In the spring of 721 in the dark calendar.

The Southern Dark Council and the Northern Freedom Alliance collaborated to send Thor to Hell with the self-detonation magic of three sixth-order mages.

After Thor was given the head, with the strength of the Eighth Order of the Marshal of the Freedom Alliance at that time, he could actually easily recover the territory of the Free City. But Hivank didn't do that then, because it didn't fit the underlying rules between the continent's realms.

Victory in the form of a territorial battle is the only way to better control people's hearts, rather than relying on personal killings to make people fearful.

Just like Thor and their attack on the Harlowville Territory at the beginning, with the individual strength of the three of Thor Steint Diler at that time, in fact, they could wipe out the management of the Hallower Territory with the strength of just three people.

But Thor and they did not do that either, but did not hesitate to deploy supplies and manpower to take the territory in the form of a primitive battle. If the people's hearts are temporarily suppressed by killing, it will only sow the seeds of rebellion in the future, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the territory.

To put it bluntly, the territorial battle is not just the end of the other people's high-level battles, sometimes it is decent, that is, it is to show the people below, an act of showing off military strength. The display of the display will give rise to the idea of the people below standing in line honestly.

Although Marshal of the Union did not take action personally, it does not mean that he has spared Free City. It is said that last year, Arrantis, the main city of the north, once instigated other territories to attack the city of freedom, preparing to pull out the nail.

At that time, the enemy didn't take much advantage in the end, and later, when the ghosts of the continent were raging, Arlantis temporarily retracted his tentacles.

Sometimes the general trend is like this, if it was a few years ago, the nobles of the north might still pay attention to the long-term interests, and constantly send troops around the free city to fight until you fall, they will never allow different voices to exist in their own territory.

Now that the ghosts of the continent are raging, even the iron-headed adventurers will no longer run around, let alone the effective combat power in the hands of the nobles themselves. When everyone is in danger, no one wants to come to fight the city of freedom, and the city of freedom has become a piece of chicken ribs on the border that is not even meat.

The nobles who could keep up with the intelligence knew very well that all the wealth of the Free City was in Thor's hands. He took away a huge amount of money from the hands of the major families of Byron Bian, the royal capital of the knight's country, and under the nose of Princess Caroline, that is the real big money.

It would not be enough to say that he had plundered the wealth of the entire Byron Bian, but more than 600,000 silver wolves were converted to at least 700 dragons.

Without Thor, the Free City itself would be nothing more than a pile of rags on the border. Even if it is full of money and made an appraisal, the house cannot be taken away, and the tax revenue will not be paid up until a few years later, so it is better to throw it there first than to spend a lot of military money to fight some free city.

This is the reason why the Free City has survived to this day, and it is also the reason why the Holy See of Light has been able to breathe. At least the Holy Lady Ellesa was right, there were many things that Arrantis didn't know, they were just too busy to keep their hands on it.

Now the general situation has blocked the temporary crisis of the Free City, but the Union Marshal Hivank has not given up. After he returned, he instigated other lords in his family's sphere of influence close to Liberty City, and then a lord who coveted profit sent troops to attack, but he was not defeated.

Syvank, who was busy with territorial affairs, didn't care either, and directly issued a recruitment order in Arrantis. claims that regardless of your background and past, and whether you are an outcast, or a criminal, as long as you have a certain strength, you can take the initiative to carry the flag to the city of freedom to destroy and harass.

Svanck's strategy is simple, if Free City is a nail in the north, then he will nail it in the Free City.

Without Thor, there would be no bones left in the Free City itself, nothing more than a group of stubborn people.

It was at that time that Bariel appeared, took the recruitment order from Svank, and became a nail in the coffin for the Free City.

In fact, in Arrantis, Bariel began to recruit local criminals, cultists, madmen, in short, any villain who could wreak havoc on the Free City. Then he came to the Free City through the secret realm and began to wreak havoc with brutal means.

That's all Thor's information for now, and when Neferna is worried about Bariel's cruelty, Thor replies.

"I've met or heard of a lot of scary people, and one thing they all have in common is that they never tell people how scared they are, so even the most brutal means are just a disguise. ”

"And what are they afraid of?" asked Neferna, puzzled.

Fear is an emotion, an instinct or human nature, a feedback that arises from the unknown or the uncertain. People who lack love are afraid of losing, and people who are afraid of death like to bring about death because they think it is the most terrible thing in the world. ”

"In short, in my opinion, as long as there is no human being, it is still only flesh and blood in the end, and all tricks are just disguises. And if you look at it from a human point of view, this Bariel is actually not cool enough. Saul said.

"Isn't that enough?" said Neferna in shock at the cruelty she had heard.

"Suppose I do this, I will take advantage of the power to kill everyone I can see who is not against me, and kill only for the sake of killing. At that time, the pressure of law and order alone will be able to drag down the free city, instead of engaging in some trick of dividing the city and ruling it, which is too laborious. ”

"Since Bariel isn't that extreme, it means that he still follows the rules or some kind of purpose, such as he wants to be the lord of the Free City. Of course, it may be that something has become a jealousy in his heart, so that he can't let go. ”

"In short, he is not out of humanity, and it is this kind of mud and water that gives me the opportunity to come back and blow his dog's head. ”

After Saul finished speaking, he fell into thought, combined with the current situation in the Free City, it is no wonder that his three shiitake mushrooms wanted to persuade the Holy See of Light to make a move at the meeting. If the white-robed archbishop of the sixth order, Bernat, is willing to intervene, it is possible that the matter will be solved.

Therefore, the god stick is selfish, and the short-sighted shiitake mushroom of the saint Eletha, who will not sell personal favors casually, so you are sure that I will die?

After checking his combat readiness, Thor turned and walked towards the other half of the city where Bariel was entrenched.

It was an ordinary night, as it should have been.

There was a sudden sound of crystals falling to the ground in the silence, and in the darkness Bariel suddenly opened his eyes and quickly put on his clothes and got out of bed.

Bariel knew very well that the sound was not an intruder breaking a window, but the warning sound of an internal warning spell. The warning sounded, which means that someone has killed the core area of their own territory, not the periphery, but directly the core area.

Pulling open the door, Bariel saw the fourth-order deputy who had just rolled out of the woman's arms, Sain, who was wearing his clothes with a grim face.

"I guess the rats from the other side of the city have come in!" said Theon, buttoning up his coat as he whispered to Bariel.

As soon as the words fell, Sean turned his head suddenly, and saw a cold light approaching at an extremely fast speed.

"Click~" There was a not-so-violent blade cutting sound in the darkness.

This may sound like a ...... The sound of decapitation?Sein was in a trance for a moment, but suddenly realized that it was himself who was beheaded.

The falling head bounced twice on the ground, and at a bouncing angle, Seon heard the sound of the passage closing in Bariel's room. Sain knew about the secret passage in Bariel's room, and he even privately mocked Bariel's cowardice.

The biggest doubt of Sain's head before he died was, shouldn't Bariel be fighting with him?

"The main culprit has run away! Follow the secret passage!" said Neferna, floating to Thor's side.

"Run away!? You follow the secret passage behind, and I'll wait for him in the wilderness. Thor quickly remonquired.

When Neferna disappeared and looked at the headless body that had fallen to the ground, Thor kicked Sein's head away, suddenly feeling a little speechless.

After cutting off several of the enemy's outposts along the way, Thor asked the bandit leader's lair and location.

Although he is not a professional assassin, but under the influence of Shugues and Diller along the way, coupled with the suppression of his own strength and rank, Thor has not been less obscene and infiltrated, so he easily completed the process of quickly getting close to the enemy's core.

After triggering the warning spell, Thor quickly allowed Neferna to bite the enemy's movements, and began to rush forward quickly.

Thor arrived quickly, in fact, Thor's arrival was already there when Sain had just opened the door and was still looking down to button it. Then he heard a faint voice in the aisle, indicating that there were at least two people in the aisle at the time, Sean and Bariel.

Facing the situation of two fourth-order at the same time was originally expected by Thor, so he did not hesitate to make a brazen move. However, what puzzled Thor was that the moment he ran out, he saw only one person, that is, Sein, who was not prepared for his own capture.

As for the mastermind Bariel, he actually ran away! This is exactly what Thor can't understand, he is wearing a hidden cloak at this time, it is impossible for Sean and Bariel to perceive their own strength level, so Bariel's decisive escape is very interesting.

What does he run?

The masterminds of these evil forces, not to mention their scheming. When it comes to courage, even if you don't dare to say that you are as hard as stubborn iron, at least a calm and steady person can't run away, will such a person decisively take the road and flee when the enemy is unknown?

A person who has been killing for a long time should have a sense of fear, for example, if an enemy has invaded his lair, you must at least confront the enemy face to face, right?

What's more, in the intelligence, Bariel's personality and various cruel reputations have been raised extremely high. Originally, Thor's worst plan was to prepare to face a vicious battle between the two fourth-order alliances, but the other party suddenly ran away like a rat, and the whole thing suddenly turned into a fog.

Of course, there is also the possibility that Bariel knows very well what he is up against, or who the enemy is. But this is obviously not possible, and no one knows about Thor's sudden return this time, not even his own Shiitake and Stant.

What's more, Thor didn't even see Bariel's shadow just now, and Conversely, Bariel didn't see him either. This shows that when Sain was still talking with his head down and buttoning the buttons, he had already reflexively returned to the room to open the secret passage and walked away decisively.

What contributed to his decisive escape?

Thor frowned and fell into deep thought as he chased in the direction Neferna had provided.