Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 173 Guardian Inscription
The nun with orange-red hair grabbed the rotten wooden door, lifted it carefully, and slowly pushed it open.

The door hinges creaked, and sunlight streamed onto the weathered floor tiles.

"This church was built by the first group of immigrants who arrived in Castel. Back then, the Candlelight Society was still trying to expand. We, the Fire Moths, were constantly being chased around. Who could have imagined that we'd be able to live in their church today?" She walked straight into the church. "Come in, I'll show you my latest discovery."

Hughes walked in slowly. He had been here many times, but had never looked at the church so carefully. The old stone walls had a weathered exterior, and the white paint on the inside was newer, but it could not cover the gaps between the bricks and stones.

"Is this the church you are talking about?"

Hughes' tone was full of suspicion.

"Indeed, we should be thankful for our loss of contact with the outside world." Chloe folded her arms across her chest, a look of pride on her face. "When I was checking the anchor point, I remembered that since there's an anchor point here and it's an old church, there's a good chance there's a protective inscription."

"Then I searched the entire church, and I actually found it!"

Her tone gradually became excited. "Guardian Inscription! Do you know how precious this thing is? Ever since the last white disaster, the Candlelight Society has been unable to engrave new guardian inscriptions. Now this thing is as precious as a holy relic. If one is broken, there will be one less. If it weren't tied to the church and couldn't be moved, they would have sent people here to dig it up long ago."

Guardian Inscription? This was the first time Zeus had heard this term. It sounded like some kind of defensive thing, definitely related to the extraordinary world.

But speaking of it, he seemed to have some impression of this
Before entering the church for the first time, Zeus had used the detection ability he gained from the symbiotic contract to inspect the church. What was the conclusion he came to at that time?

Hughes naturally placed his hand on the stone wall.

Granite, inscription: #￥%@&
Yes, that's it.

But what's the point? He looked up at the rotten pillars and leaky windows and shrugged. "You called me here just for this? Not to mention how powerful this protective inscription is, even if it can really protect this church, it's not worth much, right? We can't just fight a sea urchin here."

This dilapidated church is almost located in the center of Castres, just slightly to the east. If the front line is really pushed here, it will make little difference whether it can be defended or not.

Zeus really couldn't imagine what the purpose of the protective inscriptions here was. If it could protect against pollution, it would indeed be useful, but the Banshees were not afraid of pollution.

"No, no, no, my dear lord, your thinking is still too narrow." Chloe stretched out her index finger and waved. "Although the protective inscription of this church can only protect the church, it does not stipulate how large the church can be."

"???"

"If I expand the church, for example, by extending the wall outward all the way to the coast, or by making the rooms bigger, large enough to accommodate several factories."

"?!?!"

"We could even be bolder and turn the entire Castel Island into a church."

"!!!"

Xius was stunned when he heard this. How could it be done this way?

It only guards the church, so why not expand the scope of the church?
"Can you really exploit this loophole? It sounds like a game of words." Hughes said doubtfully. "Originally, it shouldn't work, but I can make a small change to the church's protective inscription. While it won't expand its range infinitely, it should be able to completely enclose Caster. However, the original energy source will be insufficient, so we'll need to add a new power supply."

"Wait, didn't you just say that the Candlelight Society had lost the technology related to the Guardian Inscription? How could you modify it?"

"The candlelight might be lost, but the fire moth isn't," Chloe said matter-of-factly. "They keep their technology sealed up all the time and use all sorts of secrecy measures, so they often lose it. We're open source, so of course we're not worried about it being lost."

The word "open source" came from Hughes. He mentioned it a few days ago, and Chloe happened to hear it. She liked the word very much and felt that it was very consistent with the characteristics of the Fire Moth, so she used it immediately.

It’s just that the knowledge in this world is polluted. Open source on Blue Planet costs money, but open source here is fatal.

"Anyway, I found the core of the inscription here. It's underground. I checked it out, and it won't be a problem to modify it. As long as we expand this church big enough, it will be stronger than those reinforced concrete fortresses!"

Chloe's eyes lit up as she spoke. Zeus had seen her enthusiasm for technology before. She had no hesitation in using herself as an experiment that time. Now it was just a matter of demolishing a church, a Candlelight Society church at that. She didn't feel any psychological burden at all.

And if this thing can really resist the enemy, Zeus doesn't mind if the church on the island is a little bigger.

He sighed and said, "Tell me about the effects of the Guardian Inscription."

Chloe smiled with satisfaction and pointed at the nearby church walls. "Look at those walls! They've barely been maintained and are severely weathered. Furthermore, they weren't built with any protection in mind. But as long as I activate the protective inscription, they can withstand a direct hit from a battering ram!"

"Has the impact resistance at all angles been improved? Also the weight and so on?"

"That's right! It will improve the strength of the building in all aspects. It's somewhat similar to the flesh magic of the Banshee. Oh, and it can even prevent pollution, which is even more like flesh magic!"

All-round improvement? Apparently, it wasn't just about increasing shear and compression resistance. If that were the case, it would be quite useful. With those sea urchins rampaging underwater, the Banshees would be ripped to pieces with the slightest contact. Zeus had been a little worried about whether the fortifications could withstand it.

Now with the guardian inscription, there is an extra layer of insurance.

"You just said they can also prevent pollution?"

"Yes, but I don't know much about this. I've never seen Candlelight activate a protective inscription before. I also found the method of modifying the inscription in a book."

Xius blinked: "Never activated it?"

Come to think of it, how often does a church need protection? Or, what could be so large as to threaten a church?

Hiss, thinking about it this way, candlelight will engrave protective inscriptions in every church, which is terrifying when you think about it.

Could it be that in the past, believers often needed to take shelter in churches? Even specialized protective inscriptions were needed to strengthen the church and prevent it from collapsing?

(End of this chapter)