The Grand Magister of Merlin was silent, and the Emperor of Benin's question made him unable to answer it.

"Ahem," Chief Minister Dirk coughed, breaking the silence, "Your Majesty, Archmage Merlin, I'm afraid this has something to do with the Dark Rising organization we were investigating earlier. ”

After the Desiks first exposed the Dark Rising organization, the countries of the mainland began to track down this so-called dark magic organization, although now it seems that the Desik themselves have been greatly infiltrated by this organization.

"We now know that Dark Rise is an organization of dark magicians, whose members and institutions are not yet known to anyone, except that in the countries of the continent, this organization has been active for more than thirty years. It was only in recent years that it came to our attention. ”

"According to the information provided by the Grand Magister of Merlin and the clues shared by the Merchant Alliance Adventurers' Guild, we have reason to believe that the purpose of this organization is to restore order in the era of the Magic Empire, restore the superior social class of magicians, and reuse magic to transform the nations. And the pride engraved in the bones of the magician makes them not afraid to kill, and on the whole, they are a bunch of crazy people. ”

"Analyzing the means of magic," added Archmage Merlin, "it seems that like the court magicians, they are constantly improving, and it seems that decades will be enough for them to collect some advanced magical records." I even suspect that they may have researched quite a bit of magic on their own, which is why the dark magic they unleashed in Dunkirk was so weird that I didn't find a complete match in any of the records. ”

"What about our territory in San Jose?" asked the Emperor of Benin.

"At present, we have also found a number of incidents of dark magic in San Jose, but none of them are large, and they have barely attracted the attention of the officials. As he spoke, Merlin nodded to the Officer-in-Chief, Lord Berish, indicating that it was not aimed at him, "Recently, it happened in a seaside town in Dongjing, called 'Donghai Town', where someone was there to study magical creatures. ”

"Magical creatures?"

"Yes, magical creatures", Merlin was afraid that everyone would not understand, so he waved his hands in the air a few times and chanted a few spells, and the magical light just now appeared again, and then turned brown, and a strange beast condensed in the air!

"What is this!" said Count Mosic, who was most anxious, and stood up with a "leap".

The monster was too strange, it didn't look like it was an existing beast at all, it seemed to be a monster made up of different beasts, the claws of a falcon, the rag-like wings, the body of a raging bear, and, most terrifyingly, the head of a woman.

"This is a monster pattern based on a record described by Baron Dennis, the mayor of Tokai Town. According to the investigation of the court magician, near Donghai Town, someone created such a monster through the blood array and using the deep magical elements near the cliff of the Long Sea. Based on the monster's behavior, we suspect that they are testing the monster's abilities. ”

"Well, what the hell is this, Merlin, do you know!" said the Emperor of Benin, also a little surprised at the ugliness and peculiarity of the monster.

"I don't know, I know. I don't know exactly what this thing is, and it's not quite the same as what I see in the Magic Empire's legacy records, but the way it was constructed makes me suspect that they are the same thing. ”

Seeing that there was no reaction from everyone, Merlin stopped talking, and the Emperor of Benin was a little impatient, "Go on, Merlin!"

Merlin continued, "In the records of the Magic Empire, someone once used the summoning branch of psychic magic to create a monster called 'Harpie', which is a monster synthesized from the brains of a variety of beasts and a female magician, and the combined power comes from a summoning magic. This harpie is infinitely powerful, indestructible, and can also emit a very loud scream. On the battlefield, they suddenly descended from the air on the front line, and the blow to the defenders was unprecedented. ”

Merlin swore that he could clearly hear the Emperor of Benin swallowing, and indeed the monster was terrifying. "Merlin, what do you mean, someone is experimenting to create this kind of monster, and its attack on Donghai Town is actually a test. ”

Merlin smiled, "Your Majesty Benin, you are so smart, congratulations on you guessed right!"

"So, did you catch the dark mage?" Benin stammered.

"It's a pity that when the court magician arrived, he only found the blood array left by the magician and the broken bones of the beast used for experimentation. And, Your Majesty the Emperor, my greatest concern is not this, but rather the fact that in the records of the Magic Empire that we have found, 'Harpie' never appears alone, it always appears with several other monsters on a regular basis. ”

"How many others?" everyone was shocked!

"That's right, the Magic Empire calls them the four evil beasts, namely 'Alcmone', 'Amut', and 'Divine Whale'! Among them, Alcmene is a combination of a giant spider and a female magician, Amut is a crocodile-headed sphinx, and the divine whale is a giant fish that can eat an entire fleet in one bite. Like Harpie, they are monsters created by the magicians of the Magic Empire using summoning magic. ”

The Emperor of Benin gasped, "You mean, Merlin, in San Jose, there is a dark mage who can create terrifying monsters in the territory of San Jose, and he has not been caught yet?"

Merlin nodded at Benin, "Yes, my majesty, but you don't have to worry too much, judging from the situation in Donghai Town, it seems that they don't have a complete grasp of how to make monsters, and the Harpie they created is just a brainless four people for the time being." We, the court magicians, will hunt it down. ”

"That's good, that's good!" Benin muttered, "No, no matter what happens to the Desiks, the dark mages in San Jose must be wiped out, Merlin, you must do this well, understand!"

Merlin saluted, "As you wish, my majesty." ”

Seeing that His Majesty had no opinion, Merlin found a seat on his own and sat down, today's meeting was unusually long, and it seemed that the Emperor of Benin had no intention of ending it.

"Well, now we have a question to discuss, Langton, and you can tell me. ”

Langton Lehmann, the foreign minister of San Jose and a cousin of the Emperor of Benin, is considered a member of the royal family, and his noble status makes him like a fish in water in diplomatic situations.

Lang Dun had not said a word since the beginning of the meeting, and listened quietly to the words of the others, when he saw that the emperor had called him, he quickly stood up, first saluted the emperor, and then turned back to face the ministers:

"Now, both sides of the war are sending envoys to Kyoto City, and since there is no warrant from me, it is estimated that they are still waiting at the border. Of course, their intentions, as we also understand, are nothing more than to compete for the support of our San Jose, and in fact, from our San Jose point of view, the weakening of either of them is what we want to see, preferably losing both.

Of course, if the ministers have any objections, they can raise them and we will discuss them, after all, it is related to our foreign policy strategy in San Jose for some time to come, my Majesty. ”

"Langton is right, a weakened Desik empire and a weakened merchant alliance will be good for us. Benin nodded in agreement with the Foreign Secretary's statement. However, Dirk had a different opinion, "My Majesty, I'm afraid that the Shang Alliance will lose too quickly and too simply, if the De Sik people defeat the Shang Alliance without any damage and get a lot of fertile land, it is not what we want to see." ”

"Shang Alliance, it shouldn't be so easy to defeat, do you think?"

In the end, the discussion was inconclusive, and the Emperor of Benin vacillated between Dirk and Langton, Langton meant to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and wait for the two countries to decide the victory and defeat before selling at a price to see if the two countries were decided, while Dirk believed that De Sick, with the help of the dark magician, would quickly defeat the Shang Alliance, and if that time came, San Jose might not be able to make any moves, and an overly powerful De Rec empire would not be a good thing for San Jose.

At this time, Count Mosic, who had not spoken much, stood up, "My Majesty, I think it would be better to meet the envoys of the two countries and hear what they all want to say, or what deals they have brought. ”

There was little opposition to this suggestion, and the Emperor of Benin quickly agreed, "In that case, don't show our attitude yet, Langton, you go to the border to meet the envoys of the two countries, I will see them personally, I want to see what they have to say." Still, having said that, I have one more question that I hope you will answer Count Mosick. ”

"Your Majesty, please!" Mosik bowed.

"If this time, the Desik people do not choose the merchant alliance, but choose to attack our border in San Jose, Count Mosick, how sure do you think we will be able to defend it with border guards. ”

"This ......," Count Mosik thought for a moment, "if no one knew about the Dark Mage before, I think, it would be difficult. ”

Count Mosick's silence embarrassed everyone present, San Jose is not a merchant alliance after all, an empire with 200,000 standing troops was defeated by another empire in a frontal battlefield, it was difficult to accept, Count Mosicke hurriedly saluted again, "My Majesty, I understand what you mean." I immediately asked the San Jose border guards to strengthen their guards, and the garrisons everywhere also stepped up their preparations. Edward VI of Desic was so crazy who knows what he would choose to do. ”

"What about the dark mage?" the Emperor of Benin asked Archmage Merlin again.

Before Merlin could answer, Dirk said first, "I think, send some mages to camp in important fortresses on the border in case of accidents, you can see that it is good for the Grand Magister Merlin." Merlin thought for a moment and smiled: "Of course, the court magician belongs to Your Majesty, of course, what do you say, then what to do." ”

Benin nodded with satisfaction, "Then let's do it, Langton, receive the envoys of the two countries as soon as possible, and today, that's it." ”