Sword of Dawn

"Humanity... I've always had it," Bud slowly closed his eyes, "but... I once thought that that great cause was worth throwing away my humanity and bottom line..."

"Any cause that needs to abandon humanity and the bottom line is not worthy of being called 'great', it is just a collective carnival created by a bunch of lunatics in the illusion of self-satisfaction and self-moving," Viscount Andrew interrupted Bard, using It was the sentence written by Gao Wen when he commented on the cultists in the latest issue of the newspaper, and then he paused, and slowly said under Bud's stunned and surprised gaze, "But these are not important now, Your farce ends in your self-destruction, and you... I won't kill you."

"You won't kill me?" Bard looked at Viscount Andrew in astonishment, "Why?"

"Don't get me wrong, as you said, it is not so easy for people to be washed clean after committing a crime. If I don't kill you, it doesn't mean that I have forgiven you. It's just because you can have a greater purpose than death. effect."

While speaking, Viscount Andrew turned his head and looked at Gawain who was sitting not far away and watching all this calmly: "Your Majesty, let him go, if he can come back alive, maybe it means he doesn't deserve to die. "

Gao Wen frowned: "Are you sure? It's not that we don't have an exploration plan now, you don't have to be affected by this matter..."

"He is the priest of the Doom Society, a person who should be judged. There is such a suitable candidate, why let brave soldiers form a death squad," Viscount Andrew said with a firm and serious expression, "In this situation, I want to find the first It's not easy for two priests who are alive and everything will die."

"If this is your wish," Gawain nodded after a brief moment of pondering, "I agree."

Although he was confused about what happened, Bud still understood that the other party was arranging something for him to do-this thing may be life-threatening, but it can be used to exchange his own life.

Although he was ready for the death penalty, if he could not die, he would naturally not refuse.

"What do you want me to do?"

Gawain glanced at Bud: "Go to your lair that is out of control."

Chapter 0706 Scary Guy

The nest that has gone out of control...

Bud Wendell was stunned for a moment before realizing what the other party was referring to.

"It's underground in the eastern part of the Holy Spirit Plain..." He raised his head and looked at Gawain and Viscount Andrew. "It seems that you have found its entrance?"

"The issue of 'entrance' is not important anymore. The entire Solinburg area has been occupied by a huge plant that spreads up from the ground. It is probably a product of some kind of out-of-control technology of yours," Gao Wen said bluntly, "and Your only chance now is to confirm what's going on there—and come back alive."

Bud Wendell closed his eyes slightly: he seemed to have no other choice.

"I see," he bowed his head, "I accept this opportunity."

"Very good." Gawain glanced at Viscount Andrew, and then nodded to Bud, "Then relax a bit now, at least for this moment, you can temporarily escape from being a prisoner. Next, I have something to ask you."

The attendants quickly moved the chairs and asked Bud to sit in the middle of the room, while Viscount Andrew left the room due to business. When only Gao Wen and the former General Typhon Wolf were left here, the atmosphere became dull for a while, until Gao Wen Wen took the initiative to break the silence: "Actually, I have always been curious about what happened to the once promising General Wolf to become a believer in the death of all things - even the extraordinary profession has changed from a divine knight to a dark knight." druid."

Bud sat upright on the chair, maybe because he had something to do again, or maybe because facing the ruler of the "enemy country", his decadence seemed to have subsided a lot.Hearing Gao Wen's question, the man who had hidden many secrets was silent at first, but after a few seconds he let out a soft sigh.

There are some things that he never planned to bring up again, but when he saw the news of Gao Wen's coronation in the newspaper and saw the huge skull that was processed into a throne, the things he had insisted on no matter how hard he had become became Insignificant.

"Your Majesty, have you ever had faith?" He looked into Gawain's eyes and asked.

Gao Wen smiled slightly: "If you regard a certain belief as a belief, I have it, but if you refer to a specific god, then I don't."

"Then you must be unable to understand what it means for a person's belief to collapse instantly," Bud smiled wryly and shook his head, "especially when experiencing life and death..."

"Although I really want to correct your narrow perception of 'faith' right now, I'm more interested in your 'faith collapse'," Gawain adjusted his sitting posture, leaning back on the chair, with a half-smile Looking at this wolf general who has fallen from a devout follower of the God of War to a dark druid, "Let me guess, what did you face... the truth of the gods? Did you find that the god you believed in was dead, or did you find out that the god you believed in was dead? Is he just a man-eating monster?"

Bud suddenly widened his eyes and stared at Gao Wen: "Why do you..."

"Do you think that you are the only ones facing the so-called truth and shouldering the so-called mission? The world is so vast, why does all the truth happen to be in the hands of a dark sect."

Bud breathed heavily, and it took him a long time to finally calm down. He closed his eyes, with a self-deprecating smile on his face: "Then we are really a joke..."

"This joke is quite destructive," Gao Wen shook his head, "Tell me about you, how did you become like this?"

Bud closed his eyes tightly, and the pictures in his memory flashed in his mind one by one——

He remembered that it was a cold winter. The confrontation area between Winter Wolf Castle and Longwind Fortress was covered with ice and snow. It was the coldest winter he had ever experienced. For nearly half a month, it snowed almost every day.

He remembered that day when the Knights were patrolling the border in the snow and ice, the sudden snowstorm interfered with their vision, and the soldiers deviated from their route in the process of finding shelter from the wind...

He remembered that it was near the Paramer Heights. The soldiers had a brief encounter with the Ansu Knights. The fierce battle in the snowstorm lasted only a short time. After realizing that the situation was unfavorable, he led his men to break out to the south, Try to make a detour back to the Typhon side from the foothills at the end of the Dark Mountains...

He remembered the sudden attack. At the end of the Dark Mountain Range, near the wasteland of Gondor, the exhausted knights were attacked by monsters that looked like flesh and blood giants. The monsters continued to come from the direction of the wasteland. The Knights were outnumbered, he killed one monster after another, until the sword shattered, until the last comrade-in-arms fell down...

He also fell down, a fatal wound through the heart, theoretically impossible to survive, but he opened his eyes again, when he opened his eyes again, he was lying in a place like a magic laboratory, his body was full of blood. Catheter, half of the body is soaked in the solution, surrounded by men in black robes walking around, someone loudly announced the success of the experiment...

"...Since that day, I have been one of them," Bud had opened his eyes, and said while recalling, and then in front of Gawain, he pulled off the clothes on his chest, revealing his dead body. And the price of resurrection, "This is the 'gift' they gave me."

Gawain frowned. He saw that Bud Wendell's chest was covered with a steel plate. There was a circle of ugly scars on the fleshy skin on the edge of the steel plate, and several suture marks spread out in the direction of the artery extension. Quite creepy.

"He had to be checked when changing clothes in the prison. This thing scared the soldier. I explained that it was the consequence of a magic experiment accident, but he hadn't seen anything more terrifying..."

Bud laughed, and tapped the side of the steel plate with a special technique for a few times. With the click of the mechanical lock, the steel plate opened in response, revealing a more amazing structure inside: a layer of transparent flexible substance Wrapping his chest cavity, it seemed to be filled with a translucent solution like some kind of vesicle. A heart mixed with flesh and metal parts was floating in the solution, and it was beating regularly. It was okay beside the heart. A series of auxiliary pipes and magical runes were seen, the shimmering light from the latter illuminating Bard's entire chest.

This set of things should have been working for many years, and it looks like it will continue to work.

"They implanted an artificial heart in you?" Gao Wen frowned. He was not surprised by the biochemical technology of the Death of All Things Society. After all, it is an organization capable of producing artificial gods and masters the manufacture of artificial organs. It is not surprising that transplantation technology exists, even in secular extraordinary organizations other than the end of all things, there are similar technologies——

Some old mages and extreme druids will prolong their lifespan through various biochemical transformations or extraordinary rituals, and princes and nobles will not refuse to use implants to improve their declining body functions. After all, The upper level of technology in this world has never been low, and the only problem is popularity and cost.

What puzzled him was that Bud Wendell became a dark druid just because of this heart?

"You want to repay this kindness?" Gao Wen frowned and looked at Bud, "I'm afraid it's more than that?"

"...They implanted not only this heart in my body, but also the 'knowledge' that flooded into my mind along with this heart," Bard shook his head as expected, "Ordinary hearts cannot drive high-level extraordinary people's body, so they used something called a 'sin factor' to make it, and these sin factors... carry the knowledge of the gods.

"From that day on, I stayed in the underground palace of the Doom Society for three full years, accompanied by darkness and nightmares. In the nightmares, I looked directly at those indescribable monsters. I called out to the God of War I believed in, but I could only let myself Deeper in the nightmare, I saw their malice, saw their madness, saw them counting the moment of doom in the palace of false chaos...

"In the end, I thought I was dead, died of severe body and soul rejection, and the priest who was in charge of taking care of me even dragged me to the laboratory for an autopsy after I died, but at the last moment, I Woke up from a nightmare.

"I lost my faith in God of War - not just from within myself, but from the inside out, all the gifts and strengths that were once blessed by God of War were gone.

"After that, I became a priest of the death of all things, just like you can see."

Bud's memories were over, Gao Wen frowned, digesting the amount of information in the other party's words.

Vaguely, he guessed the purpose of those experiments on Bard by those believers of death of all things.

Those cultists forcibly destroyed Bard's "spiritual stamp" with surgical operations and mental transformation!Snatched a "God's Blessed One" from the realm of the God of War!

This genius and devil's experiment reminded him of those rebels and those persistent "ghosts" mentioned by Veronica.

Judging from the information he has so far, he is almost certain that there are rebels operating in the depths of the Death of All Things.

Gawain put his hand on the table, and subconsciously tapped the table with his index finger. His eyes swept over the beating artificial heart on Bud's chest, and he suddenly felt emotional——

The person in front of him should have been just an "experiment" in the eyes of the Doomsday believers at first.

Completely crazy cultists and out-of-control rebels don't care what kind of status a person has in the secular world. They chose Bud Wendell, probably because they valued the value of the latter as an experimental material That's all, if you have to say that Bard's status as "General Wolf" has any meaning in the eyes of those cultists, then I'm afraid that it will also promote the deterioration of the relationship between Typhon and Ansu, and even cause the follow-up Ansu internal The sharp increase in pressure and the outbreak of conflicts have added a lot of firewood.

Considering the conspiracy, Gawain suspected that when Bud Wendell and his subordinates were attacked by mutants near the Dark Mountains, it was the arrangement of those heretics—the end of all things and the wasteland of Gondor undoubtedly have secret and complicated The only surprising thing is that they had the ability to drive some aberrants away from the Great Wall so many years ago... Perhaps, the attack that Bud Wendell encountered was the end of everything. Death's first attempt to break down and infiltrate the Great Wall?

This is really a huge, complicated, and secretive plan, and the span of time and space is astonishing, but if this plan was formulated by one or a few "disobedients", then Gawain would not be very surprised.

They can plan one thing for a thousand years and do one thing for a thousand years.

"Rebels..." Gawain took a breath, his gaze seemed to fall into the distance, "What a group of terrifying ghosts..."

……

Veronica—or Ophelia Norton, was standing on the square of St. Luane's Cathedral at the moment, looking expressionlessly at the assembled nuns in front of her.

After completing the reconstruction of the Holy Light Cathedral and assisting the White Knights to take over the northern church, she came to the southern border with the second batch of "migration teams", and came to the training base of the White Knights at the invitation of the Patriarch Wright, namely Luan City, the former headquarters of the Southern Diocese.

The first purpose of her coming here is to observe the training process of the White Knight and the new-style holy light equipment. The second purpose is to take a look at the newly formed nuns of the Southern Church, and the nuns who will conform to the new doctrine canon Extended to other parishes of the empire.

The former disobedient, today's saint princess slowly moved her gaze, and the young nuns puffed up their chests in her sight, with serious and serious expressions—they were wearing uniform white priest's dress robes, and their costumes were clearly Some improvements have been made to facilitate activities. They are holding a metal staff that is almost as tall as a person in their hands. Both ends of the metal staff have peculiar mechanical and rune structures. It is obviously a new type of magic equipment... …

In addition to the necessary staff for the clergy, each nun is also equipped with a lightweight magic terminal armguard and a mechanically wrapped glove on her arm, and a prayer book and a potion bottle are hung on her waist—of course, as The holy emblem of the clergy is also indispensable, and that holy emblem is printed on every nun's combat backpack.

"The combat backpack is lightweight, with aesthetics and comfort in mind..." Wright said next to Veronica.

"So..." Veronica said slowly while holding the platinum scepter, "This is the nun group who just finished training in the southern border?"

"The official name is 'Sisters of Arms', and the leaders of each battle echelon are called 'Sisters of War'," Wright nodded. "They have just finished training, but they are already reliable priests. Every girl is Resolute and brave warriors of the Holy Light should be able to faithfully spread the gospel of the Holy Light and the new order of the empire."

Veronica felt that her emotions, which had not fluctuated for hundreds of years, had ups and downs: "...Is the thing in their hands a tool for them to spread the gospel?"

"Yes, the tentative name is 'Gospel Angel'," Wright nodded proudly, with a smile on his face, "It can be used as a magic wand when it's not firing—a spell that can release holy light to heal."

It can be used as a staff when not firing...

Veronica/Ophelia took a deep breath and closed her eyes slightly.

The Cecilians... what a horrible bunch.

Chapter 0707

The priestess wearing a brand-new nun's uniform stood in the open space in front of the team. The cold wind in late autumn blew across the square, blowing up the nun's long pale golden hair and skirt decorated with black lace. She focused her attention on the distant sign. Target, listening to the orders of the superiors.

"preparation--"

Following the instructions from her superiors, the nun in charge of the demonstration raised the magic "staff" in her hand, laid it flat on her side in a clean and neat posture, held the middle of the staff tightly with one hand, and held it tightly with the other. Then he grabbed the gauntlet wrapped with scripture cloth at the front, and a low and pleasant humming sound came from the mechanisms at both ends of the staff, and a faint holy white light began to flow between the gaps and runes in those mechanical structures.

"put!!"

The seemingly slender finger pulled the trigger, the body of the priestess trembled slightly, and a cloud of white light spewed out from the opening at the front of the staff——this ball of hot holy light quickly flew into the distance, hitting the purple target as a target. A flame of light exploded on the steel enchanted pillar.

After completing a beautiful shot, she extinguished the flame in the focusing crystal according to the instruction, put the "Gospel Angel" beside her again, turned and returned to the team.

"This is the weapon improved by the Institute of Magic Technology and the Design Bureau according to the needs of female priests," Wright nodded to Veronica, "Although it looks like a staff made of all metal, because of the weak Effective weight reduction rune, the actual weight is much lighter than it looks. The attack method is essentially the holy light impact hand cannon used by the white knight, but changed from double shots to single shots, so the weight is reduced by half. The reason why it is designed The style of the staff is because close combat is also taken into consideration-you are right, the Priestess is not suitable for wielding the mechanical power hammer of the white knight, and the protective staff is a more suitable weapon..."

"I...actually think that you may have misunderstood...no, it's nothing," Veronica felt a little tired for some reason, and swallowed it by herself in the middle of the explanation. She hadn't had a similar feeling for a long time in the past hundreds of years , but at this time, he couldn't help but sigh, "Patriarch, it seems that these nuns have also conducted melee training?"

"Trained—although it was only preliminary training, it was quite effective," Wright said, "His Highness Rebecca and Ms. Hetty provided some guidance..."

"They provide guidance?" Veronica froze for a moment, feeling a little incomprehensible, "Why did they guide this?"

"The Cecil family has always been martial arts, and has many quick martial arts skills, especially Ms. Hetty, who is quite proficient in the staff protection technique," Wright explained, "Of course, they only guided a few instructors, and the follow-up The training is done by the instructors."

Veronica thought about it for a while, and decided that it's better not to go any further, but she still had a lot of questions that she couldn't help but ask: "Then what about their gloves? Why do nuns need gloves?"

"Lighter and more flexible melee weapons can further improve their survivability in close-range encounters, and fighting has always been the strength of Protestant priests, regardless of gender. In addition, their gloves are not just weapons. There is also a single-dose 'salvation' mixture built into it, which can save lives on the battlefield."

"...This sounds like a weapon tailored for the battlefield," Veronica said with an effort to maintain a smile, "but... isn't it a bit too much?"

Hearing this sentence, Wright's expression suddenly became serious, he looked into Veronica's eyes, and said very seriously: "We were born in an era that is not safe, and the priests are supposed to be ready to go to the battlefield of."

Having said that, he paused for a moment and shook his head slightly: "I know that in the past many years, the Church of the Holy Light has enjoyed wealth and power, and the powerful Holy See knights and convenient magic power have made the priests forget How did the missionaries who passed the dark age come over...

"The original missionaries trekked in the wilderness, accompanied by beasts, hardships and death, far from the improved convenience magic, and without the help of guarding knights and nobles from all over the world, it was in such a difficult situation for themselves to survive, Preachers temper themselves, protect everyone they meet on the road with immature Holy Light, and then spread the original concepts of Holy Light such as light, redemption, and protection...

"Today we are lucky. We no longer need to wear tattered equipment to open up the wilderness, and we don't have to face the shadow of hunger and beasts at any time, but His Majesty once said that people have no long-term worries, but they must have immediate worries-in the future For a long time, in such a vast world, there are always some dangers waiting for us, and since we have chosen the 'Holy Light', we must fulfill the responsibilities brought by the Holy Light."

Looking at the serious and earnest patriarch, Veronica felt a little emotional—as a rebel, she was taught by a "young" ordinary person today. She thought it was a bit funny, but when When she saw the faint holy light lingering around Wright, she still smiled.

He is qualified for this - he broke the spiritual seal with his own thoughts, and with this achievement alone, he is qualified to sit on an equal footing with any disobedient one.

Wright also realized that he had accidentally entered a state of professional preaching, and before the embarrassment spread, he quickly changed the subject: "Of course, not all priests are incorporated into the White Knights or War Sisters. Civilian priests are also retained, and even these armed priestesses will perform normal church work in the church when they are not in a combat state-receiving believers, listening to confessions, and comforting the wounded. These are their daily tasks. White Knights also have similar day jobs, but with a more manual focus.

"In addition, whether it is the armed priestess or the white knight, they must study the holy light classics and learn all kinds of new knowledge. This is their right and their obligation. They can neither deviate from the holy light because they are busy with secular things The Tao, and we cannot become old-fashioned people who resist advanced knowledge and solidify their thinking just because we only focus on studying the scriptures.

"The entire southern church does not support mediocre idlers."

"It's not just the Southern Church," Veronica smiled, "the North will also carry out this transformation, and jurisprudentially, there is no difference between the so-called 'Southern Church' and 'Northern Church'—we only have A Holy Light Protestant."

"I know, but this is only legal, and the substantive gap still exists," Wright said quite seriously, "We have carried out a very thorough remodeling of the church in the south, but similar 'remodeling' methods are not available in the north. Applicable, I have received reports from many regions that the priests of the old school have been trying to obstruct and delay the reform process, especially in the western region. They seem to obey the new church center, but in fact they have been doing a lot of small things."

"...Leave this part of the work to me," Veronica nodded after pondering for a while, "Cooperate with you in carrying out the Protestant Reformation. This is the content of the contract between me and Gawain Cecil."

Wright looked at Veronica fixedly, and was silent for a moment before speaking: "I'm curious, is it really just because of the deal with His Majesty that you are doing these things for us now?"

"...In many cases, 'deal' is the most stable way of cooperation." Veronica took a deep look at Wright with her gentle but lacking eyes, and after leaving this sentence, she mentioned that Putting the platinum scepter that never left her body, she turned around and walked away slowly.

……

A few days later, the eastern part of the Holy Spirit Plain.

The dry and cold wind blows on the face, and there is a slight burnt smell in the air. The fertile land that was once lush with greenery has turned into wasteland in the war zone, spreading endlessly into the distance in the field of vision, with dilapidated village ruins and charred The wreckage of the forest kept receding. During the long journey, similar scenery kept appearing, repeated over and over again.

Bud Wendell closed the car window a little strangely, isolating the cold and dry air from the magic car, and an old and somewhat unscrupulous voice came from beside him: "How is it? How do you feel about the plain that has been tossed into ruins?"

Bud turned his head and saw the old druid named Pittman looking at him with a half-smile, and he didn't know how to respond for a moment.

This unremarkable and scruffy old man is actually a big man. He bears the name of the chief druid of the empire and the head of the alchemy project. He has a respectable status and power in this huge and young empire. After seeing this dazzling halo, after a period of personal contact, he realized that this old man was actually so bad that he almost needed to be beaten-he seemed to be able to say a lot of words that would choke people to death every moment to provoke the victim different from the princess Rebecca who had a similar talent, this old man did it on purpose...

The biggest problem Bud is facing is that he has not yet been able to fight this old man - not because there are soldiers watching or following the virtue of "respecting the elderly", but because he is [-]% sure that even if he accidentally touches this old man , the other party dared to lie on the ground immediately, and then swindle the last copper coin in his pocket.

Why is this Pittman always targeting himself?

Bud couldn't think clearly for a while, so he shook his head after a moment of embarrassing silence: "I don't want to defend myself—but I wasn't in Ansu when they started their plan in the Holy Spirit Plain, and I was sent to the eastern part of the mainland. , to contact the Son of the Storm."

"Ha, it's just a change of place to do bad things." Pittman laughed, "Son of the Storm... so you know what those guys are doing? Are they planning to return to the mainland?"

"...I don't know about their affairs. They put almost all their energy into the deep sea. Even the dark sect's Death of All Things and the Sleepers find it difficult to communicate with them now," Bud said quite frankly. Said, "I stayed on an offshore island in the eastern continent for a long time, but it was basically a waste of time. I helped them collect some supplies, but most of the time I was dealing with their limbs that were mutated by the influence of the deep sea. Working like a doctor..."

"Limbs that have been mutated by the deep sea?" Pittman raised his eyebrows. "It's interesting... I'm interested. What's the specific situation?"