Chapter 40: The Man in the Coffin
"Jarvis, can you restore these words?" Tony shook his head helplessly at the ruined texts, he felt that there must be a huge secret related to this cult hidden in these texts.
"I'm sorry sir, but the destruction is complete, I may not be able to get the information for the time being, maybe we need an archaeologist." Jarvis is, after all, an intelligent system and cannot replace a professional.
"Well, it looks like we're going to have to give up this information for now." Tony would love to do a massive archaeological dig into the place, but thinking about S.H.I.E.L.D. knew they would never allow it.
Temporarily abandoning the study of words, Tony looked at the huge relief in front of him: "Jarvis, are there any myths and legends related to the monster in this relief?" ”
"I'm sorry sir, I didn't find any myths and legends associated with it, but if you add the game, the creature depicted in the relief bears some resemblance to the fish-man." Jarvis constantly corresponds to the image of this relief with other mythological beings, but few myths depict such a twisted and ugly monster.
Tony didn't have much expectations, after all, this was a secret cult, and it was also a cult organization that was only distributed in a small town, if it was so easy to find the relevant information, then Tony might have to wonder if those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were fishing all day long, after all, they had the statue of the evil god in their hands.
"Scan all the information here into my private database, how do I get in Jarvis?" Tony looked away, it had been a while since he had descended to this cave, and he didn't have the time to study a rock for ten days and a half like those archaeologists.
"Data uploaded, sir." Jarvis has been recording data since Tony went down to the cave, after all, Tony will definitely study the footage carefully, "The detector scanned a movable secret door under the statue, but found no mechanism to open the secret door. ”
Before Tony came to the secret door that Jarvis mentioned, due to the erosion of time, this secret door had completely integrated with the surrounding environment, and ordinary people could not see it at all.
"But I'm no ordinary person." Tony raised his right hand and the cutting laser began to operate, since he didn't find the mechanism to open the door, it didn't matter, after all, he was Iron Man.
The laser easily sliced through the secret door, and with a hard push from Tony, he pushed it down, and the underground space was finally revealed.
To Tony's surprise, however, the underground space was not as dark as the passages outside, but had an orange glow.
And Jarvis's warning came at this moment: "Warning, magma has been detected underground. ”
"Underground magma? Jarvis, why didn't you detect it before? How can there be underground magma here? Tony was surprised that there was lava in this underground space not far from the surface, how could this be possible, who would build a town on top of lava.
"Sir, it may be that the rock wall of this underground space interfered with my detection, and it wasn't until you cut through the secret door that my detector sensed the magma." Jarvis immediately analyzed and came to this conclusion.
"Very good, it seems that this secret order has a lot of secrets, can it be detected because of the elemental problem or the mysterious problem?" Tony took a stone from the rock wall by hand and placed it in his storage compartment, which he had to bring back to perhaps analyze something.
"Sir, for the time being, it can be thought that the rock wall has some kind of element, but the influence of mysterious forces cannot be ruled out." Jarvis didn't get enough information to give more advice.
Tony shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the cave, this place was really getting more and more interesting to him.
Following the source of the light, Tony finally came to the underground cave through a narrow passage, looking at the scene in front of him, Tony's pupils shrank.
In the middle of this huge underground cavern, a huge altar can be clearly seen in the center, and on top of the altar, there is a huge crystal coffin, through which a human woman dressed in white with her eyes closed can be seen, and her abdomen is pierced by a strange long sword. It looked like it had been dead for a long time, but the corpse was still alive.
Around the altar there were human bones, which were bound to the cross, and there were dozens of them as far as the eye could see. Orange-red lava surrounds the altar, and in the light of the magma, the crystal coffin and dry bones form a picture of evil and sacred.
Tony took a deep breath, judging from the scene in front of him, this cult still uses human rituals, but thinking that this organization believes in an evil god, it is not so unacceptable to use human rituals.
"Sir, I detected that the lady in the crystal coffin still has a faint vitality." Jarvis's words interrupted Tony's thoughts, but Tony couldn't believe Jarvis's report.
"Are you sure, Jarvis?" Tony couldn't believe it, you must know that from the current information, this cave has been abandoned for more than 20 years, not to mention whether there are any surviving cultists after that, even if there are really cultists left, and sacrifices have been held, but the woman was so badly injured and still locked in the crystal coffin, unless the cultist just left, otherwise the woman will be dead no matter how she looks.
"Sir, maybe you need to get closer, the presence of magma could affect my vital detector." Jarvis's voice calmed Tony down a little, looked at the altar below, Tony thought about it, and directly activated the thruster and flew to the crystal coffin.
Since the cult uses human rituals, every inch of the cave could be buried with an unknown victim, and Tony doesn't want his armor to pass over these bones, even if it's just a possibility.
Approaching the crystal coffin, Tony observed the person in the coffin more closely, and found more anomalies, the lady looked very young, there was no trace of pain on her handsome face, and her ceramic-white skin looked like it could be blown apart; Her jet-black hair was shiny and smooth; She was dressed in the splendid garb of a certain country, with her hands folded in her lower abdomen, and her posture was elegant and noble. If it weren't for the strange sword that pierced her body, the lady looked as if she had just fallen asleep.
"Well, Jarvis, I have to admit, she doesn't look like she's been dead for a long time." Tony looked at this completely different beauty than he had come into contact with before, and had to admit that she really didn't look like she had been dead for a long time.