There are still many fugitives like Aya, but fortunately, they have enough food-in any case, when nearly half of the population of the empire has died, the food reserves are more than enough to feed them.
Most of the time, Aya only needs to be courageous, go to those villages that have become dead places, and the reclaimed land, and she can search for food from house to house, which is why she can stay in the team, after all It is still very dangerous to come into contact with those corpses and houses with dead people, and few people are willing to do this.
However, when this year's grain reserves are exhausted, the next year's famine will become a problem, because there are no farmers to cultivate for a long time. This plague has caused great damage to the social order of Zacatecaz.
Of course, now I only pray for the natives who can live through tomorrow, and few people can think of this.
"Ah... Ayeshasna! Ayeshasna is here..."
At this time, there was a commotion in front of the team, which made Aya grasp her brother's arm tightly.
When they heard the name Aye Sasna, the faces of both siblings tightened.
Among the fleeing people, the pursuit of the imperial army and the danger in the wild are just trivial matters, what really makes them nervous is the attack of the disease!
In the language of the natives, Ayeshas has the meaning of 'unfathomable, ubiquitous devil', and also means the attack of illness.
"Has anyone caught the plague in front?"
Aya has seen several people who were walking well on the road, but suddenly coughed up black blood and passed out on the road, which already meant the coming of death.
The two siblings walked away from the crowd of onlookers, and could only vaguely see a small figure lying in the snow, and the fleeing people on both sides avoided it as if they were avoiding a trap.
"It's Aduldul, I played with him a few days ago..."
Aya's younger brother made a surprised sound, and then lowered his head.
At the moment when the illness struck, life seemed so fragile, Aya could only hug her brother's head tightly, and comforted her softly.
These fugitives were already numb to death, and after bypassing the position of the corpse, the large team slowly moved forward again.
Aya recalled the fallen figure, and she also sighed in her heart: "It's almost to Castle Hope... It's a pity to fall here..."
"I will definitely not let my brother fall to that point. After passing this mountain range... it will be the sphere of influence of Fort Hope..."
Aya cheered herself up secretly.
And at this moment, there was commotion at the back of the team, and dense human voices began to spread to the surroundings, causing huge chaos.
"Has anyone else fallen ill? No! It's..."
Aya's pupils shrank.
"It's the Imperial Army! This group of damn things, come back with me!"
A strong native man stood up, holding a harpoon specially used for spearing fish, and other strong native men also had weapons in their hands.
When the men all contributed their strength, the other old and weak immediately scattered and fled.
Aya also fled desperately with her younger brother, avoiding the pursuit of the imperial army behind.
For the mass loss of population in the territory, any upper-level dignitaries could not bear it, and even in the case of rampant epidemics, they ordered the troops in various strongholds to stop these refugees.
Of course, the problem of how to rescue these refugees trapped in their own land is not something that the rich and powerful worry about.
Originally, for this kind of task, even the army of the native empire was not very willing to perform it, let alone fear of the spread of the plague.
However, after a certain oracle, almost all guardian spirits and totems joined hands to prevent the refugees from entering the sphere of influence of Fort Hope.
"Come on..."
The faint sound of hacking and killing came from behind, which made Aya's heart tighten tightly, and she could only keep running away with her younger brother.
However, at this moment, she suddenly felt a weight on her hand, and behind her came the dull sound of a heavy object colliding with the snow.
"What's wrong? Did you fall down? Get up quickly! Ah!"
Aya turned her head and saw her brother fell in the snow, she immediately turned around and turned the other person's body over, but then, she saw that her brother had fallen into a coma, and the black blood around her was so dazzling .
"He was also entangled with illness..."
For a moment, this thought flashed across Aya's heart, and then two lines of tears flowed down uncontrollably.
Aya didn't care about the possible infection, she stepped forward and hugged her younger brother into her arms: "Save him... who will save him..."
The sound of killing was getting closer and closer, but there was hope in Aya's eyes: "There are priests in the army, he must be able to use God's magic to save my brother..."
"Be careful, he's infected..."
Soon, the imperial army chased after them, and the others looked at the apparently infected siblings lying in the snow, with fear on their faces and did not dare to step forward.
"I beg you! Help my brother!" Aya unconsciously wanted to step forward, but was immediately forced back by a long spear: "Don't come over..."
Many guards dispersed one after another, forming a circle to surround her in the center, as if guarding against a monster.
"Hurry up and call the priests and officers, there is a source of infection here!"
This kind of coldness and determination suddenly caused the girl's heart to sink slowly.
With the sound of horseshoes, the officers and priests wearing colorful feathers arrived here soon.
When they saw the unconscious brother Aya in the snow and the black blood on the ground, the faces of these two people became ugly.
"Shoot 'em quickly! Throw on dry wood and burn this place down!"
An order was passed down, which cruelly took away Aya's last hope.
"Brother... I'm sorry..."
The girl's tears fell drop by drop on her brother's cheeks and neck, and then she slowly closed her eyes.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sound of bows and arrows kept coming, but there was no pain felt strangely.
Aya opened her eyes in astonishment, and then saw a feathered arrow hit the neck of the opposite officer, and the end of the arrow was still trembling, like a little snake trying to get into the ground.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
The sound of shouting and killing continued, and shadowy figures appeared in the surrounding dense forest.
"An army of alien gods..."
The priest's face changed drastically, and he rode his horse and turned around to leave. The other natives abandoned the spears in their hands one after another, and they were also in a collapsed situation.
"It's from Fort Hope!!!" Aya hugged her younger brother and walked towards the group of pastors who suddenly appeared: "Good and merciful people... Please help..."
Boom! Too much physical strength and energy have been consumed, and even Aya, who was also infected, also collapsed.
Before the consciousness completely fell into darkness, a faint voice came: "It's a pair of civilians! Lady Barbara..."
…
The warm feeling came, and Aya seemed to have strength in her limbs.
She slowly opened her eyes, and then saw a warm bonfire, and the huge tent blocked the cold outside.
"What's your name? How do you feel?"
A similar native girl sat beside her bed and asked, she had long black hair and pupils, and a golden mark on her forehead, emitting a holy light.
"My name is Aya, thank you for saving me!"
Aya thanked her with a blushing face, and then her expression changed: "My brother? Where is my brother?"
"Don't worry! He's here too, it's just that he's been infected for a long time and must receive further treatment..."
Saint Barbara stopped Aya from struggling: "This is Fort Hope... you are safe..."
Three days later, Aya, who had recovered some of her physical strength, came out of the tent where her younger brother was with a happy face, looked at the giant winged snake statue in the town not far away, knelt down sincerely, and prayed.
"Great god! Thank you for saving my brother. From now on, Aya will be your devout believer..."
Scenes like this happened in every corner around Fort Hope.
And wave after wave of firm and fanatical power of faith also kept falling into Leylin's hands.
"The number of believers has increased again! It seems that sending troops to the surrounding borders to pick up refugees is indeed the right decision!"
The divine sense was withdrawn from the line of faith just now, and Leylin looked at other statistics.
Due to the hope of healing and the gains from various attacks, the area centered on Fort Hope has gathered more than 300,000 indigenous people.
Under the influence of saving their lives, these people's faith and gratitude towards Leylin are still very sincere.
But to solidify the line of belief of this part of the indigenous people, and make them become devout believers, pray and worship regularly, it is necessary to work hard on Tifa and the pastors.
"According to this situation, as long as this group of people is completely digested, it is not a problem to ignite the fire, and it is almost enough to be promoted to the true god..."
There was faint excitement in Leylin's eyes.
Along with the expansion of Fort Hope, especially the demise of several surrounding tribes, Leylin also seized the divinity of many totem spirits.
With the help of these divinities, the killing power in his body has boiled to an extreme, and his whole body has a faint feeling that it is about to burn.
At this time, no matter who it was, they could see a layer of sacred golden light on Leylin's body. This was the external manifestation that the divine power had completely merged with him and had been amplified to the extreme.
Not only that, nearly a million natives died, and Leylin also initially came into contact with the power of the death domain. Although he only got a part of the information, and the chip could not be completely digitized, the progress was already very fast.
"This wave of refugee admissions is over, it's time to start the next round of war..."