The evening bell rang three times, and before the third time, Vanna had already arrived in the Great 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. Without looking back, I knew it was Fanna.
"Judge Vanna," Valentin 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 surprised. She quickly came to the icon and immersed herself in the glow of the lights. "Didn't I find a new abnormality or vision?"
If only new anomalies or visions are discovered, the bell will not ring three times in a row." Valentin shook his head. "It was the tombkeeper over there who sent the news directly, saying that there was something strange in the body of the unknown king. , although it is not clear
What message does the agency want to convey, but it seems... is 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 interior of the tomb to listen directly to the body of the unknown king. The person currently on duty in the tomb is the Deep Sea Church. The listener will be selected from the followers of the Storm Goddess - the specific candidate has not yet been decided. , 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. .
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, and every wall around it seemed wet.
Even the floor of the room seemed to have a small stream of water 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 seabed.
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 vine chamber" Build pathways to connect each other
Path, 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 far apart they are on the boundless sea How the wind and waves surge.
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, like living creatures entangled and meshed with each other, 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 sound of illusory water flow continuously came from all around, rising rapidly, and began to rise extremely violently. In the middle of the wave, Fanna saw that the trickle on the ground suddenly turned into tumbling waves, and began to rise extremely rapidly.
She stared at the flames in the center of the room, the flames - as always, burning 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 silver eyes again. What she saw was no longer a water-soaked cave-like rock chamber, but an extremely wide chaotic space - it seemed to be a square, an almost endless square, It is simple and 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. The square is enveloped in a bright stream of light. Above, there seems to be something hidden in the depth of the light flow, 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 Landscape 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' on the registration bay at the rally ground twenty years ago, they have been scrambling to get there early." Valentine shook his head, "To be honest, it's incomprehensible. Lan...it's not like the goddess would pay special attention to this. Fanna was noncommittal, but at this moment, a sudden roar suddenly came from the end of the crowd, interrupting her thoughts and interrupting her thoughts. The sound of chatter among all the shadowy figures of the saints.
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 ancient stone bricks were rippling like water waves. In the overlapping ripples, there was a huge thing rising rapidly. First, The pale 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 is a majestic "palace", an ancient building built in a long-lost history. It has a pyramid as the main body and is surrounded by several obelisks and towers. There is no city-state like this in the world. Its style and subdued atmosphere are completely unlike a building for living people to live in.
Rather than saying that it is a palace, it is better to say that it is a huge mausoleum.
In fact, it was indeed a mausoleum—a mausoleum belonging to an 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.
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 shrouds were in an almost burnt black state. The other half of his body was wrapped with heavy rune locks. Those gloomy chains had some It even extends directly from his flesh and blood, and its ends are wrapped with beating blood vessels and nerves - this ancient gravekeeper is like a terrifying creature mixed with flesh and blood, steel restraints and death curses. He stepped out of the unknown king's tomb 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 gravekeeper passed everyone in the square without hesitation until he stopped in front of Vanna. On his head, which was wrapped in his wife's shroud and chains, only one single eye was exposed. 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.
