Fire Mage (Web Novel)

Chapter 676: Blackiron Stronghold

As Charles was wandering in the Fortress's main building corridor, he suddenly froze as he sensed a cut-off connection of the [Curse of the Overlord] spell.

'Someone from the True Lords group died just now.' Before he could even mutter, he noticed another cut-off connection.

In one minute, a total of five people died from that group!

'It seems only Alistair is still alive.' Although Charles vaguely sensed where he was right now, he didn't know which state he was in.

'Tsk, I thought of using them to find out the location of other strongholds, but they died without even fulfilling their roles. Well, I had no plan on keeping them alive in the first place, so nothing changes. At least Alistair is still alive.' While thinking, Charles suddenly saw a tall humanoid demon with crystalline skin walking in his direction. The demon was around 2 meters tall, had pure white eyes and snowy hair, and looked like a frozen human.

"Dorian, Shadow Leader summoned everyone from your team. Currently, he is staying in the northern outpost tower." The Ice demon approached him closer and spoke in an ordering manner.

'Oh? The leader of Shadowstalker? Something is not right.' Instead of thinking deeply, Charles turned around and left the main building without even responding to the Ice demon.

On the other hand, the Ice Demon looked at his back with a confused gaze and slowly focused on the small creature coiling around his neck.

'Why is he keeping his familiar even when inside the Blackiron Stronghold? Now that I think about it, isn't his favorite familiar a Shadow Eagle? When did he replace it with a snake? Hmm, it's only a rank-1 beast? He is acting a little strange.' Although he was curious about Dorian's behavior, he didn't think much about it and quietly walked away.

Meanwhile, Charles paid no attention to the Ice demon's gaze and quietly moved to the northern side of the castle.

As he walked towards the northern exit and entered the outer yard, he saw many demons moving tens of magical catapults, siege weapons, and even controlling four-meter-tall gargoyles.

'This Stronghold's strength is terrifying. If this Demon group enters Edhen world, it won't even take a day to wipe out the humans off the map. Of course, that would only happen if the Gods stopped interfering. Now that I think about it, what's this stronghold name?' While thinking, he also eavesdropped the nearby demons' conversation and soon furrowed.

'Invasion of Elves? Are the demons preparing for a defensive battle? I need more information.' He muttered inwardly and fastened his footsteps towards his destination.

Within a minute, he reached the Fortress's northern entrance and soon walked toward the direction where the northern outpost tower was located. Unlike the normal outposts, the outpost towers were attached to the Fortress and had been equipped with strange ballistas.

'No, they are three times larger than usual and seem magically enchanted.'

Before long, he arrived in front of a circular towering building made of black stones and moved to the top through the circular staircase. Charles climbed the winding stone staircase of the northern outpost tower, each step echoing in the enclosed space.

As he reached the top, a massive iron door greeted him. Etched with ancient symbols and adorned with glowing runes, it seemed to pulse with an otherworldly energy.

With a deep breath, he pushed the door open and entered the room beyond. It was a vast, circular chamber with a domed ceiling. Although more than a dozen demons stood inside the building, a purple-skinned humanoid in a dark robe-like dress stood at the center of the room, which caught his attention most. The being appeared only around 1 meter tall, slim and had no human-like facial structure. Instead, it only had jaw-like teeth extended from small ears, a bald head, and no eyes or nose.

'He belongs to the Voidweaver race.' Charles quietly scanned him and noticed most of his bloodline spells were all shadow-related.

Before him was a group of elite demons from different races, each emanating a palpable aura of power. These were the members of the Shadowstalker team, a covert group of demons known for their stealth and cunning in carrying out the Fortress's darkest missions.

After entering the room, Charles hurriedly joined the group and waited.

Meanwhile, the Voidweaver scanned the demons before him and soon focused on Charles.

"It seems everyone from the Gram Team has arrived. Dorian, I heard a complaint from Gorg that you returned much earlier than usual and never even submitted a report. Did something happen?"

Charles had long expected this question, so he didn't show any nervousness and spoke.

"Nothing out of the ordinary happened, Lord Vorloth. After seeing nothing anomaly, I left my Blood Familiar near the Lava Oasis and let it monitor the surroundings."

"Oh," Vorloth didn't say anything and changed the topic.

"Around two hours ago, our team's Chronomorph Naptr saw a bad vision and warned me to prepare for battle. Although I don't know why he got such a revelation, I sent someone to notify the Lord Commander. If his predictions are correct, a big war might break out."

'Chronomorph? A name?' As Charles was confused, one of the demons let out an eerie laugh and spoke haughtily.

"Kekeke, why are you taking his words seriously, Lord Vorloth? He is only a Greater Demon of the Chronomorph race and could be considered the city's lowest rank. Although he is a good strategist, I haven't seen him giving any divine prophecy like others in his race. Do you not know that receiving divine revelation from Gods or Demon Lords is impossible? Moreover, he isn't a High-Rank Demon to get attention from the Demon Lord of Dreadland."

At that moment, another ice demon stood beside that demon, shaking his crystalline head, and spoke.

"Did you hear our Lord's words? He said Naptr received a vision through his bloodline skill."

At that moment, Vorloth also nodded his head and spoke.

"It's better to be prepared. The Elves might be plotting something big. While Lord Commander prepares for the upcoming war, your job is to infiltrate their camp and learn what they are scheming. Dorian, Agrath, Sozrun, and Sestran will infiltrate Silvermoon Citadel; Thelmored, Agmizak, Olgrollan, and Jur'gadoch will enter the Obsidian Fortress. And the rest of you will be infiltrating the Celestial Hold."

After a few words, Vorloth ordered everyone to prepare for their missions and dismissed the meeting.

On the other hand, Charles also quietly walked away from the Northern Tower and pondered what to do next.

'It seems I'll be dragged into something bothersome. If I want to achieve my goal, I must follow the clues. Going to Elves' base is a pointless thing.' But he can't just leave the Fortress now.

'Thankfully, all other three demons appear to be infiltrating the Silvermoon Citadel independently.' Truthfully, Demons never even trust their fellow members and always act independently. The reason they all bowed to the Demon Commander wasn't because of patriotism to this Stronghold or kinship but respect for the strong.

'I need to find the drunken Winged Demon first.' At that moment, an image of a two goat-horned human-like demon with eerie black wings appeared before his eyes.

'Even though I only saw that image briefly, I remember his face clearly.'

While the other Shadowstalker squad demons were preparing for the infiltration, Charles roamed inside the Fortress stealthily and searched all over.

'He isn't here. That means he might stay in one of the other two Demon Strongholds.' He got permission to use the Fortress's Demoness Achieve, thanks to his sudden mission. Surprisingly, most of the other demons he saw in the Nothern Tower were actually in the Archive!

He spent over 5 hours in the Archive and gathered basic information about the other two Demon Strongholds.

'One is ruled by the Demon Commander named 'Pale Night,' while the other is ruled by a Demon Warlord named 'Kaz.' Both peak Legend Powerhouses have ruled the demon Strongholds for thousands of years. What's surprising is that even after being permitted the Devil Crow Nyxen to leave this Dimension, they chose to stay.' Charles knew that no demon would do that unless they got something more beneficial here or were under the absolute control of the Devil Crow itself.

Then, he moved to the nearby shelf, which had maps and information books about important locations, and memorized everything.

He also gathered information about the major factions or teams in each Stronghold and quietly left the Archive.

After that, he left the Demon Stronghold without any trouble and noticed that the surroundings had gotten dark.

'I should leave before others notice my presence.'

His next destination was the nearby Demon Stronghold named 'War Castle,' located around 200 km away.

Although it might look far away, this was the closest Stronghold.

After walking away from the Demon Stronghold, Charles didn't try to hide his power as he summoned the [Fallen Angel's Wings], flapped his wings forcefully, and flew towards the War Castle at an incredible speed.

Although he met a few Chaotic Magical Beasts and even Nightmare Beings, he didn't confront them and increased his speed.

As he further traveled, he noticed more chaotic energy in the air, making it even harder for him to breathe. Not only that, the vegetation also appeared more frequently and formed forest-like lands.

After flying for around 1 hour, Charles suddenly stopped mid-air and turned his face solemnly.

At that moment, a forest with no boundaries appeared before him.

'Ancient Thicket. It's a forest between War Castle and Blackiron Stronghold and home to countless Legend Rank Magical Beasts, Monster tribes, and ghostly and nightmare beings. For the past few thousand years, Blackiron Stronghold and Warcastle have been using this forest as an energy source and hunting the magical beasts non-stop.' In truth, more than four similar forests were located in this Dimension and had been unexplored for thousands of years.

'No wonder the other two Demon Commanders aren't willing to leave this Dimension. It's a treasure house.' Charles dared not go to the forest's interior and quietly flew above the outer region while casing [Shadow Stealth] spell on himself.

For the next few hours, he traveled in the sky stealthily and soon saw a large Castle-like area surrounded by strange purple fog.

He slowly descended from the crimson-dark sky and soon landed on the clay-paved path.