The smell of blood was extremely weak, and had been covered up by the chaotic environment in the forest. Hao Ren believed that if he hadn't already belonged to a demigod with his physique, he could ignore all kinds of interference from the chaotic environment to mortals' perception. He would definitely not have smelled it. kind of taste.
Veronica and her party beside her obviously didn't notice the fishy smell in the air.
The princesses and knights are just happy now. After trekking through the dangerous land of chaos for so long, the encouragement of suddenly seeing a ray of Symmetra that is still shining is huge. Knights are also human beings, and they can also feel tired and frustrated , They persisted here relying entirely on a strong belief, and now, the twilight that lit up in the depths of the forest gave these tired warriors new strength: they were approaching Talos' outpost.
For those who trek in the realm of chaos, seeing such an outpost is like returning to their hometown, which is a symbol of the orderly world.
But Hao Ren had no choice but to pour cold water on them: "The situation ahead is not quite right."
"What's the matter?" Although Veronica was excited, she did not lose her calmness and judgment. When she heard the "Ancient Guardian" say this, she immediately controlled her mind, "What did you see?"
She knew that the "ancient guardian" had special powers and could perceive more things than ordinary people in the realm of chaos, so she had no doubts at all at this time.
"There's a smell of blood," Hao Ren said simply, "It's coming from the outpost."
Veronica's eyebrows immediately frowned: "... how is it possible, the fire in the outpost should still be burning, it is impossible for the servants of chaos to attack, and if they are corrupt monsters, they are not the opponents of the outpost guards."
Veronica's self-confidence is justified. "A servant of chaos cannot condense entities within the range of the light of order." This is an undeniable truth in the world of Kolo. Although corrupted monsters can forcefully rush into the light of order, they cannot It's just moths to the flame. Maybe they pose a huge threat to civilians, but they won't be the opponents of the elite veterans who have experienced many battles in the outpost. So here is a common sense: on the front line, as long as the fire of an outpost is still burning, then the outpost is safe. No matter how tragic the battlefield outside is, monsters cannot break through the barrier of the goddess.
So she immediately made another guess: "Maybe there was a battle near the outpost."
Hao Ren shook his head slightly, but he didn't say anything, but he knew that Veronica's conjecture was not very reliable.
Because in the realm of chaos, everything disappears at an astonishingly fast speed, especially things related to life. If the remains of soldiers killed in battle are not sheltered by the sacred objects of order, they will usually be eroded into magic elements within ten minutes, so in Battles in the Realms of Chaos often require no clearing at all—everything is gone before a second army arrives.
If there is a battle outside the outpost, it is impossible for the bloody smell to stay.
In fact, not only Hao Ren can think of this, Veronica probably can think of it, but Her Royal Highness may not be willing to think so: she would rather believe that there was a fierce battle outside the outpost than that a kingdom's outpost fell like this .
But Hao Ren's warning still had an effect. Veronica ordered everyone to be vigilant and get armed. The old knight Morian led the way. This small team slowly headed towards the furnace fire station deep in the jungle. Move closer.
After crossing the old trees and bushes, the whole picture of the hearth fire outpost is presented to everyone bit by bit. This kind of outpost is just a small stronghold - it has a circle of walls made of stones and rough wood, and the walls are against the chaos. In fact, there is no protective effect for the monsters. It is mainly used to block the occasional corrupted monsters, so it is not very tall. Some runes with faint light can be seen on the wall, and those runes do not seem to be in the In operation, three tall wooden sentry towers can be seen in the fence. Standing on the sentry towers, you should be able to monitor the movements in all corners of the surrounding area. In addition, there are only a few two-story wooden buildings in the outpost, which should be facilities such as barracks and warehouses.
A not-so-bright beam of light shoots from the center of the outpost to the sky. It is the light from the fire device. It is located at the core of the outpost, and it is the reliance of all the facilities here to stand in the chaos. The kingdom spends a lot of money to maintain these outposts. In fact, more than 80% of the investment is used to maintain the miniaturized stoves inside. In this place far away from order, the fire device needs to rely on precious magic fuel and holy relics blessed with holy power to continue burning, which is not easy to get.
Seeing this outpost, Veronica's heart sank. She knew that Hao Ren was right: something happened to the outpost.
Because there is no light inside, except for the beam of light from the furnace and the light of the runes on some permanent fortifications, all the lights in the outpost have been extinguished, and even the light of order from the furnace is particularly dim: a small furnace device It needs manual maintenance to light up, and the dim light means that no one has added "fuel" to the fire for at least several days.
A faint smell of blood floated into his nostrils, and this time even Veronica had already noticed it.
The knight princess drew out her long sword and covered the light on the blade with magic. She ordered the bannerman to stay still, and then slowly moved forward.
Hao Ren watched the other party cautiously come to the gate of the outpost. He clenched his spear tightly and was ready to help at any time.
Soon Veronica made a gesture from a distance, which represented safety ahead and no atmosphere of chaos.
"The gate is closed." Hao Ren walked over and pushed the heavy copper-covered gate of the outpost. "There is no sign of being breached."
Veronica nodded: "The gate is blocked from the inside, which means that the commander of the outpost ordered to block the entrance and exit before the accident. Maybe the people inside noticed something."
"But something happened after all," Hao Ren pressed his hand on the immovable door, "Can you use some violence to open the door?"
Veronica didn't realize it all at once: "... huh? It's okay to break the door, but we need to get a hammer first..."
"boom-"
After a loud explosion, the metal-covered door was directly removed under Hao Ren's brute force, and the entire door frame was torn off along with the surrounding wall within two meters, and Hao Ren threw it far away. to the forest.
Veronica and the knights were dumbfounded: Goddess! Is this meow still human? ! What did ancient people eat to grow up
But Hao Ren didn't have time to worry about the eyes of His Royal Highness who couldn't see the living body, because he couldn't help being stunned after seeing the situation in the outpost:
All the soldiers in the outpost are here. They fell to death in the open space between the barracks and the outpost. The coagulated dark blood has stained the whole land red, and the thick bloody smell is coming out, but there is no battle in the outpost. past traces.
The soldiers appeared to be killed without resistance.
Veronica also noticed the situation inside, and Her Royal Highness's face turned slightly pale. She walked into the outpost with Hao Ren, and when passing by a soldier from the Kingdom, she bent down and turned over the other's body. When the young man in the cloth military uniform was turned over, Hao Ren saw that his chest was in a mess. The situation made people feel dizzy: the flesh and blood on the young man's chest was almost scratched, and the muscles were blooming one by one. The expression on his face was distorted to a frightening degree, as if he had suffered an unimaginable fright before he died. .
Veronica raised the soldier's hand, which was stained with blood: "He grabbed himself like this."
Morian squatted down next to him, and the old knight's face was full of dignity: "Looking at this expression, it looks like he was frightened to death."
"And most of these soldiers are not wearing armor." Veronica looked up and looked forward, more corpses were spread out in front of her eyes. The corpses were basically the same, and more than half of them were not wearing armor: Talos Kingdom First-line Legion The soldiers are uniformly equipped with enchanted half armor that is easy to put on and take off and has a balanced attack and defense, and they only wear this armor when they are preparing for battle or when they are on duty. They usually wear cloth military uniforms. "Many people seem to be When they were resting in the barracks, they ran out suddenly, you see, some people didn't even wear shoes."
"They ran out of the barracks, and then frightened to death outside like this. Before they died, they scratched their own chest," Hao Ren said while shaking his head slightly, "It's so weird."
At this time, a knight who was exploring the road suddenly shouted loudly: "Her Royal Highness! We have found the outpost commander!"
The Outpost Commander is also dead, but he dies in a different way than a normal soldier.
The commander died in the open space in front of the small fire device. He seemed to want to protect this place before his death. He was wearing a full set of armor, but no scars could be seen on the armor. He was holding a broken commander An official-style long sword, and countless criss-crossing sword marks can be seen on the ground around him-it seems that the officer fought a desperate struggle with an invisible enemy before his death.
The commander's cause of death was also suicide: he wiped his neck with the broken sword in his hand at the end.
Veronica carefully inspected the junior officer's body, and confirmed that the other party committed suicide in a frenzy, and soon, she found something else on the ground next to the other's body.
"Here are the words!" Her Royal Highness shouted.
It was a few lines of last words written in blood. It seemed that the commander suddenly regained a moment of clarity before he died, and struggled to write down. The lines of letters were crooked, but they did not affect the reading:
"There is something in the dream, it came out of our hearts..." (to be continued~^~)