Marissa didn't notice the solemn atmosphere and continued, "...Thanks to my saving a hand, I hid the evidence in a safe place before I was caught. It was covered with a camouflage circle, so they would definitely not be able to find it. However, that magic has a time limit, so you have to get it back quickly... come..."
As she was speaking, she suddenly staggered and became unsteady. Pullman rushed over and held her shoulders.
Marissa's clothes were soaked with sweat. She was obviously enduring severe pain and her serious injuries had not healed. Pullman's eyebrows knitted together in distress, "Don't be brave, little Martha, you have to continue to recuperate. We'll just go and get the evidence."
Marisa gasped, shook her head and said, "No, you idiots don't know how to use magic at all. Let alone disarming the illusion mechanism, you won't even be able to see the box. And on the enemy's territory, there are a large group of people with guns. Men are looking for things everywhere, and even a blind man can tell that something is wrong. There is no time, we must get the evidence back before the bad guys do!..."
As a rare magical talent among the rebels, Marisa has fully proven her accurate intuition befitting her age in countless missions. Although they were unwilling to accept it, the soldiers all admitted that she was right. Time is running out. Once the evidence is found by the enemy first, all previous efforts will be in vain.
Although everyone was very worried, in the end they couldn't get over Marissa and had to agree to her going to collect the evidence collected near the church in person.
Marissa thought it was not good to have too many people, so she only asked Pullman to come with her, while the others stayed at the inn on standby. At this time, the sun had set in the east. After dressing up, the two of them carefully left the inn and came to the street under the cover of night. He walked through the neighborhood, bypassed the patrolling guards, and quietly reached the area near the clock tower.
Marissa hid the evidence under an inconspicuous corner masonry. The place was not surprising, but the key was the magic runes covered on it. This is also one of the preparations that Marisa brought from the Xishan Armory for the sake of safety. It uses Defias' space key stone technology and is not just an ordinary illusion mechanism. Without the correct sealing stone and password, most people would not notice anything even if they stepped directly on it or even touched it. Over the past few days, the nun must have dug deep into the surrounding area, but she still couldn't find it. That was why.
Since the siege outside the city had begun, most of the guards were sent to the front lines to stop the rebels, and the number of troops in the city shrank instantly. The recovery process went smoothly. After dispelling the illusion and obtaining the evidence, Pullman suddenly became acutely aware of the sound of dense footsteps. He immediately picked up Marissa, and with the wind at his feet, he climbed up the wall silently and jumped to the roof of one side of the house.
Not long after, a group of guards walked up in formation and stopped below. The two of them held their breath. After talking for a while, the soldiers took out a strange scale-like magic tool and began to measure around.
They measured almost the entire street, and finally came to a point on the opposite side of the road where the balance of the scales was broken. The soldiers stopped and dug a deep hole on the spot, not knowing what they were doing.
At first, Pullman thought these soldiers were also looking for evidence. Fortunately, they arrived early. But then I saw some people who looked like engineering mages escorting the cart over, asking the soldiers to lift out the heavy rune engraved in the cart and put it into the deep pit that had been dug; only then did I realize that this was another time in recent days. Those strange projects that I have seen repeatedly.
Because they were far away, they couldn't hear what the other party was saying. Although these people were hiding day and night, they were very suspicious, and they didn't know what they were up to; but now there was a more critical task, the evidence had been obtained, and it was not suitable to stay here for a long time. Pullman planned to leave it alone and retreat first.
However, Marissa didn't intend to leave. Her intuition told her that this kind of sigil and project was not simple.
She saw something, pointed to an officer with short blond hair and a scar on his face among the soldiers, and said to Pullman, "I recognize this guy. It was he who led me when I disguised myself as a busty correspondent and sneaked into the town hall to get intelligence. A large group of people came to catch me. I almost didn't escape, and in the end I had to burn that expensive illusion coat."
Pullman broke into a cold sweat after hearing this and said, "Little Martha, you have really experienced a lot of dangers. You should have listened to the gang leader earlier and withdrawn in time."
Marissa said disdainfully, "What's the matter! That fool was so fooled by my serial explosion array that he didn't even recognize me in front of me, and I took the opportunity to stick a bug on my glove. Oh, by the way, monitoring. The crystal is here, let me see if it still works."
Taking out the crystal ball, Marissa adjusted the signal. After a while, intermittent sounds came out;
"...We are facing a formidable enemy, and the rebels are about to invade. Why do we bury these iron blocks everywhere and not let others see them?"
"Those technicians have nothing to do. They can just point their fingers. We have to do the heavy work. We have to dig holes in the middle of the night."
"By the way, what is that woman's background? She is a nun, but she has so many engineering mages as her subordinates. Even the mayor obeys her."
"Hey, who cares? The mayor's wife has been back to Alvin's family for a long time, right? How can a bulldozer in the west live up to such a famous name if he doesn't plow the ground three feet away?"
A slightly hoarse voice came from the scarred officer; "Don't whisper to each other. The commander has his own reasons for giving orders. As soldiers, we should obey unconditionally and don't need to consider anything else."
Although Pullman was worried that he might be discovered if he continued to stay, Marissa insisted on continuing to see what these guys were doing.
After a while, it seemed that the talisman had been placed, and two engineering mages came forward to direct the soldiers to complete the follow-up projects;
"The coordinate points, orientation and orientation must not be wrong at all!" "... Next, the base of the facility will be poured. Has the mixer arrived?" "The array must be made strictly according to the recipe, crystal crown, dragon horn, crystal core, borax ...The ratio is 3:1:5:7, check again!" "When pouring the formation eye, the anchor points should be poured into the mortar in a rhombus-shaped pattern, and arranged downwards in a funnel shape, and there must be no mistake!" …
The project lasted for nearly an hour. Two mages, or engineering technicians, kept checking the steps and progress and directing the soldiers to work. The sounds of the operation of various instruments and magic tools continued to come from the eavesdropping crystal, mixed with the constant complaints of the soldiers.
Until the bug completely exhausted its magic power, the construction was finally completed. The soldiers, under the instructions of the engineering technicians, covered the soil as it was, and the ground was as smooth as ever. After finishing, they headed to the next location.
Pullman observed for a while to make sure that the other party had gone away. There are at least ten teams working on projects like this at the same time. In the past few days, he has seen dozens or hundreds of them, spread across every corner of the town.
He didn't understand those professional magic terms, and after thinking for a moment, he felt that the soldiers might be setting up some kind of surveillance or defense mechanism. This kind of thing is not surprising in a war. Just report it to the headquarters and let the siege troops pay more attention to it.
Pullman planned to take Marissa away and return to the inn. He tugged, but did not move the girl. The latter was lying motionless on the ground, his head seemed to be running at high speed, and he kept talking to himself;
"Crystal crown, crystal core, borax, dragon horn. Casting base, rhombus pattern, funnel-shaped downward structure... I seem to have heard of it somewhere."
