Chapter 680 – Protecting the Homeland
Wei Gan was a Dark Mage who had lived in Demon City for a long time. He wasn't from the Calci Family, once can say that he had nothing to do with the Calci Family at all. However, one shouldn't think that he's just a simple character. More than a thousand years ago, Wei Gan's ancestors were formidable Mages of a huge empire, their family even held the title of a Duke.
However, it was just a pity that the Empire that his family held loyalty to was extinguished by the Lyon Empire. Since their family were loyalists to their Empire, the Lyon Empire took their title away. Moreover, they were also suppressed everywhere. In the end, their family couldn't endure it anymore and ran away to Demon City.
In every empire, there would always be a place where the strongest people gather. Take the Lyon Empire, for example, formidable characters would flock towards the town on the foot of Accra Mountain. For the Buddha Empire, that place was Demon City. Demon City was very suitable for Dark Mages to live in. Therefore, the Gan Family decided to settle down here. And even if Demon City was inside the Buddha Empire, the Empire's power was actually weak here This made it possible for the family to find their place.
However, Demon City was just unsafe to begin with. About some hundreds of years ago, a dark creatures and undead suddenly ran out of the Demonic Abyss and made a large scale attack on Demon City. The city was close to being overwhelmed, and even if the defense was successful, a lot of Dark Mages had fallen in the process. At that time, the Gan Family wasn't spared form the losses. In the end, the family didn't manage to stabilize their footing and slowly lost its power over time.
In the current time, the Gan Family was reduced to a few dozen Dark Mages. But even so, Adventurers and other Dark Mages still didn't dare to underestimate them. Because of the Gan Family's long history, their dark magic spells were quite formidable. And most importantly, the Gan Family had always treated the Demon City as their home, greeting everyone in the city as though they were family members. Every single inhabitant of the city was very respectful towards the family. If ever some kind of conflict arises, the Gan family would even be asked to mediate.
Wei Gan was only an ordinary Dark Mage in the family. He wasn't the Patriarch nor was he the successor. He was just any ordinary Dark Mage.
The Buddha Empire had already told the city about what would happen. At the same time, the Empire had also started to gather up some troops and sent them here. They also invited the Adventurers, Dark Mages, and Dark Mage families to stay and defend the city together.
This was where the Gan Family didn't disappoint the Buddha Empire. They were the first ones to lobby the Adventurers and Dark Mages to stay inside the City and help with the defense. In the end, the majority of the strength of the City remained.
Not only this, the Gan Family also sent their members in order to help the army guard and patrol the walls. Because of the Dark Mages' sensitivity to the dark element, the patrol went very smoothly, saving the army a lot of effort.
One could say that Demon City's topography was very strange. When constructing Demon City, the main goal of its infrastructure was to defend against the Demonic Abyss. As for the Demonic Abyss, since it had the word 'abyss' in its name, then it was no wonder that it was very deep. As to how deep? Nobody knows. Everybody who came to deeply explore the area weren't able to return to tell the tale.
So how big was the Demonic Abyss? If one were to look, the Abyss appeared just like a giant crack in the world ten thousand li(.5km) long, with the widest opening spanning more than 2000 li. There was also a gentle slope on the ground just outside Demon City, the other places were steep cliffs where magic beasts weren't able to crawl on. Most importantly, a dark mist covers the Demonic Abyss all year round, making people unable to clearly see anything.
It was precisely because of this that Demon City existed. If one were to speak about the continent's oldest cities, then Demon City would surely be up there. It was even said that the city had existed for as long as the Demonic Abyss itself. But in any case, whenever war erupts in the continent, almost nobody came to touch Demon City. This was because the city didn't have regular armies defending it. Most who were inside the city were Adventurers, Mercenaries, and Dark Mages. This made the city something that looks like it didn't belong in this world. For many years, the same composition of people were defending the city, Therefore, people from the continent had quite a complicated view towards this place.
On this day, Wei Gan was on the wall, staring blankly at the distance. His current position right now wasn't in the city's eastern wall, which meant that he wasn't facing the Demonic Abyss. It was a wall that faced the continent, so it should be quite safe. However, Wei Gan still needed to inspect the place because the Buddha Empire had sent word that people from the Demon Realm had already infiltrated the continent. This meant that they might take the city at any time.
Wei Gan looked at the surrounding army. These troops weren't the Buddha Empire's most elite cavalry. These people knew why they were here so they all had a very serious look on their face.
At this time, Wei Gan noticed a dark spot in the horizon. It was flying towards the city, he even thought that it was a creature of darkness.
The Gan Family's dark magic held some differences to the continent's dark magic, this gave the members of the Gan Family much more sensitivity towards dark energy. Therefore, when Wei Gan felt the dark energy coming out of the dark spot, and that the direction of the spot seem to be heading towards Demon City, he immediately thought of the Buddha Empire's warning. His heart immediately started to beat as he shouted, "Everyone, a dark creature that come from the mainland is heading here. Prepare yourselves!"
Although the army that the Buddha Empire sent weren't the most elite Iron Cavalry, these people were still elites in their local military. Before these soldiers came here, they were also instructed to cooperate with the Dark Mages since these people were very sensitive towards dark creatures. Seeing that the Buddha Empire were giving high regard to the Dark Mages in the city, the army immediately stood up when they heard Wei Gan's voice. The magic cannons were then prepared as well as the ballistas.
Just as they got ready, the dark spot in the distance suddenly flew faster towards them. These people became nervous, especially the artillery troops. They were anxiously looking at the dark spot. Since the magic cannons and the ballistas were their only defensive weapon, the flying enemy would surely target them first.
The dark spot continued to slowly grow larger, and as soon as the people on the wall recognized what the dark spot was, all of them were shocked. It didn't matter if they were from the Buddha Empire's army or the Dark Mages, their expressions were the same. The dark spot turned out to be a Bone Dragon, and on the skull of the Dragon stood a very ordinary looking Dark Mage.
But who in Demon City wouldn't be able to recognize who this person was. Perhaps they might not recognize his face, but his reputation surely rang in their minds. This was Zhao Hai Buda, Lyon Empire's Emperor, and the continent's strongest Dark Mage!
Zhao Hai was now widely accepted as the strongest Dark Mage in the continent, every single citizen in the various empires already knew about this point. He managed to kill Dragons, unearthed the conspiracy of the Demons, and even became the Emperor of the Lyon Empire. Every single Dark Mage almost looked at him as a God. For them, Zhao Hai was a deity that was aloof as he overlooked them.
Zhao Hai had rested well inside the Space. After seeing Laura and the others, he immediately went out. He had already taken a look at the situation in Demon City. Seeing that there weren't any serious matters going on, Zhao Hai decided to come out in a far away place and then rode a Bone Dragon towards the fortress city, enjoying the wind that was hitting his face.
Zhao Hai didn't immediately enter the city, when he saw the wall, he had the Bone Dragon go down to the ground outside the city and walked down from it. After storing the Bone Dragon, he walked slowly towards the city's wall.
The defenders on the wall immediately reacted. An officer shouted towards the soldier at the gate, "Quick, open the gate, hurry up!" Then just as the officer rushed towards the gate, he noticed that someone had come faster than him, it was Wei Gan.
Wei Gan, who was just a common Dark Mage, was actually quicker than him, a 7th rank Warrior. This made the army officer look at him in a strange manner, wondering if Wei Gan was both a Mage and a Warrior.
Naturally, Wei Gan wasn't a Warrior, he was only a Mage. The reason why he was so quick was because he was too excited. When the army arrived, he had head that Zhao Hai would also be personally coming in order to take command. This made all of the Dark Mages excited, they can actually see Zhao Hai with their own two eyes. This was a very extraordinary matter. However, people were still quite doubtful about this fact. After all, who was Zhao Hai? He was the Patriarch of the Buda Clan and was also the Emperor of the Lyon Empire. Although they knew that Zhao Hai was able to kill Dragons, would such a person still risk himself in order to come to Demon City?
For the people in Demon City, Zhao Hai was a distant person, one who wouldn't stain his hand in a messy situation like in Demon City. Most of the people in Demon City didn't actually expect Zhao Hai to come, they just thought that the Buddha Empire only said this in order to comfort their hearts. The main reason why these people stayed in the city was because they needed to protect their home. No matter what words the higher ups say, these people would still stay behind.
They weren't doing this in order to protect the Human Race, nor was it because of their dedication towards the continent. For them, waging war with the Demons was just a way to protect their homeland.
Chapter 681 – Influential Figure
Zhao Hai stood under the city's gate, he didn't want to act too high-profile, it just wasn't his character. Although he was now the Emperor of the Lyon Empire, he knew absolutely nothing about the Empire at all. Because of this, he really didn't think of himself as the Emperor, he was more like a stabilizer, temporarily acting as the Emperor because of the present situation.
At the same time, he also didn't deem himself to be an influential person. In his mind he was just like any other person on the continent, doing what anybody would have done. The only reason why people were unable to do things that he can do was because they didn't have the help of the Space.
Zhao Hai might not be aware, but he was actually an extremely influential person on the continent. From what the continent knew, Zhao Hai was a Foreign Prince of the Beastmen as well as a Foreign Elder of the Dwarves and the Elves. In fact, Zhao Hai was also given the title of Foreign Admiral by the Fishmen, but this information was withheld by the Mermaid Queen.
Thess many statuses on one person was unprecedented in the continent, something that might not even be repeated in the future. This made Zhao Hai an very influential figure in the continent. Perhaps it was only Zhao Hai who has yet to discover this point.
The gates of Demon City slowly opened. What made Zhao Hai surprised was the first person to come out, it was a Dark Mage. This person looks like 40 years old, he wore a somewhat new Dark Mage robe, he had a grassy hair and a thin beard. The person was also quite thin, he looked just like that weird uncle that everyone has. This person had a flush on his face along with shining eyes, he actually gave Zhao Hai a bit of a scare.
This person was naturally Wei Gan. He was too excited, he didn't think that he would meet his idol while defending the city wall. His heart was extremely happy to the point that he began to lose control of his body.
Under Zhao Hai's gaze, this strange uncle ran very fast toward him. Then the man plopped to the ground, and under Zhao Hai's surprised expression, he kissed Zhao Hai's shoes.
This made Zhao Hai stare, then he immediately pulled the Dark Mage up and said, "Mister, there's no need to do that. Who are you?"
When Wei Gan discovered that Zhao Hai was asking for his name, he immediately bowed to Zhao Hai and said, "Paying respects to Mister Zhao Hai. This one is called Wei Gan, a mage of Demon City's Gan family. I represent the Gan Family in welcoming your arrival. If it is possible, please pay us a visit."
Wei Gan was very excited, he really wasn't expecting Zhao Hai to be a guest in the Gan Family. In his opinion, even if Zhao Hai only promised visit, then it would already be the greatest honor to the Gan Family.
Zhao Hai looked at Wei Gan. In fact, he already knew the things that Wei Gan has been doing since Cai'er has been monitoring the entirety of Demon City. Zhao Hai was afraid that there were people controlled by the Demons here. It wouldn't be good if there was a Demon collaborator inside the city when the battle starts. But unexpectedly, there were no Demon controlled people inside Demon City. Especially in this Gan Family, they were the ones that advocated for the defense against the Demons the most. Therefore, Zhao Hai had a very deep impression towards this family.
Zhao Hai immediately smiled and said, "So it turns out to be Mister Wei Gan. I already know about what your Gan Family had done, so I must thank you in behalf of the people of the continent. You can rest assured that I would pay a visit to the Gan Family. However, I need to pay a visit to the defending army first. I have some things to discuss with them."
Wei Gan didn't dare to stop him, he immediately replied, "I won't dare to stop Mister from doing his business. But please make sure to pay a visit to the Family. We will welcome you at any time. I will now go back to inform the family." Then he turned around and ran back to the city with a speed that even a Warrior wouldn't be able to stop him.
Zhao Hai looked at Wei Gan's departing back and couldn't help but smile. He thought that this Mage from the Gan Family was quite interesting. At this time, the army officer has arrived in front of Zhao Hai. The officer then gave Zhao Hai a salute and said, "We welcome the arrival of the Lyon Emperor Zhao Hai. I am the defender assigned to the East Gate, Leonard."
Zhao Hai smiled and said, "Captain Leonard is too polite. There's no Empire here, so you can just call me Zhao Hai. We're now allies, jointly fighting against the Demon Race."
Leonard didn’t' expect that Zhao Hai was very easy to speak to, he immediately replied, "Alright, Mister Zhao Hai. Mister, come with me, I already sent word to the General. I'll be taking you to the General's residence."
Zhao Hai nodded, then he took a step towards Demon City. At this moment, a horse carriage flew from inside Demon City. This carriage was quite spirited but it still managed to keep stable. It stopped in front of Zhao Hai as its driver got down and said, "Mister, please board the carriage."
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and then boarded the carriage. Then the carriage turned itself around and rushed back to the city. Leonard didn't dare to neglect Zhao Hai's arrival as he lead 20 other subordinates and escorted the carriage on the back to the city.
Zhao Hai wasn't surprised about this reception, although he didn't regard himself as a Monarch and an influential person, he was after all the Buda Clan's Patriarch. In Demon City, this status should've at least gained high regard, giving him some allowance when it comes to authority.
Before long, Zhao Hai and the others had arrived at the General's residence. The General's residence was actually just a normal house. Since there was no military outpost here, what the General used was the residence of a former Merchant in Demon City. Because that Merchant has returned to the Buddha Empire, his house was requisitioned and became the General's temporary place.
As soon as the carriage arrived, Zhao Hai didn't even need to open the door as it was opened from the outside. Zhao Hai stared blankly as he saw a middle-aged man in military uniform holding the door of the carriage open.
Then that middle aged person gave Zhao Hai a salute and said, "Buddha Empire's General Besmir welcomes Mister Zhao Hai to Demon City."
Zhao Hai walked out of the carriage and returned the salute, "General Besmir is too polite. There's actually no need to open the door for me."
Besmir smiled and said, "It is only proper for me to open the door for Mister. Mister has been running around the continent, contacting each power personally. Compared to Mister's effort, me and the others can only bow down in shame. Mister, please come with me." Zhao Hai quickly replied, "Alright." Then he walked towards the General's residence alongside Besmir.
This temporary residence was not big, just a house and a courtyard. Besmir invited Zhao Hai to sit inside the residence's living room. At this point, the living room looked a lot more like a battle command center. There were stretches of map hangin on the wall as well as a big table at the middle of the room. This big table also had a map. This map showed Demon City as well as outside of it, the verified areas of the Demonic Abyss.
This Demonic Abyss map was naturally incomplete. But the map of the surrounding areas was already helpful for the upcoming fight.
Zhao Hai nodded at Besmir's methods, he turned to Besmir and said, "General is very diligent. May I know the plans that the General has come up with?"
Besmir didn't expect Zhao Hai to be straightforward, having just arrived to Demon City. However, Besmir also knew that it wasn't time for small talk, so he immediately lead Zhao Hai to the map. Then Besmir said, "Mister, look here, this terrain is very crucial in protecting the Demonic Abyss. This is due to the gentle slope, although it isn't that steep, it can still hinder an army's advance. I intend to use this slope to carry out layers and layers of blockade to resist the Demon Army. What does mister think about this?"
Zhao Hai looked at the map, gently knitting his eyebrows. To be honest, there weren't any major issues to Besmir approach. However, that plan didn't take into account the large number of demonic creatures that would be coming out of the abyss. If a large amount of creatures come out, then this layers upon layers of blockade would eventually be overrun. At the same time, this plan would also dilute the number of personnel on each point, which was also detrimental in defending the city.
When Besmir saw Zhao Hai frown, perhaps not contented with what he heard, his heart couldn't help but beat faster. Zhao Hai was an existence that he cannot afford to offend. In fact, even the Buddha Emperor wouldn't dare offend Zhao Hai. Therefore, when Besmir saw that Zhao Hai seemed to be dissatisfied with the arrangement, he immediately became afraid.
Zhao Hai was divided on whether to expose the numbers of the Demon Race or not. He was afraid that if he revealed the number of invaders to Besmir, then it might topple the General's confidence in defending the city. However, if Zhao Hai didn't tell the General the enemy's numbers, how could Zhao Hai convince him to change the plan?
Zhao Hai thought about this for a while, then he opened his mouth and said, "There are no problems with the General's arrangement. However, I think the General seems to have overlooked something. That is the quantity of the Demon Realm's army."
When Besmir heard Zhao Hai, he couldn't help but stare for a moment. Then his expression turned ugly, he looked back at the map which made his expression change even more, he turned his head to Zhao Hai and said, "Mister, are you saying that there would be a large number of Demon Realm invaders?"
Zhao Hai nodded and said, "General, think about it, if the Demon Realm wanted to invade the continent, then would they only send a small number of soldiers? First, let's not discuss about how big the Demon Realm is, but in Ark Continent, if one were given the power of the entire world, how big would their army be? The number of Demon Realm soldiers certainly wouldn't be smaller than that. At the same time, the combat power of the Demons is quite strong, when I met a 9th rank Demon last time, he didn't die even when I managed to slice his head open, he even managed to make a counter attack. This kind of combat resilience is astounding. Therefore, I think that the General should just withdraw the army and defend the city. And while the General defends the city, the external defenses will be handed over to me."
When Besmir heard Zhao Hai, he immediately understood. Zhao Hai had a lot of strong undead, this fact was already known to the continent. He also didn't doubt the fighting capability of Zhao Hai's undead. Besmir just overlooked the power and numbers of the Demon Realm army, now that Zhao Hai said it, he also felt like there were problems in his plan.