The huge aerial fortress was hovering directly above the crystal pit. A miraculous facility resembling a small town, it had an inverted cone-shaped base and two layers of solid ring-shaped wall. There were dozens of magic towers between the two city walls providing shield protection for the fortress. It looked spectacular, of course, but there were also many flaws. Hao Ren could see that this fortress idea was very simple-minded: it was simply a fortress lifted up in the air; other than the turrets, it had no escort fleet nor anti-aircraft weapons. It might be a very powerful weapon on this planet, but was far from being invincible. This monster of Holletta’s invention was just a rudimentary design; it still had a long way to go before becoming a mature strategic application. However, this aerial fortress was still an inspiring invention.
Ophra had introduced to them the construction process of the aerial fortress. The foundation of the Hodeceus came from Dragonspine Ridge: After the main peak of the mountains collapsed, the remaining peaks began to teeter. The Pope boldly used his divine skills to cut off the top of one of the peaks and then turned it upside down and moved it to the crystal pit for processing as the base of Hodeceus. The mine pit was closed for nearly a month. Many brilliant magicians had entered the mine under the leadership of twelve masters of magicians. Working like masonry artisans, they rebuilt the peak. To ensure confidentiality, the entire construction process did not involve any ordinary workers. A month later, which was just a few days ago, the magical fog above the crystal pits was resolved and Hodeceus rose into the air before the stunned faces of the world.
It was also because of the ascension of Hodeceus that shook the highest echelons of the Cult of Origination. These elusive cults had finally made a mistake and given way their whereabouts. The Knights found that the cults were hiding in the mountains in the west.
Perhaps even the Pope of the Disciples of Glory and the twelve master magicians who built Hodeceus could not have imagined that the first battle after the sky fortress floated up was actually a holy war between the Disciples of Glory and the cults, and the battlefield was just right next to the crystal pit. This was once the sacred lake, where Hodeceus completed its final assembly. It was also the western fortress of the church and at the same time at the edge of the sacred land of the werewolf tribal state and the lair of the cults. If one did not experience this personally, no one would believe that all these things had actually come together at the same place at the same time. While the church was shocked by the hidden lair of the cult under their nose, Hao Ren also had deep suspicion about the conspiracy of The Cult of Origination and of the brain monster. In any case, hiding in such a place called for great courage, and the risk was always equal return. The greater the risk The Cult of Origination took their conspiracy would be bigger. So when Hao Ren saw Hodeceus, he did not feel relieved for their increased combat strength, instead he became even more worried.
Despite the floating city was hovering over their heads, the cults did not flee, which meant that their conspiracy and their back support had enough strength to offset pressure brought by the floating city.
The Knights stationed on Hodeceus were in high spirits, it was hard to tell how many commanders could calm down and ponder about these hidden dangers, but Ophra must be already on guard. After giving them a tour on the fortress, she headed over to the command centre of the floating city with her team to discuss about the sacred mountain offensive. The design of Hodeceus was very simple. There were two walls, a barracks, and an air defence mortar. The inner layer was a training ground, a gryphon platform, an arsenal, and a magic reactor and the like. The command centre was located on an artificial hillock in the centre of the floating city overlooking two-thirds of the fortress.
In the command centre, Hao Ren and his entourage saw the commanders here. Some of them were familiar faces: Elson, the old werewolf, Cardinal Orben, the kings’ chief advisor Prince Hoffman, and several others high-ranking officers and church leaders he had met before. In the face of other strange faces, Hao Ren and his entourage also nodded to other—it did not matter if they were strangers to them, they just pretended to be acquainted; it was basically a pretentious occasion–pretending to know each other and pretending to be supportive.
When the group of ‘outsiders’ came into the command centre, everyone in the meeting became as quiet as a church mouse. Ophra pointed to a burly man at the table and took the opportunity to introduce him. “This is Uruk, the leader from the werewolf tribe. He and his werewolf cavalry would lead you into the Sacred Mountain.”
Hao Ren and his entourage’s sights landed on the werewolf leader. He was the most eye-catching person in the meeting, not only burly and tall, but also wearing a costume, unlike Holletta style, of rough fabric decorated with leather ornament, and an animal-teeth necklace on his neck. This made him look like a fearless, nomadic leader. Uruk was in the form of a werewolf. The black hair on the cheeks and the wolf ears on top of his head make him look ferocious and rough. When he saw Hao Ren, he opened his mouth to reveal a row of sharp teeth that glittered with coldness. “So the people we have been waiting for have finally arrived—you have a way to get ordinary people into the mountains?”
Hao Ren nodded. “I have a type of protective crystal that allows ordinary people to resist the mind control of the brain monster.”
Uruk nodded, got to his feet and walked out. “Okay, let’s get started.”
Hao Ren had thought of holding discussion of them, but the hasty werewolf shocked him. “Please wait a second—you just go like this? Don’t you want to discuss about the plan?”
“We have discussed the detailed plan,” Uruk pointed to the Holletta people at the scene. “Move swift as the wind is the best way to solve all the problems. We werewolves don’t like foreigners staying in their sacred mountains for too long, the sooner this matter is resolved, the better.”
Uruk left the room after uttering the words, leaving Hao Ren and the other looking at each other. Lily had been holding up her hand for a long time wanting to say hello to her fellow species but not a chance to interpose. “How could he be so rash?”
“That’s how he is,” said Ophra, rubbing his eyebrows. “Please don’t be offended, the werewolves are all friendly people, Uruk too, except that he is a bit special. I have met him for more than once; he will be waiting outside patiently.”
Elson beckoned to Hao Ren. “Don’t bother about that guy, his wife gave him only two days. Come! Let me brief you about the route in the mountains.”
Hao Ren had wanted to ask what ‘His wife gave him only two days’ meant. However, this was not the right time to ask, obviously. He motioned his men to come up closer to look at the map. They stood in a circle at the conference table. Elson patted on the table and a map instantly appeared in the centre of the table. It was like shrank version of the actual terrain with clouds and the mountains. Lil Pea saw this and jumped out from the collar of Hao Ren immediately—as she thought that, the water on the map was real…
The little mermaid fell flat on the table before Hao Ren picked her up and shoved her back into his clothes hurriedly, nodding to everyone around embarrassingly. “Please carry on, please carry on…”
Elson did not mind it by waving his hand, and then pointed to the snow-capped peak in the middle of the map. “This is the Sacred Mountain of the werewolf…”
Hao Ren had heard about the name for more than once, naturally from Ophra out of curiosity. He knew that the Sacred Mountain was a vital sacred place for the werewolf tribal state. Many years ago, the werewolves migrated from the southern part of the mainland to the west because of a plague. After crossing the mountain, the plague that infected their community miraculously disappeared. At that time, the werewolf ancestors thought that this magical mountain had sheltered their people and thus called it the Sacred Mountain. Since then, years had passed and the plague became an inconspicuous incident in the history books. The sacred nature of Sacred Mountain had become increasingly unshakable in the werewolf tribe.
The werewolves did not allow outsiders to set foot on Sacred Mountain because they believed that Sacred Mountain had shielded the werewolves from affliction for thousands of years and that foreigners stepping into the mountains would destroy the ‘sacred barrier’ and allow all kinds of disasters that were blocked by Sacred Mountain to make a comeback. In order to protect Sacred Mountain, the werewolf tribal state had been maintaining a strong wolf cavalry unit, and this unit had never let down their guard for thousands of years—but they did not expect that there would be pagans who could elude the wolf cavalry and remained under their radar for so long.