Coming to the secret room below that was full of futuristic technology, Lu Xiao ignored the exclamation expressions of Ezio and Federico who were looking around, walked straight to the center of the field, and inserted the papal staff combined with the golden apple into the keyhole on the ground.
Inside.
A soft golden light curtain shot out from the head of the staff and illuminated a seemingly airtight metal wall.
"Boom!"
Amidst the roaring sound of the machine, the wall slowly sank, revealing an unilluminated dark passage behind it.
Just this secret outdoor room, regarded as a holy place by the Catholic Church, was enough to amaze Ezio and Federico. They had never seen such a room made of metal.
The secret passage that suddenly appeared in front of them made the two of them stunned. Lu Xiao patted the shoulders of the two and encouraged them: "Come with me, the secret that the two organizations have been pursuing for a long time is inside."
Thanks to the power of the golden apple and the papal staff, the walls with unknown words engraved on both sides emitted strange light intermittently.
Ezio and Federico moved cautiously, their expressions looking pious but also revealing fear. They seemed to think that the God believed by Catholics was hidden in this secret room.
Lu Xiao rolled his eyes behind the two of them and pushed their backs with both hands.
"Go in, there is no Lord here, or... the Lord deliberately forged by Catholicism is false from the beginning."
The Isu people, who are recognized as gods by humans, were active around 78,000 to 75,000 BC, while Jesus Christ, who was shaped by the Catholic Church as the Lord, was born in 4 BC. The time obviously does not match up.
Lu Xiao did not dare to pat his chest and say with certainty that Jesus was 100% a man-made and fictional god, but he certainly did not have as powerful a power as a pure Isu.
Most of the special abilities he showed his believers were with the help of Eden artifacts, such as the shroud wrapped around Lu Xiao's right upper arm.
Four square metal pillars stood in the deepest part of the secret passage. When the three of them entered the final secret room, a vague female voice sounded at the right time.
"Welcome, Prophet, you are finally here."
A holographic image similar to Aletheia appeared in front of Lu Xiao and the others. It was a young woman wearing a metal helmet and an ancient Greek-style shawl robe. She had an average appearance and was over 2 meters tall.
Her majestic and gentle voice intertwined with her intellectual temperament made her seem more approachable than Aletheia, who was quite aloof when they first met.
...Of course, after having been with Aletheia for a long time, Lu Xiao also realized her true nature, at least she was not as serious and cold as she seemed on the outside.
"Come on, let's not waste time."
The woman with energy body stretched out her left hand and looked at the Golden Apple of Eden in Lu Xiao's hand.
"Heavenly Father!"
Ezio stepped back in disbelief: "Are you... a god?"
Reaching out to activate the golden apple in Lu Xiao's hand, the Isu woman's eyes, which seemed a bit dull before, became much more lively.
"...Interesting, the future you have experienced is roughly consistent with what I calculated, but some slight deviations happened in this era."
The woman turned to look at Ezio, smiled and answered the question he had subconsciously exclaimed before: "I am not a god, we are just forerunners who came to this world earlier than you. In your eyes, we transcend time and are difficult to be recognized by human common sense.
The presence of understanding.”
"My name is Minerva. I was once called the goddess of wisdom by you humans. What stands before you now is just an intelligent image that I calculated and left behind with my 'eyes'. The real me has long since died."
Minerva's meaningful gaze stayed on Lu Xiao for a moment, and then turned to look at the empty void.
Next, Minerva controlled the holographic image device in the secret room, and intuitively told Ezio and Federico the reason why she left this image...the reason that Lu Xiao had already heard from Aletheia.
.
The origin of mankind, the war with the Isu people, the Toba catastrophe that destroyed the Isu civilization, and the second coronal ejection that will come sooner or later in the future.
"The message has been conveyed."
Minerva's hidden figure reappeared, her eyes still looking at the empty space: "We (Isu people) will leave this world soon, and the rest will depend on you, Dais
Mond.”
"ha?"
Unlike Lu Xiao, who looked indifferent, Ezio and Federico looked at Minerva who was gradually dissipating in confusion.
"Wait! Who is Desmond? Who is the prophet you are talking about? Hey! Don't leave in a hurry!"
Ezio's call received no response from Minerva. Before her energy body dissipated, she glanced at Lu Xiao one last time, with confusion and expectation in her eyes.
Minerva, who is just an intelligent image, cannot be as wise as she is, and cannot understand how much impact Lu Xiao's existence and changes in established history will have on the future calculated before her death.
After Minerva's image disappeared, calm returned to the secret room, leaving only Ezio and Federico with questions on their heads, and Lu Xiao, who lowered his head thoughtfully.
'Desmond is looking at this? From whose perspective? Who is the prophet Minerva is talking about, Ezio? Or...me?'
Even Minerva's intelligent imaging may not be able to give exact answers to these questions. Until Lu Xiao witnesses the modern plot with his own eyes, what changes will happen in the future is destined to become an unsolved mystery.
"Let's go, it's time for us to leave."
Lu Xiao came to his senses and greeted Ezio, who was angry and swearing. He couldn't believe that after all the hard work, he only got an inexplicable message.
Before leaving the secret room, Lu Xiao tried to recover the papal staff and golden apple that were the keys to the secret room.
But the mechanism that suddenly triggered automatically gave him only time to kick the golden apple off the sinking staff. The entire papal staff was buried under the ground and could no longer be touched.
A rapid whistle came from outside the secret room again, which meant that the enemy's attack was intensifying and the defense line could no longer hold on.
"Let's go! Evacuate the Sistine Chapel as soon as possible and return to the stronghold in Rome separately as planned!"
Lu Xiao ignored Rodrigo, who was still unconscious on the ground, and said to the two Auditore brothers who were lagging behind: "I leave this guy to you, you can do whatever you want with him!"
When they arrived outside the church, a large number of Holy Knights from the Holy See were attacking the defense line deployed by the elite assassins.
"Hey~"
Following Lu Xiao, the commander, whistled, all the assassins simultaneously threw lime smoke bombs made by Leonardo da Vinci at the enemy, covered their eyes, mouths and noses and quickly evacuated.
Taking advantage of the smoke billowing in front of the church, Lu Xiao and the other assassins split up and successfully escaped the pursuit of the Vatican soldiers and reached a tower high in the city of Rome.
Looking outside the city of Rome, the coalition forces led by Lorenzo and others had received the news and began to retreat slowly.
The Holy See troops outside Rome apparently also learned of the attack on the Pope. They did not pursue the retreating coalition forces, but hurriedly retreated into the city, intending to first confirm the safety of the new Pope Rodrigo.
Lu Xiao used the C-level Eagle Eye to see Catalina retreating in an orderly manner with the army from a distance. She turned back from time to time and looked into the city of Rome with worried eyes, hoping that Lu Xiao could escape the danger in time and once again
appear in front of yourself.
Withdrawing his nostalgic gaze, Lu Xiao looked up at the clear blue sky above the Eternal City.
'It has been four years since I came to this world, and it's time to leave.'
'Instead of fabricating a lot of false lies against their will, it would be better to disappear without saying goodbye, at least leaving a glimmer of hope in their hearts.'
"System, settle world tasks and return to the main world."
System: "After the world mission is settled, the host obtains the Holy Sword of Eden x2 (including the Heart of the Holy Sword), the Shroud of Eden, the Golden Apple of Eden, the Staff of Hermes, and a total of five Pieces of Eden."
"End completed, world task completion evaluation - perfect."
"Reward 5 free skill points, 5 free attribute points, and an epic lottery with no world restrictions."
"Are you sure you want to return to the main world now?"
"Sure."
System: "Return to the beginning, count down to 3, 2, 1..."
As her body gradually faded away, Lu Xiao took one last look at the beautiful city of Rome.
'Farewell, my friends, I hope to see you again in another form in the future.'
'Caterina, Rousseau, I hope you can spend the rest of your life in peace, maybe... forget it.'
Pushing hard on the ground with both feet, before returning, Lu Xiao opened his arms and jumped high in a leap of faith. His body continued to dissipate on the way down.
"Everything is allowed, everything is empty. We serve the light and work in the darkness. We are assassins."