Sword of Dawn

Page 363

In this way, he penetrated some kind of "curtain" and came to the "other side" of this town!

Gawain also saw Daniel's figure.

The old mage was standing quietly under a street lamp a little far away, with his waist bent, his eyes staring blankly ahead, as if he was in a trance, and he didn't respond to Gawain's appearance.

Gawain frowned. He remembered that Daniel used the image of an elegant middle-aged mage when he entered the psychic network, but now the other party has become the real one in the real world—it was this weird town that released Daniel camouflage effect?Or after being "deleted", Daniel unconsciously lifted his disguise under the condition of his mind being disturbed?

Doubts flashed across his mind, and Gawain stepped up to Daniel's side. He first confirmed that there were no figures of Selena and others around him, and then he raised his hand and patted Daniel's shoulder lightly.

It was just an attempt, but it had an immediate effect. Gawain could clearly feel a certain stagnant and distorted aura that shattered and dissipated immediately after he slapped it down. Daniel blinked twice, in that sluggish and trance state Immediately after it was lifted, he instinctively showed a look of vigilance, and then he saw Gawain, and saw the surrounding streets illuminated by lights.

"My lord," Daniel immediately bowed to Gawain, and looked around in confusion, "This is..."

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be the phantom town after the bell rang," Gao Wen said in a deep voice, "I came in through the reflection on the water—some unknown force divided the town into bells. Two parts, before the bell and after the bell, the town after the bell is hidden in the depths. You are trapped here, and everyone else should be as well."

He paused for a moment before showing a slight smile: "It seems that my existence itself is a kind of violation of the 'rules' here - I didn't expect it to be so easy to wake you up. Originally, I was thinking that if a slap doesn't work , we will use a more drastic method to break this weird place."

"Your strength is incomparable," Daniel said immediately with a hint of awe and gratitude, and then he also noticed the change in his image, with a confused look on his face, "How did I become like the real world..."

Gao Wen glanced at the old mage: "I'm also curious—you don't know what's going on?"

"This... I don't know," Daniel frowned, "It's strange, not only has it become what the real world looks like, but it can't be re-disguised..."

"It may be that the strange power of this town is suppressing foreign objects," Gawain said while looking into the depths of the street, "or it may be that the depths of this town do not support 'avatars'. Either way, raise the Be vigilant, I really feel now... this town is alive and has malicious intentions."

"Yes," Daniel said respectfully, and followed Gawain's gaze into the distance, "My lord, what shall we do next?"

"Let's find other people first, and investigate here along the way," Gao Wen said casually, "Using the deep channel, you should be able to locate other people's location, right?"

Daniel tried it first, then nodded: "Yes. I have already sensed the positions of Magnum and Yuri, not far from here, and they seem to be together."

"Let's go and see the situation."

The two left here and walked deeper into the street. Accompanied by the voices of people from the roadside houses from time to time, and various lights in various places in the town along the way, a strange and terrifying atmosphere lingered in those old and dark places. Among the houses and in the corners of the streets, Daniel, who was walking beside Gao Wen, wearing a black robe, slowly creeping nerves behind him, and having a rather gloomy temperament, aggravated the effect of this atmosphere——

Nothing seems to fit the vibe of this "haunted town" scene quite like a gloomy, black-robed old wizard.

As he walked, Gawain couldn't help but glanced at Daniel, and said casually, "Your mental state should have stabilized, right?"

The old mage didn't know why Gao Wen suddenly mentioned this, but he replied immediately: "Yes, thank you for your gift, I have been freed from that terrible mental torture."

"Then don't you consider changing your temperament and style in the real world?"

"This..." The old mage looked a little dazed, "Mary did mention that she wanted to prepare some new clothes for me, but... no, it's nothing, if this is your will, then I..."

Gao Wen quickly conceived in his mind how the old mage would change his painting style in the real world. After a bunch of broken pictures popped up in his mind, he quickly cut off this thought that was too divergent, and interrupted before Daniel's voice fell. Said: "Forget it, I just said it casually, don't take it to heart."

Daniel, as always, has no doubts: "Everything is as you wish."

Gao Wen hummed, glanced ahead, and stopped slowly.

He saw two figures standing abruptly not far away, they were the other two Eternal Sleeper archbishops who were "shielded" to "this side" together with Daniel.

They were also stripped of their camouflage and restored to their appearance in the real world, standing beside the street in a daze.

One of them was wearing a white robe with a gentle temperament and a monocle. His appearance could be recognizably that of Archbishop Yuri, but he was over middle-aged, with some wrinkles on his face and a lot of white hair on his head. The figure is also slightly fatter.

The other person is undoubtedly the Archbishop Magnum. Compared with his "virtual image", his real appearance has hardly changed, except that his height has changed from more than two meters to less than 1.5 meters by visual inspection... almost the same as Amber is a high.

Gawain silently glanced at the two archbishops not far away, then lowered his head and said to Daniel, "There are also people with great personalities among the Eternal Sleepers."

Daniel: "...It is indeed as you said."

Chapter 0782 The Trap Deep in Memories

Yuri and Magnum stood on the street of the uninhabited town, with the same blank expression on their faces. Their minds had obviously been disturbed, their senses were shielded, and all consciousness was trapped deep in some kind of thick "curtain" , is in exactly the same state as Daniel not long ago.

Gawain came before the two archbishops who were sleeping forever, but before he used his specialness to help the two archbishops recover, he first took a look at Daniel.

"Inside the Order of the Eternal Sleepers, how do priests above the bishop view 'outsiders'?"

Daniel thought for a while, and replied respectfully: "Your existence itself is enough to scare most of the eternal sleepers, but priests above the bishop need to think more than ordinary believers. Besides being afraid of you, they will also analyze you. behavior, speculate on your possible position..."

"Oh? Speculate on my position?" Gao Wen suddenly became a little interested, "What kind of position?"

"The bishops and archbishops believe that every wanderer has a 'mission' that is higher than ordinary people's understanding, and your actions revolve around this mission; they believe that conflicts with you should be avoided as much as possible, because it is not beneficial ; Some bishops believe that wanderers outside the territory have no natural good and evil and standpoints. You and your ethnic group are passers-by in this world, and this world is only a temporary stop in your eyes. Limited, cautious contact with Outlander rogues is not a bad thing. While your initial contact with the Eversleepers had an unfriendly start, your activity in Anzu has shown that you don't mind establishing cooperation and cooperation with other mortals. connect……"

Gao Wen rubbed his chin, always felt that he was regarded as some kind of large neutral wild monster by the Eternal Sleeper...

Are these dead house technicians really relying on their brains to make a living?

Daniel quietly observed Gao Wen's face, and asked cautiously at this moment: "My lord, what are you asking..."

"It's nothing, I'm just curious," Gao Wen said casually, and couldn't help showing a smile on his face when he looked at Yuri and Magnum. what happened."

A look of surprise and astonishment suddenly appeared on Daniel's face, and then he seriously thought about the feasibility of doing so.

Gawain smiled when he saw this: "Don't take it seriously, I don't intend to do this."

While speaking, he came to the side of the two archbishops who were still in a state of mental disturbance, and lightly clapped his hands on them.

"Next, I'll be back behind the scenes again."

……

Yuri and Magnum were lost in the boundless fog of chaos for a long time, like a dream from which they could not wake up.

As experts in the field of mind and dreams, they are not flustered by this situation, and have vaguely grasped the cause of this situation. After realizing that the problem is not the external environment, but their own minds, the two The archbishop stopped walking around and exploring in vain, and began to try to solve the problem himself.

"I'm afraid we have to recalibrate our minds," Magnum's loud voice came through the fog. Yuri couldn't see the specific figure and face of the other party clearly, and could only vaguely see a more familiar gray-black outline Ups and downs in the fog, which means that the "distance" between the two should be very close, but the interference of perception makes it impossible to see each other clearly even if the two are close at hand, "This damn fog should be some kind of mental interference, it It causes our consciousness layer and sensory layer to be misaligned."

"I'm afraid it's not just mental interference," Archbishop Yuri responded, "I can't get in touch with the monitoring team at the rear—I'm afraid that in addition to perception dislocation and interference, our entire mind has also been transferred to some kind of deeper imprisonment... ...this town is alive, and it is even capable of making such an elaborate and sinister trap against us."

"This (Aldernan's swearing) place!" Archbishop Magnum cursed, "In short, let's calibrate our minds first, no matter where we are trapped, we must at least see clearly what is trapping us... "

Listening to the familiar loud voice, Archbishop Yuri just said lightly: "When you yelled those vulgar words, I was already doing it."

He gathered his scattered consciousness, condensed slightly distorted thoughts, and in this chaotic and unbalanced spiritual ocean, he re-sketched his distorted self-cognition bit by bit.

Boundless fog gathered around him, and the outlines of many familiar and unfamiliar things emerged from the fog. Yuri felt that his mind was constantly sinking into the depths of memory and consciousness. Gradually, the disturbing fog dissipated. After going, a cohesive and "real" scene finally appeared in his sight again.

He was in an old and gloomy castle, in the library of the castle.

The centuries-old stone walls are inlaid with magic crystals that emit dim light, and the classical "Trickel" columns extend in sight. The stone columns support the high masonry dome, and the complex and mysterious murals on the dome The coat of arms was covered with a layer of black ash, as if it had merged with the darkness outside the castle.

Between the stone pillars and the walls, between the gloomy dome and the rough slate floor, are rows of heavy oak bookshelves, and brass lampposts with bright yellow lights on top.

Wearing a white robe, Yuri wandered quietly in this gloomy ancient castle, strolling among the bookshelves that seemed to drown people.

"Calibrating the mind...is not a pleasant thing."

The Archbishop of the Eternal Sleeper grunted softly, and walked to the depths along the bookshelves that had already faded in memory, but now clearly reappeared.

This comes from his deeply buried memory, and it is also an unforgettable memory.

He walked past a black bookshelf, and between the two pillars of the bookshelf, there was a wooden door strangely inlaid. When Yuri walked past the door, the door opened automatically, and a light appeared from the door, revealing The scene on the other side——

A boy in a luxurious equestrian coat is running in the bright castle, followed by anxious servants and maids, and the old butler is standing not far away panting, with a helpless expression on his face.

Yuri's gaze didn't shift, he just walked quietly, leaving the door behind him.

The next bookshelf, the next door...

The boy rode on a horse and walked briskly through the paths of the manor. Unknown birds started up from the side of the road, and servants in red and blue blouses followed closely nearby.

The older boy sat in the library, reading those expensive books and classics with a smile on his face, while the old butler stood quietly aside with a peaceful smile on his face.

There were people coming and going in the castle, and the middle-aged noble couple with blurred faces stood in the courtyard frowning.

Someone is reading His Majesty's will, someone is discussing the dark clouds in Aldernan, someone is discussing the intrigue and strife in Obsidian Palace, someone is whispering the name of Prince Rosetta Augustus, someone is talking about The madness and paranoia of the Augustus family, some people are talking about the collapsed old imperial capital, and the curse that spread among the members of the royal family after the collapse.

Many strangers appeared in the castle, knights with faces hidden behind iron masks appeared, the servants lost their radiant appearance in the past, the old butler frowned, whispers from nowhere echoed among the bookshelves, Yuri's ears spread, and these whispers repeatedly mentioned frightening words such as rebellion and betrayal, the old emperor's madness, and the obsidian palace's fire.

The gorgeous furnishings in the corridors of the castle were emptied, the iron boots of the royal infantry broke through the tranquility of the manor path, the boy became a young man, no longer riding a horse, no longer wanton laughter, he sat quietly in the ancient library In, buried in those yellowed classics, buried in secret knowledge.

The servants were dismissed, the master of the castle went to Aldernan and never returned, the mistress walked madly through the courtyard, cursing incessantly in a low voice, and the withered yellow leaves swirled into the empty hall, young The man stared indifferently at the few attendants outside through the crack of the door, as if the changes in the whole world had nothing to do with him.

Aldernan's court struggles, the shadow of madness shrouded in the Augustus family, and the dangers of the nobles...all have nothing to do with him.

The young man sat in the library day after day, sitting in the depths of the only preserved family heritage, and the books in his hands became more and more gloomy and strange, describing many terrible dark secrets, many mysteries that were regarded as taboo Knowledge.

He studied the history of the empire and the records of the collapse of the old imperial capital. With a mocking and condescending look, he boldly studied the taboo secrets about the curse of the Augustus family, as if he was not at all worried that he would be killed because of these Research and let the family bear more charges.

In the process of researching these taboo secrets, he also found a large number of books and scrolls that had been dusty for a long time from the family collection.

It contains knowledge about dreams, about spiritual mysteries, and about dark magic.

Secret knowledge is instilled into the brain, and the stranger's mind is connected to the young man's mind through the symbols and words hidden in the corner of the book. He shuts himself in the library and becomes a "prisoner in the library" despised by the outside world. , "The Fallen Sworn Aristocrat", but his mind was freed, and he broke away from the shackles of castles and manors in the process of trying taboo secrets again and again.

An Eternal Sleeper was born deep within the castle of a fallen nobleman.

Archbishop Yuri strolled in the library, and gradually came to the deepest part of the memory palace.

In front of the last door, he saw himself standing quietly among a large number of messy books many years ago, with a calm but crazy smile on his young and pale face, complex dream symbols Vin coated his robes and nearby floors and walls, covering all surfaces, glowing in the dark.

The sound of heavy footsteps came from the screen, and the heavily armed royal knights pushed the door and broke into the young man's territory. The leading officer loudly read the order of Emperor Rosetta Augustus, and came to arrest the secret researcher. A sworn aristocrat suspected of offending the majesty of the royal family and suspected of black witchcraft.

The young man who had become the Eternal Sleeper smiled and launched a large-scale spell arranged in the entire library. All the knights who invaded the castle became loyal followers of the Eternal Sleeper Order within a few breaths.

"There are no eternal sleepers here, because everyone is an eternal sleeper..."

Archbishop Yuri stopped in front of the last row of bookshelves, quietly watching the scene of memories revealed through the door between the bookshelves.

It depicts his final steps towards becoming the Sleeper.

But that was more than ten years ago.

Traversing memory helps to reconstruct subconscious self-cognition. The archbishop feels that his mind is becoming stable again. He has completed the re-outline of self-cognition. In theory, the "disturbance" that causes the dislocation of consciousness and perception "The power will also be completely removed after the process is over.

He relaxed a little, and faced the deepest memories in his heart with a calm attitude, while his eyes scanned the rows of nearby bookshelves indifferently, and scanned the thick, old, ornately bound books.

On the covers of each book, the vast land and the palms covering the land are depicted.

Yuri's eyes froze for an instant, his heart tightened, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a strange smile on the young man who symbolized himself more than ten years ago in the last door.

The other party smiled, and slowly raised his hand, with the palm facing down, as if covering the invisible earth.

"To the upper narrator, to our all-knowing and all-powerful Creator..."

Yuri's eyes widened, and pale golden runes immediately appeared beside him. While struggling to break free from his deep memories, he shouted loudly:

"Bishop Magnum!

"Don't calibrate your mind! Don't go into the depths of your memory!

"This is a trap..."

He also vaguely heard the roar of Archbishop Magnum, and realized that the fiery archbishop might have encountered the same crisis as himself, but before he had time to make more responses, he suddenly felt his consciousness There was a violent turmoil, and I felt that the heavy shadow covering my heart was swept away by some kind of rough factor.

In the flickering of chaotic lights and shadows, the pictures about the castle and the library quickly dissipated completely. He found himself standing on the street of the phantom town with street lights on, and that Archbishop Daniel was looking at him in astonishment.

"What are you yelling for?"

Archbishop Daniel frowned and asked.

Chapter 0783

When the two archbishops Yuri and Magnum regained their senses, Gawain stopped communicating with Daniel directly, and turned back into a harmless extraterrestrial wanderer who listened quietly and was harmless to humans and animals.

From a certain point of view, he felt that this "extra person" who followed the Eternal Sleepers from the beginning to the end, but was unknown, seemed to be the scariest element in this weird place...

On the other side, Daniel learned about Archbishop Yuri's experience in recalibrating his mind.

"You said...you saw the projection of the upper-level narrator in the depths of your memory?" Daniel looked very serious, staring into Yuri's eyes, "and the part of your memory that symbolizes the 'potential self' has begun to praise the upper-level narrative By?"

Archbishop Yuri nodded with a gloomy expression, and Magnum next to him also echoed: "I also encountered a similar situation-damn, I went back to the time when I was a priest in the Church of God of War decades ago. The church was full of people, and all of a sudden, everyone started praying to the upper narrator...I swear, from the time I gave up the belief in God of War to become a nightmare instructor to now, this is the level of the worst nightmare I have woven Already!!"

Gawain was listening to the two archbishops talking about their respective experiences, and realized that these two people should belong to the priests of the Eternal Sleepers who were "transformed" halfway. One of them was a nobleman of Typhon, and the other was a priest of the Church of God of War. But obviously, they have completely broken with the past, and through their own strength and long-term allegiance, they have been promoted to the top of the Eternal Sleepers.

This is very similar to Daniel's experience - before becoming a dark priest, he was a high-level mage who left the Typhon Mage Association, and he was "transformed" into an eternal sleeper halfway.

"Now I have to confirm one thing," Daniel stared at the two Archbishops Yuri and Magnum, "Have you been polluted by the upper-level narrator?"

Yuri and Magnum looked at each other, neither of them showed any objection.

In the depths of their respective memories, at the bottom of the subconscious that should belong to them, they have personally experienced the strange erosion of the "upper narrator". They will never underestimate that kind of power that human beings cannot understand, let alone be blind Trust your own judgment about your own situation.

After all, if the pollution comes from the subconscious mind, it is impossible for a person to realize that he has been polluted.

And Daniel is the security director of the psychic network, and he has high attainments in the fields of psychic early warning and pollution protection. It is very reasonable for the archbishop to conduct inspections.

But before that, Archbishop Yuri first raised a question: "Archbishop Daniel, how are you not affected by the abnormal environment here?"

The expression on Daniel's face didn't change—because he had already communicated with Gao Wen, and he had planned the answer he should have at this time: "As a security supervisor, I have a habit of working.