The Grey Keep, Winterless.

Within a week, the intelligence transmitted back by the First Army not only confirmed the news that the red fog appeared north of Yongdong, but also gave Roland a general understanding of the evacuation situation.

Sure enough, just as Edith had predicted, the Devils had not waited for the Red Mist to spread before invading Eternal Winter, and they had taken advantage of the shortening of their supply lines to attack humanity from multiple directions and engage with the First Army's migratory forces—apparently they had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

And according to the statistics obtained from the iron axe, the results of the fight are not optimistic. During the evacuation with the refugees, several detachments were crushed by a sudden attack, and the retreat turned into a rout, and the soldiers were scattered by the panicked population. At present, the number of casualties has been determined to exceed 300, which is almost equivalent to the casualties of the night attack during the expedition to Tachira, and the number of displaced people is even more than 10,000, which can be described as a heavy loss.

The swift movement of the enemy clearly caught everyone off guard.

While it was more efficient to divide the advance units of the First Army into pieces to divert the population, it also reduced its combat capability.

Fortunately, Roland instilled in the army early on the idea of preserving as much vitality as possible and not punishing the grassroots officers and soldiers for inhuman failures, and the scattered soldiers finally did not change careers to become bandits, but retreated into the Wolfheart Kingdom one after another and reconnected with the garrison.

Otherwise, according to the situation in the past, once the command system was defeated, it would never be able to be recruited again, and the army in the north of Eternal Winter would only be completely wiped out.

These soldiers who escaped back were not only able to quickly form new combat effectiveness, but also brought extremely important information to the command.

For example, several detachments have reported discovering freak beasts that are not documented in the manual during the engagement.

One team that successfully evacuated from the Arctic North Harbor mentioned that the Devil had put in a new spider-like freak during the attack, which greatly increased its defense compared to the previous two, and that both mortars and anti-devil grenades could hardly paralyze its movements, and only 152mm fortress guns could deal effective damage.

The other freaks only have physical descriptions, and their specific abilities are not yet known.

War is undoubtedly accelerating the maturation of this monath of beasts.

With the support of intelligence, several high-level meetings were held in succession, and all ministers agreed to send large armies to stop the enemy forces as soon as possible, so as to buy time for the transfer of the populations of the two countries.

After all, the rapid growth of the population and the increasing number of workers in Wudong have given officials a taste of sweetness - except for the police department and the security department.

Roland also thinks so, but unfortunately the capacity of Gray Fort has reached its limit, and he wants to send tens of thousands of people to the heart of the wolf in one go, and it is useless if the ammunition and equipment cannot keep up.

Thus, despite the order to resign, the build-up of large forces was a lengthy process, unlike the expedition to Tachira, which had been advancing closely along the railway line from the beginning, supplying the Black River train and leaves wherever it went, and now the General Staff had to think of other ways until new transport equipment was rolled out.

There was another point in the report that caught his attention.

The detachment that had managed to evacuate had been able to escape intact thanks to the support of shallow water heavy gunboats, and the Roland was able to arrive in time because Zoe and Carol had temporarily abandoned the magic core they considered priceless for the sake of ordinary people. This change in mindset led Roland to realize that the Ancient Witch might be able to make the relics of an underground civilization even more useful.

He went straight to the three high-ranking witches of Tachira.

Through the light curtain, the tentacle-covered bodies of Pasha, Elblem, and Seline appear on the office wall.

Roland succinctly stated his thoughts.

"What do you mean...... Use the Instrument of Damnation as an ability transformer?" Selene was the first to speak.

"It's not just the instruments of damnation, it's all the magic cores. Roland nodded.

As long as the core cyclone structure is adjusted, it can theoretically mimic the abilities of most witches, and there are four of these lost civilization creations unearthed from the ruins, the largest of which is the most special - its core cyclone is extremely complex from the beginning, and according to the deciphered records, it is also the secret weapon of the underground civilization's high hopes, and the ancient witches named it Damnation.

However, activating the Damnation Instrument requires the so-called Chosen One, and the only seemingly qualified Roland has no magical powers, so it has been placed in the underground hall without doing anything.

If you can change the core to something more useful, it's obviously better than just sitting on the ashes.

The only problem is that the magic core cannot be reproduced, and the loss of one is one less, and for the surviving ancient witches, they are the direct cause of the split between Taqira and Falling Star City, and many members of the Federation have paid for it, and its significance is self-evident.

At the beginning of the alliance, Roland had promised not to force the other party to hand over the magic core, and even now that the Taqira Witch had sworn allegiance to him, he still intended to negotiate to obtain the unanimous consent of the other party.

Elbin hesitated a little, "If it's in the Third Frontier City, Your Majesty can use it however you want...... It can be carried outside the cave, but what if it is damaged?"

Even the usual toughest Elfin did not veto, which made Roland suddenly feel playful, he hit the railway while it was hot, "Strict protection and supervision are inevitable measures, the destruction of outsiders can basically be eliminated, but the loss caused by the large increase in the number of uses cannot be avoided, but it is better than being useless to leave it empty now." ”

Elbin looked at Selene, "How long does it take to convert the Instrument of Damnation to another device and back again?"

"I want to ...... Probably a few decades. Selene calculated, "After all, its core cyclone is too complex, and with the addition of attrition, it may never be able to return to its damned form." Still, I agree with His Majesty—"

"But ......"

"That Mana Core can at least contribute to defeating the Devil," Pasha chimed in, "...... Now we don't need to look for the Chosen One. 」

Elbian was silent for a while, "Okay, since you've all agreed, let's do it. 」

For a moment, Roland seemed to see Selene nod his beard to him, "How's it going? My persuasion is working, isn't it?"

Apparently this is a "secret chat".

Before he could think about what he wanted to reply, the other party's next sentence had already been passed over, "Next time, let the witches of the Secret Society enter the dream world, Your Majesty." 」

Feelings, this is also a kind of bribe.

Roland couldn't laugh or cry for a while.

"So," Selene pretended to be nonchalant and switched back to her normal tone, though their expressions and demeanors were hard to discern on the original carrier, "what kind of abilities do you plan to transform the Instrument of Damnation?"

He had been prepared for this question for a long time, "The magnetic force of the Mystery Moon shouldn't be too complicated, right?"

Selene smiled, "Leave it to me, Your Majesty." ”