In Aidin’s view, after the demons breached Earthpeak Fort, they’d likely head straight for Redstone City.
Though Redstone had been a profitable trade hub in the past, it wasn’t a key military site. Otherwise Alama wouldn’t have left it to Silver Thorn.
Plainly, Aidin judged Redstone’s defenses wouldn’t hold long—probably falling before Church reinforcements could turn the tide.
As for the “decapitation plan” Nova and the others pinned hopes on, Aidin was skeptical.
He had never personally witnessed the divine artifact’s true power; success rate was hard to gauge.
In short, letting events unfold naturally was too risky.
If the Heartwood fell to demons, reclaiming it would be countless times harder.
“Can we just steal it?” Lin Jun really wanted to complete the mission.
Aidin helplessly shook his head. He was an illusionist, not a thief.
Moreover, with a high-tier assassin like Nightowl in Silver Thorn, stealth theft in front of him would be showing off in front of an expert.
The fungal mat was still striving to spread this way,
but clearly couldn’t cover Redstone in mere days.
Without mat support, neither forcibly seizing the Heartwood nor aiding defense was feasible.
Just wait for Redstone to fall into chaos, Silver Thorn to fight to exhaustion, then snatch the Heartwood amid turmoil?
Lin Jun really disliked this plan—too many uncertainties.
Wait…
Lin Jun reorganized his thoughts and suddenly realized a key point.
He didn’t actually need to help Redstone hold the city. He just needed the demons not to bother Redstone before Church reinforcements reached Threehill City!
Redstone itself wasn’t strategically vital. Demons would attack only to clear human outposts before the Threehill decisive battle.
In other words, if he could create other troubles for the demons and delay them two-three days, he could get the Heartwood as planned.
In that case, there really was a method worth trying. Though Lin Jun wasn’t sure of success, there was no loss. If it failed, switch to Plan B!
Under Lin’s instructions, Aidin used illusions to alter his appearance and quietly searched Redstone markets and warehouses for certain specific materials…
…
Earthpeak Fort’s walls had collapsed. Charred banners lay discarded among smoking ruins. The air reeked of thick blood mixed with mana-explosion smoke and faint corpse rot.
A hunched goblin dragged a bloodstained sack bigger than itself, laboriously collecting corpses.
As the lowest tier in demon armies, ordinary goblins got minimal rations—sometimes even becoming rations themselves.
Only post-battle periods let goblins eat their fill.
Even among demons, corpse-eating disgusted others, but they were goblins. Full bellies were enough; no one cared if a goblin didn’t eat corpses.
Many other goblins scavenged the battlefield similarly. Lucky ones found gear overlooked by higher demons—jackpot.
Of course, not every goblin thought ahead.
Nearby among broken walls, two goblins chose to play instead, emitting shrill laughter.
They kicked a round object like a ball across scorched earth and rubble.
The “ball” was caked in dirt and dried dark-red blood but still recognizable as once human—even with a few blood-matted white hairs. It was the fort lord’s head.
The two goblins fought over it, arguing coarsely over who kicked farther, having a blast.
The hunched goblin had no intention of joining. In a couple days when hunger struck, those two idiots would definitely be among the howling.
Moments later, it amazingly pulled a gleaming dagger from a pile of minced flesh and rags!
It hurriedly wiped the blade with its filthy rags—only smearing blood more colorfully—but still admired it lovingly.
Suddenly, its playing stopped.
Something felt wrong?
It looked at the other wandering goblins, unable to pinpoint the odd feeling.
Right!
The shrill laughter had stopped sometime!
It turned, searching for the two goblins, but saw no trace.
Left already? So fast?
It hesitantly took two steps and immediately spotted the head-ball lying alone among ruins.
Just then, a very faint “squelch” sounded—like viscous liquid flowing.
The hunched goblin looked toward the noise and was scared witless.
A patch of ground-hugging shadow slowly writhed, already swallowing half a goblin. Only half an arm stuck out.
That goblin was still alive. Exposed fingers clawed frantically at air but grasped nothing.
*Glurp—*
With a soft sound, the last arm vanished into the shadow.
The shadow patch paused, then moved toward the hunched goblin.
The goblin dropped its heavy sack in terror, shrieking as it scrambled away on all fours toward camp.
Half a day later, a drunken pigfolk soldier with a wine jug dragged the trembling goblin back to the ruins.
He gave a perfunctory look around, then kicked the hunched goblin far away, breaking its leg.
“Damn waste…” the pigfolk slurred, complaining this hallucinating idiot got him sent on this errand by the captain.
He had chopped two humans in daytime battle and should be enjoying spoils now, not hunting some bullshit “shadow.”
Halfway back,
the pigfolk glanced behind—no goblin following.
Did I kick it to death?
He sobered halfway. Killing it meant punishment!
He paced where he kicked it but saw nothing. Puzzled, he suddenly stepped into emptiness!
His right foot sank into sticky shadow. An irresistible force dragged his body down. He struggled desperately but couldn’t pull free.
“Help… HELP!!!”
A pig-squeal scream echoed over the ruins, soon alerting the nearby demon camp.
…
On a cliff some distance from the demon camp, a scout Puchi sat on an abyss magic array as the info receiver.
Aidin crouched at the array edge, carefully maintaining mana flow, occasionally downing mana potions.
Soon, a blurry outline slowly rose from the array.
[Race: Shadow Worm (Failed Draft)]
[Level: LV5]
[Skills: Shadow Dissolve LV2]
Off you go!
The Puchi raised a short leg and kicked the newly formed shadow worm off the cliff, then cut the connection.
These abyss-summoned failed drafts instinctively approached life clusters, dragging prey into shadow to devour.
The nearest life cluster was naturally the demon camp.
These abyss failed drafts dissipated on their own when mana ran out after summoner disconnected—quite handy.
But shadow worms were too weak. Though they had first-sight kill potential, size limited them to minor disruption.
Lin Jun planned to keep using this array to trawl the abyss area for something stronger.
(End of Chapter)
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