Pillars of Ita

The ruins of the temple of the Goddess of Commerce that Alyssa marked were located deep in the valley. The rugged and deep valley was winding for several miles, with dense forests in it, making it almost difficult to enter. That was why it took so long for her and Dariel to get there. .

It was midnight when the group of people arrived. Fang Plover looked up at the sky, his eyes passing through the branches of the tree crown. At that moment, the thick clouds and mist blocked the moonlight, plunging the entire valley into darkness.

In the distance there is only the fluorescence of some tiny insects and plants, scattered in the dark forest, and the stars are like starlight.

There is a dim mushroom on the bank of the stream. The water surface reflects a sparkling blue light. The water flows to the south and disappears in the inlet not far away. There is a dark shadow lurking on the shore. The insects lurk under the water plants and make a low noise. Same sound.

Miya held a wind lantern in one hand. The wind lantern in her hand was equipped with a luminous crystal. From time to time, the light in the lampshade swept over the nearby inlet area, illuminating the shadow there - it was just a long gray meadow.

She lightly held the star dagger in her other hand, walking between the undulating roots as if on flat ground. She would turn around from time to time to see if the young man behind her needed help, but Fang Plover had long been used to this kind of thing. Living an adventurous life, this level of trek is not a problem for him.

He grasped the slippery moss on the tree trunk with his magic-gloved hands, occasionally slipping, but mostly he climbed up without much effort.

Besides, he was too embarrassed to reach out and grab the hand Miya offered. He was the leader of the group, so everyone was watching.

It was just the way Miya looked at him that made him feel a little worried, so he had to pretend not to notice and turned around to extend his hand to Miss Ship Officer below. Sylvide smiled upon seeing this and did not refuse, either. She didn't mind the green moss marks on his hands, so she grabbed his hand and climbed up with strength.

After she stood firm and looked at the wolf girl beside her, she realized that Miya was also looking at her.

The latter thought for a moment, turned around, stretched out his hand, grabbed Tianlan below, and brought the little girl up.Miss Poet enjoyed the feeling of flying in the clouds and could not help but be a little surprised. However, she always had a sweet mouth and hurriedly thanked her:
"Thank you...er, Sister Miya."

Miya brought Jita up again, and Miss Scholar quickly thanked her.

When Fang Yu saw that everyone else had climbed up, he turned around and took off his goggles. Through the hidden visual connection device under the right eyepiece, he could already see the image sent back by the clockwork goblin in front. He opened his eye mask again and looked in that direction.

A corner of the ruins above the valley is faintly visible.

But even so, it still took them nearly half an hour to reach that place.

The ruins are located on a platform, and the dense forest is slightly open here. After passing through the forest, you can see only a broken wall and ruins scattered among the forest clearings. Between the clearings, knee-deep meadows grow, undulating with the wind. wave.

The surface of the stones buried among the meadows had long been washed away by wind and rain. The moonlight peeked out of the clouds at the moment they arrived, and the moonlight fell between the ruins, reflecting everything white.

Here everyone saw Miss Nightingale, who had been waiting impatiently. The latter jumped down from a broken wall and came to them, but Darier was not with her. Fang Pultru couldn't help but see this scene. Asked: "Where is Miss Muppet?"

"She went to the nearby forest alone to take a look. Miss Muppet was worried that someone might be lurking nearby." Alyssa looked at the dense forest not far away. "Do you still remember the swift construct during the day, Mr. Captain?"

Fang Yu naturally remembered, but there was nothing wrong with being careful, but he was worried about another thing. Although he had not encountered any danger along the way, theoretically she should not be separated from Alyssa.

Alyssa seemed to see what he was thinking and shook her head: "You don't have to worry about Miss Ragdoll, Mr. Captain, cats are the top predators in the forest at night."

Fang Plover sighed, naturally understanding that the other party was joking again, but there are still some differences between cats and lions, right?
It was at this time that the crystal on Alyssa's collar lit up, and her eyes lit up, "Look, she arrived just as I was talking."

She looked in that direction and saw Darier walking out of the woods. He glanced at Fang Plover with some surprise, "Mr. Ed, are you here?"

"Dali'er, did you gain anything?" Alyssa asked.

Miss Catman shook her head, "I always feel that there is someone in the woods, and the feeling of being watched lingers, but I went out and took a look, and I didn't find anything unusual."

"Being monitored?" Fang Yu was a little surprised. He didn't expect that such an episode would happen to Alisa during the time they came.

Darier nodded gently again, "Ever since Miss Alyssa contacted you just now, I felt that someone was spying secretly, but there was no trace of anyone in the forest." She stopped and said again: "I'm here The rangers who serve in the temple in the Ashwood are unlikely to make wrong judgments——"

Fang Plover looked at Alyssa, but Miss Nightingale shook her head. Nightingales were proficient in spying, and Shadow Dancers were the best. However, when it came to passively sensing lurking threats, Rangers were more keen.

Dariel is a knight errant, and knights errant naturally also have wilderness abilities.

Fang Yu immediately thought of a possibility - Swift Construct. There are some means among the craftsmen to monitor the general communication of the communication crystal. Could it be that Alyssa and Dariel were noticed when they contacted them just now?

There are no traces of humans in the forest, but what if it was a clockwork goblin?But he immediately shook his head and ruled out this possibility himself. His clockwork elf eyeliner was never far away from him. If there were other swift constructs in the forest, he would not have missed it at first.

In fact, even when he was talking to Alyssa and Dariel at this moment, Miss Tata was still helping him control at least half of the clockwork goblin cluster. If she made any unexpected discoveries, she would notify him as soon as possible.

There is no signal in the Clockwork Goblin's warning circle now, which should mean that the surrounding area is safe.

He couldn't help but ask: "Could it be an illusion?"

"Maybe," Dariel believed in her own judgment and nodded. She did not find any credible clues in the woods, so she could only make this judgment.

Although a selector of her level is accustomed to acting cautiously, she is not suspicious. Indecisiveness is also a taboo for rangers - if she cannot detect the enemy, there are only two possibilities.

The first is that the potential threat does not exist, or is far superior to her. In either case, there is no need to think too much. If the enemy's level is really much higher than hers, then no matter how cautious she is, there is no point in actually thinking about it. Not big.

So she nodded neatly.

Fang Yu then turned his attention back to the ruins and looked up behind Miss Nightingale. There were several moon-white pillars standing behind the wall. The pillars were covered with vines, and there were cracks growing on the surface.

That column is a typical Numerin Elf style, a bit like the classical Greek Corinthian columns. It has the same exquisite relief and the more elegant style of the Elf, but it has long been lost in the long river of time, and most of the columns have collapsed. half.

Similar ruins of broken walls can be seen everywhere in the valley. This may have been originally a city, or at least a temple complex. It is conceivable that the magnificent buildings of the past were distributed along the steps of the valley, extending into the valley outside. ——

There might have been a mining area for the Numerin elves. After all, open-pit mithril mines are quite rare.

His eyes wandered among these ancient buildings for a moment, but most of the magnificent palaces had been submerged by the sand, and the forest swallowed up the remaining buildings, growing on the surface of the sand, turning the former temples into Make a green ocean.

In the end, the only thing left was the main temple.

He could distinguish the style of this temple at a glance. Only the tall and magnificent pillars still told its past. The dome had long since collapsed and turned into gravel among the meadows. There were only faint stars and bright moonlight hanging from the sky. Come down.

Alisa led them through the area where the main temple once stood.

The remaining pillars there reflected the moonlight, casting long shadows on the ground. Among the undulating meadows, they were like shadows cutting through the green waves. They passed through the shadows and soon saw what was standing there. The main icon of this——

The stone statue has been damaged, but the image of the business lady can still be clearly distinguished. She still holds a scale in one hand. The style of the scale has changed over time, and today's believers of the goddess of commerce like to plate it with a layer of gold foil.

But this stone statue is still the oldest style. The stone statue is mottled and half of the scale has long been missing.

Fang Yu looked up at the business goddess.

The statues of the elves also follow their images, adding a pair of long pointed ears to Ms. Roman. The goddess of commerce may seem solemn and solemn, but in fact, her image is just that of a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old, who seems to be vaguely playful.

She was wearing a long skirt with a leather bag around it and a huge pocket on it. It was said to be based on the image of merchants walking on the continent of Aitaria in ancient times. She put one hand on it. On the leather pocket, the other hand is holding the scale.

No one knows how this business goddess became a god, but she looks like a girl next door from the countryside. Two huge braids are pulled up behind her head and hang down naturally. The person who carved it obviously has a brilliant mind. The craftsmanship makes the stone bloom with a soft luster, as if every hair strand is clearly visible.

He turned around and realized that this was not the only statue here.

On the southwest side of the main temple, there is another statue with a more blurry face, and its icon has collapsed in half - but Fang Plover can still recognize it at a glance, that is the war lady Marlan.

On the other side, in a symmetrical position, there is the forest goddess Amaya, further away is Mirela, the god of knowledge Angina, and finally the main god of the Orin gods - Orli.

This discovery surprised Fang Plover.

"Hey," Ms. Scholar obviously noticed the saints in the secondary positions. She looked at them one by one, blinked her long eyelashes gently, and her eyes showed a gleam of surprise, "These saints... "

"What's wrong?" Alyssa noticed the abnormality between the two of them, "Did you also see those icons? But only Ms. Roman's icon has that thing under it..."

"No," Jita shook her head quickly, "Sister Alisa, these icons are not right."

"Ok?"

Alyssa was startled. Although she was well-informed, she did not have as deep an understanding of Aitaria's religious culture as Ms. Scholar did.

And Fang Yu happened to know a little bit because Miss Scarpe told him some past events related to the Saints. During the July War, there happened to be a ruins similar to this one.

He opened his mouth and said: "The temple in Aitaria does not have this shape. Although the saints of Orin belong to the same pantheon, most of their temples are independent of each other. At best, the temples of Marlan and Amea will be adjacent to each other.”

Miss Nightingale suddenly understood.

She recalled carefully that she had indeed never seen a temple of this shape. Most of the more prosperous cities would set aside a separate area as the temple area, where there are many churches belonging to the Saints of Orin. , as small as a shrine or as large as a temple, but it is rare to hear that there are two gods under one roof.

The only icons she had seen next to each other were the statues of the Lady of the Forest and the Lady of Justice. The two ladies occasionally shared the same temple because of the Goddess Alliance, which also included Mirela, the goddess of life.

However, Mirela's believers prefer to build separate churches.

She looked around, but she still didn't think it was inappropriate. Most of the electors lacked a clear understanding of a world with a true god, "But maybe the temple in the Numelin Elves era was like this?" "Fang Yu still shook his head. It's not like he has never seen the temples of the Numelin elves. Although they are different from humans, they are not that different.

"That's not the case," Jita didn't agree with that. "Sister Alisa, even in the main temple, the main seat should be the sun god Ori, not the business goddess Roman."

"The temple of this place..."

Miss Scholar hesitated for a moment, always feeling a sense of déjà vu, but she didn't know how to describe it.

Fang Plover looked around again, and realized that the positions of the numerous holy statues were a bit subtle. Rather than being clear in priority, they were more like forming a circle, with Roman as the starting point, and finally ending in a circle. To the east is Malan, and opposite to it is Orin.

Start with Mirela and end with Angina.

He almost had an illusion watching this scene.

The most illustrious saints among the Orin saints are located here. Their icons stand beside each other and form a ring together. When Fang Plover looks up again, he seems to see the huge vault from a thousand years ago. The icons of the saints are here. There were whispers and plots under the vaults.

He immediately shook his head and threw away this ridiculous illusion. The divine kingdom of the Orin Saints was not in Aitaria. Their eyes could travel through time and space. If they really needed to plot, they would not come to the material world to make unnecessary efforts.

However, that dark feeling still prompted him to move forward and look at the feet of the Goddess of Commerce - or rather, Alyssa had told him that there was something here, which was the purpose of their trip.

Fang Yu didn't know whether he was attracted by the mysterious voice or subconsciously. In short, he saw the thing as soon as he raised his head.

That's a silver coin.

The silver coin was embedded in the stone slab under Ms. Roman's feet. Thousands of years of time have not smoothed the pattern on its surface. It just glows faintly and looks like a mirror under the moonlight. It's no wonder that Alyssa and Darier noticed this.

Over the long years, even the edges of the stone slab have been smoothed and smoothed, but the pattern on the silver coin is still clearly visible, as new as ever, as if it was embedded in the stone slab yesterday.Fang Yu subconsciously took a few steps forward and saw clearly the true appearance of the silver coin embedded in the stone slab. He couldn't help being surprised:
"This is……"

"Is this Ms. Roman's coin?" Miss Scholar had already whispered the name first.

Sailors say that the first of the many coins minted on this continent was a coin favored by a business lady. Lady Roman injected divine power into it and blessed it, making it even more powerful than a minor artifact. .

That is the origin of the Merchant Lady's Coin, or the Lucky Silver Coin, but this legend is actually unreliable. Different currencies have circulated for countless eras in the history of Aitaria, even before the birth of the Orin Saints. Money has existed since ancient times.

In fact, Roman's coin is not one of the current currencies in the world. The silver coin has a harp pattern on one side, and the side profile of the goddess herself on the other side. There is no country in the sea of ​​clouds. Flow through such coins.

The elves of Numerin don't even have silver coins in their currency.

But ladies' coins have indeed appeared in this world, and have even been described in history more than once. The most recent time can be traced back to 50 years ago, when a regional bishop was favored by a business lady and became his elector.

The Papalar man was also gifted with such a silver coin at that time. Later, he rose up one after another and became one of the most famous business lady priests in the history of Giant Tree Hill. He once joined the Supreme Council of Floating Cloud Hill. middle.

'Roman's Coin' is more often like a symbol of an oracle, indicating the goddess's instruction. Whenever it appears in the mortal world, it means that the people and things that the goddess cares about appear. Its nature is similar to that of the gods. The holy emblem worn by believers is similar to that of a sacred object.

But much more holy.

But why is there a coin of Ms. Roman here, embedded in the stone slab?
Fang Plover raised his head, and Miss Tata naturally emerged from his side, looking quietly at the icon and the coins at her feet with emerald green eyes, with a look of confusion in her eyes.

She traveled more than ten miles to this place from the world of Fang Plover's consciousness. She obviously felt the same idea - the 'lady's coin' was like an order from God, which meant that the will in the dark would bring them to justice. Pulled here.

She immediately thought of the temple of knowledge she had seen underground in the elven ruins. Angina's eyes looked at them solemnly, and the journey of the two began from there.

By the way, there’s also the one underneath Nozpitz.

The same thoughts were obviously floating in Fang Pliant's heart. When he looked back, he found that Miya was also looking solemnly. She was holding a star dagger in one hand and standing behind everyone, as if she had returned to the memory of the past.

Of course she has not forgotten how she came to that restricted area in the first place. After the same teleportation guided by the Hailin Crystal, she was thrown onto the battlefield of the July War. She took advantage of that opportunity to sneak into the Jeffrite Red Team. in the camp.

Only then did he get the chance to get close to Hailin Crown.

The Star Dagger, the Hailin Crown, and the Holy Icon were like a thread connected to each other. After she returned from the second world, she once again activated the teleportation ability of the Hailin Crystal, and this time she secretly sent them away. To this point.

The wolf girl looked up at the ruins, and there was indeed a sense of déjà vu in her silver eyes.

but why?
Is this an oracle from the goddess of commerce?

But they have never interacted with this business lady.

While she was puzzled, Fang Plover had already asked: "Does that silver coin have anything to do with our predicament here?"

He suddenly thought that Alyssa must have discovered something when she informed them to come to this place. If it were just Ms. Roman's coins, it would be a little unusual at best.But Miss Nightingale must have discovered something when she came here by name.

But before Alyssa could speak, Miya on the side had already stepped forward and lightly scratched the coin with the star dagger in her hand. Before the crystal tip could even reach the surface of the silver coin, it seemed to be cut open. A thick layer of fog.

The mist was created out of thin air, and its surface exuded a faint silver glow. It was instantly recognizable as the one that shrouded the Fairy Heart.

In fact, they had observed exactly the same phenomenon in the mining area, but it was a hundred times more obvious here than there. The fog seemed to be continuously generated from the silver coins, and then spread in all directions.Fang Yu was shocked when he saw this scene. The mist of unknown origin actually came from this 'Ms. Roman's Coin'.

This coin is a sacred object of the goddess and can be said to be a symbol of her divine power. Could the mist on it also come from the business lady's divine power?

No wonder Miss Tata couldn't recognize this thing and couldn't do anything about it. If it itself came from the gods, then everything would make sense.

Fang Yu suddenly thought of a possibility.

Although that possibility is a bit unbelievable, could it be that the business lady summoned them here and used the divine power on this coin to keep them here? That is why the Seven Seas Traveler is trapped here, and the fairy heart is also moved. No.

He raised his head and said in a somewhat hoarse voice: "Miss Miya, pick up that silver coin."

The wolf girl was planning to do as she was told.

But at this time, a warning came from behind everyone: "Wait a moment."

This sound surprised everyone, especially Dariel. Miss Catman looked in that direction almost in disbelief. The dense forest was exactly the direction she had just walked back from. She was almost certain that there would never be a third person in that place. Two people exist.

Another person who was also a little surprised was Miss Goblin.

Tata couldn't help but look in that direction. As a dragon soul, she was different from others in that she could be distracted and multi-purpose. Even at this moment, she was controlling the clockwork fairies on the periphery, but she clearly saw that the owner of the voice seemed to appear out of thin air.

It was a lady.

To be precise, she was a girl, although she was a bit older than everyone else present except for Dariel. She was about 19 years old but not yet 20 years old. She was wearing a tight vest. , overalls, the skin of shoulders and arms are exposed, with clear muscle lines, showing a healthy wheat color under the moonlight.

She has short, lean hair that is dyed gray-white, and she wears goggles on her head. A fanny pack hangs on one side of her waist, and a short-handled hammer and wrench hang on the other side. She wears thick magic gloves on her hands. But it doesn't look like a craftsman.

She stretched out her hand to stop Miya: "If I were you, don't touch it first."

Fang Yu turned around and looked at the other person. He frowned slightly, and naturally had the same doubts as his fairy lady in his heart, "Miss, who are you and how did you appear?"

But the girl didn't seem to intend to hide her identity. She looked at the others and introduced herself: "My name is Adni. As for how I appeared, I should ask you. I have always been here. In this valley, you were the last ones, and you even damaged one of my constructs, and I haven’t had time to get it back from you.”

She looked at Fang Plover with her brown-green eyes, "You discovered the mithril mine outside. How did you refine those ores? I have been observing you from a distance, and I have never seen an alchemist like you. "

Fang Yu was shocked again. He wanted to hide the secret of the mithril mine, but he didn't expect that he would tell others to look at it.But how did the other party observe them? How could he not detect the other party at all with his methods.

And according to what the other party said, she seemed to have arrived at this place earlier than them.

Not only him, but Miya on the side also raised the star dagger in her hand, the fuzz on her ears stood up, and she narrowed her eyes. But just when the sea witch was about to go further, she suddenly stopped for a moment:

"Are you an aborigine?"

Adni stopped and looked at her, spread her hands and said, "Why, I told you, didn't I?"

And Fang Yuan's heart was also filled with turmoil. Even though Adni was standing in front of him, he couldn't detect the presence of this girl at all. She was even more looming in the clockwork fairy's perception. He could only Explain a problem.

The opponent's strength may be far superior to theirs.

Of course, there are far stronger Chosen Ones in both the First and Second Worlds of Aitaria, but the aborigines are different. It is almost impossible for the Aboriginals to be better than the Chosen Ones of the same age in strength before the age of 40. Or, at least never in history.

What's going on here?

Who is this girl?

... (end of this chapter)