Sword of Dawn

Page 250

Chapter 0578 The Twisted Bottom

In the dark and deep underground palace, the humming of magic power suddenly broke the silence in the air.

Stable magic power was injected into the crystal, and the magic spar lamps embedded on the walls lit up one by one, illuminating a vast hall space.

The floor of the hall is covered with shimmering runes and lines of magic power, and there are countless pillars that seem to be a mixture of flesh and plants standing on both sides of the hall. With dark red shimmering blood, vines or blood vessel-like "biological cords" grow from the tops and roots of the pillars, meandering and extending into the rune matrix on the roof and the ground, and on the walls behind these pillars , Rows of crystal ball-like transparent containers are neatly embedded on the dark red wall.

In those crystal balls, there are creepy biological tissues floating. They are soaked in the thin reddish biomass solution, wriggling, expanding and contracting unconsciously like devil's eggs in sleep.

And at the end of the hall, there is a huge gap—it is not a wall, but an opening of some kind of underground rift. Outside the gap, there is a vaguely vast space shrouded in dim red light.

A sound of footsteps came from far and near, and a tall and thin figure in a black burqa walked into the hall.

He walked unhurriedly through those "pillars" that were trembling slightly, his eyes swept across the surface of each pillar, he patiently and meticulously checked the status of these "embryo containers", a hoarse and deep voice came from under the hood ——

"Okay, that's great...it grows so fast...the biomass I prepared for you is not in vain..."

A cold female voice suddenly came from not far away, interrupting the black-robed man's self-talk: "Heathon, when you are with these embryos, you really feel more and more disgusting."

The man in black didn't turn his head back: "Bertila, have you even forgotten the courtesy of knocking on the door?"

Accompanied by the rubbing sound of roots moving on the slate floor, Bertila, who was half-human and half-tree wearing a green priest's robe, came out of the shadow at the entrance of the hall. She glanced at Heaton not far away: " It's a pity that your disgusting hall has no doors at all."

The man in black turned around and took off the hood on his head, revealing a pale and shriveled face. He looked at Bertila coldly: "When you bred the first batch of god-evil embryos, you didn't say that they were disgusting." Nausea."

"What's disgusting is your aesthetics when decorating the hall, not these embryos," Bertila frowned and looked at the neatly arranged "pillars" and the crystal containers embedded on the walls on both sides, "you just Can't there be some less disgusting way to engineer these biomass sacs and artificial egg shells? Or at least wrap them in something... You're looking like a rotten slaughterhouse here, not a state-of-the-art laboratory."

"It's a pity that you can't understand the beauty of flesh and blood art, but I am willing to understand," Heaton sneered casually, "If you stay in the abyss of flesh and blood for a few more days, you must also understand the beauty of these most primitive biological tissues. The beauty contained in the…”

Bertila directly interrupted Heaton's slightly neurotic speech: "Enough, I'm not interested in knowing what twisted and bizarre knowledge the 'gods' stuffed into you when they whispered in your head, I just came to understand the evil The growth of the embryos——the Grand Master needs to confirm whether the evil factors in these embryos have been successfully activated, and needs to confirm the effect of the body of the false god on them."

Heaton grinned, and an ugly smile appeared on his gloomy face: "Of course, as you can see, this place is full of vitality - the evil factor in human genetics has been inherited for hundreds of years, and it still exists vigorously today. In each human body, as long as it undergoes appropriate mutation induction, everyone is a god... We should thank our compatriots in the wasteland. The data they recently provided are timely and effective, and all embryos are developing in the expected direction. "

Bertila nodded, and walked unhurriedly to a "pillar", stretching out his hand to feel the slight trembling and temperature deep in the "pillar".These seemingly stationary columns are all alive, and she can feel the regular pulsation hidden under the rough skin, just like the beating of a heart, stable and powerful.

...Is this the future of mortals? It's so unbearable...

For a moment, this extremely brief question flashed in Bertila's mind, but in the next second she refreshed and reset the brain tissue and corresponding hormones that produced the question—this superficial question could not have come from her In herself, it was probably the remaining thoughts of an assimilated phagosome trying to influence her judgment, and this was not the first time something like this had happened.

She doesn't care about that.

"Very well, the Grand Priest will be satisfied," Bertila nodded slightly, "It is an order from the Grand Priest to ensure that these special 'initial' abominations enter the maturity stage as soon as possible."

Heaton stared at Bertila with cold eyes from behind, and he was slightly annoyed in his heart, annoyed at this woman's arrogant attitude, annoyed that she was so arrogant in front of him in the name of Grand Priest, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Bertila is the most experienced patriarch in the Death of All Things Society. This seemingly human woman has extended her lifespan for seven centuries by using forbidden magic—by devouring and absorbing other life forms.She is still in the rank of "Master" in name, but in reality, her status is between the dean and the grand dean.

Only she can walk through the long corridor in the deepest part of the underground palace unscathed, and stay in the secret room of the Grand Priest for a long time. The whispers of the vicious gods will not drive her crazy, and looking directly at the flesh and blood of the gods will not contaminate her body. Soul, this incredible ability makes her position in the order unshakable.

Heaton thought maliciously that perhaps the secret of Bertila's resistance to the divine influence in the depths of the underground palace was that she had been distorted into a monster, or she had been a monster from the beginning, her soul and flesh and blood had rotted, Mutated, but her monster just happened to be distorted into a human appearance.

Beltira turned her back to Heaton and said without turning her head: "Master Heaton, I don't mind if you stare at me with disrespectful eyes, but you stared at me for too long."

Heaton just responded with a cold snort.

Bertila didn't care, she just turned around and said unhurriedly: "I don't know if you got the news - the Ansu people have already started to repair that barrier, and Gawain Cecil... …went to the South in person.”

"I heard that that Gawain Cecil actually found a way in the dark mountains and drove directly into the Black Forest," Heaton said casually, "but our sentry didn't bring any more news."

"Several sentries died unexpectedly, and the rest of the sentries did not dare to approach any further," Bertila looked into Heaton's eyes, "One of the sentries sent back an almost hysterical report—he called Cecil a lunatic And the devil, don't you think it's funny?"

"...Interesting, because this title has always been given to us by outsiders," Heaton raised his eyebrows. "It seems that the sentinel has lost his mind. What happened to him?"

"The Cecilians are using powerful magical devices to open up their territories at will, and they are even using those magical devices to bombard the wasteland for no reason, and the hapless sentinel... he and a few other sentinels happen to be there Nearby," Bertila shook his head, "The key issue now is that it seems that Cecil has not developed as we expected, and they have become an uncontrollable factor..."

"Can not control……"

Heaton muttered something softly, and then let out a contemptuous laugh.

He came to the nearest column and activated the biomass shell of the column with a wave-

"It's just a group of mortals who can only fight with the help of magic props. How can the power of 'God' be resisted by a few explosive props!!"

The dark red biomass squirmed violently, and instantly shrank back towards the roof and the ground like frightened magic vines. After the creepy "shell" receded, the scene inside the column also appeared in front of Bertila— —

A mutated humanoid creature floats quietly in a translucent tubular container, its height is almost twice that of a human, it has dark skin and thickly swollen joints, and countless growths like crystal clusters cover the surface of its limbs , subtle energy sparks flowed non-stop between those crystal clusters, showing that this giant not only had a powerful body, but also possessed extraordinary magical power.

Heaton looked up at the hideous and terrifying mutant giant, with a smile on his face: "There is nothing stronger than great evolution, Master Beltera, don't you think so?"

Bertila quietly looked at the "Abominable" in the tubular container, with a calm expression on his face: "Shut down your fanaticism, no one understands great evolution better than me - you'd better wake up and lose control of this mutant Before closing the biomass sac, you must know that activating the first batch of abominations cost a lot of good corpses."

After saying this, the headmistress ignored Heaton and walked towards the end of the hall.

She came to the huge gap at the end of the hall and gazed out into the vast space beyond.

A wide underground rift lies in the field of vision. Huge cableways, bridges and natural stone beams connect the cliffs on both sides of the rift. On those dizzying bridges, countless walking dead figures are wearing heavy protective gear. Staggering forward under the supervision of workers.

At the bottom of the rift, there is the "Blood River" filled with crimson light. Countless thick chains criss-cross above the blood river, fixing an indescribable mass of flesh and blood. In the steaming heat of the blood river, the mass of flesh and blood It beats like a heart, and each beat is stronger than the last one.

This is the abyss of flesh and blood.

The entire underground palace was built on the top of this flesh and blood rift.

Those walking corpse-like figures are slaves, victims captured from all over the place—most of them are poor people, and a few are wandering warriors and mercenaries with little strength.

In this era, it is not difficult to secretly capture some civilians from various noble territories to serve as slaves, especially in the event of famine and war, the disappearance of some poor people will not attract anyone's attention at all.

But now the situation has changed slightly: the Principality of Cecil has risen at an astonishing speed, and they have built a complex and strict monitoring system. Even the disappearance of a civilian will attract security personnel. More and more magical monitoring devices have also made unauthorized spellcasting extremely dangerous. Recently, it has become almost impossible to catch people from the southern border.

However, the slaves captured from outside the southern border can still meet the needs of the Abyss of Flesh. The Ansu Civil War brought not only enough flesh and blood, but also enough slaves.

Bertila watched the slaves staggering down the passage, then she looked past the doomed victims to the mass of chained flesh at the bottom of the chasm.

Under the nourishment of a large amount of human biomass, and under the combination of a large number of "sinister" factors, the mass of flesh and blood tissue has matured day by day.

The moment when the "body of false gods" wakes up is just around the corner.

Chapter 0579 The Edge of the Wasteland

black forest.

Regarding this belt-shaped forest located at the southern foot of the Dark Mountains and adjacent to the wasteland, Ansu folks have countless versions of legends and stories—for example, every tree in the forest is transformed by the victims who failed to escape the wasteland For example, there is a passage leading to a chaotic world buried underground in the Black Forest. For example, the entire Black Forest is actually a huge monster with evil wisdom. cause, and completely destroy the civilized world created by mortals...

But Gawain knew that the birth of the Black Forest was actually not that complicated.

It used to be just an ordinary dense forest, located on the border of the Gondor Empire, blocking the mountains and wilderness in the north.

It was the power of chaotic mana that turned a harmless and fertile forest into a restricted area of ​​life today.

The power of the magic industry is forcibly opening up a wide avenue from this restricted area of ​​life.

The hideous and twisted demonized trees grow wantonly on the barren land, and the tall and dry crowns weave a strange web in the sky. The unique thin mist in the black forest floats slightly and slowly creeps very close to the ground. The vines and shrubs carefully hide themselves in the mist, as if they are waiting for an opportunity to prey on the victims who accidentally enter their hunting range, and between the shrubs and the mist, those demonized creatures with festering flesh and blood that are already between life and death Creatures are also dormant, quietly waiting for prey to enter their hunting circle.

There are outsiders in the forest, the fresh breath of life spreads in the mist, and the predators are getting excited.

Then, the sharp whistling sound broke the Black Forest's rule of "hunting for opportunities".

Powerful heavy-explosive grenades and field artillery shells fell from the sky, and the impact of the explosions shredded the mist, as well as the predators hidden in the mist. The towering ancient trees shook and fell in the continuous explosions. Wriggling poison ivy panicked and attempted to burrow into the ground - only to be caught in deadly heat and shockwaves before escaping.

The surviving monsters roared in the smoke and dust, and those who had a little reason began to flee crazily, while those who lost their minds instinctively rushed to the direction of the threat, and in the smoke and dust, the dense scorching rays and lightning bolts shot quickly. Stopped their last charge.

The heavy infantry wearing heavy armor and carrying continuous-firing heat ray guns or lightning generators advanced step by step, and stayed at the edge of the visible range, suppressing all possible counterattacks in the smoke with intensive firepower Strength, while the Iron Rangers carrying grenade launchers interspersed among these heavy infantry, using powerful grenades to clean up those corners where the magic power reacted most strongly.

After a period of intensive shooting, the magical reactions observed by the soldiers' tactical eyepieces went out one by one, and the hoplites immediately dispersed to the sides and retreated, while the white knights, who were taller and more armored, carried With a heavy burner, he walked forward with heavy steps.

"In the name of the Holy Light—perform purification!"

A deep and majestic roar came from under the captain's helmet, and the white knights immediately activated the heavy burners they carried—the front ends of these weapons, shaped like flat cylinders and connected with the white knight's armor by rune chains, immediately sprayed long The flames reaching tens of meters burned everything within the sight range of the knights.

The most basic "grease technique", combined with the burning hand and the blessing of the wind element, the flames formed can almost burn all organic matter.If the opponent is a transcendent and can use protective spells, then the effect of these burners will definitely be greatly reduced, but if it is used to clean up "organic waste", then there is nothing better than these heavy burners.

There are outsiders in the forest, the smell of iron and fire spreads in the mist, and the predators are... approaching eighth maturity.

"Keep moving!! The Holy Light blesses your burners—keep moving!!"

Under the effect of the squad leader's "Inspired by the Holy Light" (shouting version), the white knights continued to move forward, and kept burning areas where threats might remain, while the heavy infantry followed closely behind, using their respective The firepower performs the tasks of cover and coordinated advancement, and the Iron Ranger fighters who have completed the fire support mission quickly move around the formation, using their most advanced tactical goggles and well-trained detection techniques to provide vigilance for the entire team.

The soldiers cooperated skillfully, had a clear division of labor, and advanced extremely quickly. Obviously, this was not the first time they had done this.

There is no doubt that performing tasks in the Black Forest is the best training for these soldiers.

Behind the soldiers, multi-purpose tanks and towed artillery began to move forward. These tanks will become the vanguard of the team again at the next point of advancement, and will carry out the next round of fire bombing with their own weapons. The next stage of "cleaning" and "purification" is carried out in the area, and this cycle repeats, so that the road continues to extend forward until it reaches the end of the Black Forest and enters the wasteland.

Gawain was sitting in a chariot, watching the white knights using heavy burners and setting fires everywhere while shouting the slogan of Holy Light, he couldn't help sighing: "To be honest, at this point... their The means really have nothing to do with Holy Light..."

"Didn't Wright say that the most important thing is belief," Amber sitting next to him said casually, "In other words, as long as you claim that the Holy Light protects you, even if you spray baked potatoes from your cannon, that's still Holy Light will of..."

"I don't think Wright's 'faith' means that..." Gawain glanced at Amber, and then couldn't help sighing, "But having said that, these burners are really useful..."

Amber blinked her eyes, looked at the flames and smoke rising in the distance, and couldn't help shrinking her neck: "I just think it's scary... this kind of weapon... only Rebecca can rub the fireball Guys who come up with dozens of colors and shapes can think of it. And to be honest, using this kind of fire-breathing thing in the forest really won't cause an out-of-control fire?"

"This is the Black Forest, which is different from normal forests." Gawain shook his head with a smile, reminding Amber to pay attention to the distance, "Of course the burner can't be used casually in the forest, but you didn't notice... burning here Will the flames be extinguished soon?"

Amber noticed that the fire field created by the white knights did not spread outwards, and the burning flames on the ground would soon be extinguished. She couldn't help being a little surprised: "Really...how did it happen?"

"The chaotic magic energy environment in the black forest prevents the fire from spreading—the flames from the burner are made by magic. Although it can indeed cause a natural fire, the premise is that its magic reaction must last long enough. However, in this place, most of the magic reactions can't last for too long—unless it can get a steady supply of magic power."

"...The Black Forest is such a strange place," Amber scratched her hair, "No wonder you insist on using this method of blowing up everything to open the way. In such a weird environment, after the regular team of transcendents penetrates in, I am afraid that it will take a few minutes. It's gone."

Gao Wen smiled, but did not answer.

Blowing up everything is the only way to deal with the Black Forest, but to achieve this method, the premise is that there must be enough force.

In order to deal with the threat of the wasteland and to fight against potential enemies in the future, he has never slacked off on "force". Those weird and unpredictable distortions, no matter how powerful the firepower is, they can't be too much.

Cecil's weapon design department has never stopped research and development. While "big projects" such as magic vehicles, magic network communicators, and magic trains are making continuous progress, the equipment in the hands of soldiers is actually improving rapidly. with.

For the early days of the magic guide era, the birth and development of many things are actually "the presence or absence of ideas". Without ideas, a new thing, or even a whole field, will be blank, and as long as there are ideas, then this Things in the field will develop like a blowout.

After the success of the thermal energy ray gun, the technicians discovered a "key idea", that is, "as long as the low-level magic in the traditional sense is used properly and combined properly, and then realizes industrial mass production, it will exert an astonishing effect." ".

This idea is called "minimalist and practical idea" by Gao Wen, that is, under the premise of controlling the cost and system complexity, arrange and combine stable and reliable basic spells as much as possible to achieve the highest possible practical effect.

Low cost, high stability, mass production.

Based on this idea and the thermal energy ray gun, a series of weapons with the general-purpose magic terminal as the carrier and the low-level offensive spell substrate as the core were quickly designed. By replacing the modules in the magic terminal, the soldiers The offensive methods can be not limited to scorching rays, acid arrows, lightning bolts, ice bombs, and even weak healing and auxiliary spells. As long as the energy level meets the requirements and is compatible with the basic structure of the magic terminal, then it can be realized.

The heavy-duty burner in the hands of the white knights is something that Rebecca has tinkered with not long ago, and it is also an extension of this "minimalist and practical idea".

In those new weapons, Rebecca and her technicians stuffed the rune substrates of Grease and Burning Hand, and used the "Blessing of the Wind Element" to increase the spray range of Grease. Facts have proved that this A design that works surprisingly well.

The combination of three basic spells creates a powerful weapon of war.

Gawain didn't mind that these weapons were just some "arrangement and combination of inferior spells".

On the 40th of Harvest Moon, the Pathfinder forces burned the last trees on the southern border of the Black Forest.

The entangled poisonous vines and ancient trees were turned into ashes, and the monsters corrupted by the magic of chaos gradually turned into smoke floating in the air. On the land that the white knights stepped on, the magic flames generated by the heavy burners were quickly extinguished in the chaotic magic environment. When the smoke and dust gradually dissipated, the scene at the end of the forest instantly became open.

The endless plain of corruption stretches ahead, and the huge light curtain of the magnificent wall connects the sky and the earth in the distance.

Accompanied by the sound of mechanical devices running, specially modified magic vehicles that can adapt to the complex road conditions of the wasteland drove out of the forest area and came to the scorched earth polluted by the magic tide.

Gawain got out of the car and set foot on this barren land. He saw that several elves including Sonia had already left the convoy earlier than himself, and they were waiting for him at the front.

The elves are the "technical guides" in the process of repairing the barrier, so they naturally have to follow along.

After Gawain approached, Sonia said with emotion: "We have finally walked out of that black forest - walking through such a profane and twisted forest is really torture for elves."

A high-level ranger couldn't help but said: "That's true—but fortunately, with those cars, there is at least a layer of crystal and steel between us and that fallen forest."

"Yeah, magic devices..." Sonia glanced at Gao Wen, "I have to admit that the things you have led humans to tinker with are really good. But I think you'd better use the so-called heavy-duty devices with caution." Burner things—especially in the forest. The Black Forest is okay, if you use them to burn a healthy forest... First of all, I personally don’t take it very emotionally.”

"Set fire to the mountain, and you will be imprisoned - this sentence is written in the Cecil Civilization Convention," Gawain spread his hands dumbfounded. He knew that Sonia, who is an elf, would see the thing after seeing it. Sooner or later, you will say, "Don't worry, we are not crazy people who only know how to destroy."

While talking, he was still a little bit emotional: the elves like Sonia would instinctively murmur after seeing the burner, but Solderin, who is also a genuine elf, didn't feel it at all after touching the burner for the first time. A similar reaction, in fact, he was quite excited...

I'm afraid that guy has been traveling in the human world for too long, and he has forgotten that he is a child of the forest...

Chapter 0580 Advance, Expand

Amber's first impression of the wasteland is "foreign land".

The light gray sky was tumbling and surging above the head like some kind of viscous liquid, the turbulence of magic power that was almost visible to the naked eye was flowing around between the thick clouds, and the chaotic wind rolled over the barren and twisted land irregularly, And the land—the land is covered by some kind of purple-black "substance" that seems to be a mixture of volcanic eruption melt and sludge, like the rotten sores of this world, extending continuously until the end of the line of sight, extending To the interior of that magnificent energy barrier in the distance.

She had never seen anything like it anywhere.

She finally understood what Gao Wen meant by "the wasteland is outside the boundaries of the civilized world".

The Black Forest may be corrupted and distorted, but at least the trees are still trees, and the monsters are still monsters. No matter how gloomy the sky is, the sky that can be seen between the clouds is still clear. Here, at the end of the Black Forest, at the foot of the magnificent wall, The whole world is different from what she knew.

She even felt that even the shadow power here had become strange.