Winter passes and spring comes, and everything revives.
It has been one month since the trial, which attracted the attention of thousands of people, ended.
Girls selling flowers sold freshly picked flowers along the street with a clear and childish voice; bakery shops put up bright and eye-catching signs and sold bread with raspberry jam in the market.
Every resident, every shop, and every street in Silver Ring City is filled with warm and bright colors.
There is only one exception.
The Third Inquisition.
Everyone here has a dejected and depressed expression on their face, and even the shadows cast by the buildings are a bit darker than before.
If the staff of the tribunal want to go out to do business, they have to take off their black robes embroidered with red crosses and put on casual clothes. Otherwise, they will be looked down upon, ridiculed or even beaten by the people of Silver Ring City. They know that they are in the wrong.
Never fight back.
A place of judgment that allows evil heretics to wear the garb of inquisitors, a place of sin that hides dirt and falsely accuses saints. What face does it have and what reason does it have to claim to be the sword of the Heavenly Father and the shield of believers?!
Old Bauer is sixty-four years old this year. He is a handyman at the Third Inquisition. He is mainly responsible for cleaning and maintaining items. The old man doesn't talk much, he is responsible, and he has long enough seniority, so he is deeply familiar with it.
You have to trust him, he has the keys to all the rooms in the tribunal. Naturally, some of the more secret and taboo rooms are not included here.
At five o'clock in the morning, it was still dark. It was no different from usual. Old Bauer started from the top floor of the court and went down step by step, performing the responsibilities of his job.
The architectural layout of the Third Inquisition is quite strange. It may be the only place in the Silver Ring City where the underground is wider than the above ground.
The above-ground part includes four major areas: offices, training, warehouses, and archives, with a total of three floors. The underground part is much larger. Even the old Bauer, who has worked here for nearly 20 years, has only been to the fourth underground floor.
After cleaning the reception room, guard room and interrogation room on the underground floor, the old man looked at the stairs leading to the second underground floor, took out the thick cloth he brought with him, and put it on himself. If you want to go all the way underground, not only the temperature will drop, but also the temperature will drop.
There was a deeper level of coldness that he could feel every time, a shiver radiating from his bones.
In the prisons and corridors on the second and third floors underground, listening to the incessant moans and murmurs, and looking at the inhuman prisoners in the darkness, Old Bauer waved the broom, intending to return as soon as possible with a few symbolic pulls.
Warm ground.
After cleaning to the end of the third underground floor, the old man put away the work tools in his hands, and when he was about to turn around and return, he caught a glimpse of something strange out of the corner of his eye.
The third underground floor leads to the fourth underground floor, and the steel door that is always closed opens...
Half an hour later, the old deacon in charge of managing the underground prison hurried to the scene. Behind him were old Bauer, an assistant deacon and two guards.
The old deacon bent down and carefully inspected the ring lock of the iron door.
The iron door adopts the working principle of multiple mechanisms. Three lock cylinders embedded in the iron door are linked together by lead rods and iron slots. Three deacons must insert the keys at the same time and twist them to open.
But now, there is no trace of the key being inserted, and the iron lock bounces open as if it has life.
Pushing open the heavy iron door, the old deacon waved to everyone to follow him.
Old Ball winced.
Ten years ago, he had entered the fourth underground floor once and knew exactly what was stored inside.
Ever since that glance, he had been plagued by nightmares every night, making him ill for more than half a month.
Just when he was about to refuse, he was pushed by the guard behind him, forcing him to take a step forward.
As soon as they entered the room on the fourth floor underground, the sour and rotten smell followed everyone's nostrils and penetrated into everyone's brains.
Not surprised, the old deacon took out two balls of cotton wool from his sleeves, stuffed them into his nose, and asked everyone to light the torches.
As soon as the fire started to rise, the two guards, who had never been here before, screamed like women who had seen a mouse.
The huge underground hall, with its four walls and eight hall pillars, is made of rock material ground into a flat surface. It is like the stars in the night sky, inlaid with countless human heads, including men, women, old people and children. The dark gray arches
The shape of the ceiling is painted with death-themed patterns, and is decorated with leg bones, tibia and ulna bones. Between the gaps of the skull on the wall, foot bones and metacarpal bones are used as embellishments to fill in. There are some further in the room,
The complete mummy and the entire skeleton were locked in the steel cage hanging from the high ceiling.
This is the "recording room" where the Third Inquisition has hunted alien species since its establishment (some people in the Inquisition like to call this place the "trophy room"). The general method is to cut off the heads of the hunted targets and dispose of them.
Then, they are classified and placed according to their abilities and the year of capture.
Old Bauer took out the cross from his chest, held it in his arms, closed his eyes tightly, and kept chanting: "Heavenly Father is above, drive away the evil! Heavenly Father is above, drive away the evil!"
Ignoring the fear and uneasiness of others, the old deacon and the assistant deacon began to check one by one to find out whether there was any abnormality.
"The 'Power' variant has been checked and there is nothing missing."
"The 'Chariot' variant has been inspected and nothing is missing."
As each classification inspection was completed, the old deacon's frown became deeper and deeper.
Most of the alien species that have been hunted recently are placed in this room. If you can't find them here, you may have to go deeper, in which case things will become more troublesome.
Fortunately, his worries did not last long.
The assistant deacon soon noticed something strange.
“The ‘Sun’ alien species is missing one here!”
After hearing this, the old deacon walked quickly to the wall. Among the "trophies" of horrifying and terrifying heads, there was indeed one missing one.
A semicircular hole appeared on the wall, and the head that was originally placed there disappeared.
"Find me! Find me this missing guy!"
The assistant deacon walked up to the guards with pale faces and trembling legs, took the thick record book from their hands, and started flipping through the pages by the light of the torch.
Time passed slowly, and the sound of paper turning was extremely harsh in this dull and terrifying space.
Finally, a page of paper was selected, and a line of tiny characters appeared in front of my eyes.
The old deacon squinted his eyes and carefully distinguished the fonts on it.
"Hunting time: January 19, 1170 in the Christian calendar. Hunting location: South of Fort Watch, Raven Forest. Hunting target: Marcos Burn. Alien classification: Sun V..."
The assistant deacon stretched his head, took a look, pointed to a line of small words below, and said to his boss: "There is also a line of remarks here."
The old deacon moved the record book closer to the direction of the fire and read out the contents word for word: "This person is suspected to be the carrier of the 'Sutherland Relic'."