Chapter 267 A Traitor Among Us
It was exceptionally difficult for Astral to make the decision to abandon the city!
A fortress like Dendera Fortress, which could accommodate more than a hundred thousand troops, was enormous. It covered an area of nearly ten square kilometers, and it took almost two years of investing manpower and materials to build it. Once they abandoned the fortress, it would be equivalent to losing all of the investment. It would also put the alliance army in an extremely dangerous position.
However… they had no choice but to do this because the plague had already contaminated the water source, and it was meaningless to continue staying here. There would only be more and more infected. And every day that the troops stayed in the fortress, it meant losing hundreds of soldiers. Under the anxiety, morale was low, and the troops had no combat strength. If the enemy really appeared, it was unknown if the alliance army would even be able to fight. In this case, it was better to completely abandon this fortress and place themselves in death in order to survive!
Although the heroes were unwilling to accept Astral’s decision, they were all the best of their respective races. In terms of intelligence, they were naturally outstanding, and they could certainly figure out the pros and cons. Therefore, after a moment of silence, everyone unconditionally supported his decision.
After making the decision, the heroes heaved sighs of relief. Gelu laughed bitterly. “In the end, we still have to be like Arantir…”
Solmyr said angrily, “Even if we have to leave the city, I still say that Arantir must be the vanguard against the demon. Our troops have low morale now, and only the bone dregs under his command are unaffected. At this moment, he should fulfill his duty!”
“Yes, that’s right!” Hearing this, the other wizard heroes nodded. “The alliance army can station at the back!”
The enmity between the mages of Bracada and the necromancers of Heresh had not formed in a day or two. Therefore, after hearing the suggestion of the wizard heroes, Gelu could only remain silent and not comment. As for Alaric, he was even more eager…
Since they decided to abandon the fortress, the alliance army quickly moved into action. The troops in good condition began to withdraw orderly while guarding against zombie attacks.
However, after confirming that the priests’ holy spells were ineffective on the infected, the alliance army could only give up on the infected people who were only scratched during their fights with the zombies but had not completely changed!
This decision was cruel, so to prevent the injured from losing control of their emotions and rebelling, the heroes discussed for a while before deciding to hide the truth from them.
They gathered these infected but unmutated people and placed them in the same camp. They erected a large number of canvases around the camp to block their sight and prevent them from seeing the scene of the fortress troops evacuating.
Originally, as long as they took proper measures, these infected people would not have known this decision until their deaths. But unfortunately, for some reason, these infected people found out that they had been abandoned!
There were hundreds of similarly wounded people. When they heard that they had to stay in the fortress and could not withdraw with the troops, these injured people were in an uproar. Although they knew that they could not be saved, out of the instinct to survive, they had fantasies and felt that they could still be saved. Now that the alliance army had made such a cruel decision, they felt desperate and found it utterly acceptable at the same time. In particular, many of the wounded were once noble mages, and this intensified the conflict. When these infected people were clamoring to find Astral for an explanation, they fought with the soldiers guarding them. The infected people were disheartened to begin with, and under such circumstances, they could not care less about their comrades anymore. During the fight, many infected people even bit the soldiers!
This caused nearly another hundred infected soldiers to appear…
The scene was out of control for a while. When Astral and the others received the news and hurried over with the army to suppress them, they saw complete disorder and corpses on the ground.
It could not be helped. The people bitten were also red-eyed now. Everyone knew what the outcome would be after being infected. For these infected people who harmed them, they simply adopted a ruthless attitude and aimed their weapons at their former comrades…
This was actually the most terrifying part of the T-Virus. Human relationships, friendships, family affection, and even love would collapse at the first blow…
All the infected people died, including the bitten guards. It was a massacre. In order to prevent future trouble, they had to deal with the bitten guards in cold blood. As Astral watched this scene, his face kept twitching, but in the end, he could only sigh.
“Burn their corpses!” he ordered. After all, if left alone, these corpses would rise again after a while.
Then he began to investigate how the news that led this tragedy had leaked.
If no one had informed these infected people, they would not have realized that they had been abandoned until after the army withdrew from the fortress. But now that the news had leaked in advance, they had to find out who did it.
Astral initially thought that a friend of the infected might have secretly done it, but what he did not expect was that after investigating, all the spearheads were pointing at the priests brought by Alaric! This was because the last ones who came into contact with these infected people were the priests who wanted to continue studying the plague!
This was good. It had not been long since Alaric came to Dendera Fortress, and he was already in a huge mess! When Astral was angrily questioning him, Alaric had a dumbfounded expression on his face and still did not know what had happened.
In addition to Alaric’s arrogant attitude in the beginning, this matter instantly caused a giant rift between the Erathians and the Bracadans.
Especially when Alaric could not find out which priest had leaked the news, it was even more so. The Bracadans felt that it was not that Alaric could not find out, but that he wanted to protect his priest. But unfortunately, Alaric really did not find out who did it…
Although this incident had caused a long delay, the army of Dendera Fortress was still withdrawing according to the plan. They had to finish this before the sky turned dark. If it was night and the troops were still moving, there might be many more casualties due to the attacks of the mutants.
In the evening, when the sun was gradually sinking to the west, the fortress completed the major evacuation. The troops abandoned the tall city wall and blocked the gate of the fortress. Dendera was completely reduced to an empty city… Oh, no, it should be said that it was a city occupied by zombies.
When night fell, the mutants emerged from the sewers and began moving, but they could no longer find any blood food, so they roared angrily.
After withdrawing, the alliance army stationed on the plains about two kilometers away from the fortress. In order to prevent the mutants in the fortress from escaping, they had specially set up numerous magic mines near it to serve as a warning. But even so, the soldiers could not help but still shudder when they heard the terrifying roars coming from the fortress. “Alas, I keep feeling like we’ve jumped from one trap into another…” Astral said to the other wizard heroes, and then an awkward silence ensued.
“Now, we can only hope that the demon will appear as soon as possible!” Gelu said. “If it were me, at this moment when we just finished withdrawing, it would be the best time to attack. Moreover, it’s night, so that demon will very likely appear tonight!” “Get ready!” The lightning on Solmyr’s body quickly circled him around as he looked at the dark night sky with sharp eyes. Alaric did not say anything. He shrank in a corner near the heroes, looking abnormal.
He could not help but be abnormal because a priest came to his side just now and secretly reported something to him.
One of the priests he brought with him had disappeared!
When he received this report, Alaric almost immediately determined that this missing priest was most likely the person who had informed the infected people of the evacuation!
Damn it! There’s a traitor among us! Alaric cursed inwardly. He did not know who this missing priest was, but he could no longer investigate this matter because once he said it, he would become everyone’s target. Those bookworm mages of Bracada would put all the blame on him…
Therefore, he could only pretend that nothing had happened and wait quietly with the other heroes.
Time passed little by little. When it was almost midnight, a faint sound of water came, and a figure suddenly emerged from the river flowing through the canyon!
It was a man dressed as a priest. He was holding a cross necklace in his hand and carried a hammer of justice on his shoulder. His entire body was wet. When he got out of the river, he looked vigilantly at the opposite shore before turning back.
Needless to say, this priest was the missing priest of Alaric’s army…
This position is already far away from the fortress alliance army. Even Arantir’s undead army is far away. It’s about time… the priest thought before his expression relaxed slightly.
At this moment, his figure suddenly blurred, and his entire body gradually changed. From an inconspicuous middle-aged man wearing a priest robe, he turned into a succubus with reverse wings on her back and flames burning on her hooves! If Roy were here, he might have recognized at a glance that this succubus was Benia!
As a high-rank demon, Benia had the same outstanding talent for metamorphosis as her sister, Biara. She had hidden in Alaric’s priest army, and even the angels could not detect her existence…
“Hahahaha!” After Benia finished transforming, she could not help but let out a shrill laugh. “I finally escaped. Biara, my dear sister, wait for me. I’ll come back to find you soon! But now, I’m going to find my powerful
ally…”
With that, Benia moved her demon hooves and ran into the forest in the distance. Only a series of burnt footprints on the ground left behind marks that she had come through…
