Deep Sea Embers

Fan Na came to the prayer room deep in the crew area on the lower deck, and after closing the door, quickly set up the ritual field required for spiritual communication.

On this boundless sea with limited conditions, the ceremonial place still uses materials that can be found on the ship. She replaces the brazier with a candlestick, replaces the necessary holy objects with her own prayer book, and smears the floor with a mixture of salt and oil, Drawing out the runes of the storm and constructing the sacred ground—since it was the second time she had done this, she was not as unfamiliar as the last time.

The feeling of being watched suddenly came from the side, and the lady judge who was busy arranging the ceremony ground suddenly stopped.

She turned her head to look in the direction from which the sense of gaze came from, and saw a round mirror hanging on the wall in the corner of the room. The light and shadow fluctuated in the mirror, and a lady with black hair and shawl was looking at it curiously.

"Sorry, I didn't intend to spy on other people's ceremony," Agatha's voice came from the mirror, "I was just attracted by the movement here."

"It doesn't matter, this is not a secret ceremony." Fan Na smiled quite generously, and greeted this very special new "crew" who recently joined the Lost Home, "I'm just going to contact the Church Ark."

"Well, I know that although the ritual process of the Church of Death is slightly different, I can more or less see what you are doing, but..."

Agatha in the mirror spoke, but stopped suddenly with hesitation.

"But what?" Fan Na asked suspiciously.

"...is it really okay to arrange the ceremony scene like this?" Agatha looked at the scene in the cabin very curiously, "It's fine to use candlesticks instead of braziers, and ordinary prayer books instead of holy objects... It's barely reasonable, but using the kitchen Instead of the blessed 'clean salt', use the salt grains from the house, and use cooking oil instead of holy oil... Are the rituals of the Deep Sea Church so free?"

Fan Na was suddenly a little embarrassed: "This... is mainly due to the limited conditions on board. The holy oil was used up before, and I forgot to replenish it when I docked. But based on experience, there is no problem."

"...It seems that you are indeed a saint who is favored by the goddess," Agatha couldn't help but sighed, "Most priests dare not borrow the power of the gods in such a casual way."

The muscles on Fan Na's face twitched twice, and she could only reply sullenly: "Um, thank you..."

"I won't bother you anymore," Agatha in the mirror waved her hand, and her figure gradually faded away. "I'm going to see what Shirley is doing. The captain asked me to supervise her homework..."

The mirror turned into a mass of darkness, and then gradually returned to its normal reflection.

Fan Na watched the lady in the mirror leave, she was stunned for a while, then turned her head to look at the ceremony field she had just carefully arranged, and slowly frowned.

"Is it really good enough?"

She murmured with some self-doubt, then flicked her fingers towards the candlestick—an invisible force instantly ignited the candlestick, and in the next second it turned into a rising and jumping candle, far brighter than normal candlelight. Immediately after the fire, the runes arranged around the ritual field began to crackle, gradually mixed with the sound of rising waves.

"It's not very useful..."

Fan Na said so emotionally in her heart, and in the next second, she gradually sank her spirit, gradually immersing her consciousness and five senses in the sound of the constantly rising waves around her.

The ceremony attracted the attention of the gods, and the runes borrowed the power of the gods. Fanna let this power affect her spirit, and used it as a medium to call the ark of the church in the distance, waiting for Pope Helena's response.

Psychic resonance, relying on rituals to borrow the power of the four gods, and use this power to strengthen the weak spiritual ability of mortals, so as to realize the connection with distant priests who share the same belief. This ancient magic is The skills that every official priest must learn, even in today's technological development, even if humans have created convenient modern means of communication such as telegraphs and telephones, this kind of remote communication between priests is still far apart It is an important way for the exchange of information between the big city-states.

Fan Na felt that she had entered a long and dark tunnel, and her soul seemed to be flying rapidly through the tunnel. The surroundings of the tunnel looked like dark rock formations, but when she passed quickly, the "rock formations" seemed to be floating. A hazy, corrugated thing that looks... as if it's coming to life.

Reining in distracting thoughts, concentrating, and controlling unnecessary curiosity and the impulse to touch outwards, Fanna silently recited the rules she had already mastered in her heart, trying to avoid getting close to any entity boundary in this "tunnel", and then , she "seeed" a piece of light gradually emerging in front of her.

Unlike going to the Tomb of the Unknown King to participate in the "gathering", her psychic communication today only points to the Cathedral of Storms on the boundless sea - at the end of the "dark tunnel", a hazy and illusory space is rapidly being established, and an elegant and dignified figure appears in view.

Fan Na stopped in front of that figure, and her illusory black shadow quickly stabilized.

"Salute to you, Your Holiness the Pope."

"You don't need to be polite, Fanna, this is not a public occasion," Helena's phantom bowed back, and then asked curiously, "Why did you call me suddenly? What happened on 'that ship'?"

"Everything on board is normal—but something else has happened," Fanna took a breath, calmed down, and then said slowly, "I'm sending you a warning from Captain Duncan—the Lost Home sends a message to the entire civilization." The world warns..."

...

The bright yellow light illuminates the old bookshelves and ancient scrolls. On the large walnut desk, exquisite alchemy equipment is maintaining a complex chemical reaction. In the large and simple study room, a fat, The kind-faced elf old man was sitting peacefully at the desk—he was the leader of the Academy of Truth, the pope of the God of Wisdom Raheem, Rune.

The elf old man was staring at the alchemy device on the table, but in his eyeballs, a scene from afar was reflected——

"The Lost Country is a warning to the entire civilized world. We have confirmed that there is an awakening phenomenon of the ancient god 'Sacred Lord' in the deep sea below the frost. This 'awakening' process may recur in any city-state. There is evidence that , the 'flesh and blood' of the Youshen Lord exists in all things..."

The short, chubby and kind old elf listened silently to the voice from afar, his expression gradually becoming serious, and when the other party's voice fell, he slowly got up from the desk, walked towards a certain bookshelf at the end of the room and said: "Morris, if the most intense part of these news is made public, it will be regarded by the whole world as the most horrifying deviant in history—even the Annihilation Cultists will feel that this matter is a bit extreme."

"There is no apostasy on the road to truth. Teacher, there are only two types of 'classics' created by mortals. One has been overthrown and the other is waiting to be overthrown. This is what you told me."

Morris's voice sounded calm and powerful, with a kind of sharp and introverted persistence and courage, which made the old elf couldn't help but recall many years ago——the days when this talented young human was still studying at the Academy of Truth Here, with such persistence, he searched for all the answers, and questioned every question with great courage.

This kind of curiosity and action seems fierce and dangerous to a scholar. Countless talented young people will quickly climb the peak of truth under the impetus of this power, but many of them will climb In the process of being overwhelmed by the danger of knowledge itself, the other part has the opportunity to calm down, learn to suppress one's own talent under the shelter and guidance of the mentor, and learn how to carefully drink the trickle of truth.

And a smaller part, such outstanding students as Morris, can choose the third path——

Within two years, master the shooting of various light and heavy weapons, the use of cold weapons, blasting, occult self-defense and mixed martial arts skills.

They are all the pride of the Academy of Truth and the affiliated martial arts school of the Academy of Truth.

Lu En stopped in front of the big bookshelf, reached out and took out a record book from it.

After opening it, flip through it slowly, page after page is full of voices and smiles of former students—their youngest appearances are left in the pages of magic, or stand shyly, or wave to people outside the book , or grimacing, or laughing heartily.

A young human stood at the door of the classroom, with his arms folded, looking at him confidently. Below the black and white image was the name Maurice Underwood and the corresponding student record.

"Yes, I taught you that there are only two kinds of classics for mortals, those that have been overthrown and those that are waiting to be overthrown... There is no deviance on the road to truth, because the true truth does not need human approval, it has its own and eternal..."

Lu En muttered softly as if talking to himself, looking at the student on the page with one eye, and in one of his eyeballs was still reflecting the student's appearance today - the white hair had climbed to the sideburns, and the student's book was on the same page. The energetic young man in the book is completely different.

The lifespan of human beings is really short, and it is actually a difficult and painful thing for elves to establish a deep relationship with humans—these friends and students always grow old quickly, and then dissolve before the elves react. As a piece of loess, memories and partings often come and go very abruptly, and every sentiment will be late, with irreparable regrets.

But Rune is still willing to accept and teach those apprentices from human society.

Because even in a short lifespan, these apprentices can still burst out with amazing learning ability, and the desire for exploration and possibilities that accompany the short lifespan are extremely valuable in the pursuit of truth in Lun's view. idiosyncratic.

Morris' voice sounded in his mind again: "Captain Duncan believes that it is necessary to inform the Church of the Four Gods of all the information we currently have, and only conduct selective discussions in the process of communicating with the city-states and the Explorers' Association. Keep it—because the Church of the Four Gods has the ability and enough awareness to know how to deal with this 'warning'."

"...It sounds reasonable, but hasn't he thought about another possibility?" Lu En said slowly, "The content of this 'warning' is too horrifying, even like a kind of heresy than the Annihilation Cultists More extreme heresy, this will be regarded by the church as a kind of... hostility, and even as a new heresy preaching. For some conservative priests, they will not first recognize this as a 'warning', but would be inclined to see it as an attack on their beliefs."

"He doesn't care."

"oh?"

"The storm is approaching, and there is thunder to warn first—but the thunder itself doesn't care whether mortals hide, this is the captain's attitude."

"……Reasonable."

(Time to push the book, the title of the book is "Wasteland: Paradise Construction Guide", author: There is an old dog, behind-the-scenes, wasteland style, the protagonist has two identities, while operating the shelter from the perspective of AI, while using false identities to explore Wasteland, with hammer elements, can be viewed as the emperor's war of unification of Terra. I feel that the idea is very good, and everyone can support it.)