Chapter 636: Deep in the Tomb
"The card of blasphemy?"
Angel's eyes also stayed on the building ruins that were obviously more intact than the other ruins, and he asked in confusion.
"No, I mean a card no less valuable than the Card of Blasphemy. After much speculation, I believe Qilingos must be coveting a card that would allow him to reach a higher sequence, but I can't be completely certain."
Alger responded immediately, his tone less than convinced.
Indeed, since Vice Admiral Hurricane Qilingos, one of the former pirate generals, already possessed his own fleet and possessed the Creeping Hunger, a magical item comparable to a High-Sequence item, as long as he steadily developed his power on the seas, advancing to Sequence 5 should not be difficult. Therefore, the only reason he gave up everything and headed to Backlund alone was to obtain a ticket to the High-Sequence...
The target of the "Apostle of Desire" who risked his life to assassinate Duke Negan was also an "Abyss" card. Qilingos and he had such similar paths of action, and even their target was the same person, that it was indeed possible that he was promised a "Card of Blasphemy" as a reward.
Angel recalled his experiences in Backlund and confirmed the correctness of Alger's thinking.
But no matter what, only by entering the ruins can we determine whether the so-called "valuable item" is one of the cards left by Emperor Roselle.
"Then we need to move quickly. You only have about 8 minutes left to move."
Klein glanced at Alger and whispered.
After using the "Magic Pocket Watch" for ten minutes, he would be negatively affected by the fear of fire for 12 hours... Angel's mouth twitched, and he quickly instructed, recalling his past experiences.
"Lead the way."
Alger pinched the watch in his pocket, nodded silently, raised the lantern hesitantly, and led the way toward the building.
The tower and bell tower have collapsed, leaving only the main three-story building. The exterior is extremely plain, without the buttresses or decorative columns that are common today. The windows are small, but the main entrance is two stories high.
Of course, its doors and windows have now decayed, leaving only empty arched gaps, like a monster with a huge mouth, waiting for people to fall into its trap.
"Like the architecture of the early Fourth Epoch, all major churches at that time had churches of this style."
Klein, a top history student, stood at the door, looking up, and couldn't help but disrupt Hermann's acting style as he commented.
"Yes, it's recorded in the texts of the Church of Storms that the temple above is the burial place below, symbolizing the unity of life and death."
Alger looked at his teammates in surprise and added.
There's no room for me to interrupt at this point... Angel hummed to himself twice and used his dark vision to look inside the door. He found that there was nothing in the vast space behind the door. There were only corridors on both sides and in the depths leading to other locations.
"The first floor should be safe."
She reminded him, taking the initiative to move forward and walk into the building first.
If two Sequence 5s were to explore this narrow area, they would probably not have enough time to escape if they encountered real danger. She had to walk in front.
The other two also acquiesced to this arrangement and followed closely behind. Klein quietly released the invisible "Blood Admiral" secret puppet, letting it float in the air, observing the team's surroundings from a different perspective to prevent sneak attacks. Alger drew the scimitar at his waist, and the muscles in his right hand holding the hilt bulged, obviously using his extraordinary ability to strengthen himself.
Upon entering the building, Angel immediately discovered that the corridors on both sides leading to other locations had completely collapsed, and from the situation outside the building, it could be seen that there were probably no corresponding buildings in the directions they connected to.
And right in front, where the altar of the church's prayer hall should have been, there was only a deep hollow leading to the bottom of the building.
Could it be the underground "tomb" that Alger mentioned?
Angel frowned as she approached. Invisible threads quietly spread, entering the cave on her behalf and exploring its depths. She herself cast her gaze above the cave, where the holy emblems of all major denominations were hung in their prayer halls.
There was no holy symbol on the wall, only a mural nearly erased by time.
It depicts towering mountains, layers of shining crosses depicted in simple strokes, and a majestic figure standing at the foot of the mountain, holding a stone slab, and surrounded by winged angels.
If I didn't know this was a different world, I would have thought it was someone being crucified...
Angel resisted the urge to criticize sharply and looked at the other two. Alger was also observing the mural with the help of a lantern, while Klein's eyes were a little out of focus, obviously his gaze was connected to his secret doll.
"This is the 'Ancient Sun God'...
"No wonder it's from the Fourth Age. No, it should be a continuation of the Third Age. This is His church..."
Alger was the first to think of something, his tone filled with shock and a hint of astonishment.
After he reminded him, Angel remembered that as early as the end of last year, "The World", that is, Klein beside him, had reported an ancient ruins located on the outskirts of Backlund. Then, in his dream, with the help of Arrodes, he watched the entire process of the "Mechanical Heart" exploring the ruins.
There, there are similar murals, as well as young Adam and Amon next to the "ancient sun god".
She looked at Klein, who also frowned in thought. After a moment, he spoke:
"It should be him. The stone tablet in his arms looks a bit strange... But there shouldn't be anything hidden in the area above ground. We can only go underground."
He should have confirmed it with the secret doll and the spirit thread... Angel nodded, continued to drive the invisible thread to explore the underground area, and slowly walked towards the cave entrance.
At the same time, she said:
"I detected some stone statues down there... Don't be too surprised when you see them."
Her thread had already entered the wide underground tunnel that seemed not to be built for humans. She had explored a long distance and knew clearly what the three people were about to face, so she warned them in advance.
Klein and Alger nodded silently.
"us……"
Seeing that everyone was ready, she spoke again, but heard a sound of footsteps coming from far away and gradually becoming heavy behind her. The three of them looked back and saw that outside the building gate, where the three of them had just approached, a huge monster over four meters tall, with a gray body, pointed horns on its head, and six wings on its back was slowly approaching.
This six-winged gargoyle, which could only provide some of the potion materials for the "Master of Secret Puppets", held a stone halberd longer than his height in one hand and a "hunting black spider" that had turned into a stone statue in the other. His eyes flashed with fiery red light as he was about to step into the building.
That was the only exit... Without any need for communication, the three of them immediately understood their current situation and without hesitation drilled into the depths of the cave. They walked up the broad stone steps, turned a right angle, and entered the underground corridor.
This corridor, which seemed to be built for a giant, was about ten meters high, with an arched cross-section and was so deep that the end could not be seen. In the completely dark environment, only the lantern held by the hanged man emitted a faint light.
The corridor is densely packed with stone statues. Most of them are humanoid creatures, a few are animals of different sizes, and there is even a "hunting black spider" with its body curled up. They are arranged in a very regular manner from high to low along the wall, facing the entrance, like two rows of honor guards.
Giants, elves, humans, tigers, baboons, spiders... They are of different races and their clothing styles span thousands of years. The only thing they have in common is that they are gray all over, with delicate and meticulously carved surfaces, and their faces show expressions of pain and despair. Even animals are no exception.
The deep and dark passage, the lifelike stone statues...if Angel hadn't warned them in advance, this strange scene might have made them turn around and run away.
"That area?"
Frowning, Alger asked tentatively.
The three of them recalled the terrifying moment just now and the experience of being almost "petrified" all over.
Were these "stone statues" originally living humans and animals?
If we were completely petrified in that area, would we be moved here by that six-winged gargoyle, with a look of despair on our faces, and become part of them?
After a brief moment of shock, the three remembered that Alger only had about five minutes left before he became afraid of the fire. They quickly shook off their fear, walked around the stone statues neatly placed on both sides of the corridor, and headed deeper.
Behind him, the footsteps of the tall six-winged gargoyle were still slowly approaching. It sounded like it had entered the first floor of the building and was walking towards the underground area.
If we didn't have "teleportation" and "mirror world" as a means of leaving here, we should have turned back now and killed the gargoyles to ensure the evacuation route... Angel thought, and took the lead, using silk thread to explore the way. His dark vision swept across the stone walls on both sides of the corridor, and as expected, he saw murals praising the "ancient sun god".
Most of them are unrecognizable due to cracks and collapses in the stone walls, but some are relatively complete, depicting scenes similar to the mural above: a huge cross, layers of light, and a majestic figure. He fights against the raging flood, soothes the cracked earth, and gazes at the deep starry sky, as if defending his believers from all evil and disasters.
Even the Church of the Seven Gods wouldn't praise the gods so directly. After all, everyone had their own sacred texts and wouldn't take everything on themselves... Alger subconsciously wanted to slap his left chest with his right fist and say a few words for the Lord of Storms, whom he believed in, but then he remembered that there were no "outsiders" here, so he stopped pretending.
"This is similar to the mural in the temple in the God-Forsaken Land that Mr. Sun mentioned, but there they praise the 'True Creator,' while here they praise the 'Ancient Sun God.'"
He analyzed calmly, not getting too nervous and giving up on the exploration just because there were only a few minutes left.
Besides, at worst, we can just extinguish the lantern and explore in the dark. I, the Queen, and the World all have dark vision, so firelight isn't really necessary... Thinking of this, he looked towards the World beside him, expecting the Tarot Club member who was obviously the most knowledgeable, Mr. Fool's follower, to give some answers.
"Perhaps this person has some connection to the 'Fallen Creator,' the Creator worshipped by the City of Silver. There are too many things in the Third Age that current historians cannot confirm."
Klein replied.
Regarding these secret knowledge, he, or "The Fool", knows no more than other members of the Tarot Club.
My advantage lies in Russell's diary, but he was just a man who lived two hundred years ago. There are so many secrets hidden in the mist of history... He said self-deprecatingly, urging the other two to continue moving forward as the footsteps of the gargoyle continued to approach behind him.
After walking through one mural after another, with the help of Angel's exploration through silk threads and avoiding dead ends, they arrived in front of a double stone door that was eight meters high and had a gap.
The entrance is like this, and the corridor is like this too. This underground building is obviously not built for humans, or it is not built only for humans... Thinking of the giant "stone statue" at the entrance of the corridor and the tall gargoyles wandering nearby, Angel understood something.
Klein studied the symbols above the stone gate and confirmed that they represented death and rebirth and were often engraved at the entrances of cemeteries and mausoleums.
"It should be here. Considering that Qilingos spent about ten minutes exploring five years ago, he should have entered through this door..."
Alger said, proactively extinguishing the lantern in his hand to avoid falling into a state of fear of fire in three minutes, which would have a negative impact on his teammates.
Qilingos, a Sequence 6 with a "creeping hunger," is roughly equivalent to a Sequence 5 Beyonder. We have two Sequence 5s and one Sequence 4, so the danger isn't too great... Angel used his eyes as a mirror to perform a divination, concluding that the danger wasn't high. He nodded to Klein and Alger.
One of them summoned the "Ghost" puppet and passed through the stone door into the interior, while the other one swelled the muscles in his arms and used the power of rage to press directly against the heavy stone door, using the power of water and wind to lubricate the ancient mechanism and push the door to the sides in an almost silent manner.
He is so meticulous, unlike those Storm believers... Angel chuckled secretly, and his eyes, which could discern things in the darkness, peered into the depths through the gradually widening crack in the door and preliminarily confirmed the situation in the room.
Sure enough, beneath the building that looked like a temple above was an ancient burial hall... Her eyes swept over the gray-white sarcophagi arranged in a circle, pausing at the blank area between them, and she was surprised to find a colorful painting on the ground.
Painting on the ground instead of on the wall, does this have some special meaning... As soon as this thought came to her mind, she was shocked by the content depicted in the painting.
This "floor painting" uses a style that goes beyond the orderly composition popular in the Fifth Age. It uses dark tones and realistic brushstrokes to depict a long table from a bird's-eye view. On the table lies a figure carrying a cross. The figure is covered in blood, some limbs are missing, and there are holes in his abdomen and head, with white brain matter and black intestines pouring out in an exaggerated manner.
Beside him, three tall figures, some majestic, some handsome, and some wise, bent down, holding arms dripping with blood and gnawing on them, pressing heads with brains leaking out and sucking, digging out still-beating hearts and swallowing them whole. There was evil and madness in their eyes, which was completely inconsistent with their rather positive image.
The strangest thing was that between the chest and abdomen of the obviously dead figure lying on its back, there was a baby with dark skin and shadows covering its body. Like the other three, he was grabbing a piece of intestine and chewing it as if he was enjoying a delicacy, but his expression was a little crazy, and he was vaguely competing with the others who were sharing the corpse.
If the floor painting only depicted such crazy scenes, it would not have shocked Angel. After all, after the revival movement of "artistic freedom" advocated by Russell, there were quite a few paintings with hellish scenes and the cruelty of demons as themes. They were even loved by many wealthy people and nobles, who secretly bought and collected them privately, forming a niche but self-proclaimed high-level appreciation circle.
However, she recognized the identities of the figures in the painting...
The one lying on his back on the table, becoming food for the others, was obviously the "Ancient Sun God" depicted in the murals of this building. As for the three men with majestic appearances but extremely evil eyes, Angel had seen them in the murals of the "True Creator" temple displayed by Mr. "Sun" and in the underground ruins of Backlund explored by "World" Klein.
They, no, they are respectively the "Lord of Storms", the "Eternal Sun", and the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom"!
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