"William didn't write a letter either."
Countess Elena de La Mole looked out the window at the bright red sunset, tapped the thick report, and complained softly.
William was away, and Sonia and Griffith were away on the war, so the big house was really empty. I am the only one left in the whole family, so lonely... Oh, wait a minute, Griffith isn't there yet, did I miss someone?
The countess thought carefully for a while and realized that she had left out her eldest son, Nolan.
Don't blame me, don't blame me, who made him play with his friends from morning to night and never go home! The countess stuck out her tongue slightly and prepared a divination ceremony on the silver plate at hand without any expectations. While waiting for the results, she rang the bell.
Mr. Ashford came in immediately with several servants. The Countess said to them:
"Please tell me more about the latest situation on the front line."
It's been bad news all this time. The social world is gloomy.
The great nobleman Duke Hermann Meyer defected, and his territory has become an independent principality under the protection of the clan alliance. This is ridiculous and incredible. The Beyeland army was flanked and lost nearly half of its troops. Teutoburg was surrounded, and the remaining troops almost lost their combat effectiveness. With the defeat of the Teutonic cluster, other border guards deployed on the border also retreated, and large areas fell into enemy hands.
The disastrous defeat spread like a disease from the Neck to the hinterland of the Odessa region. The refugees abandoned their homes and fled south. They lacked food and clothing and blocked the roads for retreat and counterattack.
Beyeland and Odessa blamed each other, and both believed that the other party should bear the main responsibility for the current situation.
There is a risk of total collapse of the Odessa front!
The Church of the Gods, headed by the Holy Light Holy See, is absorbing believers at an unprecedented rate...
The housekeeper of the Earl's Mansion took out the notepad from his waist, clamped the lenses on his eyes, and flipped through it: "Madam, it's a pity that today's battle report has not been received yet. The Earl's actions have not been made public; the troops of Governor Manggulus are in the process of The left wing outflanking the Teutonic cluster will encounter the young lady's troops. The girl from Anjou is also with the young lady.
"My lady's army is composed of defeated troops in pieces. She is supported by the Urenas family, but there are no senior officers or other high-ranking nobles. The current actual commander of the army is Griffith."
"Pay attention to the prince's movements. I want to know what he eats every day, how long he sleeps, and what he is thinking about," the countess said. Suddenly, she stopped and made a quiet gesture with her finger, "Wait a minute, what's the sound? "
It was like the sound of bells, mixed with the firing of salutes, coming from the direction of the Senate. The first salute resounded throughout the city, alerting citizens that an important event had occurred, followed immediately by the second.
"It's a salute from the Senate, ma'am," Mr. Ashford pricked up his ears. "Two shots are a sign of martial law in the city."
Elena immediately tapped the crystal on the table: "Echo Hub, connect to the Senate."
At this time, the third salute sounded. The expressions of Mr. Ashford and the servants suddenly brightened. Then, a communiqué from the Senate came from the echo crystal:
"Central News Agency, Bayerland News Agency, the following is the immediate communique of the Senate:
"On October 27, the brave and fearless Bayerland army achieved a brilliant victory at Berimion. After today's fierce battle during the day, Lord Mangrus Bloodaxe, who commanded the Tierne Front, and the troops under his command suffered a complete failure.
"The brutal orc butcher died in the rebel army. His army was resolutely pursued by our army. He was either killed or drowned in the river!
"Over eight thousand of the enemy were destroyed and captured."
The countess breathed a long sigh of relief after hearing the Senate's announcement. She nodded to the servants, and after they left, she contacted a high-status friend.
"Mrs. Modres, good evening, I am Elena, and I would like to express my warmest congratulations to the General and his victory... Well, Sonia only made some small contributions.
"Yes, yes, this is what I urgently want to know. My daughter is on the front line. I am really worried. Please tell me in detail!"
At this moment, the Countess caught a glimpse of her Ouija board out of the corner of her eye.
The confusing information since the beginning of the war is becoming clearer, and divination has given results for the first time. The mercury outlines a row of intricate patterns.
Elena happily examined the omens on the silver plate and talked absentmindedly to the general's wife. After a while, she realized that she could not understand what the divination was saying.
She considers herself to be a good occult scholar, but she can only understand sporadic fragments of omens. Among a large number of incomprehensible patterns, only a small section can be identified——
"Mysterious, enhanced".
…
Griffith felt like vomiting.
There are no longer any organized enemy troops on the battlefield. The cavalry troops dropped their breastplates and began to pursue the fleeing enemy.
Many troops from the clan alliance ran wildly to the east. Corpses chopped down by light cavalry were strewn across the fields. Countless warriors could no longer run and simply threw away their weapons and lay on the ground waiting to die.
By dusk, Beyelan's army killed more than 2,500 clan alliance troops in the battles at Stone Bridge and at the foot of the mountain, and captured nearly 3,000 prisoners. In addition to the battles at the ferry and Kazika Village in the past few days, the Tierne Front lost a quarter of its troops under Griffith alone. The general and a large number of officers were either killed or taken prisoner.
Groups of prisoners captured from various places were driven back across the stone bridge. Confiscated weapons, baggage and carriages piled up.
News of the victory is being conveyed to the Teutonic Centralized Command and the Senate as quickly as possible.
The entire army cheered Griffith. The members of the auxiliary corps who had just suffered a huge defeat a few days ago were in a state of extreme excitement. Even Alyosha, who had nothing to do with the war, was jumping up and down. Different voices repeated the same title, paying tribute to the commander and leader of this decisive battle.
"Eagle of Berimion!"
"The Eagle of Berimion—long live!"
Waves of cheers surged like a rolling tide. Griffith felt very uncomfortable for some reason. He was dizzy, his stomach was full of acid, and his mouth was bitter. He wanted Sonia to accept the cheers of the army, but the Countess and Galadia were immersed in the hazy joy of being drunk, their voices were hoarse from shouting, and they did not listen to his opinion at all. Instead, they pressed him on the saddle and asked him to He patrols the battlefield like the famous general in the story.
Severe discomfort spread throughout Griffith's body, and he found it difficult to even move his fingers.
"Geffy, what's wrong with you?" Krista noticed his discomfort and asked softly. Amidst the cheers dedicated to Griffith, she seemed to have completely shed her identity as a saint, relaxed and comfortable, and her beautiful smile eclipsed the sunset.
Griffith was almost lying on the horse's back. He couldn't straighten his back, and he didn't know how to explain to everyone that there was something wrong with his body. He could only touch his feet.
"The enemy, the enemy shot me in the toe, it really hurts."
"Yeah." Krista took off her iron gauntlet, put the healing power on her fist and punched him. Divine healing spread along the spinal cord and meridians, and for the first time in his life Griffith experienced the feeling of being blown apart.
He vomited a mouthful of blood on the spot, frightening Krista and the people around her and taking two steps back. The girl looked at her fist and felt that she couldn't understand it, so she gave him two more blows.
Griffith, who vomited blood, felt better inexplicably. He wiped the corners of his mouth, straightened his body, and accepted the cheers of the soldiers.
When he raised Hanguang high, all the artillery of the 603 Test Squadron fired at the same time, and the rumble of the artillery and the tide of cheers swept across the entire battlefield.
Griffith was surrounded by cheers. At this time, he seemed to be the center of the world. With his army, he could have the power to change the world.
He vaguely heard the sound of the door opening, and the surging psychic tide surged towards him, making him more powerful every second.
Griffith was shocked by his own power and gained amazing occult knowledge. Then, he saw the shadows of four knights approaching. The knights galloped. Horrible disasters came with their iron hooves, everything in the world was out of balance, the sun and the moon changed color, and then the world collapsed.
Griffith witnessed the astonishing vision, his eyes darkened, and he fell off his horse.
…
Violent reverberations pounded the brain, and close but incomprehensible murmurs lingered in the ears.
who I am?
I opened my eyes hard and saw the elegantly decorated bedroom, white sheets and soft bedding. A girl was lying on the bedside, her head buried in her white arms, her light blond hair hanging down. She was sitting on a chair next to the bed, wearing a light blue dress. The rounded curves of her chest and slender waist were pleasing to the eye. A hand moved the ends of her hanging hair, causing the girl to move. Well, this is my hand...
where am I?
The vision becomes clear. Newspapers were scattered on the small table next to the bed. The large headline read, "The heroic prince and the impregnable army march toward the Neck." Next to the newspaper was a small velvet box containing a shining medal. There is also a letter next to the medal. The lacquer seal has been opened, and a long list of titles is written on the letter paper:
"To His Excellency Knight Griffith de Ravenel, Knight of the Order of the Eagle with Oak Leaves and Two Swords, Eagle of Berimion, Captain of the Assault Squadron 2nd Class:
"The ceremony of investiture and canonization is scheduled to take place... Your Excellency can choose the fiefdom or annuity of Verona... Count Larmore will host a celebration banquet for you in Beyeland, and your leave will start from the date of receipt of this letter... "
Oh, I have a headache. Griffith rubbed his eyes, then pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. After realizing that he had not woken up from his dream, he tried to sit up and pinched himself again.
What am I doing?
The noisy chatter in his brain gradually subsided. Griffith once again came into contact with the power he had never experienced and a lot of occult knowledge. The huge information poured into his brain and the huge shock put him on the bed again.
Griffith lay humming for a while, and finally calmed down again. He struggled to get up again and flipped through a stack of newspapers on the table to get a feel for the situation.
The front page headline of this stack of newspapers is interesting. What I saw just now is a newspaper from before the war started, printed and distributed locally by the Odessa newspaper. As the battle progresses, the title becomes more and more terrifying.
"Betrayal, shameless betrayal! Meyer, who is as shameless as the goblins, betrayed us!"
"The army will turn into Firestone, and everything will be fine."
"Our army was annihilated at Firestone. Commodus, return the 2nd Odessa Auxiliary Corps to us!"
Some newspapers were carefully cut out and stuck on the notepad, with comments in beautiful handwriting next to them. It looked like they were made by Sonia.
It is not difficult to find from the newspapers these days that after hearing the news that the army was defeated and the orcs invaded the mainland, an atmosphere of panic filled Odessa. Most people didn't expect defeat to happen so suddenly and quickly. Soon, refugees from the north fled, tragic stories filled the newspapers, and the atmosphere of despair became even more solemn.
A full-page list of the dead, a series of annihilated troop numbers... Brutal sieges and massacres have almost become inevitable.
"Griffith, are you awake?" The Countess rubbed her eyes and sat up. She probably fell asleep while staying by her knight's side to give a briefing, and there were red sleep marks on her beautiful face. She began to talk in a daze, congratulating Griffith on becoming a knight, and telling him The squadron was given a few days' leave and replenishment.
While listening, Griffith flipped through the newspaper below and found that the content became unsightly.
"Poor cowards without faith hold hysterical orgies of whoredom."
"The bottomless madness breaks through the bottom line of human beings. Where is the rationality?!"
"A large number of cultists are spreading false news, and the city defense force has been dispatched."
Galadia once said that human beings only have so much reason, and it is not uncommon for their minds to be destroyed by the unknown and fear, and they become followers and puppets of evil gods.
Now it seems that this is really the case.
Tortured by panic and massive sacrifices, part of the Odessa population collapsed. Their naked carnival, falling into weird and all kinds of hysterical madness, is nauseating just to witness. According to the newspaper description, the men were "squirming like a swarm of worms."
"What's the matter with crawling like a bug?" The countess came over, read the newspaper, and curiously asked her knight, "Is it some kind of terrible transformation technique?"
"You don't want to know." Griffith patted the girl on the head, crumpled the newspaper into a ball and threw it away.
The next newspaper suddenly changed its tone. In the midst of extreme despair and sadness, the army won again. Thousands of enemies were wiped out, and the general who commanded the army was killed. The reversal of the situation was as sudden as the original tragedy, making it impossible to believe that it was the work of human beings.
The crying face was suddenly forced into a smiling face.
The newspaper headlines completely changed.
"Such a ridiculous script must be the will of the gods. It is a test of our faith!"
"All this is the merit of the Angevin girls!"
"The holy maiden commanded the army and completed an impossible counterattack after a series of defeats."
"Only the spokesperson of the Holy Light can turn the impossible into possible."
"The Supreme Saint will arrive in her pious Odessa today!"
Griffith trembled in horror. He found that he had been negligent. He made a fatal mistake. With the last glimmer of hope, he asked Sonia: "Where are we?"
"In Odessa, in the rooms of the summer palace!"
"Krista, where is Krista!?" Griffith jumped out of bed, desperately grabbed the breastplate and Han Guang, Judgment, and yelled, "Where is Galadia? My army is here where!"
Sonia was frightened by his expression and stammered: "Krista is in the square, blessing everyone. Galadia and the rangers are outside the city."
Griffith Knight practically stumbled out of the room. Karen and the maid outside the door were startled.
"Karen, take Sonia out of the city!" Griffiths draped his arms and ran wildly, gathering the troops heart-breakingly, "Storm, 603, assemble!"
The officers and sergeants immediately responded to him in the echo crystal. The echo was clear and everyone’s tone was calm.
"Yes, sir," Lean replied, "but we are receiving new recruits in the military camp outside the city. Ace, Joshua, Lansada and other priests are attending a rally in the square, and the 603 artillery team is still there. On the road, it’s a day’s journey.”
Griffith was desperate. He searched frantically for the body, but found nothing. Soon, he rushed out of the corridor and came to the balcony of the summer palace facing the square.
He saw hundreds of thousands of people kneeling on the ground devoutly, looking up at the balcony of the Holy Light Cathedral, like the undulating waves of the sea. The sunshine is warm and warm, creating a peaceful and peaceful scene.
Fortunately, it’s not too late! Griffith jumped down from the balcony, jumped on a group of horses and ran towards the girl. There are their own people there.
…
Bishop Kellain raised his hands solemnly: "Please ask the girls of Anjou to pray for us for the protection of the Holy Light."
A warrior who had lost his right leg came to Krista accompanied by a cleric. The noble extraordinary wizard Lord Seydlitz was so moved that he burst into tears, like a child with a lollipop. Lord Corvalen, the Punisher, looked at Krista on the balcony with a loving face, as if he was looking at his little daughter who was about to get married.
Bishop Horus Osiris, the Word Bearer from the provinces, and several extraordinary men from Odessa were trembling with excitement, their faces full of blissful joy. They knelt among soldiers, small businessmen, civilians and homeless people, as if they were all equal brothers.
Lanzada was also in the crowd. Beside her were Ace and Joshua, two boys who were happier and more religious than she was. Hundreds of thousands of believers and citizens who suffered from panic and lost their loved ones looked at the saint with expectant eyes, waiting for her blessing.
Amidst the sounds of prayer, she seemed to hear the captain's call.
"Stop the blessing, stop Krista!"
Krista? Who is Krista? Lanzada looked around blankly, not understanding what the captain meant. She looked up and saw the Angevin girl who had just appeared on the terrace, and was immediately attracted by her pure beauty.
The purest frankincense exudes a delicious aroma, and a cloud of it pours out from the second floor terrace of the Cathedral of the Holy Light. Angevin girls wear pure white robes decorated with gold threads. Twelve pure and beautiful girls from prominent Odessa families surrounded her.
Everything was silent, extremely deep, and only the sound of distant bells came from afar.
ah--! She is so beautiful, it makes people feel that it is a sin to look directly at her. How happy I would be if I could kneel in front of her. Gilles de Es was filled with tears, and a tear fell on Lansadad's hand. The remaining vigilance of the trainee nun was gone, and all other thoughts were forgotten.
The disabled warrior had already come to the saint and knelt down on one knee. The Anjou girl raised her hands in a solemn gesture of blessing.
Her words were short and touching.
“Never forget, my brothers and sisters, that you saw with your own eyes the greatest kingdom on earth saved by the Lord. Just as you saw an enemy as evil as the abyss defeated and destroyed. We are weak and tormented on earth. and killing, yet we have victory in heaven. My brothers and sisters, you will always remember this day, won't you? Hate those who blaspheme the Lord.
“You must remain true to Him so great, so terrible, yet so merciful.”
The Anjou girl has an awe-inspiring attitude, and her beauty and divine beauty transcends human beings.
She stretched out her white arms, as if inspired by the gods, and asked: "Do you promise me?"
"We agree." The girls said, with tears streaming down their faces.
Hundreds of thousands of believers wept and swore repeatedly.
"In the name of the terrible Lord, I accept your promise!" Bishop Kelian's voice was thunderous. Lord Seydlitz was crying until he almost passed out.
The disabled soldier felt that his body was heating up, and his lost right leg seemed to be healing. He was filled with ecstasy, a warrior filled with anticipation.
He was so overwhelmed by the joy brought by the blessing that he stood up and wanted to cheer.
However, after a while, he felt that his body was becoming stiff and dry. There was a dark cloud of gloom and terror on the faces of his brothers and sisters who were watching him eagerly.
Beside the saint, two girls who were relatively close to him fainted and fell to the ground.
"What's wrong with you guys? Is there something on my face?"
The veteran felt his face was itchy, so he stretched out his hand to touch it. When he looked down, he saw that his palm was covered with slices of flesh and human skin. There was a rustling sound in his ears, and the flesh and blood on his body peeled off like snow flakes, forming wriggling flesh buds and death-gray tentacles. The tentacles raised up and rotated like snakes, facing hundreds of thousands of believers, slowly split open, and viscous blood-colored liquid flowed out.
In the cracks that were oozing pus like scars, eyeballs appeared one by one, squirming, watching the believers.
The devout believers stared at this scene with dumbfounded eyes. Lansada in the crowd was originally wrapped in joy and blessings, but suddenly fell into extremely cold despair and fear.
Everyone's first reaction was that they had a nightmare.
Krista was suddenly startled awake. The countless voices and thoughts that had been entangled in her disappeared. She regained her consciousness from the haziness and illusion, and looked at the large group of tentacles squirming in front of her in horror. Terrified, she took a step back and looked around. The horrified believers looked up at her, and everyone who met her eyes began to crack, mutate, and sprout flesh sprouts, tentacles, and eyeballs.
Pieces of tentacles bloomed among the crowd like flowers on the grass. Bloody, sticky tentacles covered with dense hair and pieces of flesh surged among the crowd. They grab the nearest living person and begin to fuse and devour them.
Bishop Corian, Bishop Horus Osiris, Lord Seydlitz and other transcendent beings have fled like rabbits.
The screams of terror were deafening. The believers of the Holy Light and the clergy who stayed at the scene saw the terrifying monsters appear one after another, and they fled in panic or shouted incoherently.
"That woman, she brought the monster, she is a monster and a liar!"
"She's the devil!"
This is not the end. Amidst the hysterical screams, a shadow that cannot be described in words appeared behind the "Saint Girl".
Truth replaces falsehood. A certain existence has been waiting for everyone, waiting for the moment when faith reaches its purest climax.
In the dark, Lanzada and his companions heard the sound of the dice falling to the ground. Everyone felt as if a gap had opened in their heads, and the fear, anger and despair caused by betrayal and deception surged out.
They seemed to have seen a dice. It was so weird that it was indescribable and weird that should not exist in this world. The die has one hundred sides, with numbers from 1 to 100 written on them.
Everyone gets their number, and their wills break down.
Immediately afterwards, the second dice fell.
The citizens of Odessa witnessed a scene of madness and the most evil deception. They knew at this moment that their sanity was losing and slipping towards madness——
"1-100"
