Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"This place... is indeed too big."

"Perhaps we can explore with a purpose." Lunicia roughly understood why Ella was worried. "For example, this kind of secret ceremony would be more likely to be held in the basement rather than in the overly conspicuous and exposed main hall."

Although it is just theory, it is the experience of our predecessors and is not without reason.

"Indeed, yes, what Lady Luna said is correct. But the underground space may be as vast and complex as the surface..."

"That's quite troublesome..."

If there is a complex network of winding passages underground, and the area is no smaller than that of the buildings on the ground, it will not only be easier for Lunisia and her party to be discovered, but it will also be a big problem to specifically identify where the ritual site is.

"There's nothing I can do. I can only watch one movie at a time."

"Yes. Everything is up to Luna's arrangement."

"There's nothing I can arrange—"

After entering the front door where the guards were standing, you had entered the area of ​​the Cathedral of Alexandria. There was no garden or lawn in front of the gate. On the contrary, there was only a long stone corridor with countless gray-white columns that seemed to reach the sky. If you ignore the reliefs on the columns representing the God of Time and his messengers, and the scales emblems on the gray-white floor tiles, these huge corridors are lacking in decoration and monotonous, but not boring. The solemnity and majesty that came to your face dispelled the boring emotion. It seemed that just walking in these corridors was like walking on the scales of the God of Alexandria and on the road of judgment.

It seems that the Cathedral of Alexandria is not directly connected to the main structure of Myland. The Cathedral looks like an isolated island independent of the mountain city, a most eye-catching mountain, connected only by these corridors. If you look down from the edge of the corridor over the black iron guardrails, you can only see the bottomless abyss and the smooth cliffs like mirrors. What kind of courage, what kind of power, what kind of technology can allow the creator of Myland to carve such a wonder in the mountains? Just seeing those vertical and smooth mountain walls, those corners that once belonged to the Canserer Peaks, will make people feel so.

This solemnity and solemnity seemed to have affected Lunicia's mind. Unconsciously, she seemed to have temporarily put aside the idea of ​​finding out something and turned her attention to the temple itself, as if to make up for not being able to visit this place favored by the gods "last time".

One hundred and twenty white stone steps were laid out from top to bottom, waiting for visitors to climb. The twelve columns in front of the main entrance were silent. They have witnessed hundreds of years of time. Almost everyone who came and went in front of them was undoubtedly their "descendants". Today was not a special day. The largest and most magnificent main door inlaid with the golden emblem of Alexander was not open. Only the small door for tourists and believers to enter and exit was open.

Even if there is no sacrament ceremony organized on holidays, believers will still come here, sit on the benches, and pray for half a day or a day. Not to mention tourists, no matter who they are, as long as they come to this city, this wonder and monument called the Alexandria Cathedral is a tourist attraction they absolutely cannot miss. Their visit will not dissipate the solemnity of this cathedral, on the contrary, as long as they enter here, they will be infected by the solemn atmosphere here, and can't help but immerse themselves in it, offering heartfelt admiration and praise to the great god of time and judgment.

Yes, who wouldn't be amazed by what they see after entering that inconspicuous door? Those neatly arranged old mahogany benches, those spacious main halls that can accommodate tens of thousands of people to pray together, and the white stone altar that is so tall that you can only look up, which one of them is not enough to move people?

“I really miss it.”

"Miss it, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess I can only say I miss it... It seems like I haven't seen such a solemn sanctuary in a long time."

This huge space obviously accommodates many tourists and believers, but it does not make people feel noisy at all. This is not only because the design of the church itself is excellent, and it can absorb and dissipate people's chaotic words with its own structure, but also because no matter who it is, in the solemn atmosphere, they will involuntarily lower their voices to avoid destroying the solemnity of the God of Judgement. It is like being contained in a kind of aura that is invisible to the naked eye and being watched by the gods.

Lunicea seemed very comfortable. This sanctuary, this atmosphere, was as familiar to her as returning home. How long had it been since she felt this way? Perhaps not too long, just a few months, but because of the continuous battles and the suffocating enemies, these few months seemed particularly long.

"Let's investigate the general structure of this place first. Maybe we can find some clues along the way."

"Don't you need to rest for a while, Luna-sama? Say a prayer to the God of Time or something."

"I've already prayed for it. In my heart."

If you just want to know some information in this regard, you don't need to spend much effort. The building of Alexandria Cathedral is so magnificent and vast that it is easy to get lost if you are not careful. In order to ensure the safety of tourists, schematic diagrams of the internal structure of the cathedral can be seen everywhere.

Generally speaking, the Cathedral of Alexandria can be divided into several areas:

First of all, of course, there is the part of the church that is the holy place, including the hall where Lunicia and her group are located. Its official name is "Alexandria Sacrament Hall". This is the place where various sacraments are held, and it is also the place where believers go most frequently on a daily basis. Alexander the God is generally not erected in a personified statue, so people pray to his holy emblem, the combination of a clock and a scale. If you want to say where ordinary people are most likely to see the legendary strongman, Patriarch Sylvester, it is undoubtedly here.

Secondly, there is the part that serves as the judicial organ of Myuland, including the Myuland Supreme Divine Legislative Court and the Myuland Supreme Divine Procuratorate, generally referred to as the "Alexandria Court". Many cases in Myuland will be tried here and sentenced under the watchful eyes of the gods. It is also the office of many judges and prosecutors of Myuland.

Next, there is a place called "Alexandria Museum" in the Alexandria Cathedral. There is also a "Muelland Museum" in Myrland, which mainly collects artworks and cultural relics closely related to the country of Myrland. The collections you can see in the Alexandria Museum are of course different. The main collection here is about Alexander, the god of light and judgment. It is a good idea to choose to learn about the development of Alexander's faith here. Not only can you see many collections that are worthy of being called holy relics, but the guides here are also said to be more professional than those in the Myrland Museum.

Then, there is the "Shisui History Book Bureau" which is second only to the Stone Cellar Library in reputation in Muland. There are many books of the Church of Alexandria here, and a considerable part of them can be borrowed. Unlike the Stone Cellar Library, only registered Alexandrian believers can borrow books here, otherwise they can only browse in the library and cannot take them out of the library. The librarians of the Church of Alexandria also work here, doing similar work to the Scripture Bureau of the Glorious Temple, and at the same time keeping confidential information belonging to the church.

The last is the office area called the "Hall of the Pope", which is also the office of the clergy of the Church of Alexandria. Although many judges, prosecutors and lawyers also serve as clergy of the Church of Alexandria, in order to prevent the two aspects from being confused, the office of the clergy and the workplace of the judicial staff are actually separated. "Jie Shi Jian" himself does not serve as a judge or a prosecutor. His office is also in the Hall of the Pope. In addition, he is a workaholic, and his office is more like his residence than a dormitory. Perhaps this is the easiest place to encounter this legendary strong man.

In addition, there are living areas for clergy and judicial staff, which include dormitories, parks and an internal shopping mall. It is generally not open to the public, but if anyone wants to experience the meals of clergy serving Alexander God, they can also dine in the church cafeteria at their own expense. There are no restrictions here.

“It really is very similar.”

"And the Cathedral?"

"That's right, but there are more things in the Central Cathedral. After all, that is really the core building of Ambrisburg. The core of Muirand is indeed the city government, right?"

"perhaps……?"

A quick walk around the open area took up the entire morning. At noon, Ella and Lunicia had a simple meal in the clergy canteen here. They had pheasant meat with coarse bread, beetroot soup, mashed potato bacon salad and cold shredded vegetables, which was very concise and solemn, reflecting the style of Alexandrian believers.

Based on the comparison of the field investigation results and the detailed map of the Cathedral of Alexandria - which was downloaded directly from the Zizhaozi local area network by Ashtherin - Ella concluded that the building did have an underground area, and the only thing left to do next was to determine the entrance to the underground area and the possible location of the ritual site.

This was to be expected. After all, this cathedral seemed to be built according to fortress standards except for the lack of city walls. No one knew why the architect at the time had this idea. Perhaps he thought that this could become the last bastion of Myland, or perhaps he simply thought that this was more in line with the majesty of the god Alexander. In short, it was almost impossible for the underground area to not exist. The only difference was whether the current Church of Alexandria used it.

In fact, Lunicia had also directly asked the clergy here - as a curious tourist - and finally got the answer that there was indeed an underground area here, but it had been closed long ago and was no longer in use.

When asked about the reason, the other party did not hide it at all: the underground area is indeed large and has many functions, but the current church has no use for it. It used to be the location of fortifications, underground warehouses and dungeons. When it was still in use, only the underground warehouses and dungeons were open to the public, used to store sealed objects and imprison prisoners.

Later, for safety reasons, the church rebuilt the Sealed Object Warehouse elsewhere, and the items in the original warehouse were moved there. As for the dungeon, it was later abandoned and stopped being used because a special prison was built on the outskirts of the city. So now the underground area is actually completely closed, and it is only regularly maintained and repaired to prevent safety hazards.

"You really answer whatever I ask, even things I didn't ask..."

"In fact, Lady Luna would do the same, right?"

"That's the honesty of a paladin, and I will refuse to answer anything you don't want to say."

"In fact, refusing to answer gives people the same feeling as acquiescence."

"Huh? Is that so?"

In any case, Lunicia and her group had completed their earlier plan: Ella circled several possible underground entrances, but it would be too conspicuous to go there directly during daytime business hours, so they decided to wait until night, when the tourists and believers left, before officially exploring the underground area.

So far, the action to prevent the doomsday is still proceeding steadily.

Chapter 46 Day 2: The Cavity of the Mountain

"'Northeastern District'?"

"Yes, the Northeast District. Myulande's regional division method is relatively simple, directly named after the direction. In other words, the Northeast District is in the northeast direction."

Ashlee pointed to the northeast.

"That direction is——"

Lunicia always felt that it was very familiar. After thinking about it for a while, she remembered that this was the direction where she met Galezo and his group before returning to the hotel last night.

"Yes, those monsters appeared from that direction, and so did Galezo and the others." Ashlee nodded and continued, "So according to Ashley's speculation, the City Guard should also be stationed near the Northeast District. Their functions are not the same as those of the police. The police are responsible for the public security of the city of Muirand, while they are responsible for the 'monitoring and blockade of the Northeast District'."

As she spoke, she handed the newspaper in her arms to Lunicia and Ella.

"Is this a newspaper? The Mountain City Newspaper..."

Lunicia suddenly turned her gaze towards Ashtherin.

"Wait, did Ash bring any money?"

She just remembered at this time that she forgot to give Ashlee some pocket money and sent her to the library to collect information.

"I picked it up from the waiting area at the entrance to the restaurant."

"I see……"

"Isn't this what Ashley wants to emphasize? The Northeast District Reconstruction Minutes: "Increasing lighting supply and further reducing the lightless areas in Myulande."

"Yes." Ashlee continued speaking without pausing. "This means that the existence of the Northeast District is no secret to the citizens of Myuland. Similarly, the same is true for the 'City Guard' organization. These are all things that can be discussed openly in Myuland. The sea of ​​clouds can drown the moonlight, but the mist cannot make the moonlight disappear. The concept of the Northeast District exists here, but no one can explain where the Northeast District came from. The Myuland nobles have never given any explanation for this area that has caused public security problems."

"Don't the citizens have any opinions at all?"

Lunicia looked surprised.

Unlike the aristocratic republic that only exists in history books, Muirand naturally has no slave class. Although the citizens' voice and power cannot be equal to those of the nobles, as long as the "House of Lords" as a whole wants to maintain the stability and prosperity of Muirand, it must make a certain degree of compromise with the citizens. The long-standing hidden danger of the "Northeast District" is not only a hazard to the citizens, but also has no benefit to the nobles. However, they can allow this thing to appear and exist without holding anyone responsible. This matter itself sounds very strange.

"The Northeast District did not exist after the Nasalan nobles moved here, and the buildings there were not built after the founding of Myulande. Perhaps the Myulande nobles themselves did not know why there was such an area as the Northeast District. They could only repair and block that area later to reduce the impact on other places."

The so-called Northeast District, in the public information of Myoland, refers to an area in the northeast of the city - this sounds like nonsense - this area does not exist on the map, and new roads will basically bypass it. Its existence can only be seen from the old brick and stone roads on the map that date back to before the founding of Myoland. Not only that, high-rise buildings often seal and cover the windows facing the northeast district. These actions are not only to avoid taboos, but also to reduce the impact of the Northeast District on other places.

The public security issue is one aspect. Unlike what Mulande called the "lower class area", which at most refers to the place where poor citizens with tight living conditions gather, the Northeast District is simply a refugee slum in comparison. This complex and ancient area is home to down-and-out families who can't make a living, people seeking death, prisoners released after serving their sentences who have no ability to survive, beggars, refugees, wanted criminals, illegal immigrants and other illegal households. However, the most important issue is not this aspect. After all, if it is just a simple public security issue, it will eventually be resolved in the next few hundred years - the biggest problem is that this area is contaminated by the "black" aura and the power of evil gods.

Here, the boundary between reality and nightmare becomes blurred, cognition based on common sense is no longer reliable, and even lights cannot completely dispel fear - almost every day, the lights in a building suddenly go out, resulting in the death of all the people hiding inside. Not only do incredible things often happen here, and things that cannot exist in reality are seen, but evil spirits and monsters often appear. The existence of the "City Guard" is to prevent the pollution in the Northeast District from spreading outside the area, and to ensure the security of some parts of the area through patrols.

Muirand had not had the energy to fully control the area, and that was not the case in the past or now.

"But is there any connection between this and this matter? It seems a bit far away..."

The more she thought about the information given by Ashleelin, the more confused Lunicia became.

Indeed, if what Myuland said in the information is true, then the existence of the Northeast District has been a thing of the Fifth Calendar Period. Although it has been troubling the residents of Myuland, there has not actually been any major incident. What happened last night can only be regarded as a daily routine for the Northeast District. Otherwise, why would the city guard be given so many people and equipment?

"How about considering the origin of this place as part of the mystery?" Ashlee replied. "After all, this area itself is not ordinary and is related to the Dark Lords. Maybe it will be unexpectedly connected to this matter."

"That's true. I hope the next operation won't run into any trouble due to the existence of the Northeast District."

The sun had already set, and darkness once again crept up into the sky. Day and night alternated over and over again. As the street lights came on, Lunicia, Ashtherin, and Ella all understood that the opportunity had come.

Although the Cathedral of Alexandria is theoretically open 24 hours a day and there are clergy on duty in the hall at all times, there are not really so many believers coming 24 hours a day - believers and tourists also have their own daily lives. They eat, rest and sleep at night. Only tourists like Lunicia who are in a hurry to leave the next day will choose to visit in the middle of the night.

As for the clergy who stayed behind… they had no intention of going through the main entrance anyway, so what difference did it make whether they stayed or not?

"Ms. Luna isn't wearing armor."

"Wouldn't it be too noisy to sneak in wearing that...? So I just wore a single layer of clothing."

"Won't you be cold?"

"It's not bad..."

"In fact, sneaking in with a giant sword on your back is not much different."

"Well, after all, there is no secondary weapon."

The group's quiet conversation was not heard by anyone. After all, apart from themselves, who else could listen to those fleeting words that seemed like an illusion through the whistling mountain wind?

Their plan of infiltration was quite bold: find a sparsely populated edge, directly climb down from the guardrail, then climb along the cliff to the area of ​​the Cathedral of Alexandria, and then climb up to avoid the guards at the front door of the Cathedral. There were not many surveillance cameras in the public places of Muirand. At most, there were sentries on the cliffs to prevent citizens from falling or jumping off the cliffs to commit suicide. It was not difficult for Lunisia and her group to bypass them. As for why they did not directly consider using hypnosis to deal with the guards, it was nothing more than considering that the cost of exposure was too high, and they would do one less thing to make themselves suspected.

Climbing the cliff with bare hands in the howling wind was not a very difficult task for Lunicia - although she would not do so if she had a choice. After all, if she failed, there would be absolutely no possibility of survival if she fell from here - she only needed to dig her fingers into the cliff to ensure that her body did not leave the cliff, and then she could climb on the cliff. However, if she really did this, there would definitely be a clear mark of her on the cliff... This was equivalent to putting a criminal label on her face.

The security around the cliff was lax because of this. After all, the risk factor was too high and there would be enough evidence left. An adventurer of this level would not do such a thing. But no one would have thought that there was such a motive as Lunicia and an assistant like Ashlee. For her, it was too easy to get the group to climb over safely.

The defense outside the Cathedral of Alexandria was not actually very tight. At least, no one discovered the group when they sneaked past. Even the Orthodox Church did not have enough manpower to arrange guards in every corner. The defense inside the cathedral was naturally arranged according to the importance. Taking the Cathedral of Alexandria as an example, the security force of the vault, museum, archives and sealed object storage must be much stronger than that of the lobby. However, there are exceptions, such as the dormitory area. After all, who would have nothing better to do than to raid the dormitory area where a bunch of priests gathered?

"If this is also the case in the basement, then this operation should go more smoothly."

Lunicia lowered her voice and spoke softly.

Ella nodded in agreement: "On the other hand, if the basement is well guarded, it can also prove that there is indeed something wrong there."

Ella did not think that the Church of Alexandria had much to do with the crisis that Lunicia was talking about. At least the peripheral believers and grassroots clergy were not aware of it. With her ability to read people's expressions, she could not tell that the priest on duty who had been questioned earlier was lying or hiding anything. He spoke clearly and fluently, without any concerns, as if he really only knew this much.

During the day, Ella and Lunicia ran around the cathedral and roughly identified several locations that might be the entrances to the underground area. Now, what they had to do was to check these locations one by one and then go directly underground.

In fact, things went very smoothly - Ella easily found a passage extending downwards. There were simply a few locks on the rusty iron door, and other than that there was no security or precautions, not even a gatekeeper.

"This...could it be the entrance to an underground warehouse or something like that? For storing food or something like that?"

"It seems that the warehouse was moved directly to the dormitory area because it was inconvenient to move underground. The armory is probably in the same place." Ella touched the rust on the door with her gloves and frowned. "Ashe, can you tell how long ago someone came here?"

"It might be easier to judge if Ella would just move her hands away."

"..."

Ashlee also put her hands on the iron door and the door lock, stroking them everywhere. After a while, she stood up again and turned around and said, "The last time someone opened the lock was about two days ago. The exact number of people is unknown."

Lunicia was a little surprised: "That's pretty close."

"That means there is something here, and it's worth having someone come over to check it out..." Ella pondered and walked forward, as if she was about to take out a lock-picking tool from her waist bag, "Leave this to me."

"No need, individual Ashlee has already opened the lock."

"..."

They removed the lock carefully and opened the iron door leading to the underground. During the whole process, Ella and Lunisia remained focused to avoid the iron door from rubbing against the ground. As the rusty iron door opened, Lunisia and Ella smelled a very distinct smell at the same time, which was like a mixture of dust and a little musty. The smell was clear but not strong. The ventilation equipment in the underground ensured air circulation, but it could not delay the existence of aging itself. It seemed that the recent openings did not reverse this process, as if this place had been completely forgotten.

The passage behind the door was not as narrow and dark as expected - on the contrary, it was just as solemn and spacious, illuminated by the ever-burning lamps, emitting a soft glow. This place was built at the same time as the cathedral above. Regardless of whether the one who carved it was devout in his belief in Alexander the Great, he had no reason to make this equally functional underground area simple and dull. Even if it was unused now, the church's believers would not choose to let it be shrouded in darkness and become a hotbed of danger.

“No one…?”

The girl's uncertain voice was inevitably suppressed to the lowest level in the extremely silent passage, so low that it was like the breeze blowing past her ears, a whisper that left no trace.

The door was closed and then locked again using a magic trick. Unless one ran into the three uninvited guests in person, no one would be aware of their presence. It seemed that this would be foolproof, but the overly quiet corridor made Lunicia feel uneasy. Here, the sounds of heartbeats and footsteps were equally obvious. What should she do if she was discovered?

"Please be at ease, Lady Luna."

Ella seemed to be still calm.

"Since you know the truth and what will happen in the future, justice and fairness are on your side."

Although her original intention was to say "In that case, it doesn't matter what Lunicia does", Lunicia understood it as simple encouragement, but it did ease her tension a little.

"The good news is that there is no dust on the ground, so there won't be any footprints." Ashlee floated in the air and pointed at the ground. "The bad news is that we can only check this area slowly to see where the problem might be."

Judging from the spaciousness here and the functions he had learned from the clergy before, the scale of this underground area would not be small, and it might be comparable to a medium-sized dungeon - of course, this only refers to the floor area. After all, there would not be those difficult enemies and various inexplicable traps here, and the ground under his feet probably would not suddenly collapse, causing people to fall into an unknown place.

No one said anything else, but they didn't split up to improve efficiency. In a situation where they could discover something or encounter an accident at any time, splitting up might increase the possibility of being discovered. Besides, they were not sure they could contact each other quietly.