allendalepharm Chapter 457 The Last Church
Chapter 457 The Last Church
In a small town far away from the battlefield, an inconspicuous church looks so out of place.
It is the last church on the planet. The rest have been turned into charred ashes by the Ring of Ashes and used to build houses.
Uriah Oratel still remembers the scene clearly - when he was a child, he witnessed an army of giants rushing to the battlefield like a torrent.
Although seventy years have passed since then, the shocking scene seems to have happened just yesterday: a group of tall and mighty beasts, holding swords shining with lightning, with gorgeous feathers fluttering on their helmets, and wearing armor that shines like the winter sunset.
The end of the war should have been a wonderful thing, but the moment Uriah dragged his heavy feet into the empty church, the thought brought him no comfort.
He held a flickering candle, the tiny flame trembling in the cold wind, sighing in the wind that squeezed through the cracks in the ancient stone and wooden doors of the church.
The rough big hands carefully protected the fragile flame and slowly walked towards the altar. He was fully focused, fearing that if he was distracted for a moment, this last ray of light would be swallowed by the darkness.
A flash of lightning suddenly flashed outside the window, bringing a brief light to the church's stained glass windows.
A broken bronze bell with shattered glass rested quietly in the center of the altar, and next to it was a heavy leather-bound book.
A tall figure in a scarlet cloak appeared in the doorway, its hood hiding its face.
Behind him, a group of people holding torches could be vaguely seen in the rain, emitting a dim light.
"Welcome to Thunderstone Church," Uriah said as the stranger turned to him. "I am about to begin the midnight service. Would you and your companions join me?"
"No," said the man, lowering his hood to reveal a serious but not heartless face - a face so unremarkable that it seemed incompatible with his military bearing, "they won't."
"what a pity."
Uriah forced a smile and held out his hand.
"My name is Uriah Oratel, the last priest of Thunderstone Church. Can you tell me your name?"
The man smiled and shook his hand, and Uriah felt a sudden sense of sublime recognition, but it was gone before he could comprehend it.
"My name is not important," the man said, "but if you want to call me anything, you may call me Revelation."
“I want to talk to you”
Revelation said.
"I want to know, when the world has given up the belief in gods and divinity because of the progress of science and reason, what keeps you here?"
The man looked up, past the banners, toward the ornate ceiling of the church. As he looked at the patterns painted on it, the expression on his face softened, and Uriah felt the uneasiness that had been lingering around him gradually disappear.
"Isandullah's great painting," Uriah said. "It is a great and sacred work, isn't it?"
The ceiling was entirely covered with a series of wide panels, each depicting a different scene; naked figures frolicking in an enchanted garden; an explosion of stars; a battle between a knight in golden armor and a silver dragon, and countless other similar fantastical scenes.
"Why on earth have you come?"
Uriah sighed.
"This is the last church on Terra."
Revelation
"Places like this will soon be completely history, and I wanted to leave an impression before it's all gone."
"I want to talk to you."
Revelation says
"I want to know, when the world has given up the belief in gods and divinity because of the progress of science and reason, what keeps you here?"
"This way," Uriah said, shuffling toward the altar, behind which a curtain the size of a theater curtain, edged with emeralds, separated the rest of the church.
He pulled a silk cord and the curtain slid aside, revealing a vaulted chamber of pale stone with a tall boulder rising from the center of a circular pit in the ground.
"Thunderstone," Uriah introduced proudly, walking down a flight of stairs set into the pit wall and placing his hand on the stone.
"You still hold on to your faith."
“Faith is the cornerstone of survival. If humans want to be unified and truly have an ideology, they must have faith.
Just as a living thing can only have one primary brain, a civilization needs a brain, but only one.
Your brain will tell you that it is the most important, which has nothing to do with the fact, but it is correct.
Maybe religion and faith have problems of one kind or another, but they are effective and useful.”
“Science is the same, the existence of objective logic is the cornerstone of the operation of the world.
Religion is too biased and extremism is not conducive to the growth of the race.”
"But you cannot leave the sea of souls. The existence of idealism is also an objective fact. You cannot ignore or even deny its existence.
When you deny its utility, you have strayed from objective facts.
Besides...a strong neural circuit is also important for the early stages of life."
"These things have never been used by Old Night."
"Old Night is not the Wasteland Era, it doesn't need this."
"After the collapse of theocracy, unrest is hard to calm down."
"It's better to have nothing to break down than to have nothing to break down."
Having said that, there is nothing more to talk about.
"Why don't you stay in the Celestial Empire and come to wade into my muddy water?"
Uriah stopped moving, and the thunder stone lit up instead.
"Just staying there will only make people look down on you, why not come and do something?"
"Zhang Cheng, you really have no rules when doing things."
"The Emperor is just as rough in his dealings."
"What the hell do you want to do here?"
The emperor finally couldn't help but swear. There was nothing he could do as Zhang Cheng's presence was too sensitive. His strength was not very strong, but he was a fragment of the Star God's body, so no one dared to touch him even if he was a masochist.
"Come and help the humans."
"Haha, speak human language."
"real."
"If you keep talking nonsense, I will call Szalak to arrest you."
"Oh, if it dares, that's fine."
"You are here to save the original body."
After staring at each other for a long time, the emperor spoke the first words.
"You need our help."
This is the second sentence.
"I can't touch you, but I can ruin your plan."
After the threat was issued, Lei Shi finally fell silent.
"Tell me what's going on."
“Nothing, the main body cut me off in order to pass.
I didn't dare to go up at that time, and later when the main body had an accident, I didn't dare to go to help.
But after thinking about it, I regretted it and decided to make amends.”
“I don’t want to know those things, and I’m not interested in knowing them.
What do you want us to do, and what can you do for us?"
After some time, the Emperor walked out of the church and the Space Marines fired grenades, setting the church on fire.
The priest sat in the flames and prayed, and the clock began to tick.
. . .
I used the original text and added some stuff.
You can take a look at the last church.