Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 545 Northward and Southward Travel
North of the North, the heavy, sharp bows of the ancient dragon fleet pierced through the perpetually frozen ice, leaving large, broken trails in the stormy sea.

Wearing a snow-white fox fur cloak, Lance's bright eyes were fixed on the divine barrier that appeared and disappeared on the horizon to her port side. Her jade-like hands, gripping the railing, trembled slightly, and her pale face was flushed with a long-lost blush of excitement.

A sharp whistling sound came from high above as dragon wings tore through the air. Guile, now in human form, landed heavily on the deck, his voice excited as he exclaimed, "My lord, we've found it!"

Lance turned around abruptly, his voice trembling, and asked, "Is it there?"

"Yes, your calculations are absolutely correct! It is indeed the 27th sea area. According to the Northern Territory map, the breach point of the barrier is 576 kilometers northeast of Ottina City. Once our army lands, as long as we advance at full speed, we can reach it within a day and night!"

"That's great! That's great!"

Even Lance, who was usually unmoved by the collapse of Mount Tai, couldn't help but be moved to tears. However, this joy only lasted for a moment before the ancient dragon priestess immediately returned to her rational state.

"Quickly, summon all legion-level officers of the fleet to see me!"

Ten minutes later, the sixteen corps commanders of the fleet gathered in the flagship's command room. Facing the huge map spread out on the marching table, Lance quickly issued a series of orders.

"Commander of the Third Army Corps, lead your 7,000 men to cut down trees on all the nearby islands in preparation for building a pontoon bridge and a temporary dock."

"Fourth Legion Commander, take your Flying Dragon Squadron back to Sky City immediately. After meeting with His Excellency Gustav, summon reinforcements with my seal. Within fifteen days, I want to see my dynasty's 100,000-strong army on the northern shore of the Ice Plains."

"Commander of the Sixth Legion, lead your headquarters, the Fourth Legion, and two directly subordinate battalions to wipe out all the neutral forces that are eyeing us within a radius of one thousand kilometers—I don't care if they are the True Order, corrupt believers, or those hesitant Kaidan mercenaries. Anyone who dares to show their face at this time should be prepared to lose their head!"

"Everyone else, lead your respective warships to blockade the target sea area, in three shifts. During the operation, not even a single bird is allowed to approach. Soldiers will rest after the meeting ends, and the magic craftsmen will begin charging all the cannons. Three days later, we will break through the seal of the forbidden zone!"

The officers and generals quickly took their orders and left. This massive fleet, which had been silent and suppressed for a long time, had traveled all the way from the Far East. It was like a dragon awakening from its slumber, raising its head and letting out a powerful roar. With just a slight stretch of its wings, it cast a shadow that blotted out the sky on the icy sea!

Lance walked alone to the porthole of the command room, gazing at the seemingly indestructible Jedi Seal. He breathed a sigh of relief in the cold air, the rising white mist cleverly concealing the fleeting breakdown and vulnerability on his beautiful face.

patter
A warm drop of water shattered on the back of her taut hand, causing her shoulder to tremble violently. She quickly raised her sleeve to wipe the corner of her eye, blinked her reddened eyes, remained silent for a long time, and then revealed a smile that seemed to have cleared up after a storm.

For the past hundred days and nights, she led her subordinates to plow through almost every corner of the outer perimeter of the Jedi Seal with prayers and artillery fire. Including herself, every hero in the fleet overexerted their divine power countless times, and the paper of calculations made by the priests was enough to flatten a thousand miles of icy sea.

After an almost exhaustive search, they finally found the "flaw" that existed only in theory—the only possible breakthrough in the 30,000-mile-long forbidden zone seal from the outside.

"You little rascal, your sister will be there soon, don't die!" Lance whispered in a voice only he could hear.

Thousands of miles away, at the Gmir volcano, deep within a fissure in the earth's veins.

Lani tapped the lava-colored crystalline layer in front of her with the end of her staff, her delicate eyebrows furrowing deeply. Before her was the entrance to a gigantic tunnel, hundreds of meters high. Geographically, this place extended thousands of miles from the fissure entrance at the foot of Mount Egra, quite close to the far north ice sheet. However, the passage before her was completely blocked by layers upon layers of crystal. If she were to force her way through, she probably wouldn't have even managed to dig out a tenth of it by the time the War in the North was over.

“This is not a solid crystal formed from runes—” After observing for a long time, Lani concluded, “It’s not even any kind of natural structure. I suspect it’s a sealing technique left behind by Hethenes.”

boom! ! !
Monger slowly withdrew his massive fist and placed it behind his back, staring at the crystalline layer that had only a few cracks. The muscles in his cheeks twitched with pain, but his tone remained firm and composed.

"Hmm, cough cough, you mean that Heheriniris you're talking about? Not bad, the old man is quite skilled. It seems that even if I personally take action, it will take some effort to break through this seal."

“Tell me something we don’t know, brother,” Montgomery said mercilessly, “If you don’t have two nostrils hanging under your eyebrows, look at that corpse over there, up! Idiot! Do you see it?”

Following the brothers' gaze, about three hundred meters inside the crystal layer, atop the rock wall, the corpse of a strangely shaped giant beast, resembling an insect encased in amber, remained embedded in the sealing hub, maintaining its posture from life. Thousands upon thousands of delicate, tiny rune circuits, like capillaries, spread from all parts of its body, pulsating with bloody light and disappearing into the surrounding crystal.

Judging from the power fluctuations that can be sensed, its strength in life was probably only slightly inferior to that of the recently fallen serpent god Egret.

“Usually, super-large magic arrays use high-grade radiance stones as charging hubs. The larger the scale of the magic array, the better the quality of the hubs used, and the more numerous they are,” Lani explained. “But this sealing array covers at least one-third of the far north ice plains, and most of the Jedi seals used by the giants today are derivatives of it. Correspondingly, the hubs it uses far exceed the limits of radiance stones. That ancient behemoth is probably one of them.”

"What?" Munger's eyes widened like saucers. "You mean there's more than one of these things in the ley lines? Has Hethenes gone mad?"

Lani sighed and said, "Think about the Nest of Ten Thousand Dragons of Dem Azra. Hethenes' strength back then was only slightly inferior to His Majesty Pratonsanks. It's not surprising that the Ancient Giants' Royal Court would go to such lengths to avoid being controlled by the Golden Tree."

"Then what do we do? This formation is piled up with so many materials, we probably can't outlast it by brute force, can we?"

Munger was somewhat disheartened. The group started searching through the tattered historical records from the Star-Moon Era. First, they found clues about the furnace ley lines, then they fought their way through the volcano from Karen, even taking down the Serpent God. They finally thought they had opened up a path to the north to provide reinforcements, but they were blocked at the last hurdle.

If this drags on any longer, the potential conspiracies and risks from the New Party are one thing, but the most crucial question is what will happen if something unexpected happens in Asia?
"Hethenes set up the seal to provide the giants with an inexhaustible source of runes; therefore, the only way to break the seal is to start with the giant bloodline that shares the same origin as Him."

Lani's deep blue eyes paused slightly. As her thoughts deepened, a rare hint of murderous intent appeared in her eyes. "With the Jedi Seal blocking the way, it's probably hopeless to capture a genuine giant before Priest Lance succeeds. But there are plenty of giants out there."

"The Weeping Peninsula in the south, Mount Gemir in the north, and those man-eating mountain demons who stubbornly resist to the death—forget about holding public trials and reckoning with their sins tribe by tribe. Bring them all here. If the quality isn't good enough, make up for it with quantity. Even if they only have a drop of giant blood left in their veins, they must be sprinkled in the right place."

Lani's voice was soft and devoid of any resentment, remaining as unapproachable as ever.

But at this moment, even the battle-hardened twin princes felt a chilling cold emanating from their sister.

"This is the last resort," Montgomery sighed softly, then turned to prepare to go and make the arrangements.

Suddenly, a series of thunderous roars came from the depths of the earth. Amidst the earth shaking and mountains trembling, the crystal seal in front of them cracked inch by inch!
(End of this chapter)