Chapter 293: The Lost Fortress in the Depths of the World
Bats flew away from the shadows.
When the Balrog met his own destruction, the people of Dale were happy, and so were the dwarves of Lonely Mountain.
Levi was even happier because he got new materials and achieved new achievements.
But some people far away in Mordor were not so happy.
The smiles left their faces.
Whether it was Minas Morgul or the Dark Tower, there was silence at this moment. The Ringwraiths remained silent, and the black shadows like vertical pupils in the flames were also lost in thought.
The situation escalated.
Originally, according to previous observations, the Flame Demon should be able to fight that person to a draw or even slightly better, but...
Who would have thought that he had changed his equipment? If I was not mistaken, his new equipment was mixed with some elements of [Dragon]. It seemed that he had studied something from the dragon, so that the Balrog was no match for him.
This research result is really tempting.
As one of the most powerful craftsmen who mastered the most advanced forging technology in Middle-earth, Soran was quite curious.
It seems that the creations of his former master Morgoth still have more potential to be developed.
However, the priority of this matter can be pushed back a bit.
Soran recalled the feeling he had a few days ago.
When Levi read out the black language on the box, his power followed the sound of the black language in the world and descended over, calling out to the fire spirit deep underground - the Flame Demon.
Yes, one of the Balrogs was awakened and responded to his call.
but…
He was not the only one to respond to his call.
Deep underground in the snowy plains in the far north, there were multiple intermittent and noisy echoes. Those beings sensed the call of darkness, but were unable to break through because the distance was too great and they were blocked by some solid barrier.
This reminded Soran of some distant memories.
When Morgoth was conquered by the army of the Valar, he escaped with the Balrogs - from the many fortresses of the Iron Mountains in the far north, which were crushed by the most powerful fire dragon in history, Ancalagon, and later sank to the bottom of the sea.
Could it be…
"Owner."
At this time, the Witch King walked forward and called out with his head down.
"That Balrog is dead."
He made such a brief report.
Evil whispers came from the flame shadow, and Soran replied absentmindedly: "I already know about this."
Then the Ringwraiths spoke no more.
After a moment, as if he had thought of something, the flaming shadow issued orders again, conveying some information in the evil language he created.
The Ringwraiths looked at each other, then disappeared and left the evil black tower one after another.
The Witch-king continued to sit in Minas Morgul, on the one hand monitoring and confronting Gondor, and on the other hand covering up certain things.
In 2963, three Ringwraiths set out secretly from Mordor. They walked out from the north of the Ash Mountains in Mordor, bypassed the territories of the Free Cities, passed through the Easterlings, and continued northward until they arrived at the Frollod area, a deserted and perennially cold and snow-covered northern wasteland further north than the Lonely Mountain and the Grey Mountains behind it.
This vast expanse of white snowfield is a truly extremely cold place. Its formation is not due to any geographical reasons. The extreme coldness contains a certain malice, which is the remnant of the power of Morgoth.
However, this extremely cold wasteland is not lifeless. There are still some humans living in the cape area further west. They wear thick fur coats to keep out the cold all year round and their lifestyle is relatively primitive.
For various reasons, they are also called "snowmen" in records.
In Middle-earth, few people know that such a nation exists unless they specifically look up books.
In the past thousand years, only vagrants have had a few interactions with them.
The most recent event was the Rogues ransoming from them the Ring of Barahir that Aragorn now wore.
Although it was called redemption, the process was actually very friendly. After all, the Ring of Barahir, a family heirloom of the Isildur family, was once given to the snow people by the king of Arthedain in order to thank them for their help.
Of course, the Ringwraiths' target was not these snowmen. In fact, they might not even know that such a group existed.
Although the Snow People lived not far from Angmar, during the war, out of fear of the Witch-king, they collectively moved to a place where the Witch-king could not touch them, escaped from his sight, and successfully avoided being affected by the war.
"Go north, into the Northern Wasteland, and continue north to a deeper place where no one has set foot in tens of thousands of years."
This was the order the Ringwraiths received.
When they crossed the Grey Mountains and climbed over a cold snowy mountain range to truly enter the isolated northern wasteland, the Ringwraiths had to change their mode of action.
Because they misjudged the severity of the cold, their horses froze to death.
Looking at the stiff black horse on the ground, the Ringwraiths fell silent.
These are not ordinary horses. Strictly speaking, they are also one of the "behemoths" bred by Sauron. They are very resistant and not only are they not affected by evil forces, but they can use this power to grow bigger and stronger than ordinary horses. Their faces are also more ferocious, and flames appear in their eye sockets and nostrils when they breathe.
Normally, these evil black horses could run for a month or so on the snow-covered peak of the Misty Mountains without any problems, but they froze to death within a few days here.
It seems that the closer you get to the center of the Northern Wasteland, the more severe the cold becomes.
The heavy snow swallowed the body of the black horse.
The Ringwraiths continued forward in silence, moving deeper into the cave step by step.
Just a few horses, let them die. Compared with the master's order, it's nothing.
The monotonous, boring journey with almost no communication lasted for a long time. The Ringwraiths just moved forward along a certain route, constantly approaching a relatively vague area.
This went on for several months.
After crossing a snowy mountain again, a Ringwraith stopped moving. He raised his hand and tried to move his fingers, but they felt stiff and stuck.
As a spirit that possessed the armor and moved around, he shouldn't have been conscious.
But now this body is somewhat out of control.
It feels very uncomfortable to give orders to the body but have it execute them after a delay.
“Keep moving.”
The first Ringwraith to notice something wrong with his body reminded his companions, and he patted his armor, flexed his fingers, and shook off the frost and snow covering it.
The other two Ringwraiths also reacted, with crisp sounds coming from their bodies.
It's really weird.
The Ringwraiths are not human beings, and neither their spirits nor their armor have any temperature. This should not be the case given the design of the armor on their bodies.
They are the ones who always bring bone-chilling cold to others.
Coming soon…
The Ringwraith walking in the front looked in a certain direction, and his premonition became stronger and stronger.
A few more months passed.
The Ringwraith in front suddenly stopped.
"This is probably the area the master wants us to explore."
He recalled the entire map of Middle-earth.
This place is probably very close to the edge of Middle-earth. If we continue walking for a while, we will reach the seaside.
"Separate and search for that place."
So the Ringwraiths separated and went in different directions.
Since the goal of this so-called 'exploration operation' was vague, with no idea of what they were looking for and no specific direction or guidance, the Ringwraiths encountered many obstacles during the execution and the operation was quite difficult.
The three Ringwraiths wandered on the snowfield for several years.
Until one of the Ringwraiths called out to his companions.
In front of a broken gap in the mountain, he felt an extreme malice, a malice from ancient times, a malice that could even make the Ringwraiths shudder.
After a long time, the three Ringwraiths gathered again and headed towards the gap in the mountains.
No one knows what they discovered in this frigid wasteland in the far north of the continent, and no one knows what happened to them afterwards.
What is certain is that their outer shells were lost, and their spirits traveled through the underworld for a long time before returning to Mordor.
When the three Ringwraiths reappeared in Mordor - perhaps affected by the unusual coldness of the northern wastes, Sauron actually felt a chill from these three returning spirits.
"Owner."
The leading Ringwraith reported: "We found a passage leading to the deepest part of the world in front of a broken mountain rift."
"There is a broken underground fortress under that passage."
"There are many things in there that we are familiar with, but they are more evil than we are."
(End of this chapter)
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