The Shadow of the Crown of Snow [Western Fantasy]

"The basement? The statue?" Selene repeated in surprise. "In this fortress?"

"Yes, the word Toynby is written on the base of the statue. Judging from the costume of the statue and the royal coat of arms on it, it should be Toynby, the seventh king of the Kingdom of Nord." Wendy walked in front. Leading the way for Selene, "It's nothing if it's just a statue, but not only the name is engraved on the base of the statue, but also a string of Penglaiwen."

"Have you confirmed it?"

"It is confirmed that it is Peng Lewen, but we can't do anything about the specific content."

On the ground somewhere under the city wall, there is a wooden trapdoor. If you don't pay attention, you may think that this is just an ordinary cellar. Wendy also wants to use this cellar to wipe off the floating dust on the wooden boards. Only then did he see the faded royal coat of arms that was almost unrecognizable.

This used to be a border fortress of the Nord Kingdom, and it is not surprising that there is a royal coat of arms, but the cellar is empty, without shelves, and there are no traces of stacking things. It is more like a basement, only dusty due to the years.

Wendy didn't dare to stay in the cellar for too long, so she hurriedly climbed up the ladder, opened the trapdoor and waited for a while, then stretched the candlestick in on the ground, seeing that the flame of the candle was not extinguished, she was relieved. Go down and take a closer look.

The only thing that was wrong in the cellar was the statue in the middle of one wall.

The base of the statue is connected to the wall, and the pattern is also perfectly matched. It is obvious that it was not thrown into the basement after it was removed from the ground, but it was placed here from the beginning.

"Indeed." Selene grabbed the corner of the cloak and wiped the nameplate again, "The seventh king of Nord, King Toynby the Conqueror."

The ancestor king of Nord was naturally the ancestor of Selene. Selene had seen many statues and portraits of Toynby in the Frosted City, but none of them were like the one in front of her.

As a brave and good at fighting, Toynby, who opened up the territory of the Nord Kingdom and was later honored as the "King of Conquerors", has a fixed image in everyone's mind: a tall and mighty man from the North, holding a huge The tomahawk is ready to cut off all enemies on the way at any time.

But the statue of Toynby in the basement, if not for the name on the nameplate, even Selene would not be sure who he is.

Without the iconic tomahawk and heavy armor, the statue of Toynby looks like an ordinary Northlander, wearing a strange robe and looking forward with awe.

The words engraved on the base were indeed Penglai characters. A strange idea popped up in Selene's mind, and she sent Wendy away. She took out the notebook she carried with her from her pocket, compared it word by word, and found it very quickly. The corresponding content, the shape and arrangement of the characters are exactly the same.

Selene made a mark under that sentence with her nails, then raised her head and continued to look at the ancestor statue in front of her.

This is Toynby, not to mention the day he ascended the throne, even the day he died, did the Penglai people come to the mainland of Hindley?If the statue was cast by later generations, why should the Penglai characters be engraved under the statue of the king of the Northland?What's more, in the entire Nord territory, the people from the North who are proficient in Penglai script can be counted with one hand.

This absurd fact that logically deduces completely wrong can only lead to two results - ridiculous and terrible.

Selene felt the latter.

Maybe it wasn't their father Roy who "chosen" Hecate at all.The choice in the notebook left by his father may not have anything to do with proton exchange at all, it was a choice he made in another matter entirely.

They were part of the plan long before birth, hundreds of years before.

Selene never had the position to doubt Hecate's unusualness, and even had no reason to feel sympathy or guilt towards Hecate.They were two pieces on the chessboard at the same time, at least Hecate was able to clearly recognize this, but she knew nothing of her own fate.

The trapdoor in the basement was open, and the flames were still blazing on the torch, but Selene found herself out of breath.She supported herself out of the dark basement with perseverance, and bumped into the snow wolf Xiaoyin who was just walking into the city gate.

"Little Silver? Where's the Hecate?"

Xiaoyin let out a low growl choked in his throat, and raised his eyes up.

Only then did Selene notice that Hecate was lying on Little Silver's back. Her first reaction was that Hecate encountered Nagrand's army outside the fortress and was seriously injured. , Selene has already seen what is going on.

she is sleeping.

Selene almost laughed out loud. She discovered the secrets left by her ancestors in the underground darkroom, and found that everything she thought she could control was out of her hands. She discovered the weight of fate and the powerlessness of reality. He wanted to say something, but the only person who could listen was lying on Snow Wolf's back, sleeping soundly with a scimitar in his arms.

Little Silver also seemed to be very dissatisfied with his master's behavior. It bent one of its front paws, allowing Hecate to slide down its back to the ground, and poked her twice with its paws.

Hecate woke up from his sleep in a daze, and the first thing he saw was Selene's half angry and half funny expression: "Aren't you going to patrol?"

Hecate seldom feels tired, and sleeps less than normal people. Both Selene and Wendy have been confidently and boldly entrusting her with patrolling and sentry tasks. They have never seen her make a mistake, and even Not to mention deserting while on patrol - this is the front line where enemy troops can be encountered at any time.

"I don't know." Hecate yawned intently, "I suddenly felt sleepy... I felt sleepy for many years without being injured, so I took a nap."

Selene thought about it for a while, and decided not to delve into this issue. All the weirdness in Hecate can be attributed to the sequelae left by Hussein's magic experiments.

She pulled Hecate up from the ground: "Hungry?"

Hecate was her younger sister before, her only relative, and they were the only two members of the Nord royal family. Selene took her for granted as her closest person in this world.Later they learned the fact that Hecate was no longer the original Hecate, but Selene did not change her view of Hecate.

It doesn't matter anymore.Nord is bitterly cold, and the life of the northerners seems so small and short in this almost eternal ice and snow. Selene can only choose to cherish this one who has returned to her side.

They are two travelers on the same boat on the long river.

The time for Nagrand to attack again is shorter than anyone expected. Hussein's injury should not have healed. This time he did not take a carriage, but was protected by a paladin. delivered again into the hands of Burke,

The cavalry and archers that Burke brought were very few, and the formation in front of the Cracked Rock Fortress was strange soldiers in robes, who looked somewhat like priests, but not quite.

The moment she guessed the answer, Selene clenched her fist subconsciously.

Hussein is definitely not the only one who knows magic in the Nagrand Empire, he is just a discoverer of magic.But Selene didn't expect that their number was large enough to be incorporated into the Nagrand regular army in large numbers, and these magicians who stood calmly on the battlefield, did they have absolute confidence in their own strength, or did they feel that they were Just to intensify the attack on the Windblade Legion under the protection of other regular troops in Nagrand?

The moment Hussein ordered the attack, the answer was revealed.

Countless fireballs, ice blades, lightning, and sand dust were like wasps pouring out of a nest, rushing towards the Cracked Rock Fortress one after another, and the archers standing on the city wall were instantly submerged in this overwhelming force , Occasionally, one or two desperate cries can be heard, and then there are only corpses all over the ground, which can prove that they once existed.

The walls of the Cracked Stone Fortress, which had survived for hundreds of years, became ruins in just a few hours.

Selene turned her head to look at Hecate standing behind her, and the remnants of the Windblade Legion who escaped by chance. She knew that even if she cut Hussein by the sword before the battle, she would not be able to restore the current situation.

But in the hearts of the surviving soldiers of the Wind Blade Legion, it is no longer simply the fear of magic, but also the hatred-these hatreds are mixed with their anger towards Nagrand and Hussein, and they become an inescapable chaos. swamp.

Even if the Nord Kingdom wins this war, even if they experience hundreds of years together on the Hindley Continent, it is impossible to really shake hands and make peace.

After listening to Burke's report, Hussein nodded in satisfaction, and then continued to play with the sapphire that fell off the scepter.

The biggest difference between magic and divine art is that magic cannot act on the soul. No matter how advanced a magician is, he can also use direct control of the human body to achieve the purpose of controlling others.What Hussein reserved on Hecate's body was a spell that allowed him to control it directly through this gem.

Hussein has experimented with this spell on many creatures and even humans, and without exception, it can only be controlled freely at the beginning. The spell will soon be strongly repelled, and then completely invalidated. Except for Hecate.

Her body is a creation of magic, a container that carries the soul, it will not reject magic, and it will allow the spell to continue forever.

After successfully continuing to today, it still failed without warning.

Hussein lost his masterpiece and one of the most powerful weapons, but at this moment, these are not so important, because this giant ice and snow beast that has stood on the mainland with Nagrand for nearly a thousand years will soon become his stuff in the bag.