As soon as the first rays of the morning sun pierced through the fog, the Imperial army cautiously advanced from its cantonment. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

As they had done yesterday, they cautiously ascended the siege ladder and slammed the gates with a metal-wrapped battering ram. However, they found that the entire city-state seemed to fall into dead silence.

Unlike a few days ago, not a single flame rose from the walls, not a single piece of rubble fell from a great height, let alone all sorts of unbelievable man-eating monsters.

Even as they approached the walls, the soldiers could not hear a single commotion, only the sound of iron boots on the ground, the echoes of metal and stakes clashing, the shouts of their own voices.

It's weird—it's as if behind the walls, all living things are being swallowed up by the empty southern city-state.

The Imperial soldiers climbed the walls again without any obstacles, not forgetting the ambush they had suffered yesterday, looking for cover in the battlements. They found traces of the soldier's broken sword, some strips of cloth, scraps of food, and torches, but they didn't see a single person.

They saw the tower again, and the lookout tower looked like countless pairs of black eyes, watching the Imperial soldiers. They shuddered for a moment, then went into hiding.

It was found that there was no sound in the old walls, and there was no flames and arcs of lightning that shot out to kill them as they had done yesterday.

A few bold soldiers began to walk towards the tower—every step they took was the echo of their own footsteps, and they were startled by the sound of their own coughs and breathing, but the tower was empty, like a bottomless black hollow.

"Have the traitors all eaten by monsters?" whispered a soldier, his voice echoing through the tower, as if absorbed by the hollow at the bottom, making the people behind him creep.

"Don't talk nonsense - they should have run away or just hid. ”

"But no one came out of Pariva. The prime minister ordered and even ordered someone to plug the rat hole. ”

"Then in the city, maybe the true gods will bless, and they will never be able to cast spells again. ”

The soldiers whispered as they slowly descended the empty watchtower. They had seen the location of the vigil, and there was a layer of fresh black charcoal, and the thin straw mat seemed to be still warm.

The people nervously held the steel sword, only to feel the sweat in their palms, and even if a rat rushed in front of them, they would not hesitate to pierce it into a bloody hole.

But not even half a mouse.

The soldiers trembled down the watchtower and finally stepped on the land of Pariva. To their surprise, all terrible fantasies were illusions, and this long-impregnable city stood silently in front of them.

The ruined churches, the Place Saint-Louis-Zeit, where only the remains of the gallows remain, the streets covered with rubbish and debris, the houses with closed doors......

None of them!

"God bless!" a soldier whispered a prayer as he looked at a half-burned statue of the saint.

They tried to break the glass and bang on the wooden door, but no one responded to them. They were cautious at first, but then they became rougher, shouting, punching, kicking, and breaking anything they could see.

"Traitors, lay down your weapons, get out!" some Imperial soldiers began to shout.

However, no one responded.

More and more soldiers climbed the walls and stepped onto the land of Pariva, walking against the high walls, still afraid that suddenly an overwhelming amount of witchcraft would come at them.

The people remembered something, ran to the city gate, and found that there were only a few huge trees blocking it, and there were not half of the defenders of the city, and the siege engines were fighting with the wood, knocking the black-brown trunks to tremble.

They found the axle of the twisted stake, the axle was smooth, and there were some imprints, as if the person who had used it had just left. The soldiers shook their courage to pull the noose, the stakes were hoisted, and the bronze gate was violently pushed open under the impact of the battering ram, knocking several soldiers to the ground.

The Imperial army outside the city began to enter the city one after another, and they lined up neatly near the city gates, and no one wanted to rush forward to test the unknown danger.

More than a thousand Imperial soldiers poured in, and they were as stunned as the advance workers - the city-state, which had created mountains of dead bodies outside the walls, was as silent as death!

Elio Parton stepped through the gates under the escort of the Silver Eagle's own soldiers, followed by a solemn procession of acolytes - apparently not letting their guard down.

The former Prime Minister tasked Sauron-Duna to lead his party in a search of the entire city, and Sauron knew it was another risky mission, and Elio used him as bait to lure his enemies.

But with the Imperial army suffering heavy casualties, the Silver Eagle Escort became the main fighting force, and Sauron was only a nominal lieutenant who could be killed if he was not careful, and the danger in this savage land came not only from the Paliva hiding in the city, but also from the cruel and arrogant commander.

Sauron heard his heart beating wildly, and he regretted accepting his father's orders, which he thought he lacked only one dazzling feat, so that he could truly rule the vassals of the allegiance and gain a foothold within the Empire, which had not fought a major war in decades.

However, this order pushed the fate of the young man into the abyss.

With every step he took, it was as if he heard someone following him from behind, and he couldn't help but think of Count Gritch, who had died under the walls, and felt that he would repeat his mistakes next.

He felt like his veins were about to burst, and the slightest movement made him nervous, and he rode his horse, carrying the equally fearful knights of the territory, and walked around every street.

From the city gates, it took him two hours to reach the end of the Poppy Theater, the southern city-state. But he didn't find anything, not even half a figure!

There were empty wine bottles and scraps of food that people had discarded on the floor, and some of the houses near the poppy theater had been opened, and they were very dilapidated, and there was nothing of value, but there was not much dust, and it seemed that there had been people living in it recently.

The lord's mansion was even more silent, traces of flames could be faintly seen on the walls, and the family portraits were nowhere to be found, but everything was in order, and it seemed that the people of the Larson family had just gone on a long journey.

Sauron Tsai had scrutinized every main street in Paliva, and he was just as surprised as the others - it was an empty dead city!

Having come to this conclusion, Sauron returned with his knights and reported to the Imperial Prime Minister. He had expected that the extreme commander would accuse him of being irresponsible, and he had even thought of the wording of the explanation, but Elio laughed.

He narrowed his green eyes with a smile, and his laughter was extremely harsh in the silence: "Cowards, a bunch of cowards, they all fled!"

"I knew for a long time that they were just bluffing, and now they're running away. Burn, burn everything! Burn everything you can see!"

Elio commanded loudly, his red hair like a flame in the wind. (To be continued.) )