They, or rather, only Cremar walked alone in the desert, which was helpless. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info His squires are all Grenadas, and some even have a thin red dragon bloodline, no matter where you judge, these people will not be willing and able to stand in the good camp, Asmodeos and Ferekhir, one is a devil, the other is a demon, oh, and some of the Cremars- Before he left Grenada, it was a small chess piece that was half perfunctory and half carefully crafted, the former undead thought that they would not be used for another day, but it was not so surprising to him, and their children and grandchildren returned to his command one after another, of course, although there are some quite skilled characters among them, but in Grenada, without the support of the Dragonborn behind him, even the voters of Woking may not be able to expand their power as they wish, after all, a Dragonborn with strong blood can put you in prison at any time for various crimesExecute you, and then take away all your family and property. So these guys can only cautiously, quietly, and carefully hide in the shadow of others...... Their ancestors had told them that they had served Gredy's direct descendants, but no one dared to say so, especially since the Dragonborn disappeared.

At first it was just a man, and he gave his sincerity through Cremar's squire, and after he was allowed to meet the black-haired dragonborn, more people came out, perhaps spies or greedy fools, but the lich was not that interested in sifting through them all, he was just trying to add a little more spice to the boiling soup. When people's eyes are interspersed around them like a steel wire, the only correct response is to force them to pay attention to other things, such as their own pros and cons, and their own safety, so that the former immortal and his cohabitants may have a little breathing space.

The wind in the desert is always dry, hot and dry during the day, and cold dry at night, and the water is as precious as gold here, but strangely enough, it is still alive and well, in addition to the lizards and winged snakes that appeared in the desert before, the souls of the other world have also seen gerbils as strong as hillocks, giant wolves that may be taller and larger than pack horses, and large birds covered with scales, they have no feathers, their wings are short and small, and the meat on their bodies is very woody, but they are unexpectedly delicious when used to cook soup. Like a chicken in another plane, the souls of the other world brought plenty of salt and spices, and the lich complained that the smell of the soup would attract hungry predators, but the next day when it was his turn to take control of his body, he didn't think to nibble on the elves' rattan flour cakes - this kind of food is very much in line with the human imagination of the elves, light and hard, both in terms of taste and texture, and can no longer satisfy the increasingly sensitive senses of this body.

They came across the skeleton of a gerbil around the evening of the fifth day, and the lich studied it in detail and decided that they were not far from their goal.

- The sphinx hunts differently from wolves, the wolves tear the gerbils apart and separate them, so it is impossible to leave a complete skeleton, but the sphinx will swoop down and grab the gerbil directly from the sand, either twisting its neck with its claws, or taking it high into the air and falling on the sandstone. Look here, the lich said, here is its cervical vertebrae, very few, but we can't see its skull, probably because the sphinx doesn't eat heads, so the gerbil's head was taken away by other animals, but its other bones were left here, and for a short time, there were even some of them still connected to each other, the former undead put their fingers on the bent leg bones, where the ligaments were not severed, and had turned unsightly black under the catalysis of the wind and sand, and those gray-white bones were left with smooth scratches, because the human-faced sphinx could flip their claws like a human with a dagger, they can remove the meat from the bones one by one, instead of using only the tongue and teeth like animals.

- And the human-faced sphinx probably had a cub or two, and the lich examined it, and the gerbil had a bone, a ball at the end of the tail vertebrae, covered with a layer of tissue that could not be corrupted, and was elastic enough to grind its teeth and flap and play.

The spirit of the other world half-knelt down and looked through it, the bone that the lich was pointing to looked like a large bowl that had been broken, and it reached out to try it, the small ball may have to be barely held with two hands, but judging from the shattered situation of the "bowl" and the edge of the obvious tear, this small ball will never fall out of itself unless it is deliberately taken out.

"So they still have toys?" said the otherworldly soul to himself.

"Them. A voice reminded it that the otherworldly soul thought it was a lich talking, but it realized that it was a deep and loud voice, definitely not the low, soft voice that is characteristic of the lich's mage.

It stood up, turned around, and saw a, nay, a male-faced sphinx.

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The Otherworldly Soul had seen the Hippogriffin before, had been in close contact with their leader twice (though Griffin didn't like this at all), and had anticipated the size of the male-faced Sphinx at the Lich's warning, but it had not expected to see such a large and beautiful creature - he was just standing there, casting a shadow over the skeleton of Cremar and the gerbil.

- Oversized male-faced sphinx, the lich said calmly, our luck is good, yes, I think we met their leader directly.

The male-faced sphinx was about one and a half times the length of the griffin, but because of the lack of the long neck of the falcon, its head was about the same size as the griffin's from the ground, and even so, he still gave the soul of the other world the feeling of a person standing two stories high and talking to him. He has a handsome and majestic face of a human-faced sphinx, which reminds the soul of the other world of marble sculptures and oil paintings. All of the above were the appearance of an excessively strong human male, with pectorals that made the wings reasonable, broad shoulders, a thick neck, and long hair like a mane, round, plush ears erected from the hair, his eyes amber like those of a lion, and a dilated nose that took up almost a third of his face, but matched the broad, fanged mouth that constantly showed sharp fangs between words.

His wings were a grayish golden yellow, like the fur, the best hidden color in the desert, but the fluff under the wings was a soft milky white, and looked like clouds and marshmallows. It would be nice if his temper could be the same as the first two, but the souls of the other world have already heard that the human-faced sphinx, although kind, is still a fierce monster after all, they will not take the initiative to attack humans, but when facing the enemy, their fury will also make the poor creatures who have escaped tremble every night.

And unlike the Griffinx, the Male Sphinx is also able to cast magic spells like a high-ranking priest, which can be used for healing and defense.

- To put it simply, the soul of the other world is a violent daddy similar to a paladin, right?

- Couldn't be more correct, said the lich. I suggest that if possible, you'd better not confront him.

The male-faced sphinx coughed, obviously surprised that someone could still be absent-minded when facing him, he raised one of his paws and patted the sand: "Why are you here? human?" He sniffed the air, this human smelled a bit like a dragonborn, although the smell was very light, but because they were not far from a red dragon city, the male-faced sphinx had always been very vigilant. The leader looked down at the uninvited guest, he was not wearing the red robe of a warlock, nor was he wearing a gray robe, nor did he have the cold aura that necromancy would inevitably leave behind, he was dressed in a knee-high white robe, long boots, and a black cloak, just like an ordinary traveler.

"Answer me," urged the leader of the sphinx, its broad claws pressing two more paw prints on the sand, the larger one allowing Asmodeos to swim in, "Are you a dangerous sentry, or an innocent passerby?" he said, his voice rumbling like thunder in the sky, "if it's the latter, I'll send you out of this desert, and if I must, even let you go further, if you're being wanted and captured by Grenada." ”

"Half and half. Said the soul of the other world.

"How?" asked the male-faced sphinx with amusement.

"Before I explain," the otherworldly soul said, holding up a hand, "you have to grant me a small request first." ”

"Tell me?"

"Whatever you hear afterwards, as long as the conversation doesn't end, you can't consider me your enemy. ”

"It looks like you have a dangerous identity. The sphinx said, his breath gently blowing the hair that fell to his face, and he shook his head unconcernedly, revealing his face in the sunlight: "I may not have promised you, but I do look forward to the answer you can give me, well, stranger, I promise you that until you are silent, I will treat you as a friend." ”

He said so, and did so, and the otherworldly soul watched as the male-faced sphinx folded its wings and sat down like a super-large cat, its front paws crossed against each other, its chest high.

After a pause, the otherworldly soul also sat down, the sand was soft, he crossed his knees, and then put his hands on his knees, just like the male sphinx did, it was also a non-hostile gesture for a spellcaster, and the male sphinx smiled slightly: "You can say it," he said, "I hope it won't be some too terrible secret." ”

"My name is Cremar. The Otherworldly Soul said, staring into the eyes of the male-faced Sphinx, whose name might have been conveyed to many places as a valuable piece of information, but he wasn't sure if the Sphinx would care about it, but if they had something to do with the barbarians in the desert as the lich had guessed, the leader should have heard his name, and sure enough, the round amber eyes were suddenly occupied by the blue-black pupils, and not only that, but the tail that had been flicking gently also stiffened for a moment.

But now is not the time to pet the cat, and the soul of the other world quickly said: "I am a direct descendant of the red dragon Gredi, the youngest son of the new king, the newest master of the Grenada Dragon's Tooth Legion, and their leader. ”

The male sphinx moved his lips, each of his muscles tensed, and he would have jumped to his feet at any moment if he could, but the stranger with his astonishing status remained in his original position, and the male sphinx listened to the sounds around him—his ears could catch the gerbil crawling quietly in the sand a hundred feet below, and he could catch the gasps of a giant wolf hundreds of miles away, but he didn't hear any voice other than this man, nor did he smell the stench of a dinosaur or a griffinx.

"Then what did you come to me for?" said the male-faced sphinx.

"Because I don't want to choose a harpy-headed sphinx as my mount. The otherworldly spirit said, "I wish I could get a human-faced sphinx as a friend and comrade-in-arms." ”

The leader of the Sphinx had never encountered such a thing even in his most absurd dreams, and for a moment he was not sure what expression he should make, whether it was anger or contempt, and finally he chose to laugh, shaking his head heavily: "This is impossible, ha," he said, "even if you are a knight of Tyre, or the white robe of Rosada," the male sphinx said firmly. " Nor will we allow a human to ride on us, we are not horses, nor winged serpents, we are not mounts. No matter what the guys with the head of a sheep or a bird think, we don't want to be a slave. ”

"But I just need a ......"

"A friend, or a comrade," the male-faced sphinx's eyes became sarcastic, and he stood up, flapping his wings, and the sand raised covered the black-haired dragonborn, "maybe, it sounds beautiful, but we know that it means the same thing, human, or dragonborn, do you run around with a sphinx on your back all day? Of course, you don't, then there is no equality at all- Or if you really just want to get a slave, then come and fight, and me, and my people, maybe you have a legion, but I promise, you'll only get our corpses or your own. ”

The soul of the other world scratched its neck in annoyance, this direction was the last thing it wanted, but it also knew that the probability of this direction appearing was undoubtedly the greatest.

"Grenada is going to war again. Said the soul of the other world.

"What do you want to tell me?"

"If you need to be outside," the soul of the other world said in a phrase quite famous in another plane: "You must first be inside." ”

"To put it more clearly. The male-faced sphinx said.

"Grenada's war this time may be comparable to that of the founding days, and before Grenada has lost patience with those countries, she wants to silence Grenada completely, lest her legions be disturbed by some needless bugs—you know, all the lives that don't obey the Red Dragon, starting with the barbarians and outcasts of the desert. ”

"I don't care about things between humans. ”

"After dealing with those barbarians, there will be a great expansion of the Dragon's Tooth Legion," said the otherworldly soul, "How many Hippogriffs are there in the desert, how many are the sheep-headed Sphinxes, and the female-faced and male-faced Sphinxes?"

The face of the leader of the male sphinx became ugly, of course this intelligent creature knew what that meant, the griffin had no females, and their way of reproduction was to rob and force the female sphinx, and the female sphinx was always inferior in strength to the griffinx, and sometimes it was difficult to deal with the large number of sheep-headed sphinxes, so they always had male sphinx groups stationed around them to avoid being harassed by the above two.

But that's just to say that when they only had to face the eagle-headed and sheep-headed sphinx. If the latter had heavily armed knights, red-robed warlocks, and gray-robed necromancers on their backs, then there would be no need to speculate on the outcome of this war, not to mention that the barbarians and outcasts of the desert have always been friends of the human-faced sphinx group.

"Why do you tell us this?" said the male-faced sphinx, "if you are really a good-hearted person, then you can simply refrain from accepting this evil appointment." ”

"And then?" said the otherworldly spirit, "watching you be destroyed?" (To be continued.) )