In the early morning, it was still a long time before the sun rose, and even the hazy sky had not appeared above the hills in the east. The starry sky, which was slightly dimmer than before, covered the land of the border area. The night was low, and the dark blue sky spread from the towering walls of the Winter Wolf Castle to the Cecilian Long Wind Fortress.

The knights in black helmets and black armor gathered neatly under the night sky, with swords back sheathed, and the flags were converging. The war horses trained and controlled by magic potions and calm spells stood quietly as if they were integrated with the knights, without making any sound, the cold wind blew across the earth. On the plain, there seemed to be hundreds of sculptures made of steel, silent and solemn.

A tall figure riding a war horse circled half a circle from the rear of the team and returned to the front of the Knights. His black steel armor seemed deeper and heavier under the starlight, and a low and majestic voice came from the armor covering the entire face.

Unfortunately, it is not the language of human beings.

It was some kind of ambiguous, as if countless people were overlapping and muttering at the same time, which sounded creepy, but also had some solemn rhythm like prayer.

The commander of the black armor raised his arms in front of the Knights. His vague and terrifying voice seemed to inspire the entire team. The knights raised their arms one after another, but no one shouted. They expressed their fighting spirit to the commander in this way with a strict chance, and the commander was obviously quite satisfied with this.

He nodded, turned his horse's head, and waved the sword in his hand towards the dark and deep plain in the distance. The knights began to move in rows. The entire team was like a sudden wave of wheat, starting to accelerate to the distance layer by layer. While moving, the flag bearers in front, middle and back of the team suddenly raised the flags in their hands.

The flag of the Iron River Knights fluttered high on the plain under the night sky.

...

Andesha had a dream.

In the dream, she seemed to fall into a bottomless vortex, countless shadows, black cyclones like smoke and mist surrounded her. They were boundless, blocking Andesha's sight and perception, and she kept falling in this huge cyclone. She wanted to wake up very much, and under normal circumstances, this sense of falling should also make her wake up immediately, but some powerful force pulled her deep in the vortex, making her always separated from the real world by an invisible barrier. She could almost feel the touch of the bedding and heard the sound of the wind outside the window, but her spirit was like being trapped in a dream and could never return to the real world.

Andesa tried hard to open her eyes in the constantly rotating cyclone. She wanted to see clearly what was in the shadowy fog. Then suddenly, things condensed in the fog. She saw her face, many familiar or strange faces. She saw her grandfather, the soldiers she was most familiar with, and the familiar ones far away in the imperial capital...

Finally, she suddenly saw her father, and Bud Wendell's face emerged from the depths of the vortex, and then reached out and pushed her hard.

Andesa suddenly woke up and gasped violently in the darkness. She felt her heart pounding. Some "sewage" like drowning made her extremely uncomfortable, while cold sweat had already wet her whole body.

"General, General! Please wake up, General!"

The rapid knock on the door and the shouts of subordinates finally came into her ears. Did the sound just appear? Or had it called herself for a while?

Andesa quickly got up, pulled a regular dress and put it on her body, and responded: "Come in!"

The door of the room was pushed open, and a trusted subordinate appeared at the door. The young adjutant took a step further and saluted with an anxious expression on his face and said quickly: "General, there is a situation. A riot occurred in the residential area of ​​the God of War's Lord. A group of combat priests and soldiers on duty clashed, and many casualties have occurred."

"What did you say? Riot?" Andessa was shocked, and then immediately went to get her sword and the coat she wore when she went out. Although she heard an unbelievable news, she knew very well the ability and judgment of her trusted subordinates. This kind of news could not have been fabricated out of thin air. "What is the situation now? Who is on the scene? Is the situation controlled?"

While talking, she temporarily handed the sword to the adjutant, and walked out quickly in her clothes.

"The Knights Brewer has already controlled the situation because it was suddenly out of control. At first, the soldiers did not react, resulting in seven deaths, thirty to forty people injured, at least fifteen of them seriously injured. Then the knights and combat mages patrolling nearby arrived quickly, blocking the priests who seemed a little confused and separated," the young adjutant followed and said quickly, "The patrol and surveillance in other areas have been strengthened, and there is no sign of chaos for the time being."

Looks unconscious...

Andesha's heart sank and her pace immediately accelerated again.

Just as I approached the camp in the Winter Wolf Castle for the placement of some priests, a pungent smell of blood rushed towards me.

The knights had already controlled the entire scene, and a large number of fully armed soldiers were guarding all the entrances and exits of the area. The combat mage kept scanning all magic fluctuations in the camp with detection spells, ready to deal with the extraordinary people's loss of control and resistance at any time. Several nervous patrol knights noticed Andesha's arrival and immediately stopped to walk to pay tribute.

Andesa waved her hand, crossed the wall and entered the inside of the camp.

The wounded had moved, and the body was still lying on the ground. The splashed blood had cooled down on this cold winter night. The residual energy left after the spells and magical arts were still accumulated nearby, and it was in a foggy state in Andesha's magical vision. She frowned and looked at the bodies of the soldiers wearing imperial armor. They were all killed by the scorching magical blades or magical arts. The blood was not much flowing out. The smell of blood here came more from the priests who were killed by swords.

The corpses of the priests fell around them, and they fell in the same place as the soldiers they killed.

Andesa suppressed the intense emotions in her heart. She came to the body of one of the War God priests, squatting down without caring about the blood around her and stretching out her hand to flip the remains.

The priest's corpse turned over, staring at Andertha with empty eyes, or staring at the dark sky, and there seemed to be some kind of chaos and fanaticism remaining in those eyes, which looked particularly uncomfortable.

But Andesha's attention quickly left those eyes. She looked at the priest's wound.

A fatal injury slashed and penetrated the entire chest from near the neck. The enchanted sword blade cut open the cloth clothes and cotton robe with weak defense. Below it was the torn flesh and blood that no longer flowed, and many... strange things could be seen on both sides of the wound.

It was the granula that grew out of flesh and blood. It looked strange and disturbing. Anderssa could be sure that such things should never grow in human wounds. As for their role...these granula seemed to be trying to heal the wound, but the complete cut off of the body's vitality made this attempt fail. Now all granula shrink and fit together with flesh and blood, which is particularly disgusting.

A knight stained with blood on his armor approached Andessa.

"Brewer," Anderssa did not look up, she had sensed the familiarity in her breath, "Have you noticed these wounds?"

"Yes, general," replied the cavalry officer in a deep voice, "I have checked it once before. It is not a healing spell or alchemy potion that can produce, nor is it a normal God of War magic. But one thing is certain that these... abnormal things have allowed the priests here to gain stronger vitality. Many of us have suffered great losses because of this. No one would have thought that the enemy who has been cut down would fight back like nothing happened. Many soldiers were seriously injured or even lost their lives in surprise."

Andesa nodded slightly, and the statement of the Knight Officer confirmed her speculation and explained why the chaos caused such great casualties.

The war gods and priests placed here are all disarmed. Without the increase in magic weapons and no suitable weapons, even the war gods and priests with bare hands should not cause such great damage to the fully armed and collectively operated regular troops, even if they attacked them.

After all, the soldiers of the Empire all have rich extraordinary combat experience. Even if they do not mention the extremely high proportion of mass-produced knights and mass-produced mages in the army, even as ordinary soldiers, they have enchanted equipment and have undergone targeted training.

But...if they are facing a fallen priest who has transformed from humans to monsters, it will be hard to say.

Andesha's face was gloomy. Although she didn't want to do this, she had to classify the out-of-control god of war priests as "fallen priests."

"Where are the other war god priests?" she stood up and asked in a deep voice.

"They have been controlled and placed in two nearby battalions, and three times more guards have been sent," Knight Commander Brewer immediately replied, "Most of them are nervous, and a few are excited, but at least they have not…mutated."

An irritability surged in Andesha's heart: "...we can only keep them in this way."

"Yes, we can only keep them like this," the Knight's face was also not very good. "This chaos was obviously caused by some kind of 'crazy disease'. We cannot attack ordinary priests in a state of awakeness, but I am worried that soldiers may not think so."

Andesa frowned. She was about to give instructions, but soon noticed other details from the priest's corpse.

She bent down and touched a thin chain on the priest's neck with her fingers. She pulled it out along the chain with a triangular iron talisman that had been stained with blood.

"War Talisman..." The head of the knight next to him exclaimed in a low voice, "I didn't notice this just now!"

Andesa did not speak, but tore open the sleeves of the priest with a serious expression. Under the bright magic crystal light nearby, she immediately saw the same triangle emblem drawn with red paint on the inside of the other party's arm.

"Wear an iron war talisman seal, and draw the God of War emblem on the inside of your arm..." The Knight captain subconsciously spoke in a low voice, "It means that holding weapons in the name of God is a sign of entering a state of war!"

"These priests are not crazy, at least not all crazy. They did these things according to their teachings. This is not a riot..." Andersa said in a deep voice, "This is a sacrifice to the god of war to indicate that the camp they are loyal to has entered a state of war."

"State of war!" Her adjutant came from beside her with amazement on her face, "War is coming from there!? Are these people going to rebel against the empire?"

"You can't wear talisman seals in the war, this is not a rebellion..."

Andesha was only halfway through her words.

She quickly recalled the various news that had been sent back from China in recent times, quickly sorted out the abnormal situation of the God of War Church and the balance of the situation in the border areas in recent times. The information she knew was actually very little, but a certain wolfish intuition had begun to sound the alarm in her mind.

Suddenly, she had a very bad and extremely bad guess.

There was a problem with the God of War Church, and the gods of these priests were in trouble. What believers who were anxious and frenzy wanted to do most at this time... should be to please their gods.

But how can these priests who have been disarmed, called Protective Observation, actually under house arrest in the camp please their gods?

It is difficult for them to do it...but the believers of the God of War are not the only ones!

Andesa suddenly raised her head, but almost at the same time, she could see a mage flying rapidly towards this side from the distance in the night sky.

This seemed to be specifically designed to confirm her bad guess.

Anthersa felt a feeling that she had already grasped the key but was difficult to reverse the situation. She still remembered when the last time she felt this feeling was a rainy night in the Paramel Heights.

The wizard who sent the message landed in front of her.

"General!" The mage gasped, with a look of horror. "The Iron River Knights were dispatched without orders. Their camp was empty. The last witness saw them gathering on the plains far away from the fortress and heading towards the Changfeng Line of Defense!"

come down.

Andesa felt like she was falling towards a vortex.

...

The Changfeng Fortress Group is composed of a composite defense line composed of Changfeng Fortress as the center and a series of bunkers, outposts, railway nodes and troop stations as the skeletons.

Since its completion, it has not yet been tested by war.

It was already dawn, and the stars in the sky seemed even more dim and blurry, and a hazy light was emerging over the distant eastern hills, indicating that this cold night was about to reach its end.

The Knights who set out in the dark had arrived at the end of the "Camanda intersection", which was the edge of the Cecilians' defense line guard zone.

Under the dark armor, a pair of dark red eyes were looking at the dark horizon in the distance and the direction of the Changfeng defense line.

Behind this commander, the huge knights have formed a legion formation, and the surging magic power fills the entire resonance field.

A few minutes later, the magic resonance reached its peak.

The commander raised the long sword in his hand high. The moment the sword was swung down, the entire knights began to accelerate slowly, like a heavy and slow wave at first, but then rushed to the distant horizon like a huge wave.

God needs everything back on track.

The war between blood and fire is right.

The Lord’s servants don’t care who will win, whether they will be wiped out, or even what the meaning of this war is.

At this moment, war itself is the meaning.
Chapter completed!