Ten minutes later, inside the palace.

King Lane, who had gone to bed, was dreaming when he was awakened by a sharp knock on the door.

"Your Majesty, state of emergency. ”

Ryan could recognize it even half-asleep, it was the voice of his friend of decades, Anduin Lothar, "Hell, Anduin, what time is it? ”

The queen, who was also awakened in her sleep, did not say a word, and quickly dressed her husband.

A few minutes later, when the guards opened the door to Ryan's dormitory, Ryan saw Anduin in a nervous, heavily armed face.

"Your Majesty, traces of an alien invasion have been found in the southeastern part of the kingdom. Before confirming my message, though, I highly recommend that you check out the hourglass that Medivan gave you that day. ”

Even though it was early spring and the air was still cold, Ryan felt like his lungs were about to freeze after just taking a breath of late-night air.

"Boom, boom!" the sound of hurried footsteps rang out in the Stormwind Fortress. Surrounded by two teams of royal guards, Ryan and Anduin arrived at a storage room that was heavily guarded by four guards.

"Open!" Ryan's voice shuddered slightly.

The guards opened it as they were told, and quickly opened the empty storage room, which consisted of only one thing, and lit the oil lamps around it.

Under the light of a dozen torches and oil lamps, Ryan and Anduin's eyes froze—the black hourglass had all fallen underneath.

"When?!" Ryan asked, but his voice was already unconsciously tinged with fierceness: "Didn't I order a daily check-up?"

The guard in charge of the guard was sweating profusely: "I did check, I personally confirmed that there was still a finger of so much sand this morning." Your Majesty's command is that you check it once a day, and notify you as soon as the sand of the hourglass is gone. ”

King Lane's face turned pale, and he only spat out a few words: "Immediately convene the cabinet." ”

Half an hour later, Stormstorm Fortress was already lit up.

On a large map, Anduin pointed to the southeastern part of the Stormwind Kingdom: "The first thing that notices something wrong is the outpost located south of the Red Ridge Mountains. Contact was lost after the outpost raised three red flares representing a massive monster invasion. The griffon scout team I had set up in the lakeside town of Red Ridge Mountain two months ago took off and observed a large number of giant green-skinned humanoid monsters pouring out of the swamp of sorrow. ”

"How big?" King Ryan furrowed.

"According to the magic teleportation, he is about seven feet tall, and he is generally more majestic than our people. It also has various styles of armor and heavy weapons such as giant axes and hammers. ”

Duke Berval asked, "Are you sure you're not a troll?"

Anduin shook his head: "No, in order to confirm, two of the griffon knights have also dived down to observe at close range, and one of the griffon knights was killed by a ranged weapon. ”

The corner of King Lane's eye jumped.

The griffon, a giant bird of prey with limbs and an eagle on all fours, is not easy to raise. Don't look at the griffin's sheer size, they can easily knock over a large group of human soldiers in battle. It is valuable to raise, if a griffin lets go of its belly to eat, it can eat a cow every day.

Having lost a griffin just for scouting, Ryan was fake when he said it didn't hurt.

At this time, a herald came in: "Your Majesty, commanders, ladies and gentlemen, there is new news. ”

Seeing the latest news, the whole room fell silent.

A garrison regiment arranged at the small fortress at the triangular junction of the Red Ridge Mountains was annihilated. The number of local garrisons in the Storm Kingdom is small, about 500, and even so, the report says that there are no survivors in the entire regiment.

This was not an unsuspecting surprise attack, it was a warning from the forward post, and the whole army was annihilated with the whole regiment ready for battle.

The weight behind this is absolutely heavy.

Ryan and Anduin's faces were slightly spasmed with pain—because it meant that their longtime friend Medivan had truly betrayed, or at least he had abandoned his duties as guardians.

Ryan twisted his neck like a rusty machine and looked at Anduin, "Did you inform the Council of Tirispha?"

"Noticed, but no response. An elderly court mage replied.

Ryan suddenly had a sense of foreboding.

However, the imminent large-scale invasion left Ryan with no time to care. Among the seven human kingdoms, the Stormwind Kingdom is considered a powerful country, but no matter what, it is impossible for the Stormwind Kingdom to raise a standing army of more than 100,000 people. For the Storm Kingdom, which has a total strength of less than 30,000 troops, the complete destruction of a local garrison cannot be regarded as a trivial matter.

On top of that, it seems like this is just the beginning.

King Ryan pressed his hands on the table and said in a deep voice, "Intelligence, I need more information." What the hell is our enemy? How is our combat power evaluated? The degree of armament, the number of people, and what are their goals? We cannot easily fight a decisive battle with a group of enemies who know nothing. ”

Lothar held up a finger: "I propose to have Duke Marcus come to the meeting." He seems to be more prepared for this. ”

Lothar's suggestion was resolutely opposed by the rest of the upper nobles.

"Sir Lothar! this is a war! this is not a war game that a 15-year-old can be allowed to participate in!"

Several high-ranking nobles objected, and Ryan could only shake his head slightly at Lothar, and the king changed the subject: "Anduin, I need your people to organize a hunt and try to catch the other party's captives, no matter what, corpses are fine." ”

"As you command, Your Majesty. But I suggest that before that, you declare the kingdom at war. ”

"What are we kidding to declare the entire kingdom at war for an armed conflict that is taking place on the farthest frontier of the kingdom without even figuring out what the enemy is?"

Easily entering a state of war is absolutely detrimental 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' private soldiers, or even temporarily govern the nobles' domains.

It's sadder than killing them.

The attitude of the Marquis Camron and others almost choked Anduin Lothar to death. Unfortunately, until more evidence is presented to prove the seriousness of the situation, both Anduin and King Lane can only temporarily regard this invasion as a border conflict between different races.

However, the situation deteriorated faster than anyone expected.

Except for one person, Duke!