After clearing the battlefield, the convoy rested for another half hour, and then continued its journey towards the Ponderor Fortress.

In the following journey, the situation was surprisingly smooth, and everyone's mood was relaxed. Although the haze of losing teammates has not dissipated after the big battle, everyone's mental outlook has improved a lot. Along the way, they lost forever twenty teammates who had fought side by side, life and death. This pain can only be slowly diluted with time.

About an hour later......

The road ahead has gradually become a two-way, four-lane road, with street lights installed on both sides. Under the orange-red light, the road surface looks clean and tidy, which contrasts sharply with the dim and gloomy gravel along the way. Seeing that the end of this journey was approaching, the team members cheered.

At this time, on the armored car at the front of the convoy, Marcus was staring intently ahead, maintaining a rigorous and serious attitude. He is the eye of the team, and there must be no slackness until he reaches his destination.

After turning a large bend, the outline of a man-made object gradually appeared on the cliff in the distance. As the vehicle progresses, the silhouette of the man-made object becomes clearer.

It is a fortress built on a steep cliff. From a distance, it looks like an ancient Gothic castle with a large half embedded in the stone wall, with a rectangular main building in the middle, the highest cylindrical main tower built in the middle of the main building, and four sub-towers at the four corners, and the outer part of the castle is composed of a dozen watchtowers and thick walls between the towers.

Judging from the architectural style and location alone, it is difficult to imagine the manpower and material resources required to build this fortress. Before coming here, Marcus had studied the relevant materials. Known as the Contemplatives, the temple was built over a period of thirty-seven years, during which time seven directors were replaced, and served as the northern garrison of the First Army of the Dawn Expeditionary Force in the abyss.

Since the formation of the Dawn Expeditionary Force, the First Army has been a special existence. Unlike the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th armies, the First Army was divided into three units, namely the "Chinese Army" troops stationed at the Dawn Fortress and marked by a broken shield; The "Heavenly Fury" unit stationed in the southern part of the abyss is marked by a broken sword, and the "Kingfisher" unit stationed in the northern part of the abyss is marked by a blue bird.

The First Army of the Dawn Expeditionary Force, also known as the "Knights of the Radiance", is said to be on a par with the Templars' other force, the Templar Crusaders.

But in fact, the strength of the Templar Crusaders is much more than what it seems, compared to the Dawn Expeditionary Force, which was only established for more than 100 years, they have a heritage of 3,000 years, and their internal structure is extremely stable. Successive popes have regarded the Templar Crusades as the last line of defense for the true God faith.

Different from the other two major faiths, the True God Faith is based on martial arts, and the apologetics are the source and carrier of the faith.

The destruction of the temple crusade is the fall of the true God.

The belief in the gods of Notre-Dame is based on the trust and support of the people, and the organization and spiritual service of the practitioners are the carrier.

Losing the hearts of the people and disintegrating the organization is Ragnarok.

As for the belief in the temple, the ancient line was a system of separation of church and state, which provided spiritual sustenance for the people and guidance of the traditional moral values of the Far East, which was somewhat similar to the system of Notre-Dame. The glorious vein is the integration of politics and religion, with the traditional glory concept of the northern remnants as the source, and the inheritance and obsession as the carrier.

If people's hearts are not ancient and morality is lost, the ancient flame is extinguished.

When there is no successor, the glory is lost, and the flame of glory is extinguished.

Coming within scout range of the Contemplative Keep, Marcus soon received a communication from the Stronghold.

"Visitor, I'm one of the temporary heads of the Contemplative Keep, Vice-Captain of the Princess Guard, Captain of the First Squad, Oliver Bart, please identify myself." A slightly hoarse, somewhat old voice came from the speaker.

Marcus immediately leaned down and said into the voice receiver, "I'm Marcus, a member of the Wolf Legion, greetings to you." ”

"Great! You're finally here! He said in surprise, then cleared his throat and said solemnly, "Please also convey my greetings to the Venerable Knights of the Wilderness on my behalf, and we will open the gates of the fortress to welcome you later." ”

"Thank you." Marcus replied.

About a quarter of an hour later......

The convoy slowly drove up a steep slope to the clearing in front of the fortress. The open space is small enough to accommodate five to six large trucks at a time. As a result, only half of the wolf legion's convoy drove up, and the remaining half remained on the steep slope to line up.

At this time, the steel gates of the fortress had been lowered and covered with the moat in front of them, forming a small drawbridge. Bai Xiaoyun lightly stepped on the accelerator and drove the jeep slowly across the suspension bridge. When he crossed the bridge, he inadvertently saw that there was still flowing water in the moat under the bridge. And not only that, but the speed of the current was very fast, and from time to time it stirred up a few splashes on the shore. It's hard to imagine that there is such a landscape on top of this cliff.

After crossing the bridge, Bai Xiaoyun stopped the car, and then followed the iron slag into the fortress. At this moment, the two sides of the gate were full of people, on the left were three columns of expeditionary force knights wearing silver holy light power armor, on the right were two columns of princess guard psionic warriors wearing gray holy light power armor, and a column of academy legion psionic warriors with different styles of power armor.

After entering the door, three people in power armor greeted him. In the middle was a spirited old man, about fifty or sixty years of age, with a typical western continental's poker face, a gray beard and a short flat head, and a distinct scar on his right eye. Before coming here, Bai Xiaoyun had read the old man's information. His name is Oliver Bart, and he is a vassal nobleman of the Northern Lombal family in the Northern Wilderness Continent Hyacinth City (No. 16 Silver City), and he is also an eighth-order psyker, sixty-five years old this year. Since ancient times, the Bart family has been a vassal family of the Lombal family, and when the family was separated, it was assigned to North Lombal.

To Oliver's left is a Templar dressed in silver solar armor with an iron cross embedded in his chest. His name is Kyle Larkin and he is a vassal nobleman of the Modleton family in Dragon City (Silver City 2) on the Western Continent. Kyle is a seventh-order psionic who is thirty-eight years old at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve, and was the deputy captain of the Kingfisher Unit of the First Army of the Dawn Expeditionary Force.

To Oliver's right is a young student dressed in a crimson first-generation psionic power armor. His name is Hildebrand Sujia, and he is the head of the "Spartan Warriors" of the Central Silver City Military Academy, and his team is ranked eighth in the honor rankings, and according to the data, he is a sixth-order psionic.

At this moment, Bai Xiaoyun suddenly noticed that Hildebrand actually looked a little similar to the iron slag. Looking closely, they are somewhat similar in terms of eyebrows, eyes, body shape, and even standing posture and temperament. If he hadn't read the former's information, he would have thought that the two were cousins or cousins, if not brothers.

"Welcome, Lord Iron Slag." Oliver stepped forward first, bowed aristocratic to the iron slag, and then stretched out his hand. The latter then shook the former's hand and bowed in return. Next, Kyle and Hildebrand stepped forward in turn to shake hands with the iron slag and greet them.

And when Iron Slag shook hands with Hildebrand, both of them involuntarily glanced at each other more, and at the same time showed a look of astonishment. Although Iron Slag rarely looks in the mirror, he still remembers his appearance. But he didn't think much about it, after all, the world is so big and there are so many people, and it is not uncommon to occasionally meet one or two people who look similar. And for the latter, the same is true.

After a brief greeting ceremony, Iron Slag visited the main castle of the fortress with Oliver and others.

During this period, Oliver introduced that the Contemplative Fortress covers an area of about 35,000 square meters, with a radius of about 105 meters, a circumference of about 663 meters, and a total construction area of about 28,000 square meters, of which the main castle has a construction area of 19,000 square meters, which can accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 people at the same time. However, if it is fully occupied, it may seem crowded. At present, the defenders of the fortress numbered about 400 men, and the logisticians were about 600 people, and with the addition of investors, convoys, and miners, there were more than 1,600 in total.

At this time, people came and went in the castle, and many logistics personnel came and went, which seemed very busy.

Oliver then went on to say that due to the limited building conditions in the abyss, and the fact that it was on the edge of a human-controlled zone, it was a remote area. As a result, the main castle of the fortress was designed to be on the small side, with fewer places for people to live. Under normal circumstances, a single room of twenty square meters would accommodate six logistics personnel, transport personnel, miners, or four busy marines from the academy, knights and servants of the Dawn Expeditionary Force, or two power armor warriors and junior officers. However, despite the small living environment, it has one good advantage, which is the abundance of water. In addition to daily drinking water, bathing is also available. This is a great benefit for most of the fortresses in the Abyss.

Later, Oliver took the iron slag and the others to the top of the castle, which was the top of the tallest tower in the center of the castle, which Marcus had seen in the distance.

As soon as the elevator door opened, the front suddenly opened up. It is a circular hall, about 200 square meters, the outer wall is only half a person high, and the rest is full of large glass windows. If you look closely, the inner part of the outer wall is sliced stone, which looks like it is made of stone, but the middle part is a thick steel plate and a thick steel bar in the shape of "I", which looks beautiful and reliable. Standing in front of the window and looking out, the entire fortress was suddenly in full view.

"Lord Commander, this will be your office and lounge area from now on." Oliver bowed slightly and said.

"Thank you, thank you for your hard work." Iron Slag bowed to the old man and said.