"What did you say? The Third Legion is being sent where?"
Master Marco grabbed the shoulder of Grum, who had just run in with the news, and demanded loudly, unable to believe it.
Grum pushed his hand away, caught his breath, and said it again. "The east. The border where it meets the Mountains. Everyone outside is talking about it."
The wrench in Marco's hand hit the floor with a clang. He swayed, and only the edge of the workbench kept him upright. "Weren't the two sides getting along just fine? The magic crystal trade didn't even stop last month." His voice shook, his eyes full of confusion. "What is the Mushroom Fortress trying to do? Swallow the Mountains whole?"
Grum rolled his eyes at that. Behind him, Thorin scratched his neck, looking a little embarrassed, then spoke up. "Actually... according to what the Ministry of Truth announced, it's us dwarves who attacked them."
"Huh?" Marco blanked for a moment, then waved a hand. "Impossible!"
He launched into a serious analysis. "Forget why the war started for a second. Has the entire Clan Council lost its mind? Why would they turn on the Mushroom Fortress while the Empire still isn't dealt with? And besides, is the Fortress even something they can beat?"
He had spent a long time in the Fortress, and as the dwarf in charge of the battle golems, a top-priority project, Marco understood its strength far better than the average dwarf.
He really didn't think the Mountains would get anything good out of a one-on-one fight with the Fortress.
"Unfortunately, they really are the ones who started this war." Lin Jun's voice appeared suddenly in their minds, heavy with regret.
A moment later, footage from the front line poured straight into their heads through the mycelial network.
On the gray-white tundra, two dwarven legions were crossing the border. They cleared away the fungal mat as they went, threw up defensive positions on a massive scale, and pushed forward bit by bit toward the Fortress's nearest city.
Building bunkers all the way up to the enemy's walls was a classic dwarven tactic.
Its only drawback was that it burned through a lot of ore and material. But as long as they won the war, the dwarves could calmly recover most of it afterward and keep their losses to a minimum.
Using a tactic like this meant the Mountains had been planning this war well in advance.
And the thin defensive works on the Fortress's side of the picture made it perfectly clear which side had been forced to fight.
"So it's... it's actually true." Marco's heart ached.
Thorin and Grum exchanged a glance, their faces full of worry.
With the Fortress and the Mountains at odds, the dwarves living in the Fortress suddenly found themselves in an awkward spot.
"If you want to go back to the Mountains, the Fortress won't stop you," Lin Jun said.
Marco's head snapped up. "Really?" he asked before he could stop himself.
His biggest reason for coming to the Fortress was to study battle golem technology. But when it came down to it, his family and his descendants were all still back in the Mountains. He could never simply cut them loose.
"Of course. Though for your own sake, I'd still advise you to stay."
As he spoke, Lin Jun played them the footage from a few recording crystals.
In it, Blacksteel Clan warriors herded batches of the parasitized into some camp and guarded them like prisoners, even though they had done nothing wrong.
The scene shifted. A young parasitized man, furious at being treated this way, tried to resist.
He was no weakling. On his own he put down two heavy-armored warriors. But more of them closed in. By the time he was dragged out, he had stopped struggling, his body leaving a shallow furrow in the mud.
Blood seeped from his temple and ran down the bridge of his nose. His eyes were still open, but they no longer focused.
The three dwarves froze.
"They're insane. Have they gone insane? Treating their own people like this?!"
"In fact, there are likely Empire agents behind this incident, stirring up trouble and turning people against one another."
At that, hope lit in Thorin's eyes. "Then..."
But Lin Jun poured cold water on it. "Unfortunately, much as the Fortress would love to just drag the Empire's hidden hand into the light and settle this quietly, the way things look now, we'll have to fight at least one battle first."
The light in Thorin's eyes went out. Grum slammed a fist against his knee and clenched his teeth.
But Marco had already thought it through. He took a deep breath and looked up. "Great Boss, once the war is over and you've rooted out the Empire's hand, you won't punish the dwarves of the Mountains for this, will you? You're a merciful one."
"Of course," the merciful Lin Jun replied.
"Then I will help you with everything I have!" With that, he turned and strode toward the factory behind him, where his latest masterpiece was almost finished.
And Lin Jun, having gotten the answer he wanted, shifted his view elsewhere, satisfied.
Meanwhile, at the dwarven front-line positions.
The dwarven soldiers worked in pairs, carrying clay jars on thick iron poles, moving them carefully toward the front.
A sharp stench filled the long line of positions, stinging the dwarves' noses. The whole way there was nothing but grumbling and sniffling, and all of it had to do with what they were carrying.
When they reached an area that still had fungal mat, the sergeant leading them waved a hand. The front-row soldiers set down their poles, tore open the oilcloth, and pried off the wax seals.
The jars held a gray-green liquid, a fine layer of bubbles floating on its surface. This was a strong acid the dwarves had refined.
When fighting the Fortress, the fungal mat was the first major obstacle.
The mat had extremely high resistance to everything. Neither fire nor ice did much to it.
And its vitality was immense. Even if you cleared it for a while, it would soon spread right back.
Only this strong acid, which kept poisoning the soil, could clear the mat and then hold off its recovery for a short while.
The price was the foul conditions in their own positions, and a devastating blow to the entire region's ecology.
The dwarven sergeant looked around with some unease.
If they really could push forward on the back of this and win the war, fine.
But this acid was not exactly easy to produce in bulk. Could it really sustain them all the way to the Mushroom Fortress?
And if their supplies weren't enough to carry the whole campaign, then why launch the attack at all?
The sergeant held his head, struggling to think it through.
But soon, under some unseen influence, he threw that doubt out of his mind and gave himself fully to the battle about to begin, just like every other dwarf around him.
High above, a few scout Puchi circled at an altitude the dwarves couldn't reach, watching.
According to the Yellow Codex's experience, a psychic field always had a signal source. It might be another book, it might be a living person. Either way, the source had to lie somewhere inside the field.
Lin Jun wanted to find that source.
Unfortunately, the Empire had some idea of Lin Jun's reconnaissance methods by now. Neither the fungal mat nor the scout Puchi managed to locate it.
So it really would come down to a fight after all.
Standing atop a huge mushroom cap that gleamed like metal, the Marshal Puchi let its crimson cape stream in the wind.
Then bring it on. Lin Jun wanted to see exactly how the dwarves planned to fight this war they could never win.
(End of Chapter)
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