Cage Mountain, Command Post."Ringmaster, there"s another similar report…" Clown took a piece of paper and walked towards Hill Fawkes.
Although their circus troupe had disbanded many years ago, the comrades from his past were still used to calling him Ringmaster.
"Where was it sent from?" Hill glanced over the paper. "Can we trace it back to its source?"
"The messenger"s position was last known location was in southern Everwinter; there are a total of three cities there. But there are no other leads aside from that."
Hill frowned, then suddenly stood up. "Inform Lord Iron Axe and Her Excellency Edith. We might have trouble."
…
Fifteen minutes later.
Edith placed the report down and gently rapped the table. "… You mean to say that this happened at the same time in different parts of Everwinter?"
Hill nodded his head. "Although we were unable to pinpoint the exact cities where the orders were carried out, it is safe to a.s.sume that it occurred at a wide scale from the distribution of the reports" origins."
In the past few days, the Intelligence Agency had received identical encrypted letters successively.
The letters indicated that the n.o.bles were forcefully migrating the citizens.
And they were moving north.
The similarities were identical, and it was impossible for the reports that came from different locations to be mistaken or forged. In other words, the n.o.bles of Everwinter were carrying out a single, unified operation.
Although the encrypted letters briefly mentioned the term "migration," it was not a small matter. A city"s sustainability had a limit, and being underpopulated or overpopulated could lead to a paralysis of a city. Aside from that, a huge migration had many other considerations—for example, the food supply, the temporary residence en route, the riches brought along, etc… something that Neverwinter had deep experience in. It could even be said that the n.o.bles that ruled the cities did not have the capabilities to execute a large scale migration successfully. They were not robust enough in terms of strength and supplies to support the entire operation, so the migration was deemed to be a failure.
Indeed, a majority of n.o.bles did not care about the lives of the ordinary citizens, but that was only if the citizens were individuals. A feudal lord"s taxation and rule was inevitably linked to the ordinary citizens; if there was no one to rule, it did not matter how much strength and authority had. Once the citizens realized that they were unable to benefit from the migration, they were bound to lose the hearts of the people. Let alone the large ma.s.s of population congregating together, the chance of a rebellion occurring was much higher; thus, no matter how domineering or unreasonable the n.o.bles were, they were incapable of executing such an astonis.h.i.+ng large-scale migration.
Additionally, it was not just the n.o.bles but the entire northern regions, which clearly indicated that it was directed by some other power.
In the entire Everwinter, only the Demons were capable of doing so.
"But why are they doing that?" Edith muttered to herself in doubt. "If they are thinking of impairing Graycastle"s war potential, they can just kill off the citizens… With their Spider Demons, the n.o.bles can"t stop them even if they were unwilling."
"Maybe the demons think that… they are still of some use." Morning Light guessed.
"If they are useful, there isn"t a need to do a force migration." Hill shook his head. "Everwinter has the least cities out of the Four Kingdoms, even King"s City can only accommodate up to three hundred thousand people without prior preparations. Let"s not even talk about their route isn"t having King"s City as its destination."
"The largest City in the north is…" Edith looked at the map.
"Snow Reflection Castle, with the Impa.s.sable Mountain Range behind it. It is only half the size of King"s City." Ferlin immediately added in the relevant information. "Due to the uniqueness of its topography, it has a very low permanent population, and also the first place where the Red Mist was reported to appear."
"If the demons are planning to migrate everyone there, then there"s no difference killing them off directly," Hill commented.
"And the enemy will definitely not make any superfluous movements." Edith nodded her head in agreement. "I believe that there has been an unforeseen change that we have not noticed, which is why the demons are implementing this inexplicable operation."
"What can that change be?" Iron Axe queried.
"I don"t know…" Edith said slowly, "But I believe it cannot be any good news. Inform the front lines, tell them to raise their alertness."
…
"Those red clouds… could it be that a demon obelisk is situated there?" Tilly muttered.
"No," Lightning replied with a heavy expression. "From this distance, we should not be able to see any Red Mist…"
"Can"t see? Why?"
"Because Red Mist flows downwards!" Maggie was the one to answer. "I have witnessed the sight of Red Mist pouring down from the edge of the Impa.s.sable Mountain Range; they looked like waterfalls!"
"That"s right, I"m not sure if it is due to the Red Mist being heavier than air that leads to them gathering easily at low alt.i.tudes, but one thing is for sure. When Red Mist comes out from the ridge of the continent and infiltrates Everwinter, the mountain peaks would not be red," Lightning added.
"You mean to say they flowed down the mountain ?" Tilly frowned.
That was the reason for Lightning"s argument that it should had been impossible to see any Red Mist—They were a few hundred kilometers away from the tallest mountain range of the continent. If the Red Mist didn"t rise up, it would had been completely obstructed by the mountain range.
"Not only that," Lightning confirmed. "I followed the Impa.s.sable Mountain Range north a month ago and approached the edge of the Red Mist before. But at that time, the ridge of the continent did not have that red cloud. It… doesn"t seem to have come from the great rupture."
A s.h.i.+ver ran down Tilly"s back. She noticed that the red clouds at the mountain peak were not a single layer, but formed a huge body. More accurately, it looked as though the a huge cloud pillar was pouring down from the clouds.
She stared at the peculiar sight in the distance and only spoke up after a long silence, "There is a way for us to view it clearly."
Lightning raised her head and looked at the dark clouds above them. "I think so too."
The higher one flew, the further one could see.
As long as they could see the entire ridge of the continent, they had the chance to see the truth behind the red clouds.
"If that is so, then we should try it out—" Tilly accelerated to the plane"s maximum and raised the nose of the plane. Lightning followed alongside her, and synchronized her magic to overlap with Tilly.
Through their cooperation, the alt.i.tude meter of the Phoenix deflected to its extreme.
After rising up to a height of 7500 meters, the land formed an obvious curvature. Dark clouds became disjointed and was no longer one body, revealing the pale blue at the periphery of the world.
Beads of perspiration appeared on Lightning"s forehead, the high alt.i.tude had caused a burden even for the protective barrier around her. Through the screen, Tilly discovered that the frame of the plane had a layer of frost. If not for the reduction of the discomfort with Lightning"s synchronous magic power, Tilly could not imagine the state of the plane.
"We"re almost there." Tilly could feel the weakening of the propulsion supplied by the engines. "We should find an opening around here."
"Leave it to me!" Maggie poked her head out and transformed into her hawk form.
Half a minute later, she found the optimal view point. Through a small crack in the clouds, they were able to see the outline of the continent"s ridge.
When the scene above the Red Mist entered their vision, the three of them did not dare believe their eyes.
They saw a floating island.