The nightmarish night was finally over, and the next morning, when the sun was shining, the last of the defenders who had evacuated the Black Flame Pass finally set out on their way out of the area with mixed feelings.

When the Astral Rift occurred, they almost passed by the Astral Rift.

Like the gnolls who tried to escape the disaster, they also ran all the way to the safety of the area, and spent three difficult hours in the village of "New Mejewa", where the shadow elves stayed before, and witnessed the entire process from the occurrence to the stability of the great tear in the astral plane.

The pale light falling from the sky and the chaotic turbulence from the astral plane form a "waterfall of energy" from the sky, and this bizarre scene is destined to be etched in the memories of these people, and they will not forget the scene of last night until the moment they died.

It was not only a spectacle to witness, but also a sign that everything they knew about the land had vanished, and that the completely destroyed position meant that the old days were gone.

All the warriors' memories of the Black Flame Pass are the moment it was destroyed.

Love it or hate it, it's gone.

The soldiers had left early in the morning with little morale to speak of, and most of them were in a very low mood, but there was not much time left for them to recuperate.

They couldn't even get a short but satisfying sleep, and the Valley of the Shadows, the second line of defense, could not hold so many people, and the Cadman People's Army soldiers who remained there could only provide the soldiers with some water and food.

Captain Paula's airship is already waiting in the valley.

A large portion of these soldiers evacuated from the Black Flame Pass would be sent directly to the Maginot Line, further north of the Filthy Swamp, where they would spend the rest of the Black Plague.

Yes.

They have not yet been able to escape the cursed war, and the oath they made before the war must be fulfilled until the very end.

Worst of all, even the Knights of the Blood Alliance are currently unable to contact the Blood Alliance Clan Headquarters, and after losing the leadership of Lord Heather, even the most determined members of these vampire societies are at a loss.

Thankfully, their fellow blood vultures had everything arranged for them.

Healing the wounded, counting attrition, and regrouping, there are many, many things to do, but it's not a bad thing, and the fact that the structure is largely intact means that they can continue to fight.

It's just that the reason to fight needs to be rediscovered.

But that kind of thing.

There are too many for the soldiers who have experienced the attack and defense of the Black Flame Pass, whether in the name of inheriting the will of the dead, or in the name of revenge or protection.

Of course, not everyone has retreated.

Others were advancing in the opposite direction as the defenders retreated to the Valley of the Shadows, including several high-ranking commanders of the Triss and the Vulture Clan, the leaders of the Translancian factions, and the Earth Priests of the Silver Dwarves.

These people need to return to the Black Flame Pass to assess the situation there so that they can prepare for the battle plan in the future.

It is worth mentioning that among these people are two "new members" who arrived only last night.

Major Fraser, who returned to the battlefield on behalf of the Plantagenet Kingdom, and Baldwin, the Winter Wolf General who came to the front line in person.

The former had plans to return to the front line, while the latter, upon receiving the news of the fall of the Black Flame Pass, almost propped up his flying mount and flew over the filthy swamp to reach the place at dawn.

For General Baldwin, the fall of the Black Flame Pass was so sudden that it disrupted almost all of his plans for the Black Plague.

He had to go to the Black Flame Pass to see for himself.

For Colonel Fraser, the journey seemed somewhat too heavy.

Because of the loss of a subordinate and a friend, Major Dunn Hope died heroically in the final battle of the Black Flame Pass last night, and his friend Major Ron was mortally wounded and had just been returned to the field hospital of the Maginot Line just two hours earlier.

Only half of the 5,500 men in the Plantagenet Pioneer Camp at the Black Flame Pass survived, and the terrible damage made it only natural for the Pioneer Commander to come to the position.

Not just for the sake of mourning, but also for the sake of the military questioning that will surely be faced later.

He had to complete a battlefield report in the shortest possible time and submit it to his superiors and King Louis in the fog.

The "expedition" didn't communicate much along the way, and everyone, including Trith, had a bad look and mood, even if they had confirmed that the Splitclaw Clan's army was wiped out, it was still not a victory.

"Yes, there is! I can't move forward. ”

Tracey's carriage stopped on a hilly plateau three kilometers from the Black Flame Pass, and Grand Duke Tracey warned the others:

"The filthy psionic energy of the astral torn apart has disrupted the psionic environment ahead, and the psionic energy here has always been unstable and now it is under attack, and God knows what bizarre things will happen in front of us. Using the astral rift suffered by Cadman City six months ago as a reference, it is not suitable for any life to approach for at least the next half month.

We've planned to prepare a large amount of alchemy oil nearby, and once the concentration of the filthy psionic power drops, we'll burn the entire pass ruins in flames, following the clean-up in Cadman City.

But I hope you can understand that the complex terrain of the Black Flame Pass, combined with the underground tunnels dug by the kobolds and nezumi in it, makes this place one of the most dangerous areas on the continent, even if it is restored.

Last night's astral tear not only threw the dangerous forces of the material world into the astral realm, but also 'lost' some things in the astral realm.

Colonel Fraser should have understood this.

After all, you're the only outlander out there who has seen the ruins of Cadman City in person. ”

"Well, I can understand the danger."

The haggard Colonel Fraser rode on a warhorse, his four guards watched vigilantly, and the others dispersed, observing the situation in the Black Flame Pass in their own way.

But to be honest, from this vantage point, you can only see the sky and the earth in front of you, which is filled with dark smoke screens, and even at the dawn when the sun is at its most active, the sunlight cannot penetrate the haze there.

And the tearing marks on the sky dome are as memorable as Transncia's astral creation, and the purple-black crack like a demon's mouth can be seen at the top of the dim sky dome, like a shocking scar.

Huge purple-black filthy psionic energy continued to escape from it, scattering like black snow in the haze below.

The entire mountain pass and even the battlefield area were shrouded in such a bleak scene.

On the ground position, all the remnants were covered with an uncomfortable black curtain, and nothing of value could be seen with the naked eye, but the more this happened, the more ugly General Winterwolf's expression became.

He himself carried on the family tradition and was a rather outstanding Winter Psyker.

Although most of the time the general doesn't need to go into battle to play psionic spells himself, his professionalism is still there.

With the psyker's perception, he could clearly feel the chaotic and filthy power entrenched in the front position, and from such a distance, the remaining filthy psionic energy on the battlefield was still affecting his mind.

The majesty left behind by the most dangerous wave of disorderly turbulence of the Great Astral Rift dissipated, if such a force appeared in the sky above the Crimean Fortress, his fortress really could not be stopped.

The Transans created all this.

These guys can already use the astral tear like a natural disaster as a weapon, and from this point of view, being able to force the Translancians to release such a terrifying destructive power at the cost of destroying the Black Flame Pass can also prove the danger of this black plague from the side.

"Are all the claw-splitting gnolls dead?"

General Baldwin asked.

This time it was not Tracey who answered him, but Maxim, who had completed the Silver Trial and was more robust and more imposing as a general, and the monster general whispered:

"Astral Rip doesn't kill all living creatures within its range, Lord Baldwin, it's not a ritual for destruction, but we can be sure that during the most intense energy clash last night, most of the members of the Claw-Claw Gnoll on the surface were either annihilated by the psionic clash or were swept up in the astral plane.

There should still be some claw-splitting gnolls in the area of the Black Flame Pass now, but even if they survive, their shells will be filled with the horror and chaos brought by the filthy psionic energy.

The longer they stay in this area, the more they will be affected.

Don't worry about their fate.

The astral beasts that are still roaming the ruins will take them out for us, however, the dangers that are thrown into the physical world in the astral rift will become a new nuisance.

If we plan to reclaim this place in the future, a large-scale cleanup is necessary. ”

"It's going to dissipate, right?"

General Baldwin's aide-de-camp, Colonel Duke, asked:

"So, after a while, this will still be the way forward for the gnolls? Now all the defensive positions have been razed, which means we can't snipe the Gnoll's army here. ”

"It's worse than that!"

The silver dwarf architect Ilyich um Warheart, who had completed the measurement with the earth spell, came over with a measuring staff, and the old dwarf, who also looked haggard, shook his head and said:

"The entire Black Flame Pass was torn apart by the astral boundary and swept away a third of the soil, which is equivalent to the size of a small island, which means that after the filthy spiritual energy dissipates, the originally towering mountain pass will become a 'flat' avenue after simple repairs.

The Jackals don't even need to climb the mountain to get through the Black Flame Pass.

The leylines in this vicinity have been completely polluted by filthy psionic energy, and the Mother Goddess Gaia has lost this holy place forever, and the effect of our spells here will be greatly weakened.

To make matters worse, part of the complex underground structure of the Black Flame Pass has remained, and it's hard to say what's in there now and what's going to happen in the future.

From the point of view of war, the Black Flame Pass has completely lost its meaning of existence.

The biggest problem was that the Valley of Shadows wasn't a defensible terrain, it lacked depth and had never been transformed for large-scale warfare on the outside, making it impossible to rely on the weak terrain to keep the gnolls at bay.

If the Blackflame Pass can't stop them, it's only a matter of time before the Shadowdale's defenses are breached, and then the Gnolls will pass through the filthy swamp and reach the Maginot Line and the Crimean Fortress. ”

Ilyich glanced at the ugly-looking General Baldwin, and he whispered:

"The Translancians have been preparing for war, and I am absolutely confident in their determination to resist the gnolls, but as far as I can see, the preparation of the Crimean fortress is insufficient. Especially with the presence of nezumi on the opposing side, will you be able to withstand an attack from underground?

No.

In other words, have you considered that the enemy will attack in this way?

You must know that the original tactics of preventing kobolds from digging into the ground no longer work, and the nezumi are more than ten times more dangerous than kobolds in this regard!

Perhaps as we talked, the rats were digging over there, as if we hadn't noticed their infiltration into the Black Flame Pass. ”

"Please don't play up this frivolous threat! Master Ilyich! ”

Colonel Duke retorted:

"Her Majesty's warriors are not afraid of any strange enemies, and the Crimean fortress is not so easy to breach."

"Of course you can tell yourself that, but the danger doesn't go away just because you ignore it."

The old dwarf who was in a certain "state of stress" because of the fall of the Black Flame Pass immediately choked back as if he had eaten gunpowder:

"Instead of shouting at me here, you better go back and reinforce your defenses, you Nord cowards! The scheming Plantagenet people have all bled in the Black Flame Pass, but I have never seen a single Nord who prides himself on being brave here.

When these brave warriors needed it most, you withdrew your eggs.

If the great hero king who conquered the great wilderness saw his descendants become what they are now, he would definitely crawl out of his coffin in anger and roar, and strangle every one of you! ”

"Master, don't get excited."

Maxim stepped forward and pressed the excited Ilyich, he glanced at the silent General Baldwin and said:

"My master has said that distant calamities are nothing more than boring tales to those who are indifferent until the real tragedy turns into a punch in the face of those who are indifferent.

But after seeing the end of the Black Flame Pass with my own eyes, I think that Her Majesty the Wolf Maiden will also take his mind off the domestic political struggle for the time being.

Now there is something more important than securing the king's power. ”

He looked at the silent Colonel Fraser again, and said in an accentuated tone:

"Of course, King Louis too, if your Marshal Loren still thinks that his frontier fortress is stronger than the Black Flame Pass, we Transancians don't mind letting a gnoll go over to test your quality.

The Maginot Line needs real soldiers!

The next time you send a criminal, then you will have to taste all the bitter fruits yourself.

Transcia will be the first to die, but then you! ”

"Someone's coming."

Just as Maxim was angrily scolding everyone, Fimis, who was hanging in the air to collect information, pointed to the sky and shouted.

Everyone looked up and saw a group of guys riding chaotic flying mounts flying through the haze of the sky and flying down this way. It was hundreds of players from Fort Courage, led by His Excellency the Doge of Transnesia.

Murphy could see the crowd below and Tracy in the crowd at a glance.

He folded his wings and flew down, hugging and kissing his girlfriend in front of everyone.

But almost no one pays attention to these two vampire villain couples who are still sprinkling dog food at this time, and all eyes are on the players who land behind.

Meow and his teammates carried several tattered Claw Chieftain Banners, while Happy Stick held a glass box containing a head that had been handled by the Avalons.

The most engaged are the little rich brothers and the student party.

They hung a gnoll-style chieftain's seat in the air with seven chains, and the manticore's saddle was planted with a "Do not approach" flag, and it flew waddled.

After these players landed, Qin Ye, who was carrying a huge chainsaw sword on his back, strode up to General Maxim and handed over a set of blood-stained Gnoll Chief armor with both hands.

He shouted:

"The Kadman People's Army Raiders report to you! Your Excellency, the Grand Chief of the Claw Clan, Potana Claw, has been killed by us, and the culprit of the Black Flame Pass disaster has been killed! The souls of the dead will be comforted!

We won.

Although the win was miserable, we persevered to the end and severely punished the self-righteous guys. ”

"Hats off to you! Warriors. ”

The anger in Maxim's heart also dissipated a little when he saw these captures, and he took Chief Potana's protective gear from Qin Ye's hand, and glanced back at Colonel Fraser and General Baldwin.

The monster of Translancia stepped forward with a blank face, handed the Chieftain's helmet to Fraser, and handed Baldwin the rest of the armor.

He said:

"Take it to your king! You can share the victory that the Transians have sacrificed to earn, but then, if you still want it, reach out and take it yourself, like a man would! ”

"Enough!"

Colonel Duke couldn't stand it anymore.

He stepped forward to rebuke the utterly insulting humiliation, but General Baldwin reached out and held his arm.

General Winter Wolf glanced at the blood-stained armor in his hand, he sighed, looked in the direction of the Black Flame Pass, and said:

"You'll see us in the next war."

(End of chapter)