I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

"Frost fears fire and high temperatures. When resisting the Frost Tide, the fortress will light its furnaces. As long as the furnaces don't go out, it will be difficult for the Frost to breach the fortress. Of course, when the Frost arrives, the temperature will drop to an unprecedented level of cold, and ordinary flames will quickly go out. Even using magic can only maintain the fire for a short time. What we need to do is prevent the Frost's kin from entering the fortress."

Jonah glanced at the snow on the ground.

wow-

Suddenly, some unknown creature moved in the treetops, and a large pile of snow fell, landing right in the crowd and causing a commotion.

"Cold, cold, cold..."

Birmingham gasped as a piece of ice fell into the back of his collar.

A group of people were laughing at the flustered forest rangers, but Lu Ban felt something was off.

He felt that the forest on the left side of the road had become much deeper and darker than before.

“Mr. Jonah, isn’t something wrong over there?”

Lu Ban pointed.

Jonah looked in that direction.

His face quickly turned ashen.

"Reorganizing the formation indicates an enemy attack."

He raised his hand, and a crystal emitted a bright light that illuminated the entire forest.

Lu Ban saw that the shadows of the trees became even deeper under the strong light, and suddenly, the shadows moved.

Even without changing the angle of incidence of the light, these shadows began to move as if they had come to life.

A shadow twisted and entangled itself around the shadow of another tree.

The next moment, the tree to which the shadow originally belonged suddenly appeared as if it had been sent into a wood processing machine, with many deep scratches appearing. Its branches fell off, and its leaves turned into fragments and fell to the ground.

The shadows were avoiding the bright light.

However, the falling leaves obscured the light in Jonah's hand to some extent, and Lu Ban watched as the distorted shadow moved from one tree to another, approaching the group.

hum-

At that moment, another light shone, coming from another mage.

The third mage also unleashed a powerful light. Under the illumination of the three beams of light, the shadows had nowhere to hide and seemed to be suppressed, remaining motionless.

"These are the Familia of Eternal Night. How did they get through the watchtower to get here?"

Jonah muttered to himself, while the commander raised his torch.

The firelight flickered, and although the shadows could not move, they looked menacing.

"The outermost sentries didn't even notice; they were probably captured by the Night's Familia in an instant."

The commander said, directing the troops to continue forward. At least for now, under the suppression of the bright light, these shadows could not get close to the remaining people.

Lu Ban then noticed that the shadow beneath the feet of a forest ranger standing on the outside suddenly trembled.

"Your shadow..."

Upon hearing Lu Ban's words, the man's expression froze.

He slowly lowered his head and looked down at his feet.

People around him retreated in fear, keeping their distance from him.

His shadow, still trembling slightly under the bright light, resembled a worm about to break free of its cocoon and hatch into a strange life.

His expression was beyond terror; despair filled his face.

"Don't move, the Night's Familia prefers to attack moving creatures..."

Jonah hadn't finished speaking.

The man's skin had already split open.

It was as if his flesh had been ripped open by an extremely sharp blade; all the skin on his body exploded, leaving him a bloody mess.

Under the bright light, Lu Ban saw the shadow, accompanied by the shadow left by blood, flee swiftly and hide among the trees.

thump--

The forest ranger lay motionless on the ground, already dead.

His flesh and blood, astonishingly, disintegrated and flew away as he fell, leaving only a skeleton with fascia in the end.

And that flesh and blood did not fall onto the snow; it disappeared without a trace.

Without a doubt, it was swallowed up.

"We need to move as quickly as possible and get into the fort before nightfall."

Jonah said, raising the bright light in his hand to guide the way forward for the group.

The procession moved very quickly.

But everyone, intentionally or unintentionally, looked down at their own and their companions' feet.

That originally inconspicuous, unremarkable shadow is now like a time bomb; no one knows if the shadow under their feet will suddenly come to life and devour them.

Lu Ban noticed that Birmingham beside him was pale and sweating profusely in the cold weather.

Fortunately, those creatures of the eternal night seemed genuinely afraid of the bright light and did not pursue them.

After a long and arduous march, the sentry finally arrived at Blackburg.

“Black Castle has magic to detect monsters, so we don’t need to worry about the Night’s Familia following us in.”

Jonah offered a word of comfort.

Just as the group was gradually passing through several security checkpoints and entering the interior of Black Castle, another ranger froze.

His shadow began to writhe under the detection of that invisible magic, like a giant snake trying to coil around him.

Jonah pointed the bright light in his hand, and the shadow immediately returned to normal.

But the next moment, the moment the ranger relaxed, his flesh and blood exploded like fireworks and disappeared into the air.

Only the loose bones remained, lying on the ground.

The companion standing next to the forest ranger trembled with fear and dared not make a move.

"The only way to eliminate the Night Familia is to expose them to sunlight, to expose them completely to sunlight. Artificial light can only temporarily slow down their movements."

Jonah sighed.

"When the demonic tide of eternal night arrives, even during the day, sunlight cannot be seen. This is the demonic tide, the true demonic tide."

Chapter 263 It's Contagious

Blackburg Fortress is a true fortress.

The exterior is almost entirely made of dark black stone. Lu Ban couldn't quite tell how many years ago these stones were carved. The mottled marks were not something humans could create; only monsters could leave such twisted wounds.

The entire fortress was like a giant hemisphere covering the ground, with no sunlight inside and only a few small windows for weapons to fire from.

Above the hemisphere, watchtowers, high walls, catapults, and other structures are scattered throughout.

Outside the fortress, the remains of some buildings can still be vaguely seen. According to Jonah, this place was originally the capital of a country. The spread of the Black Forest destroyed that country, and it was not until later that the Black Tower reclaimed the fortress from the monsters.

Surrounding Black Fortress are five layers of defensive fortifications: wooden spikes, stone walls, trenches, spikes—every means imaginable by humans to impede the movement of monsters has been employed here. Due to the different types of monsters in the Demon Tide, these fortifications can at least block some of the monsters with physical forms.

The spell detection covering the entire fortress can detect and restrict those intangible monsters in the first instance. Lu Ban saw that there were significantly more mages inside the Black Fortress, indicating that the defenses here, as the main defensive point, were much more stringent.

"The demonic tide will spread from the west, and the entire region will be shrouded in endless darkness. What we need to do is to attract as many of the monsters from the demonic tide as possible, and ideally, make them all gather near this fortress, so that they have no time to go outside the Black Forest."

Before the meal, Jonah explained the details of the operation to Lu Ban and the other rangers.

"We must resist for at least three days until the demonic tide recedes. Survival is victory."

"Wait a minute, if the eternal night brings darkness, and it only fears sunlight, then aren't we just waiting to die here?"

Lu Ban blurted it out.

The other young forest rangers looked at each other, somewhat panicked.

"This is the meaning of our existence in Blacksburg."

Jonah pointed to the ground.

"The Black Castle's architecture has been modified to allow it to unleash a powerful spell, Eternal Blazing Sun, with the support of a certain number of mages. This spell can simulate the sun to some extent and can affect an area of ​​about ten miles around. By attracting the arrival of Eternal Night and then casting this spell, we can eliminate most of the Eternal Night's minions to the greatest extent possible."

"I see."

Lu Ban clapped.

Seeing Lu Ban's actions, the other forest rangers hesitantly joined in the applause.

"...Put down your hands, cough cough, this is only the best-case scenario. If the fortress is breached early, we will have to use magic in advance. Those Night's Families will bypass this fortress and attack areas outside the Black Forest. Once those areas have fallen, it will only be a matter of time before our place is gradually devoured."

Jonah cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly.

"Don't worry, with the support of the magical light source, it will be difficult for the Eternal Darkness's kin to breach the fortress. All we need to do is carefully stall for time."

He offered a final word of comfort.

At dinner time, Lu Ban wolfed down his food at the table.

The food here consisted of meat soup, meat sauce, mashed potatoes, bread, vegetables, etc. The taste was just edible, but the weather was too cold, and Lu Ban had a very good appetite. He ate two large bowls and still felt it wasn't enough.

"Think about it, if you were eaten by the Night's Kin tonight, wouldn't you regret not eating more tonight?"

Lu Ban explained to the dumbfounded Birmingham.

"That seems to make sense... I'll have another bowl then!"

The young man also took an extra bowl.

Lu Ban was very satisfied that there was enough food for everyone at the front.

After dinner, it was Lu Ban and Birmingham's turn to keep watch, and the two went up to the high walls of the fortress.

From here, one can see a vast forest bathed in moonlight. In the biting wind, the trees undulate like ocean waves. Snow falls to the ground, startling some animals and making the night watchmen even more vigilant.

There were still many people on watch on the high walls. Through the lights of the watchtowers, you could see that they were all huddled around the fireplace. The weather was so cold that if it weren't for the report from the observation hub, everyone might have really thought that the coming demonic tide was frost.

Lu Ban gazed into the distance. The [True Vision] provided him with excellent vision. He could see that on the other side of the horizon, there seemed to be a forest completely covered by darkness, which even the moonlight could not illuminate.