These words were like a pebble thrown into calm water, instantly igniting emotions that had been suppressed to the limit.
One by one, the soldiers on the city wall raised their heads, put down their weapons, and stood up, leaning on the crenellations, looking out at the receding gray-white sea. No one gave the order, but cheers erupted.
It wasn't a chorus of cheers; it was chaotic, disorderly, and broken-sounding. Some people raised their halberds and slammed them against the city bricks, one blow after another, as if they were beating a war drum.
Just then, Isabella slowly descended from the sky and landed on the stone steps at the highest point of the city tower, the blue light of the Staff of the Wind God already receding.
Isabella landed on the city wall, watching the departing undead army, and calmly said, "News from Lionheart City has arrived."
Everyone on the city wall looked at her.
"The undead flank was defeated, and Hel withdrew because his flank was gone."
Lin Feng slowly descended from a height of a thousand meters and landed on the edge of the battlements of the West Gate. He glanced back at the shrinking gray-white ocean outside the city.
Then he turned around and glanced at the soldiers and awakened ones on the city wall who were cheering, crying and embracing.
In six days, more than 100,000 people died, but White Tower City still stood.
He looked away, a slight smile playing on his lips, and then he looked up at the long-lost blue sky.
The sun is shining brightly.
...
Thirty miles west of Baita City, in the open wilderness.
The gray-white undead army was slowly retreating along the horizon towards Graystone City.
Although the lines were somewhat looser than during the siege, they still maintained a chilling order.
The abandoned siege towers along the way are now just bare skeletons. The purple core at the top of the tower has long been removed, and the huge skeletons stand alone in the wind, like silent tombstones.
Hel Shadow and the Lich King Sazar hovered in mid-air, coldly surveying the array passing below.
Hel raised his skeletal left hand, and a semi-transparent gray light shield instantly enveloped the two of them.
In an instant, the sounds of wind, bones grinding, and the deep chanting of the necromancer in the distance were all cut off, leaving only a deathly silence in the world.
Sazar turned slightly to the side, the soul fire in his eye sockets landing on Hel's profile.
Hel did not speak immediately. He watched the receding lines below in silence, as if waiting for the last column to completely pass through his field of vision.
After a moment, he calmly asked, "White Tower City's defenses can hold out for at most three days, Sazar. Do you know why I ordered a retreat to Graystone City just before the city was about to fall?"
Sazar paused for a moment, his tone carrying just the right amount of caution: "His Majesty is preserving his strength. White Tower City is guarded by the strongest human. If the city is forcibly breached, then the human race will likely engage in a great war with our race."
Even if we manage to win, we will pay a price far exceeding our expectations. Rather than a Pyrrhic victory, it's better to temporarily avoid direct confrontation.
Hel neither nodded nor denied, but simply said, "The Lionheart City's detachment has been defeated by the humans. Bolvar sent news a few days ago that the humans' strength in the Lionheart City direction has greatly increased, and it can only barely delay them."
Just now, Bolvar, the high-ranking human warrior of Lionheart City, could no longer hold back and ordered his troops to converge on me.
The soul fire in Sazar's eye sockets contracted sharply.
"What about Silver Shield City?"
"Withdraw as well." Hel's tone was as calm as if he were talking about the weather. "Of the three armies, one was defeated and two retreated. They have all retreated to Graystone City, where they will remain stationary and wait."
"Just waiting?" Sazar couldn't help but ask back.
"With that strongest human in the field, plus the reinforcements from Lionheart City, it's no longer possible to take White Tower City." Hel's voice was completely calm.
"But his territory is not in the Eastern Extreme Region. His coming here is the result of a political deal within the human race. Such a deal is destined not to last. Even if he doesn't leave, he will definitely leave when the seal on the underground city is broken."
Hel tilted his head slightly, a cold calculation emanating from his soul fire: "That will be the time for our true decisive battle with the Eastern Extreme Region's human race. Before that decisive battle, what we need to do is not to continue to deplete ourselves, but to preserve our strength."
Sazar bowed again: "The king has foresight."
But then it raised its head, a cautious ripple passing through its soul fire: "However, Your Majesty, there is a problem. We are locked in a fierce battle with the human race in the Eastern Extreme Region. If the Nightmare Clan takes the opportunity to launch a sneak attack on our rear, we will be caught in a pincer movement, which will be very disadvantageous."
Hel waved his hand dismissively, as if the question wasn't worth a second's thought.
"The three Nightmare Clans compete with each other, Sazar. They will attack each other until only one remains. The Nightmare Clan that devours the Central Plains will become incredibly powerful, and the first to be eliminated will be the other two."
He paused, a barely perceptible hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice: "After all, in their eyes, the undead, beastmen, humans... are all nothing more than lowly, inferior races."
They won't take us seriously, and in this plane, unless it's an extremely rare special case, as long as we capture a main city, coupled with our lands already transformed by undead energy, victory won't be a problem.
The soul fire in Hel's eye sockets flickered violently, as if mocking him silently: "After all, my undead race is the number one race after the Nightmare race. That brute, Saruk, had very little information beforehand, unlike me."
He laughed, a hoarse, low laugh with undisguised contempt: "It was already out of the game when it agreed to swap territories with me."
Sazar was silent for a moment, then bowed deeply.
Its posture was respectful and humble, its soul fire was as steady as a mirror, and its tone when it spoke was as if it were stating a fact that had already happened.
“Saruk thought he hadn’t lost out, but he didn’t realize he hadn’t even seen the game clearly. The infighting among the three Nightmare Clan would continue for quite some time. By the time they fought to the last one, we would have already taken over the human capital city in the Eastern Region.”
“Taking the main city is only the first step.” Hel’s voice suddenly turned cold. “Holding on is not enough; we must kill as many enemies as possible.”
His soul fire suddenly contracted, as if he had remembered some taboo etched into his bones, and even the surrounding gray light shield trembled.
"Otherwise, if we lose to the human race in the final judgment... we will all die."
Sazar's soulfire also flickered violently. It lowered its head, its bone crown casting a shadow in the gray light: "The king is right."
Hel waved his hand, and the gray light shield silently dissipated.
The howling wind rushed back into their robes, bringing with it the crunching sound of the undead army marching below.
“Let’s go.” Hel looked in the direction of Graystone City. “Now, it’s time to let that idiot Saruk see what’s going on.”
