Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

Considering that if he didn’t go to the church for sightseeing, he would have to go somewhere else for “tourism,” Kraft followed Captain William into the church.

Pass through the main entrance decorated with silver reliefs and step into the central hall, the most classic part of the standard structure, and there is no exception in the Church of Solace.

All floors will not erect obstacles in the vertical direction of this area. Looking up, you can reach the dome directly. Paintings of heavenly scenes are usually the protagonist. The larger the church, the more it will try to highlight this feature. This daunting height symbolizes God. A gap that is out of reach.

The Consolation Church uses an all-glass mosaic-style inlaid top to reflect the light of large chandeliers and candles. It goes a step further on the traditional basis and brings the splendor and sublimity to the extreme, making the lookers dazzled and forget where they are, as if they are in heaven. Under the stars, escape from the noise of the world.

The pillars on both sides semi-separate the hall and the side hall, supplemented by a barrier made of small pieces of red glass to separate the line of sight. You can vaguely see the candlesticks behind it. The transparency is much higher than those seen in the port area, and the colors are more uniform and neat. .

The singing came from behind the translucent glass curtain wall. It was crisp and ethereal, echoing in the grand space, and the effect was mistakenly thought to be harmony.

The uniform children's voices sang a cappella. Under the dim red light, it was hard to tell whether they were a castrato or a little boy. The sound made Kraft feel uncomfortable, and the unnatural refrain always reminded him of deep experiences, all of which involved using human vocal cords to sing sounds as far away from normal as possible.

He turned his head, trying to shake off the sound that seemed to be stuck in his ears. However, singing was everywhere in the closed hall. As a visitor, it was not easy to cover your ears and behave impolitely, so you had to focus on the surrounding decorations.

Different from the external image, the interior style of the church uncharacteristically violates the ascetic and serious sacred tone, using a large amount of warm-toned glass. A kind of light red high-transparency glass is used as the main body, rendering a slightly drunken red halo, accompanied by slightly changed deep red and dark glass, and a few orange and orange embellishments.

It can be seen that the designer wanted to create a sense of gentleness beyond the sacred, mediate the intimidating inherent impression of the church, and make it more consistent with the name "Solace".

But this adjustment was a bit too strong. For Kraft, it felt like pouring half a box of sugar into the coffee with a shake of his hand. It was so sweet that it was indescribable.

Halfway through the central hall from the door, his perception of the warm light declined all the way. It was as ubiquitous as the sound, filling the space like a mist, flowing into the pupils and coating the retina, with a sweet and sticky syrupy texture. It will not be clean unless it is dry cleaned.

Some people may feel that they have arrived in a peaceful and sweet heaven. For example, Kupp likes it very much. Although he has privately expressed that he is shaken by the foundation of his faith not long ago, it seems that it does not hinder his liking for the environment here.

From the moment he walked through the door, this young man living in the salt tide area was intoxicated. Some of his body language clearly revealed that he had relaxed from the restraint he felt when he first entered the church. The warm and sweet visual experience made him very happy.

William led them to walk under the icon. The priest was telling the story of the Holy Scriptures to the believers who bowed their heads in prayer on the bench. He was talking about the contempt and oppression the saints received in the mortal world before they ascended to heaven.

White stone human statues with different postures and movements are arranged on both sides, but there is no statue in the middle. The supreme existence itself is replaced by the double-winged circle symbol, and there is no specific image for the public to admire.

There are many records in the holy scriptures about the Heavenly Father coming to the world to perform miracles, testing and tempering his believers, or praising good people and punishing evildoers. Sometimes they take on the appearance of mortals with different identities, and often end up with their true appearance being revealed, and everyone kneeling down to praise his kindness and wisdom.

It stands to reason that there should be many descriptions of him. In fact, on the contrary, it is always taboo to peek into the face of Heavenly Father. It is claimed that looking directly at his face is an act of disrespect, and related creations need to be avoided, or simply declare that God does not exist. The true appearance is even less likely to be remembered by mortals when they look directly at it.

The stone carvings of saints carved from moist white stone freeze the moment in the story when they saw the true face of the gods, the barefoot farmers picking up rice ears, the knights wearing the robes of the Holy Emblem and fighting with swords, and the old bishop reading the classics. He looked up in surprise.

The carving level of these sculptures is extremely high. From the perspective of Kraft, who has no artistic ability, they are all amazing. The soft fit of the fabric and the movement of the muscle groups are extremely realistic. At the same time, the space between each stone sculpture is guaranteed to be perfect. consistency.

The peasants will not be too low, and the knights will not stand out too much, maintaining a moderate level.

And their eyes were all focused on the holy emblem in the middle that referred to the Heavenly Father, intending to express more than twenty stories through one scene.

The priest finished his sermon, walked down from the stage, took the basket of bread from the young priest behind him who was also wearing a white robe, and distributed it to those who listened to the sermon. Some people who only listened to the end of the sermon were confused. Got one.

There are stories in the church of saints distributing food transformed from the bodies of gods to believers. As a non-religious person, Kraft took a small bite out of curiosity. The unopened solid bread almost chipped his front teeth. This piece was probably the bone of a god.

"Shall we go up and have a look?" Putting the dough in his pocket, he gave up the idea of ​​having dinner on the way and pointed to the unblocked stairs on one side, intending to go to a higher place to avoid the annoying choir. The second floor seemed to be William's destination as well. He grabbed the handrail and climbed up the stairs first.

The spiral staircase was located in the corner of the hall, which was a bit inconspicuous. After going around twice, they arrived at the second floor of the church.

There are some small rooms with good sound insulation effect. From time to time, churchgoers will open the door and come out, looking around to see if anyone pays attention to them.

Looking in between them when they came in and out, the room was also separated from the two sides by a small piece of spliced ​​glass window. Only the two sides could see the general figure of the other party to know their existence, but could not know their identity.

Presumably this was a place of confession to the clergy, which Kraft was not interested in, but the singing was certainly lighter here. He looked at William inquiringly, wanting to know what the captain wanted to do in this church instead of going to a "reliable place" in the middle of the night. Maybe there are also sins that need to be redeemed?

"Oh, don't look at me like that. I am much more pious than those people, and I am not afraid to confess my mistakes to God." William admitted his purpose of coming as a matter of course, "And I always come to the church first and then to the port."

"I have to say that it surpassed at least 99% of the people below." Kraft leaned out of the fence, and there were a lot of people below, bathed in a pale red light. From this perspective, the red light was not gentle, and it felt like looking down at the struggling and confused people in the world.

The only cool colors come from the winged circles and the statues of His saints, which stand out against the crowd. The former has no face and cannot be seen from a human perspective; the latter only has the holy symbol in his eyes, and no one pays attention to the flow of people at his feet, nor does he have the intention to cast a glance at another priest who takes the stage to preach.

After seeing more, he felt that such a design was not accidental. The pictures created by the flow of people and his own layout had a specific meaning that he wanted to convey.

He has been to no more than one hand's worth of churches, including about one and a half of the cathedral, and half of it is St. Simon's Church in Port Wenden. The only large church in the official sense is the Solace Church. In addition, he has little theological attainments, so it is not appropriate to make rash decisions.

Looking back from downstairs, Kraft waved to William and said: "You go ahead, we will stroll around."

"See you soon."

"See you soon, may God pay attention to you." Kraft said as he closed the door for William. It could be seen on his weird and tangled face that he didn't like this blessing very much.

"Is it better not to use this kind of treatment?" A distorted voice came from behind the door.

What a good Ye Gong and a good dragon. Kraft shook his head and left, walking along the corridor toward the main entrance. He wanted to take a closer look at the glass wings on the front of the church.

At the end of the corridor, they approached the hem of a wing.

Large feathers polished from clear white glass are fitted one after another in a way that is incomprehensible to amateurs. The longest feather at the end is nearly as long as the upper arm, and its transparency is as high as the edge of ice. It is too beautiful to be a product of this era. The light red glass seen downstairs is even better.

Compared with the lantern decoration in the port, the glass used in the church has opened up a gap of more than one generation, with higher transparency and fewer impurities.

Especially this pair of exaggerated wings, which basically reaches the level of understanding of glass by souls from other worlds, a bit like glass instruments.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" A crisp voice approached from behind, with light steps.

Kraft turned around and saw a feminine-looking man standing next to them, admiring the pair of miracles of craftsmanship from the nearest distance.

"Indeed." The soul from another world must also admit that this thing looks very shocking at night. It is not just a matter of pure craftsmanship, but also the artistic attainments that widen the gap between its three streets. The builders put so much effort into it that it is unimaginable.

"Those places outside are made of scraps and scraps that are not needed by the church. There is no place like this in Solace Harbor." There was pride and contempt in his tone. The feminine man raised his neck and looked up at the tips of his wings. "Live here." After a long time, sometimes I feel that the kingdom of heaven is just like this.”

Speaking of excitement, the ending tone changes, habitually bringing in the rhythm of the music, and the range of rising and falling tones is wide, making it sound like a musical performance.

Well, Kraft identified the source of the choral singing, no little boy, but a castrato. Some children from poor families will take this path, and through inhumane operations and rigorous training, they can find a job in churches and performance troupes.

While maintaining a wide vocal range, it also has a timbre that has not been changed by the voice change period, making it perfect for singing hymns.

"Incredible, how did you do it?" This person sounded like he knew some inside information, and Kraft thought he could find out something.

"I heard that it was Dun Ling's technology. They used some alchemy potion to remove the impurities in the glass, making it more transparent than crystal." The eunuch stretched out his hand to catch the light of the pure wonder, and said in an ethereal voice, "This is the only one. Made to order, there will never be anything else like it.”

I'm very sorry, but I found that the current situation is much busier than expected Σ(⊙▽⊙"), fulfilling, but a bit too fulfilling...