345

The next day, Wednesday morning, he got up early in the morning and rode a horse-drawn carriage to the Steam Chapel.

The church towers chimneys, the former representing the power of steam, and the bell tower, the latter hanging intricate clocks that symbolize the beauty of machinery.

It was not a weekend, nor was it noon or night, and the church hall was filled with quiet prayers.

Crane sat down in the aisle, leaned on his cane, took off his hat, and prayed for ten minutes in front of the emblem.

Then he took his things, walked down the aisle to the altar, and said to the bishop who was standing beside him:

"I want to repent."

"Well, God is watching you." The bishop, with a kind face and pale temples, walked first to the side confessional room.

Crane followed and closed the door.

He sat down in his chair and said to the bishop through the plank:

"I repent, I faced the crisis, I didn't stick to my principles, I chose to retreat."

"What was your mind at the time?" The bishop asked softly.

Klein immediately described Talim's death, his own suspicions, a reminder of the "mechanical heart", Prince Edsak's commission, and his heartfelt retreat in the face of the royal family's tilt after the divination failed to get the answer he wanted.

The reason why he did not go directly to Carlsen was because he was worried that he would not only be watched by the other side, but also secretly observed by Prince Edsak's people, and that if he clearly stated his perfunctory and sabotage intentions, he might encounter other misfortunes.

The Steam Chapel is the headquarters of the Church of Steam and the Mechanics Diocese of Beckland, one of their three sanctuary sites, and no one can peep into it.

Klein's intention was to use the Steam Church to convey his true thoughts and avoid being drawn into deeper conflicts.

Simply put, follow the will of the heart.

The bishop listened quietly, and replied in an unchanged tone:

"Your choice is human instinct, and God will not blame you.

"Go back, and God will bless you."

That's good...... Crane understood the hint and quietly left the steam chapel.

Although I am a little sorry for the prince who just gave me a hundred pounds yesterday, and I can't do anything for Talim, I can't risk my own life either...... Standing on the street outside, looking at the misty sky, he sighed silently:

Boost as soon as possible.

Finally solved this matter, although it was inevitably a little depressed, but in general, Klein's heart was still a lot more relaxed.

At noon, after a "busy" day outside, a depressed Klein walked into the living room after lunch and entered the dream world.

Fragments, sometimes continuous, sometimes fragmented, floated by, and Crane suddenly woke up, knowing that he was dreaming.

A force invaded my dreams...... Crane maintained his foggy state just now, and casually looked around.

He found himself in the middle of nowhere, full of fertile fields. A river came running from a distance, making a bend beside the cliff ahead. One side of the cliff was bare, showing pure white rock, and from a distance, there was an unusually holy beauty.

At the bend, nearly a dozen men and women wearing black coats or dark jackets with various utensils surround a hidden underground entrance, including Klein's acquaintance, Iconser Bernard.

White Cliff ...... Stafford River ...... Heart of the Machine...... Are they exploring the tomb of the Amun family? But why did the scene appear in my dream? Crane was puzzled.

At this moment, he saw the water floating on the surface of the river, and quickly sketched a line of white words:

"Your faithful servant Arodes reports to you about the exploration."

…… Klein's mouth opened slightly, and he couldn't speak for a short time, and a voice echoed in his head:

You say you have a good mirror to do what you do?

346

Zarathu twisted his beard and confidently played six cards: "Straight." ”

Edward groaned slightly, throwing out an "invulnerable" card.

"I didn't think you still had this card in your hand, so how about this trick?" Zarathu's tone was excited, fully showing the spirit of ancient scholars to study ancient knowledge and their enthusiasm for playing cards, "I will issue a "Knowledge Emperor Russell", break your advantageous venue, and change the venue to "White Maple Palace"! ”

Zarathu removed the hand-painted flying chess tablecloth from the table and replaced it with a black-and-white checkered "improved" version of Russell the Great's Intius.

"The White Maple Palace will add protection to my Russell deck, +2 for all attributes, and invalidate the previous flying chess pattern!"

"If you can't shoot 5 and 6, you change the venue? A set of Russell is messing around, and your control over your fate is no more than that. Edward watched Zarathu's "knight vault" tactic lean back, but calmly played a pair of twos.

"You want to attack?"

"Hmph, I'll stack two 8's together and summon the blue-eyed white dragon in excess of it!"

This attack power of up to 3,000 made Zarathu feel very troubled, and there was no foil in his deck! As a last resort, Zarathu smiled and once again launched a hand-painted stickman card with a stickman wearing a black crown: "I will sacrifice the "Knowledge Emperor Russell" together with the king's chess pieces and upgrade it to the "Black Emperor Russell", and now I use the bribe of the skill true god level to use a magic card with the blessing of the White Maple Palace to offset your three thousand damage this time!" ”

As he spoke, Zarathu touched a "unicorn bow" and handed it to Edward.

"Then I'll give Bernadette Gustaf."

Edward threw out a stickman card wearing black leather boots and shirt: "I will now have Bernadette equip the unicorn bow and launch an attack on your Russell's army." Russell won't do anything to Bernadette, so I'll take your Black Emperor Russell with me, and then take your horse with you according to the effect of the unicorn bow. ”

Zarathu frowned: "I played a "Bonova Gustaf", and I was expelled from the game with Bernadette. In the meantime, I use the hand to draw a ...... from your deck "Divine Sea"? ”

"The Divine Evil has the Transfiguration Curse that gives your opponent a rest for a turn, while you are also tainted by the stars and temporarily lose control of some of your decks!"

Edward took advantage of the victory and played three more 2-band kings, reaching out to blow up the White Maple Palace chess board, and Zarathu quickly grabbed an "invulnerable" to keep the board.

"You don't have Russell anymore, what's the use of the White Maple Palace venue? King fried. ”

"I will bring the dead back to life and let the Black Emperor Russell return from the grave like lightning!"

"I am out of William Augustus, where no resurrection is allowed, and the resurrection of your dead is null and void."

……

Above their heads, the puppets swayed and watched, like a group of quiet spectators.

The game ended with the queen of the creep and the blue-eyed dragon, and the two angels, who had played more than a dozen games in one night, put away the various stickman hand-painted cards and piled them aside, leaving only a tic-tac-toe drawn in white lime on the ground.

"It's been a long time since I've been so excited."

Zarathu's white beard twitched for a moment, and then he said meaningfully: "What a fascination is Russell's whimsy. ”

"Don't tell me you're still going to digest the ancient scholars."

Edward replied very calmly, "The story of the Quaternary, the Trinity, and the Second Age is old enough for you to digest several ancient scholars, and there is no need to go into the distant past. ”

"Hahaha, I understand your advice, but it's always human instinct to explore the unknown, even if knowledge kills you."

The soothsayer squinted his eyes again to reveal the appearance of a good fox, and said slowly: "In other words, there was indeed a very ancient civilization in this world, and you still know about its existence?" ”

"This intelligence is an additional price." Edward communicated with Him reasonably, "What can you give me?" ”

"No, I'm not trying to know, I'm just trying to prove something to you."

Zaratul pondered for two seconds and asked uncertainly, "The Russell we know is not the real Russell, right?" ”

"Oh?"

"Maybe it's really an old man I'm too rigid, I always think that a person's talent should be reflected at a very young age, if it's really a genius, I don't know why a person can write such a different style, transcending generations, and beyond the imagination of invention and scientific talent. At that time, he was clearly in his twenties, and he could not have had such a rich life experience. ”

"Genius." Edward disagreed, "What humans cannot understand is genius." ”

And his inventions are always very mature, and he seems to have produced the best finished product from the very beginning. The choice of Steam Church was a request for my cooperation with Him, but I didn't expect Him to shine. And I've never seen a draft, a blueprint, a rudimentary basic, or a think tank. If these earth-shattering inventions were really something he could have done alone, why didn't he do it in the middle and late stages? ”

"Maybe it's because of the different paths, and the consuls don't have to do these things anymore."

"Hehe, I also wondered if Roselle was the original Russell, guess what happened?"

Hearing this, Edward, who had been looking elsewhere, finally turned his face around, looked at Zarathu for two seconds, and showed an emotionless smile: "Your divination has failed." ”

"You don't think I'm really Edward either, and you've soothed me, and it's invalid, right?"

Zarathu smiled and shook his head: "I felt cold sweat the moment I came up with this divination question, let alone divination. You and Russell hit it off at first sight, and Russell even alienated me because of you. Although the demonic path can easily gain favor through various influences, I have carefully noted that Russell's cognition has not been modified by you. ”

"It makes me wonder why you don't care about status, status, age, or even how you became friends."

"After the Archon uttered many strange words, you were one of the few people who could understand it immediately. At first, I thought it was a code word and tacit understanding that you had discussed, but later I found that it was more like some people who have known each other for a long time and have similar views on a matter. ”

"For example, the guillotine, the view of the new route, the layout of the war of aggression and colonial rule, Russell has an amazing tacit understanding with you."

"And you-"

Zarathu paused, as if omitting some words: "You are not at all the same as I remember. It seems that you should not stop for the sake of human beings, or even get married and have children, or even become friends with human beings, and be willing to live under them. ”

"That's what I'm most curious about."

The speculations so far have all been correct, and the demon thought to himself, well, I admire people who love to think, and I can give you a little reward.

Edward said, "I can answer the question you want to know the most. ”

Zarathu's eyes lit up, and he immediately asked the question that he had been pondering in his mind for decades: "Was there a great era in the distant past?" So I boldly assume that in that era, the ancient human beings possessed infinite wisdom and power, and could easily produce the unthinkable props that existed, the impossible codification of legal codes, and even more advanced statecraft. ”

"Russell's wisdom and knowledge were enough to make him the god of craftsmen, but he was dismissive of the god of craftsmen and the church, so was Russell one of the great beings of his time?"

After saying this, Zarathu was confident in his opinion, and looked forward to Edward's answer.

When Edward heard this, he stopped talking, and after stopping his words, he struck Zarathu bluntly: "The times are great. Russell was not great, Russell was in his time, just ......"

The demon thought for a moment and said in a more objective analogy: "An ordinary person who is enough to be a government employee." ”

"How is that possible?" Zaratul's eyes widened, and his mind immediately soared to the terrifying aspect, "Humans in the past actually had such a high level of talent? Could it be that all human beings in the old days were great beings, so there was no such thing as a great being? ”

"It's not." The demon struggled to explain, "There were no extraordinary powers at all in the old days, so everyone was human. ”

Zarathu frowned: "The old humans should have had more wisdom than we did. ”

"Nope."

"Longer than we are."

"Nope."

"Human beings have always been in awe of the ancient, and they are terrified of the unknown." Edward said patiently, "In fact, the old ones are weak, at least at that time, human beings could not overcome cancer, but extraordinary abilities were completely cured." ”

"Without extraordinary abilities, there are no extraordinary creatures, and without gods, human beings can rely on their own tools to survive, build cities, and create so many magical and advanced creations?"

Zarathu was so shocked that he couldn't even imagine it. He let his mind wander for a moment, but he still said regretfully:

"Sounds great, but it's ruined. I didn't really want to see that world, but I really wanted to see it with my own eyes. ”

"What kind of person were you in that time?"

"Me?" This is the third person in his life to raise this issue, the first being the True Creator, the second being Russell, and the third being Zarathu.

"High in the Sky"

"I used to be an associate professor at a university's conservatory." Edward held his cheeks, showed a wistful and thoughtful look, and told his life in his skin, "I had a child, but he didn't like music. I have a very quiet job and I have a lot of faith, and in my spare time I occasionally volunteer in the nearby community and attend church services. ”

"I can't imagine that in the old days, human beings also had faith, so I would like to ask which god do you believe in?"

Edward laughed and did not answer directly:

"In the old days, people believed in gods that did not exist, and gods were more like spiritual symbols and beliefs of self-soothing. And when I found out that the God I believed in seemed to exist, at that moment, I suddenly stopped believing in Him. ”

"Oh?"

Zarathu, apparently curious about everything in ancient times, as if he had gone back in time to digest the potions of the ancient scholars, asked with great interest, "Why?" For example, a mortal who has never seen the true face of a god should be more pious when he meets the Holy See one day. ”

"That's the third question, Zarathu."

The calculating demon grinned, "These two questions, what are you going to exchange with me?" ”

The soothsayer, who had been prepared for a long time, touched his beard and said calmly:

"The members of the Esoteric Order would go to very far away seas in search of mermaids. Perhaps, you will be interested in a magical island in the misty sea. ”

TBC

——————

Zarathu didn't know that there was a grave of Russell on this island, but simply thought it was a special island.