Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 546 The Fortress in Gwen's Eyes

By the time Hunter and Nora's group started turning back, the expeditionary force's camp was in complete chaos.

Soldiers of the expeditionary force came and went, constantly moving supplies from the military camp to the permanent fortifications built not far away.

Gwen looked up at the towering concrete fortress.

It was a tall bastion. From the train, Gwen admired its beautiful, star-like geometric shape, but when she actually stood at its foot, she was filled with deep awe.

Those protruding little sharp corners, upon closer inspection, are actually cold, hard, and rough concrete walls. The narrow firing ports have a figure-eight-shaped, progressive design on the outside, while inside are the dark barrels of Gatling guns. These holes are densely packed all over the wall, and the walls together form this huge fortress.

(Classic star-shaped fortress)

(Sharp, protruding walls can greatly increase the density of fire, creating a crossfire network.)
Gwen looked up and felt a little dizzy, as if she were looking at the cliffs on the north side of the Canary Mountains. Even though she knew she was standing on solid ground, her legs would go weak.

Was this fortress really built by humans?
Gwen turned to look at the expeditionary force beside her. Each of them had two hands and two legs, just like her, but how could the same hands create such a miracle?

Gwen instinctively felt that such a massive fortress must have had a divine ritual befitting it, such as powerful banshees chanting ancient curses while offering human sacrifices to powerful gods, and only then could such a great miracle slowly rise from the blood.

But Hodge said that the fortress was just drawn by ordinary people with blueprints, built by insignificant ordinary people with their equally weak hands.

Moreover, it is said that the fortress was built in just a few months, and a considerable amount of time was spent waiting for the concrete to harden.

Whenever she thought about these things, Gwen felt as if she were in a dream, watching the witch brew potions from butterfly wings and lizard tails, a feeling of inexplicable absurdity.

What kind of magical land is Castel that allows humans to become as powerful as gods?
Perhaps she had already died, and that it wasn't the little girl who fell into the white mist, but herself; it was all just a hallucination before her death.

Gwen walked silently around the fortress. She had intended to measure its exact size, but gave up after counting more than three hundred steps. The sheer size of this concrete fortress far exceeded her imagination. It could house at least a thousand people, and there were even armored trains that could drive directly into the outer fortress to transport supplies and support.

That fortress of Morrell, with its corridors of despair, the city that would never fall—that must be what it looks like now.
"Hey! Gwen!" Someone called her name from afar. Gwen looked up and saw that it was Hodge.

"What are you doing?"

Hodge was holding several booklets and taking inventory of supplies when Gwen glanced at him.

"Looking at this fortress."

"A fortress? A pile of concrete, not even painted. What's so interesting about that?" Hodge kicked the wall and said dismissively.

"When you get to Castel, go and take a look around the area near the cathedral. There are these kinds of things everywhere there. I guarantee you'll get tired of seeing them in a morning."

"Are they everywhere? Are they all such large fortresses?"

"No, that's not it. The fortress over there is much bigger than this one. It was mainly because we figured the enemies in the north probably didn't have much heavy firepower, so we built it rather casually."

Hodge suddenly folded the booklet in his hand and grinned. "By the way, this fortress hasn't been named yet. If you have any good suggestions, please let me know. I suggested 'Coyote Fortress,' but it was rejected. Lord Alexei said it sounded too weak."

“A name?” Gwen looked up at the bastion beside her and slowly shook her head. “I haven’t thought of a name yet. Let’s talk about it after the battle.”

After leaving the white mist from the airship, Gwen joined the other expeditionary forces and arrived at the military camp. To her surprise, the expeditionary force was preparing to try to resist the white mist.

She was a White Crow, and the idea that the White Calamity could never be defeated was ingrained in her very being. From childhood to adulthood, she had always been away from her homeland, avoiding the White Mist, waiting for it to recede before returning to her homeland, which had decayed into ruins.

The white fog can only be avoided; how can it be resisted?
Gwen turned to look at the leaden concrete fortress and bit her lip.

The White Disaster was indeed unstoppable, but if it were these Castel people...
Castel, the island that has created countless miracles, may truly bring hope to the North.

"Captain Hodge! Archbishop Alexei wants you to come immediately!" A messenger ran over quickly, paused for a moment when he saw Gwen, then his face lit up with joy:

"Great, Miss Gwen, Alexei also wants you to come over!"

Hodge nodded: "Okay, let's go now, to his office, right?"

"No, he wants both of you to go to the train platform immediately!"

Hodge and Gwen exchanged a glance.

A few minutes later, as the two stepped onto the platform, they saw a train slowly coming to a stop, and Alexei was standing on the platform watching.

"archbishop!"

"Master Alexei."

Alexei nodded to them but said nothing, simply watching the train whose doors were slowly opening.

The two were puzzled, but when they followed his gaze, they were stunned.

The towering banshees, clad in heavy armor, did not hinder their agility in the slightest. One after another, they leaped off the train, the thick steel landing on the platform with a dull thud.

One, two, three, ten, twenty, thirty
Even Hodge was shocked. Castells only had about a hundred banshees in total, and they had all come to the North?!
This, how is this possible? You must know that with the symbiotic contract, the banshees cannot leave Castel for long. In just a few days, even if they do nothing, they will lose most of their life force.

Hodge suddenly opened his eyes wide.

A guess popped into his mind.

No, it wasn't Castel that the Banshee couldn't leave, but rather...
Hughes.

Hughes is the central link connecting the banshees' life force; they only begin to lose it if they leave him. With so many banshees of mortal death arriving here, if they don't want to collectively lose their life force, it means...
Suddenly, a foot stepped out of the carriage door as the harbinger of death passed by, and a young man with dark hair, a thin figure, and very bright eyes stepped out of the carriage.

The moment they saw him, everyone at the station—from the expeditionary force and orderly to the towering banshee—saluted him.

"Lord Lord."

(End of this chapter)