Chapter 328: Gate of the Abyss
Perhaps because he was extremely angry about the interruption of the sacrifice, or perhaps because he was very dissatisfied with being blown black, Aigram kept chasing Roland closely, chasing him all night long, all the way to the wilderness east of Lion Lake City.
In fact, Aigrim was not chasing very fast, and his speed was about the same as that of the Fallen who were running on their own legs - the previous explosion caused its demon horse to break a leg, so it ran with a limp and could not run fast at all.
The people Roland brought with him rode light Gatu horses. These horses had good endurance and speed, and they could stop to rest and wait for Aigrim from time to time.
"boom……"
Another explosion occurred in front of Aigram.
At this time, Aigram had been blown into black, and the demon horse under him was also blown to the ground.
But at this moment, it suddenly stopped chasing - the demon horse's legs were blown off and it could not stand up, and Aigrim obviously had no intention of chasing the cavalry on foot.
This is not a brainless monster, it has high intelligence, and its previous pursuit was probably just out of anger.
"Throw them all out! And then concentrate your fire!"
“Boom…boom boom boom…”
Seeing that Aigrem was about to retreat, Roland had no choice but to order all the remaining grenades to be thrown at Aigrem, and had all his men concentrate their firepower and shoot a few rounds with bows and arrows, intending to try to see if he could kill this Devourer.
If we can't kill it, we'll see if this attack can still attract its hatred. Anyway, we have the speed advantage at the moment, so we can run away even if we fail.
But the results were disappointing.
The grenade did play a very good role. At least it could blow Aigrim to the ground and slow down its speed.
But these firearms did not cause much damage - apart from looking black, Aigrim did not show any abnormalities.
So far, the only injury it had suffered was that half of its eyeball was missing.
However, the explosion also blackened its eyeballs. Without eyelids, there was no way to clean the black ash on the eyeballs. Now Aigram looked like he was completely burnt.
This also made it look less gloomy. The team led by Roland could not even feel the pressure brought by Aigrim. This could be considered an unexpected gain.
And the bow and arrow...didn't have any effect at all.
Bows and arrows were the traditional advantage of the Raven Stern Territory. Roland's soldiers from the Raven Stern Territory were basically good at shooting and had a high hit rate, but all the arrows did not cause any damage without exception.
Aigram kept protecting his head, and all the arrows shot at his head were blocked by the shield in his hand.
And what was shot into his body... was probably the same as when Leon shot the three prophets, it was probably equivalent to shooting into a piece of roasted beef, and Aigram didn't react at all.
It was originally using the body of a dead person, so it was normal for it to have no reaction. Roland was not surprised.
However, the fact that it provides extra protection for its head is important information - at least it means that it is afraid of damage to its head, which means that it can be killed.
Aigram ignored Roland. After suffering concentrated attacks from arrows, he probably sensed danger and hid himself among the group of Fallen.
And the fallen ones beside it stopped moving.
Fortunately, they had lured Aigram to the designated location and made him lose his warhorse. The goal had been achieved, and Roland led his troops to evacuate quickly.
Roland retreated, and Aigrim did not pursue him. Obviously, it knew it could not catch up, so it turned around and approached Lion Lake City from the east.
This place is only ten miles away from Lion Lake City. It seems that Aigram wants to vent his anger on Lion Lake City...
There have always been a large number of Fallen surrounding Lion Lake City, and several crude ladders have been built.
Early in the morning, as soon as Aigrim arrived at the east side of Lion Lake City, he launched a siege.
Knowing that the Fallen outside the city had been building siege equipment, King Vidis in the city had been carefully preparing for defense, so he did not encounter any major problems when facing this attack.
The Fallen have already lost a certain degree of flexibility, and appear to be quite slow when climbing the ladders. Although there are a large number of ladders, there are not many, and the number of Fallen that can climb up at the same time is limited.
It wasn't particularly difficult for Vitesse to deal with it.
After a day of fierce fighting, hundreds of headless Fallen fell outside the city, and Vidis suffered fifty deaths and more than forty injuries.
By evening, the battle was over as the crudely constructed ladders were all destroyed by the Firdsvain.
Aigram commanded the Fallen Army to retreat several hundred meters again, and continued to surround Lion Lake City, still building siege equipment.
But now, the main force of the Fallen is to the east of Lion Lake City.
…
At this time, in the camp of Payne Village, Leon was studying the heretic code.
This is what Ilano brought back.
Leon has been studying for more than an hour, but has found nothing - the content recorded in this code is similar to what he had judged before, basically all of it is the "teachings of the goddess Erida".
It even includes content such as "Not allowed to pay taxes to the Temple of Justice", which is obviously added later.
But Leon did not find any content related to summoning demons, nor did he find anything related to heretical sacrifices.
However, the two black metal pages are quite special.
Many of the ancient books and texts of religious sects that have been around for a long time are made of a mixture of metal loose-leaf pages and parchment, bound with cow tendons, and the covers are mostly made of metal.
It was not easy to copy books from the Middle Ages, in order to avoid damage, especially to avoid damaging the core ideas in the books.
Metal pages are usually engraved with the most important core content, which can preserve the core ideas regardless of disasters such as fire, water or war; while parchment usually records more specific details.
But there was not a single word on the two metal pages of this code of heresy, only two simple patterns.
There were two unknown spiral patterns, all made up of tiny dots, forming an elliptical cantilever structure. For Leon, these two patterns were very similar to some images deep in his memory.
This cantilever looks very much like the Milky Way.
There are two spiral patterns, one positive and one negative, on two loose-leaf pages. The spiral directions are opposite, but they have exactly the same spiral arm structure. Even the positions of those tiny dots are basically the same.
One is made up of raised points, while the other is made up of small recessed pits.
If these two metal pages are overlapped, the two vortices can fit together perfectly and become a black metal plate.
Of course, the pattern is not very detailed and is somewhat abstract. If you open the two pages and look at them, you can probably see them as a pair of eyeballs - the pattern of vortex dots on the black metal does look a bit eerie, so maybe you can think of it as a eerie eye?
Moreover, the two metal binders are made of ebony.
"Sir, that Oswood has been saved for the time being, but he has lost all the skin on his body, so I don't think he will live long."
Lisa Dilan entered the barracks, interrupting Leon's thoughts.
"He might know something...Elanor, you stay here. Lisadiran, let's go ask him."
Leon put down the Code of Heresy and walked out with Lisadiran.
Ilano nodded, and after Leon left the barracks, he closed the door.
The sky was rather dark in the evening, especially after closing the door.
Ilano lit an oil lamp on the table and then sat in a corner of the room.
She had little interest in the heretic's code, and as a temporary guard, she just stayed cautiously in the house and kept an eye on the outside.
At this moment, a wisp of black mist slowly floated out from the two whirlpools and drifted towards Ilano.
“Ah… uh…”
The young female warrior suddenly covered her head, a look of pain on her face, and then slowly fell down.
…
The Lyon man knew nothing of what was happening in the barracks; he was talking to Oswood about the future.
He really wanted to know why Aigram didn't turn Oswood into a Fallen?
Moreover, according to the descriptions of Lisadiran and Ilanor, Aigram seemed to be using Oswood as a sacrifice?
So, what is he worshipping?
What is the purpose of the heretical code? Why does even Aigrim need to use it?
"Oswood, do you want to live?"
There are many issues to understand, but Oswood itself is also a problem.
This guy is neither dead nor alive now, so it is very difficult to communicate with him.
He probably knew himself that for a person without skin on his entire body, infection was almost inevitable and he would not live long.
But people are contradictory. Even if he knows that he will die and will continue to suffer, he does not want to die now.
Oswood is basically half crazy now.
"You've seen what it did to me...hahaha...wuwuwu...it hurts..."
This lump of red and sticky meat laughed and cried at times. It looked stupid and its speech was a little unclear.
There was a response to the question, but the answers given were of little use.
This is understandable. After suffering from Aigram's torture, it is normal for Oswood to go completely crazy.
Moreover, considering his current injuries, it was remarkable that he could still speak - anyone could imagine the pain he was in, and half of his tongue had been cut off.
"...Oswood, you should know the Three Prophets - they can give people a whole new skin... You must know them, right? Even though you have become like this, you still have a chance to survive. You should understand what I mean."
Li Ang suddenly mentioned the Three Prophets.
Of course, we should give hope to a dying person.
Oswood's lifeless pupils seemed to suddenly become shiny: "Yes! Three Prophets! Yes... I still have a chance!"
"I can find the three prophets. So... I won't ask you any more questions. Tell me everything you know. Maybe you still have a chance to survive."
Seeing that he had perked up a bit, Li Ang quickly asked him questions.
"I think Aigram is using me to summon a demon as terrible as himself... I heard him talking about 'lover' and 'gatekeeper'. I saw a pitch-black door. When the door opened, there was a terrible dark abyss inside. There were endless evil spirits howling inside, and a vague gray-white cloud flew towards me. But just when it was about to pounce on me, the door of the abyss closed..."
Oswood's tongue was not very fluent, so he slowly recounted what he had seen . It was obvious that he still had the will to survive.
"A dark door? What does that door look like?"
Li Ang suddenly seemed to remember something and asked quickly.
"Two doors, each with an eye-like pattern on it... glowing..."
Oswood described it with great effort.
"Give me a moment...keep an eye on him."
Li Ang suddenly realized and stood up and walked towards the barracks.
…
"Elanor, give me the Codex heresy..."
Li Ang pushed open the door of the barracks.
Ilano was standing in the room holding an oil lamp, apparently straightening the wrinkles on his clothes.
Seeing Leon pushing the door open, she turned around, put the oil lamp on the table, picked up the Code of Heresy and handed it to him, giving Leon a somewhat strange smile.
The smile looked forced, like a person suffering from illness comforting a loved one.
"Sure enough... this is the gate to the abyss!"
Leon didn't notice Ilano's strange smile. He directly opened the metal page of the code. When the two metal leaves were spread out, they really looked like two doors.
But when he turned around with the code and was about to look for Oswood, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a shadow on the wall.
Li Ang's heart skipped a beat.
That was his own shadow cast by the oil lamp.
Behind him, someone was approaching him with a sharp object.
"Elanor?!"
Li Ang turned around suddenly, and the heretic code in his hand flew out of his hand and hit Ilano behind him, and then he immediately dodged.
This was in the camp and he had no weapons with him, but this heavy code could be used to hit people.
The young female warrior was approaching Leon with a short spear in hand, but found the Codex Heretic flying towards her.
And her reaction once again surprised Leon - Ilano threw down the spear and took the heresy code in a hurry, as if she was afraid to let the code fall to the ground.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Ang lunged forward and picked up the short spear from the ground.
In a hurry, he grabbed the end of the spear. Without adjusting, Leon used the spear as a stick and swept it towards Ilano with great force.
At the same time he shouted loudly: "Someone come!"
Li Ang knew very well that Ilano was obviously planning to launch a sneak attack on him. Although he didn't know why, he felt that it was appropriate to capture the man first.
“Crack!”
Unexpectedly, Ilano did not dodge at all, but raised his left arm and took the blow from Leon with one hand.
The spear handle broke with a sound - Leon used considerable force, and he would not hold back on someone who was planning to assassinate him.
The girl was small and light, and if she hadn't used her arm to block Li Ang's stick, she would have probably been knocked to the ground.
But after Ilano broke the spear handle with his hand, he seemed to be safe and sound, just knocked back a few steps.
Realizing that something was wrong, Leon quickly took three steps back and shouted again: "Lisa Dilan!"
Ilano showed a strange smile again. Her right hand still held the code in her arms, while her left hand grabbed the table behind her and threw it towards Leon.
That was a solid wood desk made of logs, which must have weighed more than a hundred pounds. Yet, she threw it with one hand like a small stone, and it even caused a sharp whistle in the wind!
This obviously couldn't be dealt with head-on, so Li Ang dodged the flying table by diving to the side.
“Bang!”
After a loud bang, a heavy table smashed against the door behind Li Ang, shutting the door heavily, and it was equivalent to blocking the door from the inside.
The oil lamp that was originally placed on the table fell to the ground and went out, and the barracks became dark again.
"You are the Three Prophets?!"
Li Ang had already realized that this must be one of the three prophets: "Stop! I want to talk to you!"
