The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

After listening to Tovia's words, the patriarch did not immediately make a judgment, but seriously asked some questions about the man and woman and the little survivor girl. After asking, his expression became serious, because What Tovia had said made him think of some bad things.

Before entering the disaster area, when the high-level church leaders discussed the rat wave, they considered human factors, because the timing of the rat wave was too coincidental, and the rat wave that appeared this time was completely different from the previous rat wave. The Jerry Rat was so crazy that it bit all living things. It destroyed the five church principalities in a short period of time and caused over a million casualties. This kind of disaster has never happened in the Old World, let alone the New World.

Therefore, some people think that this disaster should be caused by the Otto Federation, because the Otto Federation has proposed a plan to control animals and cooperate with the army in investigation and attack. Linking this rat wave with this plan can't help but make people feel a little strange.

Because of this, before entering the disaster area, the patriarch also received some instructions, asking him to investigate the cause of the rat tide while rescuing the survivors, especially whether the rat tide had anything to do with the Otter Federation.

It's just that he didn't find any signs of man-made rat swarms along the way, and everything seemed to be very normal. This rat swarm was just a natural burst of rat swarms, and now after listening to Torvia's words, he immediately felt that This couple may be related to the rat tide.

The main reason is that the timing and location of this pair of men and women are too strange. It happened to be at the time when the rat tide broke out, and it happened to be in the Principality of Russ, the center of the rat tide. They weren't from the surrounding Principality, but the two had very proficient local accents of the Principality of Ruth, so they couldn't tell where they were from.

Another point, Tovia mentioned that the earliest residents of this refuge town were the couple and the little girl, because the little girl who survived was a local, and I heard that she was participating in the hunting team hired by King Russ IX. She went hunting in the mountains, and later encountered a rat swarm, and luckily escaped the rat swarm. When she returned to this small town, she found that everyone in the town had died in the rat swarm, including her family.

This was originally just a tragic story of a girl who survived. Everyone in the town has a similar story, but the problem is that the origin of this girl's story happened to be in Jelidos Mountain where the rat tide broke out. When the rat tide broke out, she It happened to be in the mountains, and judging from all the signs, the foreign couple was also met by a little girl on the mountain, so it was hard not to make people have some bad associations.

In addition, after the three of them lived in the small town, the rats in the small town fled to the outside of the small town, not daring to get close to the small town. It is precisely because of this that some survivors who fled here thought it was This is a land of gods, and this is how the refuge town was later built here.

Being able to stock up in the place where the rat swarm broke out and keep the rats away from the town, no matter how you look at it, it makes people feel that the man and woman seem to be able to control those jerry rats that have gone crazy.

It is also these pieces of information worthy of scrutiny that make the Patriarch also start to make guesses and judgments in the way Torvia hoped.

Although the patriarch had doubts about the identities of the couple, he did not rush to test them out. Instead, he summoned the church knights and the church duchy knights under his command, and also sent some of the churches they were planning to use to deal with the rat tide. The holy vessel was brought out.

These church sacred objects are torches made of special trees and made by special methods. This kind of torch can withstand the power of the source fire of the purifying fire, and can assist the clergy of the church to perform some powerful divine spells.

After taking out the torches, the patriarch asked his clerics to light them one by one, and then led the team to the outside of the hut where Leo and Silvia lived.

The archbishop signaled to the church and the knights of the Principality to cooperate with the clergy to surround the hut, and prepared the corresponding magic spells. Then he led Torvia and Tuffman to the outside of the hut, and was about to knock on the door.

However, before his hand touched the door, the door was opened from the inside, and then Leo and Silvia came out, looked at the patriarch in front of him, and then looked at the knights and knights around him. Clergy.

"What's the matter?" Sylvia asked coldly.

I don't know whether it was the invisible pressure formed by the noble temperament on Sylvia, or the active inquiry of Leo and Sylvia caught the other party by surprise. The Patriarch didn't know how to answer for a while.

On the contrary, Tovia on the side said: "The patriarch came this time to investigate the cause of the rat tide, and I want to ask you two about some things."

Leo glanced around and said: "You guys are not just asking, it looks more like you are treating us as a suspect, or you have already identified us as the initiator of the rat wave, and you want to catch us .”

Hearing Leo's straightforward words, both Patriarch and Torvia's expressions changed slightly.

However, they returned to normal soon, and the patriarch also broke away from the trance state just now, and said to Leo and Silvia: "We do have doubts about the two, so please cooperate with my investigation .”

"What if I don't cooperate?" Leo asked provocatively.

When the Patriarch heard the words, his eyes instantly became sharp. He didn't expect the conflict to appear so soon, but he also thought it was very good, saving some trouble of guessing.

I saw that as his state of mind changed, the purifying fire on the church sacred vessel he held in his hand immediately erupted into a burst of intense light, and these rays of light and the light of the purifying fire in the hands of other priests around him Linked together to form a pattern with mysterious symbols, enveloping the cabin.

At the same time, all the knights drew their weapons, and some even took out the crossbows they had prepared long ago and pointed them at Leo and Silvia at the door.

Seeing this situation, Leo looked very calm, as if everything that happened in front of him was an illusion, and then he saw his hand raised and made a gesture.

The moment the patriarch saw this gesture, he was stunned. Before he recovered, the purifying fire on the holy vessel in his hand and the purifying fire on the holy vessel in the hands of other church clergy around him All dimmed, disconnected for an instant, and then returned to their original state.

"Expulsion, this is the expulsion of the gods!" The patriarch was very surprised by what happened before him, and then looked at Leo with a puzzled look, as if he was talking to himself, or asking Leo for proof .

As the most commonly used divine spell for the clergy of the church, the expulsion of the divine spell has penetrated into the bones of almost every clergyman. Although there is no explicit requirement, there is an unwritten rule in the Church of Purifying Fire. There are several divine spells that are Those high-ranking priests must master, and the expulsion of gods is one of them.

Most of the clergy in the general church who have received divine inspiration and can perform divine magic do not pay special attention to these few basic divine spells. They are more inclined to those more gorgeous and eye-catching high-level divine spells, such as the wings of fire and so on.

But the top clergy of the church at the level of the Patriarch, he is very clear about the potential and power of those few basic magic skills. Therefore, in his daily training, he will also do some training on basic divine arts.

However, just now, the expulsion of the gods in the basic magic of the Purifying Fire Church that Leo performed just now made him see the shadow of the Pope. The expulsion of the gods, which was originally only used to expel some low-level evil forces, was easily suppressed. The combined power of the Purifying Fire and the Holy Artifact was dispelled, and Leo performed the whole casting process very easily and freely, as simple as drinking water and eating, which brought him Great shock.

"Are there any questions?" Leo asked calmly, looking at the patriarch.

"No more! Sorry, I think this is a misunderstanding." The patriarch couldn't say anything, and thought in his heart: "If a person who can use the exorcism so skillfully and powerfully is a heretic, the Otto Federation If those unbelievers, then what is he, the Patriarch, even worse than a heretic?"

As for the idea of ​​the originator of the rat wave, it completely disappeared from his mind, not to mention that the person in front of him could not be the initiator of the rat wave, even if he was, he couldn't say anything, because the priesthood of the Purifying Fire It is "absolutely" impossible for personnel to do such evil things, "absolutely not".

"It's good that the misunderstanding is resolved, you are busy with your affairs, don't bother me!" Leo said to the patriarch a little coldly, and then turned back to the room with Sylvia.

Just when Leo was about to close the door, the patriarch suddenly asked again: "Are you a hermit?"

Facing this question, Leo deliberately paused, closed the door without answering, but this intentional pause was enough to make people think.

"Is it really a hermit?" The patriarch guessed self-righteously.

The monks in the Purifying Fire Church are a special group. Before they became monks, most of them were senior clergymen who held real power in the church, and there were many of them like the pope.

And often when their power reaches its peak, they are suddenly inspired by the fire of purification, and then give up all power, put on secular clothes, return to the secular world, and look for the fire of purification in the secular world. The path of purification mentioned.

Although these hermits no longer hold real power in the church, the clergy of the church have a special respect for them. Just like the current patriarch, when faced with extremely powerful divine skills, it is very likely that they are When Leo was a hermit, he would still lower his posture, even if Leo showed unusual indifference.

After making a judgment, the patriarch signaled to the surrounding knights and clergy, telling them to gather and retreat, then turned around and looked at Tovia, who was still surprised, and said, "It's not your fault. , After all, you are just a low-level cleric and don’t know about monks, your vigilance is very good, so don’t worry too much.”

Torvia was confused by this reversal, even though the patriarch comforted him, he did not react.

He remembered that he had felt the power of Leo through the purification fire before, and he could clearly feel the rejection of Leo from the purification fire. That kind of rejection was definitely not what a hermit known for his piety should have. It's completely like a reaction to a heresy.

But in the blink of an eye a few days passed, this foreigner who was rejected by the Purifying Fire became a hermit of the Purifying Fire Church, and was able to perform the extraordinary power of expelling gods. This transformation caused him to fall into confusion Among them, it also made him always feel that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell the specifics.

After a word of persuasion, the patriarch didn't say anything more. Although he said he didn't care about this matter, he was still dissatisfied with Torvia who caused this misunderstanding.

Fortunately, this matter did not get out of hand, otherwise, not to mention whether he could be better than a hermit monk in the performance of divine magic, even if he was better than a hermit monk, if he was arrested, then he would Offend this monk to death, when the time comes, the relatives and friends of this monk in the church will definitely attack him, and he has made an enemy without any benefit.

It was the trace of dissatisfaction and resentment in his heart that made the patriarch not treat Tovia as kindly as he was at the beginning. After seeing that Tovia hadn't reacted, and didn't plan to wait for him, he turned around and went to the place arranged for him. Go to the residence.

The Tuffman knight on the side didn't understand what happened at all, he just knew that the male foreigner in the hut made a clean-up to the patriarch, and then the matter ended like this.

However, even if he didn't know what was going on, the Tuffman knight didn't have any special thoughts. He quickly came back to his senses, and when he saw the Patriarch leave, he immediately pulled up Torvia who was still in a daze and chased after him.

In the hut, Sylvia used her witch power to create a flame, and burned herself from head to toe. Although the flame seemed to be burning violently, the temperature was enough to melt the steel, but the flame never After scanning her body once, not only did she not get hurt, even the clothes on her body were not damaged.

After burning it for herself, she burned it for Leo again, and then sniffed Leo as if smelling it, with a satisfied look on her face.

"Is it so serious? It's just an exorcism spell, and what sticks to him is just a little residual power." Leo looked at Sylvia's behavior and couldn't help laughing.

Sylvia rolled his eyes at the other party, and said angrily: "Think about the scene where you got all kinds of filth on your body after you got out of the sewer." Then, she asked, "How long will we have to stay?"

Leo said: "It shouldn't be long! The information I intercepted from the Purifying Fire shows that the first batch of frontline soldiers who were transferred back to the country should return in a few days. This group of people are all members of the five disaster-stricken principalities. , it seems that they want to use these people to rebuild, and Petunia's father should be inside, of course, the premise is that he didn't die on the battlefield."