The capital of Vanir, the White City.

Temple of Freedom.

This is the political center of the Fire Nation, and also the center of the Fire Nation. But now, everyone walking in this palace is worried. Some people are trotting through the corridors with a pile of documents in their arms, while others are talking in low voices. The air is filled with a thick and uneasy atmosphere.

Even in the corridor, one could faintly hear the noisy arguments in the parliament.

“This is a nightmare!!”

One congressman slammed the table so hard that his hands turned red, but he was unaware of it.

"Fifty thousand troops!! Fifty thousand troops!! Less than thirty people survived!! How are we going to explain this to the people? General Duke?! Tell me, what on earth is going on! We were just going to encircle and suppress a group of monsters, but fifty thousand troops were wiped out? Am I dreaming? Or are you dreaming?"

Not only him, most of the parliamentarians present had grim faces. This was not just because the 50,000-strong army was wiped out, but also because among these 50,000 troops, there were many children of nobles.

After all, the Fire Nation also values ​​seniority and achievements, and at this time, there is no war on the entire continent. Therefore, in order to gain merit, many families send their children to this army to gain merit and add a highlight to their resumes.

After all, it is rare to develop an undeveloped land, which is why the Fire Nation was able to dispatch 50,000 troops this time. It is because all parties hope to get a share of this action, and the suppression of monsters does not seem to be very dangerous, so many families have sent their future stars or valued successors.

But what they didn't expect was that the army was almost wiped out! Only less than thirty people survived, most of them were mages, and a few were nobles who were afraid of death and wore teleportation items before leaving.

And the others all died!!

Facing the congressman's questioning, General Duke's face was also not looking good. After all, he was the one who proposed to destroy the insect nest and completely occupy the undeveloped land. Now that such a big thing has happened, someone must be responsible. Those families who have lost their descendants and heirs will not let him go, and the people who have lost their children and husbands will probably tear him to pieces.

That’s an army of 50,000!

Since the founding of the Fire Nation, there has never been a situation where an entire legion was completely wiped out!

“This is not all my fault!!”

General Duke was not going to sit still and wait for death. If he said nothing, the parliament would probably send him to a military court in a little while. Needless to say, the end result would be that he would be hanged to appease the public's anger, but he was not willing to take the blame!!

"This decision was made by the parliament, and the parliamentarians have also read the reports from the front line in detail. At that time, we never discovered that these monsters had the ability to burrow underground and lurk, and we didn't know that there were so many of them!"

“Isn’t this a failure in intelligence gathering?”

"Of course not! We once sent scouts to conduct in-depth research, but we have never found that these monsters have similar characteristics! The only explanation is... they are hiding their abilities!"

"Hide your abilities?"

After hearing General Duke's explanation, another congressman laughed out of anger.

"So General Duke, are you trying to say that those monsters have the same intelligence as us humans? Are they deliberately showing weakness to lure us deep into their hinterland and then annihilate us in one fell swoop?"

"Isn't it?"

At this time, General Duke was finally determined to go all out.

"The soldiers on the front line have fought these monsters so many times, but they have never found that they have the ability to lurk and burrow underground. What does this mean? This means that these monsters have high intelligence and collective combat capabilities! They are deliberately paralyzing us! If we find that any of them has such ability during the battle, we will be on high alert!"

"Then if, as you said, they really have intelligence, why would they risk their lives to die?"

Another congressman also raised his own question, and General Duke gritted his teeth.

"I suspect that perhaps this group of monsters has a ruler. As long as the ruler gives an order, they will complete any task... In fact, if we regard these monsters as humans, then what we are facing is a perfect ambush!!"

Although General Duke tried his best to defend himself, the congressmen all showed disapproving expressions. This is a common problem of humans. They easily judge things by appearance. If they look like humans, they may think that they are as intelligent as themselves, but for species like Zerg that look very... that, they will definitely not think that they are as intelligent as themselves.

This is absolutely impossible! They are just monsters, magical beasts, at best they are just cunning magical beasts!!

There is absolutely no way they can be on par with us humans!!

"Okay, this is not the time to talk about that."

Seeing that the meeting was about to turn into a quarrel of blame-shifting, the Speaker of the Parliament picked up the hammer at hand and knocked on it.

"Our most important question next is how to deal with those monsters. According to the scouts' reports, there are hundreds of thousands of monsters entrenched in the undeveloped border areas outside the northern border. If they rush into Vanriel, how can we resist them?"

“…”

Upon hearing this, everyone present became solemn. Hundreds of thousands of monsters! When they saw the image of the border through the magic crystal, they all gasped. You know, because there is only the Fire Nation on this continent, and no other country borders it, the Fire Nation has basically not built any defense facilities on the border. At most, it has built some city walls in a few cities.

However, if these hundreds of thousands of monsters went straight into the Fire Kingdom, they would be doomed!

Where on earth did these damned monsters come from? !

"There is another very important question."

The Speaker of the Parliament seemed to have no intention of letting anyone off easy. He half-closed his eyes and looked at them coldly.

"Regarding that adult's matter...how should we report it?"

“…”

Upon hearing this, many members of parliament suddenly looked pale. They looked at each other, completely speechless for a moment.

After the Dragon Slayer Kara was killed instantly by Hecate, the Fire Nation's reputation plummeted, but the most important thing was that the Fire Nation had lost their patron saint, which was a very dangerous signal. In the past, because of Kara's existence, the Fire Nation was relatively stable, but now that Kara was dead, some forces within it naturally began to stir.

Under such circumstances, the Fire Nation had to spend a lot of money to contact the Red Dragon Clan and get support from the talented new stars in the Red Dragon Clan. According to the Fire Nation's idea, with a red dragon in charge, they should be able to rest easy. And even if someone wants to take advantage of this red dragon, it would be equivalent to fighting against the entire Red Dragon Clan. In this situation, even the enemy would not dare to act rashly because they would be afraid of the consequences.

But no one expected that the unexpected would happen, and the red dragon was killed right in the first battle when it was supposed to be showing off its might and strength!

This is trouble!

How would they explain to the Red Dragon Clan? Could it be that the Red Dragon was killed by a group of magical beasts?

Just kidding, if they dare to say it, the other party must be willing to believe it! !

Besides, even if the other party believed it, after the Red Dragon Clan destroyed the monsters, they would definitely turn around and cause trouble for the Fire Nation!

Therefore, the death of the Red Dragon's Son has been suppressed by the parliament, and no one dared to tell anyone. Now it seems... let's just keep it a secret for as long as possible.

"I have a solution!!"

At this moment, one of the young councillors seemed to have thought of something, his eyes sparkled, and he stood up. He put his hands on the table and looked around at everyone.

"Everyone, this undeveloped land was once the Land of Chaos, and those monsters are also magical beasts from the Land of Chaos, right?"

"This... is correct, so what?"

Hearing the young congressman say something that everyone knew, everyone present was a little confused, not knowing what he was talking about. Looking at everyone's puzzled expressions, the young congressman smiled slightly.

"Since they are monsters, they are accomplices of Chaos and enemies of Order. If that's the case... then why don't we ask for help from the Temple and let them help us deal with this problem?"