Release that Witch Chapter 84: Hermes agency
Bishop Mayne stepped through the circular stairs one by one, and walked deeper into underground.
This is a naturally formed heavenly pit with a depth of at least four sky towers, about 20 feet in diameter, more than enough to fit into a feudal lord castle. The inside of the cave was not dim at first. Skylights were left on the high dome, and the light penetrated the ground through a window, leaving a zigzag light spot on the ice-cast stone wall.
As the height continues to decrease, the light spot gradually darkens and soon merges with the stone wall. However, the center of the pothole reflected a faint blue light, and the more you went down, the more obvious it was.
The stairs at your feet are like a snake around a pothole, clinging to the rock wall.
The staircase is cut from granite stone and has a rectangular shape with three fingers thick enough for two people to walk side by side. One end is embedded in the rock wall, and the other end is suspended. In order to prevent accidental falling, a wooden railing is erected at the suspended end, and the railings are connected by ropes.
He hasn't counted how many stairs there are, but he knows that the laying of each stone slab is extremely difficult. Church's Stonemason relied on a rope to hang down, punched deep enough grooves in the hard rock, and then stuffed a block of stone slab into it. Every movement must be done with care, because there are as many as three hundred people who fall off or break into the bottom of the pit.
If the Hermes Cathedral above the head is a symbol of the unyielding spirit of Church, then the Hermes mechanism hidden in the bottom of the cave is the true core of Church.
God Punishment Stone is inlaid on the stone wall next to the stairs. Every 100 steps there will be a Judgement Army guard on guard. There is also a team of God Punishment Army on standby to meet the invaders. Between the dome and the mezzanine of the cathedral floor, there are many sandbags and rubble buried. If the Holy City defense line is missed and the crowd has to evacuate, the pope will start a trap to allow the gravel and rubble to be completely buried here.
Although Mayne is not the first time to go to Hermes, the feeling of walking in midair still makes him feel dizzy. Especially when you look around, you always have the illusion that you are falling.
He breathed a little sigh of relief when his feet were on solid ground.
heavenly pit at the bottom is a huge disc-shaped white whetstone. The surface is as smooth as a mirror. Standing on it can even clearly see your own reflection. After the ingenious design of the craftsman, the light of come in from the dome skylight will be refracted many times in the pit wall, and it will converge on the whetstone at the bottom of the cave. Even without torches, the bottom of heavenly pit is not completely black.
Only at the bottom of the pit will you find that the sun is not colorless. After whetstone was illuminated, it reflected a faint blue light. Looking up, the entire heavenly pit was lit by this blue light, showing a cold color. If you look closely, you can also notice that there are countless dust flying in the brighter places, like the tiny creatures recorded in ancient book.
Using the hole formed naturally on the mountain wall at the bottom of the cave, Church opened it up and further expanded it to build the Hermes mechanism. Thanks to these well-connected holes, the air circulation here is smooth, and there is no such rotten and dull feeling in the depths of underground.
Mayne stepped into the door of the organization, and the defensive force suddenly became much tighter. The Judgement Army here is a group of five, guarding each level --. They are the most loyal samurai of Church. Once accepting this responsibility, everyone will spend their lives in the institution and will never return to the ground.
In fact, only he and the Pope can enter and leave the agency, not even the two Archbishop, Heather and Tayfun, can set foot here.
But Mayne is also unclear how many forks are in the organization. In addition to this main road to the south, there are many branch passages on both sides. Walking along them, you will often find more branches. Some were used by Church, while others were completely blocked. He had heard that during the construction of the institution, several artisans had strayed into those unmarked forks, and lost their way inside, and never found a way back.
The straight main road leads all the way to the depths of the mountain. There is a checkpoint every 30 feet (about 100 meters). Mayne knows that the tasks undertaken by the authorities between each stage are different. The outermost section is a living area for the samurai who are on duty at the bottom of the cave. The second paragraph is archive library, which is used to store document/secretary, remnants and ancient books. The third paragraph is the prison area, where some invisible prisoners ... and innocent people are detained.
After crossing the three levels, Mayne stopped. Moving forward is the institution Pivotal Secret Area, all research and inventions of Church come from there, and without the Pope's consent, you cannot go there without permission. For more than three years as Archbishop, he only went in once.
Mayne turned to the left and turned into a fork.
The fork is short. He did n’t go long before he saw the bishop appear. The goalkeeper Judgement Army immediately shook his boxing chest. "Master!"
Mayne nodded, "Open the door."
There is a corridor inside the door, with burning turpentine torches hanging on the wall, like countless jumping points of light in the darkness, extending along the walkway to the end. There are many thick wooden doors lined up side by side, with a number plate hanging in the middle of each door panel.
Judgement Warrior raised the torch and led the way. Mayne watched the number change on the number plate while walking. When he saw the mottled house number 35, he stopped and pulled out the key and inserted it into the keyhole, twisting it slightly. The sound of the lock opening seemed particularly harsh at the bottom of the silent cave, and a faint echo came from the end of the corridor. As if it was a signal, many wailing sounds were heard behind doorways, both men and women. Listen carefully, most of them are "please let me out!" "Save me!" "Please, please kill me!"
Mayne is unmoved. He ordered the warrior to stay behind the door, walked into the room, closed the wooden door, and shut out those noisy chaos noises.
Beyond the iron railing, the bishop saw an old man -- sitting on the bedside. Maybe he was not old, but now he was gray-haired and his forehead was covered with wrinkles. The beard hasn't been shaved for a long time, and it is almost drooping to the neck. Since he hadn't seen the sun for too long, his skin was appallingly pale, and his hands and feet were as thin as bamboo poles.
Mayne glanced at the lunch box next to the iron railing. The food inside was hardly moved, and he sighed, "You should be nice to yourself, Church doesn't lack such a meal. Your meals are all according to The King standard is formulated, except that there is no wine. Even the fish meat is the good cod from Port of Clear Water. You should be familiar with its taste, Wimbledon Your Majesty? "