Perhaps there had been invading forces in such a massive scale during the Mythological Era, but for White Flame who was only born in modern times, she could not imagine the wars that happened thousands of years ago. For now, she was witnessing the kind of alien army that Hao Ren could summon.
The huge spatial rift looked like a broken lightning bolt, which had plunged into the vast expanse of the Arctic. Hundreds of glaring electric lights were jumping around in the rift. Unstable energy was bursting between the spatial rift and the summoning circle. It looked as though the gods of ancient times were ravaging the icy plain. Demons, as well as other races, swarmed out of the spatial rift, and the ice sheet trembled under their heavy footsteps like was about to break apart.
It was not the first time the alien army had conducted a cross-world combat mission through a summoned portal. They knew the surrounding terrain, as immediately after they exited the spatial rift, they quickly reorganized themselves into their formation. They moved away from the portal in a seemingly disorganized but efficient manner to leave room for those coming from behind. Those who had come out of the gateway still maintained real-time contact with the troops on the other side of the spatial rift to avoid traffic congestion and a possible deadly stampede if things went wrong.
White Flame observed all of this. When she finally recovered from the shock, White Flame asked, "Do they often cross the portal like this and attack others?"
She was cautious not to use the word "invade."
"Do you think that I'm a villain who has nothing better to do but launch invasions through the dark portal?" Hao Ren's arms crossed as he glanced at White Flame. "There's a reason for that—their homeworld's fragmented, and portals are the most common form of transportation. This army is used to such battle tactics," Hao Ren said.
"I'm too ignorant," White Fire lamented. "In that case, this army should be able to do the job."
Hao Ren and his teammates were now standing on the high ground outside the portal area. Half of the land was leveled during the explosion of the portal. Now, it was just right to use as an observation point. Y'zaks stood on the edge of the high ground. Looking down at his army that came out of the spatial rift, he seemingly recalled those eventful years when he launched wars to conquer the worlds. The old demon's face could not help but burst into a smile. "These guys look very excited," he said.
Nangong Sanba, who had been silent all this while, suddenly said, "Y'zaks, there's something that I'm not sure if I should say."
"Just say it!"
"Don't you think the flame demons will soon have a problem?" Nangong Sanba raised his hand and pointed ar the demonic army. "They're going to melt the ice sheet and sink into the Arctic Ocean," he said.
Hao Ren turned and looked in their direction. He could see a massive flash of flame shrouded in thick fog at the flanks of the demonic army. At first, he thought it was their secret weapon, and it looked freaking awesome. But Nangong Sanba had pointed out that it was the flame demon squadron and, the fog was steam from the vaporized ice.
"Don't worry," Y'zaks replied, appearing unworried at all. "I've got it all sorted out."
Sure enough, when the heat from the flame demons was just about to melt the ice completely, a group of charming elven girls and boys emerged from behind. These elves were the ones who dealt with "topographical adaptation." They came up and summoned a couple of hundred polar storms. As the elves hit the flame demons with the polar storm, their flames instantly died out.
"Very few flame demons can control their flames at will like my papa," Y'lisabet said proudly. "Most flame demons don't even study shapeshifting magic. My papa studied it because he was tackling my mama that time," she said.
Hao Ren looked up at Y'zaks and sighed. "Hmm, it seemed your papa was also a romantic person, eh?"
Joking aside, he had learned something new. Ordinary people would only watch and be awed when the war of magic broke out. But only those at the scene could truly notice the details. Demons liked to exert their power, but most of them could not precisely control it. Freezing temperature would restrict the action of flame demons, but if maneuvering on ice sheets were unavoidable, magicians needed to come in to manage their heat. The demon king had learned to disguise himself not to blend in but for a romantic reason. But Y'zaks' success was not because of his charm but more like the other party had an aesthetic-perception problem.
It seemed like strange knowledge, but that did not matter.
Once the army began to settle in, Hao Ren suddenly saw a shadow flying out of the coalition before landing in front of Y'zaks in the blink of an eye. The shadow was a tall and attractive demoness. She had the perfect S-figure, a dark complexion, a pair of unforgettably seductive, lavender-colored lips, and mesmerizing eyes.
Hao Ren recognized her; it was too hard for him not to remember the demoness: she was the only frigid succubus in history.
The military adviser saluted Y'zaks. "My King, as per your command, your army has arrived on this planet," she said.
"Ah, Lanina! It's been a long time!" Y'lisabet jumped out. "Your horns look beautiful again!" she said.
Lanina smiled and touched Y'lisabet's little horns as she said, "My Little Princess, yours too."
Hao Ren had a hard time understanding their content of exchange.
Hao Ren stood at the side and overlooked the demonic army gathering on the ice sheet. "Is this all of the 100,000 soldiers?" he asked.
"Of course not," Lanina replied. She did not deride Hao Ren's lack of military common sense. Instead, she bluntly explained to Hao Ren, "Only a few thousand have crossed the portal. There will be more to come until the portal closes today."
Y'zaks nodded and asked White Flame to explain the current situation to Lanina. Hao Ren looked in the direction where Coldfrost Citadel was alleged to be. Nothing was obstructing his view of the vast ice sheet, and he found nothing unusual. Like other secret realms, Coldfrost Citadel was invisible to the naked eye.
But on the other hand, the demon hunters in Coldfrost Citadel should have detected their movements there. White Flame had given the demon hunters in Coldfrost Citadel a heads-up on the arrival of reinforcements. Those in the fortress were prepared.
While he was in deep thought, Hao Ren saw three meteors suddenly sweeping across the sky and falling in the direction of Coldfrost Citadel.
White Flame saw it too. "Three stars... It's a signal from the fortress guard," she said.
"We'll go first," Hao Ren said, nodding to Lanina. "You lead the troops and follow from a distance; the demon hunters have never seen the demonic coalition before; they could freak out and overreact. Let me say hello to them first," he said.
Lanina nodded back. She was steady and composed. "Understood," she said.
"Take care of those ember kids, don't let them stray from the formation. This ice sheet is exceptional; we should not leave any traces behind. Follow the planned route exactly," Y'zaks reminded.
Hao Ren and his team left, leaving the army to Lanina. They headed straight in the direction of Coldfrost Citadel under cover of the night.
After driving a certain distance, White Flame took out a special Letta rune card from under her cloak. The card contained abstract pictures of stars and a citadel in addition to the complex Letta script. She ignited the card with her sacred flame, but the card did not burn. Instead, the citadel pattern on the card seemed to absorb the fire and gradually brighten up.
As the card lit up, the scene in front of Hao Ren's eyes transformed.