Volume 10 Chapter 537: The Great Operation to Infiltrate the Mysterious Unknown City in the Victor Plain
After a night of heavy snowstorm in Victor Prairie at the Octavia Empire, located in the northern region of the human continent, the Coristel Continent, Bella and her small team of knights finally set off again. They had temporarily diverted their destination to the mysterious city that was only discovered by Bella the last night. Since this city was located in the direction that Bella and her team had originally headed to, Bella would keep feeling anxious if she didn’t scout it out.
There were still traces of the dark element in the air that was the remainder of the condensed “dark wave” that the Demon King Bella had released yesterday. Most of the beauties that made up this team of knights were well aware of what had been happening. Only the naïve and innocent Magic Dragon Knight Lisha and Dragon Knight General Olya did not know the source of the dark energy.
Magic Dragon Knight Lisha wasn’t troubled by the presence of the dark wave as it didn’t bother her much, but Dragon Knight General Olya was actually very concerned about it. However, since none of the other beautiful knights who had actually been accustomed to it raised any concern regarding the dark wave, Olya was hesitant to take the lead and ask Bella about it. After the strange experience that Olya had just encountered last night, she felt embarrassed to face Bella.
According to the instructions by the Fire Figures that had stayed behind at a distance from the mysterious city, Bella and her companions finally reached the edge of this mysterious city on foot. They could not ride on their warhorses due to some unexplainable reasons; these normal warhorses were afraid to approach the city. After many failed attempts to coax their horses, they decided that they had no other choice but to reach there on foot.
Even though it was no longer snowing, the sky still held a gloomy grey ambiance. After the heavy snow had stopped at Victor Prairie, even the strange wind had ceased to blow. When Bella and her small team of knights finally reached the outskirts of the mysterious city, the mystical aurora that Bella had witnessed last night was still floating above the city.
Compared to last night, the appearance of the aurora appeared to be weird during the day. Not only did it no longer look as captivating as it was last night, but it actually looked strangely eerie instead. Probably it could have sensed the arrival of Bella and her companions, the mysterious throne that had been hovering over the center of the city had disappeared. It had probably gone into hiding in the center of this city area.
While they were moving along towards the mysterious city, they did not come across the dead bodies that Bella had seen last night, making Bella a little nervous because she was afraid that they had all turned into the Snow Corpses and might attack them. Bella only felt relieved once they arrived at the edge of the mysterious city without encountering any attack by the Snow Corpse.
“Master, these are the footprints of a snowman. They should be the disciple of Eli Shelley.”
After inspecting the mysterious human-like footprint on the ground, the Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman, one of the dragons that had a contract with Bella, had quietly confirmed with Bella that the footprints belonged to the tribe of snowmen. In fact, he was also one of the disciples of Snow Dragon Queen Eli Shelley, who was part of the six-pillar demon dragons. This city also belonged to another world, like the ones in the Hall of the Thunder Throne that devoted themselves to the Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman.
In addition to the information given by the Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman, the Time Space Magic Demon Noesha had also secretly provided some valuable information to Bella. Based on her ability to manipulate time and space, she sensed that the city did not belong to the dimension of this world. It could have invaded this dimension from another world, and according to the timeline, it had invaded into this dimension around thirty years ago.
According to Bella’s companions, who were well-versed with the Octavia Empire and had the information passed down by their parents, the occurrence started to happen thirty years ago. Even though the Octavia Empire before thirty years ago was a cold empire but it did not experience heavy blizzards on a daily basis.
The Octavia Empire was plunged into freezing, blizzard weather only after this city surfaced. The sudden change of extreme weather on the empire was caused by the Snow Dragon Queen Eli Shelley, who was also a part of the six-pillar demon dragons.
The fact that drew Bella’s interest to the Snow Dragon Queen Eli Shelley was that she was a female. The last time that the Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman saw her was more than thirty years ago. Since they had opposing attributes, the snow dragon was completely defeated by the thunder dragon. It would not be difficult for Bella to kill the snow dragon, but it would pose some difficulties if Bella were to capture it alive. Based on the memory of Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman, the Snow Dragon Queen Eli Shelley was a very vigilant being, so it would be difficult to catch her.
Bella and her companions were currently attacked by a group of Snow Wolves and Polar Bears at the edge of the mysterious city. Tens of thousands of snow-white furred snow wolves had rushed into the direction of Bella and her companions. Occasionally, a huge polar bear or two would creep up among the snow wolves. Both the snow wolves and polar bears had a weird red glint in their eyes as if their minds were controlled by a certain entity.
These snow wolves and polar bears were trying to stop Bella and her companions from entering the city. The Fire Figures that Lisha had previously summoned had extinguished once they had reached the summoning time limit, and she couldn’t summon more of them since there were no bonfires near them at the moment. However, the number that was attacking them was a little off. Compared to the group that attacked them last night at the camp, the amount that was defending the outer part of the city seemed to be smaller this time.
The snow wolves that had frightened the mercenary teams and passing caravans were not threats to Bella and her team of knights. With the protection of the enchantment set up by the Holy Knights, the snow wolves were not able to break into their defense structure, and occasionally, some of the snow wolves would be sent flying into the air by the Holy Knights. However, the polar bears were a little tougher to handle as they were so big that the Holy Knights could not knock them into the air.
Even then, the polar bears were not really a threat to Bella’s team. Even when the Holy knights failed to handle them, there were many other stronger knights in Bella’s team, especially those who were Dragon Knights and above. When these Dragon Knights launched their attack, even the humongous polar bears were sent flying through the air. After fighting for some time, the scene in front of them was covered in the corpse of these snow beasts as blood was splattered everywhere. These snow beasts’ corpses had paved the way forward with their blood staining the snow.
However, the bloody smell that was oozing out of the dead beasts soon attracted other snow beasts around the area. These beasts that came due to the bloody smell would immediately be controlled by a mysterious force as soon as they entered the area and would then be used as the defense reinforcement of the mysterious city. Seeing how the number of the snow beats were quickly multiplying, Bella temporarily retreated her team of knights.
Bella had asked the few female knights that had participated in the battle to hold off the battle along with the other beautiful female dragons and the lolis that she had brought here. Whether she chose to use the Collapsing Evil Dragon Emperor Tiffany Lolita or the Great Evil God Mia, the end result would be equally terrifying. Bella was afraid that when either one of them released their attack, the Snow Dragon Queen Eli Shelley, who was currently hidden in the center of the mysterious city, would be scared away, and her plan to “collect the pillars” would be foiled.
“Everyone, retreat for now. It seems these snow beasts don’t want to live.”
Under Bella’s command, the beautiful girls retreated while fighting off the attack of the beasts and slowly made it to a certain distance from the city. When they finally retreated, the snow beasts no longer chased after them, but instead, they started growling menacingly at Bella and the others. This was probably due to the fact that the entity that was controlling these beasts would no longer be able to control them if they were to leave a certain distance.
“Sister Bella, did all these beasts go crazy? How could they not be afraid of death and simply lunge forward? It’s really troublesome.”
“Bella, let’s take a detour. This city feels strange, and it doesn’t look like a good place to be at.”
After a short break, Bella and her team of knights held an on-the-spot meeting to discuss whether they should move forward with the attack or change their strategy. The road ahead was already full of vicious snow beasts that were waiting to attack them, and to add onto it, there were also piles of dead carcass scattered everywhere, making it a challenging road to advance to. The only way they could take was to fly in through the air as the opposition didn’t seem to have any flying beast that would hinder their advancement.
The air transportation problem could be easily solved by having the Dragon Knights mount on their flying dragons, and the Holy Knights could mount on the griffins or the flying unicorns. Due to the strong force that they had, Bella and her team of knights, which was made up of only a few dozen people, had dared to discuss a plan to attack a city of that size. If it were to happen on another battlefield, it would have been an unfathomable situation. For a squad of such a small team to attack a city of such size was something that could only happen in fairy tales.
Since the returns they would gain from entering the city and exploring its secret were still something that could be questioned, the Dragon Knight General Olya had suggested for them to abandon the mission. Not only was this team made up of powerful knights, but the team members were also a valuable commodity by themselves because even the lowest level of them, the Holy Knights, were beautiful girls from the noble families of the Octavia Empire, and to add to it, there were also royal princesses of the empire among them. Even if only one were to die in this “gutter,” it would be a great loss for the entire empire.
“Bella, let’s not continue this. We can change and use another way to the Holy City. It won’t be a long detour.”
“No, Olya, I need to have a look in the city. Perhaps there are some important secrets hidden in the city.”
Olya was helpless when Bella insisted on visiting the city. Even the other beautiful knights around them were supportive of Bella’s decision. Olya could never change Bella’s decision by herself. Initially, if they were to follow the original plan, they were supposed to use the main official road of the empire to get to the capital of the empire.
Due to Bella’s request to visit the Holy City of Slyvia, which was the headquarters of the Radiant Church, they were taking this road. Otherwise, this team of beautiful knights would not have stumbled upon this city. Olya was against the decision from the very beginning, but none of the other beautiful members of this team had objected to Bella’s decision. Even Lisha, Irene, and Luce had acquiesced with Bella’s wayward behavior. As such, Olya could only conform to it.
“So, it’s been decided. Liath and I will go and have a look around. The rest of you should stay here and help us distract the snow beast. By the way, sister Lisha, could you help me look after Olya and don’t let her run around. Last night, she….”
“What happened last night? Sister Bella, did you and sister Olya….”
“No, nothing happened last night. The tenth princess doesn’t listen to the ninth princess’ nonsense. Bella, do whatever you want, I don’t care about you anymore!”
Seeing that Bella was about to spill out the things that happened last night, Olya was so anxious that she didn’t raise any objection towards Bella’s plan, and instead, she merely lowered her head and didn’t dare to look at Bella. If the other Holy Knights and Dragon Knights were to know of her experience yesterday, Olya would feel as if she had lost all of her dignity. However, her reaction had only contributed to increasing the suspicion from the other beauties.
When Lisha and the others saw the strange blush on Olya’s face, they knew that something interesting had transpired between Bella and Olya last night. Based on Bella’s usual behavior, it was almost confirmed that Bella must have teased, taken advantage of, or something within those range of behavior towards Olya. But since neither of the two parties involved was eager to divulge the situation, the rest of them did not enquire about it since they were embarrassed.
Bella had chosen the Dragon Knight King Liath to explore the mysterious city with her. Aside from the Magic Dragon Knight Lisha, who possessed the Dark Demon Dragon Emperor, the strongest Dragon Knight was Liath. As the first generation of Dragon Knight King, even when Liath couldn’t find her mount, she could still go against Olya, the Dragon Knight General that had a mount, and could still emerge victoriously.
After deciding their position, Bella and the others immediately went into position, with Bella and Liath leaving the team to head to the city while the rest would stay and try to divert the attention of the snow beasts. Since these snow beasts were controlled, they had very little intelligence left. When they saw Bella and Liath leaving the team, they did not show any peculiar reaction.
These beasts would not react as long as Bella and Liath were not directly heading towards them. It seemed like they were given only one instruction: to keep protecting that particular road that they were on, and all they could do was to act based on that one line of command and nothing else. After Bella and Liath had retreated to a certain distance, they reached a device that looked like a catapult device that Bella had arranged for the Fire Figures to build overnight in haste.
This device was indeed similar to a catapult used to project out the items placed in it. The direction of the projection seemed to be the mysterious city up ahead, but instead of throwing rock towards the city, Bella came up with a bold plan to throw themselves over to the city. This was because she felt that if they were to ride in with a dragon, they would be easily spotted from afar, thus foiling her surprise attack plan.
Compared to the huge body of a flying dragon mount, the bodies of two people were much smaller and easier to conceal. Hence, Bella had thought up the plan to place her and Liath into the catapult as a special “stone” and project them straight into the nameless city. With her almost invincible physical defense of a Demon King’s body, she would be able to avoid the shameful incident when she would be thrown to death.
“Bella, your plan is too risky. I’m a Dragon Knight King and would not be injured by the fall. However, you could injure yourself. As a knight, I cannot ignore that you are putting yourself at risk.”
“Liath, I am not just any ordinary Dragon Knight. Let’s make a bet. If I’m not injured by this, you’ll let me give you a kiss. But, I would add one more dish for your future meals if I were injured. How about it? Do you want to bet?!”
“This… Bella, are you serious? I’m… wait, what are you doing? Wait, I haven’t decided if I want to bet.”
Bella knew that this beautiful Knight King had a similar trait with a particular wig donning king who was a great foodie in her past life on earth. Since this beautiful Knight King could also easily be tempted with delicious food, Bella took advantage of the situation. While she was not focusing on Bella, Bella stepped forward and shamelessly launched a surprise attack on Liath and kissed Liath’s lips while hugging her.
The moment Bella’s lips touched hers, Liath’s mind had gone blank in shock and could not defend herself against Bella’s request to advance her winning bet. While the two of them were embraced in a warm and ambiguous posture, they had been ejected out of the catapult and thrown in the direction of the mysterious city.
Lisha and the rest of the girls on the ground were not expecting Bella’s method of entering the city until they saw Bella and Liath being thrown towards the direction of the mysterious city. Aside from Olya, every other member of the beautiful knight team thought that Bella’s method to infiltrate with Liath was particularly romantic.
While Bella and her companions were still fighting in the mysterious city, the Radiant Church was carrying out their routine prayer ceremony in the Holy City of Slyvia, the headquarters of the Radiant Church. In the Pope’s hall, the Radiant Pope was sitting on the Pope’s throne and was listening to the prayers of the believers in the hall.
Since the current Radiance Pope wanted to hold this year’s Anniversary of the Goddess of Light, the Pope had asked for the attendance of several senior people who were studying at the Olsylvia Academy like the Pope’s heir, President Maria, the Holy Swordsman Cynthia as well as the Four Holy Maidens of the Radiant Church. Like Bella and her companion, President Maria and her counterpart, who had been instructed to do so, had also taken a leave of absence from the academy to return to the Holy City of Slyvia in advance.
President Maria and her companion had used the special magical teleportation array of the Radiant Church, which was a much faster way to travel than Bella’s team’s conventional methods. Hence, Maria and her team had actually arrived at the Holy City before Bella. Even though their heart had long fallen for the Demon King, it was not the time for them to expose it yet, so they would still have to follow the orders of the Radiant Pope.
Many other members of the Radiant Church were in similar disposition with President Maria and her companion. Not only were they able to secretly hide from the Radiant Pope, but even the three big red archbishop priests did not know that their disciple had left their faction to secretly side with the Demon King Bella.
There was nothing that they could do about it since the two main supervisory figures of the Radiant Church, the Holy Swordsman Cynthia as well as the Sword Heroine Mathilde Kriss, had also “betrayed their faith” and had fallen into the hands of the Demon King Bella. Hence, they were no longer fit to supervise.
“Pope, someone broke in there.”
“What? It has been over thirty years. How could anyone go….”