The Daolin Family’s breakout was not smooth. If Koen had also participated in the battle at the Golden Ear Plains, it would have been obvious that these Sludge Monsters were distinctly different from the monsters at the Golden Ear Plains.
That difference was vitality. These monsters were much more active compared to those at the Golden Ear Plains, which could only be treated as blood bags for the Demon God Offspring to regain their power, and they were also much stronger.
Until the end, Old Koen was covering for Harold and the other subjects as they broke through. However, Harold was not as lucky as his older brother; he encountered a Demon Clan army on the way, and a small squad from the Demon Clan, seeing Harold and his group who had not transformed into monsters, began to chase them through the fog without hesitation.
The subjects who escaped with Harold chose to lag behind in order to ensure that Harold could relay the message successfully.
When the Lars Knights Squad found Harold, he was already slumped on his horse, barely alive.
“Kid! What the hell happened in the fog?”
Looking at the noble from the Daolin Family, the squad leader of the Lars Knights immediately took out a bunch of potions from his tactical backpack, had someone help Harold down from the horse, while anxiously asking and checking Harold’s symptoms and the potions in his hands.
Harold, barely conscious, used all his strength to open his eyes and, seeing the Northern Wind Bear emblem on the squad leader’s armor, asked, “Northern Border? Have I made it to the Northern Border?”
To reassure Harold, the squad leader replied, “That’s right, this is the Northern Border. Kid, what exactly happened in the fog? Never mind, don’t speak for now, the doctor will be here soon!”
It seemed Harold didn’t hear him; he grasped the squad leader’s armor and said, “Great, tell my dad I’m not a coward!”
Then, with the last of his strength, Harold pulled out a letter from his chest and shoved it onto the squad leader before collapsing.
“Damn it! I’ll save you; don’t underestimate the alchemy of the Northern Border!”
The squad leader prepared to pour the selected potion into Harold’s mouth, but at that moment, a knight nearby shouted, “Captain, watch out!”
The squad leader froze, sensing a familiar aura, and immediately tore open Harold’s clothing.
Sure enough, the corruption process had begun, and it was quite advanced; aside from his head and limbs, the rest of Harold’s body had turned into a puddle of sludge, barely maintaining a stable form through sheer willpower as he escaped from the thick fog.
As if his wish had been fulfilled, the last breath that sustained Harold dissipated, and his entire body began to rot at a visible speed.
The squad leader understood that if it was just the early stages, the governor’s ancestral potion could save him, but it was clear that Harold had entered the late stages of the transformation, and there was no hope.
“Kid, you really aren’t a coward.”
The squad leader carefully stored the letter Harold had given him and took out the Holy Water from his tactical backpack, sprinkling it over Harold’s rotting body.
“May you receive the goddess’s mercy in the Divine Kingdom.”
Following Lind’s instructions, the Lars Knights did not conduct further investigations and returned to the Northern Border as quickly as possible to report to Lind using the communication device.
The contents of Harold’s letter were relayed through the communication device, and the physical letter was sent to Graywhite Territory with the fastest speed.
After hearing the knights’ report, White raised the alert for the Eastern Border to the highest level, leaving the guards on the other side of the Eastern Border somewhat puzzled.
What exactly happened in the Eastern Border that made the Northern Border folks look like the apocalypse had come?
Lind, upon receiving the report, immediately forced a connection to 550C.
“550C, can you provide me with the current imagery data from the Eastern Border?”
“Sorry, I cannot obtain ground images in my current state.”
Damn it, the full map cannot be opened; why can’t 550C provide responses like others’ systems, saying whatever they want, even allowing for possession and remote control?
Lind had no choice but to redirect his attention back to the message that Harold had risked his life to send out.
The message in the letter could be divided into two parts; the first part was written by Old Koen, who was Lilith’s father in this life.
Old Koen detailed how the disaster occurred, the scenes during the event, and even included imagery data recorded by a magical scroll.
In the end, he personally pleaded with the Northern Border to communicate with the Royal Capital as soon as possible, hoping the Northern Border could help the Queen through this calamity.
In the letter, Old Koen suspected that someone had used a weather-controlling magic in the Lorelle area, which had a vast range and immense power, and shortly thereafter, black rain poured down in the Lorelle area.
Based on Old Koen’s description, it was evident that someone had initiated supremacy magic in the Eastern Border, and the initial depiction of the disaster matched the characteristics of supremacy magic. But how did that black rain come about? Why did it spawn those monsters from the Golden Ear Plains battlefield?
Alright, it’s clear that the Demon Clan is up to some mischief, so one cannot really blame Lind for pinning the blame on the Demon Clan without evidence; sometimes, stereotypes form for a reason.
However, in the latter part of the letter, the tone was clearly not that of Old Koen, but rather written from Harold’s perspective.
Although Harold was indeed more cowardly than his older brother, he was very perceptive in certain aspects.
After Harold escaped the Oregon area with the remaining subjects, he noticed some very peculiar situations on the way to the Northern Border.
For instance, certain regions clearly far from the Lorelle area, at least farther than the Oregon area, had a low concentration of black fog but had almost all subjects corroded into monsters.
The subjects that Harold brought with him, who had indeed stayed for a long time in the black fog of Oregon, even following Harold in breaking through, had still not transformed into monsters, or rather, their transformation rate was very slow.
Harold discovered that the territories where all had turned into monsters shared a common feature: they were all very dilapidated. This was not damage caused by the black fog but rather resulted from poor management leading to disrepair.
Therefore, Harold suspected that the speed of becoming a monster was related to people’s mental state. The subjects of the Daolin Family, after Lilith became Queen, regarded themselves as the Queen’s subjects and had made every effort to convey the message.
In other parts of the Eastern Border, most people lived in a daze, and some had even been taxing the land for decades, leading to standard sustainable overexploitation. Those local people degenerated even faster.
After carefully reviewing the report, Lind sighed, estimating that Harold had encountered unexpected circumstances in the black fog. While he shouldn’t really be able to hold on to the Northern Border, perhaps he could still be purified by the Holy Water.
Lilith indeed had a good older brother in this world.
