Chapter 20: The Shadow of the Mother Goddess
The interior decoration of the church is similar. The space on the first floor is very spacious, with neatly arranged tables and chairs forming a circle guarding the circular platform in front. At the end of the long red satin corridor is gorgeous stained glass, which emits a moving luster under the bright lights from the ceiling.
More and more people came.
Rong Le didn't want to attract attention, so she left the lobby through the passage next to her.
Away from the crowd, the noisy sounds in my ears suddenly became blurred.
He walked slowly along the deserted corridor. The floor was covered with dark red carpets, which felt soft and made almost no sound when he stepped on them. On both sides were almost identical rooms, like an ancient maze corridor.
Rong Le tentatively pushed open a few doors and found that there were only ordinary activity rooms inside, so she lost interest in exploring the place.
He didn't bother to worry about whether he would get lost and be late for Mass - if he was really late, then he might be destined not to go to Mass.
It was a rare opportunity to explore the church, and he wasn't going to miss it.
Rong Le didn't know how long she had been walking, turning left and right, and seemed to have reached the end of the corridor.
After walking out of the corridor and passing through a small hall, he came to a dim path. He noticed a lonely small door in the dark corner of the path.
There was a sign saying "No Entry" on the shabby and rusty iron gate, and Rong Le couldn't help but stare at it.
The spiritual intuition that had not appeared for a long time was suddenly triggered.
Rong Le narrowed his eyes. This strange door seemed to be waiting for him to appear, full of temptation to explore.
He wondered if this had anything to do with his lost memories.
Rong Le could feel that this church gave him a sense of familiarity. It’s not that this was the church in his memory, but the two had some similarities.
To push open, or not to push open?
Before coming to the City of Misty Light, Rong Le had been aimlessly searching for God. His memory was sealed in the sea of subconsciousness, so since the birth of consciousness, the past has been a blank.
He seemed like a lost man with no past and no future.
He drifted like duckweed, searching for his memories and origins in the vast universe.
He must seek the truth.
Mysticism is a double-edged sword. The more you know, the higher your inspiration will be, but your mental state will also be unstable. You will be easily watched by indescribable beings, gradually infected and corrupted, until you go crazy and lose your rationality.
No one knows whether there is danger behind the door until it is pushed open.
Some investigators might act cautiously and not put themselves in danger until they are sure.
But for Rong Le, he had no choice.
He has no way out.
Rong Le pulled out a hidden tool and began to pick the lock skillfully. The lock here was too outdated and it didn't take much effort to open it.
He casually pushed the door open, and his pupils shrank slightly after seeing the scene in front of him.
Walking out of the dimly lit corridor and pushing open the small iron door at the end, what comes into view is a bright and vibrant garden.
The lawn next to it was neatly trimmed, and the gravel path under her feet curved and extended to a small pavilion not far away. Rong Le could smell the rich fragrance of flowers in the air, and the stable and bright light source kept the temperature and light here at an appropriate level.
If she hadn't been freezing cold in Portland at night, Rong Le would have almost thought she had traveled back to a bright spring.
The small iron door creaked shut behind him.
Rong Le walked forward a few steps uncontrollably. This should be a corner of the garden. The small iron gate was just an abandoned back door. Looking at the distance to the pavilion not far away, this garden should be bigger than he imagined. The transparent glass in the distance was like an upside-down bowl.
...This is a glass greenhouse.
Rong Le suddenly looked behind him.
Through the crack in the door, an eye was staring at him quietly.
Rong Le's muscles tensed up and the alarm sounded instantly. He ignored the warnings from the system in his mind that his rationality was decreasing and suddenly opened the door!
However, there was no one behind the door.
“…”
He was breathing heavily, looking at the familiar corridor he came from, waves of fear surged in his heart.
His heart was pounding, and Rong Le's legs began to feel weak as if he had just done some intense exercise. He held on to the door handle tightly to try to keep his balance, but his legs still slowly bent down.
The stress response causes the crazy secretion of adrenaline, and after the anger, the body's fatigue comes like a tide.
KP's voice sounded calmly:
You are frightened and your mental state is weakened. You need to make a Sanity check. Subtract 0 for a successful one and 1D10 for a failed one.
[Due to the persistent debuff you carry, you will need to add an additional penalty die.]
“…”
Rong Le used up the last of her strength to defend herself: "Did I see some mythical creature? I only saw one eye. I was attacked by a monster and I was fine. This doesn't make sense."
The voice in the void paused for a moment. The KP thought for a moment and said, "Alright then. If you pass the appraisal, you don't need to use the penalty dice."
Rong Le: ...
Is it really possible to bargain?
The crisp sound of dice rang out in the void.
[Sanity Assessment: 77/32, Success.]
Very good, the SAN value is preserved.
Rong Le gave up and let go of her hand, allowing herself to fall down.
The expected pain from close contact with the hard ground did not appear, and Rong Le fell steadily into a warm embrace.
"Lost kitten?"
The voice was low and Rong Le tried hard to look up at his face, but her vision was blurry and she could only barely make out a beautifully shaped chin.
As if he noticed the gaze of the young man in his arms, the man lowered his head slightly and seemed to smile at him.
...Who is it? Why does it feel so familiar?
Rong Le could no longer hold on and fell into a coma.
**
Rong Le suddenly opened her eyes, her green eyes were as cold as lake water.
He observed his surroundings soberly, and after making sure there was no danger, he stood up quietly and looked around quietly.
It was still the same garden, with lights dotted all around, making the garden at night hazy and dreamy. Outside the glass greenhouse, the beautiful starry night was no different from what I remembered.
There is no sunshine, and no strange yet familiar man.
There was no expression on Rong Le's face.
Another hallucination.
He couldn't tell how much of his previous memory was real and how much was just his imagination during the attack. He watched himself walk into madness while being sober, unable to stop his steps towards hell.
"What a sad life."
He muttered to himself, his deep eyes casting shadows of trees, taking on a cold color.
The reason why gods watch over humans is because human souls are like gray gems. Only after the weak souls have been polished can they shed their rough shells and become beautiful diamonds.
Therefore, human beings with extremely high spirituality wander between sanity and madness throughout their lives, falling into a vortex of despair.
This is the fate of all who gaze into the abyss.
Only a truly brilliant soul can become a treasure loved by the gods.
Rong Le has always scoffed at this statement. If the soul can shine, then his stinking soul should have been eliminated long ago.
What has kept him going until now is the unique mark of God branded in his soul.
Only by following this clue and meeting the god, perhaps he can remember everything.
But perhaps the moment he really sees God will be the end of his long life.
——After all, knowing the truth is, to some extent, equivalent to reaching the end.
Rong Le withdrew his thoughts. In order to distinguish between reality and illusion, he developed the habit of keeping track of time every once in a while.
When he was hallucinating, his mind was confused. Sometimes he thought a long time had passed, but in fact only a few minutes had passed.
He raised his hand to check his watch. Only a dozen minutes had passed since the last time he looked outside the corridor, which meant he had been unconscious for at most ten minutes.
"Look, the door is open!"
Suddenly, there was another voice behind the door. The voice was clear and sounded like a young girl.
Rong Le came to his senses, cautiously took a few steps back, and looked around for a suitable place to hide.
The others discussed in low voices, clearly hesitant about barging in.
But the fear of being punished for not doing their job well prevailed, and they made up their minds and started banging on the door.
The door had been locked by Rong Le, but it couldn't stop the combined efforts of several people, and soon the small iron door was in danger.
Rong Le quickly hid behind the bushes.
The door was slammed open, and the believers looked cautiously: "Where is the intruder?"
"Is he hiding?"
One of the believers was a little panicked: "Could the intruder have already met the Bishop?"
The leading cultist shouted, "Shut up! It's our fault that we couldn't find the intruder, but it would be disastrous if the intruder could get to the bishop."
None of the believers objected. After a while, the leading believer asked, "Dana, you noticed something was wrong here. Did you see any intruders?"
Rong Le turned her head slightly.
The young woman's voice stammered, "No, I saw the door lock was pried open, so I immediately called you over."
"Then there's nothing we can do. Let's search."
The believers began to search everywhere.
Rong Le frowned slightly.
He had thought that these believers might be restrained by the owner of this place, but they were obviously more afraid of being punished for not doing their job well.
The place where Rong Le was hiding was relatively hidden, but as the cultists' search area gradually expanded, it was only a matter of time before she was discovered.
Just as he was thinking about how to escape, he heard footsteps coming towards him.
"rustle."
The footsteps were very light, and Rong Le easily determined that it was the woman among them.
She walked slowly, the sound of fabric rubbing against each other was extremely clear, and slowly, the tip of her shoe came into Rong Le's sight.
Rong Le's whole body was tense, his breathing became barely audible. He lurked quietly in the corner, all expressions on his face disappeared, leaving only a pair of cold, dark eyes emitting a faint green glow.
Everyone in the live broadcast room was worried at this moment.
"Danger, danger!"
"Damn, damn, she's coming over here!!"
"I'm so freaking nervous! I'm not going to get caught, will I? I'll be blacklisted by the church, my mission will be interrupted, and I'll be hunted by monsters..."
"The detective's character attribute is weak, right? It might be enough to deal with one woman, but it will collapse if he faces a group of people!"
"Shhh, she's coming!"
The tiptoes stopped in front of Rong Le's eyes. The woman stopped and took a quick look, but seemed not to notice the person curled up in the shadow at her feet.
The distance between the two people is very close.
It was so close that Rong Le could jump up and subdue the man in the next moment, and she wouldn't even have time to make a sound.
Not far away, the other believers were nowhere to be found. "He doesn't seem to be here."
"I don't have any here either."
The leading cultist said, "We didn't look for him elsewhere. He might have gone somewhere else... Damn it, we can't let him run around. Dana, what about you?"
Dana replied, "No."
Rong Le paused for a moment, then suddenly raised his head and looked in the direction of Dana.
Dana was looking at him too.
The moonlight clearly illuminated Dana's face. She looked to be a young girl of eighteen or nineteen years old. She was wearing the black robe commonly worn by church members. She had chestnut curly hair and playful freckles on her cheeks.
This was a completely unfamiliar face, but Dana's gaze was watery, and her light brown eyes were looking at Rong Le without blinking.
Rong Le understood almost instantly.
——This is Baitutu!
He shuddered and immediately gestured to her. Bai Tutu blinked, and the next moment, a calm voice sounded:
"What are you doing?"
The voice was very faint, with almost no emotion in it. Although it was a non-threatening tone, everyone subconsciously put down what they were doing and bowed respectfully towards the person who came.
The moment he heard this voice, the leading believer trembled all over and leaned deeply in that direction:
"——Your Majesty the Bishop."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
