Deep Sea Embers

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," 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 you discover a new anomaly 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 the body of the unknown king was there." Abnormal movement, although it is not clear yet

What message does the agency want to convey, but 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 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 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. . "

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 cabin was not a room in the cathedral, but a submerged 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 seemed to be something hidden in the depths of the light flow, but it was beyond the reach of ordinary eyes.

Vanna calmed down and saw many figures standing in the square - they were all black shadows with only outlines. Although she couldn't see their faces clearly, she could confirm from the familiar aura coming from each figure that they were all devout saints of the Goddess of Scenery - saints from various city-states, various mobile churches, and even from the Cathedral of Storms.

Only "saints" can be 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 black shadow approached. Because they were very familiar with each other, Vanna recognized him as Bishop Valentine before the black shadow spoke. The old man's tone seemed a little awkward. "I was also the last to arrive at the last meeting..." "Do the saints of other city-states live in secret rooms..." Vanna muttered, "Every time the news of the call comes out, they can gather half of the people in less than ten minutes..." "Ever since Saint Folsom wrote "first" on the registration bay of the assembly hall twenty years ago, they started, scrambling to arrive early." Valentine shook his head, "To be honest, it's impossible to reason... The goddess will not pay special attention to this." Vanna did not comment, and 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 Valentine looked up at the same time and saw that the ground in the center of the square was rising. The fragmented old bricks were rippling like water waves. In the layers of ripples, a huge object was rising rapidly, first the pale spire, followed by the tilted stone walls and ancient pillars.

Almost in an instant, the thing completely entered Vanna's field of vision - a huge building made of pale boulders.

It was a solemn "palace", an ancient building built in a long-lost history. It was a pyramid as the main body, surrounded by several obelisks and towers. No city-state in the world had such a style, and its low-key atmosphere did not look like a building for living people.

Rather than saying it was a palace, it was better to say it was a huge mausoleum.

In fact, it was indeed a mausoleum - a mausoleum belonging to an ancient and powerful existence.

Like everyone else, Vanna's eyes could not help but fall on the bottom of the huge pyramid building. Under the gaze of countless eyes, the door of the mausoleum finally slowly opened. The heavy and pale stone door retreated to the sides, and an extremely tall figure slowly walked out of the mausoleum.

In Vanna's opinion, it was hard to say that "he" was still a living human.

His body was wrapped in layers of shrouds, half of his body and shrouds were almost burnt black, and the other half was surrounded by heavy runes and locked. Some of those gloomy chains even extended directly from his flesh and blood, and their ends were entangled with throbbing blood vessels and nerves. This ancient gravekeeper was like a terrible creature made of flesh and blood, steel chains and death curses. He stepped out of the mausoleum of the nameless king and walked towards the shadows gathered in the square with heavy steps.

Although it was not the first time she saw the "gravekeeper", Vanna subconsciously took a breath at this time, feeling a little tense in her muscles.

Then, she saw the "tombkeeper" walking straight towards her.

The candidate had been chosen.

The tombkeeper passed everyone in the square without hesitation until he stopped in front of Vanna. Only one eye was exposed on his head wrapped in shrouds and chains. This eye calmly stared at Vanna - although the latter was already quite tall, the tombkeeper was still a whole head taller than her.

"You can enter the tomb." The tombkeeper spoke, his voice was hoarse as if it came from a corpse, and then he raised his right hand that seemed to be scorched by fire, holding a feather pen and a roll of parchment. "Write down what you heard." The tombkeeper instructed concisely.

(Oh my!)