Chapter 715: Murphy’s Law is once again perfect on Fortress of Brass
Chapter 713 712…Murphy’s Law once again played out perfectly in the Brass Fortress~
The Brass Fortress was blocked by an unknown force.
It seems that just overnight communication from here to the outside world was completely blocked, and there are also clouds of smoke like sea mist floating around the entire vicinity of the Gorgon Pass, which doesn’t hurt anyone, but just entering it is like walking into a maze.
On the first day of this blockade, the Elven Rangers sent out scouts to try and get through the layer of smoke, with very disappointing results.
They could not get out.
After several attempts, the operation was stopped by the senior management, the loss of a few people was not the most terrible thing, the commanders were most afraid that the scouts would bring out other “things” from the smoke.
In the brass fortress assembled to defend the jackals are elite soldiers, these people have seen extraordinary, in the port of Chardonnay’s Lord Paying said he had seen similar things in the Sea of Mists, the elf ranger general Philothea Emmagel lady in fact also saw the same fish people evil things.
Not only her, but the Sangha’s commander here, “Magister Sun” Umun, also knows a lot about this thing.
They have always believed that the appearance of the smoke represents the presence of an evil force lingering around, although it is not explicitly stated, we all know that this is the work of the Subspace Shadow.
Whether it was the elves or the Songhai people, both belonged to the kind of eldritch species that were particularly capable of living, and there wasn’t a lot of knowledge about subspace within the camp of their kingdoms, but just like the villain as he was called in one of the worlds, who in their right mind would hang on to a nasty and dangerous name?
And on top of that the elves and the Sanghaians had never had a good relationship, one could even say it was close to hostile.
The owner of the Brass Fortress, the supreme lord of the Brass Dwarves, Hadran Earth Hammer, didn’t even dare to arrange these two groups together, lest they fight themselves first. Not to mention sharing information in this situation, not giving misdirection was already a great help.
But it was the human defenders in the Brass Fortress who suffered.
This group of human short-lived species big head soldiers do not know much about subspace, after other people have already understood the current situation, they are still being kept in the dark, and no one specifically came to explain to them, which in turn made the human soldiers more and more agitated.
Especially in the Brass Fortress in recent days has been closed tightly to implement martial law management, ordinary soldiers were ordered to stay in the barracks is almost the same as confinement.
The commanders of both sides had been trying their best to calm down the soldiers, the only good news was that both human legions were really elite, highly organized, and they also knew their duties and risks in the Brass Fortress, so they hadn’t caused any large-scale chaos yet.
But if this continued, things might be about to take a new turn.
On the seventh day of martial law in the Brass Fortress, a dwarven guard came to notify the commanders of the two armies to go to the Throne Room for deliberation, which made Brigadier General Padru of the Kingdom of Canary Blossom and Major General Misoyan of the Kingdom of Nordtorf immediately realize that things might have taken a new turn.
As a matter of fact, the Goldfinch and the Northmen had never been friends, but in the current situation, both sides were at least humans, and they had a unified stance when it came to communicating with foreigners, so with the dwarven guards on their way to the Throne Room, the two generals began to have private exchanges.
“These Outlanders don’t see us as credible companions at all!”
Major General Mithoyan stroked his extremely well-groomed octogenarian beard and whispered to Brigadier General Padru, who was wearing a full suit of knight’s armor beside him:
“They clearly all know what’s going on with that damn smoke out there, and I’ve heard elves hiding and whispering when my guards are out walking. But you see, it’s been a week and no one has come to us specifically to explain the matter and the current situation.”
“Who says otherwise?”
Brigadier General Padru, who wore knight’s armor hugging his helmet and had short blonde hair, was younger and more outspoken, and he was obviously very dissatisfied with the way he and his soldiers were being treated, so he purposely responded in a gruff voice:
“Next to our barracks is the dwarves’ infantry battalion, I can hear them gearing up every night when I go to sleep, and the noise is so loud that I can’t sleep at all. I sent someone to ask, only to be told across the street that there was no military action at all .
It’s a fool’s errand!
If you didn’t want us humans to guard this place, wouldn’t it have been better not to let us in in the first place? This kind of attitude is just as annoying as this city that is always quiet. If I had known that we would suffer here, I should have responded to the invitation of the famous Third Lord and gone to the Blood League Knights’ compound to help out.
There might even be better treatment.”
“Tsk, are you talking about Lord Yvette Lilliard Cappadocia?”
Major General Misoyan glanced at his foreign counterpart with an odd look in his eyes as he spat out in a small voice:
“It’s true that that lord lives very well, but did she actually invite you as well?”
“?”
Brigadier General Padru was shocked at his words, and exchanged glances with the Yankee Major General, before the two men sadly realized that their fantasies of indulging in their own “masculinity” had been mercilessly pierced by the harsh reality at this moment.
The third lord of the Blood Alliance probably didn’t invite them because of their charisma. Originally, he thought he was the King of the Sea, but in the end, he wasn’t even a fucking water ghost! At most, he belongs to the category of “medicine dregs”.
Blanch!
While the two generals were in a kind of speechless embarrassment, the dwarven guard who was leading the way in front of them answered quietly:
“Brigadier General Padru, you have not received false information, there is no Dwarven infantry battalion next to your barracks, it is a warehouse and utility room, no one has deceived you!
Perhaps you are hallucinating?”
“Impossible! There is the sound of soldiers running and armor clashing every night there, I’ve been in the army for over thirty years, it’s impossible for me to misdistinguish such sounds.”
The Brigadier General of the Goldfinch Kingdom clearly didn’t think that something was wrong with him, and he still felt that the dwarves were fooling him.
However, Major General Misoyan, who was a little bit younger and had seen a little bit more, narrowed his eyes as he reached out and pulled the slightly grumpy Brigadier General Padru, signaling him to keep quiet for now.
The two human generals soon traveled through the dwarven trade area, already much depressed by martial law, to the Throne Room.
What made them feel surprised was that even though martial law in the fortress had left the dwarven trade area deserted, the noise and clamor of this mountain fortress still hadn’t improved much, making one wonder where all this cacophony was coming from.
The surrounding dwarves seem to have long since adapted to their city’s anomalies, and they pay no attention to it.
The throne room was filled with the senior commanders of the fortress, the two human generals were the latest to arrive, but no one expressed dissatisfaction.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Lord Hadran, who was sitting at the highest place, waved his hand somewhat haggardly, signaling the meeting to begin.
The Silver Dwarf High Earth Priest beside him immediately stood up from his chair and said loudly:
“I have invited all of you here today to discuss how to deal with the mists woven by the subspace aura on the outer layer of the fortress, as well as the Jackals’ increasingly wild prying and raiding of the Gorgon Pass this week…”
“Wait!”
The human Commodore exclaimed:
“Before we discuss this, could you please explain the current situation to us poor humans? What do you mean by the mist woven by subspace breath? Why don’t you say something so big in advance?”
“Huh?”
This question made the Supreme Lords dumbfounded, and Lord Hadran said in surprise:
“Are you two joking? We’ve had three meetings in the past seven days, and you two were present every time and also made a lot of constructive comments and so on! You say you are coming to the meeting for the first time?”
“Fuck, something happened.”
Major General Misoyan rubbed his brow with a headache as he explained:
“It’s true that Major General Padru and I were invited to come to a military meeting for the first time, and we’ve been staying with our soldiers for the past seven days. So I’m curious, who did you all have your three meetings with?”
“Is it confirmed that it was three meetings?”
The ranger general sitting on the left hand side of the Supreme Lord, who wore a silver moon mask and carried a silver flame war bow like a point of light, said in a raspy voice:
“Why is it that there was only one such plenary assembly as far as I can remember?”
“I remember it twice.”
The halfling mechanic in charge of munitions logistics in the fortress popped open his engineering glasses in some disbelief as he said in a sharp tone:
“And I took the minutes, let me see it was twice, yes, in the last four days . Wait, did you guys just say it’s been a week? That’s not true! My punch-card timing hourglass shows it’s clearly only been four days.”
“Apparently, the shroud of subspace aura has affected all of us to the point where our perception of time and space has become extremely faulty, even with the fabrication of some confusing memories.” The tall Sanghaian general sitting across from the Elf Ranger, wearing a golden blazing sun holy emblem tiara, said in a low tone:
“For example, this issue we are discussing this time, if I remember correctly, we are already discussing a similar issue for the fifth time, and I am now more worried about these people who now exist in this throne room.
Including me.
Just how many of them are ‘real’?”
“Don’t you Sanghaians worship the Creator and claim to have the highest resistance to subspace contamination of any mortal race?”
The Ranger General said in a cold voice:
“And you have no way of judging the truth or falsehood of your surroundings? Lord Umun.”
“It’s not like I’m carrying the Creator’s relics, lacking the sacred power of creation, and I’m just an ordinary Sanghaian here, far from my homeland; even the sunlight is loathing this place, and the power of the blazing sun is clearly not enough to dispel the current gloom.”
The questioned Sanghaian general responded in a hushed voice:
“But as far as I can remember the Brass Fortress is a holy place belonging to the Mother Goddess of the Earth, with the divine power from Lady Gaia blessing this place, subspace invasion and infiltration shouldn’t be that easy, so I can’t be sure who’s real and who’s fake.
However currently, with this place clearly no longer being blessed by Mother Earth Goddess, those who are still claiming that Gaia protects this place and trying to confuse the public definitely have a problem!”
In the next instant, the gazes of everyone present looked towards the Silver Dwarf Priestess beside the Brass Dwarf Supreme Lord.
He tried to explain with some trepidation, but after seeing that everyone had drawn their weapons, he abandoned this futile cover-up and replaced it with a malicious sneer as it dissipated into smoke:
“Not bad, Sanghaian, for the seventh time you’ve discerned what’s wrong, but I’m curious, how much longer will you be able to protect your mind? Guess if what you see and hear next is true?”
“Swish.”
The entire scene of the throne room changed in the next second as if the sky had turned upside down, the originally peaceful meeting tore off its disguise in an instant, and Commodore Padru, who had been full of vigor just a moment ago, would have already been lying on the ground, his body pierced by three broken spears, and had long since stopped breathing.
Major General Misoyan, on the other hand, covered the wound at his waist, his face pale and gasping for breath.
All the commanders around him were wounded, and even Lord Hadran Earthhammer was holding Gaia’s holy relic, Earth Power, and gasping for breath from his throne.
“How many times has this happened? Damn it!”
The human Major General asked with difficulty, and the Sanghaian General, who had had one of his arms cut off, gritted his teeth as he glanced at the thirteen bloody marks he had made on his leg:
“Thirteenth . I suppose, I am now . Frankly, I’m not entirely sure anymore, the true vision given to me by the Creator has been obscured by filth, I’m no longer pure.”
“Now is not the time for that!”
The only Ranger General still standing in the room held the mechanical war bow that was as tall as her person, and the bodies of armed dog-heads and jackals covered the area around her feet, with the burned skeletons of the odd rat-man further down the line.
She said in a mute voice:
“How long until the next phantom attack?”
“No one knows, it’s happening more and more often.”
The Brass Dwarf Lord said:
“Are we going out again this time?”
“Of course! Our soldiers are still out there fighting off the ratmen and those damn barbarians that dug up the ground and rushed into the fortress, we can’t abandon them. Now that the fortress trade area upwards is still in our hands, we can still hold out!
Provided that no more people fall for the illusion of subspace.
One tragedy for Commodore Padru was enough.”
Major General Misoyan spat a mouthful of bloodied spit to the side as he smiled bitterly with some desperation:
“Who the hell would have thought it? While the Black Flame Pass is still in support, the Brass Fortress is going to fall first. What the hell is wrong with you dwarves? Why didn’t Gaia even say hello when she abandoned you?
We were almost caught off guard and pulled into a desperate situation.
Damn it!
This battle is so suffocating.”
The Supreme Lord was silent, but the answer was actually clear to everyone present.
The Elven General glanced at him and said:
“At this point, aren’t you going to destroy the burning gold? We already confirmed in the big riot caused by the first illusion that the subspace aura was infiltrated through those raw gold-burning mines.
It is indeed harmless in itself, however, once it is piled up in large quantities, problems of one kind or another will arise.
I remember our Elf King clearly warned you!”
“Gaia has abandoned us, and without all that burning gold as explosives again, how are we supposed to fend off the jackals and their lunatic minions out there who are eyeing us?”
The Dwarf Lord shouted:
“The front line now relies solely on the Ironheart warriors of the Brass Fortress to keep it going, and the only payment they want is that valuable Burning Gold. I have promised all the wealth of my kingdom to my people, and my people have accepted the Burning Gold for hire, even the greedy miners have taken up their picks and are fighting for us!
My God, will you guys ever think about reality?
We can’t destroy Burning Gold now, it’s the expensive stuff that’s stored up that’s keeping morale up right now, or this fortress would be over in a heartbeat!”
“The moment you piled those contraptions from subspace in your warehouse, the moment you chose Burning Gold over the teachings of Mother Earth . This fortress is finished!”
General Sanghai, who had lost his arm, propped up his scarred body with his own curved-bladed greatsword as he said with disgust:
“Your current behavior is just drinking hemlock to quench your thirst, the blazing sun is above na, I can’t imagine that you weren’t like this a hundred years ago, and now your people are actually asking the king to pay out of his pocket before they’re willing to fight for their homeland?
You are finished.
Even if the Jackals don’t destroy you, after this battle you are finished.
Continue to guard your wealth, High Lord.
My soldiers and I will leave this fortress of despair.
This place is a tomb of gold, and any guerrilla fight we go out there with those stubborn Shield Dwarves is far more promising than staying here.”
“Well said, Sanghaian, so well said that I’m going to forget about your Sanghaian self.”
The Ranger General also shook his head:
“I have ordered my Rangers to break out, we will continue our hunt in the mountains south of the Gorgon Pass, and if you can’t hold out in the north, we can pull you in. But remember never to go near that mist, we’ve already paid too heavy a price for rash attempts.”
(End of chapter)