Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 177 Chapter 176
The heavy shovel dug the grave mixed with rainwater and mud. After a while, when the requiem master Gregor was about to suffocate and lose consciousness, the flimsy black coffin was smashed by someone with a shovel. The wood fragments were scattered all over the ground. The rain outside rushed along the cracks and fell into the coffin along with the fishy smell of mud. The extraordinary person of the Church of Evernight was covered with mud and water, looking extremely embarrassed.

"team leader!"

"Captain, are you okay?!"

The fortune teller Bev and the midnight poet Francis were both soaked. Bev wiped her face, which was stained with mud. Francis held a silver cup of the sun wrapped in tin foil in one hand and a shovel in the other, both looking extremely embarrassed.

They were also covered in mud, but they looked to be in good condition. At least they had not encountered any incomprehensible and extraordinary attacks, nor were they locked in coffins and almost suffocated.

"Ahem, I'm fine."

Gregor kept coughing and looked unhappy due to prolonged lack of oxygen.

With the help of Francis, he sat up from the coffin and looked back at the coffin that buried him.

The feeling of suffocation just now disappeared, and after the coffin was destroyed, the extraordinary power belonging to Sequence 6 returned to his body.

"How did you find me?"

Gregor asked his two teammates with a hoarse voice.

If they had not found him at the critical moment, he would probably have slept forever several meters underground filled with the smell of mud and rain.

"We heard the sound of bells... Oh, Captain, this is a cemetery attached to a church, a church dedicated to the goddess."

"The Church of the Goddess?" Gregor's pupils dilated slightly when he heard this, and he was very surprised by the answer.

He looked at the two team members in front of him. Francis quickly confirmed his identity using the code word agreed upon in advance, and Bev did the same.

After confirming the identities of the two team members, Gregor finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Let's talk about the church first."

Francis then told Bev everything that happened after he and Bev opened the door.

A few people found a big tree and took shelter under it to avoid the rain falling from the dark sky.

"Once we entered the gate, we discovered that the scene inside was completely inconsistent with our expectations..."

After entering the gate, they found that there was a church of the goddess here. After discovering this strange phenomenon, they wanted to leave immediately, but before they could take any effective action, they were discovered by the nuns of the church.

Because they did not understand the reason for this phenomenon, facing the church nuns who were most likely to be their enemies, they wanted to use extraordinary means to forcibly break out of the church, but they found that many of the extraordinary means in the church, as well as the seals, had lost their intended effects.

As a highly inspired fortune teller, Bev immediately accepted the identity of "priests sent by the church to reinforce and seal the underground demonic ritual" as the nun said when she saw them. She was given a room to rest, and a chance to explore and breathe.

During the short rest, Bev and Francis confirmed that in this strange church, their extraordinary powers and those of the '2-051' Sun Silver Cup were all suppressed. Only the physical and inspirational improvements brought by the potion remained. Therefore, they could only think of other countermeasures.

"The most important thing is to get out of this church and back outside. We are still unsure whether the loss of our extraordinary powers is due to this inexplicably appearing church or some other factor."

Francis, who had basic combat training, quickly climbed over the window of the rest room. Bev, who was carrying the seal and had not received proper training and was an auxiliary staff member, stayed where she was, waiting for Francis to pick her up.

The environment outside the window was completely different from that of Tingen City. Dark clouds were circling in the sky and rain was falling continuously. The visible range was very small, but it could still be seen that the location of this church did not match any of the scenes in Tingen City.

Francis had already made corresponding preparations for the battle. In his mystical knowledge, if he encountered a similar situation and found that the 'prey' tried to escape from control, it would cause considerable abnormality. However, they did not have the time to think too much about this situation. With their supernatural powers almost completely lost, it was impossible for them to really do anything like 'reinforce the seal of the great demon'.

Francis thought that his act of leaving the church would be stopped, but he did not expect that he would leave so easily. Even at the moment he left the church, the extraordinary power of the midnight poet returned to his body.

"After that, we left the church with '2-051', but there was no way out. Outside was a strange, dark environment, like some invisible boundary. If we approached it or entered it, we would be returned to the church gate for unknown reasons."

Francis shared his findings with the captain.

"Although Bev and I were able to use our extraordinary powers again after leaving the church, the Sun Silver Cup has been suppressed. It has no way to bring light and heat, nor can it provide any extraordinary power assistance in terms of purification."

It was more like something of a higher status had directly shocked this "2" level seal, leaving it in an inert state with neither extraordinary power nor negative effects. It was in an almost perfect sealed state and could not be easily shaken by external forces.

After confirming this, they passed by a cemetery not far from the church. Bev, who was in high spirits, heard the sound of bells and found Gregor who was buried in a coffin for some unknown reason.

"This custom is not common."

Bev pointed to the bells hanging on the tombstones and said to Gregor and Francis.

"I've seen similar scenes in some folk tales about funerals before. That was before cremation became widely practiced by the church, and before countries like Loen and Intis were established."

"At that time, for various reasons, people whose hearts stopped beating and breathing stopped were not officially confirmed dead. Because others didn't know enough about them, they fell into a state of suspended animation. They didn't have the basic vital signs to determine whether they were alive or dead, but they weren't dead."

"Those considered dead by their families may wake up hours or days later. If they're lucky, they haven't buried them yet. If they're unlucky... they'll slowly wake up after their families hastily bury the bodies, and the consequences are predictable."

"It's said that Tingen... well, it wasn't called that before. Something like this happened here before. When their family members and descendants wanted to take the bodies out and find a new burial site, they discovered that the coffins buried underground had many terrifying and hideous scratches. The dead bodies were extremely horrifying, with all their nails curled up, as if they were trying hard to break free from the coffin. The deceased also died of suffocation..."

"Since then, many places where bodies are buried always have a bell tied to the tombstone. The bell is connected to the rope in the coffin. If someone is buried while still alive, there is still a glimmer of hope."

Bev paused and said to Captain Gregor sincerely, "Captain, judging by the layout of this cemetery...it's very likely from before the founding of the kingdom, when it belonged to the Tudor Kingdom, or perhaps even the Trunsost Empire."

There is almost no similar funeral culture near the city of Tingen, and the only problem is that the cemeteries affiliated with the church generally do not set up similar things. After all, the bodies of the deceased accepted by the church need to undergo unified requiem treatment. Experienced corpse collectors can easily tell whether the person is dead or alive, and there is no need for installation.

"However, if it is a church that is not valued and there are no experienced corpse collectors, it is possible to make certain arrangements and changes according to local customs," said Francis.

"That makes sense." The rain continued to fall. Gregor pondered for a moment and then asked, "Let's put that aside for now. Well, since we can't leave here, the most likely way out is hiding in the church." "Did you hear what the nun said? There's a great demon sealed underground here, and clergy from the Goddess Church are coming here soon to deal with it?"

"That's how it looks now," Midnight Poet Francis replied, a bit worriedly. "But our extraordinary powers inexplicably fail once we get close to the church, and '2-051' hasn't been working since we arrived here."

"Okay." Gregor nodded. "Two things."

"First, determine what the great demon sealed underground that the nun mentioned is, and whether the church's support will arrive."

His blue eyes were filled with confusion and doubt, and even after facing the almost fatal predicament just now, he did not stop thinking.

"We have to determine whether this place is somewhere in reality or a fake world created by someone."

After all, judging from the story told by Bev, there are indeed some loopholes here.

Even so, this has exceeded the scope that can be covered by the middle and low sequences, and must have reached the high sequence. Moreover, the high-level power involved is probably quite terrifying.

"Secondly, after confirming that we cannot escape by moving, we must notify others outside... I will summon Archbishop Chanis's messenger later, and if possible, I will ask him for help."

He thought of something, took a deep breath, and slowly said to his two teammates, "Also, I need you to know that besides Archbishop Chanis, there is another demigod in Tingen City."

"Demigod?!" Bev and Francis exclaimed in surprise.

"But, I've never heard you, Captain, mention it..."

"This is part of the confidentiality agreement, but the situation is urgent and we must prepare for the worst."

The Requiem Master looked at his two team members and said in a deep voice, "Listen carefully, Bev, Francis. This demigod does not belong to the Goddess's Church and is quite dangerous. If we ask Him for help, I can't guarantee that He will actually provide support, nor can I guarantee that we will suffer any harm."

Him?
The pronunciations of "He" and "He" in Loenese are very different, and no one would confuse the two.

In Bev and Francis's knowledge, this title only exists in church scriptures that describe gods and angels.

The demigod in Tingen City is an angel?
"Yes." Gregor said. To be honest, when he got this information from Archbishop Chanis, it was difficult for him to react immediately and connect that seemingly ordinary person with an angel.

The angels walking on earth, whether placed in the Second Age or the Third Age, are great beings that can be called gods.

"Therefore, unless we are truly in an irreversible and hopeless situation, you must not reveal anything related to Him. This is part of the confidentiality agreement. If we can leave here alive, I need you to sign a confidentiality agreement as well, in the presence of the Goddess."

As for him, why didn't he pray to this hidden existence when he was in such a desperate situation just now... Praying to a hidden existence is itself a blasphemy to the goddess.

Gregor is a loyal believer in the goddess. Even if he reaches a dead end from which there is absolutely no return, he will not pray to any other hidden existence except the goddess.

The two players present...

Gregor looked at Bev, the fortune teller, and then at Francis, who also belonged to the path of the sleepless.

"But if you really reach that desperate situation, just chant His honorable name in the ancient Hermetic language, and His honorable name is—"

Gregor took a deep breath, which seemed to calm him down.

"Playing with the hands of time."

Gregor paused. "Please remember this carefully. Do not attempt to pray to this being during subsequent ritual magic unless absolutely necessary."

He was interrupting the continuity of the prayer to the hidden being to avoid any unpredictable consequences immediately after reciting the name.

"Then, wandering in the shadow of destiny."

"The embodiment of fraud and mischief."

Fraud and hoaxes?

Both of them, who had a certain foundation in mysticism, knew what the three-part honorific name symbolized, but the description of the honorific name made them look inexplicably strange.

"This is the honorific name Archbishop Chanis told me. This being's current name is Nicholas Flamel... I'm not sure if this is a pseudonym or his real name, but I think he has another name..."

"Amon."

As Gregor whispered the name, the wind around them seemed to grow a little colder.

"Amon? The Amon family? A member of the Amon family of the Tudor Dynasty?" Betty felt inexplicably frightened for a moment, as if because of some strange omen, she felt an inexplicable fear of this name.

"I'm afraid so," Gregor said. "So we must pay attention. If we can summon Archbishop Chanis's messenger here, then it means that things are not so bad that we can't predict them."

And if I can't summon it...

I'm afraid that apart from praying to that hidden existence, there is no other way to save my life.

"But there's no need to worry too much." Gregor suddenly smiled, as if to ease the current atmosphere. "He has a certain degree of cooperation with the church, and there is a certain tacit understanding in Tingen City... At least, even if the prayers are not answered, I don't think it will make things worse."

"However, I must warn you. In the extraordinary world, once something of high status is involved, even if the other party has good intentions, they may bring unspeakable and terrible effects to you simply by looking at you."

(End of this chapter)