Alien Knights

With a crooked scar hanging on his face, Ackerman sat cross-legged in front of Casper's ashes, quietly looking at the palm-sized jar in front of him, with neither joy nor sadness on his face.

The mournful voices of men, women and children beside him caused him to turn his head to look.

In the wide wooden shed, there are more or less citizens of Froststone standing in front of each jar of ashes.

Some are family members of the deceased, some are friends of the deceased, and some are simply beneficiaries of the deceased.

Ackerman touched the bottle cap of the urn and said softly: "I have advised you a long time ago to find a woman in the city and have a child as soon as possible. But you always tell me that you have a wife and children, but they are already dead. In the midst of war... Did you see it? If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even have a last person to see you off..."

A shaman apprentice with colored ink on his face walked into the wooden shed and said to everyone: "The time is up, everyone present, please bring the ashes of the heroic spirits to the square of the pilgrimage place."

Picking up Casper's urn with both hands, Ackerman cast his eyes outside the door and said to himself: "It's time to go, my old friend. They say that the sanctuary is the gate to the gods. Once you If your soul passes through there, you will officially become a member of the heroic spirits of the gods... I hope that the life there will be better than this world..."

Pushing open the gate, Ackerman saw that all those who were qualified to enter the temple from the Red Branch had come to the square of the sanctuary.

Nodding to the comrades in the battle group, Ackerman hugged Casper's ashes tightly, and under the guidance of the shaman apprentice, he walked towards the small gray building in the center of the square.

This building, known as the Sanctuary, looks much more low-key than the magnificent and luxurious temple in front of it from the outside.

It is hewn out of a huge piece of rhyolite, with no windows, no zenith, and only a heavy stone door that can be entered and exited by a single person. So, once the door is closed, the sanctuary becomes a fully enclosed room.

The facade of the building is painted with lily of the valley juice, and the whole body presents a light gray color, and you can smell a calming smell when you approach it.

The four cornices of the building are each carved with a giant dragon with a different look. Their design, on the one hand, refers to the appearance of the tyrant, and on the other hand, has some characteristics of the myths of the gods; on the four walls, gold and silver powder are used to , or writing runic characters, or rubbings on painting sketches, all recorded are the words and deeds of the children of the gods.

Walking down the stairs of the sanctuary, Ackerman found that all the members of the shaman assembly in Froststone City had gathered in front of the stone gate of the sanctuary.

The leader Minnie said to everyone: "Residents of Froststone City, believers of the children of the gods! Today, we gather here not to commemorate sorrow, nor to declare revenge...we are here to Witness, witness the great moment when the heroic spirits enter the sanctuary!"

Knocking on the stone door behind her with her cane, Minnie said loudly: "The sons of the gods ordered that this sanctuary be built. After obtaining his permission, once the souls of the dead pass through here, they can directly enter the sanctuary of the gods." , become an immortal existence!"

Seeing the uncontrollable excitement of the believers in the audience, Minnie went on to say: "Because opening the passage to the sanctuary requires a lot of divine power from the children of the gods. Therefore, the heroic spirits who are eligible to enter the sanctuary this time are tentatively The limit is 100 people. These 100 heroic spirits are all killed in this war, and the list is determined by the shaman assembly. And we will determine whether he has a chance to be able to Selected."

Watching the thousands of people in the square begin to whisper, Shaman Minnie then added: "The ashes of the heroic spirits who have not been selected for this list will be placed in the burial ground behind the pilgrimage site, waiting for the next passage of the sanctuary." When it is opened once, they will be arranged to enter the passage again."

"Only a hundred people can enter here?"

Ackerman looked at the urn in his hand, and said with some uncertainty: "Based on the personal relationship between the two of us and the children of the gods... you should be able to rank up?"

Amid people's expectant gazes, Shaman Minnie read out the name of the first chosen one.

"Tim Rotage!"

Among the people present, some had never heard of this name at all, and some immediately praised the fairness and justice of the shaman assembly as soon as they heard the name.

Most of the people who don't know this name are residents of the city; and most of the people who know this name are participants in this battle.

Tim Rotage is not a battle group leader, nor is he a warrior of any battle group. Strictly speaking, he is not even a member of the battle group, but just a cook in the Froststone army.

But it was this cook who was a slave class in Froststone City, who became a well-deserved hero in this Ulster siege.

The process of things is roughly like this.

The failure of the siege in Ulster prompted the chapter masters to decide to retreat in batches. On the way of the army's withdrawal, Tim belonged to a little-known small battle group——Sorbo. The task of this battle group was also something that was not taken seriously before the war—to defend the retreat fortress of the Froststone army. Road - Bridge of Bannsfather.

While covering the wounded troops on the front line to pass the wooden bridge, they sniped the enemy with disparate forces. After three hours of persistence, the morale of the Sobo regiment collapsed. Everyone, including the commander, abandoned their position and began to flee backwards. .

And as a slave, Tim, a loyal and honest cook in his forties, if he fled back to Froststone with the warband at that time, the worst case would be to continue to be a slave... But he He just did something that caught everyone's attention.

Alone, in the face of the surging Ulster people, he did not choose to escape, but stayed on the ground, made the linseed oil in the logistics baggage into a fire bottle, and used carriages, falling rocks and other obstacles, Blocked the enemy for more than ten hours.

In the end, he was caught by the enemy after running out of kerosene, and he was tied to a horse and dragged alive to death.

"I've seen that short and fat man. Who would have thought that a slave whose hometown is Ulster would be braver than most Froststone people when facing the Ulster army?" Ah Keman sighed softly: "If he is the first heroic spirit to step into the realm of the gods, I have no objection."

The shaman Minnie proclaimed the name again. A thin young man with patched clothes and muddy sandals walked up the stairs tremblingly under everyone's gaze.

Minnie looked at the boy and asked softly, "Tell me, kid, what's your name?"

"Chuck, Chuck Rotage...Tim is my father."

Minnie nodded, motioning for the shaman apprentices to open the heavy stone door of the sanctuary.

Pointing at the darkened door with her cane, Minnie whispered to Chuck: "Go, send your father's soul into the sanctuary of the gods with your own hands, and you will witness this great miracle with your own eyes!"