Chapter 103

Chapter 103 “Tomb of the Unknown King”

The bell rang three more times before Vanna arrived at the main cathedral, where she was promptly met by Old Bishop Valentine. The old priest wore his status’s black wardrobe and silently prayed to the Storm Goddess Gomona’s statue.

“Inquisitor Vanna,” Valentine said in a deep voice, “the Cathedral of Storms has sent an order to summon the listeners.”

“Sent directly from the Storm Cathedral?!” Taken aback, Vanna hurried over to the statue and immersed herself in the lamp’s glow, “Isn’t the bell ring for a discovery of a new anomaly or vision?”

“If it was a new discovery, the bell would not have rang three times in a row.” Valentine shook his head, “It was the gravekeeper on the other side of the ‘Tomb’ who sent us the news. There’s movement from the unknown king. Although it was unclear what message he was trying to convey, it appears though... the existing list is changing.”

As he spoke, the old bishop turned his head and quietly stared into Vanna’s eyes.

“This time, we need to send a listener into the tomb to get direct instruction from the unknown king. The current rotation is with us, which means the Storm Church will be providing the candidate among the faithful. It’s not decided who will enter yet, but you and I are on the waiting list.”

Vanna fixed her mind and asked calmly, “When do we leave?”

“Now,” Valentine nodded, motioning for the lady to follow. They headed behind the statue, where a door with sacred symbols was already open and waiting. Inside revealed a deep and long passage. “The psionic passage is ready.”

Vanna first bowed to the statue, then followed the old bishop forward. The two devout followers passed through flickering lights in this long passageway until they eventually arrived at their destination. Here, a special secret room has been erected.

Unlike the cement and brick structure of the main body of the cathedral, this small chamber was made entirely of stone piled up together to form the wall and the roof. At the center was a sunken fire pit that burned with a crackling flame. However, there was no fuel to speak of, only a flame that seemed to be conjured up from thin air.

There was no furniture to speak of either, only the subtle sound of running water from nowhere. Every wall around them seemed to be wet to emphasize this detail, and even the floor had tiny streams of water flowing along the stone cracks. This gave the impression that this chamber was not some room in the cathedral, but rather... a waterlogged cave at the bottom of the sea.

This would not be the first time that Vanna had come here. As an “inquisitor” of the city-state with a status equal to the bishop, she also has the right to use the “psionic passage” here. This seemingly inconspicuous room was the “portal” that connects the psionic channel.

In every city-state’s central cathedral, similar facilities are hidden away during their construction. Every recognized religion in this world had something similar. In this case, the priests of the Storm Goddess called this chamber the “flooded caves”. Of course, there are other names out there too. For the death priests that worship the God of Death and Life, they built something called the “burial chambers” with a more gloomy and oppressive atmosphere. Regardless of the naming and style though, they all served one purpose: to send the occupant’s spirit into an extensive interconnecting network of the soul. This way, no matter how far or wide one was from the other, they could still communicate through the Boundless Sea.

It was a dull “palace”, an ancient building constructed during the lost eras. It had a pyramid as the main body with several obelisks and towers around it. No other city-state in the world was of this style, and its low and oppressive atmosphere did not at all resemble a building for the living.

It wasn’t so much a palace but a mausoleum.

In fact, it was indeed a mausoleum—a mausoleum belonging to some ancient and powerful civilization.

Like everyone else, Vanna’s gaze involuntarily fell on the bottom of the huge pyramid. Under the gaze of countless eyes, the mausoleum’s door finally slowly opened.

The heavy pale stone gate retreated to the sides, and an extremely tall figure slowly walked out of the mausoleum.

It was the gravekeeper of the tomb for the unknown king.

In Vanna’s view, it was difficult to say that “he” was still a living human.

The gravekeeper’s body was wrapped in layers of bandaged fabric, half charred a pitch black and the other half hanging with chains of runic shackles. Some of the shackles had even penetrated into the flesh to become one with the gravekeeper, effectively becoming bones and nerve endings. This ancient being was like a terrifying mummy from ancient Egypt, but more warped and cursed in appearance.

Although it was not the first time seeing this important “gravekeeper”, Vanna still subconsciously took a second to inhale deeply to get her muscles to ease up.

Then she saw the “gravekeeper” walking straight towards her.

The candidate has been chosen.

Without hesitation, the being passed everyone in the square until he stopped in front of Vanna. Through the black bandages and runic chains, the lady could tell the gravekeeper was watching her with that single exposed red eye.

“You, can enter the tomb.” The gravekeeper spoke, his voice hoarse as if coming from a corpse. Then he raised his right hand, which seemed to be charred by fire, and grasped onto a quill that flew out of the tomb with a parchment in tow.

“Make a note of what you hear.” The gravekeeper commanded succinctly.