After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

Although I had met him a few times before, we had never had any in-depth cooperation.

Hope everything goes well.

With this thought in mind, Aize took out the emblem stained with the prince's blood.

The burly man's expression darkened, and he jumped up from his seat with a bang, causing the seat beneath him to tremble and nearly fall apart.

"This is His Royal Highness the Prince... What happened to His Royal Highness? What happened?!"

"He was attacked by the Undead and injured. I've arranged for him to be evacuated to the rear. He's fine, don't worry. General, he gave this to me before being evacuated as a symbol of handing over command of your legion. Time is urgent, and I need you and your men to act immediately. Any questions?"

Lysander did not reply immediately.

Instead, he reached out and picked up the small badge, holding it in his palm and looking at it for a few seconds.

"The glory of the royal family, the symbol of the empire, will only be passed on to trusted subjects or allies when stained with blood. Lord Aize, if you bring a badge that is not stained with blood, I am afraid I will be forced to treat you as an enemy."

"so?"

Lysander Heinlein's body slowly sank down, and he knelt on one knee in front of Ezer. He respectfully placed the badge in his palm and presented it to him:

"The token has been confirmed. All members of the Imperial Shield Corps await your command."

It went much more smoothly than expected.

That prince had indeed given him a token of such a high level that it was somewhat extraordinary.

"Then I won't be polite."

Aize took the badge and pinned it on the collar of his armor.

"General, gather all your men immediately and prepare for battle as quickly as possible. I'll tell you the details later. Anyway, give the orders first!"

"As you wish, my lord."

There was no question, no hesitation, no doubt. This order, which would never have been passed so easily anywhere else, was accepted with ease.

The entire station immediately became noisy.

Taking advantage of this time, Aize also gave Lysander a brief introduction of the situation.

Including the plans of the dead, the overall situation, and the responsibilities they need to bear in the next few days, etc.

After hearing this, the latter shook his head expressionlessly:

"Before the expedition began, Your Highness and I had discussed the demon clan's plan countless times, but each time we gave up due to a lack of evidence. Unexpectedly, these half-dead bastards had actually started preparing for it over two years ago."

"That's it."

Aize spread his hands.

"With such a powerful force at their disposal, there's so much they could do, yet they're just sitting here waiting for you to take the bait. They even waited until the advantage was reached and the situation became even, without even making a single move. Should we say they're so deeply afraid of the Empire that they can't sleep at night, or is this just the nature of the so-called Immortal Dynasty?"

"I believe it's the latter. The feud between the Immortal Dynasty and the Empire has been going on for hundreds of years."

"really."

As mentioned before, in this world's magic system, resurrection of the dead is an absolute taboo. Once it is carried out, it will inevitably be accompanied by a huge disaster.

This was the case with the recent incident in the royal capital.

The same is true if we look back a few hundred years.

The political landscape on the continent at that time was completely different from what it is now. Most of the territory of today's empires and kingdoms belonged to a country called the Republic of Augris.

The state once unified almost all human settlements on the continent and existed for nearly a thousand years.

About 500 years ago, the increasingly corrupt royal family members and some high-ranking nobles became obsessed with using magic to resurrect the dead and conduct research on immortality in order to keep themselves firmly in power.

As a result, the research was successful, but only half successful.

Their souls are indeed permanently bound to their bodies, but the decay of the body itself is inevitable, and they must rely on absorbing a large amount of the vitality of living people in order to survive.

This incident completely destroyed the already shaky foundation of the country, leading to the complete overthrow of Augris by a series of civil unrest and uprisings, and eventually forming the current pattern dominated by empires and kingdoms.

Those rulers who were no longer human fled to the demon clan before being liquidated, calling themselves the "Immortal Dynasty". They were filled with anger towards the current human countries and were ready to take back everything at any time.

The anger towards the empire is especially great.

Chapter 85 Speed ​​Run (1)

"Ever since the founding of the Empire by the First Emperor, His Majesty Saxony I, hundreds of years ago, these lingering creatures have been harassing the Empire's territory and people almost non-stop."

Lysander said calmly, leaning on a large war hammer.

"Before the war broke out a few years ago, they launched over ten attacks a year at most. These attacks served no military purpose, but were simply a way to vent their inexplicable anger... a bunch of bastards who should have been buried long ago."

"It's just a bunch of old losers going crazy. After all, their bodies are so rotten that they can't do anything normal people can do for fun. If they don't find someone to hate, then they must be crazy. Understand."

Aize crossed his arms, and the contempt in his words and eyes reached an extreme level.

Hundreds of years ago, on the eve of the destruction of the country, the corruption of Augris had reached its peak, but these guys were still living a life of drunkenness and debauchery all day long, exploiting the hard work of the people even more, and only knew how to enjoy themselves and study how to achieve immortality.

It can be said that the once powerful Augris was killed by these insects themselves, and they are undoubtedly the culprits.

As a result, for hundreds of years, apart from clamoring for revenge against the empire and humans, they never gave even a passing thought to this issue.

Just hate, hate, hate.

Not to mention that they were once humans and are now freaks. Although they nominally have a seat as one of the thirteen leaders, they are actually despised and looked down upon by almost all other races.

This huge contrast with his previous life further deepened his resentment.

As a result, it became what it is now.

The so-called eternal dynasty they claim to be is neither eternal nor a dynasty at all.

They are just a group of people who hate dogs and are hiding in a tomb to rot.

Aize looked down on this kind of thing from the bottom of his heart.

So, he raised his hand, smiled, and patted the shoulder of Lysander, who had done much more than him:

"So, this is a chance to wipe out the centuries-old debt inflicted on the Empire. Do your best, and the rest is up to you."

The tall imperial general bowed his head again.

The moment he touched the ground with his knees while fully armed and wearing two heavy shields, even the soil beneath his feet seemed to tremble.

"Rest assured, once preparations are complete, I will personally lead the first wave of the offensive. According to Lord Aize's plan, we will reclaim Lilbas in one fell swoop."

"Well, I leave it to you."

"But, Lady Rosalyn, is this really okay?"

Lysander stood up, his face mostly covered by the heavy visor, revealing a look of difficulty.

"I also know that the so-called Crusade Army is completely incapable of fighting, but with such a big thing happening, shouldn't I at least tell her?"

Rosaline did not attend the previous meeting, but ran to the front line before it started and joined the believers of the Pure White Saint Sect.

Currently, they are stationed not far from the Imperial Army.

In order to maximize efficiency and avoid any possible delays, Aize directly asked to leave this group of rabble aside and notify Rosaline after the city was captured.

It was normal for Lysander, who was confused, to think that this was an inappropriate approach.

Aize was quite firm in his attitude towards this and was unwilling to say more:

"Let's just do this. We'll talk about it after this is over. We don't have time to play missionary games with them right now."

To attack the city in such a short time, both micro-management and prediction must be maximized, and there is no extra brain capacity to be allocated to Rosaline.

So, let it hang for now.

Moreover, if the siege takes too long and the undead army approaches, their position can serve as a meat shield and delay the attack a little longer.

This way, if they win, she will have at least 0.3%... % of the credit, which is better than causing more trouble.

During the brief conversation, the empire's military forces had quickly assembled.

Originally, when they saw the signal flares fired by the dispersed alert troops, they had already realized that something big was happening and were making preparations.

That's why we can be ready to go within a few minutes.

This is certainly good news for Aize.

He nodded, looked at the moonlit night sky again, and then slowly raised his hand in the cool and invigorating evening breeze.

The target was not far away, the fortress city of Lilbas, standing at the pass of the mountains and surrounded by high walls.

"Imperial Shield Corps, begin the march!"

The first order after the war was officially issued.

----------

As the acting chieftain, Urdek Black Axe stood on the city wall of Lilbas, with a battle axe on his shoulder, reeking of alcohol, staring at the imperial army camp not far away, sighing continuously.

He had not had an easy time in the past few months.

As the chief of the Black Axe tribe, he followed the great chief Tal Sarago to attack Tafia, wanting to take advantage of the brave Aize's weakest moment to tear him into pieces and avenge his previous humiliation.

As a result, despite the orcs' huge advantage, they failed to achieve even a decent result. In the subsequent human counterattack, they even suffered a head-on blow that was even more severe than the previous one.

Not only was the family fortune that had been accumulated with great difficulty lost, but more than a dozen tribal chiefs, even the chief himself, died in the chaos.

Although he managed to escape with a few people, as the only survivor among the chiefs, he had to become Tal Sarago's agent.

He is called an agent, but in fact he is just a scapegoat.

Without the power of the Great Chief, without the armor and weapons of the Great Chief, he still has to take on the responsibility of helping the Great Chief clean up the mess.

For example, now, in order to defend the orcs' hard-won stronghold of Lilbas, even though the Empire and the brave Aize's troops are already at the gates of the city, he cannot run away and must stay here.

If that were all, it would be fine, after all, it is my duty.

The most disgusting thing is that the only reinforcements to be expected are the eerie and dark dead bones that have rebelled from the human side.

Under pressure from the Demon King himself, Urdek had no choice but to allow these disgusting guys to transform the remains of the orc warriors.

What about deceiving the enemy? Bah, disgusting.

Such an insult to the dead warriors, if Tal Sarago were still alive, he would have chopped these half-dead hellish creatures in half with an axe.

Because of this, Urdek's resentment towards Tal Sarago is growing day by day.

Speaking of revenge, is the hero Ai Ze a casual target? If it were that easy, wouldn't he have been killed on the battlefield long ago? Why would he wait until someone left the team before going after him?

Not only did he bring disaster upon himself, but he also dragged a large number of his brothers into the disaster, causing the entire mess and the blame to fall on him alone.

I really want to dig this thing out of the ground and give it a few good axe hits.

Of course, despite all the complaints, Urdek still did his best to fulfill his duties within the scope of his ability.

The Immortal Dynasty wanted to encircle and kill the Imperial Army in the central mountains around Lierbas, where Lierbas became the most critical barrier.

"The humans might choose to attack the city when they're desperate. If you, Acting Chief, hold out for five days, we can strangle all the elite troops of the empire, including that annoying little prince, to death in this mountain."

This is what the representative sent by the undead said at the previous meeting.

Urdek therefore prepared himself as best he could.

Not only did he gather all the remaining available orc combat forces and make careful deployments, he also kidnapped a large number of the remaining human residents in the city to serve as hostages.

In addition, they occupied a fortress city within a fortress city like Lilbas, and had a tidal wave of undead troops supporting them from the outside. It should have been a very easy task to hold out for five days.

However, this was not enough to reassure it.

The name of the brave Aize is no different from a horror story in the orc tribe. It is easy for him to scare a few crying kids at night.

Not to mention Prince Adrian of Saxony, and humanity's strongest man, the human iron wall Lysander Heinlein, and the entire Royal Guard Corps that was mobilized in full force.

Just these few names put together and placed in front of him are enough to scare any orc boy to death and make him run away crying.

Even Urdek himself didn't dare to think too much.

Because the more I think about it, the more I am afraid.

Even now.

Judging from the time, the undead should have launched an attack, and the imperial army facing the city should have taken action as well.

Should we choose to retreat and break out, or split up our forces to rescue friendly forces outside, or...

"Report! Report to the Acting Chief!"