Since the disturbing news continued to come from the north, and the situation in the south seemed to be suddenly covered by dark clouds, the atmosphere of the Rock Fortress became more and more tense day by day, this fortress that assumed the duty of the southern gate was the most majestic fortress standing at the southern end of the plain of the Holy Spirit, and everyone was proud of it, but now the fortress suddenly became an isolated island sandwiched between two storms - all the nobles in the southern region suddenly lost contact, The Cecil family, who had been silent for a hundred years, seemed to be planning something big, but the messenger sent by the fortress to the north for reinforcements could only bring dismal news—

Due to the deterioration of the situation in the royal capital and the looming of civil war, the two regent dukes and the prince of the prison have begun to call on the nobles from all over the world to send troops to prepare for the rebels in the east, and the king does not have any spare energy to support the Rock Fortress, especially when the Rock Fortress has not yet been substantially attacked: the big men in the royal capital seem to be far from realizing how quickly the situation in the south is deteriorating, and in their eyes, the rebel army in the east led by a prince and a military duke is obviously more "chaotic" than in the south Much more serious.

In this tense and delicate situation, the Rock Fortress had no choice but to close its gates and begin to impose the strictest restrictions on the passage of all but merchants with passes issued by the Count of Pompeii and the transcendents of the surrounding area—and in fact, even without these bans, the number of merchants and travelers in the Rock Fortress had plummeted to a minimum.

Merchants with a keen sense of smell had a sense of crisis early on, and at this sensitive moment, no one dared to risk being caught by the noble lords as spies and walk through the fortress at will, and in recent days, the number of merchants passing through the gates of the fortress every day was at least in the double digits, not to mention the peak of last autumn and winter, and even compared with previous years, this is also a very small number.

And today, the Rock Fortress has finally welcomed a large number of "guests" - nobles who have been defeated and expelled from the southern region.

When they saw the nearly 1,000 ragged, yellow-skinned, but armed troops, the entire fortress was almost in a state of battle, and the soldiers really couldn't see that this was a noble team, but thought that all the down-and-out mercenaries and robbers and bandits in the south had gathered together to raid the city. After a tense confrontation and complicated identity verification, Sir Maryland, the governor of the fortress, finally determined that the team in front of him, which looked like a combination of bandits and beggars, was really the nobles of the South, the nobles in distress.

He will never forget this scene in his life.

The fortress's closed door, clad in purple steel rivets and pure gold lining, was opened, and the tall, sturdy, black-haired Sir Maryland led the Knights out of the city to meet the fallen gentlemen and ladies, and he looked incredulously at the young man in the procession with his tattered coat, greasy hair, and sallow and chapped face, and it took a great deal of effort to recognize this as Mr. Viscount Carroll, who was the closest to the Rock Fortress, and who had seen Maryland more than once, But this was the first time they had met in such a situation.

"Ancestors! My Viscount! What have you been through?! Sir Maryland looked at the fallen men in front of him in shock, and saw several familiar faces in the group, "It seems that all those terrible rumors are true?!" ”

"Disaster, a catastrophe, a terrible, merciless, cruel war with no classical etiquette to speak of, has destroyed everything," Viscount Carol could not help but tremble slightly, "and dear sir, do not lament that some ancestors are on top...... I now have nightmares when I hear those words. ”

Viscount Consco, who was next to him, covered his forehead, and his tone was full of pain: "We were beaten by our ancestors......"

“…… God bless you, and all will be well," Lord Maryland had seen a lot of ups and downs in his life, but he had never seen the situation in front of him, and he did not know how to pick up this strange subject, so he hurried into the city with these fallen gentlemen and ladies, "I have prepared hot water for you, and it must be terrible to trek through the muddy wilderness." ”

"We need to have something to eat first, cheese, steak, wine, oh my god, the bath thing can be put on hold!" Viscount Marie Oran said hurriedly, "Is there anything to eat?" ”

"Of course, I had already ordered the city to prepare food when I came out, and the Rock Fortress had plenty of food," Sir Maryland nodded immediately, but as a high-ranking knight guarding the fortress, he couldn't help but glance at the team of nearly a thousand people vigilantly, "But with all due respect—it is dangerous for so many people to be put in the fortress at once, and I must carry out the necessary checks on them to prevent enemy spies from mixing in, this situation is very easy." ”

Viscount Consco, glancing back at the soldiers and knights who had followed him through the entire war zone, said in a loud voice to Lord Maryland, "Dear sir, these people have followed us from birth to death, and they are loyal and respectable—of course, I understand the rules of the fortress, so I only hope that you will check it out as soon as possible, so that these brave warriors can enter the city to eat and rest as soon as possible." ”

Hearing these righteous and generous words, the soldiers were all moved, and Viscount Conscoe quietly drove to Sir Maryland's side, and whispered in a low voice: "Check whatever you want, take us to eat something first." ”

The nobles, knights, and priests in the procession, accompanied by Sir Maryland and the Knights of the Fortress, walked towards the city, while the others began to be inspected by the soldiers of the fortress, and Lady Loppenny only glanced at the soldiers who were performing the inspection with an indifferent expression, and followed the pace of the other nobles.

She knew what the inspection was all about, so she wasn't worried at all - in the absence of a perfect personnel registration and identification system, the so-called inspection was just to ask other people in the same team to see if everyone could prove each other's identities, maybe this kind of inspection method would be useful when a few spies mixed into the army, but who would have thought that the entire personal entourage led by a nobleman was full of spies from top to bottom?

She looked up as the towering gates of the Rock Fortress drew closer and closer in front of her, and stepped inside.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you are safe," said Sir Maryland, smiling as he rode his horse, turning his head as he crossed the fortress gates, looking at the nobles who were looking relaxed, "this fortress is impregnable. ”

Viscount Carol raised his head and looked at the black city wall that emitted a faint magical halo, this famous city wall did make his heart calm a lot, but he couldn't help but say: "Dear sir, let me say that the danger of Gawain Cecil is unimaginable to you!" He's created a terrifying legion by some unknown means, and we've been defeated with barely a head-on confront, and now he's probably gathering men and strength in the south, and he's probably going to have his sights on it......"

Sir Maryland couldn't help but look back: "But I heard that he wasn't the one who took the initiative to go to war?" ”

“…… Indeed, it was we who took the initiative to go to war," Viscount Carol looked pained, "but now I will say that this was a trap from the beginning!" We were induced! Duke Cecil was ready for war from the beginning, and the passive response was just a pretense, he was aggressive from the beginning - Sir, don't be fooled by the illusion that he hasn't attacked the Rock Fortress for the time being, he will definitely come! ”

"I will carefully consider your warning, Mr. Viscount," Sir Maryland gave Viscount Carroll a deep look, "and I will report what happened to you as soon as possible...... The royal capital. But with all due respect, there is probably only a limit to the help you can get, and even the Rock Fortress will only give you a place to stay. ”

"Sir, the Cecil family is back! They want to get back everything they have lost in the past 100 years! You've forgotten why Rock Fortress was built in the first place......"

"Mr. Viscount, of course I remember the original intention of the Rock Fortress, but remember that it was you, not us, not any of the surnames on the Plains of the Holy Spirit," Maryland raised his hand slightly, interrupting Carroll's words, and then sighed softly, "And it's not that I'm unaware of the crisis in the south, I can see the threat from you, but what I can do is quite limited." ”

Seeing the complicated look on Sir Maryland's face, Carroll and several nobles around him finally sensed that the atmosphere was wrong, and Viscount Conscoy couldn't help but hesitate and asked, "Sir, what happened?" ”

"Don't you know?" Lord Maryland shook his head and whispered, "The King is dead. ”

……

Cecil Collar, the business district, the "Balance Plaza", a new large facility is being erected.

The alloy tower-like skeleton stands in the middle of the plaza like a strange monument, and the decorative – and illuminated outer cladding – is lightly and precisely covered on the surface of the tower after being treated with weight reduction techniques, and the magicians use lifting devices and safety cables to climb to key points on the tower, and use beams of scorching energy to firmly weld the tower's cladding and skeleton together, and at the top of the tower is a large obelisk suspended in mid-air and radiating radiance.

The magic energy obelisk on the top of the tower is the core device of the facility, and it is also providing energy for the various magic devices on the site, under the obelisk, the alloy pillar connecting the underground magic net is being covered by the tower's cladding little by little, and those shining magic runes are extracting the surging energy from the magic net and injecting it into the base of the obelisk at the top, and finally released from the obelisk outward, forming a magic field that is enough to cover the entire city.

Gawain stood near the construction site, watching the runes and magic crystal lamps in various parts of the tower light up and go out one after another as the magic guide technician's test was tested, and he felt a little emotion in his heart.

After the completion of this tower, the westernmost block of the business district and the newly established Xicheng District will be completely covered by the new magic net.

At the same time, this also means that Cecil City will be completely within the signal coverage of the "Magic Network Communication", and in the future, wait for a while, and wait until the completion of several magic obelisk relay towers on the North-South Avenue, and you can talk to Kant Ling in any corner of Cecil City.

Of course, the premise is that the output of communication equipment can keep up.

Gawain glanced not far away, where several soldiers were standing guard next to a large cart with several large devices with triangular bases and crystal structures, which were "public magic web communication terminals" that Nicholas Egg had made himself while the production line was not yet running, and which were now waiting to be installed.

Rebecca stood beside Gawain, and the girl's face was full of pride, because she came up with the idea of placing the magic obelisk on the tower - it was because she kept track of the actual operation of each magic obelisk in her territory: "Placing the magic obelisk on a special 'tower' can effectively improve the stability and transmission range of signal transmission. Of course, this will also make it more visible, and it can easily become a living target for long-range spell attacks, so I set up a mana shield rune group in the tower - anyway, the magic obelisk has a lot of redundant energy, and it is more than enough to bring a set of shields. ”

"Is it just a set of shields?" Gawain glanced at the girl, "Why did I hear that you planned to bury a three-hundred-pound magic crystal bomb under the tower?" ”

"Uh...... Didn't you say that you would set up a relay tower in the wilderness to ensure full coverage," Rebecca scratched her head a little embarrassed, "How dangerous it is in the wild, what if the enemy comes to destroy it......"

"This is an energy broadcasting tower and a signal relay tower, not a front-line bunker," Gawain tapped Rebecca on the head, "It's strong enough, and you still expect a signal tower to annihilate 8,000 enemies in wartime." ”

Rebecca smirked and tried to get by, but Gawain couldn't help but touch his chin and think after teaching the kid a lesson.

Rebecca's idea of planting a bomb under the Magical Obelisk Relay Tower was a bad idea, dangerous and worth the cost, but there was some truth to her considerations - the world was really not peaceful.

The wilderness of this world is full of dangers, humanity is far from being planted with the light of civilization in the wilderness, and it is still an age of war, and the ability of those relay towers set up outside the major cities to protect themselves really needs to be considered......

Self-explosion is not good, and it seems that it is okay to make an Olympic explosion......

Seeing that the old ancestor suddenly fell into a state of thought, Rebecca couldn't help but stand on tiptoe and waved her hand in front of Gawain: "Ancestor, why do I think you are beginning to approve of my words?" ”

"I'm just thinking about the defense of various field facilities......" Gawain pulled Rebecca's hand away, and was about to say something more, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amber running towards him.

When Amber arrived, he asked curiously, "What's going on?" ”

"Wright is back!" Amber gasped twice, "He seems to have been through something...... Regain the Light! ”