Snow particles blown up by the wind drifted through the arched window inlaid with crystal glass, and ice crystals slapped on the window, making a crackling sound. The thick walls and magic circulation blocked the cold air outside the castle, keeping the room warm. Warm temperatures.
The bright fireplace was burning not far away, and the brilliance of the flame was projected on several brass ornaments, reflecting a hazy and shaky light and shadow. The warm firelight made the veteran ranger I felt relaxed in my heart - this cold winter didn't seem so cold anymore.
“Tell me about the situation over there in Winterfort.” Gawain walked into the house and casually took off his cloak and hung it on a hook nearby. “How many of us are still active there now?”
"The main team of the Iron Rangers has withdrawn to our control area. There are currently three reconnaissance teams and two mobile teams performing tasks from Winterfort to the Frostwoods," Solderin nodded and said, "In addition, due to changes in the situation in several major towns, divine contamination is spreading outside the army. Military Intelligence Bureau officers lurking in urban areas have withdrawn from dangerous areas in batches. Only a few well-protected liaison stations are still conducting minimal operations. "
"Well..." Gao Wen nodded slightly, "It's good to evacuate in advance. The situation is about to change a lot. The stalemate phase is about to end, and the result will be revealed next. moment."
"I was a little surprised when I first received the order to evacuate - the situation changed faster than I thought," Solderin said. "It seems that the God of War is deteriorating very quickly. Aldernan can't wait any longer... This is also consistent with some phenomena I observed before evacuating. "Some phenomena?" Gawain immediately became serious, "What phenomenon?" /p>
Solderin organized his language slightly and began to report on the situation he had detected during his activities in the Winterhold area: "As of the time I evacuated, very obvious divine disasters and anomalies had begun to appear in the land of the Typhons. Like this, ordinary people began to hear and see some 'messages' related to the gods, and strange noises began to be heard frequently in the blocked Ares Church. In addition, some people witnessed huge phantoms appearing in the sky in the direction of Winterfort. Some clearer eyewitness reports describe the image of the phantom as an iron-gray giant covered in heavy armor."
"...The classic image of the God of War in most religious texts," Gao said. Wen said in a deep voice, "The armored giant, marching in the storm and clouds, overlooking the earth..."
Then he asked: "Did these phenomena appear after that air battle?"
p>
Solderin thought for a while: "If you are talking about the ordinary auditory hallucinations and visual hallucinations, they happened occasionally before the air battle. The locals believed that it was the magic produced after a large number of battle mages gathered together. The phenomenon, if you are talking about the giant... it did appear after the air battle a few days ago." Gawain breathed a sigh of relief, and the information brought by Solderin further confirmed it. His conjecture about the "arrival of the God of War".
The idea just came into his mind, standingSolderin, who was on the opposite side, suddenly spoke again: "If my analysis is correct... these phenomena all indicate that the activities of the God of War are getting stronger, and that He is very 'close' to our world. Considering that you are even here in person now Here... is it possible that the God of War will come?"
Gawain suddenly opened his eyes in surprise. He looked at Solderin up and down, and before he could speak, the latter showed a smile. : "I am not an expert in the field of theology, nor do I have the ability to deduce the overall situation as well as you, but I have accumulated some miscellaneous knowledge over the past few hundred years, and the phenomena I have recently observed in the Winterhold area are enough to convince me I thought of something... I just didn't expect that the situation would really turn out like this."
"Rosetta seems to want to do something big," Gawain took a long breath, "Even I don't. I have to admit that he is a pretty scary guy...but he is also a very capable person of judgment and action."
"In my opinion, you are all quite 'terrible' people. ," Solderin laughed, with emotion in his tone, "Sometimes I can't help but think of the time when I first met you more than seven hundred years ago... At that time, you were a more reckless person, on the battlefield. It's scary, but in my opinion, you were much more reassuring at that time than you are now."
"After all, I only had to be responsible for one army at that time, and the burden of the country was on Charlie. On the body." Gawain said casually, and as soon as he finished speaking, a familiar mental wave suddenly appeared in the depths of his consciousness, interrupting what he was going to say next.
He waved his hand to Solderin in front of him, indicating that the other party would wait for a moment, and then quickly concentrated on immersing his consciousness into the neural network - a moment later, he ended the sudden attack. After sending a message, Solderin on the opposite side immediately asked after noticing that he had "returned to reality": "What happened?"
"The news just came on the 25th," Gawain said with an expression He said solemnly, "Rosetta Augustus left Aldernan yesterday, and Duke Ferdinand left with her."
Hearing this information, Solder Lin's expression suddenly became serious: At this special moment, under this change of situation, Rosetta Augustus himself suddenly left his imperial capital. I am afraid that there is only one piece of information revealed in this matter...
"It looks like it's about to begin." After a few seconds of silence, Gawain said slowly and in a low tone.
......
The dizziness of spiritual connection quickly faded, and Daniel, who was sitting in the chair, opened his eyes.
The fireplace on the side is burning, and the warm flames are jumping happily in the hearth. The magic crystal lamp illuminates the spacious living room, and two magic brooms are automatically cleaning the dust at the corner of the stairs. The old mage was sitting in an easy chair near the fireplace, with a warm blanket covering his lower body. An open magic book was placed on his lap. The rune pages in the book were flowing with a moist luster. All this made him It looks like it's just going onHad a small nap.
The young female mage sitting on a chair nearby and reading a book noticed the slight movement of her mentor and immediately raised her head with concern on her face: "Has the message been sent out?"
" Well," Daniel nodded simply, "Nothing unusual, right?"
"No, the sensing runes set up everywhere in the house didn't respond," Mary said immediately, "No one is snooping here."
"That's good," Daniel nodded and said, "Now the situation in Aldernan is very stable on the surface, but secretly the Obsidian Imperial Army and the Royal Secret Agents have almost stretched their nerves, so even if it's just a few minutes You must be extra careful when communicating... You haven't used neural networks these days, right?"
"No!" Mary shook her head immediately, "I've always been very careful."
Daniel. After a slight "hmm", his eyes fell on Mary and did not move for a long time. The black-haired female mage finally twisted her neck awkwardly under this gaze and asked with a hint of nervousness: "Teacher...what did I fail to do well?"
There was no fear in her tone, it was just the nervousness of some apprentices when facing their mentors.
"If you want to go back to the countryside, I can make arrangements for you," Daniel said without any expression on his face. "With your current abilities and qualifications, I can make you a regional mage." As a manager of the society, even if you don't want to take on the position, you can still live a good life locally and be respected by many people."
"Why did you suddenly say that?" Mary suddenly stared. "It's because I messed up in the lab recently..."
"I just recently found out that what I'm doing is getting more and more dangerous, and I'm afraid your brain can't cope with it at all." "It's my job," Daniel said calmly, "When encountering a situation, I have to be distracted to tell you what to do."
Mary was stunned for a few seconds, as if she needed this time to figure out the instructor. She finally gathered her thoughts and boldly broke the silence: "Teacher, I can take care of myself, and I don't want to go back to the countryside... I I think it's good to be here..."
Her tone finally weakened, and the courage she summoned in a few seconds was only enough to say these dozens of words in front of her majestic mentor. It was just a word, but Daniel showed a somewhat surprised expression because of this. He looked up and down for a moment, his apprentice who had never been very promising, and remembered what happened when he found his parents from the countryside a year ago. matter.
After a moment, he withdrew his gaze and snorted coldly: "Then do whatever you want, such an opportunity will never come again in the future."
......< /p>
The magic train slid smoothly and quickly on the track, and the scenery outside the window quickly receded—in the snowy scene, there were fields buried by snow after harvesting.and peaceful villages.
"We are still a while away from reaching the eastern pass of Winterfort, Your Majesty," Ferdinand looked at Emperor Typhon who was sitting on the seat opposite him, "Do you need to take a rest?"
"No need," Rosetta said casually, while scanning the scenery outside the window, "...the magic train is indeed a good thing, and so is the magic machine."
"That's true," said Pedinan, "so no matter how much we invest in it, we have to find a way to make them ourselves."
Rosetta said "hmm", and his eyes seemed to be caught by the view outside the car window. Fascinated by the fields, he stared at it for a long time before breaking the silence again: "Qing Pei Dinan, do you still remember our last hunting in 716?"
Pei Dinan recalled: "You mean that The second winter hunt? Of course I remember it, I have a deep impression... It was the year before your coronation, and the winter was also very cold. We caught several deer in the hunting ground in the north of Talenkins... It was also the last royal winter. In the second year after that, you were crowned and temporarily canceled the winter hunting for that year. In the third year, you officially announced the complete cessation of royal winter hunting activities, and this royal tradition that lasted for hundreds of years came to an end. "
"Yes...then do you still remember what happened during the winter hunting that year?" Rosetta said and glanced at Pedinan, "Don't say you only remember those deer."
p>“Of course I remember what happened,” Pei Dinan recalled seriously. “A hunter broke into a forest farm during the winter when hunting was prohibited, and wanted to secretly hunt a rabbit... He was pregnant. His wife was sick and needed some meat to replenish his body, but the soldiers patrolling around the hunting ground found him. Without any trial or notification, the soldiers shot the hunter with bows and arrows...just like shooting animals in the hunting ground. Same."
"Yeah, just like hunting animals," Rosetta said calmly, "At that time, many people took it for granted."
p>"Even a few years ago, some people took it for granted - it was only in the past two or three years that everything gradually changed. There are more and more scholars and capable people among literate civilians. Businessmen, rune craftsmen, and even commoners began to enter government offices and parliaments at all levels. After systems such as nutrition, education, and newborn pre-selection matured and got on the right track, the number of awakened extraordinary beings in the civilian class also began to increase. Now nobles and commoners There is almost no gap in the proportion of extraordinary awakenings. After that, the nobles have to admit that the common people have the same thinking, learning and growth abilities as them, or to put it more bluntly... admit that the common people are the same species as them. "< /p>
Rosetta listened to Pedinan's story, her calm and slightly sinister expression hiding all her emotional changes. It was not until more than ten seconds of silence that she looked in the direction of Winterfort and broke the silence softly. : "Yes, it took us nearly twenty years to barely accomplish all this..."
"It took more than ten years to make some people realize that it is obvious and easy.It’s really an ironic thing to follow the laws of nature,” Pei Dinan sighed, “and what’s even more ironic is that even you and I didn’t realize these things clearly from the beginning...”< /p>
Rosetta did not respond. He just looked out the window in a daze, looking in the direction of Winterfort. At the end of the snowy fields on both sides of the train was the rolling defense line of Winterfort. The mountains, and Rosetta's eyes were staring at the vast sky between the mountains and the clouds.
There was a faint starlight floating in one of his eyes, and another one seemed to be embedded in the depth of the pupil. With his eyes, he could clearly see the vision deep in the sky -
A giant covered in iron-gray armor was standing in the clouds, overlooking this small and fragile person with empty and cold eyes. In this world, he carries a flag and a giant sword on his back, and holds a war bow as tall as a bell tower in his hand.
That is God. He stands under the clear winter sky, as if the king belongs to Him alone. In the hunting ground, the majestic cities and rolling countryside seemed to be just hunting ground decorations with colorful flags in front of that huge body. Under the bow of God, all mortals in the world - no matter kings or commoners, no matter heroes Whether they are pawns or not, they all seem to be animals waiting to be slaughtered.
The wheels rolled, the train roared, and the wind carrying snow particles rolled up between the repulsion mechanism and the relay pile. The magic energy train gradually accelerated, going straight. Rushing towards the towering god at the end of the horizon who is about to completely enter this world
While this magic train is heading towards the border, there are more than ten transportation lines leading to Winterhold in the hinterland of Typhon. Above, between the wilderness and the valley, between the river and the plain, dozens of knights and battle mage groups, and hundreds of thousands of extraordinary soldiers, are moving towards the war zone.