Chapter 112: Heading Towards the Royal City
Isidor had just finished speaking when he heard the sound of horse hooves and a group of cavalry quickly arrived, about thirty to fifty people.
From the emblems on their armor, it can be seen that they are the same group of people as the guards just now.
"Who's there?" The cavalrymen surrounded Isidor and others, asking with swords drawn.
"Captain, they seem to have captured our people. I just heard the noise!" said a cavalryman, pointing at the carriage driven by Yan Yade.
"Goblins and...elves? Who are you exactly? If you tell the truth, I can spare your lives." the captain of the guard asked.
"Oh no, there are so many people." Isidor said with a frown.
"Haha, now you know we are not easy to mess with? Release our people quickly and go to the court to await your punishment!" said a cavalryman proudly.
"What I mean is: it's hard to leave any of them alive if there are too many people. Well, kill half of them and leave the other half to report the news." Isidor said as he made a handful of arrows and gave them to Emmeline.
"You don't want to be friendly anymore?" Emmeline asked after taking the arrow.
"I changed my mind. There is no need to express friendship to such a country." Isidor shook his head.
"Hey! Are you deaf? Our captain asked you a question, and you dare not answer?! I think you are tired of living..." A cavalryman became anxious when he saw them talking to themselves, and shouted loudly with his saber in hand.
However, he was unable to utter his last word as a feather arrow had pierced his head.
Then, more than a dozen feather arrows came one after another. At such a close distance, Emmeline barely needed to aim, and could still accurately hit the target with just a raised hand. In an instant, she shot and killed more than a dozen guards.
The captain of the guard had never seen such a scene before. He was so frightened that he quickly fled with the rest of the people. Emmeline also put away her longbow and did not chase after them.
"We're doomed now. You killed the king's guards. They will definitely bring more people to take revenge!" The woman was frightened and looked pale, looking at a loss.
"You should be worried about them." Isidore smiled, got on the carriage with Emmeline, and waved his hand to signal the convoy to continue moving forward.
The convoy continued to move forward, and occasionally soldiers of the guard could be seen moving around nearby, but Isidor and others ran away in panic. Perhaps they had heard of their vicious notoriety from the deserters, so no one dared to block their way.
Under the guidance of the chief of the Bone Worshiping Tribe, the convoy arrived at a fortress. The fortress was very tall, but it looked very dilapidated, and even a large part of the wall had collapsed.
"This is a fortress built by the Xibulan people many years ago to guard against the Goblin Kingdom. However, the Goblin King has been dead for many years, and the goblins have split into several tribes. They can no longer pose any threat to the outside world, so the fortress has been abandoned." The chief of the Baigu tribe explained.
"Hey! Guests from the cursed land! What do you want? Why are you killing His Majesty the King's guards?" At this moment, a loud voice came from the fortress.
Isidor looked up and saw a tall Hibran holding a huge axe, standing on the fortress wall and staring at everyone. His armor and clothing were very different from those of the King's Guards, and he probably did not belong to the same unit. Next to him stood a few panting guards, who probably came to report the news.
"Cursed land?" Isidor was stunned for a moment, then turned around and slashed at the chief of the Bone Worshiping Tribe.
"Your Majesty, the Xibulan people have always called our land the 'Cursed Land'. As for the reason, I am not quite sure." The chief replied.
"I understand - Njies, you answer him." Isidor nodded and turned to Njies.
Njies quickly cleared his throat and answered loudly while standing on the carriage: "You rude man! The person in this carriage is the noble King of our Goblin Kingdom! We came here to meet your king and discuss trade matters. We happened to run into this group of scum doing evil, so we disciplined them on behalf of your king."
"The Goblin Kingdom? Haha, that's really funny. Is the ruler of your small village worthy of being called a king?" the strong man said disdainfully.
"How dare you! How dare you be so rude to our king!" Yan Yade on the side became angry and summoned a ball of fire cloud, from which more than a dozen fireballs were shot towards the fortress.
"Haha, you dare to show off your petty tricks here!" The strong man sneered and chopped the air with his giant axe. The wind pressure caused by it actually blew away the fireballs. Then he chopped the fire cloud in the air with another axe.
"How is this possible?!" Yan Yade was shocked when he saw the fire cloud being split apart.
"Since you have already launched the attack, there is nothing more to talk about! Come on, shoot!" the strong man shouted.
As soon as he finished speaking, countless crossbowmen suddenly stood up on the city wall, and it seemed that they had been ambushed for a long time. The Xibran people's arm strength was not enough to support strong shooting, but the crossbows they made were extremely sophisticated. In an instant, hundreds of crossbows were fired at the same time, and a rain of arrows fell from the sky.
"Void shock wave." Isidor pointed his hand into the air in the carriage, and a ray of illusory purple energy shot into the air at an astonishing speed, and then exploded among the rain of arrows.
After a violent shock, hundreds of crossbow arrows were blown away, and even the crossbowmen on the city wall were shaken to the point of being unstable, and many of them fell directly under the city wall.
"What? The power of mobilizing airflow is even greater than mine?" the sturdy man said in surprise.
"Your imagination is too poor." Isidor smiled and raised his hand to release another void shock wave. This time it was no longer pointed at the air, but directly hit the wall of the fortress.
Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound from the city wall, and the entire fortress shook violently as if it had experienced an earthquake. It collapsed into ruins in just a few seconds.
"What a powerful move! In terms of destructive power alone, it may have surpassed my sister's mind magic." Emmeline showed a rare expression of surprise.
"This is a new move I learned. To be honest, I didn't expect it to be so powerful. Anyway, the obstacles have been cleared, let's continue on our way." Isidor said.
"Your Majesty is so strong! Even a dragon might not be able to withstand that attack just now!" Engels said excitedly, waving the whip to drive the carriage around the fortress and continued to move forward.
"The royal city is more than a hundred miles further east. I have been there once when I was young. The attitude of the demi-humans towards goblins is different from that of humans. They usually do not regard goblins as wild beasts, but they are not too friendly to them either." The chief of the Baigu tribe said, pointing to the front.
"In that case, let's go say hello and express our goblin's friendship." Isidor said with a smile.
Chapter 113: Entering the Royal City
Because the convoy was not moving very fast, the Hibran people had already received the report and urgently assembled thousands of troops to line up outside the city to resist.
Judging from the standard of armor, this unit is undoubtedly the king's guard. They are equipped with enchanted weapons, and some soldiers even have enchanted armor. Such luxurious equipment can easily make up for the lack of physical ability. Even if fighting against the elite human troops, this unit will not be at a disadvantage.
Unfortunately, they chose the wrong opponent.
"Is this the welcome ceremony of the Hibran people? It's really grand. In that case, I have to show the corresponding etiquette." Isidor wanted to try out his newly evolved skills here, so he stood in front of the army formation, raised his arms, and cast Evil Coming.
The sky suddenly darkened, and the black fog filled the sky like a dark cloud. In the black fog, thousands of evil creatures were summoned, the largest one was as big as a hill, and the smallest one was more than a person tall.
Isidor wanted to establish his authority in this battle, so he summoned some large evil creatures, which consumed a huge amount of magic power.
Even after taking the atavism potion, Isidor's magic power was only 550 points, not much stronger than that of an A-level adventurer. However, due to the existence of the bug skill "moderation", Isidor actually consumed only one-tenth of the rated magic power, and only spent 300 magic power to summon such a terrifying army of evil creatures.
The evil creatures all over the ground just stayed there quietly without any orders from their master.
Faced with the sudden appearance of the evil army before them, the Hibran troops were in turmoil, many people's hands and feet became weak, and some simply turned around and ran away.
"Coward! As the king's guards, you muster up the courage to fight! Even if your opponent is a god! Anyone who retreats will be killed!" A man who looked like a commander drew his saber and killed two deserters on the spot, which temporarily maintained the formation.
"I am the King of Goblins. This time I came to meet you, the King of the Hibrans. Why are you blocking me?" Isidor stood up and asked majestically. With his luxurious clothes, he really had the demeanor of a king.
"King of Goblins? That was a legend from many years ago. And even if you are the King of Goblins, you kill our soldiers and destroy our fortress as soon as you come. Is this a friendly gesture? Since you have done this, don't blame me for treating you as an enemy!" The guard commander responded loudly, but he couldn't hide his guilty conscience after all.
After all, monsters are at least in the shape of animals. Even if they are scary, it is because of their dangerousness. The appearance of evil creatures is more arbitrary. Some of them don’t even have facial features. Their images are more bizarre than each other. Just looking at them a few more times will make people feel like they are going crazy.
The reason why he still maintained the battle formation and did not flee immediately was probably because he still had a glimmer of hope, hoping that these evil creatures were illusions or vulnerable summons!
But unfortunately, his fantasy was immediately shattered.
A soldier was too nervous and accidentally shot the crossbow in his hand. The arrow happened to hit the leg of an evil creature. The evil creature's intelligence was not high to begin with, so it immediately fought back after being attacked, knocking several soldiers to the ground in an instant.
There was an immediate commotion in the team, and several soldiers quickly drew out their sabers to chop the evil creature into several pieces. Unexpectedly, the evil creature had a strong ability to survive, and each fragment regenerated into a smaller individual, which continued to wriggle and attack.
This bizarre scene became the last camel that broke the soldiers' psychological defenses. The soldiers in the front row shouted, dropped their weapons, and madly squeezed through the crowd to flee backwards. The soldiers in the back row didn't know what was happening yet, but the extreme fear and the howling of the soldiers in the front row made them subconsciously follow suit and flee.
In an instant, the most elite troops of the Hibran collapsed.
The commander killed several people in succession, but failed to stop the retreat trend, so he had to gather the remaining soldiers and rush into the city. He closed the city gates and hoped that the strong walls of the royal city could withstand Isidor's attack.
However, just as the remaining soldiers entered the city, they heard a loud noise - the city gate had been blown open by Isidor's void shock wave, and a large gap was blown out in the city wall, which was wider than the road in the city.
The commander's face turned pale, and the soldiers fled when they saw this. Only a few personal soldiers still followed the commander loyally.
"Okay, let's go into the city." Isidor, who had blew open the city gate, waved his hand, and Engels drove the carriage into the royal city.
This time, no one dared to stop it.
Isidor asked the evil creatures to capture a few soldiers to lead the way, heading straight for the palace. After thousands of evil creatures surrounded the palace, Isidor led Emmeline and the four chiefs slowly into the palace.
King Hebran is a slightly fat middle-aged man. Because the Hebran people generally have thin limbs, his body shape looks a little funny.
The king had obviously just received the news and did not have a clear understanding of Isidor's strength. He originally thought that as long as he relied on his guards to defend the city and wait for the reinforcements to arrive, he could surround and kill the enemy, but he did not expect that Isidor would kill all the people in the palace in just over ten minutes. Even most of these ten minutes were spent on the road.
"Isidor, the King of Goblins, has come to visit King Hebron. Enges, present the gift." Isidor walked into the palace and nodded to the panicked King Hebron.
King Hibran only had a dozen guards around him, most of whom were brought by the commander to protect him. He had no time to escape, and had already made up his mind to sacrifice his life for his country, but he didn't expect Isidor to not attack him directly, but even send him a gift?
"Your Majesty, be careful, there may be a conspiracy." The commander said nervously while protecting the king.
"Give it to me. If the king wanted to harm me, there would be no need for him to plot against me." Seeing that Isidor had no intention of killing him, King Hibran gradually calmed down.
Njies then stepped forward and presented four gifts wrapped in animal skins. King Hibran took them personally and opened them. Inside were one piece of animal skin, one piece of dried meat, one piece of bone needles and bone arrows made from polished animal bones, and the last piece was an animal tooth ornament from Njies' own tribe.
King Sibran looked at the gift prepared by Isidor and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If it was a formal gift, it was a bit too shabby and the packaging was also very crude; but if it was a deliberate humiliation to him, it might not be a problem. After all, they had already attacked the palace, so even stepping on him under their feet would not be a problem. Why would they need to humiliate him with gifts?
After much thought, King Xibran could only conclude that there was really nothing good in the Goblin Kingdom, and that the gift given to him was already a good one. So he asked the commander of the guard to keep it for the time being, and bowed to Isidor to express his gratitude.
"Thank you for your gift. Your country has come from afar, so please forgive us for our poor hospitality. But there is one thing I don't understand. As soon as you entered the border, you killed my guards. Why? Did they insult you?" King Hibran asked.
"The reason? Ask them." Isidor clapped his hands, and Yan Yade dragged several soldiers in the carriage to King Xibran and picked out the mud from their mouths.
"Your Majesty, we are only following orders and going to the border to collect sacrifices. We have not offended this lord. They came here on their own accord!" a soldier cried.
"Could it be related to the high sacrifice?" King Xibran's face changed immediately when he heard this.
Chapter 114: The Demon Lord with Thousands of Viscera
"When we entered the country, these guys were snatching newborn babies. Is the great sacrifice you mentioned referring to this? They are even more barbaric than orcs!" Emmeline said with a cold face behind her.
"This...this is none of my business! I do this for the country!" The king said with a deathly pale and extremely terrified expression.
"You said it was for the country. Is there something you can't tell?" Isidor asked.
"Your Majesty, although as the King's Sword, I dare not ask too much. But in fact, I have always doubted the meaning of this order. Why do you want to carry out such a cruel sacrifice? Even if it can bring abundance to the country, what it gains will far outweigh the loss of people's hearts." The captain of the guard couldn't help asking.
“And it’s the human heart in the physiological sense.” Isidor said with a smile.
"I can't say it. If I say it, I will die and go to hell!" The king looked at Isidor and then at his loyal captain of the guard. His expression was distorted like a rotten cucumber, but in the end he did not utter a word about the reason for the high sacrifice.
"If you don't tell me, you will die now." Emmeline stared at the king with murderous eyes, twisting the arrow tail with her fingers, as if she was ready to shoot him through the heart at any time.
King Sibran looked at the arrow in Emmeline's hand with fear, showing a look of despair: "Then just kill me. It's better to die in your hands than to go to hell."
"You..." Emmeline was about to step forward but was stopped by Isidor.
"Everyone, step back. I want to talk to the king alone." Isidor ordered.
Emmeline was a little unhappy, but she still left the palace with the goblins. Although the captain of the guard was worried about his king, he knew that he could not help if he stayed, so he also led his men out.
"What you are afraid of is actually the punishment of the Demon Lord, right?" After everyone left, Isidor whispered in King Sibran's ear.
"How can you... No, this is something that you absolutely cannot say out loud!" The king immediately denied it, but his surprised expression betrayed him.
"Haha, do you think that as long as you don't tell me, I won't be able to know?" Seeing this, Isidor sneered and summoned a slender tentacle, which drilled into King Xibran's ear.
This was the alternative Isidor chose after the fusion of hypnosis: directly controlling and reading other people's thoughts through the power of evil things. Although this method has great limitations and will cause irreversible damage to the brain, it is the most appropriate for this occasion.
King Xibran, whose ears were caught by the tentacles, rolled his eyes upwards and his expression suddenly became stupid. After the tentacles successfully controlled his brain, Isidor put his hands on the king's head and began to try to read his thoughts.
"Blood sacrifice... a thousand viscera, five hundred babies... blood sacrifice, resurrection, I am the demon king of a thousand viscera, named... Jomjael. As long as you recover one tenth of your strength, I can come to the world and grant you the power of eternal life... Otherwise, you will fall into a cave of flesh and blood and endure infinite pain. Isidor, are you peeking? Don't worry, when I am resurrected, the first person I will find will be you."
Fuzzy and intermittent memories were transmitted to Isidor's mind through the tentacles. At the beginning, it was an image of a blurry mass of flesh and blood talking to King Xibran, but when it was about to end, it suddenly turned and looked at Isidor with an ugly, tumor-like face.
Isidor was startled and quickly took his hand off the king's head. He felt a chill, just like when he was watching a horror movie alone late at night, and the ghost on the screen suddenly stopped chasing the characters in the plot and rushed out of the screen towards him.
Although he had come into contact with demon lords before, this was the first time he had seen such monstrous malice directed only at himself, like Zam'drol.
Isidor suddenly thought that when he was in Grimdor, the beautiful female thief leader also caught children everywhere, as if she was going to hold some kind of ceremony. Could it be related to the sacrifice of Zamdrow? If so, then he might have been targeted from the beginning!
Isidor didn't dare to think any further. He let the tentacles continue to control King Xibran's mind, and then called back everyone who had left the palace.
"It was a misunderstanding just now. After the talks just now, your king has relented and agreed to cancel the high sacrifice," said Isidor.
"Your Majesty, is this true?" The captain of the guard asked in surprise with shining eyes.
"Yes." King Xibran nodded.
"At the same time, to celebrate the resolution of this misunderstanding, the great King Xibran has decided to establish trade with the Goblin Kingdom and impart technology to the Goblin Kingdom selflessly. I will leave a chief to contact them, but that's a story for later. You should hurry up and pass on the news of the cancellation of the high festival." Isidor said.
"Your Majesty, is this true?" the captain of the guard asked with some doubt.
"Yes." King Xibran sighed.
The captain of the guard sighed, thinking that after all, they had already entered the palace, and no one would dare to stop him even if he wanted to sleep with the queen. It was already very kind of him to only propose these conditions. And since the king had already agreed, what else could he say?
"Let the chief of the Bone Worshiping Tribe handle this matter. After all, you are the most familiar with this place. The other three chiefs please return to the Goblin Kingdom to prepare for transportation matters." Isidor ordered.
"What about you and Lady Emmeline?" Engels immediately realized the meaning of Isidor's words.
"We have other things to do. This is a magic resonance stone. You can use it to contact me in case of emergency. I will give each of you three pieces. After breaking them, you can contact me directly, but you only have one minute. Be sure to use them with caution." Isidor said, and he materialized twelve resonance stones and distributed them to the four chiefs one by one, then left the palace with Emmeline.
"How did you convince the king?" Emmeline asked curiously.
"This is not important. I just read his memory. This bloody sacrifice seems to be to resurrect a demon lord named 'Zamdrow', and this demon lord's target seems to be me." Isidor shared the information he read with Emilyne with a serious face.
"If the power of this Demon Lord is as strong as the 'Thousand Winged Demon Lord' that day, then we definitely have no chance of winning. And we don't even know if that is the Demon Lord's full power." Emmeline said with fear on her face.
