Chapter 110: Fog, black mountains; insect plague, black magician
Jianhe County is less than 100 kilometers north of London. It can be reached in an hour by train from Cathedral Railway Station.
But if the train is delayed, everything will be different.
If you drive by yourself, it will take about two hours to arrive at the Natural Church's stronghold in Jianhe County from Lundan West District.
In the era without automatic navigation, it took longer to get on the road for the first time.
Based on the above considerations, Wayne chose to drive.
In addition to worrying about train delays, there are many other considerations. He has to go to Jianhe County twice a month to check in. It is good for him to be familiar with the road conditions.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the black car drove out of Lundan City and headed north.
Wayne drove based on the map, not very fast.
He did not call the stronghold. He had already planned that the main purpose of this trip would be a surprise inspection by the leadership. If someone is found to be fishing for money at work, receiving the salary of a church civil servant but being away from work during working hours, then I'm sorry, but I will backhand and add a new official to take office.
What, the leader is also fishing?
Laughing to death, can the leadership thing be called fishing? That is called a business trip, and that is called further study.
Half an hour later, the car drove onto a road marked 'No. 114'. The air pressure gradually decreased and a gloomy fog gradually filled the air.
Wayne stepped on the brakes and stopped on the side of the road with lights on. He took out the map and read it.
In the passenger seat, a white pigeon jumped back and forth, cooing and sorting corn kernels and wheat kernels, as if counting his property.
"The road is right, but..."
Wayne looked in the rearview mirror. The fog around him was getting thicker and thicker, giving him a very uneasy feeling.
I can’t tell, but there’s something weird about it.
"As soon as we left Lundan City, there were demons and monsters everywhere. What kind of continent is this? The continent of demons is pretty much the same." Wayne complained speechlessly. Faced with the mysterious foggy area, he decisively chose to turn around and return.
It is not appropriate to go out today. I will take the train to Jianhe County tomorrow.
Highway 114 is winding and winding, and vehicles passing by tear a hole in the veil of fog, causing ripples, and soon return to calm.
As the fog gets thicker and thicker, the trees on both sides of the road become more and more blurred, and the headlights struggle to penetrate the haze. Everything feels extraordinarily quiet and mysterious.
Wayne had already made two U-turns. The car seemed to be driving into an unknown area. The front, rear, left and right were blurred. The headlights opened a narrow passage in the fog, bringing him a few lights.
Wayne stopped staring at the map. It had nothing to do with getting lost. If the predictions were correct, he might have encountered an urban legend.
To be strict, this is not an urban area, it should be called an out-of-town legend.
The last time we encountered a similar situation was the last time. Besides him, there was a woman, a cat and a gay guy in the car. This time there was only a silly pigeon.
Wayne looked down and saw that the white dove was counting, its little paws pulling the grains of wheat back and forth, as if the number of wheat grains would increase after several times.
After turning around for the fourth time and being unable to leave the foggy area, Wayne released the white dove and entered the opponent's perspective. Looking down from high in the sky, he saw a mysterious and hazy sea of fog.
No one knows where the sea of fog ends.
"It's so evil!"
Wayne took back the white dove and frowned: "If I had known this would happen, I should have taken the Valkyrie with me when I went out. It's not like the trunk can't fit in it."
He raised his head and raised his chin, white light pulsing in his eyes, black smoke rising from his whole head, the flesh and blood dispersed, and he logged in to the death knight's account.
Today the knight does not ride a horse, but drives a car.
Wayne wore thick black armor and was squeezed into the narrow driver's seat. It was very uncomfortable, but he felt extremely safe.
No matter how thick the fog was, he had nothing to fear.
"Jiejiejiejie——"
He raised his hand and waved, and the white pigeon on the passenger seat instantly turned into a skeleton bird.
"Goooooo!!"
Half an hour later, the road surface became mottled and the road condition became extremely bad. After passing through a tunnel, the heavy fog dissipated slightly, and some lonely and low houses gradually appeared in the surrounding area.
The shape is old and not modern.
Wayne did not stop the car rashly, nor did he intend to get out of the car to ask for directions. The fog connoted ominous meaning, and it was hard to tell whether the people living here were human beings. If some weird guy came out, the scene would be scary just thinking about it.
Moreover, on the far side of the road is a series of mountains. The black mountains tower into the clouds and have nothing to do with the plains north of Lundan marked on the map.
He is not in God’s Chosen Continent now!
“Keep driving, maybe you’ll leave with it open.”
Wayne's curiosity can be great or small. When he studies magic, he wants to get to the bottom of it. In this situation, he can only be cautious. Even if a giant of light appears outside the window beating a little monster, he will never stop.
Suddenly, a voice came from the black mountains in the distance.
The voice was mixed with mysterious and ancient information, deep and powerful, and echoed in the air.
Wayne had never heard such a sound before. If he had to talk about something similar, he could only think of a whale and speculate that the creature making the sound was very large.
Ten minutes later, a tunnel appeared in front of Wayne again, and he drove into it.
As the vehicle drove out of the tunnel, the light brightened in front of its eyes, and it returned to the original Route 114. There was no fog around, and there was no sign of the tunnel in the rearview mirror.
Wayne releases the skeleton bird. The scenery is leisurely and peaceful. From a high position, you can see other vehicles going back and forth.
"It's getting more and more evil!"
Wayne rubbed his bald head, and after recalling the white doves, they both returned to their original appearance. He drove back to the entrance of Route 114, and this time he did not encounter fog.
When he was an ordinary person, he couldn't understand the world. Now that he has become a magician, he can't even understand the world.
Mysteries always appear unexpectedly, without any precautions or worries.
Wayne suspected that there was something wrong with his constitution, otherwise it would be difficult to explain why evil things always came closer to him. He glanced at the Book of Greed and threw the pot away.
————
‘County’ is the second-level administrative division of Windsor. Below the region is the county-level unit. Lundam is special. It belongs to the county-level administrative unit and has a equal relationship with each other.
From another perspective, Lundam is even more special. The county is a secondary administrative unit of Lundam.
The administrative division of Windsor is very complicated and is an issue left over from history. Wayne has never been able to figure it out. He only knows that Cam River County covers an area larger than Lundam and governs five urban areas.
In terms of population, Lundan is far ahead. It can throw Jianhe County out of ten five consecutive hairpin turns. The gap is so big that even if you turn on nitrogen, you can't catch up.
The stronghold of the Church of Nature is located in Jianhe City, Jianhe County, a university town with a long history. It has preserved many buildings from the medieval period, and is full of theaters, art galleries, museums, and libraries, all filled with literary and artistic atmosphere.
After wasting a lot of time on the road to Wayne, we arrived at the stronghold at tea time. Like the library at the Lundan headquarters, this stronghold is also a library.
There are two floors up and down, with lush trees and an elegant environment, which is very suitable for sleeping while reading.
In the university town of Jianhe, similar libraries exceeded three digits, and the Church of Nature’s stronghold was inconspicuous. After Wayne entered the library, he did not show his identification immediately, but walked around the library.
The library was deserted, with only a few couples cuddling together and reading. The earthy smell of love made Wayne feel very uncomfortable. He gave up the idea of pretending to be a literary young man and walked into the office on the second floor.
Perhaps it was because there was only one woman on duty in the office during tea time.
She is young, about seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a light green dress and thick glasses, looking down at a literary masterpiece.
Seeing someone pushing open the door and walking in, the woman slowly raised her head and said, "It's tea time now and the staff are not here. If you have any questions, you can go to the front desk on the first floor and ask."
Apparently, she saw Wayne as a citizen who borrowed books.
It's impossible to be a college student. Wayne's clothes were carefully matched by Fula, and he also wore the same style of Auston's hair. He didn't look like a school student.
Hey, do I still have such good stuff?
Wayne didn't pay attention until the woman raised her head and saw her face clearly. Her face was clear, her eyes were bright and quiet, and her body was filled with an elegant intellectual beauty. She was a standard literary girl.
Wayne felt like he was falling in love again.
Because he would fall in love from time to time, too many times, he gradually became numb. After a brief surprise, he showed his church pastoral certificate and showed his identity.
The literary girl was stunned for a moment, placed the bookmarks and closed the book. After standing up, she pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose and introduced herself slowly.
Otilia Ferdinand.
Otilia is a disciple of the goddess of nature, but not a civil servant of the church. Because she often borrows books, she becomes familiar with the civil servants in the stronghold, and helps guard the office during tea time.
"Thank you very much for your help, Miss Ferdinand. You are not a public official of the church. You can just call me Wayne without adding the position of pastor." Wayne stretched out his hand and shook the other person politely.
"Okay, Mr. Wayne."
Otilia smiled slightly and said equally politely: "Everyone calls me Otilia, you can also call me that."
After saying that, she sat down and continued reading, immersed in her own little world, and everything around her had nothing to do with her.
What a weirdo!
Wayne made a mental comment and added a 'good-looking' tag for the sake of the other person's beauty.
Good looking weirdo.
Otilia claimed to be a disciple of the goddess of nature, not a believer. Wayne guessed that she was a magician. However, they were not familiar with her, and the other party had no intention of chatting, so it was difficult for him to follow up and ask.
After the afternoon tea time, more than a dozen civil servants returned to the office and looked at the uninvited strangers, all puzzled.
Wayne showed his identification and looked at his watch: "Afternoon tea ends at three o'clock. You are twenty minutes late. I will make a note of this."
Everyone was wailing. The leader had come earlier and later, but he came today when the group was going out. Fortunately, they had done a good job in the past few days. This time, it's okay, just hit the muzzle of the gun. The previous few days were in vain.
"Where is the person in charge? Who is the third-level deacon Darcy?"
Wayne looked at the staff list posted on the wall of the office, raised his eyebrows and said: "You are receiving the salary of a third-level deacon, and you have neglected your supervision. How can you be a responsible person if you are so lax? Why don't you go to the first floor and check the gate."
"..." Taiping has been plagued by insects.”
"Insect plague?!"
"Yes, the bishop of Heavenly Father's Holy See invites..."
There are many villages in South Cambridgeshire, and Wayne passed by them while driving. Not long ago, there was a sudden heavy fog, followed immediately by an insect infestation.
Deacon Darcy relied on his many years of experience and believed that there must be a connection between the two. Since there was no pastor at the stronghold, Darcy decided to investigate in person.
If there is indeed a problem, he will issue an investigation report and send it to Lundan, which will be handed over to the scalpel agency at the headquarters for processing.
Just then Bishop Keith from the Church of Heavenly Father came to visit, and the two hit it off immediately. There was strength in numbers, and there were many helpers available when there were problems, so they set off together.
It's heavy fog again. Could it be the same thing as the heavy fog I bumped into?
Wayne pondered for a moment and asked a big question. He looked at the middle-aged man who spoke: "What is your name? Can you drive?"
"Andre, you have a driver's license."
"You accompany me to South Cambridgeshire. The others continue to work. Remember to go to and from get off work on time. Don't get caught by me next time." Wayne picked up the phone and called Fola. He won't be home after working overtime tonight. .
————
South Cambridgeshire, 5pm. It was still some time before the sun went down, and a thin layer of fog appeared on the country roads. The fog came out of the woods and appeared in all directions, but the specific source could not be found, which was very strange.
It can't just appear out of thin air, right?
A group of more than ten people were walking on a country road, led by two men in neat suits, namely Bishop Keith from the Holy See of Heavenly Father and Deacon Darcy from the Natural Church.
With different beliefs, it stands to reason that the relationship should be very cold, but these two are obvious exceptions.
As a grassroots deacon, Darcy just wants to focus on his career. Bishop Keith is not like the bishops of other dioceses who are airs and pleasant in dealing with people, and he does not have special hobbies like little boys.
Of course, another possibility cannot be ruled out. The Heavenly Father's Holy See is declining in Windsor, and he can't even think about it, let alone develop special hobbies.
Both of them were experienced magicians. They followed the clues and exchanged opinions and soon discovered the clues.
"I remember that the fog started to break out in July, and a big event happened during that time. The death knight appeared in Lundan." Bishop Keith said.
"Yes, since the appearance of the Dark Knight, the church has suffered heavy losses and the position of pastor has been vacant for a long time. The cult's minions hidden in the dark are not as honest as before." Darcy kicked away the earthen barrier in front of him.
The rustling insects crawled around and burrowed into the soil along the surrounding ground cracks.
This is a striped arthropod that looks very similar to a centipede. Its scientific name is 'Millipede', also known as millipede. It has many segments, and each segment has a pair of tentacles.
Millipedes are both arthropods and carnivores. They are smaller and mainly eat herbivores. Because they damage crops, they are generally regarded as pests.
What makes people most uncomfortable is Malu's appearance.
Darcy frowned as he watched the millipedes disappear into the soil: "A few days ago, the university issued a report. Entomologists explained in detail the reasons for the millipede outbreak. The reasons were so good that I almost believed it."
"I have also read that report. It is said to be a new species with extremely strong reproductive ability. The city government has set up a pest control team for this purpose..."
The two looked at each other and shook their heads.
If it were that simple, it would actually be a good thing.
"Darcy, do you think it was the mist that changed these bugs, giving them unprecedented reproductive capabilities, or was it the work of pagans?" Bishop Keith asked.
Darcy said nothing. From each other's standpoint, everyone was a heretic.
Keith noticed his speech error and changed his words: "Are the beliefs of death and darkness playing with bugs?"
"As far as I know, no one likes bugs, and the possibility of mist mutating is very high..."
Darcy didn't dare to say that he was just an ordinary silver mage, and this question was a bit too much for him.
"I do know that several evil gods from hell are related to insects."
"..."
Darcy looked at Keith displeased. If you have something to say, just say it. Don't hide it. It's not good for everyone to delay the time of reporting to the superior.
"It's impossible. The evil gods are sealed in hell. Their power cannot affect the human world. Even if there is faith spread, the number of people is pitiful. In comparison, I prefer two possibilities."
Keith explained his speculations. The first one is that the mist mutates, and there are many similar examples. The second one is that a black magician is conducting forbidden experiments.
Black magicians are not magicians who believe in the goddess of darkness. They mainly refer to wanted criminals in the magic world. They pursue the so-called true meaning of magic and do whatever it takes to achieve their goals.
At first glance, they sound very similar to magicians with freedom of belief, but the methods of black magicians are much more brutal. They are more greedy. In order to obtain powerful power, they often perform cruel evil sacrifices, and the targets of gaining power are mostly the evil gods of hell. .
The two talked while walking, and soon came to a pasture. The owner of the pasture was cleaning insects from the forage. When he learned that the group was an investigator from the entomology department of the university, he immediately started complaining.
"These bugs are no longer satisfied with forage. They also eat meat. Last night they came to the cowshed in a group. I'm scared to think about the dense scene..."
"I heard that there was an unburied corpse in the next village. Half of it was eaten by bugs in one night. When he was found the next day, his stomach was full of bugs."
The rancher described it vividly and showed everyone his exploits last night.
The dead bugs are piled up into a hill one meter high, with their sticky sap flowing and emitting a foul odor. The image is dedicated to overeating.
The group of people watched from a distance, unwilling to get closer.
Darcy's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know what he found, so he picked up a wooden stick and inserted it into the pile of insect corpses.
Wisps of undetectable white mist dispersed, instantly attracting Bishop Keith's attention.
Fog has something to do with bugs, they can create fog!
The two looked at each other and led their men away from the pasture, walking at a much faster pace.
"The first heavy fog changed these bugs. They have become part of the fog, including their offspring. The city government's pest control team cannot solve these bugs. I will report to the Lundan headquarters and ask them to send people over. Completely eliminate this batch of bugs." Darcy was worried. The fog was very dangerous and there was no guarantee that the bugs would not continue to mutate.
If you dare to eat corpses today, you will dare to eat living people tomorrow!
"I still think it has something to do with the black magician, otherwise it would be difficult to explain that the fog only mutated bugs and did not change other creatures." Keith held a different view.
The two of them each had their own guesses, but both planned to report to the superiors. The number of bugs was too great, and the limited manpower could not clean them up.
…
As the sun sets at dusk, the fog on the rural roads gradually thickens. As the last ray of light falls, the sound of rustling crawling becomes louder.
A group of people boarded the bus and returned to Jianhe City along the highway. The tires crunched over the bus, making everyone feel upset.
At this moment, the bus stopped suddenly.
The driver looked forward in shock, his headlights shining on the road ahead. Countless insects spread and crawled, converging into thick lines, covering the entire road like a fishing net.
Darcy felt a chill in his heart, and his scalp was numb from the shock of the dense scene. Keith closed his eyes and sensed: "There is no magic power fluctuation. It doesn't seem to be the work of a black magician. I rushed over, but there are just a few more bugs."
The driver nodded, raised his hand to make the sign of the cross on his chest, started the bus and started to accelerate.
The crackling sound was endless, and there were so many bugs that everyone in the car could clearly feel the bumps caused by the tires. The driver was forced to slow down because the tires were slipping.
Millipedes were endless, emerging from the farmland and woods on the left and right sides, filling the road with a black mass.
Keith's face became more and more gloomy: "The situation is not right, everyone is ready to fight, these bugs are coming for us."
As the words fell, countless millipedes piled up into a high wall, blocking the direction of the bus.
"Don't stop, speed up and drive forward."
Keith jumped out of the window and climbed onto the roof of the car, holding a Bible in his arms and reciting Psalms silently.
The white light illuminates the night sky, and the warm holy will drives away the filthy evil spirits. The vast momentum stretches for several miles. Wherever it passes, the millipedes disintegrate and disappear, and quickly escape towards the shadows and darkness.
The high wall of bugs collapsed on its own, and Keith held up a Bible to light the way forward.
Behind the bus, swarms of insects rolled in unwilling to fail, and soon they gathered into a large irregularly rolling ball. The rustling sounds were continuous, eroding Bishop Keith's thinking and making him faintly dizzy.
Darcy jumped on the roof of the car and slapped Keith in the face.
Full of greenery.JPG
Keith was slapped with an unknown magic material. The choking smell was refreshing and had the effect of burning the nerves, so he felt no longer sleepy all of a sudden.
"What is this? My trachea is about to burn." Keith was choked to tears.
"How do you feel about the hell peppers I cultivated? Are they more energetic?"
"Damn it, I'm a clergyman, how can you give me hot peppers from hell!" Keith became even more angry.
It's not really hell pepper, it's just a metaphor.
Darcy didn't talk nonsense and said directly: "You look at the front and leave the bugs behind to me to deal with."
As a disciple of nature, Darcy has mastered a lot of faith magic. Unfortunately, his talent is average, and he can't do well if he is not good enough. It is difficult for him to cope with the big scene in front of him. In line with the principle of saving magic power, he chose to become a magician. of elemental magic.
A wall of fire rose from the ground, five meters wide and ten meters high, blocking the movement of the insect swarm.
Just when the insect swarm dispersed and prepared to move to the left and right sides, a storm came, and the fire took advantage of the wind. The wall of fire turned into a rolling heat wave and spread fiercely, creaking and burning the sky with black smoke.
Facing the scorching waves of fire, the momentum of the insect swarm's attack came to an abrupt halt.
Darcy breathed a sigh of relief. The situation was still under control. If nothing unexpected happened, after this wave of effective obstruction, the swarm of insects could not catch up.
Rusty! ! !
Dense crawling sounds sounded from all directions, Darcy's expression suddenly changed, and countless millipedes emerged from the ground within the sense of the scattered spores.
The number is so large that it is impossible to count, as if millipedes from all over the world have gathered here.
Darcy couldn't bear to see such a dense scene, so he held up three walls of fire to block the left, right and rear, shouted loudly, and urged the driver to step on the accelerator.
Good news: the report is in, and there's a dark magician nearby.
Bad news: The Dark Magician has no intention of letting them go.
Millipedes came from all directions, no longer afraid of the light and flames, and attacked the accelerating bus. When the magicians in the car saw this, they each resorted to means, whether it was a wall of fire, a storm, or a holy light to drive away evil spirits, to help their leader.
Looking from afar, the bus was roaring with flames as it drove quickly on the road at night.
If there were only a few insects, facing this kind of battle, they would undoubtedly be overestimating their capabilities, but there was no end to the sea of insects, and there were simply too many.
A rain of insects began to fall from the sky. The swarms of insects on the left and right sides broke through the wall of fire again and again, violently hitting the car windows and coating the glass with a layer of sticky and smelly juice.
The stench dissipated, and the magicians in the car were staggering and about to collapse. The driver cheered up and took out the custom-made hell pepper from his arms to refresh himself.
Darcy and Keith on the roof of the car couldn't hold on anymore, especially the former, whose magic power was severely depleted and it was difficult to continue to control the wall of fire to block the attack of the insect swarms.
The defensive flames were overwhelmed by the swarm of insects. The coverage of the fire continued to shrink, and countless insects fell from the sky.
At this critical moment, Bishop Keith burst out with magic power, and the holy light turned into a heavy hand, waving his sleeves to block the disaster.
Darcy was at the end of his rope, and Keith's remaining magic power was in danger. The two of them stood on the roof of the car, looking at the roaring sea of insects behind them, both of them smiling bitterly and speechless for a moment.
The sea of insects rolled in, suddenly climbed up, and the huge high wall covered the night sky, blocking the pale full moon, and pressed hard against the slowing bus.
Darcy and Keith closed their eyes tightly, feeling regretful that they would die in the belly of a worm. Such a terrible way to die.
boom! !
The violent hurricane passed through the border, shattering the windows of buses and carrying away the pungent stench.
The wind pressure was so strong that it caused the bus to roll backwards, its tires skidding, and the enveloping sea of insects instantly fell apart and fell to the ground like raindrops.
Darcy and Keith barely managed to steady themselves and opened their eyes in surprise.
Is it you? x2
How is that possible? x2
There are still experts! x2
In the darkness, a figure rushed at high speed, rushed to the front of the bus, jumped up, jumped over the roof of the car, and jumped directly to the back of the bus.
Boom! !
The ground shook continuously, and the four walls of earth rose from the ground, blocking the sea of rustling insects coming from all directions.
Wayne stood on the earth wall, looked at the swarm of insects rolling over like rolling balls, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The restless fire elements gathered from all directions, easily tearing apart the mist and burrowing under the soil.
After a brief silence, streaks of fire burst out from the ground.
The sea of fire stirred the whirlpool curtain, and a blazing red glow bloomed, slowly spreading in the mid-air...
Flames lit up the night sky.
————
Ask for a monthly pass at the end of the month.
(End of chapter)