The gravel of the golden plain is heated by the sun. On the sand dune, on the side that is slightly shielded from the sun, and on a long area near the river bank, there is a tent made of pure white cloth
This military camp that stretches to the far end with no end in sight is the gathering place for the coalition forces of the Nehekhara countries.
The light infantry, which can move faster than cavalry and chariots, had camped here a few days ago. The former and those troops carrying baggage will also arrive in the afternoon.
Alkadiza drove the chariot alone and arrived near the camp, but the noise below became louder and louder, especially after the soldiers noticed the dark-skinned king on the chariot.
The march in the past few days has made the entire army, including soldiers and nobles, miserable. In addition to having to walk, they actually need to march for nearly ten hours every day these days.
You know, no matter what happened in the past, they would just break camp at sunrise in the early morning and set up camp at noon. They could rest for a while and eat some solid food, and then have a whole afternoon to hunt, take care of the horses, collect firewood, find water, and do some work.
Rice.
In the past few days, all these chores had to be completed in just two hours dragging their tired bodies. Many times they even had to go hungry and continue marching.
The voices of complaints became louder and louder, almost collectively scorning Alkadiza.
Of course they knew that the new Khemri king was eager, but they didn't care. If it were just the Khemri king, they wouldn't even gather their troops.
The real threat comes from the leader of Lahmia, the vampire Neferata who is now known to all the kings.
If they offend that woman, she will definitely take revenge financially, and the losses will be greater than the total annihilation of their army during the Northern Expedition.
But a few days have passed, and they have never seen the woman who is enough to scare them. A mere king of Khemri is not enough to make the armies of other countries obey.
Before Alkadiza had time to think of how to appease him, the noises came to an abrupt end with the arrival of another group of troops.
From the direction of the foundation of the newly built strange pyramid on this side of the river, there was a strange noise, which sounded more like the movement of animals.
When the armies of the kings saw the shadows around them clearly, they were surrounded by upright lizards with leathery scales and bluish bodies.
Around them, a large number of ferocious monsters that were taller than two people and longer than three chariots were shaking their heads uneasily.
A monster that was an upright lizard mount ran to the chariot of the Khemri King and raised its hideous head, which was full of spikes and teeth but had no eyes. Only then did they see that this thing had reins and a saddle.
Tools.
But that's not what's important. The upright lizard turned its head and hissed the message to the Khemri King, as if it was saying something.
This frightened the nobles of the coalition. Before coming here, there were rumors that Lamia had cooperated with monsters, and now it seems to be true.
Riding on the troglodyte, the Skink Priest looked down at the King of Khemri.
"The warm-blooded army is too slow, and its quality is too poor. They can rest for half a day every day, and they are still complaining. The sons of the ancient saints never rest, and we have never complained."
He hissed dissatisfiedly, his sensitive hearing allowing him to hear the complaints of these hot-blooded species.
If he hadn't taken care of the hot-blooded people on the chariot, he would have fed the complaining hot-blooded people to the cave dragon.
"Ours is not a creation like yours. It is too fragile. This is already the limit."
Alkadiza replied slightly impatiently. He looked in the direction of the pyramid and confirmed that there were no new things except skinks and war beasts. He looked increasingly restless.
The assembly of troops is almost complete, but Neferata and Slann are still missing.
What happened? Alkadiza's feet moved uneasily on the ground, and he asked the Skink Priest again the same question he had asked countless times in the past few days with a hint of anxiety.
"Is the ceremony not completed yet?"
But the Skink Priest always seems to have only one answer.
"You need to ask Lord Colermo."
Without giving Alkadiza time to continue repeating the useless conversation, a nobleman who wrapped himself tightly in a white turban and scarf yelled angrily.
"King Khemri! Have you betrayed the gods? What are these monsters!"
Turning his dark pupils, he saw that the noble Alkadiza did not recognize him, and could only barely identify him as Kuata from his clothes.
The Skink Priest moved his legs dissatisfied, and the Troglodyte quickly ran towards the nobleman under his guidance. Only at the last moment, the reins pulled up his head so that the two bodies did not collide.
"We are the firstborn sons of God, and you, the later hot-blooded ones."
Faced with the condescending lizard, he spit out human words. The man immediately drew out his sword, but the cave dragon heard the movement. With a flick of its head, the white-robed human and the surrounding soldiers were knocked to the ground. p>
Looking down at these timid humans, the Skink Priest said.
"You hot-blooded people are not even qualified to be the feed of the tyrannosaurus. If you are used as tribute, it will make the tyrannosaurus weak."
The noble fell to the ground and the guards around him were so frightened by the cave dragon that was much taller than the horses that they dared not move.
The mucus between the sharp teeth of the cave dragon shimmered with golden sunlight, and the tentacles on the side of the blind eyes trembled, making a frightening crosstalk, which made many soldiers start to tremble.
More soldiers looked at the lizard man and Alkadiza blankly, not even knowing what they should do.
The skink flapped the red crown on its head and looked at them indifferently, but said nothing.
Even though Alkadiza called him softly, the Skink Priest was fighting against the humans like a hawk, until a voice asked loudly to break the deadlock.
"What happened?"
The two chariots rammed into the encirclement of skinks without giving way, and then drove into the formation.
The one rushing at the front was more gorgeous, covered with blue and gold patterns. Its owner was covered in pure black and wore the clothes of a Lahmian noble. It was he who asked the question just now.
Some nobles have identified it from the voice. This is the real master of the Lahmian nobles, Usoran.
Next to him, another man wearing the iconic patterned steel armor and covered by black cloth was the more famous Lahmian, General Ancart, the commander of Lahmia's army and also the leader of Lahmia.
Champion of Mia.
He has lived for hundreds of years. Lahmia has always claimed that he was blessed by the goddess Asaph along with the saint Neferata. However, according to the current public information of Lahmia, it is just that there is
Just a vampire.
This can also be seen from the covering that covers his whole body.
Everyone looked at the vampires warily. No one answered their questions, almost ignoring their previous predicament.
"It's complicated."
Alkadiza whispered to Wu Suoran, and then turned to those paralyzed on the ground.
"Please calm down. After the kings' envoys arrive, you will know the specific situation from the lords."
Surrounded by a group of light infantrymen who were not even equipped with swords, the white-robed nobleman struggled to get up, flicked his sleeves, and retreated.
The lizardmen also retreated to the wet areas along the river bank under the orders of the Skink Priest.
The Skink workers who had been waiting for a long time immediately applied thick mud to the giant beasts, especially the Triceratops. Others began to prepare forage with the help of the Skink Priests, as if they had not noticed what happened before. In the camp, the previous calm was quickly restored. Arkadiza waited under the scorching sun for dozens of minutes, until the strong sunlight tanned his exposed skin, which was far stronger than that of a mortal, and no one came out.
Making trouble.
Rather, these people performed better.
Even under the unbearable heat, the discipline of all the soldiers was still maintained, and almost no one sneaked into the river to try to cool down.
Even until the evening, when the sun is about to leave the horizon, the alternation of sentry work, the distribution of food, and the maintenance of weapons and equipment are all carried out in an orderly manner.
In the increasingly cool desert, the sound of horse hooves aroused the vigilance of the sentry, and soon a horse team was led to Alkadiza by the silent Kuata soldiers.
It turned out to be his Grand Vizier, Inofa.
Before Alkadiza could speak, a papyrus form had been handed to Alkadiza's hand. He lowered his head and saw that it was a list of supplies provided by various countries.
After Alkadiza followed the Grand Vizier into the royal tent set up by Khemri soldiers and stood in front of the map illuminated by an oil lamp, he spoke.
"Your Majesty, various countries have provided more than 12,000 camels, and with the raised cattle and pack horses, we should be able to provide supplies for an army of 100,000 people."
As he spoke, the baton in his hand pointed to Numas, which is not far east of Khemri and is fully watered by the river. Even on the map, it is full of life.
"About half of the cattle and pack horses were provided by Numas. They used this to request a phalanx army of only two thousand men as a symbol, and followed me."
As the baton slid towards the southernmost state in the desert area on the map, the bronze city south of Khemri in the center of Nehekhara, Ka-Sabai, the Grand Vizier said again.
"Ka-Sabai, you have already seen their light infantry, there is nothing to say about this part."
"Their main force, especially their cavalry and heavy infantry, will arrive soon. The number of heavy infantry is about 5,000, and the number of cavalry is even less, only 2,000."
Hearing this amount, Alkadiza's dark-skinned brows jumped.
"How are they?"
The Grand Vizier shook his head.
"The martial spirit is well preserved, and the use of cavalry is very good, but I would say that the equipment of the Bronze City is very backward in this era."
As he finished speaking, the tip of the baton pointed to the west side of the Valley of the Kings, the only access point among the weird and huge mountains that split the land of Nehekhara into two parts, facing south and north.
"Quata wants to guard the Valley of the Kings. They only sent 5,000 expeditionary troops. Like Numas, most of them are phalanx soldiers. The other light infantry have already arrived here."
"Of these phalanx soldiers, only the three rows in front and the noble soldiers in the back row are professional soldiers. There are a mixed group of unknown people in the middle. They cannot withstand overly complicated battles, but fortunately they are capable of frontal combat." After saying that, the Grand Vizier looked to the west side of the map, Zandiri, the largest trading city on the west coast of Nehekhara.
"As for the City of Waves, although most of them are phalanx soldiers, the number is fully fifty thousand."
"It is said that it is to deal with the recent batch of unemployed people and surplus slaves. The problem is that the quality is very poor, and there are not enough noble soldiers in the front row. If it weren't for the help of your mage, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to arrive now."
"My suggestion is to add some small nobles who are redundant from other armies."
"In addition, the City of Waves promised us some ships, but if we want to reach Laemia on the east coast from the west coast, these ships need to go around the entire land. I don't think we can use these ships." p>
"It should be enough for Lahmia's fleet to provide us with logistical support."
As he said that, the grand vizier looked at his king with a smile, which almost made his king smile too.
"Finally, there are still some infantry who have not arrived. Your mage has confirmed that it will take some time, maybe two hours."
Alkadiza frowned.
"There are still infantry that haven't arrived? Which legion is it?"
Seeing the expression on the king's face, the grand vizier's smile became even brighter.
"The best legion, your father's Astri legion. Your father personally leads the army. This may be the only king other than you who personally conquers."
Just as the Grand Vizier said, Astri's legions waited for three full hours before finding the assembly camp in the darkness, following the night lights of Lahmia and the fluorescent lilies along the road.
As soon as the old king entered the royal tent in Khemuli, the attendants beside him, his brother Kunti and his nephew started to complain.
"We only have one week. It's too hasty, boy. Without a detailed plan, even if we carry out emergency mobilization, I can only bring 3,000 armored troops and about 6,000 cavalry."
"Even if we add in those ordinary phalanx soldiers and light infantry, our strength is just over 10,000 and less than 20,000."
Alkadiza shook her head helplessly.
"The time for this expedition was not designated by me. It was the Slann Demon Priest of the Lizardmen. He saw the dangers of the usurper in the prophecy. We must expedition north as soon as possible."
Seeing that his father wanted to say something, Alkadiza directly blocked his mouth.
"I have seen Slan's magic power. It is more powerful than the magic power of Hasa's Bride, who is still protected by Hasa, and Hasa's Bride is already able to make sufficiently accurate predictions."
"But we can't let them take the lead. What's more, if we are given three more weeks to mobilize, how much will it delay?"
"The power of the lizard people is enough to move mountains and reclaim seas. I heard from them that the mountains over there can move north and south, which is the result of the spell cast by their Slann priests."
"You will suffer a loss if you always trust outsiders like this."
The uncle and nephew soon started arguing. Although both sides presented many arguments, in the end no one could convince the other.
When the two were about to take a sip of water and continue their debate, suddenly, a golden light at night, as bright as day, erupted from the river bank.
After walking out of the camp, on the river bank filled with golden light, a lizard man who was far stronger than the skink lizards and covered with thick scales and spikes appeared. After thinking about it for a long time, Alkadiza realized that he was related to this kind of lizard man.
Just a chance encounter.
"Thoroz? Didn't you say that they are rare temple guards?"
The Skink Priest outside Akadizara's tent asked. Before the Skink could answer, the floating stone slab that followed automatically explained the answer.
Before King Khemri heard a grunt from Slann, he saw the Skink beside him nodding frequently as if he understood something, standing up and shouting loudly in Nehekhara.
"The troops have been assembled and will go out tomorrow."
Without waiting for more lizardmen to spread the order, Alkadiza quickly ran towards the floating stone seat.
"Wait a minute, noble Lord Colermo, Neferata of Lahmia, how is the Daughter of the Sun you are repairing? How long will it take to come out?"
Aden Horu rubbed his temples angrily, trying to lower his blood pressure to avoid being mad at his son.
It's just that Neferata's question has been held in her heart for too long. Now that Slan has finally come out, of course Alkadiza must ask clearly.
Silan looked into Alkadiza's eyes for a while, then muttered, speaking in a language that Alkadiza could not understand at all, and immediately turned to the Skink Priest for help.
"The ritual of the Daughter of the Sun still takes time. Lord Colermo has left a skink priest to take care of and maintain the ritual. In 137 days, the sacred contract with the god will be reshaped and completed."
"Now, we need to stop that dead hot-blooded species first."
A large group of shadows appeared around Slan, and the sturdy lizard man Thoros, who was more than two meters tall, immediately put on a fighting attitude, but the owner of the shadow obviously had no intention of fighting.
The vampire revealed his true face and said to the Nehekhara people and Alkadiza who were waking up to watch the excitement.
"Laemia's government affairs are temporarily handled by me. I am her cousin and a member of the royal family."
As he spoke, a burst of green smoke swept him and Alkadiza into the royal tent.
As soon as he escaped from the dull shadow curtain, Alkadiza immediately asked.
"I have no doubts about you acting as an agent for government affairs, but if you stay behind, can the midnight nobles still participate in the war?"
"Actually, I suggest that all midnight dignitaries not join the war."
Wu Suoran's expression suddenly became serious.
"Our elixir of life comes from the usurper. If something goes wrong on the battlefield, it will be great fun."
"When did you care so much about risks? Your physical manipulation experiments have always been risky for you."
Faced with Alkadiza's joke, Wu Suoran shook his head.
"This is different, different, and..."
His head turned to the lizard man over there, and his tone even revealed a bit of sadness that surprised Alkadiza.
"I have studied them a little more carefully these days. The ancient saints created the lizard people. They are so powerful, but they still make the country they created almost disorderly, and in the end, they are almost bound to fail."
"As powerful as they are, will Nehekhara also have such a day?"
"Maybe even Nehekhara can't catch up with them."
Wu Suoran's tone became more and more melancholy, and he was silent for almost three minutes before he raised his head again and reluctantly made a relieved expression.
"However, I have figured it out. Survival is the most important thing, more important than anything else."
Alkadiza nodded and asked.
"In other words, you can only stay in Laemia?"
"It's not certain, Wosolun might go on an expedition."
"Wasolan?"
Only then did Alkadiza remember that he had not seen him for a while, the necromancer who had turned into a zombie.
Near the west gate of Lahmia, in a newly built simple warehouse made of large pieces of cloth, the Necromancer is indeed doing something special.
The sound like a broken bellows was struggling to spread around, like a balloon with no way to repair the leak.
"We will set out at sunrise tomorrow. We must take off before then, inflate the air bags and preheat the steam engine."
"The steam scorpion also needs to start to warm up. Whether we are loading it on a ship or letting it swim over, it has to start moving."
"There is no need to preheat the skybox. How fast can a hot air balloon flap with its wings? Hurry up and load them into the carriage!"
Vosolun's orders were issued one after another, but none of Lybaras's engineers were dissatisfied and started working with full energy.
On top of the magic circle constructed with the technology given by the lizard people, the gas in a jar is becoming lighter and lighter by magic, and will eventually be far lighter than air. Then these gases will be poured into Tianzhou's air bag.
Finally, the entire Tianzhou flew.
This is the only successful work.
Wosolun used the simplest lightening spell to lighten the air, but it only made the "lightness" of the air and the magic power that remained in the air completely lost.
Finally, he changed his mind and changed the magic circle into an alchemical magic circle, converting air into the lightest air, so he got this kind of air that can burn, but is very light.
The simple products of alchemy can last forever, so the problem of how to make the sky boat fly again is relatively perfectly solved.
They were so busy that dawn appeared on the horizon, and the engineers who had not slept all night finally made their creations move.
The machine on the back of the Steam Scorpion began to emit smoke, causing this weird giant scorpion to walk towards the seaside.
The progress of Tianzhou is also gratifying, and two more Tianzhou have already flown in the sky.
The troops of the Nehekhara kingdoms were shocked to see these things that they had never seen before, especially the emblems belonging to Lybaras and Lahmia.
However, soon, their attention was attracted by another scenery further along the coast.
Alkadiza could clearly feel the heavy mana gathering on the coast. Several hours had passed since he saw the giant spiritual network tightly connected to the floating stone slab, but the people of Nehekhara didn't know that yet.
What does it mean?
But suddenly, Lord Colermo opened his eyes.
A scene that horrified the mortals of Nehekhara happened. The toad sitting on the stone slab raised its slippery and soft claws, and the light of magic flashed gently in front of him.
The sight in front of them made all the Nehekhara people stunned, and only a few people shouted.