Chapter 540: The light of hope
Dite Rock Pass City fell in the end.
The locust swarm blotted out the sky for a little over half an hour. No one knew how large an area the entire swarm covered, but afterward, great masses of locusts descended into the surrounding mountains.
During that stretch of darkness, Heno and two other Awakened from the army stormed the pass city and joined forces to kill its two Awakened officers. After that, the rest took almost no effort.
Faced with the yellow-gray demons, deprived of effective command, and with the gates already wide open, the city's defenders either fled or surrendered.
Heno then ordered the two Awakened to lead soldiers in pursuit of the assassins, whom the army's scouts had already begun tracking.
Even exceptionally skilled scouts like the Night Hawks struggled to escape when pursued by more than ten times their number in scouts, with two Awakened personally hunting them down.
Thus, just over half a day later, two Night Hawks were brought back to the newly conquered Dite Rock Pass City, tightly bound.
The greenery in the surrounding mountains was gradually dwindling. The refugees and routed former defenders had already fled toward the kingdom's interior, while the Qinggelie Empire's army shut both the front and rear gates of the pass city and ordered the soldiers and remaining civilians to stay inside the buildings, lest they attract the demons.
Rumor had it that this worked, but no one felt certain when it came time to try it. After all, fire was also said to work, yet there were stories of people lighting fires only to attract masses of yellow-gray demons and be devoured.
In the Administration Hall of Dite Rock Pass City's former Garrison Residence, four Night Hawks were held captive, some lying