When walking through the forest again, the three of them became more and more silent. Fernando seemed to be a humanoid storm about to erupt. The more depressed he was, the more terrifying he became.
The secret stronghold provided to Douglas is a hidden cave, only in the deepest part is the trace of the operation of the magic circle, and the appearance is a purely natural cover.
"Mr. Douglas, stay here for a few days first, and come to you after we arrange things." Even though Douglas's attitude along the way made people feel like a spring breeze, Roland still chose a very polite address when he said goodbye. An Archmage.
Douglas didn't feel left out at all. He tapped on the situation in the cave, nodded slightly, and said with an unchanged smile, "I'm already very satisfied to have a place for me to conduct research."
He doesn't mind being guarded by others, on the contrary, he is quite satisfied, because the organization that does not guard against and test the defected magicians has almost disappeared and become dust in history. He does not want the organization he will join to be like this, That's no different from dying.
Before Antiffle fell, he, who was good at observation and thinking, had already understood the cruelty of the situation. Under the temptation, oppression, and coercion of the church, parents abandoned their children, apprentices assassinated their masters, and friends attacked each other. It didn't disappear with the initial collapse of the magic empire, on the contrary, it became more cruel, because for a large number of magicians, there was no longer the capital to wait and see and hesitate, and they either betrayed or died.
"It's best not to conduct magic experiments. The black paw dog has a very keen sense of smell." Fernando raised his face and reminded him, fearing that the archmage from Antifleur would be too confident in his own strength.
Douglas took out thick white paper from the storage bag, put it on the stone platform in the cave, and looked at them as if admiring the most perfect lover: "Don't worry, I have enough mathematical research to consume all my energy. "
"Mathematical research... Are you from the Tower?" Hearing about magic, Fernando eased his mood a little, and asked with great interest. In his impression, the geometry of the Tower was the first one to suffer from his magic learning. Frustrating things, and the magician in the tower is full of enthusiasm for mathematical research. Just like Douglas in front of him.
The magicians of the ancient magic empire have long paid attention to mathematical research, because it is closely related to the construction of spell models, and have achieved a series of achievements, such as tower geometry, but most of their energy is still focused on spell learning and blood. In terms of research, after all, the results of mathematical research are difficult to see immediately. Only a small number of magicians enjoy them, most of them are astrologers, and the tower is one of the most famous astrologer organizations.
When the Dawn War broke out, the church began to gain the upper hand. There are even rarer mages who are willing and free to study mathematics. At least Fernando had never seen such a fanatical guy when he talked about mathematical research.
Douglas looked up. He laughed at himself and said, "Actually, I really want to join the tower, but they don't want me as a weird guy. After the fall of Antifule, I never saw them again."
"I'm very glad that you have always been soberly aware of your eccentricity. If you can ask less why, you will be a very good friend." Fernando has always been willing to hit others, even if the other party is a great mage, he is the same. will change.
Douglas smiled and did not respond to Fernando's words.
Roland glanced at Fernando complainingly, why did he always make up for his mistakes by himself? Does he not speak without being sarcastic? Bai gave birth to a pleasing and handsome appearance!
He coughed: "Mr. Douglas, don't worry about Fernando, he is a descendant of Arthur, the barbaric empire. You can tell from his accent, by the way, if you need anything, you can make a list in the past few days. If there is something special Urgent. Tell me now."
"No." Douglas shook his head and watched Fernando and Roland leave, knowing clearly that when they came back, it was time for him to accept the test.
What test will it be
…
Leaving the forest in silence, neither Fernando nor Roland spoke, but they changed their hiding places in a tacit understanding, hid in the city, and walked towards Viscount Erekan's villa—this is their safest hiding place, only organized The place that only the highest level knows, is also a place that the night watchmen can't imagine.
Before the nobleman inherited the title of baron, he hooked up with a high-ranking mage from the "Magician Union" during a certain operation to exterminate magicians, and then used his power to eradicate a powerful enemy, successfully After obtaining the title of knighthood, he relied on the "intelligence" of the "United Magicians Union" to establish meritorious service over and over again, and became a Viscount. He was the first influential nobleman that the "United Magicians Union" had won since implementing the new strategy.
Fernando and Roland had changed their appearance a long time ago. They swaggered through the main entrance in the familiar appearance of the viscount's housekeeper. No one doubted it, because this was indeed them, their identities on the surface.
The old butler remained silent as usual, and did not ask any further questions to the two guys who often received special orders from the Viscount.
After returning to his room, Roland had just washed up when he heard Fernando's familiar violent knock on the door.
"Is there something? Discuss how to test Douglas?" Roland asked suspiciously. After a few days of emotionally tense life, he just wanted to take a good rest.
Fernando's mental force field spread, he closed the door casually, and growled in a low voice: "Roland, we must fight back!"
"Assassination of vultures?" This was something they had discussed a long time ago, so Roland reacted after being stunned for a moment, and said cautiously, "We have to make a strict plan, use other people's whereabouts to lure vultures, and then surround Kill him?"
"No." Fernando's bright red eyes were full of seriousness and anger, "Benson has defected, and how many of us are here, the Black Claws know very well, maybe it's not us who will besiege the vultures, but they will besiege us Now, you know, this kind of insidious method is the specialty of the black claw dog, and I also want to kill Benson together!"
"How is this possible? Benson must be hiding in the referee right now, we have no way to lure him out and kill him!" Roland rejected Fernan's proposal without hesitation, "Otherwise, we will wait a little longer and contact the headquarters to come back A few high-level magicians, so that we can be more sure of strangling vultures."
Fernando controlled his anger and shook his head: "The vulture has a very keen sense of smell. After these few days, he will no longer make such reckless raids, but will join forces with the local nobles and clergy. He will even rush to other areas."
"Then what are you going to do?" Roland asked puzzled, neither this nor that, what exactly does Fernando mean
Fernando almost roared: "Attack the referee directly and kill Vulture and Benson! They must be there!"
"You're crazy!" Roland felt that either Fernando was crazy or he was crazy.
In the past, when the magic empire still existed, there were indeed cases of breaching the tribunal and even the cathedral, but in the past hundred years, no magician dared to directly attack the tribunal. This is the lair of the black claw dogs. Has a powerful magical array and a high-level night watchman. Where is the magician running like a rat in the gutter to get its idea. You have to choose a good way to commit suicide!
The breeze blew, and Fernando's messy hair fluttered for a while, like the prelude to the beginning of the storm: "Since you can't think of it, the church and the black claw dogs can't even think of it. For more than a hundred years, the referee has never been directly attacked. Their reaction will definitely be slow, and it will definitely be very chaotic at that time, as long as we kill the vulture and Benson before the church and nobles react, we can leave calmly!"
"This, this... but, but our strength..." Roland felt his brain was in chaos. At one moment, I felt that this was indeed something that the vulture could never have dreamed of, and at the same time, I thought it was too crazy and ridiculous.
Fernando said without a smile: "We have an archmage."
"Douglas?" Roland woke up immediately, the magician's instincts recovered, and he said to himself, "The strongest in the whole city is the vulture. The eighth-level sky knight, the others are just promoted cardinals or sky knights, and maybe A few high-level magicians who betrayed, but there must be no archmage, otherwise we would not escape so easily, at least two-thirds of the personnel would be lost."
He paced back and forth: "The magic of the nine rings is strangely powerful. The strength of the archmage is far superior to that of the high-level. In the case of a surprise attack, there is no problem breaking the tribunal. It would be even better if it could 'stop time', um, Benson I don't know that we will pick up an archmage, except for Gallows, only the president knows, well, there is no problem with the comparison of strength, but Douglas hasn't been tested yet? Will he betray us?"
Fernando still had a straight face: "This is the test, kill the vulture, and he will be one of us."
"That's it..." Roland felt that there was a possibility of success, but he was very vacillating. "But it will anger the church. I'm afraid the 'Heart of Time' will be sent over by then."
Speaking of the "Heart of Time", he had a fear that he didn't realize. That epic knight used the bones and blood of magicians to forge his own brilliance, and even killed a legendary lord. It was the nightmare of countless magicians. It is the real abyssal demon in their minds.
Speaking of this, he came to his senses, and he was taken around by Fernando: "We have Douglas, we can use lures to kill the vultures, even if they deliberately fell for it, they would never have thought that we have the Archmage , why attack the referee directly? Fernando, don't be blinded by anger, and find a chance to get rid of Benson next time."
Fernando snorted, "Let other people evacuate from Paphos County in advance, and you leave early. If the church retaliates, it must first find us."
His expression became a little more serious: "We must kill the traitor immediately. Only when we prove that we have the ability to kill the traitor and cause trouble to the church, will the nobles be willing to cooperate with us secretly and support us to cause more trouble, so they will not arbitrarily Betray us!"
"Roland, you should be very clear about how critical the situation is now. If you don't want to take risks, you have to wait for death slowly. We must show our value so that we can get help. If we retreat step by step, we will lose all opportunities for cooperation."
Roland gritted his teeth and thought for a while: "Fernando, you have to pay attention to safety, especially to prevent Douglas from being a traitor."
He agreed to Fernando's suggestion. According to the rules of the United Magicians Union, as long as the two leaders of the branch agree, then the action can be taken.
Fernando didn't smile because Roland agreed. He clenched his hands tightly, suppressing his anger, and prepared to explode when the right time came.
…
In the forest, near the hidden stronghold.
"I'll stay outside." Roland said to Fernando, fearing that there were already night watchmen ambushing around.
Fernando nodded and went straight into the hidden cave.
He had just crossed the final barrier when he suddenly stepped on a piece of paper full of words, and there were such papers all over the floor.
Looking at Douglas who was writing hard, seeing that his neatly combed hair was already very messy, Fernando curiously picked up the paper under his feet and looked at the content on it.
Seeing this, Fernando stayed where he was. He has always been recognized as a magical genius, and he is also very talented in mathematics, but the formulas, words, and symbols written on the paper made him feel like he had never learned mathematics before. Feel!
What exactly was Douglas working on