Millennium Witch.

Chapter 50 - 50 - The Sanctuary
After finishing her tea, Bingyu seemed to remember her original purpose and asked to use the sanctuary to recharge her motorcycle.

The elder readily agreed and immediately got up to lead the way. Yvette, who was already full of curiosity about the mysterious sanctuary, naturally followed behind and arrived at another part of the Puppet Town together.

This time it wasn't a container apartment, but a cathedral left over from the early civilization period in the town.

The walls here are rough and mottled, with sections collapsed, bearing the marks of time, but the overall framework remains remarkably sturdy thanks to the meticulous maintenance of the puppets. The vegetation around the church is meticulously trimmed, and even the iconic obsidian bricks at the entrance are polished to a glossy black, reflecting the sunlight softly.

Stepping into the church, the spacious main hall was exceptionally quiet, with light filtering through the stained-glass windows, which were mostly broken, making every speck of dust sparkle.

Above the central circular shrine, a massive pixelated cube statue stood silently. Looking at this iconic symbol, Yvette instantly understood the former church's origins.

Temple of the Mind!

This is a well-known religion from the early civilization period, originating from Silver Mirror Continent. One of its tenets is "the flesh and blood are weak, and the machine ascends." After the apocalypse, it became a sanctuary for mechanical puppets to worship the mechanical god, which is quite fitting in style.

However, Yvette knew very little about the religion of the Origin Civilization, only that the Temple of Mind and "Sky Technology" had an ambiguous relationship, with the former suspected to be secretly funded by the latter. If she had another chance to enter a dream, she might search for relevant information.

Besides the cube statue left by the Temple of Mind, there is also a female mechanical puppet dressed in a black nun's habit in the church. It is very human-like, but compared to the girlish style of Ice Rain, this nun has a more mature temperament, and the outline of her chest under the nun's habit is more obvious.

Although she knew that the outline must be a white body or a metal breastplate underneath, Yvette couldn't help but take a few more glances. She wondered how such a highly anthropomorphic and perfectly intact mechanical puppet could have been picked up from a garbage dump like the Grand Elder.
Could it be that the God of Machines controls a puppet production line from the past, which is why he is able to create such a highly anthropomorphic new puppet?

"Two guests, this is Sister Sunflower from our sanctuary. Miss Sunflower, these are Miss Yvette and Miss Ice Rain, two guests who have come from afar and wish to borrow the sanctuary to request that God recharge their vehicle."

“No problem, God of Machines above, I will help you.” Miss Sunflower gave a perfectly timed smile, turned and went to a corner room, where she brought out a box.

Yvette looked at it and found it was a portable metal case with a faint glow and obvious multi-functional ports; it was essentially a large power bank.

She thought, no wonder Bingyu said that every kingdom has a sanctuary. Besides making all sorts of prayers to the God of Machines, the most important function of the sanctuary must be providing energy, right? It's roughly equivalent to the mechanical puppets' main dining hall. Otherwise, given the size and development of these puppet towns, they simply couldn't obtain their own energy for survival.

But where does the sanctuary's energy come from? Is it from an elemental reactor? From underground magic wires? Or some other method?
Thinking about this, an idea gradually formed in her mind.

She intends to stay here for a while to observe and understand more closely how this puppet town operates, and to learn about the mysterious mechanical god.

……

After Yvette requested to stay here temporarily, the Grand Elder gladly agreed, but stated that he could not make the decision alone and needed to convene a meeting with the other councilors of the kingdom.

Bingyu also took the opportunity to make the exact same request, but her reason was that if she wanted to explore the nearby ruined city of Agasher, a safe and stable puppet kingdom would be the perfect base. Besides, she had already reported this to the gods before coming to Black Tide Continent.

So, after the approval was granted by the Kingdom Council, Yvette and Ice Rain were allowed to live here permanently. However, as outsiders, they could not live in the container apartment and had to find suitable rooms to live in from the ruins of the town themselves.

Yvette had no objection to this, of course; she could stay in the campervan directly. Bingyu, on the other hand, shyly asked if she could stay in the campervan with him, but after being ruthlessly rejected, she had no choice but to leave dejectedly.

……

As evening approached, the sky transitioned into a deep cyan, not yet fully settling into inky blue.

Yvette was looking around the ruined town when she suddenly heard the roar of an engine, accompanied by a low swirling sound, approaching from afar. She looked up and saw a large flying vehicle whizzing past in the sky, cut through by the ruined buildings and dense tree canopy, before landing on a small, relatively flat clearing near the sanctuary.

She immediately went over and saw the vehicle's hatch open. The nun she had seen earlier was deftly unloading several energy storage boxes that shimmered with a ghostly blue light from inside the spaceship and neatly stacking them at her feet. At the same time, she carefully returned several similar boxes whose surfaces had dimmed and seemed to have run out of energy.

"It's like delivering a package..." Yvette walked over and said, "Let me help you."

“Thank you, Miss Yvette, but no, it’s my duty as a nun,” Miss Sunflower said with a smile, politely declining.

Ivy nodded without saying anything more, her gaze falling on the huge cargo spaceship. She noticed that it still bore the embossed logo of the Rift Group, its silvery-white color now noticeably yellowed.

"It's such a simple way of realizing it," she thought. "Judging from the current situation, the God of Machines is not a god in the usual sense. At least not a true god like the one in the Radiant Continent who established a divine kingdom and possessed supreme power. Instead, it seems more like a super AI that survived the apocalypse."

But the elder said that the God of Machines gave the mechanical puppets souls. How did that happen?
It not only solved the problem of the origin of the soul, but also the problem of the mind core being unable to serve as a carrier of the soul.
What if we open the brains of these mechanical golems and find a normal human brain inside... Hmm, that would be a bit too horrifying, but it's not impossible. However, I can observe them here for a while longer, and there will always be a chance to verify it... Yvette made a bold guess.

By this time, the nun had finished moving all the energy storage boxes, and the transport ship was actually a talking, non-humanoid mechanical being. After exchanging greetings and praising the great mechanical god, the transport ship took off and disappeared into the distant horizon. The nun wiped non-existent sweat from her brow, a satisfied smile on her face.

Yvette observed her smile and noticed that it was different from the businesslike smile she had shown before. This smile was more genuine, as if she really enjoyed her duties as a nun.

“Miss Sunflower, you seem to really enjoy being a nun?” Yvette asked quietly.

“Yes, no one would refuse to serve God,” the nun nodded with a smile.

"Can you answer one question for me?" Yvette asked again.

"what is the problem?"

Why do the machine race all wish they could become human?

"do not know."

"Don't know?" Yvette was a little surprised. She had originally thought that the nun would say it was because human civilization was so glorious that it inspired worship, or that humans were the creators and it was normal to imitate them.

“It seems to be an instinct we are born with. If we want the answer, perhaps we can only ask the great god of machines,” the nun said.

“Then can you ask God?” Yvette asked again.

“Well…” The nun looked troubled. “God doesn’t answer every question. If you encounter difficulties, you can seek God’s help, but it’s best not to bother Him with this kind of question. He might not even answer you… If you really want to know, Miss Yvette, you might as well try praying to God yourself.”

"Alright," Yvette sighed inwardly.

She definitely wouldn't contact the God of Machines; who knows what the God of Machines' attitude is towards human survivors... What if she's exposed and then subjected to heavy firepower?
Furthermore, she strongly suspected that the God of Machines might have a way to resurrect humanity. After all, even an organization like the "Society for the Survival of Civilization" existed before the apocalypse, so there must have been other private or official methods for overcoming tribulations, such as underground human gene banks. But it did nothing, and this in itself might imply its attitude.

(End of this chapter)