My name is Akatosh,

I'm thinking about my plans for the near future.

—4E, 201, Moon of Fire, 9th, 18:31 —

Snowflakes were flying, the north wind was howling, and the sky was in the middle of nowhere, and although it was not yet night, torches had already been lit in the Frozen Forge Inn, shining on a group of travelers who had planned or had already set off, only to be driven back by the heavy snow.

While the brave enough can easily ignore the bad weather, listening to the sound of a hurricane kicking up large chunks of snow and smashing on the roof of an inn, basically no one wants to go out overnight.

Winter Castle is located on the coast, due to the lack of shelter from the mountains, it is often attacked by the cold winds of the Sea of the Dead, and there are not many days of good weather in itself, and because the "Great Collapse" destroys the mountains on the west side, it will cause heavy snow to close the city from time to time - although this "city" is relatively small.

Seeing the innkeeper shouting to the waiters to tidy up the room and prepare it for rent, Arthur sighed helplessly, according to his original plan, he was going to kill the door directly after finding out the location of the silverhand's lair.

According to the known information, the person behind Operation Silverhand is a former member of the Brothers-in-Arms, Hestra, who is under the orders of an ancient vampire lord, so it is naturally impossible for this lord to live with a group of mortals or minions.

There is some uncertain speculation that the Maharaja was a powerful nobleman in ancient times, and there was no need to live in a remote castle in his own place when he was away, but it is completely impossible to prove it.

In this way, as long as the other party feels that he is hidden enough to sit back and relax, suddenly launch an attack to destroy the Silverhand headquarters, its subordinate branches will fall into a leaderless state, Hestra's words, whether she is an undercover agent or a traitor, the result of contact with her is that the other party will lose an important combat power, as for whether this combat power will join their own is not so important.

The reason for not joining the three Wilcas brothers is because they can't predict the intensity of this battle, compared to Arthur who can turn into a dragon, Lydia who has an invulnerable defense, and Ella, the flexible wolf girl, even the useless Babas can support others when they are fighting on their own, and the three "shield brothers" who must cooperate with each other to exert full combat effectiveness are easy to fall into passivity.

But now there is a bit of an unexpected situation - in order to enter the Drifting Shadow Shelter, you must hold the "Witch Slade", which means that you must first go to the tomb of Sgramer to meet them and restore the "Witch Raz".

According to Tovdil, the Master of the Transformation Department of the Mage Academy, the sanctuary was built by elves and had its own ancient magic circle, which isolated all living creatures other than elves from entering, but it was still attacked by Sgrammer, who wielded the "elven nemesis" Witch Slacd.

The Silverhand Vampire has taken over the area by virtue of his status as "not a living thing", and as long as it is ensured that the Witch Slad does not reappear, then no one can break through the magic circle again.

Of course, it's not enough to just collect the shards, if you can completely wipe out the group of comrades and destroy Sgramer's legacy, you can really sit back and relax.

This is probably the reason why they decided to attack their comrades, but they just didn't expect to kick the iron plate this time, and the corners of Arthur's mouth turned up slightly, showing a smile.

"What do you think of so happy?" Ella, who was sitting next to her, suddenly raised her hand and shook it in front of Arthur's eyes: "That beautiful baron? ”

"Didn't-wait? It seems that it is indeed ......" Arthur wanted to deny it, but remembered some details and groaned again.

"Ha~" Ella spread her hands, turned her face and continued to deal with the food on the table.

The so-called "baron's room" was probably just a cover-up, and Arthur could confirm that there was no one in the room before "Zela Pesh" pushed the door open, so she only rented the room to facilitate teleportation.

Thinking about it now, even if the other party is Baron Wintercastle, the chief mage of the academy, it is a little inappropriate for him to rashly declare his identity, was he frightened by the countless "deaths" wrapped around her at that time, or did he believe that she would help him cover up with those possible vampire spies? Or ......

What happened afterwards refreshed Arthur's understanding of his ability to "see death", and when Zela led him and his companions to the mage academy, the "death" that was so strong that Arthur was about to ask her if she was in some danger disappeared in an instant.

Because you have to pass through a dangerous suspension bridge next, you deliberately dispersed them? Arthur was skeptical, as he had never seen anyone control its appearance and disappearance so far - except the Holy Spirit.

Once inside the Academy, when Zela introduced them to Master Tovdil, a dense "vortex of death" reappeared and entangled her, and less than a moment later, when Zela sat down at a desk in the corner, they disappeared again.

So why the hell is that thing behaving this way? Is it because mages are often on the verge of life and death?

After thinking about it, Arthur finally came to the conclusion that the Baron Mage was silently studying spells all the time, and when the spells reached their most dangerous and potentially backlashing stage, those "deaths" would entangle.

Distracted by too much thought, Arthur accidentally began to talk to Master Tovdir in writing, which seemed to amuse Zela, who had been reading the book, and the "deaths" reappeared, so he quickly turned to the topic.

It didn't take long to ask for the exact location of the Silverhand's headquarters, and it took a lot of time to understand the information about the Elder Dragon Patonax needed for the Elder Scrolls, during which Zela Pesh kept looking at it with a thoughtful, listening expression, and did not reappear after the "death" disappeared - until he took his leave.

It seemed that there was no need to worry at all, and as he left, he looked at Zela who waved goodbye and made a judgment, it was obvious that those "deaths" would not be harmful to her, and might even be at her mercy to some extent.

…… Why is this feeling so inexplicably familiar?

"Lady, guess who that Margaret is?" Arthur came back to his senses just in time to hear Ella whispering to Ladia, and after a period of time together, although they still didn't quite approve of each other, they could at least have a peaceful or even slightly intimate conversation.

"Winterhold is nominally the territory of the Stormcloak, so it may be a member of the Empire, but it can't be denied that the Stormcloak side will send someone to monitor the Academy, which is not easy to control." Ladia replied.

"It's the same as not saying." Ella nibbled on her bread.

Margaret? Who? Arthur frowned slightly and began to reminisce.

It sounds like a lady, but because her group is too eye-catching, she attracts the attention of almost everyone when she walks around the academy, and there is an old lady with a fierce face who glares at Arthur directly, as if he owes her a lot of gold coins, judging by the fact that Miss Zela calls Master Tovdil "father", that is not her mother? Well......

In short, now that they have left the Mage Academy, there is no point in thinking about it, and when the snow stops, they will go to the tomb of Sgramer to join the three brothers, hoping that they will not be distracted by this blizzard.

——19:44——

To the southwest of Wintercastle is a large area of snow-capped mountains, canyons and ravines that isolate it, and due to the interference of the "Great Collapse" of Wintercastle, the wind direction and force in the snow-capped mountains are changing all the time.

"Hell, Pharkas, this is the path you lead?"

Somewhere in a snowy valley, surrounded on all sides by steep slopes, with no shelter from the wind and no way to find its way out, Wells roared furiously at his brother in front of a wall of ice that seemed to be frozen by a waterfall.

"This ...... I'm also surprised that, based on experience, following the trails left by animals should be able to find temporary shelter. Farkas scratched at his head, confused.

"Are you following it?" The calmer Wilcas raised his hand to a cave on a high slope, where a snow goat was poking its head out of the mouth chewing something.

The three members of the Silver Armor Brothers-in-Arms fell silent for a moment.

"Why don't we jump on it after we transform?" Farkas suggested.

"It's best not to do that, the Silverhand's headquarters might be nearby." Wilcas replied.

"Hmm......" Farkas looked up at the goat unwillingly.

"If that doesn't work, we'll make a hole in this ice wall, seal the entrance with snow, and rest in it for the night," Wells picked up his sword and shield, and turned to look up and down the ice wall.

"It's a good idea if it doesn't cause an avalanche." Wilcas nodded.

"I'll help too." Farkas raised his two-handed sword.

"One, two, three!" "Boom-"

The expected breach was gouged open, the ice wall was bounced back, and even the most unfortunate avalanche did not happen, and the brothers directly broke a large hole in the ice wall.

"I have to say, Facas, your instincts are quite accurate," Wilcas followed into the cavern behind the ice wall, "...... It's just that sometimes it doesn't seem very safe. ”

Huge brass pipes are rusted, rough stone walls and floors are riddled with cracks, and discarded chunks of dwarven metal and discarded metal spiders are everywhere.

Not far from the entrance, Farkas and Wells, who were still holding weapons, were looking at the "creatures" in front of them in a daze.

The strange creatures with pale skin, large heads, closed eyes, pointed ears, long and thin limbs, and tattered armor were "looking" at the entrance.

"These guys don't have vision, they rely on their ears to catch enemies, and if they're good at stealth, they can sneak past them without alerting them, but now they can't-" Wilcas sighed and pulled out his two-handed sword behind his back, "Kill them all." ”

"Gah!" As if they understood this, the monsters frantically rushed towards the entrance.