Chapter 84: Glass

Considering that if he didn't go sightseeing at the church, he'd have to go sightseeing elsewhere, Kraft followed Captain Weilian into the church.

Passing through the main door adorned with silver-inlaid relief carvings and stepping into the central hall, the most classic part of a standard structure, was no exception at the Port of Solace church.

No floor ever erected obstacles in the vertical direction of this area; an upward gaze could reach the dome directly, generally featuring a painted scene of Heaven as the protagonist. The larger the church, the more it would strive to highlight this feature, with this awe-inspiring height symbolizing the unreachable gap between God and man.

The Church of Solace adopted a fully glass-mosaic-style inlaid ceiling, reflecting the candlelight of the grand chandelier. Building upon tradition, it pushed brilliance and sublimity to the extreme, causing the uplooker to forget where they were in a daze, as if standing under the stars of Heaven, detached from worldly clamor.

Pillars on both sides semi-separated the main hall from the side halls, with barriers built from small red glass pieces blocking the line of sight. One could vaguely see the candlesticks behind them; the transparency was much higher than those seen in the port district, and the colors were more uniform and neat.

The singing came from behind the translucent glass curtain wall, clear and ethereal, with echoes lingering in the vast space, creating the effect of being mistaken for harmonies.

Uniform children's voices sang a cappella; in the hazy red light, it was unclear whether they were castrati or little boys. This voice made Kraft feel uncomfortable; the unnatural layered sounds always reminded him of deep-seated encounters, all using human vocal cords to produce sounds as far from normal as possible.

He turned his head, trying to shake off the sound that seemed stuck in his ear canal. But inside the enclosed hall, the singing was everywhere. As a visitor, it was improper to cover his ears and commit a rude act, so he could only focus his attention on the surrounding decorations.

Unlike the exterior image, the church's interior style, against all convention, defied the ascetic and solemn sacred tone, using a large amount of warm-toned glass. A pale red, high-transparency glass served as the main body, rendering a slightly tipsy red glow, supplemented by slightly varied deep red and dark glass, with a few orange and yellow-orange accents.

It was evident the designer wanted to create a sense of gentleness beyond the sacred, mediating the church's inherent intimidating impression to make it more fitting for the name "Solace."

But this adjustment was a bit too forceful; for Kraft, it felt like a hand shaking and pouring half a box of sugar into coffee, so cloyingly sweet it was indescribable.

During the time it took to walk halfway across the central hall from the entrance, his perception of the warm light steadily declined. Like the sound, it was everywhere, filling the space like a misty haze, flowing into his pupils to coat his retinas, a cloying, sticky syrup texture that couldn't be wiped or washed clean.

Some people might feel they had arrived at a safe and sweet Heaven; for instance, Kup quite liked it here. Although he had recently privately expressed doubts about the foundations of his faith, it seemed that didn't stop him from liking the environment here.

From the moment he entered the main gate, this young man from the Salt Tide District had been intoxicated by it. Some body language clearly and unmistakably revealed that he had relaxed from the constraint he felt upon first entering the church. The warm and sweet visual experience suited him very well.

Weilian led them toward the statue. The priest was telling stories from the holy scriptures to the faithful bowing their heads on the benches, currently speaking of the contempt and suppression the saint suffered in the mortal world before ascending to Heaven.

White stone statues of figures in various postures and movements lined both sides; the very center had no statue instead. A double-winged ring symbol replaced the supreme existence itself, with no specific image provided for the public to admire.

The scriptures contain many records of the Heavenly Father coming to the mortal world to display miracles, testing and tempering his believers, or rewarding the good and punishing the wicked. Sometimes appearing in the guise of mortals of different identities, they mostly ended with revealing their true form, with everyone kneeling and praising their benevolence and wisdom.

Logically, there should be many descriptions of his own person; the fact was exactly the opposite. Peering into or imagining the Heavenly Father's face was always a taboo. Claiming to gaze directly at his face was considered an act of disrespect, and related creations needed to avoid it, or simply declare that God had no true face and could not possibly be gazed upon and remembered by mortals.

Those saintly stone carvings, sculpted from lustrous white stone, were frozen at the moment in the stories when they witnessed the true form of the deity: barefoot farmers picking up rice stalks, knights clad in holy-emblazoned robes fighting with swords, and an elderly bishop looking up in astonishment while reading scriptures.

The carving level of these sculptures was extremely high; to Kraft, who had half an artistic cell, they were all stunning. The softness and fit of the fabric and the movement of muscle groups were rendered with utmost realism, while also ensuring consistency among the various stone carvings.

The farmers were not too short, and the knights were not too prominent, maintaining a moderate degree.

And their gazes were all aimed at the holy symbol in the center representing the Heavenly Father, intending to express more than twenty stories through a single scene.

The priest finished the sermon, walked down from the platform, took a basket containing wafers from a young cleric behind him also dressed in white robes, and distributed them to those listening to the sermon. Someone who had only heard the ending managed to sneakily receive one.

There are stories in the church of saints distributing food made from the deity's body to believers. As an unbeliever, Kraft, out of curiosity, took a small bite. The unrisen solid wafer almost knocked out his front teeth; this piece was probably made from God's bones.

"Shall we go up and take a look?" Tucking the wafer into his pocket, he gave up the idea of solving dinner on the side. He pointed to an unguarded staircase on one side, planning to go to a higher place to avoid the annoying choir. The second floor also seemed to be Weilian's destination; he gripped the handrail and climbed the stairs ahead.

The spiral staircase was set in the corner of the hall, somewhat inconspicuous. After turning two circles on it, they arrived at the church's second floor.

Here were arranged some small rooms with good soundproofing. Occasionally, people visiting the church would open the door and come out, looking around to see if anyone was watching them.

Peering inside during their comings and goings, one could see that the rooms also used a small pane of spliced glass windows to separate the two sides, allowing each side to see the other's general shape and know of their existence, but unable to ascertain their identity.

It was probably a place to confess to clergy. Kraft was not interested in this, but the singing here was indeed much quieter. He looked at Weilian inquiringly, wanting to know what this captain, who didn't go to a "reliable place" in the middle of the night, wanted to do at this church. Perhaps he also had sins to atone for?

"Oh, don't look at me like that. I am far more pious than those people, and I have no hesitation in confessing my errors to God." Weilian admitted his purpose matter-of-factly. "And I always go to the church before going to the port."

"I have to say, that surpasses at least ninety-nine percent of the people down there." Kraft leaned over the railing. Below, heads were crowded together, bathed in pale red light. From this perspective, the red light was not gentle; it had a feeling of looking down on the struggling and confused masses of the mortal world.

The only cool tones came from the double-winged ring and his saint statues, out of place with the crowd. The former had no face, making it impossible to view from a human perspective; the latter had eyes only for the holy symbol, with none gazing at the flow of people coming and going below, nor intending to cast a glance at another priest about to ascend the platform to preach.

After looking for a while, he felt such a design was not accidental; the scene created by the flow of people and the arrangement itself contained a specific meaning it wanted to convey.

He had visited no more than one hand's worth of churches, of which about one and a half could be considered cathedrals. Half of that was the Saint Simon Church in Wendeng Port, and the only large church in the formal sense was the Church of Solace. Plus, he had no theological attainment, so it was inappropriate to make rash judgments.

Retracting his gaze from downstairs, Kraft waved to Weilian and said, "You go ahead; we'll just wander around nearby."

"See you in a bit."

"See you in a bit. May God's gaze rest upon you." As Kraft spoke, he closed the door on Weilian, seeing on his strange, conflicted face that he didn't quite like this blessing.

"Maybe we can skip that kind of treatment?" A distorted voice came from behind the door.

What a case of Lord Ye loving dragons. Kraft shook his head and left, walking along the corridor toward the main gate. He wanted to go closer to look at the glass wings on the front of the church.

At the end of the corridor, they approached the lower hem of one wing.

Large feathers made of polished, crystal-clear white glass were fitted together one by one using methods an amateur wouldn't understand. The longest one at the end was nearly the length of an upper arm; its transparency was on par with ice prisms, so beautiful it didn't seem like a product of this era, surpassing even the pale red glass seen downstairs.

The glass used by the church, compared to the colored light decorations in the port, was more than a generation ahead in terms of gap: higher transparency and fewer impurities.

Especially this pair of exaggerated wings, which basically reached the level of understanding of glass held by souls from other worlds; it had a bit of the feel of glass instruments.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A clear voice approached from behind, footsteps light.

Kraft turned to look. A man with somewhat effeminate features stood beside them, admiring this craft miracle together from the closest point.

"Indeed." Even a soul from another world had to admit this thing looked shocking at night. It wasn't something achievable just by meeting craft standards; there was also artistic attainment that left him three streets behind, with the dedication poured into it by the builders being unimaginable.

"Those places outside all use scraps and waste materials discarded by the church. No other place in Port of Solace can be found like this." There was pride and disdain in his tone. The effeminate man lifted his neck, gazing up at the tip of the wing. "Living here for a long time, sometimes I feel Heaven is just like this."

When speaking excitedly, the tail of his voice changed pitch, habitually carrying a musical rhythm. His vocal range for rising and falling tones was wide, sounding like a musical theater performance.

Alright, Kraft confirmed the source of the choral singing: no little boys, it was castrati. Some children from poor families would take this path, undergoing operations not to be spoken of to outsiders and rigorous training to secure a job in a church or performance troupe.

While maintaining a wide vocal range, they also possessed a timbre unaltered by the voice-changing period, making them perfect for chanting hymns.

"Incredible, how exactly was this done?" This person sounded like he knew some inside information; Kraft felt he could ask something out of him.

"I heard it's technology from Dunling. They used some alchemical potion to remove the impurities from the glass, making it more transparent than crystal." The castrato reached out to catch the light of that pure wonder, his voice ethereal. "Custom-made for this one place only; there will never be another like it."