The first "scroll" contained the most information.
It was a throne constructed of blades and broken bones, backed by long, blood-red windows and towering black stone pillars, resembling a part of a palace. When fully immersed in it, one could see a continuous city of spires outside the windows. The most striking feature was a partially visible stone archway—if the nearby spires were considered residential buildings of Hermes, the archway would be at least five times the height of the Babel of the Great Cathedral, which defied all logic.
Even more incredible was the fact that the inside of the archway was pitch black, with nothing visible, as if a huge, smooth curtain blocked it. But upon closer inspection, the darkness seemed to have depth, with no bottom in sight... The more one stared, the more one's hair stood on end.
Jieluo's consciousness lingered briefly outside the window before focusing on the throne.
The owner of the throne was not visible today.
The content seen in her mind was not static. Sometimes, for example, she would see a warrior clad in armor sitting on the throne, his head covered by a hideous black helmet, with only a faint red light visible from the eye sockets. However, such scenes were rare, and most of the time, the seat was empty.
According to the Secret History, the content of this scroll should point to the city of origin of the devils, the place where they first appeared—the northwestern corner of the Dawn Realm.
Jieluo shared the same view. After all, the omnipresent blood-red color and black stone spires in the picture were very similar to the living environment of the devils. The helmet of the throne's owner also had a distinct devilish style. The only strange thing was that his body looked no different from ordinary people, not as strong and terrifying as the Heart-Fear Demon and Hell Lord described in the Holy Writings. Therefore, there were countless speculations about its identity. Some popes believed it was the source of evil, while some witches believed it was a guardian among the devil race—what it guarded was the secret of the gods.
The second "scroll" was much more bizarre.
It displayed very little content, and it seemed to be constantly moving. At least in Jieluo's limited observations, she had never seen a repeating scene.
This time, what she saw was water.
Light blue water surged backward along three huge skeletons. Although there was nothing in the middle of the skeletons, the water seemed to be separated by an invisible barrier, not splashing in at all. If the huge skeletons were regarded as the keels supporting the side of a ship, the feeling at this moment was like being in a cabin, looking out through the portholes—the difference was that these windows occupied almost the entire wall.
Jieluo was quickly attracted by the wonderful scene before her... She seemed to be on the dividing line between water and sky, half submerged in the water and half floating on the water. Above her head, she could see the dazzling sunlight and sparse clouds, while below she was surrounded by water. Under the light, she could clearly see the change in the color of the water, from the light blue on the surface to yellow-green, then to dark green, becoming deeper the further down she looked.
Suddenly, the picture shook violently, and Jieluo felt a tremor under her feet, almost falling to the ground. She subconsciously wanted to open her eyes, but she restrained herself at the last moment—these were not real scenes, she told herself, but revelations from the gods in her mind.
The water surface in front of her quickly rose, soon submerging the sky.
No, rather than the water rising, it was more like she was sinking.
Soon, the scenery outside the window was completely covered by water. She even saw red fish swimming along the skeletons, first two or three, then more and more, the dense school of fish like a scarlet ribbon, wrapped around that invisible barrier. The color of the water gradually changed from dark green to a lightless black, and finally the picture disappeared into pitch-black darkness, completely vanishing.
Jieluo gasped for breath, breaking free from the picture. This was the first time she had witnessed such clear information. At the moment when darkness covered her vision, she felt like she was about to suffocate. However, she didn't see any useful clues in it—as known from the Secret History, the content of the second scroll was extremely variable. Some left records of huge eyeballs, some had seen volcanoes erupting bubbles and yellow smoke, and others claimed to have witnessed bottomless abysses emitting dim light. The views of successive observers had never been unified.
She rested for a moment, turning her consciousness to the third scroll.
And there was still nothing there... as dark and silent as the world outside the scroll.
The Secret History mentioned that in the early days of the first Divine Will War, there was content in the scroll... However, that part of the record was too old, and even the pages had become tattered. Jieluo couldn't see clearly what was written on it. But one thing was certain, when the Divine Will War ended a hundred years later, this scroll turned black and never showed any content again.
Finally, there was the fourth scroll, which was not recorded in the Secret History at all.
This made Jieluo quite puzzled, as if they were all tacitly concealing something—this was very strange, if even the pope, who was the only one to inherit the secret, had no right to know, then this secret would be buried forever, and no one would ever be able to know it.
What was displayed in the picture was a wall.
A gray, rough, and unremarkable stone wall.
Some of the smeared mortar had fallen off, revealing the cracked stones underneath. Obviously, it had stood here for a long time. Apart from this wall, nothing else could be seen.
After staying in the picture for a while, Jieluo felt extremely tired.
Comprehending the revelations of the gods was an extremely energy-consuming thing, even for her, she couldn't last too long.
Jieluo opened her eyes, cut off the connection with the magic hemisphere, the empty and boundless dark world and the huge scroll disappeared in an instant, and the small room illuminated by the faint light returned to her eyes.
She let out a long breath, staggered down the steps, returned to the repository, and drank the glass of cold red tea in one gulp, only then did she recover slightly.
Although the gods did not give her any response, her previously annoyed mood had now returned to calm—Isabella knew nothing about the gods, but she did.
Jieluo looked out the window, watching the busy figures under the tower, the feeling of controlling all beings floated into her heart again. Her experiences of more than two hundred years had made her think that there was nothing in this world worth caring about anymore, but only after becoming the pope did she realize that her understanding of the world was only at a superficial level—now, a brand new secret was placed before her, and eternal life was the best capital to pursue the secret.
Jieluo vaguely felt in her heart that she was the darling chosen by the gods.
If she could get close to the gods, let alone four hundred years, even a thousand years would be worth her anticipation. (。)