episode_0677
by fnovelpia
If you’re simply moving through space, it’s easier to use the anywhere key than the leap stone.
There is no distance limit, and you can check the status of your destination in advance from beyond the door.
But I had no idea in advance what the interior of the Cathedral of Silence looked like.
So in the current situation, it was more appropriate to use a leaping stone that allows short-distance teleportation by simply ‘imagining’ the desired point without knowing the destination’s scenery.
Of course, since the leaping stone is an abnormal entity, once used, it cannot be reused for 5 minutes, and depending on the user’s mental power, it can cause a strong headache, and if there is another object in the imagined space, there is a risk that the user’s body can get stuck and become unable to move…
‘Anyway, it’s okay as long as it comes in properly.’
Even if my body got stuck, I was confident that I could somehow get out.
I got up from my landing position and looked around.
It was completely filled with pitch-black darkness.
I can’t hear any footsteps or breathing.
My ears started ringing and I felt a heavy pressure as if something was pressing down on me. The surroundings were twisting in perfect silence.
‘It’s definitely awkward not being able to hear any sound at all.’
The same was true of the interior, which seemed to be dark.
It wasn’t completely dark.
The characteristic of the Cathedral of Silence was silence and stillness, not darkness.
But the dull black walls and the insufficient amount of light to fully illuminate this large building gave the space the feel of a dark room with the door slightly open.
Even the light that came in felt cold and numb, as if it was shining from a far away place.
I don’t know if a normal person could survive in this darkness and silence for even 10 minutes.
Of course, I had no discomfort at all in piercing the darkness of the cathedral.
Without having to turn around to look around, I took out the Hunter’s Eye from my inventory and placed it on my eyelid.
As my field of vision expanded, the interior of the silent cathedral came into view.
The interior of the cathedral was much larger and more expansive than it appeared from the outside.
The walls and ceiling seemed to stretch on endlessly, their surfaces trembling and writhing slightly as if they were alive.
The field of vision was filled with black marble pillars that were dozens of meters high. The surfaces of the pillars were engraved with strange patterns and letters.
There was a fine fog between the pillars, and it seemed as if the shadow of something was moving in the distance.
Judging from the fact that there was nothing to feel, it seemed like it was just a simple feeling.
Unlike those black marble columns, the structure of the ceiling was not uniform.
The ceiling appeared to be a huge arch, then suddenly changed into a straight plane, repeating this pattern as far as my vision could see.
And the surface of the black marble that made up all of the structures had a pattern that changed repeatedly as if it were flowing liquid.
The strange vibrations and flowing marble patterns that are felt occasionally.
It was strange that the walls of a building of this size were vibrating slightly without any sound being heard.
It was also strange that there was no stained glass, which is usually found in a cathedral.
‘It’s called a cathedral, but it looks like the Demon King’s castle.’
Overall, it was a very dangerous atmosphere.
‘So now we have to search for that nuke here…’
The Cathedral of Silence also seemed to possess some sort of paranormal phenomenon that caused its internal space to become distorted.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t reach the end.
At my current level, I could probably explore an entire town.
But I had no intention of taking my time looking around this place.
Even though I’m immune to mental attacks, it’s honestly a place I’d be reluctant to stay in for too long.
‘Then we can explore together.’
I took out the Awaken officers that I had been keeping in my inventory.
Roland, Defoe, Tom, and Ike, whom we haven’t seen in a long time, appear.
Among the executives of Awaken, all except Gale, who had specialized hacking skills and was working hard in reality, were there.
“… … .”
They looked bewildered as they were suddenly exposed to an environment where they could not hear any sound.
Some people were tapping their ears, thinking that their audio input device was broken.
I spoke to them through the nanobots.
Fortunately, my intention was conveyed properly.
Once inside the Cathedral of Silence, radio signals from the outside are blocked, but this does not seem to affect communications within.
‘There is no sound in this space. Don’t worry, the device isn’t broken. Your job is to find the core of this space. Spread out and search, and if you find anything that looks important or unrealistic, report to me.’
-Okay, I understand. If you find anything, report it right away.
Roland’s answer appeared in my field of vision in text form.
After exchanging opinions among themselves, they scattered in all directions.
After I sent them off, I took out some extra drones from my inventory and sprayed them.
‘I think this will be enough.’
Wait like that for a few minutes.
-There’s something here.
A report came in from Ike.
I put a screen on one side of my vision and played back the scene he was seeing.
There was a huge door there.
A massive door, nearly ten meters tall, made of black marble, just like the other structures in the Cathedral of Silence.
“… … .”
But what was surprising about the door was not its size, which was 10 meters long.
What’s more striking is the design of the door.
No, should I call this a design?
The door was engraved with human figures, still and with vivid expressions, as if they were real.
Among the humans carved into the door, there were some who were fully formed, but most of them had bodies that were grotesquely distorted.
It looks so much like it should be called human remains rather than human beings.
Although the debris did not move, the flowing marble pattern created the illusion of movement.
It was such a horrifying sight that it made you wonder if Rodin’s work, the Gates of Hell, had been transformed into something monstrous.
Suddenly, I remembered something I had seen in the Cathedral of Silence document.
‘… Did the people trapped in the black light that the survivor testified about mean this door?’
Perhaps the human figures carved into the door represent the victims who died because of the Cathedral of Silence.
I quickly moved forward, giving instructions to the scattered drones and other Awaken executives to gather where Ike was.
After waiting for the scattered group to all gather together, he put his hand on the door.
The door opened more easily than expected, despite its heavy appearance.
“———.”
At that moment, a strange sound was heard through the open door.
‘The sound of prayer…? No, wait. Can you hear the sound?’
I opened my mouth and screamed, but my voice wasn’t heard.
All that can be heard is a faint voice, as if someone is praying, coming from beyond the door.
‘Is this the second item the survivor testified about, the sound of a prayer without song?’
However, I still couldn’t hear any other sound except that one.
When I focused my mind to figure out why that was, I could tell the difference.
‘That’s closer to a kind of mental wave than a sound produced by vibrating air.’
It felt more like some kind of telepathy rather than a mental attack.
‘Telepathy… I guess I chose the right path.’
I don’t know if he’s inviting me or warning me to get out of here right now.
Because the Cathedral of Silence was not kind enough to communicate with me in human language.
But in either case, my decision was already decided.
I led the group out through the door.
The hallway beyond the door was surprisingly quiet.
Although the black, snow-like clumps of fog that appeared here and there were annoying, they seemed to retreat when I approached them.
After walking down the hallway for a while, a large open space like a hall finally appeared.
A hall that appears brighter than any other space, thanks to the light it receives from the glass hanging from the ceiling.
However, the light was dry and cold in color.
And in the middle of that light-filled space, a giant black heart-shaped structure is pulsating.
———!
A heart that actually moves as if it were alive.
Every time the guy contracted, he felt a pressure as if the air was being squeezed, and he sent psychic waves flying around.
This was the mental wave that I thought was the sound of prayer.
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