Chapter 682: Volcano

Considering the rather long distance between the Mist Kingdom and Sharal, and that our army on the way to reinforce Sharal was stalled multiple times by beast ambushes, I already expected what I would see when I finally arrived in Sharal.

“…What a majestic scene…”

In the distance, I could see an erupting volcano. Large amounts of volcanic gases and ash mixed together to form a dense gray smoke. Even through all the smoke and dust, it was easy to see the shiny flames spewing from the volcano as magma slowly poured out and baked the ground.

The powerful eruptions caused the ash to reach all the way to the stratosphere. The larger chunks of ash would fall down with the force of meteors. Even from such a great distance, we could sense the majestic force of nature.

But, no matter what had been there originally, it was likely that nothing remained alive.

“The Sharal Autonomous Region is finished…”

We had been delayed by ambushes more than 10 times on the way. Yet, all the ambushing beasts added together hadn’t been as numerous as the first beast ambush. It was evident that the later ambushes were only meant to stall us. But, if those beast ambushes were all we had to deal with, we should have arrived last night already, before that volcano was awakened.

However, the devils took advantage of the snowy, mountainous terrain and created several avalanches and blew up two bridges, forcing us to take longer paths around. This was a typical devil tactic—using any means to achieve their ends without even giving you a chance to directly fight them.

When our army was repeatedly stalled, we already mentally prepared for the worst. The end result was seeing this volcanic eruption before us…

“Kakagar, I shall be sure to burn some incense for you on your death anniversary next year.”

“…So volcanoes really erupted here. Roland Jinxer, how do you feel?”

[Ding! You have received the title ‘Roland Jinxer’. Equipping this title will allow you to use mega long distance karma attacks, but limited only to ‘I think it’ll be quite good if it doesn’t start a fire’, ‘This volcano definitely won’t erupt’, and other such special attacks.]

I helplessly gazed at the sky. This clearly wasn’t because of me jinxing things. This was all clearly because of our enemy’s scheme which successfully slowed us down at every step. How could this be the fault of me jinxing things!

“…Kakagar, rest in peace. Although you did skim off a little too much money for yourself over the past few years, since you’re still a descendant of the Mist, I shall take revenge for you—”

“Kakagar isn’t dead. Our people have already located him. Although he’s in rather wretched condition, he’s still quite energetic.”

I had just wanted to say a few words in mourning to set the atmosphere, yet I was awkwardly interrupted midway. The scary volcanic scene in the distance made me feel that it was quite unlikely for anyone to survive.

“How did they survive?”

“…They were originally prepared for death already, but last night, the beast stampede voluntarily opened up a path for them to leave. Someone even shouted that they were allowed to leave, so the result was that everyone really did leave the castle in a single night.”

I was astounded to hear this. Something like this was possible?

“Wait a moment, this means that the beast stampede spared them… No, it also means that if they defended with all their might, they could have persisted until we arrived?”

“When calculating the time, yes, they could have persisted until we arrived. It seems that our impending arrival was the main reason why the enemy spared them.”

I was rendered somewhat speechless. It seemed that our hurrying here as quickly as possible had indeed been useful, after all. At the very least, the illusion face devils controlling the beast stampede had feared our arrival, thus sparing the people of Sharal ¹ so that they could take control over this territory faster.

And with my understanding of Kakagar’s personality, it seemed likely that he wouldn’t hesitate one bit when grabbing at this chance to have his life spared, even if he could guess that reinforcements would soon arrive.

“Forget it, no use crying over spilled milk. It’s good that at least most are still alive. Is that fat sly fox still doing well? Is he all depressed from going bankrupt?”

The government official’s expression became rather strange before he finally gave me the answer.

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“Not at all. When he met our scouts, his first words were ‘Bless the Goddess of Wealth. It seems that I’ll have to change my business to volcano tourism in the future. I hope that I’ll be able to recoup all the money I lost eventually’.”

“Paha! He’s still thinking about making money!”

Everyone around me broke out into laughter at hearing this, slightly livening up the atmosphere.

I could only shake my head and exclaim. Eight years ago, when I had first met Kakagar, he had been a leader and strategist with great foresight. But after only several years of doing business, he had completely transformed into a bona fide merchant.

Still, no matter what, it was good that most of the people of Sharal were alright. My people were also starting to remove their thick winter clothing. It would seem that the weather in this area would undergo a major change. In fact, it indeed seemed possible that volcano tourism might be popular here in the frigid Northlands.

“Wagggh!”

But at this moment, angry roars from vicious beasts caught our attention.

Our aerial knights brought us back images of gigantic fire beasts walking out of the volcano. Countless mid-sized and small fire elemental creatures were also jumping out of the nearby magma. It would seem that the Fire Elemental Plane Dimensional Door had already been opened up here, giving us great trouble.

“Let’s establish a defense line first. Sigh, it’s impossible to get some free time around here…”

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We had already finished arranging the work for saving any Sharal survivors. Due to certain reasons, the Mist Kingdom’s warriors were already quite used to saving others from calamity.

Our arrival evidently gave the mastermind behind the scenes a significant amount of pressure. They gave up on the plan to annihilate Sharal. Although the Sharal Autonomous Region was indeed finished, the death inflicted upon Sharal’s population was still within acceptable limits.

And when the furious fire elementals arrived, the first to fight against them weren’t actually the humans, but rather the beast stampede that still remained here.

The moment that the volcano erupted, the Northlands beasts which instinctively feared fire broke free from the illusion face devils’ control. If it hadn’t been for the illusion face devils’ speedy escape, they would have likely instantly become food for their former subordinates.

The beast stampede was constantly split up by the flames, and then trapped in a desperate situation, surrounded by fire. It would seem that we would no longer need to worry about a beast stampede again next year.

In a way, due to the devils’ manipulations, the entire beast stampede became a sacrifice to open up the Dimensional Door.

As combat strength in all of the Northlands constantly increased, the beast stampede had become less and less of a problem. Since the beasts acted only on instinct rather than intelligence, it would be quite easy to deal with them as long as one knew the correct methods. No proper army would need to fear the beasts. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Sharal Autonomous Region had weakened itself ridiculously, they should have been able to deal with the beast stampede as well.

But while the beast stampede would be easy to deal with, an elemental invasion would be another matter entirely. The beast stampede would have no order or logic, but the elemental invasion would be an attack by an army led by Elemental Lords.

“Throw out a forbidden spell?”

“Stop joking like that. I’m in no condition to cast a forbidden spell yet. Besides, even a forbidden spell might not be of any use here.”

Looking at the volcano before us, I regretfully abandoned my desire to cast a forbidden spell here. It was so tempting to cast Ice Aeon here when the enemy’s foundation was still unsteady so that I could grind some points. Unfortunately, in my current condition, not only would it be impossible for me to cast a forbidden spell, even ice magic at five circles or above would be impossible for me to cast. And even if the enemy was idiotic enough to allow me to incant a forbidden spell for several days here, just putting out this fire before me would be meaningless.

The Fire Elemental Plane Dimensional Door would definitely be located at the place where the flames were the strongest. That would likely be the deepest part of the volcano. Even if my forbidden spell extinguished these flames, that would only be a temporary solution, just like with the demon wave. Without cutting off the Dimensional Door itself, the elemental creatures would keep arriving endlessly.

This was the biggest headache of the Holy War. Before the Holy War started, there would be many dimensional restrictions on opening up a Dimensional Door in the mortal plane. Any teleportation would require a price. But now, as long as a Dimensional Door was opened, it would be almost impossible to close it. Teleporting here would be as simple as visiting one’s neighbor next door. It would be quite easy for an ordinary small battlefield to suddenly become a meat grinder, a grueling war of attrition.

“Perhaps this is the devils’ overall goal. Maybe they want to borrow the power of the Fire Elemental Plane to stall us here…”

The devils were realizing each of their schemes. Some things weren’t that hard to guess at. One would have to pay a large price in order to deal with the Mist Alliance which was growing ever more powerful. However, the residents of the lower planes evidently didn’t want to have a direct fight against us right now. Still, the devils’ favorite tactic was to find a third party to give their enemy trouble.

The flames in the distance kept roaring higher and higher. The Dimensional Door was wide open, allowing the power of the Fire Elemental Plane to enter. The rapidly increasing temperature hinted at the change in the local environment. The explosive-tempered fire elementals didn’t show any signs of leaving the volcano. They were also gathering power, preparing for the upcoming elemental battle.

“It would seem that we need a solid defense line… Reyne, go summon the leaders of the countries in the Mist Alliance. Don’t forget to also notify the Great Snow Mountain Magical Realm and the Contract Hero guild. We need to have a good discussion. Even if we don’t go looking for trouble with the Chaos Faction, they’ll stir up some trouble for us.”