A nest that has gone out of control …
Bard? Wendell was stunned for a moment before he realized what the other party was referring to.
"It's underground in the eastern part of the Holy Spirit Plain …" He looked up at Gwen and Viscount Andrew. "It seems that you have found its entrance?"
"The entrance is no longer important. The entire Sollinburg area has been occupied by a huge plant that has spread out from the ground. I'm afraid it's the product of some out-of-control technology," Gwen said straightforwardly. "And your only chance now is to confirm the situation inside and come back alive."
Bard? Wendell closed his eyes slightly. He seemed to have no other choice.
"I see." He lowered his head. "I accept this opportunity."
"Very good." Gwen glanced at Viscount Andrew and then nodded to Bard. "Then relax a little. At least for this moment, you can temporarily leave the identity of a prisoner. Next, I have some questions to ask you. "
The attendant quickly brought in a chair and let Bard sit down in the middle of the room. Viscount Andrew left the room for official business. When only Gwen and the former Wolf General Typhon were left, the atmosphere became heavy until Gwen took the initiative to break the silence. "In fact, I've always been curious. What did the Wolf General, who once had a bright future, experience to become a believer of the Finality of All Things? Even his extraordinary profession changed from Divine Knight to Dark Druil."
Bard sat upright in the chair. Perhaps it was because he had something to do, or perhaps it was because he was facing the ruler of the 'enemy country', but his decadence seemed to have subsided a lot. Hearing Gwen's question, the man who hid a lot of secrets was silent at first, but after a few seconds, he let out a soft sigh.
There were some things that he had never intended to mention again, but when he read the news of Gwen's coronation in the newspaper and saw the huge skull that was processed into a throne, the things that he once insisted on became insignificant.
"Your Majesty, have you ever had a belief?" He looked into Gwen's eyes and asked.
Gwen smiled. "If you're talking about a certain belief, I have it. But if you're talking about a specific god, I don't have it."
"Then you must be unable to understand what it means for a person's faith to collapse in an instant." Bard smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Especially when you're experiencing life and death …"
"Although I would like to correct your narrow perception of 'faith' now, I am more interested in your 'collapse of faith.'" Gwen adjusted his sitting posture and leaned back in his chair. He looked at the Wolf General who had fallen from a devout believer of the God of War to a dark Druil with a half-smile. "Let me guess, what have you faced … the truth of God? Have you discovered that the god you believe in is dead, or have you discovered that he is just a man-eating monster? "
Bard's eyes suddenly widened as he stared at Gwen. "Why are you …"
"Do you think you're the only ones who are facing the so-called truth and shouldering the so-called mission? The world is so big. Why does all the truth happen to be in the hands of a dark sect? "
Bard breathed rapidly. After a long time, he finally calmed down. He closed his eyes with a self-deprecating smile on his face. "Then we're really a joke …"
"This joke is quite destructive." Gwen shook his head. "Tell me, how did you become like this?"
Bard closed his eyes tightly. Memories flashed in his mind one after another.
He remembered that it was a cold winter. The confrontation area between Winterwolf Fort and Longwind Stronghold was covered in ice and snow. It was the coldest winter he had ever experienced. For nearly half a month, it snowed almost every day.
He remembered that day when the Knight's Regiment was patrolling the border in the ice and snow. The sudden snowstorm interfered with their vision, and the soldiers deviated from their route in the process of looking for shelter.
He remembered that it was near Palamel Heights. The soldiers and the Ansu Knight's Regiment had a brief encounter. The fierce battle in the snowstorm only lasted for a short time. After realizing that the situation was unfavorable, he led his men to break out of the encirclement in the south and tried to take a detour from the hilly area at the end of the Gloom Mountains back to the Typhon side.
He remembered the sudden attack. At the end of the Gloom Mountains, near the Gondor Wasteland, the exhausted Knight's Regiment was ambushed by monsters that looked like flesh and blood giants. The monsters kept coming from the wasteland. The Knight's Regiment was outnumbered. He killed one monster after another until his sword broke and his last comrade fell.
He also fell. It was a fatal wound that penetrated his heart. Theoretically, it was impossible for him to survive. However, he still opened his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he was lying in a place that looked like a magic laboratory. His body was full of tubes, and half of his body was soaked in solution. Around him were men in black robes walking around. Someone was loudly announcing the success of the experiment.
"… From that day on, I became one of them." Bard had opened his eyes. He said as he recalled. Then, in front of Gwen, he opened his shirt and revealed the price of resurrection. "This is the 'gift' they gave me."
Gwen frowned. He saw Bard Bard's chest. Wendell's chest was covered with a steel plate. There was a circle of ugly scars on the flesh and skin at the edge of the steel plate, and several suture marks spread in the direction of the artery. It looked quite creepy.
"When you change your clothes in prison, you have to be checked. This thing scared the soldier. I explained that it was the result of a magic experiment accident, but he had not seen anything more terrible …" Bard said with a smile.
Bard smiled and tapped the side of the steel plate a few times with a special method. With the click of a mechanical lock, the steel plate opened, revealing an even more astonishing structure inside: a layer of transparent, soft material wrapped around his chest, like some kind of vesicle filled with a translucent solution. A heart mixed with flesh and metal parts floated in the solution, beating rhythmically. Beside the heart, a series of auxiliary pipes and magic runes could be seen, the latter emitting a faint light that illuminated Bard's entire chest.
This set of things should have been in operation for many years. It seemed that it would continue to operate.
"They implanted an artificial heart in you?" Gwen frowned. He was not surprised by the biochemical technology of the Universal Endgame. After all, it was an organization that could create artificial gods. It was not surprising that they had mastered the manufacturing and transplanting technology of artificial organs. Even in the secular supernatural organizations outside of the Universal Endgame, there were similar technologies.
Some old mages and extreme Druil would use all kinds of biochemical modifications or supernatural rituals to prolong their lives. The nobles would also not refuse to use implants to improve their declining body functions. After all, the technology level of the upper class in this world was never low. The only problem was the popularity and cost.
What puzzled Hao Ren was Bard Bard. Did Bard Bard become a Dark Druil just because of this heart?
"You're doing this to repay the favor?" Gwen frowned at Bard. "I'm afraid that's not all?"
"… They didn't just implant this heart into my body. There was also the 'knowledge' that surged into my mind along with the heart." Bard shook his head. "A normal heart can't drive the body of a high-grade Extraordinaire, so they used something called 'Abomination Factor' to create it. And these Abomination Factors … carry the knowledge of the gods.
"From that day onwards, I stayed in the underground palace of the Universal Endgame for three whole years. I was accompanied by darkness and nightmares. In the nightmares, I saw the indescribable monsters. I called upon the god of war that I believed in, but it only made me sink deeper into the nightmare. I saw their malice, I saw their madness, I saw them calculating the moment of doomsday in the palace of false chaos …
"In the end, I thought I was dead. I died due to the severe rejection of my body and soul. The cleric in charge of looking after me even dragged me to the laboratory and prepared to dissect me after my death. But at the last moment, I woke up from the nightmare.
"I lost my faith in the god of war. Not just from my heart, but from the inside out. All the talents and powers that were once blessed by the god of war had disappeared.
"After that, I became a cleric of the Universal Endgame, just like what you see now."
Bard's recollection ended. Gwen frowned as he digested the information in Bard's words.
Vaguely, he guessed the purpose of the Universal Endgame cultists' experiment on Bard.
The cultists used surgery and mental modification to forcefully destroy Bard's "Mind Seal"! They snatched a "Blessed" from the god of war's domain!
This genius and devilish experiment reminded him of the rebels and the persistent "ghosts" that Veronica mentioned.
Judging from the information he had, he was almost certain that there were rebels operating in the depths of the Universal Endgame.
Gwen placed his hand on the table and subconsciously tapped his index finger on the table. He glanced at the beating artificial heart in Bard's chest and suddenly felt a little emotional.
This person in front of him was probably just an "experimental subject" in the eyes of the Universal Endgame cultists.
The completely insane cultists and rebels who had lost control would not care about a person's status in the secular world. They chose Bard? Wendell probably only valued the latter's value as an experimental subject. If Bard's identity as the "Wolf General" had any meaning in the eyes of the cultists, it was probably just a matter of pushing the relationship between Typhon and the Ansu to the point of worsening the pressure within the Ansu and adding fuel to the flames of conflict.
Thinking about the conspiracy, Gwen suspected that Bard Wendell's subordinates were attacked by Wendell. Wendell and his men were attacked by the Mutants near the Gloom Mountain Range by the cultists. There was no doubt that the cultists had a secret and complicated relationship with the Wasteland of Gondor. The only surprising thing was that they had the ability to drive some of the Mutants away from the Great Wall so many years ago. Perhaps, Bard Wendell was the cultists. Perhaps the attack on Wendell was the first attempt of the Universal Endgame to destroy and infiltrate the Great Wall?
This was a huge, complicated, and secretive plan. The span of time and space was astonishing. But if this plan was made by one or a few "rebels", Gwen was not surprised.
They could plan one thing for a thousand years and do it for a thousand years.
"Rebels …" Gawain inhaled softly, his gaze seemingly falling into the distance. "What a group of terrifying ghosts …"
…
Veronica — or Ophelia? Norton was standing in the square of St. Louin's Cathedral. She looked at the nuns in front of her expressionlessly.
After completing the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Holy Light and assisting the White Knight in taking over the North Church, she came to the south with the second "migration team" and came to the training base of the White Knight under the invitation of Patriarch Wright, which was the former headquarters of the Southern Church in Louin.
Her first purpose of coming here was to observe the White Knight's training process and the new holy light equipment. Her second purpose was to see the newly formed order of nuns in the South Church and promote the nuns who fit the new doctrine to other parishes in the empire.
The former rebel, now the Saintess, slowly shifted her gaze. The young nuns all puffed out their chests in her sight. Their expressions were solemn and serious. They were all wearing the uniform white robes of the clergy. Their attire had been modified to make it easier for them to move around. In their hands, they held metal staffs that were almost as tall as a person. The two ends of the metal staffs had strange mechanical and runic structures. It was obviously a new type of magically-engineered equipment.
In addition to the staffs that clergymen were required, each of the nuns was also equipped with a lightweight magical terminal armguard and a pair of gloves wrapped in machinery. Prayer books and potion bottles hung on their waists. Of course, as clergymen, the holy emblem was also indispensable. The holy emblem was printed on the combat backpack of each of the nuns.
"The combat backpack is lightweight and has taken into consideration the aesthetics and comfort …" Wright said beside Veronica.
"So …" Veronica held the platinum scepter and said slowly, "This is the group of nuns who have just completed their training in the South?"
"The official name is' Armed Nuns, 'and the leaders of each combat echelon are called' War Nuns. '" Wright nodded. "They have indeed just completed their training, but they are already reliable clergymen. Each of the girls is a determined and brave warrior of the holy light. They should be able to loyally spread the gospel of the holy light and the new order of the empire."
Veronica felt her emotions, which had not fluctuated for hundreds of years, fluctuated. "… Are the things in their hands the tools they use to spread the gospel?"
"Yes, the tentative name is' Gospel Angel. '" Wright nodded proudly with a smile on his face. "When not firing the cannons, it can be used as a staff. It can release holy light healing spells."
When not firing the cannons, it can be used as a staff …
Veronica/Ophelia took a deep breath and closed her eyes slightly.
Cecil's people … What a group of scary guys.
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