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What enraged the barbarians and humans even more was the fact that, within this toxic smoke, which caused difficulty in breathing with just a single inhalation, there were still beastmen capable of launching siege attacks. Naturally, it was the half-orcs from the cursed lands of the Half-Orc Wasteland who could endure this grueling task. After hundreds of years of mutation, the half-orcs had traded their intelligence for the most tenacious vitality and resistance. The "Wolf Smoke of the Earth" was a deadly weapon to humans and barbarians, and an unbearable substance to regular beastmen, but to the half-orcs, it was merely a slightly irritating fog.

There were approximately two million half-orcs living in the Half-Orc Plains, with nearly half of them already subdued and enslaved by Fontainebleau City. Over the years, another two million half-orcs had been captured by beastmen and sold to various tribes across the alliance, gradually multiplying. Now, in the northern country's beastman army, apart from the forty thousand unique half-orc warriors of Fontainebleau, there were about four hundred thousand half-orcs transporting supplies, and by selecting a portion to mix with Fontainebleau's half-orc warriors, they could become soldiers. Although such an attack couldn't capture the walls, it forced the barbarians to defend the city amidst the thick smoke, while the Light God's priests and mages had to expend more energy to cast protective spells on the warriors.

By mid-July, the barbarian defenses had become increasingly unstable. Over a month of continuous exposure to the wolf smoke had severely demoralized the barbarian warriors, and the priests and mages were nearing exhaustion. The Orc Alliance hadn't even mobilized its main forces for the city assault yet, not to mention the threat of the artifact "Horn of Armageddon," which could send the beastmen into a berserk state. By this time, even the most incompetent commander understood that the Hurricane Fortress was likely untenable. Upon learning of the battle situation through magical communication, the Temple finally issued the order to execute the final contingency plan.

Chapter Eighty: Tears of Ice and Pure Land

In mid-July, the barbarian camp on the northern country battlefield, which had been on the verge of collapse, suddenly received an exhilarating message—"To aid our allies, the Temple is sending an additional force of one hundred thousand elite troops, led by the four Great Priests, to land at Xuefulong Harbor. A coordinated attack with the humans will flank the beastmen, lifting the siege on Hurricane Fortress."

Of course, to link up with the new human reinforcements, a portion of the Temple forces stationed at Hurricane Fortress would be dispatched. They would use the pre-installed space magic arrays to teleport to the coast and launch a surprise attack to reclaim the port occupied by the beastmen. Since the scale of the space magic arrays was limited and consumed a massive amount of mana, only the Temple's elite could participate in this mission. To perfectly execute the pincer attack and divert the beastmen's attention, the barbarians would abandon the first layer of the fortress walls three days after the reinforcements landed, retreating to the second line of defense, luring the beastmen army deeper into the quagmire of siege warfare, unable to withstand the charge of the human heavy cavalry from behind.

The only issue was that the beastmen's two super beasts, the "War Beamon," were not part of the legion besieging Hurricane Fortress. They were likely stationed in the surrounding areas. When the reinforcements arrived, they might run straight into these terrifying giants, disrupting the assault plan. Therefore, a Dragon Knight, namely me, was needed to clear the way for the reinforcements. However, the teleportation array was too small to carry a dragon, and no creature on the continent could use teleportation magic without preparation. Even dragons could only use special pre-arranged dragon magic arrays to provide spatial coordinates for long-distance teleportation. The white dragon Dongye could only teleport to her nest or the "Sealing Dragon Platform" at Sacred Dragon Mountain.

To allow the Dragon Knight to leave the fortress without arousing suspicion, the barbarian army would stage a play in collaboration with the humans. They would make the beastmen believe there was a dispute between the barbarians and humans, and that the Dragon Knight had left the fortress in anger. This would also make the loss of the outer wall by the barbarians seem more plausible, further luring the beastmen in.

This was the plan known to the barbarians, a plan destined to fail. There would be no reinforcements, no pincer attack, no chance of victory, because everything was a lie. The sole purpose was to make the barbarians believe there was still hope, to make them fight with all their strength and attract the beastmen's forces, allowing the Temple's final plan to yield the most fruitful results.

And this plan was the ultimate spell. The level of secrecy surrounding this message was exceedingly high. Even I, only following the steps of the plan, was fully informed of the entire plan on the third day when I left Hurricane Fortress and arrived at the designated assembly point.

I would join Apu Knight and Lansino Knight to protect Mr. Pang in casting the ice-attribute ultimate spell—"Tears of the Firmament"—destroying all life within a hundred kilometers near Hurricane Fortress. Apart from the necessary magic support personnel, other mages and senior priests, including my disciple Xiluo, whom I had specifically requested, had already, under the protection of the Sacred Sword Knights' elite, reclaimed Xuefulong Harbor, begun boarding ships, and prepared to set sail back to the human world. Once our work was done, the entire fleet could depart.

We were currently positioned on an extremely high peak more than a hundred kilometers from Hurricane Fortress. The mountaintop had been flattened by immensely powerful magic, creating a vast and smooth area with a giant magic array drawn with gold and silver threads, exceeding a hundred meters in diameter. This magic array was the most intricate and sophisticated work I had ever seen, surpassing even the "Gate of the Twelve Zodiac Houses," "Tower of the Styx," and "Sevenfold Prison." The magic array consisted of countless magic runes. Although I didn't know their exact meaning, the craftsmanship was such that even the smallest runes, nearly the size of ants, were meticulously drawn. Countless large and small magic cores and natural magic gems were embedded at the intersections of the runes, causing the vast array to shimmer with the vast and dazzling brilliance of the starry river.

At the center of the magic array was not the aforementioned "Mr. Pang," but a palm-sized, uniquely shaped pale blue gem. Within the crystal-clear crystal, countless mysterious light wheels rotated, drawing and manipulating the vast energy within the entire magic array in a complex circulation, endlessly regenerating.

"What is that thing?" I quietly asked Lansino Knight beside me. In fact, Lansino had a secret: this self-proclaimed artist and Holy Grail Knight was actually a rather skilled mage, with considerable knowledge about magic-related matters.