Sword of Dawn

Page 271

Of course, those days are over, but the accumulated experience of those days is still useful.

As a person who often dealt with the battlefield, Cloade knew that morale and soldiers were not enough to capture the castle in front of him. The last mountain corps and the powerful "Queen of the North" had a geographical advantage and occupied the castle area magic net, and a magician at the legendary level is very good at managing his own energy. With a stable spellcasting environment and a steady stream of external magic support, the "Queen of the North" relied on some auxiliary magic tools, It could even keep the blizzard around the castle going for a whole month—and the castle had enough supplies to last her and her legion much longer than that.

But it doesn't matter, Cloade has his own good way.

An excavation team has already set off and is digging a tunnel along the blind corner on the west side of the castle. The leader of the excavation team...is the original lord of Boulder City.

Of course, that Mr. Lord has now embraced evolution and become a member of the new era.

Under the leadership of the former lord, the excavation team will attack the fortress protected by the blizzard from underground.

But they definitely couldn't just break into the inner courtyard of the castle, and they couldn't kill Victoria Wilde inside or destroy the powerful mountain army. Set up an enchantment around the spell-casting area. As long as the tunnel is dug near Victoria, the digging team will definitely be exposed in an instant.

Their real mission... is to destroy the magic net nodes underground in the outer layer of the castle, destroy the integrity of the magic net, and cut off the magic power of the "Queen of the North".

Only the lord of Boulder City knows the location of each magic net node, because those magic nets are set up by the lord, and although Victoria Wilde is the Duke Regent, he may not know what is in the house of the lord of Boulder City detail……

Cloade stared at the seemingly never-ending blizzard in the castle area, a smile slowly appeared on his face.

In his vague mental perception, he could sense that the digging team was still alive and digging deeper.

The former Earl Cloade of the East Territory, today's giant commander turned around, and casually ordered the subordinates beside him: "Attack when the blizzard stops."

Chapter 0617 Front and Back

In the Lunburg base, Gawain saw the soldiers of the Royal Army rescued by Soldering.

Leading these soldiers was a northerner with medium build, short brown hair, and a high nose bridge. He had already replaced his original broken armor with comfortable clothes provided by the base. Although there was still a trace of fatigue on his face, he was full of spirit The situation has obviously improved a lot.

When Gawain walked into the slightly crude barracks, the Mr. Cavalier, who had escaped from death, immediately stood up. He led a few soldiers with slightly dazed faces beside him, and bent down nervously to salute: " My lord, I am Barna Mitchell from the capital, and my soldiers and I are very grateful for your generous protection..."

"Please sit down, Mr. Mitchell, I have some questions to ask you." Gawain gestured for the knight in front of him to sit down, and he sat down on the chair next to him casually, "First introduce yourself—you should be able to guess , I am Gawain Cecil."

This is the legendary knight, who only appeared in legends and historians' books a few years ago, but now he has returned from the kingdom of the dead to regain his power as the ruler of the southern border.

The nobles of the royal capital have various descriptions and speculations about the ruler of the southern border. Most people choose to stay away, a few people regard it as a threat, and a very small number of people harbor conspiracy theorist malice, and almost everyone agrees. , this legendary pioneer is incompatible with this era - he has the arrogance of the Gondorians, the roughness of the pioneers, the barbarism of the first generation of nobles, and the unreasonableness of the resurrected. This is Barna Mi from the royal capital. Chell had built up all the impressions of Gawain Cecil in his own social circle.

Mitchell briefly looked at the legendary Duke in front of him with the most impolite gaze, and when the look was about to go beyond the rules, he lowered his gaze and made a gesture of waiting for orders.

The pioneering hero in front of me didn't wear outrageous costumes that didn't fit the times, nor did he exude a disturbing atmosphere. He was just like the most orthodox history books, tall, majestic, and wearing armor, as if he was always on the battlefield, with sharp eyes , but not cold.

"Are you used to living here?"

This first question was somewhat beyond Mitchell's expectations. He froze for a moment, and quickly answered: "Yes, thank you for the comfortable environment..."

With clean hot water, clean rooms, clothes, food and valuable medicines, and above all, safety—it is impossible for a person who has just escaped from a desperate situation to complain about such an environment.

"Very good," Gawain nodded slightly, "I would like to know the specific situation of the 'grain cluster infection' and the final route of the northern legions to break through..."

……

On the outskirts of Pompeii, a temporary camp.

Barbed wire fences and gun towers are stacked and staggered, and heavily armed soldiers are guarding the surroundings at the sentry posts. Inside and outside the camp, there are open or dark magic monitoring and warning devices buzzing. Although the camp itself is not big, the amazing level of protection allows It is like a fortress armed to the teeth.

There is only one reason for such strict protection: this is the place to study the pollution of gods and evils.

Deep in the camp, in a spacious and bright laboratory, Kamel was suspended a dozen centimeters above the ground. On the platform in front of him, a cage composed of a shield generator and a solid steel fence was stabilized. The ground is inlaid on the base made of reinforced concrete, and the inside of the cage is the core of the mission of this laboratory——

A druse giant that has completely mutated and lost human cognition.

That huge humanoid creature with a height of three meters stood quietly behind the solid barrier formed by the energy shield and the solid fence. It was not as violent as the "monster" commonly known by ordinary people. In fact, it was the opposite: its eyes were calm And reason, even with a kind of detachment, stared at the great magister outside the barrier without saying a word.

"I heard from Pittman that you refuse to talk to 'weak old-time humans'," Kamel drifted closer and buzzed, "so I came—I'm curious, in your cognition , Is my form considered an old era?"

The druse giant made no response.

"It seems that you still refuse to talk—do you think someone will come to rescue you? This is far from the front line, and you are far away from your deformed compatriots..." Kamel continued, "I know you are sensible, You can still think, but it has been replaced with a new set of worldviews. In your cognition, perhaps cluster infection is a normal life form, and uninfected humans are actually some kind of pathological changes... But I am curious The most important thing is, after undergoing such a transformation, do you still remember your thoughts and emotions when you were a human being..."

After another round of silence, the giant finally spoke, with a low tremor in his voice: "When the new era comes, you will realize the flaws of pure flesh and blood—extinction will come naturally, and we, are Helping... you guys."

The giant was obviously hesitant when he said the last word, because he was not sure whether he should include the floating luminous spirit in front of him in the category of "you".

No matter how you look at it, Kamel doesn't seem to have any human organs that can be mutated...

Kamel didn't care about the sensational parts of the other party's words. He just stared at the mutant in front of him with two shining arcane lights, and said in a low voice, "The so-called new era you call is the magic tide."

The druse giant was silent.

"As far as I know, an individual like you with special power and complete sanity belongs to the commander of the 'Druid Giant', and the druid dark magic left on your body shows that you should have been the priest of the Church of the End of Everything— —or a martyr."

"..."

"Which class did you belong to in the Death of All Things Society? The patriarch? Or a lower level withered priest? Or a forest shepherd?"

"..."

"Where did you get the information about the demonic tide?" "Why are you sure that you can survive the demonic tide by becoming this form?" "Have you heard of the word 'sinister'? Do you know its meaning? ""Where did you get this transformation technology?"

Kamel asked one question after another, but the cluster giant never said a word. In the end, after a more unbearable silence, Kamel suddenly said: "Do you know that this road used to be in the Gondor Empire? I have also passed through—I am a member of this plan. I have witnessed its failure with my own eyes, and your self-proclaimed evolutionary form is just the first failed plan that we eliminated..."

He thought that such words would somewhat touch the prisoner in front of him, but the crystal cluster giant just looked over calmly, and said after a while:

"I've heard that a stronghold from the Gondor period was unearthed in the southern region...

"I am not surprised at all by your existence.

"But you got one thing wrong, ancient magisters, your failure was not due to technical factors, not because there was a problem with this route.

"Your failure is because your disobedience is not thorough enough..."

After saying this, the cluster giant stepped back two steps, returned to the middle of the cage, sat down where it was, and stopped accepting any conversations.

Kamel's efforts were fruitless, and he finally left the laboratory helplessly.

Outside the laboratory, Pittman and several researchers in gray robes had been waiting for a long time.

"It said a few words to me, but hardly any useful information was revealed," Kamel said to Pittman with a sigh, "As you judged before, most of this 'command-level' cluster giants Transformed by the die-hard martyrs of the Doom Society, they maintain control of the druse legion in this way, and the mouths of such fanatics are almost impossible to pry."

"As the crystal cluster army expands, sooner or later they will select a new commander from the Transcendents who have accepted the transformation. This kind of commander should be able to pry his mouth open. We don't need to worry," Pittman said, and then he seemed to notice the card. Meier's mood was a little strange, "What else did it tell you? You don't look very well..."

Kamel was very surprised: "Can you see my face?"

"I can't tell from the look, the color is quite obvious, it's quite green now..."

"...It's nothing serious, but the last sentence that guy said made me a little concerned," Kamel shook his head, "The End of Everything really got a part of the legacy of the 'disobedience' plan back then, and they are continuing to implement this Abominations were created during the planning process, but the druse giant said they did something more 'disobedient'...I don't understand what that means."

"Can you be more 'rebellious'?" Pittman raised his eyebrows. Although he was once a member of the Society of the End of Everything, he obviously didn't understand the evil plan of the Society of the End of Everything. The graves of the gods have been dug up, the flesh has been sliced, and the blood and flesh of the gods have been refined into medicine to vaccinate the whole country. Can anyone be more rebellious than you? They really created a false god, and in the world I don't think you are disobedient..."

"So I can't understand," Kamel buzzed, then shook his head, "What about you? What's the result of your experiment?"

"After isolating the crystal cluster infected person transformed from ordinary people from the 'commander', all the experimental subjects showed obvious signs of weakness and stagnation of activity, and the only remaining thinking ability is rapidly disappearing, it seems that the lower crystal cluster infection The mental activity of the operator must rely on the 'commander' to maintain..." Pittman spread his hands and sighed, "In short, it is hopeless—the mutation from the body to the spirit is irreversible. But Those who have not yet mutated and only carry the infection may be able to be saved. The latest batch of infected people sent over is now in a stable state. The conventional treatment of plague and curse are useful for them. I am looking for the most effective purification program, and look for key factors that cause them to mutate from 'carriers' to 'mutators'."

……

In Cecil City, a spring rain washed away the row upon row of roofs and the criss-crossing streets. In the gradually dimming sky, the city was still bustling like daytime.

A graceful snake tail climbed up the tallest magic web broadcasting tower in the city, wrapping around the booster antenna at the top of the broadcasting tower. Till's body clings to the magic mechanism made of steel. She leans out and sweeps her gaze across the city in the distance. , Sweeping across the factory floor that has been turned on and is running around the clock.

The flames of war are spreading in the far north. Although the land of the Principality of Cecil is still safe, the impact of the war will still penetrate into every aspect of people's lives.People began to discuss the war in taverns and coffee houses, news and commentary articles from the North began to appear frequently in the newspapers, and factories, which had entered the so-called "wartime state", were operating with unprecedented efficiency.

Countless war machines lined up to leave the workshop, and the gears and bearings had not cooled down before rushing to the front with a bang; the technicians, doctors, and non-commissioned officers who had just graduated from various colleges were full of vigor and vitality, and went to their respective positions and lives; Not facing the war head-on, the commercial operations within the Principality not only remained unaffected, but became more prosperous than ever.This city driven by the power of the magic industry is so vibrant and so lovable, even the lazy Tyre can't help being aroused by it, and it arouses some reverie about the hometown of sea monsters——

Tyr doesn't know what the hometown of the Kraken looks like. She is a new generation born after the Antaveen crash-landed in this world. After the "big crash", the Kraken Empire has declined and will never regain its former glory , However, on the teaching machine, on the broken data stored in the memory chip, when the ancient sea monsters recounted their distant and vague memories, Tyr heard the description of his hometown more than once——

It was a living world, oceans covered the entire planet, and in the depths of the deep and gentle waters, the world of sirens flourished, machines worked day and night, cities controlled by artificial intelligence shone on the seabed, and submarine trains Galloping between the trenches and sea ridges, the aircraft gallops out of the deep sea and jumps out of the water, satellite clusters and orbital facilities surround the planet, overlooking the beautiful water world...

The Krakens might really not be able to go back.

But Tyr glanced over Cecil—these creatures on the land, they have their homeland, and they are building this place with enthusiasm.

Perhaps one day, they will build this place as beautiful as that "beautiful water world".

The lost siren took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and chanted in a low voice.

Invisible power soaks in this ethereal singing, vibrating the surrounding magic power, vibrating the booster antenna of the radio tower, vibrating Cecil's magic net-and then passing through the gap between Cecil-Black Forest-the magnificent wall Numerous relay towers vibrate the sentinel tower and the majestic wall.

The singing voice multiplies the ripples of space, spanning endless storms and oceans.

In the eastern part of the Endless Sea, the city of Siren "Antaveen", which has been bathed in starlight, the listeners on duty at night were surprised to see the strange frequency that suddenly popped up on the communicator.

A moment later, a maid from the deep sea swam her fish tail and swam into the bedroom of Queen Petiya——

"Your Majesty! The missing tide master has been found. She swam backwards when she returned, and she is now in the western continent!

"There she found human allies!

"She asked if you wanted a biscuit?"

Chapter 0618 Iron Throne

The holographic image projected by the Magic Net terminal was shining brightly, outlining a wonderful atmosphere mixed with fantasy and technology in the room after dusk. Gawain sat in front of the communicator and listened carefully to Kamel's experiment from behind. report from the room.

"... Pittman has confirmed that the high-level crystal cluster giants are transformed from the priests of the Death of All Things Society - it is not ruled out that there will be 'commanders' transformed from other extraordinary people in the future, but from the current stage Look, the fanatical believers of the death of all things are the core upper echelon of the druse army...

"The crystal cluster giants transformed from ordinary people have smaller size and lower power. Their thinking ability, or the only remaining sanity, needs to be maintained by the upper individual. There is a gap between the upper crystal cluster and the lower crystal cluster. Such a wonderful interdependence relationship, the lower-level crystal cluster giants can think, but their own thinking is not complete...

"I speculate with Pittman that this unique connection to the dredge giants indicates that they have some degree of 'telepathy', and that commander-level drusel giants may be able to control nearby units through this telepathy, or perceive To the state of the distant crystal cluster corps, but this induction will not be very clear, and it will attenuate sharply with the distance-this is the conclusion drawn after several isolation and control experiments.

"After losing the commander, the lower-level crystal cluster giant will quickly weaken and lose its mind, and degenerate into a monster that completely relies on instinct to act. It takes about an hour to completely weaken—sense is suspended from the beginning..."

Gawain listened to Kamel's report word for word, frowning occasionally, and occasionally relaxing.

Thanks to the researchers in the rear, the soldiers fighting on the front line do not have to face unknown enemies. As more and more infected samples are sent to the rear, as Kamel opens up his memories from the Gondor era, "God The various characteristics of the "infected person" have finally been unveiled in front of the world.

Next to Gawain, Philip Cavalier, who was watching, had a thoughtful expression on his face: "A certain degree of telepathy... No wonder they were able to organize a large-scale pursuit of Solderin in a short period of time before, and they were able to attack Solderin in a short period of time. Such a high level of organization is maintained without conventional scouts and order units..."

Gawain looked at this knight who was still young but had become a mature general: "What do you think?"

"The telepathic ability of crystal clusters is a tricky advantage for us, which means that their information flow speed on a small-scale battlefield is no worse than ours, and even faster," Philip thought seriously, "but obviously Their telepathic ability is also very limited, and the command system established by relying on it is relatively chaotic and vague, and it is not impossible to deal with it. And I think that the huge loopholes in their organizational structure are the key point compared to the advantages brought by telepathy. "

Gawain nodded slightly: "As long as the command nodes are destroyed, they will quickly collapse - irrational monsters are much easier to deal with than organized soldiers."

"I will work out a feasible tactic with adjutants, staff officers, and think tanks," Philip said with a serious face. "If it works, our advance speed will definitely be further accelerated."

Gawain couldn't help feeling a little bit emotional: Without Byron making jokes by the side, Philip's brain efficiency when thinking about tactics has obviously skyrocketed. I'm afraid it's because he saved the thread of fanfare and used it to formulate tactics...

Then Kamel continued to report the research results in the rear: "In addition, we observed and compared the magical reaction and erosion degree of the evil carrier and the mutant, and the 'ritual power' that caused them to mutate from the carrying state to the mutant state There is a preliminary conclusion - it is related to divine interference."

Gawain took a light breath: "Is it really the power of a god..."

"I found activated sinister factors in the infected people who completely mutated into cluster giants - although due to equipment limitations, they could not be completely isolated, but I can tell that they have undergone induced activation. Just like the ancient Gondor Empire The first generation of abominations was created by extracting the flesh and power from the giant deer Amoen, and the Death of All Things must have its own "energy source" in order to reactivate the abomination factors that had already become recessive genetic factors. At present So far, although no direct evidence has been found, we can theoretically conclude that the Death of All Things has mastered some kind of divine power, or a substitute for the divine power..."

Gao Wen's expression was calm, without any surprise.

Long before this disaster broke out, he had already realized that there would be some kind of amazing conspiracy brewing in the dark, and vaguely guessed that it had something to do with the "gods"—after all, the three major dark sects fell at the beginning. Obviously, they are inextricably linked with the God Realm, and it is no surprise that their ultimate goal points to the gods.

And after that, in the conversation with Tire, the information leaked by the sea monster who has rich eating and cooking experience in the field of devouring God made Gawain clearer his guess. For this reason, he even asked Tyr made some preparations to deal with the possible terrifying shady scenes involving the gods.

At this moment, Kamel's research has finally given some evidence from the empirical direction: all things will eventually die, pulling "God" into this battlefield.

This put a lot of pressure on Gao Wen, but he did not despair.

The power of gods is terrifying to mortals. If it is really an angry true god descending, then maybe Cecil is really powerless to resist, but will the death of all things bring down a true god to help fight the war?It is obviously impossible. At most, they found the flesh and blood remains similar to the giant deer Amorn and activated part of its activity, or used artificial forbidden techniques to create some kind of powerful monster with partial divinity, regardless of Which possibility is it? Since it was created by those cultists using human magic, it must not be indestructible.

Something that cultists can control... at least have a blood bar, right?

Even if all things doom will create a living "man-made god" that cannot be destroyed by Cecil's artillery, and Tyre and the sea monsters behind her can help, those deep-sea salted fish may not be able to deal with one True gods (although they usually eat the sashimi of the Lord of Storms all day long, but what they eat are corpses that will not resist after all), but as the fallen empire's father who masters super-era technology, they deal with a fake that is "smelling" Always no problem.

In addition, Gao Wen had been exposed to the battle report of the "God Killing Fleet" back then, and he was an atheist in his previous life. He might be nervous or cautious when facing issues in the field of gods, but he always kept a little bit of leeway— ——Although at this stage, this kind of surplus may be nothing more than self-confidence.

But at least that is self-confidence.

Gao Wen was curious about what Philip would think after knowing the forbidden power that may be in the hands of the Death of All Things.

"I have no idea," the young knight said solemnly after hearing Gawain's question, "It is the duty of a knight to obey the orders of the monarch, and it is also the duty of a knight to protect the territory and the people. Concerned about where the enemy is, not who the enemy is."

Gawain was a little surprised by this answer. He looked Philip up and down, and felt that the young man's uprightness and fearlessness were a bit unreal: "Even if the opposite side may be a god—or an evil god, or something beyond human understanding. ?”

"Same," Philip nodded. "It's the same to anyone who charges, the only difference is whether you can come back."

Gao Wen couldn't help laughing, and shook his head after two seconds: "I thought you would at least feel a little scared."

Philip's face was a little weird when he heard Gao Wen's words, and then he lowered his head and thought for a while, feeling a little embarrassed: "Actually, I'm a little scared..."

"Oh?"

"So if I'm actually on a battlefield like that, I'll pull my mask down so people don't see my lips trembling, and I'll strap my weapon to my hand to keep it from falling out, but I don't think I'll have to write a suicide note—I haven't yet. Wife and children, and no other relatives, the property under my name can be directly returned to the principality..."

The answer became real in an instant.

Seeing the serious expression on the young knight's face, Gawain suddenly couldn't help but want to put his hand on his forehead: "I seem to understand why Byron is so keen on bickering with you..."

Philip reacted for a while, but didn't react: "...Huh?"