A sect leader who ruled the army died. This was the highest level of dark priest who died since the beginning of the war. The soul wailed when Marcellus's mind dissipated like a gust of wind echoed in the vast root network of wasteland, sharp, mixed with strong hatred and anger, as well as unconcealed fear and unwillingness.

This scream entered the mind of the Grand Principal Bolken, making him look at the Western plain in the dark night in a striking and suspicious manner, and couldn't help but repeat softly again: "Marcellus is dead..."

The subordinate nodes also learned this amazing news. The dark forest gathered around the hills immediately made a series of chaotic sounds of branches and leaves rubbing. The distorted "trees" whispered on the plains, and the distorted army of distorted bodies under their command inevitably caused some waves - but these waves did not last for a long time. The thoughts from the head of the great catholic silenced the entire sect in a very short time.

Two figures walked up to the platform at the top of the hill, and Bolken looked at the Gemini sisters who appeared in his sight, and his dark brown eyes turned: "It seems that you have received the news, too."

"We can hear the sounds in the root network - the wailing of Marcellus' death is so loud," Firna shook her head and said, "Oh, it's so miserable."

"That's our compatriots, and your compatriots," Bolken immediately shook his dry branches, staring at the elves with indifferent faces. "You should maintain the minimum respect."

"Of course, we have deep regrets about this, but regrets cannot make Prison Marcellus alive," said Leerna with a sincere expression. "The key is what information was sent back before Prison Marcellus was martyred. How did he die? Wasn't the Western Front Legion the most smoothly advanced among all legions? Marcellus even sent back the news that he could conquer Red Jade City within a week, destroy all the resistance forces in Auguste's territory within half a month, and occupy the Ancestor Peak - how could he suddenly die?"

"A air force of the Cecils entered the Western Front battlefield," Bolken's eyes stopped on the Elf Gemini for a while before he continued to say in a deep voice, "Before that, the Western Front Legion was indeed very smooth. Marcellus had even reached the gate of Red Jade City, but then he met the Cecils who came to support..."

Bolken was silent for two seconds, as if carefully extracting the last thought signal from Marcellus, and then continued: "He described an exaggerated scene before, saying that the Cecils 'let the city float in the sky and fight with forts and castles that can fly'. He said that it was a war machine similar to the temple of stars, but more pure than the temple of stars - and we are not opponents of those flying fortresses in air power."

The expression on the Philna sisters' faces finally showed a hint of solemnity. They asked in unison: "The swelling polluter has not played a role?"

"Unable to get close to those forts in the air, with a large number of escort units, and their firepower is far more fierce than the swollen and polluters," Bolken said in a serious tone. "I don't know if Marcellus is exaggerating the description... In his statement, our flight troops and air defense fire have little effect on those forts of the Cecilians..."

"Even so..." Leerna said thoughtfully, "Our legion command node is far away from the front line, and Marcellus has always been a cautious person. He will not charge in person - even if the main striker is really crushed by the Cecilians' flying fortress, he should have enough time to evacuate. Even Bethlem has the chance to escape when he encounters the living forest on the North Line. How was Marcellus killed when he has built a battlefield advantage?"

"...This part of the information is very vague," Bolken's tone became more and more serious. "The previous information was sent back when he had enough, and the content was clear and clear, but there seemed to be extremely chaotic situations before his death. The information sent back was not only fragmented, but also seemed to have been seriously disturbed... The only thing that can be confirmed is that when the incident happened, the main force of the Cecils was still near Red Jade City, and soon we lost contact with the command unit of the Western Front Legion. In less than a few minutes, Marcellus's final messaging before his death entered the root network..."

"Some kind of ultra-long-range attack is fast and powerful, and can break through the layers of defense around the command node. Moreover, it is very likely to be accompanied by very strong communication interference in the process," Firna said immediately, "It's just that it's not certain whether this interference is the effect of the attack or another technical means of the Cecilians... This is really bad."

"Yes, it's very bad," Leerna said nodded, and then looked at Bolken. "What's going on the Western Front now? Who is controlling the Distorted Legion after Marcellus died."

"It was not only Marcellus who died, but also the dozen priests around him - that was a large-scale blow," said Bolken's mood. "The Western Front Legion fell into chaos after the command node disappeared. Although I transferred command power to the nearest Banor, the moment I received the news, I still had a large number of 'soldiers' far away from the command node. After that, I was still alive and permanently broke away from the control... The out-of-control discrete distortions are not the opponents of the large army, and they may be eliminated soon. The Western Front Legion has now contracted to the Wind Erosion Valley under Banor's control and began to transfer to the south."

"...It's so embarrassing," Sighed Firna, "It seems that our grand plan is not easy to realize, Master."

"Put off this meaningless sigh, unless you are just watching the fun at this time," Bolken snorted, "Tell me what you think - the situation is a bit beyond our initial plan, and we may have to make some adjustments in our subsequent actions."

"Don't worry too much, Lord Grand Priest," Leerna laughed, his tone very calm, "The army in the wasteland has not been fully dispatched, and we have not done our best. As for the Cecils... they are indeed somewhat unexpected, but they cannot take care of all the borders. We do not need to completely flatten every inch of land outside the wasteland. We only need to complete the release of runestones, so that those mortals can enjoy false victory on local battlefields. The continent of Loren is so vast that they will choose to give up some land in order to maintain the situation in the later stage - when we complete the "domestication" of the entire planet, it is the time to truly determine the winner."

Leerna's calm and powerful speech seemed to make Bolken feel better. The branches on the edge of the canopy of the Dark Cadet stretched a little, but his tone was still serious: "But it must be admitted that if the Cecils continue to make such a fuss, the 'window' for us to put out runes will be increasingly limited. Now the mortal defenders on the battlefields of the Eastern and Southern Fronts have also joined forces and fought against us with the strength of the whole country, especially those elves... The crash of the Temple of Stars did not destroy their morale, but instead made their thousand-year-old legion full of their nests. For every extra rune stone we now have to pay two or three times higher than before. This is not a good tendency."

"It is true, things cannot continue to develop like this," Firna nodded, "we need to look for weaknesses in the mortal defense again, and the most important thing is intelligence - especially the Cecilians. From the beginning of the war to the present, they have brought out too many things that surprised us. This "accident" is not a good thing on the battlefield. Their living forests are still trying to spread into the wasteland, and their flying war fortresses will certainly not stay honestly near Red Jade City. We have to find out the details of these things."

As soon as Firna finished speaking, Lerna, who was standing beside her, said: "When it comes to the living forest of the Cecils, as far as I know, that 'Ms. Belltila' has been trying to penetrate the 'immune barrier' we set in the north?"

"Yes... that woman!" When talking about "Beltira", the former "compatriot", Bolken was obviously more gritted than the flight fortress of the Cecils. "She inherited all the legacy left by Franken, inherited the knowledge and mysteries of that underground palace, and now she has used that knowledge to deal with us-

"That living forest attacks our northern immune barrier every day, and for this reason, our root network must use nearly one-third of its power to resist her invasion. If this were not the case, our control over each legion should have been stronger than it is now, and there would not be a large number of marginal nodes that would lose control immediately after Marcellus's death!"

"The fortresses flying in the sky are not easy to deal with. The squirming forest tentacles under the ground are at least something we can reach - and the threat she poses to us will obviously increase day by day," said Lerna. "Master, we should first find a way to stop the spread of that forest, at least understand her... survival mechanism. A creature rooted in the Holy Spirit Plain spreads her limbs to the southern foot of the Dark Mountains. This is not an easy thing."

Bolken fell into deep thought, with the dry and twisted branches and leaves silent in the night. Then he suddenly shook his branches, and a mental signal was transmitted to the root network with his actions.

It swayed around the dark dense forest near the hill. The next second, a hunched dry figure pulled out its roots from the soil and walked out of the dense forest. The figure clung to the hill. The magic glow naturally stimulated in the dirty clouds above the wasteland illuminated the figure - it was the dark minister Bethlem who fled back to the wasteland not long ago from the northern battlefield and destroyed half of the main force in his first battle.

"Master, are you looking for me?" Bethlem lowered his branches, and he had no idea of ​​his former command of the army to destroy the Northern Sentinel Tower, and he almost broke through the defense lines of Cecil and Tifeng.

Although the failure of the northern defense line was not entirely his responsibility, the Cecilian's living forest lurking on the southern foot of the mountains was a complete accident, but it was also true that he was blindly advanced at the beginning of the war, and the situation was in a difficult situation, which eventually led to half of the main force being buried in the mouth of the living forest.

After rushing back to the wasteland, Bethlem was deprived of command of the Northern Legion and endured severe punishment. Now he is rooted in the corner of this twisted forest like a shame, becoming the laughing stock of the Legion - even the lowest-level dark druids were secretly ridiculing him for running hundreds of kilometers from the Dark Mountains, leaving all his subordinates to escape back to the base camp.

He never expected that he would have the opportunity to be summoned again by the Prime Minister.

"I will give you a chance to wash away shame and make up for your mistakes," Bolken said in a low voice, "Bertrame, you must accept this opportunity."

"Of course, I'll wait for your orders at any time!" Bertleme said immediately, and the roots of the snake-like vine squirmed under his feet, "I will definitely complete your mission!"

"It's a good thing to be confident, but don't boast about it so early," Bolken said lightly, "Do you still have the courage to face the battlefield in the north?"

Burtleme was stunned for a moment, then shook the dry branches hard: "Of course, these days I have been scorching by flame-like hatred, that battlefield... I always long to return to the front line..."

"Very good, then you will return to the North Line to support our 'immune barrier' - our root network is facing the invasion of the living forest, and you have directly contacted the spiritual body of Belltila," Bolken said at Belltila, "Look for the power that had penetrated your soul, find the extension of that power underground, find the truth that Belltila can extend the body so far, and the source of her power..."

The cold night wind blew across the plains, and the winter Gondor wasteland was shrouded in dead silence.

Bethlem's body was even more hunched. He drooped his branches respectfully, and his dry leaves trembled in the wind: "As long as you order, Master."

Bertlem retreated, and the hill returned to silence for the time being. Bolken seemed to be thinking about something, while the elf Gemini just stood not far away. No one knew what they were thinking, and even Bolken was not very clear about it.

Of course, he could not hear the whispers between Philna and Lerna on the spiritual level.

"Things are starting to get interesting, aren't they?" The voice of "one of them" suddenly sounded in the spiritual connection that only the elves could hear.

"Yes, floating fortresses, living forests... those 'Cecils' have created many interesting things. Based on this season's civilization, their development trajectory and current direction are infinitely close to that 'ideal model'."

"The starting point of all this is that 'visitor'."

"Will the changes brought by visitors eventually change this season's mortals, an extraterrestrial soul that fell into the world, really become a variable on this planet...it's really worth looking forward to."

"But there is a greater possibility that this season of civilization will still disappear like the countless rounds of seemingly promising civilizations before. An ambitious 'fallener' will eventually turn into dust in the face of the huge power of fate - civilization is meaningless, and the activities brought by 'wisdom' are just a little meaningless notes among the stars. Whether it is the setter, the mortals and the gods, they are just leaving some fleeting phantoms for this universe."

"Everything doesn't matter, we don't have to care about the process, regardless of whether the extraterritorial visitor will change everything, it will be a...interesting enough."

The soul was quieted down, and "Firna" and "Lerna" continued to stand quietly on the hill, overlooking the dark and boundless wasteland with their cold eyes.

As Sentinels have done over the past one and a half million years.
Chapter completed!