Sword of Dawn

Page 159

During the use process, the more data the Iron Ranger collects, and the clearer and more effective the improvement plan proposed, the sooner this expensive weapon will become a cheap industrial product.

Under normal circumstances, even with a mature idea, it takes a long time for a product to turn from a drawing to a real product, but thanks to Mr. Nicholas Egg's hard work, Soldering was able to get it in advance during the second exploration. A few samples.

"A group of three, one for each group," Soldering began to distribute the equipment of the soldiers, "According to the previous plan, one launcher is equipped with two guards, the shield guard is responsible for propping up the shield, and the shooter is responsible for light weapons For cover, no matter what happens inside, you must stay calm—don’t forget, you are the most elite ‘Iron Rangers’ in this land and will also be in this world!”

"Yes!"

The soldiers took out the equipment from the weapon box one by one. In addition to the four individual launchers, there were also emergency shields supported by large magic capacitors and thermal energy ray guns with better continuous shooting performance. The "special warfare equipment" modified by technology was ordered by Soldering more than ten days ago. Today is the time to verify them—if a battle really breaks out.

Miss Till, the siren who came in temporarily to look for the biscuits, looked at these heavily armed Iron Rangers in a daze. Although she didn't go out often, what kind of things did Gawain Cecil's military experts invent? She still knows the style of painting. After holding back for a while, she still couldn't help but said: "Are you sure you want to use this kind of thing to open a way in an ancient ruin? Are you elves such a reckless race?"

"This ancient relic is a creation of the Gondor Empire. Although it is ancient, it is incredibly strong, and we are not using these things to open the way, but just in case." Soldering smiled, and then showed a proud look , "As for the fighting style - I believe that I am the first awakener among the elves. When my compatriots are still obsessed with studying bows and magic, I have found a more effective solution than that."

While talking, this high-level ranger couldn't help but think of the shocking battle he had with that cultist woman last winter...

It feels so good to hit the enemy with seven or eight grenades... If he had brought a few more at that time, he might have won.

"You land people have weird brains," Tire felt that there was some problem communicating with Soldering, so he shook his head helplessly and left, "No wonder the sisters in the clan said If you leave the water for too long, your brain will break..."

Amber didn't care about the conversation between Solderin and Tyr, she just came to the closed gate curiously, looked up at the pattern on the gate - she didn't understand the fancy things in the ancient Gondor Empire The letter, she just looked for the breath of shadow power in the runes in other areas on the door.

"Is the so-called shadow experiment field behind here..." the half-elf muttered, "I can't feel any shadow breath..."

"Perhaps they are all blocked by the gate, and purple steel has a strong interference with magic power," Soldering said while taking out a silver disc engraved with complex runes from his arms, "Stay back a little One o'clock, I'm going to try to unlock it."

He injected some magic power into the silver disc, and then followed the unlocking rules explained by Kamel, and began to try to unlock the ancient gate.

——Although Kamel didn’t know this area, nor did he know the access codes for each area of ​​the disobedient fortress, but he knew the general unlocking rules. Now that a thousand years have passed, all the energy systems of the fortress’s access control have been reset. The original codes It must have failed, so in theory, as long as you have a universal unlocking device, you can open any gate of the fortress.

Along with the slight glow on the silver disc, there was a creaking sound of mechanism running inside the heavy ancient purple steel door.

As soon as she heard this voice, Amber knew that Soldering had succeeded: when Gawain opened the northern gate of the mountain ruins, she had heard the same movement.

Everyone was fully alert, and under the gaze of more than a dozen pairs of eyes, the ancient door finally revealed strands of magical brilliance, and slowly opened to both sides under the action of the repulsion mechanism——

The alarm devices and defense equipment thousands of years ago have all been silent, and the guards of the fortress have long since fallen. The arrival of the uninvited guest did not trigger the slightest counterattack. What appeared was only the smoke and dust raised as the gate opened, and a rotten and unpleasant smell. odor.

A nearly transparent shimmering barrier immediately appeared beside each Iron Ranger soldier, and the breeze shield blocked those potentially harmful breaths, while Amber curled her lips, and her figure gradually faded in the air. disappeared, and turned into a distorted shadow to "slip" into the gate.

After a while, the half-elf lady got out: "Come in, it's safe inside—and most of them have experienced landslides and geological changes, and half of them are flooded."

Behind the heavy isolation gate is a vast hall shrouded in darkness... No, in Soldering's view, this place is not so much a hall, it might as well be a primitive cave, with only a few traces of man-made objects inside That's all.

The space behind the door is very vast, at least as large as two pier squares by visual inspection. In such a vast space, there are only a few places where you can see artificial stone slabs, stone pillars, and platforms where equipment was once placed. Outside, there are only a few collapsed shacks dotted among those man-made facilities, which may seem to be huts for researchers to rest and work, and the other spaces are all exposed rocks. On the dark and lofty dome, you can see hanging stalagmites hanging from the top of the cave. The incoming groundwater has gathered into large and small puddles and streams, soaking those ancient man-made objects in seepage.

A glowing bryophyte grows between the damp rock walls and stalagmites, so the cave is dark, but not completely blind, but the gloomy light can't dispel the depression brought by the cave The feeling, on the contrary, makes the people in it feel uneasy.

Except for one person.

Amber turned into a shadow, dexterously jumping between several boulders in the cave. The dark and gloomy environment here made her quite comfortable. After checking several nearby footholds and platforms with shadow jumps like a showmanship, She returned to Solderin: "Things have also been emptied, but it's very strange... It's more like it's unfinished, the caves haven't been capped... Or maybe the people who built the rebellious fortress deliberately left here Built like this?"

"It's not impossible," Soldering analyzed, "Maybe they are using the original magical environment of this cave to carry out research, so they can't easily change the structure of the cave or add too many artificial objects here... ..."

Till was listening to their analysis, and felt extremely bored—she was not interested in the shadow research conducted by land people 1000 years ago. Interesting, this well-hydrated place seems to be good for sleeping...

In Changfeng Fortress, when the strange waiter uttered the words "all things will die", Francis II had already reacted. He suddenly raised his left hand, and a solid magic shield was almost instant. Condensed into shape, and resisted the monster with a burst head and twisted and mutated flesh.

Seeing the disgusting appearance of the flesh and blood monster, Francis II's face changed slightly, but his spell-casting movements did not stop at all. With his free right hand, he quickly outlined a series of magic runes, and the complex and profound spells were drawn Compressed into a few short syllables, accompanied by a piercing explosion, a glaring burst of arcane energy suddenly burst out between the magic shield and the monster, and the powerful explosive force directly flew the monster away!

After the monster flew out, Francis II's face changed drastically—he didn't call the guards.

The assassin came in within a few seconds after Master Duke went out, and the battle just now broke out loud enough, even if he didn't need to call for help, the guards or Master Duke should have rushed in immediately.

But no, not a single one.

People here want the king dead.

The monster that was blown out was squirming crazily on the ground, healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and got up. The arcane explosion at almost zero distance did not cause fatal injuries to it at all. The moment Francis II saw this scene, Then made the most sensible decision at the moment——

He raised his hand and fired a fireball to interfere with the monster's actions, then rushed directly to the nearest window, and jumped!

Chapter 0383 Shadow Seal Ring

The crystal window shattered, and Francis II smashed through the window and landed on a soft carpet.

carpet?

The old king instantly realized that something was wrong, and he turned over as fast as he could—at this moment, he almost forgot that he was an old man, and in fact, he did make actions that were impossible for him at his age ——After standing still, he quickly glanced at the surrounding environment, and what he saw was the familiar lounge, the familiar golden and red interwoven carpet and couch, a fully regenerated monster was using the predator's Standing not far away, the monster's distorted human body still had the attendant's uniform strips hanging on it, and the window that should have been smashed was intact at the moment.

Hallucinogens?Spiritual suggestion?When?

Francis II's heart was full of alarm bells, but he didn't feel desperate at all. He knew that since he could still realize that something was wrong, it meant that his thinking was still his own. As long as he could still think, the situation was not out of control!

The old king quickly drew a few runes in front of him, and blessed himself with protective spells one by one, while turning the weird ring on his left hand with the black swirling cloud symbol, and at the same time, the completed The regenerated flesh and blood monster had already let out a roar, and then rushed up suddenly.

It pounced on Francis II, threw the old king to the ground, and then frantically bit the prey under the body with its terrifying, twisted and festered fleshy mouth, and large groups of shadow smoke from the prey It diffused out, covering the figure of the monster.

A shadowy mist suddenly appeared in another corner of the room, and Francis II was condensed in the shadowy mist. The old king raised his left hand, and there was a hazy shimmer on the surface of the weird ring on his hand. He said There came a strange voice that seemed to be mixed with several voices: "Residents born in the land of shadows and crawling in the shadows, the descendants of the Covenant need your help!"

In the fortress of disobedience, in the shadow experiment field, Amber and Solderling came to an open space in the middle of the cave and studied the area curiously.

The terrain of this clearing is higher than the surrounding, so it is not flooded by water, and in the dry clearing, it can be clearly seen that a large amount of equipment has been placed here, because there are still many grooves left after demolition and unremoved The magic conduits were distributed around the outer edge of the open space, but these were not what amber and Solderin were most curious about.

What made them most curious was a circular pit with a diameter of about ten meters in the center of the open space.

The circular pit is like a downward step that has been reduced layer by layer, and has been sunk to a depth of about one meter below the platform. On each "step" inside it, you can see a large number of complex magic patterns and existing patterns. The dimmed magic crystal, but at the bottom of the pit, only a fragmented ancient metal device can be seen-this core component obviously failed to withstand 1000 years of erosion, and the poor preservation in this cave environment, it has completely changed beyond recognition.

"It looks like some kind of facility for opening a space door," Soldering said based on his knowledge of ancient Gondor technology, "but I really like this kind of space door lying on the ground or even embedded in the ground." The first time I saw..."

"I've never seen it before," Amber looked down, "but I think there should be gold in the pile of metals underneath..."

Solderling glanced at Amber silently, then turned his head to look around: "Speaking of which, where is Miss Till?"

"She just said that this place is comfortable, and she went to find a place to sleep." Amber waved her hand, "I'm probably soaking in some pool now. Don't worry about it, anyway, it will float up by itself after soaking enough."

Immediately afterwards, she frowned slightly, and looked down at the broken metal device below: "Ranger, you stay here, I'm going to the Shadow Realm to have a look."

Solderin immediately became serious: "What did you find?"

"It's not sure yet, I have to wait until I come back."

After Hu Po said those words, her figure had already turned into a cloud of hazy black smoke in the air, and it drifted away with the wind.

Solderin stared blankly at Amber entering the Shadow Realm so simply and neatly, and didn't realize it for a while: "...Didn't it say that this half-elf is usually very cowardly?"

Amber, who has already entered the Shadow Realm, couldn't hear what Solderin was saying. She just let her perception fall rapidly in the state of crossing the two realms. After a very short moment, she had already stood firmly on the ground. On the land of the shadow world.

A head of long black hair danced in the air without wind, and the lower body was shrouded in hazy shadow clouds. Hu Po, who was in the form of a shadow fairy, opened her eyes and observed the scene in front of her curiously.

The cave became black and white, and the invisible light made everything in the cave clearly visible. In front of her eyes, where there should have been a circular pit, there was a black cloud that was constantly rotating.

Just like what she perceived at the "mortal" level, a door was indeed opened here—but this door was located in the Shadow Realm.

Amber watched the black cloud that was constantly spinning curiously, but one hand couldn't help pressing down on her chest: "It's strange... why is that inexplicable sense of familiarity gone... It's obvious that I was here just now... "

Just when she was halfway talking to herself, an old and trembling voice suddenly came out from the cloud: "...the residents crawling in the shadows...the descendants need your help..."

Amber opened her eyes wide, the sense of familiarity that made her disregard safety and even resist her own "cowardly" came out of the cloud again, but before she took a step forward, many other auras that suddenly emerged from the Shadow Realm made her He abruptly stopped his movements.

She quickly backed up a few steps, and as she backed up, hazy figures emerged from all directions. Those figures were tall and slender, wearing short or long robes full of strange symbols, and vaguely resembled human beings. Their appearances and outlines, but their bodies seem to be condensed by smoke, and the smoke billows and surges under their clothes full of symbols, never finalized, only weird can be described.

These are the natives of the Shadowlands—the ubiquitous, yet unobservable Aboriginals, they can appear anywhere in the Shadowlands, but almost no shadow master can witness them, even Kohaber himself, and The number of times these shadow dwellers deal with is also quite limited.

These shadow dwellers emerged from some of the phase spaces where they were hiding, and rushed towards the door and the swirling black smoke. Many of them passed by Amber, and occasionally someone They stopped and took a quick look at the latter. It seemed that Amber's appearance of both shadow creatures and physical creatures made them curious, but none of the shadow dwellers really stopped to talk to Amber.

"Ahem!" In the end, Amber couldn't bear it any longer, she stepped forward and pulled a person to ask, "Where are you going?!"

Dealing with the shadow dwellers is quite dangerous. These powerful and weird creatures possess knowledge and power beyond human comprehension. They can easily tear the uninvited guests who enter the shadow world—even high-level or even legendary powerhouses among mortals—to pieces. But Amber knew that these shadow dwellers would not attack him.

But this "friendship" is limited to not attacking oneself. According to past communication experience, the shadow residents seem to be unable to understand the real residents, and their response methods are also weird and fragmented, making it very difficult to communicate.

As she expected, the shadow dweller only responded with a few messy and broken words: "...response...bring back...until the time..."

The shadow resident who was held back suddenly blurred, and easily escaped from Hu Po's hand.

Amber stared blankly at those shadow dwellers pouring into the depths of the black mist, and almost subconsciously, she slowly reached out and took out a treasured object from her bosom.

It was a weird ring. The off-white metal ring lacked any decoration, making it unremarkable. On the surface of the ring, one could see a group of black swirling patterns, as if it was exactly the same as the black smoke vortex in front of you.

"Dad...Mom...are you on the opposite side..."

The shadow dwellers that appeared around the "gate" had already entered the depths of the black mist, but the black mist still showed no signs of calming down. Amber hesitated for a long time before the black mist, and finally enveloped herself with a cloud of shadowy mist. Then take a step forward.

Francis II tremblingly put down his left hand wearing the ring, and forcibly driving the Shadow Signet Ring under the condition that his blood did not match made his nerves throbbing, but the price was worth it.

In the middle of the room, the monster threw down his shadow avatar, and a huge gap was torn open in the space. A dozen weird and terrifying shadow creatures rushed out of the gap. These shadow creatures were obviously extremely powerful around the gap. , without even using any spells, they easily tore apart that powerful and terrifying, almost unkillable flesh and blood monster.

Francis II decisively reversed the summoning spell before the shadowy creatures could pounce on him, sending the hideous creatures from the dark world back to where they came from.

The space gap in the room has not yet disappeared, but Francis II has already breathed a sigh of relief. He came to the place where the monster died, hoping to find some clues from the fragmented flesh and blood, so as to determine who wanted his life. .

But just before he was about to lean over to check, there was a sudden loud bang from the door.

The old king turned around immediately, and stared in the direction of the door with tense nerves.

There were knocking sounds coming from outside the door, interspersed with the sharp sound of some kind of magical restriction being broken. Francis II felt that the enchantment covering the room suddenly disappeared, and then the door suddenly opened, wearing a Master Duke, in the starry robe and sweating profusely, rushed in.

"Your Majesty! Are you alright, Your Majesty?!" The great magician rushed in and shouted, and then he saw the monster under Francis II's feet and the dark crack that was still lying in the air for the first time, "... Goddess of magic! I was trapped in a magic trap for ten minutes! I thought everything was irreparable!"

"Master Duke," Francis II looked vigilantly at the legendary mage who had served the royal family for decades, and stroked the ring on his left hand calmly again, "Are you caught in a trap?"

"Yes," the old magician said with shame on his face, "I was careless, and I was trapped in some kind of mirror space the moment I went out. If Prince Edmund hadn't noticed the abnormality and broke the seal from the outside, I wouldn't have known How long do we have to linger in those mirror images..."

"Edmund?"

"I'm here." Prince Edmund's voice came from outside the door. The next second, the young prince in full armor appeared in front of Francis II. The old king noticed that the young man had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and his hands There are also wounds, which were probably caused when the seal was forcibly impacted.

"Father, fortunately you are safe and sound... I almost ordered someone to blow up this wall."

Francis II finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, I have the Shadow Signet."

"You should be wearing it," the young prince smiled, and walked towards the king with the magician Duke. "If you don't wear it, how can Mr. Clement test his newly created pet?"

Francis II was taken aback: "Mr. Clement?"

"Legendary Mage Duke" took a step forward, and a corrosive ray jumped out from his fingertips soundlessly, piercing Francis II's chest.

"It is my real name, Your Majesty the King."

Chapter 0384 Unexpected Battle

Francis II fell, and although his body was still twitching slightly due to the powerful vitality of the supernatural being himself, the old king had actually reached the end of his life. In this case, even if a saint was present , could not save his life.

"To be honest, if it is not necessary, this is really the worst choice," Duke—or Clement looked down at Francis II who was taking the last few breaths, shook his head slightly and sighed, "I don't I don't want to do it myself."

"It's you who overestimated the ability of flesh and blood constructs," Edmund said in a low voice, "I have warned you that a king is not so easy to deal with—my father always wears the Shadow Signet On him, during the decades of his reign, at least four high-ranking assassins have died under the power of this ring."

"The Signet of Shadow... I know about it," Clement watched quietly as Francis II swallowed his last breath, and then bent down. "Now His Majesty the King doesn't need this thing anymore. let me……"

Edmund reached out to stop him, and the young prince had a chill on his face: "Master Clement, this is my father after all."

Clement looked at Edmund with a half-smile: "It's rare that you still remember this."

"It's all just to save this..." Edmund said with a frown, but before he could finish, Clement interrupted him suddenly with a wave of his hand. Bishop Jie stared closely at the dark rift that opened in mid-air: "It seems that we have a guest who is not on the list..."

As Clement's voice fell, a powerful magical impact immediately spread around him. Under the magical impact, the air between the space rift and Francis II began to distort and shake instantly, and a whole body shrouded in shadow A petite figure in the mist immediately appeared in front of the two of them.

The whole body of that figure was hazy, and even the lower part of the body showed a state of near-fuzzy smoke, but the upper part of the body seemed solid and real. This form between real creatures and shadow dwellers stunned both Edmund and Clement. All of a sudden, at the moment when the two were stunned, the petite figure rushed towards Francis II with a stride, took off the shadow ring on the king's finger with astonishing speed and dexterity, and then turned around and rushed towards the king. Road shadow fissure.

"Hmph!" Clement let out a cold snort. He had sensed a clear aura belonging to a real creature from that figure, and realized that this uninvited guest would be the biggest uncontrollable factor, so he rushed towards it without hesitation. The fissure that was trembling violently and about to disintegrate.

Edmund didn't see the essence of that figure. He immediately thought of the strange danger of the shadow dwellers, so he immediately sounded a warning: "Wait a minute! Master Clement!"

However, when he shouted, Clement's figure had disappeared into the shadow rift—the already unstable space rift finally exceeded the critical value after these additional shocks, accompanied by a strange With a screaming sound, the entire crack disappeared in an instant.

In the gorgeous lounge, only the distorted and shattered "Flesh Construct" remains, the body of Francis II, and the crown prince standing silently remained.

Amber felt that her consciousness was falling rapidly between the shadow world and the real world, but what was falling faster than her consciousness was her sinking heart——

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die... I'm so full to see what's going on! I'm so full to find some clues! This time I really saw something big!!"

Amber was so remorseful that her intestines were green, and she kept cursing herself for her daring behavior, but she still held the ring she took off from Francis II at the last moment—in any case, this thing It is absolutely impossible to let go!

The illusion of rapidly falling only lasted for a moment, and the next moment, the familiar black and white scenery of the shadow world appeared in front of Amber's eyes. As soon as she landed, she immediately confirmed that she was next to the previous "black mist vortex". It is the "corresponding area" of the shadow experiment field of the rebellious fortress.

And in the next second, she felt a terrifying coercion covering her head and face——that old man who looked rather difficult to mess with really chased him into the Shadow Realm!

There are quite dangerous aborigines in the Shadow Realm, and even legendary powerhouses are in danger of falling here at any time, but Amber can guarantee that before those shadow dwellers are angered and attack the old mage wearing the starry robe, he will definitely To be killed first - she dare not say anything else, she is quite confident in her fighting power, she believes that she will be the one to be killed under any circumstances...

"Solderling must be able to fight as old Zongzi said!"

With this last thought in mind, Hu Po resolutely released her shadow form, and then let herself fall into reality.

In the Shadow Lab, Solderin immediately ordered the soldiers to be vigilant around after Amber "departed"-this is the quality and teamwork that an experienced ranger must have, because exploring in this ancient ruins , any behavior of anyone may lead to some dangerous challenges, so what your teammates say to you "I'll go ahead to explore the road" can basically be equivalent to "a wave of enemies may come later"...