Thousands of sparks

Chapter 129 The Abyss
Dusande felt as if he had fallen into a boundless abyss.He could feel the soft bed around him suddenly turn into a stretchy rubber membrane or something like that.Lying in the middle of the bed, Dusande closed his eyes, feeling as if he was sinking, sinking.

His heart was empty, and there was no point of leverage that could stop him from falling.

He was so tired that he didn't even remember that he was dragged and dragged off the bed by the servants, and drank warm milk that was so sweet that his throat was so sweet.He was so tired he couldn't even tell if he was awake or asleep.

Dusande kept sinking, until at an instant, he opened his eyes suddenly, and staggered up from the bed.

The sunlight outside the window was dim, and he didn't know how long he had slept for a moment.

"Come here." With a hoarse voice, Dusand wanted to pour himself a glass of water, but found that there was no water in the crystal bottle in his room.

The room was quiet, nothing happened.

"Come on!" Du Sande raised his voice in confusion, but still no one responded.

This is strange.Dusande saw the crystal cup on the table next to it, which still contained dried milk and granulated sugar that hadn't melted yet.
Why don't you even take the cup away?Who drank this?Du Sande rubbed his forehead, he felt like his brain was like a rusted machine, although it could still work, but every time it turned, it had to be very hard.

In his own room, who else dared to drink sweetened milk so boldly and put the cup on the table?He must have drunk it himself!

Dusande figured this out, and then pushed open the door of his room.He was going to look at the steam clock in the corner beyond the stairwell to see what time it was.

There is always someone waiting at the door, but today I don't know what kind of evil has happened, and there is no one on the entire floor at a glance.Du Sande was a little angry, isn't this AWOL?
The time on the steam clock was two o'clock in the afternoon, just after lunchtime.Dusande was even more puzzled—this time was when the servants were busy.The used lunch should be taken away, and dessert and tea should be prepared.The flower hall and other places need to be cleaned for other guests to visit.Usually at this time, the entire manor is full of servants busy.

How come no one can see now?
Dusand frowned and pondered for a while, then walked quickly back to his room.He found a pistol from under his pillow, and then took out four empty magazines from a side cabinet, and then began to fill them with bullets.

If there is no normal state, there must be ghosts, and when things go wrong, there must be ghosts.No matter what the reason was, all the servants in the family disappeared, and having a weapon on him was always a good thing that could make Dusande feel more at ease.

After loading 48 rounds of ammunition, Dusand took out the collapsible binoculars that he hadn't used since he brought them back four years ago and put them away. Then he quietly slipped out of the room and walked along the corridor away from the edge of the window. Start walking outside.

He stood in the shadow and looked out the window, and there was no sign of anything wrong in the manor outside the main building.There was no smoke from the gunpowder, and there were no sudden bomb craters on the lawn.It was as if all the people in the manor suddenly disappeared out of thin air.

Dusande lowered his body and quickly passed the corridor, then clenched his pistol tightly and ran downstairs quickly.

His destination was the guard duty room in the manor.The servants in the manor may leave their posts for various reasons, but they are still in the manor. In any case, there must be at least two guards on duty in the duty room.

After finding these guards, Dusand's safety will be guaranteed to a certain extent.He can also figure out as soon as possible what is going on now.

All the way to the guard duty room, Du Sande finally saw a living person - Todd was lying on the bed in the duty room and fast asleep.

"Get up!" Dusand held a gun and looked out. At the same time, he kicked Todd, who was sleeping and deader than himself just now. "Where did everyone go?"

Todd didn't respond to Dusand's first two kicks, but snored louder.

Then Dusand kicked him firmly in the stomach for the third time.

This can't be blamed on Dusande's kicking too hard. He held a gun to guard against the outside, and he really couldn't see where he kicked.

"What's wrong?!" Todd jumped up directly from the bed. He tried to take the gun out of his pocket. After several touches but failed to find the weapon, Todd realized that he was not on duty now.

"I still want to ask you what's wrong." Du Sande said angrily, "Why is there no one in the manor?"

Todd was taken aback by the question. He went out to look around, first scratched his head in trouble for a while, and then suddenly realized, "Ah yes, there is high mass today!"

"What's the big mass?" Du Sande looked at Todd's appearance, and then realized that it didn't seem like there was some "end time where everyone disappeared", but it seemed that everyone was going to participate in some kind of event.

"It's... just a mass mass organized by the church." Todd is not very good at words, so his description is particularly "flat".Fortunately, at least as an educated adult, it is quite easy to speak clearly.

"According to the legal requirements, if there is no valid reason, everyone must participate." Todd first explained why everyone had to participate, and then added, "But you should be sleeping? So I didn't call you."

Dusande was dumbfounded, "Sleeping is a legitimate reason?"

"Of course." Todd nodded seriously, "The core idea of ​​the church is 'under the mercy of God, we will do our best for the empire'. If people can't even get enough sleep, how can they do their best for the empire?"

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The church had no name, and it wasn't like any of the religions Dussand had heard of in a previous life.The monks of the church in the empire do not practice the afterlife, nor do they believe in the afterlife.

They believe that there is a god in the world, who is the creator of the world and the protector of mercy.

God created the world with a simple purpose, but with a heart of mercy.It can't tolerate the human beings it created being helpless in the vast sea of ​​stars—so it blesses the most capable and visionary person in the human group, and bestows blessings on him.

After receiving the blessing, the favored man of the gods created the empire.

His majesty, the great emperor, is shining brightly, and under his shadow, the benevolent empire has found a place to live in the sea of ​​stars.

The priests of the church usually have only two jobs - praying for the empire and praying for all mankind.

Of course, prayer alone is not enough.Digging deep in the fields of medicine and agriculture is also an important way to show compassion and love for the world.Almost all agronomists and medical experts in the empire have a deep relationship with the church.The church seems to be more of a charitable organization than a religious organization.

They are not keen on preaching, nor do they solicit donations from believers.Almost all the activities of the church came from royal donations, and these funds were mainly used to maintain priests, pay choir salaries, and medical and agricultural research.

The reason why they use skulls as incense burners is also very simple - it is a warning and a blessing.Every skeleton incense burner was a highly respected priest tens of hundreds of years ago.Priests will choose to entrust other priests to "peel" their bodies completely after death.All the flesh, hair, and the like are minced and spread into the land to become fertilizer.After the bones are burned, they are also sprinkled into the soil and become nutrients for the people.

The skulls that were stripped clean would serve as censers for newly promoted priests.This is to warn the priests that there is only one life, and people after death are no longer eligible for mercy.Therefore, do not kill.

In short, the church of the empire is a very peaceful religious group that relies almost entirely on the royal family to survive, with strong social and charitable attributes.

As for the citizens of the empire, their attitude towards the church is almost all respect and admiration from the bottom of their hearts.Their existence did not bring any burden to ordinary people, but they did make great contributions.

But this time, the reason why the church called the high mass is indeed reasonable-to pray for the victims of the Bomir colony.

After listening to Todd's narration, Du Sande nodded with emotion at first, and when he was about to give a few words of praise, he suddenly felt...something was wrong.

"Say it again...why do priests use skulls as incense burners?" Dusand suddenly raised his hand and asked, "Tell me from beginning to end."

"The church believes that life is the most precious thing in the world - human life comes from the creation and mercy of God." Todd is obviously also a devout believer, and he explained very carefully, "So we have to use the dead priest The skull serves as a sacred vessel, reminding the new priests that human life is the most precious, and the dead are just 'artifacts'. And 'artifacts' cannot receive God's mercy."

Du Sande stared at Todd and asked, "Since the dead are just artifacts and cannot receive God's mercy...then why does the church still pray for the dead citizens of the Empire on Bomir?"

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"Archbishop, there are more and more believers gathered in the square." A large number of priests gathered in St. Saar's Cathedral.They are nervously preparing for something.And the bearded bishop who had seen Androni before said to the archbishop, "Can we get ready to start?"

"Madam Speaker, is it here?" The archbishop bowed his head in front of the round sign symbolizing the gods and prayed, "May you have mercy on us."

"She's in the square in front of the House of Commons." The bearded bishop replied, "There are guards around."

"Let's get started, it's not good to keep procrastinating." The archbishop stood up with difficulty, and walked towards the door surrounded by other priests.

Several priests opened the back armor of a steam knight, and the archbishop took off his black robe and got in naked.

Other priests also joined their steam knights one after another.In a burst of noisy exhaust steam and the sound of gears gnashing, in the Saint-Saar Cathedral, 620 five pure-white steam knights completed the activation.

"In the name of the empire." The archbishop's voice echoed throughout the church, and the white steam knight raised his right hand, and then swung it forward.

"Attack!!!" The roar was deafening, and the five steam knights of 620 broke through the oak door panels, stained glass windows... and even stone walls of St. Saar's Cathedral.They rushed into the crowd, and began the indiscriminate slaughter.

The moment the massacre started, violent explosions sounded simultaneously in many squares in Upper Albin.Smoke and dust mixed with flesh and blood suddenly rose into the sky.

(End of this chapter)