Game of the World Tree

“The Dark Alliance withdrew too quickly,”

Whispered Firebeard as he gazed at the still terrifying number of Dark Alliance troops outside the city walls.

As a dwarven veteran who had participated in numerous wars in the past, Firebeard’s understanding of the Dark Alliance was far greater than that of others.

The undead were common vanguard forces employed by the Dark Alliance. Generally speaking, they wouldn’t order them to retreat unless their intended target had been breached or the entire undead army had been annihilated.

But now, despite losing only half of their undead troops, the enemy had halted their assault on Blade City.

This was abnormal.

Such a situation could only signify one thing:

That is, the enemy is determined to win this war.

Therefore, upon realizing that Blade City was even more fortified than they had initially anticipated and seeing no hope of breaching it, the Dark Alliance’s army withdrew.

Alas, Firebeard was certain that their retreat does not mean that the Dark Alliance is abandoning their plans of taking over the city.

It was akin to a wolf that had taken a bite of its prey, then lurked back into the darkness, conserving strength as it prepared for a better opportunity to deliver a more fatal blow.

However, this also indirectly indicated that the enemy had recognized the strength of Blade City.

Watching the retreating undead army, Firebeard sighed.

“It seems… this war is really going to last a long time…”

“I wonder when Her Majesty will fully grasp Her power that originally should rightfully belong to Her and make these traitors pay a painful price…”

To think that the Dark Alliance would actually use the undead to attack a city that’s under the jurisdiction of the Goddess of Death…

To Firebeard, nothing was more frustrating than seeing the enemy use the undead, which normally should be controlled by their Goddess, come under the influence of the God of Darkness and Shadows.

Alas… this is the reality of the Church of Death in the world underground.

In contrast to the older God of Darkness and Shadows, who had been slowly expanding his influence in the underground for ten thousand years, their Goddess, being the younger of the two, had relatively minimal influence in comparison, unfortunately.

Perhaps Her Majesty’s divine authority was higher than that of the god of darkness and shadow, Hödur, but having a higher authority didn’t necessarily mean that she could easily suppress the latter.

The world underground, for the longest time, has become Hödur’s home ground, and the mere fact that the Church of Death could tear open a gap under Hödur’s nose and establish a city-state alliance capable of resisting the Dark Lord’s influence was already remarkable enough.

Nevertheless, even the most powerful gods could easily falter in worldly conflicts if they are lacking the power of faith.

Moreover, this place is the underground, which is saturated with dark forces due to the machinations of Hödur, not to mention it’s also much closer to the abyss!

Firebeard narrowed his eyes as he turned to the younger chief who had succeeded over his position.

“Brein, don’t celebrate just yet. I get the feeling that the enemy will once again attack soon…”

Unbeknownst to Firebeard, the high-ranking officers of the Dark Alliance were equally astonished by the strength displayed by the City of Blades.

In particular, the key factor that led the high officers of the Dark Alliance to choose to withdraw was the appearance of those strange elves on the battlefield.

Suddenly emerging out of nowhere, those elves showed formidable strength in combat, utterly disregarding their own lives, and seemingly possessing strange powers that could absorb the souls of the undead, thus completely disrupting the undead army’s reanimation capability to bolster their troops.

Due to the unexpected defeat of their vanguard forces, some high-ranking officers of the Dark Alliance had began investigating the strange elves that had appeared on the battlefield.

In the rear camp of the Dark Alliance’s army, within a makeshift tent, a humanoid monster clad in a black cloak, with a body tinted in a faint purple hue, stood before a burning black flame, chanting something.

His head resembles that of a giant octopus, with four constantly wriggling tentacles near his mouth, trailing down to his chest, faintly reflecting a layer of shiny translucent mucus.

This black-cloaked figure is an Illithid.

Like the dark-dwarves and subterranean gnomes, Illithids were also a sentient humanoid species endemic to the underground.

They are natural-born spellcasters, adept in mental and soul-based spells. As a race, most of them worship the God of darkness and shadow, Hödur, and the black-cloaked Illithid is the lord of an underground city-state named Olyndor, a blood warlock with the strength of an intermediate golden-ranker.

Olyndor is an underground city-state not far from Blade City. Over the years, the two city-states have experienced prolonged trade disputes, leading them to view each other as sworn enemies.

The forces besieging Blade City this time are led by this Illithid citylord, who was subjugated by the Lich King Perone.

Of course, under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for a single city-state of Olyndor to gather such a massive powerful army.

All of this was made possible only through Perone’s consolidation of the Dark Alliance’s strength and the centralized mobilization of armies from various nearby member city-states…

At this moment, the citylord of Olyndor stood in the center of the tent, chanting obscure spells.

As he chanted, the black flame floating in front of him quickly expanded, before eventually forming an eye made of deep coloured flames.

The ominous eye emitted a terrifying pressure, causing the citylord of Olyndor to involuntarily lower his normally proud head and utter with a hint of respect, “Great Lord of Menzuo city, Lich King, your loyal subject has important matters to report…”

“We have suffered setbacks in our plans of taking over Blade City. The city of Blades has sought help from the elves, who are very strange and numerous. Their weapons seemed to be blessed by the gods of the surface, causing great harm to our undead…”

“I’ve dispatched some of my subordinates to investigate into these peculiar elves, and they’ve uncovered their origins. They come from the surface and seem to worship a deity named Evé…”

“I suspect… this war has attracted the attention of other great beings…”

The commander of the dark coalition forces recounted everything he learned.

And upon hearing his words, the eye made of flames flickered slightly, as a majestic voice resounded:

“I am already aware of this matter.”

“I will inform the Dark Lord and await for His decision.”

“The forces of the Hermetic Alliance have always been dispersed and not united. Since Blade City had employed strong reinforcements, you shall withdraw from there for now and head north to support our siege of Shanathar…”

Shanathar is another underground city-state that’s a member of the Hermetic Alliance and stood as one of the Dark Alliance’s primary targets in their latest assault.

However, while Blade City was Dark Alliance’s primary target initially, Shanathar was considered their secondary objective.

Shanathar is much closer to other Hermetic Alliance member city-states, making it easier to rally support and rendering it more defensible than Blade City.

The citylord of Olyndor bowed deeply in respect.

“I understand.”

The Dark Alliance retreated!

After the entire army of the Dark Alliance fully withdrew from Blade City, jubilation engulfed the streets, transforming the once somber atmosphere into a festive carnival of relief and joy.

Merchants once again boldly entered the city to trade with the local dwarves and gnomes, and the commercial activities of Blade City resumed as if it were business as usual.

Seeing this, Brein also breathed a long sigh of relief.

Finally, they were no longer on the verge of bankruptcy!

However, although he felt somewhat relieved, Brein still remained vigilant.

Unlike the common folk, Lord Firebeard had already shared his concerns with him.

As such, Brein knew that this war was far from over, and that the Dark Alliance had only temporarily abandoned its ambitions of taking over Blade City.

And just as he was contemplating how to fix the defenses of the city, Brein suddenly received a shocking news that was practically the missing piece of the puzzle that could potentially explain the series of very strange events that had happened recently…

“W-What!? You mean…all these elves who have been supporting us have resurrection abilities? Are you telling me that they will resurrect back in the surface world after they die?!”

— 364 —

【 THESE ELVES CAN RESURRECT!? 】

— —