Kraft saw with his own eyes a series of subtle and complex contradictory expressions on Wadine's face: tension at the deterioration of the situation, polite condolences, associations with his own situation, and an inevitable bit of schadenfreude.
As the distance approached, these expressions were flattened and disappeared, replaced by doubts and wariness.
The ship looked like it had been lying there for a long time, so long that it was engulfed in damp, disgusting black mold, and its original color could not be seen.
A dead snake-like tether tied it to a bulge on the reef. The knot was almost worn out, leaving only a few strands of fiber holding the abandoned ship from being carried away by the rising and falling currents.
It is not a boat of the same style as them, nor does it have a fixed floating barrel. It is just a flat-bottomed boat commonly seen on the Teme River. It is used for ferrying or carrying cargo when the sea is calm. It is made of ordinary materials and can easily capsize.
Some people from outside the church arrived earlier, probably within a few weeks to two months.
There were no items in the boat to prove his identity. There were only bites and deep tear-like marks on the boat, indicating what he had experienced during the journey.
The interior of the ship was reinforced with additional wooden planks, but this did not prevent the attackers from tearing off a large piece of the side plank and digging several large holes with rough edges in the bottom of the ship. This may be the reason why they panicked and chose their way ashore.
That group of people all survived the attack and arrived here.
"Those pagans." There was no other suspect, but it was hard for Father Green to imagine how he could get down before the hall collapsed and bring a boat with him.
"Hopefully they've drowned in their crazy behavior." Instead of still being here in some form, that means things will be a lot more troublesome.
Although he was very reluctant, Green still cast a pragmatic and questioning look at Kraft. The latter leaned on his sword to support half of his body and nodded to indicate that his condition was barely tolerable and that he could use unconventional means to solve unconventional troubles when necessary.
The priest stopped for a moment and walked towards this side, "The sages once formed an alliance with the king who held the sword in the stone, and the kingdom gained glory because of it. It can be seen that the sword is not good or evil depending on its origin."
"Today is just like more than a hundred years ago. Perhaps it is Heavenly Father who is testing us again to unite our minds and put aside any differences."
He took off his gloves and shook hands with the professor who had just realized what he was going to do.
【You handle this, I'll handle the others】
After making sure that Kraft understood what he meant, Green let go and looked around at the monks present, looking into each face in turn that chose to follow him here.
He didn't know if other people thought the same thing, but on this unique rocky beach...the "little creatures" gathered here for some reason, the boats pushed to the shore, and themselves, there seemed to be various signs
It all shows that this is that special place.
The will of the Father, the choice of the lake, a certain inevitable result, the secret confluence of fate arranged for people who go astray for different reasons.
The feeling of revelation makes the mind clear and realizes that the answer is just ahead. The answer to the unsolved case that has been pursued for months, the answer to the pagan worship, the answer to the historical mystery, and perhaps the final answer to a few more insignificant lives.
A question that I felt I couldn’t empathize with at the time came to mind:
【Don’t you want to know?】
Many things flashed through my mind. I heard the deeds of Heavenly Father for the first time, determined to become a defender of doctrine, received a degree in theology, took over my current position, and spent half my life in a place where I could see the spire of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Now that you have explored so far without knowing it, don’t you want to know the final answer?
But when I was only one step away from understanding the miracles and the kingdom of heaven, I realized that my heart was not as persistent as I thought. It was like a knitted robe worn over armor. Although it was gorgeous and comfortable, it was no big deal to take it off when it felt dirty and heavy.
of.
"No, I don't want to." He doesn't care whether the world after death exists, or whether the church represents that supreme will, or even whether there really is a supreme will that loves the world.
He came here to solve this big trouble that he first discovered, nothing more.
Green changed direction and walked towards the depths of the rocky beach.
Kraft, who had not been on the channel for a while, was confused and followed the others, not understanding what he didn't want, but it seemed that the result was good. The barriers in the team were reduced, and they no longer stayed on the outside and were determined to explore inward.
The rock clusters sloping outward are getting denser and taller, like waves being stirred up and splashing against your face, and they stand thickly.
Most of the rock clusters have been carved with shrine-like depressions, and the craftsmanship is in line with the characteristics of the lost ethnic group. When a little light enters, it will occasionally illuminate the shadows of some muddy, crawling objects wrapped in pale hard objects.
The water flow did not disappear as it went deeper, but lingered around the feet. It was brought to the surface by the pressure between the slits, gushed out from unexpected holes and gaps, and disappeared in an instant on the gravel-paved ground.
The mist travels through the stone forest, and information from outside the world of moisture and coldness is mixed into it, the cruel smell that makes people instinctively alert, the chilling dark stains, signals of the passing of similar lives.
The traces of the body being torn apart by something were diluted, oxidized, and reduced to an intermittent dark brown guide, leading them to the residue.
The broken bones are coated with a layer of reddish brown and are still fresh in time. The soft tissue that was once attached to them has been "washed away" - Craft can only think of this escape word - like in the herbarium.
Specimens treated with chemical solvents specifically to retain specific parts are "clean" to the extreme.
The pieces of cloth and chain mail were inextricably entangled, and the reddish-brown color was interspersed between the braided wires and iron rings. It could be seen that they were of the same type as those on their bodies.
The astonishing amount of bleeding showed that he had suffered a terrible experience, but the traces were different from what was expected.
There was no time to mourn for the other group. After checking, Green and Wadine came to a common conclusion: he was not dragged here, but came here on his own.
It seems that after being severely injured, he ran away all the way, and finally stopped due to excessive blood loss. The winding route took several turns, and he turned back, indicating that he was no longer able to discern the direction.
Krafft was allowed to step forward and lift open the fabric, observing the entire skeleton that had been shattered due to the loss of connecting tissue. He hoped that there were some defects on it that could indicate what kind of trauma he had suffered, and could help understand what kind of enemy they were about to face.
However, the actual situation once again refuted the subjective assumption. No obvious defects were seen in the skeleton, but instead showed uneven and abnormal growth.
It was not located at the common joints or epiphyses, but concentrated on the left mandible, shoulder blade, thoracic ribs, and the smaller half of the upper body showed changes in the bone structure in a particularly bizarre direction and degree.
The new bones are like inverted burrs, with needlepoints popping out, wildly growing two to three fingers long, from the surface of the flat bones to the backbone of the long bones. They are so dense that the original surface appearance is almost invisible.
They penetrated the surrounding organs and blood vessels, penetrated from under the skin, and tore the body apart from the inside out.
