That's the real reason why the Lost City of Eatos became what it is today.

It wasn't that Vivian had lost her memories of the city, but that she had never been here at all. The one who ruled the city was her evil-thought doppelganger, and it was that evil-thought doppelganger who destroyed the city and pushed it into another dimension. Everything exceeded Hao Ren's initial guess, and even completely exceeded his previous concept of the special existence of "evil-thought doppelgangers."

It turned out that there were such special individuals among the evil-thought doppelgangers?

But there were still many questions that hadn't been clarified, so in the end, he forcibly suppressed the various conjectures and confusions in his heart, and instead continued to ask about what happened afterward—because judging from the current state of the Colossus Legion and the Spirit of Eatos, something must have happened here after the city fell into another dimension.

"After the city fell into another dimension?" he asked Eatos in his heart, "What did you experience?"

"The moment the city fell into another dimension, the last surviving resisters in the city also died in the space-time shock. After that, the 'Overlord' stood on top of the pyramid of the Great Temple for a long time, I think at least hundreds of years... I couldn't understand what she was thinking, or maybe she wasn't thinking about anything at all. And in that process, I was slowly stabilizing my injuries."

"Injuries?" Lily blinked. "What injuries?"

"You didn't think I could be safe and sound when that ubiquitous moonlight descended, did you?" Eatos' voice was a little helpless. "Even the spirit of a Chaos Wanderer can hardly resist that strange red moon... I don't know what it is, but its light almost tore my soul apart, and the damage continued until hundreds of years after the city was thrown into another dimension. I originally thought this situation would last forever, but later the moonlight in the city finally gradually weakened, and I was able to recover."

Lily asked curiously, "Then what about that 'Overlord'? How did she get back to the pyramid?"

"I don't know, but since the city fell into another dimension, the 'Overlord's' power has been constantly declining. Although I am just a spirit, I can still feel this. She stood on the pyramid for a long time, until the power of the moonlight faded, and she returned to the Great Temple without warning, and then fell into a deep sleep—throughout this whole process, I never understood what kind of logic she was following."

"Actually, she really doesn't have any logic," Vivian shook her head with a wry smile, "At least after she started going crazy, she wouldn't have any logic anymore."

Izhaks thought for a while, and guessed, "After the 'Overlord' fell asleep, you took over the remaining stone statues here?"

"Those were originally my limbs," Eatos replied. "They (referring to the residents of the city) cut my armor and bones and made them into various things, including stone statues, but this had no effect on the Chaos Wanderer. I just temporarily lent those things to them for use—when the people in the city died, I took everything back..."

As Eatos' voice fell, those quietly standing colossi suddenly moved again. They turned around with a rumble and began to line up in neat squares—Gun, seeing the stone statues moving, immediately freaked out, meowing and jumping half a meter high, then arched her back and hissed softly, while shuffling behind Hao Ren: the cat girl was scared by these stone lumps.

At this time, Hao Ren had vaguely figured out the key: "So these stone statues are not guarding that 'Overlord' at all... In fact, you are 'watching' her!?"

"Watching is not enough. I know the power of these stone statues. If the Overlord wakes up, these stone statues can't stop her at all. I'm just monitoring this place to prevent someone from accidentally entering this other dimension and awakening the sleeper in the Great Temple—in the past long years, this has happened more than once. Other dimensions will always be connected to the prime material plane for various reasons. Reckless adventurers who enter the Great Temple may cause unpredictable consequences. I remember that the last time someone broke in, they even stood at the foot of the stairs of the Great Temple. They were just a group of humans, but they had incredible weapons and tenacious fighting spirit... But fortunately, I still stopped them."

As Eatos' voice fell, Hao Ren saw a stone statue walk out from the back of the team. The stone statue opened its huge palm, and some distorted and deformed metal fragments and tattered uniforms slipped from its fingers.

"British army," Vivian made a judgment after just one glance, "Uniforms from World War II."

"There are countless mysterious incidents of missing troops in history, half of which are unfortunately falling into other dimensions," Hesperia shook her head and sighed, "These other dimensions were left over from the mythical era, and they are still harming people today."

Hao Ren also sighed, but he also admitted that Eatos's disposal was a last resort: his party had already proved that Eatos's worries were correct. Outsiders entering the Great Temple would really awaken the sleeping Overlord. If the one who awakened the "Overlord" today was not a group of superhumans but a group of ordinary adventurers, then the consequences would be disastrous.

Since that divine evil-thought doppelganger had the ability to throw this city into another dimension, she must also have the ability to return herself to the prime material plane!

Vivian looked up at the sky, her expression a little wry: "So you sent out stone statues to fight us before..."

"I was just stopping you from going to the Great Temple," Eatos said slowly, "But I didn't expect you to go straight to the temple instead."

"This is the difference between unprofessional troublemaking and professional troublemaking," Hao Ren spread his hands. "We are professional troublemakers."

Everyone: "..."

Hesperia retreated backward without a trace: "Just talk about it, don't include me."

"No wonder your stone statues try to stay as far away from the Great Temple as possible, no matter how much they make trouble. It turns out it's to prevent awakening the monster inside," Hao Ren smacked his lips and shook his head. "And after we entered the Great Temple, you let the stone statues stop outside. That's probably the meaning of giving up treatment, right? Since that's the case, you should have told us. It's not like you can't communicate with people—just sending a bunch of stone statues to attack directly, normal people will resist. Look now, we blew up a bunch of your colossi, and you kicked my cat. Both sides suffered a lot."

Gun came over and rubbed Hao Ren's arm, muttering, "Big cat, I don't hurt anymore."

Eatos' helpless voice sounded in everyone's minds: "It's not that I'm unwilling to communicate with you, but that this kind of communication is more likely to awaken the sleeping 'Overlord.' In fact, if you hadn't successfully eliminated the 'Overlord,' I would never have 'spoken' again."

"Mental communication will awaken the Overlord?" Hao Ren felt like he had come into contact with a piece of information about the evil-thought doppelganger. "Has this happened before?"

"Mental communication itself will not awaken her, but it is very dangerous to mention her during mental communication. She is still watching this city in her sleep, and there are too many opportunities to wake her up," Eatos' tone was filled with sighs. "And in addition to this risk, many times the guys who break in here also have unpredictable behavior patterns. Communicating with them will bring more uncontrollable factors. There was once a group of refugee wizards who had crazy ideas after learning about the 'Overlord's' sleeping place. They actually wanted to deliberately awaken the Overlord in order to gain powerful strength. I really can't understand this tendency to destroy themselves, and I can't understand the strange ways of thinking of those strange 'little creatures,' so I simply stopped communicating with them. Until you appeared, you were an absolute exception."

"Yeah, after all, we not only woke her up, but also killed her," Hao Ren shrugged. "In short, we have figured out the ins and outs of this city, but I am still very curious about that 'Overlord.' Do you know where she came from originally?"

"Before the Overlord went completely crazy, I had a few exchanges with her," Eatos said slowly, "But she never mentioned her origins. She just said that she wandered on the Great Plains, aimlessly and directionlessly. She didn't know her name or race, and she didn't even know where she started from. And her mental state was very strange from the beginning, even when she was relatively 'rational.' Her thoughts often interrupted, or fell into bizarre long silences. Sometimes she would immediately end a topic and start an incomprehensible, brand-new topic, but more often she would just mumble to herself in a daze... Sorry, it seems I can't help you with this either."

Hao Ren himself didn't have much hope for this—every evil-thought doppelganger is mysterious and incomprehensible. Even Vivian herself doesn't know when and where she split off the evil-thought doppelganger. The "Great Overlord" of Eatos City actually had a "sober" period that could be communicated with, which was already a miracle in itself, and he couldn't expect too much beyond that.

But just when he had given up on learning more about the "Great Overlord" from Eatos, the other party suddenly spoke again: "Although I am not very clear about the 'Overlord's' origins, she once left something that I think you will be interested in."

"Something?" Vivian perked up in an instant. "What is it?"

"It's a gem. After waking up from an intermittent sleep, she gave this gem to the high priest of the city. If I'm not mistaken, that gem should still be in the place where it was sealed."

Hao Ren and Vivian couldn't help but look at each other, and then each saw the thoughtful look in the other's eyes.