SWDnovel #480 - West Mysella? East
#480 - West Mysella? East
Following the guiding Aigaron and the Holy Musketeers, Horn and his party arrived beside the rock wall.
Next to the water-seeping rock crevices, a zigzagging stone staircase led upwards.
The sound of dripping water merged with the sound of footsteps, and the firelight and fluorescent light played a symphony, casting the light and shadows on everyone's faces to sway back and forth.
As the blue light of the fluorescent moss grew more intense, Horn and the others finally stepped onto a platform carved out of the rock beside the palace.
Witt was the first to run towards the palace not far away, waving his torch as he ran, his timidity from the demon hunter incident seemingly vanished without a trace.
"This is the Shepherd of Light clan, no, no..."
"Oh yes, yes, the style of the Noen Evil God, no, no, they don't have this technology."
"Yes, right?"
"What kind of building is this anyway?"
Listening to Witt's frantic shouts beside him, Horn led Jenna to the front of the palace.
Before them was a bronze gate engraved with spiral ram horn patterns. Horn released Jenna's hand, stepped forward, and reached out to push it, but it didn't budge.
"Your Majesty, this bronze gate is too old and has rusted shut. It cannot be opened from this side. We can only enter through the hole in the wall."
His fingers brushed over the exposed stone of the collapsed wall. Horn bent over and stepped through, his back rubbing against the wall, yet he didn't feel much roughness.
"Your Majesty, this is the mural we discovered."
Entering the palace, before Horn could properly examine this ancient building, Raphael stood beside a row of neat columns, pointing in the opposite direction.
As pine resin torches were lit one by one, a corridor, estimated to be about 30 meters long, appeared in the pungent smoke, leading into the darkness.
In the dim firelight, a wall of scroll-like murals appeared on one side of the marble columns with shrines.
The mural was quite dim, but the colors had a simple, warm base.
Under the smooth and winding lines, small figures walked among exquisite buildings, plants, mountains, and rivers, with vivid details.
Murals from the ancient Elven period generally used red ochre, blue copper, and lead yellow, and usually began to fade completely after three or four hundred years.
But the mural in front of him seemed to use some kind of technology. The colors hadn't faded much. Horn could even see the blurry expressions on the small figures in the mural.
"Your Majesty, let me show you the strange part..."
"No need." Horn carefully observed the first mural. "We'll walk through the corridor and review the contents of the 'Gospel' along the way."
Perhaps due to space limitations, the mural didn't start from the creation of the world, but skipped directly to the second chapter of the 'Post-Gospel,' Missionary Work.
This chapter mainly tells the story of Missila's birth, life, learning, and enlightenment.
The content of the mural was completely consistent with the records in the 'Gospel,' including the Holy Lord being expelled from the Elven Empire's capital, Sun City, and then going to the southern city of Lemo to preach, where she was arrested by the local governor.
Before this mural, Horn's pupils suddenly contracted. At this point, the mural finally diverged from the 'Gospel.'
The 'Gospel' describes Missila's beheading as follows: After Missila's head was cut off, she reached out, picked up her head, and reattached it to her neck.
In an instant, flesh and blood solidified, the Holy Lord resurrected, and fought her way out of the sinful city of Lemo.
In this mural, after the ax-wielding figure cut off the golden-haired figure's head, the headless corpse on the ground did indeed stand up as in the 'Gospel.'
But the difference was that, in the next painting, the headless corpse actually just waved its chains and fled the city, leaving the golden-haired figure's head behind!
What does that mean? Drop the head and run?
Stepping on the cold, damp floor, Horn continued forward along the marble shrine columns, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.
In the previous painting, the golden-haired figure's headless corpse had just run away, but there was no follow-up in this painting.
Because there was no background in the painting, Horn could only see the golden-haired figure standing inexplicably on a round table.
Although the face of the governor figure wearing a red cone hat was blurred, Horn could still see his horror.
In the next painting, the situation changed again, as if a misunderstanding had been resolved. The golden-haired figure just drove a carriage away from Lemo, looking refreshed.
No, but how did you reattach your head?
Horn touched the circular scar on his neck. At least he still had a "flying head demon." Oh Mom, how did you resurrect?
"Is there a missing part in the middle?" Armand also noticed the anomaly, feeling like something was omitted in the middle. "How doesn't it connect?"
"No, this is a scroll painting. It looks casual, but it has strict requirements for the painting's width." Witt, who had received a lot of art training, stared with wide eyes, his head close to the mural. "There are no traces of repainting or missing paintings."
Not repainted or missing paintings?
Horn didn't say much, just continued forward along the corridor.
According to the 'Gospel,' the story that follows is that after Missila escaped from Lemo, she felt that there was too much sin in the Western Continent, and went to the Eastern Continent to preach under the guidance of a sage.
This is the chapter of the 'Gospel: Eastern Pilgrimage.' In this chapter, Missila immediately increased, madly increased, and intensely increased, killing, killing, killing, killing the Eastern Continent natives!
The dwarves were driven to the high mountains by Missila, the dragons who originally ruled the Eastern Continent were all killed by Missila in the Dragon's Rest Mountains, and the evil gods were killed and fled to the grasslands.
With this achievement, the poorer and purer Eastern Continent Elves quickly converted to the Missila religion.
At the time, Horn felt something was wrong, because the 'Gospel' has always emphasized reasoning over narration, and preaching more than killing.
Under normal circumstances, Missila is still very restrained. Usually, only those who don't listen to the teachings get the fist.
How come the 'Eastern Pilgrimage' doesn't talk about reason and just kills?
In the church's explanation, this is understood as only being able to adopt the method of annihilation for heretics who are deeply sinful, so there was widespread killing.
But the content of the mural in front of him shows that the golden-haired figure representing Missila did not cross to the east after leaving Lemo, but went west!
That's the core hinterland of the Empire.
Unlike the killing in the 'Eastern Pilgrimage,' this golden-haired figure rarely took action, preaching and healing diseases along the way, and recruiting followers.
The content of the three paintings is the governance of floods, droughts, and bandits, and the subjugation of three followers and countless new believers...
"Your Majesty, what's wrong?" Following behind Horn, Raphael asked, looking at Horn who had suddenly stopped.
Looking at the content of the mural, the muscles in Horn's brow twitched.
The drowning blue-haired woman, the tree-chopping green-clad ranger, the laughing red-nosed clown.
These three followers with halos behind their heads don't match any saint in history, but they correspond to the three evil gods in the 'Gospel: Crossing the Sea'!
Lake Banshee, Green Cloak, Clown God, respectively representing lust, plague, and greed.
On the road of Missila leading the remnants back east, the three evil gods, on the orders of the devil, blocked the immigrants. The two sides fought wits and courage, and were finally killed one by one by Missila.
These three evil gods are also considered the ancestors of witches, ogres, and vampires.
But in this mural, the golden-haired figure Missila and her three mortal enemies were actually sitting around a campfire preaching.
The dark corridor quieted down, leaving only the sound of everyone's breathing.
Looking at the mural in front of her, Jenna had an unspeakable sense of absurdity.
Unlike Horn, the holy grandson who has money passing through his hands every day and sits on the holy master's tongue, Jenna is much more devout. This has not changed even though she has become a witch.
Having experienced so much, especially the existence of a certain holy grandson, Jenna believes that even if something outrageous happens again, she will not be surprised.
But the scenes in front of her still left her speechless.
This is too absurd.
Armand, who came out of the monastery and knows the 'Gospel' very well, was even more dumbfounded, unable to say a word.
"Holy Lord above, Holy Lord above... this is simply blasphemy!"
Holding the Chi-shaped cross in their hands, several senior believers were trembling and praying on the spot.
Following Horn's steps, the mood of the group became heavier and heavier. Fortunately, the subsequent murals returned to normal.
Taking three followers, after arriving at the prosperous heartland of the Empire, the golden-haired figure began to preach to the poor, teaching them farming and breathing techniques.
This scene is strikingly similar to the last section of the 'Eastern Pilgrimage.' The Missila in the book developed her own power in the Eastern Continent in this way.
Then comes the classic plot. The governor of the Empire once again captured Missila and sent her to the imperial capital, Eternal Summer City.
At this point, the mural magically connects to the last section of the 'Eastern Pilgrimage.'
If Horn guessed correctly, the subsequent part of the mural is the longest chapter in the 'Post-Gospel,' the Missila biography, Crossing the Sea.
"What about the rest?" When there was no longer that dim color and silky lines on the wall, Horn, who was engrossed in it, couldn't help but be stunned.
"The rest, why isn't there any more?"