Chapter 1 The Cathedral of Luan

Luan’s cathedral sat in the oval plaza at the heart of the city. The wide plaza was paved with neat, white flagstones, with twenty-two avenues branching out like the main threads of a spiderweb, leading to every corner of the city. As a typical nation-state of the Church, the cathedral was also the administrative center of Luan. Therefore, it was the only large building in the center of the city. Within several kilometers of the plaza, and even throughout the entire city, there was no other building that could compare to the cathedral—and now, this once glorious and magnificent cathedral, like the rest of the city, was shrouded in the shadows of darkness and chaos, gradually sinking into depravity.

Countless zombie-like figures swayed and appeared on the avenues, their shadows overlapping, eerie and sinister. They were the former citizens of Luan: the poor, the nobles, even monks and knights of the city guard. Their faces were stiff, their eyes vacant, and they shuffled towards the cathedral in the darkness, like the eternally wandering souls and shadows of the legendary land of the dead.

Even watching from afar was chilling, let alone walking nearby and witnessing it up close. Even a well-traveled man like Hao Ren couldn’t help but feel a chill on his skin, and the members of the Holy See Investigation Team were all visibly tense. Kalasauas made a holy sign on his chest: "Some evil power in the chaos must have twisted these innocent citizens... They have lost themselves."

A church knight drew his long sword, but after looking around, he felt at a loss: "We can't let them defile the holy cathedral... But there are too many of them!"

Yes, too many—everyone on the scene could see that the goal of these zombies was the holy cathedral. Stopping them was everyone's first thought, but the figures surging on the streets were not just one or two, but tens of thousands! Maybe even hundreds of thousands! Even if each of them was defenseless, the strength of a few knights and monks could not stop them.

Hao Ren looked solemnly at the cathedral in the center of the plaza. He knew that it was impossible to stop such a "zombie tide" with the strength of his group. There was only one way to stop them before those zombies entered the cathedral: to solve all worries with a single cannon shot and simply blow up the cathedral before it fell. But there was a problem with doing that: Kalasauas might go crazy...

Just as Hao Ren was pondering the feasibility of solving all worries with a single cannon shot, he suddenly saw a "zombie" on the plaza swaying a few times in place, and then disappearing like evaporation into a puff of black smoke.

Then, the second, the third... More and more zombies, after approaching a certain range of the cathedral, seemed to be purified by an invisible force, instantly turning into black smoke and dissipating into the air. This process reminded Hao Ren of those chaotic monsters that were killed. Those monsters also turned into smoke and quickly disappeared after being killed by the power of order.

"They don't seem to be able to get within a hundred meters of the church," Lily murmured after noticing this scene.

Kalasauas's face showed a trace of relief: "The power of the Great Goddess still remains in the holy land. The church is still blessed by divine grace."

More and more zombies were purified by the invisible sacred power around the church like moths to a flame. Before long, the swaying shadows on the plaza had decreased by more than half, and the surrounding view seemed empty. At this moment, Hao Ren caught a glimpse of light in the corner of his eye. He saw something flickering in the glass window on the side of the cathedral, like a figure.

"There's someone in the cathedral!" he immediately reminded.

"In the cathedral?" Kalasauas and an assistant bishop exchanged glances. "Under the protection of the Goddess, they may still be sane!"

The group immediately ran towards the cathedral. They crossed the sparsely populated zombies on the plaza, who were still swaying forward, seemingly unaware of the people running past them, and did not show any intention of attacking. Hao Ren and Kalasauas's party arrived at the gate of the cathedral without hindrance. But just as they were a few meters away from the gate, a beam of white light suddenly shot out from a narrow window next to the gate, exploding warningly in front of Kalasauas.

At the same time, a vigilant voice rang out from nowhere: "Stop approaching!"

"We are high-ranking priests from the City of God's Grace!" Kalasauas immediately stopped and shouted loudly. "We have no malice, we just want to find a place to stay and ask some questions!"

"City of God's Grace?" The voice in the cathedral hesitated, obviously surprised and suspicious of this answer. Soon he began to question, "Before the sanctuary of the Goddess, lies will bring ten times the penalty! Are you really from the City of God's Grace?"

Kalasauas was a little baffled: "What's wrong with being from the City of God's Grace? I am Kalasauas, the high priest of the Icon Palace. If you don't believe me, you can consult the list of high priests in your library. I'm standing here, you can compare the portrait on the list!"

The voice in the cathedral hesitated again, becoming more stern: "The City of God's Grace has long been... How could there be any high priests coming out of there at this time!"

"What happened to the City of God's Grace?!" Kalasauas was startled. He heard chilling information from the other party's words. "What do you mean?!"

The person in the cathedral did not answer, but instead questioned: "You don't even know this? Then your identities are even more suspicious."

"No, we are indeed from the City of God's Grace, but we left there more than a month ago," Kalasauas knew that the situation might be beyond his expectations, and quickly explained, "We are an investigation team that left the City of God's Grace more than a month ago, following the Pope's personal order to go to the Ansu Continent. Our trip has records to check. The investigation team encountered an accident on the Ansu Continent, which is why we only returned today..."

"Investigation team?" The person in the cathedral seemed to finally believe a little. "There does seem to be such a thing... But it is said that the investigation team encountered a storm before even reaching the Ansu Continent. The last message received by the Holy See was their emergency alarm communication. You escaped?"

It seemed that the Holy See Investigation Team's affairs were not a secret here, and the person in the cathedral was a priest with a certain status in the church system. He even knew these messages.

"The Goddess protects us," Kalasauas couldn't help but chant a sentence. "We received the help of a local leader and managed to survive the chaotic storm, but we lost the Hammer of Holy Light, so we lost contact with the Holy See and could not send back the news of our rescue."

The person in the cathedral was silent for a while, seemingly thinking, and said after a moment: "You don't look like the claws of the nightmare. Wait a moment, I'll report to the bishop. Don't trespass into the cathedral—the cathedral's indiscriminate defense has been activated, and unauthorized entry will be attacked."

Then the voice became quiet. Hao Ren's group waited patiently outside. After a few minutes, they heard footsteps coming from behind the gate.

A faint light flowed on the cathedral gate, and the defense array covering the entire building opened a gap. The gate opened, and a middle-aged man in a white holy robe with a wide, square face appeared at the door.

The middle-aged man looked at the people standing at the door. He noticed that the subordinates led by Kalasauas were all dressed in the attire of Holy See clerics and combat personnel, but their clothes and armor were mostly damaged, which was consistent with the other party's description of the loss of the Hammer of Holy Light. However, Hao Ren, Lily, and An, who were standing next to Kalasauas, were a little puzzled.

Their dress was not only different from the Holy See, but even in the secular kingdoms, it could be considered strange. An's cloak and hood were slightly better, but throwing them on the street would still make it easy for people to call the police...

"They are from the Ansu Continent," the circumstances being unclear, even these survivors hiding in the cathedral could not necessarily be completely trusted, and even if they could be trusted, it could not be guaranteed that there were no spies of the dark claws near the cathedral, so Kalasauas carefully considered what should be revealed. "The messengers of the Kingdom of Taros, I can guarantee their reliability. Can we go in now?"

The middle-aged man stepped aside, revealing the dimly lit assembly hall inside: "Come in, before the second nightmare begins."

The group stepped into the cathedral. Kalasauas frowned as he looked at the dim hall. This was originally a place where believers and priests worshiped, always brightly lit and filled with holy sounds, but now all the lights seemed to have been removed, and even the divine magic array at the top of the cathedral remained silent. The dim mithril patterns were interwoven on the dome of the hall into obscure and incomprehensible patterns, making the entire assembly hall appear gloomy and depressing.

Between the rows of chairs, the high-ranking monk saw many curled-up figures.

The survivors hiding in the cathedral seemed to be unexpectedly numerous?

"Why aren't the lights on?" Hao Ren found it very strange that a shelter was so dark, so he asked casually.

The middle-aged man leading the way sighed: "The lights in the darkness will attract those unclean things, and our sacred crystal reserves are limited and cannot withstand too much consumption."

Kalasauas glanced at the middle-aged monk: "What position do you hold in this cathedral?"

"I am responsible for managing the archives and典籍 (dianji, classic books) of the Luan Cathedral. I have been blessed by God and am now a formal priest," the middle-aged man replied. "You can call me Bernstein."

"Where is the regional bishop?"

"Bishop Holzman and other refugees are in the underground palace. The adults suffered mental backlash during the last resistance to the nightmare and now need to recuperate. I am temporarily responsible for the affairs on the ground. Of course, you can go see him."

Kalasauas nodded slightly and stopped talking.

All questions could be answered when he met the person in charge here.