Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 416 - 42 Intersecting Memories and Reality _1

Chapter 416: Chapter 42 Intersecting Memories and Reality _1

"Regardless, congratulations on taking the first step." Catherine’s eyes seemed to have reddened slightly as she softly said with a smile, "Welcome home, Pannis."

Pannis, who was holding his face and groaning, paused before a grateful smile slowly surfaced on his face, "Thank you, I’m back."

"Yay." The three girls rushed up simultaneously, surrounding Pannis in the center and embracing him as one.

"What interesting people." Marcia, who consciously accepted the role of the quiet observer, tilted her head and looked at the three girls huddled together. She mumbled to herself with a smile, "Sometimes humans are a lot weirder than magical beasts, but I don’t dislike it."

"Let’s go." Pannis escaped from the embrace of the girls and said, "We’ve wasted quite a bit of time. Now let’s enter and see the true face of this temple."

"Pannis." Lina’s voice was a bit small as she tentatively asked, "Are you really alright now?"

"Can’t say I’m completely fine, but, this step has to be taken sooner or later." Pannis said calmly, "If in the end, I’m frightened back by a temple, terrified to collapse by my own inner demons, then it would be truly embarrassing. So, I can only face it head-on."

"Let’s go." Catherine slapped Pannis’s shoulder and forcefully pushed open the semi-open temple gate, stepping into the temple. Upon entering the temple, the chill and dampness characteristic of large buildings left the ladies shivering involuntarily.

"This temple is of the exact same specifications as the temple I once saw." Pannis explicitly addressed the question the girls were both curious and unsure if they should ask, "It’s from the same period, serving the same Deity. Vivian, do you remember the divine script I mentioned earlier?"

"The temple you said had the bodies of the Deities from the First Epoch?" Vivian’s eyes were so bright that they could illuminate the entire temple. She asked with gritted teeth, "Does that mean there could also be some here?"

"I’m sorry." Pannis shook his head, "Unless otherwise, there is no chance these things will be here. You better give up the idea. However, you should be able to see a lot of divine scripts here, for instance, on those walls."

Just as everyone was walking into the temple’s grand entrance, they stood at the entrance. Pannis pointed to the walls on both sides, where numerous scriptures were engraved. Those were divine scripts, even in the First Epoch, understood by only a few and used in worship of the Deities. Gazing at the aisle in front of him, the one he could never forget even after hundreds of years, and the temple that he could never escape from even in his dreams, Pannis felt as if the world was spinning out of control. The past and the present were interweaving before his eyes, while memories and reality were flashing constantly.

"Whose temple is this?" As Lina looked around while walking, everything from the layout of the temple to the carved decorations seemed so strange that she couldn’t identify the owner of the temple. "Strange, I have come across most temples of the Deities in books, but I’ve never seen one like this."

"Whose temple is this." In a memory, a Dwarf caught a huge battle ax that had been thrown and cut through countless Undead. He stroked his beard and asked in the distinct way that Dwarfs do, "Hmm, let me see. The carvings on the stone wall have a unique style of the First Epoch, no doubt about it, this is a temple from the First Epoch. Could it be that the owner of this temple is the residual soul of the Deity who presides over death that we are about to face?"

"Danacus." Pannis explained to Lina, "In the sewers of City of Innocence, those heretic Divine Servants once mentioned that the Deity they believe in is Danacus."

"Didn’t Danacus fall?" Lina asked in surprise, "But the condition here shows the temple has an owner, could it be that Danacus has awakened again recently?"

"Apparently, it seems so." Pannis said with a bitter smile, "But you’re mistaken about one thing, Danacus didn’t awaken recently. Perhaps, he woke up a long time ago, say, a hundred years ago."

"You think the heroes from a hundred years ago were battling with the residual soul of Danacus?" Catherine immediately caught the meaning behind Pannis’s words, "So, the profane sacrifices of the Divine Servants are to revive the heavily wounded God of Death?"

"Apart from the people involved, who can be sure about such things, we can only guess." Pannis spoke like a bystander. Any unknowing person hearing his words would struggle to imagine that he was actually an eyewitness to the event, "They might be trying to reopen Death’s Gate, hehe."

"Don’t joke about such things." Catherine gave Pannis a hard punch on his back, "If such a terrifying event occurs once again, we will be in deep trouble. Right now, we don’t have a second Lady Nellie and Lord Kyle to fight bravely. At that time, life might end."

"Alright, alright." Pannis shrugged, "Actually, I also think, that sort of joke is better left untold. Vivian, let’s go, stop looking."

Dragging Vivian along forcibly, they passed through the long corridor inside the temple’s entrance. At the end of the corridor was the prayer hall of the temple, the biggest room within the temple. The prayer hall was empty. Where a statue of the Deity should have stood in the center of the hall, which usually would’ve manifested a likeness of the Deity under their will, for their followers to worship. But now, even though a statue was standing in the middle of the prayer hall, it was as if shrouded in a thin layer of fog, making it impossible to recognize the Deity’s identity.

"Strange, why is this so?" Looking at the blurry face of the statue, Lina talked to herself in confusion, "Normally, after the activation of the temple, the statue should also appear simultaneously. I’ve never heard of a situation where the temple is activated but the statue remains obscure. Could it be because the Deity was heavily damaged again, unable to respond to the followers that this happened? Hmm, I can’t figure it out, the realm of Deities is indeed extremely complicated."

Pannis seemed oblivious to Lina’s mumbling, seeing instead countless bodies suddenly appearing in the vacant prayer hall. They were all collapsed prostrate towards the statue of the deity, as if they had died collectively at the very moment of worship. It was like they had offered their lives willingly for the deity in a planned manner.

"Eh, there are so many bodies here." The refined and elegant voice of an elf echoed through the prayer hall: "And why aren’t these bodies standing up like those outside? Anything unusual indicates a problem underneath. I think this is no exception. Let’s be careful and keep a close watch on these bodies."

"Be aware, there’s blood ahead." Marcia, with her keen perception, spotted the most crucial clue, pointing to a spot on the prayer hall’s floor: "And it’s very fresh."

The others quickly gathered around, finding a small bloodstain as Marcia had suggested. Pannis touched the blood with his finger, sniffed it, then raised his head and declared, "Certainly fresh, no more than an hour old. Unless something unexpected happened, the owner of the bloodstain should be the one we are here to rescue and the comrade we’ve been searching for."

"Can you trace it?" Catherine asked eagerly.

"Difficult, the other party is an expert too, an expert in covering their tracks. Even with my sense of smell and perception, it’s not easy to find them." Pannis paused, then explained, "There are many rooms in this temple and numerous side roads, just like a vast maze. It seems that our unseen comrade is determined to play hide-and-seek with the enemy inside this maze, thus deliberately hiding their tracks."

"But this bloodstain..." Catherine pointed out, "The bloodstain is on the ground."

"It means nothing," Pannis shook his head, "Because you cannot judge whether our comrade left it on purpose or accidentally. If you consider it as a clue, you will fall into a trap."

"It’s my turn to help now." Lina’s face had taken on a look of confidence and authority. She walked over, pushed Pannis away, crouched down on all fours on the ground and took a deep sniff of the bloodstain. Nodding, she confirmed, "It’s from the owner of that thigh; yes, it’s hers."

"Lady Diana, can you trace her?" Catherine asked.

"It’s easy." Diana flicked back her hair, nonchalantly licked the back of her hand: "Follow me; the scent indicates it’s quite far."

With Diana leading the way, they navigated through the complex corridors of the temple. To Pannis, every spot they passed seemed eerily familiar, but not in a nostalgic way.

"For our ancestors’ glory." As he pushed open a door, Pannis visibly shuddered. His mind was drawn back to the skinny yet powerful body of an elderly wolfman, and his booming laughter rang in Pannis’s ears: "Damn undead, repent to our ancestors."

"Pannis?" Catherine, standing beside him, tugged at his sleeve, pulling him back from his memories, "Did you think of something? You seemed to space out."

"Nothing, just some things from the past." Pannis shook his head, casting out the memories, "It seems this temple is thoroughly empty, not a single piece of furniture or decoration left."

"It seems the Divine Servants haven’t been controlling this place for long." Catherine observed, "Otherwise, there would be signs of daily life, not empty like it is now."

"Perhaps the temple has not been above the ground for long." Pannis replied, "They haven’t had time to take control."

"So you also think the temple was originally buried underground?" Catherine asked the question she had been contemplating since first seeing the temple.

"Likely so." Pannis nodded, "This temple has a long history, long enough for the landscape changes to bury it, just like the sewage system of the City of Innocence."

"But how can a building deeply buried underground float up by itself?" Catherine asked, puzzled.

"With the will of the deity, anything is possible."

"Hush." Diana, leading the way, signaled everyone to quiet down, "Listen carefully. There’s a noise in the distance." (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to qidian.com to vote and recommend. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users can read at m.qidian.com.)