Chapter 258 Dendera Fortress
After leaving the forest, what entered their sight was a basin that extended diagonally downward. The bottom of the basin was flat, and a wide river meandered through the basin, nouris.h.i.+ng the lush plants along the two sh.o.r.es of the river.
On this lush gra.s.sland, they could see groups of animals running, especially the wild pegasi. Their white bodies were like flowing white lines as they galloped on the gra.s.sland. When they were tired from running, the pegasi would collectively spread their wings and fly into the sky, occupying a large area of airs.p.a.ce, frightening the lone wild griffins to hurry out of the way and roar angrily at them in protest.
Some low fruit trees lay scattered on this gra.s.sland. The fruits growing on the trees attracted some small animals to come and eat. At the same time, these small animals also attracted the attacks and ambushes of carnivores. On the banks of the river, numerous large animals such as antelopes and bison were drinking water. They were carefully vigilant of the crocodiles that might exist in the river, and they would raise their heads to observe their surroundings every drink.
Countless flying insects, b.u.t.terflies, and bees were flying above the flowers in the gra.s.s. Once other animals pa.s.sed by, they would be startled…
This place was full of life. Roy and the others, who had just walked out of the Desert of Death, looked at this scene in surprise.
“This place isn’t bad!” Roy said. “I can’t tell that it’s a border zone at all.”
“Master, the fortress is there!” Ca.s.sandra had already landed and pointed in front. “It’s just along the river.”
Roy looked up and saw the meandering river extending forward. After crossing the gra.s.sland, it gradually converged into a s.p.a.cious canyon. Both sides of this canyon were cliffs, and on a cliff was an enormous city!
The fortress was at least tens of kilometers away, so it looked quite small. But Roy evaluated that it was a large city that could accommodate about a hundred thousand people. Even from here, he could see the tall and smooth city wall surrounding the city. If this city was about a hundred meters from the foundation to the top of the city, then the city wall surrounding the city was at least fifty meters tall!
This fortress built on the cliff was tantamount to tightly guarding the entrance of the canyon, and it would discover any ground troops that wanted to go through the canyon to Eeofol. In the sky above the fortress city, Roy saw countless densely packed black dots flying. They were the stone gargoyles that were unceasingly patrolling day and night and a small number of griffins and green dragons. However, judging from the main direction the city wall was facing, Roy found that this fortress was mostly aimed at the interior of the canyon, meaning that it was to guard against those coming out. It seemed that after the demon army established a foothold in Eeofol, the various races on the continent were really tense, afraid that the demons would rush out again.
After observing for a while, Roy found that the flying troops flying above the fortress were changing regularly, indicating that the fortress was only performing routine patrols. The elven rangers they killed in the forest did not send the information back to the fortress. Otherwise, it might not have been like this.
Roy sensed the locations of the Demon Eyes he had released earlier and found that they were already near the fortress and on standby.
“This is Dendera, a fortress city of the kingdom of Bracada!” Giovanni introduced. “The elven fortress Aglan is at the other end of the canyon. Both fortresses are large fortress cities with more than a hundred thousand people. Even if the demon army wants to fight, it will have to pay an immense price. Pardon my frankness, Your Excellency Osiris. It may not be a good idea to attack directly.”
“I’m not stupid!” Roy glared at Giovanni. “Why don’t you take a look at how many troops I have? I haven’t even seen the vampire troops you promised to support me with yet. Would I use such a small amount of troops to attack this kind of fortified city?”
After being rebuked by Roy, Giovanni shut up bitterly. Julia asked, “Then, what are you going to do? Do you plan on having the dark snow fall again?”
Roy shook his head. “It’s useless. It’s different from using it in the forest. There must be many mages in the fortress city. Once the dark snow falls, they will immediately find that something’s wrong. At that time, those mages will have ways to eliminate the snow. This way, not only will it not be of any use, but it will instead expose us.”
Julia understood what Roy was saying, but she really could not think of a way to conquer this fortress city. Even though Roy was powerful enough, Julia was also a high-rank demon, and Fat Tiger, Giovanni, and Ca.s.sandra were a.s.sisting, they were at a loss when facing such an overwhelming number of troops.
“Why don’t we build a summoning formation here first?!” Julia suggested. “Open a Gate of the Abyss. Even if it’s a little crude, we can summon many demons.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll definitely summon a demon army. But when we summon one, it’s best to make a large Gate of the Abyss!” Roy grinned sinisterly. “But not now. Wait until we have a stronghold. We’ll use the demon army to deal with Xeron! Now, I have a better way to attack this fortress.”
Seeing that Roy was so confident, Julia did not ask further. Roy first controlled the invisible Demon Eyes to approach Dendera Fortress carefully and investigate at close range.
In fact, with Roy’s current quasi-lord-level power, it was not impossible for him to destroy this fortress city alone. But it was foreseeable that there would definitely be many heroes stationed in this fortress. The low-level troops would not be a problem, but high-level combat forces such as green dragons and t.i.tans would probably cause Roy a lot of trouble under the leaders.h.i.+p of the heroes.
When he fought against Arantir, Roy realized that those who could be called heroes in the Ashan world were basically not weaker than ordinary high-rank demons. Some famous heroes with outstanding military exploits were even stronger than high-rank demons. No matter how strong Roy was, he might have an accident if he was not careful.
Roy even felt fortunate that this was not a fortress of the kingdom of Erathia. Otherwise, there might have been a large number of angel troops. To demons, angels were more difficult to deal with than dragons and t.i.tans.
As the Demon Eyes approached, the situation in Dendera gradually appeared in front of Roy.
The reason why it was a fortress city was that there were no civilians in this city. It was practically all military forces here. Bracada was probably worried that it would be difficult for the civilians to evacuate if demons invaded, so they simply stationed all troops in it.
In this fortress, he could see iron golems moving orderly everywhere. The number of iron golems was probably the largest, with at least fifty to sixty thousand. In the city, there were golem factories all over, and numerous gremlins shuttled through them, building and augmenting the golems according to the blueprints.
On the city wall, many mage towers and ballistas were standing, and a large number of equipment such as catapults. This was the configuration used to defend the city. The nagas with scimitars were patrolling on the city wall, and some elven rangers with bows on their backs were keeping a lookout between the bricks of the crenellated parapet of the city wall.
A little farther in was the city hall of Dendera. There was an enormous square, and there were about a hundred t.i.tans guarding it. Among these t.i.tans, there were black lightning t.i.tans wrapped in lightning all over, and storm t.i.tans wrapped in hurricanes. They were the most powerful forces in this fortress.
The t.i.tans and dragons had never gotten along and disliked each other, so some green dragons and emerald dragons that the elves had as reinforcements could not be bothered to go to the center of the city to have dealings with the t.i.tans. These green dragons and emerald dragons either flew into the sky to patrol, or they occupied the tops of some buildings in Dendera, lying on top of them with their wings folded to rest.
The stone gargoyles would not approach these dragons. Even the small number of griffins used to transmit information and letters in the city could bully these gargoyles. However, these gargoyles could be said to be the most hardworking and loyal troops. They tirelessly followed the orders given by the mages day and night. When the griffins and dragons were resting, they were still monitoring any movements in the canyon.
When the Demon Eyes transmitted these scenes back, even Roy could not help but frown. Under normal circ.u.mstances, it would take at least twice the number of troops to take down such a fortress.
Roy controlled a Demon Eye to fly toward the city hall. Because he was worried that the t.i.tans might discover the eye, Roy deliberately increased its height. Then through the Demon Eye, he saw many hero-looking figures entering and leaving the city hall from time to time. In just a short while, Roy found six to seven suspected heroes.
Behind the city hall, Roy finally found what he was looking for.
It was a silver arch made entirely of metal, it looked to be about four to five meters tall and was very large. This metal arch was on the ground and connected to a large magic formation on the ground. Every pattern of the magic formation was emitting faint light, and there were more than thirty mages holding magic staffs standing at the periphery. They seemed to be supplying magic power to the magic formation and the metal arch.
And in the center of the arch, a gigantic white vortex of light was slowly spinning…
This should be the spatial portal. Such a gigantic spatial gate that could be used to teleport troops was exceptionally difficult to build and expensive. But with it connecting to the elven fortress Aglan, the forces of the two cities could join each other. In other words, if Roy did not remove this spatial portal, it would be equivalent to him having to fight two fortresses at the same time, which was simply impossible.
Roy did not rashly let the Demon Eye approach because he did not know if there was anything similar to a magic s.h.i.+eld at the spatial portal. If there was, even if the Demon Eye was invisible, it could still hit the s.h.i.+eld and be discovered.
After confirming the location, Roy controlled several Demon Eyes to search the city and quickly found what he wanted to find the most.
It was… a deep well!
Although Dendera was on the sh.o.r.e of the river, the people in the city could not fetch water from the river. In addition, considering the possibility of the city being besieged, it was necessary to have well water like this. The people of Bracada and the elves were not undead, and they needed water to sustain their lives.
After discovering these water sources, Roy smiled. He remembered the locations of a few deep wells in the city and then had the Demon Eyes return.
“Okay, let’s wait now!” Roy said to Julia.
“Wait for what?” Julia was puzzled.
“Wait for night!” Roy folded the wings behind his back, found a rock, and sat down to let his tail hang…