky. The teetering summoning array was instantly brimming with power.
As more and more demons arrived, the surrounding vegetation withered and died. The damp black soil began to crack. Even without taking a single aggressive action, the power unconsciously radiating from their bodies was already warping the environment.
"You actually have this many High-Tier Demons under your command?" Lynn asked in surprise. It hadn't been that many years, yet Dyo had developed her forces so well.
The golden title of Abyss Lord really was an excellent recruitment tool.
Dyo surveyed her surroundings, a flash of nostalgia crossing her eyes.
Once, she too had lived in a world filled with the songs of birds and the scent of flowers, but now everything had changed.
It would be a real pity if such a beautiful world wasn't destroyed by the iron hooves of war.
"Huh?" A Lizardman from the mountain tribe spotted the Lizardmen outside, assuming they were companions from his own tribe.
But he quickly realized something was wrong. He took a second look, wondering why the scale patterns on these newcomers were completely different from his own.
Swish—
From the dense woods, a razor-sharp arrow pierced straight through his throat.
As the perspective pulled higher to overlook the sea of trees from above, a dense, sprawling tide of hunched Lizardmen could be seen advancing through the mountain forest, closing in on the Lizardman tribe ahead.
Far at the rear of the Lizardman army, Selena wore an ancient and mysterious cassock. Her face was covered in scales, and a crown carved from bone sat upon her head.
She stood atop an altar, radiating a profound, arcane aura, while a massive throng of Lizardmen prostrated themselves on the ground around her.
Behind her, a large-scale summoning array was on the verge of completion.
Within the array, the white silhouette of a sleek, massive behemoth nearly a hundred meters long emerged, its outline gradually growing clearer.
In the sea of trees, a green dragon spread its wings and let out a long roar toward the sky.
"Wizard, I smell the scent of Lord Nysether on you." The green dragon's body was covered in bone spurs. Its green wings blotted out the sun like a pair of gigantic bat wings, and the white spikes lining them looked utterly terrifying.
"Hm? That thing on your head..." The green dragon lowered its head, its dragon eyes fixating on the crown atop Selena's head.
The moment the green dragon appeared, a violent aura suddenly erupted from the mountain's peak, like the instant fury of a tiger whose territory had been invaded.
"Kill it!" Selena pointed her bone staff toward the summit.
Watching the black dragon soar into the sky from the mountain peak, the green dragon fell silent for a moment before resolutely rocketing upward, tearing into the sky as a blur of green.
Dark clouds had gathered overhead unnoticed. Beneath them, the two massive dragons—one black and one green—clashed in a brutal aerial melee.
They dove through thick clouds and slammed into each other with tremendous force. Acid and poison mist collided, and the acid raining from the sky melted gaping craters into the mountain range below.
At the edge of his rooftop balcony, the Count of Mount Heidu—an old man dressed in purple noble's robes—gazed toward the distant Black Mountain Range, his eyes occasionally drifting out of focus.
Below the castle, the densely packed Golden Cavalry Phalanx stood waiting.
He suddenly remembered a line from one of the empire's poets.
During a summer when he was thirteen or fourteen, a boy found a bow and arrow on the road. Fearless and ignorant in his youth, he fired an arrow into the sky.
No bird fell, and no beast was harmed; he assumed the arrow had missed completely. Later, on a certain day in his old age, he suddenly heard the whistle of wind falling from the sky. He looked up, and the arrow pierced straight through his brow.
"Must the mistakes of our youth eventually be paid for in the future?" The Count of Mount Heidu lowered his head and opened the five fingers of his hand.
Right in the center of his palm, a black scale was embedded into his flesh like a poisonous stinger taking root, blindingly conspicuous.
The Count of Mount Heidu closed his eyes. The roars and howls echoing from the distant mountain range, along with the faint sting in his palm, all reminded him that the "master" of those distant mountains was calling for him.
He snapped his eyes open, drew the rapier at his waist, and fiercely stabbed the air in front of him.
His aged face was clouded with gloom. "Heideshan Cavalry Regiment, hear my command!"
Boom—
The cavalry phalanx below stomped forward in perfect unison.
The mounted riders raised their spears as one, the gleaming tips forming a bristling phalanx of thorns. A golden mist swirled around the edges of their cold armor, shining brilliantly under the sunlight.
Taking a step off the balcony, the Count of Mount Heidu walked on thin air.
"Advance! Advance! Advance!" the Count of Mount Heidu said in a deep voice.
Rumble—
The Golden Cavalry Phalanx transformed into a torrent that charged toward Black Mountain.