Sin City

Chapter 3 Enlightenment

Richard nodded vigorously and ran back to his room. But looking at his excited look, he probably won't be able to sleep tonight. Elaine smiled and shook her head, took the magic lamp and climbed up to the attic.

The attic is a place where clutter is usually stored, but it is also kept clean. Elaine moved a box away, revealing a small altar behind it. The altar is made of stone, and the basic part outlines a complex magic circle with delicate and accurate brushwork. But the place where the statue of the god should have been placed is now blank.

Elaine carefully cleaned the altar, wiping away even the tiniest dust. Then he stood up and his eyes fell on a thick book randomly placed on the box next to him. This book is surprisingly thick, probably close to a thousand pages, and is as big as four ordinary magic books, and weighs at least ten kilograms. The bronze cover was shiny and spotless, obviously being thumbed through frequently. Elaine was startled. She hadn't touched it for a long time, so it was obviously Richard who was reading it. I just didn't expect that the little guy would read so frequently and with such enthusiasm.

Elaine walked over, reached out and opened it. Her fingers are long and beautiful, several levels higher than her appearance. The men in the village had whispered about her hands more than once.

The cover of the book is made of real bronze, thick and cold, exuding the heaviness of time. Elaine knew that hundreds of crystal particles were scattered like stars in the bronze. When they were activated at the same time, they would form a miniature altar. When the user was pious and powerful enough, he could even listen to the Moon God through it. Elusia's voice!

On the title page, a long poem praising the moon goddess Elusia is written in beautiful ancient Elf language. To this day, Elaine still remembers every syllable of this hymn. Elaine flipped through it casually, and the richly textured pages passed between her fingers like running water. There were either large sections of elven text or lifelike illustrations on them. Unlike human scriptures, its content only accounts for a small part of the teachings of the Moon God, but there are many deeds of the Moon God Elusia before she became a god. Therefore, in addition to the continent of Noland, it also contains content from many other continents and even alien planes. Little Richard probably regarded it as an encyclopedia of scenery and geography, so he read it with gusto.

This big book, which has nothing special about it except that it is thick, is the most precious treasure of the Elven Court, the sacred book of the Moon Goddess Elucia.

The holy book actually records the unique magic of the Seven Moon Goddess, but only those approved by the goddess can see and use it. Back then, she could use five of them. Apart from the Archdruid of the Royal Court, she is the priest who has the most understanding of divine magic. That not only represents strength, but also represents the approval of the goddess. But now, even if she pays a huge price, there is only one magical spell she can inspire, and she relies on the power of the Holy Scripture itself.

The seven divine arts flowed through her heart like water.

"Elucia's Destiny" divine spell: enlightenment;

"Elucia's Blessing" magic: healing;

"Elucia's Wrath" magical spell: Sanction;

"Elucia's Sword" magic: Silver Moon Arms;

"Elucia's Will" magic: Judgment.

There are also two magical arts, one of which is the "Heart of Elusia" magical spell that she also failed to master: foresight.

As for the seventh divine spell, it is only recorded in the Holy Scriptures, but no one has ever been able to use it. That is the "Elucia's Confusion" divine spell: the dark side of the moon.

Elaine put her hand on the holy book and quietly felt the trace of sacred breath remaining in the holy book. The fifth moon was hanging in the sky at this time, and the cool moonlight shined on her through the skylight on the roof. A trace of divine power hidden in the moonlight quietly seeped into her body and was accumulated for the ceremony that would take place more than ten days later.

Magic: Enlightenment is Little Richard's tenth birthday gift.

On Little Richard's birthday, at midnight, he was called up, taken to the attic, and knelt in front of the altar. The holy book in front of Richard had turned to a specific page, and several lines of prayers that he had never seen appeared on it. That was the ancient Elvish language. Richard had mastered this difficult and obscure language as proficiently as Common Language. The content of the prayer was still praise and prayer to the Moon Goddess, but while Richard was chanting silently in his heart, he suddenly had a strange feeling, as if his body was becoming transparent, and there was something in there that was originally indistinct. He was wandering around at his destination, but suddenly he seemed to find something, flew towards him, and jumped into his body. Richard felt an ice flow between his chest and abdomen, which suddenly extended and spread to his limbs and lower abdomen. This feeling passed away in a flash. Although it was extremely clear, it is very common to have special feelings during sacrifices to gods or magic rituals. Many rituals even require enduring intense pain, so Little Richard did not say anything, but followed the instructions What my mother asked for continued to gradually empty my mind.

"My Richard, soon you will enter the palace of the goddess Elusia and receive enlightenment about destiny. You will probably have two or three choices. If so, you can choose..." Here, Elaine suddenly shook her head and changed her words: "My Richard, you can choose whatever you want. Listen carefully to the voice of the goddess, and then follow your inner choice."

Richard nodded confusedly. As Elaine's soft prayer sounded behind him, his consciousness gradually blurred, and he seemed to be withdrawing from the world in front of him.

When he woke up again, Richard found himself in front of an extremely broad and lofty temple. The place where he stood was a huge square with a radius of several kilometers. In it, Richard felt as small as an ant. The square is paved with silver-gray stone, shining with a faint mysterious light. He looked around and saw an endless starry sky. The stars were so close that he could reach out and pick them off. The square and the temple hang alone in the starry sky.

The huge space brought almost unbearable pressure to Little Richard. His heart beat faster and faster. He no longer dared to look around again, but rushed towards the temple. He ran for a long time, crossed the entire square, and climbed a thousand stone steps before standing at the entrance of the temple. If the children in the mountains hadn't been strong and had long endurance since childhood, Richard would have collapsed from exhaustion. After he started running, he didn't dare to pause at all. The huge square filled the entire field of vision, and the shining light was dancing. It seemed that the entire space was not static, but was moving according to certain rules. Richard had the illusion that as long as he stopped for a moment, the entire square would tilt, and there was nothing to grab onto on the smooth, mirror-like ground, and he would helplessly and desperately slide from the square into the bottomless abyss.

When standing at the door of the temple, Richard's heart almost jumped out of his chest and his breathing was extremely difficult. He finally regained his breath, remembered his mother's instructions, and looked up into the temple.

The temple has no dome, but is surrounded by a circle of tall stone pillars as white as jade. There is an altar in the center, and three vague goddess statues stand around the altar. They have different postures and different distances from each other. There should have been six goddess statues beside the altar, representing six different abilities. The more goddess statues Richard can see, the more abilities he can inspire during enlightenment.

Little Richard's memory was outstanding, and he quickly identified the abilities represented by the three goddess statues. It is the "extraordinary divine power" that can give the initiated powerful power; the "life torrent" that has strong vitality and can perform healing abilities; and the "wind speed" that increases speed and agility.

Richard was a little disappointed. In fact, he already had a choice in his little mind, which was the "wisdom" that greatly improved his intelligence. Because a real man needs wisdom.

But it's not bad to have three choices, but my mother only looks forward to having more than one choice. In fact, what Elaine did not tell Little Richard was that most of the people who had received enlightenment only saw an empty temple.

Little Richard walked towards the altar, trying to open his eyes wide, trying to see wisdom. But this temple and the entire starry sky were not real. No matter how hard he tried, what could he see? Instead, due to hesitation and wavering, even the three goddess statues began to become blurry.

"Do you want more abilities?" A voice suddenly sounded in Richard's ears.

Little Richard was shocked and looked around, but saw nothing. The sound was sudden, mechanical and monotonous, full of the cold and insensitive taste of metal, which made him feel very scared.

"You...who are you?" Richard took courage and drank tremblingly. His voice echoed back and forth in the hall, and the heavy echo startled him again.

"It doesn't matter who I am, I won't appear in the future. Strictly speaking, I am the other half hidden in your heart." The voice said.

"Impossible!" Little Richard shouted flatly. Mom said that his heart is very pure and free from all kinds of mess. And after talking to this voice for a few words, his timidity gradually subsided. Children in the mountains are very brave. The fear at first was just because they didn't know what happened and it was unexpected.

But that voice was not affected by Richard at all, and said in an unchanged tone: "Now, go and choose what you want."

Right in front of Richard, the altar lit up again, and three more goddess statues appeared! In addition to "wisdom", there is also "elemental affinity" which is crucial on the path of magic. This ability allows the mage to communicate with outside elements more easily, allowing the mage to cast magic with less effort. To put it bluntly, a magician with the "Elemental Affinity" talent can have one to three more spell slots than a wizard of the same level. This is a terrifying talent that shows more power the higher it is. The other ability is the "Nature Envoy", which allows people to have a more intuitive and thorough understanding of nature. It can not only greatly improve the hiding ability and the speed of traveling in complex terrain, but also has the power bonus of various natural spells. Also gains greater resistance to poisons.

At this point, all six abilities of Enlightenment have been placed in front of Richard.

"This...this..." Richard had already opened his mouth wide and could not speak at all. His little mind was in chaos, and he couldn't understand what was happening in front of him. The only reasonable explanation is that everything he saw was an illusion. What else could be done? This is different from what the book and my mother said.

Richard finally did not forget the purpose of his trip, so he stretched out his hand tremblingly and walked towards the statue of the goddess representing "wisdom". In front of the goddess statue, which is more than ten meters high, little Richard can only touch the goddess's feet. This is also part of the meaning of the ceremony, leaning down to touch the feet of the goddess represents an attitude of humility. When Richard's hand touched the statue of the goddess, a clear cracking sound suddenly sounded in his consciousness, and the whole world seemed to become more real and clear.

"Wisdom allows people to see the world more clearly." This is a sentence in the holy book, and now Richard finally understands the meaning of this sentence.

When Richard touched the statue of wisdom, all the goddess statues disappeared at the same time. Logically speaking, this should be the end of the enlightenment ceremony, but the temple did not disappear.

Richard looked around blankly, and suddenly saw a new goddess statue emerging in front of the altar. Her hands were crossed to protect her chest, her face was slightly tilted to one side, her expression was melancholy and focused. Unlike other goddess statues, this goddess statue had no texture at all, and was more like made of shadows. Is this also an ability? Richard tried hard to recall, but he couldn't remember what this goddess statue represented. Even in the holy scriptures, there is no record that the Moon Goddess had this form, although she is indeed the idol of Elusia.

"Don't you want one more ability?" The voice sounded again.

"What kind of ability is that?" Richard paused and said loudly, "I don't want to give up wisdom."

"You can call it reality. It allows you to observe the world from another perspective, and at the end of this road, maybe you will see something else."

"Other things? What is that?" Richard asked curiously.

The voice fell silent and there was no answer.

Richard wanted to leave. He now knew that as long as he wanted to, he could completely leave here and return to the real world. This temple is actually a world built with the power of rituals. Its function is to allow talented people to see their abilities clearly and choose their future path. But on the other hand, this world is not completely empty. The temple floating in the starry sky is filled with the divine power of the goddess, and the acquisition of all six abilities is inseparable from Elusia's care.

But the voice that appeared in Richard's consciousness and the seventh statue that had never been recorded in the holy scriptures completely overturned Richard's cognition. Richard suddenly had a feeling that this... was very much like the temptation of the devil. But how can the power of the devil appear in the sacred ritual of the Moon Goddess?

Looking at the seventh statue, Richard really hesitated. Two different voices were debating fiercely in his consciousness, neither superior nor superior. To take it or not to take it?

Richard hesitated and struggled, but he walked towards the seventh statue step by step. "The world is balanced, and every gain has its price." Richard remembered this teaching in the Holy Scriptures, and balance was one of the cores of Elusia's teachings. So what price will be paid for gaining the second ability?

The little boy was confused and struggled for the first time, but in the end, he reached out his hand to the statue. His mother said that he could choose according to his own ideas, but he was unwilling to give up this opportunity and was ready to pay the price. Little Richard is courageous, and he is willing to fight for unexpected gains. And he is smart. He knows that deep down in his mother's heart, she wants him to become a hero, a truly important person.

At least someone bigger than Baron Tucker.