Sword of Dawn

Page 278

"The White Knights are on standby," said the Patriarch, who was on the front line, in a deep voice, "It is ready to carry out missions at any time."

"Go to Boulder City immediately to check the situation," Gao Wen said, "I'll go with you."

The offensive operation in Red Maple City is over, and the next thing to do in the direction of Boulder City is a rescue mission.

Rescue, of course, should be done by priests who are good at saving lives and healing the wounded—considering that the situation over there is unknown and the task difficulty may be relatively high, then the priest who can fight the most should be sent there.

As a low-level patriarch who advocates doing things by himself, Wright insisted on going to the battlefield in person, so Gawain also arranged for him to participate in today's operation. Considering that there may be unexpected complicated situations in Boulder City, Gao Wen Wen decided to go there himself.

Ten minutes later, three armored trucks with the emblem of Cecil and the runes of the Holy Light, engraved with prayer scriptures and holy patterns, and equipped with Holy Light Shock Turrets on the top left the frontline stronghold, accompanied by soldiers in charge of escort and combat missions. There were 10 Warhammer I tanks with extra burners and six Iron Ambassadors, plus a full infantry battalion.

Inside the armored truck, Wright, wearing a thick white knight armor, carefully checked his warhammer and the Holy Light Shock Cannon on his arm. Gao Wen who was at the side greeted him.

Such a sight made Gawain always feel that Wright was a substitute emissary...

He had to say something to dispel his unfounded associations.

"Wright, what do you think of this war?"

"I don't have much opinion on the war, I'm just a priest," the Patriarch shook his head, and replied with the same straightforwardness and simplicity as before, "If I have to say it, I can only feel sorry... This is a battle without A catastrophe in any sense, too many innocents dead, and one of the most fertile parts of the kingdom laid waste..."

"The land after burning will always grow new shoots," Amber on the side rushed to say before Gao Wen could speak, and then glanced at Gao Wen, "Is that what you said?"

"Yes, new shoots will grow from the burned land..." Gawain breathed out slightly, but looked at the desolate wilderness outside through the crystal blocks inlaid on the truck compartment.

Even in this polluted land, there are still green plants spreading and growing. After all, the evil pollution is only aimed at humans, and the vegetation has not been affected.In the wilderness on both sides of the road, he saw large expanses of luxuriantly growing fields - those were once all the property of the local noble lords, only the scattered ears of wheat and a little bit of brown rice after harvest belonged to the untouchables, but now, the land on this land The nobles are gone, the commoners are gone, and the god-like human beings no longer need the food that has cost countless blood and sweat. The precious farmland is so barren, and the weeds have begun to crowd out the seedlings, growing more lush than food.

This place was not burned, but in Gao Wen's eyes, it also suffered another kind of burning.

Both the royal family and the power of the Eastern Realm were burned out in the karmic fire of this war.

Will Ansu sprout new shoots?

Chapter 0629 Defrost

The team headed east all the way, hardly encountering any expected enemies.

There was no elite crystal cluster army, and no large troops returning to support. Along the way, the army led by Gawain only encountered a few small-scale wandering crystal clusters—the monsters that had lost control wandered aimlessly. Wandering between plains and hills, when they saw chariots, they rushed up desperately, and then were easily wiped out, not a threat at all.

This situation continued until the fragmented high walls of Boulder City appeared in the sight of the observers.

The soldier who served as an observer returned to the car, took off the multi-functional tactical eyepiece, with some consternation on his face: "Report, a large area of ​​freezing marks is found in front, and there is a wide-area magic response!"

Amber looked through the observation hole of the carriage and looked at the ruined street outside. She saw large swathes of frost covering the surface of the collapsed bricks, tiles and wooden beams, and the slightest trace of blood stained the ice crystals hanging between the ruined walls. In the outskirts of the city, the amount of these ice and snow is not too much, but as the team gets deeper, a world that can be described as a world of ice and snow gradually appears in front of everyone.

Thick ice covered the entire inner city, and countless corpses were turned into icy sculptures. The howling wind rolled up layers of snowflakes and slammed on the steel armor of the tanks. The core area of ​​the city encountered an ice storm. Seal, the power of this ice seal is so great that people even suspect that the cold winter has returned to this world again - in this season that should be getting hotter day by day.

Amber looked at the scene outside in astonishment, and couldn't help muttering to herself: "This is... what's going on..."

"A very powerful... wide-area magic, legendary level," Wright couldn't help but secretly stunned, "I've never seen a similar spell."

"White Knight, get out of the car and walk." Gawain looked thoughtfully at the frozen city outside through the viewing port, and then suddenly ordered, "The rest of the car crew and soldiers should be alert and move at a low speed."

The armored truck on which the white knight was riding stopped quickly, Wright led his elite priests jumped out of the truck, and came to the front of the team with a hammer in hand.

Gao Wen also left the car with Amber and Maggie. He jumped to the ground, and his metal boots stepped heavily on the hard ice, which immediately made an illusory and ethereal crisp cracking sound, which was obviously not a normal ice crystal. should be issued.

Gao Wen bent down, picked up a few pieces of shattered ice, and then slowly crushed them while pouring magic power into them. Those seemingly solid ice pieces immediately cracked crisply, and then turned into magic dust that drifted with the wind. Little by little it melts into the air.

Amber's eyes widened when she saw this scene: "Ah... Are these ices made by magic?"

"It's been a long time since I saw this scene...Snow's 'cold disaster'," the corresponding memory appeared in Gao Wen's mind, he sighed softly while looking at Maggie with a slightly dazed face beside him, "When did Victoria break through to the pinnacle of legend?"

"Legendary peak? No... Victoria should be just a legendary junior..." Maggie froze for a moment, then asked nervously, "Do you know what happened here? Why is it so quiet here—the enemy and the mountain army It seems that they all..."

"Don't be nervous," Gawain interrupted Maggie, "Since it's frozen here, she and the mountain army must still be alive. Of course, some extra things should be alive too..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers looking ahead suddenly shouted loudly: "Sir! There are many frozen giants here!"

That scene is unforgettable - countless druse giants are frozen inside the solid ice, and they are covered with a layer of clear ice, standing in the sun as if wearing strange armor, and they gather in groups On the squares, stairs and roads in the castle area, the various postures of the assembly are still maintained, as if until the moment of freezing, they have not realized that the winter has come.

It seems that most of the drupe giants who besieged Boulder City were left here.

Amber stared at the horrific scene in front of her in astonishment, and after a long time, she suddenly said, "That northern duke did it? If she had the ability...why didn't she use it earlier..."

"This is the legendary spell 'Cold Calamity', but I suspect that Victoria can't use it proficiently, and without proficiency, the Cold Calamity can't kill any enemy-Victoria should use it after realizing that there are reinforcements With this spell, the crystal cluster army that could have returned to Red Maple in time was temporarily left here," Gao Wen casually said his guess, and at the same time felt a little emotional, "It seems that it is not as good as Snow back then, Back then, Snow made the most of this cold disaster..."

Wright came to Gawain's side: "How do we deal with these... ice sculptures?"

"Crush them, smash them while they are still frozen," Gawain glanced at the heavy hammers in the hands of the white knights, then at the chariots and soldiers around, and finally at the cluster giants, "Just Keep the largest one, lock it in advance, and maybe send it back to the rear as a research material after it's 'thawed'."

"They will still thaw?!" Wright was stunned for a moment, and then quickly directed the soldiers to carry out Gawain's order, "Hurry up and smash these ice sculptures..."

The white knights swung their life-saving hammers and began to save these twisted souls, while Gawain walked towards the ramp not far away: "Let's go inside to see the situation in Victoria, the center of the cold disaster. The area looks like the inner courtyard of the castle, and she should be waiting for us inside."

In the inner courtyard of the castle, Gawain, Amber and the others quickly found the Mountain Legion, which was also frozen, and the Grand Duchess Victoria surrounded by knights and mages of the Mountain Legion.

The last mountain legion and their monarch were frozen in the man-made iceberg in the inner court area. The ice layer was much thicker than the outside and nearly two-thirds of the entire inner court area was frozen into a whole. I am afraid that the White Knight's warhammer would also Unable to shake it, through the crystal clear ice, Gawain could clearly see those tired but resolute soldiers, those scarred knights, and those mages and attendants who had drawn out their daggers. You can see Victoria Wilde, who is holding the staff tightly and still maintaining the last expression when he was frozen.

After seeing Victoria who was also frozen, Gawain looked a little surprised.

Everyone was in awe of the power and splendor of this legendary spell. Gawain put aside his surprise for the time being, and began to explain the situation of this spell according to the information in his memory: "Snow Wilder created the cold disaster back then. It was a kind of A spell that can temporarily freeze the entire battlefield, and the summoned ice cubes can even freeze the weaker legendary experts, but it is not lethal in itself—all ice cubes are products of magic power, frozen The units are only temporarily stagnant in the magic field. With the end of the cold disaster, the magic field dissipates, and the frozen targets will regain the ability to move freely, so it can only be used to temporarily control the field, but it does not have direct lethality ..."

"Why do I think there is something wrong with this spell..." Amber looked at the huge iceberg in the inner court with a strange expression, "Then if the caster is frozen inside together... what is the use of this 'cold disaster'? Let's all work together Temporarily freeze and calm down, and then wait for the 'ice' to melt and continue playing?"

Gawain glanced in Victoria's direction, and after a brief moment of pondering, he said, "That's right, Snow didn't freeze himself into the cold back then...

"I also don't understand how Victoria froze herself together."

Amber: "...huh?"

It took Wright and his priests a long time to complete Gawain's order. They smashed all the "ice sculptures" found in the inner city of the castle - or hammered to death every frozen crystal cluster, Gawain, who was guarding the inner courtyard of the castle, waited a longer time until the effect of the cold disaster ended and the magic power dissipated.

Right in front of everyone's eyes, the huge iceberg disintegrated and dissipated almost instantly, and the survivors of the mountain corps frozen inside regained their sobriety one by one. The thinking of these loyal soldiers seemed to be still stagnant in the previous state. Driven by instinct and inertia, they panicked for a while, and then they were shocked to find that the surroundings were full of unfamiliar soldiers in full armor.

Gawain waited until the chaos subsided a little before he stepped forward. He stepped over the magic crystals in the air that had not dissipated, and stretched out his hand to the astonished Victoria: "I didn't expect to meet in this state—fortunately." It's not too late for me."

"It's you...you're attacking Hongfeng?!" Victoria seemed to have just realized it, and stretched out her hand a little too late—this kind of disrespect is not common for the Grand Duchess, but considering her All of this seemed understandable from the changes I just experienced, "I really didn't expect... Ah, those monsters outside the castle..."

"It's been dealt with, I know 'cold disaster'," Gao Wen said with a smile, "but I'm curious, aren't you worried that people who don't understand cold disaster will approach here? After the ice block was lifted, those who suddenly resumed their activities Druse giants can represent great danger."

"In the entire Anzu, those who have the ability to rescue the mountain army must know the 'cold disaster', which is the symbolic power of the Wilder family," Victoria said, "But... I really didn't expect it to be you..."

"I'm afraid that in the whole of Ansu, only the southern border still has a complete military force." Gawain shook his head, then looked at Wright who had just returned from the mission, "You take the white knights to treat the wounded, there are many people here who need first aid and treatment. Sickness. Go and bring food, and prepare clean drinking water..."

The soldiers immediately began to act, and the intense and orderly rescue work started immediately. The injured mountain army soldiers were quickly treated and appeased effectively, and the large amount of food and drinking water brought by the car replenished the physical strength of these exhausted people. .

Amidst the tense, busy and orderly rescue, Victoria forcibly cheered up and asked Gao Wen about the current external situation.

"It's a pity that the Knights of the Royal Capital are not able to turn the tide. They should be doing their best to guard the city of San Sunil. The Western Region Legion has not appeared near the Gorgon River so far. They may be directly filled into San Sunil Neil's battlefield. The Eastern Realm Legion has all been wiped out, and the entire Eastern Realm is currently in a state of no control, and I'm trying to find a way to maintain order there..."

Gawain talked about the information he had one by one, but each piece of information made Victoria's mood even more depressed.

"I didn't expect the situation to be so bad..." The Duchess frowned. She is usually a person who rarely shows rich expressions, but today she no longer hides all expressions. It looked particularly vivid, "I thought that some of the main force would remain in the eastern region to fight against this disaster... but I didn't expect them to be in a worse situation than the Mountain Army."

"The disaster broke out from them first," Gao Wen said, and then looked at Victoria curiously, "Actually, I'm curious about one thing...why did your cold disaster freeze yourself?" ?As far as I know, when Snow created this spell back then, there was no problem of freezing the caster together."

Victoria was silent for a while, and the atmosphere at the scene seemed a little awkward in these few seconds.

"Actually, I haven't mastered this spell..." The Duchess finally had to confess frankly. She took out the light golden snowflake amulet inherited from the family, and her tone was quite ashamed. It was ashamed of her ancestors, " The cold disaster has lost its inheritance many generations ago, and the power symbol of the Wilder family has actually been built on this talisman."

Did the Wilder family in the north lose their inheritance of "cold disaster" many generations ago...

Gao Wen suddenly felt a little sad, feeling the power of the changes of the years, but soon, his eyes were attracted by the unique material luster of the amulet in Victoria's hand.

"Do you know where the material for making this amulet comes from? Did you melt an eternal stone?!"

Chapter 0630 Mysterious sailing, final disobedience

The talisman in Victoria's hand shone with a faint golden luster. The very special surface texture was between metal and some kind of crystal. When the shimmering light passed over it, a thin and changing halo appeared on its surface. ——No natural or man-made material known to mankind would have such a peculiar texture, and Gawain was really very familiar with them.

This is the material of the Eternal Slate, the material of the wreckage around the giant deer Amorn's body, and the ancient alloy left behind by the suspected high-level civilization fleet! !

But the talisman in Victoria's hand is very different from those "fragments" in the original form: it bears obvious traces of secondary processing, it has runes used by humans on its surface, and it also bears Wilder The family crest!

As far as Gao Wen knows, in the past few hundred years, human beings have not found any means to process the "eternal slate", not to mention smelting and recasting, even knocking a piece of it can't be done-even if it was the Spark Era. In the Gondor Empire, with the help of advanced Gondor equipment, Kamel and his colleagues were only able to barely cut the wreckage around the giant deer Amorn! !

So, how was the amulet in Victoria's hand processed? !

"...This talisman was cast by the Grand Duke Mordir Wilde 600 years ago," Victoria did not expect Gawain to care so much about her family talisman, but she replied frankly, "The name of the talisman It is a 'cold disaster'. As you said, its material is very similar to the eternal stone slab, but it is not processed from the eternal stone slab... Specifically, where did Grand Duke Mordir Wilde get these materials, and in Where the casting of the amulets was done remains a mystery...I only know that it was related to an expedition to sea."

Gao Wen's heart skipped a beat the moment he heard the words "exploring the sea", and couldn't help but ask, "Exploring the sea?"

"Yes," Victoria nodded, "There are records in the family. Duke Mordir Wilde is a legendary mage who is keen on exploration and powerful. He traveled the entire Northern Continent in his early years. After the title of Duke was passed on to the heir in advance, he even went to challenge the Endless Sea - no one knew where he went, and the family records only recorded that he brought the 'Cold Calamity' amulet with him when he came back. Forged somewhere far from the mainland..."

A mysterious voyage, an adventure unknown to everyone, challenging the endless sea without the Church of the Storm and the sea guide...

Although there was no clear evidence, Gawain instantly thought of the memory he lost after inheriting this body, and thought of a mysterious voyage by Gawain Cecil.

700 years ago, as the founding Duke of Ansu, Gawain Cecil suddenly made an inexplicable voyage to the sea. No one knew what happened to him. Gawain only knew that he had entered the kingdom of the siren and came from a certain place. A place called "Eternal Dark Sea" brought back some mysterious crystals, and those crystals helped Gawain re-establish contact with the orbiting satellite;

600 years ago, Grand Duke Mordir Wilde had a similar experience and brought back the Cold Disaster Amulet—a talisman cast from some ancient alloy that theoretically could not be processed by modern human technology.

Gao Wen has always been very concerned about the blanks in his inherited memory, and instinctively feels that it hides a huge secret, but he has never found any clues about this, so this matter was once put to the back of his mind, but Today, he feels that he has finally discovered the clues of this matter—even though there was a 100-year gap between Mordir Wilde and Gawain Cecil, the similar voyage experience and mysterious "harvest" obviously exist to some extent. Contact, which made him couldn't help asking: "Is there really no extra record for the Wilder family on this matter?"

Victoria coughed lightly, as if the weakness caused by the cold weather had not faded away, she shook her head after a short thought: "No. Mordir is one of the ancestors of the Wilder family who left few records, he is keen on Yu traveled around, but did not have much deeds in his career as a duke, and family records, which are more orthodox, will not record too many of his adventures. It is said that there is a book written by Mordir Wilde himself The travelogue he wrote recorded many of his adventures and experiences, which is equivalent to his diary, but that travelogue has been lost a long time ago..."

"So it's like this..." Gawain sighed in disappointment, but he still had to accept this fact.

Victoria hesitated for a moment, and said proactively: "If you are very concerned about this matter, I can look for it in the library of Winter Castle after I go back, and there may be some side information."

"Yes," Gawain nodded, and then looked at the soldiers who were busy, "but first we have to solve this disaster..."

The command node of the crystal cluster army in Red Maple City was destroyed, and the crystal cluster army in the entire Red Maple area, as well as the Boulder City, the Fertile Forest, and the Inclined Forest Valley were paralyzed. The disaster caused by the death of all things encountered an unprecedented It was a huge blow, but the end of the Red Maple Battle did not mean that Gao Wen could breathe a sigh of relief.

This army of crystal clusters is extremely large, and the monster created by the death of all things has more than one command center, those who are going to attack San Sunil, those located in the eastern area of ​​​​the giant wood crossing, and those scattered throughout the Holy Spirit Plain The crystal clusters in the wilderness all have different command nodes. After losing a red maple, the remaining giants will still be active.

The main force far away in Hongfeng has established a position and began to eliminate the cluster infected people who are constantly coming from all directions and are in a state of chaotic weakness. Due to the destruction of the Hongfeng node, the infected people in the entire area will be at the end. Under the guidance of a spiritual command, he rushed into the fire net formed by the burner and the rail gun like a moth to a flame. According to experience, this process will last at least a day or so.

And the Inland River Fleet, which has completed the artillery support mission, docked for repairs after a long absence—they wanted to repair the damaged magic wings.

"We have encountered an attack with a real threat," Byron explained on the magic net communication terminal the reasons for the short interruption of the previous shelling and the damage to the magic wing. "A group of crystal cluster monsters sank themselves to the bottom of the water and fired at the fleet. Then it came up suddenly and tried to cut through the bottom of our boat."

Gao Wen didn't know that those powerful warships were almost in trouble before, and he was shocked when he heard Byron's report at this time, so he hurriedly asked: "And then?"

"Fortunately, there are also steel plates at the bottom of the battleship, and there is also a water-tight compartment. The first wave of attacks by those monsters did not work. Afterwards, I ordered the ships to break off the mechanical structure of half of the magic energy wings, and immerse the waste energy release grid in the water. A large-scale arcane explosion was created in the water-this successfully killed the monsters, but at the cost of losing half of the magic energy panels, and various small ships were damaged in varying degrees in the arcane explosion. One modified The gunboat was badly damaged and has lost all power... This part of the loss is my responsibility."

Even the old fritter knight didn't have the slightest intention to shirk when faced with the responsibility for the damage to the fleet, but Gao Wen directly interrupted the other party: "You are not responsible for this incident, and your response was very appropriate, avoiding further damage. Big loss—and this also allowed us to accumulate valuable experience. You sorted out the details of the battle process and the operation of the various systems of the ship at that time, and sent it to the Magic Energy Technology Research Institute and the shipyard, so that They refer to the follow-up transformation plan."

"Yes."

After the communication was hung up, Gao Wen couldn't help but let out a long breath.

You can't be blinded by the smoothness of the battle situation—even in such a smooth military operation, there are hidden such important lessons. Deadly crisis!

Those crystal cluster giants had found an effective way to fight despite being crushed and beaten all the time. Gawain had been focusing on the confrontation on land and above the water before, and he ignored the possibility of the enemy attacking the battleship from the bottom of the water!

This is not to say that he does not have the concept of underwater confrontation, but that he did not think about it at all. He did not expect that under the background of this era, when facing a group of infected monsters, he would encounter the challenge of underwater confrontation !

It's like a heavily armed modern soldier going to fight a primitive man with a stick - the soldier wouldn't think he needed extra cover and an insulated protective suit, but the primitive man swung the stick and summoned a spherical Lightning comes...

If it weren't for those crystal cluster giants who only had flesh and blood, and if the enemy also had weapons and equipment similar to Cecil's, or even only half an era behind, then those enemies who attacked the warship from underwater might really be able to sink the river fleet. warship.

At this moment, Victoria's voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Gao Wen's thoughts: "Did something happen?"

The Duke of the Northern Territory just ate some food, and after a short rest and meditation, his condition has recovered a lot at this moment. Seeing Gawain's serious expression, she thought that there was something wrong with the front line.

At the same time, she also noticed the small magic net terminal in front of Gawain—she had seen a larger machine fixed on the ground in Cecil City, and now she saw a small machine that could be easily transferred. Can not help but bring a trace of admiration and yearning.

If the Royal Army also had this kind of thing at the time, maybe the situation would not have deteriorated so badly... At least, she would have had time to gather all the uninfected troops, so that most of the troops far away from Boulder City were fighting alone in a place where communication was cut off. In case of being transformed into a cluster giant...

But she was just thinking about it—she knew that Gao Wen didn't mind promoting these advanced things, as long as the price was right, but the nobles of the kingdom might not accept these things that might shake their authority. Especially those mage families who control the communication towers in various places, and the plain nobles who tame griffins, they may spare no effort to hinder this technology.

"It's nothing, a small problem." Gawain noticed Victoria's gaze. He could guess what she was thinking, but he didn't point it out. "We will rest here for a day, and then continue to advance north—the crystal cluster army is probably at the moment. The attack on the capital has already begun, and I hope Saint-Sunil can persist until we arrive."

"The most important thing is to let them know that there are reinforcements," Victoria said immediately, "I... know the nobles in the capital very well. If there is no news of reinforcements, they may not be able to last for three days—even if they own the entire Ansu The strongest fortress."

"...My views on the royal capital's nobles are highly consistent with yours."

……

In the dark and deep underground abyss, the crimson magma rolled and rolled at the bottom of the cliff, and the priests of the death of all things in black or dark green priest robes gathered beside the huge body of the false god, watching the man-made god from afar Every breath.

The huge deer-like body is almost fully mature at this moment, and a layer of majestic and sacred radiance covers the surface of his huge and elegant body. Various mysterious runes and sacred symbols are constantly floating on the white fur that is not stained with any dirt. He seems to be ready to come to the world, but the last chain is still bound on the body of this man-made god——

The chain was wrapped around his neck and connected between his antlers. The runes on the chain flashed, and the powerful seal and suppressive force were restricting the awakening impulse of the man-made god.

Opposite the body of the false god, on a high platform floating in mid-air, two figures were watching the body of the giant deer from a distance.

One of the figures was a female priest who was half human and half a tree, while the other was a man in a plain black robe with his face hidden in the shadow of a hood.

"Grand Master, Heaton is dead." Bertila Augustus turned his head slightly and said to the man beside him.

The Grand Priest nodded slightly, and the voice from under the hood was hoarse and depressed: "I feel..."