"The people from the Empire are coming soon."
The captain walked at the front without stopping, and his voice was blown a bit by the wind, but every word was clearly transmitted to the ears of everyone behind him.
He jumped down from the rubble at the edge of the pit, and his boots landed on the ground, throwing up a small cloud of dust.
Several other people followed him. Some climbed down the stone wall, some jumped down directly, and some used some kind of floating spell. Their bodies were as light as a leaf and slowly fell to the ground.
Kaidezi was the last one to climb out of the pit. She put her hands on the rocks on the edge of the pit, pushed hard, and rolled her body up, landing on the rubble.
The gravel rolled under her feet, making a clicking sound. She staggered, steadied her body, and patted the dust on her robe.
The sky is gray. It's not the kind of gray before the rain, but the kind of depressing gray that comes after a storm when the clouds have not completely dispersed.
The wind blew from the west, not strong, but very cool. It felt like someone was gently wiping my face with a wet cold towel.
There were several birds flying in the distance, flying very low and flapping their wings very quickly, as if they were avoiding something.
Kaidezi raised her head and looked at the distant skyline. Her eyes swept across the gray sky and then stopped.
Her pupils shrank slightly.
"What is that?" Kaidezi's voice was not loud, but the suddenly tightened tone, as if someone was strangling the throat, made everyone stop.
They followed her gaze and saw a black spot in the distant sky - no, not a black spot, but a rapidly expanding black shadow. It was not a dark cloud rising from the horizon, but a black cloud spreading outward from a certain point in the sky, like ink dripping into clear water.
The edges of the clouds rolled and twisted, golden lightning shuttled through the clouds, and thunder could be heard from a long distance away, dull and heavy, like ten thousand drums beating at the same time.
Everyone's expressions changed. No one needed to search in their minds what this scene meant, because they all knew it - no, they could all see it.
The storm moved at an absurdly fast speed. From appearing on the skyline to covering almost half of the sky, it only took a few breaths.
The wind began to get stronger. It was not the cool breeze blowing from the west, but the strong wind coming from that direction, with a sense of oppression and making people unsteady.
Kaidezi's white robe was blown by the wind and her hood was almost flipped over several times. She had to hold it down with her hands.
The captain's face turned very ugly at that moment. It wasn't fear, but the kind of instinctive tension when faced with a situation that was completely beyond his control.
"Everyone, leave quickly!" The captain's voice was not loud, but the sense of urgency squeezed from the depths of his throat and pressed to the extreme made every word like a needle pricking the eardrums of everyone present.
No one asked a question, no one looked back. The people in white robes turned around almost at the same time and ran away from the storm.
The footsteps sounded on the gravel and mud, messy and rapid, as if someone was chasing them behind them...
The storm in the sky was flying so fast that before she could finish the sentence in her mind, the black cloud had already moved above the ruins of the mine.
The edge of the cloud almost covered the entire sky above the mine, and golden lightning intertwined into a dense network in the clouds. The thunder was so loud that she felt her chest vibrating with it.
Then, she saw a huge "stone" falling from the clouds. It didn't float down slowly, but fell straight to the ground without any buffer, as if it had been thrown from the sky.
The "stone" was huge, so big that even from such a long distance, Kaidezi could clearly see its outline - irregular, gray-black, with purple light shining on the surface. It rolled twice in the air, and then crashed heavily into the huge pothole.
Boom--!
The ground shook violently, and Kaidezi's steps suddenly swayed and he almost fell.
She stabilized her body and looked back, only to see a huge, gray-black smoke cloud rising from the pit. The smoke poured out of the pit and spread around, like a blooming, black-gray flower of death without any sense of beauty.
Yeah, it hit the bull's-eye. King Ghidorah in the sky watched the "stone" hit the hole impartially, and the three heads nodded slightly at the same time.
A trace of satisfaction flashed in the golden vertical pupils - not the satisfaction of "done a great thing", but the satisfaction of "throwing it casually and actually throwing it accurately" with a little surprise.
He lowered his head and glanced under his paws, and saw that there was nothing there. Valeria had already gone down, and he needed to find ore for it to recover. The mine here was just right, so there was no need to make another trip.
King Ghidorah looked away from the pothole and glanced at the surrounding environment. The gray sky, the gray-black earth, the gray-green, fallen trees and shrubs that had been damaged by the storm.
The outline of the mountains in the distance is looming in the mist, and the nearby ground is covered with cracks and gravel. There is no one. At least in this ruins, no one can be seen.
Those people who were active near the mine must have fled away just now. However, King Ghidorah doesn't care much about them.
His eyes fell further away - there used to be a city similar to Luoweida City there, but he didn't know its specific name. Now, that city should be renamed "City in the Sea".
After all, the storm was too close, and the floodwaters poured in, turning the streets into rivers, the houses into islands, and the squares into lakes. More than half of the entire city was submerged in water, with only the higher-lying buildings still exposed above the water, like a group of refugees abandoned on an isolated island.
There were still many buildings left. King Ghidorah saw several tall stone buildings rising from the water. The flagpoles on the roofs were leaning crookedly. The flags had long been blown away by the wind.
Maybe after the flood recedes, we can rebuild it, whatever, it's not under his control anyway.
King Ghidorah retracted his gaze and flapped his wings. The storm clouds slowly lowered in height under his control. Golden lightning extended from the clouds and swept across the ground, leaving behind traces of charred black.
He was waiting for Valeria to climb out of the pit. The guy fell hard - half of it was already broken, and if he fell like this from the sky, the other half would probably fall apart as well.
But it said that as long as you give it ore, it can recover. There is plenty of ore under this mine, which is enough for it to eat for a while.
Hmm... King Ghidorah reminds me of a guy. Voraksa. The ancient dragon who had half of his wings broken by him and was forced to find a palace. That guy is still flying around the world looking for a palace for him. He has been searching for so long, but there is no news.
The efficiency is too low. After Valeria recovers, let it look for Voraksa. Two of them together are always faster than one.
Also, Voraksa's life was saved by him. He didn't kill him at that time, not because he was soft-hearted, but because he thought that guy was still useful.
Now Valeria has also signed the contract and is also his "worker". Both are very reasonable. He is really kind King of the Monsters.
King Ghidorah The head in the middle was slightly raised, and the golden vertical pupils shone with a strange light under the light of the storm. He gave himself a thumbs up in his heart.
In the distance, a flooded city.
This city was once called Weierna, and it was the largest trading center on the western border of the empire. Now Weierna no longer exists, with only some roofs higher than the water and second-floor windows remaining, feebly proving that someone once lived in this place.
The streets turned into waterways, and the low-lying buildings were completely submerged. Even the roofs could not be seen. The higher hills were crowded with people. They built simple shelters with wooden boards, canvas, and branches, huddled together, and struggled to survive amidst the sound of wind and waves.
Those who were able to run had already run. During the break between the storms, they could go as far as they could by boat, horseback, or on foot. The rest were those who had no way to go—people who had no money, no food, no transportation, and no idea where they could go.
In short, it is impossible to rely on government rescue. The empire itself is too busy to take care of this small border town on the border.
A room on the second floor of a stone building half submerged in water.
The room is not big, only about ten square meters. The floor is made of wood, which creaks when you step on it, and some places have become warped due to water damage.
Two pieces of the window's glass were broken, and they were nailed together with a wooden board that I found somewhere. However, the wooden board was not big enough, leaving a crack as wide as the width of a hand. The wind poured in through the crack, making a whining sound, as if it was crying.
There is a faded oil painting hanging on the wall. It depicts an old man in military uniform. His face cannot be seen clearly. There are many small cracks on the surface of the oil painting, which look like the old man's skin.
A child climbed up from a pile of rags and old cotton wool in the corner. His hair was messy, knotted, and stained with unknown debris.
There was dust on his face, dried sweat stains, and a shallow scab scratched by a branch. His eyes were dark brown, not big, but very bright, not as bright as the eyes of a child living in such a place. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and then walked toward the window habitually.
The child pushed open the skewed wooden door, put his face in front of the palm-width gap, squinted one eye and looked out. The gray sky, the gray-black water, and the gray-green tree crowns that had been damaged by the storm.
His eyes habitually scanned those unchanging scenes, and then stopped. His pupils shrank suddenly, and his breathing suddenly became rapid.
On the western skyline, there is a black shadow. It is not a cloud, not an ordinary cloud.
The clouds are not that long, and the clouds are not luminous - there are golden lightnings spreading like tree roots on the edge of the black clouds. The light of the lightnings is particularly dazzling in the gray sky, as if someone has ignited a golden sun inside the clouds.