Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

In her hazy vision, she seemed to see something.

She saw a faint blue light.

I saw a figure that looked like myself—but also a little different.

The girl remained silent, her eyes gleaming with a beautiful golden light, like the sun, reminding her of Zelti's heart-warming words.

This made her blink, but the light had disappeared. It seemed to be just a brief illusion caused by the slight rupture of capillaries. She didn't understand why the illusion disappeared so quickly.

I don’t know why, but the pressure in my hands seemed to be relieved.

——Could it be that the power of that beam of light is dissipating?

Her spirit surged as well, and her hands involuntarily used greater strength. This was a skill that only specially trained people could master. By briefly breaking the body's self-protection mechanism, at the cost of overdrawing one's life, one could further squeeze out the body's potential strength. Under normal circumstances, this improvement would not seem that great, and would not be worth the cost. However, she was not going to think about it that much now.

She simply raised her arms upward with all her strength amidst the severe pain that almost paralyzed her entire body. The shield then deflected, and with a harsh sound of friction, the four beams of light could no longer maintain their straight charge posture and deflected to the four corners of the sky!

Chapter 10: Sense of Disharmony

Four beams of light that emitted a twisted and weird feeling were deflected and shot straight up into the sky after piercing through the branches and leaves above their heads, disappearing without a trace. This made Lunicia feel relieved, but she couldn't completely relax. After she put down her shield, she began to look around, hoping to find the escape route of the weirdo.

This is quite difficult.

I don't know if the monster had a high enough IQ or was instructed by that weirdo, but it was quite alert when it ran away: it didn't choose to escape in a straight line and run on the ground normally, but chose to move by jumping between tree trunks. Except for the claw marks and traces left by scratches on the nearest trees, nothing could be seen on the trees farther away.

Andy said hurriedly: "Captain, let's go back first!"

His tone was filled with grief and anger, but he did not want Lunicia to pursue like this - the current situation and losses were somewhat beyond their preparation, and if they advanced recklessly like this there would undoubtedly be no good results.

In his opinion, the most important thing at the moment was to return to the village first, and at the same time ask the garrison to strengthen the security, send people to seek help from the churches in the nearby big cities. The main churches in the Principality of Marie are the God of the Ocean and Trade Winds, the God of War and Hunting, the Goddess of Farming and Prosperity, and the God of Wisdom and Creation. The Zelti faith has no market here, and the church can only be found in the capital. However, when it comes to the issue of cultists, the churches of other righteous gods will not shirk any responsibility, and will spare no effort to send people to assist, no matter what their relationship with the Glorious Court is.

Andy simply told Lunisia his idea, but the latter just shook her head anxiously.

She said nothing, but her eyes looked towards the other side of the woods.

There, the branches that could have remained lush and lush even in the winter, dyed with a strange bright red, were quietly withering. A pair of light black things like high-heeled shoes stood silently on the branches.

It was like a girl's ankle, only it shone with a metallic color, and was elegant yet a little cold.

Although Lunicia was more accustomed to large-scale attacks, she was not a completely reckless person. Even though she was immature, she was still able to deduce the true reality if she had enough information. At this point, the details that she had not been able to connect before were naturally connected in her mind.

In short, everything seemed too coincidental.

She had every reason to believe that she and her group had been targeted a long time ago. It was possible that they were discovered or even monitored by those weirdos who called themselves "The Holy Family" when they were not far from the Waterwheel Canal, or after they entered the border of Mariai. In addition, there was a high possibility that the "Holy Family" had secret agents in the Waterwheel Canal.

The killing of the coachman showed that they were willing to expose their own existence in order to block the mobility of their group. The waterwheel canal was only half a day's journey from the nearest city of Nosavi if one relied on a carriage, but it would take more than a day to walk. The difference in this respect was very fatal.

She couldn't help but recall the reason why she led the team to the river: two villagers seemed to be talking to each other unintentionally, and "inadvertently" revealed to her that someone had just disappeared by the river at noon, which gave her the idea of ​​searching by the river.

At that time, she turned around and tried to look for the two villagers, but she didn't find them in the crowd at all. It was probably not because her memory was too bad, but because they had received simple training and concealed their bodies in time.

Next, he led his men to the river, where he easily found bloodstains and footprints. Following these "accidental" traces, they found the cultists who escorted the girl, and then there was a battle and death.

This was a carefully planned ambush, and the target was none other than their own group.

If the opponent is the Duchy soldiers stationed in the waterwheel canal, then this arrangement would be completely in vain: those soldiers perfectly inherited the laziness of Grand Duke Carida von Ivanov and his family. They would not have much sense of responsibility for the villages where they are stationed. As long as things do not happen directly under their noses, they will choose to turn a blind eye.

Even if they knew something, they certainly wouldn't take the initiative to investigate - not only because of laziness, but also because of fear.

Their fighting power was much worse than that of the knights under Lunicia. Even though those knights lacked actual combat experience, the strict training within the Divine Court still enabled them to easily deal with these soldiers from various backgrounds. What's more, their equipment was in a horrible state no matter how you looked at it. It was covered with yellow rust, and the wooden gun barrels were barely not rotten. Perhaps their bare-handed lethality was even greater.

With their outdated equipment and lack of supplies and wages, if the "Holy Family" wanted to deal with the garrison here, they could just bring the zombies and monsters to kill them openly. There was no need to go through so much trouble.

Lunicia even suspected that some people in the garrison had been bribed or even secretly joined the cultists, but she had no evidence and it was not convenient for her to say such things out loud.

In her opinion, the cultists did not attack directly and raze the waterwheel canal to the ground probably to maintain the superficial stability here: if the villagers really felt that something was wrong, they would definitely flee in all directions, and maybe even seek help from the Orthodox Church after wandering to a big city. This situation is obviously not in their favor.

Not only that, as long as the villagers live here, they can get a steady supply of corpses and flesh and blood. If all the people in the Shuichequ flee, the cultists can only temporarily obtain a large number of corpses.

In this situation, Lunisia was very sure that it was almost meaningless to seek help from the local garrison, and as long as her group showed the intention to go to the big city to seek help from the church, the messengers they sent would be intercepted and killed immediately, and naturally there would be no way to respond to the situation.

As for waiting for the Glorious Divine Court to discover that something was wrong and proactively send a large force to support us, that was even more impossible.

The high priest Sieli's attitude towards this long journey is to let things take their own course. If Lunisia is willing to contact him actively, he will naturally feel gratified. If Lunisia does not respond at all, he will not ask at all - this can only mean that Lunisia's destiny is not something that can be reported in letters or communication beads.

Besides, the Lamenesia Peninsula was not the main jurisdiction of the Glorious Divine Court, and the current world did not allow long-distance communication. The pollution caused by the Void God Disaster directly cut off the possibility of long-distance communication. Not only might the information not be delivered, but even if the two ends of the communication were forcibly connected, the transmitted information might be mixed with pollution that could drive the receiver crazy on the spot. If it took until the short-distance communication was delivered to Xiyeli, it would take an unknown amount of time.

There is no doubt that the situation is absolutely unfavorable for Lunicia and her group from any perspective.

Whether they advance or retreat, return to the waterwheel canal, or follow the trail, what awaits them will probably not be an easy and pleasant outcome. Rather, it is better to say that things have developed to this point, and there will be no possibility of an easy and pleasant outcome waiting for them. The bodies of their companions are still lying on the ground, the bodies of civilians are still lying on the ground, blood has gathered into a river, and the smell of iron fills the air, irritating Lunicia's nerves.

From any perspective, it is more appropriate to retreat now. Even if there is an ambush on the official road, even if there are spies from the Holy Family in the village, they can choose to break out from other directions. After all, the other side is just a cultist rather than a separatist armed force. It is impossible for them to set up an ambush on every inch of land around the village.

No matter how you think about it, the survival rate of retreat is higher. No matter how you think about it, it is simpler and more comfortable to take a step back.

So the young and immature Lunesia knew very well how to do this.

She held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, and rushed towards the direction of the pair of feet that were like road signs without looking back.

In the very end, she just waved at Andy and the others, asking them to leave her alone.

She was quite confident in the combat effectiveness of Andy, Jesse, and April. If it weren't for the "Birch Sword" Willy Perry's sacrifice due to carelessness, he could be counted as one. The combat effectiveness of these four people was much higher than that of the other accompanying knights. If the combat effectiveness of ordinary knights was one, then they had at least five, and Lunisia herself had thirty - of course, let's not talk about Lunisia's combat effectiveness here. In short, Lunisia felt that there was no problem in letting the three of them act freely. After all, they had just wiped out the ambush of the cultists. Whether they wanted to regroup, organize an ambush, or do something else, it would take time, and this time difference was enough for Andy's thinking and April's decision to play a role.

Moreover, she already had a very intuitive understanding of the combat effectiveness of that group of cultists - to put it bluntly, except for the mage-like figure at the head and the extremely small number of huge leader-like monsters, the other cultists and zombies were nothing to be afraid of them.

Correspondingly, she would never forgive those cultists.

The slaughter of young children, the killing of innocent villagers, the deaths of her own men, all of them swelled and stirred in her head, condensing into a burning rage that was as real as the truth.

Even though this action itself made her confused, even though she didn't know the meaning of coming here, even though she didn't know the meaning of Zelti's words to her, there was only one thing she was very sure of, and that was the meaning of the sword in her hand.

Those emotions condensed in the blade.

As if in response to her, the runes on the sword glowed faintly, emitting a bright orange light.

But she didn't understand what was going on with the mysterious man standing on the branch.

Is that a cultist?

Or something else?

She could only simply determine that it was a woman, but could not obtain more information from it. However, she still decided to give it a try and catch up with the other party first.

However, before she saw the mysterious man, her eyes lit up.

Even though it was completely dark, she could still barely find traces of the giant claws scratching on the tree trunk.

Chapter 11: Land of Decadence

"What should we do, April? Should we chase after them or go back to the village and think of a solution?"

Andy directly gave the decision-making power to the "Elf Knight" April Enzolier. He was willing to offer advice, but asking him to give orders directly would be a violation of the rules, and he was not the type who was good at making decisions.

In the subordinate troops of the Glorious Temple, if the captain loses his ability to command, whether due to leaving, coma or death, without prior orders, the command will be transferred to the deputy captain. If the deputy captain is also unable to command for some reason, the command will be transferred to the third in command. If the third in command is also unable to command, then the knight team will be disbanded on the spot until it is reorganized.

For the team under Lunicia, Lunicia, as the captain, launched the pursuit on her own without any explanation. The deputy captain, "Birch Sword" Willy Perry, had passed away, and the command was transferred to April, the third in command.

He did not refuse. After thinking for a moment, he pointed in the direction where Lunicia ran.

"Let's catch up."

"Shouldn't we go to the village to inform them first, or ask someone to go to the nearby city to report the news?"

He had said this to Lunicia before, and he was just repeating it now. Of course, April gave the same response as Lunicia, just shaking his head in denial.

He thought similarly to Lunixia, thinking that the cultists might have arranged secret agents in the village and would not let them leave the village easily, so as to pass the information to the nearby church. Of course, his thoughts were not as detailed as Lunixia's. After all, the latter was a master who produced excellent students. Even if she lacked experience, the experience of others was not much more.

"...Our combat power is far inferior to that of Captain Lunicia. The other side doesn't even need to send out those tall and strong monsters. They only need to dispatch a group of zombies. Even if the three of us go to deliver the letter together, we will be killed on the way."

He still remembered the conductor who died in unclear circumstances.

That was undoubtedly a death caused by evil magic. The other party should have someone guarding the official road, monitoring the pedestrians and vehicles coming and going on the road, to ensure that the village was under their control.

If the newcomers were a tough nut to crack, the cultists would probably change their course of action and hide their whereabouts. Most of the time, the newcomers would be teams like Lunicia and her group, which they did not think were a big threat. In this case, they would regard the other party as prey.

"Besides, we can't let the captain face danger alone."

Even if the mission itself had no meaning, even if God's message was just a joke, they would not allow their captain to run to a dangerous place alone. Doing so was contrary to morality and conscience.

"I agree."

After April finished speaking, Jesse, who rarely spoke, also expressed his opinion - for him, who was responsible for standing in front of his teammates, letting his captain do this kind of work would undoubtedly make him worried.

Seeing that his two surviving colleagues shared the same opinion, Andy took a deep breath and forced himself to think more carefully. The atmosphere of conspiracy that was faintly permeating this incident was also evoked in his mind, causing him to give up the idea of ​​"temporarily retreating and seeking help", and then nodded heavily.

"Then let's go find the captain together. If the situation changes, we can consider returning to the village."

They could not fight as aggressively as Lunicia, but they could still provide protection and assistance from the rear.

……

Night has come quietly, but it doesn't seem much different from day.

The light, which was not dazzling at first, became slightly dimmer and took on a strange faint blush, which made Lunicia raise her head and look at the obscured sky.

In the gaps between the dead branches and fallen leaves, she could vaguely see the broken sky. A blood-red moon hung high in the sky, looking particularly huge in the vast sky, so huge that she could see the dark plains and pits on the moon's surface with the naked eye, which intertwined together, as if forming a mocking face.

This made Lunicia feel like she was having an illusion. She blinked her eyes, and sure enough, the face formed by the interweaving shadows had disappeared.

But the moon was still blood red, which was completely different from the knowledge she had gained from books and the virtual sky of the temple.

In her impression, the moon should be charming and elegant, hanging in the sky as a symbol of Levina, the goddess of night and tranquility, alternating with the sun wheel representing Zelti to form night and day. The moon should shed a silver light, not bright, but able to soothe the body and mind, and calm all things in the world.

Instead of being like it is now: weird, scary, as if raindrops of blood were about to drip.

As Lunisia moved forward, the surrounding scenery was gradually changing.

The trees, shrubs and weeds gradually became scarce, and the land gradually changed from its normal earthy yellow to red. She didn't know whether it was due to the influence of the blood moon or the land itself turning blood red. Something replaced the trees, stones, walls, broken and uneven, and the pits and marks were gradually smoothed out by the corrosion of the years, becoming as inconspicuous as the stones that can be seen everywhere on the roadside.

But Lunicia could still see that those were things carved by humans.

The further you move forward, the more traces of nature fade away. Those traces of wind, rain, and rust, those mosses and vines are slowly decreasing, and are replaced by traces of carving with a knife and a chisel. It seems that time is gradually flowing backwards here, and they are restored from stones, then restored to bricks and tiles, restored to the foundations of buildings, and finally restored to one low but beautifully carved house after another.

This seems to have once been a small town.

A dried-up riverbed ran through it, with a half-collapsed hut next to it. The stone waterwheel had fallen off its metal bearings and was stuck diagonally in the bright red mud. The half-intact gate was pitch black, and the bloody moonlight could not illuminate the inside. There was no one there who could light a lamp, so naturally nothing could be seen.

Lunisia seemed to vaguely see something stained on the stone walls and the rusty metals.

Dark red almost black patches.

--Blood……

Lunicia narrowed her eyes.

He took a step to the left, turned the hilt of the sword with his right hand, and then stabbed it fiercely behind him!

First there was a brief feeling of stagnation, and then there was the sound of piercing flesh and blood. The sound was dull and low, and it was not a living person that was hit, but a corpse.

She lifted the sword blade upwards with force, and the zombie was cut in half from the abdomen upwards, and fell heavily back into the ditch.

If it were a human, the first strike would effectively make the opponent lose their combat effectiveness, but for this kind of creature with great strength and no sense of pain, only severe enough damage can make them stop moving.

The sounds of two or three came into her ears. The rustling sound made her feel quite unhappy. She turned her body quickly, and the sword in her hand turned together. The next moment, the four heads had flown into the sky. No matter whether they were intact or half-eaten, they all fell neatly back to the red ground, rolling there, losing the chance to live again.

One was cut off by the sharp lower edge of the shield, and three were cut off by the sword.

This level of military force is not enough to be called defense, and it would be an exaggeration to call them gatekeepers.

Naturally, these zombies failed to attract Lunicia's attention at all.

Her attention had been completely captured by a figure.

Chapter 12: The Lonely Tan in the Night

"See? Kid, that's your fate."

There was a voice that sounded faintly in my ears. The voice of a steady old man sounded too unreal, as if it was just an illusion brought by the sound of the wind, or words that only existed in a dream.

——Divine Revelation…

"Lord Zelti...?"

The infinite light, the lord of pure light, the master of punishment and purification, the will of the sun and thunder, the patron saint of good deeds.

No matter which honorific title was used to call out, that person did not respond. The illusory voice still echoed in her ears, as if it was not the words spoken to Lunicia just now, but just an echo, just an echo of the past that was evoked by the encounter.

"That is someone who looks like you, child. Please guide that poor figure. If so..."

The sound gradually dissipated and returned to nothingness, leaving only the sound of the whistling north wind in my ears.

The north wind blew away the words of the Lord God, and also blew away Lunicia's consciousness. She just stared blankly at the highest point among the ruins under the distant sky. She seemed to have forgotten where she was, the dangers around her, and even the white blade that she had placed her trust in.