The evening bell rang three times, and before the third time, Vanna had already arrived in the cathedral.
Old Bishop Valentine was already waiting here. This respected old man, wearing a black priest's robe, was standing silently in front of the icon of the storm goddess Gemona with his eyes closed and praying. He heard the sound of someone stepping into the church. I knew it was Fanna without looking back.
"Judge Vanna," Valentine said in a deep voice, "The Cathedral of Storms has sent an order to summon the listeners."
"Sent directly from the Cathedral of Storms?!" Fanna was startled. She quickly came to the icon and immersed herself in the glow of the lights. "Didn't a new anomaly or vision appear? ?”
"If only new anomalies or visions are discovered, the bell will not ring three times in a row." Valentine shook his head. "It was the tombkeeper over there who directly sent the news, saying that the unknown king was dead." There is a strange movement in the body. Although it is not clear what message he wants to convey, it seems that... the existing list is changing."
As he spoke, the old bishop turned his head and looked into Vanna's eyes quietly.
"This time we need to send a listener into the tomb to listen directly to the body of the unknown king. The person currently in charge of the tomb is the Church of the Deep Sea. The listener will be selected from the followers of the Storm Goddess - the specific candidate has not yet been determined. Come on, you and I are both on the waiting list."
Fanna calmed down and asked calmly: "When will we set off?"
"Now," Valentin nodded and motioned for Vanna to follow him. He walked behind the statue of the goddess, and a door depicting many sacred symbols had been opened, revealing the deep and long corridor behind it. "The spiritual channel is ready. alright."
Vanna bowed to the icon of Gemona, then turned around and followed the footsteps of the old bishop.
They passed through the door and then passed through the long corridor. Under the flickering lights, the two devout believers arrived at the deepest part of the ancient church - a special secret room located at the end of the corridor.
This is a small room. Different from the cement and brick structure of the main body of the church, this small secret room is actually made of stones. The gray irregular stones are stacked tightly together to form the room. The walls and roof, and the ground in the center of the room is a sunken fire pit. The crackling flames are burning in the stone pit - but there is no fuel visible at the bottom of the flame, as if the fire comes from the air out of thin air. Condensed general.
Except for the flame in the center of the room, there was no furniture in the entire secret room. Only the faint sound of running water that came from nowhere continued to sound from all directions. Every wall around seemed wet, and even the floor of the room was wet. It seemed as if a small stream of water was flowing at any time - this gave people the feeling that this stone hut was not a room in the cathedral, but... a waterlogged cave on the bottom of the sea.
This is not the first time that Vanna has come to this secret room - as a "judge" with the same status as the bishop in the city-state, she also has the right to use the "spiritual energy channel" here. This seemingly inconspicuous room is the structure of The "port" of the psychic channel.
There are similar facilities in the central church of every city-state, and every church also has similar technology - the priests of the Storm Goddess use such a "water-soaked cave", and the priests of the Death God use the "Pale Tomb" Building a way to connect with each other, these seemingly gloomy and depressing facilities actually have a magical effect: they can peel off the user's spirit and send it into a huge and interconnected spiritual space. No matter how far apart these city-states are, No matter how rough the wind and waves are on the boundless sea.
This was a miracle accomplished by the blessing of the gods, which allowed timely communication between church branches far apart across the endless seas, and in more ancient times, when ocean-going ships were not as reliable as they are today, this was It is even the only way for many city-states to maintain communication and confirm each other's survival.
The door of the secret room slowly closed, and the dark and heavy metal door made a dull sound. The complex and dense runes on the two doors immediately moved quickly, entangled and meshed with each other like living creatures, completely sealing the entire room. .
Vanna and Valentin stood next to the fire pit in the center of the secret room. They lowered their heads, stared at the jumping holy flames, and silently recited the holy name of the storm goddess Gemona.
The illusory sound of water flow continuously came from all around, and became louder and louder with the chanting of the Holy Name. Gradually, the sound of water flow gathered into waves, and even became roaring, while a moist breath filled the entire room. , in the increasingly heavy and humid atmosphere, Fanna saw that the trickle on the ground suddenly turned into tumbling waves, and began to rise extremely rapidly.
She stared at the fire in the center of the room, which, as always, burned in the rising waves.
Vanna closed her eyes, calmly and calmly allowing herself to be completely immersed in the illusory sea water.
The cold touch quickly dissipated, and she opened her eyes again. What she saw was no longer a waterlogged cave-like rock chamber, but an extremely wide chaotic space - it seemed to be a square, an almost endless square, simple and elegant. It is majestic, and there are many magnificent pillars supporting it at the end of the sight. The tops of those pillars all show a fragmented appearance. The tops seem to be broken and dissipated in the distant sky. A hazy light flow envelopes the top of the square. In that light flow There seems to be something hidden in the depths, but it cannot be penetrated by ordinary eyes.
Fanna calmed down and saw many figures already standing in the square - they were all black shadows with only outlines. Although she couldn't see their faces clearly, she could confirm these through the familiar aura coming from each figure. They are all devout saints of the Storm Goddess - saints from various city-states, mobile churches, and even the Storm Cathedral.
Only "saints" can become alternative "listeners" - because there are some "voices" that only powerful saints can listen to while staying awake.
"It seems that we are the last batch," a dark figure floated closer, because she was very familiar with it on weekdays. Vanna recognized the dark figure as Bishop Valentine before he spoke. The old man's tone seemed to Slightly embarrassed, "I was also the last to arrive at the last meeting..."
"Do the saints from other city-states live in secret rooms..." Vanna muttered, "Every time the news of the summons comes out, half of them can gather in less than ten minutes..."
"Ever since Saint Folsom wrote 'first' in the register at the rally twenty years ago, they've been scrambling to get there early," Valentine shook his head. "To be honest, it's incomprehensible. ...The goddess will not pay special attention because of this."
Vanna was noncommittal, but at this moment, a sudden roar suddenly came from the end of the crowd, interrupting her thoughts and the conversation between all the saints' phantoms.
Vanna and Valentin raised their heads at the same time, and were shocked to see that the ground in the center of the square was rising - the broken old stone bricks were rippling like water waves, and among the layers of ripples, there was a huge thing rising rapidly, first the pale The spire is followed by sloping stone walls and simple columns.
Almost in a moment, the thing completely entered Vanna's field of vision - a huge building made of pale boulders.
It was a bleak "palace", an ancient building built in a long-lost history. It had a pyramid as the main body, surrounded by several obelisks and towers. No city-state in the world had such a style. , its low and depressing atmosphere does not look like a building for living people to live in at all.
It's not so much a palace as it is a huge mausoleum.
In fact, it was a mausoleum—a mausoleum belonging to some ancient and powerful being.
Like everyone else, Vanna's eyes involuntarily fell on the bottom of the huge pyramid building. Under the gaze of countless eyes, the door of the mausoleum finally opened slowly.
The heavy and pale stone doors retreated to both sides, and an extremely tall figure slowly walked out of the mausoleum.
That is the tombkeeper of the Tomb of the Unknown King.
From Vanna's point of view, it was difficult to say that "he" was still a living human being.
His body was wrapped in layers of shrouds. Half of his body and the shroud were in an almost burnt black state. The other half of his body was wrapped with heavy rune shackles. Some of those gloomy chains were even Extending directly from his flesh and blood, its ends are wrapped with beating blood vessels and nerves - this ancient tombkeeper is like a terrifying creature mixed with flesh and blood, steel restraints and death curses, emerging from the nameless king's body. He stepped out of the mausoleum and walked towards the dark figures gathered in the square with heavy steps.
Although this was not the first time she saw the "Gravekeeper", Fanna still took a breath subconsciously and felt her muscles tense.
Then, she saw the "gravekeeper" walking directly towards her.
Candidates have been chosen.
The tombkeeper passed everyone in the square without hesitation until he stopped in front of Vanna. Only a single eye was exposed on his head wrapped in shrouds and chains. This eye calmly Looking at Vanna - even though the latter was already quite tall, the gravekeeper was still a whole head taller than her.
"You can enter the tomb." The tombkeeper spoke, his voice hoarse as if coming from a corpse, and then he raised his right hand that seemed to be burnt by fire, holding a quill and a A roll of parchment paper.
"Write down what you heard." The tombkeeper ordered concisely.
(Oh my god!)
(End of chapter)
