According to the markings on the map, the capital of the Essar Empire and Oak Town are more than a thousand miles apart, which is logically very far away.
However, when Alan and Catherine flew in the sky, they flew very fast, and thousands of mountains and rivers receded rapidly in their sight.
It was as if the earth had become a colorful tablecloth and was quickly removed by an invisible hand.
The two of them floated silently in the air.
Suddenly, Allen heard Catherine beside him mumbling in a clear voice. If he listened carefully, he seemed to be reciting a poem:
"As I turned up the stairs,
"I bumped into someone who shouldn't exist.
"She's not there today,
"I wish she would disappear forever.(1)
"..."
Allen looked at her seriously and asked softly: "Catherine, what are you talking about?"
After hearing his words, Catherine suddenly came back to her senses and said repeatedly: "It's nothing."
Looking at her confused and panicked look, she looked like a little girl who was called out and criticized by the teacher for being distracted in class.
A few minutes later, the two slowly fell from the sky and landed on the ground.
However, they did not arrive at the capital of the Essar Empire. Instead, they followed Allen's some dark intuition and came to Luoxue Town near the imperial capital.
Because, when he came to the sky above Luoxue Town, Allen actually felt the aura of the Dark Temple believers here.
"They must have been here before." Allen said in his heart with certainty.
At this time, Luoxue City was bathed in bright sunshine, as if every room was plated with gold, showing a dreamy warm yellow tone.
But there was no one in this small town, and there was silence.
In this silent and strange atmosphere, Catherine clutched Allen's sleeves tighter, and her face became paler.
Allen's expression remained as calm as ever.
He took Catherine with him as he walked on the sunny but silent streets, paying alert attention to the surrounding environment.
Then they stopped at the door of an inn.
This inn is called "Citrus Inn", and the wooden signboard is painted a warm orange-red.
Thick dust fell on it, sparkling with crystal light under the sunlight.
The inn was also deserted.
In the simple inn lobby, there were only a few shabby chairs and a narrow counter. In addition to being filled with thick dust, there were even spiders spinning webs on it.
Allen slowly walked to the counter.
In the center of the counter, there is a yellowed notebook, as if it has been waiting for Allen for many years, waiting for him to open it.
Allen was silent for a moment, then reached out and opened the notebook.
The handwriting on the note is very familiar.
Allen once stayed in Delphi's conscious world. He naturally knew that this was the handwriting of the high priest Delphi.
I saw the note saying:
"Ever since I was sent to this new plane named after him by the Lord Messenger, I have been thinking about whether to write some notes as material to record the process of our exploration and development...
"..."
(For the full text, see "Delphi's Notes" in the preface of this volume)
Allen stood quietly by the counter, reading the contents of the notes word by word.
He knew that this was an important clue related to the whereabouts of the believers, and it might even be the only clue.
Because of this, his attitude was focused and serious, and he didn't even miss a punctuation mark.
Catherine, on the other hand, stood beside him, grabbing the hem of his clothes and saying nothing.
Soon, Allen read the place where the note ended abruptly.
"...I don't want to be like Ariel, who can't even do simple addition and subtraction..."
After this passage, except for a drop of smudged ink, there is no more content, and there is no explanation of the whereabouts of the believers.
This feeling that the clues were suddenly cut off made Allen feel a little depressed, just like the chapter of a novel was cut off at the most exciting place.
But besides this depression, he also vaguely felt that something was wrong.
It seemed that there were some strange things hidden in the notes that he had not discovered.
The sudden end of the note made Allen have many associations.
So, he calmed down and read the notes again.
"Teacher, is there something wrong with this...note?" Catherine suddenly asked hesitantly.
Allen nodded and replied: "There are contradictions."
Based on some speculation about the world in Allen's mind, he did not hide the contents of the notes from Catherine, but displayed them openly in front of her.
"Contradictory?"
Allen didn't answer immediately.
His eyes first fell on the beginning of the note. Delphi wrote, "Until midnight today, the night was dark, and I had trouble falling asleep because of insomnia." This clearly proves that Delphi wrote this note in the day.
The night after dark.
But at the end of the note, Delphi wrote, "That's all for today. I'm tired, and the sun is so dazzling when it falls on the paper." This seems to indicate that Delphi finished writing this note during the day.
Moreover, Delphi wrote grumblingly, "Well, I seem to be a little emotional today. I didn't expect that I wrote so much content in less than an hour." This proves that he wrote this note
It didn't take long, no more than an hour.
Although in this world, the daytime is much longer than the night. The sun does not go down until about eight or nine in the evening, but it is already bright at four or five in the morning.
But it wasn’t like what was described in the notes, where I was blinded by the sun at one o’clock in the morning.
Thinking back to the sudden end at the end of the note...
"Catherine, can you recall what it was like when you were about to wake up from your sleep every morning?"
"I feel very uncomfortable. I don't want to go to school and want to sleep a little longer."
"I want to ask...how will you feel visually? That is, what will you see the moment before you open your eyes?"
"I think about it... maybe the world in the dream will suddenly become very bright, like a ball of white light suddenly exploding in front of my eyes... Then I will feel that I am lying on the bed with my eyes closed tightly, like
It's like being sewn up with needle and thread, and it's difficult to open it."
"So, Catherine, can you guess now why this note suddenly stopped at this point?"
"He...he's awake?" Catherine suddenly opened her eyes wide.
After saying this, Catherine seemed to suddenly remember something, and felt dizzy. In the blink of an eye, the picture in front of her turned into a dazzling white light, and then disappeared.
…………
at the same time.
Papal Circle, Cathedral of Light.
The current Pope Paul II, as usual, wears a high crown and a divine robe, and his body is as short and thin as a straw. It seems that a gust of wind can blow him down.
He stood quietly under the statue of the Goddess of Light and recited hymns to the goddess.
However, at this moment, he suddenly heard a vague and indistinguishable voice in his mind, like a hallucination.
"...He's awake?"
The voice was crisp and tender, but also very weak, like misty smoke, or like a seriously ill patient.
"The goddess has a new oracle?"
The Pope was startled and immediately rushed into the prayer room and knelt devoutly under the bronze statue of the goddess.
But there was silence after that.
He never heard any more sounds.
And the voice just now seemed to have really become his hallucination.
(1) From William Hughes Milne's poem "antigonish", which has been quoted in "The Shining", "Velvet Goldmine", "Fatal Id", etc.
ps: Thanks to the helmsman dues cheese for the 10,000 reward (will add more as soon as I have time)! Thanks to lizitang for the 2,000 reward, and Mo Kongkong for the 588 reward!