Last Totem Novel - Chapter 317

Chapter 317 Castle

After cleaning up the battlefield, the convoy rested for another half an hour before continuing on their journey towards the Thinker Stronghold.

On the following journey, the situation was exceptionally smooth, and everyone’s mood relaxed. Although the haze of losing their teammates still hadn’t dissipated after the battle, everyone’s spirits were much better. Along the way, they had lost twenty teammates who had fought side by side and lived and died together forever. This pain could only be slowly diluted with time.

About an hour later …

The road ahead gradually turned into a two-way four-lane oil-parking road, with street lights installed on both sides. Under the orange-red light, the road was clean and tidy, in stark contrast to the dim darkness and rubble along the way. Seeing that the end of the journey was near, the team members all cheered.

At this time, on the armored vehicle at the front of the convoy, Marcus was staring straight ahead, maintaining a strict and serious attitude. He was the eyes of the team, and before they reached their destination, they must not relax in the slightest.

After turning a big bend, the outline of a man-made object gradually appeared on the cliff in the distance. As the vehicle moved forward, the outline of the artifact gradually became clearer.

This is a fortress built on a steep slope of a cliff. From afar, it looked like an ancient Gothic castle embedded in a large half of the stone wall. In the middle of the castle was a rectangular main building. In the middle of the main building was a tallest cylindrical main tower. Four auxiliary towers were built at each corner, and the outer perimeter of the castle was made up of about ten observation towers and thick city walls between the towers.

Judging from the architectural style and location alone, the manpower and material resources needed to build this stronghold were unimaginable. Before coming here, Marcus had studied the relevant materials. The stronghold, known as the “Meditator”, took 37 years to complete. During that time, seven officers were replaced. It was also the northern garrison of the First Army of the Dawn Expeditionary Force in the bottomless abyss.

Since the establishment of the Dawn Expeditionary Force, the First Army has been a special existence. Unlike the Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth legions, the First legion was divided into three divisions. They were respectively the “Zhongjun” troops stationed at Dawn Stronghold, marked as a damaged shield; Tian Nu, who was stationed in the southern part of the abyss and marked as a broken sword, and Kingfisher, who was stationed in the northern part of the abyss and marked as a small azure bird.

The First Army of the Dawn Expeditionary Army, also known as the Knights of Holy Light, was said to be on par with the Crusaders of the Temple.

However, in reality, the strength of the Temple Crusaders was far from as simple as they appeared on the surface. Compared to the Dawn Expeditionary Force, which had only been established for over a hundred years, they had a foundation of 3,000 years and an extremely stable internal structure. Pope Dynasties viewed the Temple Crusaders as the last line of defense for the faith of True Gods.

Different from the other two beliefs, the True God Belief established religion by martial arts, and the guardian force was the source and carrier of the belief.

The destruction of the Temple Crusaders meant the fall of the True Divinity.

The faith in the gods of Notre Dame is based on the trust and support of the people and the organization and spiritual service of cultivators.

Losing the hearts of the people and disintegrating the organization was the twilight of the gods.

As for the faith of the temple, the Ancient Era’s secular system provided spiritual sustenance for the people and guidance for the traditional morality of the Far East, similar to the system of Notre Dame; The glorious bloodline is the integration of politics and religion, based on the traditional honor concept of the northern descendants, inheritance and persistence as the carrier.

Moral decay is the extinguishment of the Ancient Sacred Flame.

Without a successor, the glory would be extinguished for the glorious sacred flame.

After entering the investigation area of the Thinker Stronghold, Marcus quickly received a communication broadcast from the stronghold.

“Visitor, I am Oliver Bart, vice captain of the Princess Guards and captain of the first squad, one of the interim leaders of the Meditator Stronghold. Please identify yourself.” A slightly hoarse, somewhat aged voice came from the speaker.

Marcus immediately bent down and said to the voice receiver, “I am Marcus, a member of the Wolf Legion. I greet you.”

“Great! You’re finally here!” ‘”Please convey my greetings to the respected Knight of the Wilderness. We will open the gate of the fortress to welcome you.” The other party said in surprise, then cleared his throat and said solemnly, “Please convey my greetings to the respected Knight of the Wilderness. We will open the gate of the fortress to welcome your arrival later.”

“Thank you.” Marcus replied.

About fifteen minutes later …

The convoy slowly drove up a steep slope and arrived at the open space in front of the stronghold. This open space was not big and could only accommodate five to six large trucks at the same time. As a result, only half of the Wolf Legion’s convoy had arrived, and the remaining half were still standing in line on the steep slope.

At this time, the steel gate of the stronghold had been lowered, covering the moat in front of it, forming a small suspension bridge. Bai Xiaoyun gently stepped on the accelerator and drove the jeep across the suspension bridge. When he crossed the bridge, the corner of his eyes inadvertently noticed that there was still flowing water in the moat under the bridge. Not only that, the current was also very fast, occasionally stirring up a few splashes of water on the shore. It was hard to imagine that there was such a scene on this precipice.

After crossing the bridge, Bai Xiaoyun stopped his car and followed Tie Zha into the stronghold. At this moment, both sides of the gate were filled with people. On the left were three expeditionary army knights wearing silver holy light power armor, and on the right were two princess guard psionic warriors wearing gray holy light power armor, as well as a group of academy psionic warriors with different styles of power armor.

After entering, three people dressed in power armor greeted him. In the middle was an energetic old man, about fifty or sixty years old, with a typical poker face of a Western continent, a gray beard, a short bald head, and a distinct scar on his right eye. Before coming here, Bai Xiaoyun had seen the old man’s information. His name was Oliver Bart. He was a vassal noble of the Northern Lombardi Clan in the Northern Desolate Continent’s Wind City (Silver City No. 16). He was also a Tier 8 psionic artist. He was 65 years old this year. Since ancient times, the Bart Clan had been a subordinate clan of the Lombardi Clan. Later, when they split up, they were assigned to the Northern Lombardi Clan.

To Oliver’s left was a Templar knight in silver sun armor with an iron cross embedded in his chest. His name was Kyle Larkin, a vassal noble of the Mordleton family in the Western Continent’s Dragon City (Silver City No. 2). Kyle was a Tier 7 Psionic Adept. He was 38 years old this year and was the deputy commander of the Kingfisher Unit of the First Army of the Dawn Expeditionary Army.

On Oliver’s right was a young student wearing a crimson first-generation psionic armor. His name was Hildebrand Sujia. He was the head of the Spartan Warriors of the Central Silver City Military Academy. His team was ranked eighth in the Honor Rankings. From the information, he was a Tier 6 Psionic Adept.

At this moment, Bai Xiaoyun suddenly noticed that Hildebrand looked somewhat similar to Tie Zha. Upon closer inspection, whether it was their eyebrows, their figures, or even their postures and temperaments, they were somewhat similar. If he hadn’t seen the information about the former, he would have thought that the two of them were cousins or cousins, even if they weren’t brothers.

“Lord Iron Slag, welcome.” Oliver was the first to step forward and salute the iron slag. Then he stretched out his hand and said. The latter immediately held the former’s hand and nodded in return. Following that, Kyle and Hildebrand stepped forward to shake hands with Tie Zha, expressing their greetings.

When Tie Zha and Hildebrand shook hands, both of them involuntarily glanced at each other, revealing a trace of astonishment at the same time. Although he rarely looked in the mirror, he still remembered what he looked like. However, he didn’t think too much about it. After all, the world was so big and there were so many people. Occasionally meeting one or two people with similar appearances wasn’t unusual. As for the latter, it was the same.

After a simple welcoming ceremony, Tie Zha accompanied Oliver and the others to visit the main castle of the stronghold.

During this period, Oliver introduced that the Meditator Stronghold covered an area of 35,000 square meters, a radius of 105 meters, a perimeter of 663 meters, and a total construction area of 28,000 square meters. The main castle had a construction area of 19,000 square meters, which could accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 people at the same time. However, if they were filled with people, they might appear to be crowded. At present, there were about 400 troops guarding the stronghold and 600 logistics personnel. Adding in investors, transport convoys, and miners, there were a total of more than 1,600 people.

At this moment, the castle was filled with people, and many logistical personnel were moving in and out, making it seem very busy.

Oliver went on to say that due to the limited architectural conditions in the abyss and the fact that it was located on the edge of a human-controlled area, it was a remote area. As a result, the main castle of the stronghold was designed to be small, and there were fewer places for people to live. Normally, a single room of twenty square meters would house six logistical personnel, transportation personnel, miners, or four marines from the academy, knights of the Dawn Expeditionary Army, or two motorized warriors and junior officers. However, although the living environment here is small, but there is a good advantage, that is, adequate water resources. In addition to daily drinking water, there is also a supply of baths. This was a rare benefit for most of the strongholds in the Abyss.

Afterwards, Oliver took Tie Zha and the others to the elevator and arrived at the highest point of the castle, which was the top of the tower that Marcus had just seen from afar, which was located at the center of the castle.

As soon as the elevator door opened, the front suddenly opened up. It was a circular hall with an area of about two hundred square meters. The outer wall was only half a person tall, and the rest were large glass windows. On closer inspection, the inner part of the outer wall was made of sliced stones that looked like stone, but the middle part was made of thick steel plates and I-shaped thick steel strips, making it look both beautiful and reliable. Standing in front of the window and looking out, the entire stronghold was instantly visible.

“Commander, this will be your office and rest area from now on.” Oliver bowed slightly and said.

“Thank you, it’s been hard on you.” Tie Zha nodded to the old man and said.