Chapter 178 The Privy Temple
"Hahaha..." Heather laughed out loud, "It's impossible to expect the pawns to completely obey orders, and it's enough to be consistent with our ultimate goal. No matter where he is playing, as long as he continues to consume soldiers. Anyway, gray Fort is the last kingdom to attack in the plan, and there is still time for them to fight. Didn't Roland Wimbledon reject our pill last time? We can ask Timothy to put more pressure on the western border, maybe he will accept it. "
Having said that, Mayne was still a little displeased by Queen Clear Water's blatant turn of events, after all, he personally chose this pawn. If Timothy did not fight Garcia decisively after occupying other areas of Greycastle, but instead garrisoned troops to maintain a confrontation, the War for King Order would not be able to achieve the desired effect. It seems that some other means must be adopted.
"We'll wait for the news from the embassy in the western border to make a decision," he said, "I'll stop here today. My lords, please follow the plan. I have to go to the Hermes agency."
"Ah, by the way," Heather seemed to suddenly realize, "Isn't today the transformation day? How many people have applied to participate in the transformation ceremony?"
"This is an agency secret." Mayne stood up and walked out of the secret room without looking back.
...
After going down the long suspended staircase to the bottom of the cave, the archbishop stepped over the mirror-like smooth white millstone and walked towards the depths of the mechanism.
Different from the usual quietness, today's facility is quite lively. A group of judges who have passed the review are standing outside the facility, most of them are entering this place for the first time, and they are all looking around curiously. Seeing Mayne, everyone straightened their chests and saluted with fists, "My lord bishop!"
He smiled and nodded back. These Judgment Army are all elite warriors of the church. Being pious to the gods and willing to sacrifice God's Punishment Army transformation is not a ceremony that is guaranteed to be successful. They have understood this before submitting the application. Even so, they are still willing to give this great honor And sacrificed his life.
Under the reverent eyes of the warriors, he passed through the third checkpoint and came to the secret area. The Pope's guards are already waiting here. They bowed and saluted, then pushed open the metal gate behind them.
Mayne followed the guards into the door. Starting from here is the heart of the Hermes organ, where all the research and inventions of the church are carried out.
There were no torches in the secret area, and his vision suddenly turned black. After a little adaptation, a long and narrow passage appeared in front of his eyes. The walls and ceiling of the passage are made of iron, and both sides are inlaid with fluorescent stones. This strange stone is a kind of God's Stone of Retaliation. After being contaminated with the blood of evil beasts, it can emit green fluorescence.
At the end of the passage is a hanging cage. Walking into the cage, the guard turned the switch, and the chain above his head made a creaking sound, which was particularly ear-piercing in the silent passage. Accompanied by this sound, the hanging cage slowly sank into the underground cavity, and then Mayne's eyes suddenly opened up.
An extremely empty underground space appeared before his eyes.
No matter how many times he saw such a shocking scene, he would feel small in his heart.
According to common sense, the cave buried in the ground should be pitch black, and you can't see your fingers. But here, the entire cave is illuminated by the light from the God's Stone of Retaliation. The huge God's Stone of Retaliation is like countless prisms rising from the ground. Form clusters of crystal flowers. The smallest prism also has the thickness of the body, and the large one can be surrounded by more than ten people. The height is uneven, and the tallest one almost goes straight to the top of the cave, which is higher than the sky tower of the Hermes Cathedral.
Their colors are also different, the densest cluster of God's Stones of Retaliation is lavender, the clusters on the side change from dark blue to light green, the smaller ones are white, and there are some prisms that just popped out of the ground body, almost transparent. The luster emitted by the purple God's Stone of Retaliation is the most conspicuous, especially the one that surpasses the Tower of Heaven. The brightness is close to the full moon, so that the ground can be faintly seen at the bottom of the cave without the help of torches.
Under the influence of such a dense and huge God's Stone of Retaliation, the interior of the mountain is in an area where magic power cannot take effect. And the God's Stone of Retaliation sold by the church is all mined from here.
The space in the cave is enough to accommodate five or six Hermes cathedrals, and they did build a building exactly like the cathedral here, and named it the Privy Temple. But compared to the church on the top of the hill, this one looks much older. Mayne could see from mid-air that there was a black iron gate on the mountain wall behind the temple, which was the entrance to the foot of Mount Hermes, connecting to the old holy city. So this ancient building is in a sense the body of the institution, and it existed here long before the establishment of the new holy city.
It took half an hour for the hanging cage to reach the ground. Mayne walked out of the cage, straightened his robes, and followed the accompanying messengers to the temple.
The conversion ceremony was held in the hall on the first floor.
After entering the hall, the bishop felt that the light had returned to the surroundings. It was no longer the cold blue-purple light, but the orange light from thousands of burning candles. Above the head is a three-story tower-style candle chandelier, and there are many candlesticks around the hall, which look like countless stars shaking in the blink of an eye. Thanks to the fire, the chill in the cave was dissipated a lot.
The man standing between the two conversion platforms is the supreme leader of the church, Pope O'Brien. Wearing a striking red-and-gold-rimmed robe and a crown of glittering jewels on his head, he is scrutinizing the transformation device, making the final preparations for the ceremony.
"Your Majesty," he stepped forward and knelt down in front of O'Brien, kissing his fingers.
"Get up, child," the Pope's voice was hoarse and slow, "There is no one here except the guards, so there is no need to pay attention to complicated etiquette."
"Yes," Mayne stood up, stunned, his appearance was much older than the last time I saw him, his face was covered with deep wrinkles, his skin was unhealthy white, loose and dull, densely packed Brown spots appear extremely prominent. The bishop's eyes turned hot, "You... have worked hard."
"This is the trace of time," O'Brien said calmly, "No one can fight against time. My lifespan is running out, and I'm afraid I won't see the day when humans defeat devils, so I don't have to bear the unknown pain. But You have to keep fighting until you finally defeat the enemy, or be defeated by them."
And if we fail again, we will perish completely, Mayne nodded, "I will do my duty until the last moment."
"Very good," the old man smiled. "You have done a good job recently. You have added more than a thousand inquisitors to the church. There are also sixty-two people who applied for transformation this time, which is already the most in history."
"Your Majesty, can you tell me how many God's Punishment Army we need to defeat the devil?" Mayne hesitated for a moment and asked, "All the information I know about the devil comes from the holy book. But the holy book The records in the book are not complete, there is no record of their origins, numbers and combat methods. I know that these secrets must be known only after becoming the Pope, but..."
O'Brien stretched out his hand to stop his words, "You are too anxious, child, be patient. You will be able to take over this crown and become the next pope in a short time, and all questions will be resolved in the Privy Temple I found the answer in the library at the top. Now I can only tell you, the more the better." He took a breath, "Also, even though I didn't come to you for the transformation ceremony, since we met, this year's transformation Just let you try to host it, and I will watch it, and it can be regarded as accumulating some...ahem...experience for the future."
Mayne hastily patted the Pope on the back, and after he breathed a little better, he lowered his head and said, "Yes, Your Majesty." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point to vote. It is my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users please go to read.)