Sword of Dawn

Page 369

Gawain looked at Veronica, who was surrounded by a faint holy light, and recalled her true identity as a disobedient, and always had an indescribable sense of absurdity: "...a person who is essentially disobedient to the gods, but is a real It can only be said that Gondor's technology is number one in the world."

"Gods cannot directly intervene in the present world, and their response and feedback mechanisms have their own laws to follow." Veronica showed a gentle and calm smile, "As long as I accurately fit these laws and find the loopholes in them, I can become the leader of any god." Dependents—except for the Goddess of Magic, who does not answer any prayers beyond what is necessary, nor choose any voices for the world."

The corner of Gao Wen's mouth trembled.

By taking advantage of loopholes, you can become the kin of any god, and you won't be hacked to death by all kinds of gods. Are you really the champion of the century in the cross-border cross-jump competition?This rank is probably higher than Daniel...

But Veronica said it easily, but Gao Wen knew that the operation of her "familiars who exploited loopholes" was not reproducible.It sounds easy to conform to the laws of the gods and find the loopholes in them, but in fact, it requires the operator to control one's own mind [-]%, from words, deeds to consciousness, to fully meet the standards of fanatics, not to be discovered by the gods, and at the same time to maintain the freedom of disobedients The mind, deep down, creates a "real manipulative personality", which is simply not something normal humans can achieve.

Only Veronica/Ophelia, the ancient rebel who has completed the transformation of her soul form and is probably not considered a human being in the strict sense of the moment, has achieved the high level of constantly making troubles under the eyes of the God of Holy Light. Difficult to operate.

Gao Wen shook his head, withdrew his slightly divergent thoughts, and frowned: "If it's just the breath of the gods, it doesn't mean anything, she may just be carrying a high-level holy object - as Typhon's princess, she has such a level around her." It's not surprising."

Veronica shook her head: "There are quite a few sacred objects under the names of various sects, but most of them are relics left by mortal priests who have made great achievements in history after performing miracles and noble sacrifices. Although it has powerful power, it is still a 'mortal thing' in essence. There are very few 'holy things' that truly have the aura of gods. They are basically unreproducible and unforgeable items like fragments of eternal stone slabs. Under normal circumstances, they will not Leaving the headquarters of various churches, let alone handing it over to someone who is not even a devout believer—even if she is the imperial daughter of the empire."

Gao Wen curled his fingers and pressed them against his chin: "Can you be sure which god's breath it is?"

"No. I can only judge from the indescribable, knowledge-polluted aura that it comes from a god, but I can't be sure who it is."

"Is it harmful?" Gao Wen asked again.

"It's just breath, it doesn't have essential power, it won't pollute or spread," Veronica shook her head slightly, "but whether Matilda herself is 'harmful'... that's unknown. After all, Typhon Has a completely different church power than Ansu, and the Augustus family is still a mystery to us."

Gao Wen thought about it quietly, and after a while he breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back on the chair: "On the bright side, maybe she's just a carrier.

"Since you can sense this aspect, I will trouble you to pay more attention to that Princess Typhon these few days—but if she doesn't show any abnormalities, then don't take any action.

"We are guests from afar, we must treat these guests well."

Veronica lowered her head slightly: "I understand."

……

Before the official talks started, the envoys from Typhon first got a full rest and were invited to visit the highest government office building located in the administrative area and the mage area adjacent to the government office.

This city known as the "Magic City" has left a deep impression on the guests who visit here.

Clean, brand-new, beautiful and livable, this is a new-style city completely different from the old-style feudal capital, and Matilda, who visited here for the first time, could not help but compare it with Aldernan, the imperial capital of Typhon.

The setting sun is gradually setting, and half of the giant sun has fallen below the horizon. The brilliant brilliance spreads across the city obliquely. The dark mountains in the distance glow with golden light, crawling jaggedly in the background of the city. This can almost be described as magnificent. The described scenery surged into the huge picture frame outlined by the floor-to-ceiling window frame. Matilda stood in front of the huge picture frame, silently watching this foreign city gradually sinking into the sunset, without speaking for a long time.

Earl Dürer stood behind her, also staring at the beautiful scenery, and couldn't help expressing emotion: "I used to think that Aldernan was the only city that could be described as magnificent...but now it seems that there are more than one beautiful city in the world. one place."

"In terms of planning, the layout of Aldernan 200 years ago has fallen behind this era, and the magic industry's requirements for transportation, sewage, etc. are urging us to renovate the capital of the empire," Matilda broke the silence, He whispered, "Whether you want to admit it or not, the planning method of Cecil City will serve as a great reference for us—this is, after all, the origin of magic technology."

There was a hint of helplessness in Earl Dürer's tone: "...Aldernan used to be the city with the most advanced planning."

"Nothing is always advanced. Our ancestors 200 years ago could not have imagined that a factory would need so many raw materials 200 years later, and they could not imagine that so many vehicles would need to pass on a road," said Matilda The tone was still flat, "In the past, we looked at An Suru as a decaying giant, but now, we should try our best to prevent this decaying giant from becoming ourselves."

Just a half-day visit has already had a great impact on the mission.

The Typhon people are proud. This pride stems from their martial spirit, and even more from their strongest national power among the human nations. But pride does not mean blindness, and those who can be sent as envoys will not be stupid. As early as the moment they left the country, everyone led by Matilda opened their eyes, but now, they saw something that made everyone feel uneasy.

Judging from the surface at least, the prosperity and advancement of the Cecil Imperial Capital surpassed that of Aldernan.

"Andersa's judgment and worries are correct. This country is rising rapidly," Matilda looked through the floor-to-ceiling windows and landed on the bustling urban area opposite the Autumn Palace. The extraordinary vision allowed her to see Looking at many details on the streets, she can see the satisfied residents, brand new signboards and prosperous commercial streets, "Also, Earl Dürer, have you noticed one thing..."

"What do you mean?"

"There seems to be no slums in this city."

"That's true... at least from the neighborhoods we've passed and the information we've inquired, it seems that this city doesn't have a real poor city," Earl Durer thought for a while, then nodded, "It's really puzzling... Where do the poor people live? Do they need to live outside the city? That would explain why the city keeps this level of cleanliness and why all we see along the way is richer and more energetic citizens."

Matilda glanced at Count Durer, shook her head slightly, but finally said nothing.

After another few seconds of silence, she spoke casually: "Tomorrow, before the first meeting, we will have the opportunity to visit their Imperial College, which is very important and one of the main purposes of our coming here .

"It is said that their academy is more thorough than ours in 'breaking the rules'. All commoners and nobles go to the same academy, and even the residential areas are together. We need to confirm with our own eyes to understand how they plan , to understand how their college is managed.

"Other than that, let's just do our part as 'guests'."

Earl Durer nodded slightly, and then left the room with large French windows.

In the gradually sinking sunset, Matilda turned and left the window. She came to the bar on one side of the room, prepared a glass of light wine for herself, and then held the crystal clear crystal glass in front of her eyes. Through the swaying wine, I watched the almost frozen evening light spilled into the room from the window.

In the next second, the twilight light really froze near the window, and quickly covered everything in her sight like some kind of paint that gradually faded.

Where the twilight is shrouded in light, things seem to have experienced the baptism of hundreds of years of time. The gorgeous tapestry has lost its color, the exquisite wooden furniture is quickly mottled and cracked, and the furnishings in the room are disappearing and weathering one by one. Even the layout of the room quickly changed to another look!

Before Matilda's eyes, this originally bright and brand-new room quickly turned into the corridor of an ancient and silent palace, and countless suspicious and malicious whispers came from all directions, as if there were countless invisible guests. Gathered in this "palace", approaching Matilda step by step with malicious intentions.

On the wall closest to her, a dark black door suddenly appeared. There was a knocking sound from behind the door, and an indescribable hoarse whisper sounded from behind the door, mixed with creepy chewing sounds And the sound of swallowing, as if a beast crouching outside the door, but pretending to be a human patiently knocking on the door.

Matilda calmly looked at the alienated scene in front of her, reached out her hand and took out a delicate metal tube from her bosom, unscrewed the cap, and poured the medicine inside into her mouth.

With the spicy and bitter medicine flowing down the esophagus, the whispers approaching from all directions gradually weakened, and the alienated scene in front of her eyes quickly returned to normal. Matilda was still standing in the room of the autumn palace, but her face was slightly paler than before. a little.

She stretched out her hand and picked up the wine glass that she had just put down from the bar next to her. Her hand trembled slightly, but she still picked up the glass of wine and drank it all in one go.

There was an illusory bloody smell in the mouth, but the bloody smell quickly receded. Matilda closed her eyes slightly, and after taking a few deep breaths, she opened her eyes, and those eyes became calm again, deep like water.

Accompanied by crazy growth, he will fight against madness all his life, and gradually slip into the nightmare that family members must face after adulthood, and sooner or later, he will be swallowed by it.

Such was the fate of every Augustus.

The corners of Matilda's mouth twitched slightly, as if she was mocking herself, but soon she restrained her emotions that shouldn't be shown, and turned around to come to the desk not far away.

On the desk, there was a book quietly spread out, but it was not a mysterious magic book or important state information, but a book that was bought by chance when visiting the mage area, and that citizens of the Cecil Empire could read freely :

"advanced mathematics"

The content on this is very wonderful, and it seems that they can't understand it for a while, but it is said that Cecil's students are all addicted to it, and they even hold a copy in their hands when eating and walking, so the things recorded in this book must be very interesting. important.

After successfully resisting the erosion of nightmares and madness, Matilda felt that she needed to read something else to adjust her mood...

Chapter 0793 Pollution Spread

In the territory of Tifeng, the headquarters of the Eternal Sleepers is hidden deep in the underground palace.

Archbishop Yuri, who was dressed in a white robe and had a gentle demeanor, led a group of priests quickly through the long and deep corridor.

The magic spar lamp in the corridor shines brightly, but it seems unable to dispel the gloom gathered on the archbishop's face. His face is gloomy and his eyes are extremely serious. In the corridor, it echoed in the hearts of every accompanying priest.

Amidst the slight friction of mechanical devices, the magic door leading to the deep prayer hall opened to both sides. Yuri Charvin entered a half-moon-shaped hall with various mysterious ancient runes painted on the walls, and his eyes quickly swept across audience.

Dozens of priests wearing white robes or long skirts are sitting scattered on the cushions in various parts of the hall. They are all young priests, but they are full of powerful magic power that is very obvious and vaguely out of control. Everyone looked a little sluggish, as if they had suffered varying degrees of mental damage, and beside them, there were people taking care of them.

A priest of the Eternal Sleeper waiting in the hall noticed Yuri's appearance and immediately greeted him: "The Archbishop..."

Yuri waved his hand to interrupt the other party's greeting, and said quickly: "How is the psionic choir?"

The Priest of the Eternal Sleeper who came up looked back at the scene in the hall, and said with concern in his tone: "All the members of the psionic choir have left the Internet and returned to the real world. They are all here. The good news is that no one was injured or injured. The bad news It's...they were mentally polluted while covering the retreat of the advance troops."

Archbishop Yuri frowned instantly: "Spiritual pollution? Everyone?"

The members of the psychic choir are all powerful masters of mind, especially good at fighting against pollution from the mental level, and sheltering partners in various dream worlds, but now...a whole psychic choir is gathered together, and all of them have encountered Mental pollution?

Neither Yuri nor the accompanying priests wanted to believe this, but the facts forced them to accept the status quo——

"All staff are polluted, and no one is spared," the priest in charge of managing the deep prayer hall said in a low tone, "including the high-level peak 'spiritual song' Your Excellency Wendy."

Yuri Chaerwen couldn't help but took a deep breath, and after two seconds, he slowly let out a mouthful of foul air, and asked in a deep voice: "How deep is the pollution... No, just tell the truth , how many believers of the upper narrator are here?"

The priest in charge of the hall shook his head gravely, and at the same time, Yuri's eyes had passed him, looking at the members of the "Psionic Choir" who were being cared for in the rear hall.

Among the many "singers", a delicate-looking young lady wearing an exquisite and gorgeous gold-patterned white gauze dress noticed his gaze. She raised her head, showed a gentle and peaceful smile, and then raised her right hand, horizontally In front of him, with palms down, as if covering the invisible earth, a magnetic voice sounded, as if it penetrated into the heart: "Sir, please allow me to take a moment of your time to introduce you to our omniscient and omnipotent Lord, The salvation of all beings, the upper-level narrative..."

Before this beautiful lady could finish her words, the priests of the Eternal Sleepers who were in charge of taking care of and monitoring her had already swarmed up. Someone pressed her shoulder, someone opened her mouth, and someone quickly poured some kind of potion into her mouth. In the mouth, there was also a strong priest holding up a golden spike, and while stabbing the spike towards the back of the lady's neck without hesitation, he shouted: "I'm sorry, Your Excellency Wendy!"

Yuri couldn't help closing his eyes—for him, this scene was even as terrifying as "Spiritual Song" Wendy's sudden spread of the beliefs of the upper-level narrators.

And during this short commotion, several members of the psychic choir seemed to be influenced by Wendy, and suddenly enthusiastically spread the teachings of the upper-level narrator to the surrounding compatriots, and immediately caused people around Emergency treatment, or being forcibly interrupted by magic spikes, or being pressed on the ground to pour potions, or directly hypnotized to sleep by powerful spells.

Due to timely handling, the chaos did not spread.

At this moment, a female voice suddenly entered Yuri's ears: "It seems that the forbidden runes in the deep prayer hall can't suppress their spiritual pollution. Keeping these polluted compatriots together will only make the situation worse." deterioration."

Yuri opened his eyes and saw that Selina Geer had "come" into the hall at some point and was standing beside him at this moment. The lantern in her hand emitted an unpredictable light, which made Yuri slightly Some impetuous mood quickly calmed down.

The priests around either knew Selena's true state long ago, or took Selena's "sudden appearance" for granted. At this moment, they showed nothing unusual, but saluted neatly: "Bishop Selena."

Selena nodded briefly, turned her gaze to the members of the psionic choir in the hall, and sighed softly.

"Implement the highest level of 'containment', transfer all mentally contaminated personnel to separate compartments in the deep area of ​​the palace, and prohibit them from contacting and talking with any irrelevant personnel under the premise of maintaining a comfortable environment and maintaining a good mental state.

"The person in charge of the care is rotated every six hours to prevent long-term contact from causing pollution. In any case, the caregivers must ensure that there are three people in groups, one person in direct contact, one person assisting, and one person observing outside the cubicle. It is absolutely forbidden to be alone Contact - In the event of solitary contact, regardless of how long the contact has taken place, and whether or not the subject has been in conversation, the contact is to be subjected to the same level of containment.

"From now on, dream control will be implemented in the underground palace, and unauthorized dream roaming behaviors are prohibited. Except for the containment target, it is forbidden for anyone to fall asleep in the deep area—if you accidentally fall asleep, regardless of whether you fall asleep or not, you must implement the same level of control." Contain.

"The above are orders from the Pope's crown."

Selena assigned the orders from Megal III one by one, and Yuri's face couldn't help changing a little due to the strict measures, but he didn't question these orders in the end.

He is very clear that this is an extraordinary period, and any strict containment and control measures are necessary because...

The influence of the upper narrator is gradually breaking through the No. [-] sandbox, and he has already begun to try to break through that wall and enter the real world.

The eternal sleepers in the hall began to carry out the orders from Pope Megaul III. The members of the psychic choir who were in a trance and had been polluted by the upper-level narrator accepted the arrangement in a daze. Driven by their remaining rationality, they He made the greatest cooperation for the "containment" he was about to face.

Selina turned her attention to Yuri: "Now do you know what is attacking the advance troops?"

Yuri sighed and shook his head: "I just returned from the rest area of ​​the spirit knights - due to the cover of the psychic choir, they were lucky not to encounter pollution, but their cognition and memory were seriously misplaced, and a few of them could barely People who recalled the situation described very eerie scenes: they said they were attacked by their own shadows."

"My own shadow... sounds like mental backlash..." Selina pondered, "Other than that? Are there any other details?"

Yuri thought for a while, then nodded: "There is a detail that I don't know if it can be used as a reference - the advance troops were attacked after the night fell on the No. [-] sandbox."

Night... The "night" in the No. [-] sandbox seems to have a particularly special mystical significance. The phantom town was shrouded in an abnormal night before, and now the No. [-] sandbox seems to have similar weirdness.

The hall fell silent for a while, and Selena stood quietly, bowed her head in silence, seemed to be lost in thought, and seemed to be making a difficult decision.

A minute later, she raised her head and looked into Archbishop Yuri's eyes: "Let's hold an emergency meeting and call all the archbishops who can still act to participate. We... I'm afraid we will have to make some difficult decisions."

Yuri looked into Selena's eyes.

As the oldest archbishop in the Order of the Eternal Sleepers, as a saint who "survived" 700 years ago, she has the same qualifications as Megoll III to convene the Supreme Bishops' Conference, but in the past hundreds of years, she has This is rarely done, and the only few times are all moments that can affect the fate of the order.

After a while, Yuri nodded: "Understood, I will arrange it."

……

In Cecil City, Gawain stood on the terrace at dusk, overlooking the dark mountains in the distance, but suddenly, a familiar wave of consciousness surged up in the depths of his mind, interrupting his rare leisure time of the day .

A major accident occurred in the exploration operation of No. [-] sandbox?An emergency meeting of the Supreme Bishops of the Sleeping Ones?

Gao Wen stood quietly on the spot, but deep in his heart he was listening intently to Daniel's report. After a while, he slowly exhaled, turned and left the terrace, and returned to his room.

The maid, Betty, came to him with a click.

"Betty, inform the other attendants that no visitors will be accepted tonight," Gawain ordered to the little maid in front of him, "When Hetty and Rebecca come back, tell them that I may not leave the room tonight."

After Betty left, Gawain turned to the air next to him: "Keep the door."

Amber's voice came from the air: "Hey, I understand!"

After everything was arranged properly, Gao Wen didn't waste any time. He walked to a soft bed in the room, adjusted a more comfortable posture, and soon entered a deep "dream".

In the changing light and shadow, he has passed through the invisible spiritual barrier and arrived at the city of dreams deep in the spiritual network.

In the resplendent and magnificent city of dreams, it was extremely deserted.

Gawain immediately noticed the unusual atmosphere around him. He stood on the edge of a square, looked at the street not far away, and saw only a few clergymen patrolling the busy street. There was not a single figure to be seen on the square that was originally the gathering place, and only guards could be seen near the mind crystal that usually had to line up, and no "visitors" could be seen.

A familiar aura emerged beside him, and Daniel's figure appeared beside Gao Wen.

As soon as he appeared, the old mage bowed and saluted: "I salute you, my lord."

Gawain looked at the other party: "Daniel, where are the people here?"

"The Psychic Network has implemented an emergency security strategy. All middle and low-level users have switched to the basic connection mode. They only have limited access to the network, provide the necessary computing power, and no longer directly immerse their consciousness into the Dream City," Daniel replied with his head bowed. Said, "This is to prevent the contamination of the upper storytellers from spreading and preventing it from entering the real world."

Then he paused and explained: "The advance troops encountered a serious crisis in the exploration of the No. [-] sandbox. There was even an archbishop who was spiritually polluted and became a follower of the upper-level narrator in the real world. Now the religious order Up and down has entered the most urgent state."

"...It seems that the situation has deteriorated seriously," Gao Wen shook his head, "When will the meeting be held?"

"Five minutes later," Daniel replied with a nod, "The virtual port of the Central Temple has been reset according to your order, and a 'seat' has been arranged for you."

Speaking of this, Daniel paused for a moment, and couldn't help but confirm again: "My lord, do you really want to 'listen'?"

Gawain looked at Daniel: "First of all, it depends on whether the 'seat' you set up is sufficiently concealed, and whether it can block the eyes of Megaul III."

"Don't worry about this - as the situation becomes more tense and I prove myself several times, I have already controlled all the security permissions of the psychic network, and I am also responsible for the rewriting of the bottom layer of the central temple. 'Auditorium'."

"Then don't worry," Gawain nodded. "In this situation, of course I want to listen in."

This time, the Supreme Bishop Conference of the Order of the Eternal Sleepers will be attended by "Wanderers from Outside Territory".