Reforged Chapter 75: The Dark Portal Two

Ten minutes later, within the palace.

King Llane, who was already fast asleep and dreaming, was awakened by a series of urgent knocks on the door.

"Your Majesty, an emergency situation has arisen."

Even half-asleep, Llane could recognize the voice of his friend of many years, Anduin Lothar: "Damn it, Anduin! What time is it? I hope your emergency is as serious as you say."

The queen, who had also been awakened, silently and swiftly dressed her husband.

A few minutes later, when the guards opened the bedroom door for Llane, he saw a tense and fully armored Anduin.

"Your Majesty, we've discovered signs of foreign invaders in the southeastern part of the kingdom. However, before confirming my information, I strongly suggest you take a look at the hourglass Medivh gave you."

Despite the arrival of early spring, the air was still chilly. Llane took a deep breath of the late-night air, feeling as if his lungs would freeze.

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed throughout Stormwind Keep. Accompanied by two groups of royal guards, Llane and Anduin arrived at a storage room guarded by four sentries.

"Open it!" Llane's voice trembled slightly.

The guard complied, quickly opening the nearly empty storage room and lighting the surrounding oil lamps.

Under the illumination of more than a dozen torches and oil lamps, Llane and Anduin's gazes suddenly froze – the black hourglass had run out of sand.

"When did this happen?!" Llane's voice unconsciously carried a stern tone: "Didn't I order a daily check on this?"

The head guard, drenched in sweat, replied: "Indeed, we checked it. I personally confirmed that this morning there was still a fingertip's worth of sand left. Your Majesty, your order was to check once a day and to notify you immediately when the sand runs out."

King Llane's face turned ashen. He uttered just a few words: "Gather the council immediately."

Half an hour later, Stormwind Keep was lit up brightly.

On a large map, Anduin pointed to the southeastern part of the kingdom: "The first sign of trouble was discovered at a lookout post south of Redridge Mountains. After the outpost sent up three red flares to signal a massive monster invasion, contact was lost. My gryphon scout team, which I had stationed in Lakeshire two months ago, immediately took to the air and observed a large number of green-skinned giant humanoid creatures emerging from the Swamp of Sorrows."

"How giant? How big are they?" King Llane furrowed his brow.

"According to the magical communication, they are roughly seven feet tall, generally more robust than our people, and equipped with various styles of armor and heavy weapons like giant axes and hammers."

Lord Bolvar inquired: "Are you sure they're not trolls?"

Anduin shook his head: "No, our men went in for a closer look. Two of the gryphon riders even conducted close-range reconnaissance. One of the gryphon riders was killed by a ranged weapon."

King Llane's eyes twitched.

Gryphons, with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, were not easy to raise. Despite their large size, gryphons could easily topple a large group of human soldiers in combat. They were expensive to keep; a gryphon with an appetite could eat an entire cow in a day.

Losing a gryphon just for reconnaissance was a painful loss for Llane.

At that moment, a messenger entered the room: "Your Majesty, Commander, my lords, there's new information."

Upon seeing the latest news, the entire room fell silent.

A small garrison stationed at the Redridge Mountains' crossroads had been annihilated. The local Stormwind garrison had a relatively small number of troops, about 500. Even so, the report stated that not a single person survived.

This was not an unprepared ambush; this was a total annihilation despite receiving a warning from the forward outpost and having the entire garrison prepared for battle.

The weight behind this event was immense.

Painful, slight spasms appeared on the faces of both King Llane and Anduin, as it meant that their longtime friend, Medivh, had truly betrayed them or at least abandoned his duty as Guardian.

Llane twisted his neck like a rusty machine and looked at Anduin, "Has the Council of Tirisfal been notified?"

"They have been, but there's been no response," an elderly court mage answered.

King Llane suddenly had a bad premonition.

However, the imminent large-scale invasion left Llane with no time to worry about anything else. Among the seven human kingdoms, Stormwind was considered a powerful one, but it couldn't possibly maintain an army of over 100,000 soldiers. For Stormwind, with a total military strength of less than 30,000, the annihilation of a local garrison was no small matter.

Most importantly, this seemed to be just the beginning.

King Llane placed both hands on the table and spoke gravely, "I need more information. Who exactly are our enemies? What are their combat capabilities? Level of armament? Numbers? What are their goals? We cannot easily engage in battle with a group of unknown enemies."

Lothar raised a finger, "I propose we invite Duke Marcus to attend the meeting. He seems to have made more preparations for this."

Lothar's suggestion was met with strong opposition from several other high-ranking nobles.

"Sir Lothar! This is a war! This is not a war game that a 15-year-old child can participate in!"

With several influential nobles opposing, Llane had no choice but to shake his head slightly at Lothar. The king changed the subject, "Anduin, I need your men to organize a hunting party. Try to capture some of the enemy alive or, failing that, bring back corpses."

"I will obey your command, Your Majesty. However, I recommend declaring a state of war before that."

"A state of war? No! We haven't even figured out what the enemy is, and you want to declare the entire kingdom in a state of war for an armed conflict on the farthest border of the kingdom? What a joke!" spoke the Marquis of Cameron.

Entering a state of war easily would be a huge blow to the interests of each noble, as it meant the king could easily order the nobles to pay war taxes, conscript their private armies, or even temporarily govern their territories directly.

This was more painful than death for them.

The attitude of Marquis Cameron and others nearly choked Anduin and Lothar. Unfortunately, before presenting more evidence to prove the seriousness of the situation, both Anduin and King Llane could only temporarily treat the invasion as a border conflict with non-human races.

However, the worsening situation progressed faster than anyone had anticipated.

Except for one person, Duke Marcus!