Sword of Dawn

Page 472

……

"General," the young adjutant couldn't help asking Philip after leaving the room, "do you think that what the Typhon man said is reliable?"

Philip replied casually: "I am willing to believe [-]%, and the remaining [-]% ​​distrust is half because of basic prudence and vigilance, and half is because that 'General Wolf' himself may not know the whole truth."

The adjutant was thoughtful: "...It seems that we really have to reassess the current situation of Typhon."

"The smart people in the Supreme Government Office will think carefully," Philip said, "And for me... I am most fortunate that we have decisively laid down this fortress in the shortest time, and now we finally have the next initiative. , and minimize the possible losses. Afterwards, it will depend on the judgment of the Supreme Government Office, and what kind of ability that "Rosetta the Great" Typhon has... If the Typhon people still can't control this If the field has already been burned, then the pollution of God of War will eventually turn into a disaster like crystal clusters, and when the time comes, this battle..."

Philip shook his head and didn't say any more, but the adjutant had already deduced the inevitable development.

A war controlled by humans, at least there is hope to stop, no matter how difficult it is to stop, this hope will always exist, a war controlled by gods, especially a war controlled by a "mad god"... Once it breaks out, the initiative will be over. It is difficult to remain in the hands of mortals.

The Mad God will not accept the armistice agreement, let alone how many people on both sides of the war remain rational and seek peace. He will only continue to operate indefinitely within his own crazy rules, continuously attacking and destroying, even if mortals lose their faith Civilization collapses, as long as the power of this mad god is not exhausted, he will never stop.

Therefore, the Cecil Empire must take down Winter Wolf Castle and completely control this "Typhon Portal"-if the fire must be burned, at least it cannot be burned on Cecil's land.

Philip sighed slightly.

Regardless of whether this war is caused by a divine disaster or because the Typhon people really want to start a war, Winter Wolf Castle must be defeated. This point was already doomed at the beginning of the war, and that young wolf general... was doomed Will be the first casualty of this war.

The key to the matter now lies in whether the Typhon people can contain this divine disaster, or at least control its pollution to a certain limit.

In his thoughts, he finally couldn't help sighing softly: "Unfortunately, the one who got out of control is the God of War."

The adjutant froze for a moment, then understood the meaning of the general's words, and he also showed a wry smile: "Yes, it happens to be the God of War—the god who is in charge of war."

"Next, let's wait for the judgment of the Supreme Council of Government Affairs." Philip shook his head, shaking his chaotic thoughts out of his mind, "Our side is ready, the counterattack of the Typhon people... will come soon. "

……

The battle report from the front was sent to Hetty.

On both sides of her desk, two magic net terminals were buzzing, and the figures of Victoria and Baldwin, two grand consuls, were projected.

"The Winter Wolf Legion surrendered as a system. After preliminary inspection, more than half of the knights, soldiers and all the mages were actually not 'polluted', and the 'Wolf General' who voluntarily surrendered revealed a lot of important information to us. "Hetty had already read the battle report, and her eyes were sweeping over the other two grand consuls, "What do you think?"

"Obviously, the reason why the 'Wolf General' surrendered, besides wanting to protect his subordinates, was probably to reveal this information to us," Duke Baldwin was the first to say, "It seems that the situation is more serious than ours now. I expected better at the beginning, the divine disaster on the Holy Spirit Plain did not happen in Typhon..."

"But the danger level of the situation is not much worse," Victoria said coldly. "There are fatal loopholes in the key communication system. Some of the middle-level to high-level personnel have been mentally polluted. The emperor's decree has been tampered with and intercepted. The eyes and ears of the front-line commanders Totally hoodwinked...the Typhons are behaving so regrettably, in my opinion, they're not far from total fall."

"It's still worse, Victoria," Duke Baldwin couldn't help but said with a smile, "this determines whether we should send more bombs and artillery to the front line, or send more purification troops and technicians, or Decides whether we stand alone against a mad god and a malevolent empire, or with the Typhons against their mad god."

Chapter 0986 The Return

Hearing what Duke Baldwin said, Hetty nodded slightly.

The key to this disaster from the very beginning lies with the Typhons themselves, and the subsequent performance of the Typhons will undoubtedly affect the final direction of this matter.If it goes completely out of control, then the entire Typhon will inevitably become a polluted area. At that time, no matter whether Cecil is willing to be involved in a larger-scale war, this war that shouldn't be fought will definitely continue. But if the Typhons take control...

Then there is a lot of room for maneuvering.

Thinking up and down in her heart, Hetty couldn't help but sighed softly: "Although every god's loss of control means a huge disaster...but God of War is obviously more troublesome than other gods."

"What I'm most worried about now is that if the war continues, will the God of War experience subsequent unknown changes," Duke Baldwin said in a deep voice, "He may gradually get rid of madness as the war 'returns to the right track', and resume Returning to the position of the righteous god, it is also possible that the state of madness is irreversible, and this mad god will become stronger and stronger as the war continues, and will begin to affect more people affected by the war..."

"At the end of the day, we don't know enough about the gods," said the Grand Duchess Victoria with a cold expression. "We're not sure whether the state of the mad god is reversible, nor can we be sure whether the god of war can draw power in the course of war—we only know His power comes from the beliefs of mortals, but this absorption process...cannot be quantified at this stage, and we have no reliable means to collect the trend of people's thoughts on Typhon."

Hetty hummed, rubbed her forehead lightly, and said, "Anyway, taking down Winter Wolf Castle is the first step. The problem now is how to take the second step."

Duke Baldwin said while thinking: "According to our previous plan, after occupying Winter Wolf Castle, we should immediately march towards the defense line of Winterhold and the Shadow Swamp, and control the assembly point of the Typhon people in the north and the hub of the cross-border railway." station, and then rely on armored trains and mechanized troops to advance rapidly and attack Aldernan in the shortest possible time—if Aldernan is difficult to capture, quickly occupy the traffic hub of Tarenkins and cut off the grain production area of ​​Typhon As well as industrial raw material transportation hubs, find ways to cause widespread food shortages and industrial shutdowns..."

"The people of Typhon should be grateful to Andersa Wendell, this will not happen now," Hetty shook his head, "Now that it is known that Typhon did not really declare war, and they are starting to fight against this divine disaster internally, It is necessary to make adjustments to our promotion plan. Grand Consul of Victoria, what is your opinion?"

"Let the First Army temporarily stop advancing eastward, build fortifications in Winter Wolf Castle, and at the same time find favorable terrain to set up strongholds in the north and south of Winter Wolf Castle, and block the entire area with long-range artillery positions - this blockade will be maintained in the first stage , can advance, attack, retreat, or defend, as long as this blockade is not lost, all actions on the Typhon side will be passive," Victoria expressed her views in an orderly manner—in the three-member ruling group, her military experience Obviously richer than the other two, "At the same time, to further collect information inside Typhon...

"As of now, the intelligence network we set up in Typhon has been greatly affected by the situation there. For the sake of protecting intelligence personnel, many dark lines have been lurking recently, but if the situation there continues to be chaotic, the intelligence People's activities will become safer...

"In addition, I think it is necessary to grasp the recent changes in Typhon's situation through some other means, such as the line between the Gaoling Kingdom and the Silver Empire-they have a lot of communication with Typhon in the southern part of the mainland, maybe there is a message from them The information provided by Andersa Wendell can be used to corroborate the information provided by Andersa Wendell. Of course, our intelligence over there is relatively weak, and probably only the Silver Empire can provide some reliable information, but it is better than nothing... "

Victoria finished her thoughts one by one, and then left time for Hetty and Duke Baldwin. In the next period of time, the topics of the three grand consuls revolved around the subsequent actions against Typhon.

After the discussion came to an end, Hetty finally had time to pick up the water glass on the table, and Duke Baldwin Franklin, who was on the opposite side of the communication channel, hesitated for a moment and asked, "Grand Consul Hetty, where is your Majesty?" ...Have you heard back yet?"

Hetty was holding the water glass, her face was complicated for a while, she shook her head, her tone was a little worried: "There is still no news..."

"...Your Majesty will return safely," Victoria said in a cold voice, "He is someone who can compete with the gods."

After talking for a few more words, the two Grand Consuls, Baldwin and Victoria, said goodbye to Hetty, and closed the magic net terminal one after the other. As the slight buzzing sound that remained after the equipment was shut down gradually subsided, the huge Finally, Hetty was the only one left in the office—the room became very quiet for a moment, so quiet that Hetty could hear her own breathing.

She suddenly took a deep breath, rubbed the center of her brows vigorously, then hesitated and stretched her hand to the side drawer. After a while, she took out a silver-white, silver-white box kept in a delicate box from the inside of the drawer. tiny ring.

Hetty stared at the ring for two seconds before stretching out her hand to try to rub its surface and inject magic into its interior.

Just like when she tried it yesterday, the Mithril Ring did not respond, and this was her sixth attempt in the past 24 hours.

Hetty couldn't help but rubbed between her brows again, she took this opportunity to lower her head, as if to prevent anyone from seeing her irritability and anxiety at this moment - even though there was no one else in the office except her.

What she holds in her hand is the Ring of Mithril, an "emergency communication tool" left by Gawain before he left. It is said that it uses the superb technology from Tarrond, and it can maintain communication even across continents.

Tarrond is far away from the human world in the endless ocean and eternal storm, and the existing magic network communication cannot reach it, so Gawain left such a thing to ensure that when the situation on the mainland changes dramatically and the empire faces a crisis, it can communicate with it. Emergency contact.

But now this thing doesn't respond—Hetty doesn't know what went wrong, whether it's her own operation error, or the precision device is malfunctioning, or... it's something worse.

It upset her, but she had no one to talk to.

She threw the mithril ring back on the table, the metal collided with the table and made a crisp sound, the ring bounced twice on the table, then rolled to the side and stopped.

And almost at the same time she threw the mithril ring back on the table, a magic net terminal that had just been turned off not long ago suddenly lit up, and there were bursts of rapid buzzing from the base of the machine, and the hologram above The projection showed the identification mark of the special line inside Cold Winter Castle in the North - Hetty was only stunned for a moment, and then quickly connected to the communication, so the Duchess Victoria, who had just been disconnected not long ago, reappeared in the holographic projection.

"Victoria Grand Consul?" Hetty looked at the projection in surprise, "What happened..."

"The Beigang hub tower just received an identification signal from the sky over the northern sea," Victoria Wilde said in a cold and hasty voice before Heidi finished speaking, "It should be the two sets of large magic nets carried by His Majesty The terminal is sending a message!"

Hearing this news, Hetty's first reaction was to glance at the mithril ring on the table that she had just thrown aside in astonishment, and then she stared at Victoria: "Are you sure? Are you in touch?" ?”

"The characteristics of the signal have been confirmed, and the magic network signal from the northern sea area cannot be anything else, but the current signal is still very weak, it should be because the distance is too far, there is no way to establish communication, and only sent and received short messages representing safety. ,” Victoria said, “but according to the current curve of signal enhancement, we can barely communicate in about 10 minutes.”

"Please turn this way as soon as possible!" Hetty said immediately.

"I'm already doing that."

10 minutes... Hetty never thought that 10 minutes could be so long. She was fidgeting, restless, looking forward to joy, confusion and other emotions mixed together. She wanted to get up and walk or tidy up her appearance, but she was worried that this would His actions happened to be seen by the ancestor who might be connected at any time, so he had to forcibly hold back and sat behind the desk maintaining his usual dignified and steady posture.She felt that she had been waiting in this state for almost forty thousand years, and she thought that the Duchess Victoria in the holographic projection of the magic net terminal next to her must be as difficult to sit and stand as she was—but she was paralyzed in the ice and snow fair. I'm used to it, I just can't see it now...

As soon as her thoughts started to diverge, there was a sudden light and shadow jumping over the magic network terminal on the other side of the desk used for switching - Hetty felt her breathing and heartbeat also beat - and then, Amid the severe interference and distortion, some indistinct shadows gradually emerged from the holographic projection, accompanied by bursts of noise-filled sounds.

Although he still couldn't see clearly, Hetty was sure that it was indeed his ancestor!It was indeed the figure of Gawain Cecil.

The ancestor seemed to be speaking, but she couldn't quite hear it right now.After a while, she saw that the picture became slightly more stable and clear, and human voices appeared intermittently among the noises, and the voices gradually became coherent, and she heard her ancestor calling her name: "Hetty...interference... Hear... can you hear me clearly now?"

"Okay, ancestor!" Hetty said immediately, she didn't notice that she had stood up, "There is still a little interference, but I can hear it clearly!"

In just a few sentences, she saw that the sound and picture displayed by the magic net terminal seemed a little clearer than before.

Apparently, the ancestors were approaching the Loren Continent quickly—Hetty could almost imagine the scene of the giant dragon darting across the air at full speed.

"I can finally hear your voice," Gawain's voice sounded, "Very good, it seems that these two devices are not broken after going through some troubles. Hetty, tell me about your Considering the current situation, has something happened to Loren Continent recently?"

"How did you know..." Hetty was instinctively surprised at first, but then she realized that she didn't care how her ancestors learned about the drastic changes in the situation on the mainland, but said bluntly, "Ancestor, the God of Typhon Aggravated, part of the army lost control and attacked us - we had entered a 'war' with Typhon when we had to fight back."

"Ah?!" Gawain was obviously stunned for a moment - even though there were still many interference ripples on the screen, Hetty could be sure that he saw the astonished expression of the ancestor.

Surprised by the always majestic and reliable ancestors... Maybe I should feel proud?

Hetty laughed at himself wryly, and then had to report the follow-up situation to Gao Wen: "...After the outbreak of the war, we chose to advance the front to the east. General Philip led the First Army, with the assistance of the Dragoons, Winterwolf has been captured at dawn today—our armies are now erecting forts and blockhouses on the Typhonian frontier."

"……what?!"

"In addition, the defenders of Winter Wolf Castle surrendered voluntarily under the leadership of its supreme commander, Andersa Wendell. We ended the battle there more easily than expected..."

"……what!?"

After three consecutive "ah", Gao Wen finally recovered from his astonishment, his figure became clearer and clearer in the holographic projection, and his voice came into Hetty's ears more clearly: "Wait, what happened like this?" Big change, why didn't you contact me directly with Mithril Ring?"

Hetty was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously placed her gaze on the silver-white ring on the table, before she spoke: "I tried several times, but you still haven't received it?"

"Have you tried it?" Gawain seemed more surprised than Heidi, "But I really didn't get any response..."

Hetty: "???"

Is there a problem with your own operation?Or is this Tarrond creation, which claims to have extremely high technological content, really malfunctioning?

A new question appeared in her mind for a while, but before she could speak, Gawain's voice came again: "In short, let's ignore the issue of the Mithril Ring, and tell me about the current situation—we I'm approaching the North Harbor coastline, tell me as briefly and clearly as possible how many things I've missed."

……

The cold wind howled and raged outside the protective barrier, and the endless ocean was passing under the giant dragon, and the outline of the mainland could be vaguely seen at the end of the slightly undulating sea water.

Gawain stood in the middle of Melita's broad back, and listened to Hetty's report in a daze.

"Just a long trip..." He couldn't help muttering to himself, "The whole world will be turned upside down after returning."

"Before I set off, I always felt that something was going to happen this trip!" Amber kept BB beside him, "You don't believe my intuition, let me tell you that my intuition is right, I doubted this winter this year a month ago. It's not a good time, you see, something happened, or else..."

Miss Half-elf's BB voice was a headache, and Gawain was very sorry that there was no wall on Melita's back - he couldn't pat the noisy amber against the wall.

"Melita," he finally forcibly ignored Amber's muttering, turned his head and said loudly to the huge dragon head in front of him, "Just now Hetty said that the Mithril ring didn't respond, what's going on?"

"I don't know either! There has never been a similar situation before!" Melita's voice was obviously a little nervous, and the surprise and surprise in her tone did not seem to be fake at all, "The Mithril Ring...that thing is the same as Omega The system is directly connected, and all information is sent and received by Omega himself. Even if a ring is damaged or offline, the relevant damage report will be sent to Tarrond in an instant, and sent to the custodian of the ring and each level. The person in charge—I'm the person in charge of your ring, but I haven't received any similar news at all."

Gawain frowned: "Did Omega make a mistake?"

"Omega never makes mistakes!" Melita's voice came from the front, her tone was very firm at first, but soon hesitated, "At least... I have never encountered such a thing since I was born... ..."

Chapter 0987 Situation

The cold wind above the sea whizzed past the shield, the background of the sky and the sea kept receding in the field of vision, the outline of the land was getting closer, and the communication with the Beigang hub became clearer.

Melita obviously picked up the pace.

"Maybe it's just that the Mithril Ring is broken," Gawain casually said to Miss Dragon, although he was concerned about the changes in Cecil and Typhon's situation. to the point of immortality."

"Probably." Melita seemed a little absent-minded, "In short, we must hurry up... There is really something big going to happen this time."

Gao Wen didn't respond, he just turned his head and looked towards the coastline of Beigang from a distance, without saying a word for a long time.

And not far from him, Veronica, who was closing her eyes and meditating, suddenly opened her eyes. The "Saint Princess" stood up and looked in the direction of the land thoughtfully, with a hint of confusion on her face. .

But her expression didn't last long. After a few seconds of gazing, she withdrew her gaze and regained her previous gentle but inhuman appearance.

……

In the depths of the wasteland, there are dense forests around the impact crater formed after the explosion of the ancient imperial city.

A blue-white beam of light that seems to be able to penetrate the sky and the earth spewed out from the center of the impact crater. The bright light illuminated the dark and dirty land, and in the large "dense forest" that "grows" around the impact crater, similar blue-white beams The flow of light is constantly jumping and flowing among the branches and vines that are approaching, intertwining, and merging. Countless "plants" of strange shapes are intertwined into a huge aggregate like the synapses in some giant organisms, and Spreading out for several kilometers from the center of the ancient imperial capital, the stolen energy is like chemical substances and electrical signals transmitted between nerve synapses, flowing continuously in this huge and entangled system.

But suddenly, this intense and busy "flow" stopped abruptly, and the light that jumped and flowed between the plant branches and vines froze instantly, and flickered a few times as if there was a bad contact. After just a few seconds, the whole The huge "forest" dimmed piece by piece, and turned into a black forest again.

In the center of the forest, in the buffer zone connected to the edge of the ancient explosion crater, large swaths of thick smoke rose up with several violent flashes. More than a dozen thick vines were blown off and then flew into the air, like elastic ropes that were quickly retracted. Seeing this scene, the "Great Master" Borken, who was controlling these vines, shrank back into the forest, and roared angrily: "Twins! What are you doing?!"

A gust of wind blew, and the figures of Fierna and Leierna appeared in front of Borken. Their hands were still entwined with the afterglow of magic power. The two elves said in unison: "I am saving your life, Grand Priest."

On the inner wall of the impact crater not far away, the blown-off remnant plant structures have been reduced to ashes, and a huge energy pipeline is turning from dim to bright again.

Borken's branches rattled, and his wrinkled face protruded from the bark. "What's going on?"

"The operational efficiency of the Ophelia matrix is ​​recovering. She has started scanning and resetting various energy channels. My respected grand master—" Leierna said the first half of the sentence, and Fierna immediately connected without delay. The second half of the sentence, "It looks like she's 'back'. If we don't plan to start a war with the Iron Man Legion now, then we'd better leave this place immediately."

"What..." Borken was taken aback, and then a look of anger appeared on his face, "Damn, damn... why is it so early... almost, the catalytic process is almost..."

His branches were shaking angrily, and the entire twisted "Black Forest" was also shaking, and frightening clattering sounds came from all directions, as if the entire forest was roaring, but Borken did not lose his judgment after all. After seeing that his anger was useless, he decisively gave the order to evacuate—the twisted plants began to pull out their roots, spread out the intertwined vines and branches, and the entire Black Forest was instantly shaken by the sound of rattling and rattling. Disintegrated into countless pieces, and began to quickly evacuate to various parts of the wasteland.

"Be optimistic, Grand Priest," Leierna looked at Borken who was angrily directing the evacuation, with an expression of indifference on her face, "We didn't even expect to be able to extract so much energy from the conduit at the beginning—catalytic Although it is not completely completed, we have completed most of the work, and the subsequent transformation can be carried out slowly. Until then, ensuring safety is the most important thing."

Borken turned his face, and looked at Leierna and Fierna with those yellow-brown eyes embedded in the mottled bark. After a while, he nodded: "You make sense."

The evacuation of the Black Forest is proceeding in an orderly manner. Grand Priest Borken and several major chiefs left here soon, but Leierna and Fierna did not follow immediately. The twin elves just Standing quietly on the edge of the impact crater, looking at the huge crater sunken like a crater in the distance, as well as the huge crystal cones and blue-white energy beams at the bottom of the huge crater.

They could feel that the "inhuman soul" deep in the crystal cone was gradually waking up—not yet fully awakened, but one eye had already been opened.

"Did she find us?" Leierna suddenly said as if she was talking to herself.

"Probably not—the direct detection module of the Ophelia Matrix was permanently damaged hundreds of years ago. Now, apart from the most basic damage warning system, she can only rely on the Iron Man Corps to understand the situation around the impact crater," Ferna also replied as if talking to herself, "Our actions are very cautious, and we are always in the dead end of the Iron Man Corps and the security system."

"...It's really sad," Leierna looked at the crystal cone in the distance, and said with a tone of sarcasm or self-deprecation, "What a glorious star of the past, the most beautiful and wisest pearl of the empire... ...now just an undead trapped in ruins and tombs who don't want to die."

"The rebels are so unwilling to bow their heads and die," Fierna said quietly, and then Leierna also spoke, and they all sighed in unison, "...It's really sad."

A strong wind blew, and withered fallen leaves rolled up into the air. After the wind and fallen leaves dispersed, the figures of the Elf Twins had disappeared on the edge of the impact crater.

……

The majestic triple spire covered the vast parliament hall, and in this resplendent room, members of the nobility, mages, scholars, and wealthy merchants sat in rows of fan-shaped chairs.

The bright radiance from the magic spar light poured down from the dome and shone on the faces in the parliament hall. Perhaps due to the light, the faces of these big figures looked paler than usual.Against the black gowns favored by MPs, these pale faces were like pebbles bobbing in black muck, blind and meaningless.