Chapter 1297 - The Cathedral (1/2)
The Cathedral of Louen was located in the oval square, in the heart of the city. Neat white slabs covered the vast square, where roughly 22 avenues extended in all directions like a spider web. The main avenues led to all corners of the city. As a typical city of the Theocracy, the cathedral was also the administrative center of Louen, so it was the only large building at the center of the city. Within a few kilometers from the square, not a single building could match the grandeur of the cathedral, not even in another city. Now, the once glorious and steep-spire cathedral was like the rest of the city, shrouded in the shadows of darkness and Chaos.
Lifeless people that appeared like zombies came out on the avenue. These people were once the residents, the poor, the nobility, and even the monks and Knights of Louen. They looked stiff and blind, moved in the dark toward the cathedral, like those souls and shadows that lingered around eternally in the realm of the dead.
It was a creepy scene even when looking from afar. A person as well-traveled as Hao Ren also could not help but have goosebumps all over his skin. The same goes with the Sanctum investigators; they looked nervous. Calaxus, again, drew a sacred symbol in front of his chest. “The evil forces of Chaos must have distorted these innocent residents. They have lost themselves.”
A church knight took out a long sword, but after looking around, he felt helpless. “We can’t let them tarnish the sacred cathedral, but they are too many!”
Yes, too many of them. Everyone knew that the target of these walking dead was the cathedral, and the first thought that came to mind was to stop these zombies. But there were too many zombies; it could be tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. Even if these zombies were defenseless, the few knights and monks could not possibly stop them.
Hao Ren turned his gaze at the cathedral in the middle of the square. He knew that it was impossible for the few of them to stop this “zombie wave.” There was only one solution before the zombies got into the cathedral, that was, to blow them up into pieces. But there was one problem if he did so—Calaxus would be mad at him.
When Hao Ren was weighing whether the use of force was feasible, he saw a zombie suddenly swayed before vaporizing into a puff of smoke and disappearing from the square out of the corner of his eye.
And then there was a second one and the third one. Zombies vaporized into the air as if cleansed by an invisible force when getting close to the perimeter of the cathedral. The scene reminded Hao Ren of the monsters of Chaos that were killed by the power of Order, where they turned into a puff of smoke before disappeared quickly.
“It seems those zombies could not get within 100 meters of the church,” Lily mumbled when she noticed the phenomenon.
Calaxus appeared a little at ease now. “The power of the great goddess remains in the holy land and shrouds the church.”
The zombies were like moths to fire, purified by the invisible sacred power around the church. Not long after, the shadows on the square had significantly reduced, and visibility became clear. At this moment, Hao Ren spotted something was moving across the glass window on the side of the cathedral in his peripheral vision.
“There are people in the cathedral!” He immediately alerted the others.
“In the church?” Calaxus and his deputy looked at each other. “With the blessing of the Goddess, perhaps those people still have a sound mind!”
Everyone ran to the cathedral. They ran past the few remaining zombies, which still staggered forward, seemingly unaware of the people who ran past them. Hao Ren, Calaxus, and the others came before the entrance without a hitch. But just a few meters away from the entrance, a white light suddenly beamed out of a narrow window beside the door, blowing up the floor in front of Calaxus as a sign of warning.
At the same time, a cautious voice sounded out of nowhere. “Stop coming further!”
“We are senior priests from Fidelinopolis!” Calaxus stopped in his tracks and exclaimed. “We come in peace. We want to find a place to stay, and try to figure out something!”
“Fidelinopolis?” The voice in the cathedral hesitated. The person was surprised and doubtful at the same time. Very quickly, the person asked, “Before the sanctuary of the goddess, lies will bring 10 times the punishment! Are you really from Fidelinopolis?”
Calaxus was perplexed. “What’s wrong with Fidelinopolis? I’m Cardinal Calaxus based in Basilica Icon. If you don’t believe me, you can check the list of high-ranking priests stored in your library. I’m right here; you can compare with the portraits on the list!”
The voice in the church hesitated again before becoming sterner than before. “Fidelinopolis has long been… How could any senior priests come out from there at this time!”
“What happened to Fidelinopolis?” Calaxus was shocked. He sensed something terrible from the short sentences. “What do you mean?”
No one in the cathedral answered him. Instead, there were more questioning. “You don’t even know this? Then your identity is even more doubtful.”
“No, we did come from Fidelinopolis directly. We have left there more than a month ago.” Calaxus knew that things might get out of his control and quickly explained, “We are an investigation team under the orders of the Pope, departing from Fidelinopolis to Ansu mainland over a month ago. There is a record of our trip. Due to some accidents on the Ansu mainland, we could only make it back today.”