The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

"He should be a priest of the local church." Sylvia said as she watched the maggot man team go away.

"The atmosphere here is a bit weird." Leo's focus was on the people around him whose fanatic expressions were beginning to dissipate. He could feel that these people would fall into a state of fanatical worship when the maggots appeared Go, but the production of this state is mixed with some extraordinary power.

Leo really wanted to activate his vision to see what was going on, but his intuition told him that if he activated his vision, something very bad for him would happen, which also made him suppress himself Curiosity diverts attention elsewhere.

Sylvia gestured to him at this time, and after the two of them walked into a corner that was not very eye-catching, she said, "The maggot priest just now looks a lot like the priest of the filthy mother."

"Mother of Filth?" Leo was stunned for a moment when he heard the name, and then quickly found the corresponding content in the brain database. He asked in surprise, "Is it the Church of Mother of Filth in the First Dynasty?"

Sylvia nodded, with a very serious look on her face.

Whether the first dynasty of France should be called a dynasty has always been debated in academic circles. This statement only appears in the official historical documents of the French Empire and has not been recorded in academic books.

At the academic level, those scholars prefer to refer to the First Dynasty of Faran as the period of the Great Tribal Alliance, or the period of the former city-state.

At that time, the French Empire as a whole was still in an alliance state with large tribes as the core and small tribes as vassals. These tribes, large and small, built city-states on the continent of Velen. Each city-state had independent judiciary, taxation, The army and so on, if you don't look at the area, these city-states can also be regarded as small kingdoms.

Under such a political system, each city-state has its own beliefs. These beliefs come from the most primitive Black Forest tribal beliefs. At that time, all city-state churches did not distinguish between the Church of the True God and the Church of Evil God. Human blood sacrifices, which were regarded as rituals of the evil church, were also normal religious sacrifices at that time.

Even some of the latest relic excavations and inheritance data show that even churches like the Lord of the Sky and the King of the Hill, who claimed to be righteous, also often performed living sacrifices at that time, but they all sacrificed living enemies. In most churches, even their own believers are treated as sacrifices.

Because of the influence of the city-state system, for a long time, none of the churches in the entire Velen Continent could grow strong enough to suppress other churches.

It wasn't until the appearance of the Church of the Mother of Dirt that the religions of the entire Velen continent showed signs of integration for the first time.

According to all the documents and antiquities that can be found now, including the documents kept by the tower wizard, it is completely impossible to verify how powerful the Church of the Mother of Filth was at that time, but all those who study religious history agree on one thing, that is, the church of the Filth Mother The influence of the mother church at that time was far greater than the influence of the three major churches of the Orthodox Church. Even for a period of time, all the city-state masters in the Villen continent had to be members of the church of the mother of filth.

The specific teachings of the Church of the Mother of Dirt have long since disappeared with the fall of the First Dynasty, but there are still some things related to the Mother of Dirty that have been handed down, such as the church structure, the class division of the teaching staff, etc. Wait, in many underground churches classified as the Church of Evil God by the Orthodox Church, there are more or less shadows of the Church of the Mother of Dirt, and the Mother of the Nests even claims to be the orthodox heir of the Mother of Dirty.

In all known materials, the identity of the senior clergy of this church has always been an argument that religious researchers cannot reach a consensus on, because in those written materials that can be found, the clergy of the mother of filth are called Maggot people.

In the eyes of the vast majority of religious researchers and church scholars of the Orthodox Church, this self-proclaimed maggot man is actually a manifestation of belief in the future of the mother of filth, because the mother of filth, as the name implies, was born in the most filthy place, and maggots It is also mixed in the filth, so those senior priests of the mother of filth will call themselves maggots, thinking that they and the filth are one.

However, with the discovery of a mother of filthy altar building on the edge of the Lower Black Forest with some remaining buildings, some religious researchers and Orthodox church scholars who understand the underground world believe that the maggot man refers to the maggot man, because in In the ruins of the altar, they saw a maggot with a human face holding up a scepter representing a senior priest. In their view, those senior priests who called themselves maggots were obviously family members who had been corroded by the power of the mother of filth.

It now appears that those scholars who believed that the high clergy of the Filth Mother were the Familia of Maggots were right.

After confirming that this place is related to the mother of filth, Leo and Sylvia obtained much more information from various details around them.

For example, the shape of this castle is not the square castle of the second dynasty, nor the star-shaped knight castle of the third dynasty, but the round castle of the first dynasty.

This kind of castle presents a cylindrical shape as a whole, with three layers of walls built up one by one, and each layer has some fortifications. This kind of castle had a very strong defense in the early days when the population was small and the means of siege were scarce. It was not until the appearance of the siege chariot at the end of the First Dynasty that the defensive weakness of this kind of castle was exposed, and it eventually became one of the important factors for the demise of the First Dynasty.

Right now, the lord's castle in Lyon is a very standard round castle, because after many renovations and repairs, the materials used to build the castle can no longer be seen from the appearance, but from some still preserved Judging from the city wall statues, there are a lot of first dynasty styles.

From this, it can be judged that this castle is probably very old, so old that it may have been left over from the First Dynasty, and was later re-used by the people of the Second Dynasty.

In addition, on the outer wall of the castle and all the buildings in the surrounding vassal villages, there are a large number of religious reliefs related to the mother of filth, such as the emblem of the mother of filth and so on.

It's just a little strange that there is no statue of the mother of filth and legends about the mother of filth engraved on it like other churches. Although it is strange, both Leo and Sylvia subconsciously think that this may be The ancient church differs from the modern church.

In the modern church, especially in the hundreds of years when the gods have retreated and the miracles have not appeared, the church will use various methods to repeatedly remind the greatness of the gods in their hearts. Among them, miraculous church buildings are built and exquisite religious artworks are produced. , engraving various legends of the gods on church buildings is also one of the methods.

But in the era of the First Dynasty, the gods were extremely active, and it can even be said that it was an era where humans and gods lived together. What the gods needed was not to show various legends and stories. What the gods needed was to show miracles at certain times, and then Hide it and maintain a sense of mystery, because only if there is enough mystery, the believer's belief in the gods will be stronger. Because for people at that time, all beliefs came from fear, and all fears came from the unknown.

"It seems that we have to change our appearance to enter the city." When Leo focused on all the surrounding things related to the mother of filth, Sylvia observed the situation at the entrance of the castle. After a while, she said .

Leo turned to look at Sylvia.

Sylvia explained: "It seems that only people with obvious physical mutations are eligible to enter the castle, and other normal people are not allowed."

After hearing Sylvia's words, Leo also looked at the situation in the direction of the city gate and nodded. Then he found a corner of the house where no one had seen, thought for a while, and suppressed all the other forces in his body. Only the power of the abyss serpent was kept running on his body. And when he inspired the power of the abyss serpent, a layer of crystal-like scales immediately grew on the surface of his skin, his eyes also became a pair of snake eyes, and a flame-like flame grew on his forehead. The pattern, but this flame is not red, but black.

Feeling the power of the abyss emanating from Leo, Sylvia didn't feel any discomfort, on the contrary, she became closer, and she also began to use the power of the abyss dragon in her blood, and coincidentally, she used The appearance of the mutant driven by power is very similar to that of Leo, both of which are covered with scales and have snake eyes. The only difference is that the scales on her body are black, like obsidian.

The reason why Leo chose to use the power of the abyss serpent was because according to the information left by the tower wizard, the mother of filth probably came from the abyss, because in various languages ​​of the ancient Black Forest tribe, the word abyss has a The meaning of the place of filth, so since the mother of filth is called this name, then no matter how you look at it, she should have more or less a relationship with the abyss.

When Leo and Silvia completed their respective abysses, everything around them immediately became different in their eyes.

First of all, they could all feel that the surface of the castle was covered with a very faint layer of abyssal power, and from time to time they could see some black oily substances seeping out from the cracks in the city wall, and then volatilized and disappeared.

In addition, the people around have also become different. They can see that each of the family members with obvious mutations has a group of abyss power in different parts of their bodies. It is obvious that their mutations all come from the abyss. This is also from one side Confirmed the conjecture that the mother of filth originated from the abyss.

"These powers of the abyss are somewhat unusual." Leo, who is extremely sensitive to energy fluctuations, quickly noticed that whether it was the black oil seeping out of the city wall or the power of all the family members, although they were all powers of the abyss, they were not complete. yes.

It is said that they are the power of the abyss, because the energy fluctuations produced by these forces are exactly the same as those of the power of the abyss. This is like a gene that cannot be faked, but it is said that they are not the power of the abyss because he cannot feel it from these forces. One of the most crucial things to the power of the abyss is the breath of chaos.

Whether it is the power of the abyss serpent controlled by Leo or the power of Sylvia's abyss dragon, there is a chaotic atmosphere hidden deep in their power. If they are shrouded in this chaotic atmosphere for a long time, then Anyone's mind will be affected by it and produce some bad thoughts and ideas.

But these powers, which originated from the mother of filth and are very similar to the power of the abyss, do not have that kind of chaotic and disorderly atmosphere. Instead, they are very similar to the divine power of the gods that Leo refers to, orderly, regular and stable.

Leo almost didn't need to make too many guesses to be sure that the final mutation result of these people who contained the power of the mother of filth would be that kind of maggot man, and the mutation caused by the real power of the abyss was unpredictable and uncontrollable Yes, even if it is the same power, the result of the final mutation will be completely different.

Under Leo's reminder, Sylvia also saw some details of the power of the abyss in these people's physical strength. Although her understanding of the power of the abyss is far from comparable to that of Leo, she has two kinds of abyssal blood. The fragments of abyssal knowledge contained therein helped her easily determine where the power of the abyss was unusual.

"How could this be?" Sylvia said in surprise, "Is this impossible?"

It's no wonder that Sylvia was so surprised. Because of his own reasons, Leo is no stranger to the transition between energy disorder and order, so the orderly power of the abyss in front of him surprised him , but it is also acceptable.

But Sylvia is different. Most of her knowledge about the abyss comes from the inheritance of blood power. Among the knowledge from the abyss dragon and the faceless man, the disorder of the abyss is eternal and unchanging Yes, obviously everything she saw in front of her went against her common sense, and she couldn't figure it out for a while.

"There's no need to think too much. Go to the castle first and take a look at the altar of the Mother of Filth, and you may be able to find the answer." Leo said, then fell silent for a moment, and said, "I don't think this may be the power of the abyss, Think about it, if this is the power of the abyss, how could the Lord of the Black Forest allow it to exist."

Hearing Leo's analysis, Sylvia froze for a moment, and nodded in agreement.

Although the Lord of the Black Forest is extremely mysterious, even in the Orthodox Church there is not much relevant information, but all the information that can be seen, without exception, the Lord of the Black Forest is a real god.

The two didn't stay outside the castle anymore, they lowered the hood of their robes to reveal their disguise, and walked towards the entrance of the castle.

Just as they guessed, the mutated appearance was the best proof of identity, so the guard at the castle entrance just looked at the two of them, and put them into the castle without any movement to stop them.

However, even so, the mutated state of the two still made these guards a little curious, because their mutated only grew a layer of scales on the surface of the skin, and their eyes became snake eyes. Fully mutated towards inhuman form like other mutants.