Chapter 1502: Netherese Calendar 838, The End of the Underdark War

The footsteps of time move steadily forward; they neither deliberately accelerate for those who squander it, nor do they intentionally slow down for those who cherish it.

Before he knew it, Xia Duo had spent the last day of Netherese Calendar 837 in Seventon, and if Luowei hadn't told him that the snow, which had lasted for nearly half a month, had finally stopped today, he likely wouldn't have noticed that time had quietly arrived at a new year.

The design plan for the Independent Arcane Fire Device had undergone several changes, and the practical device ultimately could not be completed in 837, but with the final plan now determined, Xia Duo believed it would certainly be finished next year.

……

Netheril Calendar 838, January.

The Northland Alliance held closed-door negotiations in Evereska for nearly a week to clarify the issue of territorial boundary divisions among the Northland nations.

The division of the Nether Territory became the focus of the negotiations among the representatives of various countries, and the most critical issue among them was the discrepancy between the claimed range and the actual controlled range.

The interested parties—Netheril, Keman, and Yierlan—would not yield an inch, which made Akaola and Evereska, who were also somewhat involved, seem like mere supporting characters with no say.

The week of negotiations naturally yielded no results; only Yierlan and Eaerlann reached a preliminary boundary-delimitation plan, and whether it would actually work remained to be seen in the next round of negotiations.

Meanwhile, within Netheril, the Great Expansion movement rose again. Unlike before, which was mostly to support the Princess's Ascension Ritual, this time it concerned tangible territorial interests, and its intensity could perhaps be called the "greatest in history"!

The new god Xia Aidasi, who was Princess Xiya, even sent down an Oracle: "For all Netherese subjects, expansion is justified, and defense is not a crime."

Even ordinary people, as long as they felt capable, could go to Seventon to receive an Opening Document and head toward unknown territories to develop their own land.

……

February.

Swarms of Pioneers successively established temporary strongholds in the middle section of the Eastern Forest, during which an Archmage even summoned Meteor Swarm to quickly eliminate the forest amidst the wind and snow.

Although this move triggered strong dissatisfaction from Keman, with the support of the Seventon Council, no vicious conflicts ultimately occurred.

Thus, the new territory, separated from the Kangqi Plain by a river and officially named the "Kelong Plain," was taking shape at a speed that was astonishing—and astonishing to the Elves!

And in the south of the Kelong Plain, near Maihete Lake, a group of Pioneers also arrived. However, because the news of Xia Duo becoming a Great Arcanist had just spread throughout Netheril, most of the Pioneers here cautiously used Maihete Lake as a boundary, developing only to the north and rarely setting foot in the south.

For this reason, Niya dispatched a large number of Adventurers to establish temporary strongholds in the forest south of Maihete Lake, while simultaneously building a trading market on the east bank of Maihete Lake, which served as a response to the Pioneers' sensible behavior.

As for the island in the center of the lake, the final struggle of the Mythallar lay entirely there. If Xia Duo were not busy, he might have come over to organize and repair the Magic Net, but at this moment, he was busy with the Independent Arcane Fire Device and could not spare any time at all.

He could only privately ask Saville to operate in secret, lest someone else get there first.

In the north of the Kelong Plain, the lords south of the Nether Core Region also exerted their efforts, constantly expanding southward, striving to border the Kelong Plain as quickly as possible, among whom the most eye-catching performance was that of the Verdant Tower Alliance.

With a Great Arcanist presiding and overseeing the overall situation, the efficiency of expansion far exceeded that of ordinary territories.

As for the Rodney Territory, which had always been very eager for land, under the leadership of the old and new generations of Rodney Lords, its expansion efficiency could also rank among the top of all Pioneers.

As for further south, south of the Nan Jing.

Saville took action personally, starting from Wolf God Mountain all the way south to the southernmost end of the Zhongjun Mountains, and set up a large number of semi-permanent monitoring points.

This could be considered a response to the expansion call of the Seventon Council and the Princess, fixing the southeastern border for Netheril.

……

March, the ice and snow had not yet melted.

The negotiations among the Surface nations regarding the issue of territorial boundary division were still entangled, but the Underdark war had reached a major turning point.

On the second battlefield of Amalinda, the high-level Mages of Yierlan and Keman joined forces with the Holy Hammer Warriors of Danzo to annihilate twelve high-level Mages of the Drow and severely wounded the avatar of the Drow God of Vengeance.

Of course, the price for achieving such results was also high. In addition to the personnel losses of the main belligerents, the territorial space of Amalinda in the Underdark was completely destroyed; if they did not travel via the Surface, it could be said that they had lost contact with Danzo.

Of course, for Amalinda, the mere destruction of the territorial space was a very small price to pay, as it meant they could withdraw from the battlefield from then on.

On the other side, the demon army on the Danzo battlefield began to lose control one after another after the defeat of the Drow on the Amalinda battlefield; this was a sign of the Drow's retreat.

After all, demons could be summoned at any time, and the Drow Priests and Drow Mages who knew how to summon and control demons were the true war potential.

But since it was a joint operation, Danzo naturally would not easily let the Drow's true war potential leave. Ba Si De, the King of Danzo, struck decisively, stalling the retreating Drow and, together with the high-level Mages and Holy Hammer Warriors returning from the Amalinda battlefield, inflicted heavy casualties on the Drow.

It was just that they could not annihilate the Drow's high-level Mages as they had on the second battlefield; after all, Danzo was not Amalinda and could never agree to pay the price of the destruction of their territorial space.

Furthermore, the Drow, having suffered a loss once, would not necessarily trip over the same stone twice.

But as long as the Drow were driven away, the underground war could be temporarily brought to an end. It was just that the Elves' support was more concentrated on high-end power. Once the Drow were defeated and retreated, the Elf Mages returned to their stations almost without even looking at the demon army that had already scattered, waiting only to confirm the situation of the Drow before returning to the Surface.

The demons controlled by the Drow naturally charged into battle to die "without fear," but without Drow control, it was conceivable that the subsequent mopping-up would likely be a matter that gave Danzo a great headache!

……

April, the cold winter remained.

At this time in previous years, the temperature would have already begun to warm up, and the ice and snow would have begun to become fragile; by around mid-to-late April, all accumulated ice and snow would have almost completely melted.

But this year, it would likely not be until May, the true "Melting Snow Month," that the snow would begin to melt!

In early April, the Drow had already fled to the deeper Underdark, and the Underdark war was confirmed to have come to an end, and by mid-April, the aftermath of the war finally affected the Surface.

The most intuitive sign was that the prices of war-related supplies began to drop generally, and the cash cow of the Tower of Time—the Demon-Slaying Amulet order from the Halan Lord—was officially declared finished.

At the same time, the nations of the Surface finally refocused their main energy back on the Surface, and the negotiations regarding territorial boundary division were once again put on the agenda.

Of course, Xia Duo's Independent Arcane Fire Device project had also entered its final stages, and the official version 1.0 of the Independent Arcane Fire Device was about to emerge.