Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 176 Paternoster Elevator

The underground secret passage of the manor.

Part of the originally built palace has now been demolished. The exit of the secret passage was originally just an ordinary cave, but now it has been expanded into a huge vertical cavity. Circles of spiraling downward roads lead all the way to the sea below. This space is divided into multiple platforms, and each platform has wide tunnels extending in different directions.

In the circular hole in the middle of the platform, square open compartments connected together are moving slowly. Their speed is not fast, but they keep moving with no intention of stopping.

This is the Paternoster Elevator.

"Paternoster" means "Our Father" in Latin, the opening two words of the Latin version of the Lord's Prayer. It was originally named this way because the elevator is arranged in a circular pattern, which is similar to the prayer beads recited when praying the rosary, which has some religious metaphors.

An elevator that loops forever without stopping. This doorless elevator was born in 19th century England. Passengers can get on or off the elevator at any floor as they wish. Of course, this requires quick eyes and hands.

This was not a problem at all for the banshees. This kind of machine that could go up and down quickly became popular among the banshees after it was installed. When it was first put into operation, there were often banshees who would go up and not come down, riding it like a roller coaster, and finally being thrown into the sea by their angry compatriots.

Well, the biggest flaw of this type of elevator is that it is not safe enough. If you don't react quickly enough, there is a risk of getting stuck. Naturally, the banshees don't have to worry about this.

If you go around to the other side, you can see the source of power for the elevator. It is a noisy machine that happily sings songs that only it can understand, burning pollution and driving the elevator to rotate continuously.

Zeus's steam factory has not used the Noisier for the time being. Whether this steam engine, which is suspected to be controlled by the evil god, is reliable still needs to be observed. The place where the banshees gather is naturally the best choice. It poses no threat to the banshees, and no matter if it suddenly explodes or sprays pollution, the banshees can react quickly and minimize the harm.

At present, the steam engines used in the factory are all those with machine souls. Zeus will go to appease them regularly. The research team led by Chloe has not yet found a way to appease the machine souls, so Zeus can only go there himself. Fortunately, the machine souls are very stable, and they can run stably for several days every time he goes there.

Alexei held the blueprint and looked at the noisy people in front of him thoughtfully.

"So, the factory will soon be equipped with these Noisy Ones? Even if they have an unclear connection to the evil god?"

The banshee next to her has long brown hair. She is Una, who is in charge of the design and execution of Castel's architecture. Originally, architecture was just her hobby, but after the preparations for war began, she was pulled over by Zeus and was responsible for the construction of the Webway project and the ground fortress.

Una glanced at the Noisy One, nodded, and whispered, "Yes, there's no need to worry. They're very stable, even more stable than ordinary steam engines. The Steel Spirit within them seems to proactively maintain the steam engines, which is very convenient for us."

The Spirit of Steel is a strange creature summoned by Chloe and the other two through a ritual. This strange and noisy existence was once considered an evil god, but now most people are no longer so afraid of it. Although it keeps nagging and no one knows what it is saying, it never brings any danger, so everyone just leaves it alone.

At most, we can add some sound insulation to prevent it from being too noisy.

"Well, since the Lord has decided so," Alexi sighed. He naturally distrusted these mechanical devices. Fortunately, he no longer had to manage these factory matters, otherwise he wouldn't be able to sleep well. "Ms. Oona, did you call me here to discuss the connection between the underground tunnel and the surface fortifications?"

Ever since Zeus formulated the Webway plan, he has been dealing with the banshee named Una a lot.

In Zeus's division of labor, Alexi was responsible for leading Caster's construction team to build fortifications on the island, while the banshees were responsible for the underground network passages and outer fortresses. These fortifications and the underground network passages had to be connected to each other, otherwise those reinforced concrete houses would be nothing but isolated islands.

Concreting the ground wasn't difficult; Hughes had a complete construction plan, and most of the workers were literate. Una's excavation work underground was also simple: she simply threw the rocks forward to form mud. However, connecting the two pieces together proved difficult.

It is difficult for the banshees to accurately identify the direction when digging underground. Even if they can identify the direction, it is difficult to judge the depth. Moreover, the surface is not flat. The plains in the north are relatively good, but the hills in the south are simply a nightmare. Often, they can reach the ground after digging a few meters, but when they dig forward, they find themselves in the belly of a mountain.

Alexei was so worried about this that he started losing his hair.

Una was not having a good time either. Although the banshees dug quickly, their construction plans were much more complicated than those on the ground.

When constructing on the ground, no matter how difficult it is, it is all on the same plane. The network plan drawings given by Xius are 3D, with an additional Z-axis. This is really a big challenge for Una, who is doing civil engineering as a hobby.

Unfortunately, she didn't come here to solve this problem.

Una shook her head, her long, beautiful brown hair swaying in the air. "That's not the case. The Lord asked you to postpone the construction of the ground fortifications and expand the church first."

"Expand the church!?"

Alexei's voice rose an octave, and he opened his eyes wide, trying to figure out if this was a bad joke, which scared Oona so much that she took a step back.

Only then did he remember the strange personality of the banshee in front of him. Although she was a powerful supernatural creature, this banshee named Una always seemed timid. Only when she talked about engineering and construction would her eyes light up and she would talk eloquently.

God have mercy on her, Oona is just a little socially anxious, although this kind of personality is rare among banshees. After all, they are born with the ability of telepathy, and later they are connected to the mind link. Most banshees can chat with several people at the same time.

"It's true! Hughes went to the factory and will be back soon. Let me tell you first, he'll come straight over later. Look, here he comes!"

Una raised her hand and pointed to a platform on the lower level, where there was a passage leading to the southeast. Alexi looked over there and just saw Zeus getting off the carriage.

(End of this chapter)