Cage Mountain, command post.
“Commander, another piece of identical information…” Joker walked to Hill Fawkes with a piece of paper.
Even though years had passed, the original circus troupe members still habitually called him Commander.
“Where did it come from?” Hill took the paper and scanned it. “Can it be traced back to the source?”
“The messenger was released from the southern part of the Eternal Winter. There are three cities there. Other than that, there are no other clues on the sealing ring.”
Hill frowned and pondered for a moment, then suddenly stood up. “Help me inform Iron Axe and Lady Ediths, we may be in trouble.”
……
Fifteen minutes later.
Ediths put down the information and gently tapped the table. “…So, this is happening simultaneously across the Eternal Winter?”
Hill nodded. “Although we can’t confirm exactly which cities are carrying out this order, judging from the distribution of information, it’s no exaggeration to say it’s a unified movement.”
In the past few days, the intelligence department had successively received several secret letters with similar content.
The letters showed that the nobles were forcibly migrating local residents.
And their direction of movement was all northward.
The similarity was so consistent, yet the information came from different regions, making it almost impossible to be misinformation or fabrication. In other words, the nobles of the Eternal Winter were launching a unified action.
Although the secret letters simply mentioned the word “migration,” it was by no means a trivial matter. The carrying capacity of a city has its limits, and too few or too many people can lead to its paralysis. And there are even more things to consider on the migration road, such as food for people to eat, temporary housing, carried property, and so on… Winterless City was definitely deeply aware of this. It could even be said that the cities ruled by the old nobles simply did not have the ability to complete a large-scale migration. Without strong strength and resources to support it, the so-called migration was just a road to death.
Indeed, most nobles did not care about the life and death of civilians, but that was only when civilians were “individuals.” The lord’s tax revenue and rule were inseparable from the civilian group. If there was no one under their rule, even the most powerful power would be meaningless. Once these civilians find that they cannot benefit from the migration, they will inevitably lose all their hearts. What’s more, gathering a large number of people together easily leads to riots, so even the most tyrannical and arrogant nobles would not easily do such an amazing thing.
But now, it’s not just one noble doing this, but the entire north is doing it, which clearly means they were instructed by other forces.
In the Eternal Winter Kingdom, only the devils have the ability to do this.
“But why are the devils doing this?” Ediths wondered to herself, “If they just want to weaken the war potential of Graycastle, they can just kill all the civilians… With the Spider Devils, the nobles wouldn’t be able to stop it even if they didn’t want to.”
“Perhaps the devils think… they are still useful.” Dawn tried to speculate.
“If they’re useful, they shouldn’t be forcibly migrated,” Hill shook his head. “The Eternal Winter has the fewest big cities among the four kingdoms. Even the capital can only accommodate twenty or thirty thousand people without prior preparation, not to mention that their migration route does not take the capital as the endpoint.”
“The northernmost big city is…” Ediths looked at the map.
“Snow Reflection Fortress, backed by the source of the Endless Mountains, is only half the size of the capital.” Feline immediately added relevant information. “Due to its unique terrain, the permanent population is even lower, and it is also the first place where the Red Mist appeared.”
“If the devils plan to move everyone there, it’s no different from killing them directly,” Hill said.
“And the enemy will never do something unnecessary,” Ediths nodded in agreement. “I think there must be a change we haven’t noticed that led the devils to take this seemingly inexplicable action.”
“What could that change be?” Iron Axe asked.
“I don’t know…” Ediths said slowly, “But it shouldn’t be good news. Inform the front lines and tell them to be more vigilant.”
……
“This red cloud… Could it be the location of the devil obelisk?” Tilly murmured.
“No,” Lightning replied solemnly, “At this distance, we shouldn’t be able to see the Red Mist…”
“Can’t see it? Why?”
“Because the Red Mist flows downwards, goo!” Maisie answered her, “I’ve seen the mist pouring down from the edge of the Endless Mountain peaks, like a waterfall, goo!”
“That’s right, I don’t know if it’s because the Red Mist is heavier than air that makes it easier to gather at low altitudes, but one thing is certain: when the Red Mist invaded the Eternal Winter Kingdom from the spine of the continent, the mountain peaks were not red.” Lightning added.
“You mean they flowed down along the mountain valleys back then?” Tilly raised an eyebrow.
That’s why she said she couldn’t see the Red Mist at this distance—now they were hundreds of kilometers away from the continent’s highest mountain range. If the Red Mist didn’t rise, it would inevitably be blocked by the towering peaks.
“Not only that,” Lightning affirmed, “A month ago, I patrolled north along the Endless Mountains and approached the edge of the Red Mist area, but there was no red cloud on the spine of the continent at that time. It… doesn’t seem to rise from the Great Rift Valley.”
Tilly couldn’t help but feel a chill rising up her spine. She also gradually noticed that the red color on the mountain peaks was not a thin layer, but a whole from top to bottom. To be more precise, it was like a huge cloud column pouring down from the clouds.
She stared at the anomaly in front of her and remained silent for a long time before saying, “There is a way that might allow us to see it more clearly.”
Lightning looked up at the dense clouds overhead. “I think so too.”
The higher you fly, the farther you can see.
As long as they could bring the spine of the continent into view, they might be able to see the true face of the red cloud.
“In that case, let’s give it a try—” Tilly once again pushed the throttle to the maximum, pulled up the nose and climbed into the clouds, while Lightning followed closely beside the cockpit, trying to cover Tilly with magic synchronization as much as possible.
Under their cooperation, the altimeter pointer on the Phoenix slowly deflected towards the end.
When they rose to an altitude of 7,500 meters, the ground had already presented a clear arc, the dark clouds became fragmented instead of a whole piece, and a faint blue appeared at the edge of the earth.
Lightning’s forehead was covered with dense sweat. Obviously, the high altitude also put a lot of burden on her synchronization barrier. Through the glass window, Tilly found that the fuselage was covered with patches of white frost. If it weren’t for the other party constantly using magic synchronization to reduce her discomfort, she probably wouldn’t be able to focus on flying the plane like she was now.
“That’s about it,” Tilly could clearly feel the engine thrust weakening rapidly. “Let’s find a gap here.”
“Leave it to me, goo!” Maisie poked her head out and switched to eagle-eye mode.
In about half a quarter of an hour, she found an excellent viewing point—from the gap where the clouds overlapped, she could just see a small section of the distant spine of the continent.
However, when the scene above the Red Mist was reflected in the bottom of the spyglass, the three of them could hardly believe their eyes.
They saw a floating land.