The sky was gloomy, and turbulent winds blew from the direction of the plains, carrying the cold air that had not completely receded into the city. Under the dim skylight, Count Pompeii stood on the terrace of the family castle, his mood even gloomier than the sky.
More and more rumors are spreading between cities and villages. The content of the rumors is particularly disturbing. Some people say that a terrible plague broke out in the Jumu Crossing area, and some say that Wang ** has suffered a disastrous defeat. , important cities and strongholds fell one after another, and all kinds of news were chaotic. Even nobles like the earl could not get accurate information from the north - and this was the most disturbing point.
The castle terrace has a wide view, overlooking the entire city and the vast plains outside the city. The slightly fat Earl of Pompeii was wearing a warm thick coat, leaning on a cane, and looking into the distance in the cold wind. His eyes first swept across the hills and woods in the north direction - not long ago, a strange team coming out of the Rock Fortress passed by the edge of his territory and headed to the north. That team was led by an Elf Ranger , riding in a strange magical vehicle and carrying strange equipment. They did not explain their mission and destination, but they carried a passage document signed by Duke Gawain Cecil.
Count Pompeii did not dare to stop him.
But judging from the well-trained performance of that team and their direction of progress, it is not difficult for Mr. Earl to guess that their actions may be related to the changes in the situation in the north in recent times.
His eyes moved along the hills and plains. The sparkling Dorgon River entered his sight, followed by the distant mountains and the hazy mountains between them. Rock Fortress, that majestic fortress is still shrouded in a layer of dense magic shield. The mountains and city walls together block all sights that peep south.
Since the Cecil family regained control of the Southern Territory, that land has closed its door—of course, its physical "door" will open every once in a while, and there is even a rock city. It will be open to visitors, but symbolically, the "gate" to the south has been closed since the end of the Unification War until today.
The surveillance and control system that the kingdom spent a hundred years building has been completely cut off. Now no one knows what the resurrected founding Duke is brewing in his kingdom, and no one knows Knowing how that land has changed in the past two years, people can only guess based on the fantastic stories told by merchants and adventurers, as well as the glimpses seen in Rock City. In addition to speculating on the customs and customs of the southern territory, another focus of the busybodies is the door of Rock Fortress - when will that door open and under what circumstances will it open?
This is probably a more difficult mystery than the current situation in the north.
Perhaps when that door opens, this "field count" will come to an end.
It is adjacent to the Rock Fortress, and the whole family, old and young, is within the range of the fortress’ cannons.Lack of royal support, having lost almost all of his troops in the last southern war, and now the economic lifeline of the territory is still firmly controlled by merchants from Cecil. Count Pompeii has been living in this torturous situation for a long time. Now I am very open-minded.
He was looking in the direction of the Rock Fortress in a daze. His extraordinary vision allowed him to vaguely see the scene of the fortress and the mouth of the Dorgon River without the help of eagle eye skills. While looking out in trance, he suddenly saw a scene that shook his mind - at first he thought he had seen it wrong, but soon, he clearly confirmed what he saw through the eagle eye technique.
The main gate of the estuary in the west of Rock Fortress was opened - in the past, only one side gate would be opened there to allow merchant ships to enter and exit, but at this moment, the entire Dorgon River estuary is open.
Three large ships with "double wings" spread out, no sails and no oars, riding the wind and waves are sailing on the Dorgon River, heading north.
Count Pompeii's eyes widened, and the magical brilliance of Eagle Eyes shone in front of his eyeballs. He looked over there clearly and saw three large ships followed by a group of ships. A series of small boats saw the fort at the top of the fortress rising from its hiding place, and saw countless soldiers running above the city wall...
The main city gate of the Rock Fortress is still closed at this moment. But Count Pompeii suddenly realized something -
The southern border is open.
......
In the city of Saint-Sunil, the inner and outer urban areas are still bustling and lively. The arrival of the Festival of Recovery and a timely rain a few days ago have given people a sign of a good harvest this year. , the city official opened the market in advance, and the wealthy residents of the royal capital held many celebrations in various urban areas. Even the poorer civilians in the outer city also participated in the celebrations - the bustling and prosperous scene seemed to be completely obscured The long-term gloom that has shrouded the kingdom, the civil war in the plains, the changes in the wasteland barrier, all these disturbing things were obscured by the superficial celebrations.
However, deep in the Royal City, in the Silver Castle, the people in charge of this country have already smelled the turbulence in the air.
In the upper area of the castle, in a study room covered with dark blue velvet, Wales Morn was sitting behind the desk, Baldwin Franklin was standing next to him, and the two of them were standing opposite. A royal mage wearing a black starry robe with white beard and hair. The old magician was reporting the situation with a guilty look on his face: "...still can't contact the Mountain Corps, His Royal Highness, the Duke, and the magic transmission at the giant wood crossing. The communication with the Duchess of Wilder has been interrupted..."
Welsh's face sank, and Duke Franklin, standing next to him, asked on his behalf: "The magic communication has been interrupted, where is the beacon? ?"
"All the beacons have not been lit, Lord Duke"
After a brief silence, Franklin nodded: "...Okay, thank you for your hard work, Rotas. Master."
The old mage left, XiDuke Jing lowered his head and looked at Wales who was sitting on the chair: "We should send another group of gryphon messengers, and at the same time send another group of knights through the 'Valley Corridor' - perhaps it is affected by the magic surge that often occurs in spring. The effect of the communication spell."
Welsh nodded expressionlessly: "You can arrange it as you see fit, Duke Franklin - I'm a little tired."
"That's it. Leave it to me," Baldwin Franklin bowed slightly, put his hand on his chest, and said with impeccable etiquette, "Please rest peacefully, Your Highness."
The Duke of Westland left. In the room, Wales Moen sat quietly behind the desk for a while. His eyes glanced at the several documents that had just been delivered and needed to be reviewed. After a slight pause, he continued to move to the side, and finally landed on the desk. on a stack of information.
The crown prince thought for a moment, stretched out his hand to pull out the information, and looked at it carefully.
Some key contents of the information slipped past his sight:
Activities of the Cult of the Death of All Things...Dark Ritual...Several small-scale epidemics in the area of the giant wood crossing...
This information is not timely. Many of them are even information from the end of last year. Due to the difficult roads in winter and the inconvenience of messengers, they were not sent to Silver Castle until today.
Welsh knew that Duke Franklin must have a share, but he must not have had time to see it yet - after all, the Duke Regent who really needs to deal with state affairs is much busier than the "Crown Prince in Name". , these "little things" involving cultists and dark priests are not worthy of being ranked first.
While reading carefully, Wales Moen’s brows slowly wrinkled.
Outside the study door, a figure wearing a holy white dress and a faint holy light floating around him stood briefly. Veronica's hand was already on the door handle, but before turning the handle, Her movements suddenly stopped.
The faint illusory heartbeat sound reached the ears of this "Saint Princess". She raised her head and glanced toward the southeast, and suddenly appeared on her face with an indifferent expression. A touch of deep solemnity.
"Someone has taken a forbidden path," Veronica whispered, as if to herself, "Things have changed..."
She canceled without hesitation After this visit to communicate the relationship between brother and sister, she turned and left the door of Wales Morn's study. With a flash of light, her figure directly transformed into the purest holy light and disappeared into the corridor of the castle.
After a moment, this pure holy light flowed into the Holy Light Cathedral next to the Silver Castle, condensed and descended through the Holy Light Cloud on the top of the cathedral, and came to the Holy Seat of Pope Saint Ivan III. .
There was no one else in the Great Hall of Light. Only the Pope himself was sitting in the center of the focus of the Holy Light, meditating and praying silently. The arrival of Veronica interrupted St. Ivan. After three lifetimes of prayer, this extremely old man slowlyOpening his eyes, those cloudy eyeballs were quickly filled with pure light: "Veronica, the Lord's most pious child - didn't you go to the castle to visit His Highness the Welsh?"
" "My Majesty, I suddenly heard the revelation of the Holy Light," Veronica said softly with a worried expression, "Shadows are gathering, and some people are challenging God's authority and trying to pollute the Lord's land."
Holy. ?The old face of Ivan III seemed to have remained unchanged, but the cloud of holy light shrouding the entire Great Hall of Light suddenly surged. Behind the Pope's throne, the image of light that spread and grew like a tree appeared. Expanding in an instant, the "fruits" hanging at the ends of countless branches opened their "eyes", as if a powerful existence hidden on the other side of the world suddenly cast a startling glance at the world - Veronica before this He had calmly averted his gaze and did not look at the "Tree of Holy Light" behind the Pope. After a moment, the "Tree" returned to its original state.
Then, Saint Ivan III's expression began to change. He opened his eyes slightly: "This is a serious act of blasphemy. Where did it happen?"
"King* *On the battlefield facing the Eastern Territory, an evil heretic sect turned it into a ceremonial site, and the large number of Crusaders sent there by the church have been contaminated by the power of darkness."
Speaking of this. , Veronica paused slightly, raised her eyelids, and stared at St. Ivan III: "...Your Majesty, it's time to prepare to defend the glory of the Lord."
In the entire great light As the holy light surged in the hall, St. Ivan III's vision was slightly dazed for a moment, and then he whispered as if he was dreaming: "It's time to be ready to defend the glory of the Lord..."
...
Prayers to gods seem to be less and less effective.
In the wilderness southeast of the Holy Spirit Plain, Belk Laurent trudged through the mud and gravel with one foot deep and one foot shallow.
His cloak is in tatters, with only a few rags remaining on the buckles on the shoulders. The light armor is mottled and cracked, and is covered with scars from the vicissitudes of several fierce battles. The wounds were still not healed, and were reminding them of their existence with subtle and sharp stings, but Belk had not stopped and was still moving forward in the wilderness.
Because he didn’t know where the deadly pollution had spread, and he didn’t know how far those monsters could chase him.
After wading through a stream, Belk stopped. He raised his head to look at the sun and determined the direction. Then he took out a small God of War Talisman from his arms and began to look at himself. The gods of faith perform short prayers to pray for spiritual and physical blessings and restoration.
However, this prayer had little effect.
It seems that the fatigue and pain accumulated over the past few days have exceeded the limit of God's blessing.
Belk sighed, put away the small amulet, and then looked around.
There are not many people around here, in factHe hadn't encountered any trace of humans for many days.
He was indeed deliberately avoiding inhabited places because he was worried that the inhabited places would be polluted by the "crystal cluster curse", but he did not encounter any merchants and merchants along the way. Traveler... This is either a pure coincidence, or it is caused by something more terrifying.
Belk shook his head and shook those bad associations out of his mind. He knew that he still had a long way to go, and he couldn't scare himself before reaching his destination.
He is going to the south, to the Principality of Cecil.
The road leading to the northern region has been occupied by those crystal cluster giants, and the road leading to the eastern border is in a similar situation. The only two directions left to choose are the western border and the southern border. These two directions may It was not yet contaminated, and after some thought, he finally decided to head south.
There is no reason. In this bad situation, intuition is the best reason. Intuition told him that he should go to the Southern Territory and send the warning message to the Southern Territory so that the guardians there would know about the giant tree as soon as possible. The situation at the crossing.
Duke Gawain Cecil has warned this country more than once. Now, it is time to repay.
Belk took a breath, calibrated his direction, and walked toward the south.