Five Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Vigil
Northern Ufeiga, west of Adus, in Dosa.
After arriving in Dosa by carriage, Doro, controlling a special advisor named Nei, who was played by Ed, got off the carriage with Nephnis to meet Commander Aidan of the revolutionary army in Dosa.
Aidan invited Ed and Nephne to have a simple dinner together. During the meal, he provided more detailed information about the current situation and the failure to advance on Karnak.
During her conversation with Aidan, Doro learned that the troops sent to clear the defenses around Karnak were ambushed by undead shortly after they set out. The undead had been buried under the sand along the marching route, and when the soldiers passed over them, they suddenly emerged from beneath the sand, attacking the marching troops with cold weapons. Many soldiers had never seen undead before, and the sudden attack caused widespread panic. The military formation quickly fell into chaos, and they were immediately bombarded.
The combined effects of long-range bombardment and the ambush by the undead created total chaos. Despite officers’ efforts to maintain order, the chaos persisted for a long time, leading to a massive retreat. At this moment, the Savior faction arrived, appearing from beyond the horizon with undead warriors at the forefront and ordinary human soldiers behind them. They charged at the chaotic revolutionary army, thoroughly defeating them. The vanguard of the revolutionary army suffered heavy casualties, with only a few officers successfully regrouping and orderly retreating. Eventually, only about one-third of the troops managed to escape back to Dosa, which dealt a severe blow to the morale of other revolutionary army units in Dosa.
In the descriptions given by the retreating soldiers, the undead were depicted as extremely terrifying and numerous, with tens of thousands of them. Doro did not fully believe these exaggerated accounts.
Compared to the Main Continent, due to the disorder and many ancient relics in Northern Ufeiga, the residents here were closer to the secret world. For a long time, people lived under the shadow of various mysterious legends. Incidents of extraordinary harm and poison recognition spread frequently. As soldiers in the war, they had an implicit understanding of the existence of secrets and had heard more or less about the legends of the undead.
However, such a large undead army was almost unheard of. The trauma of the surviving and retreating soldiers was immense, and they continuously exaggerated the number of undead upon their return. By the time it reached Aidan’s ears, the number had reached tens of thousands. This rumor directly plunged the revolutionary army soldiers in Dosa into a state of low combat morale. Even Aidan himself was affected, and Doro could often see traces of fear in his expression during meals.
After roughly understanding the current situation at the front line, Doro controlled Ed, who had finished eating, to return to the arranged accommodation for rest. Meanwhile, she herself had already checked into a decent inn in Dosa, where she began to contemplate the current situation.
‘The Savior faction in Karnak… suddenly received a large amount of undead support… Hiss… This doesn’t look good. It seems my greatest concern has come true. The Underworld Coffin Cult has joined forces with the Savior faction in Karnak.’
Sitting by the window, enjoying the gentle breeze created by the zombie puppet fanning her, Doro frowned and thought, then she raised her gaze to the world map on the table, focusing on the location of Sacred Summit.
‘According to Shadi and Vania’s information, the Church confirmed Muhetar’s d*ath. After Shadi truly renounced the Savior faction within Adus, they almost believed in Shadi’s sincerity.
‘After the assassination attempt in Kankdar was reversed, Evi’s faction took control of the Church’s power regarding the Adus issue. To support Shadi’s internal rectification movement, the Sacred Summit sent pilgrimage teams led by archbishops to other regions heavily influenced by the Savior faction in Northern Ufeiga, directly threatening other important areas influenced by the Savior faction and restraining the main force of the Savior faction, preventing effective support for the remaining Savior faction within Adus and making them a lone force.
‘A lone force is indeed easy to eliminate but also prone to taking desperate actions, engaging in unconventional risky operations, and seeking any possible allied forces. Upon learning that the Dead Eagle Valley was under the control of the Savior faction in Karnak, I’ve always been worried about the Underworld Coffin Cult, which has been eyeing the Rahmann Royal Tomb. I never expected this worry to come true. The Underworld Coffin Cult and the remnants of the Savior faction have truly joined forces. Such a large-scale manipulation of the undead can only be done by the Underworld Coffin Cult.’
With a gloomy face, Doro thought in her heart. Currently, she was still unclear about what agreement the remnants of the Savior faction in Karnak and the Underworld Coffin Cult had reached, causing them to join forces. She could only guess that the agreement must be related to the Rahmann Royal Tomb. Perhaps they decided to jointly excavate the Rahmann Royal Tomb at some point.
‘If they really plan to excavate the Rahmann Royal Tomb together, it would be entirely bad news for me. I must find a way to stop them. Combined, their strength might exceed my ability to handle it. Therefore, to counter them, I need to unite the forces around me, such as the Adus Revolutionary Army led by Shadi…’
Doro thought, and now she had preliminarily planned to help the Adus Revolutionary Army break through Karnak. To achieve this, she must immediately intensify her actions. For Doro, no matter what she did, gathering intelligence was always the top priority.
‘Knowing both oneself and the enemy ensures victory in a hundred battles. This applies to small-scale extraordinary battles as well as the current battlefield. Urgently, I must gather comprehensive intelligence on Karnak, understand their details, and slowly devise a strategy.’
Doro thought, then she set a plan to approach Karnak the next day, using the zombie puppet to conduct reconnaissance on the entire city to understand the situation of the Savior faction and the Underworld Coffin Cult.
After making initial plans, Doro wiped the sweat from her forehead, then turned to look at the zombie puppet still tirelessly fanning her. She increased its power, feeling the stronger breeze dispersing more heat. She sighed with relief, then began thinking about how she would manage the zombie puppet while sleeping through the hot night in Northern Ufeiga.
…
Time flew by, and soon a night passed. Early the next morning, Doro immediately controlled Advisor Nei to get up in a nearby hotel near the command center. After a brief rest, Doro asked Ed to go out early in the morning under the pretense of surveying the terrain. Doro herself mixed with a caravan and left the city.
Dosa was about seventy kilometers away from Karnak. Doro’s team traveled lightly, enduring the scorching sun and wind and sand for most of the day until they approached Karnak in the afternoon. During this time, Doro continuously controlled the eagle zombie puppet to patrol the sky, providing a bird’s-eye view of the vast desert.
Doro used several eagle zombie puppets as scouts to investigate the area ahead for tens of kilometers. When the eagle zombie puppet flew to about thirty kilometers above Karnak, Doro noticed something unusual and immediately stopped further reconnaissance.
In the lightly armored small caravan made mostly of zombie puppets, Doro rode on a camel, using the superhuman vision of the eagle zombie puppet and her spiritual vision to observe the distant sky and land. Soon, she noticed an anomaly.
In the sky several kilometers ahead, Doro could see scattered ghosts floating in the air. They appeared every long distance, facing downward, hovering as if peering at the ground.
On the desolate flat land, Doro also saw skeletons or zombies wandering every few hundred meters, maintaining fixed distances, holding firearms, and opening their mouths wide as they marched through the desert toward the distance.
On the road to Karnak, countless undead roamed from the sky to the ground, driven by some force, forming a vast array spaced hundreds of meters apart, constantly patrolling and blocking Doro’s team’s path to Karnak.
‘There are so many undead… all on patrol. It looks like those guys have completely monitored the surrounding area of Karnak, preventing anyone from getting close…’
Sitting on a camel, wearing a sunshade cloak, Doro couldn’t help but think. She knew that the Underworld Coffin Cult used undead for vigilance, but she hadn’t expected the range of vigilance to be so large and the number of undead to be so great.
Then, Doro started exploring other directions, circling around the edge of the undead vigilance zone and marking the boundary on her mental map. After thorough investigation, Doro determined the center of control for this large group of undead and confirmed the coverage of the entire vigilance zone, causing her to be shocked.
‘This… the control distance is too far. The vigilance area is so large, completely unexpected…’
In Doro’s calculations, the coverage of the undead vigilance zone was extensive. Starting from the center of Karnak, there were undead on vigilance within a radius of more than thirty kilometers. These undead, spaced every few hundred meters, almost covered the entire vigilance circle. Anyone within their sight would be on alert, and those approaching would even be attacked directly. During the investigation, Doro personally witnessed a shepherd being discovered and driven away by the undead, causing the shepherd to abandon his livestock and flee in terror.
‘A vigilance zone with a radius of twenty-five kilometers, controlled by hundreds or thousands of undead… Is this something a normal ‘Silence’ extraordinary being could accomplish? In Karnak, wouldn’t there be some old ghost in the Red Tier? Or did they use some kind of tool or method to enhance the control of the undead?
Feeling the enormity of the undead vigilance zone, Doro couldn’t help but think seriously. Regardless of the true situation inside Karnak, the vast undead vigilance zone made things difficult for her, as she currently had no idea how to break through this huge vigilance zone undetected to investigate the situation inside Karnak.
Actually, based on Doro’s observations, these undead seemed to react only to humans and large animals approaching on the ground. Her small zombie puppet, combined with the Shadow Concealment Ring, could completely shield these undead’s perception, allowing it to infiltrate unnoticed. However, the problem was that Doro’s small zombie puppet could cross the vigilance zone, but Doro herself could not.
Doro’s control distance for the zombie puppet had limits. Typically, the control distance was ten kilometers from her body, and additional spirit energy could extend this distance, but not beyond twenty kilometers. This meant that the maximum distance between Doro and her zombie puppet could not exceed twenty kilometers.
However, the range of the undead vigilance zone in front of Doro was absurdly large, extending thirty kilometers in radius from Karnak, with undead scattered throughout. This meant that to send a small zombie puppet into Karnak, Doro herself needed to enter the vigilance zone by at least ten kilometers. As a human target, she was easily discoverable. Once discovered, she would face enormous risks.
The terrain around was almost a desert plain, stretching endlessly without any cover. A person as large as Doro trying to hide from the undead sentinels spaced every few hundred meters, both on the ground and in the sky, was impossible. Since she couldn’t get close to Karnak for investigation, sending her small zombie puppet in was also impossible.
‘Hiss… This is troublesome. Without collecting intelligence, I can’t formulate any strategies. I never expected the Underworld Coffin Cult to be so ruthless, creating such a large vigilance zone…’
Frowning, Doro thought in her heart. Always cautious in her actions, she would not act rashly without sufficient intelligence. Therefore, faced with the vast vigilance zone surrounding Karnak, she chose to return to Dosa first before making further plans.
…
Night fell in the revolutionary army headquarters in Dosa. Advisor Nei sat in a chair, recounting his daytime reconnaissance outside the city to Commander Aidan. Hearing Nei’s words, Aidan couldn’t help but express his frustration.
“Before you returned, I had already dispatched scouts to investigate Karnak, but none of them succeeded in returning… I didn’t expect the rebels to use so many undead for vigilance… It seems very difficult to investigate the current situation in Karnak…”
Aidan said with a frown. Listening to his words, Doro was slightly startled, then had Advisor Nei ask Aidan.
“Mr. Aidan, with the current forces in Dosa, do we have confidence to launch an attack without intelligence? We don’t need to capture Karnak; we just need to push the frontline to within twenty kilometers of Karnak.”
Doro had Nei ask this because if the revolutionary army’s frontline could be pushed within twenty kilometers of Karnak, she could blend in with the large army and get close to Karnak, allowing her zombie puppet to conduct reconnaissance effectively. However, Aidan remained pessimistic after hearing Doro’s words.
“This will be extremely difficult. After the last major defeat and retreat, the morale of the army is very low, and the fear of the undead is spreading everywhere, dampening the fighters’ spirits. It will be hard to organize another offensive in the short term.
“I have sent a telegram to General Shadi explaining the current situation here, asking him to send more troops and weapons. Perhaps only after reinforcements arrive and boost morale can we have the confidence to launch another offensive.”
…
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