Chapter 10 chapter Ten

The headquarters of the followers of the Flame Sect is a slender and gorgeous tower-shaped building made of golden stones.Like a shining giant javelin, it stands beside the Sepidan River in Birigam District, the most prosperous area in Saro.This towering minaret, in Serimon's opinion, is the most expensive building in Salo City. Although he had never thought about it before, it was an indisputable fact that the Flames were an extremely wealthy group.They have their own radio station, TV station, publications, newspapers, and this tower, and maybe they secretly control with various assets.He couldn't figure out why this group of fanatics had such great ability?Assets worth hundreds of millions can be obtained.

But he knew that famous industrialists like Botticel888 and Weaving99 were loyal followers of Mundial's doctrine and his disciples.It should come as no surprise that Botticell, Weaving and their associates have invested heavily in the coffers of the Flames. The group also claims that they are 10,000 years old.If you count by tenths of a thousand years...they say, over the centuries, if you invest wisely, it goes without saying that they will make great fortunes from compound interest.From Serimon's point of view, they own billions, and they may secretly control half of Salo City. Worth going in, he thought to himself.

He stepped into the empty vestibule of the tower, the sound of his footsteps resonating inside, and he observed everything inside with awe.Have heard people speak of its extraordinary luxury and opulence both inside and out, despite never being there.But nothing he heard moved him, so he visited the headquarters of these Flame believers. Polished marble floors, inlaid with six or seven vivid colors, continued into the depths of the hall.In the hall, the walls are shining, and the golden mosaics with abstract patterns extend to the high vaults.Chandeliers gilded with silver and gold cast a bright light over the hall, illuminating everything within them perfectly.

On the front of the entrance, What Theremon saw seemed to be a model of the universe.The entire model is apparently constructed of precious metals and gemstones.Huge orbs hang from the ceiling on invisible wires that seem to represent the six suns.Each sphere shone with frightening light: golden light from the largest of them all, which might have been Onas; Duvim glowed dull red; sister stars Tano and Sisar glowed blue-white. ;Patrue and Trey emit a softer white light.The seventh sphere may be Kargash, which is like a balloon, flying back and forth between the six suns, and changes its color when it floats under different sunlight.

When Theremon stood there in a daze of surprise, a voice came from a special place: "Who are you?" "I'm Serimon 762, I'm here to meet Mondial." "Okay, please enter the room on the left, Theremon 762." He didn't see a room to his left, but part of the mosaic wall slid away soundlessly, revealing an oval room that looked more like an anteroom.Green velvet drapes hung on the walls, illuminated by rectangular amber overhead lights. He shrugged and walked in.The door behind him was closed immediately, and he felt an obvious movement. It turned out that this was not a room, but an elevator room!Ha, the elevator was going up, he was sure of that.The elevator moved up smoothly and at a constant speed, and finally stopped after a long time, and the door slid open again silently.

A man in a black robe was waiting there. "please follow me." After a short passage through a narrow hall, we arrived at the waiting room.A bust of Mondial 71 covers almost one wall of the waiting room.As Theremon walked in, the whole image seemed to light up, strangely alive and radiant.Mundil's large, intense black eyes stared right at him, and the radiance of his stern face made him almost perfect, a beauty that was daunting. Facing the eyes of the characters in the photo, Theremon looked extraordinarily calm and composed.But when he thought that he would interview this special person in a short while, even though he was a calm and calm person, he couldn't help feeling a little excited.The Mondial on TV and radio was the face of a cultist who spread absurd prophecies.And Mondial himself, if mysterious, awe-inspiring, hypnotic as the portrait implies, might be another face.Theremon told himself to be careful.

The believer in black said, "Please go inside..." The wall to the left of the photo opens, revealing the office inside.It resembled a small prison cell, with little decoration save for a polished stone desk and a low backless chair.The chair is carved from a special piece of red-grained ash wood and placed in front of the stone table.Behind the table sat the man of great power and position, clad in a black robe with a hood trimmed in red. He is awe-inspiring.But not Mondial 71. Judging by the photographs and appearances on television, Mondial was between sixty-five and seventy years old, and he was full of manliness.His hair is thick and wavy, with a hint of white in the black; his face is round and plump, with a big mouth, a strong nose, bushy eyebrows that are black and shiny, and black eyes that are piercing.But the person in front of him was a young man, less than forty years old.Although he looked strong and manly too, he was of a different type: he was thin, with a tightly shut mouth pouting high in his thin face.Curly hair under the hood covered his forehead, and the color of the hair was a strange brick red.The eyes are blue and look cold and ruthless.

No doubt it was a senior official of the organization, but the man Thelimon was dating was Mondiel. This morning, after reporting on the latest statement of the Flame, he felt compelled to learn more about the mysterious sect.Of course, he took everything they said as a lie throughout, but it was beginning to seem like interesting lies that deserved a more detailed report.Is there any way to know more than to interview their highest officials directly?If possible, this is the best way.But to his surprise, when he called to make an appointment, they told him he could get a chance to hear Mondial 71 that day.This seemed too easy again.

Now, he realized that it was not as easy as he imagined. "I'm Freemont 66." The thin-faced man said, his voice was light and elastic, without the aggressive aura of Mondial.Theremon suspected that this was the speech of a man who was used to being submissive. "I'm an assistant to the public relations department of the organization headquarters. It's a great honor to answer your questions." "We agreed to interview Mondial himself," Theremon said. Fulimang's eyes were indifferent, without revealing the slightest surprise. "You can think of me as a spokesperson for Mondial."

"According to my understanding, it should be a face-to-face conversation." "It makes no difference. What you say to me is what you say to Mondial, and what I say is what Mondial says. You must understand the meaning." "However, I have been assured that I can interview Mondial. I have no doubts that your words represent authority. But I am not only here for information. I also want to get an overall impression of Mondial , in addition to knowing his views on the destruction of the world, I also want to know his views on other things..." "I can only repeat what I said." Freeman interrupted him and said solemnly, "You can regard me as the spokesperson of Mondial. Today, Mr. Highness cannot see you in person."

"Then, I would like to come back another day, when Mr. Highness can..." "Please allow me to tell you that Mondial will never meet you in person, never. His Highness's work is very important, because there are only ten months before the fire will destroy us." Freemont smiled suddenly For a moment, it was unexpected, and it felt warm and human.Perhaps trying to lessen the sting of the rejection and the intimidation of the word 'fire', he continued in an almost gentle voice: "I guess it was a misunderstanding, you didn't think you were dating a spokesperson and not Your Highness himself. But it has to be like this. If you don't want to talk to me, then I can only apologize for making your trip useless. However, I am the most useful spokesperson you can find here, whether it is now or future." Then there was another smile on his face.This kind of smile is tantamount to slamming the door in front of Theremon. "Okay then," Thelimon said after thinking for a moment, "it seems that there is no other choice. If you don't interview you, there will be no one to interview. Okay, let's talk. How long can we talk?" "Whatever, although the first conversation should be relatively short, and you also..." He cracked his lips with a smile that was almost malicious, which was surprising, "You must also know that we only have fourteen months in total During this time, I still have some things to do." "Fourteen months, you say? I suppose so. And then?" "I suppose you haven't read the Book of Revelation?" "To be exact, I haven't read it lately." "Then, please allow me," Fleming took a book with a red cover from a gap in the empty stone desk, and slid it across the table to Theremon, "give this to you. May you learn from it , and at the same time I can summarize its themes, you may be interested in it. Time is very short... Exactly, only 418 days from now, more precisely, September 19 next year ...the world we comfortably know will be greatly altered. Six suns will disappear into black holes, all the stars will appear, and Kalgesh will be a sea of ​​flames." He made his words sound casual, like talking about a storm coming tomorrow afternoon, or next week's rare blooms in the city's botanical gardens.Kargesh will become a sea of ​​fire, and six suns will enter an endless black hole.Star…… "Stars," said Theremon aloud, "what are they actually?" "It's God's instrument of torture." "Could you explain more clearly? Do you think..." "The nature of the stars will be on full display," Freemount said, "for the next 418 days." "On September 19, the Year of Repentance will end," said Theremon. Fleming looked both amused and surprised. "It seems that you have been studying our teachings." "To a certain extent, at least, having heard Mondir speak of lately. I know that 2049 is a cycle... and what you call a period of fire. I think you will have no further comment on this. Can you explain more?" "In the fifth chapter of the Book of Revelation, you will find the explanation. No, you don't have to look for it now, I can extract it for you." The sky fire fell from the star that conceived the will of God. Once it touched the fire, Kargash towns, their people, and everything they have created will be utterly destroyed and reduced to ashes.'” Theremon nodded. "The catastrophe has come suddenly. Why?" "It is the will of God. They warned us not to do evil things and gave us time to repent. This time is what we call the year of repentance, which is equivalent to 2049 years of human beings, as you already know. This year of repentance Coming to an end." "And then we'll all be wiped out. Do you think so?" "Not all, but most of them. The civilization of a generation will also be destroyed, and the few surviving people will take on the task of rebuilding their homes. You seem to understand this. This is another period of danger in the long history of human development. .The impending catastrophe is not the first time humanity has been tested by God, nor is it the first time it has failed. The test has been failed many times, and now we are on the verge of being tested again." Strangely enough, Freemont looked nothing like a lunatic.So Limon thought. Apart from the odd robes, he resembled a young businessman sitting in a nice office...a head of credit office, for example, or an investment banker.He's smart and capable, you can see that at a glance.He is articulate, quick thinking, concise language, neither rhetoric, nor nonsense.But what he said in a succinct way was a big lie and nonsense.What he said was in stark contrast to the way he said it, far from it. He sat calmly, looking relaxed, waiting for the reporter to ask his next question. "With all due respect," said Theremon after a moment, "I, like many people, find it difficult to accept that an event of this magnitude has been revealed to me as the truth. I need conclusive evidence, but you Nothing has been given to us. You will say: trust us, hard evidence cannot. Of course, that is all you can tell us. And we better believe you, because you have heard it from God , you know God doesn't lie. But can you tell me Explain why I should trust you?For people like me, trust alone is not enough. " "Why do you think there is no evidence?" asked Freemont. "Is there? Isn't it in the book of Revelation? To me circumstantial evidence is not evidence." "You know, we're a very old organization." "It is said to be ten thousand years old." There was a sudden smile on Freeman's thin lips. "It's a loose figure, maybe exaggerated for publicity. Internally, we just say it goes back to prehistory." "So, your group has a history of at least two thousand years." "Probably more, at least it should be. Going back before the last disaster... so more than 2049, probably much more, but we can't prove it, at least not in a way you can accept. We It is believed that the existence of the Pyro faction can even be traced back to several rounds of destruction, which means that it may be as high as six thousand years. In short, it is very important that we were born before the catastrophe. Our organization has survived silently for more than a penitent year , and therefore have extremely detailed data that disaster is coming. We know what's going to happen because we understand how things have happened many times before." "But you have not shown anyone the information, facts and evidence you said." They talked and talked and talked about the evidence, but nothing came of it.Theremon began to feel restless.Obviously, this is a bluff to scare people.Full of downbeat and disappointing fiction designed to lure large donations from the likes of Botticell, Weaving and other gullible rich people who are desperate to survive and pay for safety.Despite his honest and intelligent appearance, Fleming could only be the great conspirator in a great company of swindlers full of whimsy, or one of the many people who boarded the Mundial pirate ship. "Okay." Thelimon said, "we tentatively assume that there will be some kind of worldwide disaster next year, and you have provided detailed knowledge of this disaster. To put it bluntly, what exactly do you want us to do? Your church, begging God for forgiveness?" "That's too late." "So, there is no hope? If so, why bother such a big god to remind us?" Freemont smiled again, this time without feigning ignorance. "There are two reasons. One: We recognize that we do want people to come into our churches, not so that they try to influence God, but that they listen to our teachings, think morally and conduct themselves according to our standards problem. We think we have a set of things that are valuable to the world in this regard. The second reason, which is a more pressing one, is that we want people to believe that what's going to happen is real so they can Steps can be taken to protect ourselves, mitigate the catastrophe, and save our civilization from total destruction. Of course, the fire is inevitable, because human nature is already so... God has said that the time of vengeance is coming... But in the madness and fear, there are people Will survive. I assure you that we Flame believers will escape the catastrophe, survive intact, and lead mankind into a new resurrection period. We are willing to provide help, love and warmth to those who overcome the disaster with us .Does that sound crazy to you too, Therimon? Do we all seem dangerous to you?" "If I can accept your assumptions..." "Are you saying there's going to be a fire next year? Yes, it will. Now it's a question of whether you'll take it in enough time, and if you do, you'll survive and be a keeper of the legacy , otherwise, it will only be discovered in times of disaster and suffering that we have been telling the truth.” "I don't think that's going to happen," Theremon said. "I really hope that you can keep this idea until the last day of this year of repentance." Freemont said, standing up suddenly, and stretched out a hand to Serimon, "I have to go, Your Royal Highness needs to see me in a few minutes .We'll have time to talk again, I'm sure of that. Within a day, or less...I managed to find time. I look forward to talking to you again. Strange to say, I seem Feel like you and I are meant to be close, to work together. You know what, we have a lot in common." "yes?" "It's not a matter of faith, it's a matter of survival... a matter of helping others to survive... yes, I think so, and I'm sure. I think the day will come when we will seek each other, and we will unite against the darkness .To be precise, I firmly believe that there will be such a day." Of course, I'd better make a black robe that fit right away.Theremon thought. There was no point in pissing Freeman off with any kind of vulgarity.Obviously, the Flame faction is growing day by day, and there is a big conspiracy in it.To understand it, probably to a large extent, he had to rely on Freemans. Theremon quickly put the "Apocalypse" into his briefcase and stood up. "I'll call again in a few weeks," said Theremon, "after I've read this book carefully. I'm sure I'll have more questions then... To see Mondial 71, one must How much time in advance?" Freeman is not the type to be easily scammed. "I have already said that from now until the fire comes, His Highness's work is very important, and he does not have time for personal interviews. I am really sorry, but I cannot change it." Freeman stretched out his hand, "It is a pleasure to meet with You meet."