Sword of Dawn

Page 192

"The holy light is indeed released by the rune substrate," Wright said seriously, "I won't lie."

Amber was unhappy when she heard it: "Then I can't use it anyway..."

"Because of the spiritual seal," Wright said, "you have a spiritual seal for the God of Holy Light in your heart."

"...Stop making trouble, how could I have such a thing!!" Hu Po was stunned for a moment, then waved her hands angrily and laughingly, "I don't believe in the God of Holy Light, not at all!"

"We have analyzed that the spiritual seal is born with the birth of every mortal, whether you believe in the corresponding god or not, or even whether you know the existence of this god, this steel seal is congenitally imprinted in the soul of every mortal. "Gao Wen looked at Amber with an extremely serious expression - just now, he finally saw the scene of the Mind Seal taking effect for the first time with his own eyes, which had caused an uproar in his heart, but he still calmly analyzed, "Now It seems that the mind stamp is not the same as the so-called 'heart of awe' or 'thought interference', this thing...is more tricky than we imagined."

"Yes, after the holy light base plate was created, we observed the phenomenon of mind stamping through it - no matter Mrs. Hetty, Miss Rebecca, or any mage, knight, or rune master in the territory, they couldn't activate it at all. This rune substrate, because... the spiritual stamp exists in the depths of everyone's soul. There are only two exceptions so far, one is me, and the other is Master Kamel."

"I...go..." Amber opened her eyes wide and exclaimed in disbelief, "I...I was locked...by this kind of thing from birth?! I...I still can't feel it at all !"

"It's scary because you can't feel it. It hides in a place deeper than the subconscious. It will make you lose a certain 'freedom' without your own awareness. You feel that you don't believe in the God of Holy Light. Not bound by the God of Holy Light, but in the deepest part of your mind...you will instinctively think that 'the Holy Light belongs to God'," Gawain said, taking a deep breath, "everyone, everyone its prisoner."

Chapter 0461 Disobedience

The conjecture of "Spirit Stamp" has been confirmed.

The appearance of the holy light rune substrate allowed the researchers in Cecil Territory to observe the effect of the spiritual stamp through experiments for the first time.

But there is no doubt that this is not good news.

Divine magic belongs to the gods, and mortals can only "pray" for the gift of the gods through devout belief and obedience to dogma, so as to borrow the power of divine magic. This has always been taken for granted. Based on the information provided by Kamel and Wright's real example of "White Knight", Gawain, Pittman and others jointly put forward the conjecture of "Spirit Stamp", and believed that the key to let mortals master divine arts It was to break the steel seal—and after seeing Amber's test, Gao Wen realized more deeply that it might not be so easy to break the steel seal.

Among Gao Wen's acquaintances, I'm afraid there is no one who disdains the God of Holy Light more than this elf's shame, but she still can't break the influence of the spiritual seal, which shows that the seal does not act on the human thinking level, but An instinctive reaction that is hard to control and hard to detect.

As Wright mentioned just now, that Kamel is not affected by the spiritual stamp, Gawain is not too surprised - Kamel was a senior researcher of the "Rebel Project" a thousand years ago, and he has spent a whole 1000 years Sealing life, his mental strength is probably not lower than that of Wright, and his research project back then was to steal the power of the gods. His spiritual seal may have been established as early as when he saw the god's corpse of the giant deer Amorn Disintegrated.

"Actually... this can be regarded as an unexpected harvest," Gawain took the rune substrate in Wright's hand, and couldn't help but sigh, "It has become an 'observation device' for us to verify the spiritual seal..."

Then he put his finger on the copper medium on the edge of the rune substrate, and slowly injected magic power into it: "Maybe... I can try."

The light golden lines on the rune substrate quickly brightened under the infusion of magic power, and almost instantly, a mass of pure holy light condensed over the substrate.

"This..." Wright was stunned for a moment, "You...you even broke the soul seal?!"

Amber also looked at Gawain's holy light spell released through the rune substrate as if she had seen a ghost - the last time she showed this expression was when he crawled out of the coffin: "You can do it anyway!"

Gao Wen just quietly looked at the ball of light floating in front of him, feeling its stable and pure magical reaction, but he didn't feel much surprise in his heart.

Just as he expected——as a foreigner, who has nothing to do with the local gods, he was born without a spiritual stamp.

A swift little figure flew to Gao Wen's side, Emily stretched out her hand towards the holy light group, but stopped halfway hesitantly.

She looked up at Gao Wen, her big eyes were full of expectation: "Can I eat it?"

Although the little girl is simple-minded and her way of thinking is slightly different from that of ordinary people, she obviously still knows that Gao Wen is the lord, so she can't do anything casually.

Gao Wen smiled slightly, and put his hand on top of Emily's head: "Here you are."

The little girl happily carried away the holy light, while Amber continued to look up and down Gao Wen with a look of seeing a ghost: "I really can't tell... When did you break the spiritual seal?"

"It's not surprising that the legendary hero who fought against the evil tide 700 years ago had such a will." Wright said beside him, but even though he explained this to Amber, he still had some doubts in his heart: the mind stamp is a kind of Breaking the "lock" of one's own will not only requires a firm will, but also requires some kind of "consciousness" and "mutant thinking" with unknown principles, and the latter two elements have nothing to do with the strength of one's will.

How can ordinary people have sudden changes in thinking under normal circumstances?He himself broke through the spiritual seal because of long-term doubts and reflections on the God of Holy Light, as well as the impact of the Emily incident, and Kamel because of his rebellious plan back then, and the changes in life forms and thinking patterns during the millennium seal. change, then Gao Wen...

Did this legendary hero also disobey the gods back then?

Gawain noticed the doubt in Wright's eyes, but he didn't intend to explain all this, but brought the topic back to the right track: "The mind stamp prevents users from using their own magic power to drive the holy light substrate, but if I'm not mistaken... ...This holy light substrate is still usable, right?"

"As you said," Wright nodded, "The mind stamp affects only the user's mobilization of their own magic power, but the holy light substrate is also a type of rune substrate, and the rune substrate does not have to be driven by human magic power—— It can be powered by the energy in the magic net, and the magic net... has no mind."

The magic net has no thoughts, so it is naturally not affected by the so-called "spiritual seal". Using the automatic operation of the magic net to drive the holy light rune is equivalent to bypassing the "human" factor. The way equipment works to cast spells is the foundation of Cecil's magic industry.

Cecil's magic industry took advantage of the loophole of the mind stamp under the circumstances of a mistake.

But Gao Wen knew that things would not be so simple: "Using the magic net to power the Holy Light Rune Array... requires a very critical process in the middle."

Wright opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Kamel's voice suddenly came from the direction of the church door: "It's an inverter array."

Gawain turned his head and saw Kamel, who was full of arcane radiance, floating towards this side. The arcane master said as he floated: "I was going to report to you about the Holy Light Substrate, but I didn't expect you to come to the church. I heard you discussing the energy supply of the Holy Light Base Board just outside the door."

"It just happened to be here," Gao Wen nodded, and continued the topic, "The inverter array is a very sensitive thing, I believe that if you hadn't encountered a bottleneck in this, you would have given me the results of the Holy Light Substrate Look—after all, the real thing has been produced."

"There was a pastor who tried to improve the divine art and used magic to directly drive the holy light array, but was burned to ashes by the divine punishment - the experience of previous failures, we have to be cautious," Kamel said in a serious tone, " We don't know what the nature of the gods is, but the phenomenon of 'divine punishment' does exist."

Having said that, he paused and looked at Wright: "Fortunately, Wright broke the stencil and awakened the White Knight's ability. By detecting the energy flow when he casts a spell, and calculating the spell model he sensed, we reconstructed a new one. The holy light circle completely eliminated the connection structure with the god of holy light in the magic circle, blocking the judgment process of "divine punishment". Subsequent experiments proved that this treatment is effective, but if we reverse the Changing the formation to power the Holy Light substrate... is very likely to re-establish this dangerous connection."

Although the pure magic energy flowing in the magic net is a convenient and easy-to-use general-purpose energy source, it cannot provide energy for the magical rune system because it is too "general-purpose".The rune system of divine arts can only accept two types of energy, one is the corresponding divine magic power (such as the holy light energy stored in the holy light crystal), and the other is the magic power adjusted by human spiritual power (the magic power of clerics such as priests, or the magic power of other extraordinary people), and the pure magic energy in the magic net has not been processed by the factor of "human", so it is obviously not suitable for use.

Therefore, if you want to use the magic net to charge magical runes, you must use the "inverted array" technology developed by Pittman: the inverted array can replace the role of "prayer" and process pure magic energy .

The inverter array is a mature technology, which has been widely used in alchemy factories, but it is also a dangerous technology: it is stealing the authority of the gods.

After the inverter array appeared, Gawain issued an order that this technology is only allowed to be used in the field of druid spells at this stage - because the god of druids, "Giant Deer Amorn", has been confirmed dead, Moreover, its divine corpse was suppressed in the Shadow Realm. Even if the inverter array was stealing natural divine power, there was no danger of causing divine punishment, but using the inverter array to power other divine arts was not necessarily the case.

The other gods are still alive, and not only are they alive, they can call back believers (respond to prayers)...

Although Gawain knew that all the gods died once, there are signs that those gods slaughtered by the Zentraedi in ancient times have all been resurrected. At least there is something sitting on the throne of the God of Holy Light Yes, from the bottom of his heart, Gao Wen really didn't want to attract the attention of any god on the throne at this stage...

Amber also realized the danger of the inverter array. She struggled with Gawain, and after struggling for a long time, she said without confidence: "Just steal a little... What if the God of Holy Light can't find it?"

Gawain immediately glared at this guy: "You have an occupational disease, don't you—what do you mean by stealing a little? Do you think it's you picking out someone's wallet in a tavern?"

Amber shrank her neck: "That's all I'm going to say, can't you just say it..."

"There are a large number of rune structures simulating divine arts in the inverter array, and this structure cannot be removed. It is likely to attract the attention of the 'gods', but on the other hand, in the whole process, The magic net that provides energy, the inverter array that converts energy, and the rune substrate that releases divine magic, all three units do not have any "mind" involved, and what people do is just pull the trigger of the rune, so in theory this process is still It is possible to bypass the 'God's Punishment' judgment," Kamel said as he thought about it, "The only thing we can't be sure about now is..."

Gao Wen didn't wait for Kamel to finish speaking before he spoke: "We can't be sure whether the 'God's Punishment' will still happen under the premise that the entire spell-casting process is completely automatic and does not involve the Mind Seal, nor can we be sure that 'pull the trigger'" Does the movement also introduce human's "mental factors" into the process of casting spells, and it is impossible to determine whether this will indirectly lead to "God's punishment", is that right?"

"Everything is just as you said." The light on Kamel's body flickered slightly, "Although people just pulled the rune trigger to connect to this system, the simple action of pulling the trigger...is also the result of thinking. "

Gao Wen frowned, and couldn't help muttering to himself: "Could it be related to the observer effect... the observer effect in the macroscopic world?"

Kamel didn't hear clearly: "What did you say?"

"No, it's nothing." Gawain waved his hand, "I don't think 'pulling the trigger' should belong to the process of casting spells, because the process of casting spells is a closed-loop structure in the system composed of the magic net-rune substrate, and the process is controlled by people from the outside." Among them, its spiritual power does not resonate with any magic power—and whether the spiritual power participates is an important symbol of the casting process. Of course, this is just my personal opinion. How specifically... We must design an experimental plan to verify it. "

Kamel nodded: "It is not difficult to formulate such an experimental plan. The difficult thing is how to ensure the safety of the experimental process-we may attract the attention of the gods. This cost is too high, and we must solve its hidden dangers."

Gawain looked at Kamel's eyes—or at the two balls of arcane light that should have been his eyes: "What do you think?"

Kamel was silent for a moment, then said slowly and firmly: "I apply to restart some of the laboratories in the rebellious fortress."

Gao Wen didn't answer him directly, but asked a question: "Is there anything else that can be used?"

"The laboratories in the outer fortress area have been completely destroyed, and the protection systems are all offline, but the ones in the rebellious fortress... can still be used!"

Chapter 0462 The Church's Plan

Restart the lab in the Bastion of Disobedience.

To be honest, this idea really surprised Gao Wen. He looked at Kamel in great surprise: "I remember...we have already emptied several laboratories in the Fortress of Rebellion."

"We moved the samples and most of the equipment that can be moved, but I mean the laboratories themselves," Kamel explained his thoughts, "There is a set of divine protection and protection integrated with the building in the rebellious fortress." Early warning system, this system cannot be dismantled, and it can still be used at present. This system uses those mysterious 'exotic technologies', which can effectively resist the power of gods. Back then we carried out the When it comes to cutting, the system has already proven its effectiveness - we can experiment inside the shield."

"Will this system interfere with the judgment mechanism of 'God's Punishment', causing the final experimental results to be inaccurate?" Gao Wen asked, "If it blocks the perception of the God of Holy Light... then even if we activate it safely in the Fortress of Rebellion Obtaining the Holy Light Rune does not prove that this process is safe in the present world."

A voice with strange resonance came from Kamel's body: "You don't need to worry about this, the protection system has no shielding function, it only has a protective function."

Gao Wen pondered for a moment, then nodded slightly: "You are an expert in this area, and I agree with your plan. But there is one last hidden danger... The Fortress of Rebellion is located in the Shadow Realm, a world that we cannot travel freely at present. Right now there is only one thousand-year-old Gondor magic door that can open the passage to the Shadow Realm, and we haven't figured out how that door suddenly restarted. So once the connection between the two worlds weakens during the experiment , the Might and Magic Gate collapsed, and the experimenters in the Shadow Realm will be trapped inside forever."

This is undoubtedly a huge hidden danger, and it has terrible consequences-explorers who are good at taking risks (death) may have become accustomed to encountering the collapse of magic gates, turbulence in time and space, and ancient seals when exploring magical relics. "accident", and even regarded this fateful accident as some kind of "exciting romance", but for Gao Wen, everything that cannot be explained by technical means, unknown and uncontrollable must be avoided.

Kamel obviously thought about this issue in advance, and he answered quickly: "It is true that we haven't fully analyzed the connection law between the shadow world and the real world, but through more than a year of hard work, I have fixed it. The monitoring system of the 'Shadow Portal', and added an early warning mechanism to it - by monitoring the fluctuations of the Shadow Boundary, we can predict the collapse of the Shadow Passage at least one hour in advance, one hour... at least enough Get people out."

As a senior technician who has survived from the time of ancient Gondor to the present, Kamel has a different feeling for the rebellious fortress than others, and also understands the technical value of that fortress better. The precious technological heritage was unearthed in the fortress, and the research on the shadow portal at the bottom of the fortress is one of the projects he has worked hard so far.

It's a pity that the current high-end talents in the territory are not enough, and there are very few people who can study with Kamel on projects involving rebellious fortresses.

Hearing Kamel's answer, Gawain exhaled lightly: "Since this is the case... let's do it. We need to understand the secrets of divine arts."

……

In Saint-Sunil City, in the Cathedral of the Holy Light, the old pope is listening to the latest news from the bishops.

"...The flames of war have already burned into the Holy Spirit Plain. The Eastern Border Legion may break through the Royal Army's defense line before the Harvest Festival and advance to the giant wooden crossing. Affected by the war, a large number of displaced refugees are wandering on the plain...We and the Eastern Border Parish Communication has also become increasingly difficult.”

"In the central, western, and northern parts of the Holy Spirit Plain, the situation is better. More and more frightened people and minor nobles are going to the church to seek comfort..."

"The activities of the cultists have not decreased, especially in the eastern part of the plain, where the death of all things will occur frequently. Coupled with the pressure of injuries and illnesses brought about by the war, the local nobles welcome our priest team..."

"This war is deplorable," the voice of Pope Saint Ivan III echoed in the Great Hall of Light, the old Pope sunken deep in his seat, the holy light shining on his pitiful countenance , "Infighting, fighting for power, and grabbing profits, but let innocent people get involved in blood... The outbreak of this war has proved one point: Without the guidance of the Lord, people will eventually be trapped by ignorance."

After coming to a conclusion, the old pope raised his head and looked at a tall bishop below: "Bishop Megaul, is the operation to eliminate heresies in the central region going well?"

"The belief in the central diocese has become increasingly pure, and we have defeated the several counterattacks organized by the Church of Atherosity," the bishop known as Megall bowed his head and said respectfully, "Most of them fled to the east, and the rest Then they fled into the mountains and forests in the west, or fled to the south."

"Very good, continue your work," the pope nodded slightly, his slightly cloudy eyes swept across the entire Great Hall of Light, "...we must lead people to the right path, this war has brought us Here comes a warning—ideological differences lead people into a vortex of power struggles. If there is a unified belief, the situation may not be so bad. The Church of Ability God can’t do this, so let us do it .”

Veronica Moen, who was standing beside the pope, turned her eyes slightly and glanced at the old pope.

"Our influence in the Eastern Region is very small," the old Pope continued, "Although we have used it for hundreds of years, the Loren family still refuses the church to go too deep into the Eastern Region, especially after the outbreak of the war, the situation in the Eastern Diocese is accelerating Worsening...According to recent reports, Edmund Moen's attitude towards the church is even worse than that of Loren and his son, and he has begun to publicly expel the pastor of the church."

Veronica lowered her head slightly: "I regret what Edmund did."

"It's not your responsibility. The prince is blinded by profit, and I'm afraid he has lost his basic judgment." The old pope shook his head and continued, "Given the current situation, I think it's time to withdraw the bishops of the Eastern Diocese. "

After the Pope's voice fell, there was a slight commotion in the Great Hall of Light.

The bishops looked at each other, and then discussed in low voices. Obviously, the Pope's decision exceeded their expectations. The holy light lingering around these bishops also swayed with the commotion, and merged with the rippling " "Holy Light Cloud Sea" mixed and entangled together, making bursts of humming.

Veronica raised her head, looking at the entangled and turbulent scene of the Holy Light, and then she heard the old Pope beside her cough lightly.

The turmoil of the holy light quickly calmed down and became unified again. The discussion of the bishops' conference ended, and a bishop seemed to take a step forward as a representative: "Your Majesty, after withdrawing the Eastern Bishops' Conference...you still What's the plan?"

"This war...is bringing pain to the innocent," the pope lowered his eyelids, the holy light lingering around him rose and merged with the cloud sea of ​​holy light on the roof of the Great Hall of Light, which made every word of his words It seems to contain endless power, "Only a unified belief can eliminate these blind and ignorant differences. For this reason, we need to use more direct means to combat heresy...The Crusaders will join this war."

The bishops started commotion again, but this time, their discussions were shorter, because they had already vaguely anticipated such a development when they heard that the Pope was about to withdraw from the Eastern Episcopal Conference.

A bishop with white beard and hair stood up: "Your Majesty, will we support the Royal Army?"

"The rebels in the east who expelled our priests are already enemies of the Holy Light," the old pope said in a low and majestic voice. "For the cause of the Lord, we must end our neutrality and join the camp of the Kingdom Army."

Needle drop can be heard in the Great Light Hall.

Since the establishment of Ansu, religious neutrality has been one of the basic rules for the operation of this country.

The king belongs to the king, and the pope belongs to the pope. The royal family has no right to direct the operation of the Holy See, and the church cannot affect the rule of the royal family. Promise of.

However, this rule is about to be broken—the Church of the Holy Light, which has the strongest military strength among all sects, will participate in this civil war in the kingdom. organize.

After that, regardless of the final outcome of this war, the church's status and influence in Ansu will completely change.

If it was before the civil war, the Ansu royal family would never allow this, even if the crusaders joined the war in the name of "supporting the royal family", because it means that the church is stretching its hands where it shouldn't be, but now In this situation... the Kingdom's army is showing defeat under the heavy pressure of the rebels in the east, and there has been news from the south that makes the royal family even more disturbed. The two regent dukes in Silver Castle and the country's nominal successor will have no choice.

Veronica stood beside St. Ivan III calmly, the expression on her face remained unchanged, and the bishops could not tell from the expression of the "Saint Princess" that she was interested in this matter. attitude, and can’t guess whether there is a shadow of the royal family behind this incident, but they can at least confirm one thing:

The royal family doesn't object to any of this.

"My lord, your thoughts are far-reaching," the tall Bishop Megall said loudly, "for the cause of the Lord, it is time for the crusaders to preach with the sword."

Another bishop expressed a little worry: "But in this way, our priests and believers in the eastern diocese who are too late to evacuate may be liquidated by the eastern rebels."

"While withdrawing the bishops, arrange for the evacuation of ordinary priests and missionaries - Edmund Moen is hostile to the church, which is the best reason for us to withdraw the priests," the old Pope said quietly, "As for Believers . . . the Lord will take care of their souls."

……

The meeting in the Great Hall of Light is over.

The bishops left in sequence, and soon only the elderly Saint Ivan III and Veronica Moen, who was quietly standing beside the Pope's throne, were left in this vast hall.

After a brief silence, the Pope's old voice reached Veronica's ears: "Veronica, do you also think that the participation of the Crusades is a challenge to Ansu's traditional order?"

The virgin princess was silent for two seconds, and replied calmly: "This matter is beneficial to both parties-the church will be able to develop further, the Royal Army will have the opportunity to reverse the decline on the battlefield, and the two regent dukes will make correct judgments. In my opinion...the times have changed, Your Majesty, in the face of the changes of the times, the traditional order cannot be compromised."

"Yeah, the times have changed, and there are new threats in the new era...but there are more than one threat," the Pope sighed, with only exclamation in his tone, "What's the situation in the south?"

"There's a lot of fog."

Chapter 0463 Civil War Vortex

Holy Light Cathedral, Great Hall of Light.

Veronica quietly reported the recent changes in the south to Pope Saint Ivan III: "...After capturing the Rock Fortress, Gawain Cecil blocked the entire southern border and announced the establishment of the Principality of Cecil— — Or, to rebuild the Principality of Cecil.

"Currently only licensed caravans can enter and leave the southern border, and they can only stay around the Rock Fortress—for trade, the Cecil family set up a new town in the south of the Rock Fortress, called 'Rock City'.

"No matter the merchants or the messengers sent by the nobles, they are not allowed to cross Rock City. Therefore, the situation in the hinterland of the southern border is completely unknown. There are only sporadic news that Duke Gawain Cecil has begun to integrate the southern border and wipe out the nobles in the southern border in the past 100 years. Influenced by it, he instituted a number of New Deals to secure his rule."

St. Ivan III listened quietly, and sighed softly until the end: "It seems that this ancient hero has a strong desire to control..."