Chapter 41 Pilgrimage Ark

Ever since he first saw those "giant ships" that resembled small city-states, ever since he learned of the constant "pilgrimage" of these behemoths on the sea, Duncan had been questioning these astonishing creations.

What exactly did the Pilgrimage Arks mean, their special "pilgrimage" behavior...was it just "patrolling"?

People in the city-states often said that the Pilgrimage Arks represented the power of the Four Gods, that they were symbols of the highest military force of the Church, and also the "palaces" of the four True Gods in the mortal world. The Church ordered the Arks to patrol the boundless sea in order to deter heretics and to protect the city-states from being contaminated by certain malicious existences in the subspace. At first, Duncan had no doubts about this statement, but as he came into more and more contact with the Church of the Four Gods, especially after learning more and more inside information about the Church from Vanna, Morris, and Agatha, he discovered some suspicious points.

The real responsibility for fighting against heretical and evil beings fell to the Inquisitors and Guardians of the city-states. The real responsibility for intercepting heretics and rescuing seafarers at sea fell to the regular fleets of the Church of the Four Gods. The real responsibility for guarding against subspace pollution and consolidating the defenses of the city-states fell to the chimes of the cathedrals, the prayers of the bishops, and the strictly planned cathedral-bell tower system, while the four majestic Pilgrimage Arks...in fact, never participated in anything related to the mortal world.

They spent three-quarters of the year patrolling certain secret routes, routes that were invisible and immeasurable to the mortal world, seemingly located in the cracks between the dimensions of reality, and far away from any city. For the rest of the time, they took turns patrolling near the "Eternal Veil" on the border, only engaging in minimal communication with the Church's border fleet, and never interacting with any city-state—in fact, they would deliberately avoid the patrol fleets of the border city-states.

Only in extremely rare cases would these Arks dock at a city-state—such as after a major event like the Pland Black Sun, would they appear before the world.

Apart from that, these Arks would have no contact with the mortal world. Even within the four major churches, they were always shrouded in a layer of mystery—the vast majority of clerics never had the opportunity to set foot on a Pilgrimage Ark in their lifetime. Only those selected as "Saints" were qualified to be taken to the Ark during their apprenticeship, but they could only move around in designated areas, and after completing the necessary studies and training, they would be sent back to their original cities—these "Saints" would never have the opportunity to come into contact with the true secrets of the Ark from beginning to end.

All these clues indicated that the existence of the "Pilgrimage Arks" itself was filled with huge doubts—their true function had always been hidden.

Now, Duncan finally had the answer.

"...The current four Pilgrimage Arks were built decades ago, but before these 'giant ships' were put into use, the four major churches also had the previous generation of 'Arks', but those were completely incomparable to the current four cathedral-ships..."

Freym's voice was low and deep, his words flowing as if from stone, with a calm that unconsciously made people relax and trust.

"The previous generation of church 'Arks' were actually just some large ships. At that time, they were only part of the Papal Navy and a part of the armed forces. They weren't as mysterious as they are today, nor as...isolated from the mortal world.

"The current 'cathedral-ships' are completely on another level. Rather than saying they are four 'large ships'...strictly speaking, they are more like four 'anchors', used to anchor the sanity of the gods to a certain 'balance point' outside the mortal world."

Duncan didn't speak, but just looked at the other side with a serious and earnest expression—he knew that Freym's explanations were specifically for him, and the other popes and bishops attending the gathering here were all from the Pilgrimage Arks. These people were obviously all "insiders" who knew the truth.

"...Who exactly was the first to perceive the truth...is actually impossible to verify. It was a series of 'revelations' and 'inspirations'. We heard the whispered truth in our prayers, saw darkness and corruption piling up in the illusions brought about by incense, and the spirits of the four of us more than once felt the 'traction' from outside the world. The gods guided our thoughts to a chaotic and vast place, allowing us to see Their deaths and gloom...and in this process, the connection between the mortal clerics and the Four Gods began to experience frequent interruptions...that was probably around 1822."

Freym paused briefly at this point, while Lucretia, sitting not far from Duncan's right hand, seemed to suddenly think of something: "1822...the 'Silent Cold Harbor' incident?!"

"Yes, the Silent Cold Harbor incident—that's quite famous, but in reality, it was just a microcosm, a microcosm left behind in a series of worsening situations that had the greatest impact due to the inability to completely resolve them."

The one who answered was not Freym, but Banster, who was sitting next to Freym. The Death Pope, wearing a black robe, had a somewhat hoarse voice, and his old face was as pale as a dead man's.

"All the clerics in the entire city-state suddenly lost contact with the Death God, Bartok. During the twenty-four hours of 'silence', they heard a continuous stream of terrifying and horrifying hollow howls and roars in their minds that only they could hear. Then, foul blood flowed out of the 'Holy Sanctuary'. The archbishop of the city-state gave his life as a martyr, melting into the foul blood to protect the cathedral—after the fact, it was counted that a total of seventeen clerics were martyred in the 'silence', and another seventy-seven people went permanently insane, their minds collapsing after witnessing things outside the real world...

"And according to my judgment, in the twenty years after that, the 'silence' incident still had a lasting impact—the temporary disappearance of the gods' protection weakened the reality dimension protection in the Coldsea region, and the influence of the subspace, the Abyss, and the spirit world took advantage of the situation. Taking Cold Harbor as the center, the number of 'natural spirit users' born in the Coldsea city-states during that period was almost more than the total of all other city-states in the world combined."

Banster stopped and turned his gaze to Luen.

"Yes, just as Banster said, the Silent Cold Harbor incident in 1822 was just a microcosm," Luen nodded. "The real situation was that for quite a long time, throughout the Boundless Sea, the connection with the gods was becoming difficult, even becoming...dangerous. Daily prayers would often go unanswered, but the worse situation was getting the wrong 'answers'. The protection of the city-states was weakening, and there were more strange things happening in deep-sea voyages. In one revelation and illusion after another...we finally confirmed the terrible 'state' of the gods."

The hall became quiet.

The gods are dead—Duncan knew this, the followers around Duncan knew this, and the four popes and the bishops on the Pilgrimage Arks also knew this. But when this matter was brought directly to the surface, when all the information and past events were laid out and linked to the Great Annihilation, an unusual atmosphere of oppression inevitably spread throughout the scene.

"...So, you built the massive Pilgrimage Arks to strengthen the connection with the gods and delay their 'decay' process..." Duncan broke the silence. "I'm not interested in the specific 'principle' of this process. I just want to know, to what extent has the 'effect' of your actions been achieved? Did it really work? Freym just said that the 'delaying' effect of the Arks has reached its limit. What's going on?"

"It worked, at least at first," Helena nodded. "The Arks are the anchors of the gods, and the 'death' of the gods is a long and complex process. Strictly speaking, this death process itself is impossible to stop—it's as irreversible as the operation of the laws of the world, but the existence of the 'anchors' can at least keep the gods in a relatively stable state until they completely 'disappear'. According to our initial estimate...it should at least work for several centuries, even thousands of years.

"Our initial idea was that if we could have such a long 'buffer time', perhaps we would have the opportunity to find other ways to further delay the decay process of the gods, or even find...find..."

Helena suddenly stopped, seeming to find it difficult to say some words directly, as if even though she and the other popes had already taken action for this, she was still unwilling to admit certain "facts."

Luen, Banster, and Freym also fell silent with complicated expressions.

Beside Duncan, Lucretia frowned in confusion, while Nina and Shirley couldn't help but look curious. Morris opened his mouth thoughtfully, but stopped himself.

Soft and illusory sounds of the sea waves appeared in Duncan's ears, and faint whispers seemed to murmur to him from behind a thick curtain. He was dazed for a moment, and looked down at the table in front of him.

A faint trace of water appeared on the table, and then quickly dissipated.

He looked at the water mark, raised his head, and looked at Helena on the opposite side.

"Find a replacement, right?"

Helena widened her eyes and looked at Duncan in astonishment.

Duncan just shook his head, without explaining anything. After a few seconds of silence, he said thoughtfully in a low voice: "...But only a few decades have passed now, which is more than a little bit short of your expected 'several centuries'."

"Yes, the situation is getting worse than we imagined," Banster said in a hoarse and gloomy voice. "We originally thought that the current 'balanced state' of the gods might last for thousands of years, but the power of decay has begun to invade the entire world. The 'pilgrimage' activity of the Arks was initially to strengthen the connection between the gods and the mortal world, but now, we spend half our time trying to 'filter out' the pollution they emit during the decay process...

"This makes us...feel deeply saddened."

Banster ended his words in a sigh.

After a moment of thought, Duncan broke the silence: "So, you took new action—the fleets gathering in the border seas?"