Eastern continent.
Dead Ember Mountains.
Trorian Royal City, Upper City.
Holy Fire Sacrifice Site.
The king looked up at the blazing holy fire in front of him.
The golden and blazing flame is so huge that it occupies almost half of the sacrificial site. People standing in front of it are so small that they are not even considered dust.
The rolling fire obscured all sight, as if the entire universe should be burning like this, filled with fire and light.
But the fact is completely opposite. Coldness, darkness, silence and death are the eternal themes.
And these little episodes in life are all brought about by the miracles in front of us.
No matter how many times he looked up at it, the king was always shocked by its magic and greatness.
The existence of the Holy Fire is the basis for the existence of the Trolian Royal City, the reason for the existence of the Trolian Kingdom, and the belief that these tens of millions of people survive.
But it's about to go out.
This is something only the king can detect.
The power of the Holy Fire is irreversibly weakening, its source is draining, and it has been this way since three years ago.
The king stretched out his hand and gently touched the sacred fire.
It is surging and shows no signs of dying out.
But this is just an appearance. If spirituality is not injected, no matter how much phlogiston and firewood are added, the black fog will gradually erode the city and turn all living creatures into living undead.
When the royal city falls into darkness, all towns outside the royal city, all fortresses, and everything that exists depending on it will be extinguished like scattered sparks.
There will no longer be a single discordant noise on this land, and deathly silence will become its unchanging main theme for hundreds of millions of years.
And there is only one way, one possibility, and one hope that can save it.
I will definitely succeed.
Wang squeezed his hands tightly, and the flames flowed through his fingers, gently caressing his skin, like an old friend, old brother, or old senior.
"King, everyone is here."
The white-robed Archbishop Horus said respectfully.
"The council is only waiting for your arrival."
Wang was awakened from his reverie. He turned around, smiled and said, "Let's go, Xiao Hehe."
"Xiao Hehe", who was already in his forties and looked like a piece of dry old wood, twitched the corners of his mouth, but he wisely did not refute the king's eccentricities, and just silently followed the king out of the sacred fire sacrificial site.
The most elite fire protectors and the strongest fire priests in the royal city stood outside the Holy Fire Sacrifice. They formed an unshakable line of defense to guard the safety of the Holy Fire.
Even the appearance of the king and the archbishop did not make them look away for half a second.
In order to protect the Holy Fire, they have given up everything. Their only responsibility in life is to guard the Holy Fire. The Holy Fire is the light of their lives, the fire of their souls, and everything they have.
Whenever he sees these lovely warriors, Wang feels warm from the bottom of his heart.
He is also determined to give them the happiness they deserve.
The king loudly said, "My spirit is at the sacrificial site. You go back and rest, and come back at night."
There was a hint of confusion in the eyes of the fire keepers and fire priests.
But this was not the first time after all. They all bowed to the king and walked outside the king's area.
Wang said: "Remember to bring gifts and blessings to your wives and children. Only with love in your heart can the holy fire burn forever."
It wasn't until everyone left that Horus whispered with slight dissatisfaction: "King, the guardians of the Holy Fire don't need to think. Only in this way can they ensure their absolute loyalty and completely cut off the infiltration of doomsday believers."
Wang smiled and said: "Xiao Hehe, you are wrong. I am the person closest to the Holy Fire. So I am not the one who should become a mechanical puppet? Otherwise, how can you guarantee that I will not be infected by the doomsday thoughts?"
Horus choked up: "Yes, yes, but this is against the rules."
The king smiled and said, "I am the king, and my rules are the rules."
Horus was speechless.
The two of them walked towards the east of the Holy Fire Sacrifice.
The center of the Shangcheng District is the Royal District, and the center of the Royal District is naturally the Holy Fire Sacrifice Ground.
In the four directions of the Holy Fire Sacrifice Site, the four most important institutions of the royal city are distributed.
they are, respectively:
The Royal City Council, representing the highest center of power, occupies a position due east.
The Royal City Government Affairs Office, representing the highest administration, occupies the position due west.
The Holy Church, which represents the highest religious authority, occupies the position due south.
And the Supreme Military War Department, which is in charge of all military wars, occupies the position due north.
This meeting was related to the war, but due to its high importance and complexity, it was moved to the Council.
The king walked into the central hall of the council and immediately saw the seven Sons of Fire sitting at the front.
They are the strongest people in the royal city and the highest combat force that humans can mobilize. Their status is only lower than that of the king and they have the greatest say besides the king.
On the side of the Son of Fire are four knight captains, who also possess extraordinary strength and extraordinary status.
These eleven people are the eleven pillars of the royal city, the hope and belief of tens of millions of people, and the role models and ultimate dreams of all those who hold the fire.
Behind them are the commanders of the major armies, the archbishops of the Holy Church, and the guardians of each defense zone.
They are also the pillars of the royal city and the supporters beside the Optimus Pillar.
After that, there are the leaders of the major institutions, the governors of the administrative districts, and the elders of the council.
They are the ones responsible for maintaining and repairing the giant pillars.
The hundreds of thousands of combatants, millions of workers, and tens of millions of hard-working people who cannot be seen here are the foundation of the existence of the Trorian Kingdom.
The king took the throne in the center.
In an instant, everyone stood up and saluted together.
"Welcome the king, may the fire be with the king."
Wang raised his right hand and made a fist.
"The night will eventually dissipate, and the dawn will come!"
"The night will eventually dissipate, and the dawn will come!"
The neat voices echoed in the central hall. This feeling of unity was what he liked most and was the only expectation he had for any meeting.
Sure enough, as soon as we sat down, conflicts and disputes broke out.
Cross, the commander of the city defense corps, together with dozens of elders and consuls, stood up and said:
"The Black Tide is approaching. We believe that the royal city should immediately stop its outward expansion to reduce the casualties of combatants and the pressure on defense."
"Our defense line is stretched too long, and our logistics and medical supplies cannot keep up. Our casualties this month have exceeded those in the past ten months!"
"I think we should abandon Star City. It is too far away. Outside our defense circle, the defense used for it has consumed one-third of our strength!"
"This is really unwise!"
However, Lockhart, the commander of the expeditionary legion, and other elders and consuls raised objections.
"The City of Stars is the most important ancient ruins we have discovered in the past twenty years. We have found a huge amount of material resources and spiritual materials in it, as well as a large number of relics from the Third Age. The Institute of Industrial Machinery has found many useful tools from it. , and its excavation may bring us more unexpected things.”
Cross is a huge fat man. When he is angry, his body expands like a balloon:
"A bunch of rubbish toys, with no useful materials at all, are you going to let our soldiers die?"
Lockhart, the commander of the Conquest Legion, is a standard big man with scars all over his face. One eye is blind, leaving only a big black hole.
He said coldly: "In terms of sacrifice, no one can speak in front of the conquering legion. Do you think it is an ordinary relic? A pile of historical dust?"
He turned around and shouted louder.
"That's not it! There is the highest quality sun stone mine in the Star City, there is the perfect soul crystal ore, and there is also the highest grade true silver mine. Is that a cold material? No, that is the phlogiston of the holy fire, which belongs to the warrior. Life and strength are warm light!”
Logistics Manager Harvey added: "We are in urgent need of sunstone ore now. The phlogiston of the Holy Fire must use sunstone, and we don't have much inventory now."
This sentence played a decisive role.
Cross's tone calmed down a little: "Then shrink the defense line, retreat to the position twelve years ago, and abandon the Mushroom City, the Mountain City, and the Beast City."
This suggestion was approved by most of the consuls and elders.
However, some guardians and the governors of these three cities expressed their opposition.
"Mushroom City and Beast City produce one-third of our food, as well as many material resources. Mountain City is our largest iron and copper mine base. If we give up, many people's lives will be in trouble, and food will also be lost. Far from enough!"
Talinas, one of the three chief consuls, said impatiently: "What's the point? The untouchables who failed to become fire bearers are worthless, let them die."
The atmosphere in the hall became a bit colder, and many people cast disgusted looks at him, but Tallinas did not take it seriously. He said loudly:
"I have long believed that we must survive by any means necessary. The black mist will not stop eroding because of our pity, and the monsters will not show mercy to us because of our kindness. We are harsher and colder than them. Only then can we truly defeat this world and win a place in existence.”
Iron Mask Manolo Bana, one of the four great adjudicators, also stood up and said: "To be fair, Lord Talinas's words are not pleasant, but they are very reasonable. Mercy and kindness cannot defeat the enemy. A harsh world should have harsh survival rules. Civilians are very pitiful, but worthless people should not waste resources. The protection we provide has a price."
"Nonsense!"
The blond Mibol almost jumped up.
"No soldier would fight with such faith! If their home is no longer their home, why would they risk their lives?"
Manolo Bana, who was wearing an iron mask, sneered: "So, just drown in your kindness!"
"If the end of this road is death, then I would rather die!"
"Oh, if you miss, just die. Don't drag everyone else to die together."
As before, the hall once again fell into endless quarrels.
Only the seven sons of fire and the four knight captains sat still and did not join in the quarrel. They had a detached status and only obeyed the king's orders and did not need to express their opinions.
Wang rubbed his chin and looked at the map of the Trorian Kingdom in front of him, lost in thought.
The Kingdom of Trolian is actually just a historically inert name, and its main component is the Royal City of Trolian.
The Fire Lord City Trorian was built when the human hero Trorian placed the Holy Fire in the city founded by giants.
It is located halfway up the Dead Ember Mountains. Initially, it only had an upper city area, and the lower city area was expanded over the countless years.
As the prosperity of mankind increased, Trorian began to lack food and supplies. They had to leave the shelter of high walls and holy fires and go out to open new cities and strongholds.
This is also the origin of many Trorian towns.
In order to protect their safety, people had to build more castles and fortresses to form lines of defense, eventually forming today's defense circle.
In the long years, the scope of human territory has changed many times, but no matter what, human beings have never left the red earth plains.
This is because the terrain of the Red Clay Plain is very good. Its north and east sides are blocked by the Dead Ember Mountains. As long as defense lines are set up on the west and south sides to resist the monsters wandering in the black mist, there will be a relatively safe environment.
Then the land was purified, the water source was cleared, and the seeds of the holy white tree were sprinkled, and soon there was output.
By setting up defense zones, establishing patrols, forming battle groups and combat clusters, and killing threats missed by the defense network, we can basically ensure the production and transportation of materials.
This piece of land with a radius of less than 600 miles is the entire Trorian Kingdom.
If you want to expand further outwards, as the east mountain range bends, it will change from two-sided defense to three-sided defense. The defense pressure will rise sharply, the contact area with the black mist will expand, and it may even alarm the unstoppable people deep in the black mist. With the existence of names, the danger increases exponentially.
However, without expansion, existing resources are no longer enough to meet people's needs.
Since he ascended the throne, Trorian has expanded to the limit and can control an area larger than it has been in the past hundred years.
But it still cannot satisfy the skyrocketing population.
The most critical thing is that in order to ensure the survival of the outer city, the Holy Fire has been running at the highest intensity, requiring three times more phlogiston than in a stable state.
This naturally led to disputes and dissatisfaction, and the royal city was roughly divided into two factions, one was the expansion faction and the other was the contraction faction.
There are also many subtle differences between the two factions. There are iron factions like Talinas and Manolobana who advocate creating a harsh environment, and there are moderate factions like Mibor.
Although there are many cracks, they can all be repaired as long as victory is achieved.
The king stood up, intent on ending their quarrel.
He said: "I remember that when I was a child, supplies were scarce and I had very little to eat, especially the white and green sugar cubes that children loved to eat."
The hall fell silent, and everyone listened quietly to Wang's speech.
Wang smiled a little, as if he was nostalgic, but also seemed to like the atmosphere without quarrels.
"But every child only has one piece. Parents often like to put their hands behind their backs and ask us if we want the left one or the right one."
The white-robed archbishop Horus shouted: "I understand! The king wants us to make a choice, either to shrink the defensive circle or to abandon the Star City."
Cross shouted: "Shrink the defensive circle!"
Lockhart said: "Give up the Star City."
Manolo Bana said: "I say with my conscience, give up..."
"No."
Wang smiled.
"I mean, kids make the choices, adults want them all."
The words just fell.
The hall was deathly silent.
Suddenly, Lockhart shouted: "King! We don't have enough people!"
Cross, the commander of the city defense army, also shouted: "Our defensive area is too large! Once the black tide comes, we will suffer heavy losses!"
Wang said calmly: "The defense force of the royal city can be supported and can share a lot of pressure."
Horus flatly refused: "What about the royal city?"
The king smiled and said: "I am in the royal city, don't you trust me?"
Everyone looked at each other, and one of the consuls murmured: "But, King, you can guard the Holy Fire, but you cannot patrol the entire royal city. The wandering monsters will greatly damage our order."
Wang smiled slightly: "Have you forgotten that we still have a strong reserve force?"
Several legion commanders pricked up their ears for a moment: "What?"
"A student from Jinworth."
Wang smiled and revealed the mystery.
"Our Fighter Reserve."
