In the northern part of Ansu Kingdom, frost and snow have covered the ground.
This mountainous land is the coldest place in the Kingdom of Ansu. The tough northerners took root here in the high mountains and cold winds, guarding the northern gate of the Kingdom, and have worked hard to maintain and improve it for seven hundred years. A delicate balance between those difficult neighbors to the north.
Whether it is the Violet Kingdom in the northwest, or the Holy Dragon Principality in the northeast, it has never been an easy role to deal with.
But new shadows have emerged from the frost and snow during this unsettling winter, new threats even more worrisome than their elusive northern neighbors in the eyes of Duchess Victoria Wilde Because this threat comes from within the country.
"The Snow Duke" Victoria Wilde stood on the high terrace of Fort Winter, overlooking the city below. The snow that began to fall before winter did not stop until last night. The typical spiers in the region can effectively reduce snow cover. The black spiers pierce the winter snow, just like black pines standing on the plains below the castle. There are many.
In most parts of the kingdom, the arrival of winter means that production stops and people hide in their houses shivering. However, in the coldest northern region, the situation is different. The people here have adapted to the cold, and in order to survive They also have to adapt to the long and cold winter, which takes up half of the year. Even in the days when the heavy snow stops, you can see countless mobile people in the city. They must clear away as much as possible before the next round of snowfall destroys the city buildings. Snow, open the road, and drag the bodies of the homeless who died of freezing in the gutter outside the city, and the largest crowd gathered in the central square facing the castle
The snow on the square has been cleared, and people gathered there to watch the cultists be burned to death.
Those figures in black burqas were tied to tall wooden stakes one by one. The heavy black steel chains and inscription shackles restrained their bodies and magic power at the same time. The face is still chilling.
The crowd of onlookers had already gathered several layers in the square. The soldiers separated the crowd from the heretics, and the shining swords prevented the over-excited citizens from getting closer to the dangerous blasphemers. In the process, the firewood was killed After they were piled up, the hot and melted animal fat was also splashed on the haystack.
"Burn them to death!" Some of the onlookers finally couldn't hold back and shouted loudly.
The roar echoed: "Burn them! They killed my children! Burn these cultists!"
A high-ranking priest of the Church of the Holy Light walked towards the burning platform. He took the holy emblem from the hands of the believers next to him, and turned to look at the excited crowd.
"The God of Holy Light exposed the conspiracy of these heretics. Before more people suffer, the Lord guided us to destroy the lairs of these heretics!"
The high-ranking priest held up the holy emblem, and he turned around. He used the holy emblem to inspire a powerful light, ignited the flammable grease and firewood, and shouted: "Praise the holy light! Praise the Lord! !"
Under the action of the holy light and oil, the burning platform was instantly enveloped in raging golden-white flames, and the cultists tied to the pillars twisted like wax in the flames, making all kinds of indescribable howls. Then a tsunami-like voice sounded in the square: "Praise the Holy Light! Praise the God of the Holy Light!"
The raging flames shot straight into the sky, and the howls of those cultists continued in the flames for a long time, even until the flames burned their bodies, their roars continued to come from the flames, and the surrounding people finally realized that something was wrong , They looked at the abnormal flame in horror, and listened to the abnormal roar, and the roar finally became human-understandable words. The remaining spiritual power of a dozen cultists stirred in the air, making terrifying Howling: "Laugh all you want! Cry all you want! Everyone will die! You will die like livestock, you will die like worms!! When they come back, they will eat your flesh dry and suck your blood dry !!"
The flames suddenly turned black at this moment, and the flames of more than a dozen fires fused together in the air, and a huge and indescribable dark purple mass rose from the flames, as violently as if it was about to swallow everyone present. Swelling, even the priest who had just shouted praises to the Holy Light in front of the burning platform fell into astonishment at the moment, but at the moment when this terrifying vision came, a piercing white beam of light suddenly came from the corner of Winter Castle. The terraces shoot out onto the square.
Under the impact of "Winter's Whip", the indescribable deep purple mass froze instantly, and then shattered suddenly due to lack of follow-up energy support. Large pieces of ice crystal dust fell from the sky, as if there was another blizzard Generally speaking, most of the square was covered again, whether it was the excited crowd or the Holy Light priest who chanted slogans, they were completely quiet, and above the silent square, there came the cold voice of Duchess Victoria Wilde: "Clean Clean up and praise Ansu and your Founding King."
The powerful magic power gradually dissipated on the terrace. Victoria waved her hand, bringing the magic book floating in mid-air back to her side, then turned and left the terrace.
The patio door inlaid with man-made crystals closed automatically behind her, blocking the sound from the square. The Duchess returned to the warm lounge with a rare look of fatigue on her face.
The black-haired maid stepped forward. She waved her hand away from the other attendants, and then put her hand on Victoria's temple and pressed gently: "You rarely show such an expression. The last time I saw Gawain Cecil When the Duke returns."
"It's still related to him this time. If it wasn't for the warning sent by the founding hero from the extreme south, we might not realize that they have eroded to this extent until those cultists wreak even greater damage," Victoria sighed, "This is already the fourth cult lair that has been destroyed since the beginning of winter surprise."
"It is said that the power of cultists in the southern region is actually very small. They only showed up twice, but each time they were detected and suppressed by the Duke..."
Victoria waved her hand lightly, and Maggie, the black-haired maid, immediately stopped her movements.
"We have been at ease for too long, and the entire kingdom has been at ease for too long," Victoria stood up from the bench, quietly watching the portraits of the founding heroes hanging on the wall in front of him, Gawain Cecil's The portrait has been taken down, but she is still staring at the blank space next to the founding monarch Charlie, "From the king to the local nobles, there is a serious lack of vigilance, but the Grand Duke Cecil seven hundred years ago is the most volatile in the kingdom. Over the years, he is more vigilant than all of us. What's ridiculous is that the gang of incompetent people in the capital initially took the warning about cultists sent by the founding duke as nervousness, as the fuss of the ancients in modern society... Hmph, now they're panicking."
The black-haired maid stood quietly behind Victoria without expressing any opinion, but the duchess seemed accustomed to this, she paused, and asked: "Is there any clue to what you asked to investigate?"
The black-haired maid bowed her head: "Yes. The priests of the Church of the Holy Light have indeed been more active recently than before, and new missionary teams have appeared everywhere, but all their activities are very reasonable. They are fighting against cultists. Search and clear the lairs of heretics. Missionaries are also publicizing methods to identify heretics and protect themselves from sorcerous curses. The power of the Holy Light does have a unique advantage in this regard. Apart from this, they have no extra Activities, there is no conflict with other sects or robbing of belief resources, let alone friction with lords everywhere."
Victoria frowned: "Is that so..."
The black-haired maid asked curiously: "Vicky, do you suspect that there is something wrong with those Holy Light priests?"
"No... just a little concerned about their recent movements, they suddenly became active," Victoria shook her head, "but it should be my illusion, after all, now the cultists are suddenly making trouble everywhere, and the only one who can wipe out those cultists head-on is The Church of the God of War and the Church of the Holy Light, among them, the divine magic of the Holy Light is the most effective against evil magic," Victoria said lightly, "We have no reason to interfere with their activities within the legal scope, so we will continue to pay more attention. If they have Any unreasonable thoughts will always show your feet."
"yes."
…
After winter, the circulation of news also became difficult and slow as the number of traveling merchants decreased.
In this era when cutting-edge technology is scarce and popular, and ordinary society still maintains a primitive and backward situation, the transmission of information is an embarrassing and inefficient thing. Although there are magics and props such as the communication technique and the ring of mithril, but because the people who master these communication techniques are extremely rare and there is no effective way to share information with each other, these techniques cannot make people understand the distant places in a timely and comprehensive manner. What happened, for most commoners and even nobles, was that the main means of dissemination of information remained traveling caravans, and commissioners who delivered letters.
And for the remote New Cecil Territory, which is not very attractive to business travelers, the slow transmission of information is even more of a problem.
In the territory, Gao Wen established a simple messenger team. In addition, the current main population settlements of Lord Cecil are only towns, western logging villages, and eastern mining villages (which have almost developed into small towns). There is no place, so internal information transmission is not a problem, but if you want to communicate with the outside world, with the current manpower and material resources of the territory, there is no way to set up your own channel. The only thing you can rely on is extremely limited, selling food and cloth from Tanzan Town. Or slave traders, as well as expatriates specially sent to Kant Territory and Leslie Territory to collect information.
So when Gao Wen learned that there were signs of cultists' activities in various parts of the kingdom, it was already a month after he issued a warning to the capital.
This is the result of using Viscount Andrew Leslie's information channel. If there is no fast griffin messenger, it will take more than a month to travel from the capital to the southern border with just a pair of legs of a traveling merchant.
Looking at the information in front of him, Gao Wen frowned tightly.
But Amber didn't know what was written in the letter sent from Tanzan Town early in the morning. She was boringly carving a piece of wood with a dagger next to her. When she looked up and saw Gawain's expression, she asked casually: "What's wrong? Has the price of rice gone up?"
"No, heretics."
Amber immediately jumped up from the chair: "You want to hit the cultist again?! Hey, can I have a stomachache in time?"
"It's not here." Gawain glanced at Amber, "except for the southern border, heretics are appearing all over the kingdom."
Amber was relieved when she heard this, and sat down with her head down to continue carving her own wood: "Oh, as long as it doesn't interfere with our business."
Gawain looked helplessly at this elf's shame, but he couldn't feel as relaxed as the other party.
The situation was exactly as I expected, and the cultists had penetrated into every aspect of the kingdom. Not only were traces of their activities found in the territory of the border lords, but even near the king's capital, there were signs of their troubles on the Holy Spirit Plain.
A large number of cultist lairs have been discovered and uprooted, but more have just found a little trace, and then lost the clue.
Or it was too late to find out, the cultists had already completed their evil sacrifices, and what the local nobles found was only the bloody scene after the ceremony.
In addition to these disturbing information, another thing also made Gao Wen feel urgent and... cramped.
All the information is seriously outdated, the news from the capital is a month ago, and the situation in the northern border has not yet been obtained.
He needs to establish his own information channel, which must be in his own hands, and it must be more efficient and reasonable than various contemporary information channels.
At present, the spell model of the communication technique has not been analyzed yet, and the attempt of electromagnetic wave communication has also encountered failure. Technically, it will not be possible to realize the "modern communication network" envisioned by Gao Wen for a while, but even if there is no cheap instant messaging He can also come up with a framework first.
The potions in the alchemy factory made him think of a way.