Unknowingly, Burris took a nap in Lotter's arms. Lot fell asleep too, dreaming of things from long ago, and so did Boris.
However, what the two dreamed about was not the same past.
Dreams are always irregular, some have no color, some have no sound, and most of them have no logic. This dream is different, it is real.
For some reason, Lott can inexplicably feel that it is true.
He dreamed of a sea of blood.
At first he thought it was his homeland, the Black Lake in front of the Hall of the Dead...but it wasn't. It was black blood everywhere, covering the devastated land.
Layers of corpses are buried under the sea of blood, like a carpet made of corpses. Some corpses have turned into dry bones, some are in the process of decay, and some seem to have just died, the skin is still soft, the eyes are still open, and the broken ice blade is still clutched in the hand...
Where the corpses were piled up to form a hill, a mottled and damaged battle flag was erected. The flag was disfigured by the blood and thick smoke, and its color could no longer be seen, but the pattern in the center of the flag was still vivid—it was a griffin embroidered with silver thread.
Probably because of some special craftsmanship on the silk thread, although the griffin is stained with blood, it still shines brightly in the sun. It stretches its chest and wings, and raises its forelimbs high, as if it is roaring towards the sky.
A few clouds of erratic black smoke hovered around the battle flag, which looked particularly abrupt under the blue sky. They made sharp hoarse sounds, like threatening, like screaming and wailing.
The power floating in the air suddenly tightened, and then expanded and pushed away like a tsunami. The black ghost was burned by that power, and the banner embroidered with silver griffins was also torn into pieces.
The blood sea and corpse mound began to move slowly.
They gradually accelerated, first forming a huge vortex, and then beginning to cover the entire field of vision, turning into a decaying hurricane. The hurricane gradually thickened, and the eye of the wind gradually expanded, and the dark skeletons swirled and danced wildly, taking away the original color of the sky and the earth.
Lott stood in the center of the hurricane, surrounded by silence.
Suddenly, he heard someone calling him. Someone broke through the wind wall bit by bit and approached him with difficulty. Through the storm, he could hear their voices, but couldn't see their faces clearly, only a little outline.
One of them is holding a book. A thick, gigantic book that was quite familiar to him...
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"Time to go." Sir Naylor patted Estee on the shoulder.
In fact, both of them are ready, and Naylor is just hinting to Estee, asking her to wake up the "apprentice Koref" and his lazy little friends.
Naylor was ashamed to call it himself. He saw men every day in the barracks, but he had never seen two men cuddling together sweetly and taking a nap.
Estee approached the big tree opposite and said softly, "There is an open fire in the library."
Boris woke up with a jerk, and by the way, he also woke up Lott who was hugging him.
"There's an open fire in the library" was Burris' shadow at Hilda Academy, and no matter what he was doing, no matter how soundly he slept, the words were sure to bring him back to life.
He was amazed that he slept so soundly and defenselessly in the wild, even the clanking armor of the knight opposite didn't wake him up.
Lotte woke up with a confused look on his face. While he was stretching, Burris scrambled away from him in a hurry.
He recalled the dream just now, looking back from the back to the front.
First he remembered the book. The book is a cubit long and half a cubit thick. The cover is made of metal. One side is pure black, and the other side is embedded with a palm-sized silver mirror...
He thought he had never seen that book before, but now the appearance of the book appeared clearly in his mind. According to Sir Naylor's description, his mother Lisa held such a book...
Lotter stopped thinking, straightened his hair, and walked to Burris with a smile, pretending to have a sweet dream.
Burris was exploring underground caves with a spell-casting instrument. There is no road in the forest on the other side of the river. For ordinary people, not to mention finding the entrance of the underground cave, even normal travel is very problematic. Fortunately, they have the help of magic. The crystal pendulum can help the caster find the secret path The entrance can further convey the topography of the hidden area to the mind of the caster.
After a while, Burris found the entrance. It is hidden behind a bush and under a semi-suspended solid earth and stone. A gap is formed between the earth and the ground under the bush, and there is a hole in the gap. You can't see the entrance even if you stand in front of the bushes, it's completely hidden in the blind zone.
Boris closed his eyes, added a projection spell on top of the detection spell, and projected what he could feel directly into the air: There is a flat space under the entrance, crawling forward for a short distance, just You can touch a shaft, the shaft is two people wide, people of normal size can enter, and you can touch the ground when you fall about half a floor high. In front of you is a long and dark corridor...
Going forward, the crystal cannot be surveyed and mapped. Its known distance is limited, and the caster must explore while advancing.
Desperate to find his mother, Sir Naylor clawed his way through the bushes and got in...and got stuck in the crevice. After everyone finally pulled him out, he blushed and took off his full body armor neatly, leaving only a chain mail and sacrificial robe.
It is quite difficult to move in the flat gaps, and even Estee, who is the slenderest, will occasionally be hurt by the rocks. The woman Naylor saw was able to move freely in this place, which shows how thin her figure is.
It's much better after entering the shaft, at least one can stretch his limbs. Naylor jumped directly, and followed the princess below. The princess obviously had the slow-floating spell but deliberately didn't use it, so she wanted to jump down and let Naylor hug her.
Burris sighed again. He and Lott were looking for books, and Naylor was looking for his mother, so what exactly was Estee looking for? As a princess, crawling through dark tunnels, with dusty hair, dry and rough hands... She has no purpose, she just wants to be with Naylor...
Boris was a little bit offended, but he couldn't say anything. If the old man was too lenient, it would be disgusting. Moreover, he is not sure that his views are correct. His point of view is: a princess should be dignified and elegant, and a mage should aim for knowledge and lofty aspirations... How can you wrong yourself to pretend to smile? How can you disgracefully accompany others to deal with private affairs
In the past, he would have said it directly... But now he no longer has the confidence to educate others. The "big goal" he has spent more than 60 years pursuing is the King of Bones. How can he use "feelings are small things" to educate students
He remembered that sentence again, which was said by countless mages: "I once swore before the God of Arcane Magic that I would respect magic as the only truth and put secular interests second..."
Now that I think about it, this statement is full of loopholes. How to distinguish between magic and worldly interests? To release the legendary demigod and search for the mysterious ancient book with him, is this magic or mundane
Lot suddenly touched Boris' forehead, and Boris woke up.
"No fever," Lott looked at him, "Are you feeling unwell? Why are you always so sad?"
"No..." At this moment, Boris discovered a new weakness of his own: no matter what he was thinking just now, he would start thinking about himself and Lot...
This symptom may also be infected by Lott, which is a type of habitual digression. It not only affects the chat conversation, but also affects the way of thinking in the brain... This disease must have mutated.
All four of them have successfully entered the corridor. Sir Naylor walked first, and Esther followed behind him, manipulating two suspended light spheres—with Esther, these small spells on the way of exploration did not require Burris to do it.
Burris walked in the third, keeping an eye on the pendulum at all times, and was responsible for guiding everyone. Lott was at the back, and he hadn't spoken since he asked Burris if he was unwell.
After walking through the corridor, the four of them came to a suddenly bright hollow. One side of the cave is a water pool, which is estimated to be connected to the underground water vein, and the other side is a cave with gradually rising terrain, which is estimated to lead to another entrance. There is a small platform in front, and traces of artificial construction began to appear on the platform—the ground It is covered with broken stone bricks, and the symmetrical columns are covered with moss. A double-opening stone door is located at the end of the platform, and there is a line of vague words carved on each of the two doors.
As there was a pool of water on one side of the road, Naylor carefully supported the princess, for fear that she would step on the ground. Lott also came to help Burris in this way, and Burris took his hand, secretly surprised—Lott's palm was slightly moist, and his skin was very cold.
Burris tensed up. He had never seen Lott so nervous. The Lord of Bones has always been optimistic and cheerful, and even a little shameless. If he is so nervous that his hands are covered with cold sweat, then the secret in his heart is obviously not a trivial matter that can be easily revealed.
The four of them quickly walked across the platform, passed through the pillars, and came to the double-opened stone gate. There was a strange word engraved on the door. Estee looked at Burris with a questioning look, and Burris shook his head. He didn't know the words, but he recognized the emblem on the top of the gate.
Ser Naylor knew it as well as him, and perhaps Lott knew it too—it was the emblem of the Guardian of the Black Lake, the holy symbol of the dead god.
"The Temple of the False God!" Sir Naylor made a gesture to drive away the evil. "I thought this kind of thing disappeared completely hundreds of years ago!"
Estee said: "It has indeed disappeared. If we hadn't touched it here, who would have discovered that there is an underground temple here?"
Lot couldn't help asking: "Wait, have you always called the Guardian of the Black Lake a 'false god'? He really existed, he just fell a long time ago."
"This...it's a bit complicated," Naylor said, "If you are ordinary believers, I shouldn't have said so much to you, but you are spellcasters and friends of Her Royal Highness Estrin...then I can tell you Things some of you silent prayers don't talk about openly."
Hearing what he said, Boris took a peek at Lott. Lott is not just an "ordinary believer", he is a demigod... He probably knows more than the silent prayers, and he just wants to hear what human beings say.
Naylor continued: "A long time ago, the Otarot Temple always referred to the Guardians of the Black Lake as 'evil gods'. Later, some people gradually pointed out that gods are the guides of high positions, and should not be distinguished by good and evil. If you want to use good and evil to describe God, wouldn't that mean that the ancient purgatory creatures should also be counted as "evil gods" and included in the list of gods? Therefore, we gradually began to use the term "false gods", using this word to refer to those who violated their responsibilities and betrayed the three good gods lesser god."
Burris nodded. He also has some research on religion, which is not unfamiliar to him.
Naylor said: "You are all researchers, and you must all know the story of the fall of the Guardian of the Black Lake. During the war of the gods against Purgatory, the Guardian of the Black Lake was bewitched by the devil, led the way for the devil, and led the devil into the realm of the gods. The devil wanted to Take the road from here to the Hall of the Undead, and assassinate my lord Otarot. This plan was seen through by my lord, so my lord executed the devil and the Black Lake guards together... "
"That's not the version I know," Lot interjected.
Unexpectedly, Naylor was not surprised, but nodded: "Yes, this is one of the many interpretations. There is another statement in the "Book of Purgatory". But ordinary silent prayers prohibit believers from reading this book. I My father is a silent prayer, so I know a little more than the average temple knight... Are you a believer of the goddess of the day? As far as I know, their temple allows believers to read "Purgatory Book."
Of course Lott wasn't, but he didn't say anything, just waited for Naylor to go on.
Naylor said: "There is another story about the fall of the Guardian of the Black Lake. He was seriously injured by a purgatory lord in the war, but the devil did not kill him. The devil admired his courage and tenacity and wanted to take him under his command. The Black Lake Guardian also admired the devil's spirit of law, and wanted to persuade the devil to abandon evil and do good. In the end, they reached an agreement that the Black Lake Guardian would follow the devil to purgatory, and the devil would follow the Black Lake Guardian to God's Realm After living for a period of time, they have to deeply understand everything about each other before making judgments.
"In this way, the guards of the Black Lake followed the devil to purgatory, and saw the world of the devil. After a while, they returned to the human world, led by the guards of the Black Lake, and led the devil to the realm of the gods. After entering the realm of the gods, the passage of the realm of the gods It was sealed off, and the devil was trapped in the black lake. It thought it had been betrayed, so it began to fight with the guards of the black lake. In the end, both of them exhausted their strength and died together, and fell into the bottomless black lake together... It is said that they The power remaining in God's Domain did not disappear, but instead created a demigod known as the "Skeleton Lord"... Of course, this is a bit too legendary, even "Purgatory Affair" did not write like this, it is some It’s said in more obscure books.”
Speaking of this, Naylor stopped, and he found that Esther and "apprentice Koref" were both tense and holding their breath, while Lot turned his face away to look at the words on the door, as if He didn't seem to hear anything.
The knight took it for granted that the two mages must have been frightened. A mage has read more books, and the more books he reads, the more timid he is.
What's more, the topic about the Black Lake is inherently scary. It is said that the soul of a necromancer will sink directly to the bottom of the lake, never to rise up, and never to be redeemed... Estee and her friends are necromancer researchers, they certainly don't want to hear these things.
Since the Guardians of the Black Lake are characterized as false gods, Naylor doesn't really believe in this "sink to the bottom after death" statement. He felt that all would receive a fair trial before Otarot.
The double doors were locked from the inside, and Estee and Naylor had to find a way to unlock them. Burris hung the pendulum, allowing the terrain inside the gate to unfold in his mind.
Lott couldn't do anything to help, he just admired the lettering on the door repeatedly. Burris thought, maybe he can understand it, he knows all the languages in the world, probably the magic characters are no problem... It's just that it's not convenient for him to translate it on the spot.
While the princess and the knight were not paying attention, Boris quietly asked Lott: "Is the "Book of Purgatory" correct?"
Lott shook his head, looked at the holy emblem on the top of the gate, and said in a daze, "Who knows... I have to find that book to find out..."
The author has something to say:
Finding Mom is basically not complicated, just a small part of the ancient book line,
The ancient book line at the back... In principle, it is relatively heavy, but since they have to go back to the tower to do research + quarrel and kiss, etc., so... it is actually a daily mystery...
Anyway... I hope I won't feel bored... _(:з」∠)_
The most exciting ones in the future may be the White Tower line and the God's Domain line. Tell me in advance to cheer yourself up... I hope I can control it well...