After passing through a plaza bearing the holy emblems of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Church of Steam, then climbing the broad stone steps, Angel and Pierre entered the second level of the Underground Catacombs.
"Actually, the third and fourth levels are called the 'Old Ossuary.' They were built much earlier. The first and second levels were converted from quarries beneath Trier, so they're larger and have more 'people.'"
Pointing at the Intisian words above the stone door leading to the third level, Pierre thoughtfully read them aloud:
"Entrance to the Old Ossuary."
Setting aside his carelessness, this university student was quite hospitable... Perhaps my appearance had something to do with it too. But when he said there were more "people," did he mean the bones on the ground?
As Angel pondered, she looked around the second level and found that the passageways here were broader, with more corpses scattered throughout the corridors. Some were even directly blocking the middle of the passage, divided into several "loose" piles of bones.
But Angel soon realized that he really had meant "people."
Following the black lines for only a few more steps, the two of them saw a bright cluster of candlelight ahead. It came from four White Candles belonging to three young men and one young woman. They were dressed fashionably, much like Pierre beside Angel.
The four of them surrounded a corpse arranged in a seated position and danced a strange dance.
"What are they doing?"
Angel asked softly.
"A ritual," Pierre replied, lowering his voice as well. "A courage-testing ritual."
When she heard the first half, all kinds of information about rituals—sacrifices, Devil summoning, and the like—had already surfaced in Angel's mind. She had not expected such an answer in the end.
"Testing courage? Here?"