Sword of Dawn

Page 488

"'Arrival' is not entirely a gradual process, especially when the mapping relationship between God of War and this world has gradually become chaotic," Veronica shook her head, "As long as all the conditions are met, then God of War Maybe it will completely enter the material world tomorrow, but if a certain condition goes wrong, then it may linger in this critical state for a whole year... That's why I'm even more curious about what's trick that Emperor Rosetta has mastered ', so that he has the confidence to limit the time of the God of War's arrival within a short range. You know, even with Typhon's national strength, it is impossible to maintain the current military strength around Winterhold for too long..."

"He holds knowledge that we don't know... This knowledge may be deeper than what the rebels know," Gawain said in thought, "Maybe one day I can ask him face to face, but now... I I don't care how he intends to completely 'get' God of War down, I just care about when all this will happen."

"Of course, I will continue to 'look out' here, and I will notify you as soon as the situation changes." Veronica said softly, then waved her hand lightly, and the wall returned to its previous state again. And she continued to stand on the emblem of the Holy Light with a scepter in her hand, watching the direction of the Typhon Empire like a tireless watchman.

As a powerful transcendent, she can continue to look out here for a long, long time.

……

North of Winterhold, a certain mountain.

The cold wind came from the north, howling and blowing through the canyons and mountains. The clouds seemed to be at a height within reach, and they kept rolling and changing with the howling of the high-altitude cold wind. A man wearing a dark blue star-colored robe , The mage officer holding a golden oak staff stood on a high platform temporarily built with giant wood and stones, overlooking the busy construction scene below.

The mages who are respected in other countries have become ordinary builders here. Powerful spells are used to shape mud and boulders. Various large-scale spell facilities took shape at an astonishing speed. At this moment, there is already a huge circular spellcaster square on the top of the flattened mountain.

Four lime-gray towers stand around the square, and above the round platform with a radius of tens of meters in the center of the square is a large ring inlaid with many precious stones and expensive metals. More than a dozen battle mages wearing battle robes are standing on the ring Down below was busy—drawing magical symbols on the ground with molten metal, or setting gemstones of various colors in the correct grooves.

"Sir, the ring of focus has passed the resonance test," a mage descended from the sky, bowed slightly in front of the mage officer and said, "The progress of drawing the rune has passed halfway, and the power output of the energy extraction tower has reached 70.00%."

"Well, very good... With the rune substrate, the construction progress is indeed faster than expected," the officer nodded, and asked casually, "How far is the progress of the energy-gathering crystal inlay?"

"60.00% of the inlays have been completed - all the inlays can be completed by this time tomorrow at the earliest," the battle mage said immediately, "In addition, the core magic ball has been transported to the foot of the mountain, and it should be sent up soon."

There was a hint of satisfaction on the face of the mage officer. He nodded slightly, then raised his eyes, looking past the undulating clouds between the mountain peaks, looking towards the direction of the distant Winterhold.

……

The "Hall of Secrets" on the upper floor of the castle is brightly lit, and a wall inlaid with gemstones and metal runes is shimmering and flowing. On the wall surrounded by flowing light, several separate pictures present the scenes on several mountain tops. ——The various mage troops are busy setting up spellcaster positions. The huge tower and the focus ring have already taken shape. In another part of the screen, you can also see several camps at the foot of the mountain, engineers and mages They are busy building various positions and facilities.

Palin Winterhold waved his hand in front of the wall, switching between groups of monitoring screens on it, then he retracted his gaze and looked at Rosetta Augustus not far behind.

"Your Majesty," the Earl of Winterhold nodded slightly, "The construction projects in various places are over halfway, and the project on the main peak of Winterhold has been basically completed."

"Very good," Rosetta Augustus said indifferently, "It seems that at least in this respect we are progressing smoothly."

The Earl of Winterhold looked at Emperor Rosetta, he seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then said hesitantly: "Your Majesty, we have not had any intelligence synchronization or...communication with Cecil so far, and we have come to this point almost by tacit understanding. This step, is this situation too dangerous? Even if Emperor Gao Wen knew our intentions, this "trust" must be very limited. Our exchange of fire on the border has now escalated to a very dangerous level, and it is difficult to say this It was a 'controlled military action' and now we have a massive 'surge'...wouldn't that irritate the Cecilians too much?"

Rosetta was silent for a few seconds, then slowly shook her head: "On this matter, we can't have any intelligence communication with Cecil, and we can't even have hints - this kind of behavior is too challenging for a war' Order' will lead the gods to unknowable changes...to this day, he has enough variables."

"Then Cecil..."

"... Gawain Cecil is a ruler with foresight and wisdom, and more importantly - he has a strong wrist, as long as he can stabilize, then the whole Cecil can be stabilized," Luo said. Seta said slowly, but after a while he still changed the subject, "But your worries are not unreasonable, Sir Palin, the 'trust' and 'tacit understanding' of the Cecilians towards us are not unconditional, even today I'm afraid it has been worn down almost... I will consider this matter."

He shook his head to temporarily end the topic, and then walked to the window on one side of the hall. His eyes looked down at the castle courtyard below through the crystal glass inlaid on the window.

The soldiers were escorting groups of people in black robes past the courtyard. In a corner of the courtyard, many people in black robes could be seen standing there with their heads bowed as if they were waiting for judgment.

The faces of these people in black robes are covered by hoods, and their gender, age and body shape cannot be seen, but they all have similar characteristics: staggering steps, shaking bodies, and appearing in a dazed state as if sleepwalking. On the hem and sleeves of the clothes, one can also see the disgusting and terrifying tentacles constantly shrinking and stretching...

Rosetta's gaze swept between those black-robed figures, and after a long silence, he whispered as if talking to himself:

"Pray..."

Chapter 1018 Advent Day

The military mobilization of the Typhon people is still going on, and one after another extraordinary legion has been summoned from all over the country to the area of ​​Winterhold-this originally extremely wide defense in depth is now even "crowded". All the castles, cities, and fortresses in the defense zone have already been crowded, and a large number of camps and temporary military stations have been set up between the defense lines. Correspondingly, Cecil's troops are also continuously marching to the front line .

Of course, in terms of pure numbers, the size of Cecil's army is still far inferior to that of the Typhons with their rich family background.

The atmosphere in the entire war zone was extremely tense and repressed, and in the process of this special atmosphere and the huge gathering of people, the special "atmosphere" pervading the entire area became more and more obvious day by day.

"Reports of vision sightings" from ordinary people began to rise exponentially, and the number of people fleeing from the border to the interior has reached new peaks in recent days, even those who had previously been unable to leave their homeland or were not wealthy enough to move. The population is now trying their best to stay away from this land of right and wrong.

In Winter Wolf Castle, in the intelligence office, Amber is sitting behind an extraordinarily large desk—all around her are piles of intelligence documents sent from various channels, including those sent by the Military Intelligence Headquarters, as well as frontline reconnaissance units The officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau and assistant think tanks at all levels have streamlined and processed the documents as much as possible, but the piles of documents sent to her are still piled up.

Sitting behind this desk was a petite half-elf who seemed almost overwhelmed with papers.

Amber shifted her position on the large seat and adjusted to a relatively relaxed posture. Her legs dangled twice, and Amber's eyes swept across the quick analysis notes and clue diagrams again.

She was trying to find a certain key point in time, as well as the "hidden dangers" that the Typhon people might have.

A bald-headed man with a scar on his face, who looked quite powerful, was standing opposite her, and he was putting the arranged documents on the table while asking cautiously: "Boss, look at your expression... what did you find?" Is it?"

"As I said before, call me 'Director' or 'Secretary' in formal occasions, it sounds more powerful." Amber raised her eyelids to look at her old subordinate, then shook her head slightly, "It's not so decisive Findings... just summed up the obvious conclusions."

As she spoke, she waved her fingers over several of the clue maps: "The Typhons concentrated so many troops in a narrow and long area. Judging from the simplest common sense, we all know that it is impossible for so many people to be in such a large area." spread out on the battlefield of China—so no matter whether they want to use these people to fight God of War or attack us, two-thirds of the troops may not be useful. In other words, that Rosetta Augustus put such The gathering of many people here is definitely not all for fighting, quite a few of them...their functions should be in other aspects."

"Other aspects?" Scarface Anton showed a little confusion, "Which aspect are you talking about?"

"I have to know that I have already reported it to you, so there is no need to chat with you here?" Amber rolled her eyes, "And this kind of issue involving military deployment, Philip and his staff must be more professional than me , I just tell them the suspicious points I see, how to analyze and investigate is their business, our real important task now... is to find out the time point, so that we can take precautions in advance."

"When is the time for the Typhon people to act..." Anton thought about it, and then shook his head a little irritably, "No one knows what the emperor of the Typhon people is thinking. If he really wants to Fight against the gods with us, at least it's time to release some signals..."

"He won't." Amber shook her head, her expression was quite open-minded, "According to what our Majesty said, Typhon and Cecil can communicate with each other, but this matter cannot be discussed. The war becomes a tease and a trap for the 'war' itself, which will make all the efforts hitherto futile."

As she said that, her attention had returned to the mountain of documents in front of her again—if anyone else was present, she would be surprised that she would be so serious and devoted to a serious matter, but Anton knew that his own "Big Sister" has been in this state for several days.

When something really fatal is about to happen, Amber, who is usually carefree, will also get serious.

Amber didn't care about the emotions in her subordinates' hearts, she just thought about the clues she had come into contact with recently, trying to analyze the action arrangements of the Typhon people from them, and while summarizing those clues, she also expanded her thinking , Try to find a breakthrough point from a direction other than the existing clues.

In many cases, it is not the people in the fog who push the clouds away, but the power outside the clouds.

She didn't find any clues from the piles of papers on the table that could reveal the key timing of the Typhon people's actions, but she raised her head and yawned in exhaustion, but her eyes inadvertently glanced at the picture hanging on the wall not far away. a calendar.

After a moment of daze, she blinked, and asked casually as if thinking of something: "A few more days...is it the new calendar day?"

Anton was slightly taken aback, probably because he didn't expect his boss's jumping thinking to be so wonderful, but he thought about his boss's usual style, and felt that the other party paid attention to festivals, which can not only have a holiday, but also get allowances, and go around in a fair manner. The day of the meal is a very natural thing, so I nodded: "Yes, it will be the New Year's Day in two days, the first day of the year...but to be honest, you don't even think about it in this situation. It's about holidays, drinking or something..."

Amber didn't pay attention to Anton's ridicule in the second half of the sentence (in the past, she should have kicked him into the shadow world), she just chanted the word New Calendar Festival as if in a trance, and then looked down. He took a few glances at the shorthand written down at hand for a few hints, and a little bit of light flashed in his eyes-"I know!"

……

"Three days later? New calendar day?" In the frontline command hall, Gao Wen was a little surprised to see Amber who suddenly came to report to him excitedly, "Are you sure?"

After living in this world for so many years, he is no stranger to traditional festivals like the "New Calendar Festival".This is a day somewhat similar to the New Year, the first day of the cold month and the first day of the whole year.On this day, the constellation of Frost began to descend, and the constellation of Fire began to rise. Although the entire month that followed was called a "cold moon", in fact, the coldest day of the year would soon pass—with As the month of recovery approaches, people will celebrate this special festival in various ways. The "people" here include not only humans, but also elves in the south and many races in the west of the continent.

While recalling some knowledge about the new calendar festival in his mind, a thought suddenly flashed through Gao Wen's mind like lightning.

He seemed to know what Amber had found.

"On the day of the new calendar festival, the gods need to rest and rearrange the governance of this world," Amber said unhurriedly, "For this reason, all religious activities in the world will be suspended for one day—no matter which god's Believers, even the charlatans, keep 'silent' on this day. People don't pray, don't go to church, don't worship at home, and even try to avoid mentioning the names of the gods because... God is on this day rest."

The key to unraveling the fog is not in any intelligence clue, but a traditional custom—everything in the world is really wonderful.

Amber had a smile on her face: "Rosetta Augustus couldn't make everyone stop praying to the God of War at the same time just by his own order, even though he relied on the army to forcibly control the activities of God of War churches everywhere, forcibly Prohibited public and official evangelistic meetings, but he has no way to prevent people from secretly praying at home, no way to ensure that there are not a few secretly active underground churches among the nearly [-] million people, let alone control those outside of Typhon The God of War Church... But the power of tradition and customs can do this, at least better than him.

"Everyone will stop praying on the New Calendar Day, no matter which god they believe in, no matter whether they obey Rosetta's order or not, everyone will do this, and according to our research on the laws of the gods, In this case, the power of the gods will lose the 'replenishment'..."

Gao Wen's expression became extremely serious, he gently rubbed his index finger joints, and said in a low tone, "So, if he wants to attack God, then New Calendar Day will be the most suitable day... Time is running out, but there is still time In time to prepare."

……

A few days passed in a blink of an eye.

In a gathering place near Winterhold, a huge brazier has been lit. Candlesticks and iron sacred objects are neatly set up around the altar. The assembly hall continued to spread.

A large number of priests in black or gray robes were led into the assembly hall in a daze, and gathered in front of the sacrificial altar like a group of swaying corpses. They stood there sluggishly, as if they had lost the thinking ability of normal humans, but There was a constant murmur or babble coming from the depths of those heavy hoods, as if each of them was talking to someone they couldn't see, and they were even... having a good time.

The obsidian guards in black armor stood guard on the edge of the assembly hall. Under the visors made of alloy, they showed indifferent eyes with almost no emotion.

A commander of the imperial army glanced at the mechanical watch in his hand, and then glanced at the sky outside through the wide window not far away.

The cold wind blew into the assembly hall through the open windows, and the snow particles accumulated in the previous days were swept in.

A new year begins today... with a dark and bloody day that no one knows yet whether that beginning will lead to a future that holds hope - and neither does the Commander, his only mission here , is to carry out the orders from the superiors.

"This may be the worst New Year's Eve I've ever experienced in my life. It's so cold..." He muttered softly, and walked towards a priest beside the altar.

Over time, the scent of incense floating in the assembly hall has begun to affect these delirious priests and priests. Some of them seem to have begun to pray in low voices, but this is far from a real "ritual" , so the commander came to the priest, and said unhurriedly to the face hidden under the hood: "The holy time has come, don't you offer prayers?"

"When it's holy... when it's holy..." the priest muttered to himself in a low voice, sounding confused, but seemed to maintain a semblance of reason, "but today I can't pray... today..."

"The new calendar festival has passed yesterday, Mr. Bishop, you remembered wrongly," the commander said in a low voice, "look at the brazier and candlesticks in front of you... These are gifts dedicated to God, and there will be no such things during the new calendar festival." Something like this?"

"Oh... oh... you are right, the New Year's Day passed yesterday..." The voice from under the hood became more and more muddled, and finally turned into a murmur that was completely inaudible, and when the murmur When it gradually became hoarse and torn, and a large number of syllables that humans could not pronounce were mixed in the middle, the commander had already quickly retreated to the edge of the assembly hall.

A low voice of prayer has already sounded around the brazier——

"...God of War blesses me, my heart is like steel, I have gone through hundreds of battles..."

The unspeakable mental pressure began to spread. Even the well-trained Obsidian Custodian soldiers couldn't help feeling their skin tighten and their lips dry. They clenched the long sword in their hands, and at the same time focused their eyes on their commander. The commander stared closely at the flames in the center of the altar that were gradually being stained with iron gray, and from time to time quickly glanced at the priests around the altar. Slowly, his hand also began to touch the long sword at his waist. .

Inside the assembly hall, the sound of prayers was mixed, and there seemed to be several other voices mixed in the middle. The flames in the center of the altar became more and more vigorous. Outside this assembly hall, in the howling cold wind, in the vast area of ​​​​Winterhold, In dozens of assembly halls, large and small, the same thing happened at the same moment.

Abnormally gathered clouds suddenly appeared in the sky, a large piece of iron-gray cloud seemed to pop out of nowhere suddenly, and in the center of the cloud, a group of shimmering things like a door had vaguely emerged, which was just like According to legend, the gate of the Kingdom of God hangs high above the earth. As long as you are in the Winterhold area, you can clearly see it when you look up.

The remaining residents in this area felt the great coercion. They hid in their homes in panic, went into the cellar, and then closed the doors and windows. The soldiers waited nervously for further orders. Countless commanders and orderlies They all cast their gazes in the direction of Winterhold.

Rosetta Augustus stood in the secret magic hall on the uppermost floor of Winterhold, his eyes looked at the sky through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, looking at the projection of the gods that was already very clear in his sight.

Today is the new calendar day, God wants to "rest", and the prayer activities all over the world have been suspended, but tens of thousands of the most corrupt God of War priests are praying here... This is a strong "positioning", which is enough Lead the connection of the Kingdom of God to the world accurately.

However, this does not seem to be enough, the gods still have not really descended—ordinary prayers cannot cause qualitative changes through quantitative changes, and this requires the most critical step of promotion.

Rosetta withdrew her gaze, turned around and walked towards the burning brazier in the center of the secret magic hall - everyone in the hall had already evacuated, even Palin Winterhold was no exception, and now only Rose was left in this huge space Ta Augustus alone, and only himself, can do what he wants to do here.

He stood still in front of the brazier, then seemed to think for a while, and then looked back in the direction of the Cecil Empire.

"It's so far away...I'm afraid I can't even make eye contact."

The Emperor Typhon made the only joke in more than ten years talking to himself, and then waved his hand to catch the void.

An illusory and empty eye suddenly appeared behind him along with the starlight background, and in his hand, he caught a hazy and distorted figure like a shadow.

That was Malm Dunit's avatar projection.

After catching this avatar, Rosetta threw it into the brazier in front of him without even looking at it, and then he grabbed it again from the side—the second "Malm Dunit" was captured He grabbed it out, and was thrown into the brazier again by him immediately afterward.

Then, the third...the fourth...

Like adding firewood to a brazier.

Chapter 1019 Winter Hunting God

One after another, illusory avatars are dragged out of the air by Rosetta, and thrown into the blazing brazier like throwing firewood into the fire. Some of these phantoms are dull, some are alive, and some are burning They were silent, but some continued to curse wildly and madly, and some phantoms let out roars that human beings could not understand and utter, and that contained powerful pollution power. That voice could make the bravest warrior tremble and make Ordinary people fell into madness—but no matter what they did, they could only be thrown into the brazier without any resistance, and the flames of the latter were gradually stained with a layer of iron, and the burning became more vigorous.

Finally, even the phantom of Malm Dunit emerged from the flames, and the phantom became more and more real, and it shouted loudly:

"Rosetta! I curse you! You fallen man who turned his back on the gods! You will not end well, and you will not end well if you confront the gods!"

"Stop it, stop it, you are doomed to be useless, how can a great god be manipulated by mortals, your arrogance will make you fall into doom...Stop! Your blind self-confidence is groundless..."

"What's the point of doing this? You worked so hard to make an empire strong, only to push it into the abyss at a time like this? Look at what you're doing...you ruined so many who were once loyal to you people……"

The voice in the flames was sometimes furious, sometimes sad, sometimes sternly accusing, sometimes softening and pleading, but Rosetta just carried out her actions in a leisurely manner, until after putting in more than a dozen avatars, he He raised his eyelids and glanced at the flame: "Do you know why so many avatars of you have been captured by me?"

"you……"

"You trust your god too much, but the god is not as invulnerable as you think - the Augustus family has dealt with the 'god' for 200 years, and I can smell the 'promoter' possessing it even with my eyes closed The stench that emanates after mortals... After realizing the influence you exerted on Ferdinand and isolating the first 'incarnation' sample from him, all your actions in Typhon are fully exposed to me .”

"You..." In the depths of the flames, Malm Dunit's phantom suddenly widened his eyes, as if he had just woken up from a dream, he finally exclaimed, "It's the curse... the curse that entangled the Augustus family ...you actually compromised with Him?!"

"No," Rosetta stared calmly at the flames, another Malm Dunit avatar condensed out of the air, and was pushed into the brazier without hesitation, "This is just a transaction."

"Deal...deal..." Malm Dunit's projection in the flames suddenly lowered his head and muttered, which soon turned into an uncontrollable sneer, "Haha, hahaha...deal! Luo Seta, you have finally gone this way! You think you can get benefits from the deal with the gods, but there is nothing more ridiculous than this in the world! You, and your ancestors who have fallen one after another for 200 years , you are equally arrogant and stupid... Rosetta, it seems that you are nothing special..."

Rosetta Augustus didn't seem to hear the taunt coming from the flames, he just quietly dragged out the last incarnation of Malm Dunit he captured from the air, unhurriedly Throwing it into the brazier, he walked to a long table beside him expressionlessly, and reached out to pick up something on the table.

That was the iron scepter that once belonged to Malm Dunit, and it was the symbol of the God of War Pope in the past——

The moment he saw the scepter, Malm Dunit in the flames suddenly fell silent. He finally fully understood Rosetta's plan, but instead of cursing or mocking, he used a sad expression The tone said: "Are you really going to take this step? Rosetta... We used to be friends, even if we took different paths, we were very good friends, weren't we? I was the first to understand your ideals Man, when you were questioned by the nobles and religious leaders, the Church of God of War was the first to stand up and support your coronation, and even your weakening of the church's status over the years is also due to my cooperation..."

"Yes, Malm Dunit used to be my friend." Rosetta returned to the brazier with the scepter in her hand, stared blankly at the phantom in the flames, and then raised the scepter slightly, " Therefore, you, who don't know anything, are even less qualified to continue making noise here in his face!"

Before he finished speaking, the scepter was already covered with a layer of sacred and vast brilliance, and the flames in the brazier suddenly blazed up. The iron gray color filled the flames, and all Malm Dunit's words echoed. Swallowed clean by the flames originating from his own belief—the next second, Rosetta slammed the scepter on the ground, and the iron rod hit the carpeted flagstone floor, making a blow like a warhammer. A loud noise like a shield!

"Boom-"

The whole of Winterhold seemed to hear this loud bang, and then, illusory bells and horns suddenly resounded through the sky!

Rosetta Augustus raised his head, and the illusory and empty "God's Eye" appeared behind him. His eyes passed through the thick stone dome, and he stared fearlessly at the door slowly opening in the sky , the unfurled banners and the illusory array of spears, a giant covered in iron armor has come out of the gate, with some kind of crazy posture, uttering maddening ravings, step by step Budi overlapped with the phantom of the giant that was wandering between the sky and the earth before.

"The pope's noble sacrifice can be used as the ultimate sacrifice, and he can perform a far beyond the conventional 'god descending technique', and if the god has the will to go to the world, then he can even come to the world in his own body..." Rosetta seemed He said softly as if talking to himself, "It's really a rigid 'rule'... as long as the Pope sacrifices, it doesn't need to be voluntary."

"These rigid rules form the cornerstone of the gods' operation. We are powerful because of it, and we are also prisoners because of it," the illusory and empty eyes trembled behind him, and a low voice came out, "The incarnation you captured is actually not Mal. All of Mu Dunit, but more than half of it...enough to bring God of War to the world."

"After the fall of the God of War, will the remaining incarnation of Malm Dunit disappear with it?" Rosetta asked without looking back.

"So you're starting to think about things after your victory? Really positive and optimistic..." The empty eyes seemed to sneer, but they still answered the question head-on, "You don't have to worry about this, your poor old friend Right now, he is relying on the power of God of War to maintain that half-life, chaotic and depraved state. As long as this power disappears, he will naturally disappear completely, no longer threaten the world, and he will be relieved in a sense. As for now... ...You should pay attention to what you have to face, the existence you are going to challenge...He has come."

"I will face Him myself—you just need to do your own thing."

"Of course, it's part of the contract."