The army of Froststone City set off.

Thirteen thousand soldiers, plus slaves, made up an army of nearly thirty thousand, which was divided into three routes and set off on its journey to the north.

Before parting, above Froststone City, Ivy, riding a griffin, looked at Todd, who had transformed into a dragon, and hesitated to speak.

“If we win this war, everything in the North will be settled.” Todd flapped his dragon wings and looked at Ivy, saying, “At that time, there will only be one Froststone City on this land.”

Evie gripped the griffin's reins, biting her lip: "Even if the war here ends, Twilight City will still need you, won't it?"

Todd was somewhat surprised by Ivy's question. After thinking for a moment, he said, "The Southern Empire has already captured the Holy City, and the Orthodox Church is practically defunct; Pope Alexander of the Church of the Father has been dead for a long time, and the position of Chief Patriarch has been in dispute ever since. All the pressure to resist the Empire has fallen on the Protestants of Muxi City..."

Evie gently shook her head: "Todd, have you ever thought about settling down?"

"Stability?" Todd raised his dragon head and asked with some surprise, "That doesn't sound like something a Valkyrie would say."

“In the past, I carried the expectations of my people, and I was always thinking about following in the footsteps of the gods.”

Evie looked somewhat bewildered: "But when I learned that the Age of Gods had long since passed, my faith crumbled, and the name Brunhilde no longer meant anything to me. Faced with this world full of slaughter, I began to wonder, what was the purpose of all these wars?"

Todd was somewhat moved: "Evie..."

The Valkyrie raised her right hand, touching the feathered crown at her temple, her long silver hair dancing in the wind. She softly said, "And so, in this torment that feels like an endless night, I found a reason to continue, and that reason is you..."

"I?"

Evie closed her eyes and nodded: "Whether you want to end all wars, become the emperor of the world, or simply pursue the ultimate power, I am willing to stay by your side until my body turns to dust and my soul becomes nothingness."

Todd's dragon eyes slowly widened, and for a moment he forgot what to say.

Evie continued, "There's no reason, no grand cause, just... just because of you..."

Ivy took one last deep look at the black dragon before her, as if trying to etch its image into her soul. Then she turned away, tugged hard on the reins, and rode the griffin toward the distant north.

Watching the figure in the sky grow smaller and smaller, Todd remained above Froststone for a very long time.

A week later, the first batch of battle reports came from the front lines.

The vanguard of the Northwest Route Army, a light cavalry force of about four hundred men, had already arrived at the city walls of Gugu City ahead of the main force.

According to the frontline commander's report, the Ulsters in the city had completely lost the will to resist. On the very first day of the battle, some in the city wanted to surrender to Froststone.

If it weren't for the defenders' fear of Cú Chulainn's tyranny, four hundred light cavalrymen could have taken Gugu City without bloodshed.

The northern army, heading towards the capital of Ulster, encountered some difficulties en route.

The Ulsters chose to fight to the death against the Froststone Legion. Having already witnessed the power of the Silence Spear, they preferred to be hacked to death by swords and axes rather than be killed by a demonic spear capable of destroying souls.

As for the Eastern Route Army heading to the Connaught border, their march passed through the villages and towns of the "Six Circles Massacre".

To quote the guild leader:

"Before my eyes unfolded a living hell."

Thick black smoke billowed above the village ruins, collapsed and charred houses were everywhere, and corpses lay scattered like stones. Beside open-air hearths, numerous gnawed human bones could be seen.

In the final paragraph of the report, the warband commander said this to Todd.

"We found a survivor who wasn't entirely mentally stable. He said he escaped from Cú Chulainn's army and that he witnessed mobs eating his wife and children... We confirmed from him that Cú Chulainn was northeast of the Kingdom of Connaught, slaughtering the remaining small kingdoms."

After reading these reports, Todd knew he had to take action.

Todd first held a meeting with the shamanic assembly, instructing them to maintain order in Froststone. During the meeting, he emphasized that if the shamans had any urgent matters, they could go directly to the sanctuary and contact him immediately.

Then he went to the small building to say goodbye to Deirdre and the child in her womb.

After doing all this, Todd spread his dragon wings in the temple square and flew swiftly towards the Kingdom of Connaught in the north.

Along the way, Todd, flying through the air, used his eagle eyes and X-ray vision to survey the earth.

The horrific scenes of slaughter in the cities along the way made Todd truly understand what the "hell" described in the report really meant.

Mass graves were built around the city, one after another. Large numbers of unarmed civilians were driven into the pits, burned alive with firewood, and finally buried in the mud.

In thousands of buildings, there are victims of different genders and ages. Judging from their wounds and expressions before death, it is not hard to imagine the immense suffering and torment they endured before their deaths.

In the forest outside the city, the leaves and twigs of the towering trees have been cut off by humans, and countless corpses hang from the trunks, swaying in the wind. Crows and wolves feast around the forest.

Soaring through the air, Todd surveyed the carnage on the ground, his eyes turning crimson with rage: "Cú Chulainn... is this the hero you speak of?! Is this the path of tyranny you chose?!"

Todd turned the dragon's head to the north, where the sky was overcast and thunder could be faintly heard.

Calm down and listen carefully, Todd realized that it wasn't the sound of thunder at all, but the roar of explosives.

The army of Froststone is fighting against Cú Chulainn's army!

Todd flapped his dragon wings violently, and his massive body flew rapidly toward the direction from which the sound came, like a cannonball being fired.

Before a narrow pass in a canyon, the soldiers of the Froststone City warband set up their large shields and raised their spears, using the terrain to their advantage to firmly defend the canyon.

Inside the canyon, a large number of archers and grenadiers threw arrows and explosives from the shield wall towards the enemy troops outside the canyon.

On the plains outside the canyon, people are everywhere you look; a rough estimate puts the number at tens of thousands.

These people were barely clothed, their weapons were extremely rudimentary, and they fought without any strategy or method, launching one suicidal charge after another without regard for their own lives.