Blazing flames and billowing smoke filled the sky above the cloud peak.

Staring at the still tumbling head at his feet, Igor's pale face trembled his lips and was silent for a whole minute, still unable to believe whether what he saw was true.

The High King... He's dead?

Guarded by guards and walls, fortresses, palaces and armies... Killed by an assassin who infiltrated him, in front of his own face, right under his nose?

"Boom ————!!!!"

In the distance, there was another loud bang in the direction of the city gate, and dark smoke rose above the cloud peak, and the rapid and sharp sound of a horn echoed in the ears of all the dwarves.

"Your Excellency, the enemy has broken through the first line of defense and is besieging our gates, Your Excellency!"

Seeing the black smoke drifting in the distance, Igor's captain of the guard, the stout dwarf who had just stabbed the assassin, roared in shock and anger, with a hint of choking in his voice:

"Please stand up and organize a defense immediately, otherwise it will only be a matter of time before the city gate is lost!"

But Igor, the dwarven in a trance, didn't hear what he was saying, and remained in place, and the dwarven warriors around him were all equally dazed, not knowing what to do.

In desperation, the captain of the dwarven guard picked up the head of the High King from the ground, forcibly removed the crystal-encrusted crown from the frightened and hideous face, and then buckled it to Igor's head.

"Huh?!"

Igor, who suddenly woke up, subconsciously touched the top of his head, and his eyes fell on the "bare" head of the Supreme King, and he was immediately shocked: "What are you doing?!"

"The king is dead!"

The captain of the guard stared at the face of the Grand Celebrant Igor, and fell to his knees with a "bang!"

"Long live the king——!"

The shocked Igor froze in place, and before he could react, the guards gathered around him had already fallen to their knees and roared with the flames gushing from their chests:

"Long live the king——!!!! long live the king——!!!! long live the king——!!!!"

In the midst of the cheers, Igor, the dwarf who was bearing everyone's gaze, raised his trembling hands, pressed the crystal crown on his head, stood in a pool of blood between the traitor and the king, turned his gaze to the city that was already in chaos in the roar of the explosion, and subconsciously took a long deep breath.

From this moment on, he will no longer be the grand official of the Yunling Kingdom, he will no longer be the loyal servant of the Supreme King, and he will no longer need to use the name of the Supreme King to seize all the power, because ......

I am the Most High King!

"Give an order to the defenders of the city gate, tell them to prepare to retreat - if the city gate is lost, destroy all the city defense weapons, burn all the walls and materials that cannot be taken away, and leave not a single brick and tile to the traitors!"

Igor, the dwarf who finally calmed down, calmly issued his first imperial order as the supreme king: "All the troops must retreat to the street barriers as soon as possible, relying on the city fortifications, and block the rebels entering the city step by step!"

"Recruit all the registered young men and prepare to assemble near the square, open the storehouse, arm them all, and stand by in front of the palace of the kings as a reserve army, and be ready to fight the traitors who have broken into the city!"

"All the old, weak, women and children, the incapable civilians who are not able to form a combat capacity, enter the tunnels to make room for the army and roads - within two quarters of an hour, they must all be driven in and evacuated!"

"The enemy's forces are concentrated in the north, and there is no offensive movement in the east and west? It is very good, two-thirds of the defenders on that side will be requisitioned and organized into a new guerrilla regiment; once the enemy's offensive momentum is blocked, prepare a counterattack to recapture the first line of defense!"

"Don't send troops, let the engineers in the palace of the kings prepare, directly aim the trebuchets and ballistas there, and set fire to the slums;

"Are there still defenders in the tunnel at the bottom?all of them are brought out, and none of them will be left behind--the place has long been blocked by us and the traitor, and he will not be able to dig through the tunnel even if he digs it for three days and three nights; let all the officers above the centurion of the garrison army assemble in the palace of the kings, and we will accept their allegiance, immediately!"

"The royal guards of the palace of the kings asked for the slogan of the attack, and told them: Yunling will last forever, long live the king——!

Igor, the blue-faced dwarf, constantly issued all kinds of orders to all the armies, calmly wielding the authority of the Supreme King, mobilizing all the manpower and material resources in the cloud peak.

Igor, the grand celebrant who had eaten away at the power of the High King little by little during the three years of civil war, relying on Byrne's aid and the army in his hands, became the undisputed ruler at the moment - the assassination of the High King not only did not cause chaos, but instead made him justifiable and qualified to carry this crown.

The next thing to do is to crush the rebels' attack in the shortest possible time, win the approval of the leaders of the northern city-states loyal to the High King, become the veritable High King, and then end this long-running civil war.

As for the rebels who were about to break through the gates of Cloud Peak, Igor was not very worried - Cloud Peak was a very complex fortress, not only with multiple city walls, but also with extremely complex streets and terrain, making it difficult for large troops to deploy, and small armies would ambush the defenders one by one.

Even if the enemy really broke out of the siege and tore through the defense line and attacked the city, the palace of kings, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, would not be so easy to fall, relying on the palace of kings as the core position, the defenders hidden in the fortresses, tunnels, and city walls in the city would launch an offensive from behind the rebels who attacked the city, and wiped them out.

Igor, who has a favorable geographical location, does not need to go out of the city to fight in the field, he can take advantage of the terrain to concentrate a small mobile force, and constantly form a situation of fighting more with less, and annihilate the rebels who are several times his size here!

The City of Barriers, the City of Tunnels, the City of Fortresses - this is the true strength of Cloud Peak, and this is the real reason why she has not fallen for a thousand years!

"Igor... Your Majesty, the garrison of the tunnel below has sent a message. ”

The captain of the guard, who had arrived in a hurry, appeared behind the dwarf Igor and hastily changed his words: "When they were evacuating the tunnel, they found two suspicious figures. ”

"It's an extraordinary time, let them deal with it themselves!" Igor, who was grim-faced, snorted coldly, and his tone was very impatient: "What kind of waste are the officers of the garrison, and you still need to ask for instructions for this kind of thing?!"

The captain of the guard bowed his head, silent, and showed no sign of leaving.

Igor frowned, slowly turned his head, and looked at the captain of the guard who lowered his head and refused to speak: "I guess... The identities of those two people are unusual?"

The captain of the guard, with a complicated expression, nodded solemnly.

............................................................

"We retreated. ”

After seeing the anomaly in the direction of the peak of the clouds, the witcher... Or that the night watchman, Carl Colin, immediately made the wisest judgment in his mind, and decisively threw behind him a recruit who had just almost fallen off a cliff.

"Retreat, we haven't got any information, retreat now?!" Recruit Martin looked confused.

"Otherwise, now that the rebels have begun to launch a general attack, the place where we will stand in a quarter of an hour may be one of the battlefields - do you want to stay here and be torn to pulp by heavy crossbow fire from both sides?!"

Carl Collin, with a disgusted expression, turned his head and said sarcastically in undisguised sarcasm.

He's really fed up with these recruits - no common sense, no self-awareness, he doesn't even understand what his mission is, and his mind is full of mushy blood and impulses.

In addition to their wizarding talents beyond ordinary people, and their sensitivity to the power of the void, their level is not even as good as the veterans of the first batch of the Duke's Guard; no, if you remove the talent, these guys can't even compare to the levies who have been trained for three months and have been on the battlefield once.

At the very least, the levies will obey orders unconditionally, unlike these guys... Arrogant to think that you can stop a war by yourself!

"The order given to us by the Duke is to find out who is behind this war and investigate the truth about the spread of Corrupt Demons in the Yunling Kingdom. Recruit Martin clenched his fists tightly and argued:

"There are still four days left before the time limit, and we haven't even got the slightest bit of useful information, so we are going to leave like this?!"

"What the Duke said is 'if you have a chance to ......', don't argue with me!" Carl Colin said coldly: "Besides, now that the battle of Cloud Peak is about to break out, you tell me where the opportunity is?!"

"Of course there's a chance!"

Recruit Martin raised his head and stared at the direction of the black smoke rising, as well as the "Blood Path" directly below the smoke: "Once the siege begins, everyone's goal will definitely be on the city walls and gates, and no one will notice the tunnel network that has long been sealed.

Although the tunnel is sealed and a large army cannot pass through, one or two people can still do it - we can use this opportunity to sneak into the cloud peak and meet the informant to find out who is behind this civil war!"

Carl Colin was completely stunned.

Originally, he only thought that this recruit named Martin was too naïve, with a bloody and rough head, but now it seems that he really wants to be simple, how can the chief who can pass Dalton Kand's assessment and be recognized by Captain Lusan be very "simple"?

This is a madman at all, and a complete lunatic who will do whatever it takes to complete his mission, and who doesn't even take his life seriously - what a Captain Lusen!

The wide-eyed recruit was still staring at him, silent, anxiously awaiting Carl Colin's reply.

He hesitated.

In all fairness, this recruit has some truth in what he said, the monitoring in the city will be greatly reduced during the war, and if you are lucky, you may really be able to take advantage of the war and quietly sneak into the top of the clouds, but ......

The two witchers turned their heads to look behind them almost simultaneously, their eyes searching the empty jungle.

Karl Colin narrowed his eyes warily, his right hand pressed the hilt of his sword behind his shoulder, and gestured to the recruit at his side, and the two quickly dispersed and hid in place.

Half a minute later, there was a chaotic sound of footsteps in the jungle.

Heavy, messy, irregular, unstable.

Judging by the sound of footsteps, it should be dwarves, and the number should be only one or two... Clutching the hilt of the half-sword in the back of his shoulder, Carl Colin, who was hiding in the shadows, speculated.

But why does it sound so heavy, and wobbly... Is it hurt?

Confused, Carl Colin looked up, only to find the recruit hiding across from him looking at him with a look of horror.

I see, is it a corrosive demon... This is not surprising.

In the next second, with the sound of heavy and shaking footsteps, two fat figures the size of five heads walked into their sight.

"Bell ——!"

The sword is unsheathed.

The two witchers swooped out of the dense forest in tacit understanding, and two silver rays, one left and one right, drew an elegant half-arc, and attacked the head of the rotting demon at the same time.

Only by smashing or cutting off the head can the Corruptor be stopped - in the Wings of the Firmament, this is the most important thing that has been repeatedly ordered.

"Poof——!

Blood gushed and the head fell to the ground.

Everything is back to normal.

The frightened recruit fell to his knees with a "poof", his pale face gasping violently, as if he had not fully recovered from the excitement of the rest of his life, staring in disbelief at the "corpse" that was still twitching on the ground.

Carl Colin shook the plasma off the spine of his sword while calmly looking at the dense forest behind him - the Corrupt Demon is usually a monster that acts in a large group, and it is quite rare to be left alone like three or two.

In other words, they only encountered two in a cluster, and more Corruptors should be around, or even somewhere not far from them.

In that case, let's retreat as soon as possible... The intelligence of the investigation has been almost gathered, and if it waits any longer, there will be no new changes in this war.

Just as Carl Colin made up his mind, a rapid and dull voice suddenly sounded.

"Knock! knock!"

The two of them turned their gazes behind them almost at the same time, their eyes widening instinctively.

"Knock! knock!"

Same sound, only clearer and noticeably closer!

The Corrupt Demon, like the army of monsters in the Northern Boundary Mountain, is a monster that acts in a large-scale collective manner, and it is rare for them to be left alone......

Carl Colin took a deep breath to protect the recruit behind him, twitched his throat vigorously, and forced his mouth to ask calmly:

"How many?"

"W-what?" the recruit was already stupefied.

"How many of those Corrupt Demons are there?!"

"I don't know!"

The bloodless recruit shook his head desperately, and his hand holding the sword was trembling: "But... There should be many, many more... Many, much, much!"

"Judging by the Void reaction alone, at least... Thousands ——!!!!"