The Release That Witch
Chapters 84's

Bishop Mayne follows a circular staircase leading to the earth.

The staircase, with a depth of at least four times that of the cathedral's tallest tower and a diameter of about twenty feet, was built with a natural doline and leads directly to the sprawling, strategically placed castle. The beginning of the stairs is well illuminated by the roof windows that pass through the high dome windows above, giving a cool color to the rotating and rotating stone walls.

But when following the steps, the stairs quickly darkened, seemingly uniting the walls into one. But after a while in the middle of the stairs, the reflection of blue light could be seen, and the deeper, the brighter it became. So, even without the torch, they would never have had such a pitch-black hardship.

At the foot of the stairs, a path that clung tightly to the stone wall meandered around the dark hole.

The walkway was cut from granite, formed by many rectangular pieces three fingers thick. The path was wide enough for two people to walk side by side. One end of each piece of granite was embedded in the stone wall while the other end was in the air. To prevent accidental falls, a wooden fence post is attached with a rope on the side of the hole ..

Mayne did not count the number of steps. In the end, the numbers were too many, but he knew that pinning every piece of stone was a difficult task. Masons hired by the Church had to lean on a rope to hang while they made a deep enough hole in the hard rock. After that, they had to insert the granite plate into the hole. Every action had to be taken with extreme caution as any loose or broken rope caused a fall to the bottom, which fell on more than three hundred people.

If the Church Cathedral on the surface is a symbol of the unyielding spirit of the church, then the hidden castle on the Hermes plateau is the true core of the Church.

A piece of God's Vengeance Stone was embedded at the edge of each step, and guards were placed at each hundredth step. For the last line of defense, there was even a squadron of God Punishment Troops that were always ready to face attacks from the intruders. Many bags of sand and gravel were buried between the Cathedral and the underground castle. This was if every line of defense in the Holy City failed. If every important person was evacuated, the whales could start a trap and bury everything under a deep layer of sand and gravel.

Although this was not Mayne's first visit to the underground castle, the feeling of walking in the air still made her dizzy. Especially after some time, he would always have the illusion of falling.

So he was a little relieved when he finally had solid ground under his feet.

At the bottom of the sinkhole was a large white stone disc, with a surface as smooth as a mirror. While standing on it, one could even clearly see its own shadow. Through cleverly designed construction, the light entering through the windows inside the dome is so reflected that it hits the millstone directly. Thanks to this, even without lighting the torch, the bottom of the doline is never dark.

When they reach the base of the doline, they will find that the sun is not colorless. Once reflected by the grindstone, the light will be blue, but when looking up, the blue light will make the sinkhole shine with a cool color. But when taking a closer look, one would find that there were countless dust particles flying upwards, like little creatures recorded in ancient books.

The holes within the mountain walls were caves formed by nature, and the church simply opened its entrance, to further expand and build the castle of Hermes. But thanks to this hole that extends in all directions, the air can flow freely, so that the air at the base of the doline does not feel rotten or stifling.

In fact, only he and the pope could enter and then exit the castle, not even the two archbishops Heather and Tayfun were allowed to enter here.

But even Mayne had no idea how many channels the castle had. In addition to the main channel that leads south, there are many side branches that move away from the main branch, and when following this side channel, they will split again into even more branches. Some are used by the Church, while others are sealed. He had heard, that during the construction of the castle, some artisans got lost to channels that were not marked as safe, which caused them to stray, never being able to find their way back.

The vertical main channel leads directly to the depth of the mountain, about every three hundred feet (about 100 meters), Mayne must cross the checkpoint. He knew that the Church used each segment between two checkpoints for different tasks. The outermost area was used as the residence of the soldiers who had to stay their entire lives in the castle. The second segment is used as an archive, for the storage of instruments, and fragments of ancient books. The third section is the prison area, where prisoners are placed who are not allowed to see the light anymore.

After passing the third checkpoint, Mayne stopped. Furthermore, was the secret area of the castle. All the research and discovery materials of the Church came from this place, and without the Pope's permission, no one was allowed to enter. Ever since he became Archbishop three years ago, he had only stepped into this area once before.

As Mayne walked closer, he took the left path.

After a short walk, the path was ended by a door, with a chest-high plate on it that read "Splisters!”

Mayne nodded to the guard and ordered, "Open the door."

Behind the corridor door continued, there was a flaming torch hanging on the wall, like a tiny spark of light within a sea of darkness, continuing along the path to the end. On both sides of the road there are many wooden doors and in the middle of each door hangs a number plate on it.

One of the Judges who followed Mayne raised a torch to light up the surroundings. While walking down the channel, Mayne kept a close look at the numbers on the plate. When he finally saw the number 35 speckled on the plate, he stopped and took out the key from one of his pockets and put it into the keyhole, turning it lightly. At the bottom of the doline, the sound of the key opening was extremely loud, and the echo could be heard even at the end of the channel. As if it was a signal flare, suddenly many cries sounded through the door, there were calls from both men and women. While listening carefully, Mayne could understand some of them! "Save me quickly!" "Help me!" "Please kill me!" and similar.

But Mayne was not affected by the crying. He simply ordered the guard standing beside the door to immediately close it after he entered the room, leaving a chaos of screams outside.

Behind the iron fence the bishop saw an old man sitting on his bed - perhaps he was not too old, but now his hair was bleached, and his face was covered in wrinkles. His beard looked like it had long since been uncluttered, almost reaching his neck. Since he had not seen the sun for a long time, his skin had become extremely pale, and his hands and feet were as thin as bamboo.

Mayne glanced at the food plate behind the rail, which looked like it had not been touched, realizing this she sighed, "You should treat yourself better, the Church does not lack food. And the food was even made according to the standards of the king, except for his wine. Even fish, it was a first-class Cod that came from Bluewater Port. You must be familiar with the taste, not His Majesty the King of Wimbledon? "