The snow left a long trail of footprints, and the footprints of three people could be faintly seen, stretching all the way to the end of the horizon to the east.

This was the second day after Fern and the others had left the Sadowa Bridge, and as agreed with Ray, they would meet her and Stan in Talheim today. According to Fern's estimates, they would have reached Talheim by dusk today. But the closer he got to Talheim, the more Fern worried about whether his companions would actually make it. But this trouble didn't stay in Fern's mind for long, and at this time, another trouble continued to harass him.

Queai always kept asking Fern all kinds of questions, such as where the mercenaries had been, what kind of commissions for whom they had done, and the questions became more and more excessive, until later, he even began to ask Fern what kind of girls he liked, if any girls liked him, and finally, he even asked if he had ever been warm with girls.

Fern didn't answer a word at first, until Quiai's last question, the mercenary couldn't help it, he reprimanded Quiai loudly, "That's enough!" and then walked forward quickly without looking back, leaving the mage behind.

Ness listened to Queai's question, pouting and not speaking, glad she had hidden her mouth in her scarf so that Fern could not see her angry. At this point, Ness watched as Fern left Queai alone and walked forward, with indescribable joy in her heart.

Queai had no one to talk to her, so she turned to Ness, "I guess he must not have been with the girl, otherwise how could he react so much, what do you say?"

Ness's face was red all the way to the base of her ears. "I ...... I don't know. ”

Queai mysteriously leaned into Ness's ear and whispered softly, "You two have been alone for a long time, nothing has happened?"

"Where...... Why!" Ness hurriedly denied, feeling her heart beat as violently as if she had just run ten miles away.

"I don't believe it. Quiai smirked. "If you admit it, I'll promise to give him up, after all, I don't want to break up the two people who have already reached that point. ”

Admit it, although not really. The thought crossed Ness's mind, but it was fleeting. How did I have this thought?

The mage looked at Kuiai angrily and said in a serious voice, "Nothing has happened to us, Fern is very upright, and will never do anything wrong to me!"

The answer was so loud that even Fern, who was walking in front, looked back at them suspiciously, but he didn't hear them clearly. Silk immediately lowered her voice, "We really don't have anything, please don't ask this question again, okay?"

Kuiai smirked, "It seems to be true, then I have nothing to worry about." ”

"You can't ...... Quea," Ness regretted as soon as she said this, she didn't know why it had leaked out of her mouth, "I mean, you should have asked Fern what he wanted first. ”

"What can he want? He wouldn't say it even if he had, there were too few men like him, almost extinct, well, yes, he must not have found a woman to bear children for him, so he became extinct. Quiai tilted his head to look at the mercenary in front of him, and said with some pity.

Ness's face had just returned to its usual color, and Quiai's words made her face red again, "Fern, he just didn't meet the girl who gave him the courage to speak out. ”

"Really? I don't think so. Quiai exhaled, and a white mist formed in front of her. "The girl had already appeared. She tightened her hood and ran forward quickly, catching up with Fern, and the mercenary's madness recurred.

The group walked faster than expected, probably because Grace's energy made Fern and Ness no longer feel so tired, and she never seemed to get tired of following Fern around, sometimes rubbing a snowball from the snow and smashing it accurately on the mercenary's head, and then trying to pull his arm.

Just when Fern felt like he was about to explode, at the end of the horizon, between the two mountainsides, a city loomed into his eyes. The mercenary rubbed his eyes in disbelief and looked ahead again, and the city he had just seen was gone.

"Do you see it? ...... the city there," Fern broke free of Quiai's hand and pointed forward.

Quiai looked in the direction Fern was pointing. "Nothing, Fern, did you deliberately lie to me to get rid of me?"

"Hell, I'm not in the mood. Fern's eyes widened in surprise. "I thought Talheim had arrived, but based on the size of the map, it shouldn't be such a big city. ”

Seeing that Fern didn't look like he was lying, Quiai looked serious. "Are you sure it's a city?"

"Yes, what? What do you know?" Fern seemed to think of something when he saw Queay.

"There are some powerful ** masters who can project the image of the entire village to another place, but it is only limited to the size of one village, and the distance is not too far. "This magic is extremely draining of a mage's mental power, and is almost only used when he is in a desperate situation, hoping to fool the eyes of his enemies. ”

"You mean, there's a dark tide ahead?" Fern's nervous left hand pressed to the hilt of his sword. "Otherwise, who would cast this magic?"

At this time, Ness also followed, and heard the conversation between the two. "If it were the city that Fern was talking about, there wouldn't be more than five people in the whole Wallis who could do that. ”

"You mean the Great Sage?" Quiai tilted his head to look at Ness.

Ness nodded slightly, not wanting to ignore her, her affection for Quiai had all vanished on the way.

"But Sara was captured two months ago, why do we still see this projection now?" Fern listened to the speculation of the two mages, his face full of doubt.

"One explanation is that the caster is still around there, and the great sage's magic power is so strong that he can recover enough mental power to cast the spell again in a few days. Ness pulled down the scarf that covered her mouth, and the white mist she spat out condensed in front of her, "But it doesn't make sense, Sara has been down for so long, and he still stays here and spends his mental energy on what to do." ”

"Any other explanation?" said Fern, pulling off his hood, trying to clear his brain a little in the cold weather.

Ness frowned and didn't continue, Quiai glanced at her and cleared her throat, "There's another explanation to talk about, it's an absolute tragedy, I think I'll talk about it." Even Quiai unconsciously tightened his cloak. "Because this magic is too powerful, and according to what you said before, it is a city, and I guess there is only Asgard of this scale in Sarah, and it is very difficult for the Great Sage to project the entire Asgard here, and if you don't get it right, it will also deplete their original power. With that, Quiai winked at Ferne, "Do you know the power of the Origin?"

Fern avoided Quiai's gaze and shook his head unnaturally.

"Origin power is somewhat similar to spiritual power, except that it is a kind of spiritual power that will not be restored once consumed, so no mage will risk consuming his own origin power. Quiai looked ahead.

Ness remembered the Origin Power that Hussey had expended to cast the Circle of Life on herself, and she couldn't help but feel sad again.

Queai didn't notice Ness's abnormality, and continued, "Because of this, another method can prevent the caster from depleting his Origin Power, but in contrast, it needs to consume something else. Queai paused, his face gloomy. "Human lives are needed. ”

"What?!Why does a mage only need to consume the power of the Origin, while ordinary people have to lose their lives?" Fern couldn't understand the difference between a mage and an ordinary person.

"If the sacrificed person can use magic, their Origin Power will be depleted first, and then it will not be enough...... Use life to make up for it, and the magic power and origin power of a great sage need a lot of ordinary people's lives to fill it......" Kui Ai's eyes were full of helplessness, "I said this, do you understand Fern?"

"Why did he do this, I mean, the Great Sage. Fern was furious, agitated and incoherent.

"You don't have to be so angry, maybe it's the best option, project Asgard to another remote village, if you can keep Asgard, I think of course the Great Sage will do it, although it didn't turn out as expected, Asgard was still destroyed. Queai stroked Fern's arm, trying to calm the mercenary's agitation. "Anyway, let's go over and see, maybe it's not that bad. ”

"That direction is exactly where Talheim is on the map......" Fern didn't say any more.

Ness pursed her lips and walked over to Fern, trying to comfort her, but found that she didn't know how to speak. Why, can't I blurt out as naturally as Quiai?

"Let's go, I hope it's as you say. Fern glanced at Quiai's concerned eyes, didn't say much, and took the lead in the direction in which the projection had appeared.

Quiai glanced at Ness triumphantly, a smile on her lips, and followed Fern away.

Damn, Fern, you must not get carried away, please. Ness pursed her lips, pulled on her scarf, and hurriedly followed.