"He was supposed to be a priest of the local church. Sylvia said as she looked at the distant figure of the maggots.

"There's a bit of a quirky atmosphere here. Leo's focus was on the people around him whose frenzied expressions began to dissipate, and he could sense that these people would fall into a frenzied state of worship when the maggots appeared, and this state was mixed with some supernatural powers.

Leo was tempted to turn on his psionic vision to see what was going on, but his instincts told him that if he did, something very bad would happen to him, which made him suppress his curiosity and turn his attention elsewhere.

Sylvia motioned to him at this time, and after the two of them walked into an unobtrusive corner, she said, "That maggot priest just now looks a lot like the priest of the Mother of Filth. ”

"Mother of Filth?" Leo was slightly stunned when he heard the name, and then quickly found the corresponding content in the brain database, and said in surprise, "Is it the Church of the Mother of Filth of the First Dynasty?"

Sylvia nodded, a very serious look on her face.

Whether or not the First French Dynasty should be called a dynasty has been debated in academic circles, and this claim appears only in the official historical documents of the French Empire, and is not recorded in academic books.

At the scholarly level, scholars prefer to refer to the First Flannish Dynasty as the period of the Great Tribal Confederation, or as the period of the pre-city-states.

At that time, the French Empire as a whole was still an alliance with large tribes as the core and small tribes as vassals, and these large and small tribes built city-states on the Vilen continent, each of which had independent justice, taxes, armies, etc., and if you didn't look at the area, these city-states could also be regarded as small kingdoms.

Under such a political system, each city-state has its own beliefs, which are derived from the most primitive Black Forest tribal beliefs, and at that time, the churches of all city-states did not distinguish between the Church of the True God and the Church of the Evil God, and the blood sacrifice of the living people, which is now regarded as the ritual of the evil church, was also a normal religious sacrifice at that time.

Even the latest excavations and heritage materials show that even the righteous churches such as the Lord of the Sky and the King of the Hills also practiced human sacrifices at that time, but they sacrificed their living enemies, and the vast majority of churches were also sacrificed as their own believers.

Because of the influence of the city-state system, for a long time, none of the churches in the entire Velun Continent could grow enough to suppress the strength of other churches, and all the churches were about the same strength, so the beliefs were also extremely chaotic.

It wasn't until the Mother Cult of Filth appeared that the religions of the entire Velonon 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 wizards of the Tower, it is completely impossible to verify how powerful the Church of the Mother of Filth was at that time, but all those who study the history of religion have a consensus, that is, the influence of the Church of the Mother Filth at that time was far greater than that of the three major churches of the current Orthodox Church, and even for a period of time, all the city-state lords in the Vilun Continent must be members of the Church of the Mother of Filth.

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

In all known sources, the identity of the senior clergy of this church has been an argument that religious studies do not agree on, since in the texts that can be found, the clergy of the Mother of Filth are referred to as maggots.

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

However, with the discovery of a partially fragmented Filthy Mother Altarpiece on the edge of the Lower Black Forest, some religious researchers and Orthodox Church scholars who know about the underworld believe that maggots refer to maggots, because in the remains of the altar, they saw a maggot holding a scepter representing the high clergy, and in their opinion, the high-ranking clergy who called themselves maggots were obviously family members who had been corrupted by the power of the Mother of Filth.

Now it seems that the scholars who believe that the high clergy of the Mother of Filth are maggots.

After determining that this place had something to do with the Mother of Filth, Leo and Sylvia had much more information about the details of the surrounding area.

For example, the shape of this castle is not the square castle of the Second Dynasty, nor the star-shaped knight's castle of the Third Dynasty, but the round fortress of the First Dynasty.

This kind of castle as a whole presents a cylindrical shape, there are three layers of city walls to gather up layer by layer, each layer has some fortifications, this kind of castle in the early early days of the population is not large, the siege means are scarce, with a very strong defense, until the end of the first dynasty siege car appeared, the defensive weakness of this castle was exposed, and finally became one of the important factors in the demise of the first dynasty.

At present, this castle of the lord of Lyon is a very standard round castle, because after many renovations and repairs, it is now impossible to see the materials used to build this castle in the first place, but judging from some of the statues of the city walls that are still preserved, there are a lot of styles of the First Dynasty.

Judging from this, the castle is probably very old, so old that it may have been left over from the First Dynasty and later reused by the people of the Second Dynasty.

In addition, on the outer walls 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 coat of arms of the Mother of Filth.

It's just a little strange that it doesn't have the statue of the Mother of Filth carved on it like other churches, and the legends and stories related to the Mother of Filth, etc., although it is strange, but both Leo and Sylvia subconsciously think that this may be the difference between the ancient church and the modern church.

In the modern church, especially in the hundreds of years when the gods have retired and miracles are not revealed, the church will use various methods to repeatedly remind the greatness of the gods in their hearts, among which the construction of miraculous church buildings, the production of exquisite religious artworks, and the engraving of various legends of the gods on the buildings of the church are also one of the methods.

But in the era of the First Dynasty, the gods were very active, and it can even be said that in the era of mixed human and god, what the gods needed was not to show all kinds of legends, but to show miracles at certain times, and then hide them and maintain a sense of mystery, because only when there is enough mystery, the believer's belief in the gods will be stronger. Because for the people of that time, all faith came from fear, and all fear came from the unknown.

"It looks like we're going to have to change our faces before we can get into the city. While Leo focused on all the things around her that had to do with the Mother of Filth, Sylvia observed the entrance to the castle and said after a moment.

Leo turned to look at Sylvia.

Sylvia explained, "It seems that only people with obvious physical changes are eligible to enter the castle, and no other normal people can. ”

Listening to Sylvia's words, Leo also looked at the situation in the direction of the city gate, nodded, and then he found a corner of a house that no one saw, thought about it, and suppressed all the other forces in his body, leaving only the power of the abyss serpent running on his body. And when he activated the power of the Abyssal Serpent, a layer of crystal-like scales immediately grew on the surface of his skin, and his eyes also turned into a pair of snake eyes, and a flame-like pattern also grew on his forehead, but this flame was not red, but black.

Feeling the power of the abyss coming from Leo's body, Sylvia did not feel any discomfort, but became closer and closer, and she also began to use the power of the abyss demon dragon in her bloodline, and coincidentally, the mutation she urged with her power was very similar to Leo, both of them were covered with scales, and her eyes were snakes, the only difference was that the scales on her body were black, like obsidian.

The reason why Leo chose to use the power of the Abyss Serpent is because according to the information left by the wizard of the Tower, the Mother of Filth is likely to come from the Abyss, because in the various languages of the ancient Black Forest tribes, the word Abyss has the meaning of the Filthy Land, so since the Mother of Filth is called this name, then no matter how you look at it, she should have more or less something to do with the Abyss.

When Leo and Sylvia completed their respective abyssal transformations, everything around them immediately became different in their eyes.

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

In addition, the people around them have also become different, they can see that different parts of the body of each family member with obvious mutations have an abyssal power, and it is obvious that all their mutations are derived from the abyss, which also confirms the speculation that the Mother of Filth originates from the abyss.

"There is something unusual about these abyssal powers. Leo, who was extremely sensitive to energy fluctuations, quickly sensed that whether it was the black oil seeping out of the city walls, or the power of all the clans, although they were all the power of the abyss, they were not all.

To say 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, it is like genes that cannot be faked, but to say that they are not the power of the abyss is because he cannot feel from these forces the most important thing for the power of the abyss, which is the breath of chaos.

Whether it is the power of the Abyss Serpent controlled by Leo or the power of the Abyss Demon Dragon of Sylvia, there is a chaotic aura hidden in the depths of their power, and if they are shrouded in this chaotic aura for a long time, then anyone's mind will be affected by it, and some bad thoughts and thoughts will be generated.

But these powers, which originate from the Mother of Filth and are very similar to the power of the abyss, do not have the aura of chaos and disorder, but are very similar to the divine power that Leo refers to, orderly, regular, and stable.

Leo hardly needs to make too much guesswork, he can be sure that the final mutation result of these people who contain the power of the Mother of Filth will be that kind of maggot, and the mutation caused by the real power of the abyss is unpredictable and uncontrollable, even if it is the same power, the final mutation result will be completely different.

Under Leo's reminder, Sylvia also saw some details of the abyssal power of these people's body powers, although her understanding of the abyssal power was far from being comparable to Leo's, but she had the abyssal knowledge fragments contained in the two abyssal bloodlines, and these knowledge fragments helped her easily judge what was unusual about these abyssal powers.

"How so?" Sylvia said with some surprise, "Is this impossible?"

It's no wonder that Sylvia was so surprised, Leo was no stranger to the transition between energy disorder and order because of himself, so he was surprised by the appearance of this orderly abyss power in front of him, but he was also able to accept it.

But Sylvia is different, most of her knowledge about the abyss comes from the inheritance of the power of the bloodline, and among these knowledge from the abyss dragon and the faceless, the disorder of the abyss is eternal and unchanging, and it is obvious that what she sees in front of her violates the common sense she knows, making her a little puzzled for a while.

"There's no need to think about it, go to the castle first, and look at the altar of the Mother of Filth. Leo spoke, then suddenly fell silent for a moment, and said: "I think this may not be the power of the abyss, think about it, if this is the power of the abyss, how can the Lord of the Black Forest let it exist." ”

Hearing Leo's analysis, Sylvia was stunned and nodded in agreement.

Although the Lord of the Black Forest is extremely mysterious, and there is not much information about it even in the Orthodox Court, among all the materials that can be seen, the Lord of the Black Forest is a true god without exception.

The two did not stop outside the castle any longer, lowered the hood of their robes, revealed their disguise, and walked towards the castle entrance.

As they had guessed, the mutated appearance was the best proof of identity, so the guard at the entrance to the castle just looked at the two of them and put them into the castle without any hindrance.

However, even so, the mutated state of the two still made these guards a little curious, because their mutation only grew a layer of scales on the surface of their skin, and their eyes turned into snake eyes, and the whole thing was still in human form, not completely mutated towards non-human form like other mutated people.