At dawn, everyone packed up their camping gear and set off again.
Roland also noticed a detail: even when sleeping in the wilderness, the witches' complexions didn't lose half a *dian*, while he clearly couldn't achieve that *dian*. Without needing a mirror, he could guess that his hair was a mess, his face lacked color due to insomnia, and his skin was covered in half-dried sweat, feeling slightly sticky. In everyone's eyes, he most likely looked listless. It wasn't until he washed up a bit with the water from his skin that he relieved this discomfort.
Roland began to miss the running water system and spacious shower in the castle.
Half an hour later, guided by Lightning, the Long-Range Reconnaissance Balloon reached its designated *dian* – the side of the Snow Mountain. Hovering above the vast sea, the group could already see the scenery behind the mountain.
Just as Lightning had said, the back of the Snow Mountain was shrouded in a red mist, which hung low, becoming denser in color closer to the ground. To see further, Roland had the hot air balloon continue to rise, and the land at the end of their field of vision gradually spread out.
"Did you find anything?" He looked at Sylvie.
The latter shook her head. "No, it's too far. It's already beyond the range of the Eye of Truth."
"We'll get closer after Soraya draws the scene here," Roland said.
While Soraya sketched the picture, he also used the telescope to observe the coastline. The coast was lined with cliffs and rocky beaches, with no man-made structures like docks or shipyards. It seemed that even if there were demons, they hadn't considered building ships to attack Graycastle from the sea. This observation relieved him slightly.
As the hot air balloon slowly approached the land, Sylvie finally began to report what she saw – about ten miles from the coast, she discovered a pile of black stone structures, triangular in shape, resembling a series of spires.
"It's just like the mirages we saw in the barren land," Wendy exclaimed involuntarily. "This really is the demons' territory!"
"But the height is obviously wrong," Soraya frowned. "The spires in the mirages were hundreds of *zhang* tall, making it impossible for them to be covered by the red mist. They should be taller than the undulating mountains."
"Perhaps what you saw were the demons' cities, and this is just a demon village?" Anna guessed.
So the demons have a complete and unique city system, belong to a highly evolved group, and are keen on expansion and slaughter? Roland thought. Please, let it not be so. "What's inside those spires?"
"Um... most of the spires are empty, some seem to be filled with liquid... wait," Sylvie paused, then said in disbelief, "Let's go, the demons have spotted us!"
"Spotted?" Roland raised his telescope and scanned the area, still seeing only a dark red expanse, unable to make out anything.
"They're moving," Sylvie shouted nervously. "It turns out they were all buried in the ground before, only showing the tubes on their backs. Over there... demons are flying up!"
"Wendy, full speed retreat!" Roland ordered.
A strong wind quickly picked up, and the sudden large movement of the hot air balloon caused the gondola to tilt, the taut ropes creaking.
However, Sylvie's warning made everyone's heart sink.
"Two demons are coming towards us. Their mounts can fly!"
Damn it, these guys have flying mounts? Roland's eyes widened. This was simply illogical. How huge would a mount have to be to carry a burly man?
But before long, he caught sight of two black *dian* in the distance. Looking through the telescope, he saw that their mounts had pointed beaks and fangs, and their bodies were covered in feathers, hardly resembling birds at all. If he wasn't mistaken... they were two mixed breeds of evil beasts!
"Reduce altitude, land as soon as possible," Roland squeezed out the words from between his teeth.
He had been careless. He hadn't expected the demons to have the ability to pursue in the air, and the only one on their side who could fight in the sky was Lightning. But looking at her pale face, he knew that there was no chance of winning this battle.
Once they were caught, even if the enemy only attacked the balloon by ramming it, it would cost the witches their lives – even if the coating could withstand the impact and bite of the evil beasts, the violent shaking would likely throw everyone out of the gondola, sending them crashing into the sea like stones.
And at this height, falling into the sea was no different from falling onto land.
At this point, the demons were getting closer and closer to the hot air balloon. Without the aid of the telescope, Roland could already see the huge wings of the mixed breed evil beasts and the burly enemies on their backs.
"Careful," Sylvie screamed again, "They're preparing to throw spears!"
Hearing this warning, he suddenly remembered the scene of the encounter described by Leaf – the enemy had taken Red Eye's life instantly in this way.
He didn't see the demon's arm expand instantly, or even the incoming spear. At the same time that Sylvie issued the warning, Anna had already stretched out her hands, controlling the Blackfire to unfold into a thin sheet, shielding the front of the gondola.
Then there were two loud "bang" sounds.
Anna groaned and took two steps back. The Blackfire shattered like glass, and the spear was reduced to a burning iron rod, tumbling towards the sea.
She had blocked this attack with a dense curtain of Blackfire.
The witches all breathed a sigh of relief, but Roland was anxious – this method of operation would greatly consume Anna's magic. When she was smelting steel, Roland had noticed that if she was only heating or cutting, the vast magic in her body would hardly dry up. But once it expanded to a macroscopic level, affecting objects as a dense whole, the degree of magic consumption would increase exponentially. For example, using Blackfire as a furnace, the outer wall that prevents molten steel from overflowing would accelerate magic consumption. If she wanted to lift the entire Blackfire furnace, even Anna wouldn't be able to hold on for more than a few minutes.
Obviously, the previous blocking had consumed a lot of her energy. If it happened twice more, she probably wouldn't even be able to maintain heating.
The demons seemed to be shocked by this scene as well. They didn't launch a follow-up attack immediately, but swept past the hot air balloon from both sides, as if waiting to gather energy for the next attack. Roland also saw the enemy's hideous appearance up close for the first time – exactly like in the photos. They wore evil beast helmets, their eyes covered with red crystal pieces, and a leather tube connected to their chins, passing around their necks and leading to the armor on their backs.
During this time, the witches took out their sniper rifles to fight back, but it was almost impossible to hit a fast-moving enemy in the constantly shaking gondola. After firing two rounds of bullets, not a single shot hit the target.
Just then, the demons' arms expanded again, and this time, they chose to attack from the front and back.
Anna didn't even have time to observe the enemy behind her. The Blackfire she summoned could only shield one side. Roland clearly saw the demon swing its right arm at her, but couldn't see the trajectory of the spear shaft. Almost subconsciously, he pushed Anna, who was facing away from him, and then his shoulder felt like it had been hit hard by a hammer. He flew backwards, hitting the wall of the gondola.
An unbearable pain almost tore him apart, followed by a strong sense of dizziness, as if consciousness was leaving him.
Roland gritted his teeth and turned his head to look, only to see a huge gap in his shoulder – the drafty hole in the back of the gondola was enough to explain the power of this blow.
And half of his arm, completely torn apart by this attack, was lying in a corner of the gondola, the constant flow of blood quickly staining his clothes red.
"No!" Nightingale's heartbreaking cry was the last thing he heard before losing consciousness. (。)