In the northern part of the Ansu Kingdom, frost and snow have covered the land.

This mountainous land is the coldest part of the Ansu Kingdom, where the fierce northerners have taken root in the mountains and cold winds, guarding the kingdom's northern gates and struggling to maintain a delicate balance with their troubled neighbors further north for seven hundred years.

Whether it is the Violet Kingdom in the northwest or the Holy Dragon Principality in the northeast, it has never been an easy character to deal with.

But in this disturbing winter, new shadows have emerged from the frost and snow, and in the eyes of the Duchess Victoria Wild, these new threats are even more worrying than those of her elusive northern neighbours, because they are emerging from within the country.

Victoria Wilder, the "Duke of Ice", stood on the high terrace of Wintercastle, looking down on the city below, the snow that began to fall before winter did not stop until last night, and the town was silvery white everywhere, and the typical spire buildings in the north can effectively reduce the snow cover, the black spires pierced the winter snow, like the black pines on the snowfield standing on the plain below the castle, at a glance, the forest is forested.

In most parts of the kingdom, the arrival of winter means that production stops and people hide in their houses and shiver, but in the coldest part of the north, the situation is different, the people here have adapted to the cold, and in order to survive they have to adapt to the long winter that occupies half of the year, and even on the days when the snow first stops, you can see countless mobile people in the city, who must clear the snow as much as possible and clear the roads before the next round of snow destroys the city buildings, By the way, the bodies of the homeless who froze to death in the gutter were dragged out of the city, and in the central square, directly opposite the castle, the largest crowd gathered—

The snow in the square had been cleared, and the people who had gathered there were there to watch the cultists burn to death.

One by one, the figures in black robes were tied to high stakes, heavy black steel chains and inscriptional shackles binding their bodies and magic at the same time, but their faces were still chilling from the horror of their sorcery.

The crowd of onlookers had gathered several floors in the square, and the soldiers separated the crowd from the cultists, their swords flickering to prevent the overly agitated citizens from approaching the dangerous blasphemers, and in the process, the firewood and grass were piled up, and the hot, melted animal fat was splashed on the mounds.

"Burn them!" Some of the onlookers finally couldn't hold back and yelled loudly.

The roar was echoed: "Burn them!" "They killed my child!" "Burn these cultists!"

A high-ranking priest of the Church of Light walked to the stake, took the emblem from the disciple next to him, and turned to look at the excited crowd.

"The God of Light has exposed the machinations of these cultists, and before more people are harmed, the Lord has guided us to destroy the lair of these heretics!"

The high-ranking priest held the emblem aloft, he turned around and used the emblem to inspire a powerful light, igniting the flammable grease and firewood, and his mouth shouted, "Praise the Holy Light!" Praise be to our Lord!! ”

Under the action of the holy light and grease, the stake was instantly shrouded in golden-white flames, and the cultists tied to the pillars twisted in the flames like wax, letting out all kinds of indescribable howls, and the sound of mountains and tsunamis resounded in the square: "Praise the Holy Light! "Praise be to the God of Light!"

The raging flames rushed straight into the sky, and the howls of those cultists did not stop in the flames for a long time, even until the flames burned their bodies, their roars still continued to come from the flames, and the surrounding people finally realized that the situation was wrong, they looked at the abnormal flames in horror, and listened to the abnormal roar, and the roar finally became a human understandable speech, and the residual spiritual power of a dozen cultists stirred in the air, making a terrible roar: "Laugh to your heart's content!" Cry as much as you want! All are going to die! You will die like domestic animals, you will die like worms!! When they come back, they will eat your flesh and suck your blood dry!! ”

The flames suddenly turned black at this moment, and the flames of more than a dozen fires merged together in the air, and a huge and indescribable dark purple mass rose from the flames, as if it was about to devour everyone on the scene, and even the priest who was chanting praise for the holy light in front of the stake was stunned at this moment, but at the moment of this terrifying vision, a sharp white pillar of light suddenly shot out from the terrace of Wintercastle into the square.

Under the impact of the "Winter Whip", the indescribable dark purple mass froze instantly, and then shattered due to the lack of follow-up energy support, and large swaths of ice crystal dust fell from the sky, as if another blizzard re-covered most of the square, whether it was the excited crowd or the priest of the Holy Light chanting slogans a moment ago, they were completely silent, and above the silent square, the cold voice of Duchess Victoria Wilde was heard: "Clean up—and praise Ansu and your founding fathers." ”

As the power of magic dissipated on the terrace, Victoria waved her hand to bring the floating magic book back to her side, then turned and left the terrace.

The crystal-encrusted patio doors closed behind her, blocking out the sounds coming from the square, and the duchess returned to the warm lounge with a rare look of exhaustion on her face.

The black-haired maid stepped forward, waved away the other attendants, and then pressed her hand near Victoria's temple and pressed it gently, "You rarely show this kind of expression - the last time I saw Duke Gawain Cecil come back." ”

"It's still about him this time, and if it weren't for the warning from the Founding Hero from the Far South, we'd probably have waited until the cultists have done even more damage before we realize they've eroded to this extent," Victoria sighed, "This is the fourth cult lair to be destroyed since the beginning of winter - the previous three were the Death Society, this time the Eternal Sleeper, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Stormchild returns from the sea next time." ”

"It is said that the cultists in the south are actually very few, they only appeared twice, but each time they were detected and snuffed out by the duke......"

Victoria waved her hand slightly, and the black-haired maid Maggie immediately stopped what she was doing.

"We've been at ease for too long, the whole kingdom has been at ease for too long," Victoria got up from the bench and quietly stared at the portraits of the founding heroes hanging on the wall in front of her, Gawain Cecil's portrait had been taken down, but she still stared at the blank space next to Charlie, the founding king, "There is a serious lack of vigilance from the king to the local nobles, but the Grand Duke Cecil seven hundred years ago came from the most turbulent years of the kingdom, and he is more alert than all of us— It is ridiculous that the incompetent people in the royal capital regarded the warning about the cultists sent by the founding duke as nervous at the beginning, and regarded it as a fuss of the ancients in modern society...... Well, now they're panicking. ”

The black-haired maid stood silently behind Victoria, without making any comment, while the duchess, who seemed accustomed to it, paused, and ordered, "Do you have an eye on what you are investigating?" ”

The black-haired maid lowered her head: "Yes." The priests of the Church of Light have been active more frequently than ever in recent times, and new missionaries have appeared everywhere, but all of their activities are reasonable - they are fighting the cultists, searching and clearing the cultists' nests, and the missionaries are also promoting ways to screen the cultists and protect themselves from the curse of the cult, and the power of the Light does have a unique advantage in this regard. Other than that, they had no superfluous activities, no conflicts with other sects or robbery of religious resources, and no friction with local lords. ”

Victoria frowned: "Is that so......"

The black-haired maid asked curiously, "Vicky, do you suspect that there is something wrong with those Holy Light priests?" ”

"No...... It's just that I'm a little concerned about their recent movements, and they've suddenly become active," Victoria shook her head, "but it should be my delusion, after all, the cultists are suddenly making trouble everywhere, and the only ones who can eliminate those cultists are the Church of the God of War and the Church of the Holy Light, and among them, the Holy Light Divine Technique is the most effective in fighting the evil arts," Victoria said lightly, "We have no reason to interfere with their activities within the legal scope - just keep an eye on them, if they have any wrong ideas, they will always show their feet." ”

"Yes."

……

After the onset of winter, the flow of news became difficult and slow as the number of traveling merchants decreased.

In this era when cutting-edge technology is scarce and not widespread, and ordinary society still maintains a primitive and backward situation, the transmission of information is an embarrassing and inefficient thing. Although there are magic and items such as teleportation and the Mithril Ring, due to the extremely small number of people who have mastered these communication techniques and there is no effective way to share information with each other, these technologies do not allow people to know what is happening in the distance in a timely and comprehensive manner, and for most commoners and even nobles, the main channels of information transmission are still traveling caravans and commissioners who deliver letters.

For the new Cecil Consulate, which is located in the middle of nowhere and is not very attractive to business travel, the slow transmission of information is even more problematic.

In the territory, Gawain has established a simple messenger team, and the current main population settlements in Cecil's territory are only towns, western lumberyard villages, and eastern mining villages (which have almost developed into small towns), so internal information transmission is not a problem, but if you want to contact the outside world, there is no way to form your own channel with the manpower and material resources of the current territory, and you can only rely on extremely limited traders who come from Tanzania to sell grain, cloth or slaves. and expatriates sent to Kant and Leslie to gather intelligence.

Therefore, it was already a month after Gawain learned that signs of cultist activity had been found in various parts of the kingdom, and it was already a month after he issued a warning to the royal capital.

This was the result of Viscount Andrew Leslie's information channel, which would have taken more than a month to travel from the royal capital to the south on the legs of a walker without a quick griffin messenger.

Looking at the information in front of him, Gao Wen's brows furrowed tightly.

Amber didn't know what was written on this letter sent from Tanzania early in the morning, she was boredly carving a piece of wood with a dagger next to her, and when she looked up and saw Gawain's expression, she casually asked, "What's wrong?" Has the price of rice risen? ”

"No, it's a cultist."

Amber immediately jumped up from her chair: "Fight the cultists again?!" Hey, I have a stomachache right now, is it too late? ”

"It's not us," Gawain glanced at Amber, "it's that cultists are appearing all over the kingdom except for the south. ”

Amber was relieved to hear this, and sat back with her head down to continue carving her own wood: "Oh, just don't get in our way." ”

Gawain looked at this elf's shame helplessly, but he couldn't be as relaxed as the other party in his heart.

The situation was really as he had expected - the cultists had infiltrated every aspect of the kingdom, not only in the territory of the border lords, but also in the vicinity of the royal capital, on the plains of the Holy Spirit.

A large number of cultist nests have been discovered and uprooted, but many more have only found a trace and then lost clues.

Either it was too late to find out, the cultists had already completed their evil sacrifices, and the local nobles had found nothing more than the bloody scene after the ritual.

In addition to this disturbing piece of information, there was another incident that also made Gawain feel urgent and ...... Cramped.

All the information is seriously outdated, the news from the royal capital is a month ago, and the situation in the north is still not available.

He needs to establish his own information channels, which he needs to take into his own hands, and they need to be more efficient and rational than all the information channels of his time.

At present, the magic model of communication has not been analyzed, and the attempt at electromagnetic wave communication has also failed, and it is technically impossible to realize the "modern communication network" envisioned by Gao Wen for a while and a half, but even if there is no cheap way to communicate instantly, he can make a framework first.

The potions in the alchemy factory made him think of a way.