Poisoned Land (1)
In March 1895, the demons invaded from both sides of the Onerola continent. Time, which had once turned back, once again rolled over the same muddy and bumpy road, and a long period of resistance to the invasion began.
People on both sides of the Straits witnessed the terror of the demons with their own eyes, and the so-called "rumors" were broken without being attacked. As a result, those who were originally hesitant rushed to the interior to escape. Even people in the Midwest were worried and anxious all day long.
The demons were like a combination of many different creatures, reminiscent of the experimental monsters in the earliest science fiction novels.
But the creatures, technology, or magic of this era are not capable of creating such a thing. It is as if creatures that should not exist in this world have appeared before people. They have no choice but to believe and flee.
The cities along the East China Sea were once the most prosperous areas in the country, but now only ruins remain.
Qiu Ne sent out almost all the troops he could, no longer worrying about being stabbed in the back by any other country.
In fact, no country in the continent of Onerola was spared.
Qiu Ne, Li Wei'er and Sahe had jointly informed all the countries on the mainland of the fact of the demon invasion, but only a few people heard about it in advance.
Millions of demons, devils, and monsters wantonly destroyed the land and life. War fell on the entire continent, like a tongue of fire licking paper, scorching from the edge and turning it to ash.
Darkness began to spread from March, the month of growth, and spring passed by cruelly.
It was a time when the coastal town of the once prosperous and beautiful Quene Empire was soaked in blood.
Despite having nearly all the high-ranking knights and wizards in the kingdom, the most elite knightly orders, and a huge trained army, the front line was pushed inland a kilometer with every passing month.
Just half a year after the war broke out, standing at the train station closest to the front line, one could often see unfamiliar young faces landing in military uniforms. They were all urgently conscripted soldiers who had completed basic military training in their hometowns and stepped onto the battlefield.
Because magic stones need to be used to save people, even the unnecessary use of teleportation stones has been reduced.
High-ranking knights and wizards with powerful magic, and even low-ranking citizens who possessed even the slightest bit of magic power and were able to move freely, became the earliest warriors.
Therefore, those who were recruited in the later period were ordinary people without any magic power.
At first, they were young men and women who were naturally strong.
Later, there were younger faces.
The number of people is decreasing.
Most of them died in their first battle.
February 1898. Eastern Front.
A soldier on night watch from the 4th Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Army of the Chunye National Army, who was warming himself by a fire in the camp, sneezed in the snow and took a step towards the charcoal stove.
"Ah Qiu! I'm really worried that I'll be frozen into a stick when I go out to pee!"
The captain of the third row team 1 knocked him and said, "You should worry about whether the flying monsters in the sky will pick you off."
"The nighttime is when the defense network works the hardest! If you have to be scared even when you pee, you'd rather be arrested! Oh! These days! When will it end? This winter is too damn cold! I used to live by the sea and it wasn't this cold."
He used to be an ordinary fisherman in a coastal town, and now he is a corporal in the army.
"Because water has a high specific heat capacity... Oh, what's the point of saying this now? The beach is now occupied by monsters, and we can't go there even if we want to. Those monsters are obviously not used to the sea, but they are not afraid of them at all. Monsters are really monsters!"
The fisherman's corporal came over unnoticed, trying to get together with the two of them to share body temperature.
"Hey, stay away from me and go get your charcoal! You haven't washed for a month?! I'm about to vomit! Get out of here!"
"Tsk! What's the point of washing frequently? Won't you still come out of the mud the next day?"
The fisherman was still shivering. He shook for a while wrapped in a quilt. His eyes became blurry and he really wanted to run over and hug the iron barrel that had been blackened by charcoal.
A hand behind him lifted him up and put him behind.
"Lieutenant Hall?"
Howl poked the bloody sword into a bucket of ice and snow, and the blood seeped into the frost and snow debris.
Hall said: "If you hold that thing, you will burn yourself very quickly, which will greatly increase the chance of infection, which is difficult to treat."
Behind Hall, Mike also came in.
"Captain!"
Both men stood up and saluted.
Mike pinched his nose: "What a sour smell!"
He quickly locked onto the fisherman who was shrinking his neck and kicked him: "Go take a shower! Didn't you listen to what the wizard said? Everything you touch is poisonous! Sooner or later, you will be poisoned to death!"
The fisherman immediately rolled and crawled to take a bath.
Mike glared at the captain who was gloating over the misfortune: "What are you laughing at?! You are the captain! Just keep an eye on the people! You can't even do such a small thing? How many more people do you want to die?!"
The captain also crawled away.
Hall sat down by the fire, and the two men tore off their bloody coats and threw them into a snow bucket.
The two of them warmed themselves by the charcoal fire.
When the snow melted, blood seeped out, and blood of many colors mixed together. Hall pulled out the sword, wiped it with the discarded bandage that was used to bandage the wound, threw it back in, and covered it with a lid.
Hall said calmly: "That man just now reminded me of when you first went to the battlefield."
Mike lay on the ground and did one-handed push-ups: "Nonsense, I was still young at that time, it was normal to be sensible."
Hall smiled, exhaled, and looked at the white mist a little dazed.
During these three years, each winter was colder.
Some people had to have their limbs amputated due to freezing because they did not keep warm during night duty. It was also terrifying to have to have their limbs amputated again when they were sent back home.
They were just two ordinary soldiers.
I thought that after surviving the war on the mainland and getting a decent military officer position, I could return home and enjoy the glory and live out the rest of my life in peace.
Who could have imagined that demons would invade?
They didn't know how they survived these three years.
In fact, they are not too surprised now, because only those who survived have the time to think about these things, and those who didn't do it are just dead.
In the past, a body could be sent back.
Now it's no longer possible. Those who were bitten to death by the demons, those who died with the demon corpses, and those who were soaked in their blood will all be burned by the flames of the undead wizard. Otherwise, they will become the next poisonous breeding ground.
In this cold winter, Mike worked out vigorously. Sweat oozed out of his muscles. He panted and said, "I hate summer more than winter."
Since the first hellish summer in 1895, they have vomited physiologically every summer since then.
Human soldiers fought bravely, and more demons died in the battle than humans. However, when the broken flesh of the demons fell to the ground, their blood seeped into the earth and rivers.
Where the devil's blood passes, the flowers no longer bloom, and the spring grass no longer grows again with the wind.
At least, they did not see any green growing on the blood-stained ground for the next two or three years.
Only then did people realize how terrifying the demons really were.
Where they live will be a battlefield of death and slaughter, and where they die will become a poisonous place with no grass growing.
Whether dead or alive, they are taking life.
The water source is contaminated by corpse poison, and even water purification stones cannot extract water. The only way to obtain clean water is through inland transportation.
Since there is no way to purify the poison, the only thing they can do is to concentrate it, let wizards extract it, and then use the fire of the phoenix to burn it to death.
Ordinary fire and heat simply evaporate the toxins.
During one hot summer day, an entire platoon of soldiers was eroded and dissolved alive by poisonous rain falling from the sky.
It must be the immortal wizard and his immortal bird flame.
The battlefield west of Liweier could also be Dragon Flame. They are already struggling and won't have any more dragons to support them.
The only one on this battlefield who has the method to completely destroy the demon corpse poison.
But even for an immortal wizard, the toxins he can extract from the human body are limited.
The tiny toxins remaining in his body accumulated and he was powerless to recover.
Such people were sent to the camp every day, and he was the only one who could burn the bodies.
Even though he survived many battles, he was still poisoned by the demon's corpse.
Some soldiers whose names were not even memorized were sent to the battlefield like expendables, fighting to the death, and only a nameplate was left, which was mailed back. How many families were tragedies caused by this?
This has been a common scene for them over the past three years.
It was not enough to just survive. Their wounds could not come into contact with the flesh and blood of the demons. The blood on their swords and clothes could not be washed away casually.
The summer heat seemed to catalyze poisons in all directions. Standing on the battlefield, even breathing had to be done with extreme caution.
Winter is really much kinder.
Only then did they realize that the continental war among humans seemed like a fight between children.
After three years of fighting, even if the subscription age was lowered to fourteen, the available combat force was still not enough.
The demons are still sending their forces across the ocean to the mainland, and the greatest despair is to kill them all.
Hall sighed softly, "I... am a little fed up..."
Mike paused. He was the kind of person who would talk without stopping and complain, but he rarely heard Hall say such a weak word.
"We also celebrated the Winter Fire Festival this year on the front lines... Except for those who were seriously injured, we had no chance to return to the rear..."
Mike jumped up and fell silent.
He wanted to say something like "End the war as soon as possible and go home as soon as possible", but he couldn't do it.
He couldn't imagine how the war would end.
In the eyes of many people, this is not a war between humans and demons for victory, but a war in which humans are losing their lives and trying to survive at the hands of demons.
The same is true for battles big and small. Failure will bring huge casualties, and the land will be further Devoured by darkness. Victory will only leave an indelible scar on the battlefield, on which life can no longer be born and survive.
Winning is also losing.
They can't even find a way to survive to the end.
The voice of the young transport soldier outside interrupted the silence between the two.
"Is there anything here that needs to be dealt with?"
Hall ordered people to start moving snow barrels from the surrounding camps, which were filled with broken ice and snow stained with demon blood.
The transport soldier tilted his head as he looked at the two men's strange expressions. Without saying anything, he drove the cart loaded with snow barrels to the nearest medical camp.
The transport soldier has just taken over from his predecessor.
He had good eyesight and could see the man standing in front of the camp from a distance.
As soon as he saw the back, he was sure.
The transport soldier's hand slipped from the steering wheel and he immediately turned back. The transport truck passed with the snow bucket and stopped.
The man turned around.
A slender figure came into view, and the transport soldier's eyes lit up for a moment, then quickly dimmed. He was stunned for a moment.
It was different from what he imagined.
The thin black shirt and trousers covered his frail body, with two buttons of his collar unbuttoned, revealing his collarbone. A small blue heating magic stone was pinned to his collar. There was a pale, sharp scar on his neck.
His sleeves were rolled up to his arms, revealing a clean and white skin on his face, hands and neck. He stood out among the group of dirty and smelly soldiers, but his skin was too pale, almost transparent under the harsh light, and not much blood could be seen. It was as if this man could not be tanned.
He stood there straight and firmly, with his hands behind his back. Even though the clothes had been rinsed dozens of times, they still looked neat and ironed on him, giving off the texture of aristocratic formal wear.
Her long black hair was tied up with a ribbon and fell on her shoulders. Her facial features were extremely noble and elegant, but there were faint traces of blue-gray under her red and purple eyes, and her cheeks looked much thinner than in the photo.
A man as big as a wand, filled with worry, exhausted, and somewhat pitifully broken.
It seemed as if the exhausted body was supported by just that strong spine.
It's not what he thought.
The young transport looked at the man who was only a few years older than him.
Like him, many people were attracted by the title of the immortal wizard and knight prince.
Like him, I was disappointed when I met the real person.
I felt the gap between reality and imagination.
He thought that the high-spirited wizards and commanders had never existed.
Inger looked at him, frowning his pale eyebrows, and read out the order: "Unload the stuff and report to the captain. This is the last batch, the others won't wait."
The only people here are the officers.
The transport soldiers saluted loudly in response and helped the unloaders carry the snow buckets down.
There are hundreds of snow barrels lined up in front. Of course, the shapes of the barrels are different, and they were all dug out from the ruins.
The move was completed quickly, and the transport soldiers did not dare to delay and withdrew to the team and stood in line.
Inger was followed by several wizards, who raised their wands.
Inger opened his palms, and the long magic wand fell into his palms. He ordered expressionlessly: "The dead should be placed in order, and the living should stand up. If you want to vomit, don't hold it in, but don't vomit on the ground, vomit in the bucket in front. Everyone is here, and those who are late, drag them here to me, and if they don't come, I will go over and break their legs."
The poisoned patients with purple faces answered in even weaker voices. They stared at the snow buckets filled with dirt and the dead bodies on the ground in front of them. Before the poison was extracted, the nutritious meals in their stomachs were already churning.
There was only fear and awe on their faces.
Inger waited for a while, raised his hands, chanted a spell, and the wizards behind him followed his lead.
Soon, dark purple and dark red liquids oozed out from corpses, snow buckets, and living people.
The corpse and the dirty things are fine, after all, they are dead. But the living people are in great pain.
Venom oozed out of their orifices and skin and floated upwards. After the poison was extracted, they knelt on the ground and vomited directly into the bucket.
The toxins in the vomit are also floating up.
The corpse poison condensed into a black liquid sphere.
Inger steadied his shape and swung his wand.
The phoenix totem flew out from the magic bead and opened its mouth to swallow the poison.
Transparent steam rising.
The poison disappeared without a trace.
Then the phoenix fell to the ground, and its red flaming feathers and long tail swept over the corpse on the ground, burning it into clean, transparent ashes.
He passed by several people along the way without causing any harm.
Inger took back his wand.
The wizard behind him said, "If you don't want to die in an ugly way, pay attention to the subsequent detoxification. You are responsible for your own life."
Inger waved them off.
However, just as they were about to leave, several other people broke into the camp.
Of course, it’s not quite right to say “interruption”, it was just that the speed was too fast and no one dared to stop it.
A knight with blond hair and golden eyes.
The Knight Prince moved like a flash of lightning, and his appearance was impeccable, like a fallen sun, forming a sharp contrast with the wizard.
Behind him, Kunpewu came running over, "Sir!"
By the time Inger reacted, his right hand had been grabbed by Alex, and he subconsciously covered the back of his neck with his left hand.
Alex looked very unhappy: "Come in first with me!"
Inger was unhappy, but he couldn't shake his hand off: "Calm down and let go!"
Except for the first day of the war, Alex would only pretend in front of other soldiers, and rarely would he lose control of his emotions and show them in public.
Inger had a bad feeling, and he quickly said, "If this isn't an emergency support mission, let me go and treat them first. You know there are still many people waiting to be detoxified."
Alex's voice rose involuntarily, and he looked at the wizards behind Inger: "You go first! Follow orders!" The wizards were shocked and quickly stepped back.
Inger held his arm and said, "Only I can get rid of the poison. What's wrong with you?!"
The transport soldier hadn't had time to leave yet. Seeing this scene, he couldn't help but ask the veteran beside him, "Is their relationship so bad?"
The old soldier shook his head and whispered, "During the war on the mainland, it didn't seem so bad, but they always quarreled every few days. Recently, it's been relatively rare. They fly everywhere and don't see each other very often. Ah, anyway, let's not delve into it too much. It's not something we can figure out."
Alex ignored other people's opinions and dragged Inger into a meeting tent. He drove everyone else out.
"Kun, watch outside and don't let anyone get close!"
Kunpeu could only obey orders.
After entering, Inger finally shook off his hand and reflexively hung up the soundproof and defensive cover.
"Hurry up and finish, I'm leaving."
He pinched his eyebrows impatiently.
For the past three years, Alex had either been in a cold war with him or wanted to send him back whenever he saw him. Then they would quarrel over the slightest disagreement, and the only time they had a good communication was during combat meetings.
No matter how calm a person is, he would not be able to tolerate such a relationship for three years. The war against the demons was already stressful enough, but he was still tirelessly causing trouble for him.
Alex is more stubborn than a donkey.
Even though he knew Alex did this to protect him.
Alex took a deep breath and threw the letter in his sleeve in front of him. "How long are you going to keep this from me?!"
Inger's heart sank, he opened the letter and read it quickly.
He pursed his lips and closed the letter again. He originally wanted to be tough and delay for a while, but when he saw Alex's face, he closed his open mouth silently again.
When Millia was fighting the demons, she learned that Inger could use the flame of the phoenix to eliminate poison, so she asked people to go back and search for the legend of the phoenix in the documents left by their ancestors. In the end, the secret of the phoenix was discovered, which was a legacy that only the long-lived elves who have continued to this day can achieve.
Millia knew the power of the immortal wizard, and she thought the contents of the letter might have a certain impact on Inger, so she contacted Alex first and gave him the letter.
The truth about the immortality of the phoenix was revealed by her.
Alex's voice was trembling, it was the aftershock of suppressed anger, he squeezed out: "How do you want to explain? The goddess told you about the phoenix three years ago, right? That's why you are so scared! Why did you come! Why!"
Inger took a few breaths and suppressed the surging memories. He pinched the letter and said, "Alex, yes, I already know. I chose to fight knowing all this! It was my own choice!"
Alex shook his head: "...You can't choose this path."
Inger raised his head in disbelief. He saw the determination in Alex's eyes. Alex grabbed his wrist again and said, "Go back here right now! Don't come here again!"
Unable to contain his anger, Inger looked at him and gritted his teeth, "How many times have I told you not to use 'protection' as an excuse? I don't need your protection, and protection doesn't mean you can lock me up without respecting my wishes!"
Alex had no regrets in his eyes: "Ying, I know what I did was wrong, but if I had to do it again, I would still do it. I don't regret it."
Inger said with a ridiculous look on his face: "Alex...anyone can say such things, but you can't. Have you asked for the opinions of all the people around you? Have you locked them up to protect them? Why! Why only me! You don't even want to ask me!"
Alex blurted out: "You are different from them! I can sacrifice for humanity, Elena can, those comrades can, but you can't! You said that you don't want to be my friend. You never said that we are friends. You are not my comrade, nor my friend, and you should not be standing on this battlefield!"
Inger was confused.
He looked at Alex as if he were a stranger.
The Alex he knew would not have said such a thing, even if he was angry about it.
They have been fighting together for so long, why would they deliberately say such absolute words?
His heart felt like it was stabbed with a knife, blood was blocked inside, and it hurt terribly.
Wu Rui rushed in from outside, and the protective shield was quickly removed. He grabbed Alex's arm and shouted, "Alex, what are you doing!"
Although it was soundproofed, he still saw something. The atmosphere between the two was more serious than their previous quarrels!
Kunpeiu also hurried in.
Alex refused to let go and just stared at Inger. He had no intention of taking back what he had said.
He is serious.
Inger's fingertips started a fire that Devoured the letter.
He was gasping for breath, as if he were having difficulty breathing.
However, Alex didn't care about all this. If we talk about fear, he is the most afraid now.
For an ordinary person, death is the end.
But it was different. The price he had to pay was different from that of others. His worst premonition came true.
Even if he didn't know this news, he couldn't continue to tolerate it. Let alone knowing this fact!
This cannot go on any longer.
A strong light burst out from his body, shocking Wu Rui so much that he let go.
Inger tried to get out of his sight, but he couldn't.
Alex stared at him, and finally spoke out the words that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time:
"Am I a saint in your eyes? Am I a god? Why do you think I don't care? Gods always look at things from the perspective of all mankind. They love their creations equally. But they will also sacrifice a few people for the continuation of the human race. I can sacrifice voluntarily. But I can never ask others to do the same thing as me. I hope that the people I love can survive more than others. This is natural. I am not a saint. I am not as noble as you think. I don't want to send people who are afraid of pain, don't want to die, and may not die to the battlefield. Is this wrong? I hope that all human beings can survive. If someone must sacrifice, it can't be you, absolutely not!"
The ending note with tears of determination pierces my heart.
It was the first time that Inger experienced such a complex emotion.
He could not hate or complain, because he knew that the person in front of him was afraid for him, worried about him, and would do anything to protect him.
But he couldn't accept the stubborn attitude that didn't care about anything else, even his own wishes.
Alex didn't want to see him die, but did he want to see his friends die on the battlefield?
He had clearly prepared for the worst and made up his mind. Why did Alex say that and hurt his feelings?
This was a selfish and reckless side of Alex that he had never seen before.
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