Chapter 146 - Still Alive (1/2)

After noticing Gawain’s line of sight, Heidi went over to look too out of curiosity. She spent some effort to understand the ancient writings on the wall, but before she recognized the writings, Gawain took the initiative to explain the meaning first.

Everyone present was instantly shocked.

“This statement… What does it mean?” Amber looked at the statement that seemed to be a declaration. She was in disbelief as she said, “In normal situations, no one would say such things, right? Furthermore, it is written in such a place!”

Heidi developed an association. “Meaning only by defying the gods would allow humans to survive… Does this mean that the gods want humans to be extinct?”

“Things related to gods are mostly symbolic or have hidden meanings. A single statement wouldn’t allow you to understand the meaning of it,” Gawain spoke while being preoccupied. In his heart were thoughts that were connected to the Eternal Stone Slate’s shards and those deliberate and exaggerated truths that were meant to scare others.

Immediately after, Gawain turned to Byron and asked, “You mentioned you discovered the remnants of manuscripts and documents?”

Byron nodded and replied, “Yes, over here. But they are rather fragile, and we didn’t dare to touch it after discovering them.”

Those remnants of manuscripts and documents weren’t sealed up, and for some reason, when the staff evacuated from this place, they didn’t bring the documents away. The material of the manuscripts was made from the magic-injected parchments that the Mages of the Gondor Empire used to do their recordings. It was also due to this special material that allowed these manuscripts exposed in the air for a thousand years to withstand the corrosion of time.

The manuscripts might still be intact, but a lot of the wordings had already faded, and it was already hard to recognize some words after the wind erosion. Gawain took a rough glance and judged that at least half of them were already illegible.

It was fortunate that there was the other half.

Heidi was already prepared. She brought over scrolls and a ceremonial quill pen that were imbued with magic. After seeing those precious ancient manuscripts, she immediately opened the scroll and allowed it to float around her vicinity. She then used one hand to hold the quill pen and placed her other hand on the extremely fragile and ancient parchment. After a difficult and complicated incantation, magic started to surge around her body. The quill pen was suddenly freed from her fingers and was flying independently above the scroll and started to write rapidly.

The words on the parchment were faithfully restored and copied by magic. It didn’t matter if it was the clear parts or the faded and illegible parts, every piece of parchment was copied. Heidi then let out a breath of relief and carefully picked up the ancient manuscripts before placing them into a small box that was prepared in advance.

The contents of the manuscript might have been preserved, but these ancient originals were still rather valuable. It was best to be able to preserve them.

Gawain stood beside Heidi and was amazed by the convenience of magic. At the same time, he concentrated on the contents that appeared on the scroll.

In order to extract readable information from a large chunk of deformed words, Gawain read very slowly. Despite the case, some of the disturbing statements were still gradually taking form. These documents weren’t some research notes or diaries. After forming the words into various statements, Gawain felt they were like the ramblings of a lunatic, and it was filled with terrifying ideas and metaphors.

“…pay attention to it. It is watching me attentively from that festering flesh… It is inside my body, and I want to go inside its body too…”

“No one shall survive. The end of days is arriving… Blasphemous behavior didn’t allow us to struggle on whilst at death’s door…”

“…Eat heartily, eat heartily. I have eaten the flesh of gods again. After living a century, they didn’t come; they still didn’t come, but I don’t need them to come anymore. The world outside has already collapsed, has already collapsed…”

After this, it was a large section of disorderly scribbling. The words had turned into unrecognizable lines and symbols. It wasn’t due to the distortion of the manuscript or the fuzzy words, it was because of the writer that had seemingly turned crazy. A few manuscripts later, the disorderly scribblings turned into legible words again.

“It sleeps in the depths of mother earth; it sleeps in the depths of the ocean; it sleeps in the depths of the sky. It is calling my name. Those murmurings…”

“I can see it, the face of god. It is smiling to me in the light… It is time to depart. I want to go to its nation. Ah, that is the greatest blessing. God has bestowed blood and flesh for us to share, and it turns out that it is all for this day…”

After this, there were large sections of crazy lines, and the occasional single word would pop out from the scribblings, but they seemed to be illogical and didn’t have any grammar. Instead of saying those were words, it would be better to say these were crazy talk and incomplete sentences that would appear from a chaotic mind. It was impossible to read these manuscripts anymore.

Heidi had also noticed this point. After copying a few pages of ‘mojibake’, she finally stopped and used Sculpture Hand to flip those manuscripts. After verifying there wasn’t any more valuable information, she stopped her spell.

“What is written there?” Amber leaned over and saw the copied scrolls that were floating in the air and asked curiously, “It looks like some scribblings…”

“A lunatic’s crazy talk.” Gawain frowned. The words on the scrolls had caused him to develop deep unease, but he still gave a rough explanation. “…It looks like a person was abandoned in this place, and these things were left behind when the person gradually turned crazy.”

After hearing the significance of those words, everyone present couldn’t help but feel their blood running cold. These might just be the ramblings of a lunatic, but it was unknown why the words sounded like they contained some special energy that emitted a chilling aura.