In Kolo, the sanctuary is the undoubted core and sacred place of the Goddess of Creation faith, and almost everything in this land is in the service of religion - the cathedral is the religious, cultural, and administrative center of all cities, the church is the source of all education, the clergy are responsible for managing the entire sanctuary, and the religious buildings, they are the grandest and most complex facilities of the Order State.The basement of Luan Cathedral is not just a basement, but a super-large facility that can be called an underground palace.The priest led the group to the entrance to the underground palace behind the assembly hall, and then descended a wide stone ramp to the underground part of the cathedral in a few minutes.Hao Ren saw that there was a straight and wide corridor extending out in front of him, and there were many forks in the corridor and room entrances on both sides of the corridor, although there was no sunlight in the underground world, but the walls were inlaid with a milky white crystal that emitted a shimmer at intervals, making this a lot.The incredible number of survivors was almost all concentrated in the dungeon, and the underground corridors were littered with refugees wrapped in clothes and blankets, huddled with their families, with frightened expressions on their faces, small piles of luggage piled up around them, most of them only had a few bags and small boxes with them, and many of them were even empty, apparently evacuated here in a hurry.Seeing someone coming down from the surface entrance, many of the evacuees immediately raised their heads, and they looked at Hao Ren and his party curiously, many of them with doubts and nervousness in their eyes, even those ignorant children."
What the hell is going on here......"
Karasius muttered to himself."
The shelter of the Asuman is gone, the darkness takes advantage of the void, and the nightmare quickly devours everyone who sleeps," whispered the middle-aged priest who led the way in front, "and more than half of the people have become nightmare seedbeds overnight, and by the time we react, there is almost nothing we can do."
It's a strange thing, Your Excellency the High Bishop, Master Holzman will explain it to you. ”Going all the way down the corridor of the underground palace, the group finally arrived at the end, there was a small chapel built in the depths of this underground facility, the divine brilliance of this chapel was not extinguished, and the soft holy light diffused from the windows of the chapel, faintly sheltering the entire underground palace.In the chapel, an old bishop with white hair was leading several assistant priests through a sacred ceremony, and only after the ceremony was completed did he turn his head to look at Hao Ren and Carasius standing in front of him."
Archbishop Carasius," Bishop Holzman said to Carasius, although he was an elder in terms of age, but in terms of class within the Church, he, the bishop of the region, who was only in charge of a city and the surrounding villages, had to pay tribute to Archbishop Carasius, who held a high position in the Icon Palace, "I know you and your mission, and I was there in the Icon Palace when you departed. ”"Bishop Holzman," Carasius nodded back, "I know you, your diligence and piety are admired in the Icon Palace. ”Then he briefly introduced Hao Ren, Lily and Di around him, he did not elaborate on the identities of the three of them, but only vouched in the name of God, these three are absolutely trustworthy allies, after completing the introduction, he asked directly: "Bishop, what is going on here?"
Why did the Sanctuary fall to this place in just one month?
”"Everything has deteriorated rapidly in a few days," the old bishop shook his head, his face was slightly pale, as Father Bernstein had said before, the old bishop seemed to have been affected by his mental power, and now he was a little sluggish, "In the nearly a month since your departure, the situation in the Sanctuary has been deteriorating, but it has not reached the point where it can no longer be sustained, until seven days ago, when things suddenly became out of control. ”Hao Ren's expression was serious: "What's going on?"
”"The light of Asuman suddenly and sharply decayed, and countless large holes appeared in the protective barrier above the Sanctuary, and the chaotic power poured directly into it, causing huge casualties, cough cough ......" the old bishop said, coughing violently a few times before gradually relieving his breath, "The first wave of attacks was blocked, and the cathars paid a great price to destroy the chaos monsters that invaded the barrier, and barely restored the barrier over the main city, but that night, we encountered another wave of unstoppable raids- The raid was launched in a dream. ”In the dream, Hao Ren instantly captured this crucial word, and he remembered the nightmare outposts in the forest west of Talos, and the nightmare shadow caught by Lily: "Someone was mentally invaded in his sleep, and then deranged and committed suicide by self-harm?
”The old bishop immediately turned his head: "How do you know?"
”"Something similar happened on other continents......
Hao Ren briefly described the nightmare plague on the Talos border, "but he didn't expect the Sanctuary to do the same." ”"The nightmare attack we encountered is somewhat similar to what you said, but not exactly the same," the old bishop shook his head after listening, "The evil spirits did invade the dream world, but they did not cause a large number of casualties in the first place, but created countless soulless puppets, and even gradually overflowed into the real world.I think you've seen the ...... wandering around the square outside.
Stuff up. ”Lily blinked, "Those walking corpses?
”"The Walking Dead?
No, it's not a walking corpse," the old bishop glanced at Lily, "those things that aren't real world at all, they're nightmares, nightmares from the inhabitants of Luan who have fallen into the world of nightmares. ”Lily felt a little overwhelmed in her head: "Oops......
Dream?
What do you mean, were those phantoms out there just now?
”"Something like an illusion, but it walks in the real world, and gradually affects the real world, constantly blurring the line between reality and dreams," said the old bishop, "The first wave of nightmare attacks took place in the middle of the night, and it was the first night after we fought desperately to repel the Chaos monsters, and the exhaustion caused almost everyone to fall asleep, and you can imagine the terrible consequences - the vast majority of people were consumed by nightmares almost without resistance, and barely woke up by their great strength, And less than 1 in 10 people don't sleep for various reasons.After we break free from the dream, we find that many people around us are asleep, and we can't wake up by any means, and then wandering shadows begin to appear on the streets outside, and those shadows are the nightmares released by the sleeping people, who are similar to the main body, but have no reason, can only wander blindly, and anyone who comes into contact with them will be mentally shocked, and gradually turn into a new nightmare seedbed.More than 80% of the city was instantly controlled by these nightmares, and we gathered all the survivors and hid in the cathedral - only here can the power of the nightmare be temporarily untouched, and we can sleep peacefully. ”Speaking of this, the old bishop took a few deep breaths, he was already weak, and he had barely completed a blessing ceremony just now, and at this time he felt a little out of breath by saying too many words in a row.Carasius had to continue asking, "Are all the survivors in this church?"
Are there no other living people in the city?
”"I can't guarantee that everyone is here, but at least ninety percent of the survivors are gathered here," the old bishop nodded, "We will send some men every day to go to the city to collect food and other resources, and we will also look for other survivors, and in the first few days there will be occasional survivors brought in, but as time goes on, there are fewer and fewer survivors - people can't never sleep, and there are probably no more people who can hold out until today." ”Hao Ren spoke: "When we came all the way, we saw some pedestrians who were in a hurry and didn't look like a nightmare, and there were also people in many houses who responded, aren't those survivors?"
”The old bishop seemed to have known that someone was going to ask this, and he immediately shook his head: "It was another nightmare......
The nightmare of the city. ”Everyone looked at each other."
Lune is an ancient city with thousands of years of history, where we have lived and buried for generations, the cycle of life and death, passed down from generation to generation, the old city is like a vessel of souls, carrying the thoughts and memories of millions of people from generation to generation, they have been precipitated, and the ancient buildings and streets have become spiritual.The city remembered what it looked like in the bright days, and when nightmares came, it fell into these shadows, and memories of the past were distorted into nightmares. ”Hao Ren recalled what he had seen and heard along the way, the houses with closed doors, the hurried and frightened pedestrians, the voices full of hostility and rejection, unwilling to communicate with people, they were so real, but he didn't expect it to be just a dream.A real-world dream.The boundary between nightmares and reality is about to be erased, and if this trend continues, I am afraid that it will not be long before the entire sanctuary of the real world will be replaced by nightmares.Karasius's face was gloomy: "The situation is so bad, is there no movement on the side of the City of the Gods?"
”The old bishop glanced at him, "That's exactly what I'm going to tell you—something horrific has happened in the City of the Gods.As early as the first wave of attacks, the City of Divine Favor unexpectedly unilaterally cut off the magical links with all the lower churches, and at that time, the chaos had not yet poured into the barrier, but Luan's Divine Crystal had no longer been able to receive the signal from the Icon Palace.We then took a big risk and sent a reconnaissance team to check on the situation in the City of the Gods, only to find that it had disappeared into thin air, leaving only a large area of sulfur scorched earth and countless craters in its place!
”(To be continued.) )