Game of the World Tree
chapter-352

If there is any difference between the wars in the realm of Seigües and the Cold Weapon Era wars of Earth, it’s the involvement of extraordinary magical powers, making the direction and changes in this otherworldly warfare increasingly more complex and unpredictable.

Such discrepancies were especially extrapolated with the existence of teleportation arrays, which are akin to a cheat-like device that can completely alter the way siege warfare is being done in Seigües.

Unlike back on earth wherein warfare often revolves around many months of attrition and prolonged campaigns, in Seigües wars could only last for a single large-scale battle for defending or capturing cities as these battles could determine the course of an entire war.

The primary reason behind this is the existence of teleportation arrays, which have made long-distance support a reality.

But of course, maintaining these arrays requires magical stones, and the consumption increases dramatically depending on the distance of the teleportation array itself and the strength of the object being teleported into…

The consumption is negligible in the initial stage, but as the number of teleportation targets increases and their strength grows, more magic stones will need to be consumed at an accelerated pace.

Therefore, for most factions on the surface, using teleportation arrays for military support is considered a rather extravagant endeavor, reserved only for dire circumstances.

However, for the world underground, it is different since it’s extremely rich in mineral resources and has massive reserves of magical stones.

Moreover, due to its close proximity to the realm’s provenance, the consumption of magical power during teleportation is much lower compared to the world above.

Thus… for the denizens underground, using teleportation arrays to move their army is a common practice.

If it weren’t for the Underdark region being rife with constant conflict alongside various city-states having a low level of trust even when they were in the same alliance, then teleportation arrays would have long become the common way to travel across the underground by now.

In fact, they only agreed to install the teleportation arrays this time since the Hermetic Alliance encountered a real crisis, and the Patron Deity they believed in issued an oracle. Otherwise, they would never easily deploy such high-risk, high-reward ultra-long-distance teleportation arrays.

And it’s precisely the existence of these teleportation arrays that exacerbates the wars in the underground, intensifying conflicts that either swiftly end after a single battle or escalate into prolonged sieges, that may occasionally last for over a decade.

At this moment, the City of Blades, the largest city-state in the Hermetic Alliance, renowned as the “Forging Capital” throughout the underground, is currently being besieged.

Situated in the central-northern part of the western region of the underground, right at the border between the first and second layers of the Underdark Region, about three hundred kilometers horizontally from the Deep Fissure Cavern, the City of Blades serves as the frontline base against the Dark City-State Alliance.

The city is a cavern hollowed out from a massive stalagmite, right next to the Underdark Sea.

With a population of approximately fifty thousands permanent residents, mainly consisting of Dark-Dwarves and subterranean Gnomes, they make up over eighty percent of the entire city’s population.

Such numbers cannot be underestimated, as cities of this size in the underground are already quite rare.

Moreover, unlike cities above ground inhabited by humans, nearly all residents in the underground have extraordinary powers. In many cases, a quarter of the population is within the Iron-rank, while in certain underground cities, even half the population surpasses that status.

In other words, there are at least 10,000 residents in Blade City who have reached the Iron rank.

In this vast underground city, the dark dwarves use stone pillars as the smelting center, build their own houses and workshops, mine and create alchemy workshops around them, while also constructing a magnificent outer wall made of solid iron ore outside the city.

Under the luminescence of fluorescent stones in the Underdark, the outer wall gleams like a blade, hence the name “City of Blades.”

It boasts the largest-scale magic stone mine in the western region, along with astonishing reserves of mithril, fine steel, and iron ore.

Thousands of years ago, Dark Dwarves turned it into a renowned forging city, with the equipment produced here rivaling even that of Elven craftsmanship from the surface…

The rich mineral resources in its surroundings have naturally garnered the city of Blades huge amounts of wealth, and this in turn naturally caused other forces to covet it.

Hence, it is the reason why the Dark City-State Alliance chose this particular city as their first target to attack.

At this moment, the chieftain of the City of Blades, a Subterranean Gnome named Brein, stood atop the city wall, gazing at the looming army composed of Illithids, Shadow-Dwarves (Dark dwarves who believed in the god of darkness and shadows), undead, monsters, and goblins, with a grim expression.

The enemy’s assault has come much earlier than they initially anticipated…

Brein had never imagined that his city would face the siege of the Dark Alliance even before the delegation he had sent to ask for reinforcements could return.

As of today, Blade City has already repelled several enemy siege attempts.

As a result, the outer walls have already been stained black-red with the blood of dwarves and gnome soldiers, and under the dim and flickering firelight, such a scene looked particularly tragic.

The air is thick with the scent of blood, and of the nearly twenty thousand Hermetic Alliance soldiers defending the city, five thousand of them have already returned to the Divine Kingdom of the goddess of death.

Many fatigued soldiers rested along the city wall, their weariness evident in their weary postures and occasionally, the silence was broken by the sounds of their wounded comrades groaning in pain.

Seeing this depressing sight, Brein’s mood grows even more heavier.

The enemy had far surpassed his initial expectations in sheer numbers, and this time, it seemed the overall besieging forces of the Dark Alliance numbered well over a hundred thousand.

In hindsight, the city would have already fallen ages ago if not for its inhabitants possessing strong strength, as well as the defensive core of the Church of Death being able to ward off any of the high-ranking enemy forces’ experts with its defensive barrier.

But even so, without any sort of reinforcements, despite their fierce resistance, they might not hold out for much longer.

Operating the defensive barrier requires quite a lot of manpower, and without the presence of Lord Firebeard, who can perform divine descent, the City of Blades lacks high-ranking experts to fill the role and needs to consume more power to maintain the operation of such a protective spell.

In this situation, the soldiers on the walls could only be sacrificed as their numbers keeps dwindling more and more as the battle persisted on…

What’s even more alarming and terrifying for Brein is that he noticed that there are quite a lot of high-level undead among the enemy’s already large army!

Moreover, based on his observation of the battlefield, it seems the enemy also possessed some kind of artifact that could interfere with their goddess’s power. It was evident since once a fellow comrade of theirs is killed off by the enemy, they not long after turn into undead and join the enemy’s side…

Of course, this is also because the Lord of Darkness and Shadows has usurped some authority of the Goddess of Death otherwise… how could these undead who betray the goddess be allowed to run rampant like this?

Thinking of the delegation heading towards Blackrock City, Brein couldn’t help but sighed deeply.

“Lord Firebeard… when will you return with the reinforcements?”

His already diminutive figure looks even more hunched at this moment.

The delegation has been gone for many days…

Based on his estimates, Lord Firebeard should by now already be seeking reinforcements from the surface through Blackrock City.

After all, in the goddess’s oracle, She instructed the personnel of the City of Blades to prepare a large quantity of humanoid equipment in advance as a mode of payment for the reinforcements to use.

Most likely…the reinforcements will consist primarily of humans from the surface.

Mercenary groups composed of humans enjoy a notable reputation across Seigües, with some even reputed to harbor legendary ranked experts!

If Lord Firebeard could return with such a powerful mercenary group, then perhaps…there might be hope for them!

Just as Brein was lost in thought, suddenly, a dwarf warrior stumbled onto the city wall, shouting excitedly:

“Lord Firebeard is finally back! The Lord has returned with reinforcements!”

Lord Firebeard is back?

The reinforcements have finally arrived?

Upon hearing this news, Brein’s spirits immediately soared.

He swiftly turned his body, looking up at the dwarven warrior who arrived before him, and asked eagerly:

“Did you say the reinforcements have finally arrived? Is it a human mercenary group?”

Upon hearing Brein’s words, the dwarf in question paused briefly with some look of hesitation painted across his face.

Then, a peculiar expression settles over his face as the dwarven warrior replied,

“No… it’s not actually humans, but…elves instead.”

Upon hearing this unexpected answer, Brein’s expression shifted to one of utter bewilderment.

“…E-Elves?”

— 352 —

【 REINFORCEMENTS FROM THE SURFACE 】

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