Soul of Burning Steel

Underneath St. Lauren's Cathedral, there is a heavily guarded dungeon.

In Mycroft Continent, it is already a well-known 'secret' that there is a dungeon in the church. Through various knight novels and historical documents, even the common people know that there must be darkness accompanying the sacred place. These outlaws and cultists, even a kind priest who distributes food to the poor, will show no mercy.

Because that is a betrayal of human identity, abandonment of human morality, divorced from human society, undoubted inhuman dregs, no need to pray, no need to repent, no matter how cruel methods are used to deal with these detestable existences. will be forgiven.

No one questioned this, because the stories about cults circulated among the people let everyone know, this is justice.

Passing through the inconspicuous dark corridor, walking down the stairs made of granite, opening two gates made of fine steel, and passing through the narrow passage full of magical traps, Joshua and others came to this distance from the surface. A dark dungeon that is fifty meters long.

Using solid granite with a thickness of more than one meter as the foundation, and then pouring molten iron and steel, the St. Lauren Dungeon is not so much a basement as a huge iron pot buried deep in the ground. It has no gaps and is densely packed. It is airtight, uses magic to purify the air, and ensures an absolute seal with the outside world. Countless magic covers its appearance, blocking all communication.

It can be said that entering here is completely isolated from the outside world.

The cultists in the entire Moldavia are imprisoned here waiting to be executed. The day of their execution is the Harvest Festival every autumn. On that day, the large square of the city will be filled with various instruments of torture, crosses, and guillotines. The execution ground, etc., will be prepared, and then according to the wishes of the people, different death sentences will be given to each cult member.

Article 37 of the Imperial Code states that the type of punishment, especially the type of death penalty, is to be determined by the people.

On both sides of the dungeon, dim pyroxene lamps hung, and the gray silver light swayed, illuminating the dust in the air. Under the leadership of Bishop Artanis, Joshua and others walked through the outer cells, where It was empty and dusty, as if no one had been in it for a long time. Noticing the curious eyes of the soldiers, the old bishop explained: "There have been no cultists in the Northland for a long time."

After arriving here, Artanis's voice became deep and serious, and the eyes of the originally benign bishop gleamed with a cold and painful light: "Except for a few sacrificial incidents in the years when I was a child, six or seventy For years, no cultists have appeared in Moldavia."

——And my sister disappeared at that time, and there is no news of her until now.

Without saying this, the old bishop just continued to say in a low voice: "This group of cultists can be regarded as the first batch of my tenure, and I put them in the innermost cell."

Joshua noticed that, according to the grammar of the common language of Mycroft, the old bishop used the animal version to those heretics, not the human version.

But what does it matter? Thinking indifferently, the soldier shrugged his shoulders, cultists are not human in the first place.

They are monsters that were born after chaos devoured people's hearts.

"Master Bishop!"

There were several guarding knights in the dungeon. When they heard the footsteps, they walked out vigilantly. However, when they found out that it was Bishop Artanis, these knights bowed their heads in respect and let the group of people pass.

"Thank you for your hard work. The lord will also come to see those cultists today. Keep the gates safe."

Slightly nodding to these knights, the old bishop paused, and then gave a serious order: "Later, no matter what sounds you hear, don't come near."

"Yes!"

The knights responded in unison. They didn't think it was strange. It was too normal for the lord to interrogate the heretics in his territory. It was so normal that no one could find the reason for suspicion. As for how the cultists would be dealt with, What kind of screams and howls - those are all indifferent things.

As long as they have seen the scene of the cult sacrifice, no matter how holy the mother is, they will never have the slightest sympathy for those residues.

Fortunately, these knights lowered their heads and did not see Joshua's face. Even if some people raised their heads and saw the side or the back of the soldier's head out of the corner of their eyes, they were not so intimidated. Feeling the powerful momentum and majesty of their lord, otherwise, it will definitely cause panic and confusion.

The deepest part of the dungeon is dark, and the pyroxene lamp hanging here has been replaced with a strange magic prop. It is a rhombus-shaped purple crystal that releases the blurred magic power. Joshua stretched out his finger and felt After seeing its magic power fluctuate, he couldn't help raising his brows: "The position of forbidden magic?"

"There is also an anti-invisibility field. No matter whether you use magic or fighting spirit, you can't sneak in here."

Responding to the soldiers' words, Bishop Artanis stopped in his tracks. He was silent for a while, and then said, "Here we are."

Afterwards, he clapped his hands, and the wave of holy light spread out, as if some magic circle had been activated, and the dazzling positive energy light slanted out from the ceiling, illuminating the dark depths of the dungeon extremely brightly.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"

"Turn it off, turn this off!!!"

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!"

Immediately, countless screams came from the originally silent corner, and Joshua narrowed his eyes slightly, scanning his surroundings with the light.

This is an oval-shaped hall. Around the hall, there are 30 cells that are extremely narrow, unable to stand or lie down, and can only allow people to squat. There are double-layer forged steel fences around the cells. There are also traces of holy light visible to the naked eye flowing on these fences, which look extremely strong.

Most of these cells are empty, their floors are polluted with black and red stains, the walls are covered with dark red diffuse lines, and suspicious yellow grease has even seeped into the gaps in the walls.

In the cells that are not empty, there are screaming human figures writhing crazily. They are irradiated by positive energy rays and emit black smoke, but they are limited to small cells, and they cannot get up. They couldn't get down, either. After squatting for a long time, these guys' knees were completely turned into a mass of iron, and they couldn't move at all.

"It's these guys. Don't look at them so badly now, they are actually very stubborn. We have interrogated them for a long time, but we haven't gotten any news."

Speaking in a tone that Joshua had never heard before, but which made people feel extremely normal, Bishop Artanis's face was as cold as steel: "Eight died in the previous interrogation, and now there are 19 left. Individuals, my children, you can do whatever you want, even if they all die."

Just ask for news.

"Damn false god believers—"

Hearing these words, a prisoner who was screaming in the cell suddenly raised his head, and it said with an indistinct voice, as if laughing wildly: "You never know what you are going to face, my Lord's Gospel It is about to come, and you will eventually fall into despair, hahahahahaha!!"

And the figures in the other cells seemed to be inspired by the prisoner's words, and the screams disappeared immediately, and various obscenities and profane prayers sounded, and one of them was particularly loud: "You will know nothing! "

The appearance of these prisoners is undoubtedly the appearance of human beings. They have eyes, noses, ears and mouths. You will know from the expression, that is definitely not something that humans can do.

As if a layer of mud had been applied to the bones, the silt-like flesh and blood flowed unceasingly, forming distorted expressions one by one, like laughing or howling in pain, their skin was full of bulging blood vessels and Blue veins, pulsating, and dark purple liquid can be seen flowing behind. The eyes of these cultists are closed because of the strong positive energy light, but through the thin eyelids, they can see that their eyeballs are moving in an extremely different way. Twist in a natural way.

Gradually adapting to the radiance of positive energy, these cultists began to open their eyes and look towards the center of the cell hall.

Without exception, their eyes are all shining with a disgusting, dark green light that has rotted away. This light is like a whirlpool, twisted and deep, making people think of a bottomless mud swamp

"Don't want to say it? It's up to you."

Ignoring these cultists who were completely insane, the old bishop smiled coldly, turned his head, patted Joshua on the shoulder, and said in a deep voice, "I'll leave it to you."

Show no mercy to these monsters.

Then, he stepped aside and walked out of the cell hall.

"no problem."

Joshua, on the other hand, said softly when the other party brushed past him, "I have no compassion for the enemy."

Afterwards, he signaled Ying and Rin to leave with Artanis. Although the Shenji siblings hesitated, they followed the master's wishes and walked out of the cell hall together with the old bishop.

And just as the footsteps of the three of Artanis gradually walked away, the soldier took a step forward and walked to the center of the cell hall. Said in a similar voice: "The leisure time is over."

"Now, look at me!"

Originally, these heretics were at a loss because of the sudden departure of the old bishop. They didn't know why Artanis, as a priest, would be so relieved to hand over the task of interrogation to a stranger, but these are not important anymore. When the guy was about to laugh at the man in front of him, the air suddenly froze.

Because they all saw Joshua's face.

What was that like? No one can describe it, it's as if the air in the lungs was sucked out in an instant, and the throat can only make a creaking spasm sound. All the cultists closed their mouths in an instant, and their insufficient teeth trembled up and down, making trembling noises .

Originally bright and dazzling, the light of positive energy that was brighter than the sun seemed to be dimmed in an instant. Endless black mist was spreading from the man standing in the center of the cell. This black mist seemed to be just like ink mist , but there are countless ferocious monster faces emerging from it, as if the pressure of the deep sea is substantively suppressing all the cultists. They want to breathe, but they find desperately that their lungs refuse to work due to fear, and they can only breathe a little bit. A little waiting for the suffocation to come.

Unable to collapse, unable to kneel, the strong smell of rust filled the nostrils, the small cells did not even allow these prisoners to turn their heads, their necks and eyeballs also refused to work, unable to lower and close, they could only wait for themselves His mind became blurred little by little.

A cultist closest to Joshua seemed to have seen a demon god that seemed to come from hell, and this demon god was gradually approaching. He raised his hand made of black steel and a sword blade, and stretched it towards himself.

Before going into a complete coma, the cultist felt a hand grabbing its hair and lifting his head. It saw a pair of blood-red eyes, as if they were burning. The flow in the bone marrow and blood vessels instantly wakes up the mind.

"Say everything you know!"

Hearing a sonorous sound like steel rubbing against each other, the mind that was originally infected by chaos seemed to be hit by a giant hammer at this moment. The cultist felt that his whole soul was shaking violently, and the endless despair made his heart Falling into the abyss, its eyes were confused for an instant, and its lips trembled slightly, and then slowly opened. Even the will of the knight who had been tortured and tortured for half a month was not shaken in the slightest, and now it is almost overthrown.

But just when it was about to open its mouth to reveal all the truth and secrets, the cultist suddenly opened his eyes and howled violently.

The voice was so shrill, it was far more painful than being irradiated with positive energy before, even Joshua felt the pain from the depths of the other party's soul. As if it was about to jump out of the eye sockets, its thin body began to swell violently, its bloodshot and veined face also turned purple, and the liquid inside made a viscous flow sound.

"Don't! My lord, don't! I didn't say it, I didn't say it, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

A sharp and distorted scream burst out from the cultist's throat. It was already an inhuman high-pitched voice. Joshua let go of his hand and let go of the other's hair. He frowned and watched the scene , eyes full of dignity.

This cultist was originally a man, which can be seen from his decent appearance, but now, no one can see any information from his face. The flesh and blood of the face has now turned black and blue, and the things under the skin seem to have been completely dissolved, making its face seem to fall off the skull at any moment.

"puff--"

Suddenly, a string of purple-red blood spurted from the cultist's ear hole, and the stench immediately permeated the entire cell hall. After purifying the chaotic atmosphere of bad smell, and spraying blood in the ears, the body of the cultist became motionless, it no longer struggled, nor screamed, but stood in place like a zombie, with eyes in its eyes Blood flowed out, and his thin body was also strangely swollen now.

"I didn't expect... I thought it was just an ordinary cult attack, but I never expected it to be this situation."

The frown became tighter and tighter, until finally it stood up completely. Joshua's expression was extremely serious. He ignored the other prisoners who had passed out a long time ago, but stared closely at the dead cultist in front of him. , muttering to himself: "Ahead of time? No, it should have happened in the Far South. I didn't pay attention to the Northland in my previous life, so maybe the same thing happened in the Northland..."

As Joshua muttered to himself, various other strange changes began to take place on the cultist's body—first, its swollen body burst suddenly, and a huge amount of black turbid liquid flowed from the broken leather to the crack. Then, groups of semi-melted viscera also leaked from the cracks in the skin, and finally seemed to be corroded, completely melted in the warm black turbid liquid.

Because all the flesh and internal organs were dissolved by the black liquid and flowed out, the original cultists were left with only a layer of skin supported by bones. As for people, they were naturally dead and could not die anymore.

"Black blood."

"The great move of the evil god of plague."

"The super plague that killed 60% of the population in the far south coast."

Turning around without the slightest nostalgia, Joshua's expression had completely turned cold.

"This matter cannot be handled by one place in the North. To deal with the plague, we must devote all our efforts to the whole country. We need to report it to the imperial capital as soon as possible and inform His Majesty the Emperor."

This chapter has been revised back and forth for a long time, and it is quite satisfactory now