The snow, blown up by the wind, made a small cracking sound through the arched windows inlaid with crystal glass, and the thick walls and magical circulation kept the cold outside the castle and kept the room warm.

A flickering fireplace burned not far away, the glow of the flames cast on the brass ornaments, reflecting a hazy and shaky light, and the warm light of the fire made the high-ranking rangers relax in their hearts - this cold winter didn't seem so cold anymore.

"Tell me about the situation over there," Gawain walked into the room, unfastening his cloak and hanging it on a hook beside him, "How many more of us are there now?" ”

"The main squad of the Steel Rangers has withdrawn to our zone of control, and there are currently three reconnaissance teams and two mobile squads operating from Wintercastle to the Frost Glades," Thorderlin nodded, "In addition, due to the change in the situation in several major towns, the god pollution is spreading outside the army, and the MIA agents lurking in the city have been withdrawn from the danger zone in batches, and only a few well-protected liaison stations are still operating to a lesser extent. ”

"Hmm......" Gao Wen nodded slightly, "It's good to evacuate in advance, the situation is about to change a lot, the stalemate phase is coming to an end, and the next time is to see the difference." ”

"I was a little surprised when I first received the evacuation order - the situation was changing faster than I thought," Soldlin said, "It seems that the God of War is deteriorating so fast that Aldernan's side can't wait any longer...... This is also in line with some of the phenomena I observed before I evacuated. ”

"Some phenomena?" Gawain immediately became serious, "What phenomenon? ”

Thorderling organized his language a little and began to report on what he had detected during his activities in the Winter Castle area: "By the time I evacuated, very obvious visions of catastrophic disasters had begun to appear in the land of the Typhons, ordinary people began to hear and see some 'information' related to the gods, and strange noises began to be heard frequently in the sealed churches of the god of war. In addition, a large apparition has been seen in the sky in the direction of Winterhold, and some of the clearer sightings describe the phantom as an iron-gray giant covered in heavy armor. ”

“…… The classic image of the god of war in most religious texts," Gawain said in a deep voice, "the armored giant, marching through the storm and the clouds, overlooking the earth......"

Then he asked, "Did these phenomena occur after that air battle?" ”

Thorderling thought for a moment, "If you mean the usual auditory and visual hallucinations, they happened occasionally before the air battle, and the locals thought it was a magical phenomenon produced by the gathering of a large number of battle mages, if you were talking about that giant...... That really came after the air battle a few days ago. ”

Gawain exhaled slightly, and the information brought by Sölderlin further confirmed his conjecture about the "arrival of the god of war".

As soon as the thought came to him, Sölderlin, who was standing opposite, suddenly spoke again: "If I am not mistaken...... All of these phenomena indicate that the God of War is becoming more active, and that He is very 'close' to our world, given that you are even here in person...... Could it be that the god of war will come? ”

Gawain's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, he glanced Thorderling up and down, and before he could speak, the latter smiled slightly: "I'm not an expert in the field of theology, and I don't have the ability to deduce the big picture as well, but I've accumulated some miscellaneous knowledge over the past few hundred years, and the phenomena I've observed in my recent activities in the Winterhold region are enough to remind me of something...... I just didn't expect it to be like this. ”

"Rosetta seems to want to do something big," Gawain let out a long exhale, "and even I have to admit that he's a pretty scary guy...... But he is also a very judgmental and actionable person. ”

"In my opinion, you're all the kind of people who are quite 'scary,'" Salderling laughed, with emotion in his tone, "I sometimes can't help but think of when I first met you more than seven hundred years ago...... You were a much more rampaged person back then, and you were feared on the battlefield, but in my opinion, you were much more reassuring then than you are now. ”

"After all, at that time I only needed to be responsible for an army, and the burden of the country was on Charlie." Gawain said casually, and as soon as he finished speaking, a familiar mental fluctuation suddenly appeared in the depths of his consciousness, interrupting what he was about to say.

He waved his hand at Sölderlin in front of him, signaling him to wait, and then quickly concentrated his mind and immersed his consciousness in the neural network - a moment later, he ended the sudden communication, and Sölderlin on the other side immediately asked, "What happened?" ”

"News has just arrived on the twenty-fifth," Gawain said in a deep voice with a solemn expression, "Rosetta Augustus left Aldenan yesterday, and with him Duke Ferdinand. ”

Hearing this information, Sölderlin's expression instantly became serious: at this special moment, in this change of situation, Rosetta Augustus himself suddenly left his imperial capital, and this incident may reveal only one information......

"Looks like it's about to start." After a few seconds of silence, Gao Wencai said slowly in a low tone.

……

The vertigo of the mental connection quickly faded, and Daniel, who was sitting in his chair, opened his eyes.

The fireplace was burning, the warm flames jumping happily in the hearth, the magic crystal lamp illuminating the spacious living room, two magic brooms automatically sweeping the dust around the corner of the stairs, the old mage sitting in an easy chair near the fireplace, his lower body covered with a warm blanket, an open magic book on his lap, the rune pages in the book flowing with a moist sheen, all this made him look as if he had just taken a small nap.

The young female mage, who was sitting on a chair reading a book next to her, noticed the slight movement of the tutor and immediately raised her head with concern on her face: "The news has been sent?" ”

"Well," Daniel nodded briefly, "there's nothing out of the ordinary, right?" ”

"No, none of the induction runes set up throughout the house have responded," Mary said immediately, "and no one is snooping on this side. ”

"That's good," Daniel nodded, "the situation in Aldernan is very calm now, and the obsidian janitorial army and the royal agents in the dark are about to break their nerves, so even a few minutes of contact must be extremely careful...... You probably don't use neural networks these days, do you? ”

"Nope!" Mary immediately shook her head, "I've been very careful. ”

Daniel let out a soft "um", and then his gaze fell on Mary, who did not move for a long time, and the black-haired female mage finally twisted her neck a little awkwardly under this gaze, and asked with a hint of nervousness, "Mentor...... Am I not doing a good job? ”

There was no fear in her tone, just the nervousness of some of the apprentices in the face of their mentor.

"If you want to go back to the country, I can arrange it for you," Daniel said with no expression on his face, "With your current abilities and qualifications, I can make you the administrator of a regional mage society, and even if you don't want to take on a position, you can live a good life in the local area and be respected by many people." ”

"Why did you say that all of a sudden?" Mary's eyes widened suddenly, "It's because I messed up in the lab recently......"

"It's only recently that I've suddenly found myself doing something that is getting more dangerous, and your mind probably can't handle it," Daniel said lightly, "and I'm distracted by what to do when I'm in a situation." ”

Mary was stunned for a few seconds, as if it took time to grasp the true intentions of her mentor's words, and to muster up enough courage after understanding them—she finally gathered her thoughts and dared to break the silence: "Mentor, I can take care of myself, and I don't want to go back to the country...... I think I'm good here......"

Her tone finally weakened, and the courage she mustered in a few seconds was only enough for her to say these dozens of words in front of her majestic mentor, but Daniel showed a somewhat surprised expression as he looked up and down his apprentice, who had never been very promising, for a moment, and remembered what had happened when he had found each other's parents in the countryside a year ago.

After a moment, he retracted his gaze and snorted coldly: "Then let it be as you please, there will be no more opportunities like this in the future." ”

……

The Magic Train glided smoothly and quickly along the tracks, and the scenery outside the window quickly receded - in the snow, the fields buried by the snow after the harvest and the peaceful villages.

"We're still a little bit away from reaching the eastern checkpoint of Winterhold, Your Majesty," Ferdinand looked at Emperor Typhon sitting across from him, "Do you need to go and get some rest?" ”

"No," Rosetta said casually, her eyes sweeping the view out the window, "...... The Magic Train is indeed a good thing, and so is the Magic Machine. ”

"That's true," Ferdinand said, "so we have to find a way to build them ourselves, no matter how much it costs." ”

Rosetta let out a "hmm", his gaze seemed to be attracted by the field outside the car window, and he looked at it for a long time before breaking the silence again: "Pei Di Nanqing, do you remember our last hunt in 716?" ”

Pei Dinan recalled: "You mean that winter hunt? Of course, I remember, I was very impressed...... It was the year before your coronation, and it was a cold winter, and we caught several deer in the hunting grounds north of Talenkins...... It was also the last royal winter hunt, and the following year you were crowned and temporarily canceled for that year, and the following year, you officially announced the complete cessation of royal winter hunting, ending the centuries-old royal tradition. ”

"yes...... Do you remember what happened during the winter hunt that year? Rosetta said, glancing at Ferdinand, "Don't say you only remember the deer. ”

"Of course I remember what happened," Peidinand recalls earnestly, "a hunter broke into a forbidden forest during the winter days when hunting was forbidden and wanted to stealthily hunt a rabbit...... His pregnant wife was sick and needed some meat to replenish her body, but the soldiers patrolling around the hunting ground found him, and without any trial or notification, the soldiers shot the hunter directly with their bows and arrows...... It's like shooting an animal in a hunting ground. ”

"Yes, it's like hunting animals," Rosetta said calmly, "and at that time, many people took it for granted. ”

"Even a few years ago, some people took it for granted – and that hasn't changed until the last two or three years. More and more scholars and capable merchants and rune craftsmen appeared among literate commoners, and even civilians began to enter all levels of government offices and councils, and after the nutrition, education, newborn pre-selection and other systems matured and got on the right track, the number of transcendent awakenings in the commoner class also began to increase, and now there is almost no gap between the proportion of extraordinary awakenings between nobles and commoners, after which the nobles have to admit that commoners have the same ability to think, learn and grow as they are, or to put it more bluntly...... Acknowledging that civilians are the same species as them. ”

Rosetta listened to Ferdinand's narration, and all the emotional changes were hidden in his calm and slightly gloomy expression, and it was not until more than ten seconds of silence that he looked in the direction of Wintercastle and whispered: "Yes, it took us almost twenty years to barely do all this......"

"It's a bit ironic that it took more than a decade for some people to realize an obvious fact that conforms to the laws of nature," Perdinand lamented, "and what is even more ironic is that even you and I didn't clearly understand these things from the beginning......

Rosetta didn't respond, he just looked out the window in the direction of Wintercastle, and at the end of the snow-capped fields on either side of the train was the rolling hills of Wintercastle's defense, and Rosetta's eyes were fixed on the vast sky between the mountains and the clouds.

There was a faint starlight floating in one of his eyes, and the depths of his pupils seemed to be inlaid with another eye, and he could clearly see the vision in the depths of the sky—

A giant in iron-gray armor stood in the clouds, looking down on this small and fragile world with a hollow, cold gaze, carrying a banner and a giant sword on his back, and a war bow as tall as a bell tower in his hand.

That is God, who stands under this winter clear sky, as if the king is in his own hunting grounds, the majestic cities and the rolling countryside seem to be just bunted hunting ground decorations in front of that colossal body, and under the bow of God, all mortals in the world, whether kings or commoners, heroes or pawns, seem to be animals to be slaughtered.

The wheels rolled, the train roared, and the wind swept between the repulsion traps and relay piles, and the magic train accelerated, heading straight for the majestic god at the end of the horizon who was almost fully entered into the world.

And at the same time as this magic train headed towards the border, on the more than ten communication lines leading from Typhon's hinterland to Winter Castle, between the wilderness and the valley, between the river and the plain, dozens of knights and battle mage regiments, and hundreds of thousands of transcendent soldiers, were moving towards the war zone.