Ryan looked sadly as the guard beside him slowly shoveled the earth with a shovel and slowly covered up the stone jars in the tomb. He gently threw a tattered battle ax down and let the soil slowly cover it up. Everything was buried. This was the funeral of Ryan's good friend Oz. It was also the first time in Ryan's life to see off his relatives and friends. The sadness in his heart was naturally difficult to conceal.
After the guards around him filled up the entire tomb, Ryan held back his grief and raised his head, staring at thousands of tombs. He felt an indescribable feeling in his heart. The defense battle of Iron Fist Castle had just ended yesterday. Less than one-third of the war dead have been identified, but this has created nearly 4,000 more graves, which also means how much Cassano paid a heavy price in this war.
Although the Cassano defenders defeated at least more than a million undead in six days of bloody battles, the most elite Guards Corps and Windwalking Archers suffered more than 30% losses in the battle. This is definitely a shocking price. And those ordinary soldiers who were not protected by mithril armor and the Cassanos who joined the war to protect their homeland suffered even more losses. It can be said that although the Cassanos won this battle, it was a tragic victory.
Ryan stood on the hillside, overlooking the dense tombs all over the hillside. He bent down and bowed deeply. Although his strength had reached the legendary level, in the face of life, Ryan did not think that he was better than others. People are more noble. As the overlord of Cassano, he did not protect his people at the first time, but made so many people pay the price with their lives. This made Ryan's heart aching.
Vivian, Adela, Alando and others also followed Ryan and bowed deeply to thank the war dead in front of them for their efforts and sacrifices in protecting Cassano and their homeland. For a moment, The entire cemetery on the southern outskirts of Iron Fist Castle was silent, with only a slight sound of wind passing through the air, like the happy laughter of the people who passed away.
After ten minutes of silence, Ryan slowly straightened up. He turned to Vivian and Adela in front of him and said, "Plant this place full of flowers, so that the heroes will not be lonely in the future."
"Heroes." Vivian and Adela were just stunned for a moment, and immediately understood what Ryan meant. They said in unison: "Yes, they are heroes, our heroes in Cassano."
Ryan nodded and continued to give instructions: "We must seize the time to deal with the aftermath. They are gone, but their families are still there, and they must be properly arranged. Well, in addition, if there are no special circumstances for the coming of age ceremony of the Cassano people in the future, Let's hold it all here, so that people from generation to generation can remember that the happy life they have today is the result of these heroes paying the price of their lives."
"Okay, I can't remember too much at the moment. If there's anything I haven't thought of, you can figure it out." Ryan waved his hands with a lonely look, turned around and left slowly, walking slowly along the hillside path. Descending, before passing Oz's tomb, he stopped again. When Alando came to him behind him, Ryan sighed heavily,
Alando patted Ryan's shoulder a few times to express comfort, then took a bouquet of flowers, leaned over and placed it on Oz's grave. After doing all this, Alando stood up straight, Said to Ryan: "Let's go, they don't have everything in place and we need to continue to work hard."
"You're right, we don't have time to cry now, because the undead army is still raging on the mainland." After Ryan said this softly, he left without looking back.
Soon, Lane and his party returned to the waiting carriage at the foot of the mountain. Lane sat in the carriage. There was already a man who looked like an adjutant waiting there. Lane poured himself a glass of water and drank it in one gulp. He asked, "How is it? Androkos and Melinda haven't been able to restore the teleportation magic circle with the imperial capital."
"Yes, Lord." The adjutant replied: "According to the news that came 30 minutes ago, Magister Androkos has thoroughly checked the entire teleportation magic circle and confirmed that there are no problems, but the connection with the Imperial Capital is not. It has never recovered, so Magister Androkos believes that this should be the same as what happened to Cassano some time ago.”
Ryan knew that the teleportation magic circle had failed a few days ago. The reason should be that the undead army that attacked Iron Fist Castle used some secret method to interfere with its operation. But now the undead army has almost been wiped out, but this teleportation The magic circle still couldn't achieve its own effect. Could it be that the Imperial City had suffered the same fate as Cassano, or perhaps the main force of the real undead army had launched a full-scale attack on the Imperial Capital
These problems gave Ryan a very headache. He felt that he should believe in the strength of the Imperial Capital. With the Royal Knights, the Imperial Capital Magic Guild and the Church of Light sitting in charge, how could the undead army break through the walls of the Imperial Capital? But when he thought of himself yesterday The Iron Fist Castle, which was once thought to be impregnable, almost fell, and Ryan felt indescribably anxious.
"How much combat effectiveness is left in our army now?" Ryan asked this question. Although he had already been mentally prepared and knew that he would not get exciting news, the data reported by the adjutant still made him depressed.
"There are currently less than 2,000 people in the Guards Corps who can continue to fight, and most of them are in a weak state and cannot exert their combat effectiveness at all. If they can rest for more than ten days, then the current more than 1,000 wounded can be recovered and returned to the army. In the middle, there are still 3,000 Fengxing Archers who can continue to fight, but unfortunately, they still have no wounded, and they must also get a short rest time... "
The adjutant did not finish his words, because Ryan waved his hand and interrupted his report. Cassano's three elite troops now have less than 5,000 people who can continue to fight, and they are all exhausted and their combat effectiveness is greatly reduced. As for the other armies, It's only a little more than 10,000. If this kind of troops were brought to the imperial capital to join the battle, they would be exhausted in about an hour.
"Second order, all armies should seize the time to rest and recuperate. If there is no accident, there will be no military operations within ten days. In addition, the training of the reserve army must be accelerated to fill the vacancies in the army as soon as possible. The three elite units have priority in selection." After Ryan said this, he thought for a while and added: "Whether they are humans, orcs, dwarves or elves, as long as they voluntarily join Cassano and are willing to obey the laws here, they must be treated equally without discrimination. Also, when organizing the people When I returned to Cassano, I announced the news that I will conduct the selection of magic apprentices again in ten days. This time, Barbara's magic army will be officially expanded. Its establishment will reach the level of the Guards Corps and the Popular Archer. 5,000 people like that.”
"Yes, Lord." After the adjutant waited for Ryan to sign the order, he saluted and quickly left the carriage. Ryan was the only one left in the carriage. He knocked lightly on the wall of the carriage a few times. , the carriage began to move slowly, Ryan leaned his upper body on the carriage, and couldn't help but sigh again,
After experiencing a lot, Ryan is no longer the political rookie he was before. Especially this trip to Dragon Island. Although Ryan's power did not improve, it made Ryan more proficient in grasping power. , and I don’t know if he was eroded by the dark atmosphere. Ryan suddenly found that he was not very resistant to those intrigues, but instead began to try to apply some of the learned skills into practice.
For example, when we returned to Cassano this time, although none of Cassano's subordinates said anything, Ryan clearly understood the inner thoughts of these officials who had grown up here for generations. Ryan believed that if he desperately proposed to lead Cassano, If Sano's remaining strength assists the imperial capital, there will definitely be various complaints below, and it will definitely affect the morale of the entire Cassano. Of course, this is not to say that these people don't care about the overall situation. This is only related to the selfish nature of human beings. , after all, Cassano has suffered huge losses now, and if he continues to support the imperial capital at all costs, this will inevitably hit Cassano's not very good economic and population base. Don't even think about turning over,
"The top priority is to get in touch with the imperial capital. The information is not clear now, so our army cannot act rashly." Ryan closed his eyes and thought silently. If it were in the past, Ryan would definitely not give clear instructions so quickly. He would probably hesitate. He was undecided, or went to the imperial capital desperately, even if nothing happened, so that he could have peace of mind. But now, Ryan issued an order to rest and recuperate immediately. This was not so much to let those soldiers who survived the hard battle Take a good rest, it might as well be to appease the hearts of everyone in Cassano,
"What is the plan of the undead army? Judging from the current situation, the one attacking Cassano must be a partial force, otherwise Cassano will not be able to hold on for so long. Could it be said that they are really holding us back? It is really stupid to storm the imperial capital. Victor's forbidden spell is enough to kill tens of millions of undead, and Orlando's angel is the biggest killer of the undead. No commander with normal thinking will not be absolutely sure. Under such circumstances, there is no advantage in launching a war."
Ryan rejected his ideas one by one in his mind: "It's not the Imperial City. I dare say that if the Imperial City is attacked, it will definitely be to contain the attack. In the Moon City in the south, Fulia has already returned to the Demon Moon City. From there, it can be directly connected to the Moon City. You can probably give me the answer in the afternoon. As for the free paradise, there is no value there. It cannot be said that these undead have changed their careers to become businessmen."
Ryan began to feel tired from thinking so hard. After all, he hadn't really gotten any rest since he attacked Seike City. Especially when he was fighting against the dark atmosphere in his body, he couldn't be negligent at all, otherwise Ryan would have fallen. He became the Archmage of Darkness, and after recovering from health, he took the flying dragon back to Cassano as soon as possible. After the entire war ended yesterday, Ryan, Alando and others searched the entire Cassano area overnight for possible hiding places. place for the undead to prevent any counterattack,
Along with the rhythmic movement of the carriage, Ryan gradually fell into sleep,