Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 183 Undercurrent
On March [-]th, the news that Adam, a high-ranking monk in the Watcher Fortress, had defected with a copy of the Giant's Prayer Book reached the Flame Temple. Hiron, who was investigating the case of Slovens, and the other six quickly passed the motion to completely block the northern border and arrest Adam.

In this era, the energy possessed by the Flame Temple in the northern border is extremely terrifying. Except that the overall number is slightly inferior to the major legions, it is comparable to the northern legion under the Marquis of Osarion in terms of high-end combat power, political status, and even local prestige. have equal shares.

Therefore, when the church was fully operational, in just two days, Adam's arrest warrant and various notices of assistance in defense and investigation had spread throughout the northern border, and were placed on the desks of the commanders of the Northern Army Corps and a number of local lords. .

Another day later, a network composed of monks practicing martial arts, the Northern Legion, and private soldiers of local nobles was fully unfolded. Every pass, village, town, camp, and water source in the northern border posted a wanted poster with a bust of Adam on it. According to the notice, countless patrol groups of three to five people were scattered among the countryside, strictly guarding Adam's possible escape route.

At the same time, Yuno, the third flame archbishop, also rushed to the Overseer Fortress, and received Aganti, the leader of the Overseers in uniform, in the bishop's study.

"On the night when Adam defected, your people were the first to move—" Yuno tapped on the table and said with a gloomy face, "Now tell me that so many watchers didn't even find a trace of him, so let a traitor slipped away from under your noses with a very dangerous prayer book?"

"I'm sorry, Master Yuno."

Yaganti stood straight in front of the desk, lowered his eyes and said: "Adam is too familiar with the other comrades in the fortress, and as a senior monk, he has the freedom to make patrols and go out plans, so he left the fortress It was not until the destruction of the copies of prayer books in the middle of the night was about to be completed that we found out that one copy was missing during the counting, and immediately after urgently counting the personnel of the fortress again, we came to the conclusion that he had defected with the prayer book. "

"This is the first time in the history of the Overseer Fortress since it was built. We really lack relevant plans. Based on Adam's knowledge of the terrain and defense situation near the fortress, the window period of about five hours is enough for him to run out. Fortified area."

"Run out of the jurisdiction of the fortress," Yuno sneered twice, "In other words, this matter is beyond your control, and the Watcher Fortress is out of control, right?"

"Don't dare," Yaganti tensed his body and lowered his head deeply, "Now there are still one-third of the monitors patrolling and searching the fortress. I will always maintain this search intensity and fully cooperate with colleagues in other areas. Robe to conduct a joint investigation until we find Adam’s whereabouts——as the fortress commander and Adam’s elder brother, I personally take full responsibility for this defection and am willing to accept all punishments from the Holy Church.”

Yuno stared at the junior and subordinate whom he had always admired very much, took a few deep breaths, and then said with a dark face: "There must be punishment, but now I and the other archbishops don't have time to pay attention to you. Do your best to hunt down Adam!"

"Yes."

Yuno pushed away the chair and got up, took a few steps in the room, came to the French window and looked down, the whole fortress had entered the highest state of alert, there were heavily armed martial arts monks patrolling around, and the distant snow field also occasionally The figure of a knight speeding past can be seen.

"Except for the replica copy, has the Giant's Prayer Book been destroyed?" He asked with his back turned to Yagan.

"Confirmed," Yaganti replied, "The Overseer Fortress has a total of one original prayer book, twelve copies, and 180 related research manuscripts, all of which have been destroyed except the one stolen by Adam, and some of the books have been mastered." All the monks in the content have also issued a ban on the use or research of giant prayers."

Yuno was silent for a long time, and said, "That's it."

"In addition, during this period of time, all exploration and cleaning of the giant cemetery will be suspended, a surveillance and defense network will be established around the periphery, and the movements of the giant remnants will be closely monitored - now the Samirs are about to move around in the south, and there are often traces of Black Flame monks' activities in the north , this side of the cemetery, no matter what, there must be no more accidents."

"I understand." Yaganti nodded deeply.

Yuno breathed a sigh of relief, staring at the towering mountains and the ash-like dark sky in the distance, sighed after a while, and murmured: "Perhaps, we have never really conquered this land."

In the following month, the entire northern border was like a furnace with locked gates and a burning furnace. Nearly ten thousand people from all walks of life combed this snow-covered wasteland again and again, but Adam seemed to have evaporated from the world. , after all, no trace was exposed.

At the end of April, the local nobles who assisted in the investigation of this matter were not happy. Since the Slovens tragedy, the northern border has been in turmoil. Some nobles adjacent to the town of Slovens have begun to hoard supplies and recruit militias, ready to respond at any time A new round of counter-insurgency war, but now nearly a season has passed, not only did not find any traces of the rebels, but everyone was exhausted from hunting for a defected flame monk.

If things go on like this, some small nobles with insufficient background can no longer bear the consumption of manpower and material resources caused by the continuation of the siege, so they have put pressure on the garrisons and the branches of the Flame Temple to withdraw from the search and arrest operation.

Moreover, their opposition is not groundless. Sixty years ago, more than [-] members of Raeder's branch defected to become monks of the Black Flame. There is still no definite statement about Vince's case - how can they believe that the Holy Church can find Adam, a strong man who grew up in the northern border and is a high-level flame monk himself?

In the final analysis, the northern border is too big. In terms of geographical area alone, it is even comparable to the sum of the Asian altar and Lienia. Let alone throwing thousands of people down, it means mobilizing the entire northern border army and all the flame monks and throwing them into the northern border. Even the endless ice field can't afford a few snowflakes.The long-term search and arrest will inevitably be an unacceptable result for all forces.

Sure enough, not long after, those wealthy nobles joined their ranks. After protesting again and again, Osarion's northern border tutelary and the Flame Temple couldn't stand the pressure, and finally on May [-]st The manhunt was called off.

On the other hand, although the investigation into the Slovens case is still going on, most of the nobles from all over the country have dismissed the conscripted militia troops and resumed normal production.

What's more, the town of Slovens previously played an extremely important role in the trade network in the southern part of the northern border. Now that the Cahill family has lost their blood, this land and its associated trade lines have naturally become a piece of fat that everyone covets. .

If we said that in the past two months, everyone was still in danger and had no time to take care of this, but now that the situation has stabilized, this group of nobles can't help but start a new round of confrontation and game for power and profit.

Late at night, in a barren and remote nameless wilderness, several tall and burly figures sat around the fire, one of them rubbed his palms on the flames, and let out a few low-pitched laughter from his throat, saying: "Everything is like me. As expected, the ministries will be notified and the next step will be implemented.”

He picked up a twig that was as thick as an ordinary person's thigh, and threw it lightly into the fire, with the rising flames reflected in his pupils, and said softly, "Let the fire in the northern border burn even more intensely, hehe."

(End of this chapter)