Chapter 4 The reincarnation of history [Thanks to the leader of the fleeting wine cup]
Place of the Seven Hills, Cathedral of San Naro.
The Templar Knights are wandering on the edge of the Seven Hills and in the streets of the city. Normally, these knights rarely appear directly in the eyes of the world like this, but I don’t know when they started to appear more frequently and in greater numbers.
Come more and more.
Someone once recalled that everything seemed to have started with the martial law at Saint-Naro Cathedral a long time ago. As for why "a long time" was used, it was naturally that such martial law lasted for so long that the people almost forgot. What exactly was all this?
When did it become like this? Trying to recall, it is only vague. It seems that the Saint-Naro Cathedral has been so formidable from the beginning.
Rather than the distance between man and God, it is better to say that one night, the Cathedral of Saint-Naro became a prison for the devil, and it deliberately maintained a distance from the world...
"Irrelevant people leave as soon as possible!"
There were soldiers shouting on the street, and not far away were the heavily armed Templar Knights, who maintained order on the scene.
As the Pope's hammer, believers have always trusted them, but facing the demands of the Templar Knights now, even if this order comes from the Pope, it is a little difficult for them to accept.
"No, I can't leave!"
Someone was crying like this, with blood stains on his forehead, and kept kowtowing, praying for mercy.
Unfortunately, this failed to change his ending. The believers were dragged away by the soldiers and thrown into the slow-moving crowd. They formed a long team, guarded by soldiers and Templar knights, from the Seven Hills
They overflowed in the corners of the place, gathered together on the main road, and were then driven out of the holy city.
The believers were all looking forward to the day when the martial law was lifted so that they could see the magnificent church from a distance. However, what followed was not the lifting of the martial law, but a deeper purification.
"I can hold on!"
Another believer shouted, his eyes were red, but he was quickly controlled by the soldiers.
As another person started rioting, more believers started shouting together. Some of them were too extreme and crazy, shouting blasphemous words.
"This place is invaded by darkness! They are crawling out of God's shadow!"
Another believer broke away from the team at some point. He stood on a high place and shouted to everyone.
"This sacred ground will be polluted! We will defend it! Until the end!"
He yelled, and even though the soldiers beat him roughly with short sticks, he still tried to get up and continue to preach.
These words were like a crazy spell, as if something had been touched. Many believers who had lowered their heads slowly raised their heads, with another emotion flashing in their eyes. They clenched their fists, as if they wanted to overthrow these soldiers and protect this area.
land.
Judging from their beliefs, even if they are swallowed by darkness and die on this land, it is a supreme honor.
"There is no darkness! God's light will always protect everything!"
The Templar Knight noticed these subtle changes, and he immediately shouted loudly, with a loud voice that struck the hearts of the believers like a bell.
This seemed to really shock them, and they became much calmer, but no one knew when the restlessness hidden in their hearts would arise again.
Even the Templar himself was like this. He looked at the driven away believers. The angry rebuke just now not only shocked the believers, but the Templar was also trying to scare away the fear in his heart.
He looked at his colleagues. Under the heavy helmet, in the darkness, he could see pairs of eyes similar to his own, and the same emotions were hidden under those eyes.
The hand holding the reins trembled slightly, and among the noise beside his ears, there were secret and strange murmurs.
Yeah, when did all this start?
It seemed to be a week ago, maybe half a month ago, the Templar couldn't remember clearly, but he was determined to be sure that all this happened after martial law.
At first, some people started to have nightmares. They dreamed of a hell where blood and bones intertwined, and they heard the sound of demons grinding their teeth and sucking blood at night.
At first, there were very few people like this. Even if someone spoke out, everyone thought that his belief was not pious enough. But gradually, such nightmares devoured more and more people, and most people could not bear the intrusion of nightmares.
When they fall asleep, their eye sockets are black, the whites of their eyes are bloodshot, and they look exhausted.
Gradually, such a nightmare seems to have become a consensus. Everyone knows what they are encountering, but they all keep silent in a tacit agreement, because they know very well that this is the most sacred city in the world, and they live with the great Pope.
There is a piece of land. If there is any place in the world that is closest to heaven, then it must be here.
The devil will not attack these devout people, and they believe it.
The believers cannot convince themselves to believe the reality of this nightmare. If this nightmare is real and is tortured by the devil, then what is such a devout person and such a devout belief? A ridiculous lie?
So they deceive themselves and others, and in order to defend their pathetic beliefs, they stubbornly regard abnormal nightmares as mental illness, and pray more and more devoutly until they fall into hysterical madness.
The believers were looking forward to the pope's appearance, but what they waited for in the end was expulsion. The pope did not explain the reason for all this, but just expelled most of the believers from the city, and even used the Knights Templar for this purpose.
Only those clergy with a certain rank were allowed to stay, with the minimum manpower to maintain the operation of the entire city.
"More and more believers are becoming dissatisfied. Some extreme guys even think that the devil has already taken possession of me."
There were people talking in the corner of the street. They were in the shadows, quietly watching the procession on the street.
Hearing the words of the visitor, Anthony couldn't help but smile. The smile caused the scars on his face to look extremely ferocious and evil.
"You actually still have such an idea? Then what do they want to do, cross your crown and burn it as a heretic?"
Anthony made a disturbing joke and turned to look at the visitor in the shadows.
"I think you should have taken care of it?"
"Well, they have been dealt with, along with all the discordant voices, those families who are ready to make trouble, we have also issued a warning to them, and now everything is under control."
"That's good."
Hearing this, Anthony nodded, and then couldn't help but sigh.
"All this is really familiar."
He took out a cigarette and lit it, puffing away the smoke.
"Just like many years ago, I helped His Majesty put on the crown. In those days, we eradicated those discordant voices and drowned the opponents in the Tiber River... Now everything is happening again before our eyes."
Anthony narrowed his eyes, like a sharp sword.
"Samuel, inform other demon hunters to ensure that the Seven Hills are under our control no matter what."
Samuel responded, but he didn't leave in a hurry and asked again.
"I don't think you need to worry so much. As you said, all this has happened before. It just needs to happen again, and that time we won."
"Do you know what happened?"
After listening to the deputy's words, Anthony smiled and then asked.
"you mean……"
"This city, do you know what's happening to this city?"
Samuel shook his head. All this is the highest secret. The only real insiders seem to be Anthony and His Majesty. Demon hunters like them are just tools to execute orders. Even martial law is effective on them without going through the process.
Even they could not get close to the Cathedral of Saint-Naro if allowed.
"But I can feel the surge of erosion. The city is filled with erosion, but I can't find the source of it all."
Samuel added that the nightmare of believers comes from the ubiquitous erosion, but whenever Samuel tries to chase the source of the erosion, he feels as if he is wrapped in erosion and is in the middle of the tide.
…
Just like...just like this city, this whole is the source of erosion.
Thinking of this, Samuel's thoughts trembled a bit and he didn't dare to continue thinking.
Like many believers, he has pure faith, so in Samuel's view, heresies are simply fallacies. He will not allow himself to believe in such blasphemous things, such as this sacred city, which is the source of evil.
.
"You still don't know anything. All this is like the history of reincarnation... So do you know what happened here many years ago?"
Anthony continued to ask, he was very relaxed, at least for the moment.
"You help me put on the crown..."
"No, no, no, I mean before the update," Anthony interrupted Samuel directly, "Think about it, what do you remember before the update?"
Samuel recalled, and then a taboo word popped into his mind. He felt a chill all over his body, and his heart seemed to have stopped for a second.
"Holy..."
"Shh..."
Anthony raised his finger and hissed to stop Samuel's words, as if it was some kind of spell that would come true if he said it.
"What I'm worried about is this. In the final analysis, defeating your opponent and becoming the pope is just a struggle between people. But that kind of thing is not. It cannot be summarized simply by fighting between people."
"What... exactly is going on?"
Samuel felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. Seeing this, Anthony remained unfazed. Instead, he became interested and enjoyed the panic of his deputy.
"Don't worry too much, just play the role of tool."
Anthony remembered something immediately, and he continued.
"By the way, we may have some guests back later, some not-so-popular guests, they may come from Gaulnaro, or they may come from Inverg... In short, don't obstruct them too much, they
Maybe they are friends...at least for the time being."
After Anthony said all this, he threw away the half-burned cigarette in his hand. He walked onto the street, blended into the crowd, and soon disappeared.
Samuel, who remained in the shadows, seemed a little at a loss. He seemed to know some secrets that he shouldn't know, but as Anthony's deputy, he knew all this, and it seemed natural.
It's just that everything happened so suddenly that people were caught off guard.
"The night of the Holy Advent."
Samuel couldn't help but mutter this word again. After the reorganization of the Demon Hunting Order, all information about the Night of Holy Advent was strictly sealed. Very few people knew about it. Even Samuel only knew a small part of it.
That's all, but just such a corner is enough to bring huge fear.
He didn't know what would happen, but Samuel knew that perhaps a huge disaster would befall this city in the near future.
When Samuel thought of this, he couldn't help but cast his gaze into the distance. From here, he could vaguely see the spiers of the Saint-Naro Cathedral. They were piercing the sky and had not changed for hundreds of years.
And at the core of it all, in the cold and dark temple of stasis, the new pope is guarding here as always.
He knelt down beside the Well of Sublimation, and what he wore was no longer a gorgeous and exquisite robe, but armor made of pieces of solid and bright holy silver.
Just like Roger before, the new pope is now protected by a holy silver armor, with several nailed swords stored in front of him.
"So you succeeded?"
the new pope whispered.
In Lorenzo's plan, if Adren is not persuaded and becomes an enemy, Watson will carry [Final Echo] secretly and conduct a super-distance [Gap] invasion, and here, she will
Using the new Pope as the pivot, launch the final blow towards the Well of Ascension.
The new pope knew very well the risks of all this, but after careful consideration, he accepted it calmly, put down the crown of holy silver, and waited for himself to be invaded.
But none of this happened, and news also came from Old Dunling that the purification agency teamed up with the anonymous people to solve the two troublesome guys.
Thinking of this, even the new pope couldn't help but applaud them and praise their achievements.
【But is this really what you want? 】
A soft female voice sounded next to my ears, and there was a seductiveness hidden in the voice, as if it were the words spoken by the most beautiful woman in the world.
【If all this ends, where will you go?】
The sound was so clear that it easily passed through the shield of holy silver and reached his ears. The new pope's face was expressionless, as if he didn't hear it at all.
[If the demon disappears, do you demon hunters still have a purpose to exist? 】
[Your foothold is not to protect humans, but humans' fear of monsters! Only through fear of monsters can demon hunters have a foothold in this world.]
[Without demons, there is no meaning to being a demon hunter. Everything you believe in is just a ridiculous lie, abandoned in the dust of history in the face of increasingly advanced technology.]
【Do you really want all this glory to be cut off in your hands? 】
【Is this really...what you want?】
The soft female voice gradually became violent, and finally turned into a sharp scream. In a trance, the new pope could see the souls of previous popes, and they angrily criticized their actions, but soon all this disappeared.
The new pope stood up suddenly, drew his nail sword and slashed forward, and then hot blood overflowed and fell to the ground.
"Shut up, monster."
The new pope stared at the demon crawling out of the well. Under his sword, the broken body fell feebly back into the darkness, but before falling, the demon tilted its head strangely and showed a hateful smile at the new pope.