ccnovels Chapter 764 - 763: The God’s Church
Chapter 764 - 763: The God’s Church
The distant and mysterious bell suddenly rang in the town, even the Archbishop of the Eternal Sleepers couldn’t help but feel tense due to this unexpected change. The three archbishops, including Daniel, lifted their heads in unison, searching for the direction from which the bell originated, while Selena Gerfen was the first to notice the changes in the town—
Beginning from the distant end of the street, those houses that originally had tightly shut doors and windows and were dark inside, began to light up one after another as the bell continued to ring!
This scene was as if residents suddenly inhabited those abandoned houses, as if the lifeless town was awakening rapidly.
Seeing the houses light up quickly spreading in this direction, Selena Gerfen reacted immediately, loudly shouting towards the small house behind her: "Withdraw immediately!"
The three priests investigating inside the small house seemed to not have heard the bell ringing outside, but after Selena’s loud command, they rushed out at once, back to the street with a bit of confusion, watching the lights rapidly spreading from afar.
In just a matter of seconds, the small house they were probing before also lit up with warm and soft lights, while the door that had just been opened seemed to be pushed closed by an invisible hand, slamming shut.
Inside the house, vague sounds of conversation, footsteps, and chairs being moved were heard.
This eerie and unsettling scene caused those on the street to look at each other in dismay, and the three powerful priests wearing owl masks couldn’t help but tug at their collars, showing a hint of fear.
Gawain frowned and approached the window of the small house that had just illuminated, peering inside through the gaps between the wooden boards covering the window.
A priest from the Eternal Sleepers wearing an owl mask also moved closer, seemingly wanting to observe the happenings inside the house through the window gap. Seeing this, Gawain stood aside slightly, allowing both of them to view the room interior together.
That Eternal Sleepers priest knew nothing about this.
Inside the small house, the light was warm and bright, yet no shadow of a person was seen, only a bright lampstand placed in the center of the hall’s square table, the empty house echoing with vague sounds of various sorts.
Very strange— Gawain thought.
"Very strange," the powerful priest observing the room together with Gawain withdrew his gaze, reporting with a hint of nervous alertness, "besides a light being on, no residents are present inside, and the sounds seem to be appearing out of thin air."
"...Perhaps it is memory echoes, sounds and incomplete scenes remembered by the collective consciousness lingering in the abandoned mental space, cyclically playing as time flows," Archbishop Yuri analyzed calmly, "Considering this is an overflow pollution zone, similar situations are highly possible."
"...It seems there haven’t been further changes." Selena Gerfen nodded upon hearing Archbishop Yuri’s analysis, turning her gaze to survey the street— Warm and soft light poured from every window and door gap, the iron-black street lamps on either side of the road lighting up unexpectedly at some point, yet the abandoned town enveloped in clouds remains devoid of people, although illuminated by lights. However, this seemingly warm light fails to bring any sense of safety, instead it fills every visitor’s heart with chill.
But besides these lights and unexplained sounds, the town indeed has no further changes, no dangerous entities have surfaced.
Selena withdrew her gaze and inquired the powerful priests who explored the houses earlier: "Did you find anything inside?"
"It’s empty inside, Archbishop, and it carries an ’atmosphere’ of long abandonment; we suspect it’s a kind of remaining emotional resonance..."
"All the objects have almost no dust, there’s still clear water in the bottles, and the flowers haven’t withered, as if residents were inside just a moment before, and suddenly vanished afterwards, which contradicts the ’long abandoned’ ’atmosphere’ for some unknown reason."
"Light inside is suppressed; the Illumination spell only sheds light a few meters away, and its edges are indistinct."
"The dark shadows in the corners of the room are very eerie, no detail of the shadows can be discerned; it feels like there’s void hidden inside, yet somewhat resembles those undefined zones in the dream city."
Listening to the priests’ reports, Selena nodded, and shifted her vision to another direction down the street.
Her gaze froze suddenly.
"That church over there..." She furrowed her brows deeply, pointing her portable lamp towards the small plaza at the street’s end, "Was it there before?"
Several gazes simultaneously cast towards the direction Selena pointed, all widened their eyes in astonishment—
A church with an ancient design, featuring a spire and two small towers, stood quietly in everyone’s view, the darkness inside contrasting sharply with the illuminated houses around, though the church wasn’t entirely dark, through a glass window at its front, Gawain seemed to faintly glimpse a small dim light deep inside.
The appearance of the church itself doesn’t matter, what matters is—Before the bell rang, it didn’t exist!
Previously, that was merely an empty plaza!
The three archbishops exchanged glances involuntarily, Yuri reached out and pressed the air several times, shimmering magic symbols emerged beside him, when Gawain speculated whether these symbols were a more powerful mental protection spell, he heard the refined and elegant Archbishop speak: "Monitoring team, have any new mental waves appeared around us?"
A circle of shimmering light spread from the magic circle in the air, a young female voice emerged from the light, "Reporting to the Archbishop—no new mental waves have been observed."
Yuri nodded to Selena by his side: "It seems this thing wasn’t brought from outside, nor has new overflow happened."
Selena furrowed her brows, stepped forward and questioned the magic symbols: "Have you observed any consciousness awakening or secondary dream entry phenomenon?"
"Reporting to the Archbishop, none have been observed—monitoring shows no large-scale mental fluctuations on your end."
Selena responded thoughtfully, after several seconds she replied: "Understood, continue monitoring."
After dispersing the magic symbols, Yuri hesitated and asked: "Should we check that church?"
Selena looked at the people around her she brought along, then glanced at the portable lamp in her hand, weighing thoughtfully, she nodded: "Check it out—We’ve never observed overflow projections undergoing such abnormal changes before, and what’s appearing is a ’church’... Perhaps it will reveal the current state of Sandbox One to us."
The Eternal Sleepers squad began cautiously approaching the nearby church, while Gawain blinked behind them.
So... is there normally a monitoring team assisting from the rear when they operate?
With a sigh in his mind, Gawain shook his head and stepped forward to catch up with Daniel and the others, who were already near the church entrance.
The small chapel, with its gray-white exterior walls, stood quietly at the edge of the square. Behind its dim windows, a faint, illusory light flickered. The Eternal Sleepers squad arrived at its entrance and found the church door slightly ajar, leaving a gap.
All the houses in the town seemed to have their doors and windows tightly shut, except for this church, whose door was slightly open.
This abnormal situation raised their vigilance instead. Selena and the others did not rush in but started to gather information about the church from the outside, trying to guess what was going on.
Selena gently shook the portable lamp in her hand, and the ornate and elegant patterns on the lamp emitted a calming white light. By the illumination of this white light, she approached the church’s door, closely observing the patterns on the ancient door and the designs on the walls beside it.
Gawain showed a look of curiosity, and Daniel stepped forward to inquire, "Archbishop Selena, what are you looking for?"
"Divine symbols," Selena answered calmly. "This is a church, and there should be divine symbols to indicate which god it worships — perhaps we can use this to find out where the contamination of Sandbox One comes from."
Gawain immediately understood Selena’s intention and learned a new piece of information — so, the Eternal Sleepers still haven’t figured out which god is contaminating Sandbox One?!
He couldn’t help but become curious as well, beginning to check the patterns and symbols on the door and wall with Selena.
Sandbox One was designed to be a "world" without gods. The minds entering the sandbox undergo strict adjustments and memory deletion to ensure no one retains memories of gods or generates thoughts of worshipping them. Thus, theoretically, there should be no such thing as a "church" in Sandbox One.
In other words, if any projections from Sandbox One show churches or other similar "divine elements," it is definitely related to the divine contamination the sandbox has suffered!
However, after a thorough check, neither he nor Selena found any divine insignias that matched their memory.
They only saw a mural on the side wall of the church, depicting a hand covering the sky and the land beneath it.
This mural also appeared on the walls of every house in the town.
Gawain couldn’t help but frown — could it be that this image is actually the "divine symbol," the religious emblem of the "residents" of this town?
While he was pondering, Selena and the others completed their investigation of the outside of the small chapel. After a discussion, they decided to enter the church interior.
Gawain had to temporarily set aside his questions and follow in the footsteps of Daniel and the others.
Pushing open the slightly ajar door, the wooden door, which seemed quite old, did not make any sound. Daniel, along with Selena and Yuri, stepped into the church, only the sound of a few footsteps echoing in their ears.
The old mage looked up and saw the "Wanderers from Outer Realm" walking leisurely beside him in the dimly lit church, which eased his mind a bit.
Several masked high priests walked alongside the three archbishops, some casting illumination spells, others activating mental protection spells. In the blurred and flickering light, the scene inside the church came into view —
Rows of empty seats were arranged within the modest-sized church. The old wooden floor had slight indentations, and at the far end of the seats, there was a platform raised one step above the ground. Upon it stood a wooden podium for reading sacred texts. Beside the podium stood a black lamp post with an almost extinguished candle, quietly burning and illuminating a small area around the pulpit.
Amidst the flickering candlelight, Daniel and the others suddenly noticed a figure cloaked in gray-white robes kneeling before the pulpit, seemingly engaged in silent prayer.
Due to the dim lighting, no one had previously noticed that a figure resembling a priest was kneeling there!
Everyone immediately heightened their vigilance. Beside Archbishop Yuri, a faint golden magic symbol floated into view, while Daniel manifested an antiquated magic wand. Several masked Eternal Sleepers priests either drew out wands, took out magic orbs, silently prepared incantations, or opened spellbooks recording spells. Despite only seeing a seemingly solitary prayer figure in this eerie "overflow projection," everyone was on high alert.
Yet, owing to necessary caution and restraint, no one rashly launched an attack.
Selena gestured for everyone to remain vigilant, while she, holding the portable lamp, slowly approached the figure kneeling in front of the pulpit.
The latter only reacted when Selena was just a few steps away, with the gray-white robe shaking slightly. The robed figure then slowly stood up, and under the tense watchful eyes of everyone, the figure turned around, seeing the unexpected visitors in the church.
It was a seemingly ordinary and kind-looking elderly man, with white hair and beard, and a face covered in wrinkles. He appeared unaware of the tense atmosphere around him, only smiling with a bit of surprise and delight: "Ah, guests have arrived. On the day the bell tolls, it’s not often the church receives visitors."
"Mind suspect for communication," murmured Archbishop Yuri, positioned slightly at the back of the Eternal Sleepers squad, as if talking to himself, while summoning golden runes. "Pause the reset process."
Gawain glanced at Yuri lightly.
Meanwhile, Selena calmly stood before the elder in the gray robe, the portable lamp in her hand emitting a soft, immersive glow. She asked in a perfectly natural tone, "What kind of church is this?"
The elder in the gray robe seemed somewhat confused for a moment, then replied: "Of course... a church dedicated to the gods..."
Selena frowned, "Gods? Which gods?"
The elderly man’s eyes became even more confused, as if the question itself greatly challenged his worldview, but after a brief hesitation, he slowly replied:
"Gods... of course... the Supreme Narrator..."