Not A God

Chapter 21 - Strange Noise

"God Almighty is our everlasting Lord, who gives us peace in this world, so that we may flee from all sorrow and pain and rejoice in the salvation of the Lord alone!"

Inside the church, a few praying townspeople with their eyes closed, facing the statue of God in the centre of the church with a fervent look of devotion. The coloured light from the windows spilling over the handsome statue of God looking down on the world in compassion, giving the whole empty chapel a holy look.

Sitting in the corner of the pew to his left, Lederer withdrew his eyes and took note of the day's events in his notebook.

Today was his third day in town, and after two days of visiting, he had discovered that this new god, called the Ancient God, had only appeared in the last three months, and according to legend, many of the seriously ill had been healed by the miracles of this Ancient God and had thus become believers.

But at the same time, the town had become a little strange.

Many people began to believe in this ancient god, even those who had believed in the Sun God for decades had changed their beliefs, so quickly that it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable how quickly even those who had believed in the sun for decades had changed their beliefs. It was strange for Lederer to see people who had been true devotees for most of their lives change their beliefs so quickly to another god, one that was not known to them.

In addition, during his visits to the townspeople, Lederer also noticed that the common denominator among those who believed in the ancient gods was their thin bodies. Their dry bodies seemed to be made of dried branches as if they had been blown away by a gust of wind, and in the darkness, all that could be seen were their unusually bright eyes, and if they had not smiled when they saw outsiders, Lederer would have suspected that they were walking corpses. The townspeople always spoke with extraordinary exuberance and a sense of unnatural fervour, trying to preach to Lederer about the all-powerful ancient gods and drooling uncontrollably from the corners of their mouths as they spoke. At times, Lederer felt that they were becoming less and less human, which gave him the creeps.

After a few days of walking almost all over the town, Lederer was acutely aware of the disturbing nature of this peaceful and beautiful-looking town from the inside, where there seemed to be an inexplicable restlessness in the air that made him feel a little uneasy. Stroking the necklace of the reverse cross in his hand, Lederer frowned slightly, wondering if he should continue his investigation. He had seen this reverse cross necklace in the hands of almost every townie, so he had been observing it from time to time recently in order to investigate.

The delicate reverse cross necklace looked like a piece of jewellery, but after looking at it for a while, Lederer thought he could see some twisted shadows in the twisted patterns attached to the cross, like a human form or a demon, as if he could glimpse an abyss beyond human reach. Liddell thought it might just be that he had been staring too long, but these distorted shadows had indeed imprinted themselves on his mind, and lately, he had often felt a slight distortion of the world in front of him, and his mental state had become somewhat paranoid.But even so, he still didn't quite believe that the new god existed, and he felt that someone must be behind all this.

After all, in these post-black plague desolate times, the human heart was a terrible thing.

Thinking of this, Lederer's brow creased deeper and he stopped writing to look at the idol before him.

As this new god had been around for so short a time that no church had been built specifically for him, the townspeople had actually changed the most mainstream church of the sun god on the continent into this Ancient God and had deliberately modified the statue of the sun god. The statue of the sun god was originally a robust man with a perfectly muscled form and a face of masculine beauty popular on the continent, with deep, sharply cut and angular features.