Cthulhu Gonfalon

No matter how the gods searched, they could not find the gods of the Human God System. It was as though they had melted into the void space. It was as though they had never been there before. Not even a trace of breath was left behind.

Sui Xiong was also very curious to know exactly where they were. But he just looked on by the side and did not help in the search.

With the current situation, the moment the human gods were found, they would probably meet the fate of complete destruction of their entire regiment. As someone taking a neutral stand, he certainly could not get himself involved.

Since he could not join in the search, he had little interest in this silent war of hide-and-seek among the gods. By contrast, it was the burgeoning war in the human world that attracted his attention.

After the Marsh races had assembled a large army, they launched an attack on the Duchy of Thunder.

For a long time, the main force that invaded the Great Marsh was none other than the Duchy of Thunder. However, compared with the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs that was able to suppress the vicious lashing by the dwarfs and elves in a one-against-two battle, the combat power of the Duchy of Thunder was much inferior. Their strength to “develop” the Great Marsh was much weaker.

There was no unified country in the Great Marsh. The forces of the different races had complicated relationships. Internal wars were never-ending. Under such circumstances, the Duchy of Thunder often benefited from the method of pulling the force of one race to fight the force of another. This method was proven to be repeatedly successful.

But now, under the leadership of the native gods, the races of the Great Marsh were combining forces for the first time. When the many races who had been engaged in fierce battles against each other for so many years finally stood together on the same battle-line, the Duchy of Thunder’s powerful stance seemed to become relatively inadequate.

In just one battle, six of the 14 strongholds that the Duchy of Thunder had set up within the Great Marsh were uprooted, leaving the remaining eight in peril.

The Marsh races were large in number, and they varied in strength. Among them, there were those like the Lizardmen who were relatively weak. They were unlikely to be able to win the humans in a one-on-one fight. There were those who were like the multi-headed serpents who were very powerful. Even single-handedly, they could constitute a threat to a small fortress, unless they encountered a high-level master. After these races united, they complemented each other so well that they were able to give full play to the effect of one-plus-one-is-greater-than-two.

The most important stronghold that the Duchy of Thunder had set up in the Great Marsh was known as the “Red Tree Fortress.” The scene that one could see from this place was extremely spectacular and terrifying:

In the sky, there were harpies screeching away in their piercing voices as they flew about in disarray. This group of monsters was adept at suddenly descending from the sky to catch hold of their enemies. Then they would rip off their enemies’ heads and fly away. They were, in fact, not very strong. Any well-trained soldier would be able to fight them one-on-on in a reciprocal manner, so long as he did not panic. But at that very moment, with the sky being shrouded by a depressing blackness, there was no knowing how many harpies there were. The guards at the front of the city were all pale in the face as they did not know what they should do.

Among the big crowd of harpies, there were also some greyish-green or greyish-red figures. They were bipedal dragons who were monsters with a little dragon blood in them. They were unable to fly high or fast enough to compete with the real dragons. But their scales were hard enough, making them formidable sky assassins that ordinary soldiers would struggle to fight against even when they were in large groups. Not to mention… some of these bipedal dragons even knew how to cast a little magic or spit poison…

Leon had tamed a bipedal dragon as well. It was one of the subspecies called the “Copper Crown Dragon.” Under Leon’s training, its flying technique was pretty impressive. If there was a flying contest for the bipedal dragons, it would have a high chance of winning the championship. Leon had now become a Dragon Knight, and he owned the green Dragon, Galstoby, which was a mount that made any other knight go green-eyed with envy. But to avoid causing a riot, Leon would still ride his Copper Crown Dragon when he went out on many occasions.

This made Galstoby very displeased and often went to find trouble with that Copper Crown Dragon in private. Later on, the situation even developed into one where it would take a human form from time to time, ride on this unlucky Copper Crown Dragon and parade about town. Any insider who knew about it was bound to laugh out loud.

What should a dragon that rode on a dragon be called?

These air forces alone were enough to cause great distress for the soldiers at the Red Tree Fortress, making them feel that their chances of winning were slim. And the mighty land troops made them even more upset as they secretly deliberated on questions like, “How much longer can I live?” And these were questions that severely affected their morale.

No, morale and such, if it was not for the fact that the entire fortress had already been thoroughly surrounded with no way of escape, things like morale and all would not have existed…

The land troops of the Marsh races were, of course, mainly comprising the Lizardman race. Other than being less intelligent, these humanoids who had solid, hard scales were generally similar to humans. Furthermore, their endurance was significantly lower than that of humans. If they were in a situation where there was going to be a long battle, they would suffer a great loss. But they made up for this shortcoming in their ability to reproduce. In this regard, they were much more fertile than humans. If they had not disliked the environment because they felt that it was not moist enough, perhaps there would be traces of them all over the continent.

Other than the Lizardman race, there were naturally many other demons of other races like the monitor lizards, snakes, giant centipedes, scorpions and the Marsh devil crabs. There was an intelligent race from the Marsh called the “Marsh Ape-man.” The creatures of this race were especially skilled at taming all kinds of poisonous substances and were all natural trainers. Regardless of what creature it was that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, or swam in the waters, there was almost no demon that they could not tame—so long as these were poisonous creatures.

The other intelligent race found in the Marsh were the Frogmen. This was a relatively weaker race, and its members were all weaker in terms of military power. They were quite cowardly, and their level of civilization was relatively backward. In the “food chain” of the Marsh, they were placed in a lower position. But on the other hand, they were also able to take up many kinds of logistical work, and thus, they provided a lot of help to the army.

As for the other races like the elves, of course, there were a lot of them. But the Marsh races had never seen them as their own kind, so they were always driven into life-endangering traps. They had pretty much lost everything they could possibly afford to lose from the previous attacks, so now, there was not much to be seen from them.

If these were the only enemies, then by relying on the sturdy defense of the Red Tree fortress, it was not possible for the fortress to fall so easily. But among the Marsh army, there were still a dozen or so gigantic, towering figures that could be likened to small mountains.

These were the ace cards of the Marsh, the giant multi-headed serpents.

These fearsome creatures sported gigantic bodies, and they boasted a fearsome amount of strength that was deserving of their size. Although they did not know any spells, they had such a tenacious vitality that made people fear them—unless their heads were all chopped off at the same time, then there was no way they could be killed. Even if scary spells that could blow any other enemies into nothing but ash and dust were used on them, then any form of attack would be useless.

This demon was the most terrifying existence in the Marsh. It was also the scariest thing ever mentioned in folklore. If anyone could fight a giant multi-headed serpent one-on-one and take it down, this person was more than worthy of being called a hero.

In fact, even its subspecies, the multi-headed ophisaurus, was already a very dangerous race of demons, much less the giant multi-headed serpent.

When Sui Xiong and company first arrived at Garth City, the son of the then city lord of Garth City, Kalisa’s older brother, Sean Riley, had tried to make things difficult for them. At that time, Sean requested Leon to catch a three-headed ophisaurus to prove that he was someone qualified enough to negotiate terms with.

Of course, it was a task Leon was capable of carrying out. That might be how his fate became entwined with that of the Riley family.

The multi-headed ophisaurus was certainly not a big deal. But at that time, if Sean had wanted Leon to catch a giant multi-headed serpent instead, probably Leon’s choice would not be to catch the demon. But rather, he would draw his sword out and chop off the head of Sean, who had allowed his mind to conjure all sorts of nonsensical thoughts.

Compared to provoking a giant multi-headed serpent, killing the son of a Legendary Master was obviously much easier and safer.