The conclusions drawn from the traces of the perimeter can be said to be obvious.

Someone has managed to infiltrate the area between the Fifth Chasseur's position and the Black Forest Fort, and there must be a spellcaster among them.

With her experience as a lake-level scholar, Wei Lin judged that among these infiltrators, there were even mages above the stream level, and it was even possible that they were similar to sword-wielding hermits or iris guards, because it was absolutely impossible for ordinary spellcasters to consume the magic power in this high-quality magic crystal in a short period of time.

What's more, there is only one place where this high-quality crystallization from the northern snow fields is the most.

That's Merlin Lehe.

If the Kingdom of St. Steele is the "Land of Crystalline Mines", then as the origin of the spellcasters in the entire Vanna, Merlin Lehe is the real Holy Land of spellcasters, and in this special war period, the Law Council will naturally increase its support for those mage members who are fighting for the benefits of Merlin Lehe.

To exaggerate it, even if the members of the Legislative Committee wanted to use magic crystals to directly smash people to death, Merlin Lehe's higher-ups would raise their hands in favor.

"Consuming magic crystals means that they consume mana...... That is, those people have used magic, or performed magical rituals."

One of the military mages whispered, "What do these people want to do? Exploring our positions, or are you going to do something else?"

"I don't know."

Wei Lin shook her head, and then she ordered, "Control the range of the summons, don't expand them any more...... Be sure to keep your roads safe and notify you of any findings."

After saying that, she said to an officer, "Let the herald bring the news back to the position, and make sure it arrives."

Soon, all the gathered personnel dispersed again, and the team began to move onward.

At this time, Verin, who knew a little about Shuge's abilities, gave him a more important task: "Follow the path...... The Chasseurs have set up several observation posts and outposts on the road leading to the Black Forest Fort, so if you can, check to see if anything is wrong with them."

At this time, Xiuge naturally had no way to excuse himself, so with the transfer of his mind, a considerable part of the rat herd controlled by the will of the Ernst family immediately moved towards the path where everyone was.

A large amount of information was fed back along the magic connection between Xiuge and the rat colony, and fortunately, Xiuge's current mana storage was far greater than before, otherwise these detailed information from different directions and locations alone would have been enough to make his mind disordered.

While directing the rat colony to investigate, the metal disc located in Xiuge's spiritual world also began to rotate under the stimulation of magic, Xiuge knew that when it came to detecting and reacting to danger, his own disc for inscribed magic was the most accurate!

The surroundings were still very quiet, and the wilderness next to the road could be said to be unobstructed, and with the magical perception of the mages and the night vision possessed by taking potions, any person or thing that appeared on either side of the road would be immediately noticed and located.

….

In this way, the crowd continued to advance in the direction of the Black Forest Fort.

Soon, the rat colony responsible for scouting for Shug and the others had arrived near the "observation post" that Wei Lin had called.

The "Observatory" is actually a makeshift site built with a few spells and several large waterproof tents, often maintained by a dozen soldiers plus a regular raindrop-level mage.

The on-site personnel have to do a very simple job, while acting as a sentry post to keep an eye on the surrounding area, they also need to use the magic secret equipment they carry with them to monitor the flow of magic in a certain area, so as to prevent the enemy from performing large-scale magic rituals that are unfavorable to their own in certain important areas.

But now, the entire observatory was silent, and after Shug ordered the rats to explore, he found that it was completely empty!

"Something's wrong!"

Shug immediately informed Verin of the situation, and at the same time, other mages in the vicinity found out about—

—A human summon is found near a large lake near the road.

It was a neatly arranged pile of equipment - mostly intact, from the water bottle to the bullet pouch to the standard capes and revolver rifles used by the members of the Fifth Chasseur Regiment...... Xiuge quickly counted the number of items, and found that there were twelve revolvers, one revolver, and the number of supporting items such as bullet bags could also be corresponded.

And next to the revolver, there was a magic book, which was the version of the Council printed.

Obviously, this is the trace left by the missing team inside the observation station.

"What's going on? Someone killed them? And brought everything here?"

Some of the military mages expressed their opinions, but apparently he didn't quite believe in such a judgment himself, after all, the situation was a bit strange, and it didn't look like someone had deliberately destroyed the traces after a sneak attack on the site, but more like a demonstration.

Soon, the soldiers who had gone to check on the situation in the observation post also retreated, and they found nothing else, as Shuge said, everything in the observation post could be said to be normal except for no one, everything was in order, and they even saw the confiscated dragon tooth card and a cup of herbal tea brewed at some unknown time on the table in the makeshift house.

Through these details, Xiuge was even able to reconstruct the situation inside the observatory not so long ago.

At that point, the soldiers on site are supposed to be talking and resting indoors, two of them playing Dragon's Tooth cards, and the rest of them are supposed to be around the table, and some of them are supposed to brew a cup of hot tea from their treasured tea leaves......

But none of this is a problem.

The real problem was that Shug and the others had no way of knowing what had caused the twelve soldiers and a mage to leave the site and leave their coats, weapons, and other paraphernalia behind.

Shuge even felt that the word "abandoned" was not appropriate, because it was obvious that the things had been carefully arranged and arranged, and even all the discarded coats were carefully folded, as if the soldiers had only put their things here for the time being, and would return after a while.

….

However, this is simply too illogical.

These are very important and stressful times, and in the military, such behavior is no different from "defection".

And after this period of getting along, Xiuge already has a basic trust and understanding of all the members of the Fifth Chaulture Regiment, and he knows that the soldiers of the Fifth Chaulture Regiment have absolute guarantees of loyalty to the Wattle Kingdom, and they will never suddenly choose to defect en masse at such a time.

At this moment, Verin, who was very familiar with the equipment of the council mages, suddenly frowned, her eyes quickly swept twice between the guns and clothing, and then she spoke, "No, there is something missing here."

Hearing her say this, Xiuge's gaze couldn't help but fall to those objects again, and this time, his attention was focused on those items that belonged to the military mage.

It could be seen that the mage must have brought out everything he had with him, and Xiuge even saw the official documents issued by the Council, which were the same as his own, in the latest style.

Shuge soon realized what the problem was, and he was surprised, "The secret ritual is missing?"

"Yes, the secret rituals assigned to each observatory......

Verin rummaged through the folded and stacked clothes with her mage's hand, and when she saw that nothing was missing, she shook her head and said, "That's the most important thing in every observatory, and as long as a mage is on duty in this kind of place, he will definitely carry it with him."

Viline's words weren't an exaggeration, as Hugg had already seen the portable esoters assigned to observation sites and important outposts when he was in Brownhill - they were often made directly into heavy metal pendants or metal ornaments, which could be made to function as long as they were continuously supplied with mana or by inserting magic crystals.

And this secret ritual can not only be magical to the surrounding environment

In addition to generating reactions, it is also possible to record the disturbance of magic according to a specific period.

"Since the secret ritual was deliberately taken, it means that the person who did this did not intend to let us know what happened around here through the records in the secret ritual, as for the soldiers......

Shuge said as he looked at the lake in front of him.

The lake was connected to the river next to the town of the Black Forest, and it was supposed to be an excellent place for the cultivators in the vicinity on a normal day, and Shug saw some artificial canals, as well as improvised magic waterwheels.

However, it is not reasonable that the lake is still not frozen at a time when the river has begun to freeze.

But the strange thing is that in the face of this abnormal phenomenon, Xiuge did not feel any traces of magic power, and the metal disc in the spiritual world, which has always been extremely sensitive to abnormal phenomena and dangerous situations, is only rotating at a stable frequency at this moment.

An accompanying mage stepped forward, never too happy with his magical summons - it was a water lizard, a magical creature that was too slow to move on the ground and could only use itself in the water, so he would never miss an opportunity to use it.

….

Under the summoner's command, the lizard, the length of an adult's small arm, quickly jumped into the lake, and in the process, the mage's pupils continued to glow with magic, apparently using the magical connection with his summon to observe the underwater situation.

However, after a few minutes of silence, the mage's body suddenly shook violently, and then he forcibly severed the connection between himself and the summon, and the whole person's face began to become extremely distorted and pale, and he held on for a few seconds, but finally couldn't help but bend down and retched violently.

His behavior surprised everyone present, and at the same time caused a little panic - a military mage above the stream level should have extremely strong mental endurance, after all, for them, the horrific specimens in the magic laboratory and the mutilated corpses on the battlefield are commonplace, and they have seen a lot.

One can't imagine what could cause such a violent physiological response from a military mage.

Taking advantage of the fact that Wei Lin and the others were inquiring about the situation, Xiuge quietly mobilized his magic power, so the mist of the messenger in the mirror flashed across his body, and a figure quietly formed in the icy lake.

Upon receiving the order of Shug, the magic double immediately summoned a number of Calon Touches, and with the help of these tentacles, which had been born in the waters of the ocean, the Mirror Emissary began to move rapidly towards the depths of the lake.

The darkness in the depths of the lake could not hinder it at all, and it was for this reason that when he manipulated his refreshment to the center of the lake and looked into its depths, a striking image that completely exceeded his expectations came into his field of vision.

「……」

He was a little speechless for a while.

A series of words such as horror and bizarre are not enough to describe the scene he is seeing now.

Right in the center of the lake, in the deepest part of the dark waters, there was a large number of human figures.

There is no doubt that they are all corpses.

The deceased looked like insects fixed inside a giant amber, and they all maintained their respective postures, some with severely twisted bodies as if performing a difficult dance, while others stretched out their arms as if embracing invisible lovers......

Most of them must have drowned in a desperate struggle, and with the help of the magical vision of the messenger in the mirror, Shuge was able to see the appearance and clothing of the dead, and then he was surprised to find that the corpses were actually very "fresh".

It has not rotted or deformed from prolonged immersion, nor has it been eaten by the creatures of the lake.

Rather than corpses, they resemble strange sculptures of some perverted "artist" in the icy waters.

The number of dead was so large, they were both men and women, from young children to the elderly, and the vast majority of them were ordinary townspeople dressed in the costumes of the Teresan civilians, but Shug also saw the bodies of some Teresa soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the Black Forest Infantry Regiment.

And in the very center of these corpses, in the closest place to the messenger in the mirror, there were thirteen distinct figures floating.

Twelve of the corpses formed a circle, their heads bowed, their hands at their sides, and they were suspended in the water as if they were performing some strange military salute.

And in the center of these soldiers' corpses was a figure wearing the clothes of a mage with the Fifth Chasseur Regiment.

The mage leaned back to his upper body, his hands hanging back, his mouth open to the point of violating human physiology.

Xiuge saw that in the mouth of this mage, it turned out to be the missing secret ritual.

It looks like someone forced this thing into his mouth......

Zero doctors