Roland quickly estimated the volume of the underground cave. The bottom was about the size of a soccer field, surrounded by steep mountain walls. The side passage leading to this point opened right in the center of the mountain wall, and next to the entrance was a narrow stone staircase that extended downward.
“I’m guessing you didn’t carve out this staircase,” he squatted down, bringing the torch closer to the ground. In the light of the torch, the axe and chisel marks on the stone steps were very obvious, and the carvings were filled with a lot of stone chips and dust.
“Of course not, Your Highness. The steps were already there when we found this place,” Carter shrugged. “I guess this thing has been around for decades.”
“Or centuries,” Anna suddenly said.
“I think so too,” Lightning nodded. “Border Town has only been established for seventy years, so the stone steps are unlikely to be related to the locals or the kingdom.”
“Were there people in the Western Region hundreds of years ago?” Carter questioned. “Even Graycastle hadn’t been founded yet.”
Roland patted the knight on the shoulder. “Four hundred and fifty years ago, there was a group of people forgotten by history.” Then he raised the torch. “Let’s go, let’s go down and take a look.”
The soldiers of the First Army had already surrounded the bottom of the cave in small groups. He led the knight and the witch straight to the God's Stone of Retaliation. Only when standing at the foot of the stone pillar could he deeply feel its immense size. Stretching out his arms, he couldn’t even reach a tenth of it. He had to look up to barely see its top. The highest purple God's Stone of Retaliation was nearly thirty meters, almost equivalent to a **-story building.
Theoretically, a stone that can emit light on its own is either radioactive or contains fluorescent components, but the light of the God's Stone of Retaliation is obviously unrelated to both of these—the former's light comes from the ionization of the air caused by the decay of the element itself. The shorter the half-life, the greater the brightness. According to this brightness, the soldiers who entered first would not last a few minutes before dying of ionizing radiation. The latter, on the other hand, needs to be illuminated by light to emit light, and the depths of the underground have no light source, so it obviously cannot continuously emit cold light.
Roland also noticed that although the God's Stone of Retaliation has the prismatic shape common to crystals, its surface does not have the crystalline texture, but is as smooth as flat glass.
“A God's Stone of Retaliation the size of a thumb can be sold for several gold royals in the church. A stone like this…could simply empty the treasuries of the Four Kingdoms,” Carter couldn't help but sigh.
“Sell it to nobles to harm witches?” Nightingale glared at him fiercely.
“Uh, I didn’t say that,” the chief knight unconsciously shifted his gaze.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a God's Stone of Retaliation of this color. Shouldn’t it be white and transparent?” Lightning curiously looked at the stone pillar. “If I take a piece back, won’t I need to light candles at night?”
“I would rather light a dozen candles in a stuffy room than use it for lighting,” Nightingale said, crossing her arms. “For witches, it is a cage, a shackle, and an accomplice of the church! If only this damn stone didn’t exist in the world.”
“Well, Nightingale, you won’t anyway in the evening…” The little girl licked her lips, picked up a stone, and looked at Roland. “Can I take a piece back as a trophy from the adventure?”
Roland nodded. “If you don’t dislike this thing.”
She swung the stone in her hand and struck a corner of the prism hard. Only a crisp “ding” was heard, and the stone shattered in response, while the prism didn’t even leave a scratch.
The knight couldn't help but say, "What's going on...aren't God's Stones of Retaliation fragile and brittle?"
“Maybe this glowing one is different,” Lightning brushed off the stone chips in her hand, then took out a bishou from her pouch and fiddled around the prism for a while, but even after scraping, cutting, and picking, it was still in vain.
Roland felt a sense of unease. He gestured to Nightingale, "You try it."
The latter nodded, pulled out the revolver, and pulled the trigger directly at another prism. A huge roar echoed at the bottom of the cave, and sparks flew from the area of the God's Stone of Retaliation that was hit. After the smoke cleared,
the group walked over and saw that the bullet had only left a shallow mark on the surface of the God's Stone of Retaliation.
This meant that, in terms of strength, it had exceeded homogeneous steel plates.
“Guns are useless?” Carter frowned. “Then how did the church cut it down, polish it, and sell it?”
No one could answer this question, and it also contradicted everyone’s usual impression.
At least Roland had smashed God's Stone shackles with bricks before—for example, the one tied around Anna's neck. It only took two or three blows to turn the crystal clear stone into a pool of white powder.
Anna, who had been silent all along, suddenly said, “Your Highness, do you remember the treasure map drawn by Feling. Xiert of Dawn Light?”
“Treasure map?” Roland was stunned. He vaguely remembered that a triangle occupied most of the drawing, with three points pointing to the Holy City of Taqila, the stone tower in the Misty Forest, and the end of the North Slope foot… Wait, the North Slope foot? A flash of lightning suddenly ran through his mind, "Could it be…"
“I think that point doesn’t point to the North Slope mine, but to here—” Anna said slowly, “this underground cave containing a large number of God's Stones of Retaliation.”
……
After a careful search, apart from a large pile of indestructible God's Stones of Retaliation, no other valuable discoveries were found in the cave.
Not to mention ancient books or remains, not even the tools used to carve the stone steps were left behind, which was very puzzling. According to the current level of technology, carving a staircase directly on a steep stone wall is definitely a huge and arduous project. Things like accidental falls and lost tools should be common. But the scene was nothing but stone, as if they had thoroughly cleaned the cave before leaving.
After returning to his office, Roland called Juan and reproduced the Dawn Knight’s drawing on the illusion.
Similar to the pattern in his memory, the southernmost point did fall at the foot of the North Slope.
If Anna’s guess was correct, could this be a map left by the church when searching for new God's Stone of Retaliation veins? But why did they abandon everything after spending a lot of effort to carve out a staircase leading directly to the bottom of the cave? If the church had established a border church four hundred and fifty years ago, perhaps today’s Border Town would be completely different—according to the price and use of the God's Stone of Retaliation, this mine doesn’t seem like a resource that can be abandoned at will.
Now the Holy City of Taqila is an inaccessible forbidden zone. Perhaps these answers can only be known after going to the stone tower… or never known. (。)