Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 188 Standing Before the Barrier of Divine Magic

Upon seeing the corpses dressed in pagan attire, Winters became even more certain of his earlier suspicions:
The torrential rain that nearly caused Sackler's plans to collapse was not a natural phenomenon; it was a spell, a spell of unimaginable scale.

However, Winters didn't tell anyone about this idea.

He was no longer the excited young boy who demonstrated magic to Ike; keeping secrets was the first principle of a spellcaster.

Winters counted eight corpses around the campfire.

The corpses were all dressed in clothes made of animal bones, bluestone, metal, and colorful ribbons, with their limbs twisted in a bizarre way and their expressions of extreme pain.

With two sharp, hissing sounds, the curtain was ripped open, and a strong wind dispersed the smoke inside the felt tent.

Officers such as Deshka and Andrei led their men into the tent, where they were all speechless with fear at the horrifying sight inside.

With the curtain gone, the interior of the tent became bright, allowing Winters to see more details hidden in the darkness:

Every inch of the carpet inside the tent was covered with unfamiliar symbols, and sacrificial vessels and small flags with the same unfamiliar symbols were strung together with thin ropes and hung densely on the tent walls.

"Pagan priests?" Lieutenant Colonel Jessica asked, frowning.

Winters nodded: "Probably."

With his sharp eyes, Charles pointed to a spot near the campfire and asked, "What's that?"

The others looked in the direction of the sound and saw a golden plate placed on a bluestone slab in front of the campfire.

The plate was full of semi-dried blood, and there was also a dagger.

"That's not human blood, is it?" Andrei suddenly felt nauseous.

“It shouldn’t be…” Bard’s expression also looked somewhat uncomfortable: “It might be the blood of that blue horse outside.”

Winters walked over to Lieutenant Colonel Jessica and whispered, "Lieutenant Colonel, there seems to be something strange here. We should have everyone leave first."

Jessica pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.

The militiamen, who were already reluctant to linger at the eerie pagan altar, hurriedly retreated outside the tent upon receiving the order.

"Charles!" Winters called softly to Charles, who was leaving his tent. "Bring me Bell."

Charles nodded and ran off to find the little hunter.

Only a few officers remained inside the tent.

Andrei looked around, and this usually fearless and reckless man suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

He crossed his arms, hunched his shoulders, and grumbled, "Should we leave too? Let's not stay here... Hey? Winters! What are you doing?"

Winters, who was examining the bodies, replied without looking up, "We need to find out how they died, right?"

The group watched as Winters examined one of the slightly stiff corpses from head to toe—through the clothes.

Andrei swallowed hard and asked, "What did you find?"

“They are indeed dead,” Winters replied, wiping his hands.

"Nonsense!" Andrei nearly coughed up blood: "I could see that too!"

"anything else?"

“That’s strange because we didn’t find anything else.” Winters’ nose twitched slightly. “There wasn’t a single external injury.”

Andrei gasped and instinctively took several steps back towards the tent entrance.

"No external injuries? Could it be poisoning?" Mason looked very uncomfortable. He looked at Lieutenant Colonel Jessica and asked, "Sir, do the Heds still practice human sacrifice?"

Jessica gave a wry smile: "I'm not a Hed person, how would I know?"

Winters didn't reveal much about the spellcaster—he simply said nothing and continued examining the other corpses.

Bud took a few steps back, examined the corpse, and said, "Why do I feel like this person was dancing and then suddenly died?"

Only then did the officers realize that the corpse's "twisted and bizarre" death... really resembled some kind of dance pose.

"What kind of dance can you dance until you die?" Mason asked, frowning.

Winters also took a few steps back, trying to get a holistic view of the eight corpses inside the tent.

"No!" Winters' expression suddenly changed drastically.

"What's wrong?" The officer inside the tent was completely baffled.

But Winters had already rushed out of the tent, yelling at his militiamen, "Bell! Where is Bell?"

"Here it is!" Charles ran over, panting, pulling the little hunter along with him.

Winters grabbed the little hunter's arm with such force that the little hunter winced in pain.

“Bell!” Winters asked urgently, “What is the most important number for the Hed?”

"Huh?" Bell was momentarily confused.

Winters grew increasingly impatient: "The most important, the most auspicious, the most solemn number! The number used in sacrifices."

“I remember it was [three], offering three sacrificial animals.” Bell tried to recall: “At the most solemn occasion, there were three of each of the three sacrificial animals, which is… [nine].”

really!

Winters strode back to the tent, shouting, "Something's wrong! Someone's missing!"

"What do you mean?" Andrei couldn't keep up anymore.

“Look at these people!” Winters dragged Andrei back to the tent entrance, pointing at the corpses on the ground: “They didn’t just stand there randomly! Their positions are systematic! This dance is missing someone! It’s missing a lead dancer! The lead dancer isn’t dead! Find him!”

Winters burst out of the tent, leaped onto a high point, and roared at all the militiamen through a megaphone: "Go find him! Find the Hurd man in strange clothes! Dig three feet into the ground and find him! No! Go find every Hurd man in the city!"

Bell cautiously entered the tent, and was startled by the sight before him. He stammered, "How...how could so many priests...how could they be dead?"

Upon hearing this, Winters rushed over and asked, "Priests? Are these all shamans of the Hed people?"

“Yes.” Bell nodded hurriedly.

"Go find them!" Winters yelled at the militiamen outside the tent again.

The militiamen rushed off to carry out their mission in a panic.

Winters' emotional fluctuations were so great that all the officers noticed something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Lieutenant Colonel Jessica asked.

Winters couldn't answer; he finally began to understand why the secrets of the court sorcerers had been kept for over a thousand years.

Because no one is willing to share this knowledge.

Just as Winters was unwilling to share this knowledge with the Paratists.

To be able to capture a weakened user of divine magic alive is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

This is probably the closest Antoine Laurent has come to breaching the divine barrier since he established the Alliance spellcaster system.

It's important to know that unless the spellcaster surrenders voluntarily, no one can capture the spellcaster alive.

Unless a spellcaster speaks up, no one can get a single word out of them.

Even with Winters' hands and feet bound, he can still decapitate an enemy... or his own, with a single Disintegrate spell.

Similarly, no one can capture a user of divine magic alive.

Capture the sorcerer and priest alive, and then interrogate them.
It would be easier to just kill them.

The only opportunity to capture a magic user alive is when they are unable to use their magic abilities.

Winters was almost certain that the lead dancer, the shaman Herd, was the one who guided this spell.

The other eight shamans all died suddenly, and the shaman who was channeling the spell certainly wouldn't fare much better.

"The resonance of multiple spellcasters can push the power of a spell to unimaginable levels."

This idea had been echoing in Winters' mind for a full year and a half.

The idea began to take shape the night the fire tornado swept through Guitu City. It started as a casual thought, like a whisper carried on the wind.

As Winters gained more experience, this idea not only wasn't forgotten, but actually took root.

Having witnessed how the shaman Hed destroyed all the gunpowder weapons with a torrential rain, the whispers in the wind had turned into rolling thunder.

A voice roared in Winters' mind: "That must be it! Find that shaman!"

But he was too hasty and too out of control—a fact he was aware of.

Winters didn't want to play mind games with Lieutenant Colonel Jessica, but he also refused to reveal the spellcaster's knowledge.

After regaining his composure, Winters asked in return, "When we first arrived at the battlefield, I almost lost consciousness, do you remember?"

"Ah."

"I'm afraid that was some kind of attack orchestrated by those Hed shamans. I want to find that shaman and find out how he did it."

This is another speculation by Winters.

"He's in the city, you're outside. How can he attack you from that distance?" The lieutenant colonel raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know either, which is why I need to find him and ask him.”

Jessica thought for a moment and casually said, "Have your men search the area. All eight of them died so tragically; the one who's still alive will be half-crippled."

Winters nodded repeatedly and turned to run out of the tent, but was stopped by Lieutenant Colonel Jessica.

“Don’t get your hopes up too high. If this shaman is really that important…” Lieutenant Colonel Jessica began pacing in circles inside the tent: “…he’s probably already been sent out of the city by the Heds.”

“Look, this is it!” Jessica stopped and slammed his saber into the ground with his backhand, the tip of the blade sinking a palm’s width into the earth.

The lieutenant colonel suddenly pulled hard, and the carpet along with the wooden planks underneath was pulled up, revealing a dark tunnel entrance.

“Barbarians are the most cunning.” Jessica brushed the dust off his clothes, seemingly unsurprised. “I taught you that.”

……

The tunnel was damp and cramped, only allowing small people to walk around with their backs bent.

Winters couldn't get in at all—he could crawl through the tunnels without armor, but he would get stuck if he wore armor.

Lieutenant Colonel Jessica also forbade Winters from entering the tunnel.

Because there is likely an enemy waiting inside, no one knows whether it is a tunnel or a cave.

Finally, the lieutenant colonel selected a few short and wiry militiamen to explore the tunnels, while Winters waited anxiously for news in the city.

Meanwhile, organized but unplanned looting is taking place on the border.

The war was too arduous, and most of the spoils of war went unclaimed by the soldiers.

For the soldiers, looting after the city falls is the only way they can get compensation.

If an army can refrain from looting after a battle, there must be something more sublime than material possessions supporting them—something the soldiers of Plato clearly lacked.

According to Winters, the Paratians were essentially gnawing on a leg of emaciated lamb.

The best spoils of war are, of course, portable and valuable items like gold and silver jewelry.

However, there was nothing in Bianli's longhouse; the Hed people were truly destitute.

Bianli City was dirt poor, and the wealth of Hailan Street alone was greater than that of the entire city of Bianli.

Most of the warehouses in the city were empty; the White Lion's wealth had not been placed in Bianli.

“I will allow you to be the first to enter the city,” Alpard said to Lieutenant Colonel Jaska.

At the time, Winters didn't think much of it, but looking back now, he's completely flattered.

Because the city had very little of value, and the first batch of Jessica's brigade had already taken it all.

The troops that entered the city later gained almost nothing, and the only property that Bian Li could sell in the end was "people".

Those who were unable to escape with the white lion—the elderly, women, children, and the wounded—are inevitably becoming slaves.

Winters witnessed the quartermaster efficiently detaining, registering, and cataloging the Hards in the city.

Slave traders, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, spoke various dialects and haggled with Plato's quartermaster.

The Paratites are preparing wagons, and the Hed slaves will be transported back to Paratites before being exported—because the Paratites do not use Hed slaves.

The Venetians and the United Statesmen were quite shocked, but Lieutenant Colonel Jessica remained calm.

Finally, the militiamen who had been sent down into the underground caves returned from outside the city.

……

“This is it, sir!” The militiamen led Winters and Bud to the northeast corner outside the city.

The tunnel exit outside the city was protected by double-layered wooden planks and covered with soil.

Winters noticed that grass had even grown on the soil on the wooden plank, just like the surrounding turf.

This means that the tunnel had been completed at least by last summer, which made Winters increasingly uneasy.

Bianli is situated on high ground, and the tunnels run diagonally upwards. About ten meters inside from the exit, there is a small space where several small boats are stacked.

"Oh no!" Upon seeing the small boat, Winters turned and rushed out of the tunnel.

The exit is very close to the confluence of rivers, and you can still vaguely see traces of boats being towed on the riverbank.

Looking into the distance, there was no trace of the small boat.
"They ran away?" Bard followed Winters out of the tunnel.

"They can't escape!" Winters roared. "Bring the ship out!"

The militiamen quickly ran towards the tunnel.

Winters began removing his armor, speaking rapidly: “The boats in the tunnels are all small and can’t carry horses. There are no boats on the other side of the river, and the White Lions were defeated; the north bank is full of our men. That Shaman Hed must have taken a boat downstream.”

"Should we continue pursuing them?"

"Chase him!" Winters handed the reins of the strongboat to Bard. "You take your men across the pontoon bridge and chase him on the north bank. Have Andrei lead his men on the south bank. I'll go by boat. I don't believe we can't catch him!"

“Wait a minute.” Bud raised an eyebrow: “You can swim?”

Winters' breath hitched: "Then you go by boat to chase them, and I'll lead the men to chase them on the north bank."

Several cavalrymen galloped from the riverbank, led by Andrei.

Winters shouted excitedly, "Andrei! You've come at the perfect time!"

"Where is it good?" Andrei pulled his horse back in front of Winters, panting, "The lieutenant colonel wants you to go back immediately."

"What happened?" Winters had a bad feeling.

"The legion has given orders to destroy Bianli, eliminate all Hed people, and burn all supplies that cannot be carried." Andrei's smile was bitter: "The entire army retreats! Break camp immediately!"

……

WM's Spellbook

Entry: Rainmaking Technique
Level: Military-level
Principle: Unknown

Method of application: Unknown

Note: That kid Bell said that during the dry season, the tribe's shamans would perform rainmaking rituals. Some were effective, some weren't. Isn't that just typical charlatanry? But that torrential rain couldn't be faked. The shaman in the yurt didn't seem to be doing anything else, just performing some kind of ritual... only he died in the end. Could it be that the Hed people's rainmaking rituals are genuine? If so, doesn't that mean rainmaking rituals are essentially civilian magic adapted for military use?

Another note: It must be a cloudy day...

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(End of this chapter)