Accompanying Sagina to Ice Knife City is just a side trip. Our real mission here is to find the old empire commander Odysseus who is gradually recovering. In fact, according to common sense, as an officer, Odysseus should take the initiative to report to his emperor after waking up, instead of us personally responding. It’s always time to find something to do, and Odysseus has not fully recovered yet, and he cannot leave the Arctic Field for the time being. In order to start the next work as soon as possible, I naturally don’t mind making a trip in person—of course The main reason is... It hurts when I'm idle.
We have already left Iceblade City, and we are standing on the deserted gravel wilderness more than ten kilometers away from the city. Aurelia and Alaya have lifted their invisibility. The former is "looking" at the direction of the ice field and listening intently. The cold wind blowing from the ice field caused her wings and hair to flutter slightly. This place is located on the border, does not enter the ice sheet belt, and is blocked by layers of mountains. The power of the cold wind has weakened a lot. It can be said that it is the last relatively "warm" place in the extreme north. Behind the strange pressure zone of the "Storm Wall" is the territory of the storm giant, the Great Ice Field of the Northland, which is difficult for ordinary people to set foot in. The signal from Odysseus came from that direction. According to Alleria, the signal was very unstable. , seems to have been hit hard.
"I can only determine the approximate location. I'm afraid he hasn't reorganized all his information," Alleria finally stopped "listening", her tone full of doubts. "I don't know which link went wrong. He seems to have been seriously injured. I watched him fall into a dormant state. At that time, all the commanders were in good condition... The problem must have come from the tens of thousands of years later, during my deep sleep. .”
"Go to him, no matter how injured you are, let's heal first," I said slowly, looking at a bright silver line at the end of the sky. Then he turned his head and looked at the two half-dragon girls following behind him, "I heard that after crossing the storm wall, the temperature will drop to a level that is difficult for ordinary people to understand. Do you still want to follow?"
Sagina hesitated, her smooth scaly tail dangled involuntarily because of her mood swings, but accidentally touched a cold stone on the ground, and immediately bounced with excitement. With a bitter face, he said, "But I don't want to give up halfway and just go back to the City of Angels. I'm worried about being scolded by Lord Dragon God."
No. That soft dragon god was born to be blamed, you don’t have to worry about it at all—but I still didn’t say this, I just glanced at Sona, the other party made up his mind, prayed a few words in a low voice, and put on his body Then a light golden halo was covered: "Let's go, if you can't even stand this low temperature, you don't have to think about the revival of the half-dragon people-Sakina. Don't be sour, don't be angry because of the recent days. If you have no worries about food and clothing, you will really become Miss Jiao."
"Not at all!" Sagina's tail straightened immediately. Then he also put on a shield for himself in a similar manner.
After a short space teleportation, we came directly to the border. And stop before a wondrous and eerie spectacle: The Stormwall, a legendary test and barrier for mortals by storm giants.
The storm wall is an endless curtain of twisted air, which divides the ice field and the outside world into two worlds. After crossing this layer of twisted air, the icy and snowy ice field is just in front of everyone. I couldn't see the thickness of the barrier, so I touched it carefully: "Hey, it looks like a layer of water."
"This is a barrier fixed by an eternal spell." Alleria saw the essence of this thing at a glance. "The function of this magic is very simple, it is used to block airflow and heat exchange. Without it, I'm afraid All humans here will be swallowed by the cold wind, Odysseus must have created this subconsciously in his sleep state to imprison his storm giant avatar... By the way, this magic is actually invisible, this The layer of distorted light curtain is just an identification layer covering the outside of the magic array, and its function is to allow mortals to see where the barrier's cordon is, so as to prevent people from entering by mistake."
I nodded as if I understood, and stepped forward.
It feels... It's really like crossing a layer of soft and wavy water, with almost no obstacles. This layer of twisted air really has no protective effect at all, and its function is only to weaken the cold air from the ice sheet. After crossing this barrier, I felt as if I had suddenly entered another world, and what was blowing head-on was the biting cold wind that was not available on the other side of the barrier.
The temperature seems to have dropped by more than ten degrees all of a sudden. There is hard frozen soil under the feet, and the icy wind is facing the face. There is only a layer of air barrier that does not exist, but the two sides are diametrically opposite. Few people in the room would not care about this temperature change, but I still rubbed my hands subconsciously: "Wow, I know why this place is called a restricted area for life."
"It's so cold!!!" Despite being protected by the power of the dragon god, Sagina jumped on the spot, exclaimed in a low voice, and then looked at her tail distressedly, "It feels like the tail is frozen hard, if How nice to have clothes for the tail..."
"I heard that the Gudel royal family is the only mortal race living behind this storm wall," Lin Xue said, "They are gifted by the storm giants, they can ignore the cold wind here, the deeper the ice sheet, the lower the temperature, the storm The more violent, according to the strength and status of the Gudel royal family, the closer the core members live to the throne of the storm giant - I am surprised, the more I listen, the more I feel that this race is not right, and it can stand the depths of the ice sheet. Leaving aside the weird low temperature, what do they eat here?"
"Maybe..." Qianqian suddenly pointed to a whirlwind not far ahead, "They don't need to eat..."
The whirlwind was blowing, and the speed was getting faster and faster. No one noticed when the gust of wind appeared, but it didn't seem to be a natural product. Our attention was attracted by it, and then we watched as it swept across The ice chips and snow on the ground gradually formed a blurred human figure at the core, after a few seconds. The whirlwind gradually subsided, and a crystal-clear human-shaped "ice sculpture" made of crushed ice and snowflakes appeared in front of our eyes, and we could vaguely tell that it was a strong male.
"You are the noble ones mentioned by God."
There was a voice from the body of the "Ice Sculpture" mixed with the sound of shaking crystals. This strange creature took off his hat to salute us - but he didn't wear a hat, so he broke off half of his head and held it on his chest instead of a hat , "Please follow me, the incarnation of God is waiting not far ahead."
Alleria nodded to me, indicating that she had also received a communication from Odysseus. The strange ice sculpture in front of him is the messenger sent by the latter: this messenger is really quite unorthodox.
"Are you from the Gudel family?" Lin Xue looked at the other party curiously, her eyes couldn't help dangling on the half of the latter's chest, "Then what, push your head back first, look at the strange diaphragm Responsive."
"Yes," said the crystal-clear icebreaker clattering, mending his head. "I'm sorry, the Goodalls are not used to the etiquette and behavior of physical people. When we appear in the outside world, we rely on rigid illusions or puppets. You are the first batch of strangers to see our true colors."
"It turned out to be an elemental creature... Well, I seem to understand what is going on with these northern states. After a long time, they are ruled by a group of elemental creatures. It seems that Odysseus has a lot to explain to us. " Lin Xue patted her head and followed the ice-cracking man who was walking, and we all looked at each other and followed behind.
The Gudel who led us walked very fast. And as he walked, ice slag fell down, and he didn't go far until he was worn down to only his big crotch. Then the other party apologized to us and summoned a small whirlwind again. Drawing crystal clear ice chips from the nearby ice and frozen soil to repair his legs, he explained while repairing: "The Gudels are good at the power of ice, snow and storms, but they are not very used to sports. If it is not necessary to maintain the barrier With the control of the mortal kingdoms, we won't even take half a step out of the barrier... Well, let's talk as we walk."
We followed behind this strange elemental creature, and while watching him drop ice slag, we asked, "By the way, what's your name?"
"Goodell, we are all called Goodell." The Ice Breaker said clatteringly.
"You maintain a loose country outside this barrier... Is this what the storm giant means?" Lin Xue asked curiously, then pointed to the body of the Ice Breaker and reminded, "Then what, your right hand fell off."
"Oh, oh, it doesn't affect, it doesn't affect—the storm giant? That's indeed what the people outside call our god, and it's true that he ordered us to establish an order outside the barrier, but that's just to maintain one thing, and to maintain it needs to come from The resources of the outside world, the Gudel people themselves are not very good at this. For a long time, we have used the smarter beasts outside the ice field to complete this work. Later, when mortals came to the ice field, the gods taught us knowledge, established order, and used Mortal hands gather tribute."
I couldn't help but think of the legend about Gudel that I heard before: this powerful and reclusive race established a loose country on the border of the ice sheet, and the requirements of the city-states were all kinds of strange tributes. They used the power from the storm giants to maintain this However, no one knows what they want these tributes for: after all, the storm giant is just an elemental creature, and elemental creatures do not need material tributes, and the Gudel in front of him seems to be revealing this secret.
I don't know if it's my intuition, but I became interested in their strange behavior: "What are you maintaining?"
The icebreaker stopped, and after a few seconds of silence, he said, "A seal can only tell you so much. Only God himself knows the specific things."
The other party seemed to have no intention of continuing to explain, and it was inconvenient for me to ask: Anyway, that Odysseus is about to fully wake up, and the other party will definitely tell us everything.
We advanced in the ice field for about half an hour. The further we went, the stronger the icy wind became, and snowflakes began to flutter in the air—ice particles were mixed in the middle, and the temperature had dropped to minus 100 degrees, even It may be lower. This temperature is obviously not the low temperature that this planet can naturally produce. There is only one explanation for this. We are approaching the power range of the storm giant. And just after turning around a small cliff, a vault-shaped frozen building suddenly appeared in front of everyone.
If this is the palace of the "royal family" of Gudel. Then it's just too... shabby.
The vaulted building is only tens of meters in diameter, and its shape is a bit like an Eskimo igloo, but it is bigger and flatter—the second feature should be to resist the howling cold wind. Around this igloo, we didn't see any other man-made traces, not even a second Gudel, everything was so crude and abrupt. In fact, there was a big gap from what I had expected before, but the icebreaker who led the way pointed to the front door of the igloo: "God is inside, please come in."
Lin Xue stuck out her tongue at me: "How much more can you ask for things made by elemental creatures?" Then we stepped into the igloo, and we followed each other, followed by Sakina and Sona who could barely open their eyes.
The igloo is as simple as expected, in fact, the building has no structure at all except the outer shell. The only furnishings in sight were a set of crystal clear tables and chairs in the center of the room, and a two-foot-square crystal cube was placed on the table. The cube is projecting a blurry image.
As soon as Sakina came in, she immediately ran to the corner of the room. He took out a few pieces of charcoal and prepared to light a fire: finally there was no cold wind here, and she and Sona could finally get a little warmer.
"Odysseus? How did you become like this?" Alleria "looked" in amazement at the crystal cube on the table in the center of the room, and her words surprised everyone.
"Huh? This is really Odysseus?" I was completely surprised, pointing to the crystal on the table, "Isn't this a projection device?"
"Because of some unexpected circumstances, this subordinate can only maintain very low-intensity activities for the time being," said a thick and powerful baritone voice from the crystal cube. "I'm very sorry, this subordinate was unable to go to the City of Angels to report immediately. This subordinate has already learned all about the situation from Aurelia. Salute to you, Your Majesty the Emperor. And Lady Fanna, Lady Reki, very much Nice to meet you again."
"Uh, hello," I said awkwardly. It seemed rude to call the other party a projector just now, but since the other party already understands most of the situation, it saves a lot of trouble in communication, at least there is no need to introduce myself, "I I heard from Alleria that something is wrong with you, and now it seems... It's more serious than expected, how about your body?"
"Please rest assured that the subordinate's body will be repaired soon. This is just to minimize the disturbance to the seal. The subordinate is maintaining the operation of the system and cannot transfer too much power to the outside of the system."
"Seal? System?" I suddenly felt that the other party seemed to have a lot of things that we didn't know, maybe even Aurelia didn't know, "What do you mean?"
"The seal, the seal of the heart of the world, the heart of the world of the capital universe is preserved in the extreme north," Odysseus' voice sounded immediately, "this is a secret mission, and only three people know about it, His Majesty the Emperor, Lei Master Ji, and my subordinates..."
"Now you are the only one who knows that sister Chen Qian and I... that is, your late emperor, have lost our memories of those years," Lin Xue said while pulling me to the table to sit down, and then jumped up again Get up, "Wow! It's so cold! Is this really made of ice?"
"... Goodell is an incomplete creation, and he is still an elemental creature. They don't know much about races other than their own," Odysseus's voice sounded awkward. It’s incredible to maintain the state of civilization tens of thousands of years ago.”
"Tens of thousands of years ago?" I noticed a word keenly, "That is to say, before you hibernate, these Gudels were born?"
"They were created by my subordinates, and this is also part of the secret mission," Odysseus said slowly, "responsible for hiding the heart of the world. As long as the heart of the world does not leave this world before the situation stabilizes, the mission will be completed." finished."
Heart of the world... Heart of the world... These four words echoed in my mind, and then suddenly, another four words jumped into my mind like lightning: Fallen Apostle!
So far, the only thing I can think of that is connected to the Heart of the World and at the same time related to the Empire is the Fallen Apostles. Only they will continue to collect the Heart of the World, and only they are planning to use the Heart of the World to To complete their ulterior "great cause", but I have calculated everything, and I never thought that in this world, in this world completely separated from the fallen apostles, I would hear such news. This... logically does not make sense!
This world is like a snapshot, preserving the situation on the eve of the fall of the empire. For this currently closed universe, the fallen apostles are completely unknown. It is impossible for Odysseus to know that his compatriots will become fallen apostles , let alone knowing that one day he will have to protect the Heart of the World from those fallen apostles, so what is his secret mission...
With a move in my heart, I looked at Lin Xue.
"This is an extreme secret that Lady Reki confessed before the mother planet fell asleep. The specific reason is not clear to the subordinates, but she has clearly stated that she wants to avoid a dark future and must not let the heart of the world fall into any possibility. hand of the enemy."
"And the current state of the subordinate is to complete this task."
Odysseus added.
I quickly calmed myself down and organized what Odysseus told me. Obviously, what he knew was limited, because the prophet could not tell others what he saw, but one thing was certain: in On the eve of the severance of the concept of the mother star, the chief prophet of the 15th sky area, that is, Lin Xue's previous life "Reki", had already foreseen the birth of the fallen apostle—or maybe she was not sure about the situation of the fallen apostle, but she at least knew The Heart of the World will be used in a dark and dangerous plan, so she informs her emperor and secretly entrusts Odysseus with the extremely secret task of hiding the Heart of the World - which involves An attention-getting detail: Odysseus's mission was so secret that it had to be kept secret from other Xiling apostles, even Alleria didn't know about it!
That is to say, whether she knows the reason for the Fallen Apostles or not, at least at that time, Reki already felt that her compatriots would no longer be trustworthy... RQ