The Writing on the Wall

Commander Malthus and Roy climbed the long steps outside the Goddess of Freedom Temple side by side. The steps were made of white granite slabs with anti-slip patterns. Despite the Goddess of Freedom Temple's long history of weathering, the gaps between these steps remained extremely tight, making it difficult to even insert a Skinning Knife into them.

The statues on both sides of the stone steps were no longer Priest, but angels with their wings folded. Some angel statues had their arms crossed and knees bent in prayer, some had their hands tightly gripping a greatsword and looking up at the sky, and some had their hands holding Holy Grail and looking down at their feet...

The Goddess of Freedom Temple in Gorfito is a large-scale architectural complex.

Besides the main temple, the surrounding buildings served as the living quarters for the Priest.

This time, Commander Malthus brought Roy to the outside of the Main Hall. The two of them were going to attend the Silver Moon Elf Officer' Meeting. The two walked through the magnificent arched gate outside the temple, and an incomparably gorgeous courtyard appeared before Roy.

The courtyard had marble-paved paths, while the areas without marble were covered with lush green grass. In the center of the courtyard was a square pool with a fountain and a waterfall. The clear water in the pool was almost overflowing, and a clear waterfall caught Roy's eye.

Right in front of the waterfall, there is a Goddess of Freedom the Statue of Liberty dressed in a veil, reclining on a boulder, reaching out to stir the clear water in the pool.

In the past, the Goddess of Freedom Statue that Roy had seen was always depicted holding Holy Scepter and the Wisdom Holy Grail...

The only exception is the Goddess of Freedom Statue in the courtyard of the Goddess of Freedom Temple in Gorfito, which looks more like a beautiful human girl. Even the joyful and shy expression on her face is clearly displayed. Roy can even hear her whispering voice from her slightly parted lips.

Some Silver Moon Elf Officer stood in twos and threes in the courtyard. Some of them even greeted Commander Malthus familiarly when they saw him.

Commander Malthus nodded repeatedly and smiled in response to the officers, but did not join them. He led Roy into an arched corridor with a wall on one side and arched Roman columns on the other, the wall inlaid with some exquisite reliefs.

"I've always thought some of the buildings in Buenos City were too extravagant, as if they wanted to carve the stone completely hollow. I didn't expect the reliefs inside the Goddess of Freedom Temple to be just as impressive. I wonder how much effort it must have taken to carve this mural..."

After speaking, Commander Malthus chuckled self-deprecatingly.

Roy thought of the Goddess of Freedom Temple in Castleton City, where the statues in the front courtyard and Main Hall were also very exquisite before it was abandoned.

"Each temple is said to be a dwelling place prepared for the Goddess's descent into the world. In the past, these temples were often blessed by the Goddess and radiant with Holy Radiance. Occasionally, a wisp of the Goddess's divine will would possess the High Priest and often wander around the temples. Therefore, as followers of the Statue of Goddess of Freedom, they naturally spared no effort to build these temples into magnificent structures! In other words, if they had been willing to take out this money to subsidize the lives of impoverished Half-Elf, their number of followers would have at least doubled!"

Roy couldn't help but complain from the side.

Although he was a High Priest, he was not a believer in the Statue of Goddess of Freedom.

So when you stand in the temple and criticize the Goddess of Freedom, you feel no pressure at all...

Commander Malthus smiled and, as they spoke, the two arrived in front of the Main Hall of the Goddess of Freedom Temple. The towering dome seemed to pierce the sky, and the atmosphere created by these tall buildings made it seem as if the main Main Hall was a dwelling place reserved for the gods.

Following Commander Malthus into the main hall, the luxurious dome was adorned with exquisite paintings, which seemed to depict a war of the gods, with countless angels surrounding the Goddess of Freedom.

Roy passed by the Side Hall and peered inside through the open door. It must have been a side hall used for baptism and blessing.

The Holy Water Pool at the far end of the room had long since dried up completely, and the high platform where the Holy Grail was placed was now empty. The benches in the room were still arranged very neatly.

Roy had a special fondness for the side hall where the holy water was distributed. His job was to stand on the high platform and use a silver spoon to give each Goddess a cup of holy water.

Intermittent arguments could be heard from the Main Hall hall of the Goddess of Freedom Temple. Before even entering the Main Hall hall, Commander Malthus already wore a helpless expression.

"In the past two weeks, they have argued countless times in the Main Hall. Every time I walk into the hall, I get a terrible headache!"

Commander Malthus muttered in a very low voice.

Roy stood next to Commander Malthus and curiously looked into the Main Hall.

Commander Malthus gestured for Roy to stop. He took a deep breath at the entrance of the Main Hall, pulled in his stomach and straightened his chest, keeping his face expressionless. With that, he strode into the Main Hall of the Goddess of Freedom Temple.

Roy took a half step back, following beside Commander Malthus, suppressing his curious gaze, and stepped inside...

A group of mages from the Magic Guild and the High Priest of the Moon God Temple stood on the left and right sides of the hall, creating a tense atmosphere.

A dozen Elf Great Knight sat in chairs on a high platform, while a group of officers stood near the entrance of the hall. Commander Malthus led Roy among these officers. Roy knew that his Half-Elf identity might offend some of the Half-Elf officers, so he stood at the very edge of the crowd.

The mages of the Magic Guild, as the leaders who sealed the Darkness Gate, desired the power to guard Darkness Gate.

The Moon God Temple, however, wanted to build a Moon Well outside the sealing array to draw upon the power of the Moon Goddess to completely suppress this Darkness Gate.

But here's the problem: if the Moon God Temple builds the Moon Well, it means that a Moon God Temple will be built here, and they don't want the magicians of the Magic Guild to live next to the Moon Well for a long time.

This argument went on for quite a while, leaving Roy's legs a little sore and numb from standing in the hall...

He noticed that every now and then, Silver Moon Elf Officer would come out of the Main Hall to get some fresh air in the front garden. He greeted Commander Malthus and slipped out through the side door.

Commander Malthus knew that Roy must be getting bored standing in the hall, but since they couldn't talk in the hall, he could only make a few simple gestures to let him get some fresh air in the courtyard outside and to signal him not to wander around.

Roy was actually looking for a toilet, so he walked along the side corridor toward the backyard.

Although the Goddess of Freedom Temple has been occupied by the Silver Moon Elf, there are actually not many guards on the Main Hall side.

Roy followed the corridor to the right side of the Main Hall, where there was a beautiful inner courtyard. To the left of the courtyard was a library, and to the right was a building with a plaque that read "Armory."

Roy was curious about the library at the Goddess of Freedom Temple, so he went up the steps to the library entrance.

The library doors were open, but only the layout of the first-floor lobby could be seen from the entrance.

The hall was filled with neatly arranged books, most of which had been moved out, and the remaining books were scattered haphazardly on the floor and around the room, completely ignored by everyone.

Roy stood outside the door, not stepping inside, but peeking inside...

Just then, a Silver Moon Elf was seen guarding the corner by the door. When she saw Roy, her eyes were filled with doubt as she scrutinized Roy.

The Silver Moon Elf didn't speak, and Roy quickly and obediently pulled his head back.

To be honest, he was startled by the Silver Moon Elf guard at the gate. When he patted his chest, Roy realized that he was wearing the Silver Pegasus Legion badge on his chest.

It's likely that this Silver Pegasus Legion badge saved him a lot of trouble...

Roy continued to wander in the inner garden. He heard from Commander Malthus that the Darkness Gate was behind the Main Hall of the Goddess of Freedom Temple, and that the only passage to the Darkness Gate Portal was behind the large door inside the Main Hall. So Roy wasn't too worried about accidentally entering a forbidden area.

He was very interested in the architecture of the Goddess of Freedom Temple, and by sneaking out of the inner courtyard garden, Roy had left the Main Hall Goddess of Freedom Temple.

The houses and streets in front of us have changed dramatically; many houses in this area are now connected together.

Roy guessed that this must be the living quarters of the Priest, as this area was quite large, and the entire complex of buildings looked like a compact Small City.

Walking on the old streets, there were many messy things scattered on the chaotic street.

The Silver Moon Elf Warrior did not live in the residential area. The entire residential area looked very desolate, and there was not a single Silver Moon Elf in sight. Roy walked down the street as if he were in a long-abandoned city.

In this city where only Priest live, many buildings bear the symbol of the Statue of Goddess of Freedom.

Roy discovered that the Statue of Goddess of Freedom was everywhere at the corners of the streets and alleys, like a shrine built in the city.

The bishop of the Goddess of Freedom Temple once gathered hundreds of thousands of holy Expeditionary Force in the Gorfito Canyon and launched three expeditions to the Dark Land. All the war expenses were borne by Gorfito alone, which shows how rich the Goddess of Freedom Temple is!

Unfortunately, many of the Statue of Goddess of Freedom statues in this residential area have begun to fall into disrepair, with broken limbs scattered across the stone slabs...

Roy walked around the residential area until his legs started to ache before he stopped.

I randomly found a bench to sit on, intending to return to the Main Hall and meet up with Commander Malthus.

When Roy stood up, he realized that he had walked to the edge of the temple's living area. He was in a position close to the canyon wall, where there was an extremely simple corridor that was simply attached to the wall.

Many parts of the corridor have collapsed, exposing many stone chambers carved out of the mountainside.

Those stone chambers didn't even have doors, and they were pitch black inside.

Roy took two steps down the dilapidated corridor and looked toward a stone chamber at the very edge.

This stone chamber is exactly what it sounds like; the space inside is less than two square meters, and a normal-sized elf cannot even stretch out comfortably inside.

The stone chamber had only a door, no windows, and even the door was just an empty frame...

Roy looked at the stone chambers, which were even more cramped than toilets, and noticed that some of the chamber walls even had statues of the Statue of Goddess of Freedom.

Some of the stone chambers had random patterns painted on their walls.

I heard from High Priest Reed that there are many ascetic Priest in Gorfito who carve out a cave in the cliff and live in it. Apart from two meals a day, these ascetic Priest spend all day making devout prayers to the Goddess of Freedom.

Roy suddenly became very interested in these stone chambers.

He skipped the first few stone chambers with few carvings on the walls and walked up the passage that could collapse at any moment. The further Roy went in, the older the stone chambers became. Sure enough, there were many patterns carved with sharp tools in the dark stone chambers.

Roy stretched out a hand, and a ball of holy light emanated from his palm.

The soft holy light brightened the stone chamber considerably, and the patterns that were originally hidden in the darkness gradually became clearer in Roy's eyes.

Roy walked through more than a dozen stone chambers, and finally in one of them, he saw a Priest writing a lot of Elven while praying. The Elven almost covered the left wall.

Roy raised the holy light in his palm higher and moved closer to the wall to carefully observe the text. He discovered that the Elven was not a complaint, but a record of some events.

This passage describes how a Priest, during his years in Gorfito, never felt the Holy Radiance of the Goddess of Freedom.

This made him feel desperate...

He even felt like he had been abandoned by the Goddess of Freedom, which made him live in great pain every day...

Before entering the stone chamber to pray, he had been wandering aimlessly for a long time. He had traveled to countless places in order to find the Holy Radiance of the Goddess of Freedom. He even captured some Little Devil through Summoning Ritual and interrogated their souls in private. But even so, he did not find any information related to the Goddess of Freedom.

He once visited the Great Mage of the Astrologer's Guild, asking him to use the stars to find the current location of the Goddess of Freedom. Unfortunately, the Great Mage gave him a very vague answer, and he couldn't understand much of what he said.

He even sought out a prophet to make a prophecy about the Goddess of Freedom, who only told him that the Goddess of Freedom was trapped in a place without any light.

He cast a Forbidden Spell, summoning a Terror Demon from hell in a secluded spot, and imprisoned it in a cell, torturing the Terror Demon with holy light every day.

And so, every now and then he would use Summoning Art to summon demons from hell, and finally obtained a useful piece of information from one of the demons:

The Goddess of Freedom is imprisoned in some unknown place in the Dark Land and has fallen into a deep sleep.

This news caused immense panic among the Priest at the Goddess of Freedom Temple.

Subsequently, the archbishops of the Goddess of Freedom Temple began plotting a war...

So the Priest began sending Expeditionary Force into the Dark Land, and many Priest followed the Expeditionary Force into the Dark Land.