I Like This Dream!

Year 341 of the Cecil Calendar, the year of the Great Beast Tide, was destined to not be peaceful in Yamenan this year.

The beast tide season is like ink soaked in water, blurred and losing its boundaries. The spring of the Wenjialuo Defense Line has already seen a surge of beasts, which is almost the same as the summer of previous years. The border army did not go around to rescue in order to preserve its strength in the next big beast tide. The small villages near the defense line had no way to seek help, and almost all suffered disaster.

Having learned from this experience, many small villages on the border of Thebes started migrating early in order to catch up with the cold weather. However, autumn in Thebes is still full of noise and chaos, and for different reasons than in Vengara.

God's favored one.

Most people on the border of Thebes understood the meaning of this word this autumn. If the church headquarters in Alinggu knew this, they would be surprised. You can stop a farmer at random in the defense line and ask him: "Do you know God's Favored One?" He will definitely nod his head repeatedly and say: "Yes! God's Favored One can make thunder, have lightning in his eyes, and his arms can glow! She is tall Twenty feet tall, with such a big mouth, she will eat any living thing! Wherever she goes, wild animals will die! She will die just by looking at her!"

Following the legend of the child-eating devil from St. Andrew's Seminary, Anxu once again became the protagonist of a folk tale.

She is like a nomad who lives in pursuit of water and grass, which refers to strange beasts. Ever since she discovered that the crystal core of the alien beast was the blue medicine, An Xu had been using the nearby forest as a daily dungeon refresh, complaining that the refresh speed was not fast enough and bothering her to run around. The entire defense line was in turmoil because of the gods' favored ones, and there was a spectacle where thunder and rain would scare all the beasts into galloping.

In the autumn, the beast tide has not yet begun, and the alien beasts that are equivalent to the forward troops have a slow gathering process. In previous years, they were distributed in small groups in the vast forest. The border army could sense their eager gaze, but they could not risk being divided and defeated by dividing their troops to suppress the beasts. If we use animals as metaphors, the alien beasts are cunning wolves, the civilians who are unable to fight back are sheep, and the border troops are sheepdogs. The shepherd dog can drive away the attacking wolf, but it cannot stay away from the sheep and chase them, so it can only struggle to deal with them. It is better to stick to the defensive line, wait for the beast tide to gather, and use the power of the city wall to fight them to the death.

This year was different. A lion suddenly ran out from among the sheep and plunged into the herd like a joy. The food chain was suddenly turned upside down, and the herd of animals was crushed to pieces and could not survive. However, Miss Lion didn't care at all whether the sheep would be scattered and whether she would knock away her teammates along the way - except for the ascetic monk she carried with her, she didn't regard anyone as a teammate at all.

Creatures with brains heard the thunder and ran away. In an instant, there was a miracle of harmony in which humans and animals did not interfere with each other and ran in the same direction.

People privately called her "Blood Anna", like they were talking about a ghost in a story or a natural disaster. Most of the villagers who migrated or did not want to migrate had seen her traces from a distance. The sky was covered by thunderclouds, and the sound of thunderclaps was louder than any thunderstorm, leaving a mess after leaving.

Perhaps "Bloodless Anna" is more appropriate. The God's Favored One is not covered in blood. The idea that Bloody Anna bathes in blood and chews raw corpses with bloody mouths is just a fictitious story. The border troops who were running around escorting the villagers to move passed by her several times. They saw the corpses left by the gods' favored ones. The blood of the dead animals had been cooked in the bodies. The scene was disgustingly clean, as if the ground had turned into a giant On the dinner plate, the picky owner ate a little bit, left the still warm leftovers and left.

Even more fortunate or unfortunate people have had encounters with God's favored ones. She doesn't eat people or kill people, but she doesn't avoid people either. In her eyes, there may be no difference between the galloping beasts and the crowd. Blood Anna's notoriety blocked everyone's curiosity, making people run as far as they could when they realized they were so close to her. Thanks to this, the current casualties were all caused by the trampling of the beasts during the escape, and no one had died directly at her hands.

Even so, survivors who have seen her have no intention of clarifying the legend of Blood Anna. Rather, it got worse.

You’ll know it once you’ve seen her! If you had seen her... The person who was close enough to see the face of the God's Favored One trembled and said this over and over again.

What kind of face does Blood Anna have? It's undoubtedly beautiful, but that's never the focus of survivors' descriptions. What kind of look did she show during the hunt? People who believe the rumors and think Anna is a devil think her face will be full of hatred for the living; soldiers who don't believe the rumors and know Anna Sullivan is just a noble superpower think that she will fight for using such a powerful superpower. Full concentration, no time for distraction. Both sides are wrong.

God's Favored One occasionally smiles, but most of the time he is relaxed and calm. She doesn't kill out of hatred, out of protection, or even to show off her power. She enjoyed it, but wasn't ecstatic. Will you be overjoyed or sad about picking the fruits in your garden?

She is neither a gluttonous beast nor a cunning and greedy priest. I don't know what to do if I want to compromise with her. Even more terrifying than a treacherous and evil person, no one knows what the beloved of God is thinking. This unknown fear is like a bear doll with human teeth, or a hole crawling under the beauty's skin. Everyone outside the monastery shunned her like a snake or a scorpion. The Favored One and Lydia were deprived of food and water and had to move into the Thebes monastery.

Abbot Dennis, who had received God's favored ones as he wished, also failed to spend the autumn peacefully.

The people of the monastery did not leave the fortress and did not see with their own eyes the great deeds of God's favored ones. Dennis was not afraid of Bloody Anna's bad reputation. In his opinion, it was just ignorance among the people. He feared something more practical, such as a decrease in the monastery's income.

The worship and prayer fees of believers are an important source of income for the monastery, especially the last one. The people of Armenan, from the royal family to the common people, generally believe in this truth: the more pious and ascetic the prayers are, the easier it is for their prayers to be heard by the gods and wash away people's sins. If you are busy having fun, fighting, and struggling to survive, how do you make your voice heard by God? Pay the priests to do it for you!

Even on the border of Thebes, a large number of believers were willing to send money to the monastery in previous years. This is one of the reasons why Thebes Great Monastery will not shake its foundation despite the deep hatred of successive commanders. In the year of the great beast tide, Dean Dennis was ready to make a big profit from the panicked people and the relatives of the dead. Unexpectedly, the plan was about to go to pieces before it even started.

First of all, people are more afraid of the gods' favored ones than the beast tide, and no one cares about the amulet to repel the beast tide. A farmer innocently asked if he had the Blood Anna expulsion talisman. The abbot's face twitched, and he turned around and handed over the amulet of the God's Favorite that he had made early ("Let the glory of the God's Favorite bless you!", what a good propaganda slogan. , how much can it be sold for, Dennis was literally bleeding) and locked it under the warehouse. Secondly, God's Favored One moved into the monastery - this could not be hidden, she flew in under the spotlight - the number of people in the monastery plummeted the next day.

No one dared to come to visit, no one came to send money for priests to pray. Dennis condescended to ask the priests to go out to visit the rich in person, and the answers he brought back made the dean fall down with anger. They said: It doesn’t matter from our side! Not the point! For the well-being of Thebes, please concentrate on reciting prayers to suppress Blood Anna!

What can Dennis do? He couldn't explain that Blood Anna was the favored one at this time (no one believed it at first, but later he didn't dare to say it, lest the monastery fall to the point of being exorcised by idiots, but Dennis had experienced the folk customs of the border areas as soon as he took office Tough), can't complain to the head (how did the God's favored person who was deeply influenced by Alinggu Theological Seminary turn into a big devil as soon as he arrived here? Dennis's enemies will definitely be happy to seize this to annoy them to no end), and also You have to appease the ignorant people while pretending to be peaceful to your superiors.

He put down his money with a heartache, pinched his nose and reported: The decrease in income is due to weather changes, frequent thunderstorms, and poor harvests by farmers. Lord God's Favored One has strengthened the influence of the Holy See in the southern borderlands of Ame, and every household chants the name of God's Favored One...

Dennis felt like he was starting to lose hair, falling out in handfuls.

In such a tense atmosphere, winter has arrived.

Anxu had a start one early morning and broke away from his meditation. She vaguely felt something different. It was like getting up on the morning of the first heavy snow and having a premonition before opening the curtains.

She stood at the window of the convent and looked out. The sky was still shrouded in mist, and the rising sun had not yet risen in the east. The Theban border has not yet woken up, and even the monastery seems very deserted. She seemed to be the only one in the entire border who was awakened by such an inexplicable premonition.

Meditation has been used to replace sleep for some time. Meditation can replenish energy consumption, but it is not as comfortable as sleeping in bed, but Anxu is not here for an outing. The leveling-mad girl uses meditation instead of sleeping, eats manna to survive, wanders around the border all day long to hunt, and collects the crystal cores of various strange beasts, and conducts experiments to see which ones are within her tolerance range (now the ordinary Gale Rabbit The effect of the crystal core on her is minimal). An Xu doesn't feel hard at all. She thinks that the conditions now are much better than when she was alone at home, forgetting food and sleep to practice and level up. She doesn't have to worry about food, clothing, housing and transportation, not to mention there is Lidya.

Speaking of which, where is Lydia?

An Xu stood up and looked around, but didn't see the figure of the ascetic monk. After moving to the convent, the abbess gave them a room for two at her request, and Lydia was supposed to lie on opposite beds. The quilt on the opposite bed was already cold, and Lydia had left without knowing when.

Maybe you went out to do morning classes? In the monastery, Anxu was not worried about Lydia being sapped, not to mention that during this period of team formation, she found that Lydia was an agile girl, and she had no problem protecting herself and keeping up with the DPS. After thinking about it, An Xu stretched out and went to wash up.

When I returned to the room again, there was already someone inside. That was one of the people sent by the monastery to take care of their food and clothing. He was making the bed with his back to Anxu. Anxu pushed the door open and there was a creak, and the man jumped in fright.

"You are so cowardly." An Xu curled his lips and looked around the room, but couldn't find the dinner plate. "You didn't bring anything to eat?"

"It's too early now. I thought you were out. I need to clean up for you..."

Anxu glanced at Lidya's bed over him and said disgustedly: "Why is it more messy than before?"

"Because you came back early, I haven't finished paving yet, so I'll do it right away!" the man said quickly.

"Really? I don't know what you think you are looking for." An Xu rolled his eyes, "It's as messy as a dog."

"Your Excellency, God's Favored One, is joking," the man laughed dryly, "What can I find..."

"this?"

Lydia suddenly appeared at the door, holding a small vanilla bag in her hand - although it was called a vanilla bag, it was not filled with vanilla, but a local plant with an unpleasant smell. Aliens with a keen sense of smell hate this plant, so everyone on the defense line wears one. Even if the aliens don't care too much about the taste of food when they are really hungry, it is still better than nothing. Anxu was too lazy to care about this kind of thing, so Lidya wore one like the local customs.

The person who cleaned up shook, his smile was stiff, and he stumbled and said: "You, I don't know what you are talking about."

The ascetic monk had an expressionless face, holding up a small cloth bag, and looked at the other person calmly until the monk was sweating profusely. An Xu looked here and there, wondering what kind of medicine Lidya was selling in the gourd. Even now, she still often can't tell what the taciturn Bound Girl is thinking or feeling. If An Xu knew what others said about her being "mysterious", she would definitely cry out: I'm very straightforward. ! Mysterious is how to describe Lydia!

"What's wrong?" she couldn't help but ask.

The enigmatic Lydia said nothing, shook her head and put her hand down. The monk hurriedly said goodbye and left the room as if running away. Lydia stared at him dimly the whole time, making him fall down halfway and run away without a trace.

"What happened?" An Xu asked again.

"It's been solved." Lydia said flatly, and the corners of her mouth suddenly turned up, showing an expression like a puppet smile.