Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 397 Siblings
On the west bank of the frozen lake, a small hill called Torricoli is located eighty miles away from the lake. The hill itself is nothing special, but it is the only place within a thousand miles where you can get a vague glimpse of the lake terrain without being affected by the ice fog spreading over the lake.

Standing here and looking eastward, the frozen lake looks like a vast sky hanging upside down between the central and eastern parts of the ice field. The ice mist that lingers all year round lingers above the ice surface, reflecting the clear color of blue clouds under the sunlight, which is like a dream.

But behind this beautiful scenery that can only be seen in dreams, lies the deepest fear of the entire Arctic ice field, the ultra-low temperature that is enough to withstand the extinguishing flames, and the master of the power of frost - "frozen ice fog" Borelus.

The Ice Dragon God is revered by millions of people in the North.

From Mount Torriculi, traveling twenty-six and a half miles eastward is the limit that creatures below the heroic level can endure. This is the data calculated by countless fire giants at the cost of their lives in recent days.

Even if you move forward just a little bit, as long as a little bit of skin touches the icy mist as soft as light smoke, you will be frozen into an ice sculpture by the sudden low temperature, and you will not even have time to shout before you fall into the same dreamy and painless death.

At this moment, two figures with appearances and figures far different from those of ordinary people stood on the top of Mount Torricoli, looking into the distance at the thicker fog on the lake in the early morning.

Following their gaze, thousands of ice sculptures of astonishing size were arranged into a sharp arrow formation, charging into the ice fog, and frozen on the ice surface forever.

At the very tip of the arrow array, a second-generation giant that was half a body taller than its companions still maintained the expression it had at the last moment before being frozen. Its eye sockets, as big as wellheads, were stretched to a hideous degree in shock and rage, and on its huge head as big as a mountain, a look of fear was revealed on its face before it died.

On the surface of his body, the flames that were originally about to burst out had long been completely suppressed by the ice mist. The tough skin that even the giant crossbow could hardly penetrate melted into a layer of almost transparent skin under the low temperature, and one could even see the blood vessels and meridians inside that looked like icy branches and the crystal clear organs.

The coldness of the icy fog penetrates into the bone marrow.

"Rodnias is dead." A man as big as a hill whispered at the edge of the cliff on the top of the mountain.

The tenth ancestor Adonis is the closest companion of the fifth ancestor Vikia. It is said that he is the most powerful among the ten ancestors.

"The high priest is right, the dragon is more powerful than we imagined." The overly powerful strength seemed to make it very difficult for him to maintain his human form, so his voice was quite dull when he spoke.

"He's a waste himself." Another rough female voice snorted coldly beside him.

The ninth ancestor, Amodia, is also the sister of the tenth ancestor, Adonis. When she transforms into a human form, she is a sturdy woman over two meters tall.

At first glance, the most impressive thing is the leather armor that is randomly made of the fur of countless beasts. At the position of the heart guard, there is an ancient gray-white dragon scale that is filled with heart-pounding pressure and emits a biting chill.

It came from Polleleus and was Amotia's most proud trophy in recent days.

Beside her, Adonis half-squatted and half-sat on the ground to adapt to his sister's height.

His muscles were so developed that his eyes were squeezed into two slightly sunken pits by his facial muscles. It should have looked a bit funny, but under the strong smell of blood on his body, it revealed a bit of grotesque horror.

"Although Rodnias is not very capable, he is also in the middle of the twenty first-generations. Otherwise, His Majesty would not have appointed him as a marshal. Unexpectedly, within just ten days, the Eastern Regiment was completely disbanded, and even the marshal was beheaded." Adonis sighed, "The Royal Court has just been established. This is a shame for all of us."

But Amodia obviously didn't want to let go of this topic, and continued to say disdainfully: "How can a mediocre first-generation person be able to take on the position of marshal?"

"The Western Chapter is under the jurisdiction of Lord Mocero, the Northern Chapter is under the jurisdiction of Lord Hilber, the South and the Central are watched by Vikia and Rexar, and the Holy Land Chapter is the only one under the jurisdiction of Leoponis. But Leoponis is not only the number one in the first generation, but also your Majesty's trusted guard! Although the Eastern Chapter has just been established, it is still one of the six major chapters no matter how useless it is. Who is Rodnias? Is he worthy of leading tens of thousands of troops like them?" Adonis turned his head and glanced at his sister.

He knew that when the high priest proposed to appoint Rodnias as the marshal of the Eastern Corps, he encountered great resistance, especially from the third ancestor Mocero and his sister.

Not enough status, not enough strength. Opponents can easily find a hundred or a thousand reasons to oppose this proposal, but the high priest only needs one reason -

The royal court will no longer be just the royal court of the Holy Land, and the dynasty will no longer be just the dynasty of the North. In order to pacify the world in the future, we must start today to promote talents and train generals.

Like those third-generation giants who casually call themselves "generals" and "famous generals", the chaos of the army with inconsistent command, chaotic organization, lax military discipline and lack of combat effectiveness must be thoroughly changed within a few years. The royal court must also sweep away the tribal habits of only respecting the strong and quickly grow into a new regime that is efficient, stable, full of vitality and potential.

Although Rodnias is slightly lacking in strength and qualifications, he is a knowledgeable and wise person among the first generation of giants and even the entire royal court.

When he was a troll slave in his early years, Rodnias' master was a human noble who advocated gentle treatment of other races. With this opportunity, he was exposed to and learned a lot of human culture since he was a child. After the noble died, he fled to the Giant Cemetery to follow His Majesty, and even took the high priest as his mentor. He immersed himself in studying the knowledge inheritance of the old royal court all day long and never slacked off for more than ten years.

The high priest used him not to place his own confidants in the army, but because he truly considered the future of the royal court and hoped to train a general who was no less talented than a famous human general as soon as possible.

Even in the mind of the high priest, if one day they, the ancestors, no longer had to directly intervene in military affairs, and could leave the tasks of collecting intelligence, formulating tactics, and leading troops to fight to the young people, and they would only be responsible for practicing hard to improve their strength and serve as a strategic deterrent for the new dynasty to conquer all directions - that would be the most ideal operating model for the royal court.

But for a reckless man like Mocero, a fool like his sister, and other ancestors with their own ulterior motives, the high priest is placing his cronies in positions of power to compete for his majesty and pave the way for his beloved old master.

Different road non-phase plan.

Being willing to chat nonsense with my sister here is just a temporary tolerance for the sake of the overall situation of the dynasty.

"From a command perspective, Rodnias is right. No one, including your majesty and us, thought that Lucia Sanx would force his way across the Sea of ​​Death, reach Odysseus overnight, and launch a surprise attack on the entire Far East within a few days."

"After discovering the enemy, he immediately summoned the army and concentrated all the surrounding forces to encircle the enemy's assault force, blocking the enemy while buying time for the main force to move forward - this was the best choice he could make in that situation. If it were you or me, we wouldn't do better than him."

Yamodia snorted again, but did not refute.

"The only thing he misjudged was that the Northern Expedition Army under Lucia Shanks was far more elite than expected, and the opponent's individual strength was beyond our imagination."

"With only thirty guards and five hundred knights, among whom there are probably fewer heroes than can be counted on two hands, he was able to break through twenty-two formations in three days and defeat most of our army before the Eastern Division could finish assembling."

"When the main force was retreating, Rodnias tried to gather his guards to launch a counterattack to save the situation, but unfortunately he was killed by Lucia. These are all clearly recorded in the battle report. We can be ashamed of this and seek revenge in the next battle, but we should not turn a blind eye to the sacrifice of our comrades and mock them for being useless."

Yamodia turned her head suddenly and asked angrily, "Are you teaching me a lesson?"

"I am just stating the facts," Adonis said calmly, "even if you go and make a scene in front of His Majesty, I will still say the same thing."

(End of this chapter)