Sword of Dawn

Page 626

Andersa smiled, looked up at the vast land behind her, and the living forest at the end of the land that was still lush and green in this cold winter, with a thoughtful expression: "The soldiers we sent to the Cecil camp returned At that time, I suspected that it might have something to do with some kind of facility that the Cecilians built near the camp, but I never thought that they let the giant tree of Thorin spread underground to the border. I must admit , They are indeed a little better than the staid Typhons in terms of whimsy."

"Their 'wonderful ideas' finally saved the situation in the north and prevented the terrible fate," the female adjutant couldn't help but sighed, "The living forest blocked the main force of the deformed body from the gap, and Up to now, Ms. Bertila's underground attack has greatly reduced the pressure on the entire northern defense line and part of our defense line. Without this external force, let alone standing here, I am afraid that it is almost impossible to maintain the existing position .”

Andersa nodded lightly, and at the same time couldn't help thinking about the current situation of this "Wasteland War".

She is not very clear about the situation on the other fronts, but at least on the battlefield facing Typhon and Cecil, the situation can be said to have completely stabilized, and there has even been some "progress"—— With the living forest gaining a firm foothold on the border, more than half of the main northern army of the deformed body was lost. The Typhon Northern Army and the Cecils survived the most thrilling and difficult challenges at the beginning of the war. Now the two countries have not only stabilized their defenses, but even Relying on their already powerful military strength, each of them carried out several pushbacks, successfully pressing the monsters that emerged from the wasteland back to the interior of the wasteland, and each set up several propulsion bases inside the original magnificent wall—— In a sense, this is even part of the goal of "counterattacking the wasteland" at the beginning.

At this moment, she herself is standing on the original wasteland of Gondor. Near her are two propulsion bases and a purification base established by the Typhons. These bases together maintain the survival of the human army in this area. At the same time, it is gradually suppressing and weakening the pollution forces entrenched on the earth, making preparations for further advancement in the future.

Of course, it is not easy for these advance troops who entered the wasteland to take root. Those aberrants have never given up their counterattack. Every day, there will be a large-scale monster army swarming from the southern region, destroying the advance army in fierce battles. The temporary fortifications and basic equipment that were finally deployed in the wilderness caused new casualties and pollution. Every step forward on this land has to pay a high cost.

But it is undeniable that both Cecil and Typhon's soldiers have grown rapidly in this tug-of-war, and mortals who are good at learning are rapidly accumulating experience in fighting aberrations, and also accumulating effective means to purify the land. Although the advance on the northern front was slow, at least some progress was made every day.

The situation seems to be pretty good, but for some reason, there is always a faint uneasiness brewing in Andersa's heart - she knows that this kind of uneasiness is not an illusory "intuition", and she doesn't believe in such things as intuition. This uneasiness comes from the intelligence she collected from various channels, as well as her observation and research on those mutants since the beginning of the war.

"General, you seem to be very preoccupied," the adjutant at the side suddenly broke the silence, waking Andersa out of her contemplation. "Are you worried about the more frequent counterattacks by the mutants recently?"

"No, I thought of something else. Do you still remember what happened at Height 74 not long ago?" Andersa shook her head, looked at the adjutant and said, "That massive but anticlimactic attack."

"Highland No. 74? Ah, of course I remember," the adjutant nodded immediately after thinking for a while and said, "A few days ago, on a line of defense near the southern part of the empire, a large number of mutants and hybrid behemoths launched a well-organized attack. , The fierce offensive counterattack once penetrated the defense line of the 16th mountain regiment led by Earl Rick, and occupied the No. 74 highland and a large area around it. Those monsters retreated very neatly - except for leaving a piece of polluted land and two burned towns, they don't seem to have the slightest intention to move forward..."

Speaking of this adjutant, he shook his head: "The think tanks of the Southern Legion of the Empire seem to be trying to analyze the intentions behind the actions of those mutants, but no one can figure out what is going on in the minds of those monsters... After all, those monsters have Not having a brain is still a problem."

"Of course those monsters have no brains, but the commanders behind them are full of wisdom, and those cunning dark priests will not do meaningless things," Andersa shook her head and said, "Those monsters paid such a huge price to occupy the 74 No. [-] highland, but only stayed there for a day. As soon as our main force arrived, they simply retreated to the depths of the wasteland. This did not conform to the law of "destroy along the way and keep advancing" that they showed at the beginning. It makes me... always feel that something is wrong."

The adjutant raised his eyebrows: "What do you mean?"

"All military operations should have their purpose. Those monsters desperately trying to snatch Height 74 must be trying to do something. They stayed there for a day and then withdrew, perhaps because they had accomplished their goal...but where are they? What did you do? There are no witnesses, no clues," Andersa frowned, "The National Knights who recaptured the highlands dug three feet to investigate there, trying to find the 'hidden dangers' left by the enemy, but Only a large number of irrelevant traces were found, such as bombed-out land, excavated mountains, and burned ruins... the obvious traces of destruction are more like covering up something."

"It's indeed suspicious," the adjutant nodded. "What's even more suspicious is... I heard that similar things happened in other areas."

"Another area?" Andersa frowned suddenly, "Where?"

"It is said that in the northern defense line controlled by the Cecils, a large number of mutants suddenly gathered and tried to attack a weak gap in the defense," the adjutant said while recalling, "No matter how strong the Cecils are, they are still mortals, and that gap has also fallen. Now, like Height 74, the aberrations briefly occupied that place..."

"And then?" Andersa asked immediately, "Those mutants are also the same as those on Height 74, and they evacuated after a short occupation?"

"No, after the Cecils confirmed that the position was lost and the defenders withdrew, they directly mobilized the heavy artillery on two nearby high grounds to blow up the entire hill, and then threw a round of incendiary bombs. They only stayed on the high ground for more than ten minutes... I guess they didn't have time to do anything," the adjutant shook his head, sighing, "What does Cecil's commander call this arrangement... Superior firepower mapping Cover. In short, I am very envious."

"...I'm envious too," Andersa's expression became weirder the more she listened, and she couldn't help sighing at the end, "I always thought that Typhon's vigilance and preparations for this wasteland were sufficient, but now I see Come on, our "persistence" in this aspect is far inferior to those Cecilians, especially the pioneering hero who unraveled the coffin... I am afraid that since the day he walked out of the grave, he has made up his mind to Use the power of the whole country to counterattack the wasteland."

But after sighing, the young wolf general quickly turned his attention back to the issues he had been thinking about before.

There is a problem behind this, those aberrants must be planning something, even their aggressive attack from the beginning of the war is very likely to be some kind of cover - the more she thinks about it, the more Andesa thinks about this conjecture firm.

If this is the case, then there may be great hidden dangers behind the relatively good situation on the northern front battlefield. Those dark priests who are still entrenched in the wasteland must be planning their real goals on other battlefields, and the northern front Local advantages on the battlefield... may instead affect the judgment of the monarchs of the entire alliance.

"I have to send a summons to Aldernan," the young General Wolf finally couldn't help but said after thinking for a long time, but soon she shook her head again, "No, you should write for me, you write something A little better than me, I will dictate your thoughts to you..."

……

On a clear winter afternoon, sunlight shone through the large crystal glass into the study room covered with blue velvet carpet. Gawain was sitting behind his desk, and several magic net terminals next to him projected Hetty, Bai With the holographic projection of Dewen and others, information from all over the empire is being collected and sent to Gao Wen.

"As of now, the northern front of the wasteland of Gondor has been completely stabilized. Under the cover of Ms. Bertila, General Philip successfully disintegrated the main force of the aberrations entrenched in the northern area of ​​Gondor, and established an army in the southern hills of the original magnificent wall. In order to advance the base and purification facilities," Hetty's voice sounded in the spacious study, her voice sounded obviously more relaxed and high-spirited than the previous few days, and the background behind her was the large office of the Supreme Government Affairs Office, " Those purification facilities are working pretty well—the purification devices we used to restore the Great Wall with the Silver Elves are still effective inside the wasteland."

"After all, it is the product of hundreds of years of research by the silver elves. They built a magnificent wall with their own hands. No one knows how to fight against that wasteland better than them," Gawain nodded and asked, "Now How is the situation in the southern part of the mainland? Mainly in terms of communications."

"The existing Magic Net-Sentry Tower data link is still subject to strong interference, and because the Sentinel Tower in some sections has been completely destroyed, the signal transmission is not smooth over a long distance, and it is still unable to communicate with the Silver Empire Or Gaoling Kingdom’s real-time communication,” Hetty replied immediately, “but Mr. Deer is currently providing us with non-real-time battlefield awareness, and coupled with the transmission from the border line of Typhon, we can at least roughly confirm that The situation on the southern front changed.

"At present, the Silver Empire and the Gaoling Kingdom have temporarily recovered. They retreated to the south of the forest barrier as a whole, and re-established a defense line in the northern border of Gaoling. Queen Belsetia is leading the 'Millennium Legion' to try to regain Those occupied areas, but because some of the polluted areas have been turned into wasteland, the overall situation is still anxious."

"The Silver Elves don't need us to worry about it," Gao Wen said with a sigh, "Their Millennium Legion is very powerful. The soldiers are all extremely elite soldiers who have served for more than a few centuries, and the commanders have more than a thousand years of battlefield experience. And when the tide of Gondor broke out, that legion was on the front line against the aberrations, and they all had real 'combat experience'."

As he spoke, he looked at the tactical map hanging on the wall.

"Pedwin, how is the situation on the Western Front?"

"His Royal Highness Rebecca has made outstanding achievements in battle, and the aberrant body collapsed in front of the Dawn of the World."

Chapter 1330 Dark Side Weakness

Grand Consul Baldwin Franklin had a very serious expression when he uttered these words, but Gao Wen felt that it was contrary to what he heard—although he knew that Duke Baldwin would not exaggerate the description at this time, but put The word "outstanding military exploits" sounded a bit weird on Rebecca's head, and Hetty next to her even subconsciously said, "She didn't cause any trouble..."

"Of course not." Duke Baldwin had a helpless expression on his face. He obviously knew how Rebecca usually commented: "His Royal Highness is very...cautious this time. Apart from commanding the Dawn of the World, she has no Do other things. So far, the air force led by her and Commander Jinna has completely disintegrated the enemy's offensive on the western front and driven the enemy's main force to the east of the Wind Erosion Valley. Ms. Wenna and I have led the ground The troops entered the central area of ​​Ogure and began to cooperate with the local defenders to eliminate the out-of-control distortions wandering in the mountains and forests. In addition, we successfully established a temporary communication network with the help of the air platform. Now the communication with the Holy Helm City and the Red Jade City has been completed. Restoration... but the southern region is still in a state of disturbance for the time being."

"Byron will build a new communication station on the southern coastline soon," Gao Wen said with a sigh of relief, "It seems that the crisis on the western front has finally passed..."

"Yes, the pressure on the western front is decreasing. We will join forces with Ogulei's army to recover and purify the fallen land in the east," Duke Baldwin nodded, then hesitated for a moment before continuing, " In addition... the enemy troops on the western front were disintegrated faster than we thought, and after the enemy retreated, they left a large number of uncontrolled aberrant troops in the contaminated area. Although there is no clear evidence to prove it, I suspect ...Her Highness Rebecca's attack may have successfully disrupted the enemy's chain of command."

"She destroyed the enemy's command system?" Gao Wen was immediately attracted by this information, "Tell me in detail."

"Yes," Baldwin nodded, "During the final stage of the Battle of Ruby City, His Royal Highness Rebecca ordered the main guns of the Dawn of the World to shoot at the Wolf's Ridge Mountains - we suspect that there is the enemy's command node. Several attacks Afterwards, the enemy's retreat suddenly fell into a state of disorder. Afterwards, the frontline reconnaissance troops observed that some aberrants were rebuilding order after the chaos, but a large number of aberrants were obviously out of control permanently, and began to appear in the mountains and forests like ordinary monsters. Wandering among the ruins, until now those wandering monsters have not returned to command. However, we have not found any direct clues to explain what His Royal Highness Rebecca's shelling hit at that time..."

"Then we can temporarily conclude that she destroyed the enemy's command node - this is not important, the important thing is that according to your report, after that, other dark priests obviously took over the command of the aberrations on the western front, but there are still a large number of The monsters are permanently out of control..." Gawain's expression became serious, and he detected a crucial clue in this piece of information, "Those monsters that are permanently out of control are the key... This shows that the dark priests' attitude towards mutants The rule' is not so stable, if their command system is cut off in some way, even if they re-establish contact later, a considerable number of monsters will leave this system..."

Speaking of this, Gawain thought for a while: "The main gun of the Dawn of the World... I remember that the range of the conventional main gun of that fortress should not be able to hit directly from the Red Jade City to the Wolf's Ridge Mountain, so what Rebecca fired at that time should be... "

"Supercritical accelerator," Baldwin affirmed Gao Wen's guess, "she completed the final assembly of the accelerator during the voyage of the Dawn of the World, and the bombardment of Wolf's Ridge Mountain was regarded as a 'test firing' after the final assembly. Now Your Highness Still leading the technical staff to continue to adjust and optimize the guide rail structure of the supercritical accelerator, and she is planning to build another one near the central axis of the fortress..."

"She actually finished building that thing during the voyage of the fortress?" Gawain muttered in surprise, "And she plans to build another one? It is indeed her way of thinking..."

Hetty next to him said thoughtfully: "Well...we were studying how to destroy the command system of those aberrations before—those monsters are a huge threat, the main reason is that they suddenly have discipline and tactical awareness, The technicians believe that powerful energy disturbances can interfere with the spiritual signals released by the dark priests behind those monsters, but we have not found this 'powerful energy source', and now it seems..."

"Now it seems that it was indeed the right decision to add three additional budgets to Rebecca and ignore her blowing up the laboratory. The value of supercritical acceleration technology is huge, at least this time it has proved its value on the battlefield," Gao said. Wen smiled and glanced at Hetty, and then he turned his head to look at Duke Baldwin, "In my opinion, the construction of two supercritical accelerators on the Dawn of the World is still too small—regardless of the reasons for those aberrations getting out of control Whether it was the bombardment from the Earthly Dawn that killed their command nodes, or the blast of energy released when the accelerator exploded that cut them off from their controllers, we need more accelerators.

"You tell Rebecca, let her just build it, and all the additions and renovations of the Dawn of the Earth will be subject to special approval during wartime, and it will be up to her to decide. If the ship's materials are not enough, she will report to her, and the air transport unit will send it to her. Going up, the most urgent task is to further enhance the combat capability of the Air and Space Fortress battle group, and to verify the destructive effect of the 'supercritical accelerator' on the distortion body army."

Gao Wen gave serious instructions, but suddenly remembered something, and his expression became extremely serious: "But please remember, whether it is you or Rebecca, you must not plunder local resources or residents' property during operations. —— Violators will be punished as treason. This is very important, especially for the ground troops you lead. This admonition must be distributed to the most basic commanders and let them preach to the soldiers repeatedly. We cannot fight a battle Come down and beat back the enemy but scatter yourself."

"Please rest assured," Baldwin straightened his body immediately, and said in a deep voice, "I have repeatedly emphasized the issue of discipline to the officers and soldiers before setting off. The many barbaric ills of the times. I will also spread your teachings throughout the army-Cecil's soldiers honor discipline and restraint, and this will not change no matter where the expedition goes."

Hearing Baldwin's solemn promise, Gawain nodded slowly, and at this moment, an additional communication was suddenly connected to the magic net terminal in front of him.

The communication was connected, and what he saw was Veronica holding a platinum scepter—she nodded slightly to Gawain, and the background behind her was the scene of golden oak trees growing luxuriantly in the dark: "Your Majesty, the front line captured The aberrant samples of have been sent to the experimental site."

"Has it been delivered?" Gao Wen's eyes lit up, obviously he had been waiting for this news for a long time, "Very well, I will be there soon."

After finishing speaking, he stood up and looked at Hetty in the holographic projection at the same time: "Hetty, you are here to host the next meeting."

Hetty in the projection nodded: "Yes, ancestor."

Gao Wen stepped towards the door of the study not far away, and a swift black shadow flashed across the air, closely following Gao Wen's footsteps.

Dark and silent, deep in the rebellious courtyard shrouded in endless chaotic shadows, a huge golden oak tree stands quietly in the center of a lush lawn. The sprawling vegetation covered and filled the originally criss-crossed cracks on the surface. This "garden" built by Amorn has become a particularly eye-catching and wonderful "shelter" in the dim Shadow Realm—— The Gondor magisters who built the rebellious fortress in the past probably never imagined that the gods who slept here would wake up one day and change this place into such a look.

Veronica held a platinum scepter in her hand, and stood quietly in the twilight cast by the golden oak tree, as if she was casually admiring the exotic flowers and plants around her, and also seemed to be looking at the huge giant lying quietly among the flowers and plants. The figure——that huge figure, the holy white giant deer Amoen was opening his eyes, looking at the woman standing in front of him, and after a while he couldn't help but said: "You look at me like that, I'm still weird..."

"You used to be a god, and you still feel 'awkward' because of being watched by a mortal?" Veronica showed a faint smile on her face, as if joking, "Normally, a mortal should not be looking at your body Do you feel nervous and awed when you

"When you led a large group of mortals to carry out the 'Rebel' project, who was nervous and in awe?" Amoen said leisurely, "You also ordered them to slice my body——Is it okay for me to see you? .”

"... Me... well, it's almost the same, it's me," Veronica smiled and shook her head, and said in a very gentle tone, "At that time, who would have thought that your real personality was actually like this... ...Less no one would have imagined that you were just feigning death for so many years...Fate is really an elusive thing."

"Character...don't talk about 'character' to a god who hasn't escaped the shackles of divinity, and don't believe in a god's 'humanity' before he escapes from the shackles, that is something we can't control ourselves," Amoen shook gently Shaking his head, "Don't have unrealistic expectations of other gods just because Mirmina and I are harmless now."

"Yes, I know this very well," Veronica said lightly, "so if I go back in time, I'm afraid I will still order Kamel and the others to slice your body—at most, I will let them slice it Hurry up."

"Okay, okay, you two are staring here for a long time just to talk about this?" At this moment, a somewhat impatient voice suddenly came from beside the golden oak tree, and one of them was "compressing" After that, the lady who was still more than three meters tall leaned on the trunk of the golden oak tree, turned her head and glanced at Veronica and Amon, "How should I say now—I have been colleagues for more than a year, so I can't talk about anything more. Is it something to enhance the relationship between colleagues..."

Veronica opened her mouth, as if she was about to say something, but Gao Wen's voice suddenly came from not far away: "Talking about the old workplace is an effective way to enhance the relationship with new colleagues."

"Your Majesty, you are here." Veronica immediately turned around, looked at Gawain who was walking from the entrance of the courtyard, and Amber who was following Gawain. She bowed slightly and saluted with a gentle smile.

Mirmina not far away just waved her hand casually to say hello, and then pointed to Veronica and Amon: "That's a coincidence, the two of them used to work in the same unit—I heard They talk about their old workplace and it's awkward for them."

"... Seeing that you and Amon are becoming more and more like mortals now, I feel much more at ease." Gao Wen just looked up and down the eyes of the former goddess of magic who was complaining before him, and the topic changed immediately, "I It's for the 'sample', let's get down to business."

"Veronica just sent that thing over, and I put it in my 'experimental area'." Mirmina nodded, got up from the golden oak tree, and walked towards the deep part of the rebellious courtyard that was not covered by vegetation. The area said casually, "The old deer didn't want me to put it under the tree, saying that he was afraid that his yard would be dirty and his tree would be damaged... He usually rubs itchy on the trunk himself, and it is in patches. dropping bark and leaves..."

Gao Wen: "..."

Not to mention that Gao Wen didn't know how to answer it, even Hu Po, who came with him, stared. The goose held back for a long time before muttering: "I think there can be another book besides "The Emperor's Holy Words". new series……"

As soon as she muttered, Gao Wen, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped. Without paying attention, Amber bumped her head on the opponent's back, and almost fell down with an "oops" on the spot, but what surprised her was After Gao Wen turned around, he didn't pull her ear as hard as usual. Instead, he thought seriously for two or three seconds before nodding to her: "This can be approved."

Amber was confused: "...Huh?"

"I think it's useful to weaken the influence of theocracy among younger generations."

Amber continued to be confused: "...Are you serious?"

Gao Wen shrugged, and continued to walk forward: "It's not about me anyway."

Mirmina came to the deepest part of the garden of disobedience. Here, there are neatly arranged large expanses of platforms shaped by magic and glow balls floating between the platforms for lighting, and there are many magic servants floating in mid-air. The platforms come and go, busy looking after all kinds of things on the platform—some are recording boards that are automatically calculating and recording data, some are alchemy containers that are reacting, and there are even dismantled magic equipment and cutting boards. Flakes of crystal.

These are the "treasures" of Mirmina.

The former Goddess of Magic stopped at the edge of the experiment field, and looked back at Gawain, Amber, and Veronica who were following her. Her eyes fell on Amber and Gawain: "I'm listening, although I don't know exactly what Amber wants to do, but I suspect it's not a good thing."

"It's a good thing," Gao Wen said seriously, "She intends to break the stereotype of a 'god' among the young audience, and help you and Amorn completely eradicate the possibility of being revered by the world in the future..."

"...Really?" Mirmina looked suspiciously at Gawain in front of her and Amber next to her who was sullenly trying to appear more reliable, "Why do I become more suspicious the more I listen?"

"Really," Gawain nodded to the "Goddess" with a serious expression, "When have I ever lied to you?"

"...Thinking about it, even though you sometimes have some weird ideas, you do what you say. At the beginning, you said you would hold a funeral for me, but within a few days you even gave me the ashes Nope..." Mirmina muttered while thinking, "Okay, I believe you."

Gao Wen: "..."

Chapter 1331 Searching for the Unknown God

Hearing Mirmina's words, Gao Wen suddenly had an indescribable strange feeling in his heart, but after thinking about it, there was not a single typo in what the other party said, so he could only hold his head. The cold sweat continued to maintain that look of unchanging expression, and at the same time focused on the "experimental field" opened up in the Shadow Realm in front of him.

"By the way, the experimental facilities you have set up here look quite... impressive," Gao Wen casually commented, looking at the neatly arranged platforms and a large number of magical devices in automatic operation, "I heard before that You're building something in the Garden of Disobedience, but I didn't expect you to make these so quickly..."

"This can be regarded as one of my...'dreams' for many years," Mier Mina seemed to let out a self-deprecating snort, "Sounds strange, right? A god who should respond to the wishes of mortals, but he has had it for many years. The unattainable wish - a laboratory to investigate truths and mysteries, to satisfy my curiosity, something I have wanted but could not do for thousands of years."

"...The driving force of magic and mystery is essentially the exploration of the unknown and the mastery of the laws of nature. The goddess of magic created by magicians may be the most curious and exploratory god in the world... However, from another On the one hand, the gods in annoying people's minds should be omniscient and omnipotent. As the master of mysteries, you can't have things you don't know, and you can't take steps into the unknown..." Gawain sighed softly, shaking his hair, "If it wasn't Get out of trouble in time, I'm afraid you are the most likely to go crazy and out of control among all the gods."

Mirmina seemed to smile. Although her face was covered by the smoky "tulle", a bright and gentle smile still emerged from the corners of her eyes. She did not answer Gawain's exclamation. He just turned his head and glanced at the huge golden oak tree in the center of the courtyard and the giant white deer who was chatting softly with the two flowers on his head under the oak tree. , I remembered my wish over the years, and I felt that I should also do something, instead of doing nothing every day, and really be a 'retired god'.

"But then again... I really didn't expect the council to approve my building application so quickly. I thought it would be a very sensitive issue-after all, this is not gardening, my laboratory It's still dangerous."

"You and Amorn are not prisoners held here, and of course the council is not the jailer guarding you—in my opinion, you are just like us, struggling beings in this world," Gawain shook with a smile Shaking his head, "And to be honest, you are the god of the past after all, and this is your wish for thousands of years. Even if the council doesn't 'approve' your 'application', will you really give up?"

"Yes." Mirmina said flatly but without hesitation.

This answer finally made Gao Wen's eyes widen: "...Are you serious?"

"Seriously," said Mirmina very calmly, "I promised you to become a member of the council as a mortal, and signed a contract with the council under the name 'Mirmina'. Although Now I am not bound by the laws of the gods, but I still don't intend to break the oath——Amoen and I think that if we want to leave the altar completely, the most important thing we should do is not to do things that are superior to ordinary people matter."

Gawain couldn't help but took a deep look at the huge lady in front of him, but he didn't say anything, he just looked away after a few seconds, and looked at the experimental platforms that were shaped by Mirmina himself. ——He saw the "sample" he was looking for.

It was a captured aberration, placed in the center of a large platform, surrounded by an array of runes with an extremely complex structure, bound in a layer of translucent magic force field, and several shimmering, A translucent pillar completely condensed by arcane light floated about two to three meters above the platform, and an illusory chain stretched out from the top of the beam of light, and a second blockade was criss-crossed around the magic force field.

For a deformed monster of the level of miscellaneous soldiers, these blockades imposed by the goddess of magic are really top-notch treatment, so that Gao Wen couldn't help being stunned when he saw those powerful blocking spells, and blurted out the words in his mind: "Just to imprison a monster at the level of a miscellaneous soldier, why are you doing this... Is this aberration against the rules of heaven?"

"What do you mean by the rules of heaven?" Mirmina was taken aback by the strange phrases that Gawain popped up, but anyway, she also stayed here for a while, and now how many pairs of "Emperor Gawain Cecil popped up occasionally "I got used to the sarcasm", so I quickly ignored this doubt, and explained casually, "These seals are not just to prevent the aberrant from escaping—in fact, even without any additional sealing means, this monster can't escape." Get out of my platform. The barriers and seals you see are primarily there to maintain the...environment."

"Maintain the environment?" Gawain was stunned for a moment, and then he finally noticed the lavender "mist" floating in the translucent magic force field, and the dark flakes like frozen light between the runes on the surface of the experimental platform. Structure, "Wait, this is... you simulated the environment in the wasteland of Gondor?!"

"It's not difficult. The 'pollution' of the wasteland of Gondor is essentially the result of the interaction between the out-of-control dark blue magic and the elements that erode the material world. It is easy for me to create a similar 'pollution'. The real difficulty It's about how to make this polluted environment sufficiently 'precise' and 'stable'," Mirmina nodded, and explained in a rather relaxed tone, "The... mutant you caught on the front line is in a very unstable state. , after breaking away from the group, it has been constantly weakening and deteriorating, until I put it into this simulated environment, and its material structure became a little more stable..."

Listening to Mirmina's explanation next to him, Gawain was thinking while setting his eyes on the "sample" in the center of the layers of seals—that terrifying creature that looked like a little giant compared to ordinary humans was going on at this moment. With a hunched body, it stayed in the center of the force field with its limbs on the ground. The dirty black-red "mud" flowed on its body surface, and its face without facial features fluctuated in the magic environment. However, the whispering sound obviously has nothing to do with intelligence, it sounds chaotic and disgusting, it is just the "noise" released by the chaotic creature in front of him in instinct.

But apart from making these "noises", the deformed body in the force field did not do anything else. Even though Gawain and Amber had already moved to the edge of the platform, the monster just stayed in place with a motionless posture.

"It doesn't look the same as the aberration I dealt with last time." Amber couldn't help recalling her experience of dealing with aberrations in her mind, "The one I met last time was more irritable than this one. rushed up..."

"If Amorn and I weren't here, it would be just as violent," said Mirmina's voice, "It's very interesting, this deformed creature doesn't have any intelligence, but it can still feel fear, and it has no sense of terror. The perception of certain auras is sharp and precise—it fears the power of me and Amorn. Of course, it might be different if it is the mutants with controllers on the battlefield, but this one in front of me... it acts on instinct .”

"Fear..." Gawain muttered softly, pressing his hand on the translucent magic barrier, "Perhaps for this kind of creature, fear is not an emotion, but just an instinct..."

A soft twilight approached at this moment, and Veronica, who was holding a platinum scepter, came to Gawain's side. The ancient leader of the rebels watched the monster quietly, and said softly: "I have been fighting for so many years. Dealing with these things... deep in the wasteland, they're everywhere, but lately they've all been called elsewhere..."

"...I remember that the generation of aberrations can be traced back to the 'God's Abomination' project in the Rebellion Project," Amber subconsciously glanced at the saint princess, "The Rebels extracted the original 'divine blood' from Amorn ’, and then combined with human cells to form the ‘sinister factor’, you originally hoped to survive the demon tide by transforming human beings into ‘sinister’, but after the demonic tide, the gods mutated out of control and turned into mutants... hiss , in a sense, these aberrations are actually 'Gondorians', don't you feel weird looking at it?"

Amber's words sounded a bit unpleasant, but Veronica knew this half-elf well, she knew that this guy would not have any malicious intentions, so she just shook her head: "...No, this is not a citizen of the empire, this is just a citizen from the empire. The flesh and blood shells grown from the corpses of the citizens, the plan of "Abomination" failed, we should accept this failure... As for the current "abnormalities", I am more concerned about their fundamental weakness and the essence of existence .”

"Yes, the essence of existence, I'm also curious about this," Mirmina nodded, "This kind of creature will start to decline and deteriorate after being out of the environment, and it will even disappear out of thin air, but when they gather to a certain extent, they will disappear again." Cause the environment to 'wastelandize', create an energy environment similar to the wasteland of Gondor around it, and then grow out of thin air... In my opinion, this is completely beyond what the 'abomination' you mentioned may have Nature, even...it's not quite like a 'creature' living in the material world, don't you think so?"

Myrmina's words made Gawain and Veronica instantly wake up from their emotions about the ancient rebellious plan and the "Godly Abomination" project, and turned their attention to this very important, but unrecognized project for hundreds of years. On the "abnormal phenomena" that people can study and understand.

The "deterioration" and "intensification" of aberrations, and their weird properties of "growing out of thin air".

"...After the second pioneering, human countries still held the hope of counterattacking the wasteland and regaining their hometown. At that time, our scholars did a lot of research on these monsters, and successfully captured and controlled this kind of 'living sample' for a short time. '," Gao Wen said while recalling, "Our experimental conditions were limited back then, and scholars could only test the characteristics of these monsters in very rough ways. Most of these tests were fruitless, but scholars still gradually formed a The consensus is that there seems to be some kind of 'unity', or some kind of 'connection' between the aberrations and the wasteland of Gondor..."

"Aberrations are the extension of the wasteland of Gondor, the cells of the land polluted by mana. These monsters wander outside the magnificent wall, like the 'blood of the wasteland' flowing in the civilized country," Veronica said. Said, "I am aware of these studies and the corresponding conclusions. I have done as much research as possible in the wasteland center over the years, but the progress has stopped here... Maybe our understanding of this world is still limited, or it may be Because we haven't found a suitable observation method, we can't explain how these monsters 'grow out of thin air'..."

Amber looked at Gawain, then at Veronica, lowered her head to ponder for a moment, and interjected, "Not to mention, there seems to be a problem with their 'growth out of thin air' itself, if these monsters can really Infinitely grown in the soil environment, wouldn't the wasteland of Gondor have been filled with distortions after so many years? We would have been washed away if the magnificent wall collapsed - but now it seems that they are not so 'infinite' Endless', if the main force is hurt, it will still have to retreat temporarily, and if a battle line is cut, it will still be tight..."

"That's right, that's the truth," Gao Wen nodded, and rarely agreed with Amber directly, "Although aberrations have always been described by bards and playwrights as 'endless', if they really If it can continue to proliferate in the wasteland environment, then the mortal country has long been unable to stop this war. The real fact is that the wasteland is still a large area of ​​open space, although there are many aberrations wandering in it. , nor to an infinite extent, it still takes time for those dark priests to summon the army.

"So there is either an upper limit to the 'growth out of thin air' of the deformed body, or... that is not real 'proliferation', but some kind of..."