Game of the World Tree

No one expected Shanathar, a city rich in resources and well-defended, would be breached.

But the truth is, this city-state wasn’t forcibly breached by the Dark Alliance’s army from the outside but rather, it’s defenses were compromised from within.

No one had anticipated that Doluru, the grandson of the current chief and an ambassador of Shanathar, would collude with the forces of the Dark Alliance.

Seizing the opportunity while the ailing elderly chief was resting, he stole the key to gain access to the city’s defensive core, which allowed him to bypass Shanathar’s defensive magic barrier and secretly establish a teleportation array connecting the inside of the city to the outside…

As a result of his betrayal, a large number of enemy undead suddenly appeared within the city’s vicinity, catching everyone off guard.

Immediately, they destroyed the long-range teleportation array and desecrated the Goddess of Death’s divine statue in the Church of Death.

The Death Goddess statue was the core that powered the city’s defensive barrier, so once it was destroyed, Shanathar’s defenses quickly collapsed.

Moreover, with the long-range teleportation array destroyed, reinforcements from the elves were unable to arrive…

Therefore, the city’s defenders and the remaining elven forces were left isolated and helpless.

The Dark Alliance’s army, which had been stationed outside Shanathar, collaborated with the infiltrators and their assault troops inside the city, easily opening the gates that had withstood months of attacks.

The expected grand siege never occurred.

Instead, the Dark Alliance swiftly took control of Shanathar’s walls, while the original defenders, caught in a pincer attack, left behind a trail of corpses as they retreated back into the city. The subsequent battle quickly devolved into brutal street fighting, with the city’s defenders battling the Dark Alliance forces that had breached the city.

However, the Dark Alliance was well-prepared.

They had amassed 150,000 undead soldiers and 80,000 regular troops, the strongest force in the western region of the underground.

In contrast, Shanathar’s coalition forces were far too weak.

The city’s defenders numbered less than 20,000, and the remaining elves in the city were fewer than 3,000.

Under the Dark Alliance’s concentrated assault, the army of dark dwarves and subterranean gnomes suffered heavy losses, and the elves fell one after another, staining the city streets with blood.

Eventually, the remaining forces of the coalition were driven deeper into the city’s mines, struggling to hold their ground behind makeshift fortifications…

In less than two days, the Dark Alliance had taken over most of Shanathar, with only a few mine pits in the city’s depths still held by dark dwarves, underground gnomes, and few elven mercenaries.

These areas were easy to defend but lacked the resources to sustain prolonged resistance.

And so, the Dark Alliance only needed to besiege them, leaving the defenders with the options of either surrendering or starving themselves to death…

By this point, the Dark Alliance had effectively conquered Shanathar already.

The original city residents were forcibly confined to their homes, and any dissenters were wantonly slaughtered, with their old Chief Katra killed by the traitor Doluru.

This traitorous grandson then appointed himself as the new chief under the authority of the Dark Alliance and declared that the Church of Darkness and Shadows would be the new official religion of Shanathar.

Additionally, the Dark Alliance installed the statue of the Dark Lord in the temple and reactivated the city’s defensive barrier, but this time the barrier’s purpose was reversed.

With this, Shanathar was declared fallen.

The news of the city-state of Shanathar’s sudden downfall spread throughout the coalition of underground city-states, causing an uproar amongst its members.

No one had anticipated Shanathar’s abrupt and unexpected downfall…

After the initial shock, panic quickly set in.

Doluru’s betrayal directly led to Shanathar’s fall and his traitorous actions raised a terrifying question:

—Have other cities also been infiltrated by the Dark Alliance?

Furthermore, Shanathar and Blade City serve as the gateways from the Hermetic Alliance to the Dark Alliance, making their geographic positions extremely sensitive.

From the map of the western underground territory, the entire landscape resembles a gourd with its head pointing north.

The gourd’s neck is the only passage to the Deep Rift Cavern, with the Hermetic Alliance occupying the upper half while the Dark Alliance holds the lower half.

Both underground city-states are located at the center and serve as the entry point to the second level of Underdark…

In this context, the defenses of Shanathar and Blade City are crucial and the outcome of the battles here could determine the course of the entire underground war.

Everyone realized by now that a decisive battle is likely to occur in this area.

If they defend well and hold out, the Hermetic Alliance is likely to win this war of attrition.

But if either city falls, the Hermetic Alliance’s gates will be wide open, allowing the Dark Alliance’s army to advance unimpeded, causing the situation to deteriorate rapidly…

And now, one of the city has already fallen!

In a way, the Dark Alliance has already achieved a decisive victory in this war.

Given the comparative strengths of both sides, the Hermetic Alliance might have been capable of defending a single city with elven support. However, if multiple cities are attacked simultaneously, then it’s a perilous situation that stretches their resources thin and risks overwhelming their defenses.

After all, not every member city-state of theirs has tens of thousands of defenders like these two, and most of the Hermetic Alliance’s member states only have armies of fewer than 10,000.

Moreover, the Dark Alliance possesses special means to corrupt the undead, preventing the Hermetic Alliance from using their own undead armies effectively in the war against them.

In this case, the Dark Alliance’s forces, with their numerical superiority, can easily besiege at least five cities simultaneously and are likely to breach them with ease…

It’s also worth noting that due to the high cost of establishing long-distance teleportation arrays, the Hermetic Alliance initially planned to set them up in all cities for support.

However, this was not feasible, and only Blade City, as well as Shanathar, being strategically significant and wealthy enough, had established long-distance teleportation arrays connected to Blackrock City.

Other cities, despite their proximity to the gourd’s neck and thus Blackrock City, lacked the financial means to establish or maintain such expensive teleportation arrays.

And so instead, they settled for ordinary teleportation arrays between themselves.

This is also because the Hermetic Alliance is a loose coalition of city-states that’s unable to effectively distribute and utilize resources amongst themselves.

Even players find it challenging to provide effective support in this situation.

Theoretically, players could teleport to the two key cities and then use ordinary teleportation arrays to reach other cities.

However, the crux of the issue lies here.

Blade City and Shanathar have teleportation arrays connecting to other underground cities, but these arrays are primarily concentrated in Shanathar.

Blade City only has one array connecting to Shanathar.

As a result, if Shanathar falls, Blade City loses contact with the rest of the Hermetic Alliance.

The reason for this setup is that despite both cities being strategically important, Blade City is closer to the Dark Alliance’s territory and surrounded by enemies on three sides, making it too risky to establish extensive teleportation arrays there…

Everyone assumed that if one of the two cities were to fall, it would be Blade City. Therefore, establishing support arrays in Shanathar was deemed sufficient.

But unexpectedly, it was Shanathar that fell first.

After all that has been said, in essence, if one were to summarize the situation, then it boils down to one thing:

The fall of Shanathar has already signaled the Hermetic Alliance’s strategic defeat. And to turn things around, they cannot rely solely on conventional forces alone in the end.

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【 BETRAYAL! A STRATEGIC FAILURE 】

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