Sword of Dawn

Page 208

"The spirits in the sanctuary have been disturbed..." Wright's footsteps gradually slowed down, and his tone was unusually serious, "The energy field here is very active."

Amber thought about it seriously, and found that she couldn't understand at all: "What do you mean?"

"The church gathers people's spiritual power, and the older and the larger the church, the more so. For hundreds of years, there have been countless devout believers and clergymen who have been active inside and outside the church. They prayed devoutly during their lifetime and rest here after death. His soul will form a strong echo in the underground palace of the church—this echo is not an undead, but an unconscious hollow echo. They are harmless and have a calming effect to a certain extent, so people After walking into the ancient cathedral, there will be a slight sense of relaxation - the priests call it a miracle of the God of Light, but in fact this is just a natural phenomenon that can be fully explained by theory," Wright said Explaining this knowledge to Amber, she frowned, "There are also a lot of echoes gathered here...but these spirits that were supposed to be dormant underground...all seem very restless."

Amber suddenly got goosebumps all over her body, and Emily's figure emerged from the air beside Wright. The little girl looked at the empty corridor in the eyes of ordinary people with wide eyes, and waved her hands happily to those invisible spirits. The body greeted.

Wright immediately asked the little girl to go back: "Emily, hide well, there may be danger here."

Amber swallowed, and while thinking about the possibility of turning around and running away now, she asked, "Where will this be ahead?"

"It should be a prayer room. The underground prayer room is exclusively for the church's principals," Wright looked towards the end of the corridor, "the holy light there...is extremely active."

The team raised their vigilance and began to continue heading towards the depths of the underground facility. Amber looked around and found that there was no suitable opportunity for her to escape, so she had to shake her head and bite the bullet to keep up.

The noisy sounds from above gradually faded away, and those indistinct sounds seemed to be wrapped in a thick layer of curtains, turning into indistinct low-pitched whispers, and the whispering whispers In the middle, the corridor gradually came to an end.

An oak door stood quietly in front of it, and the magic spar lamps on both sides of the wooden door exuded a soft and warm light, and in the small open space in front of the door, there was a figure in a black robe kneeling quietly.

The white knights clenched their warhammers in an instant, and Amber immediately raised the poisoned dagger, but the kneeling figure did not respond at all—unless he was deaf, it was impossible for him not to hear what came from him. Heavy footsteps came from behind.

Wright made a gesture to signal everyone to stay alert, while he himself held a warhammer in one hand and cautiously came to the figure.

The other party has been dead for a long time.

Letby gestured for safety. After the others approached, he used the hammer handle to shake the body in the black robe, and the latter fell down without a sound.

It was a discipline monk with tattoos on his scalp and a holy emblem on his chest, and his face made everyone feel extremely strange——

There was no pain on his face, and there was no distressed expression at the end of his life. On the contrary, there was a smile on his mouth, and his face was peaceful and peaceful, as if he was still immersed in boundless peace and joy at the moment before he died, and this peace The joy lasted until after his death.

Seeing the strange death of this discipline cultivator, and thinking of his kneeling posture before, Amber couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat: "Oh my god... this... how did this guy die?"

"I was attacked by a mental attack spell without defense."

Wright said in a low voice, then raised his head and looked at the tightly closed oak door.

"The underground structure of this facility is blessed with magical power...it should be able to withstand it..." The newly promoted Patriarch analyzed in a low voice as if talking to himself, and then waved to the subordinates behind him, "Ready to clean up process."

The white knights acted immediately and swiftly. Some of them opened their shields and formed a line of defense in front of the gate to deal with the impact. Others began to untie the grenades from their waists and backs. Amber was stunned: "What? What cleaning process?"

No one answered her, and between her questions, several white knights opened the weapon box carried by the team, and took out several sets of individual howitzers with acceleration rails, sights, and tripods, and started Assembled quickly at the gate - judging by their proficiency, it was obvious that these warriors had been training in the army long before becoming white knights.

Amber's ears perked up all of a sudden: "Wait a minute, this thing is not a steel ranger..."

"I borrowed it from Soldering," Wright said in a deep voice while directing two team members to set up a significantly larger howitzer directly facing the door, "don't worry, anyone with too much power will Did not bring."

While speaking, the white knights had set up the howitzers, and the heavy heavy-explosive grenades were pushed into the accelerating orbit. These soldiers of the Holy Light prayed in a low voice while pushing the cannonballs into place: "Holy light, mercy..." "Holy Light bless the acceleration orbit." "May the Holy Light bless this cannonball and its fuze..."

Amber suddenly felt that there were problems everywhere in the scene in front of her: "Hey wait! You are not following the procedure! Under normal circumstances, if you encounter this kind of secret room underground, you should carefully disengage the mechanism and follow..."

In the middle of the noisy half-elf's bluffing, Wright had already raised the mechanical power hammer in his hand, and then the heavy and destructive weapon slammed heavily on the door of the prayer room with the sound of howling wind. : "Holy punishment!!"

There was a loud bang, and the wooden door was torn apart. At that brief moment, Amber seemed to see something suddenly light up behind the door and wanted to rush out. Grenades, heavy grenades, crystallized bombs, and the continuous impact of holy light smashed into the prayer room.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

The explosion sounded deafeningly, and the entire underground structure of the church trembled violently. If it was a normal building, it would only collapse in the face of this terrible explosion. The underground structure of the city is beyond imagination—it is even stronger than the outer city wall when it is full of energy.In this underground palace that has been blessed with countless magic, the sound of explosions rumbled continuously like the ringing of bells and bells. During the bombing that lasted for one and a half minutes, the White Knights fired out nearly a hundred grenades, bombs and grenades. And more shocks of holy light——when the explosion finally came to an end, Amber still felt her whole head buzzing and shaking, even though she had already covered her ears for the first time, but it was obvious... the elven blood The excellent hearing brought to her is really a fatal weakness at this time.

And Wright rushed into the prayer room with his warhammer as soon as the explosion stopped. Under his leadership, other white knights followed suit.

"Stay vigilant!!"

In the cloud of smoke and dust, Wright loudly reminded everyone to be vigilant, while his eyes quickly swept across the large prayer room.

The prayer room was already in a mess. The ground, walls, and roof blessed by the Holy Light were severely damaged in the terrible bombing just now. There were amazing cracks and crumbling stone slabs and bricks everywhere. Between the wall and the ground, a faint golden light can still be seen slowly creeping. It is the remaining protection spells that are working hard to maintain the supporting structure here and repair the damage to the building.

As for the furnishings in the room other than the walls and the ground...they were all wiped out in the previous explosion.

"Cough cough...cough cough..." Amber coughed and followed into the dusty room at the end, "You can't do this, you are more or less...cough cough...you are more or less priests what..."

Wright raised a hand and interrupted Amber's loud BB, and his sight fell on the middle of a messy room, where a mass of wriggling flesh, crystals, and flowing light were converging at a speed visible to the naked eye stand up.

Amber was taken aback: "What the hell is that?!"

Wright opened his eyes wide. Between the squirming flesh and the weird crystal-like substance, he saw a piece of broken fabric, which was obviously a part of a gorgeous cassock: "...it's that bishop!!"

Chapter 0495 The End of the Monster

That group of indescribable, huge and strange substances just wriggled like this, even Amber who jumped from the real world to the shadow world every now and then, and Wright who was familiar with various holy light classics had never heard of it Something similar to appalling—it was a mixture of distorted flesh and blood. The outlines of bones, muscles, and skin were completely invisible, and there were magnificent fragments with crystal texture mixed in it. This mixture was soaked in a wave of light. However, if you look carefully, you will find that the sparkling "water puddle" is actually a piece of light: its edge shows a diffuse state, and it is in harmony with the shimmering particles in the air. Connected together, Wright, who is an upright priest, can be sure that that thing is holy light of extremely high purity.

Sacred and profane, beautiful and terrifying, completely contradictory elements gathered on this pile of rapidly regenerating mixture, making Amber feel scalp tingling.

A white knight exclaimed: "He is regenerating!"

No one can figure out how this mixture works, and no one knows how Fran Bereng got into this posture—of course, after the heroic white knights beat a bunch of heavy weights into the room majestically. The temporary bishop may not have been in this form before the grenade—but everyone knows one thing, that is, this blob of regeneration is definitely not a good person!

Wright immediately raised his warhammer and ordered loudly: "Prepare the hand cannon—"

The twisted flesh and blood soaked in the holy light survived a round of fierce bombing, but it is not difficult to judge from its embarrassing state that this thing is by no means immortal, it can be hurt and weakened ——And the superhumans in this world are no strangers to monsters that can regenerate. For them, it is not terrible that the enemy has strong vitality or can regenerate. As long as they can be injured, it is not a big problem.

In short, as long as the blood bar can be displayed, it is at most a matter of playing a few more rounds.

However, at the moment when the white knights just raised their hand cannons to aim, a sudden change occurred.

The mixture of flesh and crystal condensed suddenly sped up its peristaltic speed, and indescribable roars came from the surrounding water-like light. The roars seemed to be the superposition of the roars of a thousand beasts. , it pierced into the minds of everyone at the scene, and the nearest Amber was no exception—she looked at the mixture in the holy light with wide eyes, and felt that the thing mixed with flesh and crystals was so holy.

Brilliant sacred music sounded, and the entire prayer room was shrouded in light. The boundless holy light hung down from the distant sky like a curtain, covering layers from all directions, turning this place into a magnificent, magnificent, and extremely beautiful place. In the sanctuary, Amber saw countless spirits emerging from the air, worshiping the hazy shadow in the center of the sanctuary, and a deep whisper sounded in her ears:

"Worship Him...believe in Him..." "Trust Him...obey Him..." "He will protect you, He will guide you..."

There are more curtains around, and the invisible wind is blowing in the secret room, raising the curtain as thin as a cicada's wings. Behind the curtains, densely packed eyes are flickering and swaying, casting neither good nor malicious gazes. , countless mouths opened and closed in the darkness, whispering mindlessly and meaninglessly.

Amber subconsciously stepped forward, wanting to embrace the holy light. Her heart seemed to maintain a strange sobriety. She knew that she was about to cross an invisible boundary. Once she entered that field, she would Becoming a devout follower of the God of Holy Light, but she herself could not feel the slightest resistance to this. She took the first step, and then the second step...

But just when she was about to reach that boundary, a voice that she didn't hear often but was very familiar suddenly broke into her mind: "...Why do you believe in that thing? Why don't you learn how to cook with me? ..."

All the illusions disappeared, the holy light, the curtain, the whispers, the eyes behind the curtain and the invisible mouth... everything was shattered like a dream, and Amber found herself still standing in a messy prayer room, without even a footstep He moved a little bit, but the wriggling mass of flesh and blood was still soaked in a piece of water-like holy light, and the regeneration was far from complete.

"Thank you Goddess for saving the scene..." Amber quickly (and without piety) thanked the Shadow Goddess she believed in in her heart, and then saw the situation of other people for the first time: Wright's body stood still as if frozen. In the same place, staring at the mass of flesh and blood that was close at hand, the other white knights in the room all tensed their muscles, and each of them showed a struggling and resisting look on their faces.

The White Knights are not just elite soldiers selected from the army, they also have a firm mind, and have accepted the baptism of the new teachings of the Holy Light - when facing the invasion of the God of Holy Light's faith, Even if they can't wake up directly like Hu Po, they can resist for a long time.

Amber immediately thought about what she could do right now, but before she could take any action, a roar suddenly came from the side.

Wright broke free from the strange mental influence directly with his extraordinary will. He raised the mechanical power hammer high, and the hammer was filled with surging light. With a roar, the hammer slammed down——

The twisted flesh and blood that had just been half-assembled were directly torn apart by the hammer, and quickly vaporized in the blazing holy light.

Amber heard a hallucinatory scream resounding in her mind—the scream was mixed with great pain and hatred, and she even felt a wave of real emotions stirring in this prayer room. Everyone felt this emotion: apart from hatred, there were more remorse and incomprehension. It seemed that until it completely dissipated, the owner of this emotion didn't understand why the trap he carefully arranged would be useless. , I didn’t want to understand why this group of intruders played their cards out of common sense...

The screeching sound disappeared after half a second, and the holy light wandering in the entire prayer room also suddenly weakened. All the turbulent energy gradually calmed down, and Fran Bereng's breath completely dissipated in the air.

The white knights held their warhammers tightly and raised their hand cannons to be on guard for 2 minutes before confirming that the enemy had really been completely wiped out.

"...is it really gone?" Amber patted her chest, staring nervously at the big hole in the center of the room. Thinking of the experience just now, she was still a little scared. At this moment, she was afraid that some twisted flesh and crystals would come out of nowhere again. .

"...the spirit has calmed down, and the noise in the holy light has disappeared," Wright carefully felt the fluctuation of the holy light in the space, and nodded slightly, "It seems that it was just a counterattack in the dying state of Fran Bereng .”

The white knights who were vigilant around also confirmed the safety of the environment through the tactical eyepiece. After confirming that there would be no weird things jumping out suddenly to fool her into believing in religion, Amber was greatly relieved, and then she was a little unbelievable: "The one just now Is it really Fran Berenger? How could he be so powerful?"

"It's very abnormal..." Wright frowned, obviously he was also very puzzled, "Just now this place was filled with very pure holy light, and the whole room was almost semi-sacred, but this is not an intermediate level at all—even The power that high-level priests can grasp. And even if the sacred power stored in the cathedral is mobilized, the twisted and mutated appearance of Fran Bereng cannot be explained..."

"I vaguely saw many hallucinations just now," Amber scratched her hair. "I saw many lights and pilgrims, and countless eyes hidden between the curtains. There was a voice that asked me to believe in the Holy Light. That voice It's like I came up with an idea of ​​my own..."

"...you were pulled to such a deep place?!" Wright was taken aback immediately, but then reacted, "That's right, you were standing too close at that time... It's incredible that you were able to resist with your own will Hold that power."

"Thanks to the blessing of the Shadow Goddess," Hu Po drew a circle on her chest, "I am the chosen one of the Night God..."

"Oh," Wright agreed casually, and then listened slightly - the noise from the surface was almost calm, "It seems that the above is almost over, ready to evacuate."

Amber immediately jumped up: "Hey, why do you have the same reaction as Gawain! Let me tell you that I am really the God of the Night! The goddess also chatted with me, you know, she taught me..."

"crunch-"

Amber, who was jumping, suddenly felt as if she had stepped on something. She lowered her head and raised her foot to take a look, and her jumping movements suddenly froze.

It was a shimmering crystalline substance... It was the crystalline substance that had been mixed in Fran Bereng's flesh and blood before!

"Oh my god!!" The shameful half-elf exclaimed, "There's still such a thing!!"

Wright was also taken aback. He quickly came to Amber with his warhammer in his hand: "Don't be nervous—let me see."

Amber almost jumped up and down and hid three meters away. Watching Wright squatting on the ground to carefully examine the crystal fragment, he asked cautiously: "What's the situation... this thing won't suddenly grow a flange again. Braun, come?"

"...It seems that it is no longer active," Wright finally picked up the crystal shard carefully after some inspections and the Holy Light sensor, "This should be the last wreckage left after the death of Fran Bereng... Strange substance."

Amber seems to have a strange obsession with "growing a person": "Are you sure this thing won't grow a person?"

"I'm not sure, this should be shown to scholars, such as Master Kamel or Master Pittman," Wright said frankly, "but at least at this stage, the little bit of Holy Light power remaining inside it is completely calm, short There should be no change over time.”

"You can just say Master Kamel, that guy Pittman is fine," Amber curled her lips, and then glanced at the crystal shard in Wright's hand fearfully, "Then take this thing, maybe Gawain... The Duke is interested in this stuff."

Wright shrugged indifferently, carefully put the crystal shards into a portable container, and then began to direct the other white knights: "Check the surroundings again to see if there are other similar wreckages, and collect them all. Find another Are there any remaining pieces of clothing, take them out, and tell people that Fran Bereng has been purified by the White Knight."

"Yes! Great Patriarch!"

The white knights acted immediately, and Wright frowned and looked at the devastated prayer room. Between the fragmented altar and the sacred runes, the clear and warm holy light was still flowing slowly, as if it had not been disturbed by the previous one. The monster of blasphemy stains the slightest.

"Holy light will not be dusted... the dust can only be the human heart..."

Chapter 0496 Sun Shines on Luan City

The rising sun shines on this centuries-old church city.

The giant sun rose from the sky, and the huge sun disc covering half of the sky radiated hazy halos like clouds and mist to the surroundings. The wood-grained lines on the corona looked down solemnly like a wrinkled face looking down on this world that had experienced blood and blood. The land of fire, the century-old streets and alleys of Luan City, the ancient church spires, mottled walls and towers, and the stone roads soaked in blood and flames, all are bathed in this boundless and warm morning light, a kind of pale gold The color of the city floods the city with the morning light. This scene makes people think of the picture that Saint Dumont painted to the world four centuries ago before his death——

I saw a huge city, endlessly wide, and light diffused from between the bricks and stones of the city, and the whole city seemed to be forged by light.

However, the scene depicted by Saint Dumont finally passed away with his long sleep. All the imaginations of people in later generations about the Kingdom of Holy Light can only stop at the ravings of a dying man. For the residents of Luan at this time As far as they are concerned, they have no time to care about what a saint who has been dead for 400 years saw before he died. They just gathered in the square in front of the cathedral, cheering their victory against the rising sun—and survive.

"We won!!" "Bless the Holy Light, we won!" "Long live Cecil!!"

The cheers resounded throughout the square, and even the entire church area. Volunteer mercenaries and adventurers raised their swords and shields high and beat them vigorously to express their excitement. Farmers and craftsmen were also in the air Waving their pitchforks and hammers, laughing heartily with everyone, the merchants and gentry from the Carroll area seemed to have forgotten the barriers of status at the moment. They threw their sticks, hats, and handkerchiefs into the sky, and then enthusiastically Embracing everyone around me—a kind of excitement that no one has ever experienced is stirring in the crowd. Although no one can describe what this excitement is, its meaning is self-evident: this The "lower people" of the world finally successfully resisted the "higher people" once.

And in a corner of the church square, under the close supervision (and protection) of a dozen white knights and a large group of volunteer mercenaries, a small group of priests and priests with bloody heads, tattered clothes, and even dying were huddling together, terrified Watching all this happening in front of your eyes.

They are the only surviving priests and priests of Luan Cathedral, and they are specially reserved for future "public trials".Except for them, more than half of the priests and priests had already died during the battle—many were killed by white knights on the spot, some were besieged and wiped out by adventure teams composed of mercenaries and adventurers, and a small Some were directly beaten to death with stones, sticks, and hoes by angry people when they were exhausted.

The small group of survivors watched, horrified by the power of the outraged crowd: the sticks and stones may not be as powerful as a spell, but what lies behind them is astonishing. Terrified.

At the corner of the square, on a tall steeple, several young people from the Cecil Newspaper Office and their mentors recorded the scene on the square with the magic net terminal, watching the crowd bathed in the sun and the crowd in the morning light. In the shining ancient city, a young man couldn't help sighing: "It's really a miracle."

Another young man shook his head: "However, someone will definitely call this an atrocity."

"This is indeed an atrocity, or an act of violence. Any major change, involving the replacement of order and the reorganization of social rules, will inevitably be accompanied by acts of violence. There have been no exceptions in the history of thousands of years." The old man in the robe behind the young man, Godwin Orlando, the most famous scholar in the South today, said in a calm tone. This scholar who has studied history and grammar for most of his life can see clearly what is in front of him. As a traditional Scholars, he believes that he has an obligation to teach these to his most trusted apprentices, "The difference is that the changes that have occurred in history are all at the same level, one lord attacked another lord, and a member of the royal family attacked Another member of the royal family, no matter how large the scale is, changes the social order very little, usually no more than a few decrees or the right to claim a few titles, more like the handover of power and clever cross-dressing, and what happened here today Yes, it is a violent change from the bottom to the top, although our lord is behind it, but the change itself is completed by the participation of the masses, and the result is even more amazing: it directly destroys an old order."

"There will be vacancies after the collapse of the old order, so a new order must be filled in time. That's what you told us last time, mentor."

"That's right, but this is what our lord and the Protestant priest are most concerned about," Godwin Orlando smiled calmly, "What we have to do now is to record this scene at this moment..."

Seeing the apprentices look thoughtful and getting busy again, Godwin Orlando nodded slightly, then he took out his own notebook, thought for a while, and wrote on it:

In 736 Ansu, on the 30th day of the Frost Moon and the Day of Requiem, tens of thousands of people from the northern region of the southern border stormed the Holy Light Cathedral. The belief in the God of Holy Light was overturned, and the authority of the "God" will fall to the ground...

Godwin Orlando hesitated for a moment, raised his pen, crossed out the word "Faith of the God of Light", and changed it to "Rules of Faith".

……

In the City of Saint-Sunil, the Cathedral of the Holy Light, and the Great Hall of Light, the bishops are reporting news from the eastern part of the plain to Pope Saint Ivan III.

Since the Crusaders of the Church of the Holy Light broke the rules and participated in the Ansu Civil War and joined the Kingdom Army camp, the balance of the war that had already started to tilt has regained its delicate balance.

All the way, they broke through Thorin Fort and more than ten fortresses, large and small, and successfully approached the giant wooden crossing. The Eastern Legion was finally contained when it was about to enter the central area of ​​the Holy Spirit Plain. The soldiers of the Royal Army supported by the Holy Light Relying on the boosted morale and strong battlefield recovery ability to form a human wall, it broke the invincible situation of the Eastern Legion in front of the giant wooden crossing. After paying the price of thousands of soldiers' lives, the commander of the Kingdom Army, Earl Sorin, succeeded Repulsed the Eastern Border Army, and took advantage of the trend to push the front line eastward for thirty miles-the front line was pushed back to a "safe distance" away from the hinterland of the Holy Spirit Plain, and then had to be stalemate again.

Because the harvest day had passed—the Royal Army missed the last chance to recover the grain production areas in the east, and the grains grown on Solinburg and the surrounding large tracts of fertile land fell into the hands of the rebels in the east.

After filling their stomachs and regaining their morale, the Eastern Front Legion once again gained a firm foothold on the Holy Spirit Plain.

The stalemate in the war left the leaders in Silver Castle at a loss, and I am afraid it also made the leaders of the rebels in the East Territory anxious. However, as a force that has just joined the war, the leaders of the Church of the Holy Light are very concerned about the current stalemate. It's a lot to see.

"Your Majesty, the activity of the Crusaders on the front line is obvious to all. Now the people around the giant wooden crossing have become extremely willing to convert to the Holy Light. There are a large number of new baptized people appearing every day - many of them are believers of alien gods and the Kingdom Army who have converted their beliefs. Soldiers," a bishop said loudly, with joy in his voice, "Earl Thorin specially wrote an official letter of commendation and thanks to thank our priest for helping him withstand the line of defense."

"A temporary stalemate can make people realize the significance of priests and knights of the Holy See appearing on the battlefield," Saint Ivan III's deep and slow voice echoed in the Great Hall of Light, "but also be careful that too long a stalemate will make people question The power of the Lord. And we must be vigilant, heretics are also taking advantage of this opportunity to grow and grow..."

"Yes, Your Majesty, there are a large number of Ability God believers who have entered the eastern region, and recently there have been hostile priests with the power of the God of War and the God of Blood on the front line. They may follow the example of the Crusader Army and form the Eastern Territory Priests..."

St. Ivan III was silent for a moment, as if he was listening to the vague whisper from the distant kingdom of God, and broke the silence after half a minute: "The Lord doesn't care, those heretics haven't found the right way, and they are just a rabble when they gather together , we should just continue to spread the gospel of the Lord and stop those heretics who try to escape to the east..."

The meeting in the Great Hall of Light was carried out in a solemn and solemn atmosphere. Under the guidance of the old but wise Pope, all matters were finally arranged properly and appropriately. Finally, the meeting came to an end.

Veronica Moen, who was canonized as a "living saint", stayed with St. Ivan III after all the bishops left the hall as usual.

In the long silence, St. Ivan III hunched over in the large and gorgeous seat as if he was half asleep and half awake. The brilliant holy light shone on him, and cast a long shadow behind his seat—the light was bright It was illuminated from above, but the shadow stretched long and thin and bent for a long distance, and branched out. Its shape was like a strange tree, and the top of the tree was covered with palms, eyes, faces, etc. Grinning mouths are constantly shaking and changing illusions.