“Always be in awe. – Gilberto Gilberneon”
The fourth-level apprentice astrologer Jonah looked up and saw the shining motto of Gilberto, the first-generation astrology teacher engraved on the lintel of the astral tower. He sat down on the cold redstone floor with a thud, hugging his dirty deerskin bag, crying aloud.
Before the fall of Redstone, Jonah set off from the Astrology Tower in the Wilderness at noon every day for a three-hour walk to the Royal and Anglican Library of Redstone to study astrology.
He wears the dark blue hooded robe of an astrologer’s apprentice, and on his chest hangs the first-level apprentice badge issued by the Continental Astrology Society: a black disc symbolizing the starry sky with four light blue star flowers cruising. When one more paper is approved by the Continental Astrological Society and published in the Astrology Yearbook, Jonah will be able to add another star flower to his badge and be allowed to write “d. Jonah” when signing at the end of the document II. Apprentice of Astrology”, which is quite an honor.
According to the “Joint Amnesty Decree” signed a hundred years ago, all countries on the continent, including empires, church states, republics and clan tribes, during peace or war, regardless of regime, regime, or change of ruler, from the army, Inquisitions, law enforcers to judges, all state powers grant amnesty to the five occupations of priest, magician, steam puppet master, astrologer, and bachelor of mathematics, that is, state behavior prohibits any harm to the above occupations, management and evaluation of the five occupations , migration and even trial work are carried out by the corresponding guilds and societies.
Jona wears the robes of the five great guilds with aloof status. He is exempted from the war. The war is like a stage play happening around him. One day, the whole world has become a stage play, which makes him always a little empty and irritable when he walks out of the astrology tower.
Day after day, Jonah walked through the barren paths of the red clay plain, and saw so many people with dark faces walking on the road, some fleeing from the war-torn land, some walking towards their hometown with slim hopes, some carrying the draft Fork joined the Farmers Self-Defense Force, some made small business to make a fortune, some completely abandoned hope and took numb steps, and some clenched the knife under the cloak at any time.
Ionah often saw some of them not long after, collapsed on the side of the road, leaning against the rubble, holding a bag, holding a machete, his eyes looking up to the sky, his body temperature gradually freezing, they died of plague, Whether the lances of the invaders or the teeth of the hungry, no one knows, except that when Jonah passes by the next day, they will be stripped naked, and a few coyotes who have lost their appetite because of their fatness linger next to the bony carcasses.
Yona sees the mother crying with the baby in her arms, the old man weeping in front of the tumbling pot with unknown pieces of meat, the woman crying, the man on the woman is naked and the upper body is wearing a brightly lit dragon knight Formal breastplate. So many tears gave him a headache, and the horror and awe of his mother, the old man, the woman, and the knight at the sight of his robe gave him a little nausea.
On the last trip to the Royal and Anglican Library, Jonah saw smoke billowing from the towering redstone castle on the horizon, and the four o’clock sun pointed his shadow at the redstone. In the direction of Fort, he moved mechanically.
In two months, Jonah entered through the small gate guarded by the five professional unions beside the city wall again and again, and saw the rolling stones falling like rain, the boiling oil pouring on the skin and squeaking, and the footsteps of the dragon shaking the earth. A sharp arrow flashed from the gap in the coat of arms and appeared between the necks of the guards on the city. The day of the city’s destruction finally came. Although he had a premonition of this moment, Jonah looked at the red stone castle with thick smoke, and still felt a little shock in his heart.
He stepped on the red striped stone road and entered the red stone castle from the main gate. One of the huge gates fifty feet high collapsed. The army boots of the enemy were trampled on the gate that was still burning with small flames. Stacked on the side of the road, the ground dragon messengers ran around with blood-stained flags, and more than half of the buildings on the Central Avenue were burning. The intruder officers waved their whips and instructed the surviving Redstone Fort residents to lift their bodies and throw them into the burning buildings. Most of them were citizens, and the enemy had slaughtered and sacked the nobles and merchants of Redstone Castle.
Ionah felt himself in a strange state, as if all that was happening in front of him was an illusion in a crystal ball, blood and fire isolated behind the crystal, he scanned the Redstone Fort numbly, bowed at the invader soldiers When the time came, he nodded slightly, and didn’t even forget to turn on the star array on his belt to adjust the temperature.
Passing the palace and turning towards the library, Jonah saw two or three hundred captured soldiers kneeling on the square in front of the palace. Behind each blood-soaked soldier was an enemy law enforcer with a steel axe, an officer who looked like an officer. The terrestrial dragon knight was shouting something with a saber in his hand, and thousands of citizens were driven out and surrounded by them. The officer raised his knife, and the blood poured down the last of the Guardsmen’s boots. The surviving citizens in the square fell to the ground crying, and the enemy soldiers seemed to be laughing, too far away for Jonah to hear anything.
Turning the corner, Jonah’s heart suddenly trembled, as if something distant and mysterious had emerged from the bottom of his consciousness, he stopped, trying his best to grab the tail of the thought. A line of scribbled round characters faintly appeared in front of my eyes: “On October 5th, the sun was pierced by a sharp sword, and they gathered together, unable to see each other, but only the sky and their heels.”
Yona’s numb nerves seemed to be violently beaten by a sledgehammer. Everything in front of him was no longer a fantasy in a crystal ball. The crystal shattered and the fragments of memory stung his eyeballs. He was so shocked that his feet went soft and he nearly sat down in the blood-spotted street.
He stiffened his neck and turned his head to look at the sky. At 4:30 in the afternoon, the sun was hanging diagonally in the sky. The highest spire in Her Majesty Queen Wenger III’s bedroom was like a sharp sword, cutting the sun in half.
He turned his head to look at the front square again, and vaguely heard a hard rattling of his cervical spine. The square was full of headless corpses, with the heads of more than 200 guards scattered among them. Some heads looked up at the sky, some fell under the feet of the executioners, and their unfocused eyes stared at the muddy boots of the slaughterer.
“That book!” Jonah murmured, breathing out slowly. The next moment, he ran wildly among the corpses scattered across the street, the dark blue robe flying in the blood-filled air.
He’s late. The Royal and Anglican Library has been ignited by the fire in the Duke of Waren’s Palace next to it. The fire started to burn from the west side. Several soldiers came out of the door carrying the open wooden box. The box was filled with the library’s silver vases and candlestick. Jonah bent over at the entrance of the library, gasping for breath. He looked up at the raging fire. Because of the temperature control star array, he could feel the heat wave, but he didn’t sweat a bit.
On the small bookshelf in the corner of the church library next to the chapel on the west side is a large book with a black cover, and he must get that book! Now that the library was engulfed in flames, Jonah turned around anxiously, put the hood of the robe on his head, ignored the exclamations of the soldiers behind him, bit his teeth, and walked quickly into the library.
Strings of fire slanted down from the zenith, the exquisite frescoes were twisted and peeled off, and the brass statue of Sheila, the **** of writing and painting, gradually melted and curled. A burning column collapsed in front of the church library door, and the parchment scrolls resting on the wooden shelves turned into dazzling torches.
Ionah tried to get close to the burning broken pillar, and only took a step, and the molten copper liquid from the statue of Sheila spread over, drawing magnificent patterns along the lines of the carved floor tiles. He moved quickly into the chapel, where the flames were not yet violent.
Be fast, be fast, be fast. Jonah said silently, closed his eyes, and did a quick calculation.
Another column collapsed and slammed into the hall floor, sending sparks into the sky.
Ionah took out the star-engraved lapis lazuli from the deerskin bag that he had been carrying since his first day as an apprentice, and held it tightly in his palm. The surging star power communicated, and a gleaming white light with the thickness of a bucket shot out from the center of the gemstone, silently breaking through the wall and slashing upwards, and then the star array exploded in his hand, and for a moment Jonah saw nothing in front of him. Can’t see, can’t hear anything, stretch out his hands, only feel his fingers shaking violently.