Sword of Dawn

Page 169

The Lord of the Light would not answer his prayers, but he did not expect anything to answer his prayers either.

The commander glanced at the field doctor who was a pastor, and instead of disturbing the latter's prayer, he began to assign tasks to the soldiers: "You two, go to the vicinity to find out if there are any other people who survived the disaster. People, find a way to find it. You, and the three of you, find out if there is a place to dump the corpses nearby, gather the corpses and burn them. The others come with me, and find out what else is available."

Chapter 0408 The Villagers

Wright walked slowly among the collapsed and destroyed ruins. The wind from the south blew across the fields, the trampled and destroyed wheat fields, and into this devastated place. There was no smell of blood and burning in the wind, but Moist and sweet with a hint of a summer rain that could be coming soon.

After the rain, the grass and trees will germinate again, and new shoots will grow in the destroyed fields. Nature will always recover faster than humans, and this village that was set on fire by the nobles' rout, I don't know what time to be rebuilt.

This small team did not come to clean up the battlefield. Wright and his new comrades were just ordered to go from the Kant area to the Hosman prisoner-of-war camp to replace the medical staff there. It was a coincidence that the team passed by the ruins. He won't stay here for too long, Wright knows this, but he still hopes to hold a small purification ceremony for the village - it can be regarded as fulfilling his responsibility as a pastor.

After obtaining the consent of the team commander, he came to the middle of the village ruins, where there was a collapsed long house, which may have been the place where the villagers gathered. The tangle of dead branches was buried among the broken earth and rubble, and the thin beams used to support the roof pointed to the blue sky like strange bony limbs.

Next to the house, there is a buried well.

Wright found a tidy tile from the ruins and placed it next to the well. He poured some water into the tile and placed a few small wild flowers beside the tile. He took out a white candle that was only as long as his thumb, and put it behind the tiles to symbolize the holy light.

After arranging all this, he rubbed his fingers lightly over the candle.

Nothing happened, not even a speck of holy light appeared.

Wright withdrew his hand silently, and took out the fire starter from his arms - a small magic device, made of two pieces of copper with fire elemental runes and a small magic storage crystal - he put the fire starter close to the candle , Press the switch, and the front end of the rune copper plate emits a red light, which ignites the candle wick.

"May the Holy Light protect your way forward...no longer trapped in cold and darkness...may your souls be at peace...no more hunger and suffering..."

Wright finished the prayer softly, then bent down to extinguish the candle, but before putting the candle away, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a familiar thing lying quietly among the weeds by the well.

It was an iron badge, only the size of a hazelnut, with symbols of rings and beams of light on it, and an iron ring used to wear a belt or silk thread could be seen on the edge—this is a badge of holy light, hung on the On the breastplate of a papal knight.

Wright picked up the badge and quietly looked at the emblem representing the Church of the Holy Light on it.

He suddenly remembered that there were priests, priests, and even Holy See knights from the Holy Spirit Plain supporting the noble coalition army.

He turned around and looked at the longhouse that had been burned. In the ruins of the longhouse, he finally vaguely sensed the remaining wave of magic power, which was the breath left by the holy light.

Wright held the lost emblem of the Holy Light in his hand, twisting and curling it up a little bit.

At this moment, a very subtle sound suddenly entered the pastor's ears, which instantly caught his attention.

It was a very short and slight sound, like a twig falling to the ground. The sound of a light rabbit running across the grass might be more obvious than that, but Wright still noticed the strange sound , he immediately followed the sound to search for it—beside the collapsed longhouse, he searched back and forth many times.

Finally, he found a cover plate covered in dirt rubble and charred wood, and an iron ring fastened to the cover plate.

Wright threw a few larger stones and logs aside, then grabbed the iron ring on the cover with one hand, pulled hard, and lifted the cover—in the darkness under the cover , he saw more than a dozen pairs of terrified eyes.

"There are survivors here!"

The soldiers gathered quickly, and after more than a dozen heavily armed soldiers appeared, the terrified civilians in the cellar finally came out. Wright counted by the side, and there were 17 men, women and children in total.

These people are in ragged clothes, yellow and thin, emaciated due to not seeing the sun for many days. They may have been hiding in the cellar since the noble soldiers left. At this moment, the weak ones are struggling even to stand, so they can only lean on each other and gather together. Xiaodui looked at the strange soldiers in front of him with fearful eyes.

A combat soldier jumped down from the open cellar, and a moment later the soldier climbed up the ladder: "There are three more below—they are dead and need help to be lifted up."

The team commander ordered other soldiers to go down to help, and he came to the survivors: "Are you from this village? Are you the only one left?"

The survivors looked at each other with terrified expressions, some shook their heads repeatedly, some nodded hesitantly, and some just stood there in a daze, as if they didn't understand the commander's words at all.

"Go get some food and water first," the commander sighed, and turned his head to tell the people around him, "Don't take the jerky, they might choke themselves to death."

The food was brought over quickly, but the dozen or so people just watched with full of vigilance and doubts. They swallowed their saliva, but none of them dared to step forward until the soldiers stuffed the food into their hands. Make sure these things are really for yourself.

After the first person stuffed the food into their mouths, the others immediately gobbled it up—Wright could feel that as the food swallowed, these people finally became less wary of the soldiers in front of them.

Although they are still tense.

"Are you from this village?" After those people regained some strength, Wright walked among them and asked in as gentle a tone as possible, "You have been hiding in the cellar? Are there other cellars in the village?" Is it?"

Several villagers looked at Wright's burly figure with a little fear, but finally one person spoke up: "We are... there is no one else..."

Then the person who spoke pointed to the cellar behind him, and then pointed to the people around him: "It's just us."

"We are Duke Gawain Cecil's army," the team commander said beside him, "don't be afraid, you are already safe."

However, the villagers didn't respond to the squad commander's words as if they didn't understand, and looked at the melting swords worn by the soldiers in fear.

"Cecil's army is different from other armies. We don't rob food." The team commander certainly knew what these villagers were afraid of. "Who burned the village? The knights of Viscount Consco? The men of Viscount Carroll?" Or another nobleman?"

The villagers couldn't help trembling when they heard these names, but none of them dared to answer the team commander's question directly, as if they were afraid that they would be hanged on the gallows the next day if they spoke here, but within a few seconds After planting, there was still a crisp voice that spoke rashly: "It's a knight in a white robe..."

It was a child who spoke, judging from the voice, it should be a girl, but as soon as she spoke halfway, the adult next to her quickly covered the child's mouth, so that the rest of her words could only be muffled whimpers .

Wright squatted down in front of the child, and waved his hand to get the adults out of the way. He looked at the child's eyes—they were a pair of extraordinarily bright and big eyes, although the little girl was not beautiful at all, and the rough and dry skin There are even large areas of freckles, and the dry and messy hair like weeds also covers a quarter of her face, but the big eyes protruding from behind the messy hair are particularly impressive.

Wright looked into those eyes and asked word by word: "Knights in white robes—are they knights of the church?"

The little girl shook her head in a daze, then nodded hesitantly: "I don't know...but there is a priest beside them..."

Finally, someone among the survivors couldn't bear it any longer, sobbing in a low voice: "Those who have paid us the food... all the ones who have paid the food..."

Wright knew what the seemingly endless words meant.

They handed in food—when the noble coalition forces went out, presumably the civilians in every territory donated food and property as military rations, and the nobles would collect these things on the grounds that "we sent troops to protect you", And many civilians will easily believe these statements (because it is meaningless even if they don't believe it, and the right to speak is in the hands of the lord), I am afraid that until the defeated noble soldiers from the front line come to plunder the village and set fire to the houses, they will also do it. Don't understand what happened.

Even now, seeing the Cecilians appearing in front of them, few of them would think that these "foreigners" in front of them were the ones who fought against the lord before, or even if they thought of it, they would not have any thoughts about it. In response, they would only lament their misfortunes, and be afraid of the swords and staffs in the hands of the nobles, knights, and soldiers, and the more complicated interest relationship above this is beyond their comprehension.

The only thing they can think of is that they have "handed in food" before.

It seems ignorant, but behind ignorance is ignorance, and behind ignorance is numbness.

The soldiers who went to investigate the situation around the village came back, and they found dozens of corpses in a pit not far from the village.

It is not easy to completely incinerate so many corpses in a short period of time. The team does not carry enough fuel, and there is not enough combustion aid nearby. The team commander can only order those corpses to be left in the pit and buried on the spot— —along with the three bodies recovered from the cellar.

After these things were done, Wright found the commander: "I want to take those dozen people to Cecil—at least to the front camp, where someone can escort them to the south."

Wright couldn't let go of the dozen or so survivors - their homes had been destroyed, there was no food or medicine, and it was early summer, and rehabilitated Steppenwolves and other beasts were roaming the wilderness without village fences or houses , the protection of lights, a dozen unarmed villagers may not survive three days in the wilderness, this is not Cecil after all, the danger in the wilderness is great.

"We have to report within the specified time, this is the discipline of the army," the commander certainly understood Wright's thoughts, but he had to emphasize the hidden problems, "The civilians are too weak and have no strength to rush on in a short time , bring them, we will definitely be delayed."

Wright had no way to refute, but the team commander continued after a pause of two or three seconds: "But if you want, I can leave a few soldiers for you, and I will take the medical team to report to the camp first. Watching these guys follow—that's discipline."

"Okay, I'm fine," Wright readily agreed, and then said with a serious face, "Also, I have a suggestion, Captain—I'm afraid that villages and towns like this were looted by the nobles and the survivors hid or fled. There is more than one, we should report the situation, and then try to find these places and save more people."

"Don't worry," the team commander nodded, "I will report it."

Chapter 0409 Nightfall

Night fell.

A raging bonfire was lit in the ruins of the ruined village. The fuel for the bonfire was charcoal collected among the ruins and firewood found nearby. The warm flame dispelled the cold air under the night of this season, and the bright fire light saved the survivors. Protection from wolves.

Around the blazing bonfire, seventeen surviving villagers gathered together. They stretched their legs and feet by the warm bonfire, roasted their stiff joints, and dispelled the cold air accumulated in the cellar for many days. The fully armed Cecil soldiers stood around the bonfire, roasting the bread and dried meat they carried by the flames.

Wright finished his short prayer at night and came among the villagers with a piece of bread. The villagers were a little agitated, but after the daytime contact, they had already discovered that this seemingly scary big man was actually this group of strange soldiers The most gentle and talkative one in the house, they quickly quieted down and left a place for Wright to warm up.

"Let's rest here for the night, warm up, fill our stomachs, and leave tomorrow," Wright said to the villagers, no matter how much they understood or whether they were listening to himself, "Let's go to the southwest, There's Cecil's forward camp there, and someone can escort you to safety in the south."

The survivors stared at the flames, their hands and feet, or fiddled with the flames in front of them from time to time. At first, no one answered Wright's words, but a woman spoke after a few seconds: "You said you are Cecil People... are Cecilians who fought against the lord?"

"It was your lord who started the war first," Wright said, and then he shook his head, "But these are not important... Your lord has already been defeated, and Duke Cecil will become the protector of the entire southern border. They're all Cecilians."

"It's not bad, it's almost the same..." A gray-haired man next to him shook his head and said, "We... oh..."

The lack of words made this man unable to say anything except sighing. Wright was used to seeing civilians with clumsy tongues, so he didn't care much about it. He just glanced around casually, and then saw the sleeping man The little girl between the woman and the man - the one with the big bright eyes: "Are you her parents?"

"No, I'm her uncle," the man shook his head, "Her parents died last year, during the food shortage. I plan to raise Emily for a few years, and send her to the town when she is a little older In the church, who wants to get it... oh."

Emily - the little girl's name is Emily.

Wright remembered the name silently. He glanced at the little girl, and the latter probably heard the adults talking at this time, or she was not sleeping well. When Wright looked at her, she was in a daze. opened his eyes.

Those eyes were shining brightly in the light of the bonfire jumping, she was confused for a while, and then she remembered who the big man in front of her was, she looked at Wright boldly, and after a while, she grinned—— I don't know what I'm laughing at.

The little girl's uncle looked nervously at this reckless girl, for fear that she would offend Cecil's soldiers and cause disaster: "Emily, what are you laughing at!"

The little girl was still smiling: "The big uncle has a circle of light around him."

circle of light?

Wright froze for a moment, then quickly looked at himself, and then saw the reflection of the bonfire floating on the surface of the Cecil armor: The little girl probably regarded the reflection of the armor as some incredible phenomenon.

The woman next to her immediately became nervous after hearing the little girl's words, and hurriedly explained: "Master, don't mind, this child has not been very smart since he was a child..."

"It's okay, it's okay," Wright smiled nonchalantly, then broke off a piece of his bread and handed it to Emily, "here, eat."

The woman hurriedly said: "She has eaten..."

"Children are prone to hunger, she should eat more," Wright waved his hand, "Our lord said that children are the future of the territory, no matter how hard it is, we can't suffer from children."

This strange remark stunned the surrounding people. They had never heard such a strange remark from any lord or master knight. However, some people were a little curious when they saw Wright's actions. A young man said beside him: "...What kind of place is Cecil?"

"An...unbelievable place," Wright thought for a while, and suddenly he didn't know how to describe his impression of Cecil to others. After two years of preaching in the southern border, he felt that his adjectives were a little poor for the first time, " …People don’t have to worry about survival, there are no nobles oppressing common people, all affairs in the territory are run according to strict laws, and the people who enforce the laws are officials who have passed the examination..."

People listened blankly, many of Wright's words and descriptions seemed to be difficult for them to understand, but they didn't dare to just turn their heads like this. Seeing this situation, Wright couldn't help but stop, after a short thought , he raised his hand and pointed to the people beside him: "You, you can have your own farmland and houses, and no one has the right to take them away illegally; you, you can go to work in factories, and the lord will pay you; you , you can go to the hospital to heal your sores, and no one will drive you out of the house; you..."

Wright looked at the little girl with wide eyes and couldn't help but smile: "Emily, you can go to school, there are many children your age, all in school, you can make a lot of friends."

"My three gods of abundance, what you said is the same as what the priests said," an old woman couldn't help but exclaimed, "Is that the place we can only go to after we die?"

Wright was a little stunned for a moment, and then a little dumbfounded. He shook his head and began to explain everything Cecil had on his collar more patiently.

The flames of the jumping bonfire were shining a short distance away, and the priest who had lost his holy light was gradually coated with a layer of warm and bright light.

However, amidst the jumping flames, a little incongruous shadow suddenly flashed at the edge of Wright's vision.

On the ruined outskirts of the village, between the burnt fences and huts, something flashed by.

The soldiers guarding the bonfire had stopped talking at some point. They cautiously put their hands on the hilt of the melting sword that never left their bodies, and the faint light of runes emerged from the seams of their gauntlets.

A soldier signaled to Wright with the sign language unique to the army, and Wright immediately lowered his voice and said to the villagers beside him: "Everyone be quiet—go slowly to the cellar."

Several Cecil soldiers stood up from the campfire and moved towards Wright while moving their bodies, while the bewildered villagers stood up one by one-but their movements were still too big and too obvious .

There were several slight "bang bang" sounds in the night sky, followed by the sound of flying objects quickly piercing the air. An experienced soldier immediately reacted and shouted loudly: "Crossbow arrows! Enemy attack!!"

The force field shield was activated at the first time, and the outer edge of each Cecil soldier's gauntlet opened a translucent shield emitting a faint light, and some inconspicuous silver lights fell on it in the night sky. There was a tinkling sound on the translucent energy barrier, and in the next second, the light of the fireball technique shone among the ruins, and a fiery fireball slammed heavily into the force field of a Cecil soldier. on the shield.

The explosion of the fireball illuminated the surroundings, and the villagers around Wright ran away in panic. Panicked shouts followed, and the situation became chaotic in an instant. In the scene that suddenly became chaotic, Cecil's soldier shouted loudly. Shouting loudly: "Civilians enter the cellar! Others seek cover to meet the enemy!"

The figures of the attackers emerged from hiding one after another. They kept shooting the Cecil soldiers who were holding up the shields and the unarmed and panicked civilians with crossbow bolts. Because it was not easy to aim in the dark, many of the crossbow bolts lost their aim. , Then they drew out all kinds of weapons and rushed out from all directions while shouting.

With the flash of the previous fireball explosion, Wright instantly saw the appearance of the attackers—a group of desperadoes who looked like refugees, but were actually wearing armor and holding weapons. Some of them even wore The blouses of the knights and the tunics of the spellcasters, these people have muddy faces, ragged clothes, bloodshot eyes are red, they rushed out and shouted like madmen, I am afraid that no one can imagine their glorious and lofty appearance. ——

They are the remnants of the noble coalition army, the ones who were defeated in the gravel ridge, broke away from the army in the pursuit battle, and became outlaws in the wilderness.

Wright even saw two Holy See knights wearing church blouses and holding long swords, and a Holy Light priest wearing a tattered priest's robe among the screaming desperadoes!

He opened the force field shield of the magic terminal without hesitation, and then pulled out the melting sword that was issued to him not long ago, and met the robbers who fell into the grass.

At the same time, in his mind, the information he heard recently appeared——

After the defeat of the coalition forces of the nobles, the mixed Holy See knights and priests of the Holy Light also fled with the coalition forces. During the escape, they were separated from the main force and fortunately escaped the pursuit. Some of them fled to the northwest along the path in the wilderness, hiding in the cathedral in the southern diocese of the Church of the Holy Light shivering—because the Cypriot who had just captured the southern border The Cyr army has not yet had time to find trouble with the church, and those who failed to cross the wilderness and stayed in the battle zone with other noble soldiers became robbers who fell into the grass.

Cecil's army is still active throughout the southern border, chasing down the escaped remnants of the nobles, and the news that "Duke Cecil will take over the southern border" has spread throughout the southern border, so these remnants of nobles wandering in the wilderness are not at all Dare to go back to their territory - serf soldiers or civilian conscripts among them are okay, after all, they are civilians, as long as they throw away their weapons and change into rags, they can easily return to their hometown or hide in the countryside , but those transcendents, especially those with status and status... They are still active in the wilderness, and they are... hungry.

Chapter 0410 Holy Light

Chaotic battles unfolded in the ruins of the village.

Not long ago, the attackers considered themselves the guardians of the land and the people, the practitioners and spreaders of the Holy Light, and the warriors who maintained tradition and order, but now, they are just a group of hungry robbers on the verge of madness.

Hunger, it debilitates and brings death, but before it fully exerts its power, it can also make people go in another direction: madness and brutality.

Wright didn't know how many people were attacking. He only felt that every ruin around him, every fence outside the village, and even the grass and soil slopes in the distance were enemies. Frantic and even ecstatic shouts came from all directions, There wasn't even much humanity in that shout.

He is waving the melting sword in his hand, the blade glows hotly due to the surge of magic power, he is not a skilled swordsman, even his posture of waving the long sword is not much better than that of a commoner holding a pitchfork, But he is tall and strong, with a powerful face, and every swing of the long sword is enough to drive those hungry and crazy enemies far enough away. Between swinging the long sword, he clearly saw the ugly appearance of those attackers—— —

They wore dirty and tattered armor and robes, their faces were stained with mud, some even had dried blood stains on their faces, their eyes were bloodshot and red, and the eyes were completely beast-like. Shouting and rushing towards the bonfire, towards the civilians, and even towards those Cecil soldiers who annihilated their entire army not long ago and were terrified. They have long lost reason and fear in their eyes, and only have food in their eyes. Only fire.

Countless attackers surged out from the darkness, and the Cecil soldiers on the scene used the cover to counterattack while covering the retreat of the civilians. The dazzling beams of scorching rays kept tearing apart one deadly flame after another in the darkness, but There are simply too many enemies.

A soldier threw a crystallized grenade with all his might, and the grenade exploded violently on the other side of the bonfire. With the loud noise and strong flash of the explosion, several attackers were swept into the sky, and the enemy's offensive came to a standstill as a result. This devastating explosion left enough terrifying impressions in their hearts that they would instinctively fear even in their madness—however, their fear lasted only a few seconds before someone shouted Get up: "They are few! Don't be afraid, they are few!!" "Kill! Kill!" "They have something to eat! They have something to eat!"

Hunger and highly tense nerves made these people completely lose their minds. They almost bravely began to attack the temporary defense line composed of Cecil soldiers, and this completely chaotic and instinctive "tactic" turned out to be very effective: Cecil There are too few soldiers in Seoul, and there is no such kind of "sky fire explosion" that can wipe out thousands of people. Under their crazy impact, the defense line formed by Wright and his comrades can only retreat steadily.

A fully armed Cecil soldier is equivalent to a low-level transcendent, but there are more than one transcendent among the attackers in the night, Wright saw bright fireballs and charged swords flying and shining in the dark, he Swinging the long sword in his hand vigorously, he chopped aside a fireball flying in the air, and then chopped off the long sword stabbing from his side - but also because of this blow, he used too much force, The melting and cutting sword in his hand came out.

He staggered in the inertia, and a hair-raising cool wind hit from the back of his neck. He quickly crouched down, and then grabbed the attacker behind him with his backhand - he caught nothing, but he also succeeded in stopping the attacker. The player is forced to retreat two steps.

Wright turned around quickly, and saw the attacker clearly - it was a knight in steel armor, with a tattered white burqa over the armor, and half of the cloak that had been torn long ago was hanging on the hood. Outside the robe, and in the knight's hand was a long sword emitting a faint white light.

Holy See Knight of the Holy Light Church.