Heart of the Castle

Chapter 457 Battle Preparation, Disagreement, Change
The function of the Holy White Stone Castle as a military center is similar to that of North Aola City, the difference is that there are no ordinary residents in the castle, and all the ascetic monks who live here are the Temple of Glory.This famous castle is located in the Blade Rift Valley of the Silverfrost Mountains, guarding the only way to the glorious capital of Fermeyer from the four southern counties.It used to belong to a greedy count of the Celestia Empire hundreds of years ago. He built a strong wooden fortress in the middle of this rift valley and sent soldiers to guard it so that no one could pass through. Rift, unless with his permission.

And there is only one way to get the earl's permission to pass, and that is to pay enough tolls.

The Earl's family relied on this fortress to amass innumerable huge wealth, but they also suffered from death because of it.Before the founding of the Kingdom of Arthur, Arthur I, who was the head of the Northern Army of the Celestia Empire, was sternly rejected by the earl of the Rift Valley at the time because he refused to pay the toll when he passed through the Blade Rift Valley to go to the fiefdom.There was a fierce conflict between the two sides, and the result of the conflict was a huge fireball that swallowed the wooden fortress and the life of the earl of the Rift.

After that, bandits ran rampant in the Blade Rift Valley. It was not until Arthur I gained a firm foothold in Fermeyer that this natural danger was restored. The newly built fortress was strongly supported by the Temple of Radiance, and the materials used were from the Silver Frost Mountains. Made of pure white stones, the fortress after completion not only becomes an insurmountable natural and dangerous pass in the towering and steep Silver Frost Mountains, but also is as white as jade, with a faint golden light shining in the sun.

Then Arthur I handed over the fortress to the Temple of Radiance as agreed, as a monastery for the ascetics. Since then, the fortress has been called the Holy White Stone Fortress, and the name has been used to this day.

At the beginning of the founding of the Kingdom of Arthur, when it was attacked by the coalition forces of the four kingdoms, the troops of the Kingdom of Arthur were once repulsed by a great undead magister of the coalition forces. At that critical moment related to the national destiny of the Kingdom of Arthur, the Holy White Stone Fort played a very important role. defensive effect.The fortress made of pure white stone is far from being comparable to the wooden fortress. Every piece of stone is engraved with words praising the golden sun Flandara by devout believers of the God of Radiance. The power exerted is enough to resist all evil magic Invasion, and can amplify the power of the light magic to the limit, so that the coalition forces with the great magister of the undead can only look at it in awe

Now it's time for the Holy White Rock Castle to play a key role. Facing the coalition forces with a large number of demons and undead, the hundreds of priests of the Shining Temple living in the Holy White Rock Castle not only did not have the slightest fear, but instead carried a kind of martyr's attitude. Fever is ready for anything.The knights of the Northern Allied Forces looked from a distance and found that the white city walls were shining with steel light everywhere, and there were guards with bows behind every crenel. Although the demon army had not yet appeared, the fortress had completely entered combat readiness.

Under the leadership of Sir Chebbe, the members of the Northern Allied Forces marched all the way towards the Holy White Rock Fortress. When they arrived at the city, the sky was completely bright. Steep and steep.A rift suddenly appeared here in the endless Silver Frost Mountains, like a giant sword of a god left a deep trace here, leading straight to the other end, hence the name of the Blade Rift.

The width of the bottom of the Blade Rift Valley is enough to allow ten heavily armed knights to walk side by side. On both sides are towering cliffs, and the terrain is very dangerous.The Holy White Rock Fortress stands about 100 meters behind the entrance of the rift valley. It is not so much a castle as it is an arch made of huge stones, but the depth of the arch door is hundreds of meters. , the layers of crenels and guard towers above form a total of three city walls, one of which stands taller than the other.The heavy oak gates under the city are now tightly closed, there are as many as ten gates, and each gate has additional protection formed by heavy iron bars, which seem to be indestructible.

While the Earl of Ansair and others were observing the Castle of St. White Rock, the sound of horns came from the watchtower of the Castle of St. White Rock. Then a side door of the castle opened, and a small group of ashen knights wearing woolen cloaks with white edges rode out. .The knight in the front was wearing a set of exquisite and gorgeous gray heavy armor, with an epee hanging from his waist, and the visor under the helmet was not closed, revealing a very gloomy face and an upturned gray mustache.Earl Ansair quickly recognized the identity of this person, Sir Salamis, one of King Arthur's Seven Iron Guards along with Sir Chibe.

Although they are both Knights of the Iron Guard, it is well known that Sir Salamis and Sir Chebbe have always been at odds, so they were not very enthusiastic when they saw the people of the Northern Alliance Army, and they only treated Earl Ansair and Bovavar The archbishop showed limited deference.When asked about His Majesty's current situation, Sir Salamis's face flashed with pain, and then he whispered to Earl Ansair.

"The condition of His Majesty the King is not very good. He was seriously injured before he broke through the siege. He has been traveling all the way here, and he can no longer ride a horse." He raised his head to look at the majestic figure of the Holy White Stone Fort, with a few words in his tone. He sneered, "Otherwise, why would we stay here? Wouldn't it be better to retreat all the way back to Fermeyer?" Then he looked at the coalition troops behind Earl Ansair, with a look of doubt in his eyes , turned his head towards another iron guard knight beside him. "Sir Qibei, you must have conveyed His Majesty's order clearly, right? His Majesty's order is for the whole army to come back for reinforcements, not for a single force to come forward."

"The coalition army in the north was also hit hard, but their luck is better than our army in the middle lane." Sir Qibei replied. "Now all the military strength of the Northern Alliance has been assembled here."

"We'll talk about this later. We want to see His Majesty now." Earl Ansair said a little annoyed. He was very disgusted to talk about the disastrous defeat just suffered by the Northern Allied Forces. The wound on his pride was still dripping with blood. Others are not allowed to comment.

"Not yet. Your Majesty has just taken medicine to rest. Bishop Huebner said that it will take at least three or two hours to wake up." Sir Salamis explained, and then he raised his head and looked into the distance. "This is not a place to talk, everyone, please come in with me."

Earl Ansair and others followed them into the Holy White Stone Castle through the side door, and then the door was closed immediately and the door was bolted.More than a dozen well-built soldiers moved cloth bags full of sand and blocked the door. From the traces on the ground, it can be seen that these heavy cloth bags were just removed not long ago.

It seems that the defense of the Holy White Stone Castle is quite tight. Earl Ansair suppressed the irritability in his heart, and followed the two iron guard knights through the two oak gates covered with iron sheets, and the heavy iron fence hung low above his head. , the tip is only a few tens of centimeters away from their heads, and it can be completely closed at any time.

Then they arrived at the ground floor square of the Holy White Stone Castle, where they dismounted one after another and handed over the reins to the servants who came up.Most of these people wore plain linen robes, without any ornaments on their bodies, only the golden sun symbol on their chests proved their identities—apprentices of the priests of the Temple of Radiance.

The servants led the soldiers of the Northern Allied Forces who had been running all night to rest. The Holy White Stone Fortress was large enough to accommodate thousands of people, and more than half of the rooms were still vacant. Satisfied enough for the exhausted northern coalition forces.

Although Earl Ansair and Archbishop Bovais were also very tired, they still had no luck to rest. They followed the two iron guard knights up the steps, passing through the low inner city and narrow corridors, and then a door appeared in front of them. The carved wooden door guarded by the four Ember Knights, and the gold-leaf sunburst emblem gave a sense of unwarranted reassurance.

An ashen knight opened the wooden door for them, and then a gust of hot wind rushed towards them, with a strong smell of mulled wine in the wind.The firewood in the fireplace was burning red, bringing a gloomy red light to the whole room, as if to herald the current extremely bad situation.The aristocratic lords of the royal army in the middle road gathered together, and the expressions on their faces became more and more haggard and gloomy; Earl Robart, the flag officer of the royal army, was full of despair. The sound of roaring; the Marquis Vieri, the deputy commander of the noble militia, had empty eyes, and the feeling of sitting on the chair seemed to have announced his death in advance; the performance of the other deputy commander, Count Brestad, was even worse. Rubbing the sleeves of the nobles around him, he poured out his misfortunes to them, his expression was extremely mournful, and the blow to morale could not be ignored.

Earl Ansair also saw a face at the long table that he did not expect to see here—the face of the commander of the left side of the Wang Jun, Earl Leonard Stilwell, the head of the Lightning Knights. He looked very haggard, his beard that had not been washed for a long time was tangled up on his cheeks, his eyes were staring straight ahead, no matter who spoke to him, he seemed to be deaf to anyone.

Marquis Osiris, the green lion, was the only one with a calm expression among all the people in this room. He did not sit down, but stood in front of the window and stared out. There was a faint light on his handsome face.

The appearance of Earl Ansair and Archbishop Bovaar made everyone in the room turn their attention.The sword dancer never thinks that his popularity is very good. In fact, he is known as the uncrowned king of the northern border. He has always been known for his unruly attitude. His reputation among the nobles of the royal capital is second only to Count Gregor, the black god of death.But when he saw the eager eyes shooting from all directions, he almost thought that they had confessed their mistakes to himself and someone else, such as Cardinal Enoch Sebasta, who stood preaching in the glorious cathedral. up.

"Benevolent Father God, Lord Earl Ansair, it's great that you are finally here!" The one who shouted in surprise was Earl Robart, the flag officer of the royal army. He seemed to be on the brink of disaster. Suddenly found that there was a life-saving straw in front of him, and his face shone with hope. "How many troops did you bring? Five thousand, or ten thousand?"

Ansair could only answer him with a bitter smile.At this moment, those people saw that the sword dancer's armor and cloak were covered with blood and dirt, and he looked quite embarrassed. The Archbishop de Povavo standing next to him was not much better, and suddenly felt that something was wrong. They looked at each other.

"The Northern Allied Forces did not escape the insidious trap of the demons and the dead. I came to meet with more than 500 cavalry and more than 40 knights. This is all the strength that the remnants of the Northern Allied Forces can muster." Earl Ansair told them solemnly, which instantly made the faces of many nobles turn as pale as fine parchment.

"This is really too bad, everyone, too bad!" Earl Bresta turned his sweaty and fat face to other nobles, "The king's army in the middle fell apart, and the Thunder Light Knights of Earl Leonard Stilwell on the left The entire army was wiped out, and Ricardo's Northern Allied Forces on the right side, Earl of Ansair, were also severely damaged... This, this is simply an unprecedented disaster!"

"Count Bresta, please keep your mouth shut." Sir Qibei said to him coldly, "Obviously, everyone understands the serious situation at present, so I won't bother you to explain it carefully. The problem now is, what should we do next?" What should I do when I get down?"

"What can we do?" Earl Bresta said a little unconvinced, "There are less than a thousand remnants of the king's army in the middle, and the rest are either killed or run away; the Lightning Knights were completely wiped out by the demon army. , Earl Stilwell only rescued less than 100 people, and many of them were seriously injured, and they couldn't stand up again for a month or two. There are more than 500 people, but I'm afraid it will attract more demons and the dead? Although the Holy White Stone Castle is strong, the demons and the dead are not ordinary opponents. How long they can stand under the bombardment of magic depends on the sky. The gods of God can know!"

"According to you, we are doomed?" Sir Chebbe said in a bad tone.

"I didn't mean that, but... my lords, please recognize the reality. We have lost, and we have completely failed." Earl Bresta said his opinion loudly, "Now we should immediately withdraw to the capital and hold on, and then Issue an emergency call-up order and order the lords from all over the world to lead their troops to support."

The nobles immediately started discussing. Many of them were frightened by the demon army and advocated withdrawing directly to the king's capital, Fermeyer.However, although many people also feel uneasy, they think that they cannot continue to retreat, because the Holy White Stone Fort is known as the natural danger in the southern part of the kingdom, and its defense ability is not even worse than that of Glory. If this place is easily abandoned, then once Firmeyer falls, King Arthur The country's national destiny may be precarious.

"We can hold here and send people to Philmeyer to organize a new kingdom army. Now the kingdom still has a fairly strong armed force. One of the four major knights has never participated in the battle. With the natural danger of the Holy White Stone Fort, we may not There is no chance." Earl Robart, the flag officer of the royal army, put forward a new suggestion.

"Although the Holy White Rock Fortress is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is also a place of death. The narrow rift exit not only limits the enemy's attack, but also limits the counterattack of the defenders of the Holy White Rock Fortress." Earl Bresta insisted, " There can only be a maximum of 4000 people here, and due to the lack of preparation in advance, the food stock is limited, and it can only supply us for half a month. Once the demons and the dead find a way to cross the Silver Frost Mountains - please believe my judgment, They will definitely find a way—then the Holy White Rock Fort will become the burial place for those of us!"

"Your Majesty's body must not be exhausted from running around now, otherwise there will be danger." Marquis Osiris, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke, his voice was cold and full of chills like ice crumbling. "From now on, whoever proposes retreat is regicide!"

"Your Excellency, Marquis Osiris, I don't think you should make such an assertion." Marquis Vieri, deputy commander of the noble militia, moved his eyeballs, "I support Count Brestad's opinion. Since this place has become a dangerous place to die, then It's better to bet that His Majesty the King's body can hold up to Firmeyer, presumably with His Excellency Mistral, Archbishop of the Holy White Stone and His Excellency Bovavar, Archbishop of the Temple of Storms, His Majesty the King can support it."

"I heard cowardice in your words." Marquis Osiris said in a sharp tone.

"You say I have selfish motives? Marquis Osiris, then you are wrong, I am not afraid of death at all." Marquis Vieri stood up, his eyes sparkled like smoldering coals, and he looked straight at the green lion's head without flinching. eye-catching. "My eldest son disappeared among the chaos in Nardi City, and his life and death are uncertain. The other two children were killed in the breakout battle of the Lexington Bridge. For an old man like me, life has nothing to be attached to." He said His voice was pained, his face was full of traces of sadness, and his eyes swept over the people in the room, "I ask you to allow me to lead the army to survive and die with the Holy White Stone Castle."

"Mr. Marquis Vieri, please don't be impulsive." The old man sitting by the fireplace in the room said softly, his voice was very low, but when he spoke, even the noisiest nobles shut their mouths . "Marquis Osiris, calm down your anger for now, don't let this place be stained with blood."

The old man's words were blown into the hearts of the nobles of the royal capital like a gust of icy wind, and even the red flames in the fireplace couldn't suppress the chill in their hearts.The obese Earl of Brest trembled all over his body, and a broken voice came out of his mouth accompanied by the sound of teeth knocking, "Marquis Osiris, you, how dare you..."

"To protect His Majesty and kill traitors, this is the bounden duty of the Knights of the Iron Guard." Marquis Osiris nodded calmly, looking at the old man in front of the fireplace without any emotion, "Archbishop Mystra, if you If you insist on retreating, the green lion doesn't care if the edge of the wrath of nature is stained with blood for one more person."

"This is blasphemy! You..." A tall man standing behind the old man let out a roar, and then his body burned with bright golden grudge light. However, before he could finish his roar, he was signaled by the old man to stop .

"Captain Tytos, you have to clarify one thing. The words of Marquis Osiris are not a threat, and the elves will never lie. He will definitely do what he says, and he does have this ability. The old man said with a kind smile, he didn't seem to take the threat of Marquis Osiris to heart. "And this issue is not worth arguing at all. My lords, the Holy White Stone Castle is bathed in the light of our lord Flandara, and it is absolutely impossible to fall into the hands of evil. What's more, the retreat has been cut off, and those who want to abandon the city and flee People, you have to survive the attacks of those winged demons before you can reach Firmeyer."

As if to make an annotation for the old man's words, a sound of flapping wings suddenly came from above, and then the wooden door was knocked open, and an ashen knight rushed in, with an unconcealable horror on his face.

"Everyone, my lords, it's not good. Hundreds of Winged Demons are flying over the Silver Frost Mountain Range, and each Winged Demon still holds one or two imps in its claws. The way back... has been cut off!"

(End of this chapter)