Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 508: Val Fortress (5k3)

Two days later.

March 768, 4 in the Tianqi calendar.

In Fafnir City, the expeditionary force has rested for two days and is led by Lord Gawain and "Knight of Heaven's Word" Stuart. They are ready to set out from Fafnir City and are about to embark on a new expedition.

The second seat at the round table of Songyuan, General "Aton Sorens", has also led the Aton expeditionary force to the city of Fafnir and has completed the handover with the expeditionary force that is about to set out.

According to the decisions made in several previous meetings of the expeditionary force, the "Golden Sword Saint" Klein Fesera will stay in the city of Fafnir to assist General Atton in garrisoning; and the "Lionheart" General Pampas of the Pampas Fortress will also stay and take on part of the defense arrangements led by General Atton.

And on the planned day - April 768, 4 in the Apocalyptic Calendar, in the afternoon of the same day.

Lord Gawain of the [Supreme], "Knight of Heaven's Word" Stuart, "Archbishop" Rossu of the [Glorious], "Paladin of the Sky Ring" Davild, "Sage of Secrets" Dukeler of [Wisdom], led a million-strong expeditionary army and marched towards the border of Fafnir, towards the enemy's last fortress here - towards the "Val Fortress".

The advance scout team, a vanguard composed entirely of "Adventers", set out two days before the main expeditionary force.

Almost when the main army was halfway there, the advance scouts had already arrived at the border of the Val Fortress.

……

March 768, 5 in the Tianqi calendar.

The border of Fafnir, the fortress of Val.

Outside the fortress - on the extremely steep and dangerous Val Rift Valley, Thomas, Crocodile, Alicia, Huangdou and other "Saint Guardians" of the Expedition Church are camping on the rare flat mountain surface in the Rift Valley.

They had previously received a mission from their superiors in the church, the "Holy Inquisition", to lie dormant around the Val Fortress as a pioneer in the reconnaissance.

Since players can share intelligence in real time through the [Player Forum] and [Chat Channel], there is indeed no one more suitable for the job of scout than the players.

"Tsk..."

Thomas held the dragon's reins with one hand, staring at the flaming red dragon coiled beside him with a dead look, and said with a somewhat empty mood:
"I also want to ride the bishop's dragon..."

"..."

"…roar."

While Thomas was speaking so empty words, his flaming red dragon simultaneously raised its slender neck, looked at him with some dissatisfaction in its deep red pupils, and simultaneously opened its dragon jaws, spewing out a small cluster of fire, and making a low, dissatisfied roar.

Next to Thomas's fire red dragon, there was another fire red dragon - it belonged to the crocodile. It was originally coiled on the ground and dormant, but after Thomas's dragon roared, it raised its neck, and then its neck pressed heavily on the neck of Thomas's fire dragon.

The two flaming red dragons immediately locked their necks together, and then their huge dragon heads rested on each other. Soon, rhythmic "whoosh, whoosh" sounds came out from their dragon jaws.

They soon fell asleep again - taking a nap anywhere, Thomas had seen it many times, and this was indeed a special ability of the fire red dragons.

And now they are indeed very tired.

Before, two flaming red dragons carried Thomas, the crocodile, Alicia, Huangdou and others from Fafnir City and finally arrived at the Great Rift Valley of Val.

They flew in the sky for two days and two nights without rest. Thomas, Crocodile and other players all went offline after riding on the back of the flaming red dragon. They only came back online from time to time to see how far they were from their destination.

"……Grass."

Thomas took in the scene.

He said nothing more and put away his desire to ride the "Ancient Dragon" Quesanx. At the same time, he raised his right hand and gently stroked the smooth and warm scales of the red dragon sleeping beside him.

The red dragon's tail coiled up unconsciously, and the tip of its tail gently rubbed Thomas' arm.

"…puff."

Alicia, who was warming herself by the fire, burst out laughing.

She looked at the man and the dragon in front of her and said in her signature Sanwu voice:

"Don't say that. 'Xiao Hong' is quite cute."

"Little Red", that was the name the team voted for Thomas's fiery red dragon.

Although it was mainly because Thomas was too lazy to come up with other names - and the red dragon of the crocodile was called "Little Fire". Thomas then took back his hand that was touching the dragon, spread his hands and said:

"I hope that 'Holy Abyss' will be able to release some new skills or techniques in the future, similar to 'Beast Tamer' in 'Red Lotus', which can allow the tamed monsters to obtain root strengthening or something like that."

"If there really is such a skill or technique, and we can learn it, maybe we can make this little dragon grow up to be like the 'Ancient Dragon' Quesanx... Well, I'm just thinking about it, but it's probably difficult."

"There's everything in dreams, little trains." A teasing voice came from under the crocodile's helmet.

Thomas glanced at the two red dragons that were fast asleep and using each other as pillows, then looked away and said:
"Let's get back to business."

"The mission we accepted was to investigate the defense situation of the 'Val Fortress'. But now..."

As he spoke, he looked to one side, at the cliff that was thousands of feet high.

The upper part of the outline of the Val Fortress, which lies between the two rifts and completely blocks the only passage in the rifts like a stranglehold, has entered Thomas' field of vision.

The magnificent fortress rises from the ground, like a lone peak standing proudly on the huge wound in the earth. This is the last fortress of Fafnir Territory and the last gateway from Fafnir Territory to the heart of the Dark Principality.

Such fortresses and defenses are usually quite strong. As long as the expeditionary force can successfully capture it and continue the expedition in the direction of Dark Metropolis, the expeditionary force's way forward will become unobstructed.

But it is obvious that -

The last gateway to Fafnir, the "Val Fortress", is not so easy to break through.

In Thomas' eyes, the outer wall of the Val Fortress was shining with a dark light, and the uneven surface exuded a cold metallic luster under the sunlight.

On the fort's upper edge, there were tower-like buildings along the edge, emitting a dark red spiritual light and a chilling dangerous atmosphere.

At least hundreds of "black dragons" that had been seen during Fafnir's attack were hovering in the air above the Val Fortress. There were also at least hundreds of "fang heads" and nearly a thousand "black fangs" stationed on the city walls. Just by looking at them, one could feel that this fortress was impregnable.

The fortress has been put into a state of high alert, and Thomas has seen several times that at least six "executioners" have appeared on the city walls, and there are even more actually stationed there.

This deployment made it necessary for Thomas and dozens of other "Adventers" who had sneaked into the vicinity of the fortress to think carefully before taking action, even if they were eager to sneak into the fortress to obtain more and more critical intelligence.

Thomas had seen two "Saint Guardian" players lurking on another rift slope before they equipped their rune wings and prepared to glide into the Val Fortress. However, they had only glided a short distance in the air when they were discovered by the flying dragons hovering in the air above the fortress.

The dragon flames spewed out by the roaring black dragons melted the two players into ashes in the air in just a blink of an eye. This indeed made many players lurking around give up the idea of ​​sneaking in. After all, the cost of resurrection is still a bit high, and in the natural week, many players don’t have too many resurrections.

The current Val Fortress is truly a place where “not even a mosquito can fly in.”

These were no longer empty words - Thomas looked down from the rift where the team was hiding, and as he thought about this, he frowned slightly.

"..."

"It's completely different from the situation when we sneaked into the Cavernier Fortress... Hey." Thomas said, "We have been here for a long time, and we can only watch... None of the other players can get in."

"You might be able to do it," Alicia looked at him and said in a calm voice, "Jump down, and I'll light you in mid-air. Maybe I can kill a few black dragons flying towards you."

"Indeed," Huang Dou nodded, "You still have five resurrections left, right, Little Train? Five... If you can take away ten black dragons and return to the church, it will be a great achievement."

"Climb." Thomas responded decisively.

He then looked at his teammates in front of him and continued:

"But in the mission we received before, sneaking into the Val Fortress was not a must."

"Let's send a message to the other members of the Mirror of Glorious Light who are still in the expeditionary force and have them relay the intelligence we have gathered."

"Then, we'll continue to guard here... and see if we can see--"

He didn't finish his sentence.

Boom! ! !
On the broken slope where they were hiding, the ground suddenly shook violently, as if something was exploding continuously under the rift!
Thomas, Crocodile and several other players stood up suddenly, almost subconsciously - Thomas woke up the Flame Red Dragon that was just sleeping soundly, Alicia and Thomas climbed onto the back of the red dragon, while Crocodile and Huangdou climbed onto the other one, and then the two Flame Red Dragons spread their wings and flew into the sky!

These are all subconscious reactions after the violent earthquake on the ground.

When Thomas, Crocodile, Alicia and Huangdou were all riding their dragons and flying high into the sky, Thomas looked down and saw that the broken slope that was there before had been buried by the fallen rocks.

At this time, a barrier barrier has been erected outside the Val Fortress. A deep curtain of dark red and dark black has enveloped the fortress, and all the black dragons that were hovering in the sky above the fortress have been recalled by the executioners in the city and are now landing on the walls of the fortress.

The barrier that suddenly opened seemed to have foreseen certain scenarios and was specially formed for this purpose. Thomas also saw——

On both sides of the Vaal Rift, the rugged mountains had cracked open, and scarlet rock fluid like magma was gushing out from it - bubbles were gurgling above it, and one, two, dozens, hundreds of deformed monsters emerged from the broken bubbles!
"Roar!!!!"

“——Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."

The deformed monsters that emerged from the cracks made uncomfortable hissing noises as if they were reborn. They followed the sinking lava to the foot of the Val Fortress and soon gathered in large numbers in front of the city.

Thomas' pupils trembled a little.

He always felt that this scene was somewhat familiar.

It seemed like I had seen such a scene before when I was in Latama City.

Suddenly, as if he suddenly understood something, Thomas on the dragon's back murmured:

"That is the Abyss..."

"..."

"That's the Abyss Beast from the Abyss!"

"Those 'scars' we saw in Latama City... what we see now are the same things as then!"

As he said this, the next moment, he saw that the rock on both sides of the Val Fortress once again erupted in extremely violent explosions. Scarlet light burst out from the cracks where the "magma" had previously gushed out, and those cracks that had been stretched open soon collapsed again!

That was an extremely precise "blasting".

After a series of explosions, almost all the cracks from which "magma" was gushing out were sealed again.

However, the barrier of the Val Fortress was not removed, and nearly ten thousand such deformed monsters had gathered in the low-lying ground in front of the fortress.

"——Ho ho ho ho!!!"

Those monsters began to roar with anger, and at the same time, they began to attack the barrier covering the Val Fortress, as if they wanted to rush into the fortress.

But the next moment, the ground where the monsters gathered suddenly collapsed!

Nearly tens of thousands of monsters all fell into the giant pit, and the sand and rocks at the edge of the pit collapsed downward, completely burying the monsters.

Thomas witnessed the entire scene——

He didn't know what was inside the Val Fortress, but the only thing he could be sure of was that it must have been the work of the executioners, or even the "Chief Executioner" Fafnir who might be stationed in the Val Fortress!
Then, the barrier covering the Val Fortress was finally removed, and the black dragons that were perched on the city walls roared and flew up!

As if receiving an order, a dozen terrifying black dragons rushed towards the position where Thomas, Crocodile and others were riding the red dragon!

The hundreds of black dragons were divided into eight groups, each of which chased after the "Guardian" players who had escaped from the Val Rift.

Thomas knew that he had seen something extraordinary this time - and the executioners in the Val Fortress must have wanted to kill these "Saint Guardians" in order to block the news.

"--Roar!!!"

The flaming red dragons that Thomas and the crocodile were riding on had already let out a sharp roar. They frantically danced their wings, but the distance between them and the dozen or so terrifying black dragons that were chasing them was still shrinking.

Thomas had been watching the dozen or so black dragons that were chasing him.

Without much talk, he took out a "Martyr's Skull" from his bracelet and signaled to Alicia, Crocodile and Huangdou with his eyes. His teammates then understood his intention, and Thomas then jumped off the dragon's back!
"--roar!!!!!"

The dozen or so black dragons chasing him flew towards the place where Thomas fell almost at the same time, roaring!

And Thomas had already stacked up protection for himself in the shortest possible time.

--boom! !
Dozens of terrifying dragon breaths ignited a raging fire that completely engulfed Thomas' tiny body.

But the protection that Alicia and Thomas applied to themselves at the same time was enough to withstand a round of bombardment from more than a dozen black dragons. And then——

--boom! ! !

--boom!!!!!

Surrounded by the black dragon and gushing with blazing dragon flames, the terrifying spirituality swept from the inside out, shaking everything!
Thomas "blew himself up"!

The two self-detonations of [Burning of the Devourer] and [Skull of the Martyr] occurred almost simultaneously, blasting the two closest black dragons and himself into pieces.

"--Roar!!!"

The remaining ten black dragons, which were not at the core of the explosion, were also affected by the fiery spiritual power that suddenly swept outward. Large pieces of scales on their bodies were peeled off by the violent waves of the explosion. They let out shrill roars and flew away in a distant direction as if fleeing.

The still burning flames and the burnt residues from the burning fell sporadically downwards.

When the remaining fire dragons wanted to chase the other three targets, they found that they had already ridden two flaming red dragons and flew so far away that their backs could hardly be seen.

"……Roar."

"Hoohoo!"

"Roar……"

The remaining black dragons roared, and they finally gave up the three targets. Then they dispersed, regrouped with other black dragons, and went to chase the other "Guardians".

In the end, only the three "Guardians" - Big Crocodile, Alicia and Huangdou - managed to escape from the outskirts of the Val Fortress.

All the other "Guardians" who arrived here, along with the fire red dragons assigned to them, were caught up by the black dragon of the Val Fortress and killed.

It was as if nothing had ever happened in the sky here and in the rift valleys on both sides.

But what the executioners in the Val Fortress did not know was that every scene that happened here had been reported to the expeditionary force in real time.

Including all the changes that happened here - the situation outside the fortress, nothing can be hidden anymore.

……

"..."

What are you doing for me...

Thomas raised his arms with some difficulty and rubbed his head, which looked like it had been run over by a carriage.

He was resurrected by the [Protection of Divine Glory] - but the scenes he saw around him after his resurrection were quite unfamiliar.

That was not the preset resurrection point... In Thomas's impression, he had absolutely, absolutely never been to the place where he was now.

He felt like he was in a dark and damp corner of an alley, with his back against a wall covered with black moss.

Next to him lay a rotten, foul-smelling corpse - judging from the remains of his clothes, he was probably a "slave" of the Dark Principality.

On the other side was a black soldier's body that was also dead, rotting and emitting a foul smell. In his chest was a dung fork with a rotten handle.

"..."

Fighting back the nausea.

Thomas suddenly had a certain guess in his heart.

"I died once right above Val's fortress."

"In theory, my 'corpse' will fall into the Val Fortress..."

"..."

"so……"

——Fuck, I was resurrected in the Val Fortress? !

……

(End of this chapter)