Chapter 9: Puzzles

Magellan knew only a few of his real names, as did the countess, and they were confronted with Isis's puzzle like a Breton schoolboy was confronted with a Francian math problem. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"It's not all bad news, either. ”

The countess walked up to the serpent with her eyes closed, and the alpine motif representing the starting point appeared on the stone slab.

Magellan jumped off the serpent's head and stood in that pattern, knowing that it was no longer safe anywhere else.

"The good news is that this puzzle can be solved without real words. ”

The stone slabs on the floor of the hall had been changed beyond recognition, and the originally empty sandstone had risen in ornate gold reliefs, a puzzle piece around the Nile.

"Each slab has a cuneiform script on it...... So, what happens if you step on some of them?

"No, according to some unconfirmed accounts, those who step on the wrong foot will be devoured by the serpent. ”

"Does that say how to get to the end?"

"The right language. ”

Magellan looked down at the cuneiform characters on the slate, confused.

As a hieroglyphic script, the cuneiform script of ancient Emanchet was not a language in which different words could be formed from different letters, but directly from words to form sentences. Magellan could think of many words related to the goddess Isis, but could not think of a sentence.

"And this Nile ......"

At the end of the long Nile on the stone slab is the corner of the wall at the edge of the hall, which does not seem to be the end.

"The sun is on the left, and the underworld is on the right. ”

The countess pointed in two directions, and for some reason, the stone slab with these two words engraved was also under the corner of the wall at the edge of the hall.

"Anyway, try it first. ”

Magellan put the gold chest on his back to the ground and stepped forward on the stone tablet engraved with the word "snake".

At that moment, the entire hall trembled.

The two serpents came to life, and every movement of Sandstone's massive body made a dull noise on the ground.

Magellan jumped up almost in instinctive fear, and although he didn't move in the end, he was sweating profusely after really regaining his body.

Black and white cobras are not creatures, but they have an undisguised horror, like predators, but more ferocious than that.

But in the end, the serpents didn't do anything, they raised their upper bodies, opened their eyes made of obsidian, and turned back into immobile statues.

Silence returned to the hall, and after a long silence, nothing happened.

Magellan was finally convinced that he had not made a mistake, and he fell silent again.

He didn't know whether he should step on the sand or the water or the sheep next, just as he didn't know whether to choose the Nile, the underworld or the sun as the end.

But in the end, he stepped on a slate with water written on it.

Perhaps by illusion, Magellan found that he could clearly feel the sinking of the slate, the first time in a long time since he had presented his gift to Athena.

But his keen instincts didn't help him.

The giant snake propped up its upper body and made an attacking motion, and the black viper grew its mouth and its long narrow fangs were exposed.

Magellan was almost at the mercy of instinct, the cells of his body screaming in fear driven by an imprint from the ancients, the countless memories that had allowed the ancestors of mankind to escape from their predators, and those who forgot it were dead.

But he remained where he was, facing the viper's jaw.

Magellan knew it was because the serpent had reverted back to statue, and the stillness of death had helped him escape the final blow of instinct.

But this time, he couldn't lift his feet.

On both sides of the winding Nile, there are countless stone slabs engraved with words, and he is still far from the end, and he doesn't even know where the end is.

"Can you tell me the story of the goddess Isis?"

Magellan's mind went blank.

"The goddess is the queen of the underworld, the mother of Horus, who once made a poisonous snake out of clay from the banks of the Nile and bit the master of the universe, the sun. The goddess came to the sun when he was tormented by venom and weakened, promising to heal him, but at the cost of receiving the sun's true name. ”

The countess did not continue the story because Magellan had already taken a foot.

"Before becoming queen of the underworld, or rather, making her husband the lord of the underworld, the goddess lived on a great waterfall at the source of the Nile, which was her secret palace. And after Isis got the ultimate secret of the universe, she came to the end of the Nile, built her temple by the sea, and eventually disappeared there. ”

Magellan said as he walked towards the words that represented the underworld.

His posture is strange because with each step he has to jump over several stone slabs and step on the correct text. But Magellan didn't pause at all, he knew he should step on that word.

It's hard to say whether Magellan felt that losing his talent was worth it, but now he does enjoy the feeling of having everything under control with his inspiration bursting.

The answer to that puzzle comes from the teachings of the goddess: true wisdom never touches fools.

Of the ancient Emcheke cuneiform scripts, which are hieroglyphs, only a few are so abstract that they are incomprehensible, and that is the right pathway.

Every step Magellan took would cause the serpent to change its posture, but just as he thought, the serpent just changed its position on its own, and did not touch him on the ground at all.

First the underworld, then the sun, Magellan watched as two giant serpents flew through the air, and eventually, both of his feet landed on the ocean motif representing the end of the Nile.

At that moment, the sound of the boulder moving was remembered as usual.

The serpent's movements are always accompanied by a characteristic sound, the muffled sound of dense boulders colliding, the sound of obsidian scales colliding with the floor under the weight of a massive stone sculpture.

This time the voice was particularly rapid.

Magellan turned and ran.

Almost as soon as he rushed out, the serpent bit down on the stone slab.

The white fangs were just a little bit away from Magellan's back, and the giant viper had been resurrected.

It's hard to say what kind of sound the serpent's swift movements make in such a limited space, but it's definitely not good.

Magellan ran wildly, stepping on countless wrong slates, and just as he had guessed, the slabs fell into the abyss one after another.

Eventually, he rushed to the countess's side.

When he turned around, the serpent's hideous head was in front of him, and the scales of white glass reflected the face of a distorted man.

Then the serpent stepped back.

The two cobras transformed back into statues lying on the ground with a series of stones colliding.