However, even so, it is no longer possible to let Alice act as an avant-garde. Lin Yiyan pulled the door open and poked his head in slightly to look inside. The narrow marble path stretched a little inside, and in front of it was a dimly lit hall. A few purple dots of light can be seen flickering, but the details are not clear.

When Lin Yiyan drilled through the door in fear, a low voice like a curse came. Stop and try your best to listen. Not the voice of one person, but the scale of several - no, dozens of people. Alice, who was diagonally behind Lin Yiyan, whispered, "It's a divine technique", and then Lin Yiyan also suddenly realized and held her breath.

Lin Yiyan took a stance on guard against multiple attacks aimed at us, but it didn't sound like that. From the fragments of the command content that came to my ears, I didn't hear the Generate sentence that almost inevitably appeared in the attack technique. Tilting her head towards Alice slightly, she urged Lin Yiyan in an almost inaudible voice.

"Go ahead. It looks like the Patriarchs are working on a large-scale spell that has nothing to do with us, so this is the perfect opportunity for us. In such dim conditions, it may be possible to get all the way to the range of the sword's attack. ”

“…… Ahh As promised, I'll rush to the front, and I'll ask you for support. Answering in a whisper, Lin Yiyan slowly pulled out the sword on his left waist. Although the Sword of the Green Rose hanging on the right side during battle will become a burden, it should not be put aside no matter what. After confirming the sound of Alice pulling out the sword of the golden wood, Lin Yiyan continued to walk forward.

The closer he got to the dim space, the more Lin Yiyan noticed an unpleasant smell in the cold wind on his face. It is not the smell of wild beasts or blood, but the smell of rancid food. Brushing it out of his consciousness and leaning his back against the walls on both sides of the road, he was able to take in the view of the interior between the patriarchs.

Very broad - no, it should be said, very high.

The floor is circular about 20 meters in diameter, but the curved walls that rise from the ground are as high as the three floors of the cathedral, and the ceiling is hidden in darkness. Structurally, it resembles the large library where Cardinal lives.

There seems to be no lighting fixture at all, and the only thing that can be used as a light source is the dim purple flashes around the walls. In addition, there are spherical things arranged at equal intervals, but I can't see what they are. At this time, a new light appeared in a place that was quite close to the two of them. It was a rectangular plate that glowed with a lilac light—the window of Stysia. Then the sphere in the back is......

Human heads.

In this way, all the round things arranged in this large circular hall are ......

“…… ...... people, heads? Behind Lin Yiyan's left side, who was leaking a faint voice, Alice whispered in a low voice, "No, it's still connected to the body...... However, it always feels like it grows out of the wall......"

Hearing her words, Lin Yiyan narrowed her eyes desperately. It's true that there are shoulders underneath the round head, but that's all you can see. Because, the whole body is stored in a square box on the wall.

Judging by the size of this not a large box, the limbs of the body inside have been bent to the limit. It's impossible to know what it's like to be trapped in a box in this completely uncomfortable environment - that's because there is no such thing as an "expression" on the face that emerges from the box.

The two glass-like eyes buried deep in the pale face without a single hair, beard, or eyebrows just stared blankly at the window of Stysia that appeared in front of them. Dense text appeared in the window one by one, and every time a text passed, an uninhibited voice came from the bloodless lips of the people in the box, "System Call...... Display Rebelling Index……”

Hearing that this was not at all like the sound of a living person, Lin Yiyan's entire body tensed.

"This ...... These guys...... Was it ...... at that time? ”

"Do you know what it is!?" Alice immediately reacted to Lin Yiyan's gasp, Lin Yiyan looked at the knight's face and nodded slightly, "I know...... Two days ago, after the battle between the Sword Academy and Laios, something like a window appeared in the corner of the room. From the other side of the window, there was a white face looking at me and Eugeo...... That's right, it's these guys......"

Alice listened to the voices of the people in the box again, frowned, and said, "The way they chanted...... Although I don't understand it at all, it seems to use a certain displayed value to distinguish and subdivide the human world. But I don't know what that number is. ”

"Numerical ......" In the parroted Lin Yiyan's mind, a voice suddenly woke up.

- Among the parameters that cannot be seen, there is a value called Violation Index.

- The Administrator noticed early on that the violation index could be used to filter out people who were suspicious of their own list of taboos......

The person who told Lin Yiyan this was Cardinal, the young sage in the big library. There is no mistake that the Rebelling Index is the Rebelling Index, which Cardinal is talking about, and in other words, dozens of Rebelling Indexes in this hall are checking the Rebelling Index of the inhabitants of the human realm.

If an outlier is detected, the person in the box will peek into the scene, lock down the person who has violated the taboo and report it upwards. Someone who received this report then gave the order to the integration knight to arrest the prisoner. This is how Lin Yiyan and Eugeo, as well as Alice, were brought to the cathedral......

Lin Yiyan, who could only stand there because of the shock, suddenly heard a "beep-beep-" chirp like an alarm. Although Lin Yiyan and Alice subconsciously held the sword at the same time, no one seemed to notice Lin Yiyan and Alice. At the same time, the people in the box also stopped chanting the command, and instead of looking downward, they turned their faces straight up.

At this time, Lin Yiyan found that from the wall above their heads, something like a wonderful faucet stretched out, and those people opened their mouths together. Then, a bunch of brown liquid flowed out of the faucet at once, which was caught by the men with their mouths and swallowed mechanically. Some of the fluid leaking from the corners of their mouths dripped down their jaws and onto their heads and chests. I'm afraid that's where that rancid smell comes from.

Finally, the whistling sound sounded again, the running food from the faucet stopped dripping, and the people in the box put their heads back to the front, ystem call...... System Call……

- This is definitely not the way of treating human beings.

No, even if cattle and sheep are targeted, such an approach is unforgivable. In order to hold back the anger that surged up from his abdomen, Lin Yiyan gritted his teeth and rattled. At the same time, Alice also squeezed a voice from between her teeth, "They are...... The patriarchs of the Congregational Church, who govern the human world? ”

Turning his gaze away, the glittering blue eyes of the Integration Knight scanned the hall. Although Lin Yiyan didn't realize it until she said it, it should be like this. These dozens of people in the box are none other than the patriarchs of the high-ranking civil officials of the Congregational Church.

"The ...... that caused this Is it the High Priest? ”

"Hmm...... That's it. Lin Yiyan gave an affirmative answer in a weak voice, "It should be among the humans who have been brought here to single out the people who lack combat ability but are very good at exercising divine arts, like this...... Blocking all thoughts and feelings, turning them into a device called the Patriarch to monitor the world......"

Yes, they're just surveillance devices. It is to check whether the whole human world is in complete peace under the rule of the Congregational Church...... Or rather, a device in a state of stagnation. The fate of the senators, the reign of the dministrator that lasted for hundreds of years, was built on such sacrifices.

Alice's face slowly lowered, her drooping blonde hair obscuring her expression.

“…… Unforgivable. The sword in his right hand trembled faintly as if it reflected the anger of his master.

"No matter what sin they commit, they are also children of mankind, but they are ...... Not even satisfied with just taking memories like we did to our knights, but also like that...... Even the intellect and affection of human beings are taken away, locked in small boxes, and fed to them food that is inferior to pigs and dogs...... There is no honour or justice at all. ”

As soon as the words fell, Alice walked into the room without hesitation with heavy steps, and Lin Yiyan hurriedly followed. The dazzling female knight, who was beautiful even in the dark, appeared in front of her, and the senators' eyes did not move the slightest bit from the window of Stysia. Alice walked to the left and stood in front of a box. Lin Yiyan peeked at the patriarch's pale face from her diagonal back.

Even if you look so closely, you can't tell the age or gender from the poor human. Imprisoned in this dark hall - no, the endless years in prison that had probably taken away the part of him that he was as a human being.

At this moment, Alice suddenly raised the sword of the golden wood. Lin Yiyan thought that she was going to destroy the box, but the tip of the sword stopped at the position of the patriarch's heart. Lin Yiyan gasped and hurriedly whispered to her, "Alice......!" ”

"Don't you think it's the end of their lives...... Is it the greatest compassion? ”

Lin Yiyan couldn't answer immediately. Judging by their current appearance, even if the fragments of their memories were reunited, if they were still preserved, they would probably not be able to get them back to their original state...... I have to admit that the Fluct Light of the patriarchs may have suffered irreversible and tragic damage, and it is impossible to repair it.

But, even so, if it's Cardinal, or rather, the Administrator, it leaves them at least a glimmer of hope. With that in mind, I'm ready to strike at Alice's sword. Before that, however, a strange shout from the depths of the room froze the movements of the two.

"Ahhh......h Ahhhhh——!h It was a man's high-pitched voice as sharp as metal colliding.

"Ahh——!!!h These interjections of unknown meaning were stacked together, making Lin Yiyan and Alice show surprised expressions at the same time.

It was a voice that Lin Yiyan hadn't heard before. Not a young man, but definitely not an old man. The only thing that is certain is that the owner of the voice is in a state of self-forgetfulness, excited about something.

Under this strange scream, Alice's swelling anger was like being poured with a basin of cold water, and she turned her sword to face the direction from which the voice came, and Lin Yiyan also looked over there.

Directly opposite the rotunda is a passage identical to the one in which it had been entered, with a slightly closed door. Screams erupted intermittently from the depths of the passage.

"......" Alice pointed the tip of her sword forward, silently conveying the meaning of "go over there and have a look". Lin Yiyan nodded, and the two of them began to move to the opposite side lightly.

There were no pillars or furniture in the hall that could be used to hide, and Lin Yiyan was a little frightened at the thought of traversing such terrain, but the dozens of "elders" who were tied to the wall didn't seem to notice the existence of the two at all—rather, they had long lost their awareness of this existence. For them, the system window in front of them and the liquid food flowing out of the tap are all there is to the world. Looking at them, Lin Yiyan couldn't even feel the same compassion as he did when he saw the jailer in the underground dungeon or the plight of the girl who operated the elevator, because the lives of these patriarchs were far beyond what I could express in words.

At the same time, Lin Yiyan was also incomprehensible to the person who could still shout in such a flirtatious voice so close to the place where this tragedy occurred. At the very least, that person is definitely not one of those people we can take as companions.

Alice seemed to be thinking about the same thing, and her blue side face was distinctly different from the anger and nervousness that she had before. She walked through the hall in one breath with her footsteps hidden, and peeked inside at the entrance of the passage in the depths, and Lin Yiyan also peeked inside behind her.

At the end of the passage, which was as narrow as before, was a room that was not a hall, but it was not a small room. In the dim light, the interior is unobstructed.

At first glance, it is too bizarre space.

First of all, all the furniture as far as the eye can see is glittering with gold. From large pieces of furniture such as wardrobes and beds, to small round stools and storage boxes on the floor, they all shine with a vulgar glow in the light. On the golden furniture, and overflowing from the open chests of drawers, are countless toys of all sizes and shapes.

Most of them are life-like puppets with terrifying colors, ranging in shapes from buttons for eyes and wool for hair, to all kinds of animals such as cats, dogs, cows, horses, and even some ugly monsters that can't be seen at all, piled up in every corner from the ground to the bed. On top of that, there are countless bricks, wooden horses and musical instruments, just like moving an entire toy store into Santoria's 5th district.

And the owner of the previous cry was sitting with his back to us, as if he would be buried in this toy mountain at any moment.

"Ahh Oh oh oh!! The posture of the character, who constantly emits meaningless screams, can only be described as "strange".

It's like a ball. The body is almost a perfect sphere, with a round head on top of it, exactly like a snowman - but not white. He was wearing a glittering clown suit with red on the right half and blue on the left, and the sleeves on his stubby arms were also densely covered with blue and red lines, which made people's eyes dazzle after staring at it for a while.

His round head was blank, and there was not a single hair at all—but contrary to the senators, his skin was plump and oily. The hat on top of his head was as vulgar as the furniture. Lin Yiyan approached Alice, who was standing in front, and asked her in the lowest voice possible, "Is this guy?" ”

"Yes, this is Chuderkin." Although the knight's answer was barely audible, a feeling of disgust oozed from it. Lin Yiyan once again looked at the back of the clown suit.

Since he is the patriarch, he should be the opposite of the knight chief Bel Coolly, the most important figure in the Congregational Church, and the highest-ranking divine sorcerer. However, does it really matter if he just exposes his back defenselessly? But it looked as if he had been completely robbed of his mind by something he was holding between his hands.

Although it was not very real to see under the shadow of Chuderkin's bloated back, what he was staring at now seemed to be a huge glass ball. Whenever the color inside the glass ball flickered and changed, his two short legs outstretched out would shake wildly, and his mouth would let out a scream of "ahhhh

I was already mentally prepared for this decisive battle to be more urgent than the battle against Disorupat or Fanateau, but I didn't expect this situation to be like this, so that Lin Yiyan didn't know what to do for a while, and Alice beside her suddenly took action as if she couldn't bear it anymore, and didn't even care about the footsteps anymore, and rushed out with all her might.

However, Alice, who easily shook off Lin Yiyan, who was hurriedly following behind, turned into a whirlwind of gold and sprinted forward, in fact, only stepped on the floor for four or five steps, and then rushed into the room full of toys, and when Chudelkin had just turned his round head back, he had already grabbed the reflective neckline of the red and blue clown suit.

"Oooh oh oh oh!?" Alice pulled the screaming round object out of the sea of Muppets and held it high.