Cliff felt as if he had fallen into a nightmare.
In this dream, one moment he was being torn apart by the enormous beasts cultivated by the wizard, and the next he was back in the Morik royal city, being sentenced for treason by the King of the Fire Lizard.
And then it kept looping.
He could not distinguish between reality and illusion; his brain felt as if it were shrouded in a veil, with reality and fantasy merging into one at that moment.
But the pain did not lessen as a result.
Cliff could vividly recall the agony of being devoured by the beasts; it felt like a red-hot branding iron stirring incessantly in his brain, nearly boiling his brain matter.
The trial in Morik royal city shattered his faith; everything he had fought for crumbled before his eyes. He was pointed at by thousands, his name etched on the pillar of shame, condemned for ten thousand years.
"Ah!"
Cliff suddenly awoke from the nightmare.
He stared blankly at his surroundings, his sluggish brain finally reminding him of his situation.
He had been captured by the wizard, and the wizard was interrogating him.
"Is this the wizard's method?"
Cliff felt a chill run down his spine, as if the scales on his body were about to stand on end.
The scenes from the dream were still fresh in his memory; the deep-seated pain made his body tremble involuntarily at just the thought of it.
"It seems the effect is quite good."
The wizard's cold voice pulled Cliff back from his memories.
Richard looked at him, and beneath the black robe, the golden Dragon Eyes made Cliff shudder.
"Can you now tell me the specific effect of that firework?"
Firework?
Cliff recalled the current situation and opened his mouth to curse Richard.
But as soon as he opened his mouth, the terrifying pain from his memories made his body tremble again. Yet in the end, honor and loyalty triumphed over pain. Cliff fixed his gaze on Richard and shouted angrily, "The Norikesius family has no traitors!"
But all Richard gave him in return was a cold stare.
"Is that so? We still have plenty of time; I hope you can hold on for a while longer."
Plenty of time?
Cliff looked at Richard, unsure of what he was saying. Although he could not remember how long he had been in the nightmare, it was certainly not a short time.
Even if time in the illusion passed faster than outside, how much faster could it be?
There was not much time left for the wizard.
Richard took out a pocket watch and glanced at the time.
"I can tell you now that only a minute has passed. I believe that even if our time is tight, we still have a few minutes."
As he spoke, Cliff saw a set of snow-white fangs appear beneath the black hood.
"This wizard is actually smiling!" Cliff screamed in his heart.
The next moment, his mind fell back into the nightmare once again.
...
Awakening, nightmare, awakening, nightmare… Cliff did not know how many times he had gone through this process.
Unlike those who gradually became numb to pain after enduring torment, each invasion of the nightmare plunged Cliff into his most feared situations.
These scenarios could even change with his shifting mindset.
This drove Cliff's spirit to the brink of collapse.
As he awoke from the nightmare once more, tears uncontrollably streamed from his eyes, and his entire spirit seemed to shatter as he desperately shouted at Richard, "Kill me! Just kill me!"
But all he received in response was a cold question.
"Tell me the effect of that firework."
Cliff looked at Richard in despair, the scales of relief and honor in his heart constantly wavering.
In the end, Cliff made a decision.
"I'll tell you! That firework is a new type of distress signal we recently developed. It incorporates the power of the Dragon Curse Warlock and can mark all wizards within a ten-kilometer radius."
Richard nodded and continued to ask, "And then? What means do you use to pursue these marks?"
Cliff stared blankly at Richard, his hands clenched tightly: "Will you let me die if I tell you?"
Richard nodded and calmly replied, "I have no interest in torturing people. If you tell me, I will grant you relief."
Cliff looked at Richard for a moment, then began to describe the tracking method.
Wizards marked by the firework could be detected by a device similar to a compass, and this device had a detection range of about ten kilometers.
This meant that as long as the Fire Lizard patrol team was more than ten kilometers away, the convoy would basically not be detected.
"Very good, but I need to confirm the truth."
Richard grabbed Cliff and found the soul wizard of the squad.
"This is the information he provided. Please verify its authenticity. If it's true, kill him."
Richard wrote down the information Cliff had given him on a piece of paper and handed it to the soul wizard. He then flew to the artillery section of the Magic Support Vehicle, skillfully disassembling the magical components and casting components.
Looking at the now mangled casting components, Richard scratched his head and casually took out a new one from his Magic Pocket.
Using the Magic Support Vehicle was indeed exhilarating, but each time it was used, the casting components had to be replaced, and the guiding components had to be remade.
After repairing the artillery, Richard turned and flew to the next vehicle to continue replacing components.
Although there was intelligence from the Fire Lizard, it was better to be prepared in case they encountered a patrol team; having the Magic Support Vehicle's artillery operational would help a bit.
Before long, Richard heard a cry of relief.
The soul wizard handed Cliff's corpse to Richard and curiously asked, "What exactly did you do to him? This Fire Lizard's mind seems to be built like a skyscraper made of ruins; my mental spells barely affected him."
Richard put a finger to his lips: "That's a secret. So, his information is true?"
"It should be true, but there is a bit of shadow in his mind; I couldn't probe into that part."
"Shadow?"
Richard raised an eyebrow, a sense of foreboding flashing through his mind.
The soul wizard waved his hand dismissively: "This is a normal phenomenon; many people have shadows in their hearts. These shadows often hide a person's deeply buried character or a painful, unmentionable experience. Nothing unusual.
You've already shattered his mind to that extent; even an iron man would have spoken."
Richard glanced at the corpse in his arms and suddenly noticed that this Fire Lizard seemed to be clutching something. He pried it open and found a golden badge resembling a dragon's claw embedded deep within Cliff's flesh.
"Golden badge?"
Richard took the badge and examined it, confirming that it was merely a craft item, exquisite in workmanship but without any effect.
"Strange behavior."
Richard shook his head, placing Cliff's corpse along with the badge into his Magic Pocket, and then continued repairing the artillery.
...
On the bombarded battlefield, a team of Fire Lizards riding Dragon Beasts that resembled camels searched the area.
"Sir, we have confirmed. A total of fifty-six corpses, but only Lord Cliff is missing," a Fire Lizard warrior reported to a Fire Lizard with black dragon horns.
"Only Lord Cliff is missing?"
The black-horned Fire Lizard surveyed the surroundings; it looked like a battlefield that had been thoroughly combed, clearly attacked by the White Wizard legion.
However, judging by the corpses on the battlefield, that group of White Wizards had not cleaned up the area.
Fire Lizards who dealt with wizards knew that wizards had a peculiar fondness for their corpses; often, even dismembered limbs would be taken by wizards.
But now, many relatively intact corpses remained on the battlefield, which seemed wasteful to the wizards.
"What exactly do these wizards want? Are they planning to use the Red Soil Plain as a breakthrough point to attack the heart of the empire?"
The black-horned Fire Lizard was somewhat uncertain about the wizards' intentions. Logically, deploying such a large-scale wizard force meant they must have their strategic objectives.
But there was nothing of value to be found on the Red Soil Plain.
However, the black-horned Fire Lizard did not ponder for too long; he was just a grassroots commander. He only needed to relay the information up the chain and let the higher-ups figure out the wizards' intentions.
Now he had a more pressing task to attend to.
"Contact the surrounding patrol teams and have them prepare their instruments to search for Lord Cliff, centered around the battlefield. We want to see the living or the dead," the black-horned Fire Lizard ordered his subordinates. "The rest continue searching."
Before long, a Fire Lizard came rushing towards the black-horned Fire Lizard.
"Sir! Come over here and take a look."
...
The black-horned Fire Lizard squeezed the firm red soil beneath him and then stood up.
This location was four kilometers in a straight line from the firework launch site, looking no different from the usual Red Soil Plain.
But the scouts under him had noticed something amiss.
On this red land, there were several well-concealed tracks of being crushed.
These tracks were almost perfectly concealed; if it weren't for the Dragon Beasts stepping on them, and the Fire Lizard happening to notice the depth of the Dragon Beast footprints being different from usual, they might have been overlooked.
The black-horned Fire Lizard looked at the several tracks that his subordinates had cleared and began to form a vague guess in his mind.
Wizards, in addition to war airships, also had some mobile alchemical vehicles, and the black-horned Fire Lizard had seen some of them.
The black-horned Fire Lizard took a horn from his waist and blew it forcefully.
The melodious sound of the horn quickly gathered all the Fire Lizards from the patrol team here.
The black-horned Fire Lizard pointed to the tracks on the ground:
"Follow these tracks; those wizards have brought new weapons this time, so everyone be careful. You few, notify the surrounding patrol teams to be on the lookout for similar tracks."
"Yes!"
...
On the Red Soil Plain, four Magic Support Vehicles were speeding along.
Theoretically, the maximum speed of the Magic Support Vehicle could reach one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, but in actual combat, this speed would definitely be reduced due to various factors.
The Red Soil Plain was flat, making it suitable for the Magic Support Vehicle to speed, but due to various issues over the past few days, the wizards only dared to drive at eighty kilometers per hour, fearing the Magic Support Vehicle would break down.
Although the command center allowed abandoning the vehicle to escape, there were conditions attached. Moreover, the firepower of these Magic Support Vehicles was so fierce that the wizards had all witnessed it.
The Magic Support Vehicle was equivalent to a one-time spell barrage; if they were unlucky enough to encounter a Fire Lizard patrol team, a full volley w
ould surely allow them to break through.
Seemingly to confirm their thoughts, a Fire Lizard patrol team suddenly appeared in front of the convoy.
"Enemy attack, prepare to break through!"
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