Whenever the citizens of Dragon City saw those golden wings unfurl, their minds would involuntarily recall the events that transpired three months prior. The very day when the titanic, nigh-omnipotent dragon descended upon the city and razed it to the ground before infusing within it new life.
The soldiers humbly retracted their gazes and looked at the ground in deference.
Although the lord’s appearance was different from when he patrolled the city, even the most ordinary mortals knew to not directly look at a deity’s face.
Mighty Gods had thousands of different faces. Each of which represented a kind of power, authority, and unreal might.
Although their lord was only a demigod, that status alone was enough to distinguish him from countless other beings.
Louie came out of his lair and spread open his wings. With just a few flaps of his wings, he reached the edge of the city. He remained aloft over the city’s shambling walls, choosing to gaze at them.
He had not fixed the walls so far because he had plans to expand the city. And with the current state of affairs, it was not yet time to expand the territory.
Thus the walls had remained short and inconsistent with the city’s requirements. Louie chose not to land on them as he felt it would detract from his image. Instead, still aloft in the sky, he glided over to the thousand-strong army below. Ever since mastering the magic branch of the godhood within himself, he could use the spell [Reverse Gravity] to hover in the air with ease.
There were three hundred beastmen warriors acting as the main force, three hundred elven archers acting as long-range suppression, and three hundred human soldiers acting as support due to their insufficient training.
Louie thought that if they returned alive from this battle, each one of them would become real warriors. At that time, he could give them promotions to lead the rest of the human soldiers.
Other than the army, Louie had also called upon the elven druids. There were about a dozen of them of low rank. The strongest was only about the fifth rank.
It was said that there was a druid sect in the Forest of the Moon, and all the high-ranking druids were members of it. But the queen of the Silver Moon Kingdom was not obliged to send that kind of high-ranking druid to guard Dragon City. If he was in her shoes, Louie would do the same either.
‘At the very least I have a legendary rank ranger with me, and that’s enough.’
Louie looked at Sisna who was kneeling on one knee and smiled.
Additionally, there were also several priests. Their job was to save the wounded. These responsibilities slightly overlapped with the druids.
As a lord, Louie did not need to form small teams to explore like those adventurers. When heading towards mysterious secret realms like the Shadow Realm, he would naturally gather his troops to probe.
Louie looked down at the group of soldiers. He initially wanted to do a pre-battle speech to raise morale, but after thinking a bit, speaking in a long-winded manner did not match with his image. Therefore, he just looked at them from the skies and spoke in a majestic voice, “Set off!”
The army remained silent and calm. This was the result of their training. Even those beastmen who loved to wail had tense expressions. After inspecting their things, they began to move under the command of the officer.
The team of a thousand people marched quietly and neatly. Louie nodded in satisfaction at their army-like appearance. Modern army training methods had their merits.
After an hour of quick marching, the legion arrived at the cave that Lysfer had found earlier.
“Milord, this is the place.”
Louie stood on top of an ice mountain. The cold air and snow blew. The temperature that was enough to freeze people was nothing for a dragon. To Louie, this was the same as a cool breeze.
Lysfer stood beside Louie and pointed at the cave entrance.
The army lined up in front of the entrance and prepared to counterattack in case any monster came out of the cave.
Louie observed that the mouth of the cave was so large that even his body could fit inside. After grasping the divine authority of magic, he was very sensitive to spells and could sense the faint aura of shadows from within the cave.
“From my perception, this path to the Shadow Realm did not open spontaneously but rather shows signs of artificial creation. This is a trap that someone purposely set against me after I became the lord of Dragon City. Luckily, we had found this in time. I agree with your second point. Plotting against a demigod dragon is not easy, so this trap should not be as simple as it seems. But we must still be careful. Let me see what secrets are in there.”
Sisna, are there any strong monster tribes near Dragon City?” Louie asked Sisna. As a thousand-year-old ranger, in addition to the closeness of the Forest of the Moon to Dragon City, she must know more about the history of the city.
Sisna thought for a moment and answered, “A long time ago, there was a tribe of frost giants living close by. There were also brown bears, ogres, ice bats, and many other monsters. Whenever the city changed hands, the rulers would always clean up the nearby monsters. They should have already hidden far away from the city and into the deep mountains of San Soliel. This Shadow Realm should have nothing to do with them.”
“I see…”
Louie nodded his head and directly informed everyone using the [Echo] spell, “Big bear, second bear, take a group of beastmen to scout the way first. Sisna, you go with them.”
The bear brothers who were called ‘big bear and second bear’ were stunned. They wanted to retort that they had names, but after looking at the dragon’s pupils, they didn’t dare speak. With their abundant battle experience, they called some agile leopard-men scouts and walked in together with Sisna.
With a legendary rank powerhouse with them, they wouldn’t be in too much danger unless there was a powerful legendary mage hiding in the Shadow Realm.
Soon, a beastman came out and reported, “Milord, the path connecting the realms is safe. There is no danger inside.”
After receiving the information, Louie immediately roared, “Soldiers of Dragon City, forward!”
“Shwing”
Everyone stopped their counterattack stances and pulled out their weapons as they entered the cave at an orderly pace.
Louie was vaguely excited. Ever since he came to San Soliel, he had been developing the city for more than a month. Now, he finally found a chance to conduct a raid like in those novels.