The Collection of The End

——Third Age, 3019, January 8——

The wilderness of Eriador, the ruins of the ancient elven city "Eregion".

"We will keep our current direction and walk along the western foothills of the Misty Mountains for about forty days. If all goes well, we will pass through the Gap of Rohan from there, and then we will turn east and head for Mordor."

Outside the temporary camp, at the top of an abandoned sentry tower, Gandalf pointed to the undulating mountains in the distance and explained to Frodo.

"Is it to avoid the Nazgul?" Frodo nodded to express his understanding, and then asked.

"Of course, those tireless undead monsters on the plains and continents can easily travel three times faster than the Fellowship of the Ring who need to rest." Gandalf replied.

Fellowship of the Ring...? Frodo looked down at his fellow travelers in the camp.

Aragorn was trying to teach Merry and Pippin how to use the sword, and they were still able to fight one against two, while Sam was there holding a plate of grilled sausages and cheering.

A brown-haired female elf carrying a long bow was looking at another guard tower, and beside her was a black-haired, black-eyed man who was very handsome despite his height... a dwarf.

They are Tauriel, the elf who represents Mirkwood, and Kili, the dwarf who represents the Lonely Mountain in the Fellowship of the Ring.

Since the elves and dwarves looked down upon each other, they had said at the meeting that they would not participate if the other party participated. At this time, the two of them stood up hand in hand and expressed their intention to participate in the Fellowship of the Ring's expedition together.

The matter was resolved perfectly, and by the way, Sam, who had given up his ambition to marry an elf, renewed his determination again.

But to be honest, it would be better for him to give up, from the perspective of his face.

As for the last person, she was naturally Sophie who appeared in the form of a hobbit girl, but she now calls herself "Jackfruit" and is the daughter of the Regent of Gondor. The human representatives originally wanted to send a maid to follow, but Tauriel promised that she would After taking good care of her, she actually agreed.

If they didn't know their "princess" was a dragon, maybe it was for Gandalf's sake?

"Huhu - ah wu!" Sophie, who was lying on the ruins wall looking at flowers, opened her mouth and swallowed the nameless wild flower swaying in the wind in front of her.

"..." Frodo was speechless and had nothing to say.

"I would like to compose a poem about this situation." Gandalf said, looking ahead.

Isn't this something wrong with Sam? Frodo hesitated for two seconds and then said: "Please?"

Gandalf tapped the mossy ruins beside him with his staff, and then chanted:

"the state is broken, its mountains and rivers remain, the country's mountains and rivers are broken"

".The city is springy and the vegetation is deep"

"Stirred by the time, ltears, I feel the time and shed tears"

"hating parting, birds,. hating parting, birds are frightened"

It's infinitely better than Sam's limerick, and it fits the current environment quite well.

The abandoned elven city-state is covered with vegetation, moss, and flowers that have just been innocently eaten.

But... where are the birds?

Buzz...buzz...

Just when Frodo thought of this, a large "dark cloud" floated in the gray sky in the distance. They traveled against the wind at extremely fast speeds.

"It's Kraban from the Dark Land! Everyone, take cover!" Tauriel jumped down from the tower lightly and warned loudly.

"Okay, the game is over." Aragorn lifted Merry and Pippin one by one and hid in the nearby ruins. Sam hurriedly doused the bonfire with water and hid in too.

Gandalf frowned and pulled Frodo down the tower to hide against the wall.

"Gah——scared——!]"

A moment later, the "dark cloud" passed over the campsite just now, and Frodo could clearly see that it was a group of strange birds with dark bodies and red eyes. There seemed to be hundreds of them.

After passing by the campsite, these strange birds did not fly directly, but instead circled around the ruins.

"Perhaps they have not seen us, but are just suspicious?" Frodo asked in a low voice.

"They are Saruman's eyes. Everything they see will be presented to the traitor." Gandalf shook his head: "If they transmit the scene here back, our rough disguise will not be able to deceive him."

"That……"

"Then let us kill them all!" Aragorn, who was in another hiding place, suddenly jumped out of the ruins: "You damn crows, look here!"

"Oh! God! That's impossible!" "How can we kill so many flying things?" Merry and Pippin exclaimed together.

"quack--】"

The Kraban group, known as "crows", made a mocking cry, circled Aragorn twice, then turned around and seemed ready to leave.

"As long as one escapes, Saruman will know that we are here." Gandalf frowned and stood up, raising his staff as if ready to support.

"None of them can escape," Aragorn raised the sword in his hand towards the sky and chanted loudly: "Everything is a dream, this is the flower of the aftertaste]!"

Chi hum——

Frodo felt that his eyes suddenly turned white for a moment, and then, a sword mark of an indescribable color penetrated the white, and then streaked across the birds in the sky.

The sword mark clearly only affected less than one tenth of the flock of birds, but all the crows froze on the spot and then fell like stones.

Uh...do the flowers and birds correspond here?

"The Holy Sword Narsil was unsheathed for the first time after being recast to kill Kraban." Gandalf shook his head and said.

"It is no longer called Nasir, wizard." Aragorn played with two sword flowers: "I named it 'Anril', which means 'Flamy of the West'."

Impressed, Frodo nodded.

When leaving Rivendell, the Evening Star Princess solemnly handed a sword to Aragorn, but she didn't know at the time that it was the holy sword that cut off Sauron's finger.

"But..." Aragorn scratched his head: "She insisted on calling this sword 'Emile of Fire'."

she?

Frodo looked at Tauriel and Sophie in confusion, and found that the elf also looked puzzled, but Sophie was waving to Aragorn happily.

No, she wasn't waving at Aragorn.

Frodo followed Sophie's gaze and looked at the Holy Sword of Nasil in Aragorn's hand.

I saw a little girl with blond hair and blue eyes floating squarely on the sword, wearing a strange set of silver-white armor. She was also waving to Sophie, but as Aragorn put the holy sword back into its scabbard, the little girl disappeared. .

Hmm...is that the weapon spirit?

——Third Age, 3019, January 13——

Walls of Moria.

After encountering the Kraban Swarm, the Fellowship of the Ring changed course and prepared to pass through the Mines of Moria.

Although none of those crows ran away - half of them were made into dry food, the disappearance of a reconnaissance team will still make the other party alert and send more reconnaissance troops.

After discussing with Aragorn, Gandalf believed that if he continued to kill every batch of scouts, Saruman would discover the problem sooner or later. It was better to change the route while he was suspicious and investigate the original route, and reach the destination first. land.

Qili proposed that he could pass through the Moria mines occupied by the "Bahrain Expedition". He was an old friend who had experienced the Lonely Mountain Mission and the Battle of the Five Armies with him - although these two wars might have broken out. They all ended up in vain because of a certain dragon's greed.

"So, Kili, where is the gate?" Aragorn asked, looking at the cliff in front of him.

"The dwarven gate is invisible when it is closed," Kili said, knocking on the wall with his axe. "I promise it will be quick."

"That's because they are made of Ithildin and will only appear when exposed to moonlight and starlight." Gandalf followed the dwarf and said, "But the light of stars and moon cannot shine into the underground passage. Maybe we should find something that can means of reflection.”

Everyone looked at the underground lake in front of the Wall of Moria. There was some starlight shining on the other end of it, but it was still far from illuminating the wall here.

"Starlight?" Sophie said, "Can the 'Light of Elendil' be used?"

"Of course, my dear, Elendil is the brightest star in the world." Tauriel replied without hesitation.

"Oh..." Sophie touched in her pocket and took out a small bottle, in which a blue liquid shining like starlight was flowing.

So you changed her to a less expensive toy? Frodo looked at Gandalf.

Gandalf stroked his beard and made the sign of ten, then the sign of one.

It's only one-tenth of the value of that "gem"... that's valuable enough.

Phew——buzz——

As the thing called the "Light of Elendil" was taken out, an aqua blue door shining with the same light appeared on the Wall of Moria, with crowns, trees, diamonds and stars painted on it.

"Lord of Moria, the Gate of Durin," Gandalf stepped forward and read the dwarf inscription on the door: "Say friend, and then enter."

"Friend," Kili said.

The door didn't move.

"How can it be so simple?" Gandalf held up his hat: "This should be a puzzle, and you have to tell the preset password."

Well... Frodo looked at the door and began to think.

According to the records in Bilbo's book, this mine was the border between elves and dwarves a long time ago. Maybe you can try using Elvish, but you can't speak it yourself, and...

If he accidentally opens the door, will it look like Gandalf is stupid?

"Say friend," Kili said.

It seems like there is someone more stupid here.

"Burning fire, fervent ale, boneless barbecue, and mountains of gems," Kili continued.

"No, man, that's how you entertain your friends, but..."

"Really!"

In the middle of Aragorn's words, Sophie jumped up and slammed against the door.

Boom! Wow!

There was a small human-shaped gap in the Dulin Gate, and then the whole thing collapsed.

"Oh," Gandalf held up his hat again: "Uninvited friends are also friends."

"Haha..." Kili touched his nose: "Let's go meet our old friends."

In the deep pool at the door, the tentacle that had just been thrust out paused and quietly retracted.

——

"Balin! Ori! Oin oin! I am Qili! What's wrong with you?"

Kili looked at the dwarves who were chasing him and waving their weapons at him, shouting and trying to wake them up, but to no avail.

Unexpectedly but not entirely unexpectedly, the dwarves' party was ruined, Frodo thought as he ran away.

Although the Moria Mine has indeed been recovered by the "Bahrain Expedition", and they are thriving and building mines here, they have obviously encountered something evil again. The dark and hard skin and the fiery red and dull eyes are enough to explain everything.

These dwarves were originally mining, drinking, and forging like ordinary dwarves, but after seeing the Fellowship of the Ring team, they immediately grabbed anything that could be used as a weapon and started chasing them.

The Fellowship of the Ring couldn't figure out the situation for a while, so they could only knock them unconscious and try to find other dwarves who could communicate.

But unfortunately, until they found the king here, Gandalf and Kili's former acquaintance Balin and two other friends, they also refused to communicate and chose to attack the Fellowship of the Ring.

"That's strange." Although it was unnecessary, Sophie, who was also protected in the center of the team, pointed at her: "There is obviously no Balrog here anymore."

Yes, I was eaten by you.

"Many people think that the Balrogs are rare monsters made of lava and fire, but in fact, they are a tribe in their own right, and they are the capable men of Melkor, the former master of the demon lord Sauron," Gandalf casually said to the chasing dwarves. While casting the slowing and hindering spell, he explained: "If a place suitable for the survival of a certain animal loses its owner, it may be occupied by other animals of the same kind, and the same is true for the Balrog."

"So we have to face a Balrog?" Aragorn used the back of his sword to push away or knock out the dwarf who was blocking him: "I don't think that is a good idea."

"Of course not," Gandalf looked at the underground passages where magma and flames were gradually increasing around him, with a solemn expression: "Ordinary Balrogs have no ability to control other intelligent creatures."

"In any case, the problem here is no longer something that our team can solve. I want to return to Mirkwood and ask Lord Thranduil for help." Since he could not kill the controlled dwarf with arrows, the marksman Tauriel You can only use your bow to knock them away.

"Counting that we have troubled him five times this time, let's think of other ways." Qili answered.

"choke----!】"

Before Tauriel could answer, a huge roar like the impact of lava rang out and echoed repeatedly throughout the dwarven city.

The controlled dwarves stopped one after another and gave up chasing the Ring Guard team, but they did not feel relaxed at all, because with the roar, the surrounding temperature became higher and higher.

Boom! Wow!

With the sound of rocks breaking and collapsing and lava surging, a large cavern around the Fellowship suddenly collapsed, forming a huge cavity filled with lava.

The next moment, a large stream of magma directly in front rushed to the top of the cave like a fountain, and then stopped falling. Instead, it combined with numerous molten rocks and magma to form a rotating body of magma with its lower body made of lava and its upper body made of solid lava. A super giant monster holding a huge flaming battle axe.

"Let the flames purify everything!]" it roared with a voice like lava spewing out.

"That's Gothmog, the Lord of Fire. I thought it had died in the First Era." Gandalf raised his staff solemnly and gestured to the passage that was exposed due to a large area of ​​collapse. : "You guys go away quickly and don't worry about me. Only Maia can deal with Maia."

"Can……"

"Die! Mortal! Die! Bug!]" Gothmog Ragnaros swung his huge flaming battle ax and slashed down on the crowd.

Gandalf instantly held up a bright white spherical shield to block the attack, and roared with the same momentum:

"youshallnotbepassed!]"