Tome of Blood

"Astrid..."

Looking at the angry girl, the northern warrior sighed slightly:

"This decision is a unanimous choice made by all tribes after a unified vote."

"His Majesty the Grand Duke intends to completely unify the northern border and move the population to settle and cultivate in the interior. He will not allow tribes like us to continue to exist."

"If we are unwilling to surrender, what will greet us...is only repression by the military."

"His Majesty the Grand Duke has already unified the interior of the Northern Territory. His army is no match for us tribal warriors. At that time, our destiny will no longer be controlled by ourselves."

The girl raised her head stubbornly:

"Then let's continue moving north!"

"Our ancestors migrated from the south to the north to escape the war. Our ancestors came to the sea from the mainland in order to maintain their glory and faith."

"What we yearn for is freedom, and what we pursue is fighting. Today, we can still continue to migrate, looking for a new home just like our ancestors did!"

After hearing what the girl said, the northern warrior looked complicated and sighed:

"Migrate? Where can we migrate to now?"

"Our ancestors migrated from the fertile south to the barren north, from the rich grasslands and forests to the harsh straits. We have reached the end of the world, and there is no other place we can migrate to..."

"Every religious sect regards us as hypocrites, and even our former family friend Hortosh parted ways with us... From the moment our ancestors lost the protection of the Lord and were unwilling to surrender to other gods, the world has There is no place for us.”

"Then let's go south! Let's take a boat to Yunet! Like our ancestors, like the Romans in history, go to the falling star and the new moon to find a new home!"

The girl said stubbornly.

The northern warrior smiled bitterly:

"Astrid, why do you think we, the descendants of northern pirates, gradually give up venturing south and instead turn to hunting monsters on the sea?"

As he spoke, he sighed softly and shook his head:

"Because times... have changed."

The girl was silent.

She pursed her lips, her eyes seemed to be shining, and her expression was full of unwillingness:

"Then...are we going to bow to the Grand Duchy?"

"They want us to join them, but they just want us to be their vassals and labor force to reclaim the northern forests. They don't even want the old, weak, sick and disabled in our tribe!"

"As long as they are young and strong, joining them means abandoning our people. Without the protection of warriors, how can the weak survive in this strait?"

"We in the Free Tribe Alliance respect our elders the most. Does this mean we have to abandon even our last traditions and our closest relatives and loved ones?"

After hearing what the girl said, the northern warrior also fell silent.

After a long time, he said:

"Nothing in this world is completely random. I have asked the elders for their opinions. For the future of the tribe, they are willing to stay."

"The people of the North have never been afraid of sacrifice, and the same is true for our Free Tribal Alliance. They are willing to make choices for the tribe. This is also their battle."

The girl shook her head and insisted:

"Father, this is wrong! This is betrayal of the tribe! Our Free Tribe Alliance is never afraid of fighting, but we hate betrayal!"

"Abandoning our relatives and abandoning our beliefs, what are we left with? We will only be constantly cannibalized and assimilated by the Isaacs, and we will only gradually forget ourselves and our roots..."

The northern warrior was silent for a moment and said:

"Yeah...but so what?"

"At least our people survived, and at least our children have a new foothold."

As he spoke, he looked solemn and said:

"Astrid, to tell you the truth, the sea has started to look different since three years ago."

"In the past few years, the monsters in the ocean have become more and more powerful and restless. The pollution from extraordinary powers has increased, and it has become more and more difficult to hunt monsters..."

"If it weren't for the protection of the temple, even our village would have been attacked by the wave of monsters."

"Have you not noticed that our hunting harvests have become less and less in the past two years, while our casualties are increasing every time we go to sea?"

"Unlike other tribal alliances, we can gain strength from the totem of faith and receive divine aid as soon as possible after being injured. Our people are attacked by monsters and corrupted by extraordinary power. We can only rely on We must use our own willpower and extraordinary strength to fight against it... Although the combat effectiveness of our alliance is strong, the only one we can rely on is ourselves."

"Even if there is no ultimatum from the Grand Duke, if we continue to stay here, we will only consume the lives of our people bit by bit. We must make a choice."

Having said this, the soldier paused slightly and said with a complicated expression:

"Astrid... it's not that we abandoned faith and glory, but faith... abandoned us long ago when our ancestors migrated."

After hearing the warrior's words, the girl's eyes widened slightly.

She pursed her lips, shook her head, and backed away:

"No...I don't accept this choice!"

"There must be another way, there must be another way!"

With that said, she turned around and ran away.

"Astrid!"

The northern warrior called out, but the girl... had already run away.

The voices of the two gradually faded away, and the picture became a little blurry.

Charlotte knew that the time for her to "lower her gaze" was approaching.

"The Alliance of Free Tribes? Could it be that... they are really the descendants of the Free Cities?"

"What they believe in...is me as the 'savior'?"

Charlotte was thoughtful, thinking about the previous conversation between the two.

Regarding the situation of the Free Tribe Alliance, her mood was a little subtle and she was filled with sadness.

After all, the continent of Miria is a continent with gods. Even the extraordinary power originally came from the gods. Without the protection of the gods, it is really difficult for mortals to survive.

If you don't master advanced productive forces, you will be eliminated by history sooner or later. In Miria, "advanced productive forces" are the protection of the gods on the one hand, and the magic and alchemy technology that has developed rapidly in recent years on the other hand.

The Free Tribe Alliance has neither of these, so what awaits them can only be their gradual demise.

Of course, now that Charlotte has "discovered" them, there is no reason to pretend she didn't see them.

In any case, these people have already registered with her. Even if they have not been officially included in her belief network and become her "sheep", they have already put her mark on them.

but……

"I didn't leave the Holy Emblem behind when I traveled through the world for the second time. How did they establish such a vague connection with my faith?"

"The warrior who is suspected to be the leader of the tribe mentioned the 'temple'. Could it be related to this?"

Charlotte was a little curious.

Feeling that the connection was getting weaker and weaker, she increased the output of her divine power, trying to maintain her "gaze" for a while while trying to see if she could directly talk to these believers in her heart.

However, Charlotte failed.

She was surprised to find that although she could cast her gaze, see images, and hear sounds, she could not convey her own voice.

At the same time, she couldn't lower her power.

She knew why, because these believers were not part of her faith network.

However, after Charlotte set her sights on them, she could feel that they did have a familiar and friendly aura about them.

"It should be something related to me that became the object of their worship and allowed them to establish beliefs related to me, but... this thing has not received my power, or it has not established a complete connection with me. , so I couldn’t enter my faith network.”

Recalling some of the knowledge about the gods that she had read in the elven classics collected in the central tower during her second time travel, Charlotte made a judgment.

To become a believer, one must have an object of worship, which is also the core of maintaining the belief network.

This core can be a holy emblem, a symbol, a statue of a god, or a holy relic...

And these cores that maintain faith are connected to the gods, and ultimately form the gods' own web of faith.

Thinking of this, Charlotte continued to increase the output of her divine power, and at the same time, she pursued the feeling of intimacy.

The next moment, her vision changed again.

She saw a majestic temple.

The shape of the temple is quite familiar. It is a lost ancient temple, but... unlike those ancient temples buried underground, this ancient temple is located in a magnificent canyon.

In the temple, on the altar, there is also a small statue of the god enshrined.

Under the statue, several northerners dressed as priests were murmuring prayers.

"Faceless... idol..."

Charlotte was stunned when she saw the statue, and at the same time she felt that it was like this.

Faceless statue!

In this canyon, there is an ancient temple, enshrining a faceless god!

No wonder these people are judged to be her followers, probably not only because they believe in the "Savior", but also because the target of their worship is the faceless statue made by the "True Ancestor of Blood"!

The surprise came so suddenly, Charlotte really didn't expect that she just glanced out of curiosity and got something unexpected.

"I see... Is this the goal of their worship? So... they built an ownerless belief network based on the faceless statue, and the faceless statue is the core of the network."

It's like a local area network.

If Charlotte's faith network is the Internet, what these believers have built with the faceless statue as the core is a local area network.

However, this local area network is not completely disconnected from the Internet.

Obviously, as long as Charlotte can bring this faceless statue under her control, she can completely "collect" these believers.

Charlotte thought for a while and planned to try to see if she could establish contact with the faceless statue, and then... As expected, she failed.

Unlike the believers of the Dark Night Order, although these northern tribesmen are also followers of Charlotte, they have not established a complete connection with Charlotte.

In this case, Charlotte cannot use them as a fulcrum to project power, and naturally cannot communicate with the Faceless God through them.

Charlotte carefully sensed the coordinates of the temple.

Hiss...it's a bit far.

If her divine power explodes, she can walk back and forth within a day or two with her legendary level power, but considering the consumption of her divine power, it seems that this is not necessary.

Because...she has a better choice.

"It seems...it's time for Sebastian to take action."

Charlotte murmured.