**Chapter Thirty-One: A Massacre!**
2016-08-23
Author: Floating Tower
Today, Lulu’s mood is very bad.
Because when she went out today, she encountered a very strange woman. This woman initially gave her a very familiar aura, and when she first met Lulu, she also acted very friendly, but her sparkling eyes made it unclear what she was thinking. The initial exchange between the two was quite good, and Lulu thought she had met a nice person who might become a good friend in the future. However, what followed was something Lulu never expected; after the woman invited Lulu to visit her hotel, she began to make various inappropriate advances towards Lulu.
Cat-type beastmen are very sensitive.
This is not only physical perception but also extends to the goodwill and malice of others.
For example, Soren and Gloria often pat Lulu’s little head; the small cat girl can feel a hint of goodwill and care, so she does not reject such touches. But the woman she met today was different; she actually touched Lulu’s ears and even placed her hands in places that made Lulu feel embarrassed. This immediately put her on alert, so without thinking, she jumped out of the window and fled, swiftly returning to the lord’s mansion.
She is now hesitating whether to tell others about this, such as Gloria and Soren, because she always feels something is off about that woman!
………………
Material Plane, Land of Mountains.
This is located in the northwest of the continent, an area surrounded by mountains and inhabited by the highland dwarves.
At this moment, two hazy figures appeared here.
Soren slowly descended from the sky, staring at the collapsing mountains, his expression becoming serious.
“Is this the place?”
“It seems the demons have already looted this area clean.”
Gloria gazed at the sunken entrance and murmured, “I never expected the demons would suddenly target the dwarves.”
Soren remained silent.
After a moment, he looked up and said, “Let’s go in and take a look. The duration of the projection spell isn’t long; since we’re here, we might as well see where the attacking demons came from!”
The third wave of the Saint’s Cataclysm has officially erupted.
However, what surprised Soren a bit was that the target of the demon legion’s attack was not humanity, but the highland dwarves residing in the mountains.
All along, humanity has always been the first to be impacted by the Saint’s Cataclysm, as they are the most populous race in the material plane, scattered across the world, and thus the area of impact is the widest. According to the normal historical progression, the third wave of the Saint’s Cataclysm should also erupt against humanity, but for some unknown reason, there has been a slight change; the demons initiated their attack against the dwarves first, and humanity has temporarily not suffered a formal attack from the demon legion.
This change may be caused by Soren.
Due to his involvement, the intensity of the first two waves of attacks has considerably decreased, resulting in many major human cities preserving significant strength.
Given the demons’ shrewdness, they would not necessarily want to forcefully attack those cities.
Of course!
The main reason is that many of those cities have churches and temples of deities, and before the demons’ onslaught could exert its due effect, the demons still dare not confront the deities’ churches directly.
——“Turn fossils to mud!”
Gloria raised her hand to cast a spell, clearing a pathway.
The projection spell retains about seventy to eighty percent of its strength; Gloria does not have many spells she can cast now, but fortunately, if the body created by the projection spell dies, it does not affect her actual body. When facing a strong enemy, she can simply cancel the spell, which is a very safe form of projection.
The two of them entered through the passage.
Dwarves generally prefer to stay in the mountains or underground, so their information to the outside is quite limited; the battle here had ended nearly four to five days ago.
Yet Soren only received news of this today!
This means that when he sensed the arrival of the third wave of the Saint’s Cataclysm a few days ago, the battle here had already erupted, and the third wave’s impact was not delayed; it just did not fall upon humanity, which Soren was unaware of.
There are dwarf corpses everywhere.
This place is the branch of the highland dwarves known as [Rock Fortress]; this branch of dwarves inherently possesses rock-like skin and has a relatively stout physique, with a population of about ten to twenty thousand people.
For the dwarf race, a fortress with such a population is close to that of a major city for humanity.
“Strange!”
“Why aren’t there any demon corpses in sight!?”
Gloria followed behind Soren, glancing around, her expression suddenly becoming strange as she murmured, “We’ve already seen hundreds of dwarf corpses since we entered; why is there not even a single demon corpse?”
After all, she is not a melee professionist, and some hidden things are completely invisible to her.
Soren turned to look at her, then rolled over one of the dwarf corpses. The face of the corpse still bore a look of terror before death, and his complexion appeared somewhat bluish, indicating that he had been poisoned before dying. Soren pointed to the fatal wound near the back of the neck, slowly saying, “The wound is at the back of the neck, indicating that the enemy attacked from behind. Judging by the type of the wound, it should have been left by a Bone Demon. These dwarves were killed while trying to escape, and the main gate was right in front of them; they must have intended to flee through here before they died.”
“From the signs of the gate’s collapse, it should have been man-made, with the purpose of ensuring that none of these dwarves could escape.”
“So many of these corpses show expressions of despair before their deaths.”
“The demons did not attack from the outside; if I’m not mistaken, they initiated their assault from below the fortress.”
“When the battle took place here, everything was nearly over.”
“So there are no demon corpses here, as it was merely a final cleanup eliminating the fleeing soldiers.”
As if to confirm Soren’s words, as they moved closer to the passage leading downwards, demon corpses began to appear. The first corpse to appear was a Chain Demon, followed by several Bone Demon corpses. In contrast to the dead demons, the dwarf corpses are far more numerous; clearly, the battle was not on the same level; from the close to ten-to-one casualty ratio, this was nearly a crushing massacre!
Gloria’s face grew more solemn as she looked, murmuring, “The equipment of these dwarves is probably stronger than that of the regular army of Modo!”
“Even they were slaughtered!”
“If these demons attack Modo, the consequences are simply unimaginable!”
The highland dwarves have excellent equipment.
Dwarves are born as masters of forging, and their equipment standards are the highest on average among all races; nearly all dwarven warriors possess a set of finely crafted enchanted equipment, and their inherent strength and physique give them a head start over humans. However, from what is seen before them, these dwarves, whose strength far surpasses that of humans, were utterly slaughtered.
“These are not ordinary demons!”
Soren paused for a moment after hearing Gloria’s words, then waved his hand towards the ground, and a badge from a demon corpse fell into his palm.
Seeing his action, Gloria asked curiously, “Did you find something?”
Soren opened his palm to show her, and as soon as Gloria saw the badge, her expression changed slightly, murmuring, “Demon Lord – Bael?!”
Soren nodded slowly.
This is a special badge that does not belong to any deity’s church, but to a specific demon.
Commander of the Blood War – Bael!
The lord of the first layer of the Hell of Bartok, the leader of the Eight Demon Generals of Hell, responsible for commanding the highest general of the demon legion in the Abyssal Blood War. As a legendary wizard, Gloria naturally has extensive knowledge, and although Bael’s badge is not common, she recognized it at a glance.
A brief silence ensued.
Then, Gloria’s voice became somewhat hoarse as she said, “The ones attacking here are the Blood War Legion?!…”
Blood War.
When these two words were mentioned, Gloria’s voice obviously hesitated.
However, when Soren nodded silently, her expression instantly turned exceptionally grave.
She stared at Soren and slowly said, “It seems the Material Plane is about to face a great catastrophe!…”
……………… (To be continued ~^~)
