Whispering Verse

The ruins on the ground above the temple, which were used to hide from the public, were established in the early part of this era by the Worm Order, which was still prosperous at that time. At that time, it was the residence of the priests of the order and the believers who came to worship. Later, when the religious order declined, the ruins were abandoned and turned into the ruins of a large manor that now appeared in front of Shade.

Time has destroyed most things, and only the vague patterns on a few pillars can illustrate how prosperous this place was back then. The ancient language from the Third Age is etched on the pillars. All the letters look like curled insects. This was created by the races that mixed with insects in the Third Age. In the modern Sixth Age, probably except for Shad , not many people can understand it.

The entrance to the underground temple is under the floor on one side of the ruins. Opening the downward passage requires a difficult-to-pronounce incantation and a key. The meaning of the incantation was translated by Shade, and it probably means "praise the great earth-shaking worm, may your fluctuations be with us."

As for the key that opens the entrance, it is not a dead object, but a worm that lives in the body of the old lady Ilar, the last priest of the cult. The insect was black all over, one-fifth as long as an arm, and its mouthparts were extremely conspicuous.

It emerged from the mouth of old lady Ilar, with hundreds of legs squirming. Not only Shade, but also Miss Aurora couldn't stand this scene. The cat on Shade's shoulder was even more alert and wanted to rush forward. It looked like it wanted to protect Shade from the bug. Mia felt that this bug was smaller than it, so there was no danger at all.

While chanting the incantation, the pitch-black worm drilled into the ground. And as the ground trembled, the stone steps connecting the ground appeared under the dark entrance.

[Outlander, you feel "miracle" and "blasphemy". 】

Most miracles come from good gods, and blasphemy only comes from evil gods. This was the first time that Shade encountered a god that was both miraculous and blasphemous at the same time.

Looking at the stone steps in front of him, Shade handed little Mia into the hands of the maids, because Old Mrs. Ilar only allowed Shade and Miss Aurora to enter the temple.

After waiting for a while to let the inside ventilate, he went down the stairs. The black worm went down the wall and lit the kerosene lamps on both sides of the stairs one step ahead for everyone. It also illuminated a large number of murals on both sides of the stairs involving horrific human sacrifices and religious criminal laws.

Shade once again confirmed that although the [Earth-Shaking Worm] was gone, this old god was a real evil god.

Probably when this place was built, the sect had already declined, so the underground temple was not the large building that Shade had imagined.

The stone steps are not long, and at the end is the temple where the holy emblems and statues of gods are placed. The lights are dim, and the underground space seems a bit narrow and shabby. There is a dark room on each side of the temple, which is a library used to store the order's books and a dark room used for rest.

It seems that all churches pay more attention to the Holy Emblem rather than the idol. Therefore, the idol that represents the image of [Earth-Shaking Worm] in the material world is simply placed on the high platform, and the Shad seems to have dozens of them at a glance. The holy emblem with worms crawling on its back was hung in the most conspicuous position of the temple.

The holy symbol is made of stone and is generally round. The pattern of the Holy Emblem is an entangled worm. Except for some runes filled in the gaps, this simple Holy Emblem makes people feel unsteady just by looking at it.

Old Mrs. Ilar opened her mouth and swallowed the pitch-black worm, and then slowly lit the candles here. Shade and the witch scanned the surroundings. Before Shade came here, he actually had some expectations, expecting that there would be something like divinity here, but unfortunately there was not.

But there must be other divinities in the material world. Rather than face the evil god directly, Shade is more willing to look for traces of divinity from myths and legends. Although his current divinity is enough to use the fourth ring as long as he doesn't get into more trouble, he can't really reach the fourth ring and start looking again.

After lighting the candle, the old man knelt down on one knee on the cushion under the holy emblem and prayed for a long time before leading Shade up the high platform to the statue of the god.

The ancient statue of the god, which has gone through the vicissitudes of time and has witnessed several eras, is not big, probably about the same as an ordinary plaster bust. As Shade got closer, he immediately felt an increasingly strong element of blasphemy, and at the same time, the illusion that the ground was shaking became more and more obvious.

The reason why I think this is an illusion is because if there is really an earthquake, the flames of those candles cannot be so stable.

One of the common sense among ring warlocks is that they should never approach the statues of strange gods. Even if you want to gain knowledge, you must confirm the consequences and write a suicide note before approaching.

But this time Miss Aurora was by his side, and Shade had no hesitation. Seeing old Mrs. Ilar kneeling on the cushion under the statue of the god and praying in a low voice again, he followed suit.

His eyes quickly scanned the statue, and the bumps on the surface of the worm's body turned out to be not decorative runes, but human faces twisted in pain. When Shade saw them, those faces actually seemed to come alive, squirming to express their own pain, and even conveying the pain they experienced to Shade.

But in the blink of an eye, the illusion disappeared. The impact of this scene and the influence of the evil god statue itself made Sha De immediately close his eyes and lower his head.

This time it is different from the statue of [Vampire Duke Loair]. This statue is a sacred object of the religious order and is still being sacrificed to this day. Its influence on mortals is far greater than the former.

He felt someone coming up behind him:

"I didn't expect your spiritual power to be so strong, to be so close, and to still be able to look up at the statue."

It was Miss Aurora, she came over too.

"Do those ferocious human faces on the surface of the statue mean anything?"

Shade wanted to slow down and regain his best mental state before looking directly at the statue to feel the blasphemy.

Miss Aurora didn't care about the feelings of old Mrs. Ilar at all, she smiled and explained:

"In ancient times, in order to calm down the so-called anger of the earth, believers in the old god [Earth-Shaking Worm] would hold living sacrifices, using their blood and souls to sacrifice to the gods to gain peace. It is said that the souls of those who were sacrificed would Devoured by the old gods and permanently trapped in the shell of the gods, they were squeezed, worn and tortured day and night."

"It's an honor for them."

The old man who lowered his head in prayer suddenly said. Although she did not raise her head, Shade thought she should still have that kind expression.

Miss Aurora smiled again and did not refute, but asked:

"Shade, haven't you ever been curious? Why should we use human sense of good and evil to distinguish between miracles and blasphemy?"

"I've thought about it too, but I can't figure it out. Probably, the distinction between evil gods and good gods just happens to coincide with good and evil, but in fact the distinction between miracles and blasphemy is due to another reason."

"Yes, that's why there are gods who possess miracles and blasphemy at the same time. There has been discussion within the parliament on this point. We believe that miracles are what should exist. Profanity seems to be the opposite, but it is actually a derivative of miracles. "

Miss Aurora said, she reached out her hand behind Shade and grabbed Shade's right hand:

"I can't explain this to you better, it can only be discovered by yourself. Feel it carefully, Shade, I will help you feel the power of this old god carefully. If the power you gain is related to the earth instead of It’s related to the vibration, so I think I have to think of other ways.”

Her five fingers passed through Shade's fingers and pushed Shade's hand forward. Of course Shade knew that this posture was wrong, but the statue was right in front of him and he had no time to refuse.

A strange radiance spread from Miss Aurora's body, and that radiance was transmitted to Shade through her arms. Behind the two people, the life rings of the two-ring warlock and the twelve-ring warlock appeared in the steam mist. The brass rings with a dodecagonal cross-section seemed to be helping the plane rings rotate:

"Shade, even a witch cannot do this often. Please feel this power carefully."

So the two of them placed their hands closely on the surface of the statue.

When his palm touched the statue, Shade didn't care about the cold feeling and the slight stinging sensation as if he had been bitten by an insect. He stared at the statue, and what really mattered was that the stone worm in front of him seemed to really come alive at this moment. The worm's body squirmed, and the hand that was close to the statue could feel the roughness of the stone surface.

Shade's eyes began to bleed, but he truly felt the trembling power and the terrifying power that the Great One had left here.

His body wanted to tremble, but the witch behind him fixed Shade's hand. In the strange brilliance of the witch's body, the terrifying mouthparts of the big stone worm bit directly into Shade's hand. At the same time as the unreal pain appeared, Shade seemed to feel like something exploded in his head.

It seemed that for a moment, he saw the bloody sacrifices of primitive tribes in ancient times, as if he saw the terrifying worm population wandering deep in the earth, as if he had traveled through several eras, and in the oldest era, saw the earth where worms were shaking and crying. Swallowed something.

In this chaotic hallucination, a voice finally appeared in my ears:

[You have come into contact with the statue of the old god "Earth-Shaking Worm". 】

[Wandering in the depths of the endless earth, shaking the land, absorbing the power of disaster and destruction. In the dusk of the old days, in the midst of madness, He left voluntarily and returned that great power to the earth. 】

[You listened to the story of the old god "Earth-Shaking Worm", and you learned about the blasphemy of the old god "Earth-shaking Worm". 】

Shade's back Behind Shade and Miss Aurora, the life ring of the twelve-ring warlock disappeared, and the life ring belonging to the second-ring warlock rotated rapidly. The old man and the witch both turned to look. The dazzling four-color spiritual light that had lit up seemed as if Shade was using thaumaturgy, but this was just the ordinary state of Shade's spiritual runes.

The ground was shaking, and this time there was really a small earthquake. Along with this tremor, silver spiritual light gathered on the surface of the life ring. The bells rang, the whistle blew, and the dazzling silver aura directly illuminated the entire underground temple space.

This was the first time that someone had witnessed Shade inscribing spiritual runes up close and personal. However, the old man, a low-level warlock, thought this scene was magical, but the witch frowned in surprise.

Even if a high-level warlock inscribes spiritual runes, there shouldn't be such a movement. After all, the acquisition of spiritual runes is only a matter for the individual ring warlock, and there is no reason why it would affect the environment so strongly.

[Outlander, you have engraved the silver blasphemous spiritual rune-shock. 】

The rapidly rotating life ring gradually slowed down, and all the auras gathered on the surface of the life ring, eventually forming new runes. The flickering aura gradually stabilized until it remained at almost the same level as [Tree Kiss] and [Greed].

"Miss Aurora, it's ready."

Shade took a deep breath and removed his hand from the statue. The statue remained in its original state, and the scene where the bugs devoured Shade's arm just now was really just an illusion.

However, there was still a tingling sensation on his arm. Because of receiving the huge information and feeling the power of the gods at close range, Shade staggered back and felt his back hit something soft. Blushing, he didn't have the nerve to immediately look back at his life ring, but he had already felt the power.

The witch retracted her surprised expression, chuckled, and retracted her slender fingers from Shade's fingers. Shade slowly exhaled and looked away from the statue in front of him that was putting great pressure on him. Only then did he realize that his entire back was soaked without even realizing it.

"Was there an earthquake just now?"

He asked softly and weakly, partly because he was pretending, and partly because his mental state was indeed not very good.

"A very slight earthquake."

The witch with long wavy brown hair said, and then looked at Shade's side face suspiciously:

"Shade, don't tell me that the spiritual rune you obtained is [Earthquake]."

"No, it's [shock]. This trip has achieved its goal."

Shade said, and sighed softly:

"Miss Aurora, you were really helpful this time."

"You don't have to be so polite. I just paid your toll."

The witch said easily, looking at Shade, and then at the statue of the god still standing there quietly. The gods are long gone, but the statues are still terrifying:

"Okay, let's go back."

She didn't want to comment too much on this place, and she didn't want to face the evil god statue too much. Even a witch is still a mortal.

Therefore, this short journey ended successfully.