Chapter 145 70. A dreamlike experience
As Umak of the ancient saint Iqi comes to the first city, Itaza must go to the most important Pyramid of Lord Croca.
Accompanied by the Skink Priest, Darkus and Chupacoko walked down the passage in the pyramid named after Lord Croca. The Skink Priests who serve Lord Croka are extremely talkative and tell many things under Chupa Coco's guidance. For example, the mummy of Lord Croca is usually placed at the bottom of the pyramid. At important moments, the mummy of Lord Croca will be taken to the top of the pyramid, where his soul stares at him through the eyes that died thousands of years ago. The domain of the lost master.
The Skink Priest also recounted how the mummified remains of Lord Croka were moved, usually by four temple guards carrying the chengyu, which was decorated with colorful feathers and glittering gold. Lord Croka wore a golden mask, The mummy wrapped in a shroud sits quietly on the coffin. The skink attendants played flutes and drums, and the temple guards carrying Chengyu would sway to the rhythm of the drums and flutes, and Chengyu would also sway from side to side.
"? Why do you look like a coffin bearer? Besides, do the temple guards have this ability?" Darkus was confused by what the Skink Priest said. He wanted to ask the Skink Priest, "Are you the conductor of the band?" Or throw flags in front? Or conduct the band by beating flags? But he thought about it for a moment and held it back. It is estimated that the skink priest would not understand if he asked, and would instead be asking for trouble.
Continuing to pass through the layers of statue-like stargazing room guards, Darkus, who had the picture in his mind, could no longer look directly at the group of temple guards. However, he has now seen the temple guards in the four major lizard people temple cities. He believes that the temple guards in this pyramid are the strongest and the strongest in the entire lizard people society. They are completely elite teams. Except of course Chakas. He did not curiously ask the Skink Priest who led the way, because there was no concept of elites, guards and aces in the Lizardmen society.
At the bottom of the pyramid, Darkus met the first Lord Slankroka, and then nothing happened. . .
The first generation Lord Slankroka, a great existence! He is the oldest Slann priest in the legendary first generation. The mysterious Old Ones taught him the secrets of the Winds of Magic and shared secrets that unlocked the subtle clues of time. They were so ancient that it was he and his companions who later taught the first elves to use magic. He has read all the vicissitudes of the world, so that he is destined to watch this universe until the end.
During the Great Invasion, temple cities one after another in the Lustria continent were captured, and the path for the Chaos Demons to siege Itaza was finally clear. Itaza is the First City and the key to the defense of the Lizardmen's spiritual network. Under the protection of Lord Croca, Itaza held up a magical barrier for decades, acting as a mainstay to block the never-ending chaos demons. Chaos demons that attack the barrier will be reduced to ashes. However, after years of pressure, even he could no longer support such a mysterious wall. With his final impact, he exploded the barrier outwards, razing the surrounding jungle to the ground and banishing hundreds of thousands of Chaos Demons in an instant. Still, the rest of Chaos poured into Itaza.
No battle in that long war was more intense than the battle on Itaza Street. Lord Croka's temple guards put up epic resistance one after another to prevent the Chaos Demons from invading the Great Pyramid of Ichi. For many days and nights, the lizard warriors stood guard on the majestic Bridge of Stars. He harnessed the power of the Great Pyramid of Ichi to focus his final spell. As the last of the heroic temple guards fell, he cast a spell that vaporized the Chaos Daemons in flames falling from the sky.
Time stood still as the fabric of the universe tightened with an outpouring of pure power.
During the battle, the Chaos Daemons rushed to the top of the pyramid. There, the Chaos Daemon's weapons fell upon Lord Croka, instantly tearing his arcane-charged flesh to shreds. But his indomitable spirit will never admit defeat, so much so that his soul is still fighting. The soul was liberated from his flesh, and his light soared over Itaza, redeeming Itaza with divine light like the second sun, and the First City was saved!
After the defense of Itaza, Lord Croka's loyal servants mourned the death of their master. His body was scattered far and wide, so they diligently collected every scrap of the body and then wrapped it with great reverence in a resin-soaked shroud. In this way, the mummy of Lord Croka was born.
But now the mummy of Lord Croka is in a strange state. His soul lingers on his former body and can no longer communicate, but his spiritual form can still interact with the mortal world and perceive everything. But Darkus believes that this kind of interaction and perception is also extremely limited. Either Lord Croka's student Lord Mazdamudi doesn't listen to his mentor's words, or he interacts with his soul to derive the direction and direction of the big plan. details?
Some vestiges of power still exist on the mummified remains of Lord Croca, a distant echo of past glory. In times of need, the mummified remains of Lord Croka will emerge from outside the pyramid's crypts to once again enact the Old Ones' great plans. This time of need and making big plans means going out to save a few Itazas and dropping a nuclear bomb for fun.
Darkus looked up in reverence. Lord Croca's huge golden mask and eyes inlaid with shells and topaz did not make him feel uneasy, but made him very calm.
On the sacred snake battle flag behind the mummy of Lord Croca, a huge golden snake coiled around the flagpole. It looked at Darkus calmly, without twisting or spitting out hissing. There are also differing opinions about the battle banner, with Slann debating whether it represents Sotek, as Lord Crokar died many centuries before the god's appearance. A very small number of Slann believe that Lord Croka holds the secret of time, and may well know that Sotek is destined to appear, and has begun to worship and even pray to Sotek in the depths of his unfathomable heart.
Lord Mazdamudi did not appear. During this time, he was directing the reconstruction of Spicazuma. He occasionally had to guide the construction and repair of the engines of the gods, and taught Coptiti to master the winds of magic and learn management.
Darkus suddenly clenched his fists. If he had said before that resurrecting Lord Croca was just part of the big plan, it was a vague concept. After he met the real Lord Croca, a powerful desire suddenly grew in his heart. Although it seems strange from the perspective of a Druchi, as a Druchi, he is also the last messenger of the ancient Saint Iqi to come to this world. While enjoying the legacy of the ancient Saint Iqi, he must Do something small, like bring Lord Croca back to life!
"For myself who has been watched by Slaanesh and Tzeentch! For this hopeless world! For this great existence!"
Darkus thought a lot at this moment. He had also thought about messing up and running to Osu. An Neihuan enjoys a peaceful life as an old Asul farmer and lives a happy life day by day. Or run to the southern city-state, empire or Cathay, but how can there be a so-called peaceful life in this desperate world? If he does this, he will also hand over his right to choose and become an existence at the mercy of others. He thought about the words of Makarov, the director of the Black Sea Shipyard, but in the end he nodded firmly. He saluted the mummy of Lord Croka and left.
But what Darkus didn't know was that Lord Croca's soul felt his presence and was watching him, but he couldn't speak.
There was nothing to go around or visit next. The Slann were all meditating, and Lord Slott also meditated after returning from Spicazuma. The skink gathering area in Itaza is also very large. Although there are tens of thousands of skinks, it still cannot be filled. Darkus occasionally walked through the gathering area of skinks and came to the outer taming pen to see the giant beasts and cold lizards in his team. Under the joint care of the skink breeders and Druchi trainers, No issues, in good condition. He could only tickle the giant beasts and tease the big ones, but he was not needed for pedicures or horn trimming. The collection of quarries and gold mines in the outer areas also stopped due to the arrival of the rainy season, and the giant beasts in the team did not participate in the work.
As for Itaza's incubation pool, Darkus learned that there were actually two in the city. One was later built in an extremely hidden cave, and the other was in the swamp when he entered the city. He also went to the city wall to take a look. In the swamp, he could still vaguely see the traces of the rectangles that were once surrounded by stone embankments. The number and scale of them made him staggered. However, with the arrival of the great invasion, these hatching ponds have now become swamps and only serve as defenses in conjunction with the surrounding ruins.
There are still many buildings in disrepair outside Itaza, which have collapsed and collapsed and been eroded by time. Itaza's skinks have no idea or concept of rebuilding the past glory. It is said that they can only be rebuilt with the order of Slann or with a foretelling. Now they just send some skinks to act as sentinels to guard.
"Weird!"
Although it was very strange, Darkus was not surprised by this, but rather understood it. First of all, the political circle in Itaza is very delicate. There are Skink Priests in charge of dozens of different areas, but there is no Skink Priest in charge of Itaza, and there is no Slann Lord to provide correct leadership. He seemed to understand why Lord Mazdamudi went to the far north even though he was the leader of the lizard people. He also understood why some Slann lords became lords in temple cities that did not restore hatching ponds after reconstruction.
When Darkus figured it out, he stopped rummaging through the pyramids for stone slabs and equipment. Being introverted, he was too lazy to go to the docks one by one. The giant hammer of the giant lizard Kami was because the giant lizard Kami said to call this Words. The current divine weapons and war equipment are sufficient, so there is no need to rush. What he needs to find most now is how to restore the hatching pool, followed by how to make the core of the sun engine and the god weapon. Subjectively, he doesn't think Itaza has it. Objectively speaking, there is none. If there were, it would have already served the big plan.
Besides, why would Darkus, who knew the script, go through the pyramids one after another? Wouldn't it be better to let Lord Croca say a word when the time comes? Thinking of this, he no longer had any plans to build a blessing incubator in Itaza. After Spicazuma's blessing incubator is built, the next stage will be to build it in the Moon City, Taraxlan. It is a city full of vitality. He believes that Lord Adohi-Tehe and Priest Teto Ikao will Totally agree and welcome.
It was okay not to find stone slabs and equipment, but Darkus didn't want to let the Druchi gang idle, so he assigned the Druchi dignitaries an inexplicable and incredible job. In addition to tempering himself and Alyssa of the Quartz Fruit Egg in a suitable position, he asked these Druchi dignitaries to deal with the skinks responsible for farming, master some farming processes, how to make floating gardens, and engage in Understand what the plants in the truly floating garden are used for, and they are carved on the stone slabs by category.
The Floating Garden is pure nonsense. Darkus doesn't need such things. It is purely redundant and useless work, but as a good leader, he still arranged it. If you have something to do, you won't think about what you have and what you don't have, and you won't get him into trouble.
As for what Darkus is doing? Apart from occasionally going to the animal training pen to study crops with the Druchis, he spent the rest of his time in the stargazing room of the Great Pyramid of Ichi, because this was the best place to absorb the mysterious power.
Under the service of the old Skink Priest, Genevieve, and Skink Attendants, Darkus was half lying on a lounge chair on a base surrounded by a pool of water. Two Skink Attendants stood behind him, as if they were playing tricks. It waved huge feathers and banana leaves like oars to fan him. But there was no lotus scent mixed with psychedelic drugs in the room. He really couldn't get used to smelling that stuff.
Skink waiters played flutes and drums and swayed to the rhythm of the music. The tune is particularly weird, like a lullaby but also like a march. But this tune is so powerful that it can actually make Genevieve yawn and fall into a deep sleep after a while. Leaving a confused look on his face, Darkus became more and more energetic as he listened, unable to fall asleep even if he wanted to.
"Let's play music, then dance."
Darkus was half-lying on the lounge chair, munching fruit and stroking Genevieve, who was lying on the armrest of the chair and sleeping soundly on the pedestal. It was raining heavily outside. Anyway, he didn't see any aligned sun, two moons and constellations and get inspiration from them, but he was thinking about the past, present and future. After he finished chewing the fruit, a new fruit was seamlessly served to him by the attentive Skink waiter waiting nearby. He waved his hand and refused, saying that he really couldn't eat anymore.
This Great Pyramid of Ichi with special meaning has been vacant for a long time. There is no Slann Lord to serve, and there is no Slann Lord's mummy to take care of. In other words, Dakoos is the Umak of the ancient Saint Ichi. Qualified to live in.
The underlying logical structure of these idle skinks was already written when they were born in the hatching pond. That strange tune is not something that any skink can just play, and they are not Holoto's skinks who need to go there. Learning to farm usually only requires maintenance and various frequent ritual activities. They are happy to serve Umak of the ancient saint Iqi. Every skink attendant is particularly attentive and dedicated.
When Darkos is not thinking, he lets the old Skink Priest tell stories. Although the Skink Priest who has never served Slann in his life is too old to walk, he is very energetic when telling stories. !
The old Skink Priest told Darkus a most outrageous story.
The part about carrying the coffin comes from the diary of Marco Polo in the Middle Ages and is available in the newly released MOD Southern City State
(end of this chapter)