Luan's cathedral is located on the oval square in the center of the city. This wide square is paved with neat and clean white stone slabs, surrounded by 22 avenues extending out, like the backbone of a spider web leading to every corner of the city, as a In a typical city of the Order, the cathedral is also the administrative center of Luan, so it is the only large building in the center of the city. There is no second building that can be compared to the square several kilometers away, or even in the entire city. Buildings to rival the cathedral—and now, like the rest of the city, the once-magnificent spiers are slowly sinking in the shadows of darkness and chaos.
Countless walking corpses appeared on the avenue shaking, shadowy, eerie and gloomy. They were Luan's former citizens, poor people, nobles, and even monks and city guard knights. Their faces were stiff and their eyes were dull. Moving towards the cathedral step by step in the darkness, it was like the souls and shadows that wandered forever in the legendary Kingdom of the Dead.
This scene is creepy even if you watch it from a distance, let alone walk up close and witness it with your own eyes. Even a well-informed person like Hao Ren can't help but feel a chill on his skin at this moment. And the members of the Sanctuary Investigation Team all looked nervous. Calassius drew a sacred symbol on his chest: "It must be the evil forces in the chaos that twisted these innocent citizens... They have lost themselves."
A church knight drew his long sword, but after drawing the sword, he felt at a loss: "We can't let them defile the sacred cathedral...but there are too many of them!"
Yes, there are too many - everyone at the scene can see that the goal of these walking dead is the holy cathedral, and stopping them is everyone's first thought, but the figures surging in the streets are not one or two, but several Tens of thousands! Maybe even hundreds of thousands! Even if each of them has no power to resist, it is impossible to stop them with the strength of a few knights and monks.
Hao Ren looked solemnly at the cathedral in the middle of the square. He knew that it would be impossible to stop such a wave of "zombies" with the power of his people. The only way in the current situation is to prevent those walking corpses from entering the cathedral. To stop it before, it would be a one-shot to forget all worries, and simply blow it up before the church fell, but there is a problem with doing this, that is, Calassius may go crazy...
And when Hao Ren was pondering the feasibility of a single shot to solve a thousand worries, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a "walking corpse" on the square shaking in place for a few times, and then it seemed to evaporate into a black puff. Smoke disappears.
Immediately afterwards, the second, third... More and more walking corpses seemed to be purified by an invisible force after approaching the cathedral within a certain range, and instantly turned into black smoke and collapsed into the air. This process reminded Hao Ren of those Chaos monsters that had been killed. After being killed by the forces of order, those monsters also quickly disappeared into smoke and dust.
"They don't seem to be able to get within a hundred meters of the church." Lily muttered after noticing this scene.
Calassius showed a trace of relief on his face: "The power of the great goddess still remains in the Holy Land, and the church is still protected by divine grace."
More and more walking corpses were purified by the invisible holy power around the church like moths to a flame. It didn't take long for the shadows shaking in the square to be reduced by half, and the surrounding vision became empty. And at this moment, Hao Ren had a glimmer of light in his peripheral vision. He saw something shaking in the glass window on the side of the cathedral. It seemed to be a figure.
"There are people in the cathedral!" He immediately reminded.
"In the church?" Calassius and an assistant bishop looked at each other. "Under the protection of the goddess, they may still maintain their sanity!"
The crowd immediately ran towards the church. They passed the scattered corpses in the square. The latter were still walking forward unsteadily, seemingly unaware of the people running past them, and did not show any signs of attack. With the will, Hao Ren, Calassius and his party were able to arrive at the gate of the church without hindrance. But just when they were several meters away from the gate, a white light suddenly shot out from a long and narrow window next to the gate, blasting warningly in front of Calassius.
At the same time, a vigilant voice sounded out of thin air: "No further approaching!"
"We are high-ranking priests from the City of Gods!" Calassius immediately stood still and shouted loudly, "We have no malicious intentions, we just want to find a place to stay and ask some questions by the way!"
"City of Gods?" The voice in the church hesitated for a moment, obviously surprised and suspicious of the answer, and soon he asked, "A lie will bring ten times the punishment in front of the goddess' sanctuary! Are you really from the city of gods?"
Calassius was a little puzzled: "Is there anything wrong with coming from the city of gods? I am Calassius, the high-ranking bishop of the Icon Palace. If you don't believe me, you can check the list of high-ranking priests stored in your library. Standing here, you can compare the portraits on the list!"
The voice in the church hesitated again, and became more severe: "The city of gods has long been... How could there be any high-ranking priests coming out of there at this time!"
"What happened to the city of gods?!" Calassius was taken aback, and he heard the creepy message from the words of the other party, "What do you mean?!"
The people in the church did not answer, but questioned: "You don't even know this? Then your identities are even more suspicious."
"No, we are indeed from the City of Gods, but it has been more than a month since we left there." Knowing that the situation may exceed his expectations, Calassius quickly explained, "We followed the order of the Pope more than a month ago, The investigation team departed from the City of Gods to the Ansu Continent, our travel records can be checked, the investigation team encountered an accident in the Ansu Continent, and only returned today... "
"Investigation team?" The people in the church seemed to be a little convinced at last, "It seems that there is indeed such a thing... But it is said that the investigation team encountered a storm before it reached the Ansu mainland. The last news that Sanctuary received was Their emergency call. You escaped unharmed?"
It seems that the matter of the sanctuary investigation team is not a secret here, and the people in the church are also priests with a certain status in the church system, and he even knows these news.
"Blessed by the Goddess," Calcius couldn't help reciting, "We got the help of a local leader and survived the chaos storm, but we lost the Hammer of Light, so we were cut off from the Sanctuary. Unable to send back a rescue message."
The people in the church were silent for a while, as if they were thinking about it. After a while, they said, "You don't seem to be the minions of Nightmare. Wait a minute, I will inform the bishop, don't trespass on the church—the indiscriminate defense of the church has been activated. Trespassing will be attacked."
Then the voice quieted down. Hao Ren and his party waited patiently outside. After a few minutes, they heard footsteps coming from behind the gate.
There was a faint gleam of light on the door of the church, and a gap was opened in the defensive circle covering the entire building. The door opened, and a middle-aged man wearing a white robe with a broad and square face appeared at the door.
The middle-aged man looked at the few people standing at the door. He noticed that the subordinates led by Calassius were all wearing the costumes of sanctuary priests and combatants, but the clothes and armor were mostly damaged. However, Hao Ren, Lily, and An who were standing next to Calassius confuse him a little.
Not to mention their attires are different from those in the sanctuary, even in the secular kingdom they can be regarded as exotic clothes. Although An’s cloak and hood are a little better, they are a typical example that can easily be thrown on the street...
"They come from Anzu Continent," the situation is unclear now, even if these survivors hiding in the church may not be completely trustworthy, even if they can be trusted, there is no guarantee that there are no eyes and ears of dark minions near the church, so Calashion Si carefully considered what should be revealed, "The envoys of the Kingdom of Talos, I can guarantee their reliability. Can we go in now?"
The middle-aged man stepped aside, revealing the dimly lit assembly hall inside: "Come in, before the second nightmare begins."
When everyone entered the church, Calassius frowned and looked at the drowsy hall. It was originally a place where believers and priests worshiped. Even the divine magic formation at the top of the church remained silent, and the dim mithril patterns interweaved into obscure patterns on the vault of the hall, making the entire assembly hall look gloomy and depressing.
Among the rows of benches, the senior monk saw many curled up figures.
Survivors seem to be hiding in churches in surprising numbers
"Why don't you light up the lights?" Hao Ren felt that it was strange that it was so dark in a shelter, so he asked casually.
The middle-aged man who led the way sighed: "The lights in the dark will attract those unclean things, and our sacred crystal reserves are limited, so they cannot withstand too much consumption."
Calassius glanced at the middle-aged monk: "What position do you hold in this church?"
"I am in charge of the archives and books of the Loon Cathedral. I have received the grace of God and am now an official priest," the middle-aged man replied, "You can call me Bernstein."
"Where is the district bishop?"
"Bishop Holzman and the other asylum seekers are in the underground palace. My lord suffered a mental backlash when I resisted the nightmare last time. Now I need to recuperate. I will be in charge of the affairs on the ground for the time being. Of course, you can go to see him."
Calassius nodded slightly and stopped talking.
All questions can be known after seeing the person in charge here. (to be continued~^~)