Vanna came to the prayer room deep in the crew area on the lower deck, closed the door, and quickly set up the ritual field needed for psychic communication.
In this vast ocean with limited conditions, the ritual venue still used the materials found on the ship. She used a large candlestick instead of a brazier, her own prayer book instead of the necessary holy objects, and smeared and drew storm runes on the floor with a mixture of salt and grease to construct a sacred venue. Since this was the second time she did this, she was not as unfamiliar with it as last time.
The feeling of being watched suddenly came from the side, causing the judge who was busy setting up the ceremony venue to suddenly stop.
She turned her head to look in the direction where the gaze came from, and saw a round mirror hanging on the wall in the corner of the room. The light and shadows in the mirror were fluctuating, and a lady with black hair was looking at this side curiously.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spy on other people's ceremonies," Agatha's voice came from the mirror, "I was just attracted by the noise over here."
"It's okay. This is not a secret ceremony." Vanna smiled generously and greeted this very special new "crew member" who had recently joined the Lost Homeland. "I was just about to contact the Church Ark."
"Well, I know that the ritual process of the Church of Death is slightly different, but I can more or less see what you are doing, but..."
Agatha in the mirror said this, and suddenly stopped hesitantly.
"But what?" Vanna asked puzzledly.
"...Is it really possible to set up the ceremony site like this?" Agatha looked at the scene in the cabin with great curiosity. "Using candlesticks instead of braziers is fine, and ordinary prayer books instead of holy objects... It's barely acceptable, but using salt grains from the kitchen instead of blessed 'pure salt', and using cooking oil instead of holy oil... Are the rituals of the Deep Sea Church so free?"
Fanna was a little embarrassed: "This... is mainly because the conditions on the ship are limited. The holy oil ran out before, and I forgot to refill it when I docked. But based on experience, there is no problem."
"...It seems that you are indeed a saint who is favored by the goddess," Agatha couldn't help but sigh, "Most priests would not dare to borrow the power of the gods in such a casual way."
The muscles on Vanna's face twitched twice, and she could only reply with a stern face: "Um, thank you..."
"I won't bother you anymore," Agatha in the mirror waved her hand, and her figure gradually faded. "I'll go see what Shirley is doing. The captain asked me to supervise her homework..."
The mirror turned pitch black, and then gradually returned to its normal reflection.
Fanna watched the lady in the mirror leave, was stunned for a while, turned to look at the ceremony venue that she had just carefully arranged, and slowly frowned.
“Is it really okay?”
She muttered something with some self-doubt, then bent her fingers and flicked them in the direction of the candlestick - the invisible force instantly ignited the candlestick, and the next second it turned into a rising and jumping flame that was far brighter than a normal candle. Then, the runes arranged around the ritual site began to crackle, and gradually mixed with the sound of rising waves.
“Isn’t this quite useful…”
Fanna sighed in her heart, and the next second, she gradually lowered her spirit, allowing her consciousness and five senses to gradually immerse herself in the sound of the waves rising around her.
The ceremony attracted the attention of the gods, and the runes borrowed the power of the gods. Vanna allowed this power to move her spirit, and used it as a medium to call out to the church ark in the distance, waiting for Pope Helena's response.
Psychic resonance, relying on rituals to borrow the power of the four gods, and using this power to strengthen the originally weak mental abilities of mortals, so as to achieve communication with distant priests who share the same beliefs. This ancient divine art is a skill that every formal priest must learn. Even today when technology is constantly developing, even though humans have created convenient modern means of communication such as telegraphs and telephones, this kind of long-distance communication between priests is still an important way for large city-states to exchange information that are far apart.
Fanna felt like she had entered a long and dark tunnel, and her soul seemed to be flying rapidly in the tunnel. The tunnel was surrounded by dark rock formations, but as she flew past rapidly, there seemed to be hazy ripples floating on the "rock formations", which looked... as if they were coming alive.
Fanna suppressed her distracting thoughts, concentrated her mind, controlled her unnecessary curiosity and the urge to reach out, and silently recited the rules that she had already memorized, trying her best to avoid getting close to any physical boundaries in this "tunnel". Then, she "saw" a light gradually emerging in front of her.
Unlike going to the Tomb of the Nameless King to attend the "gathering", her psychic communication today only pointed to the Storm Cathedral on the boundless sea - at the end of the "dark tunnel", a hazy and illusory space was quickly established, and an elegant and dignified figure appeared in the field of vision.
Fanna stopped in front of the figure, and her own illusory black shadow quickly stabilized.
"Greetings, Your Holiness."
"Don't be so polite, Vanna. This isn't a public occasion." Helena's shadow returned the greeting and then asked curiously, "Why did you suddenly call me? Did something happen on 'that ship'?"
"Everything is normal on the ship - but something else happened," Vanna took a deep breath, calmed herself down, and then spoke slowly, "I am conveying to you the warning from Captain Duncan - the Lost Homeland is warning the entire civilized world..."
※※※
Bright yellow lights illuminated the old bookshelves and ancient scrolls. On the large walnut desk, delicate alchemical instruments were maintaining a complex chemical reaction. In the large and quaint study, a fat, amiable old elf man was sitting quietly beside the desk. He was the leader of the Academy of Truth, the Pope of the God of Wisdom, Lachem, Rune.
The old elf was looking at the alchemical device on the table, but in his eyes, a scene from far away was reflected——
"The Lost Homeland is warning the entire civilized world. We have confirmed that the ancient god 'Saint Lord of the Deep' has awakened in the deep sea below the Frost. This 'awakening' process may reappear in any city-state. There is evidence that the 'flesh and blood' of the Saint Lord of the Deep exists in all things..."
The short, fat, and amiable old elf listened silently to the voice coming from afar, his expression gradually becoming serious. When the other party finished speaking, he slowly stood up from the desk and walked towards a bookshelf at the end of the room while speaking: "Morris, if the most radical part of this news were announced to the outside world, the whole world would regard it as the most horrifying heresy in history - even the Annihilation Cult would think it was a bit extreme."
"There is no heresy on the path of truth, teacher. There are only two kinds of 'classics' created by mortals. One is already overturned, and the other is waiting to be overturned. This is what you told me."
Morris' voice sounded steady and powerful, with a kind of restrained persistence and courage, which made the old elf recall many years ago - when this talented young human was still studying at the Academy of Truth, he also had such persistence, seeking all the answers thoroughly, and questioning every question with great courage.
This curiosity and drive for action appear to be ardent but dangerous in a scholar. Impelled by this force, countless talented young people will quickly climb to the peak of truth, but many of them will be knocked down by the dangers of knowledge itself in the process of climbing. Others will have the opportunity to calm down and, under the protection and guidance of a mentor, learn to suppress their talents and learn how to carefully drink from the trickle of truth.
And a smaller number of outstanding students, such as Morris, can choose the third path -
Within two years, he mastered the shooting of various light and heavy weapons, the use of cold weapons, blasting, mystical self-defense techniques, and mixed martial arts skills.
They are all the pride of Aletheia Academy and the Martial Arts School affiliated to Aletheia Academy.
Rune stopped in front of the large bookshelf and reached out to pull out a record book.
After opening it, I slowly flipped through the pages, and each page was filled with the voices and smiles of my former students - their most youthful appearances were preserved in the magical pages, as they stood shyly, waved to people outside the book, made faces, or laughed heartily.
A young human being stood at the door of the classroom, his arms folded across his chest, looking over here with confidence. Below the black and white image was the name Morris Underwood and the corresponding academic record.
"Yes, I have taught you that there are only two kinds of scriptures for mortals: those that have been overturned and those that are waiting to be overturned... There is no heresy on the path of truth, because the true truth does not need human approval, it exists forever..."
Rune muttered softly as if talking to himself, looking at the student on the page with one eye, and in one of his eyeballs was still reflected the student's appearance today - white hair had climbed up to the temples, completely different from the energetic young man in the student register.
Human lifespan is really short, and establishing deep relationships with humans is actually a difficult and painful thing for elves - these friends and students always grow old quickly, and then turn into a handful of yellow earth before the elves can react. Memories and partings often come very abruptly, and every bit of sadness will be late and bring with it irreparable regrets.
But Rune is still happy to accept and teach apprentices from human society.
Because even within their short lifespan, these apprentices can still burst out with learning abilities that amaze the elves, and the desire for exploration and possibilities that come with their short lifespan are extremely valuable qualities in Rune's view in the pursuit of truth.
Morris' voice sounded in his mind again: "Captain Duncan believes that it is necessary to inform the Four Gods Church of all the intelligence we currently have, and only selectively retain it during the communication process with various city-states and the Explorers' Association - because the Four Gods Church has the ability and sufficient knowledge to know how to deal with this 'warning'."
"...This sounds reasonable, but didn't he think of another possibility?" Rune said slowly, "The content of this 'warning' is too horrifying, and even seems to be a heresy that is more extreme than the heresy of the Annihilation Cult. This will be regarded by the church as...hostility, or even as a new heresy. For some more conservative priests, they will not first recognize this as a 'warning', but will tend to regard it as an attack on their beliefs."
“He doesn’t care.”
"oh?"
"The storm is coming, and the thunder comes first to warn - but the thunder itself does not care whether mortals hide or not. This is the captain's attitude."
"……Reasonable."