Typhon Empire, southwest border.
The winter rain mixed with fine snowflakes continued to fall, splashing a chaotic curtain in the dim skylight of the evening. The continuous rain, the gloomy sky, and the fog in the mountains were entangled and mixed with each other. , making the whole world seem blurry and hazy.
In this hazy world, the poor border mountain villages have fallen into darkness early. The mountain people who have no money to buy lamp oil can only hide in dark houses in this bad weather, relying on He was warming himself by the small fire, while looking at the ancient black spire standing on the top of the mountain with some horror.
The windows at the top of the black spire are emitting a strange dark red light, and ominous dark clouds are shrouding the top of the spire. The chaotic and hazy rain seems to be summoned by those lights, making the whole place... The world has become dark and damp.
The crazy old magician is doing those terrible things again - the superstitious mountain people closed their windows uneasily one by one, whispering about the gods they believe in in their homes, and looking forward to it. Don't let the curse of the black magician befall you.
At the top of the magic tower, Mary and several other apprentices did not know what the superstitious and ignorant villagers in the mountain village were thinking. Even if they knew, they had no interest in paying attention.
These apprentices are nervously setting up the laboratory, placing various magic materials in the correct places according to the instructor's instructions. A large brazier is burning in the center of this stone room. In the brazier There was an abnormally colored red flame jumping, and the flame was like blood shaking in the air.
The old magician stood in the center of a magic circle next to the brazier. While injecting magic power into the magic circle, he stared at the movements of each apprentice with his gloomy eyes. He was not wearing the black robe. The artificial nerve cord spread out from his spine and squirmed slowly behind him, like a poisonous snake.
An apprentice accidentally shook his hand when he sprinkled amethyst dust into the brazier. The sparks that shot out rippled in the air. The apprentice immediately looked at the fire pit in horror. His own mentor, but the old magician just glared at him fiercely: "Be careful! You waste!"
The apprentice breathed a sigh of relief thankfully, and quickly continued with the task at hand in a more cautious manner. work.
While Mary used a special tool to pour the liquid mixed with ore powder, monster blood, and magic grass juice into the rune grooves on the floor, she secretly glanced at her mentor.
Since the last "connection", the state of the old mage Daniel has become increasingly abnormal.
Although he has always acted crazy in the past, punishing apprentices for no reason, and doing all kinds of creepy experiments, something is wrong with the old mage this time. The same - he seemed to be greatly frightened and under tremendous but unspeakable pressure. His whole person seemed particularly nervous. He drove the apprentices to work on magic almost sleeplessly.Countless spiritual defense circles were set up in the tower, and countless new runes were carved on his body. He had to meditate for a long time before he could fall asleep, and he woke up in nightmares more than once...
The other apprentices didn't know why, but Mary suspected that this series of abnormal behaviors were related to the "connection" performed by the mentor last time.
The mentor said that he made a deal with a terrible being...so all this was caused by that deal? Was it that "terrible existence" that frightened this powerful magician to this extent?
What a terrifying monster that must be...
Mary did not dare to ask the instructor for details. She could only lower her head and do her work silently, and pray that in the process Don't make mistakes, don't be punished by the old mage, and she knows that others may think so too.
Finally, all the magic runes were set up, and the ritual braziers and magical instruments were also in the correct position and state. The old magician took a look at the situation in the laboratory and anxiously placed Waving his hands: "Everyone, get out!"
The apprentices hurriedly left the laboratory one by one as if they had been granted amnesty.
"Mary! You stay!" The old mage's vicious voice came from behind.
The body of the young low-level female mage trembled involuntarily, but she did not dare to disobey her mentor's order. She could only try to calm her heartbeat, then slowly turned her head and came to the old mage respectfully.
“Stretch out your hand!”
Mary obeyed the order almost numbly, raised her left hand and handed it over. Then she watched helplessly as the old mage grabbed her arm and He casually stabbed her arm with a dagger.
At this moment, she almost pulled her hand back, but in the end she stopped abruptly, an action that might bring terrible punishment.
After the sharp pain, the female mage's blood flowed out of the wound and floated strangely in the air.
Daniel casually drew a few runes in the air with a blood-stained dagger, and the blood from Mary was drawn and floated towards the brazier in the center of the room, where it was quickly swallowed up by the flames inside.
"Okay...ok..." the old mage muttered nervously, "mix the blood of the sacrificer into the ritual process, this should be able to transfer the extraterrestrial wanderers to the sacrificer. ...Coupled with these misleading and defensive runes around me, I am safe, I am safe..."
Before Mary had time to hear what the old mage meant, she was The reporter pushed hard from behind: "Go, stand in the middle of the magic circle, hurry up!"
Mary glanced at the magic circle, judged it based on her knowledge of mysticism, and then Recalling what my mentor had said before, I finally realized with horror what this terrifying old mage wanted to do -
This old man wanted to deceive the terrifying existence with whom he had made a deal, and he wanted to use himself as a sacrifice. As a scapegoat!
But it was too late for her to resist, she had already stepped into the devil's trapThe magic circle, a powerful force sucked her firmly in place!
And even if she was not attracted by the magic circle, she knew that the result would not change. She did not dare and was unable to resist...
Daniel looked at those dark red The runes lit up one by one, and the female apprentice, who was usually the most silent, stood obediently within the circle. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
The time agreed between him and the wanderer from outside the territory is coming soon, but he still has to make one last struggle - he has arranged dozens of layers of protective magic circles in this mage tower. , set up a large number of protective spells on himself. Such a lot of protection may be enough to resist the arrival of wanderers from outside the territory...
And he also used Mary as a misleading medium to push into the magic circle. This is also a layer insurance.
What if a wanderer from outside the territory discovers this "fake"?
Then put all the blame on this female apprentice, saying that it was she who broke into the magic circle at the critical moment of the ceremony and caused trouble to the great outsider wanderer...
p>Daniel felt that his head was swelling and his thoughts were slowly becoming confused. He looked at the female apprentice in the magic circle and suddenly felt a little confused. He was confused about when she became his apprentice and why he was Standing here, wondering why he wanted to hurt an innocent child...
Several messy and broken pictures suddenly popped up in his mind. He saw his younger self standing in a dilapidated building. In the mage tower, he saw a little girl who was only about ten years old running up to him recklessly, and saw him preparing food for the little girl...
Daniel was stunned for a moment, and immediately rushed forward to try to kill the little girl. Mary was rescued, but the moment he took action, his mind fell into chaos again.
The desperate research on magic, the magical power of the Eternal Sleeper, the joy of searching for the truth and achieving great success...
He looked at Mary fiercely, waiting for the protective measures he had set up. The time to stop the outsiders.
Then, his eyes shook. An endless world composed of clear sky and boundless water surface quickly unfolded around him. Countless huge metal platforms floated on the water, and the wandering outsider The person stood in front of him with a smile on his face.
The protective measures he set up had no effect at all - Mary's role as a misdirector was of no use at all.
"Lord...my lord..."
The old mage's chaotic thinking finally woke up in this virtual world, and he instantly realized how stupid his actions were. , and try to remedy it.
However, Gawain didn't care about the old mage's attitude at all, and he didn't even realize that the other party had done any protection before -
Because he didn't connect through "invasion" at all. This old mage's, the last time he kicked the other party out of the network, he left an open port in the other party's mind, and it was still on the networkHe dug a corresponding backdoor...
This is also one of the results of his research on the Eternal Sleeper's psychic network technology for a period of time.
He believes that those eternal sleepers who are always focused on improving their personal strength and still only know how to use traditional mind protection spells to protect their minds will definitely not be able to discover this new operation based on network architecture...
p>The old mage looked at the "outside wanderer" in front of him with a little surprise, and a question arose in his heart - why is this inhuman existence in front of him not angry? Isn't his own protection and misleading an offense and betrayal to him?
Gawain finally noticed the strangeness of the old mage and asked casually: "Why are you nervous?"
The old mage was startled for a moment and quickly lowered his head: "I...no, I just felt a little scared because I was summoned by you again."
He suddenly understood why the extraterrestrial wanderer in front of him ignored his "little action".
Because this powerful being didn't feel his little resistance at all...
The dozens of layers of mental protection barriers in the mage tower, the countless protective runes on his body, Mary, who was used as a bait, and the specially arranged ceremony site, combined to create an obstructive force, have not yet reached the level that can be sensed by the "outside wanderers"...
"Don't be nervous, let's sit down and slow down" Talk slowly." With his ever-gentle smile, Gawain waved his hand to create tea tables, seats, tea snacks and other things, and instructed Daniel to sit down.
Daniel sat down carefully, and because of his guilty conscience, he did not even look at Gawain.
He heard the calm voice coming from the other side: "I have some things for you to do."
"Just give your orders..."
Gawain smiled and revealed a pile of books and drawings with his hand tools: "Don't worry, let's do two sets of big questions first."