Estio Volume 6
- Episode 1
Chapter 21 Faded Memories
There was a smell of old dust in the basement of the temple.
Amidst the bleak silence, where no sound could be heard except for the group's footsteps, only the yellow torch of the torch was blazing from the cracks in the bricks. Dried tree roots covered in dust covered the faded mural.
"It's amazing. This is a temple built by people who lived a thousand years ago."
Parker, a little relaxed as he went down the stairs, quietly broke the silence. Because if I didn't say anything, I would be more afraid.
"I see. Such an elaborate underground space in the middle of the desert? It seems difficult even with magic technology these days."
Moobin sympathized with Parker's sentiments.
It was full of old traces as if it would collapse at any moment, but it still maintained its shape. The stone steps leading to the same size were also surprising, but it was surprising that the strange murals carved out of the walls and the statues of angels that looked like they were about to take off were kept intact for thousands of years.
"I, Leader, how about going back to it?"
The stairs were still leading down. Parker wept as he walked along Estio's back, who didn't seem to have any intention of turning away.
"Even if I go further down, I don't think there will be anyone there."
It was a gloomy space where even if there were any survivors, they would have gone crazy in the silence. Sand was falling from the cracked wall, making it even worse. The group's hair was already clogged with sand and dust.
"there is."
"Yes?"
"A living person."
It was a firm voice without a single doubt. Parker followed Estio's back with trembling eyes.
"Uh, how do you know?"
"...I can hear it."
Estio, who had removed the eye patch to prepare for any possible danger, heard a voice that others could not hear.
"scared."
"I want to go home."
"Help me."
It wasn't even a single person's voice. There were quite a number of survivors who were trembling with anxiety somewhere underground. I was almost on the verge of ringing my throat because I was tormented by the terrified voices.
Parker, who was silent, on the other hand, looked at him and thought deeply.
'Leader-sama is now covering his eyes, but doesn't it matter?'
I've been covering it up to avoid making eye contact with people, but things would be different if I could read the minds of people far away like it is now.
'perhaps.......'
may be evolving.
Thinking about it that way made me a little creepy. When I heard that they were dragons, I thought that they looked nothing different from ordinary people, but I suddenly realized the difference.
"Parker."
Suddenly, Parker, who was called by his name, stuttered nervously involuntarily.
"Yes Yes?"
"Look over there."
Parker turned his head in the direction Estio was pointing. And he admired a little. He didn't know it because it was dark, but suddenly a magnificent space was spread out under the narrow stairs.
"You've come all the way down to the basement."
Mubin said as he put his hand on his sword, quietly. Torches of the torch were burning all over the wall, but it was dark all around and there were many catches, so it was perfect to hide. From now on, I had to be careful at all times because I didn't know what kind of threat would appear.
"Here is the altar."
As we passed the old boxes, we saw an altar made of stones piled up at the very end. Winged Parker was the first to fly to the altar and snoop around.
"I think it was originally a chapel."
"chapel?"
"It is said that in the old days, many living animals were sacrificed to the gods."
Mubin, who was educated and raised theology according to the duties of a nobleman in the Ruvarzan Empire, nodded.
"Uh, I heard. You still do that these days? Making sacrifices."
Still, in the Empire, sacred events are held in which the young of livestock are sacrificed on coming-of-age ceremonies, New Years, and national foundation days. However, it is only part of it, and has been replaced with grains and fruits.
"It's only on special days these days. In ancient temples, sacrifices were made every time there was a service. In those days, the more sacrifices were made, the more blessed they were, so the wild animals around the temple dried up their seeds."
That culture was inherited through hunting competitions held in each territory. As time passed, monsters, not wild animals, became the target.
"Well, there is a theory that, in the records, a human was actually sacrificed at that time."
"Yeah?!"
When everyone looked at them with a disgusted expression on their faces, Mubin smiled broadly.
"It's not a definitive record, it's just a hypothesis. When the ancient ruins were first excavated, there was something like a corpse buried in the basement of a temple like this."
The face of the young man of the Join tribe grew blue at the ghost story that started at first.
"Poetry, poetry, corpse?"
"Um? Human corpses."
As I didn't ask because I didn't know, I got goosebumps when I got it checked again. Parker, who had been frozen by a momentary pause in the accident circuit, barely shook his head.
"Uh-huh, no matter how old it is, the priests who followed the gods could have sacrificed humans. Wasn't it just meant to commemorate the dead, like a funeral?"
"That's right. As you said, the Holy See denies this."
Mubin, who had said this up to that point, made an ambiguous expression on his face, not knowing whether he was smiling or grimacing.
"There are traces of people being put in a coffin alive and nailed to the inside so that they can never open and come out. I wonder if they didn't know that the preservation magic powder sprinkled with preservation magic powder to prevent decay would be unearthed by future descendants..."
"It wasn't a very pleasant discovery," a bitter murmur followed. It might have been better to be buried in history forever.
In the cleanly preserved altar, there was still a faint divine power. The reason the monsters could not easily approach the basement was because of this sacred altar.
Parker shouted loudly before the atmosphere got any cheaper for nothing.
"I'm from the Ignis Guild! Are there any survivors here?"
Then a muffled sound was heard from a distance.
"Oh! God helped us!"
"Sah, I'm alive."
"This way. This way! Please!"
It was a tired and cracked voice, but it was a desperate call for help from the living. Estio and his party hurriedly approached the sound.
The sound was coming from the floor. Estio tapped the floor with his hand. It felt like there was definitely a different space beyond what was resonating. Mubin, who crouched following Estio, grumbled toward the floor.
"Hey, how the hell did I get in here?"
"Hey, please! There's a handle on the brick with a wooden picture on it!"
A muffled voice came from the floor. There were also unknown pictures painted on the floor, but it wasn't difficult to find a brick with a wooden picture on it.
Estio pulled the handle straight away without hesitation. He didn't give much force, but the floor slid open.
Gugu Palace.
The sound of rolling stones was deafening. The reddish flame of the torch permeated through the cracks in the dark space like paint. Then a small pit was revealed.
"Oh God."
Like someone moaning, they found God.
An artificial pit in the shape of a rectangle that was blocked on all sides without a single light.
A total of eleven priests were imprisoned there. Most of them were pale and had no strength in their limbs, so they were leaning against the wall. There were also several people who lost their minds.
'I don't know how much I was locked up, but it's amazing that there wasn't a shortage of air.'
Let alone the food, I would have been unable to even breathe if I had done so. Estio and his party, who were speechless when they saw the survivors found in horrific conditions, hurriedly pulled them out of the pit.
"Are you all okay?"
"Woman, angel?"
"Yes? Ah... I'm not an angel, I'm just an ordinary joiner."
As soon as he escaped with an ups and downs of mind, he could be misunderstood if the person he saw was a member of the Joining tribe, so Parker corrected it with a shy face. Then, the priests, who woke up belatedly, showed their gratitude with tears in their eyes.
"Thank you. Thank you very much. Without you, I would have withered to death inside."
"Isn't that a structure that can't come out directly from there?"
"Yes, yes. We were also chased by bugs and came in in a hurry, but when we tried to go out again, it didn't open, so stop."
He was imprisoned and almost died. As he passed through the hurdles of death one after another, the priests' complexions were very dark even when they came out of the pit. While he was calming down by suffocating with the water he shared, Estio asked them again about the situation in the desert temple.
"Did the Blue Sands come here too?"
"Yes, that's right! Blue Sand, that terrible... Mo, haven't you seen it? The temple is full of disgusting human-eating insects..."
The priest, who had answered with a trembling tremor, gradually blurted out the end of his speech.
The basement of the temple was eerily quiet. I couldn't hear the howl of a monster or the flapping of its wings. The priests, who had been looking around with their bloody eyes, trembled again, and clasped their hands.
"Come on, come on, we have to get out of here."
"Why?"
"This temple is their dwelling place. All of them will be annihilated if they remain idle!"
The priests shuddered as if an insect might crawl out of the cracked wall at any moment. Estio heard that fearful cry and approached the mural painted behind the altar.
'residence.'
He already knew that this was the source of life-threatening bugs. The noises of the bugs could be heard all the time, and he constantly called for help.
Estio put his hand on the wall. The old stone crumbled and dust fell.
"Oh? There's a door behind the altar."
Mubin, who approached Estio, murmured while scanning the area where the mural was painted. The border was really round in the shape of a door. There was no handle here, so Estio thought it was far away.
'Is it a sliding door?'
"Excuse me, but that door won't open."
However, the priests deterred him with a tone of pity.
"This is a 'sealed door' that has been closed since a long time ago. According to the legend, it cannot be opened except by a divine being blessed by God..."
profit.
The creaking of an old door echoed through the basement. The faces of the priests who discovered the 'sealed door' that opened casually were bewildered all at once.
Estio Volume 6
- Episode 1
Chapter 21 Faded Memories
There was a smell of old dust in the basement of the temple.
Amidst the bleak silence, where no sound could be heard except for the group's footsteps, only the yellow torch of the torch was blazing from the cracks in the bricks. Dried tree roots covered in dust covered the faded mural.
"It's amazing. This is a temple built by people who lived a thousand years ago."
Parker, a little relaxed as he went down the stairs, quietly broke the silence. Because if I didn't say anything, I would be more afraid.
"I see. Such an elaborate underground space in the middle of the desert? It seems difficult even with magic technology these days."
Moobin sympathized with Parker's sentiments.
It was full of old traces as if it would collapse at any moment, but it still maintained its shape. The stone steps leading to the same size were also surprising, but it was surprising that the strange murals carved out of the walls and the statues of angels that looked like they were about to take off were kept intact for thousands of years.
"I, Leader, how about going back to it?"
The stairs were still leading down. Parker wept as he walked along Estio's back, who didn't seem to have any intention of turning away.
"Even if I go further down, I don't think there will be anyone there."
It was a gloomy space where even if there were any survivors, they would have gone crazy in the silence. Sand was falling from the cracked wall, making it even worse. The group's hair was already clogged with sand and dust.
"there is."
"Yes?"
"A living person."
It was a firm voice without a single doubt. Parker followed Estio's back with trembling eyes.
"Uh, how do you know?"
"...I can hear it."
Estio, who had removed the eye patch to prepare for any possible danger, heard a voice that others could not hear.
"scared."
"I want to go home."
"Help me."
It wasn't even a single person's voice. There were quite a number of survivors who were trembling with anxiety somewhere underground. I was almost on the verge of ringing my throat because I was tormented by the terrified voices.
Parker, who was silent, on the other hand, looked at him and thought deeply.
'Leader-sama is now covering his eyes, but doesn't it matter?'
I've been covering it up to avoid making eye contact with people, but things would be different if I could read the minds of people far away like it is now.
'perhaps.......'
may be evolving.
Thinking about it that way made me a little creepy. When I heard that they were dragons, I thought that they looked nothing different from ordinary people, but I suddenly realized the difference.
"Parker."
Suddenly, Parker, who was called by his name, stuttered nervously involuntarily.
"Yes Yes?"
"Look over there."
Parker turned his head in the direction Estio was pointing. And he admired a little. He didn't know it because it was dark, but suddenly a magnificent space was spread out under the narrow stairs.
"You've come all the way down to the basement."
Mubin said as he put his hand on his sword, quietly. Torches of the torch were burning all over the wall, but it was dark all around and there were many catches, so it was perfect to hide. From now on, I had to be careful at all times because I didn't know what kind of threat would appear.
"Here is the altar."
As we passed the old boxes, we saw an altar made of stones piled up at the very end. Winged Parker was the first to fly to the altar and snoop around.
"I think it was originally a chapel."
"chapel?"
"It is said that in the old days, many living animals were sacrificed to the gods."
Mubin, who was educated and raised theology according to the duties of a nobleman in the Ruvarzan Empire, nodded.
"Uh, I heard. You still do that these days? Making sacrifices."
Still, in the Empire, sacred events are held in which the young of livestock are sacrificed on coming-of-age ceremonies, New Years, and national foundation days. However, it is only part of it, and has been replaced with grains and fruits.
"It's only on special days these days. In ancient temples, sacrifices were made every time there was a service. In those days, the more sacrifices were made, the more blessed they were, so the wild animals around the temple dried up their seeds."
That culture was inherited through hunting competitions held in each territory. As time passed, monsters, not wild animals, became the target.
"Well, there is a theory that, in the records, a human was actually sacrificed at that time."
"Yeah?!"
When everyone looked at them with a disgusted expression on their faces, Mubin smiled broadly.
"It's not a definitive record, it's just a hypothesis. When the ancient ruins were first excavated, there was something like a corpse buried in the basement of a temple like this."
The face of the young man of the Join tribe grew blue at the ghost story that started at first.
"Poetry, poetry, corpse?"
"Um? Human corpses."
As I didn't ask because I didn't know, I got goosebumps when I got it checked again. Parker, who had been frozen by a momentary pause in the accident circuit, barely shook his head.
"Uh-huh, no matter how old it is, the priests who followed the gods could have sacrificed humans. Wasn't it just meant to commemorate the dead, like a funeral?"
"That's right. As you said, the Holy See denies this."
Mubin, who had said this up to that point, made an ambiguous expression on his face, not knowing whether he was smiling or grimacing.
"There are traces of people being put in a coffin alive and nailed to the inside so that they can never open and come out. I wonder if they didn't know that the preservation magic powder sprinkled with preservation magic powder to prevent decay would be unearthed by future descendants..."
"It wasn't a very pleasant discovery," a bitter murmur followed. It might have been better to be buried in history forever.
In the cleanly preserved altar, there was still a faint divine power. The reason the monsters could not easily approach the basement was because of this sacred altar.
Parker shouted loudly before the atmosphere got any cheaper for nothing.
"I'm from the Ignis Guild! Are there any survivors here?"
Then a muffled sound was heard from a distance.
"Oh! God helped us!"
"Sah, I'm alive."
"This way. This way! Please!"
It was a tired and cracked voice, but it was a desperate call for help from the living. Estio and his party hurriedly approached the sound.
The sound was coming from the floor. Estio tapped the floor with his hand. It felt like there was definitely a different space beyond what was resonating. Mubin, who crouched following Estio, grumbled toward the floor.
"Hey, how the hell did I get in here?"
"Hey, please! There's a handle on the brick with a wooden picture on it!"
A muffled voice came from the floor. There were also unknown pictures painted on the floor, but it wasn't difficult to find a brick with a wooden picture on it.
Estio pulled the handle straight away without hesitation. He didn't give much force, but the floor slid open.
Gugu Palace.
The sound of rolling stones was deafening. The reddish flame of the torch permeated through the cracks in the dark space like paint. Then a small pit was revealed.
"Oh God."
Like someone moaning, they found God.
An artificial pit in the shape of a rectangle that was blocked on all sides without a single light.
A total of eleven priests were imprisoned there. Most of them were pale and had no strength in their limbs, so they were leaning against the wall. There were also several people who lost their minds.
'I don't know how much I was locked up, but it's amazing that there wasn't a shortage of air.'
Let alone the food, I would have been unable to even breathe if I had done so. Estio and his party, who were speechless when they saw the survivors found in horrific conditions, hurriedly pulled them out of the pit.
"Are you all okay?"
"Woman, angel?"
"Yes? Ah... I'm not an angel, I'm just an ordinary joiner."
As soon as he escaped with an ups and downs of mind, he could be misunderstood if the person he saw was a member of the Joining tribe, so Parker corrected it with a shy face. Then, the priests, who woke up belatedly, showed their gratitude with tears in their eyes.
"Thank you. Thank you very much. Without you, I would have withered to death inside."
"Isn't that a structure that can't come out directly from there?"
"Yes, yes. We were also chased by bugs and came in in a hurry, but when we tried to go out again, it didn't open, so stop."
He was imprisoned and almost died. As he passed through the hurdles of death one after another, the priests' complexions were very dark even when they came out of the pit. While he was calming down by suffocating with the water he shared, Estio asked them again about the situation in the desert temple.
"Did the Blue Sands come here too?"
"Yes, that's right! Blue Sand, that terrible... Mo, haven't you seen it? The temple is full of disgusting human-eating insects..."
The priest, who had answered with a trembling tremor, gradually blurted out the end of his speech.
The basement of the temple was eerily quiet. I couldn't hear the howl of a monster or the flapping of its wings. The priests, who had been looking around with their bloody eyes, trembled again, and clasped their hands.
"Come on, come on, we have to get out of here."
"Why?"
"This temple is their dwelling place. All of them will be annihilated if they remain idle!"
The priests shuddered as if an insect might crawl out of the cracked wall at any moment. Estio heard that fearful cry and approached the mural painted behind the altar.
'residence.'
He already knew that this was the source of life-threatening bugs. The noises of the bugs could be heard all the time, and he constantly called for help.
Estio put his hand on the wall. The old stone crumbled and dust fell.
"Oh? There's a door behind the altar."
Mubin, who approached Estio, murmured while scanning the area where the mural was painted. The border was really round in the shape of a door. There was no handle here, so Estio thought it was far away.
'Is it a sliding door?'
"Excuse me, but that door won't open."
However, the priests deterred him with a tone of pity.
"This is a 'sealed door' that has been closed since a long time ago. According to the legend, it cannot be opened except by a divine being blessed by God..."
profit.
The creaking of an old door echoed through the basement. The faces of the priests who discovered the 'sealed door' that opened casually were bewildered all at once.
