Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 433 Zhengqi
Northwest of Lord Fortress, the Holy Mountains.

Strictly speaking, the Holy Mountains are the collective name for the entire mountain range where the Lord Defense Line is located. It starts from the Holy Plateau in the far west of the ice field and ends at the Fallen Star Peak, the holy land of the Giant Dynasty where the Flame Cauldron is located, in the east, spanning 36,000 miles.

The word "Huasheng" originated in the ancient times which was even older than the ancient times. At that time, the world was just beginning to be created. A roughly similar legend was once circulated among the earliest protagonists of the border area - ancient dragons, giants and hybrids.

"Through the storm-swept snowfields and over the ridges above the cloud tops, life will manifest holy signs on the other side of the vast ocean."

After a long time, the true meaning of this legend has long been unknown, and the word "sanctification" has been interpreted in thousands of different ways, but its noble and sacred meaning has been preserved in the continuous inheritance of many races, and is used as a kind of noble term in both magical texts and religious scriptures.

If we study the historical evolution of the many cultural beliefs in the border areas over thousands of years, we will find that the word "sanctification" has been used no less than a thousand times. For example, the prototype of the law that Michaela comprehended, the most core set of new divine runes was named "Sanctification", which is based on this meaning.

This mountain range, which runs across the continent from east to west and has an average altitude of over 15,000 meters, is difficult for even high-level flying dragons to cross. It has also evolved into a common cultural symbol for all ethnic groups in the world during the changes of civilizations.

However, at this moment, the Holy Mountains temporarily lost their sacred meaning. When the unprecedented divine seal blocked the entire Arctic ice field along the ridgeline, it turned into a noose, a noose tied around the throats of all races in the North except the giants.

Lucia put the Sword of Night and Fire back into the scabbard. If the killing power of the destined death is not counted, in terms of energy output alone, the power of this artifact given to him by Lani on behalf of Kalia is even greater than the Greatsword of the Hunting God. In the entire Ancient Dragon Dynasty, only his father's Dragon King Rock Sword and the Thunder Spear lost in Rodel can be slightly better.

However, just now, he suppressed his injuries with all his strength and struck this layer of divine power barrier, but it only caused a few floating ripples, and it returned to normal in a moment.

At the same time, he also tried the mental connection in the memory battlefield. Unfortunately, although he could still vaguely sense the members of the Forbidden Research Society who were in contact with the Void, he could no longer contact them through the previous methods. The rest of the existence in that starry sky was completely isolated, and he could not even sense a trace of mental fluctuations.

He took a step forward and tapped the transparent, invisible barrier with his fingers. His knuckles felt like quartz glass.

“With such strength, no wonder they have the confidence to keep Godwin here,” Lucia clapped her hands and laughed unhappily, “I don’t know where these giants stole so much rune energy from. They use such a dirty trick. Even if they rely on the population base to reproduce, they can still kill Godwin who has lost his support!”

Leville and Serin behind him were from the Scorching Sun Legion and were originally Godwin's personal soldiers. It was inevitable that they felt a little embarrassed when they heard His Highness's series of arguments about His Highness Godwin's life and death.

Serin scratched her hair that was scattered on her forehead due to the battles she hadn't combed yet, and said helplessly, "Your Highness still has the mind to talk about these things at a time like this. I really don't understand. If it were us, wouldn't we be dead now?"

If either of Lucia's number one brainless follower Guirel or number two brainless follower Caedreth was here, they would definitely loudly scold Serin for not understanding military affairs and disrupting the morale of the army. His Highness must have anticipated this situation and could have made the Giant King's court flee in panic with just a casual move. Unfortunately, the three generals present were all mature and steady. Even General Hilbert, who came from the Storm Knights, could only sigh in regret when faced with such a desperate situation.

The outcome of the Battle of the North will not be decided in the North, but outside the North. This is the consensus of everyone involved in this war.

The reason is very simple. If we limit ourselves to the northern border, the resources held by both sides will be completely unequal.

The giants' mysterious rune channels, terrifying number of troops and the foundation accumulated in the holy land for thousands of years together constitute an unbreakable foundation. This huge disparity in power cannot be changed by Lucia fighting a few beautiful local battles.

Therefore, all actions taken by Lucia since the Northern Expedition have had only one ultimate goal - to break through the blockades of the north and the south and create opportunities for the three dynasties to fully project their power to the north.

The miracle of crossing the Sea of ​​Death cannot be replicated. Apart from him, only Lani has such attainments in the field of ice magic. However, even he can only temporarily freeze the sea surface to create opportunities for a small group of troops to cross the sea. With Lani's current level of magic power, it is far from enough to support the army's march northward.

Therefore, he could only focus his strategy on Lord. First, he relied on the troops to march to the Giant Holy Land to force the Royal Court to organize a large army to encircle and suppress the Southern Expedition Army, relieve the pressure on the Frozen Lake and Thor front, and then threatened the northern front of Lord, forcing Radagang to take into account the three dynasties' covenant and have to show a posture of going north at any time, thus restricting the giant southern war group to be nailed to Lord and not to move lightly. On the other hand, this threat was used to contain the movement of the Royal Court army, waiting for an opportunity to break through at a single point and kill the ancestor-level combat power. If everything went well, according to the strategic situation that the Southern Expedition Army had now put a knife on the neck of Vigia's troops, the 170,000 troops under Karelius should have rushed south to help.

At the same time, the Ninth Legion had been defeated and the Third Legion was still in the repair period. In addition, the request for reinforcement was urgent and the journey was long. It was impossible for the giants to support each other during the encirclement and suppression period. Lucia had every opportunity to concentrate her forces to attack one point and kill one or two ancestors.

At this point, regardless of how much we have won, at least we have been able to make a complete breakthrough and calmly deal with the next war.

But too many changes happened in just a few days. The situation on the battlefield was like a chain of interlocking iron links. If one link collapsed, it would instantly trigger a series of troubles.

Radagon suddenly broke the alliance and launched a war. The threat of the three dynasties to Lord's southern line no longer existed. The corresponding southern war group was able to withdraw to the north and meet with the army of Calleleus, using the general trend to crush the isolated southern expeditionary army.

Lucia's countermeasure was to rush south, using the time difference gained from the previous feint attack on the Third Legion to catch Vikia off guard and severely damage it before the Southern Legion could move north.

He judged that Vikia might have anticipated this move, but it didn't matter. The Southern Expedition Army had the advantage in hard power against any isolated legion of the Giant King's Court, and apart from that, they really had no other way out.

In three clashes in late January, the Southern Expedition Army successfully completed the attack on the Southern War Group. Hilbert and Leville advanced in two directions and beheaded more than 10,000 people in a series of high-speed raids.

Unfortunately, Vigia was not a simple man either. After the setback, he did not give the southern expedition army any chance to expand its victory. Instead, he immediately withdrew his defense line. Except for a small number of garrisons in the Holy Mountains, he withdrew all his main forces in the city of Lord, making it clear that he was not in a hurry to go north, and was just waiting for Callelius to reorganize the army in the rear so that he could calmly go south.

By then, the southern expeditionary army trapped on the northern line of Lord would be doomed.

So Lucia chose to lead his army into the Holy Mountains at the end of the month. Just as Callelius had said to Leoponius, he did want to lead his troops across the snow-capped mountains and head south to Rodel.

Now that Radagon has rebelled, the northern strategy has to be rewritten. While the Knights of Rodel are chasing the Ancient Dragon Temple to the south, it is strategically correct to attack the royal city, and then establish contact with the Blazing Sun Legion of Widam, the Ancient Dragon Dynasty Army of Nangemir, and even with Kalia.

However, no one would have thought that when Lucia was finally about to jump off the chessboard with the Southern Expedition Army, Callelius would actually launch this huge seal covering the entire northern territory, completely blocking the Southern Expedition Army's last theoretical way out.

"No, there is another way."

Lucia exhaled forcefully, as if to vent all the anger she had felt for the betrayal of her allies and the blockades she had suffered from foreign enemies in recent days. Then, her eyes, as clear as an icy lake, ignited with a beam of crazy fire.

"Good has its own way, evil has its own way. They all like to play cards unconventionally. Let's try the tactics that give them the most headaches—"

He looked back to the north beyond the vast snow and fog, a cold smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "You want to keep me here so much, and if you really do, don't be unhappy."

PS. I have been feeling very uncomfortable this week, both physically and mentally. I have tried to find a good state to write more and update more regularly, but I have not been able to muster the energy. Fortunately, I have been able to immerse myself 100% in the creative process, and there have been no quality problems. So far, I am personally satisfied with the content of the third volume. I will take another day off tomorrow and hope to adjust myself over the weekend.

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(End of this chapter)