324. Chapter 324 Artifact: Viper's Kiss
When Roddy just returned to Sora's post today, the information Hanks and he reported was not so serious.
Iversa's tax revenue was very bad, causing the territory to fall into financial difficulties - and the nobles treated each other coldly and even enjoyed it... They all knew that Duke Angma's body could not last long, and once he died, the family would be completely destroyed...
At that time, no matter whether Sally, the only heir of the family, can barely maintain his bloodline, it is definitely a foregone conclusion that the territory resources were "snatched" by these nobles.
How to get the most benefits is what these nobles are thinking at this time. These guys are like sharks smelling blood, and are always very sensitive to profitable things. Faced with such temptation, these nobles who were not united and even had no intersection were even willing to stand on the same front... and pointed the gun at Angma unanimously.
In this case, Roddy had already had an alternative plan: he planned to contact the Duke of Angma directly, and let the old man officially release an "announcement", loudly announce the fact that "Rody returns" to all the nobles in the territory, and do his best to publicize his powerful image of killing Belom, so as to quickly deter these nobles with bad intentions.
After all, Roddy had other things to be busy with. He didn't want to waste his time on cleaning up the nobles one by one, so he scared a group of people and tried a few with the help of the Duke's order, so that it would be enough to stabilize the territory in a short time - he knew very well that it was impossible to completely solve such a problem.
However, when Soderol brought the news that "Palling was attacked", Roddy knew... this matter might not be good.
Because... they crossed the line.
The silent Roddy narrowed her eyes and thought about the content behind the message, while Nata, the wood elf who grew up in Elsa Village, obviously couldn't hold back. She took a step forward and asked in a cold voice: "Is it really okay in Elsa Village?"
"The news report does not say that the village was attacked or injured, but that someone was trying to track the teams entering the Jingyu Forest," Soderol knew what Nata was worried about, glanced at the contemplative Roddy and explained: "The team we left there was enough to deal with the armed forces of less than a hundred people, and ordinary horses or bandits could not pose a threat at all."
That being said, Nata couldn't calm down at all. Her originally relaxed fingers had already held the longbow tightly, and she wished she could fly back to Jingyu Forest immediately.
The atmosphere was silent for a moment, but Roddy, who had never spoken, suddenly raised her head and said, "Now, let me notify the team, the plan will change, I will write a letter to the Duke, and then... the team will set off tomorrow."
"Whoever dares to mess with us will settle the score with them."
Such a straightforward decision made the other two unable to respond for a while. They stood there in a daze. Roddy turned her eyes to Nata. Seeing her lips tightly pursing her longbow, she reached out to put her hand on her shoulder and patted her, and said softly: "It's not a solution to be anxious. Don't worry, I won't delay what I should do for a second."
Roddy's hand seemed to have magic, causing Nata's body to suddenly freeze, but then she immediately relaxed - there was a warm feeling in her heart flowing, and the coldness in Nata's eyes gradually dissipated, her eyes lowered, and then nodded and stopped talking.
Nata, who has been an orphan since childhood, rarely feels the feeling of being so "cared for". When other wood elves are bullied, they will have parents to rely on. However, since she became sensible, she has always been alone and endured by any setbacks. Therefore, she is extremely stubborn and wants to solve everything by herself.
At that moment, the first thing she thought about was not how to persuade Roddy to protect her tribe, but was worried about a question: If Roddy didn't care, should she leave the team secretly and go back alone?
Looking back now, she felt ashamed of her thoughts. But what followed was the kind of "rest" she had never experienced before. With Roddy's support, she found that she was always relaxed, and even sleeping at night was no longer as difficult as before.
"Okay, go back and rest first, have a good night's sleep, and set off tomorrow morning."
Roddy originally wanted to discuss the "transfer" with Nata, but now she obviously cannot think about these problems. Roddy stopped talking and asked the two to go back to her bedroom to rest. However, she came to the desk, took out the parchment paper, and began to write a letter to Angma...
"In the end, only the most primitive way can solve the problem."
*******
While Roddy was thinking about how to deal with the nobles of Iversta, a mysterious ceremony was quietly taking place in a valley at the southwest end of the kingdom.
This place is only about 400 miles away from the royal city of Ignaz, and is only 300 miles away from the core "Sanctuary" of "Rose Cross". In today's era, although such a distance is not close, it is not safe for the "Virgate Cross".
However, Leonards Canyon is remote and sparsely populated. Since the reunification of the Kingdom of Karen, a total of three lords have appeared here. These unlucky guys have moved elsewhere without exception because the land has no value. Therefore, the "Leonards Canyon" has completely become a "no man's land", and the central area is even more unseen.
The royal city was not interested in exploring this place. Even if the "Rose Cross" was wiped out, it would not be able to wipe out such a place, so no one knew about the existence of this hidden valley.
And in the depths of this maze-like complex canyon, a huge circular altar is slowly scattering soft light.
More than a dozen clergymen in black robes were chanting spells in a low voice. In the center of the altar with a diameter of more than twenty meters in front of them was a pitch-black stone tablet with a height of one person with no slim appearance. Around it were more than thirty magic crystals with crystal luster. They were huge in size and valued far exceeding the "treasures" that could be seen in auction houses on the market.
These magic crystals are obviously high-level or even top-level monsters. If you want to be more specific, the former owners of these magic crystals are all "snake" monsters.
The sacrifice had been going on for an hour, but the shadow priests in black robes were not tired at all, but their eyes were filled with fanaticism and excitement: they could all see that there were some phantoms floating on the prismatic stone tablet in the center of the altar, as if they were entangled with pythons.
"Buzz--"
As the spell became higher and higher, the vague and entangled snake shadow seemed to become clearer. The originally solid stone tablet also seemed to have cracks as the snake shadow swayed. It looked like a group of colorful snakes trying to break through the protection of the stone tablet.
However, after the spell continued for half an hour, the snake shadows did not make any progress. The black-robed mages stopped casting spells and gasped and looked at the rock-solid stele with fatigue on their faces.
Among them, an old man with a leader who looked like a leader sighed and waved his hand and said, "Continue tomorrow."
His words were commands, and the rest immediately bent down respectfully to salute, and then silently left the altar area. After everyone left, the old man looked at the altar full of magic crystals, shook his head and sighed: "It's still a little bit worse... If Kevin could succeed, maybe the staff had been awakened long ago."
Roddy, thousands of miles away, would not know that the mercenary leader he killed in Jingyu Forest, "Executioner", would be the proud disciple trained by the Cardinal of the "Viridian Cross"!
"Mr. Goethe, news from Brier Forest."
A black-robed mage came to report the situation of the war. In front of the Cardinal, all the members of the Viper Cross bowed their heads deeply and did not even dare to look at the old man.
"The squad of the 'Rose Cross' currently has the advantage. They are dismantling the team we deployed one by one. At the expected speed, perhaps in another month, they will clean up the pieces outside the forest."
"This is faster than expected, with a team of advanced magicians?"
Goethe looked at the center of the altar and seemed a little absent-minded.
"Sir, the front line said that there seemed to be a priest leading a team there, and some teams that were originally capable of obstructing were defeated by them - the priest had a nickname, "White Scythe"..."
"Ha, young people always like to give such exaggerated nicknames."
The old man waved his hand, "These arrogant young people...it doesn't matter if they let them jump around for a few days, anyway, the final result is the same."
"Yes, sir."
The other party took the order and left, leaving Goethe alone in front of the altar, thinking about the current plan of "Virer Cross".
The outside world does not know that the "Viridian Cross" at this time did not use all its resources to confront the "Rose Cross". Those so-called "conflict events" are actually just a guise to attract attention, but the real goal is the obelisk in front of Goethe...
This is a "big bet" promoted by the pope - they want to use the power of snake magic crystals to awaken the "Virgate Kiss" staff left by the first pope when they were founded, and use the power of this artifact to restore the influence of the sect and change the pattern of religion in this country!
The "Virgium Kiss", known as the "Divine Artifact", was in the stone tablet in front of Goethe... If you want to open it, you must use the power of the snake magic crystal to break through the ban outside the stone tablet.
This step is a test for the owner of the artifact: if you don’t even have the level of breaking the shield, it means that everyone is not qualified to use this "artifact" - obviously, Goethe and others who have worked hard for several weeks have never been able to break through the restrictions brought by this, and even exhaust the mages.
The quality and quality of the magic crystal determine the difficulty of breaking through the ban, so Goethe was obsessed with Kevin's death. If he had been able to bring the crystal of Sakya, the sect would probably not have to sacrifice so many believers to buy more time for the awakening staff...
"Who killed Kevin?"
Whenever he was free, Goethe would always feel sorry for the death of his apprentice - but what followed was some hidden cruelty...
Chapter completed!