Chapter 132 Angels Playing Cards

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The next day, Wednesday morning, he got up early and took a cab to the Steam Church.

This church has a tall chimney and a bell tower, the former representing the power of steam, and the latter hanging complex clocks symbolizing the beauty of machinery.

It was neither a weekend nor noon or night, so there were only a few believers praying quietly in the church hall.

Klein sat down in the aisle, leaned on his cane, took off his hat, and pretended to pray for ten minutes facing the holy symbol in the front.

Then, he picked up his things, walked along the aisle to the altar, and said to the bishop standing next to him:

"I want to repent."

"Okay, God is watching you." The bishop with a kind face and pale temples walked to the side confession room first.

Klein followed closely and closed the door.

He sat on the chair and said to the bishop through the wooden board:

"I regret that when faced with danger, I did not adhere to my principles and chose to retreat."

"What were you thinking at that time?" the bishop asked softly.

Klein immediately put Talim's death, his own doubts, the reminder of the "Mechanical Heart", Prince Edsac's commission, and after the divination failed to obtain the answer he wanted, faced with the royal family's strife, from the bottom of his heart. The feeling of retreat was described exactly as it was.

The reason why he didn't go to Carlson directly was that he was worried that he would not only be watched by the other side, but also secretly observed by Prince Edsac's people. Once he clearly stated his perfunctory and sabotage intentions, he might encounter another disaster.

The Steam Church is the headquarters of the Backlund Parish of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery. It is one of their three major temples. No one can peek here.

Klein planned to use the Church of Steam to express his true thoughts and avoid being involved in deeper conflicts.

To put it simply, follow the will of your heart.

The bishop listened quietly and answered without changing his tone:

"Your choice is human instinct, God will not blame you.

"Go back, God will protect you."

That's good... Klein understood the hint and left the Steam Church quietly.

Although I'm a little sorry for the prince who just gave me a hundred pounds yesterday, and I can't do anything for Talim, I can't ignore my own life... Standing on the street outside, looking at the misty sky, he Sighing silently:

Improve it as soon as possible.

Although this matter was finally resolved, although it was inevitable that he was a little depressed, in general Klein felt a lot more relaxed.

At noon, after a "busy" day outside, a depressed Klein walked into the living room after lunch and entered the dream world.

Sometimes continuous and sometimes fragmented fragments floated by, and Klein suddenly woke up and knew that he was dreaming.

Some power invaded my dream... Klein maintained his confused state and looked around casually.

He found himself in the countryside, surrounded by fertile fields. A river rushed from a distance and made a bend beside the cliff ahead. One side of the cliff is bare, showing pure white rocks. Looking from a distance, it has an unusually holy beauty.

At the bend of the river, nearly ten men and women carrying various utensils and wearing black coats or dark jackets gathered around a hidden underground entrance. Among them was Klein's acquaintance, Ikanser Bernard.

White Cliff Town... Stepford Reach... Mechanical Heart... Are they exploring the tomb of the Amon family? But why do scenes appear in my dreams? Klein was confused for a moment.

At this moment, he saw the water floating on the surface of the river, and quickly outlined a line of white words:

"Your loyal servant Arrodes reports to you on the progress of the exploration."

...Klein's mouth opened slightly, and he was speechless for a moment. There was a voice echoing in his mind:

What do you think you do with a good mirror?

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Zaratul twirled his beard and confidently played six cards: "Shunzi."

Edward pondered for a moment and threw out an "Invulnerable" card.

"I didn't expect you still have this card in your hand. How about this move?" Zarath's voice was excited, fully demonstrating the ancient scholar's research spirit on ancient knowledge and his enthusiasm for playing cards. "I will play a "Knowledge Emperor Luo" "Sere", break your advantageous venue and change the venue to "White Maple Palace"! "

Zaratul removed the hand-painted flying chess tablecloth on the table and replaced it with the black and white checkered Emperor Russell's "improved" version of Intis chess.

"The White Maple Palace will protect my Russell deck, all attributes will be +2, and the previous flying chess pattern will be invalidated at the same time!"

"Change the field if you can't make 5 and 6? A set of Russells are beating around, and you can only control your destiny so much." Edward looked at Zaratul's "Knight Vault" tactic and backed away, but he still played it calmly. A pair of 2.

"You want to attack?"

"Hmph, I stack two 8's together and super summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

This attack power of up to 3,000 makes Zarath feel troublesome, but there is no flash in his deck! As a last resort, Zaratul chuckled and rolled out a hand-painted stick figure card again, with a stick figure wearing a black crown drawn on it: "I will sacrifice "Knowledge Emperor Russell" together with the king's chess piece, and upgrade it to "Black King". "Emperor Russell", now I use the skill True God Level Bribery, and with the blessing of White Maple Palace, use a magic card to offset your three thousand damage this time! "

With that said, Zaratul touched a "Qilin Bow" and handed it to Edward.

"Then I will produce "Bernadette Gustave". "

Edward threw out a stickman card wearing black leather boots and a shirt: "I will now equip Bernadette with a unicorn bow and launch an attack on your army formation of Russell. Russell will not attack Bernadette, so I Take away your Black Emperor Russell smoothly, and then take away your horse according to the effect of the Qilin Bow."

Zaratul frowned: "I played "Bonova Gustave", and Bernadette died together and was expelled from the chess game. At the same time, I will use my hand to draw a card from your deck... "Godly Si'a"? "

"The Abomination has a transformation curse that allows the opponent to rest for one round. At the same time, you are also polluted by the starry sky and temporarily lose control of part of the deck!"

Edward pursued the victory and played three more 2-pair kings, reaching out to blow up the Maple Palace chess board. Zaratul quickly grabbed an "impeccable" piece to protect the board.

"You don't have Russell anymore, so what's the use of the Bai Maple Palace? Wang Zha."

"I activate the resurrection of the dead and make the Black Emperor Russell return from the grave like lightning!"

"I am "William Augustus". Resurrection is not allowed here. Your resurrection of the dead is invalid. "

…

Above their heads, the marionettes were swaying and watching, like a group of silent spectators.

The card game ended with the queen who had been transformed from a minion and the blue-eyed ultimate dragon dying together. The two angels, who had played more than a dozen games in a night, collected all kinds of stick figure hand-painted cards and piled them aside, leaving only the cards on the ground. Tic-tac-toe drawn in white lime.

"I haven't been this excited for a long time."

Zaratul's gray beard trembled for a while, and he said meaningfully: "Roselle's whimsical ideas are really fascinating."

"Don't tell me that you still plan to digest ancient scholars."

Edward answered very calmly: "The stories of the Fourth Age, the Third Age, and the Second Age are already long enough for you to digest ancient scholars several times. There is no need to ask for a more distant past."

"Hahaha, I understand your advice, but exploring the unknown is always human instinct, even if knowledge can kill people."

The fortune teller squinted his eyes again, showing a good fox look, and said slowly: "In other words, there did once exist a very long civilization in this world, and do you still know about its existence?"

"This information is an additional price." Edward communicated rationally with Him, "What can you give me?"

"No, I don't want to know, I just want to confirm something from you."

Zaratul thought for two seconds and asked uncertainly: "The Roselle we know is not the real Roselle, right?"

"oh?"

"Maybe I am too rigid as an old man. I always feel that a person's talent should be reflected at a very young age. If he is really a genius, I don't know why a person can write such a different style of work that transcends generations. As well as unimaginable inventions and scientific research talents. He was clearly only in his twenties at that time, and it was impossible for him to have such a rich life experience."

"Genius." Edward disagreed, "What humans cannot understand is genius."

"And His inventions and creations are always very mature, and it seems that he has come up with the best finished product from the beginning. Choosing the Church of Steam was my cooperation requirement with Him, but I didn't expect that He would actually shine. And I have never I have seen drafts, design drawings, simple basic models, or His think tank. If these inventions that shook the ancient and modern times were really accomplished by Him alone, why did they disappear in the middle and later stages?"

"Perhaps because of the change of channels, the consul no longer has to do these things."

"Haha, I was also suspicious and tried to divine whether Russell was the original Russell. What do you think happened?"

After hearing these words, Edward, who had been looking away, finally turned his face, looked at Zaratul for two seconds, and showed an emotionless smile: "Your divination has failed."

"You think I'm not the real Edward, and your divination on me didn't work, right?"

Zaratul smiled and shook his head: "I felt cold sweat the moment I came up with this divination question, let alone divination. You and Russell hit it off immediately, and Russell even alienated me because of you. Although The devil's path can easily gain favor through various influences, but I have carefully noticed that Russell's cognition has not been modified by you."

"This makes me question the reason why you can become friends regardless of identity, status, age, or even the means."

"After the consul said many strange words, you are one of the few people who can understand immediately. I initially thought it was a code word and tacit understanding you had discussed, but later I found out that it was more like people who have known each other for a long time. We have similar views on one thing.”

"For example, Russell has an amazing tacit understanding with you about the guillotine, your views on new shipping routes, and the layout of aggressive wars and colonial rule."

"And you-"

Zaratul paused and seemed to have omitted some words: "You are completely different from what I remember. It seems that you should not be a person who stops for human beings, even gets married and has children, or even becomes friends with human beings and lives under them. .”

"That's what makes me most curious."

The guesses so far are all correct, the devil thought, well, I appreciate people who love thinking, and I can give you a reward.

Edward said: "I can answer the question you most want to know."

Zaratul's eyes lit up, and he immediately asked the question that he had been thinking about for decades: "In the distant past, was there a great era? So I boldly hypothesized that in that era, Ancient humans had endless wisdom and power, and could easily create props that modern humans cannot imagine, codes that cannot be codified, and even more advanced strategies for governing the country."

"Roselle's wisdom and knowledge are enough to make him the God of Craftsmen, but he disdains the God of Craftsmen and the church. So, is Russell one of the great beings of that era?"

After saying this, Zaratul was very confident in his opinion and looked forward to Edward's answer.

After hearing this noble opinion, Edward hesitated to speak, and after he hesitated to speak again, he directly attacked Zaratul: "The era is great. Russell is not great. In that era, Russell was just... "

The devil thought for a while and used a more objective metaphor and said: "An ordinary person who is tired of being a government employee."

"How is it possible?" Zaratul's eyes widened, and his thoughts immediately reached such a terrifying level, "Human beings in the past actually had such high talents? Could it be that all human beings in the past were great beings, so Instead, there is no concept of a great existence?"

"No." The devil tried hard to explain, "There was no extraordinary power in the old days, so everyone was an ordinary person."

Zaratul frowned: "The humans of the past should have had better wisdom than us."

"No."

"A life longer than ours."

"No."

"Human beings always have awe of the ancient and are extremely afraid of the unknown." Edward said patiently, "In fact, the ancient is weak. At least at that time, humans could not conquer cancer, but extraordinary abilities could completely cure it."

"Without extraordinary abilities, there would be no extraordinary creatures or gods. How could human beings rely on their own tools to survive, build cities, and create so many magical and advanced creations?"

Zaratul was greatly shocked, and even couldn't imagine it. He let his mind wander for a while and then said with regret:

"It sounds very good, but it's a pity that it was destroyed. Although I don't really yearn for that world, I still want to see it with my own eyes."

"What kind of person were you at that time?"

"Me?" This is the third person in his life to raise this question. The first is the True Creator, the second is Russell, and the third is Zaratul.

"I used to be an associate professor at the music school of a university." Edward held his chin, showing a nostalgic and thoughtful look in his eyes, and recounted his life in Skin, "I once had a child, but he didn't like music. My My work is very leisurely and I have faith. In my free time, I occasionally go to nearby communities to volunteer and attend church services.”

"I didn't expect that humans also had faith in the old days. I would like to ask you which god you believe in?"

Edward laughed and did not answer directly:

"People in the old days believed in gods that did not exist. Gods were more like spiritual symbols and beliefs for self-comfort. But when I discovered that the god I believed in seemed to indeed exist, at that moment, I suddenly no longer believed in him. .”

"oh?"

Zaratul was obviously very curious about everything in the ancient times, as if he had gone back to the time when he was digesting the ancient scholars' potions. He asked with great interest: "Why? It's like a mortal who has never seen the true face of a god will one day meet the Holy See." , should be more pious, right?"

"This is the third question, Zaratul."

The calculating devil grinned: "What are you going to do in exchange for these two questions?"

The fortune teller, who was well prepared, stroked his beard and said calmly:

"Members of the Secret Order will go to very distant seas to find mermaids. Perhaps you will be interested in a magical island on the misty sea."

TBC

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Zaratul didn't know that there was Russell's tomb on this island, he just thought it was a special island.