……

In the afternoon –

The Winter Fortress, a fortress on the northern border of the Golden Oriole Empire, still has a few flags of the Northland fluttering scattered on its walls, but those few military flags are as dangerous as tall grass about to fold in the snowstorm, and they are soon pulled down one by one by several skeleton soldiers who have walked up to the castle tower.

The castle tower above the main entrance of the fortress, which a few hours ago belonged to the military command room of the human officers, still retains its original style, and the interior is designed according to the conventional aesthetic design of the Holm people as a square space surrounded by walls on all sides, with two stone corridors on each side connecting the inside and outside, and the surrounding walls protrude a candelabra at intervals, or a torch is placed diagonally, which is used to illuminate the military conference table placed in the center of the room, and above the conference table, a flag hanging from a wooden beam.

The banner hanging in mid-air could be seen from any angle in the command room, the downward-facing end was cropped to a sharp angle in reference to the shape of the coat of arms, and a crowned warbler was painted with inky black paint on a golden background.

The warbler wore a crown on the flag, spread its wings, and surrounded a semicircular cage in the shape of olive branches, but the semicircular cage could not protect the warbler in the cage at all, and it was soon scorched and wrinkled under a cold flame.

The flag was lit by the soul fire of the corpse witch.

Cassius's corpse witch bowed respectfully at his side. The Duke of the Black Knight from the Hill of Mourning ordered his men to burn the last symbol left by the Human Emperor in the command room, extinguishing several torches and candles to dim the light, and then walked to the edge of the table in the center of the room to look up under the gaze of two rows of skeletal swordsmen.

The soul fire in the black duke's eyes pierced through the crack of the helmet, and he watched the flag in mid-air turn into ashes and fall in seconds.

Erdon is not here. The zombie king of the undead had a reason not to go to the front line to risk his life, but it seemed to see the same picture in Cassius's gaze, and then a voice that seemed to seep from the depths of his soul poured into the latter's mind like a drop of water:

"Well done, Cassius. As we expected, the glory of Calvinland's era has long since been washed away with the torrent of history, and even after the reform made by Otto II in favor of the Sogo Church, the golden cage of the Imperial Warbler has lost its former glory, but has gradually faded its luster and finally become rusty—"

"—just as the walls of this fortress, which until yesterday had probably been deeply trusted by the nobles of Holm, were in fact vulnerable."

"Yes, Your Majesty, this high wall guarding the northern border of the human kingdom is in fact nothing more than that, and I even regret that I wasted too much time in the process of formulating siege tactics in advance." Cassius replied calmly, the same cold, faint voice that sounded like self-talk to the bystanders, but it did reach Erdon through a special power.

"But, Your Majesty." Suddenly, Cassius turned half to the side and pressed the black armor on the table, the tip of his index finger touched the border of the sand table map on the table, "The human soldiers showed tenacity in the morning siege, they destroyed a large number of skeletons in the white-knuckle battle after our army landed in the city, damaged several meat grinder chariots of our army with the ballista cannons on the tower, shot down about two squadrons of bone vultures, and even miraculously severely damaged a bone dragon, and at the last moment covered several griffon knights to flee the battlefield-"

"We haven't been able to completely block the news, and I suspect that the escaped griffin knights have taken the news to the rest of the Northlands, but it will take some time for me to convert human corpses into our recruits, to arrange for the Necro Smith to repair damaged meat grinders, and to use this as a front-line stronghold for our follow-up army;"

"Rosette has sent her scouts to Helmet City, and if you want that city to surrender as soon as possible, I can regroup the undamaged Meat Grinder Chariot and my Black Knights, and expect to dedicate that land to you before tomorrow arrives."

As the words fell, he walked two steps diagonally over his helmet, his black armor-wrapped bone fingers on the sand table map on the conference table, marking several routes to march, and waiting for the zombie king's reply in his mind.

Erdon's cold voice was silent for a long time, as if he had thought about it, and soon fell into Cassius's mind like a drop of water: "Don't rush, Cassius. The enemy Duke Regent will not come to the aid of the Northlands, and the Helmet City is powerless to resist the Plague of Oktar, just like a dying orc who is just lying on the ground and breathing hard, even if Kevin Stuyn is still alive to stage the return of the king. ”

"And what is your will?"

"Rosette's scouts have just brought back information from the vicinity of Helmet City...... Cassius, there are bugs that have fled to the hilly and forested areas of the east. ”

"To the east? I see, they don't run away. Cassius froze, and seemed slightly surprised after listening to Erdon's words, but the gaze of the soul fire then swept down the sand, as if a sharp sword had cut through the dirt, "General Barnadell and his army of ghouls are on standby, and I will give it an order at once to give it an order by your will, and let its troops bypass the edge of the city of Helmet and launch a direct pursuit to the east." ”

"Very well, then I'm looking forward to the next good news." His Majesty the King of Byron Tas was very satisfied.

……

……

And then, the time came to dusk—

On the eastern outskirts of Helmet City, the sun was setting in the west, and the snowy sky was dyed a hazy orange by the colors of the sunset, and the fading light blurred the distant scene a little, so that the speed of the group's eastward march had to be slowed down appropriately in order to remain cautious—although the overall speed of the group was not at all fast when they fled with the civilians of the city.

After leaving the east gate of the city, the troops of the Northland army and civilians walked in a long formation on the eastern outskirts of Helmet City, and it was not long before they left the main road and walked onto the field path under the command of Urs, and then broke away from the path and entered a cedar forest where the terrain began to rise.

At the suggestion of yours, the few adventurers, mercenaries, paladins, and Northland court guards who fled the city were grouped together with the commoners' brigade, and placed under the management and command of Alice, Scambed, and Sirudelt.

Alice and Sirudelt were only a temporary partnership, and the fragile relationship could break down at any moment, but both were mature politicians at critical moments, reassuring people in terms of aristocratic legitimacy and religious beliefs, respectively, while Scambed, who came from a military background, was an excellent commander before becoming the court governor of the Northland Earls, and maintained the discipline of the popular army as they left the Armor City and marched east.

The old knight Brian set up a dilapidated flatbed carriage and carried Bellingis, Dorothy, Groledon, Ekarila, and the mortally wounded Thogas, among the civilians.

Thogas's injuries were slightly better, and although he was still unconscious, he had survived the most dangerous stage, and was now placed on the board of the carriage driven by the old knight Brian to be cared for, while his griffin mount put away his wings, which were also badly wounded, and reluctantly followed the carriage, turning his head sideways and cooing at the owner of the carriage.

Riding on the back of Thea in the form of a giant wolf, Urs led the way at the front of the group, and the Immortal Knights of the Thorn Lion were not far away—but not all of these Immortal Knights summoned by the Ring of the Warbler were here at the moment, and about half of them were actually assigned by Urles to scout around.

ァ新ヤ~(8)~1~Chinese 網ωωω.χ~8.~1zщ.còм

Now, the young man did not and did not need to have any doubts about this part of his memory of his previous life, the terrain of the forests in the middle of the Northland and the eastern hills was familiar to him like a dwarf could never forget how to forge iron, and the current hidden danger was mainly when the undead generals of Byron Tass would notice the movements of his group.

After all, he didn't expect Erdon's dark nobles to be fools.

Barnader may be a fool, but the giant ghoul known as the Bone Chewer is a true beast of prey, a terrifying butcher once he steps into battle.

Rosette's power is mainly reflected in her spell-casting ability, but it wasn't too terrifying until she successfully transformed herself into a vampire lich a second time.

Cassius's words, the Duke of the Black Knight is a shining star in this era, and in the memory of Urs's previous life, he was famous for the various battles of Byron Tas's southward invasion of the Golden Oriole Empire, a genius undead general known for his ruthlessness in tactical style.

Urs judged that Erdonne, as he knew it in his life, would probably still hand over most of the military command to Cassius in the war, so he never dared to underestimate his opponents, even if he already knew his old rivals well.

Thea's forelimb wrapped around the Redeemer's flail stepped over the snow needles beneath her feet, paused suddenly, as if sensing something with the wild perception of the beast's form, and then blinked and whispered to the young man on her back, "Urs." ”

"What?"

"It seems that the reconnaissance team led by Mr. Sharpel himself has returned."

After that, she stopped her steps, glanced back at the wolf head with silver sideburns, and her golden eyes suddenly saw that it was indeed several heroic spirit knights of the Thorn Lion driving quickly from the side of the team on iron-armored war horses, and the leader pulled the reins a few seconds later, stopped the war horse under his crotch next to the wolf girl, and raised his shoulder with the other hand to take off the helmet, it was the Heroic Spirit Knight lieutenant with the appearance of a Zoroastrian in the Thorn Lion Legion.

Urs turned his head to look at his Heroic Adjutant, who obviously had nothing to say at this time, so he directly ordered: "Shappel, report to me what you have detected." ”

"As you wish, my lord—but I must say things aren't so rosy." Shapoel sat down on the saddle and exhaled lightly, his tone humble and a slightly wry smile, "The undead are coming sooner than expected, and my companions and I have found a small army of ghouls coming from the northwest, and if you don't get lost, you will probably catch up with us in the middle of the night." ”