Sword of Dawn

Gao Wen sighed in his heart: It's rare to be a good guy, but he turned out to be a passive fan...

As we got closer and closer to Tanzania Town, everyone gradually stopped chatting.

According to the cheating memory map and terrain pre-reading ability, Gawain can always roughly judge his current location. He found that this long underground passage is not straight, and there are many detours and forks in the middle-ignore those collapsed or After taking the wrong route, he found that he had walked a small half-circle around the east of Tanzan Town.

It is located directly below the Tanzanian Mine.

I have already mentioned the terrain of Tanzania Town before: it is backed by the huge Tanzania Mine on the east side, and the two tributaries of the White Water River are on the west side. The whole town is roughly triangular in shape, and the castle of Viscount Andrew is located in the east of the town. Connecting the flat part of the Tanzania Mine foundation, in fact, the main building materials of the castle itself were quarried from the mine: the mine not only produced iron ore and various crystal ores, but also produced high-quality stone materials , It is not unreasonable that the Leslie family who owns this land has enviable wealth.

At this moment, Gao Wen was walking in the ancient tunnel directly below the mine, and the first thought that came to his mind was: Does Viscount Andrew know about the existence of these underground ruins?

...He probably didn't know it, because the iron ore and crystal ore in the Tanzania mine are not deep veins, but are located in the mountain. It is not necessary to dig deep underground for mining tunnels. With the productivity of this era, there is no need Digging deep into the ground is not just for fun, no one would do such a thankless thing.And if Viscount Andrew really dug up this ancient ruin...then there won't be any rumors from the outside world.

As the largest population gathering place and business travel center in the vicinity, Tanzan Town is not a place where you can keep a secret—this place is different from the dark mountains where birds don’t shit.

The terrain ahead began to rise.

The air became humid, and the skin felt an obvious blowing of the air, and there was a faint sound coming from the front, all signs indicated that the exit was approaching.

Not long after that, they walked out of the tunnel and saw the place where Knight Byron fell down: here is an open and steep cave, with a pool formed by groundwater seepage at the bottom of the cave, and the exit of the tunnel is located On the edge of the water pool, it is said to be an exit, but it is actually a cracked rock crevice - obviously this is not a normal entrance, but it is cracked like this due to factors such as geological changes.

The real entrance and exit of the tunnel is still unknown, and most of them have collapsed.

Seeing that there were no serious water-soluble wind erosion marks on the rock crevices beside the pool, Gao Wen couldn't help but turned his head and asked Philip, "Has there been any earthquakes in this area in recent years?"

"No," Knight Philip shook his head, then frowned and thought again, "but I heard from people who lived in Tanzan Town that they occasionally heard strange howling noises coming from the underground of the mine. It was said that it was caused by the undead slave laborers who died in the mine, but that Viscount Andrew had checked with psychics and wizards several times, but he did not find the source of the strange noise."

"Is that so..." Gawain said noncommittally, then looked up to the top of the cave.

There are vines growing wildly there, and you can see the huge roots of trees spreading from the side. Presumably that hole was once covered and hidden, and now it has just been punched out: Knight Byron's luck is really good, He should really thank Goddess of Fate for his survival.

If there is such a god in this world.

"From here, you can see the east wall of the castle," Byron said, "but this hole is almost straight, and it's full of soft soil. It's not easy to go up."

"It's up to the professionals now!" Pittman stepped forward at this time, the little old man smiled, and then took out a tender green branch from his arms, and he waved the branch as if waving a magic wand. One rune after another was continuously drawn in the air, and the branch itself seemed to lose its vitality, and quickly changed from vibrant green to withered and shriveled.

A rustling sound came from above, and the cluster of vines around the hole was catalyzed and pulled by the druid's spell, and quickly grew and hung down!

Chapter 0127 Crazy BB

The setting sun had already sunk, and there was only a very wide bright edge with a slight arc left on the horizon.

With the help of Amber's shadow interference, the group easily climbed over the wall on the east side of the castle, and reached the interior of Viscount Andrew's fortress through the internal stairs of an old tower.

They hid on a terrace on the second floor of the castle under the cover of shadows, overlooking the empty atrium below and the corridor opposite the atrium.

This castle, like most noble fortresses in southern Ansu, has a roughly square and layered structure. The outermost layer is a wall, and the inner layer is formed by stables, servant rooms, utility rooms, and verandahs. The arch guard area, and the inside is the living area formed by the inner corridor and the lord's mansion, and the several areas are connected by thick passages with strong walls and thick walls. At the highest point of the corner, there are arrow towers, bell towers and beacon towers for early warning.

This kind of residence is not comfortable, most of its structure looks like a military fortress, and this is precisely because the southern border was the front line against the tide of demons, and the old architectural style has been passed down from generation to generation as a tradition—— However, with the peaceful time in the past few hundred years, many places in the southern border have begun to change. Even the less wealthy southern nobles have begun to learn to improve their living environment like the northerners, and even prefer to live in comfortable and bright manors. .But obviously, Viscount Andrew is not a person who cares much about living conditions: his castle still maintains a considerable degree of "classical style".

But in such a castle that was almost a military fortress, Gawain didn't see many guards who were supposed to be patrolling and standing guard. Even the atrium in the center of the castle was empty.

"There is no one everywhere?" Amber stared wide-eyed, looking down curiously, her shadow talent allows her to clearly distinguish objects in dim environments, "And it seems that no one has pruned the garden for months . . . the weeds and bushes are growing to cover the road.”

As Amber said, the courtyard of the castle was not only empty, but also the plants were growing very vigorously everywhere. It was clear that the order here should be normal until a few days ago, but at this moment Gawain glanced down and felt that this The castle seemed to have been abandoned for several months or even more than a year. Lush plants grew wildly everywhere, covering the road and the walls, and some vines even climbed to the gate leading to the main building.

"Byron, you haven't fully recovered, you are waiting for us here." Gawain turned his head and said to the middle-aged knight behind him, "I left you three 'crystal grenades' for self-defense, have you memorized the usage?"

The gray-haired middle-aged knight twisted his neck uncomfortably: "It doesn't feel good to be treated as a burden."

Gawain smiled, and patted the shoulder armor of the usually inconspicuous Mr. Knight: "You have made great achievements and fought bravely. At this time, I don't want my knight to die because of recklessness."

Gao Wen said this from the bottom of his heart. Although he also secretly complained about the unreliable words and deeds of this "non-mainstream knight" who was born as a mercenary, Byron has indeed shown enough bravery and determination in this incident. Now, there is no need for him to continue dragging his weak body to take part in the adventure—maybe someone like Philip who has an exceptionally steadfast chivalry will fight with Gawain to the death, but Byron is not such a pedantic person.

So the middle-aged knight nodded, took the three grenades that Gawain handed him, and looked at the exquisite "Magic Energy Industrial Product" with a slightly complicated expression: "Tsk tsk... I am afraid that this kind of thing is difficult even for children." Can you learn to use it..."

After a while, Gao Wen and his party entered the atrium of the castle under the cover of the increasingly dark sky.

They didn't see any guards along the way, nor did they see the minions or magic traps of the cultists. This huge fortress seemed to have really been abandoned, empty, quiet, and weird.

Knight Philip followed behind Gawain quietly with his sword in hand, but soon he shrugged his nose and said in a low voice, "There is an evil aura here."

Amber couldn't help but take a look at this young knight who usually looked a little dumbfounded: "You won't be shouting 'Holy Light, this evil is worth fighting' in the next second, and then rush out to hack and chop—you Not a paladin."

"Hush," Gawain interrupted Amber's BB in a low voice, "Don't forget that Philip is Kyle's follower."

Amber opened her eyes slightly, then pursed her lips and said nothing.

Kyle, the god of warriors and knights, is also the god of war. He is a powerful god in the lineage of righteous gods, second only to the god of light. He protects all warriors and blesses war, even though he is not the god of light. But his divine power also has the power to resist blasphemy and detect evil. His followers will get extra blessings when they are looking for cultists. Although they are not as good as orthodox Holy Light priests or paladins, they are also much stronger than ordinary people.

And Philip is a devout follower of Kyle, even if he is not a priest, his piety can make him more sensitive than others to the aura of heretics entrenched in this castle.

Gao Wen didn't believe in gods, so naturally he couldn't get the blessings of gods, but his body was naturally alarming. He held the pioneer sword and stared vigilantly at the dense flowers, shrubs and decorative trees in the courtyard: "These If the plants are growing too lush, there is probably something wrong."

Pittman held a handful of ironwood seeds in his hand, but he didn't dare to release any druid spells to detect the surrounding situation at will: just as he could easily sense the cultists of the same root and the same root, the death of all things, who were born in Druid Rui's cultists could also sense him the moment he cast a spell, and unless a direct conflict broke out, he would never dare to take the risk easily.

They began to cross the courtyard, approaching the main building of Viscount Andrew's castle: it was the place where the cultists were most likely to hide.

A layer of dim "tulle" shrouded the figures of the four of them, and Amber walked in the middle of the team, using her ghost-level shadow affinity talent to create a group stealth effect for everyone—if there was no With such an obscene guy following him, Gawain would not choose to take the risk of sneaking into the castle directly to save time.

The sun has completely sunk below the horizon, and the only remaining light in the sky is gradually being swallowed up by the darkness, and the starlight begins to emerge, and at the moment when the starlight first appeared, a cool night wind blows across the atrium.

Those dense plants that seemed to have grown wantonly for a year swayed in the night wind, making a swishing sound, and in that sound, there seemed to be mixed with countless murmurs.

Amber instantly got goosebumps, and as the power of shadows grew stronger as night fell, her vision began to shift towards the "extraordinary", and some things that were ignored during the day suddenly entered her field of vision.

The half-elf lady was so frightened that she almost cried out - but before she could speak out, Gawain had already pressed her mouth tightly.

"I saw it too." Gao Wen whispered.

In the atrium, beneath the lush vegetation, among the wild roots and vines, there was something.

The nearest shrub was swaying in the night wind, a pale hand emerged from its roots, buried in the soil, slightly convulsed; a half-buried face protruded from the nearby weeds , the eyes on that face were half-closed, and the cracked and cracked lips were still moving; an old half-lived oak tree leaned by the roadside, with a swelling at the root, the shape of the swelling was like a head, and a pair of eyes emerged from the bark. It was exposed between the cracks, yellow and stiff, half-lived and half-dead like an oak tree...

Under all the plants in the entire courtyard, there are buried human limbs, and the owners of those limbs are obviously still alive!

"The name of the God of War!" Knight Philip shouted in a low voice, suppressing his voice, "What a frenzied act!"

"These people...are they alive or dead?!" Amber took two deep breaths and said in a low voice with a trace of panic after breaking away from Gao Wen's hand.

"Most of them are still alive, but it's hard to say how long they can live." Pittman squeezed the seeds in his hands that were going to be used as materials for casting spells. "No wonder we didn't see any guards and attendants...they were all buried in the courtyard Already!"

"Be careful not to touch these plants," the old druid added, "They are the eyes of that cultist!"

"What are the cultists going to do to bury these people here?" Amber suppressed her nausea and frowned, "Drain their life force?"

"...I'm afraid not," Pittman shook his head. "There is no need for such a troublesome ritual to extract life force. The cultists control these people between half-life and half-death, and keep their consciousness in a trance...I doubt he is extracting these people thought of."

"Extract thoughts?!" Amber was taken aback, "All things will eventually perish even this can be done?!"

"Of course it's not so easy to deal with extraordinary powers, but these are ordinary people without magic resistance, alas," Pittman sighed softly, "It seems that the cultist is not just trying to kill a few people here, He has a purpose, he is gathering intelligence..."

While speaking, everyone had already passed through the atrium full of crazy plants with extreme caution, and came to the porch leading to the main hall of the castle. In front of them was a half-hidden oak door. On the oak door, engraved Crest of the Leslie family.

The emblem seemed to be flowing with fresh blood, dark red and shiny.

Gao Wen didn't directly touch the obviously abnormal door with his hands, but pushed the door with the Pioneer Sword, and pushed it open slowly without a sound. Afterwards, he became 12 vigilant and took the lead to step across.

And the moment he stepped through the gate, a burst of unbearably noisy and chaotic noise suddenly swept over from nowhere!

It feels like there are 1 sounds exploding in my ears at the same time, [-] people shouting in my ears at the same time, [-] chaotic and absurd instruments are playing in my ears at the same time, or there are two ambers who are drunk Blind BB in the ears...

Gao Wen felt as if his body was rusted, and it became extremely difficult and slow to even turn his head, and he soon discovered that those noisy sounds did not come from the outside world, but from his own mind - in that maddening In the sound, he saw that the corridor of the castle covered with dark red carpet was suddenly stretched, and the walls on both sides with the portraits of the ancestors of the Leslie family also quickly receded to infinity, and all directions suddenly became extremely wide. And the dark starry sky replaced the original scene in the castle.

Those chaotic noises finally merged into one clearly distinguishable voice, and it continued to roar: "All things will perish! All things will perish! All things will perish!"

However, even though Gao Wen was shrouded in noise and illusions, he found that his thinking was extremely clear. The converging roar came clearly, and a very clear idea even popped up in his mind involuntarily: "Yeah, because of the increase in entropy, what's wrong?"

"Everything will eventually..."

Before Gao Wen realized what was going on, the crazy noise and the phantom of the dark starry sky stopped abruptly and disappeared.

Chapter 0128 Heresy

All the noises and phantoms disappeared in an instant. Before Gao Wen realized what was going on, his eyes had returned to normal.

The corridors of the Leslie family castle stretched out in front of you. The floor was covered with dark red carpets. On the walls on both sides were portraits of Viscount Andrew's ancestors. Between the portraits were inlaid charged magic crystals. The crystals are emitting a constant light, but it seems that something interferes with the transmission of light. Although those crystals look bright, places a little further away are abnormally dim.

Gawain subconsciously glanced back, only to see Knight Philip and the others just stepping through the gate behind him, and their actions were naturally normal—it seemed that he was the only one affected, and the illusions just lasted only for a while. For a moment, no one noticed.

"What's wrong?" Amber asked in a low voice, noticing the change in Gao Wen's expression.

Gawain replied while guarding the surroundings: "I seem to have encountered an illusion just now, but it only lasted for a moment."

"There is indeed a magic power that dissipates, most of it is the aura left by the cultists, and it will collapse on its own after coming into contact with a strong person like you," Pittman analyzed in a low voice, "We must be careful, there may be magic here trap."

Gao Wen frowned: "Can you perceive the approximate location of the cultists?"

"He is very cautious, or his power is weird," Pittman shook his head, "I can feel that there are twisted druid magic remnants everywhere, but none of the breath is 'active'..."

Knight Philip grasped the long sword tightly, put the hilt on his chest, and briefly chanted the name of the god of knights and warriors, Kyle. In this way, he exerted a magic-like power, and then looked at the end of the corridor: " The breath gathers there."

That is the direction of the lord's chamber.

Gawain exchanged glances with Amber and the others, and then Gawain took the lead, followed by Druid Pittman, Philip and Amber stood guard on both sides, and the four walked forward cautiously along the corridor.

The portraits hanging on the walls on both sides glowed pale under the light of the alienated magic spar lamps. The ancestors of the Leslie family hung on the walls, watching the uninvited visitors indifferently, those pale eyes seemed to be dead. Like a fish, Amber shivered involuntarily.

Gao Wen just glanced at those portraits, they were just a slight alienation caused by the influence of the magical environment, not worth worrying about at all, besides, who hasn't hung them on the wall yet?

The door of the lord's meeting room was also ajar, and there was a faint light inside. However, after approaching here, neither Pittman nor Philip could perceive the clear aura of cultists.Gawain sensed the gate and confirmed that there were no potential dangers such as traps on the gate itself and behind the gate, and then carefully pushed open the wooden door decorated with luxurious metal threads and engraved with Leslie's family crest.

The lord's meeting hall was empty, surrounded by pillars and magic crystals on the vaults, which cast a chaotic light. The tables and chairs in the center of the hall were moved there, only the velvet chair on the upper platform of the hall was left. Back chair, that is the position of the lord.

The lord of Tanzania Town, Viscount Andrew, was sitting on that high-backed chair. Behind him hung a portrait of the first generation of ancestors of the Leslie family who were knighted, and he himself was breathing hard under the gaze of his own ancestors. , this originally tall and thin man has been emaciated to the point of being almost shriveled at this moment, his flesh and blood seem to have shrunk, and the skin is tightly attached to the bones, like a pale and shriveled living dead, he leaned on the back of the chair , with his head staggeringly draped over his shoulders, his eyes staring at the roof without focus, breathing hard while muttering something in a low voice.

The magic spar located on both sides of the seat emitted white light, stretching Andrew's shadow for a long time, and projecting it vaguely on the ground.

This Mr. Viscount seems to have completely lost the ability to move freely.

Gawain held the Pioneer Sword tightly, and led Philip and Pittman into the hall. The three of them came to Viscount Andrew while guarding the surroundings. However, the Viscount seemed completely unaware of the approach of the three of them. He just stared blankly at the vault, making confused noises.

"He's mentally trapped," Pittman judged immediately, "but it's not serious—I'll lift the curse on him, but the cultists will likely be alarmed, so be prepared."

Gawain nodded slightly: "Do it."

Pittman then put his hand on Viscount Andrew's forehead, and took out a small bottle from his arms with his other hand. He bit off the cork on the bottle with his mouth, and then dripped a few drops of the liquid in the bottle on the Viscount's head. .

A strange and strong fragrance of flowers emanated from those few drops of liquid, and accompanied by druid spells, it produced a strong effect of exorcising evil spirits and sedating souls. Loosen a little.

Suddenly, Viscount Andrew's eyelids rolled. He regained clarity from the chaos, and looked at Gawain standing in front of him. His eyes widened instantly, and a hoarse and terrifying voice came out of his throat: "He is in my shadow. !"

And almost at the moment when the viscount's voice fell, his shadow projected on the ground began to distort, the magic spar behind the seat shattered suddenly, and the shadow on the ground suddenly grew larger, and a pitch-black figure swooped out from it. Gao Wen came to the door.

But Gawain seemed to have expected it, and before Viscount Andrew gave a warning, he was already in the posture of jumping back. Before the shadow rushed out, he had already pulled Pittman and jumped off the platform, and Philip Cavalier followed closely behind. back.

The shadow flew into the air in an instant, and before he could regain his posture, the shadow on the ground twisted again, and a foot wearing a short leather boot flew out of it, kicking the figure on the back: " I am in your shadow!"

The figure was suddenly kicked out of the shadow form, and fell down from the platform in embarrassment, but it disintegrated into floating smoke and dust in mid-air, and was carried by a gust of wind and rushed to the other end of the hall, recondensing into a cloaked figure. A black-robed, faceless entity.

But Amber completely jumped out of the shadows, and quickly ran behind Gao Wen.

Gawain looked at the black-robed figure with a half-smile: "If a legal professional can't hide in the dark and throw ball lightning, if he insists on running out to assassinate a knight in plate armor, everything will die because of you." Is it a fresh painting style?"

And the black-robed man who failed in the sneak attack couldn't control his astonishment: "You are not affected by the voice of truth?!"

"Voice of Truth? You mean the magic you left on the door? The one who will hear the noise in your head when you open the door first?" Gawain asked curiously, "Ah, I did hear— —Unfortunately, just as I wanted to chat with it, the voice disappeared. Could it be that I made it crazy with just one sentence? "

Hearing Gao Wen's words, the black-robed figure seemed to be plunged into great anger. His hood was shaking, and a vicious curse came from the shadows: "The heretic who violates the iron law of death and returns from the kingdom of the dead, You really shouldn't be left in this world!"

And as his voice fell, everyone present suddenly heard a dense cracking and breaking sound coming from outside the hall!

The windows of the meeting hall were cracked and smashed, and the doors everywhere were also shattered and collapsed by the huge force. Thick branches and vines broke through all the doors and windows and rushed into this hall.

The plants rushing into the hall rolled on the ground, distorted and deformed with the creaking sound, and people stood up: they were treants with a height of more than two meters, and they were similar to the tree people summoned by druids under normal circumstances. Humans are completely different: their branches and leaves are twisted and rotten, their body surfaces are cracked with countless openings, and poisonous juice flows out from the openings, emitting a pungent stench.

As is well known, when the druids of the Doom Society turned away from their belief in life and nature, the power of "life" disappeared from their spells.

These treants started to attack Gao Wen and his party.

"Their cores are in that mass of black rotting leaves!" Pittman quickly threw a few magic seeds and shouted at the same time, "Don't get the venom splashed in your eyes!"

When the magic seeds fell to the ground, they emitted a burst of green brilliance, and then quickly took root under the urging of the druid spells, growing into tough vines or thorny thorns, to restrain the treants coming from all directions.

Gawain couldn't help but took a deep look at Pittman, then retracted his gaze, swung his long sword and cut off a tree man's arm.

Amber and Philip also wrestled with the rotting treants.

But in this chaotic and fierce battle situation, Gawain's attention was always on the cultist in black robe.

The black-robed figure hadn't really participated in the battle until now, except for putting the treant that had probably been prepared a long time ago. He just watched from a distance, looking silent and gloomy—but he was reluctant to shot.

Gawain instantly understood what was going on: this cultist knew about Gawain Cecil.