Chapter 442, Section 441: Sigismund's Selfish Motives
Dragon Roar Valley is a basin surrounded by steep mountains, connected to the outside world only by a narrow passage.
Its name, "Dragon's Roar," doesn't come from any actual connection to dragons, but rather from the fact that whenever strong winds from outside the valley rush into this narrow entrance, they emit a mournful howl, like the roar of a giant dragon, hence the name.
Perhaps due to the unique terrain, the magic power inside the valley is exceptionally thin, and spells are much less effective here, with less than half the power of those outside.
This makes the place easy to defend and difficult to attack, making it extremely difficult to launch a strong attack from the outside or break out from the inside.
But precisely because of this, it is also extremely vulnerable to being blocked by external forces, making it less than an ideal place to hold.
Alama chose to retreat here for a simple reason: he had no better alternative.
After suffering repeated setbacks, this was the only place in the vicinity where his remaining troops could barely resist the demons' offensive by taking advantage of the terrain.
If they retreat to other cities or fortresses, they will only be pursued and killed by Sigismund's iron cavalry until their entire army is wiped out.
However, this is exactly what Sigmund was happy to see.
Alama was reluctant to part with his soldiers, but Sigismund cared more about Alama himself!
After two consecutive crushing defeats, even if the remaining soldiers were released, they would not be able to regroup in a short time, so Sigismund did not care about their lives at all.
But Alama is different. This guy is not only his enemy of decades, but the two sides had a feud long before that!
Sigismund has been itching to kill this enemy ever since!
The most ingenious thing is that these human soldiers, whom he didn't care about at all, were able to help him hold back Alama, whom he dreamed of killing!
In fact, according to Prince Vesalius's instructions, Sigismund should have led his army to surround the Three Mountain Cities first, striving to annihilate the main force of the kingdom along with the Sword Saint, thus securing victory.
However, Sigismund added a bit of personal motive when implementing it.
During the march, he deliberately created an opening to see if Alama would take the bait.
As expected, Alama could not stand idly by and watch the demon army surround the Three Mountain Cities. Knowing it might be a trap, he still launched an attack and ended up falling right into it!
After this battle, Alama's forces were reduced to ashes, becoming an easy target for easy capture.
In this way, Sigismund, as the commander of the front line, had a good reason to legitimately postpone the plan to besiege the three mountain cities and to deal with Alama, his biggest threat, first!
As long as the action is quick enough and doesn't take too long, even Prince Vesalius wouldn't say much about it afterward, considering it's yet another great achievement.
The reason he needed to go to such great lengths was that he was worried that if they actually captured Sanshan City first, Alama, who was already in a losing position, might run away!
Whether you go to the Elf Forest, the Dwarf Mountain, or the Archipelago, by then, who knows when you'll be able to personally eliminate this major threat.
After all, even if the empire swallowed up large swathes of human territory, it would take time to digest it and it could not wage war indefinitely.
Fortunately, everything unfolded according to his script. As expected, Alama led his remaining forces to escape to the burial ground that Sigismund had chosen for him.
Dragon Roar Valley is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack, but that is on the premise that the difference in strength between the attacking and defending sides does not exceed a certain limit.
With Alama's current exhausted and demoralized remnants, as long as Veralis arrives with her slow-moving but tough troll army, he is absolutely confident that he can forcibly tear through this canyon defense line within a day and bury Alama here completely!
Of course, the two-handed greatsword in Alama's hand, inlaid with a sunstone, was indeed a considerable problem.
Once that thing appears on the battlefield, it will continuously emit a scorching power like the midday sun, which will not only make Sigismund feel weak and uncomfortable, but will also greatly weaken the strength of a large number of vampire warriors in the army.
However, the Demon Empire has a vast territory and a wide variety of military units, not just the vampires.
The trap that defeated Alama was thanks to the troops under Verallis who were not afraid of sunlight.
In fact, Sigismund originally intended to capture Alama alive.
He actually wanted to capture Inanna after the Empire achieved final victory, forcing Alama to witness his daughter being tortured to death!
Only in this way could he vent the deep-seated hatred that had been accumulating in his heart for many years.
However, considering the origins of his mysterious roommate, Sigismund was somewhat hesitant to act rashly and ultimately had to play it safe by killing Alama right there.
Sigismund glanced in the direction of Dragon's Roar Valley and sneered.
He then turned around and began to mentally reassure his roommate, who was clamoring to take over his control.
“It was my fault this time; I accidentally drank it all.” Sigismund tried to reason with him. “Please don’t cause trouble this time. After we deal with these humans, I can use this victory to ask His Majesty for the ‘Book of Miracles’ that you’ve been eyeing. How about that?”
Sigismund brought up their shared interests, genuinely worried that his roommate might cause him trouble at this time, given past precedents.
"What about our contribution in capturing High Castle?" The voice in my head was full of discontent. "According to the agreement, you should have given me the book long ago!"
Sigismund, barely suppressing his anger, patiently explained, "The war isn't over yet, how can we ask for rewards halfway through?"
"But you drank my half!"
"I will make it up to you later, for now..."
"I treat you like a friend, I always share my good food with you, and you actually ate mine! Do you look down on me? And asking for the book back was just a way of brushing me off!"
Seeing that the other party was about to lose control, Sigismund decisively abandoned any attempt at reasoning and quickly stopped him: "Alright, alright! Don't rush, don't rush! I'll arrange for someone to send a message right away to get the Book of Miracles for you, okay? The next batch of blood delivered will all be yours to enjoy!"
Sigismund hurriedly summoned his subordinates and, in front of his roommate, gave them the clear order to return to High Castle to relay the message. Only then did the voice in his mind gradually subside, turning into a muffled murmur.
Sigismund secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He raised his hand and pinched his thick brow, feeling that dealing with this roommate was more exhausting than dealing with ten Alama.
...
A day later, Vera, who was a step behind, led her troll army to join Sigismund.
As for Eleanor, she was left in High Castle while she was still recovering.
Before the battle began, Sigismund, unusually, had the leisure to try and persuade his men to surrender: "Allama! Do you intend to die with all your men?"
"puff--"
"If you surrender, I promise I'll only kill you, how about that?"
"hey-hey……"
Unfortunately, Alama clearly didn't want to say much to him in this unfavorable situation, and the inexplicable low laughter from his roommate in his mind completely killed his interest in continuing the conversation.
Just then, a bat landed on Sigismund's fat hand, then dissipated, turning into a wisp of shadow energy, which eventually condensed in his palm into an intelligence scroll bearing a magical mark.
Sigismund unfurled the scroll and quickly scanned it.
However, after reading it, Sigismund frowned.
The description in the intelligence report was somewhat difficult for him to understand at first.
What does it mean that... a massive army composed of humans, Puji, and storm elemental spirits is heading in this direction?
I'm offering up a new fantasy book; it's doing quite well, you guys should check it out.
(End of this chapter)
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