Chapter 1904 - 1903: Linen’s Return

"Wint City has fallen." Lante looked at the intelligence in his hand and then glanced at the intelligence officer in front of him, somewhat incredulous, "So fast? The message from our intelligence officers at the front line?"

"Our intelligence officers haven’t returned," the intelligence officer shook his head, raised his eyes, and looked at Lante, "This news was gotten from the media."

"News?" Lante was stunned.

"All the cities controlled by the Federation are now broadcasting the news of Wint City’s fall," the intelligence officer quickly responded, "Our people relayed the news back."

"Could it be a propaganda war?" Lante lowered his eyes, asking doubtfully.

"It’s possible but highly unlikely," the intelligence officer looked at Lante and whispered, "Not just one city is broadcasting this news. It’s very likely that all cities under Gray Stone Palace’s control are broadcasting this ’victory.’ Such widespread dissemination of news is unlikely to be a propaganda war because if it’s proven false, it could severely damage Gray Stone Palace’s credibility."

The intelligence officer paused, looked at Lante, and continued, "Wint City has long been besieged by the Federation’s main forces in the west. Based on previous reports, it couldn’t hold out much longer. It’s only logical that it has been breached now."

Hearing this, Lante was silent for a moment and sighed, "So, Wint City really might have fallen?"

"Yes." The intelligence officer slightly nodded.

"Okay, I understand," Lante slightly nodded, "You can go now."

The intelligence officer glanced at him, said nothing more, just saluted and left the office.

Then Lante raised his hand and pressed a button on the desk, projecting Corvey’s aged face.

"General, how’s the situation now?" He looked at Corvey and quickly inquired.

"Not optimistic." Corvey rasped, raising his hand, directly cutting into a chaotic street scene.

On this street, slowly rising skeletal soldiers, harpies soaring through the sky, and piles of indescribable undead creatures were densely packed in the streets.

On the other side of the street, numerous soldiers stood together, uniformly wielding weapons and holding semi-transparent shields, approaching the undead creatures.

Streaks of green light streaked across the semi-transparent shields, sketching an invisible wall in the void as the soldiers advanced.

The undead roared as they charged at the soldiers, only to be blocked by the green wall the next moment.

"Fire!" A hoarse shout echoed from the army.

Following this, soldiers pulled out handguns from the rear of the army, aiming at the undead soldiers.

With enchanted bullets filled with green light firing out, the undead were pierced instantly, falling backward and shattering into fragments of black smoke.

However, soon more undead emerged from the smoke, charging toward the green wall once more.

Thump thump thump—

Intense sounds reverberated in the void.

Even though the army effectively killed the undead, they were still gradually pushed back.

Corvey raised his hand, switching the video back, he faced Lante, quickly saying, "These undead defy physical laws; even though a blocking array is inside the high wall, it doesn’t completely prevent the undead from penetrating. Though each undead is quite weak, Levi’s enchanted arrays can effectively kill them, their numbers, however, are overwhelming."

He rasped, "Most of our army is atop the high wall, with very few in the city, insufficient to stop the undead."

"What if we redeploy the troops from the high wall?" Lante asked hoarsely.

"The Federation’s army is advancing to the foot of the walls." Corvey rasped.

Lante’s voice halted, speaking softly, "If the undead control the gate, they can let the outside army in."

"This is the dilemma we face now." Corvey whispered.

If more troops were deployed to combat the undead, they couldn’t resist the siege army.

But if they couldn’t resist the undead’s assault, the entire city would be breached internally, only a matter of time.

Previously they could hope to hold out for reinforcements, but with the undead army’s presence, it seemed almost impossible to last until they arrived.

In this silence, Lante raised his hand, dialed a number, and quickly the call was answered. Lante immediately asked, "Has Speaker Levi been reached yet?"

The voice on the phone quickly replied in a low tone, "No, we haven’t received any news from Mr. Levi yet."

"Is it possible to seek aid from the Legion Commander in Dawn City?" Lante turned his gaze to Corvey.

"The networks of Yilan City and Dawn City have been cut off," Corvey stated calmly, "We can send teams to attempt breaking through to nearby cities with network access, then contact spies near Dawn City; there’s a chance of reaching Dawn City."

He paused briefly, looked at Lante, and continued, "If the Legion Commander of Dawn City comes to Yilan, then Dawn City won’t have angel protection; the Legion Commander might not be willing to leave."

Hearing this, Lante paused slightly.

"We still need a unified command structure, now that we’re at war, maintaining unity and centralized power is vital, acting separately is not advisable."

Just then, a slightly aged voice sounded behind Lante.

Hearing the voice, Lante was slightly surprised and immediately turned around, looking behind him.

An elderly gentleman, with gray hair, standing tall in a crisp suit, was standing there with a cane.

Lante gazed at the elder, his eyes widened for a moment, and the entire office was plunged into temporary silence.

At this time, in the screen behind Lante, Corvey also saw the figure behind Lante, he was slightly stunned, and even his consistently calm and composed face showed traces of astonishment, "Linen?"

He Ao glanced at Lante, then at Corvey on the screen, smiling, "Long time no see."

"You..." At this moment, Lante regained his composure, looking at He Ao in some shock, "What’s going on with you?"

As he spoke, he seemed to realize something, speechless, "Is it those undead? Did you return from the Netherworld too?"

"My situation is rather complicated," He Ao shook his head, "It’s unrelated to the undead, but,"

He turned his head toward Corvey on the screen, smiling, "I can help you deal with those undead. Can you give me a specific location?"

Corvey looked at him, slightly nodded, "Certainly, these undead mainly come from the west side, assaulting the troops at the West City Gate vigorously. We’ve already evacuated the residents nearby, you can freely act."

Then a map appeared on the screen, dense red dots flashing at the location of the West City Gate.

"Okay," He Ao nodded slightly, "I’ll go immediately."

The next moment, his body vanished from the original spot.

Lante looked somewhat bewildered at the empty area before him, rubbing his brows in confusion, he turned back, looking at the screen with Corvey in the corner, "I might’ve hallucinated just now, it seemed like I saw Linen return."

"Doesn’t seem like a hallucination," Corvey looked at him, his tone slightly halting, "I seem to have seen him too."

He paused briefly, glancing around the empty office, shook his head, "Or perhaps we’re both hallucinating at the same time."

"Maybe we both really wish Linen is still here," Lante also sighed softly, "He definitely has a way to solve this. He always does."

Ring ring—

At that moment, the phone on his desk rang.

He walked over, picked up the phone, and answered it.

"Mayor Lante, Speaker Levi has returned." A somewhat surprised voice came through the receiver.

"Really?" Lante was slightly taken aback and glanced at Corvey on the screen, "Is Speaker Levi next to you now?"

"The Speaker said he had something to do and left, asking me to inform you that he’s safe." The voice on the phone quickly replied.

"Probably went to West City." Corvey pondered aloud.

As he spoke, the map on the screen flickered and instantly transformed into dense street scenes recorded by drone surveillance.

Among these crisscrossed streets, phantoms of undead and banshees were rapidly emerging.

Skeleton soldiers crawled up from the depths of the earth, quickly traversing the streets.

Dense, eerie glows nearly filled the nearby blocks.

Outside these streets stood soldiers holding shields.

Compared to the video Lante just saw, it seemed the soldiers had retreated even further.

In front of these soldiers, undead creatures surged like a tide, frantically approaching them.

In this instant, an elderly man with a cane, dressed in a sharp suit, slowly emerged from the depths of darkness and stood before the soldiers, gazing at the surging mass of undead.

Under Lante’s gaze, the elderly man raised his hand, and a profound green glow seeped from his fingertips. As soon as it emerged, the glow dripped into the earth like a stream.

The skeletons and undead creatures seemed oblivious to the man’s actions, as ever more undead emerged from behind them.

Boom—

The ground trembled violently as a twenty-meter tall dog wrapped in flames crawled up from the earth’s depths, glaring angrily at the elderly man and roaring.

The mass of undead creatures gathered like a tide, surging towards the old man.

Yet, the old man didn’t change; he merely raised his hand, his fingertips guiding the eerie green glow as if pulling strings deep in space-time.

Then he lightly clenched his hand, as if tightening the strings buried in space-time.

Bang—

It seemed a faint sound echoed in the void, or perhaps no sound at all, as the world fell oddly silent.

But in this instant, the surging undead creatures abruptly paused, their bodies seemingly encountering some obstruction.

Strands of eerie green lines appeared in the void, tightly entangling the bodies of these undead creatures.

From the aerial view, those masses of undead creatures filling multiple blocks and surging like tides stood still, unmoving.

Then, in the next instant, the elderly man raised his hand slightly and pulled upward.

The undead creatures bound by green glow were drawn back like hooked fish.

Some invisible darkness emerged behind them, as if something existed, yet nothing existed at all.

But the undead creatures no longer had time to care.

Dragged by the green glow, their bodies instantly vanished into the darkness from the earth.

All this occurred almost simultaneously; all the undead creatures were pulled into the darkness without pause.

The entire block fell silent, soldiers raised their heads, bewilderedly watching the figure standing before them.

Thud—

A skeleton crawled out from the ground, wielding a bone blade, watching the dense figures ahead.

It seemed to have just squeezed through the gaps in the high wall array, paused slightly, then hurried forward.

In the next instant, its body paused slightly before being pulled into the deep darkness.

"Is that really Speaker Levi?" Lante watched everything on the screen, puzzled, saying, "Doesn’t seem like him?"

"Almost like..." Corvey stared at the screen content, pausing slightly in his tone.

Upon hearing this, Lante instinctively looked at the figure’s silhouette on the screen.

Corvey also lowered his head, seemingly also watching the screen.

At that moment, the elderly man on the screen seemed to sense something, turned his head slightly, looking towards the drone.

The white strands of hair and gentle features reflected on the screen.

"It’s Linen," Lante gazed at the elderly man on the screen, speaking with a hint of shock, "He’s really back."

"Mayor Lante, Mayor Lante, are you still there?" The unended call emanated a puzzled inquiry.

"Still here," Lante quickly composed himself, glancing at the phone in hand, "Did Speaker Levi mention where he went?"

"No," the voice on the phone seemed to shake its head, "but he asked me to deliver a message."

"What message?" Lante was taken aback.

The voice on the phone hesitated, uncertain, "Mr. Linen has returned."

Lante turned his gaze back to the screen.

Under his watch, the elderly man on the screen had already redirected his attention, taking a step forward, disappearing into the darkness.

He took a deep breath, then smiled, saying, "I know."

"Huh?" The voice on the phone sounded puzzled.

"If Mr. Levi returns, let me know. I have things to discuss with him." Lante redirected his gaze, smiling.

"Okay." The voice nodded.

Lante set down the receiver, hanging up the phone.

Turning his gaze, he looked at Corvey on the screen, equally puzzled and bewildered, whispering excitedly, "It’s him."

Corvey paused, and visibly, his eyebrows lifted slightly.

At that moment, he seemed to notice something, raised his hand, and cut off the screen again, "He’s headed outside the city."