Chapter 276: Storm Cathedral
Chapter 276 – Storm Cathedral
In Duncan’s perception, a thing that exuded a huge presence was gradually approaching the city-state of Prand.
His perception actually can’t detach from the entity of Prand and extend outward, but when the thing that emits a huge sense of existence continues to get closer, he can still indirectly perceive some kind of …… “illumination”, like a heat source, a thing that emits a strong light, on the infinite sea a little bit clear. The boundless sea became clearer and clearer.
A single large ship would not bring such a feeling, nor would a group of powerful magi.
Duncan narrowed his eyes slightly, and in the “darkness” beyond the city-state of Prand, the object emitting light and heat gradually showed some outlines.
What it emits …… is the so-called “power of the gods”?
A few moments later, a window on the second floor of the antique store suddenly rose a green flame, followed by a fat white dove flew out of the window and quickly flew across the sky.
……
Inside and outside the harbor in southeastern Prand, a sizeable crowd had now gathered.
The Storm Cathedral, which cruises on the sea all year round and almost never comes ashore, is about to dock in the city-state, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event for any believer who follows the Storm Goddess Gemona, no matter whether it’s to show their piety, or simply to admire the majestic face of the Storm Cathedral, the citizens of Plainland are unwilling to miss today’s grandeur – -When the sun had just risen and the curfew had just ended, one after another, the residents living near the harbor began to gather, and when the time neared noon, basically all the empty seats near the harbor that could be used for “observing the ceremony” were filled up.
After this, the harbor entered a state of traffic control, the city hall no longer allowed more spectators to approach the harbor, and cooperated with the church to evacuate the crowds to the various sanctuaries – when the Storm Cathedral docked, the mass ceremony would also be held simultaneously in the churches, which on the one hand, of course, is to “welcome the glory of the Goddess” on the one hand, and on the other hand, to reduce the pressure on the harbor area and to divert the believers.
Beyond the layers and layers of people, in the inner harbor area, there is a “ceremony area” temporarily blocked off by the church guards and city-state magistrates, where the local church hierarchy of Prand and the high-ranking officials of the city-state gathered, ready to welcome the Storm Cathedral.
After much haste, Vanna finally arrived at the harbor in time.
“You were almost late,” Consul Dante, who was waiting on the harbor to greet them, glanced at his niece, who had rushed over in a storm, with helplessness in his one eye, “On such an important day, you as an Inquisitor are actually the latest to arrive.”
“There was a little accident,” in front of her uncle, even an Inquisitor will have a time when her momentum is lacking, Vanna’s face carries a little embarrassment, “Originally, I had planned my time well, and would have arrived at least half an hour earlier …… “
“The Goddess will forgive,” Archbishop Valentine’s voice came from the sidelines, the old man was now in full regalia, the long staff symbolizing the bishop of the city-state clutched in his hand, a faint smile on his face, “There is still a little while to go before the scheduled moment.”
Vanna nodded and with a soft sigh of relief, she looked up and around.
The area around the trestle was wide open, with guards and magistrates surrounding a rather spacious “ceremony area”, but as one looked beyond it, one could see countless spectators in the distance, crowds of people.
Nearly three-fourths of the residents of the entire Prand are baptized believers of the Church of the Deep Sea, and the remaining one-fourth, even if they are not baptized, will maintain a shallow faith in the Storm Goddess Gemona under the influence of the atmosphere of the entire city – this city-state is the largest gathering of believers of the Deep Sea on the boundless sea, and the scene at this moment is an incomparably strong demonstration of this. This city-state was the largest gathering of deep-sea believers on the infinite sea – the scene at this moment was an incomparably strong display of this.
“The arrival of the Storm Cathedral can actually help us solve a lot of problems,” Dante’s voice reached Vanna’s ears, “By taking advantage of this event, the unsettled atmosphere in the city-state can be quickly calmed down, and the news about the ‘vision’ can be released more smoothly. can also be released more smoothly, honestly …… I am really relieved.”
“For believers, ‘under the watchful eye of the gods’ is a reason for comfort that works better than anything else,” Bishop Valentine responded, “With the Goddess’s shelter and witness, we can show maximum unity and resilience, and also can openly accept all kinds of extremes, including ‘the city-state being transformed into a vision’.”
“The arrival of the Storm Cathedral may have been meant to help us through this,” said Dante, “except that the Pope Coronet did not make this explicit.”
“The Pope has the reserve of a Pope – not to mention the fact that any message she sends outward is subject to divine guidance ……”
While her uncle and the old bishop conversed beside her, Vanna’s attention drifted away from them as she gazed out over the endless sea in the distance, waiting for the looming church to come into her sight.
The appointed time was approaching, and there was not a trace of the astonishingly huge ship to be seen on the calm sea.
However, in the very next second, the remaining light from the corner of Vanna’s eyes suddenly caught a momentary distorted anomaly in the sea.
The sea was curling, the sky was trembling, and the glow of the sunlight on the sea surface suddenly rippled out, transforming into a layered, cloud-like curtain – an engineering creation almost as large as the entire harbor area just suddenly emerged on the sea surface, as if it had directly traversed the dimension and appeared in Vanna’s field of vision! !
It hadn’t fully emerged yet, and at the moment it still presented a vaguely illusory quality, yet the vast and voluminous aura had already overwhelmed and shocked the mind. Despite being an Inquisitor of the city-state, this was the first time Vanna had seen this Ark Giant with her own eyes.
In an instant, excitement, thrill and admiration came over her.
She subconsciously held her breath, followed by looking to her side.
The high-ranking officials of the city hall were looking on in anticipation, and Bishop Valentine and his uncle were gazing into the distance with wide eyes.
It seemed that the great sense of astonishment and shock had made them forget to make a sound for a moment?
After another two or three seconds, Bishop Valentine’s eyes lit up, he raised the scepter in his hand high, and then dropped it down with force, the sound made by the end of the scepter colliding with the ground actually resounded throughout the entire Dock Square like a thunderstorm.
“Ode to the name of the storm!”
The high-ranking Magi gathered near the trestle echoed in unison, “Ode to the name of the storm!”
The salute was fired, followed by the sound of grand and magnificent music, and cheers thundered in and out of the harbor as far as the ears could see!
Vanna looked out to sea beyond the harbor, and saw that the marvelous spectacle of curling waters and shivering light that had preceded it had subsided, and that the mighty Cathedral of Storms, lifting all of its obscuring camouflage, was slowly approaching the coast of Prand.
The assembled crowd was thrown into a frenzy.
Everywhere there were loud benedictions, everywhere there were shouts of joy, and even unintelligent children followed in the excitement of the crowd, which, with the sound of salutes and music, was deafening in its clamor.
On the roof of a tower near the docks, Duncan stepped out of the flaming doorway and quietly watched the scene of this noisy celebration, as well as not far away from the huge church ark, which had already exceeded the concept of “ship”, and it was difficult for people to understand how in the end it could be operated.
Nina and Shirley on the side of the excited, noisy discussion of the structure of the church ark – the former from the mechanical knowledge learned in school, the latter give full play to the imagination and nonsense self-confidence.
Alice, on the other hand, seemed a little nervous; she had never seen such a behemoth moving over the sea before, and when the steam pipes on the side of the church ark suddenly released their pressure, and the loud whistling of the steam whistle resounded through the air, she clutched her head at the first opportunity.
For his part, Duncan’s gaze moved slowly between the crowd gathered at the dock and the looming triple spire of the church ark.
He closed his eyes and opened them again.
He saw uncountable grayish-white vapors spreading out from the Storm Cathedral, as if they were an invisible tentacle, or as if they were ribbons of floating smoke, and these fluttering shadows stretched out from every door, window, and even mechanical crevice of the church ark in a vast, sweeping cloud over half of the small Prydain.
He saw these fluttering shadows dropping low downward, sweeping over the assembled crowds, and the towers where the bells were tolling.
The shadows flicked over the heads of the crowd, and the cheering inhabitants of Prand were apparently oblivious to this.
No one seemed to be able to see those shadows, not even the church magi who possessed very high “spiritual sight”.
Or …… precisely because they are the church’s magi, it is impossible to see those shadows?
What are these shadows? What are these invisible tentacles that permeate out from the Storm Cathedral?
Huge questions coalesced in his heart, and Duncan’s eyes gradually became extraordinarily serious as he subconsciously reached out his hand towards the midair outside the platform, seemingly trying to catch one of the phantoms.
And at the same time, there also happened to be a grayish-white, smoke-like phantom that floated over and slowly approached his palm.
The smoke coalesced slightly and wrapped itself around Duncan’s fingers – and the next moment, he actually felt a slightly cool touch, as if he had touched some kind of entity!
The grayish-white “tentacle” then quickly retracted, leaving only a cold, hollow touch.
(End of chapter)