In Collow, the Sanctum was undoubtedly the core and sacred place of the goddess of creation. Almost everything in this land served the religious faith. The cathedral was the religious, cultural, and administrative center of all cities. The church was the source of all education. The clergy were responsible for the management of the entire Sanctum. Religious buildings were the most magnificent and complex facilities in the Theocracy.
The underground of the Louen Cathedral was not just a basement but a super-large facility that could be called an underground palace.
Led by the priest, the group came to the entrance of the underground palace behind the assembly hall and then went down a wide stone ramp. A few minutes later, they arrived at the underground part of the cathedral. Hao Ren saw a straight and wide corridor stretching out in front of him. There were many forks and room entrances on both sides of the corridor. Although there was no sunlight in the underground world, there was a piece of milky white crystal inlaid at regular intervals on the wall, so it was not dark. It was even brighter here than the surface of the cathedral.
The unimaginable number of survivors were all gathered in the underground palace. Everywhere in the underground corridors, there were refugees wrapped in clothes and blankets, huddled together with their families. Their faces were filled with fear and uneasiness. Beside them were small piles of luggage. Most of them only had a few carry-on bags and small boxes. Many of them even had nothing beside them. Obviously, they were all evacuated in a hurry.
Seeing people coming down from the surface entrance, many refugees immediately looked up and curiously looked at Hao Ren and his team. Many of their eyes were filled with doubt and nervousness, including the ignorant children.
"What happened here?" Calaxus could not help but mutter to himself.
"The shelter of Asurmen has disappeared, and the darkness took advantage of it. The Nightmares quickly devoured everyone who fell asleep," the middle-aged priest said in a low voice. "More than half of the people became the seedbed of the Nightmares overnight. By the time we realized it, there was nothing we could do. What happened is very strange. Your Excellency, Lord Holtzman will explain it to you. "
Walking along the corridor of the underground palace, the group finally reached the end. There was a small chapel built in the depths of the underground facility. The sacred light of this chapel was not extinguished. Soft holy light diffused from the windows of the chapel, faintly sheltering the entire underground palace.
In the chapel, an old bishop with white hair and beard was leading several assistant priests to complete a sacred ritual. After the ritual was completed, he turned his head and looked at Hao Ren and Calaxus standing in front of him.
"Archbishop Calaxus," Bishop Holtzman saluted Calaxus. Although he was the elder, he was only in charge of a city and the surrounding villages in the church. He had to pay his respects to Archbishop Calaxus, who held an important position in the Basilica Icon. "I know you and your investigation team. When you set off, I also greeted you in the Basilica Icon."
"Bishop Holtzman," Calaxus nodded in return. "I know you. Your diligence and piety are highly praised in the Basilica Icon."
He then briefly introduced Hao Ren, Lily, and Lady Gloom. He did not elaborate on their identities, but he guaranteed in the name of God that these three were absolutely trustworthy allies. After the introduction, he went straight to the point. "Bishop, what happened here? How did Sanctum fall to this state in just a month? "
"Everything deteriorated rapidly in the past few days." The old bishop shook his head, his face slightly pale. Just as Father Bernstein had said, the old bishop seemed to have suffered a spiritual attack, and was now a little dispirited. "In the nearly a month after you left, the situation in the Holy Realm had been deteriorating, but it had not reached the point of no return. Until seven days ago, when things suddenly got out of hand."
"What exactly happened?" Hao Ren asked with a serious look on his face.
"The Light of Asurmen suddenly weakened sharply, and there were many big holes in the protective barrier over Sanctum. The power of Chaos poured in, causing a huge number of casualties." The old bishop coughed violently a few times before he gradually recovered his breath. "The first wave of attack was blocked. The papal army paid a great price to destroy the monsters of Chaos that invaded the barrier and barely restored the barrier over the main cities. But on the same night, we encountered another wave of attack that was difficult to resist. The attack was launched in a dream."
Dream. Hao Ren instantly caught this crucial word. He remembered the sentry posts destroyed by nightmares in the forest west of Taros and the Shadow of Nightmares caught by Lily. "Someone was mentally invaded in their sleep and then committed suicide?"
The old bishop immediately turned his head. "How do you know?"
"Similar things have happened in other continents …" Hao Ren briefly described the disaster of nightmares at the border of Taros. "But I did not expect the same thing to happen in Sanctum."
"The nightmare attack we encountered is somewhat similar to what you said, but not exactly the same." The old bishop shook his head after listening. "The evil spirits did invade the Dream World, but they did not cause a large number of casualties at first. Instead, they created countless puppets that had lost their souls and gradually overflowed into the real world. I think you have seen those … things wandering in the square outside. "
"Those zombies?" Lily blinked.
"Zombies? No, those are not zombies. "The old bishop glanced at Lily." Those are not things of the real world at all. They are nightmares, the nightmares of the residents of Louen who have fallen into the Nightmare World. "
Lily could not wrap her head around the whole thing. "Dream? What do you mean, were those just illusions outside? "
"It's something like a phantom, but it walks in the real world and gradually affects the real world, constantly blurring the boundaries between reality and dreams," the old bishop said. "The first wave of nightmare attacks happened in the middle of the night, and it was the first night after we fought with our lives to defeat the monsters of Chaos. Almost everyone fell into a deep sleep from exhaustion. You can imagine how terrible the consequences were. Most people were swallowed by the nightmares almost without resistance, and those who relied on their powerful strength to barely wake up, and those who did not fall asleep for various reasons were less than one-tenth of the total. After we broke free from the dream, we found that many people around us were asleep, and no matter what we did, we could not wake them up. Then, wandering shadows began to appear on the streets outside. Those shadows were the nightmares released by the sleeping people. They were similar to the original body, but they had no intelligence and could only wander blindly. Anyone who came into contact with them would suffer a mental shock and gradually become a new seedbed of nightmares. More than 80% of the city was instantly controlled by these nightmares. We gathered all the survivors and hid in the cathedral. Only here, the power of the nightmares could not reach us, and we could sleep in peace. "
At this point, the old bishop took a few deep breaths. He was already weak to begin with, and had just barely completed a blessing ritual. Speaking too much at this time made him feel a little breathless.
Calaxus had to continue asking, "Are all the survivors in this cathedral? Are there no other survivors in the city? "
"I can't guarantee that everyone is here, but at least 90% of the survivors have gathered here." The old bishop nodded. "We will send some people to the city every day to collect food and other resources. At the same time, we will also look for other survivors. In the first few days, there were occasionally survivors brought in, but as time went by, the number of survivors decreased. People can't never sleep, and probably no one can hold on until today."
Hao Ren said, "We saw some pedestrians who were in a hurry along the way. They did not look like nightmares, and there were people in many houses who responded. Aren't those survivors?"
The old bishop seemed to know that someone was going to ask this question. He immediately shook his head. "That is another nightmare … the nightmare of this city."
Everyone looked at each other.
"Rune is an ancient city with thousands of years of history. We have lived here for generations and were buried here. The cycle of life and death has been passed down from generation to generation. The old city is like a vessel of the soul, carrying the thoughts and memories of millions of people from generation to generation. When they settle down, the old buildings and streets have spirituality. The city still remembers what it looked like in the bright days. When the nightmares came, it also fell into these shadows, and the memories of the past were distorted into nightmares. "
Hao Ren recalled what he had seen and heard along the way. The doors of the houses were closed, the pedestrians in a hurry, and the voices were full of hostility and rejection. It was so real, but it was just a dream.
A dream that happened in the real world.
The boundary between nightmare and reality was about to be wiped out. If this trend continued, it would not take long before the entire Sanctum in the real world was replaced by nightmares.
Calaxus's face was gloomy. "The situation is so bad. Why is there no movement from Fidelinopolis?"
The old bishop glanced at him. "This is what I wanted to tell you. Something terrible has happened in Fidelinopolis. As early as the first wave of attack, Fidelinopolis had unilaterally cut off the divine link with all the lower churches. At that time, the Chaos had not yet entered the barrier, but the sacred crystal of Rune could no longer receive the signal from the Basilica Icon. Then we took a big risk and sent a reconnaissance team to check on the situation in Fidelinopolis, but found that it had disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a large area of sulfur scorched earth and countless giant pits! "
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