Sword of Dawn

Page 432

"So don't get carried away—hey, you haven't told me," came the friend's voice, "what's it like to rely on only a primitive heart?"

"...very weak, every heartbeat is disturbing, all life is pinned on the only fragile flesh and blood organ, which makes me feel like I will die at any time, I am afraid that it will stop at any time, and I don't A spare circulation pump to maintain my own survival..." Melita said in a low voice, the distant stars were reflected in her jewel-like eyes, and the stars moved slowly against the background of the night, "But... there is another A wonderful sense of reality. I can really feel that I am alive and living in a real world.

"I often feel that I have too many implants in my body. Almost every key organ has an implant to assist in the operation, even every muscle and bone... It makes me feel that I am no longer myself, but have A replica 'Melita Purnia' of machines and auxiliary brains living in the same shell as me, lurking in my flesh like a parasitic monstrosity of steel and polymer And deep in the bones... But now the parasite's heart has stopped, and my own heart is supporting this body... This feeling is quite good."

Her consciousness was in a trance, a little drowsy, and in the half-dream, she heard Noretta's voice vaguely: "You have taken too many synergists, and you have become sentimental... But you There is a saying that is right, the feeling that you will die at any time is really..."

"Good night..." Melita said in a daze.

Under the side effects of the booster, she finally fell asleep.

A pale golden light curtain appeared out of thin air the moment she fell asleep, tightly protecting her defenseless body, and above the light curtain, hundreds of pairs of eyes seemed to appear indistinctly from nothingness. Thousands of pairs of eyes floated indifferently, staring at the giant blue dragon protected by the light curtain without blinking.

……

In Typhon, in the middle of a town near the eastern desert, the Church of the God of War stands quietly in the night. The church spire decorated with black iron spikes points straight to the sky, like a sharp sword under the starry sky.

An ordinary pastor with a lantern walked in the church, checking the situation in various rooms and corridors.

Behind the doors are the normal rooms, the long corridor is only the sound of the priest's own footsteps, he gradually came to the end of this tour, the room belonging to the priest is in front.

In the priest system of the Church of God of War, the "Priest of God of War" is a higher level of clergy than ordinary priests. They are usually the deacons of small churches in the area, and this place is no exception.

There was a faint light coming from behind the door at the end of the corridor, and one side of the door was obviously ajar.

"Hasn't Priest Costo rested so late..."

The inspecting pastor muttered curiously, and walked forward without slowing down.

However, just halfway through, a strange sound, as if someone was groaning in pain, and sounded like dreaming, came into his ears.

Under the special intuition of the transcendent, the pastor felt his whole body tremble instantly, and a bad premonition arose in his heart.

The situation is not right!

The priest reacted in an instant, quickened his pace, and rushed to the door of the room at the end of the corridor in a few steps, while the smell of blood rushed into his nostrils at the same time.

Regardless of the etiquette in the church, the priest decisively imposed triple protection on himself, prepared a stress-style warning spell, and then pushed open the half-hidden wooden door.

Behind the wooden door, there was only a lump of shapeless flesh lying on the ground, gradually losing its vitality...

Chapter 0911 Abnormal

A strong smell of blood poured into the nostrils, causing Bishop Fernanco, who had just stepped into the room, to subconsciously frown, with a serious look on his face.

As a regional bishop who has personally been on the battlefield and still practices the creed of the God of War, and goes to several dangerous areas every year to assist the local knights in exterminating monsters, he is very familiar with this aura.

The other two priests in the room noticed the arrival of the regional bishop, and immediately retreated silently. Fernanco looked past the others and slowly swept across the rather spacious priests' lounge.

The scene in the room is clear at a glance - beds, tables, chairs and other things are displayed as usual. There is a shrine symbolizing the God of War near the wall on the north side. There is a large piece of blood that has not yet completely solidified on the floor in front of the shrine. It was a lump of meat that was completely mixed together and could not be seen in its original form at all.

Many fibrous things connected together can be seen in the creepy flesh, as if some kind of fascia is being formed, and fine and dense hairs spread out from some gaps in the flesh, the hairs are thick and hard like It was like thorns, and there were many pieces of clothes that had been completely corroded scattered on the scene of this terrible death. Dots of blood splashed on the three-meter-square ground outside the blood bank.

Even the Bishop of the God of War, who was used to seeing bloody and weird scenes, couldn't help but feel the horror from the bottom of his heart in front of this scene.

"Your Excellency Fernanco," a priest came from the side, "I salute you, may your heart be like steel."

"My heart is like steel, my compatriots," Fernanco nodded to the priest, his eyes returned to the death scene in the middle of the room, and he asked in a deep voice, "When did you find out?"

"In the early hours of the morning, a priest who was watching the night first discovered the anomaly and at the same time issued an alarm."

"Where's the pastor?" Fernanco frowned, "Bring him to me."

"That priest..." The priest on the side showed a strange look on his face, "His condition is a little abnormal, we just used a powerful spirit pacification spell to calm him down - I am worried that he will lose control again and even attack you."

Fernanco shook his head: "It's okay, I'm also good at comforting the spirit—bring him."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

The priest took the order to leave, and a moment later, there were footsteps coming from outside the door, mixed with a terrified, repeating murmur to himself.Fernanco looked around and saw two church attendants helping a young man in an ordinary pastor's robe into the room. The state of the latter made the regional bishop frown immediately ——

The poor man was trembling all over, his face was as pale as a dead man, fine beads of sweat covered every inch of his skin, and a layer of turbid haze filled with a faint blood color covered the whites of his eyes. He had obviously lost his normal reason, walking all the way They kept murmuring in low voices, and only when they got closer could they hear those fragmented words:

"The god of war blesses... bless... the heart is like steel, the heart is like steel, and survives hundreds of battles... the god of war blesses... I have converted, I have converted..."

The poor man kept chanting like this from the beginning to the end, as if he didn't notice the regional bishop standing in front of him at all. It wasn't until a few seconds later that his distracted eyesight suddenly noticed the scene behind the regional bishop. Vibrant flesh and blood seemed to stimulate the deepest fear in his heart for an instant. He let out a scream that could hardly be uttered by humans, and broke free from the shackles of the two strong attendants, and suddenly rushed towards Fair, who was closest to him. Nanke, at the same time, shouted the fanatical prayer that has been changed: "In the name of God! Scramble heresy! With God..."

The surrounding priests suddenly exclaimed, but Fernanco only took a half step to the side. He grabbed the clothes of the out-of-control priest with his backhand, and while pulling back, the other elbow slammed out, and there was a muffled sound. After the sound, the out-of-control priest passed out without any resistance and fell to the ground.

Only at this time did the priests react, and they hurried forward: "Your Excellency Fernanco! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but he may need to recuperate for a few days." Fernanco waved his hand, frowning and looked at the priest who fell on the ground, "...take him down."

The attendants immediately took the fainted priest away, while Fernanco sighed deeply, and a priest beside him couldn't help asking, "Your Excellency, what do you think about this..."

"Is that pastor always like this? Keep praying, keep calling on our Lord...and treat normal church fellows as heretics?"

"Yes, that was the case when we found him," the priest replied immediately. "He was found lying at the door of the room. He was insane at the time, and even nearly killed an attendant. No signs of psychic erosion or soul curses... as if he was acting insanely of his own volition."

Fernanco nodded with a serious face, and then asked, "Who else knows what's going on here?"

The priest thought for a while: "Except for the people in the church, I have only notified you at the moment... Oh, the earl may also have received the wind - he should not know exactly what happened in the church, but we urgently sent messengers and The fact that the church was sealed off after daylight cannot be hidden from the earl's eyes."

Fernanco's brows were furrowed even more, the situation was developing towards the direction he least expected to see, but everything was irreparable, he could only force himself to focus on the incident itself - the pool of flesh and blood on the ground obviously It was the deacon who died tragically in the church, the war priest of this church, Costo himself, he knew this priest and knew that the other party was a powerful transcendent, even if he was attacked by a high-level powerhouse, he would never die without resistance , but the whole room can't see any traces of fighting except for the bloodstains, not even the residual breath after releasing the battle magic...

The flesh and blood are located in front of the God of War shrine, and there are still some uncorroded cloth fragments left there. Apart from the clothes, the rest should be cushions used for prayers... In addition, there are only a small section of candles left in front of the shrine. The remnants of the incense and the prayer book spread out on the table all combined to produce one disturbing result:

The dead Priest of the God of War seemed to have been melted by his own flesh and blood during the normal process of praying to the gods.

Fernanco believed that he was not the only one who guessed the possibility of this horror, he saw the thick and indissoluble haze on everyone's face.

And when you think about the priest who went crazy after witnessing the first scene, the weirdness of the whole thing is even more disturbing.

"Your Excellency," a priest couldn't help but said, "What do you think happened to Priest Costo?"

"...There may be a very powerful evil spirit that raided our temple, which interfered with the prayer ceremony of Priest Costo, distorted the ritual and polluted the soul of the priest," Fernanco said in a deep voice, "but This is just my personal guess, and if such a powerful evil spirit really appears in the town, then this matter must be reported to the Archdiocese..."

"The Earl's Mansion should send someone to inquire about the situation soon," another priest said, "How should we reply?"

Fernanco thought for a while—from the perspective of the regional bishop, he very much did not want this matter to be made public in the eyes of forces outside the church, especially he did not want this matter to attract the attention of the royal family and its vassals. Since the coronation of Seta Augustus, the royal family of Typhon has been tightening its policies towards various churches. After countless confrontations, the Church of God of War today has lost a lot of privileges, and the priests of God of War in the army have also changed from the original The representative of independent theocracy has become a "combat assistant" who must obey the orders of noble officers. This is the case under normal circumstances. Once what happened here today is revealed, it may soon become a new excuse for the royal family to further tighten policies... …

But things cannot be hidden, and the managers in this area must always give an explanation.

"Clean up the scene and burn these distorted things with holy oil and flames," Fernando ordered to the people beside him, "the Soul Eater parasitized humans and infiltrated the church. Priest Costo fought desperately with it after discovering it." , and finally died together. However, due to the erosion and corruption of the Soul Eater, the remains of the priests were inconvenient to show. In order to maintain the dignity of the fallen priests, we purified the remains of the priests before dawn and returned them to the kingdom of the Lord—this is all the truth."

The priest on the side lowered his head: "Yes, Your Excellency."

Fernanco hummed, and then glanced at the tragic scene in the room again. The vague uneasiness and disgust welled up from the bottom of his heart again. He subconsciously put his hand on his chest, clenching his right fist as if he was holding on to it. At the same time, he silently prayed in his heart: "Blessed by the God of War, my heart is like steel. I will endure hundreds of battles without dying. Flesh and blood are weak. Only steel can live forever. I will not fall into hell. I have converted..."

Following the prayer, his mood gradually calmed down, and the power of the gods descended silently, which once again made him feel at ease.

……

this afternoon.

A secret report sent by the communication tower and transcribed by the intelligence officer was sent to the table. Rosetta Augustus opened it casually and glanced at it. A more serious expression suddenly appeared on the face that had been gloomy and solemn for a long time. Serious expression comes.

Matilda, who was sitting next to him to help with government affairs, immediately noticed the change in her father's face, and subconsciously asked, "Did something happen?"

"Another God of War priest died, the cause of death is unknown," Rosetta Augustus said, "The local church reported that a Soul Eater had sneaked into the church, and the priest who died was killed in the process of fighting against the monster—but there was no No one saw the corpse of the priest, and no one saw the ashes of the Soul Eater, there was only a battle scene that was not known to be true or not."

Matilda's beautiful brows were slightly frowned, and her tone became serious: "This seems to be the sixth time in half a month..."

"Yes, the sixth time," Rosetta said in a deep voice, "The cause of death is unknown, the body was destroyed in advance, and the evidence is full of doubts..."

"Those churches must be hiding something!" Matilda couldn't help but said, "Six priests died strangely in a row, and they were distributed in different churches... The news had already leaked out to a certain extent, but they It has never responded positively to the royal family's inquiries, what is the Church of the God of War doing?"

"Yeah, six churches, distributed in different places... The two farthest apart are even located on the northern and southern borders of the empire. This is not an ordinary 'raid'... There is no such a large-span attack in the empire. It cannot be a coincidence caused by the surprise attack of monsters."

"The most suspicious thing is that those churches are obviously concealing something," Matilda said, and then shook her head, "It's a pity that under the current imperial law, we can't search churches on the basis of suspicion..."

Rosetta nodded: "We must uphold the laws we made, which is the basis for maintaining the authority of the royal family, but... the necessary investigations are still necessary. You should go to the Cathedral recently and get in touch with Malm, he probably I won’t tell you anything—after all, as the Pope of the God of War, he hasn’t taken the initiative to discuss with me anything about the mysterious death of priests, but I believe that with your keenness, you may be able to observe some situations.”

Matilda nodded: "Okay, Father."

Then Rosetta pondered for a while, curled up her fingers and tapped the table lightly, and whispered to the empty direction, "Diana."

A dignified woman in a black maid uniform came out from an unnoticed corner and looked at Rosetta Augustus calmly.

The latter nodded to her: "Send rogues to investigate the place mentioned in this secret report-remember, operate secretly, don't conflict with the church, and don't need to contact local officials."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The woman in black maid uniform bowed slightly, took the note from Rosetta, and then quietly returned to the depths of the shadows just like when she appeared.

After the room became quiet again, Matilda broke the silence: "Father, what do you think... what's going on?"

Rosetta Augustus sat quietly on his high-backed chair, lost in thought in the gradually sinking sunset, until half a minute later, he sighed softly: "I don't know, But I hope all this is just an 'attack' against the God of War sect..."

Matilda glanced at her father unexpectedly.

In her memory, it is rare for her father to show such an almost powerless gesture.

But in the end, she didn't say anything, just nodded slightly.

……

In the evening, Daniel returned to his mansion.

The young apprentice Mary was tidying up the living room. When she saw the mentor appearing, she immediately greeted her with a smile: "Teacher, you came back so early today?"

"There's nothing to do in the laboratory, so I'm back," Daniel glanced at his apprentice, "Didn't you take the technicians to the God of War Cathedral to modify the magic net? Why are you still at home at this time?"

"I originally took people there, but the priest of the Great Cathedral suddenly said that the area we are working on will be temporarily closed-the project will be postponed until the next time."

Daniel frowned immediately after hearing what the apprentice said: "So, they kicked you out suddenly?"

"That's right..." Mary said casually, but soon noticed that the tutor's expression seemed to have other meanings, "Teacher, is there any...question?"

Daniel pondered for a while, with a slightly serious expression: "I'm not sure yet, but I've heard some rumors recently that there seems to be something wrong with the Church of the God of War... Maybe I need to report to the master."

Chapter 0912

The night was dark, but there were no stars in the sky, only mist shrouded the entire city, making this huge imperial capital seem illusory.

The weather has cooled down, and although the frost moon is still some days away, in Aldernan, the most foggy place, the fog has already fallen on the plains one step ahead. In the past week, five out of ten days have been Foggy - Judging from the climate of previous years, there will be more and more fogs falling on the plain in the next half month to one month.

Daniel put on a coat and left his room. He walked through the dark corridors in the mansion and strolled to the balcony, looking at the Aldernan street immersed in mist in the distance.

The bright brilliance of the magic spar street lamp penetrated the fog, and outlined various silhouettes in the night. Silhouettes of buildings emerged in the darkness, and many windows were lit. Patrolling soldiers with dogs came from nearby Passing by at the entrance of the street, leaving a gradually elongated shadow beside the street lamp.

This is a rich area, both infrastructure and public security management are second to none in the entire city, while in the civilian area a few blocks away, the number of security soldiers will be reduced by half, and the street lights are not as bright as here. As for the poor area... ...It is no different from a few years ago, at most there are a few more new-style street lights, and some of them have been destroyed by the local gangsters.

However, even so, ordinary people living in this city can clearly feel that this place is gradually becoming more and more prosperous, and this era is becoming more and more prosperous—those who have the opportunity to go to the Magic Shadow Theater to watch movies and buy This was especially felt by the "citizens" who imported food and shoes and subscribed to trendy magazines.

Daniel watched these build up bit by bit.

The old mage gently rubbed his fingers, and a nearly transparent shield enveloped him, creating a warm and comfortable small space in this cold autumn season. He looked up to the southwest and saw In the depths of the night and mist, bright lights lit up, and the faint bustle and bustle came from that direction.

It is the block where the "Vanleyon Salon" is located, the "upper world" built by the visionary Earl of Vanleyon at a large price, where there are casinos, theaters, shops, stock exchanges, and the salon as the core The club—the rich people of Aldernan, including the so-called "new bourgeoisie", now regard it as their heaven on earth in this prosperous age, and they put some novelty, competition of wealth and exquisite life as The themed social activities are regarded as a means of showing one's dignity, and one can indulge in them endlessly. From the entrance to the exit of the Fanliang Salon block, rich citizens and little nobles can find places suitable for their money, which is incredible.

And just one block away from the bustling lights is the slum area of ​​Aldernan, where the darkness seems to have disappeared from the night, and the silhouettes of buildings that occasionally emerge from the darkness are also gloomy like ghosts.

The "Vaneron Salon" may be regarded as a microcosm of Aldernan's rapidly expanding "new wealth group", but Daniel is not interested in it, and has always prohibited his apprentices from approaching similar places.

"Just a parody."

In the night, the old mage muttered something to himself, then took a step back and left the balcony that was being blown by the cold autumn wind over and over again.

……

On the morning of the next day, Gao Wen did not show up at the government affairs hall or deal with government affairs in his study as usual, but went directly to the Institute of Magic Technology, where Kamel and Rebecca had already been waiting in advance.

In a huge laboratory, all kinds of devices used to control the rune system are placed on the four walls of the room, and in the center of the room there is only a wide metal platform. There are no complicated experimental instruments on the platform. There is only one set of adjusted crystal projection device. Above the projection device, there is a light blue translucent schematic diagram floating on it, which briefly marks the territory outline of Cecil Empire.

"Master Ancestor!" After Gawain appeared, the first person to greet him was the elated Rebecca, "You've come!"

"How old is he already - be more prudent in doing things." Gao Wen looked helplessly at the great-great-great-great-granddaughter who was excited at all times. Although he knew that preaching was useless, he still couldn't help reminding her. .

Compared with when we first met five years ago, the once slightly immature "Miss Viscountess" has grown up and become a girl who at least looks mature on the outside, but her personality has hardly changed. Hetty It seemed that Gao Wen was worried about this, but Gao Wen felt that this was a good thing - anyway, he probably wanted to make this stupid roe deer king...

Rebecca shrank her neck to deal with it, and she didn't know how much Gao Wen said, and the latter didn't care much about it, while Kamel broke the silence: "Your Majesty, we have already adjusted the demo diagram. .”

Gawain nodded, and came to the metal platform in the center of the room. His eyes swept across the magic projection floating in the air. In his line of sight, he could clearly see Cecil City, Shilin City, Markings of cities such as Tamdur, Solinburg, Saint-Sunil, Winter Castle, etc., and there are bright lines connecting the cities, and around the lines, you can see light spots in a dim state .

"These light spots are the magic network nodes that have completed the infrastructure construction. The lines are the communication lines currently in use-except for the southern border, the other cities are basically single lines. The triangles next to these hub cities represent construction. The progress, the ones that have been completed are blue, and the ones that are about to be completed are red..."

Kamel floated next to the holographic projection, explaining the markings on the image to Gawain, while constantly adjusting the projection device to change the angle of the screen and present various details.

This made Gao Wen have to sigh the convenience of magic, and quickly focused on the last red triangle in this diagram.

"At present, only the node of Winter Castle has not been completed..." he said softly.

Kamel nodded: "Yes, the climate in the northern region is cold, and the start time itself is a month later than other places, and there are many mountains, which are not convenient for construction, so the construction progress is the slowest one. But in Victoria University Under the call of the consul, many local transcendents have directly invested in the first-line construction. The mountainous areas where large-scale construction machinery cannot enter are constructed by mages who are as efficient as machines, so all nodes have caught up with the construction schedule. , the main hub of Winter Castle will also be completed within a week."