A sudden heat swept across the hall, as if a strong ray of sunlight had penetrated the roof and was moving above the crowd. With the appearance of this invisible heat, all the gas lamps and candlesticks in the hall seemed to be inexplicably disturbed and suppressed. Instead, they quickly dimmed and seemed to sink into shadows.
However, the Annihilation Cultists in the hall did not react much to the appearance of this heat. After a slight commotion, they all looked up at the dome above the hall.
Richard also raised his head, his eyes swept across the gorgeous curtains, chandeliers and ceiling paintings above the assembly hall, and saw that they seemed to be illuminated by invisible sunlight, and the light and dark shadows moved slowly on the surface of the dome. Then, the "sunlight" finally gradually gathered in the center of the dome and revealed its existence there -
It was a sphere, and its appearance was like a blazing sun, with flames floating on the surface, releasing scorching light and heat, and at the same time presenting an illusory and transparent texture. It seemed to be just a projection. Then, this small sun projection slowly lowered its height, and came to the high platform in the center of the hall, and came in front of the saint.
Richard heard hushed conversations and murmurs coming from nearby. Some believers were quietly expressing their dissatisfaction—the messengers of the alien gods were becoming more and more arrogant, and even skipped the notification process when they came to this sacred gathering place. Some believers also said that the gathering place should not be open to the messengers of the alien gods at all, and their appearance itself meant a defilement of this sacred place.
But the saint's voice suddenly rang in everyone's mind and ears, interrupting the low hum in the hall: "Ah, our 'ally' is coming."
As he finished speaking, the small sun projection that landed in front of the platform gradually shed its glowing and hot outer shell, and the light-cast "shell" became dim and transparent, and its true appearance inside appeared in everyone's sight.
A sphere made up of bizarre flesh and blood tissues and countless curled tentacles. Between the tentacles on the surface of the sphere are inlaid countless eye-like structures - the offspring of the sun.
The projection slowly stretched out its tentacles in the air, its eyeballs darting around, and almost at the same time, another illusory figure appeared beneath the descendant of the sun.
It was a human being, wearing a black robe with gold edges, which represented the priest class among the Sun Cultists, and a golden mask on his face that imitated the pattern of sunlight. The projection of this Sun Priest fell on the high platform in the center of the hall, standing in front of the saint like a spokesperson.
The descendants of the sun in mid-air emitted a low and ambiguous trembling sound, which seemed to be mixed with countless layered whispers and noises that were difficult for human intelligence to understand, and it sounded dizzying.
The figure wearing the golden sun mask that landed in front of the saint immediately spoke, relaying the message conveyed by the ambiguous vibrations: "I can feel that you don't welcome me."
The Saint raised his eyestalks high: "I hope you can understand that this is the gathering place of the Holy Lord. For a long time, we have not allowed believers or messengers of foreign gods to set foot in such a sacred place - but please rest assured that our sincerity in cooperation will not be affected by this."
"It's okay. I don't mind." The projection of the Son of the Sun slowly stretched its body in the air, continuing to emit a low and vague vibration. The Sun Priest who appeared with it immediately began to translate, "We can leave the differences in faith to the next era. Dusk is approaching. We, the races abandoned by the Deep Sea Era, must first learn to coexist."
"Yes, learn to coexist. When everything is reshaped, there will be a world vast enough to accommodate our differences," the saint said in a deep voice. "Is this what you came to emphasize to me?"
"No, ally, I came to talk to you about the losses we suffered in the last operation," said the masked sun priest, "I wanted to come to you during the day, but the hateful false sun was always hanging in the sky. Now it has fallen, so I came.
"We lost many of our people, precious people. In the great forest woven by the Dream of the Nameless, they were burned by the flames of the Fire Usurper, and even their souls could not return to the Sanctuary. I must talk to you about this matter."
"We also feel deeply sympathetic and uneasy about the unfortunate experiences of the Sun Remnants," the Saint said, his skeleton spikes swaying with a click, as if expressing some dissatisfaction, "but it's not just you who have suffered setbacks in your actions... No one expected that 'his' forces would appear there - after all, not long ago, the ship was still in the far north, and no one thought that 'he' would intervene in this matter, and 'his' followers have already taken action. It is unreasonable and reckless for you to blame us for this."
"... We do not hold our allies accountable." The Son of the Sun in midair was silent for a few seconds. The light surrounding it seemed to have waned a little. It whispered vaguely, and the priest on the platform immediately began to translate. "But we want to make our attitude clear - we are willing to cooperate with your actions in the Nameless One's Dream. However, if you turn this 'cooperation' into unilateral exploitation, then our cooperation will be over."
"I understand what you mean, Messenger," the Saint said in a deep voice, "Don't worry, we will not turn a blind eye to this incident. Just now, we have decided to launch a counterattack against the followers of the Usurper. One of our next goals is to find the heretic who attacked the Sun Remnants and our compatriots and capture her and her demon. She is powerful and insidious, but we are willing to take some risks to avenge those sacrificed 'remnants'."
"We don't care whether you are really taking action for revenge for them, nor do we care what methods you plan to use to deal with those powerful and strange 'Followers of Usurping Fire'," the priest wearing a golden mask on the high platform relayed the words of the descendants of the sun, "Don't forget our original and most fundamental goal - the dream of the nameless has what we each need. Cooperate frankly and wholeheartedly. We only care about this matter, nothing else matters."
The Saint was silent for a moment, then his bone spikes clicked and conveyed a friendly attitude: "Yes, we each take what we need... We just want the tree."
The Son of the Sun slowly lowered his altitude, and the countless eyes embedded between his tentacles stared quietly at the brain wrapped in the skeleton cage on the platform: "We only want that sun."
The "heat" that seemed real and illusory and enveloped the assembly hall began to recede. The figures of the Sun Descendant floating in the air and the Sun Priest who landed on the high platform began to gradually dim and dissipate. After just a few seconds, the two uninvited guests left the sacred assembly hall.
The hall was quiet for a while, and the Annihilation Cultists who had gathered together breathed a sigh of relief. Richard also felt his pounding heart gradually calm down - perhaps his heartbeat had become too fast without him noticing just now, he even felt a slight pain in his chest.
He is still frightened.
Even if it was only a projection that came here, it was the projection of the Son of the Sun—the monster that was directly separated from the essence of the "real Sun God". It was like a demigod, and its existence itself was a deadly source of pollution for mortals. And the compatriots in this hall... in the final analysis, they have not yet been able to break through the category of "mortals".
Perhaps only the "saint" present here can compete with the so-called "son of the sun".
"We shouldn't have opened this place to the messengers of the alien gods," someone said in the crowd, his voice not too low, "After their 'sunlight' shines in, they become even more fearless."
"That 'scion' gives me a bad feeling," another voice also reached Richard's ears. "We can't understand its mind and true intentions. Every time we need a masked priest to act as a translator - no one knows how much more disturbing information is hidden behind those translations. When its eyes look at us... they don't look like the eyes of an intelligent creature looking at other intelligent creatures."
"I feel the same way about those 'Sun Remnants'. I can't sense any rationality or emotion from them... In the final analysis, they are just monsters that were abandoned in the last era... They have long since degenerated in the darkness..."
A low-pitched discussion began to spread in the hall, and the suppressed emotions quickly resonated. However, at this moment, the saint's voice suddenly rang in everyone's mind, instantly interrupting the communication of the Annihilation Cultists: "Silence."
The hall suddenly became quiet.
“… I know you are worried,” the saint’s voice continued, with soothing power, “but we need their strength.”
"Saint," an Annihilationist closest to the platform spoke boldly, "The Son of the Sun, and those 'remnants'... do you think they will really keep their promise?"
The Saint was silent for a few seconds.
"I have never believed in the 'promises' of those aliens, because they were born with oaths broken from the beginning, but at least they have no reason to break their promises before getting what they want," he said slowly, "Just as we need them, they also need us - in the time and space woven by the dreams of the nameless, those aliens can only ally with us."
The questioning voices disappeared.
The time-telling bells ring at the appropriate time.
Ding-ding-ding-ding-
A mechanical clock hanging on the high wall at the end of the assembly hall chimed melodiously.
"... Let's end these topics. The time is approaching. The dream of the nameless one will soon connect to the real dimension." The saint's voice quickly attracted everyone's attention. "Prepare to enter the dream. Those who are dreaming tonight, please stand out and come forward to touch the skull of the dream."
Richard, who was standing among a group of people in black robes, reacted quickly. He looked up and saw several other compatriots already walking towards the platform, including Dumont who had come to see him during the day.
He also hurried forward.
At the same time, several low-level believers in gray robes walked into the hall. They pushed a cart made of a special heavy alloy with many runes painted on it. The cart was covered with a bloodstained black cloth, and something seemed to be covered under the black cloth.
"Push the Skull of Dreams to the front of the platform." the saint ordered.
The low-level believers pushed the cart to the platform in the middle of the hall. Two of them grabbed the black cloth on the cart and prepared to lift it.
Richard swallowed subconsciously - even though it was not the first time he touched the "Skull of Dreams", he still felt a little nervous at this time.
Every time one comes into contact with that weird thing, one feels a kind of terror that penetrates the soul... and no matter how many times one experiences it, it seems that one cannot get used to this terror.
Firm belief and devout faith could only help him make up his mind to touch that thing, but could not eliminate the impression left by the terror itself and the instinctive tension at the moment.
Then, two low-level believers lifted the black cloth.
The "Dream Skull" on the cart also came into Richard's sight—
It was a black, wood-carved goat's head.
(End of this chapter)