noveldepot Chapter 27! It's Gundam Hell!
Chapter 27! It's Gundam Hell!
The small boat moved slowly through the dark waterway.
A cultist in a white robe was controlling a slow, chugging machine.
Lucien sat at the bow of the boat, with Zeng Zhengmian beside him.
Water droplets occasionally dripped from the sharp top of the mine shaft, feeling cool on people's shoulders.
Light bulbs occasionally pointed in different directions on the cave walls.
Zeng Zhengmian stared at the water.
The water was black and opaque, occasionally shimmering with an oily iridescence.
He could smell it.
The rusty smell was mixed with sweetness, stronger than in the woods outside, but hidden in the moisture.
Time loses its measure in the darkness.
It could take twenty minutes, or it could take longer.
A fork appears ahead, and the waterway splits into three.
The boat turned onto the left without hesitation.
The rock face suddenly tightened, and the boat almost grazed the rocks as it passed.
Zeng Zhengmian had to lower his head to avoid the stone ridge hanging overhead.
"At first it was extremely narrow, just enough for one person to pass through."
The words popped into his head as if in a dream.
The passageway lasted for about fifty meters before suddenly opening up into a bright and spacious area.
The ship sailed into a vast underground lake, or rather, a huge cavity formed after a mine collapsed.
The top is very high, hidden in the darkness.
In the distance, there was light—electric lights, pale white LED strips that meandered along the rock face, outlining the silhouette of a dock and a platform behind it.
The smell in the air was stronger.
It has a metallic, sweet, and slightly rotten smell.
The dock was a simple wooden pier, with several identical small boats moored there.
The two went ashore.
Beneath our feet was compacted soil mixed with gravel.
The platform was bigger than I had imagined; it was like an underground plaza.
Then Zeng Zhengmian saw it.
The square was divided into several areas, symbolically separated by fences and stones.
At the nearest stall, three handicrafts were hanging side by side.
A half-fan Gundam cut longitudinally.
Separated from the center, all the internal components were surprisingly intact and remained remarkably full.
It looks like a Gundam craftsmanship that took a lot of time to complete.
The stall owner, an obese white male, was using a boning knife to trim the fascia on one of the edges.
The stall next door sells leather.
The complete sheepskin, from head to toe, is laid out on a wooden frame to dry, like a bodysuit that has been taken off.
Further away, a stall resembling a butcher shop appeared even more rugged.
Large chunks of cut meat, dark red in color and with distinct texture, were piled on the cement table.
The stall owner, holding a cleaver, was chopping a Gundam-like hand armor-like structure into small pieces and tossing them into a plastic basket next to him.
Zeng Zhengmian's gaze swept across the area and stopped at a certain spot.
There were several incubators there, and under the glass covers were neatly stacked small glass jars, each about the size of a thumb, filled with a dark red, almost black, viscous liquid.
It was labeled "Adrenaline Red".
Lucien had already started walking forward.
Zeng Zhengmian followed, his steps somewhat unsteady.
He forced himself not to look to either side, focusing only on Lucien's back.
At the end of the square, on slightly higher ground, stands a building.
No, it's not a building; it's a structure carved directly into the rock face and then expanded with stones and wood.
Its form imitates a church, with spires, arched windows and huge wooden doors, but the proportions are distorted, the materials are crude, and it exudes a kind of fanatical clumsiness.
The strangest thing is directly above the church.
A huge vertical shaft, about ten meters in diameter, was carved out of the top of the mine and leads straight down to the surface.
The well opening is black at this moment, but the well wall is fitted with a ring of reflective mirrors, and the structure is complex.
"When the time comes, the sunlight will reflect off the mirror."
Lucien said without turning his head, his tone flat.
"The light shone directly onto the cross in the church. They call this the 'moment of holy light.'"
A group of people in white robes gathered at the church entrance, talking in hushed tones.
A particularly tall and thin figure was surrounded in the middle.
The man was dressed in a bishop's bright white robe and wore a tall crown, but upon closer inspection, his unusual appearance became apparent.
His skin was an opaque, waxy yellow, covered with fine cracks and spots.
Multiple surgical sutures were visible on the exposed back of the hands and neck, some of them still quite fresh.
His face was even more striking.
One cheek was slightly sunken, the eyelids drooped, and the corners of the mouth twitched involuntarily;
On the other hand, he appeared relatively normal, even with sharp eyes.
The entire portrait is pieced together from fragments of different health conditions.
"Luke is right, the Alden boy is here."
The bishop spoke, his voice hoarse, like a leaky bellows, but the volume was not small.
"Walds himself isn't coming, so he's sending this young master who hasn't even grown his beard yet to make up the numbers."
Several people in white robes around him let out low sneers.
Lucien stopped and looked up at the bishop, his face expressionless.
"Bishop Avery Bush,"
He says,
May the Lord bless your resilient life.
It's unclear whether these words were meant as respect or sarcasm.
Bishop Avery chuckled.
"Thanks to the Lord, I'm not going to die yet."
He stretched out his hand.
Three of the fingers on that hand are mechanical prosthetics, a new type of cutting-edge technology.
"Although I have more than 900 diagnoses, from genetic defects to organ failure... you see, good doctors and good medicine can always create miracles."
He blinked his droopy eyelid:
"The endless pain brings me closer to the Lord and helps me to better atone for my sins."
Yes, with his vast and sinful capital.
Lucien didn't reply, but simply glanced at the dark well above the church.
"Has the Holy Light Hour passed?"
"Too early, it'll be noon tomorrow."
Avery withdrew his hand.
"Today is just preparation. If you want to see the excitement, come back tomorrow."
He turned and, surrounded by a group of people in white robes, staggered toward the side door of the church, which led to a deeper cave.
Lucien stood still, without moving.
……
"ha!"
Within the divine realm, Luo Huan transformed into a white-haired Hakimi with bristling fur, which then expanded and exploded.
The next moment, it solidified into the shape of a white-haired loli.
"They really have a fighting spirit against their own kind, are they really raising them like animals..."
Her face was contorted in anger.
After all, because there are many more believers, even though only Lucien has entered this place now.
She could also see more things, such as penetrating a stone wall three or four meters thick.
Behind the wall was another huge cave, brightly lit.
A group of juvenile Gundams looked like they were living in Monsters, Inc.
After being subjected to a series of terrifying experiences in an assembly-line manner, it was transformed into Gundam parts and its adrenaline was extracted.
The other side is the dismantling workshop.
The fully-fledged Gundam, which had been bled out, was suspended on the rails, along with its external components, head assembly, and internal operating furnace.
Efficient, clean, and industrialized.
"Ugh, if I see any more of this abstract stuff, I'll gouge my eyes out."
……
"Have you seen enough?"
Lucien asked,
"It's time to go back."
The way back seemed very short.
The two did not speak again.
Zeng Zhengmian was pale and staggered as he boarded the ship.
Before boarding the ship at the dock, Lucien bought something from a small stall, wrapped in oil paper.
On the return trip, he opened the oil paper, inside were several pieces of dark brown jerky coated with sugar.
He handed a piece to Zeng Zhengmian.
"Eat up, as a friend of the Alden family."
Zeng Zhengmian stared at the piece of dried meat for two seconds, then took it, put it in his mouth, and swallowed it in one gulp.
Then he started dry heaving.
Lucien ate a piece himself, then wrapped up the rest and put it in his pocket.
The narrow waterway from which the small boat emerged plunged back into darkness.
The next day, at the same time.
Lucien drove alone into the depths of the woods.
He changed his clothes.
It was still an expensive bespoke suit, but the color was a darker dark gray.
He held a bone-white cross in his hand, about the length of a palm, its surface polished smooth and shiny, carved with intricate and twisted patterns, and a small dark red gemstone set in the center.
He walked steadily through the pine forest adorned with decorations.
Upon arriving at the bone fence, Bishop Luke was already waiting in place.
Are you alone today?
Luke glanced behind him.
"Um."
Luke didn't ask any questions and stepped aside to let him in.
Deep inside the mine, the square in front of the church was much noisier than yesterday.
More believers in white robes gathered and chanted softly.
The well above the church was still dark, but the mirrored installation had been adjusted to the correct angle.
Bishop Avery stood on the high platform at the church entrance, his body hunched over, yet exuding a morbid, unquestionable authority.
Lucien did not push his way to the front of the crowd.
He stood in the shadows at the edge of the square, his fingers tracing the bone cross, looking up at the well, waiting for the moment to arrive.
The air in the cave was sweet and heavy.