Chapter 130 55. Darkus, the lizardman executioner,
refused the Drukki's offer to follow and Chupa Coco followed.
Coptiti walked ahead with her staff in hand, without any intention of introducing the city.
"Priest Coptiti, what type of spellcaster are you?" After waiting for a while, Darkus, a familiar person, began to try to strike up a conversation.
"Sorry, dear Umak, I can't cast spells."
"?" Darkus was a little confused. What kind of outrageous setting is this? Could it be that this hidden city in disguise has lost its inheritance because it has been closed for too long?
Darkus was observing the city, and the city's skink residents were also curiously observing him and Chupa Coco. He could see a sense of expectation in the eyes of the skink residents, as if he and Chupa Coco arrived like a savior.
The city is well organized and there is no mess at all. However, the roads are narrow and crops are planted in many places. Each Skink resident does not have the usual gold ornaments in Lustria, but instead carries a satchel. However, Darkus always felt that there seemed to be a certain common species missing in the city. After walking for a while, he finally realized it, where was the monitor lizard? Why didn't he see a monitor lizard? Are the monitor lizards staying in the monitor lizard living area and not coming out to move around?
"Priest Coptiti, where is the giant lizard in this city?" Darkus asked curiously.
"Sorry, dear Umak, there are no monitor lizards in this city now." Coptiti said slowly, with a hint of self-blame and hesitation in his tone.
"Is the city's incubation pool currently operational?"
Coptiti, who was walking in front, did not answer this time, but nodded.
"?"
Darkus and Chupa Coco, who were walking behind, looked at each other. He saw a trace of confusion in Chupa Coco's eyes. Obviously, as a compatriot, there was something that Chupa Coco couldn't understand.
After walking for a while, they came to the entrance of a cave, where a team of thin lizard warriors were guarding with big wooden clubs. It was the first time that Darkus saw such a malnourished lizard warrior, holding such a shabby and retro weapon. He felt that those weapons seemed to be very old, and he was a little worried about whether they would respond if they hit the enemy. fracture.
"Dear Umak, we are here."
Darkus and Chupa Coco were shocked when they walked in, because the scale of the hatching pool in this cave was very large, even larger than Spicazuma's. In the first city, Itaza's incubation pool is the largest among the lizardman temple cities currently, and the newly discovered Spicazuma's incubation pool is as large as it.
What about this?
Darkus, who had calmed down from the shock, watched the hatchery cleaners salute Coptiti and then filed out of the cave. He could see a trace of numbness, unhappiness and helplessness in the eyes of these hatchery cleaners. .
"Dear Umak, can you make this decision?" Coptiti turned around, put the staff on the ground, and knelt down.
Darkus reacted. He quickly walked around the edges of each hatching pond and looked at the tadpoles swimming carefree in the pond. He seemed to know what the decision was, and why there were no more monitor lizards in the city. Where can this closed city get so many resources to feed the tadpoles in the pond? Where can these tadpoles get so many resources for them to consume after they become lizardmen?
"You..." Chupa Coco also reacted. He tremblingly stretched out his hand and pointed at the "Lizard Man Executioner" lying on the ground. He was trembling with anger and was about to open his mouth to greet him. He was kicked by Darkus who came back, stopping the next greeting.
"Chupa Coco, if you were the manager of this city, what would you do?" Darkus raised up Chupa Coco who was kicked to the ground and asked sharply.
"But these are our compatriots, they shouldn't be like this..." Chupa Coco said in pain as his head shrugged.
"Coptiti, get up. Now that we are here, we don't have to make a decision in the future!" Darkus shook his head, and then said solemnly to the priest Coptiti who was kneeling on the ground.
Coptiti did not stand up, but fell limply to the ground, making a whining sound, as if her strength had been drained.
For the first time, Darkus knew that skinks could cry.
After a long time Coptiti recovered, stood up again, and began to tell the story of what he had experienced.
There was a plague in this city. The river running through the center of the city was polluted, and the fields near the river were also polluted. Many lizardmen died in that plague, and the lizard population dropped sharply. The priests who once managed the city also returned to the embrace of the ancient saints during the plague. Not long after, Coptiti was born from the hatching pool and was hailed as a new hope by the city's skinks.
Since there is no inheritance, a skink priest who cannot release magic appears. Coptiti doesn't know what happened to this city? Who is Slan? Where did it go again? He doesn’t know what a big invasion is? What is the big plan?
At the beginning, Coptiti also managed the city according to low-level logic and disorderly, allowing it to develop freely. But he soon realized something was wrong after being reminded by the plague survivors. After the ravages of the plague, the fields next to the river were irreversibly destroyed. Previously, the city relied on the support of these fields to maintain a huge number of lizards. People consume it, and the new fields he opened up with the monitor lizards and skink lizards obviously don't have that kind of magic. He could only bulldoze some unused buildings and start planting wherever possible. On the roofs, on both sides of the pyramid that could be illuminated by the sun, and on the Star Monument Square in front of the pyramid.
Coptiti fell into anxiety and hesitation. The population had reached a critical value, and limited food could not support the free development of this closed city. But the tadpoles in the hatching pond appeared periodically, and he couldn't stop them whenever he wanted. Finally, as a believer and arbiter of the ancient saint Zorga, he summoned the skinks together and announced his decision in an uproar. He changed from the hope of the city to the bane of the city and became the city's bane. The scorn of the skinks.
Soon the skinks in the city were divided into two factions, one supported it and the other did not support it. The two factions had a fierce quarrel and finally started fighting. In the bloody conflict, another Voluntary Sect was born. One night, the Skinks of the Voluntary Sect collectively sacrificed themselves to the Ancient Sage on the newly opened farmland, using their own blood and bodies to beg the Ancient Sage to bless this land again. The land was newly opened up, and the hope of life was given to the skinks in the hatching pond.
The Skinks of both factions were shocked by the actions of the Volunteers, and the fighting ceased, with more and more Skinks choosing this behavior. The monitor lizards watched as their companions faded away. Finally, the monitor lizards came to their senses and chose to follow their companions. In this way, the city's population was balanced, and it was in a very delicate situation. The remaining lizard people in the city survived tenaciously in a state of not having enough to eat, but also starving to death.
The cleaner of the incubation pool cannot do the act of killing. This thing can only be done by Coptiti. He has to do it every year, but he still has to do it because he can only do it. Alpacas raised in captivity are like pigs during the New Year. At this time of year, half-starved skinks can have a full meal. Then some skinks that have no hope in life and old skinks choose to take advantage of the opportunity to survive. Give it to the skinks in the hatching tank. Darkus judged that the plague should have come from the Plague Clan during the Snake and Rat period. The Battle of Malente Swamp occurred not far from this city, and the date could be roughly matched. Moreover, this city was probably the last one to be built, and was used as a backup place where troops could be deployed. Slan, who was guarding here, led his team to fight against the invasion, or the Ancient Saint ran away and simply did not have time to arrange Slan.
"Don't you want to find a way out?" Chupa Coco asked in a depressed mood after hearing the story.
"The message on the slate is that someone will find this place again and lead this city to glory again. The specific person is not mentioned on the slate. We also tried to find a way out, but we still couldn't find it. The narrow road in the river The passage made it impossible for our bodies to pass through. The passage to the outside world was completely blocked, and we could not get through it while maintaining production. I should have looked more carefully, or I should have tried my best to dig out the passage. ." Coptiti said and fell into self-blame and hesitation.
Darkus didn't ask those questions about yes or no. In his opinion, things were already like this, and there was no point in asking those questions. Besides, this kind of problem is similar to the mathematical problem of adding water to produce water and the problem of closing the train gate. Without external force, he doesn't think that he can do better than Coptiti if he replaces it with Coptiti.
"Have you fallen into darkness in your heart?"
Darkus is the Umak of the ancient Saint Iqi, nor the Umak of the ancient Saint Zoga. He will not act as an arbiter and point fingers from the moral high ground. , why doesn’t your heart hurt when you have strangled so many tadpoles and let skinks die over the years? Such silly accusations. On the contrary, he thought that Coptiti was an extremely good manager. Not everyone could manage a dojo in a snail shell. If possible, he hoped that Walter could learn from Coptiti, so he asked a relative. Weird question.
Chupako tilted her head and looked at Dacus curiously, as if wondering why Dacus could ask such a question. Coptiti also raised her head and looked at Dacus, lost in memories.
After Coptiti made that decision, he fell into deep self-blame and pain, and his thoughts became contradictory and confusing. Suddenly there seemed to be some abstract evil thing in the north that was influencing and interfering with him, fighting him on a spiritual level and trying to instigate him. He had been maintaining his pure will and always believed that what he was doing was right. In the end He defeated the abstract evil in a spiritual struggle.
"There was once an inexplicable thing that tried to interfere with and influence my will when I was thinking. That thing seemed to want to plunge me into endless darkness and madness, but I defeated it!" Coptiti's eyes were filled with excitement. Said firmly.
Darkus now sincerely admires the skink in front of him. He even has the idea of taking Coptiti back to Krakalond to learn dark magic from his grandmother. No one is more suitable to learn dark magic than someone who has rejected darkness. . Or take them to the south to learn life magic from the skink priests who believe in Sotek, and constantly wander between life and death. The premise is that Coptiti will not choose self-salvation or self-exile.
"Approximately how many lizardmen are there in the city now?"
"Three thousand, four and a half lizardmen battle groups, and the rest are skinks. I can name every one of them, including those who have returned to the arms of the ancient saints. ." Coptiti said directly without even thinking about it.
"What about this hatching pond?" Chupa Keke asked impatiently.
"Two thousand!"
Dacus and Chupa Coco looked at each other in shock again. Dacus was shocked by the number, and Chupa Coco was shocked by how many Coptics had killed?
"Stop dawdling, get to work!" Darkus, who had not slept all night, suddenly turned red because he felt refreshed.
Soon, the skinks in the team stopped talking to the skinks in the city. Renn took advantage of this time to exchange gold and bird feather ornaments with the skinks in the city for a few satchels for his sister and wife. Even Genevieve is intact, and Alyssa can now carry the Quartz Egg in her satchel.
"This bag really doesn't distinguish between worlds, races, and ages." Darkus shook his head in wonder and thought.
All the skinks in the city were impatient. Finally, under the leadership of Coptiti, all the skinks followed Druchi and the skinks in the team and began to hunt, salvage fish and carry supplies. Only the skinks People continued to guard various key locations, and they didn't know whether the plank road could withstand so many skink lizards coming and going.
"It seems that the optical device blocks the bird's perception." Darkus and Genevieve started wandering around the city. The afternoon sun shone on the city. He watched for a long time, but no birds were seen flying. Pass.
Darkus carefully walked through the crops in the square of the Pyramid of Ancient Saint Zoga, and looked at the Star Stele of Ancient Saint Zoga standing there. There was nothing recorded on it, and there were only the symbols of Ancient Saint Zoga on all sides. Dacus Even when I put my hand on it, I was not empowered.
We came to the heights of the terraces again and looked down at the city. The scene we saw at the heights of the terraces in the afternoon was completely different from what we saw in the morning. The green area of the entire city was very high, and crops were planted on each layer of the pyramid.
Along the way, Darkus saw many crops, mostly corn and sweet potatoes.
"What is this red crop?" Genevieve squatted beside the field bank, holding a red crop in her hands. She asked curiously when she saw this crop for the first time.
"Chili? I'm stupid? There are actually chili peppers?" Darkus walked over, squatted there, picked one, put it in his mouth and chewed it.
"There isn't a single fish, and there are holes all up and down the river that you can't swim
through." Chupa Coco couldn't resist her curiosity and went for a spin in the river that runs through the city. An hour later, she came back and lay down in the fields to take a nap. Darkus started hissing beside him.
"As expected, eat roasted sweet potatoes."
This chapter refers to Slan's inaction during Snake and Rat, which led to protests and riots among skinks in various cities. It also refers to the death of Zul in Military Book 7
(end of chapter)