Chapter 75: Dark Gate (middle)

Ten minutes later, inside the palace.
King Ryan, who had fallen asleep, was dreaming, but was awakened by a sudden knock on the door.
"Your Majesty, an emergency."
Ryan can recognize even half asleep, this is the voice of his decades-old friend Anduin Lothar: "Hell! Anduin, what time is it? I hope your emergency is as serious as you said."
The queen, who was also awakened in her sleep, said nothing and quickly dressed her husband.
A few minutes later, when the guard opened the bedroom door for Ryan, Ryan saw a nervous, heavily armed Anduin.
"His Majesty, traces of alien invasion have been found in the southeast of the kingdom. But before confirming my news, I strongly recommend that you check out the hourglass Medivh gave you that day."
Even though it was early spring and the air was still cold, Ryan just took a breath of late-night air and felt that his lungs were about to freeze.
"Oh!" The rapid footsteps sounded in the Storm Fortress. Surrounded by two teams of royal guards, Lane and Anduin came to a storage room guarded by four guards.
"Open!" Lane's voice shuddered.
The guard opened, and quickly opened the empty storage room with only one object, and lit the surrounding oil lamps.
Under the light of dozens of torches and oil lamps, Ryan and Anduin's eyes were frozen solidly-the black hourglass had all the sand fallen below.
"When is it ?!" Ryan asked, but his voice was unknowingly infectious. "Isn't I ordered to check it every day?"
The guard in charge of the guard sweated a lot: "I did check it, and I personally confirmed that there was so much sand on my finger this morning. Your majesty ordered you to check it once a day. When the sand in the hourglass leaks, it will be done immediately. inform you."
King Lane's face was so blue that he uttered only a few words: "Call the cabinet immediately."
Half an hour later, the Storm Fortress was already brightly lit.
On a huge map, Anduin pointed to the southeast of Stormwind Kingdom: "The first thing that was found to be wrong was the outpost located in the south of Redridge Mountains. After the three red signal flares representing a large number of monsters invaded, they were lost. I got in touch. Two months ago, the griffon reconnaissance team, which was specially arranged in the lakeside town of Redridge Mountain, took off immediately and observed a large number of green-skinned giant humanoid monsters pouring out from the sad swamp. "
"Huge? How big?" King Lane tightened his eyebrows.
"According to the magical message, the giant is about seven feet tall and is generally stronger than ours. He also has various styles of armor and heavy axes, heavy hammers and other heavy weapons."
"Are you sure you are not a troll?"
Anduin shook his head: "No, our people have confirmed that two of the Gryphon knights have dived and observed from close range, and one of the Gryphon knights was also killed by long-range weapons."
King Lane's eyes jumped.
A griffon is a lion with limbs, and a giant raptor with eagles on its head and wings. Regardless of the huge size of the griffin, fighting can easily overthrow a large group of human soldiers. Raising is valuable. A griffon can eat a cow every day if you let go of its belly.
A griffin was lost just for reconnaissance, and Ryan said it was false not to hurt.
At this time, a commander came in: "Your Majesty, Commander, adults, there is new news."
Seeing the latest news, the entire room was dead.
A garrison at the small fortress at the intersection of the Red Ridge Mountains was wiped out. The number of local guards in the Storm Kingdom is relatively small, about 500. Even so, the report states that none of the regiments survived.
This was not a surprise attack without precaution. This was a warning from the forward post, and the entire army was annihilated when the regiment was ready for battle.
The weight behind this is definitely heavy.
Both Ryan and Anduin's faces had painful spasms-because it meant that their long-time friend Medivh had really betrayed him, at least he had given up his role as guardian.
Ryan twisted his neck like a rusty machine and looked at Anduin, "Have you notified the Tirisfal Council?"
"Notified, but didn't respond." An elderly court mage replied.
Ryan suddenly had an ominous hunch.
However, the imminent large-scale invasion left Ryan with no time to care. Of the seven human kingdoms, the Stormwind Kingdom is considered to be a powerful country, but no matter how strong, the Stormwind Kingdom cannot afford a standing army of more than 100,000 people. For the Storm Kingdom, which has a total strength of less than 30,000, the complete extinction of a local garrison is not a trivial matter.
Most importantly, this seems to be just the beginning.
King Lane pressed his hands on the table, and said in a deep voice, "Information, I need more information. What kind of ghost are our enemies? What is the evaluation of their military strength? How armed? The number? What is their goal? Easily fight against a group of unknown enemies. "
Lothar raised a finger: "I propose to have Duke Marcus come to the meeting. He seems to have made more preparations for this."
Lothar's proposal met with the firm opposition of the remaining upper nobles.
"Sir Lothar! This is a war! This is not a war game that allows 15-year-olds to participate!"
A few high-level upper-level aristocrats objected, and Ryan was okay. He only shook his head slightly at Lothar, and the king shifted the topic: "Anduin, I need your people to organize a hunt, try to catch the other captive, and then No, corpses are fine. "
"Dear your command, Your Majesty. But I suggest that before you do, you declare the kingdom into war."
"State of war? No! We didn't even know what the enemy was, so we declared the entire kingdom into a state of war for an armed conflict that occurred on the farthest frontier of the kingdom? What a joke!" Said Marquis Camron.
Entering a state of war easily is absolutely damaging to the interests of various nobles. Because the state of war meant that the king could easily order the nobles to pay war taxes, draw the nobles' personal soldiers, and even temporarily control the territory of the nobles.
This is more sad than killing them.
The attitude of Marquis Camron and others almost killed Anduin Lothar. Unfortunately, until more evidence is given to prove the seriousness of the situation, both Anduin and King Lane can only temporarily regard this invasion as an alien border conflict.
However, the situation has worsened faster than everyone expected.
Except for one person, Duke!