Chapter 426: The Second Plane
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Actually, Hao Ren was wondering if it was appropriate for the allied forces to openly put up information of the demon king's legion outside. According to Y'zaks's popularity over the past hundreds of years, any news related to the demon king's legion would at least cause a social upheaval. However, the allied forces did not seem to care about it.
But then Lanina explained to Hao Ren, and he understood what was going on.
The Ten-Year War was just over. Before that, the Demon Empire reigned for hundreds of years. The whole world had yet to break free from some kind of "force". The news of the demon king's legion may have caused a short period of commotion, but it no longer led to any panic…
Because, the generations who would panic about it were already dead.
It did not matter if the war was right or wrong, and if it involved Y'zaks or the seven heroes, one of them having a nobler ambition. It was undeniable that after the 400-year demon invasion plus a decade of war, all races across the world for more than a generation had died, including the elves. Now, the surviving ones were almost numb, both demons and mortals.
Three days later, a motley team of mercenaries and adventurers set out from Cadeceus to the second Demonic Plane through the transit point.
All the teleportation portals leading to the Demonic Plane were strictly monitored, and ever since the defeat of the demon king's legion, Cadeceus, the largest "world transfer station" had sealed off all teleportation portals to the Demonic Plane (which was, of course, only limited to the portals known to humans. The one that Y'zaks left behind hundreds of years ago was apparently not included). So, the mercenaries assembled there would go with the allied forces to the demon world from other neighbouring planes.
Hao Ren and the rest of the team were mingled together in the queue. They successfully passed the censorship system, which was not strict at all, using the status of a temporarily registered mercenary group. Of course, you could not blame them. These people were going to risk their lives. There was nothing much to be examined. Those who dared to follow the Holy See and the seven heroes to fight with the demons were either saints or madmen. These two kinds of people obviously had nothing much to be examined.
Normal people absolutely would not have expected the demon king himself to take advantage of this opportunity to sneak back into his hometown: completely playing against the rules…
After leaving Cadeceus, they were teleported to an empty desert, the only continent in the entire space: this place was called the "Mendocain", which meant "barren land" in the Beastmen language.
They wore low-key capes made of coarse cloth and mixed themselves among the other mercenaries. They were listening to a man with a scar on his face as he was giving them an introduction of the desert. "Four hundred years ago, the Mendocain was a colony of beastmen. It's said that there were many oases here. The beastmen built a city as well as dozens of towns in the desert, and the whole plane depended on the iron ore trade for sustenance. But later, all the beastmen of Mendocain were looted by the demon king's legion, and this place became completely deserted. No one ever rebuilt it. After the end of the Ten-Year War, the seven heroes called on the tribes to block all the teleportation portal in all the main planes and allowed the great warlocks to build replacement portals in more desolate places. Then, Mendocain became useful again."
"There is a large teleportation portal in the middle of the desert, leading to the second Demonic Plane. On the other side of the portal is the sentinel point set up by the allied forces. We're setting our foot in hell. I wonder how many people will stay in that hellhole this time," said another tall skinny man with a headscarf wrapped around his head.
Another mercenary immediately grumbled, "Can't you say something nice?"
Hao Ren chatted perfunctorily with these weird mercenaries, then went back to Y'zaks and asked, "Did you really sweep away all the population of the plane?"
"Four hundred years ago, the Mendocain was actually the place where the beastmen exiled their compatriots. The so-called city was a huge slum. Countless beastmen were left in this barren land to die. I took them away to mine the obsidian for me. Although it was hard work, at least they had food to eat working for me," Y'zaks shrugged and continued, "The world is defending the beastmen, but in actual fact, those beastmen were the most loyal group of people I have governed."
Hao Ren looked into the distance and saw a huge, greyish-yellow pillar going straight into the sky at the end of the desert. "What is that thing?"
"The Mendocain pillar. It sustains the land under our feet. According to beastmen legend, once this pillar breaks, the entire Mendocain continent will fall into the dark sun. They believed that there's a dark sun at the back of the continent beneath them, and they vied for dominion over the continent with the never-falling sun in the sky," Y'zaks explained and smiled. "There is no night in this space. The whole continent maintains a never-ending polar day. The sun moves along a curve in the sky and has not set for tens of thousands of years. In fact, the beastmen's legend is somewhat valid, because there is indeed a brown dwarf star at the back of the Mendocain continent. The brown dwarf star will never rise to the horizon because of the gravitational lock. Only those who venture to the edge of the continent can see it. By chance, the gleams of the brown dwarf star form an endless abyss."
"Ooooohhhhhh…" Lily exclaimed. In actuality, as an idiot when it came to Science, she did not understand what Y'zaks was talking about. All she knew was the continent under her feet was sandwiched between two suns. She looked in amazement at the greyish-yellow pillar at the end of the horizon and asked, "So, that thing really sustains the whole continent? It extends from the sun beneath the earth'?"
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"It's just an unreliable legend," Y'zaks explained. "In fact, it's merely a sandstorm, but I don't know what's going on... It hasn't stopped for more than 800 years. It's a dangerous place around the Mendocain pillar. We probably won't be going there."
Y'zaks was right. The man-made teleportation portal was not far from them, and it was a safe distance from the Mendocain pillar. They soon arrived somewhere near the ruins of a city buried by sand. According to the architectural style of the city ruins, it was apparently the home of those beastmen who were exiled many years ago. Now, the ancient city was left abandoned, with only remnants of broken bricks and walls. The Holy See's allied forces set up a small market town near the ruins of the city as a stronghold to control and maintain the man-made teleportation portal.
The teleportation portal was a dark red vortex with a radius of more than 10 metres. It lay slanted in a strange way in the desert, with an angle of about 30° from the ground. It looked like the surface of a sundial. Around the portal, there was a set of binding devices made with dark red runestones. These runestones floated in the air, and a fiery oppressive vibe came from the Demonic Plane.
The soldiers, who were on guard in front of the teleportation portal verified the identities of the mercenaries and the officer in charge of the team. Then they ordered for the portal to be activated.
Soon after, the dark red vortex, which lay slanted in the desert was suddenly activated. The whole door stood upright. The scene in the vortex was twisting, and then, they saw the red sky and the barren land of the Demonic Plane.
Hao Ren followed the team, stepping into the gate. Y'zaks whispered as he crossed the portal, "I hope the news is true..."
The sight changed. Hao Ren felt the smell of the desert suddenly fading, afterwhich he began to smell the unique, ubiquitous flavour of sulphur in the Demonic Plane.
The scene before them was of a dark red sky, the black and red barren land stretching out.
Nangong Wuyue put her hands on her hips, looked at the unique landscape of the Demonic Plane in high spirits and said, "It's time to stick my tongue out again!"
"You don't have to," Hao Ren said and threw her a collar. "I forgot about this... Actually, you can put on this life support device to adapt to the environment."
Wuyue looked at the collar in a daze. She later stomped her feet and asked, "Why didn't you think of this before?"
Hao Ren sighed and said, "Because of the limitations of my thinking. This stuff is designed to carry out space missions... And honestly, only you can't adapt to the environment completely. We don't need it at all. And I was reminded that I could give you this only after I saw Wang giving that little girl named Vanessa a talisman…"
Nangong Wuyue was holding the collar with mixed feelings. She was determined to take good care of herself in the future: She could not rely on this guy.
Like other mercenaries, Lily was looking at her surroundings curiously: this place was one of the many strongholds established by the Holy See's allied forces in the Demonic Plane and the second largest human base. It was built on easily guarded high ground with a gentle downward slope ahead.
The entire stronghold was not too large. There were human-style barracks and towers in sight.
Back then, Y'zaks controlled all the Demonic Planes, suppressing other demon kings. But after the end of the Ten-Year War, the Holy See's allied forces had opened up the outpost to every Demonic Plane with the help of their strength, and also by taking advantage of the demon kings' incapability.
Although it took a great deal of effort to maintain these positions, nearly a year later, these strongholds inserted under the demon kings' noses still persisted. It was not that those demon kings could not pull out these strongholds, but the allied forces tried to create a balance. The battles between the demon kings, the growing power of the Holy See's allied forces; these two factors kept the strongholds up until the present.
However, just as Hao Ren thought they could get through the day safely, they suddenly heard a noise coming from afar.
The noise soon started to have an effect on them and Hao Ren finally figured out what had happened.
A troop of the Holy See's forces was fighting the demons of Banuklaak in the Broken Plains!