Chapter 112

Crossroads Hospital was not equipped with carriages or other means of transportation, so Watson and Nello could only walk away.

Although he and Nello were the only ones who left the dormitory building, Watson knew that there were definitely more than just two people on this trip - when he was exercising in his room, he heard the door of Crovitt's room next door open and close slightly, and it was obvious that the other party had already left.

Because Nello mentioned that this trip might be dangerous or require fighting, Watson also took out his familiar gun from under the bed, wrapped it in a roll of black cloth, and carried it on his back.

At this moment, the two of them were wearing hooded cloaks as dark as night, completely concealing their physical features, and silently walked along the deep alleys of the foggy city, shuttling through the intricate alleys like spider webs, and secretly shuttling through the shadows that were not illuminated by street lights.

A drunkard staggered into the alley and vomited the food residue in his stomach. He seemed to see two flashing black shadows reflected in the sewage on the ground of the alley, but when he looked up, he couldn't see any trace. He was so scared that he thought he had seen a ghost. His confused head immediately sobered up and stumbled back to the light of the street lamp.

Even the stray cats and dogs in the alley would get fur all over their bodies when they smelled Watson and his friends, and ran away with screams/meows in fear.

As soon as the two left the city, they immediately increased their speed and started a long-distance raid in the night.

Although Watson's achievements in the Secret of the Heart were not as good as Nello's, he had received training in night cross-country running in another time and space, and his skills and experience were quite rich. Even if his endurance was slightly insufficient, he could still follow steadily without falling behind.

The two rushed out ten kilometers and came to the outskirts of the city where no one cared. In the outer edge of the deep and dark forest, there were already other members of the cult waiting here.

They were hiding in the bushes, haystacks, and stone shadows. After hearing Nello's shout, they slowly left their hiding place with their portable oil lamps and came to the road in front of the forest.

In addition to Watson and Nello, there were five other people on the field.

Marina, a woman about thirty years old. She seemed to be a math teacher in the slums before, plump and short. There seemed to be a light brewing inside the tumor on her chest, leaking out through the gaps like eyes.

Ganser, a man of medium weight, medium height, and medium appearance. He is the kind of ordinary person who, even if you just met him, will immediately forget his impression after turning your head the next second... a completely unremarkable person. But the tumor on his chest is particularly obvious. There is a wound that seems to be hastily sutured on the top of the deformed flesh. The scar between the flesh has not yet completely closed, and there is still a deep gap.

Crovitte... Her happiness is the kind of happiness that cannot tolerate unhappiness, perhaps because all her unhappiness has been transferred to another face on her chest, her biological sister.

Kalsa and Lido, two very loyal but not proactive strong guys. When they worked at the Crossroads Hospital in the past, they were able to complete the tasks assigned by the leaders very quickly, but when the daily work was completed, they would fall into idleness and did not know how to actively find work and complete the work... The two were workers who barely reached the qualified line. The tumor in their hearts was beating weakly.

Although Crovitte always laughed and seemed a little childish in the past, her secret cultivation was definitely able to rank in the top three among the seven people on the field.

As soon as she saw another cloaked shadow following Mr. Nello, she immediately reacted and exclaimed in a low voice: "John! Why are you here too?!"

"Me? Of course I'm here to help." Watson put down the hood of his cloak and nodded slightly to the other four church members present, even if it was a greeting.

Everyone nodded and smiled back, and gradually moved closer, forming a tight circle to listen to the commander and deputy leader of this operation, Mr. Nello, to arrange the task.

But Nello just waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, everyone, let's go to the old place deep in the forest first."

This dense forest is lush with trees and grass, and the branches and leaves are lush like a big umbrella, which plans to completely cover the dim moonlight on a cold night. The dense forest is pitch black, and it is difficult to see your fingers.

Fortunately, the five people who came first all carried lanterns, shovels and other exploration equipment. Everyone lit the rectangular lanterns, and the mirrored glass behind the lanterns refracted all the light to the front.

But even so, the light of the lanterns could hardly penetrate the darkness like a thick veil. The dim yellow and dark colors intertwined and intertwined, as if giving birth to a hazy and mysterious color, making it difficult to see the situation on the road ahead.

But the ground underfoot was also extremely bumpy, with potholes in the east and ridges in the west. If you are not careful, you may stumble and fall to the ground.

But the six church members ran naturally without looking down at all, as if they were walking on flat ground... Obviously, they often come here and have memorized the environment here, and can walk without obstacles even with their eyes closed.

Watson came here for the first time and had no idea about the terrain, so he followed the end of the team honestly and stepped on the footprints of the church members in front.

They ran in the dense forest for about half an hour and finally stopped in front of a natural cave that was as dark as ink.

With the help of the moth's vision, Watson could see the situation inside the cave from a distance - this was a typical Mithraic sun cave.

Since Watson knew that there were god-like astronomical figures in the world, he began to consciously collect and read various mythological stories and religious history. Watson used these books to pass the time when he was in the hospital... Therefore, the knowledge about Mithraism immediately emerged in his mind at this moment.

Mithraism, an extremely ancient secret religion, mainly worships the god named Mithra.

It is said that the belief in Mithra appeared in the Kingdom of Mitanni four thousand years ago. He was originally the god of contract, with thousands of ears and eyes, thousands of detectives, and thousands of insights. At that time, Mithra was just a high-level god in the beliefs of the ancient Aryans, but it was not until the first century AD that Mithraism began to prosper in the ancient Roman Empire, and the priesthood became more and more abundant, including the god of light and the sun, the god of life and the god of war... During its heyday, it once suppressed Jesus' disciples, and it was even rumored that the date of Christmas was copied from Mithraism.

But such a powerful religion could not resist the erosion of time. With the promulgation of the Theodosian Code, all pagan rituals were banned, and Mithraism died out. However, the temple ruins left by this religion are still scattered throughout the European continent.

Just like the Mithraic Cave hidden in the dark night, a square shrine with a stone sculpture is placed in the center of the cave...or it should be said that this is the Mithraic altar.

The small altar of Mithraism looks only half a person's height. After the erosion of time, it has become very dilapidated and old, covered with cracks like swords and knives. But it is generally well preserved.

The top of the altar is a square plane, and the ivory-white stone seems to be stained with indelible bright red blood. It seems that many bloody sacrifices have been held here in the past.

And the story of Mithra slaughtering the bull is carved in front of the small altar, which is the most glorious position in the cave.

In the carving, there is a young man who looks handsome and has a majestic figure. He wears a leather helmet, a cloak on his shoulders, and flying shoes on his feet. His image seems to be the same as the demigod hero Perseus in Greek mythology... But Watson knows that the young man in the painting is Mithra, the supreme god in the Mithraic faith.

Mithra rides on the white bull, his left knee is bent like a tip against the bull's waist and back, his left hand goes from the back to the front to pinch the bull's throat, forcing the white bull to raise its head towards the sky, and then he holds a sharp knife in his right hand and stabs it hard behind the white bull's ear.

The sharp blade is more than halfway in, and the white bull screams in pain and wants to ask for help, but there are hounds, poisonous snakes and scorpions rushing to bite the bull's body, and crows hovering in the sky, peeping and laughing sarcastically.

Watson looked at the carving and felt that this picture of Mithra slaughtering the bull seemed to have a deeper meaning.

But his mind, which had grown almost wild due to the secret teachings of the moth, could not capture any strange inspiration from it, and he fell into some kind of illusion of discovering the truth... It seems that this carving is not related to Sichen.

So, this small stone altar is not the goal of Nero and his team... Then what is the secret treasure they are looking for?

This ancient cave temple has long been searched by those who seek the strange and the bizarre, and there is nothing valuable left. The central altar is made of rough and common materials, and it is very heavy and difficult to move, so it has escaped the clutches of treasure hunters... What are Nero and his team going to find? What difficulties have they encountered that need my help?

While he was thinking, everyone had already separated and stood in their own positions. Nello also ordered: "Marina, do it."

Marina, the short lady came to the end of the cave. She held an oil lamp in her hand. The dim light was reflected on the stone wall that looked like an equilateral triangle. She silently chanted an incantation of unknown meaning. The eyes on the tumor on her chest blinked, radiating a white incandescent light towards the portable oil lamp, making the dim light of the lantern also stained with a strange color.

The image of the stone wall carving seemed to begin to distort, and some magical power that deceived people began to fade temporarily. A hidden switch was revealed in the mural. As Ms. Marina turned the switch, the cave echoed with extremely subtle gear operation sounds.

The stone altar began to slowly tilt backwards, and the ground cracked and separated like a door, and it was like a huge mouth slowly opening, revealing the narrow stone steps at the bottom that looked like the esophagus/intestine of a giant beast, leading to a dark unknown place.

The cold wind mixed with the smell of blood gushed out, and it was like the stench accumulated in the rotting stomach of a giant beast.

Even the flame in the glass cover of the lantern could not help but sway, as if the cold wind could break through the protection of the lampshade and directly affect the flame inside.

"According to the rules of the previous night, I am still in the front of the team, Marina is the second in the team, Gansel is the third, Klovette is the fourth, Watson is the fifth, and Kalsa and Lido are responsible for guarding the upper part tonight." Nello held the lantern in his left hand and the gun in his right hand, and took the lead in stepping down the stairs.

Marina followed closely, and Gansel continued to follow. Both faces of Klovette were laughing, and Watson also took out two pistols and held them in his hands.

The downward stairs were curved like a spiral, narrow enough to barely accommodate one person at a time. If a strong man with a burly back and a strong waist came, he would probably have to move forward sideways.

"Don't think this is just a Mithraic worship cave left over from the Roman Empire, but there is actually a deep and vast pyramid-shaped space underneath, each layer deeper and wider than the previous one... This may be a place that existed long before the Roman Empire, a mysterious temple older than Mithraism."

"We have already explored all the way down to the bridegroom level, which is the second underground level. On the way to the third underground level, we encountered some obstacles... So we need your help, Chief Watson, to help us clear the obstacles ahead."

The bridegroom level... Watson murmured this word in his heart. Of course, he knew the origin of this name-it is rumored that after Mithraism entered the Roman Empire, in order to comply with the ruling needs of the Roman emperor, it specially created a seven-level identity system to please the emperor.

The seven levels of Mithraism are divided from low to high: Corax crow-Nymphus bridegroom-Miles warrior-Leo lion-Perses Persian-Heliodromus sun servant-Pater father

Watson asked, "The second underground floor is the bridegroom's floor, which means this pyramid-like building is likely to have seven floors?"

Nello also replied, "According to our inference, it is very likely that this is true."

While talking, they had already landed in the first underground floor, which was a regular triangle-shaped room.

The spiral staircase happened to fall from the top of this underground pyramid space, and they went directly into the center of the first floor room.

The first floor was much more spacious than the cave above, enough to accommodate the seven of them standing separately, and there was no need to bend their waists, and they could stand up straight as much as they wanted.

However, in this so-called first floor, there were bronze-cast dry trees everywhere, and green leaves cut from cloth were hung on the sharp sword-like branches.

Even without the help of the lantern, Watson could clearly see that the sword-like steel branches were stained with long-dried blood, as if they were left over from a long time ago... The dried human bones scattered on the ground, showing signs of corrosion from ancient times, were enough to prove this. One step on them could easily crush them into a pile of bone fragments.

"Don't worry, we have solved the mechanism on this level, and these sword trees will not move again." Nello reminded.

Mechanisms, sword trees... So is this the real treasure trove? The ancient mechanism with a history of at least more than a thousand years can still operate normally. Watson knew that there must be the power of mysticism hidden here.

They carefully crossed the sharp sword forest and came to a door in the corner. The door had been dimly grayed under the lantern, and there was a metallic smell in the air... It was the smell of lead.

Watson saw a string of ancient Latin characters printed on the top of the door - Corax. This is the Crow Gate.

However, he looked around at the bronze sword trees around him, and at the murals on the regular triangular roof, which depicted the dark night, with only a severely faded arc moon hanging alone... Why does it feel like this floor is built to imitate the environment of the Mansu forest?

Do Nero and the others think so too?

Is there any connection between this place and Mansu? If the next six floors are all built to imitate the environment of Mansu, can I use this to glimpse the scenes of other areas of Mansu?

But Watson is just a newcomer to the secret transmission in the cult at this moment, and he has not had time to learn about the Dream Walk Mansu, so he did not express these questions.

"Captain Watson, your heart secret practice is not yet complete, and your physique is not strong enough to resist the environment ahead. Please wear this mask first."

When the author looked up the Mithraic information, he found an explanation that the Mithraic bull-slaughtering picture is an explanation of the constellation, and the god Mithra just represents Perseus, that is, Perseus... What a coincidence! And Perseus is the incarnation of that person in the world.

By the way, the author has to go on a long trip tomorrow, so he would like to take a day off.