Cold, twisted memories always flooded Errol's mind whenever he looked over at the lone castle that stood on the edge of the cliff. Most of these memories were accompanied by shadowy clouds, damp floors, not-so-warm sunlight and silent gray galleries ...... The towering towers of the Mouse Castle, with their light-reflecting rose windows, looked like flickering eyes, and from the day the castle was built, they had gazed from afar at the assorted crowds heading for the Mouse Castle, as if they were a cold torturer.
The letters in the inner bag of his leather armor grew heavy and palpable, and Errol gradually remembered the sentences that had tugged at his heart. Before taking on Archbishop Shiva's mission, he had long since done a thorough investigation and study of the Mouse Castle and its owner. The large amount of information and archive volumes formed under the accumulation of days and months did not give Errol's thoughts clarity, and the excavation of every suspicious clue instead made the history of Blackrock Town more and more blurred. Like most of the other free city-states on the continent of Corvus, it had flourished and prospered, and had gone into a bleak decline as its specialty mineral, inkstone, ran out. It had been a paradise for explorers and speculators, and had hatched a number of mega-rich tycoons in the mineral trade. But when it comes to the question of who the lords of Blackrock are, news, intelligence and information pale in comparison - who has always ruled Blackrock? Who has been ruling Blackrock? Which family built these solemn castles? These questions haunted Errol, and at some point he began to hate the mysterious invitation, the letter written to him in the voice of his elders and ancestors.
Errol had initially wondered if it could be a deliberate trap set by some cultists, but preliminary investigations told him otherwise. Over the course of the four years, Errol had found invitations to the Mouse Castle sent to other explorers or celebrities, and the content and tone of each letter was different. After reading dozens of letters Errol gradually determined the next horrifying truth - there was a huge family living in the Mouse Castle, and the family line had branched out to the entire continent of Corvus, but the outcasts who carried the Mouse Castle bloodline had forgotten that fact themselves.
No one knew why they had left Mouse Castle and Blackrock Town, or why they had forgotten their bloodline. For Errol, remembering the past is painful, and the memories begin with him being an orphan, growing up in the Dungeon of Ruhl in the southwest of the continent. The dark and chaotic dungeon was filled with violence and bloodshed, strong-arming and betrayal. He grew up in such a sinister environment, and inevitably became melancholic and gloomy, with few words. Sometimes he himself couldn't tell if this was something he was born with or something that was a result of his tragedy. In any case, when Errol met his first world card, the treasure card “regicide”, he started the path of traveling mage, and also got rid of the bad luck that enveloped him.
As he watched the gothic castle grow in size in his field of vision, all the treacherous stories Errol had collected gradually became clear in his mind. The fleeing crowds, the endless rat tide that surged towards Black Rock, and the mutilated bodies that fell under the teeth of the mad rodents ...... The depletion of the veins announced the decline of Black Rock, while the rat tide and the outbreak of the plague completely vetoed the future of this town in the woods. The surviving residents dragged their tired and desperate bodies out of Black Rock, and only a very few still chose to stay here.
After the swarms of rats were wiped out, no one went back to the Rat Castle. Residents claimed that no one had ever gotten out of the Rat Castle, and all the explorers who had entered the Rat Castle in those four years had never gotten out of it. For the people in and around Black Rock, the Rat Fort is synonymous with death and evil; there should be no life there, and only the rats that sneak around in the darkness and devour everything can survive in the Rat Fort.
Coming to the outskirts of the Rat Fortress, Errol realized that what the residents of the town had said was true. Sharp, urgent cries echoed endlessly in the open space on the outskirts of the Rat Castle, with rustling and crawling noises, the noise of debris being stepped on and rubbed together, and the sound of small animals running from time to time. With this chilling symphony, a picture of horror suddenly arose in Errol's mind; beneath the land on which he and the other mercenaries stood, the subterranean rock formations had been pierced and dug through by swarms of rats, and just as they had marched, just as they had halted in their tracks, seas of rats had scurried and howled through the ground and through the citadel, waiting for fresh flesh and blood... ...The shadowy clouds, the damp floors, the not-so-warm sunlight and the silent gray galleries, these strange memories recurring in his mind, could it be that he really was descended from the master of the Rat Castle? And the attics and halls that appeared in those dreams were actually the real scenes behind the gates of the Mouse Castle? Tainted fantasies make Errol fearful and vaguely yearning, there are too many unanswered questions that need Mouse Castle to give him answers. At the same time, he knew very well that the answer to the mystery did not mean easy or pleasant, Errol did not know what kind of people could survive in this rat's nest, and even more so, he did not understand what the “salvation” and “rejuvenation” written in the invitation letter really meant. Bugs's horse suddenly let out a roar, which woke up the faltering warriors and wizards, the priests began to pray, the summer heat became palpable again, and Errol's vision finally disappeared. The heavy shadows in his vision finally disappeared.
“Set up camp on the ground!”
The loud voice of Chief Commander Bugs brought the hand-wringing troops back on track, seven or eight tents of various sizes were quickly set up, and huge, bright campfires were lit as people sat down around them.
“A burning fire always gives people confidence, especially in unfamiliar surroundings.”
“Yeah.” Errol agreed casually.
Lillian, who was sitting beside him, clutched her sword and glanced at her lord suspiciously.
“What is it, Lord?” Lillian asked.
Errol looked around equally puzzled. No one was talking around him, the mercenaries were all focused on Bugs, who was standing by the campfire, each meticulous combat task assigned to him for execution teams and follow-up actions. But Errol was having a hard time focusing on Bugs at the moment, even he couldn't hear what Bugs was saying at all, his wildly beating heart made it hard for Errol to even swallow his saliva, who was talking to him just now? And who was he talking to?
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“Nothing, I got carried away.”
Errol tried to squeeze out a relaxed smile at Lillian, and although Lillian always felt that there was something wrong somewhere, it wasn't really convenient for her to ask in detail on this occasion, so she had to leave it at that. Fortunately, that voice of unknown origin did not appear again, after calming down his mood, Bugs' words finally entered Errol's ears, maybe it's a hallucination, he muttered, it's normal that people will more or less hallucinate under high-pressure environment, Errol convinced himself with this explanation, and he began to listen carefully to Bugs' tactical arrangements.
The castle at the end of the perilous cliffs loomed silently, its weathered gray and black mottled high walls still bearing the marks of a few scuffles, some of which were obviously from battle axes and heavy hammers, others from the claws and teeth of beasts. The giant archway, so tall as to be pompous, was closed, its golden decorative reliefs crumbling, and some of the parts that were barely intact were rusted. On the doorway, the area that should have been engraved with the Mouse Castle family crest was torn away, dents and cracks that made everyone who saw the door wonder what kind of sharp giant claws could have caused such devastation to a door made of steel?
The weathered towers were covered in a layer of dust and gray. Under Bugs's instructions, two mages with the ability to fly slowly rose into the air, and through their overhead vision, they would be responsible for drawing an overhead view of the Rat Fortress. In front of the heavy and dark gate, Bugs looked ahead thoughtfully, despite the gate being closed, the stench of rotting corpses and the odor of granulated feces from the inside of the rat fortress was already very obvious. In Bugs's plan, his Black Flame Mercenaries and the 5th Company of the 8th Knights Order would serve as the vanguard force for exploring the Rat Fortress, while Errol's Warhammer Mercenaries and the remaining four mercenary regiments would serve as the main advancement force, and the 9th Company of the 8th Knights Order would be stationed at the camp outside the gate ready to receive the Templar Knights' large troop that would come to the Rat Fortress later on.
Just as Bugs pondered how to open the rusty gate, the ground suddenly began to shake violently, the shock waves spreading from inside the gate to outside, as the mercenaries looked on in disbelief, a sharp sound of breaking air came from inside the gate, Bugs commanded the entire troop to retreat fifteen paces backward, and when the quake was over, the sky mage let out an alarming shrill.
“That's ......” Bugs looked to the sky as one Sky Mage was wrapped tightly around a black and red tentacle, while the other Sky Mage kept unleashing fireball spells and wind blades in an attempt to repel the tentacle, which was coated in slime and grayish-brown juice.
“Kali!”
Errol's shout woke up the bowman who was also looking up to the sky, and at the lord's command, Kali picked a stout, slender arrow from her pouch and quickly finished attaching it to her bow, while Errol followed suit by playing the Sage spell “Kheprior” from his hand and using it on the next attack of the follower “Pale Green Ranger”. and use it on the next attack of the attachment “Pale Green Ranger”. With the “Sure Hit” effect and the “Breaking Strike” effect, Kali loosened her fingers on the bowstring, and an eye-catching emerald-green lightning bolt shot towards the tentacle that was twisting up and down. The arrow did not pierce through the tentacle, but the tentacle's movement was obviously halted for a moment. The other warriors and mages who reacted quickly launched their attacks, dazzling long range bombardment spells and flying arrows came thick and fast.
Under wave after wave of attacks, the hard as iron tentacles finally showed a tendency to weaken, and another Sky Mage circling near the trapped mage finally managed to pull the trapped mage out of the tentacle's bondage. Perhaps realizing that the target unit had already broken free from its bonds, or perhaps the ground's firepower was too vicious, an unwilling wail suddenly emanated from the rat fortress, and then that unknown being quickly retracted the tentacle full of sarcomas, Errol stared intently at the swimming tentacle in the sky, and he somehow thought of the tongue, a long and flexible tongue, a tongue that came from the rat fortress, and perhaps it was the same ancestor who had written to him ......
The sky mage who fell into a coma quickly came to his senses under the treatment of the priest and alchemist, thanks to the timely breaking free, his body did not suffer too serious injuries, but there was certainly no way to continue with his flying reconnaissance mission. He handed Bugs the half of the map he had drawn to, and together with the half of the map drawn by the other sky mage, Bugs had a rough idea of the architectural layout of the interior of the Rat Fortress. He pieced the two less-than-complete maps together in his mind and drew a complete, but lacking in detail, map of the Rat Fortress on a brand new piece of parchment.
Looking down from high above, Mouse Castle was actually a miniature town with two main roads that crossed each other, one leading from the castle's main gate to the main castle, and the other road forming a cross with it. Beyond the main castle are two other shorter towers located on the east and west sides of the castle area. According to the descriptions of the sky mages, most of the houses in the Rat Castle had collapsed and fallen into disrepair, and there were only a few traces of rats and small beasts in the streets, other than that there wasn't anything of particular interest.
“Where did that tentacle that attacked us come from?” Bugs asked.
The sky mage pointed to a cave-in in front of the main fortress gate.
“It was supposed to be a large step to ascend to the main fortress, but a very serious depression has occurred, like the entire ground has been pulled downward.” The sky mage added.
Bugs kept rubbing his chin, as the vanguard, the main fortress area was definitely something they had to explore, but for this kind of alien magical creature he had never seen or heard of, Bugs always felt that the risk was too great. While he was hesitating, Laudi, the captain of the fifth company of the Knights, pulled Bugs aside and pulled out an oddly shaped alchemical rune from his pocket.
“This is?” Bugs asked.
“The “Divine Singularity” rune that Archbishop Shiva got from the Cardinal, once detonated, it can even seriously injure a king-class magical beast at close range.”
Laodi's words were clear, he thought that the tentacle was not strong enough to be compared to a king-level magical beast, and judging from his previous performance in the battle, Bugs was barely able to agree with this point of view. Feeling the rune in his hand, which contained a huge amount of elemental energy, he was also able to ascertain that Laodi had not overstated his words.
“Leader, the gate opened by itself!” A Black Flame Mercenary Corps warrior shouted at him from afar.
Bugs and Laudi turned back at the same time, behind them, the ancient and gloomy castle gate was slowly opening, the raw turning of the hinges sounded like some kind of vague whisper, dust and cloudy air dispersed out of the gate in unison. The priests began a chorus as the large divine spell Holy Wind was lowered by the gods. It blew into the Rat's Keep, and as the air currents hedged, tiny flickers of fire flickered in the wind, traces of those impure things cleansed by the divine.