The Witch and the Doll Swear

If she hadn't known in advance that the secret place they were going to was a demiplane hidden in Sinai, Tingna would have opened her eyes wide and opened her mouth when she saw all this, just like she saw in previous journeys. The same as those never seen before or beyond imagination.

However, there are no ifs in this world.

Therefore, after knowing in advance and seeing the existence of the demiplane through Liliana's memory, facing the sun shining with golden light under the blue sky and the city of white stone standing on the deep blue water, I will be amazed. Ai who stared wide, Ting Na couldn't help but chuckled lightly.

"...what are you doing?"

"Ai's current expression reminds me of when I first met Miss Liliana, and when I was traveling with Miss Liliana and Alice, I always had a surprised expression when I saw everything."

"Humph..."

Ai pouted, bent down, picked up a handful of sand grains from the ground, and took out the golden hexagonal mirror that Tina had seen on the sandboat when she was in Letopolesta.

A few seconds later, Ai realized that what the girl said was not worthy of joy.

Holding the hand mirror, she stood up with open teeth and claws, raised two thin eyebrows, and stretched out the hand holding the yellow sand to Ting Na's waist just now.

"You have no experience! I don't feel novelty when I see everything like you!"

The angry little lion pounced on the girl, but relying on her physical advantage, Tingna avoided the girl who inherited the Lionheart surname like a cat.

For a moment, Tingna couldn't help but wonder since when did she and the girl in front of her become a relationship that could be joked with each other.

Since when, I can tell clearly how much of the arrogance she always maintains is her unshakable self-esteem, and how much is her bravado to protect herself.

"Ah, by the way, Miss Tina, Miss Alice, I just thought of something..."

Such thoughts quickly disappeared from her mind, and Tina shook her head. While avoiding Ai's pursuit, she told Liliana and Alice about the thoughts that popped up in her mind just now.

"...Is this the hidden...?"

"That's what I thought, maybe it won't help much..."

"No, just because Miss Tina doesn't understand magic, it's also very important that she can always think and make suggestions in a non-magic way."

"As long as it can help Miss Liliana and Miss Alice."

"However, I can't figure out anything just here. Even if there are really clues about the secret of Lily and Alice's immortality, it should not be in this dilapidated temple..."

The place reached through the gap is a dilapidated temple.

Although it is a little tricky to go from the valley to the tomb of the mausoleum, and then enter the temple through the gap, but the so-called entering the demiplane has already entered another world to a certain extent, so it is not surprising.

The temple is very small, and the surrounding walls are painted with the pattern of a thousand-handed sun wheel. I don't know how many years have passed, and those colors have never dimmed. Other than that, the rest is the sacrificial painting. After investigating for a while, Liliana and Alice found nothing.

And on the ground, lay a few dead bones, and in the palms of these dense bones, there was a stone tablet engraved with a map of Sinai.

"The remaining magical structure in the temple feels like an ultimate security. Maybe there will be some kind of detection mechanism. Maybe there will be people stationed in the past. Those who sneak in will be in a dilemma, just like them... But no matter how powerful the security is But time."

Alice fell to the ground, picked up two stone slabs and handed them to Tina and Ai.

"Take it, maybe it will come in handy."

"Eh, um..."

After taking the slate and putting it in the space storage ring, the girls walked out of the ruins of the temple.

The magnificent city built of white rocks is just opposite the temple, with a vast water surface of more than 100 meters stretching across the center. Some relics are half exposed on the water. On the shore of the temple, a small pier extends from the sand. A solar ship is docked. The long and narrow hull is made of black wood and painted with gold paint. , is also the sun with its long arms stretched out.

After checking that there was nothing wrong with the boat and that it would not suddenly sink in the middle of the way (Alice volunteered to try), the girls boarded the boat.

On the boat, Tingna picked up the oar, which was longer than the combined length of the remaining two girls and a doll, and proudly showed off her rowing skills honed along the coast of the Tranquil Sea.

It's a pity that before rowing dozens of meters, under Ai's concerned white eyes, the girl with poor physical strength put down the wooden pulp made of the same material as the boat, leaned against the boat panting, and asked Alice to communicate with the spirit of the water element to send them off. To the city on the water.

Above the city, the three golden suns—if the low golden sphere that repeatedly touches the top of the obelisk is really the sun—are more conspicuous than the sky, the desert and the city s things.

The rays of light they emitted were divine, warm but not scorching hot, and the breeze on the water was cool and pleasant. After spending about twenty minutes on the clear water, the solar boat docked at the city's central pier under Alice's control.

The shape of this city is like an enlarged Sinai Temple, centered on the white rectangular pier where the girls are now, the iconic trapezoidal high wall extends to both sides, and the beams are supported between the walls by two sculptural stone pillars. The ancient and solemn gate of the city.

It seems that the sun cast by gold is hanging high above the stone beams. In the center of the two towering high walls, the halo spreads brilliantly across the sky like a real silk curtain.

A shudder ran down his spine. Standing on the solid pier ground, Tingna's feet trembled, and she couldn't restrain the desire to worship.

The road leading to the gate is also an iconic step, but Liliana and Alice did not hurry up. The witch stared at the pattern of the thousand-handed sun wheel on the wall, letting the eye-shaped emblem fly out of her hand, disappear in the air.

After a while, Liliana raised her eyebrows slightly.

"...there are people in the city."

She paused.

"...ordinary Sinai people."

"……Eh?"

"Someone? If this secret realm is still in operation, the mages of the ancient language magic empire will definitely bring a large number of servants to serve them, but even the ancient language magic empire has been destroyed for so many years... Is there anyone in this secret realm?"

Alice raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"...They also gathered together with clay pots and pots, gathered from the nearby urban area with steps and the main road of the city to the main road, as if they were holding some kind of group event, they... were walking towards this pier."

"Want to hide? Master Liliana? We don't know anything yet..."

"...No, no need. If there is no malice, obtaining information from them should be more efficient than our aimless investigation. If there is malice... it will only change from negotiation to interrogation."

After thinking briefly, the witch shook her head and walked towards the gate above the steps.

This is the confidence of a Noble Phantasm-level powerhouse.

When she reached the city gate made of stone pillars, she stopped and looked at the sculpture carved on the stone pillar with her hands crossed on her chest.

"Amenhotep IV... Akhenaten, this is exactly the same statue that is now housed in the Tom Cruise Museum of the Radiant Academy."

"Is this the statue of the 'Pagan Pharaoh'? Ugh, it looks really ugly..."

Tina looked up too.

There were still long stairs at the pier, which made this sculpture, which was not so tall compared to the high wall, less eye-catching. Now, after seeing it up close, the first thought that popped into Tina’s mind was - so ugly.

The head with the towering crown was large and long, and the deeply sunken cheeks and protruding chin made him look like a strangely shaped loaf of bread.

Then came the raised boobs... boobs?

Tingna blinked her eyes to confirm that she was not mistaken. On the statue, the pharaoh was carved with feminine curves. Below the broad shoulders was a female bulge, and further down, there was a With a chubby belly, Tingna turned her eyes back to the face of the statue, and began to wonder whether the face belonged to a man or a woman...

"...It's strange, isn't it? The pharaoh's carvings are also unique in the entire history of Sinai, but because there are very few surviving ones, the historical circles have debated whether this pharaoh looked like this, or whether he was trying to overthrow him in the later stages of his reign. The smearing and ugliness of the temple...but now it seems that it should be the former."

"It is said that Akhenaten is a hermaphrodite, but because this pharaoh has never shown the talent of magic, so it is not known whether he is just a congenital disease, or the sudden awakening of a part of the blood of the fantasy species in the Sinai royal bloodline made him become Children of the Rainbow..."

"Son of the Rainbow?"

Tina accurately captured one word from Ai's words.

"Also known as the son of the curse. A special individual that occasionally appears in the meager bloodlines of fantasy species—such as elves, dragons, and various extremely powerful monsters. It is characterized by natural bisexuality and extremely high Magical talent, because the magic light usually has the color of the rainbow, so it has this name... Ah, but that rainbow color is also different from the color of Liliana's magic light. In short, it is an extremely rare individual, if I don't remember Wrong, the thirteenth seat of the Council of Sages of the Magicians Association is now..."

While listening to Ai's explanation, the team of more than a dozen people also appeared on the road not far away.

Black eyes, males all shaved and oiled. The woman tied up her black hair, wore a navy blue life talisman around her neck, and her dark skin was no different from most of the Sinai people Tingna saw in Sinai. They lined up neatly, holding pottery jug looking up at the sun shining in the sky.

When the maiden saw them, they also saw the girls standing by the door.

The man who was the first to spot them stopped, and the person who continued walking hit his back, and the clay pot in his hand almost fell, and his face looking up at the sun had to be lowered, complaining about something.

Then, the second man saw them, and his blurted complaint turned into an open mouth that could not make any sound, and his footsteps stopped.

So, like dominoes being toppled, the members of this team exclaimed and stopped one by one, and finally at the distance between the two obelisks, both sides fell into a strange silence.

"...Well, how are you all?"

Tentatively reaching out and waving her hand, Tina tried to break the embarrassing silence. After she did so, the men and women seemed to recover from the shock. A middle-aged woman excitedly held the Putting the clay pot aside, she quickly walked up to Ting Na and the others, so excited that she couldn't even speak for sure.

"Is it a pilgrim? Is it a pilgrim who crossed the desert and came to the gods of Aten for a pilgrimage?"

Thanks to Alice's simultaneous translation, Tina understood the words mixed with a strong accent. Before she could answer, the woman was already smiling and waving to those curious and happy people, telling them to hurry up. Report the news of the arrival of the pilgrims to the god Aten.

She looked at Ting Na carefully again, seeing that although she was a little tanned, she could still see the light fair skin, the golden curly hair and the sea-like eyes, she said with emotion:

"Has God Aton's light shined on the Inner Sea of ​​Elegance? Which island did you come from? It must be very hard to cross the ocean and desert."

"That is……"

"But don't worry, the hard work and suffering in the world will come to an end, praise Aton, that is the stars, the creator of the sky and the earth, the glorious sun that gently soothes souls and spirits, your prayers will surely be granted Response and comfort, eternal happiness awaits you in the kingdom of Aten God."

...What should I do at this time?

For the time being, I am still a believer in Virtue Church...

While talking excitedly, this self-talking woman raised her hands to the sky with her face up, and made a gesture of offering something in her hands. Tina was still hesitating, but Liliana had already taken a step forward, learning to make the same movement.

"...Yes, we crossed the mountains of the Seven Hills Peninsula, the waves of Porfinate flowed to the rich delta of Nerocle, crossed deserts, city-states, and sharpened the claws of beasts, guided by the sun at dawn direction, and finally came here.”

The words that flowed from the witch's mouth trembled with excitement. Liliana looked up at this woman who was much taller than her. It sounded as excited as the fanatical congregation finally touched the glory of God all their lives. Her words made her lower her head, and lovingly reached out to stroke the girl's soft hair.

"Did the adults in your family tell you these words? Don't be nervous when you read them. May the God of Aten bless you, young pilgrim, it is a great journey to embark on a difficult journey at a young age, O God Dun will definitely listen to your prayers.”

Liliana's movements stopped.

Although the unchanged expression from the beginning to the end hid her mood well at the moment, the movement that was about to take a step forward and hold the woman's hand was visibly stiff.

"puff……"

"Master Liliana... looks too small..."

Tina and Ai tried their best to hold back their laughter, and even Alice bit their lips unobtrusively, so as not to expose the fact that they could move.

——Lily's acting skills are still the same as before... she has no expression, and although she has always been able to make up for it with "demonic charm", it is not easy to use "demonic charm" when facing people with firm beliefs.

But in the end, Alice still laughed loudly in the minds of Tina and Ai. While laughing, the little doll told them the story of Liliana who almost failed to graduate from the drama department in Guanghui Academy.

Miss Witch is very good at playing characters with expressionless faces, but correspondingly, because she rarely has other expressions except for expressionless faces, she can hardly play other types of roles well. One barely graduated.

"...we are eager to meet the god Aten and prove our devotion and faith to him."

In the sandals decorated with slender gold threads, the thin toes were slightly tightened. Of course, the witch could hear the words that Tina and Ai could hear in the spiritual connection, but Liliana continued on without changing her expression. dialogue.

Perhaps it was the unchanging expression that made the woman feel that the pious and affectionate words were taught by adults...

Just when Tingna, who noticed the small movements of the witch's feet, suppressed a smile, the woman suddenly stopped.

She raised her head, fever was burning like a flame on the lined face, she gazed at the sun, she looked up at the glow, and the glow responded to her, hanging a slender bird from the satin sun And the slender hand fell on the forehead.

The woman's eyes dimmed.

"Oh, yes, yes—God Aten, please forgive me, these are pilgrims who have not seen each other for decades, they come from the far side of the ocean, they have brought your glory to the world of suffering Proof of dissemination, yes, yes... Oh, I will take them to the Great Temple of Radiance now to receive your grace."

Light's wrist disappeared.

It was as if it had never been there.

The woman's eyes also returned to clarity.

And the creepy feeling wrapped around her back like a poisonous snake also disappeared from Tina's body.

"Have you heard that too? God Aten's gentle voice that comforts all things equally, Sarah, let's beat it, go to the glorious Great Temple... go to the throne of God Aten, and meet the great God Pharaoh."

"..."

The witch nodded slightly.

Although she heard nothing.

……………………………………………………………………………………

The structure of this demiplane is very simple.

The sky, the desert, the body of water that was mistaken for a river but is actually a lake, and a city standing in the middle of the lake.

Behind the two high walls, the bridge connecting the gate stretches straight. There are three spacious platforms on the bridge. After walking with the woman for a while, I saw two urban areas symmetrically distributed on the left and right sides of the bridge, like two A square island built with snow-white stones.

The island and the bridge are connected by tall stairs, and those who walked back with Tina and the others, the people holding pots and pots separated from the girls here, and went to the city along the stairs. People singing and dancing on bridges, city pedestrians, shops, and squares can all be seen clearly. Their singing voices cross the steps and water, and flow over the city together with the wind.

"Is there any festival happening today?"

Tina asked curiously.

"We hold ceremonies every day. In the kingdom of God Aton, we sing and dance all day long. I know that I just left the kingdom of mortals, and I may not be used to such things, but as long as I stay here for a while, I will understand. From then on, we only need to praise the merciful God Aton to enjoy eternal happiness."

"...Well... Speaking of which, we haven't met yet..."

"No, we've known each other since the moment you came to the kingdom of Aton."

"But we don't know your name yet, I'm Ai—"

"Oh, my dear, there is no need to tell me your name. In the kingdom of Aton, we are not distinguished from each other, and we don't need to use strange things like names to distinguish each other. In the kingdom of Aton, that is the only thing that is sung chanting the name."

Walking through the middle of the two steps leading to the city, the woman who led the way smiled lightly.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon."

Ai and Tingna looked at each other for a while, followed Liliana obediently, and stopped talking. The witch holding Alice raised her head to look at the sky from time to time. The halo of the golden sun was sometimes thicker and sometimes thinner, but it was still above the city gate like the sun hanging above her head.

As for the other two, they were in the middle of the two urban areas they passed by on the way, and they had been left far behind at this moment.

...Is it a hallucination? It doesn't look like it, the feeling of having a physical body is heavy.

——It should be a solid body, Alice can see the engraved lines on it, but why is it so low...

There are few pedestrians on the long bridge, only statues and dark obelisks stand on both sides. At the end, the two pylon gates are the same as those in front of the city docks, only more ornately decorated.

After passing through the gate, the pillared courtyard, pool, pergola, and small doors on the thick walls are more like the temples Tina has seen so far in Sinai.

The biggest difference may be that this temple does not have a ceiling.

But think about it, God Aten is a god created by Akhenaten, a sun wheel with thousands of hands outstretched, and its temple, of course, cannot have a dome that blocks the sun.

I really don't know if the believers of Aten can still pray devoutly when the sun is the most blazing. "

—Aten is the sun at dawn, Miss Tina, don't you feel it at all? We entered the tomb at the last hour of dawn. After being here for so long, the color of the sky still feels like morning. The celestial phenomena of many demiplanes are fixed. For example, the ruins that made Lily and Alice look like this are eternal nights. Here, it is probably the eternal dawn.

...Miss Tina, although curiosity is a good quality, but we are approaching the sanctuary of the temple, these thoughts are still very dangerous.

— Ah, yes, sorry.

Ting Na shrank her neck, and quickly expelled these thoughts from her mind.

The whole city is a temple. If one-to-one correspondence is made according to the basic structure of the Sinai Temple, the pier and the two towering gates are the gates of the temple. As you go deeper, the roof called the sky is gradually lowered, and the ground is gradually lowered. Zenggao. The two urban areas where those people live are the pillar gardens. On the stone pillars standing in the small courtyards of the houses and the streets and alleys, the reincarnated papyrus and palm leaf stigmas are carved.

For ordinary people, they can only get involved here, and the deeper sacrificial hall—that is, this place already belongs to the realm of priests and gods.

Under normal circumstances, ordinary people cannot get involved anyway.

"It's here."

However, no matter whether they are the pilgrims who came here pretending to be pilgrims, or the women who have obtained the enlightenment of the god Aton (if this god really exists) through the small wrist of light, it is not a normal situation. up.

Finally, in the innermost part of the small shrine serving as a sacrificial shrine within the city-scale shrine, the woman knelt down, looked up to the sky, and stretched out her hands.

After a while, she lifted the curtain slightly and walked in with a bow.

"..."

The witch bent down and walked through a curtain that seemed to be woven of gold.

The sacrificial hall in the sacrificial hall.

If it is said that churches and temples belong to the domain of gods, then what is presented to the witch at this moment is the core of the domain of gods.

Geometric patterns regularly distributed along the central axis are all over the ground, and the stone pillars are higher than the walls painted with murals, like elongated flower buds, casting straight shadows on the stone ground.

Then, on two consecutive raised steps, the end of the central axis

The golden throne spreads its wings to both sides, and the reclining statue of a lioness is guarded by it, close to the semicircular golden back wall.

Slightly raising her eyes, the scenery she saw corresponded one-to-one with the knowledge of Sinai religion, and the witch instantly recognized the thing that straddled the aqueduct in the sacrificial hall and was illuminated by the sun.

It is the protection of Horus, the eagle god, and the bravery of Sekhmet, the lioness god.

That is the nobility of gold and the sanctity of the sun.

—That was the throne of the Pharaoh.

Although the male lion symbolizing bravery was replaced by a lioness representing Sekhmet, the god of war, although the sun wheel behind it was replaced by a semicircular sun of dawn——

But why is it the throne of the Pharaoh?

The pylon gate behind the throne was exactly the same as the one they just passed through, except that the position where the door should be opened was blocked with a thick stone wall, and the throne was right in front of the stone wall.

In the traditional belief of the Sinai people, the soul has to go on a long journey, and living is only a small part of this road. Death does not mean the end, but the extension of the journey.

They mummified, stuffed magnificent pyramids with jewels, and buried slaves and entourages in order to continue enjoying the glory and wealth on their journey after death. The road in Sinai’s religious buildings symbolizes the journey from before birth to after death, and the tower gates are the nodes. The first tower gate of the temple symbolizes birth, the second tower gate symbolizes death, and stepping into the second tower gate symbolizes death. Stepping into the afterlife, into the realm of the gods.

Therefore, in the temple, the end of the road is not the end of life, but the end of this journey of the soul—that is, death.

This is the philosophy that belongs to the Sinai Faith.

If there was a statue of a god, Liliana wouldn't feel wrong.

The gods stand in front of the end, sending mercy or judgment to the souls of believers—not just Sinai, this is a saying that all religions with clear beliefs in gods will definitely preach. But at the end of the temple, at the end of the road, at the end of death, it should be the place where everything ends, but what sits is the throne of the Pharaoh, a figure wrapped in golden light with a sacred crown on top of the throne, in what should be the head position, but did not notice the gaze.

...was it covered by the light?

With just a glance, the witch lowered her gaze, bowed her head humbly, followed the woman to the bottom of the steps, and knelt down on her knees.

Everything is still unclear. With the help of Flanadi, they found the secret realm and entered the secret realm, but after entering, they realized that what they were going to do was not to explore the planned ruins.

This is a secret realm that has not yet died. Its creators are those magic emperors who compare themselves to gods. Even if that empire has become a yellow page in history, everything they left behind must not be underestimated.

She herself and Alice are the best examples.

——Don't be reckless.

……Um.

Putting Alice by her side, the witch raised her head like a woman and stretched her hands to the sky.

Now she is closer to the throne, but she still can't see through the glow on the throne.

Tina and Ai also followed suit, knelt beside her, raised their heads, and stretched out their hands to the golden sun above their heads. The women who brought them here didn't say anything, and they had no choice but to pretend to be pilgrims. do it.

But Tingna froze when she raised her head. In an instant, her face showed a frightened expression, although she was quickly suppressed by the girl and did not make a frightened cry. In the spiritual link, she also There was no movement, but the corner of the witch's eyes still caught this scene.

What did those eyes that were not blinded by the glare see?

Liliana wanted to ask this question, but she suppressed the urge after all, just as Tina suppressed her fear and looked up at the sun in the sky.

The girls maintained such a weird posture for a long time, but the figure of light on the throne remained motionless, as if the four living people were not worshiping before it.

Except for the occasional sound of cloth rubbing against the ground, heartbeat, and breathing, under the sky and flowing clouds, there was only the woman rolling her eyes and trembling with excitement.

When she stopped from the convulsive shaking and stood up panting, Ting Na and Ai, whose feet were already a little numb, couldn't wait to stand up, expressing excitement on their faces.

The woman still didn't say anything, with a devout smile on her face and wild flames in her eyes. After she brought Tingna and the others out of the golden silk curtain, she took a deep breath to calm down her excitement, and asked them road:

"The great God of Aten asked us to entertain you grandly. Please come with me. We have good wine and food to wash you away from the hard work of the journey. We will also prepare you for bathing and lodging. Everyone will welcome you. Come on, Follow me, please."

"Ah, good, good, so to speak, praise, praise the great God Aton, I am indeed very hungry, will the food and wine in the Kingdom of God be more delicious than that in the mortal world?"

In fact, it hasn't even been more than an hour since they had breakfast, but Tingna, whose face is slightly pale, just wants to get out of here as soon as possible, so she can't wait to squeeze out these words from her throat, using He looked at the woman in front of him expectantly.

It was a shocking expression, but the woman smiled understandingly without paying attention.

"Ah, of course, the food and drinks here will definitely make you forget all the bad tastes."

After finishing speaking, the woman didn't continue to consult Ai and Liliana, and walked along the bridge when she came.

On both sides of the bridge that runs through the city, in the distance, bonfires several meters high have been set up.

Before leaving, Liliana held Alice in her arms and looked over the spire of the obelisk again.

In the twilight of the morning sky, the golden sun that once set down on the slender wrist was still floating low above their heads.