Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 538 Three Lines of Defense
"what?"

"The three leaders of the Federation want to join the new Federation I founded as individuals? And you've even volunteered to come to the Northern Territory and assist us on the front lines of the defense against the alien races?"

Harvey closed the crystal screen of the magic brain instrument, and only one thought flashed through his mind.

Are these three old men schizophrenic?
If he really allowed them all to flee to the North, it would be like asking three Buddhas to weigh him down. Could he really dare to dispatch them at will, to the Ice Sea Base or the Great Rift of Isengard to assist the Northern Army in the battle?

Asdalen was choked and didn't know what to say. After a long while, he slowly said, "Perhaps the chiefs don't want the truth about the alien invasion to be made public too soon, causing internal unrest in the southern countries... So they intend to use this extreme method to force you to take the initiative and formally sign an alliance with the Federation. They want to shoulder the responsibility of jointly fighting against the aliens, but they don't want the Federation to fall apart."

Reiner's political acumen wasn't as sharp as Asdalen's, but his long career in government had instilled in him a habit of deep reflection. He carefully analyzed the situation, saying, "Your Majesty was already planning to cooperate with the Federation; otherwise, he wouldn't have given them such a valuable living lizardman for free. With a formidable enemy at hand, uniting all forces we can is a good thing for us."

Harvey rolled his eyes and said speechlessly, "This kind of massive crisis, potentially affecting the survival of our species, can't be controlled or reversed by a single powerful transcendent individual. Three legendary spellcasters sounds intimidating, but if I really put them on the front lines of the Ice Sea Base, who can guarantee they can truly hold off the tsunami-like alien army advancing southward?"

He pointed to the intelligence sent from the magic network teleportation array, a diagram of the mind invasion drawn by Chief Dawson himself, and sighed, "See? The demon lizardmen are like insects. They can easily create thousands of individuals ready for immediate combat. They even have giant floating islands that can dive into the deep sea. Honestly... I have a feeling this thing is more than just a mobile floating island. It's more like a living thing!"

A giant living creature with life and consciousness... that can assist the lizardmen in battle, or a living deep-sea war fortress.

Pierce, who had not expressed his opinion until now, suddenly stood up and walked to the map on the wall. He picked up Harvey's usual red pen and quickly drew three thick red lines along the Sacred Spine Mountains.

"Your Majesty, please take a look. The entire Divine Spine mountain range stretches tens of thousands of miles from west to east, but the only areas that can truly be called natural gaps...are the westernmost Evil Moon Mountain Gorge, the central Jackdaw Ridge area, the nearby Isengard Rift, and the Golden Forest in the northeast corner."

He paused, his finger tracing the red line as he spoke, "North of the Western Border lies the vast Demonic Territory. If the Lizardmen want to move south, they'll have to fight the Demons first. Even if they eventually wipe out the Demons and reach the Evil Moon Mountains, they'll undoubtedly have lost a significant amount of their manpower. As long as the Federation commands the seven Wizarding Nations to deploy their full forces here and hold their ground, they should be able to resist their southward advance."

The prerequisite is of course that the Federation needs to obtain magical weapon reinforcements from Spark City.

Harvey nodded, stepped forward, and continued, "Indeed, their invasion from the west will be the longest and most tortuous battle. The Eastern Golden Forest is also located in a corner of the southern border, and the terrain around the Golden Forest is also an extremely rugged plateau. Although the elves are conservative, they have hundreds of thousands of golden trees as a natural defense. They won't easily let the Demon Lizardmen cross the Divine Spine Mountain and invade the southern border."

Asdalen blinked and added with a malicious smile, "Besides, it would be very convenient for them to be reinforced by the burrowing dwarves from the Breath of the Hills on the southeast coast. The dwarves are also good at digging underground fortifications for defense. Combined with our new magical weapons, even if we engage in forest guerrilla warfare, I believe the demon lizardmen will not gain any advantage."

Everyone couldn't help but laugh out loud, making Egno, who was half elven, feel extremely embarrassed. Everyone knew that elves and dwarves had always been at odds with each other. If the two races were to join hands to fight foreign enemies, the thought of it would be both passionate and funny.

After stopping laughing, Harvey pointed to his base camp and continued, "So no matter what, the best option for the Lizardmen is to launch a major attack from the central part of the South. The frozen sea of ​​ice may seem out of reach, but it's actually the closest location to the central part of the Sacred Spine Mountains in terms of landing operations. If their main force relies on that huge super-giant floating island and goes ashore along the ice sea base... they only need to pass through a sparse community of evil orcs to successfully reach the foot of the Sacred Spine Mountains. And we... are the most prominent nail in the entire natural defense line." What's more, there is an unguarded gap in the terrain like the Great Rift of Isengard. Even if Spark City defends it to the death, there is no guarantee that the other party will not find out the situation and send a surprise force to penetrate the Great Rift into Isengard... By then, Spark City and the Grizzly County behind it will be in a state of being attacked from both sides in the true sense.

Harvey never believed that the mortal nobles of the southern countries were capable of facing such a powerful foreign invasion. If the upper echelons and leaders of the Demon Lizardmen were wise enough, they could even instigate or enslave these human compatriots who had no ability to resist, making them cannon fodder and turning around to kill each other with their own blood brothers.

This has happened before in the human race's history over the past thousands of years. When the demons crossed the Evil Moon Mountains and invaded the human kingdom, many of the feudal lords in the western border turned around and surrendered to the demons in order to save their own lives and family interests, and in turn helped them strangle their compatriots.

Duncan, who spoke last, pondered for a long time before abruptly saying, "Your Majesty, you seem to have forgotten the Church... Although they have completely withdrawn from the Evil Moon Mountains and recently suffered heavy losses in central China... the Holy City of Goris still retains a large number of Inquisitors, and their Battle Priests are as powerful as the Federation's Mage Chapter. Should we also consider them for alliance consideration?"

Yeah…and the church.

After suffering a series of blows inflicted by Harvey himself, the Church seemed to have been in a state of silence and retreat. From the fact that they took the initiative to send messengers to Harvey to request cooperation, it can be seen that the Holy See knew of the existence of the Demon Lizardmen from ancient traditions since its inception, and was also aware that the human race was defeated in the ethnic struggle in the center of the continent and was exiled and driven to the southern border to survive with difficulty... It was just that the Church's path of united resistance to the enemy went astray, and the sudden rise of the Federation resulted in it having no effect on rallying people's hearts, but instead causing frequent civil unrest in the southern countries.

But right now, it seems that the divisions and chaos within the church are probably not much better than those of the Federation... Even the Pope himself had to lower his status and send a priest of the Secret Prayer to try to use Harvey, an "outsider" who was born a spellcaster, to send troops to the Holy City of Goris to help him eliminate the out-of-control situation.

"The Church is a hopeless case... and I don't have the time to help them resolve their internal strife. These charlatans are far too optimistic, even more optimistic than those magical politicians in the Union. They have no idea how close the lizardmen's power has come to encroaching upon us, and they're still dreaming that they still have time to sort out their internal chaos."

Harvey shook his head and instructed Duncan, "Simplify the intelligence sent by the Federation and give it to the self-isolating Priest Garrett, the Mystic, who has been holed up in the city. He has his own way to contact His Holiness the Pope in the Holy City."

What to do next depends on whether Pope XIII truly follows the church's ancient promise to save the world.

……

Duncan, who had been assigned a task, had just left when the door to the castle's meeting room was slammed open.

Vaughn, who had just been promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of the Northern Army, walked in hurriedly, followed by a long list of senior intelligence officials.

Vaughn walked over to Harvey's desk, knelt on one knee, and said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, the Isengard expeditionary force has just sent back an urgent report that they have arrived at the Great Rift in the Godspine Mountains!"

(End of this chapter)