The ruins on the ground above the temple, which were used to hide from the public, were built by the Worm Order in the early part of this era, which was still prosperous at that time. At that time, it was the residence of the priests of the order and the believers who came to worship. Later, the order declined.
The ruins were abandoned and turned into the ruins of a large manor that now appeared in front of Shade.
Time has destroyed most things. Only the vague patterns on a few pillars can illustrate how prosperous this place was back then. The ancient language from the third era is etched on the pillars, and all the letters look like curled insects.
, this was created by the races that mixed with insects in the Third Age. In the modern era of the Sixth Age, probably few people except Shade could understand it.
The entrance to the underground temple is under the floor on one side of the ruins. To open the downward passage, you need a difficult-to-pronounce incantation and a key. The meaning of the incantation was translated by Shade, and it probably means "praising the great earth-shaking worm."
, may your fluctuations be with us.”
As for the key that opens the entrance, it is not a dead thing, but a worm that lives in the body of the old lady Ilar, the last priest of the sect. The worm is black all over, is one-fifth as long as an arm, and has an unusually conspicuous mouthparts.
.
It came out of the mouth of old Mrs. Ilar, with hundreds of legs squirming. Not only Shade, but also Miss Aurora couldn't stand this scene. And the cat on Shade's shoulder was even more alert.
She wanted to rush forward, and it seemed that she wanted to protect Shadmia from the insect. She felt that this kind of insect was smaller than her, so there was no danger at all.
While reciting the incantation, the pitch-black worm drilled into the ground. As the ground trembled, the stone steps connecting the ground appeared under the pitch-black entrance.
【Outlander, you feel the "miracle" and "blasphemy".】
Most of the miracles come from the good gods, and blasphemy only comes from the evil gods. This is the first time that Shade has encountered a god with both miracles and blasphemy.
Looking at the stone steps in front of him, Shade handed little Mia into the hands of the maids, because old Mrs. Ilar only allowed Shade and Miss Aurora to enter the temple.
After waiting for a while to ventilate the inside, he went down the stairs. The black worm went down the wall, lighting the kerosene lamps on both sides of the stairs for everyone in advance, and also illuminated a large number of scary things on both sides of the stairs.
Murals of living sacrifices and religious penal laws.
Shade once again confirmed that although the [Earth-Shaking Worm] has gone far away, this old god is a real evil god.
Probably when this place was built, the religious order had already declined, so the underground temple was not the large building that Shade had imagined.
The stone steps are not long, and at the end is the temple where the holy emblems and statues of gods are placed. The lights are dim, and the underground space seems a bit narrow and shabby. There are dark rooms on both sides of the temple, which are libraries used to store the sect's classics.
and a dark room for resting.
It seems that all churches attach more importance to the Holy Emblem than to the statue of the god. Therefore, the statue of the god that represents the image of the [Earth-Shaking Worm] in the material world is simply placed on the high platform, and the Shad seems to have dozens of them at a glance.
The holy emblem with worms crawling on its back was hung in the most conspicuous position of the temple.
The Holy Emblem is made of stone and is generally round. The pattern of the Holy Emblem is that of an entangled worm. In addition to some runes filled in the gaps, this simple Holy Emblem has a look that makes people unable to stand even if they just take a look at it.
A feeling of stability.
Old Mrs. Ilar opened her mouth and swallowed the dark worm, and then slowly lit the candle here. Shade and the witch glanced around. Shade actually had some expectations before coming here, looking forward to this place.
There is such a thing as divinity, but unfortunately there is not.
But there must be other divinities in the material world. Rather than facing the evil god directly, Shade is more willing to look for traces of divinity from myths and legends. Although as long as there is no bigger trouble, his current divinity
It's enough to use it until the Fourth Ring Road, but you can't really go to the Fourth Ring Road and start looking again.
After lighting the candle, the old man knelt down on one knee on the cushion under the holy emblem and prayed for a long time before leading Shade up the high platform to the statue of the god.
The ancient statue of the god that has gone through the vicissitudes of time and has witnessed several eras is not big, and is about the same as an ordinary plaster bust. After Shade got closer, he immediately felt the increasingly strong blasphemy element, and at the same time, the illusion that the ground was shaking became more and more intense.
It's becoming more and more obvious.
The reason why I think this is an illusion is because if there is really an earthquake, the flames of those candles cannot be so stable.
One of the common sense among ring magicians is that you should never approach the statue of an unfamiliar god. Even if you want to gain knowledge, you must confirm the consequences and write a suicide note before approaching.
But this time, Miss Aurora was by his side, and Shade had no hesitation. When he saw old Mrs. Ilar kneeling on the cushion under the statue and praying in a low voice again, he followed suit.
His eyes quickly scanned the statue, and the bumps on the surface of the worm's body turned out to be not decorative runes, but human faces distorted by pain. When Shade saw them, those faces seemed to come to life.
They squirmed to express their own pain, and even conveyed the pain they experienced to Shade.
But in the blink of an eye, this illusion disappeared. The impact of this scene and the influence of the evil god statue itself made Sha De immediately close his eyes and lower his head.
This time it is different from the statue of [Vampire Duke Loair]. This statue is a sacred object of the religious order and is still being sacrificed to this day. Its influence on mortals is far greater than the former.
He felt someone coming up behind him:
"I didn't expect your spiritual power to be so strong, to be so close, and to still be able to look up at the statue."
It was Miss Aurora, she came over too.
"Do those ferocious human faces on the surface of the statue mean anything?"
Shade wanted to slow down and regain his best mental state before looking directly at the statue and feeling the blasphemy.
Miss Aurora didn't care about the feelings of old Mrs. Ilar at all, she smiled and explained:
"In ancient times, in order to calm down the so-called anger of the earth, believers in the old god [Earth-Shaking Worm] would hold living sacrifices, using their blood and souls to sacrifice to the gods to gain peace. It is said that the souls of those who were sacrificed would
Devoured by the old gods and permanently trapped in the shell of the gods, he was squeezed, worn and tortured day and night."
"It's their honor."
The old man who bowed his head in prayer suddenly said. Although she did not raise her head, Shade thought she should still have that kind expression.
Miss Aurora smiled again and did not refute, but asked:
"Shade, haven't you ever been curious? Why should we use human sense of good and evil to distinguish between miracles and blasphemy?"
"I've thought about it too, but I can't figure it out. Probably, the distinction between evil gods and good gods just happens to coincide with good and evil, but in fact the distinction between miracles and blasphemy is due to another reason."
"Yes, that's why there are gods who possess miracles and also possess blasphemy. There has been discussion within the parliament on this point. We believe that miracles are what should exist. Blasphemy seems to be the opposite, but it is actually a derivative of miracles.
"
Miss Aurora said, she reached out her hand behind Shade and grabbed Shade's right hand:
"I can't explain this to you better, it can only be discovered by yourself. Feel it carefully, Shade, I will help you feel the power of this old god carefully. If the power you gain is related to the earth instead of
It’s related to the vibration, so I think I have to think of other ways.”
Her five fingers passed through Shade's fingers and pushed Shade's hand forward. Of course Shade knew that this posture was wrong, but the statue of the god was right in front of him, and he had no time to refuse.
A strange brilliance spread from Miss Aurora's body, and that brilliance was transmitted to Shade through her arms. Behind the two of them, the life rings of the two-ring warlock and the twelve-ring warlock appeared in the steam mist, with a cross-section of twelve sides.
The shaped brass ring seems to help the flat ring rotate:
"Xia De, even if you are a witch, you cannot do this often. Please feel this power carefully."
So the two of them placed their hands closely on the surface of the statue.
When his palm touched the statue, Shade didn't care about the cold feeling and the slight stinging sensation as if he had been bitten by an insect. He stared at the statue. What really mattered was that the stone worm in front of him seemed to really come alive at this moment.
The insect's body squirmed, and the hand that was close to the statue felt the roughness of the stone surface.
Shade's eyes began to bleed, but he truly felt the trembling power and the terrifying power that the Great One had left here.
His body wanted to tremble, but the witch behind him fixed Shade's hand. In the strange brilliance of the witch's body, the terrifying mouthparts of the big stone worm bit directly into Shade's hand. Unreal pain appeared.
At the same time, Shade seemed to feel like something exploded in his head.
It seemed that for a moment, he saw the bloody sacrifices of primitive tribes in ancient times, as if he saw the terrifying worm population wandering deep in the earth, as if he had traveled through several eras, and in the oldest era, saw the earth where worms were trembling and crying.
Something was swallowed.
In this chaotic hallucination, a voice finally appeared in my ears:
[You have come into contact with the statue of the old god "Earthshaking Worm".]
[Wandering in the depths of the endless earth, shaking the land, absorbing the power of disaster and destruction. In the dusk of the old days, in the midst of madness, He voluntarily left and returned that great power to the earth.]
[You listened to the story of the old god "Earth-Shaking Worm", and you learned about the blasphemy of the old god "Earth-shaking Worm". 】
Behind Shade's back. Behind Shade and Miss Aurora, the life ring of the twelve-ring warlock disappeared, and the life ring belonging to the second-ring warlock rotated rapidly. The old man and the witch both turned to look at the dazzling four-color light that had been lit up.
The aura seems as if Shade is using thaumaturgy, but this is just the ordinary state of Shade's spiritual runes.
The ground was shaking, and this time a small-scale earthquake really occurred. Along with this tremor, silver auras gathered on the surface of the life ring. The bells rang, the whistle blew, and the dazzling silver auras directly illuminated the entire place.
The underground temple space.
This was the first time that someone had witnessed Shade inscribing spiritual runes up close and personal. However, the old man, a low-level warlock, thought this scene was magical, but the witch frowned in surprise.
Even if a high-level warlock inscribes spiritual runes, there should not be such a movement. After all, the acquisition of spiritual runes is only a matter for the individual high-level warlocks, and there is no reason why it would affect the environment so strongly.
[Outlander, you have engraved the silver blasphemous spirit rune-shock.]
The rapidly rotating life ring gradually slowed down, and all the auras gathered on the surface of the life ring, eventually forming new runes. The flickering aura gradually stabilized until it remained at almost the same level as [Tree Kiss] and [Greed].
"Miss Aurora, it's ready."
Shade took a deep breath and moved his hand away from the statue. The statue remained in its original state. The scene where the bugs devoured Shade's arm just now was really just an illusion.
But there was still a tingling sensation on his arm. Because of receiving the huge information and feeling the power of the gods at close range, Shade staggered back and felt that his back hit something soft. His face turned red, and he was too embarrassed to look back immediately.
Observing his life ring, he had already felt the power.
The witch retracted her surprised expression, chuckled, and retracted her slender fingers from between Shade's fingers. Shade slowly exhaled, and completely moved his eyes away from the statue in front of him, which was putting great pressure on him. Only then did he realize that he didn't know
Unconsciously, my entire back was soaked.
"Was there an earthquake just now?"
He asked softly and weakly, partly because he was pretending, and partly because his mental state was indeed not very good.
"A very slight earthquake."
The witch with long wavy brown hair said, and then looked at Shade's side face suspiciously:
"Xia De, don't tell me that the spiritual rune you obtained is [Earthquake]."
"No, it's [shock]. This trip has achieved its goal."
Shade said, and sighed softly:
"Miss Aurora, you were really helpful this time."
"You don't have to be so polite. I just paid your toll."
The witch said easily, looking at Shade, and then at the statue of the god that was still standing there quietly. The god had left long ago, but the statue was still terrifying:
"Okay, let's go back."
She doesn't want to comment too much on this place, and she doesn't want to face the evil statue too much. Even a witch is still a mortal.