Chapter 258 - Dendera Fortress (1/2)
After leaving the forest, what entered their sight was a basin that extended diagonally downward. The bottom of the basin was flat, and a wide river meandered through the basin, nourishing the lush plants along the two shores of the river.
On this lush grassland, they could see groups of animals running, especially the wild pegasi. Their white bodies were like flowing white lines as they galloped on the grassland. When they were tired from running, the pegasi would collectively spread their wings and fly into the sky, occupying a large area of airspace, frightening the lone wild griffins to hurry out of the way and roar angrily at them in protest.
Some low fruit trees lay scattered on this grassland. The fruits growing on the trees attracted some small animals to come and eat. At the same time, these small animals also attracted the attacks and ambushes of carnivores. On the banks of the river, numerous large animals such as antelopes and bison were drinking water. They were carefully vigilant of the crocodiles that might exist in the river, and they would raise their heads to observe their surroundings every drink.
Countless flying insects, butterflies, and bees were flying above the flowers in the grass. Once other animals passed by, they would be startled…
This place was full of life. Roy and the others, who had just walked out of the Desert of Death, looked at this scene in surprise.
“This place isn’t bad!” Roy said. “I can’t tell that it’s a border zone at all.”
“Master, the fortress is there!” Cassandra had already landed and pointed in front. “It’s just along the river.”
Roy looked up and saw the meandering river extending forward. After crossing the grassland, it gradually converged into a spacious canyon. Both sides of this canyon were cliffs, and on a cliff was an enormous city!
The fortress was at least tens of kilometers away, so it looked quite small. But Roy evaluated that it was a large city that could accommodate about a hundred thousand people. Even from here, he could see the tall and smooth city wall surrounding the city. If this city was about a hundred meters from the foundation to the top of the city, then the city wall surrounding the city was at least fifty meters tall!
This fortress built on the cliff was tantamount to tightly guarding the entrance of the canyon, and it would discover any ground troops that wanted to go through the canyon to Eeofol. In the sky above the fortress city, Roy saw countless densely packed black dots flying. They were the stone gargoyles that were unceasingly patrolling day and night and a small number of griffins and green dragons. However, judging from the main direction the city wall was facing, Roy found that this fortress was mostly aimed at the interior of the canyon, meaning that it was to guard against those coming out. It seemed that after the demon army established a foothold in Eeofol, the various races on the continent were really tense, afraid that the demons would rush out again.
After observing for a while, Roy found that the flying troops flying above the fortress were changing regularly, indicating that the fortress was only performing routine patrols. The elven rangers they killed in the forest did not send the information back to the fortress. Otherwise, it might not have been like this.
Roy sensed the locations of the Demon Eyes he had released earlier and found that they were already near the fortress and on standby.
“This is Dendera, a fortress city of the kingdom of Bracada!” Giovanni introduced. “The elven fortress Aglan is at the other end of the canyon. Both fortresses are large fortress cities with more than a hundred thousand people. Even if the demon army wants to fight, it will have to pay an immense price. Pardon my frankness, Your Excellency Osiris. It may not be a good idea to attack directly.”
“I’m not stupid!” Roy glared at Giovanni. “Why don’t you take a look at how many troops I have? I haven’t even seen the vampire troops you promised to support me with yet. Would I use such a small amount of troops to attack this kind of fortified city?”
After being rebuked by Roy, Giovanni shut up bitterly. Julia asked, “Then, what are you going to do? Do you plan on having the dark snow fall again?”
Roy shook his head. “It’s useless. It’s different from using it in the forest. There must be many mages in the fortress city. Once the dark snow falls, they will immediately find that something’s wrong. At that time, those mages will have ways to eliminate the snow. This way, not only will it not be of any use, but it will instead expose us.”
Julia understood what Roy was saying, but she really could not think of a way to conquer this fortress city. Even though Roy was powerful enough, Julia was also a high-rank demon, and Fat Tiger, Giovanni, and Cassandra were assisting, they were at a loss when facing such an overwhelming number of troops.
“Why don’t we build a summoning formation here first?!” Julia suggested. “Open a Gate of the Abyss. Even if it’s a little crude, we can summon many demons.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll definitely summon a demon army. But when we summon one, it’s best to make a large Gate of the Abyss!” Roy grinned sinisterly. “But not now. Wait until we have a stronghold. We’ll use the demon army to deal with Xeron! Now, I have a better way to attack this fortress.”
Seeing that Roy was so confident, Julia did not ask further. Roy first controlled the invisible Demon Eyes to approach Dendera Fortress carefully and investigate at close range.
In fact, with Roy’s current quasi-lord-level power, it was not impossible for him to destroy this fortress city alone. But it was foreseeable that there would definitely be many heroes stationed in this fortress. The low-level troops would not be a problem, but high-level combat forces such as green dragons and titans would probably cause Roy a lot of trouble under the leadership of the heroes.
When he fought against Arantir, Roy realized that those who could be called heroes in the Ashan world were basically not weaker than ordinary high-rank demons. Some famous heroes with outstanding military exploits were even stronger than high-rank demons. No matter how strong Roy was, he might have an accident if he was not careful.