I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

As the wind sweeps across the forest tops, you can see the tree crowns, which were swaying in the wind, suddenly freeze, fixed in a crooked position.

Even the raging forest fire was frozen in an instant. The rapid freezing caused the sound to disappear, and death spread silently and swiftly.

Those still outside the fortress immediately dropped what they were holding and ran towards the fortress.

Lu Ban and Jonah also ran towards the fortress.

Looking back, Lu Ban saw that the wind was already within arm's reach.

hum-

The cold wind struck the fortress's magical barrier, and a layer of white frost immediately condensed on the outer side of the invisible barrier. However, it could not completely stop the gale, and many rangers running behind were still lifted up and swept into the air.

However, their only possible good fortune was that they died of the extreme cold shortly after leaving the ground, thus avoiding the suffering that followed.

Lu Ban and Jonah ran into the slowly closing fortress gates.

As the door closed, the cold and terrifying scene seemed to vanish briefly.

But then, a loud bang erupted.

bang——

It was as if something was hitting the fortress, and the entire fortress shook.

Lu Ban and Jonah arrived at the lookout point and could see that despite the magical barrier, the wind, carrying stones, wood chips, and dirt, was still pounding on the fortress. Every now and then, huge rocks would come crashing down with the cold wind. Some were blocked by the magical barrier, while others pierced through it and smashed into the fortress's dome, shaking the entire building.

Suddenly, all the sounds disappeared.

Lu Ban could only see the huge, slowly rotating storm gradually expanding, with the clouds almost obscuring the blood moon.

Then, darkness descended.

Silently, the darkness spread.

The frozen trees, the fallen stones, and the animals that had turned into ice sculptures were all swallowed up by the darkness.

The world suddenly turned black and white.

To Lu Ban's naked eye, there was nothing left but endless darkness covering the entire forest.

The crystal above Blackburg Fortress burst forth with light, attempting to dispel the darkness, but the light seemed to be swallowed by a monster, unable to penetrate any further.

The storm was moving toward the fortress, suffocatingly.

"The magical barrier won't hold for long. Soon we'll be facing a direct confrontation with monsters. Of course, that's the best-case scenario."

Jonah laughed self-deprecatingly.

"What's worse?"

Lu Ban blurted out a question subconsciously, but quickly realized it himself.

"If the defenses are breached, the Night's kin could devour the people of this fortress in less than an hour. Not to mention that with this cold wind, the plague may have already infiltrated. Even if the frost doesn't appear, we will lose more than a third of our people just by relying on these two outposts of the demonic tides."

Jonah stated the cruel numbers.

"I need to go to the garrison; mages are still somewhat useful at this time."

Just then, Lu Ban saw a light appear in the boundless darkness.

That was a location almost level with Blackburg Fortress, extremely far from here, where a beam of light shot into the sky like a sharp sword, piercing through the darkness.

“That’s another fortress. There are more than a thousand fortresses of this size, and five times as many smaller fortresses. These fortresses together form the Black Tower’s final line of defense.”

As Jonah spoke, even more light shot into the sky.

Some beams of light were so thin they were almost swallowed by the darkness, while others were so thick they could even illuminate parts of the surrounding area.

If you were to look down on the Black Forest from above right now, you would see countless points of light twinkling and swaying like stars within this forest that surrounds the lit-up areas of human civilization.

These are the stars of human civilization.

"The Gray Tower's ultimate defensive spell: once this light goes out, the darkness will completely engulf us. In other words, if the light goes out, it means that the fortress has fallen."

Jonah was already on the stairs.

Lu Ban followed.

The howling of wolves came again.

“Eternal Night cannot break through this spell, but Frost can. Tangible objects can directly destroy the fortress, which is why we must guard this place.”

Jonah arrived at the hall located above the fortress.

Besides the mages, there were also the fortress commanders here. Lu Ban noticed that the former commander of the sentry force was also among them.

In the center of the hall, three high-backed stone chairs stand back to back.

Three monks were already seated in the high-backed chairs.

However, they don't seem like leaders; they're more like...

Lu Ban saw that the young mage's face was contorted with pain, his eyes rolled back, and his whole body was convulsing. He was using his last bit of willpower to sit on the bench.

His body was burning fiercely.

The silvery-white flames, made from the mage's body, had no heat, yet they illuminated the hall.

Three flames rose in an intertwined arc, shooting straight to the dome, where the flames and light were released, breaking through the fortress and surging upwards.

Lu Ban now knows exactly how these pillars of light from the protective fortresses are generated.

Chapter 267 Firewood

The pale flames scorched the exposed skin of these mages, causing their once-normal skin to crack and reveal gruesome wounds beneath, with blood steaming and being consumed by the flames.

The flames burned quietly, as if the mages were fuel to keep the campfire burning.

This must be an extremely painful torment, Lu Ban thought. The expressions on the faces of those mages were even more terrifying than those of the demons. It was the fear that humans showed after being ravaged by extreme pain. Their limbs trembled incessantly, and the flames seemed to burst forth from their bodies, flowing from their wounds and burning between their bones.

Lu Ban had seen documentaries of humans engulfed in flames and dying in agony. In reality, many people did not actually die from burning, but rather from suffocation due to oxygen depletion. Before being burned alive, they suffocated.

Even after escaping the flames, the infection from extensive skin burns can be fatal, and the injured will die in endless torment and pain, filled with resentment.

And now, these mages are suffering such inhuman torment.

At the same time, Lu Ban noticed that their armor was emitting a faint glow.

However, these suits of armor were not meant to protect them from the flames, but rather to firmly bind their bodies to the high-backed chairs, preventing them from leaving the seats because they could no longer bear the heat.

"Is this the fate of mages?"

Lu Ban couldn't help but sigh.

"You may not know this, but an hour as defined by the Grey Tower refers to the time from when a mage sits on the torch until it burns out completely."

Jonah looked at his tormented colleagues, his face illuminated by the firelight, giving him an eerie appearance.

"When we chose the path of the mage, we already anticipated this outcome."

It seemed that one of the sorcerers could no longer endure the torment. He opened his mouth, trying to roar, but his throat had already been burned, and the flesh and blood exposed on his neck had turned into charcoal. Only the air flowing through made the flames burn even more fiercely.

"In a large fortress, the spirit torches formed by three mages can withstand monsters for an hour; in a smaller outpost, the spirit torches formed by one mage can withstand monsters for an hour."

Jonah was doing simple math problems.

For three days, the demonic tide has been relentless, with three mages dying every hour in this Black Fortress.

There are hundreds or even thousands of such fortresses.

A single demonic surge could wipe out tens of thousands of mages in the Night Kingdom.

This kind of demonic tide occurs at least once a year and has been going on for thousands of years.

Lu Ban did not count how many mages died in the process.

These extraordinary individuals, who possess superhuman powers and appear powerful in other realms, are actually treated like firewood and used as expendable resources when the demonic tide arrives.

If the rangers of the Black Tower are ordinary people who have little control over their own destiny, then the mages of the Gray Tower are extraordinary beings whose fates have already been decided.

Even more disheartening is that despite paying such a price, the land of the Night Kingdom continues to shrink every year, the Black Forest is gradually covering the entire continent, and with the simultaneous appearance of the three demonic tides this time, the Black Tower's defenses may completely collapse.

A thousand years of sacrifice only delayed the inevitable destruction by a tiny bit.

Just like the resistance at Blackburg Fortress at this moment.

Even if it can resist once or twice, the fortress will eventually fall.

Everything was in vain.

Suddenly, a wolf howl rang out.

The wolf howl was much louder than any it had ever heard before, sending shivers down one's spine and instilling an instinctive fear.

Lu Ban hurriedly left the hall and went to the window.

The forest ranger stationed there was trembling so badly he could barely stand.

Lu Ban saw the thing through the window in the crack of the stone.

In that eternal night, beneath the blood moon, stood a giant wolf.

The wolf's size exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

Towering like a mountain range, its existence is like something that has never changed in this world. Just seeing its figure is enough to make people give up resistance.

It is utterly unmatched; it is something that should have existed in this world.

From Lu Ban's perspective, the giant wolf's back was already touching the blood moon. Its entire body was silver, shining brightly in the eternal darkness. It had a captivating face, and although it was a wolf, one could see some human-like features in its expression.

Those dark red eyes, like a crimson moon hanging high in the sky, radiated a bewitching and alluring glow.

Winter Wolf, the master of frost!

"I'm going to fight this thing and take its heart?"

Lu Ban immediately felt that this mission was utter nonsense.

Such a large creature's heart is probably a size bigger than Lu Ban's. Even if he could find a way to hit it and render it immobile, where would Lu Ban find the time to take its heart?

Not to mention the other two demonic tides.

If it were just frost, Lu Ban felt there was still hope, but neither the eternal night nor the plague were things that Lu Ban could easily solve.

He saw countless tiny specks of dust being shaken off the huge winter wolf.