Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1221 - 7: The Undead of the Construction Works

Chapter 1221: Chapter 7: The Undead of the Construction Works

"Leaving the Undead unchecked always feels problematic," Catherine frowned and said, "Haven’t the commanders allowed the main forces to fall back and sent out small units to attempt harassing attacks?"

"However, for the Undead, this is meaningless," Flare shook her head and said, "The formation of the Undead has always kept the strongest part of their rank on the outer perimeter for defense, which means our troops’ attacks will inevitably confront these elite Undead, and the small units simply can’t be effective. There were thoughts of using ranged fire to disrupt the Undead’s formation, but the Undead’s alert range is longer than the firing range. As mentioned before, once within this alert range, all the Undead would assume an attack posture, and there are also a large number of Skeleton Mages in their ranks, whose range is very similar to ours. If we use ranged attacks, we’d likely be overwhelmed by the magic of the vast number of Skeleton Mages before we could even strike. Moreover, there’s another key issue, the Undead do not feel pain or fatigue, nor do they need to eat or drink; they can remain endlessly vigilant and work without rest, but our troops can’t do that. Even the elite troops in the Sighing Desert would have to rest every hour or two, and they just can’t keep up with the pace of the Undead."

"This doesn’t sound very optimistic," Catherine lowered her head and muttered, "Why do I feel, from your description, that setting up defenses in the desert was a mistake?"

"It can’t exactly be considered a mistake," Flare said, "By defending in the desert, we can greatly shorten the encirclement and block most of the Undead on the other side of Death’s Gate. It also allows enough time for our rear to build defensive works, deploy military supplies, and coordinate logistics. The only downside is that if too many troops are committed to the front lines, it puts more pressure on our supply lines."

"All skeletons?" Pannis suddenly looked up and asked, "Aren’t there other kinds of Undead?"

"We haven’t discovered any other types of Undead yet, no Ghosts, Necromancers, or Bone Dragons have been spotted," Flare nodded, "However, we can’t rule out the possibility of their existence. Ah, right, the skeletons also include Death Knights."

"What then? It can’t be that simple, can it?" Pannis pressed, "If it were just that, it wouldn’t have all the forces urgently discussing countermeasures."

"What then? Hmm, on the third day, the commanders at the front sent back another message," Flare said with a wry smile, "Actually two messages, good news and bad news."

"Let me guess, the bad news is that the Undead began building defensive works, right?" Pannis recalled faintly hearing something at the Elder Council chamber earlier and speculated, "What did they build?"

"Yes, it seems you’ve heard," Flare nodded, "More and more Undead were pouring out of Death’s Gate, and even when arrayed in a dense formation, their occupied territory kept expanding, slowly spreading outward. Under this pressure, the frontline troops could only tightly man their defenses and hastily repair the works. But unexpectedly, once the Undead’s positions expanded to about a three and a half-kilometer radius, they too began constructing fortifications, upending everyone’s understanding of the Undead – no one ever thought that the Undead could build works as swiftly as a well-trained army. If you’ve seen the images sent back from the front lines through the Memory Crystal, at the outer edge of the three-kilometer radius, there is firstly a circle of barricades, behind which is a wall over a meter high, and between the wall and barricades, the sand has been magically frozen by the skeletons and then dug into an entire ring of trenches filled with spikes and traps. That’s all that can be seen in the last images sent back; we don’t know what further defenses lie within."

"Wait a moment, I have a question," Lina suddenly interrupted Flare, her curiosity piqued, "That’s the Sighing Desert; what exactly are they using to build these defensive works?"

"Bones, lots of bones," Flare answered without even thinking, "They are continuously bringing out a large number of bones from inside Death’s Gate. These bones, tainted with the Energy of Death, are extremely sturdy in their hands and pose no issue for constructing fortifications."

"So, this has become a fully-fledged war of equals," Pannis said thoughtfully. "Do these undead all have self-awareness, or is there a self-aware undead controlling them from behind, or is it that the Grimreaper himself is manipulating them?"

"The likelihood of Danacus personally manipulating them isn’t high, with the Divine Barrier intervening, he can’t do something this complex," Flare shook her head. "I’m more inclined to believe that a portion of the undead has developed self-awareness under Danacus’s influence. Of course, not all of them, otherwise, that would be far too terrifying."

"And the good news?" Pannis stroked his chin. "The good news is that the undead have started to worship the God of Life, huh?"

"Don’t make that kind of blasphemous joke," Flare said with a roll of her eyes and dissatisfaction, even with her usual gentleness. "Be careful or the Deity will punish your irreverence."

"Alright, alright, I just can’t guess what the good news could be," Pannis shrugged. "The best news I can think of is that the undead suddenly changed their faith, now all worshipping the God of Life, Kaia, and no longer harboring unfounded enmity towards the living. Wouldn’t that solve all the problems?"

"Of course, that would be great, but common sense tells us that it’s just not possible," Flare sighed. "Although Nellie has been aiding us all along, now that Death’s Gate has been opened, it suggests that Nellie is likely... As for what comes next, we’ll have to rely on ourselves."

"Yeah, maybe," Pannis smiled noncommittally and changed the subject. "So what’s the good news you were talking about?"

"The good news is that after a certain number of undead emerged, it seems no new undead have appeared," Flare said. "Because of this, a few days ago Chairman Warrensen of the Kingdom of Mages personally flew to inspect Death’s Gate using Elemental Stance and confirmed that for at least a full hour, not a single new undead walked out of Death’s Gate, which is different from what happened during the last Return of the Dead."

"Hm? Why is that?" Catherine asked in confusion. "Aren’t the undead supposed to emerge continuously? Could it be that Danacus, having just revived, doesn’t have enough strength to awaken so many undead?"

"Big sister, shh, don’t talk nonsense," Lina pulled on Catherine’s arm and whispered, "Danacus doesn’t need to actively awaken the undead. He just needs to exist there, and under the influence of his will, the undead will automatically awaken, independent of whether his power has been restored."

"Uh, sorry," Catherine blushed and said with a forced laugh, "It was an accident, yeah, just an accident."