Lamont paused, as if immersed in memories, and slowly said, "My brother and I were born into a noble family and used to enjoy raising ants as children.

When the total number of individuals in an ant colony reaches a certain threshold, they can develop self-awareness and even intelligence.

They can observe the keepers, realize their existence, and worship their every action—

After satisfying their food needs, the ant colony will pile the extra mushroom crumbs it produces in a conspicuous place in the glass box as a sacrifice.

They will even gather around that pile of mushroom crumbs and form a tower to attract the keeper's attention when the keeper comes to the glass box and puts in a new batch of supplies.

When the ant colony discovers that the strongest soldier ants in the colony are taken away by the keeper, they will not feel fear and choose to degenerate.

On the contrary, they will adjust within the colony,

Actively allocate resources to those young ants most likely to become strong soldier ants,

Provide the best living environment for the soldier ants, and do everything possible to cultivate strong soldier ants to meet the needs of the keeper."

A vague and gloomy laughter came from below Lamont's red armored mask, "The intelligence of that group of ants is very high, but only relative to insects.

They don't know the true intentions of the keeper, and they can't see the whole picture of the keeper—in their eyes, the keeper may only be a huge, unimaginable black shadow,

And the five giant pillars that fall from the sky (that is, the hands of the children) are the keeper's true form.

However, they can also provide us with some special lessons..."

The longsword held by Lamont lightly scraped the ground, scraping up sparks, "If there are gods, then humans may never understand His thoughts;

The actions that humans think they can do to attract the attention of the gods may only be some inexplicable futile acts in the eyes of the latter;

God created mankind, not for some lofty purpose, but perhaps simply for fun."

Lamont's tone became somewhat ethereal, and he raised his head slightly and said calmly, "The illusion that Theresa saw was a worldwide disaster three hundred...it should be three hundred and fifty years ago.

At that time, natural disasters occurred frequently all over the world,

Acid rain, hail, drought, thunderstorms, sandstorms, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, and even meteor falls.

Crops failed, diseases were rampant, countless people died, and less than 30% of the survivors remained. The devastation was so terrible that even historians could hardly reach a consensus.

And in the scene Theresa saw, the source of all this came from the Holy Mountain—

A huge, unimaginable translucent human-shaped shadow floated above the Holy Mountain, majestic and sacred like the incarnation of a god,

His arms drooped from the sky, casting the starlight above the clouds into the world.

Every time starlight fell on the ground, it would turn into a disaster in a few days."

Lamont paused and continued, "In Theresa's illusion, He did not make a sound, nor did He express any thoughts.

He did not feel sad for the suffering of mankind, or rather, He could not understand, nor did He bother to understand the suffering of mankind.

He was like the children in my hometown, who sometimes use magnifying glasses to scorch insects, watching them burn to ashes in the scorching sun.

The act of punishment itself has no purpose,

Or rather, He inflicts evil simply because He has enough power to do so."

Lamont continued, "In the church education Theresa received, the Goddess created our world and created mankind according to her own image.

Humans are the Goddess's most beloved creations, and natural and man-made disasters only occur because humans are born with all kinds of original sins.

However, the illusion she saw greatly shook her worldview.

She doubted whether she had seen it wrong,

Suspecting that the being who brought down the natural disasters was not the Goddess, but the projection of other gods.

Until the last moment, she still clung to the faint hope that it was all an illusion, a test given by the Goddess."

Li Ang frowned, "What exactly did you see?"

"Heh,"

Lamont took a deep breath, "At the end of the first trial, Ken died where you are standing now due to serious injuries.

We passed through the mist door and saw... a machine."

Li Ang raised an eyebrow, "A machine?"

"That's right."

Lamont nodded and said, "There was no pure holy light, no pervasive fragrance, joyful gospel, or angels.

Behind the mist door, there was only a machine placed in the cave.

Since Ken had only died recently, we had no intention of carefully observing the surrounding environment, so we requested to use the wishing opportunity to revive Ken."

Li Ang glanced at the huge package on the back of the Kui Niu mech, "It seems the revival process didn't go smoothly."

Lamont nodded slowly, "That machine projected a vague, indistinct figure.

She floated in the air, and just by floating there, she made us feel fear and awe.

Even though we had experienced countless hardships and dangers, and killed countless monsters and beasts,

In front of her phantom, it was still difficult to suppress the trembling fear in our bodies—that was the unsuppressible biological instinct towards higher-level beings,

Just like goblins would stop running and freeze in front of powerful creatures.

Fortunately, her projection didn't care about our inner thoughts.

After listening to our statement,

She just indifferently reminded us that the result of the resurrection might not be what we imagined,

But we still chose that way.

To our surprise, she did not directly revive Ken's body, but waved her hand,

And grabbed a large number of monsters from inside the Holy Mountain,

Dismembered the monsters at a distance, bloody and cruel, without any divine demeanor, cutting them into countless pieces,

Then took Ken's brain out of his still-warm body,

And casually pieced these elements together like playing with plasticine, crudely made."

Even after more than fifty years,

When Lamont mentioned that experience, he still couldn't help clenching his fists and said coldly, "She casually threw a monster that could barely be seen as having a human shape in front of us and told us that this was Ken.

The wish has been fulfilled, let us leave on our own.

Even Theresa could do better in terms of limb restoration, at least making Ken look more human.

She, or rather the Goddess's projection, simply disdained and ignored us.

Even ignoring our somewhat offensive questioning, she waved her hand and drove us out of the Holy Mountain.

Like sweeping cockroaches out of the house, kicking them out."