Violet Orchestra

Violet Orchestra

When they really had time to talk about Hayden Woods, it was already the evening of the second day.

Petra rushed back from Valley City, and brought the news of Angelita - she took the students to the cemetery behind the guillotine in Domenoch, and found a huge monster from the basement that absorbed human beings. Vitality A magic circle that increases the spell power of the caster.The young guard's grades in magic were poor, and he obviously didn't have the ability to maintain the magic circle. The key to the smooth operation of the magic circle was the dagger stuck in Old John's heart.

"Although I haven't seen it with my own eyes, according to Elaine's description, I think the pattern on the handle of the dagger is Hayden Woods' totem." Eros added in due course.

He noticed that when Hayden Woods' name was mentioned, Violet's expression still changed, so he changed his words intimately: "Uh, I mean, that god who might be a thief..."

"Thank you, but you don't need to take my feelings into account in such insignificant details." The poet smiled at him and said, "I didn't have a chance to meet you yesterday, thank you for coming to help."

Probably because Elaine is back. Although he still looks a bit haggard, he has recovered a lot, and his smile is very pleasing to the eye.Eros raised his eyebrows and gave him a smile back: "My honor."

Ventus coughed twice, and interrupted their polite conversation mercilessly: "I still have a lot of work to do, if you don't plan to talk about business, I'll go back first."

"That can't be done," Warlock grabbed his hand, "You are an indispensable part of the plan, don't worry."

Elaine swore he saw a sly light flashing in Eros' eyes. Usually this guy showed such an expression, and it was very likely that he was about to start playing tricks.

Ventus stopped reluctantly, urging him to continue talking with his eyes.

"It's like this, because Hayden Woods is the regional god of Onelia, so I didn't stay away from this area when I started investigating him-the power of the regional god comes from the belief in a certain area, and it cannot be separated from this area Use, I think his divine power originated from somewhere in Onelia." Eros snapped his fingers, and a green line climbed up the map hanging on the wall, drawing a map in the Onelia area. Circle, "Onelia used to be the territory that Catherine and Iko fought for, and they occupied almost half of each other. I had never heard of this name in Iko's territory, so I asked people to go to Catherine's former territory to inquire about the news. .”

When he mentioned Catherine, Petra, who was sitting next to him, glanced at him, then frowned at the map on the wall.

"I heard that there are followers of Patros here," Eros smiled at her kindly during the interval of the commentary, "I think it is this lady, if you don't mind, can I ask which tribe you are from? "

"Sancho is the only tribe left." Petra said lightly.

The warlock was startled, and then remembered something: "...Sorry, I forgot 'that thing'."

He was referring to the fact that Catherine betrayed Patros because she fell in love with a human man, and then even used some means to cause the other party to fall. There were dozens of tribes of Patros' believers, but I don't know what Catherine did. Over half of those tribes disappeared overnight.

"Wait," he felt as if he had found some clue, "can I ask those tribes who no longer believe in the rock god... how are they doing now?"

Tribes like Sancho lived in the mountains for a long time, lived a self-sufficient life, and their beliefs were firm enough to be unshakable.It's hard to imagine that they would give up their long-standing beliefs before Patros's godhood was not shaken-such people were originally strong because of their beliefs. How could they give up Patros because of Catherine?

Petra shook her head: "It's been too long. They may have been annihilated in the mountains, or they may still be alive, but they have no contact with the Sancho tribe. At least the priestesses have been passed down from generation to generation."

"maybe……"

Eros hesitated for a while, and finally put his conjecture on hold for the time being, and continued to talk about what he had investigated: "My people found a message in Catherine's old territory. She used to have a priest with the same name as Hayden Woods. The pronunciation is almost exactly the same. When it comes to geographical issues, I made a bold assumption: Maybe I haven’t heard his name because he didn’t do any great things at all, but became Powerful, and ultimately rely on other people's believers to step on the altar."

His conjecture is indeed very bold, because before that, no one has ever doubted the origin of Onelia, the regional god, and no one has made such an astonishingly bold idea of ​​"stealing faith".Aside from the question of feasibility, the idea was difficult to prove—at least that's what everyone else in the room thought.

"Is there any other evidence? Or is this just a simple and unrealistic conjecture?" Ventus frowned, "I thought you really found something, it seems that the Cocklebur Fortress is nothing more than..."

"Of course there is evidence, otherwise why would I be standing here." Warlock snapped his fingers again, and the green line enclosing Onelia on the map extended itself into several branches, pointing to four different directions, " Take a look at these places, do you have anything to say?"

He said this to Violet and the others. Although he was a little puzzled, the poet still stood up from his chair and walked to the map.

The map hanging in Ventus' office is a map of the entire Oya continent, not limited to the Onelia region.The enclosed area only occupies a small part of the northern part of the map, and the other places were originally unchanged, but at this time the green line spread out and stopped at four other points.

Yasuo City, Rosalia, Domonoch, and Mount Trillance.

"The city of Yasuo no longer exists." Eros started from the first point, "The daughter of the lord, Brienne, burned down the entire city and the Black Forest with sorcery. I think you should remember her."

The poet looked back at him in surprise, and looked at Elaine questioningly. After receiving the positive response from the latter, he said in disbelief, "...how could it be?"

"Elaine told me that when you met her, she mentioned a mysterious mage—according to his report, 'putting a few stones at will' can tear apart the saber-toothed beast. A mage who can do it doesn't need to do this The person who wants to show her the spellcasting process is either someone who really needs her as an apprentice, or a cult member with ulterior motives, or, it may be... God."

Ventus frowned: "It's just a saber-toothed beast. Does God still need to rely on a medium to defeat it?"

"Most of the time, of course, but," Eros clicked on the location of Yasuo City on the map, "it's too far away from Onelia."

Indeed, the distance between Yasuo City and here is really not close, at least it must have exceeded the ability of the regional god.According to this conjecture, if Hayden Woods leaves Onelia and goes to Yasuo, his divine power will indeed be reduced to the point where he is only a little stronger than ordinary mage apprentices—that is, he cannot kill the saber-toothed beast with bare hands, Material is required as a medium.

Of course there is a difference between divine power and magic, but after Ventus thought about it, it's normal for ordinary people who don't know anything about magic to be confused.

So he nodded, agreeing with Eros' conjecture: "And then?"

"Then Rosalia." Warlock looked at another point on the map, "I just mentioned that Hayden Woods' totem once appeared there."

Except for Ventus, almost everyone present had seen the mirror, and Elaine took the initiative to explain the ins and outs of the matter to him.In fact, they never figured out who Elaine's uncle was communicating with. If it was Hayden Woods, what benefit could he get?

"Maybe not necessarily right, but I think he made a deal with your uncle."

Unexpectedly, Ventus said so after listening.

"why?"

"Because I have received similar invitations."

Even though many years had passed, he still did not forget that Hayden Woods had made a suggestion after being summoned by him: as long as he agreed to the other party's conditions, both Mettlen and Dale City would be his.

And the condition is not difficult to guess, it is nothing more than preaching for him and cultivating more believers-for the city lord, this is just a trivial matter, it will not affect vested interests, and there will be no casualties , from this point of view, is actually a very attractive condition.

"I refused, but under the same circumstances, someone will definitely accept it." Ventus said, "Because it's really a bargain, there will always be people who can't stand the temptation."

What he didn't say was that although he didn't agree to Hayden Woods' conditions, there are still many followers of Hayden Woods in the valley city today. Olette is really not very popular with those believers.

This is his own choice and he has no regrets.However, after hearing Elaine's description, he felt that perhaps Hayden Woods had not only made such a promise to him alone.

"To the point." Eros winked at him. "I like smart people like you—in fact, I don't think Hayden Woods has stopped his little tricks all these years. He's using things like this. There are ways to lobby those in power in more than one country, perhaps to provoke a war, or perhaps to disrupt internal affairs, to obtain spoils that are beneficial to him...that is, the power of faith."

As long as it is not a place like Sancho, the beliefs of ordinary people are actually easily influenced and changed, and he does not need a very pious belief. He only needs someone to pray to him and build a small shrine or statue for him. get strength from it.This wide-spreading foreshadowing allows him to exert his divine power in farther places, expand his influence, and gradually become stronger.

"Did he do this just to become stronger?" Elaine asked suddenly.

In his opinion, as a regional god, instead of spending a lot of time to expand the scope of his divine power, it is better to concentrate on increasing the number of believers in Onelia, so that his power will become more pure and powerful, instead of being like a god. As it is now, it extends farther and farther, but its influence is always limited.

"That's what I've been thinking about too." Eros sighed, "He has stretched out his hand long enough to even reach Mount Trillance, but it doesn't do much good. After all, God The essence is just the guy who encloses the land to collect beliefs, especially the regional gods, no matter how he expands the scope of influence, he can't get rid of his roots..."

He stopped abruptly, a look of surprise in his gray eyes.

"I think I've found the root of the problem."