A group of people walked deep into the Ice Fortress under the leadership of Claude, and along the way, Claude was talking about the changes in the demon hunter's side after Hao Ren and the others left last time.
"...The demons opened the portal last month, and they evacuated Corpus collectively as agreed, and they went very simply. To be honest, I was a little surprised. These demons feel more honest and reliable than other races. And The demons helped us clean up a lot of battlefields before they left, which made our follow-up reconstruction a lot easier," Claude said as he walked, "The temples of Corpus are very strong, and the war did not destroy those buildings Therefore, the main facilities of the Holy Land are still intact, but due to the shutdown of energy nodes and the bombing of large-scale magic, Corpus is full of residual energy fields and arcane pollution, and it is no longer suitable for living. Those who need to be cleaned up Things take time.
"The Clock Tower of the Spirit World is still closed. After you terminated that evil ritual, the distortion of time and space in the tower has been restored, but the tower itself has been in a state of time and space turmoil for a long time, and the previous incident completely reset the entire tower. According to the order of time and space, many mysterious new areas have appeared in the tower. For safety reasons, the Council of Elders has announced that ordinary demon hunters are temporarily prohibited from approaching the tower. We have organized some investigation teams to go there. The Nether Clocktower will not open until the map' is drawn.
"In general, the situation is improving. The biggest disaster has passed, and the biggest problem we are facing now is the shortage of manpower. The Council of Elders has ordered the contraction of all demon hunter organizations in the southern hemisphere and the concentration of manpower to the north. : This is where our foundation lies. Some other field battle groups have also undergone reorganization. After the personnel contraction, 80% of the safari have ceased their activities. It may be the only option to merge all of them into the night watchman sequence."
Vivienne interjected: "That's how it should be—the hunting war is over, and the 'safari' guys are arranged to go out to hunt rabbits."
"Um... that's not what safari means...well, it's about the same," Claude smiled awkwardly, "The times have changed. The times are really going to change."
"The times have changed," Vivienne turned her head slightly. "Has the alien contacted you?"
The expression on Claude's face changed. It was obvious that even though the hunting war was over, the habits developed over thousands of years still made an orthodox demon hunter a little at a loss for the current situation: "Six days ago we received A secret letter from the Sanctuary of Athens bearing the imprint of Elder Mimir... ”
"What did the secret letter say?" Hao Ren asked casually.
Claude hesitated for a while: "This..."
"If you tell me, just say it," Vivienne gave him a sideways glance, "There are people on both sides of me. If you don't tell me, I can go to Athens and ask someone—you're so pretentious in front of me. Tell me Keep it a secret."
Claude coughed twice: "Ahem, there is actually nothing to keep secret. The secret letter mentioned a new organization called the Shadow Council. The Elder Council is considering a direct contact with the aliens in the near future... But in the specific meeting There are some disputes about the location and the candidates."
"Normal, I guess the Athens shelter is arguing about the same thing," Vivienne said casually, crossing her arms over her chest. "After all, we've been fighting for so many years. Who doesn't worry about the sudden peace talks at this time?" Talking and talking, when someone sneezes, three hundred knives and axes will pop out from the side."
Chatting all the way like this, by the time Hao Ren arrived at the Tower Square, he had basically figured out a series of changes in the witcher after he left, as well as the current situation of this land in the extreme north. In the end, they were led by Claude to a tall building next to the Tower Square.
The building is the same as the surrounding facilities. It is also completely made of opaque huge ice blocks, with subtle magical radiance flowing between the solid ice, and the ice walls are towering. It is majestic and magnificent, and the style of the whole building makes people think of ancient Gothic churches. But with a heavy texture like a military fortress.
"Frost Temple, the seat of the elder council," Claude stood in front of the gate, "please follow me, Elder Gregorian is waiting inside."
Different from the cold exterior, the house made of solid ice is actually not cold inside. After entering the Frost Temple, Hao Ren even felt a gust of warm wind blowing in front of him: this may be the power of magic. They walked for a long time in this huge cathedral-like building, during which time they saw many witchers hurrying through the corridors, and many of them had met a few times. They all stopped to say hello to Hao Ren and his party, and then continued on their way in a hurry. As Claude said: The Council of Elders is really understaffed today.
finally. They came to the office of Elder Gregorwen.
This is an ordinary room in the Frost Temple. Apart from being quite spacious, it has no more decorations than other places. In the rectangular room, there is a huge bookshelf on one wall, and all kinds of weapons, armor and ritual objects are hung on the other wall. Looking at their weather-beaten appearance, these things hanging on the wall are obviously Not decorations. A warm fireplace was crackling and burning in the corner of the room. Two figures stood in front of the fireplace, one of them was the old Gregorian, and the other was Hasselblad.
The two of them are now the top leaders of the Council of Elders.
Claude bowed out of the room, and Gregory came up to welcome him: "It's a pleasure to see you again, Your Excellency the Countess."
"It became so polite all of a sudden," Vivienne looked at the old hunter with a smile, "I'm not used to it."
Gregory smiled: "After all, the truth of what happened back then has come to light."
A few people sat down by the warm fireplace, "Roll" immediately took Doudou out of his arms to let the little guy warm up by the fire, and he also took out a few small pieces of wood from his pocket very attentively and presented them, with a humble look on his face. Hasselblad, who was almost facially paralyzed, was stunned on the spot: he couldn't imagine what the cat went through usually, so that the three views were distorted like this...
Gregor was also surprised for a while, but he quickly turned his attention back and looked at Hao Ren: "I have read the message you sent, a demon hunter named 'Zhao Xi' was killed by the will of the gods' Possession'?"
"It's about possessing... Well, it's not accurate but it's not bad," Hao Ren nodded, "The demon hunter has recovered, but we are worried that Corpus still has the power of the gods, so we come here this time. , we just want to conduct an investigation."
"It's not a big problem," Gregory said on the spot. "The Holy Land was preserved because of you. Your army once quelled the entire Corpus, and then retreated as promised, so I think the witcher can give it to you." You have enough trust. And your investigation is also for our safety."
But at this time Hasselblad interrupted: "I also think that you can go in and investigate, but we must consider that some people will worry about it-Corpus is the home of demon hunters after all, and our ancestors have lived in it for generations. Here, after the war, many people hope to live in peace, if an investigation team comes in at this time... I am afraid some people will feel uneasy."
Vivian waved her hand: "Let them be hypocritical, you demon hunters have been famous for thousands of years, when did you start to be cowardly? Isn't it that we investigate this matter to eradicate hidden dangers for you, and you will regret it when you are really dead. Nobody cares."
Gregorwen glanced at Hasselblad, winked and muttered in a low voice: "I just told you to stop talking..."
Vivian stared: "Can you stop pretending that I can't hear you in front of me?"
Hasselblad coughed twice without embarrassment, and immediately changed the subject: "Ahem, let's settle this matter like this. I don't know if you need our help during the investigation?"
"There's nothing you can do to help, we have our own technical means," Hao Ren waved his hand, "Just arrange a guide for us, Corpus is born and bred, and is familiar with the environment."
Hasselblad nodded: "The white fire is just right, the child grew up in Corpus, and she happens to be here at the Ice Fortress today."
As soon as Lili heard Bai Huo's name, she immediately looked around: "Oh yes, I just wanted to ask, why isn't Bai Huo here, isn't she your follower?"
"... Bai Huo is just my apprentice, she also has her own affairs," Hasselblad choked on the words of "the former emperor" for half a second, with an embarrassing expression on his face, "She just came out of Corpus, and she is resting today. I Send someone to call her."
"Forget it, listen to what you said... Let's go there in person," Vivienne interrupted Hasselblad, "After all, we are asking for help."
Hasselblad's expression was a little subtle when he heard this, as if he was worried about something, but in the end he still didn't say anything, just nodded slightly: "That's fine, that's fine." (To be continued~^~)