The abyss is a world composed of countless broken and twisted small planes. In countless legends and myths, it is regarded as the gathering place of all evil and weirdness, and the source of all despair and pain.
There are many speculations about its origin, but a demonologist who once traveled to the abyss made a bold inference after decades of research—
The abyss is actually the cemetery of the multiverse, and those twisted small planes are actually the fragments left after the destruction of countless worlds.
The Gate of the Abyss is the passage connecting it to other worlds.
During the Era of Radiance, the first abyssal invasion, perhaps the largest abyssal gate since the birth of the entire multiverse, opened in the outer void of Mycroft's world.
It was an unprecedented, super-large space-time gate that connected all the planes of the abyss. Although many passages automatically collapsed the moment they were opened, there were still hundreds of large passages maintained, and an almost endless army of demons swarmed out of them, almost Just destroy Mycroft's world.
In the Starfall Era, the space-time gates opened by the second abyss invasion were not as terrifying as the first time. Dozens of small time-space gates were scattered throughout the continent, which also gave many races headed by humans the opportunity to fight back.
After several years of hard fighting, most of the small abyss gates were destroyed by the multi-ethnic coalition, but there were still three large abyss gates that were like poisonous nails, stuck firmly in the Mycroft continent.
The [Burning Eye] in the Ruins of Ashes and [The Gap of the Ice Prison] in the Extremely Cold Wasteland are both the most difficult doomsday-level dungeons in previous games. Joshua has always been stationed with his war group. Fight the demons emerging from the Burning Eye at Naya's Fortress in the Ash Ruins.
Compared with the two abyss gates on the mainland, the [Abyssal Vortex] located in the far sea in the south has a slightly less present presence, but it is even more dangerous because the abyssal plane it is connected to There are countless deep-sea behemoths, as well as the corrupted local marine life of Mycrof World. Fighting these monsters in the ocean is more dangerous than fighting demons.
According to the information Loranda said before, Joshua can be 100% sure that the Abyss of Anos is obviously the predecessor of the Abyss Vortex in later generations. Today, it is just a small abyss crack with little reputation, but many years later , it will gradually expand and turn into a large whirlpool that can easily allow the kilometer-level monster to pass through.
Originally, the Church of the Seven Gods had already discovered it, but could not find the location of the crack. The impact of the dragon disaster forced the church to withdraw the knights stationed there. It seemed that this gave it an opportunity to grow.
"What? No more?"
Joshua was originally waiting for Loranda to continue explaining the situation in the Abyss of Anos, but he found that the other party suddenly lost his voice. The warrior raised his head and looked at the situation with some confusion, and then he noticed that the Paladin He seemed a little uninterested.
"That's pretty much it."
With a forced smile, Loranda sighed, straightened her hair, and then looked south. There was some hesitation in his blue eyes, as if he didn't know what to say: "Joshua, you are indeed a good comrade. But this matter really has nothing to do with you, just think that I was complaining before, thank you for telling me this news."
"... If you think so, it's okay."
He raised his eyebrows. Since the other party didn't want to continue talking, Joshua, who had been handed the good guy card for no reason, would not force him. He shrugged and said, "Anyway, I want to thank you for helping me interrogate those cultists."
The warrior didn't find it strange that the Paladin suddenly stopped talking.
He is a noble from the North, and Loranda is a paladin of the Church of the Seven Gods. If it were not a personal relationship, the other party would indeed have no reason to tell him this information.
You know, in Mycroft Continent, news about the abyss and evil gods has been strictly sealed from the outside world. On the eve of the invasion of demons in previous lives, many ordinary people did not know what the word abyss meant. In fact, Joshua Knowing that in this environment, the Paladin was willing to tell him so much information about the Abyss of Anos, it was already a sign of great trust in him.
Artannis didn't speak. He talked to Ying and Rin, and just sat aside and listened quietly. The old bishop was a smart man, otherwise it would not have been his turn to be the bishop. He is still digesting the news about Arnold. The news from Si Zhiyuan, as for Loranda’s abnormal behavior...
- I've been away from home for too long and I just feel homesick.
Shrugging slightly, Artanis' rich life experience had already made him see through this.
Later, Joshua and the old bishop discussed issues about the Black Forest. Since the warriors have recently been letting the knights in the Black Forest Fortress explore the Great Ajax Mountains, the paladin has been helping in a private capacity some time ago, and Now the church wants to officially join it, and they are willing to send some experienced priests and knights to join the exploration team.
Joshua is naturally welcome. There have never been enough places to live in the North, and the population cannot increase. Therefore, since he inherited the position of lord, he has been exploring the Black Forest in preparation for opening up new land. However, due to the exploration There is a lack of spellcasters in the team and the efficiency cannot be improved. Artanis is willing to do something at this time. The warrior is very happy. The priest is more useful than the mage in this regard.
And just when the two began to discuss this issue in depth and came to a preliminary conclusion, there was a sudden rhythmic knock on the door.
Firefly and Rin stood up almost at the same time. After making eye contact, Firefly sat back down again. After receiving Joshua's signal, Rin came to the door and opened it.
The visitor was a maid. She had a brown ponytail and was wearing the uniform of the Lord's Mansion. It was obvious that she was from the Lord's Mansion.
The maid looked a little embarrassed. She was holding an envelope without any decoration in her hand. Noticing the gazes of her lord and the church bishop, she explained in a panic: "Good day, sir, here is a letter from Winterfort." I think you should know the urgent letter earlier, but you can’t be found in the Lord’s Mansion…”
At this point, she couldn't help but pause. Although Joshua had restrained his pressure as much as possible, the strong force still made this ordinary maid's throat dry: "Miss No. 3 said that you are in the church, so I At once… "
"Okay, it's okay, you did a good job."
It could be seen that the other party's words and deeds were a little nervous, and Joshua's voice slowed down a little. He nodded slightly and asked the other party to hand the letter to Rin, and then said softly: "Your name is Leah? You even found the church specifically. It’s really not easy, just take a rest today.”
Although she had long been accustomed to Joshua being approachable and never putting on airs, the maid named Leah still seemed a little restrained. Because of the pressure of the warrior, she did not dare to give the letter to the black-haired boy. Continue to stay in this room for a while, then say goodbye and leave immediately.
Taking the letter from Rin, Joshua opened it directly without avoiding Loranda and Artanis.
"Opening a professional academy is indeed a good way to strengthen the extraordinary power in the territory."
The old bishop was still very optimistic about Winterfort College. He recalled the past and couldn't help but sigh: "The founders of the four territories in the North were all warriors, and most of their followers were warriors and knights, so There have always been very few spellcasters in the territory, and it is also difficult to cultivate the next generation of extraordinary beings. The old earl of the previous generation always wanted to cultivate his own team of magicians, but unfortunately he did not fulfill this wish until his death. On the contrary, you, only It took two years to build it successfully.”
"But is there any urgent news? As far as I know, the college has been running well recently, and there have been no accidents among the students."
"As for the academy, it was mainly because of Master Nostradamus. I just gave him a piece of land and almost nothing was done. As for this letter..."
Joshua shook his head and said he didn't know the reason. He calmly took out the letter and read it while saying: "If it wasn't some important news, they probably wouldn't have sent an urgent letter... What?!"
Just after reading the first line, the soldier's expression changed. He frowned, then stared at the letter and said in shock: "Dragon egg?!"
"What dragon egg?!"
On the side, Loranda, who had been sitting in his seat in a daze since telling the news about the Abyss of Anos, was intrigued. He immediately turned his head, looked at the serious-looking Joshua, and asked curiously Said: "Do you mean black?"
"Joshua's dragon horse? It is indeed a mare."
Artanis also joined in the inquiry. He touched his white beard and said with interest: "But I remember that it seemed to have awakened its bloodline and transformed into a half-dragon in the past year, right? Is there a dragon egg here?" "
"No, it's not like that. We haven't seen each other for a few days..."
This was the slightly shocked voice of the silver-haired girl. Firefly couldn't help but stand up and sneaked around behind the warrior. Rin also followed her sister's footsteps. The two of them lay on Joshua's shoulders, wanting to take a look. What exactly was written in the letter.
"Huh...it's okay, there's something wrong with the narrative method of this letter..."
There were still young girls holding down his shoulders. Joshua squinted his eyes and quickly read the entire letter. Then he took a long breath and said, "It was the one I brought from the White Dragon's Nest last time." Since the establishment of Winterfort College, I have placed the dragon eggs in the college as samples for safekeeping. However, during a routine inspection recently, teachers at the college discovered that some of the dragon eggs showed signs of hatching. "
Having said this, the warrior's expression softened and returned to his previous calm attitude: "They plan to put these dragon eggs next to Hei, who is also a dragon, to see if they can speed up their hatching, so that they can be cultivated more easily. The new little white dragon... The person who wrote the letter definitely failed in Common Language. According to what he said, I thought it was Hei who suddenly laid eggs, which was really scary."
—Just saying, the ancient dragon bloodline is not so easy to reproduce. The soldier shook his head regretfully.
"The dragon egg is about to hatch? Congratulations then."
"It is indeed a good thing."
"Are we going to have to take care of those little dragons again..."
"It's really possible, sister..."
Ignoring the soft complaints from the gods, Artanis was keenly aware of the meaning behind this matter compared to Loranda's congratulations: "If those dragon eggs can successfully hatch into dragons, we can consider forming a A dragon riding regiment - although it will take almost ten years to see the effect, and a hundred years to truly take shape, this is definitely an investment that will not be a loss and will benefit future generations."
"Indeed, I didn't expect it to actually hatch."
Nodding in agreement, after receiving the good news, Joshua seemed to be in a good mood, and his tone became much lighter: "I can hatch baby dragons even with such careless care. This is enough to prove that they are extremely healthy and good." seedling."
It only takes three years for a giant dragon to quickly grow from a juvenile form to a juvenile body. If the baby dragon is healthy and has sufficient nutritional supply, it will be able to take a further step and become a young body in five to eight years. At this time, the dragon Its combat power is close to that of an adult earth dragon, and it also has certain spell-casting and flying abilities.
But it will take decades to become an adult dragon with gold-level strength. If humans want to train the Dragon Riders from scratch, it will take generations of hard work.
Currently, the most famous dragon knights in the world are the Sea Dragon Knights of the Eastern Plains and the Sky Knights of the Far Southern Sky Island. In the Northern Empire, His Majesty Emperor Israel is the most famous dragon knight in the world. , but there is no organized dragon knight team.
In addition, the Church of the Seven Gods once had a dragon rider group, but it was inexplicably disbanded two hundred years ago. In the previous game, it was said that a player discovered the truth, but Joshua didn't remember it because he didn't pay attention. That involves a lot of conspiracy.
Speaking of the Knights of the Sky, Joshua thought of a more interesting thing - as a super-large dragon knight group with a heritage of nearly 500 years and more than 30 adult dragons, its knights have always been There is only one person, and the entire operation of the knights and external negotiations are all handled by the humanoid dragon.
Moreover, the knight doesn't even need to fight, he just needs to take good care of the young dragon. The Knights of the Sky are simply a large dragon family business, but the kindergarten aunt who takes care of the child is just a human. Because of this, Therefore, they are also nicknamed the Nanny Knights, the Zoo Knights, etc.
When the warrior in the previous life heard the news, his face was filled with the expression "There is still such an operation". Even when he thinks about it now, he can't help but smile knowingly.
"That's almost it for today."
Standing up, Joshua prepared to return to the Lord's Mansion first. This news was indeed very important. He could not wait to go to the Winter Castle Academy to see the current situation of the dragon eggs. He smiled slightly at the old bishop and the paladin. Nodding: "Thank you very much. Without your help to take care of me while I was away, this city might have been harassed by cultists."
"This is thanks to Miss No. 3. She has done much more than us."
Loranda did not speak, but Artanis smiled and shook his head in denial. They also stood up. Both parties gained a lot from this conversation. Even the Paladin knew the news about his friend.
Loranda is still a little absent-minded now. He shakes his head slightly from time to time and looks to the south. Although he doesn't speak, anyone who is not blind can notice his abnormality.
Joshua could naturally tell that, so before leaving, he left a message to Loranda.
"If you want to go back, go back."
The soldier said this. He always spoke so directly: "It's not something difficult to talk about. There is no need to be so hesitant."
After speaking, he took his leave and left the church room with Ying and Lin. After the paladin was stunned for a while, he smiled bitterly and said to the old bishop: "Is my performance so obvious?"
After receiving Artanis's nod of confirmation, Loranda thought silently for a while, and then whispered to herself: "Originally, it was because of my own willfulness that I temporarily left the Holy Mountain to travel. Now I have figured it out. The Holy Mountain is also fighting the mad dragon... "
"The time has indeed come to say goodbye."
I have regained some feeling... 4,000 words today, and I feel great after a good sleep...
(End of chapter)