Chapter 2160: Natural Chasm
The weather got increasingly colder as they moved northwards from the Roth Empire. There were no signs of the snow melting and the mountains were still all white.
A mountain range stood horizontally across the north, blocking the coldness from the ice sheets in the extreme north. It also gave humans an environment in which they could survive.
This mountain range that stretches over hundreds of kilometers was called Gus Mountains. It stretched from the east to the west like a natural chasm, guarding the Roth Empire’s north.
Behind the Gus Mountains, were the ice sheets that remained frozen throughout the year. The ice was over thousands of meters thick and apparently as they continued to go northwards, they would enter the land of eternal night. No one knew what was hidden in there.
The ice sheets used to be the restricted area of all living things. The bone-chilling cold would take away your body temperature very quickly. Your energy would be consumed rapidly even when you were not moving.
Even the commonly seen snow rabbits and snow foxes in the north were rarely seen on the ice sheets.
The Gus Mountains blocked the cold wind, but it also blocked the existence of life.
However, at the side of the Gus Mountains near to the ice sheets right now, a team of over 1000 sappers1 were busy under a cliff.
There was a thick layer of ice on the cliff near the ice sheets. It was as smooth as a mirror after it had been polished by the freezing wind. The cliff was hundreds of meters tall. It was a natural city wall.
However, it was a mountain range after all, it definitely had big and small gaps all over.
The elites of all the Roth Empire’s legions were assembling at the north, and the engineer corps of the north’s legions was already sent to construct defenses under the Gus Mountains.
The Gus Mountains were their only choice to stop the Army of the Dead from coming southwards.
The ice sheet was extremely vast and its weather was extremely unpredictable. It was impractical to search for the Army of the Dead on the vast ice sheet.
And after the Gus Mountains, there weren’t any natural barriers that could stop the Army of the Dead.
They were using the Gus Mountains as a natural chasm to construct defenses and transform the whole mountain range into a great wall that was thousands of kilometers long in an attempt to stop the Army of the Dead from moving southwards. They wanted to fight the battle beyond the empire’s territory.
This was the guidelines set by the allied forces’ commander, Lord Alex, and Marshal Dominic. No warriors in the Roth Empire would ever doubt the decisions made by these two lords.
“Hurry up! After we fill these holes up and scatter a layer of glutinous rice over this area, we will barbeque meat for you all tonight! Our brothers on the watch have just caught a few snow deer!” a tall and fat knight said loudly to the sappers who were working hard.
“Yes!”
All the sappers’ eyes, who were carrying the ice, lit up immediately when they heard that there was meat for their dinner tonight. They began to work faster.
There was a gap that was ten or so meters long. Above this gap, was a slope that was covered by ice. To the normal people, this was still a natural chasm that they couldn’t cross.
However, according to the scouts who went into the ice sheets, those skeletons could easily scale a slope with a steep gradient, let alone a gentle slope like this one.
Hence, they need to get ice from the ice sheets to seal this gap up and connect it to the vertical cliffs at its sides to complete a perfect city wall.
This was also what the hundreds of thousand of the busy sappers were doing at the foot of the Gus Mountains.
Of course, it would need more than two weeks to fill up a gap like this if they were depending on these sappers alone.
Fortunately, there were over 10 magic casters assigned to their teams. The wind magic casters were responsible for cutting the ice, while the water magic caster infused water into the gap and let it solidify naturally, forming a solid ice wall.
The ice magic casters were in their elements in such a freezing environment. They were extremely fast in creating ice and they undertook the majority of the task.
A sapper tossed another big chunk of ice in as he asked the tall and fat leader, “Sir, we have already filled a few big holes, how many more holes do we have to fill?”
“Yes. This is simply too cold. My hands are frozen after carrying ice daily.”
The other sappers also looked over at them.
It was fine if it was simply tiring, but this side of the mountain was different from the other side of the mountain. Even they, who were used to the north, were freezing out here.
They could barely sleep by the fire by huddling together. A soldier went out of the tent to take a leak last night. He fell and was frozen solid when he was discovered in the morning.
“How many more?” The tall and fat leader laughed and then turned serious suddenly. He stared at all of the sappers. “All of them! We will be filling them up as long as we don’t receive the orders to back up!
“You’re afraid of this mild coldness? Our brothers who are going to charge at the Army of the Dead at the frontline later will be fighting with their lives on the line! You all must remember that even though we have never fought a single battle in the north, you all are still soldiers! If the Army of the Dead get through the Gus Mountains, your family members are going to die in the hands of those devils!”
All the sappers looked down with shame.
The sapper who asked the question earlier, picked up a big chunk quietly and walked towards the ice wall.
All the sappers worked quietly and they obviously worked faster than they did before.
On the mountain, Dominic, who was wearing his armor, nodded and retracted his gaze. He turned to look at his adjutant at the side. “Get all the sappers from all the legions to the frontline as soon as possible. Provide them with the supplies needed. We have to set up the battle lines as requested within three days.”
“Yes, Marshal!” The adjutant nodded. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “Marshal, I have something to report to you.”
“Speak.”
“A frost dragon appeared on the battle line yesterday. She helped the sappers repair over a dozen gaps. However, she was asking about the Army of the Dead,” the adjutant said.
“Could it be her?” Dominic frowned. “Where is she now?”
“I wondered if she already left. I’ll go ask about her,” the adjutant said quickly and hurriedly left.
Soon after, the adjutant returned and reported to Dominic. “Marshal, she has already left. Apparently, she flew towards the ice sheets.”
“Towards the ice sheets?” Dominic turned grave. The Roth Empire had lost many scouts in the ice sheets in this period of time. Be it the extremely dangerous environment, or the skeleton men that were hiding underneath the ice, they were all extremely dangerous.
“Make the preparations. I need to write to the dragons,” Dominic said.
“Yes, Sir!”
***
“If the 1,000,000 Army of the Dead is a flood, then the hundreds of kilometers long mountain range would be the first flood dike.
“However, it simply isn’t enough to block the flood. They are so ferocious, so the flood dikes will definitely be overturned and we will lose control of the situation.
“Therefore, I have set up three flood-relief channels. These three flood-relief channels are three natural canyons. They are about ten to 15 kilometers long.
“Finally, at the end of the flood-relief channel, we’ll pull up the last gate. We must promise not to let a single drop of the flood escape.”
Mag sat on the back of the griffin and looked down at the vast white and icy world below. The Gus Mountains was like a huge flood dike that stopped the coldness that attempted to go to the south.
“What if we can’t stop them?” Irina asked.
“There’s no what if.” Mag shook his head. His gaze became grave. “We can only promise that there will be no accidents.”