Sword of Dawn

Page 463

The seat on the left was empty, and there was no one at all.

Chapter 0970 Nightfall

The magic car was still driving smoothly on the wide street leading to the Obsidian Palace.

The light brought by the magic spar street lamp is passing backwards from the car window.

The seat next to him was empty, and there was no trace left by anyone who had been there. It seemed that there were only two people in the car from the beginning to the end, a trusted attendant who was in charge of driving, and an imperial duke who was in charge of great power.

Pei Dinan's face was deep, his spiritual power was diffused, but he didn't feel any residual magic power fluctuations around him, and he couldn't even feel the remnants of life breath. He didn't know what happened just now, but he seemed to feel the gaze of the master behind him, so he asked, "My lord, what happened?"

"...No, it's nothing." Duke Ferdinand said in a deep voice, and at the same time stretched out his hand to touch the seat beside him - the leather seat was icy cold, not even the temperature of the human body remained.

The old prince's complexion immediately became more gloomy, and his eyes showed a thoughtful look. Outside the car window, flashing neon lights and faint music suddenly appeared, which briefly attracted Ferdinand's attention.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the scene outside the car window. He saw several tall buildings standing outside the car window on the left. On the right is the Van Lyon Salon—the magic car just passed by the door of the salon, and the noise was coming to his ears through the car window.

"We've just passed the Fanliang neighborhood?" Pei Dinan's pupils shrank slightly, and he immediately raised his head and asked the trusted attendant who was driving ahead.

"Yes, my lord," the attendant replied immediately, "we have just passed Van Nareon Saloon—it will take a while to get to the Obsidian Palace. Would you like to take a rest?"

"..." Ferdinand was silent for two seconds, then shook his head, "No. Speed ​​up, let's get to Obsidian Palace as soon as possible."

Although the attendant felt a little strange, he didn't ask any questions, but immediately took orders: "Yes, my lord."

The black magic car speeded up on the night streets with few pedestrians. After a while, the majestic silhouette of the Obsidian Palace finally appeared in Ferdinand's sight, but the old prince was still haunted by faint unease, and Mal The strange and sudden visit of Mu Dunit brought out the inexplicable words that the other party said to himself, but when he saw the steeple and palace wall of the Obsidian Palace, his slightly uneasy heart gradually calmed down.

The guards on duty late at night checked the vehicle and verified the personnel. Duke Ferdinand stepped into the palace. Led by an inner court lady, he walked towards Rosetta Augustus' private drawing room.

"Is Ms. Diana not on duty tonight?" He looked at the female officer leading the way by his side, and asked casually, "She is usually in charge at this time."

"She has other work," the female officer replied respectfully, "it is His Majesty's order."

"En." Pei Dinan simply responded and didn't speak again.

When he passed the last arch leading to the inner court, he raised his head and glanced at the familiar roof and columns—classical multi-sided pillars supporting the corridor leading to the inner court, and the top of the pillars extended in four directions. Reliefs of heroes are depicted on the beams, and near the arch, all the beams and sculptures are connected and decorated with gold. Black and red curtains hang down from both sides of the arch, majestic and solemn.

It is like the throat of some kind of giant beast. Ordinary people may only symbolize the majestic imperial power if they build their houses like this.

Some unreasonable exclamations suddenly appeared in Pei Dinan's heart, then he shook his head and stepped across the gate.

……

In Rosetta Augustus's private living room, the lights are bright, and the faint aroma boosts the spirit of every visitor, and the gentle music sounds from nowhere, so that people who step into it don't know Unconsciously relax.

The talented ruler of the empire was sitting on his favorite high-backed chair. When Ferdinand stepped into the room, he was seriously flipping through a thick book with his head down. look.

"Your Majesty," Ferdinand stepped forward to salute Rosetta, "I'm here."

"Oh, Ferdinand—you came earlier than I expected." Rosetta raised her head and smiled when she saw Ferdinand. put aside.

The front of the book was facing up, and out of the corner of his eye, Pei Dinan saw the stamped words on it: "Society and the Machine" - he recognized this book, and in fact he had read many of its contents.Rosetta Augustus ordered a batch of copies of this book to be printed and presented it to some nobles and officials. As Emperor Typhon's most trusted noble representative, Duke Ferdinand naturally had this honor.

This book comes from Cecil, but Ferdinand has to admit that many of the contents above can inspire people, and he was also impressed by many concise "principles" that have never been thought about in the book , However, at this moment, when he saw the book on the coffee table, he recalled part of the content in the book, but felt a burst of... uneasiness for no reason.

But now is not the time to ponder the "Cecil way of thinking" in the book. Duke Ferdinand turned his attention away and looked at Rosetta: "Your Majesty, you called me into the palace late at night because..."

Rosetta Augustus glanced around, and the only few attendants and high-ranking ladies in the living room immediately retreated silently. Only then did Ruler Feng nodded to the Grand Duke, and said in a deep voice, "Malm Dunit was summoned by the Lord tonight—about four hours ago."

Ferdinand suddenly suffocated, he felt his heartbeat suddenly stop for half a beat, and all the uneasiness he had accumulated before finally faintly connected together, and this short-term change did not hide from Rosetta's eyes, who immediately cast attention : "Pei Dinanqing, there's something wrong with your reaction—what do you know?"

"Your Majesty," Ferdinand took a deep breath, with an extremely serious expression, "I saw Malm Dunit tonight—on the way here. But he appeared very strangely, and the whole process... was full of contradictions." harmony."

"Give me the details at once," said Rosetta at once, "all the details."

"Yes," Ferdinand nodded, and began to talk about his weird experience just now, "It should have happened an hour ago, when I passed the 'Salon' in the Van Lyon Street. There was no witness other than me, at that time... ..."

It didn't take much time to tell the story. Ferdinand tried his best to restore all the details of his strange experience in a concise narration. As his words fell, Emperor Rosetta frowned tightly, and his expression became pale. Extremely serious.

"It may be an illusion, or some kind of 'projection' directly acting on the mind," Ferdinand said of his speculation, "No matter what it is, the situation is very serious—the anomaly of the Church of God of War has spread to its entire body. At the top, if Malm Dunit, who is the pope, becomes the source of the mutation, then the countermeasures we set up may be..."

Rosetta suddenly interrupted Ferdinand: "Have you ever thought that this anomaly did not spread to the uppermost layer, but originated from the uppermost layer from the very beginning?"

Ferdinand's eyes widened a little, and he soon fell into deep thought. After a short thought, he raised his head: "Your Majesty, is it true that Malm Dunit was summoned by the Lord? Are there any more details?" ?”

"The news has not been made public. Currently, only the Great Church and you and I know about it. As you know, according to tradition, no matter what the cause of the death of the Pope of the God of War Church, the royal family must be notified as soon as possible to ensure the stability of the situation. At this point, the Cathedral still fulfilled its responsibilities very well this time, but things went wrong afterwards," Rosetta said to Ferdinand, "After the news of the Pope's death was announced, the Cathedral rejected the Royal Family The normal process of sending a representative to honor the body without giving any reason, and they have closed the communication channels with Obsidian Palace."

"They closed the communication channel with the Obsidian Palace?" Ferdinand was stunned, "Then now at the Great Cathedral..."

"Diana is trying to investigate, and I'm waiting for her news," Rosetta said, "and I called you here to prepare for a worse situation."

"A more...worse situation?"

"The priests of the God of War and the ascetics are the most powerful among all the clergy, and the recent changes in the situation have made them too nervous," Rosetta said slowly, "The royal family is directly under the Knights and the Obsidian Forbidden Army Preparations have been made near the Cathedral, St. Jolem's Mars Church, and St. Matim's Mars Church, but we have to make further plans.

"If, as you and I discussed before, the priests of the God of War have the possibility of collectively losing control and going berserk, then they are likely to take crazier and more unpredictable actions than normal humans, and facing this threat in the city A kind of challenge, the young Hadiron probably has no experience in facing that kind of complicated situation.

"Be prepared, when the situation warrants, we may need the Knights of the Protectorate to enter - of course, that is the worst case."

"Could the situation develop to such an extent?" Ferdinand frowned, his expression solemn, "The Knights of the Protectorate will only act when the imperial capital is threatened with destruction in the event of war..."

"If the largest sect in the empire is completely out of control in Aldernan, then the situation will not be much better than the attack on the imperial capital during the war," Rosetta said slowly, "I don't want things to develop like that... But unfortunately, from The time is too short for the Church of God of War to go awry until the situation deteriorates. We don't have enough time to prepare, and we can't take more drastic actions against the church directly until we have conclusive evidence and a sufficient name... You have to do something Get ready, Pei Dinanqing."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Very well, then let's discuss some details..."

……

Tranquility and darkness enveloped the deepest part of the Great Sanctuary. On the corridor leading to the inner sanctuary, the candles in the numerous alcoves have been extinguished, and the light that once illuminated the sanctuary has disappeared, leaving only a row of candles hanging from the top of the corridor. The minimum amount of light is provided, so that this long corridor will not be completely plunged into darkness.

According to the sacred texts of the Church of God of War, the candles in the alcoves of this corridor leading to the inner sanctuary will only be extinguished after the highest person of the church, the spokesperson of the gods in the world, is called by the Lord.

They will be extinguished for a full ten days and nights, and will not be ignited by the "God-given flame" until the new church leader receives initiation, completes the test, and successfully takes over the Pope's scepter.

In the drowsy corridor, heavily armed Holy See knights stood silently between the pillars and niches, and the battle priests and high-ranking priests guarding the door stood like sculptures in front of the door.

It was early winter, and the mist had already enveloped Aldernan, and it was difficult for starlight to penetrate the clouds and fog on the plain, so the imperial capital under the night looked even darker. The darkness is even worse than the imperial capital outside.

A ray of breeze blew through such a dim corridor, passing the sight of layers of guards of the Holy See.

There was no life reaction, no magic power leaking out, and almost no perceivable heat fluctuations—the elite transcendental guards in the corridor didn't even notice that the uninvited guest crossed the line of defense right under their noses and entered the inner sanctuary The deepest prayer room.

Malm Dunit's prayer room was empty, only a dimly lit oil lamp illuminated the center of the room, and in this dizzy light, a black-haired and black-clothed figure emerged from the air.

Diana lifted the concealment effect of the curved light field, and while maintaining a precise perception of the surrounding environment, she began to look at this not-so-large room.

As expected, the corpse was long gone, and most likely had been completely "purified" by the flames at this time.

No matter what form the old pope died in, and what twisted and terrifying remains he left behind, it must now be turned into a handful of ashes and a wisp of smoke.

But that doesn't mean there won't be any clues left in the prayer room.

After looking around quietly, Diana put her hand on her forehead. Accompanied by a very faint sound of mechanical operation, the skin on her forehead suddenly cracked a gap, and part of the "skull" was pushed back by the deformation device. A delicate structure with flickering light protruded from it, and a series of rapidly flickering rays began to scan the entire room.

At the same time, the black-haired head maid's eyes became indifferent and cold, and the photosensitive unit deep in the pupil adjusted slightly, and began to carefully record all the scanned traces.

Under the detection of scanning rays, the entire room's large areas of the floor, walls, furnishings, and even the roof are glowing with fluorescence!

That is the trace of blood spilled, it is a horrible residue that can only be shown after smearing all the blood on an adult's body. Although the priest in charge of dealing with this place has wiped away the visible blood with alchemy potion and magic, but Their handling obviously cannot escape Diana's sight.

Suddenly, Diana's eyes stopped.

She looked at the small platform where the oil lamp was placed. On the facade below the platform close to the ground, a faint row of letters that had been smeared with blood came into her sight in the form of fluorescence.

"Pray reverently, pray for mercy, and have received the holy will... as you wish."

Chapter 0971

Those words were written under the small table for prayer, and the blood stains had been wiped away, but the fluorescent marks clearly appeared in Diana's eyes. She saw that the lines were trembling and twisting, and each stroke seemed to seep out of it. All the strength of the writer, it seems to be able to see through them the extremely strong emotions of Malm Dunit when he wrote it——

bordering on madness.

Diana withdrew her gaze from the crazy handwriting, and then searched the entire room again. This time, she found nothing more—the priests responsible for the aftermath were still very conscientious.

The black-haired head maid blinked, turned around, and was about to leave the scene.

However, the moment she turned around, a strong wave of magic power suddenly condensed in the room—no, it appeared in the room out of thin air like descending!

Diana turned around in an instant, and the next second she felt an invisible wind of magic power sweeping through the entire prayer room, wisps of black and red aura emerged from the air, gathering and forming around the small prayer platform like a vortex, like The blood once spilled here flowed back into a body that no longer existed, and the dimly lit little lampstand suddenly ignited, and in the suddenly brightening light, a tall, translucent, as if smoke and The figure formed by the mixture of light and shadow condensed into shape, floating in mid-air!

"The heresy of blasphemy!" The illusory and distorted figure stared at Diana standing in the prayer room and roared angrily, while the smoky face faintly showed the appearance of Malm Dunit, accompanied by this With a roar, he suddenly opened his hands, and prayed loudly as if embracing and dedicating himself, "Lord! Please send down the punishment of the soul, and destroy this heresy that desecrates the sanctuary!"

The moment the illusory figure suddenly appeared, Diana had already taken a defensive posture, her eyes shimmered, and pale white halos suddenly appeared on all parts of her limbs and torso. The shield covered her whole body, and in the next second, Malm Dunit's voice of blessing summoned a hazy phantom—the phantom looked like a giant in black armor, its face shrouded in black mist , only the scarlet eyes full of murderous intent lit up in the depths of the fog. It emerged from the sky above Malm, took a step in the air, raised high the tomahawk wrapped in flames, and slammed down towards Diana!

The tomahawk seemed unavoidable. As soon as Diana's body moved, the illusory ax blade fell on her head, and then from the head to the torso, the tomahawk penetrated the black-haired maid's body without any delay.

Nothing happened.

Diana looked down at her unscathed body, and her figure quickly faded away, disappearing into the room in the blink of an eye.

The illusory iron-clad giant stood still in mid-air for a moment, and then began to fade and dissipate. Malm Dunit's slightly confused murmur to himself sounded in the prayer room: "...a pile of steel...no Heart?"

The sound of hurried footsteps came from the direction of the corridor, interspersed with hurried and low-toned conversations, and then the door of the prayer room was pushed open, and a group of heavily armed Holy See knights and a large number of combat priests poured in This is not a big room.

The room was empty, without any intruders or visions. In the eyes of the bewildered priests, only a small lamp not far away was quietly lighting up, casting a drowsy light on the prayer room.

……

Ferdinand Wendell's face was deep, and his eyes slowly swept across the huge map of the entire empire. On the map that was drawn with countless cartographers' painstaking efforts, large and small rust-colored spots and color blocks can be seen everywhere. all over the country.

"...For the first time, I realized so clearly that before all of us noticed, the power of the church has penetrated to such an extent in the secular world..." This person who rarely frowns on the battlefield The former General Wolf frowned at this moment, and his tone was unprecedentedly serious, "Shocking."

"This is the result of the continuous suppression and balance of the royal family in the past ten years." Rosetta glanced at the old duke beside him. The military aristocrats are also believers of the God of War, which has a deeper influence than the church of the Holy Light in Ansu, and the people of Typhon have been used to seeing the priests of the God of War as reliable protectors and guides for hundreds of years , which makes the royal family's checks and balances and suppression even more difficult."

"...I know the resistance you have encountered, even for a long time... Even I can't understand some of your actions towards the church," Ferdinand said with a complicated expression, "If it wasn't for Bard..."

"Speaking of which, I still want to confirm," Rosetta said suddenly, "You once saw the vision of Bard being abandoned by the gods and being tortured and burned by the fire of faith during an 'enlightenment', and that 'enlightenment' ’ It happened years after he disappeared... Do you really think Bud was alive then, for these reasons alone?”

"Malm once said that it was a 'warning sign', that Bard had betrayed the gods, so the gods used enlightenment to warn me, but I know Bard, he is not someone who would betray the gods, he ..."

Duke Ferdinand's voice suddenly became a little unsustainable, as if he didn't know how to express his conflicted and vacillating feelings, Rosetta didn't let him continue: "It's okay, Sir Ferdinand, I understand your mood—just as I I also understand Bard. In any case, you have doubts about the church because of this, and you did not allow Andersa to be baptized. This choice is obviously correct now. The "faith" that mankind has always relied on...is not As safe as humans imagine."

"I didn't think about this at the time. I just hoped that before I figured out what happened to Bard, I would try not to let Andersa go on the same path..." Pei Dinan shook his head, as if he didn't want to recall the past, he Raising his head again, his eyes returned to the map in front of him, "You reminded me a long time ago to keep a certain distance from the church, and now your warning has finally come true..."

As he spoke, the expression of the old duke gradually became extremely serious. He waved his hand as if holding an invisible sharp sword: "Your Majesty, the truth behind the gods is really what you said..."

"I know this is unbelievable," Rosetta said in a deep voice, "However, Gawain Cecil has sent us a lot of evidence and materials, and those things... are completely consistent with the current vision of the Church of God of War. "

"...I understand, Your Majesty," Ferdinand nodded slowly. He straightened his body and saluted like a knight. "Then this is a war—let me leave and prepare for this war."

The old wolf general who was no longer young turned around and walked out of the emperor's living room with steady and powerful steps. In the huge and brightly lit room, only Rosetta Augustus was left, the ruler of the empire. The reader quietly stared at the direction in which Ferdinand left, and after a few seconds, his gaze suddenly froze.

Not far in front of him, on the floor that should have been fully illuminated by the light, there was a hazy shadow imprinted on the floor surface. The shadow seemed to have a substance, and the shadow was shrinking and wriggling on the floor surface, and on its edge, a large amount of rust Colored lines that are barely visible to the naked eye have diffused everywhere at some point, spreading to the surrounding walls, to the gate not far away, and even to the ceiling!

The moment Rosetta's eyes fell on the shadow, an indescribable murmur sounded in the room suddenly, as if in a dream, and a rusty bloody smell rushed straight into Rosetta's nostrils. Immediately afterwards, a hazy human figure quickly took shape in the air, those rust-colored lines and the shadows on the floor were all connected to the human figure, a hoarse and indiscernible voice came from the body of "it" It rang, tearing Rosetta's eardrums: "Augustus..."

"Malm Dunit," Rosetta's face was frozen, and his black eyes were fixed on the figure that appeared strangely. He rubbed his fingers slightly, but the magic warning did not cause any movement outside the house. It should have been None of the guards who rushed into the room when they noticed the anomaly didn't show up—even so, he didn't show any panic, but his eyes became colder than before, "I really didn't expect that we would meet in this situation , old friend."

"I didn't expect that you would go so far on the road of disobedience to the gods..." the hazy shadow said hoarsely, his figure became a little more solid, "I thought you were just a whim, as in the past few times. I just want to do some 'checks and balances' tricks, but I didn't expect that you have been completely deluded, and you can't even see the guidance of the right way-it's a pity, my old friend..."

"This is different from the 'checks and balances' of the past, Malm," Rosetta said in a deep voice, "This is no longer a matter of secular rights and interests. There is a problem with your church, and there is a problem with your belief. Something is wrong with your lord—you are slipping in the direction of weirdness and darkness, and for the empire, you are no longer a threat, but a hazard."

Such words completely angered that shadow, he suddenly raised his body high, a lot of indescribable murmurs and layers of rust-colored halo instantly filled the whole room, he shouted angrily: "Enough! You have degenerated into a Sad heresy, your guidance is a waste of time - let the power of the Lord help you to regain your senses!"

Faced with the sudden increase in pressure on his body, Rosetta just stared at the front coldly. Instead of retreating, he stepped forward: "Also... depending on your state, it is probably transformed into something like an evil spirit or a dead soul. Things, expecting you to remain rational under such circumstances is indeed a luxury."

Malm Dunit's shadow didn't seem to hear the sarcasm, he just raised his hands high, and the rust-colored surge in the room rolled down towards Rosetta: "Sinner! Face the Lord's punishment!"

"You miscalculated one thing," Rosetta said calmly, looking up at Malm's shadow, "The Augustus who have been cursed by God for 200 years have never been afraid of any so-called 'lord' .”

He closed his eyes slightly, and when he opened them again, endless stars had emerged in those deep black eyes.

In the next second, everything in the entire living room was flooded by the surging starlight, the walls, the roof, the furnishings... everything quickly melted and dissipated in the starlight, an extremely bright scene that seemed to only appear in human dreams and The imaginary starry sky swallowed everything, and easily swallowed the Malm projection who was calling for the power of the god of war—the latter just had time to let out a mournful howl and an unbelievable roar: "...how dare you!"

The bright starry sky overwhelmed Malm's words, and those bright light spots began to slowly rotate in the purple-black smoke, presenting a strange, chaotic, and bewildered appearance. Rosetta Augustus stood in this scene The center of the "chaotic starry sky" has become the center point around which all the stars surround.

Hearing the roar left by Malm's projection at the end, he just sighed slightly: "It doesn't take much courage to kill a monster."

In the next second, the phantom of the chaotic starry sky quickly shrank and disappeared, and the things that had been swallowed up in the living room returned to Rosetta's sight. He frowned and shook his head slightly: "It's just an insignificant shadow..."

"It doesn't matter, a shadow is enough to prove your sincerity," a hoarse and deep voice suddenly sounded in his ears, and he was very familiar with that voice—it was what every descendant of Augustus would hear in that nightmare palace The deepest voice keeps echoing, "I have indeed tasted...the power of divinity and faith, this is a good appetizer."

"I've already shown my sincerity, and now it's up to you to show your attitude," Rosetta said coldly, "Don't forget what you promised."

"Of course, of course - we've all had enough of this tortured relationship, it's what we have in common. You used yourself as a springboard to get me back 'out there' while I ended up with the Augustus family and will not come back... This is a fair deal, and we both look forward to it," the voice said happily, with a sincere tone, "I will keep my promises more than ordinary people. You can rest assured—after all, I am the eyes of God, and I don't even bother to lie and deceive."

"So much the better."

……

Gao Wen came to the widest terrace of Melita's house. Under the bright night sky in the Arctic region, he looked up towards the mountain where the headquarters of the jury was located.

Although it was still shrouded in night, according to Cecil's time, it was already morning.