The interior of the ruins was much wider and grander than Bertram had imagined.
A staircase made of obsidian hung alone in mid-air, the bright red light of blood crystals poured down from the dome, and the silver walls were as clean as mirrors, imprinting his blurred reflection as he walked on the staircase from all sides.
This ladder can only accommodate one person to pass through, there is no guardrail on both sides, below is the bottomless abyss.
Black mist floated in the abyssal pit, and purple lightning beams lit up from time to time between the mist.
"In the game, any unit that touches it will die instantly, with the highest priority, ignoring any "invincibility", "immunity", and "resurrection" status.
It had been thirty years since Bertram had traveled to this world, but this was the first time he had seen the Fog of Death with his own eyes.
This kind of thing shouldn't exist in the first place, it is something used by the game designers to limit the player's range of movement, warning the player that there is no map modeling outside of this, it is a kind of alternative "air wall".
Therefore, in his heart, he was even more convinced that the "developer props" were probably hidden in the depths of the ruins.
What exactly are "Developer Props" and what do they do? Bertram didn't have any idea about that either.
The official server didn't have "developer props", or even if it did, players couldn't touch it.
But private services are different.
After modifying the private service, the private service could openly transfer the 'developer props' in the database to the game map as a reward for a certain copy of the level, and then the players would obtain them through normal channels by playing the game.
The mysterious account that sent the installation package of the private service also attached a document containing some installation tutorials and precautions, which included the way of obtaining 『Developer Props』.
Before the dead set foot on the territory of the living, at the foot of the snowy peaks, they encountered what made the impossible possible, and the Mother Goddess blessed the pious, and each one of them slept soundly with a sweet smile on his face.
Not like annotated instructions written for testers, but rather like the text of a game's instructions for a particular quest, but each seemingly obscure passage has a specific meaning.
"The dead set foot in the territory of the living" refers to the main storyline of the first sourcebook, 'The Shadow of Obscurity', in which the kingdom of the dead, Krogtia, under the leadership of the Great Witch Demon Brumfield, formally invaded the northern empire's territory of North in the year 1754 of the Imperial Calendar.
The "Snowy Peaks" refers to the part of the Dunnau Mountain Range near the barren tundra in the north, where snow and ice remain frozen all year round due to the extremely low temperatures.
"Mother Goddess" is the name given to the Blood Queen, Lamia, by some of the faiths that worship her.
Lamea is one of the Chaos Gods, and her followers believe that Lamea is the source of the Crystal Winds, the creator of all magic, the so-called "Mother of Magic", without Lamea there would be no magic in this world.
That's why Bertram chose this time and place to come to this relic.
Finally arriving at the end of the stairs, His Holiness the Pope, who was walking at a steady pace, was standing in front of a huge archway that was as tall as a stack of five people.
Strange inscriptions were engraved on the upper eaves of the arch, and the reliefs on both sides depicted the four main order races of the continent, humans, dragons, dwarves, and elves, who fought each other with their spears and shields in a life-like manner.
Bertram wondered why a relic with a ceiling of bright red blood crystals, associated with the beliefs of the Mother Goddess, would have the order races carved in relief.
The closed stone doorway was similarly painted in the same unsullied chalky white color, and the pulls on one side left splotches of blood and red handprints.
"A trap?" He muttered a low voice.
It didn't surprise Bertram that someone had been here.
Touching the drawbar triggered the trap, and that blood had been left behind by the last unlucky person to visit this place not too long ago.
The mage's hand, glowing blue, gripped the lever under Bertram's control, and with a crisp click, the smooth surface of the lever's armrest gave way to several long, dark grooves, from which sharp blades crawling with toothed barbs instantly popped out, and the huge bronze double-sided axe swung like a pendulum through the archway, and then retracted into the hidden vault of the dome in the wake of its inertia. retracted into the hidden mechanism of the dome.
The blades on the handrail were there to restrict the intruder's movement, the axe was there to decapitate the intruder.
Unfortunately, the blade's damage to the mage's hand was not transmitted to the caster, and the axe could not touch Bertram, who had long ago retreated the distance; the marble doorway slid open to either side with a loud clang, and he passed through the treacherous archway unharmed.
Behind the door is a long corridor path purely made of blood crystal stone polished and cut, the soles of the feet and the top of the head on both sides of the bright red crystals like pomegranate seeds are everywhere, even the air is filled with a fishy blood mist, too heavy magical energy is converging in this small space.
The unlucky guy dripped blood all the way forward, it could be seen that this guy was injured but also passed through the gate without any problems.
Bertram followed the trail of blood and eventually found a small silver-plated altar at the end of the corridor, behind which a keyhole was embedded abruptly between the blood crystal walls.
Mystical symbols in the shape of a quadruple star were painted with crimson oil paint, and four half-burned candles stood at the corners of the quadruple star in an evil and blasphemous ritual.
Something important should have been placed between the ivory stands on the altar, but now they are empty.
The destination of the lost object was also obvious.
A hand clutching the golden key was jutting out across Bertram's face, a hand whose palm was dripping with blood all the way from where it had come from.
The owner of the hand was being bound in a death grip by cool, fleshy sausage-like tentacles extending out from the wall, leaving only his head and the hand grasping the key still out in the open.
This was a gray-haired youth with a withered face, carrying some grave-robbing equipment yet not very professional, like an amateur with a temporary top job.
"It's you! You're really here!"
As soon as he saw Bertram come over, it was as if he had seen a savior, and a ray of hope lit up in his godless eyes as if they had been revived, desperately shaking his head and shouting loudly to indicate his presence.
But the tentacles that bound him immediately increased their force, causing the youth to wail and settle down.
"For a half-blood who has endured hunger for two weeks and has yet to swallow blood, you are doing quite well." The kindness and goodness that he had shown in front of Grevia was gone, at this moment, Bertram's face was cold and his voice was low, he looked at the youth as if he was looking at a dead man, "But you shouldn't have reached out and grabbed the key directly, this place is serving and worshipping an unknown foreign god, that key is a tribute to the foreign god, and your reckless behavior has angered him. "
"It does not matter." The youth couldn't listen to what Bertram was saying, he shook the golden key in his hand, "I found what you wanted, get me off this monster's hands."
"But this relic used a large amount of blood crystal stone as a building material, what they believe in should be the Mother of Magic, worshipping a foreign god is considered blasphemy." Bertram acted as if he hadn't heard the youth's words as he stepped lightly to the altar, reaching out to caress the candle pedestals and ceremonial iconography as he spoke to himself about things that the youth couldn't understand.
"Who the fuck cares what god these guys believe in?" The youth threw back his head and screamed, he was impatient, "What you want must be hidden behind the door, and I have the key! So save me!"
"I mean, it's a trap for any fool who might take the key." Bertram was now turning his back on the youth, and he suddenly laughed in a low voice, a cold, evil laugh.
Such a laugh was not befitting of Bertram.
The Scorched Sun Sect that believed in Vanitaya was the orthodox religion of the empire, and the pope was the supreme ruler of the three religious collars, with a status second only to or even equal to that of the emperor of the empire.
He should be the kind of dignified figure who sits on top of the Holy Throne, surrounded by thousands of goddess followers, and always has a deep gaze and a serious face.
Instead, he should not let out a sneer like he had succeeded in his treacherous plan like this.
"No! This, this is different from what was promised!" The youth realized something and his eyes changed from impatience to fear, "I was the one who helped you find this place! You said you'd leave me alone!"
"But you're a half-blood, and neither humans nor bloods can tolerate you, no one cares where a half-blood with an exposed identity loses his trail." Bertram shook his head, he was still grinning, "Biting and sucking blood in the streets of Sarenz, you've got a lot of nerve, if it wasn't for me, you'd have been crucified and roasted alive by the Court of Heresy. And now, I'm just giving merciful relief to a poor man who fell into an evil trap."
The youth was horrified to see that the golden scepter in the Pope's hand gradually changed its appearance, the scarlet blood crystal stone embedded in the head of the scepter after the disguised phantom dispersed was translucent and brilliant, scorching and blazing runes appeared from the surface of the blood crystal stone and then quickly melted away in the air, and a flaming attribute of the Destruction System magic was being chanted and brewed.
Blood crystal magic props were an absolute taboo in the Scorched Sun Church, but Bertram held it in his hands every day.
This was not a proper pope at all!
He himself was the one who most deserved to be dragged to the cross by the Heresy Tribunal!