Seventhundred and Thirty-Fourth Chapter: The Root of Disagreement

Underground... Civilization?

Roland couldn't help but think of the branch passages in the North Slope Mine, and the cave network that Nightingale had mentioned, which ran through the Impassable Mountain Range... In his memory, no geological movement could create such a unique landform. At first, he thought it was caused by some mutated hybrid demon beasts, but now it seemed, could they all be traces left by the underground civilization?

"At that time, people didn't realize this at all, and had no intention of communicating—the forms of the two were too far apart. We even regarded them as a new kind of demon, so the recorded history has left a great deviation. It wasn't until the end of the Second Battle of Divine Will that a breakthrough was made." Pasha's voice sounded somewhat low, "At that time, only Taqila remained of the Three Holy Cities, and the Union was at a critical moment of survival."

"What breakthrough are you referring to?"

"The Seekers Association figured out the method of storing souls from the stone slab paintings they left behind, and verified this possibility in an unhatched Original Body. From then on, the Three Chiefs began the research on God's Punishment Army transformation."

"I don't know anything about this..." Agatha said in surprise.

"Soul transfer is the Union's top secret, even two levels higher than the God's Punishment Army plan that used witches as experimental materials. At that time, only the Three Chiefs and a few high-level officials knew about it," Pasha replied. "We only learned of this shocking news after the fall of Taqila."

"So Nataya initially supported the God's Punishment Army plan?" Roland asked, frowning, "What is the Original Body?"

"Because she had no choice. As for the latter... it is what we look like now." Her tentacles drooped down, and her body was closer to the light curtain. "This ugly and strange shell is evidence that the underground civilization existed, and it is also the only tombstone they left behind. This is a long story, Your Majesty, please listen to me slowly."

Roland nodded, poured himself a cup of Chaos Drink, leaned back in the chair, and felt the consciousness that the other party kept transmitting.

"According to the hints in the stone slab paintings, the vanished civilization left a city in the Impassable Mountain Range. The Seekers Association searched for a long time without success, and later realized that since the other party was accustomed to operating underground, wouldn't they have built the city underground as well?"

"After expanding the search range downwards, the witches finally found this magnificent city—it consists of four layers in total, with an area close to half of Taqila. Each layer has countless branches and hollows, as complex as a maze. Without witches who can sense location as guides, it is difficult to get out once trapped in it. Therefore, the Seekers Association also called it the Labyrinth Ruins."

"Unfortunately, before we had time to explore it carefully, Taqila fell into the hands of the demons, and everyone had to start a journey of escape. After paying a heavy price, we finally arrived at the Labyrinth. According to the plan, the Union would take away the Original Bodies stored in the labyrinth, and then go to the Hermes Plateau to establish a new Holy City, and rebuild a new order in the barbaric east coast of the continent."

"However, what happened next was something no one could have predicted."

Speaking of this, Pasha fell silent, the scales on her body dimmed, and even though he couldn't see her expression, Roland could feel the sadness in her heart.

After a long while, she continued, "During the rest period, the Seekers Association discovered that the Labyrinth Ruins were quite well preserved, even as good as a brand new city. In addition to storing the Original Bodies, the bottom layer of the ruins also hid many incredible secrets, the most important three discoveries of which were the Magic Core, the Hub Body, and the records of the vanished civilization. Later we realized that it wanted to lead us here as early as the First Battle of Divine Will." Pasha took a deep breath, "The Labyrinth Ruins were prepared for us."

"Why?" Tilly couldn't help but ask.

"For revenge," another voice rang in everyone's minds, and compared to Pasha, her tone was much colder, "It hopes that we can destroy the demons to avenge the annihilation of their race."

"This is just the speculation of Lady Nataya, the documents did not mention this point," Pasha waved her tentacles, as if shaking her head. "Perhaps they simply wanted to pass on their civilization. In short, the Seekers Association found a lot of research data on Divine Will and magic from the legacy records—in order to let us know the details, most of the conclusions are expressed in the form of stone slab paintings."

"Among them, the record about the Magic Core is the source of the disagreement between the Queen of the Rising Sun and the Queen of the Falling Star. The most important content in the painting is: Magic has infinite possibilities, and the process of chasing Divine Will is the ladder to mastering magic."

Roland knew that the key point had arrived, "What is the Magic Core? Is it related to the Instrument of Divine Retribution?"

"You can think of the core as a man-made magic vortex. It is not limited to the witch herself, and can also adjust its form at any time. This incredible device simply subverted the Union's understanding." Pasha pointed a tentacle at the light curtain, "For example, the Illusion Instrument we are currently using for dialogue is a smaller Magic Core. When necessary, it can also be converted into other instruments for use. As for the Instrument of Divine Retribution, it is the largest Magic Core in the ruins."

So that's how it is... He immediately realized the superiority of this device. Compared to the witch's innate and unchangeable abilities, the Magic Core can be described as an all-purpose terminal. And most importantly, its effective range far exceeds the five-meter limit. Whether it is used for production or combat, it is much stronger than a witch.

"However, this is only the most basic application of magic, just like the Original Awakening and High-Level Advancement. The stone slabs predict that as the development of magic continues to deepen, one day we will be no different from gods..." Pasha said disappointedly, as if what she was talking about was not a magnificent thing, but like a wanderer who had lost her goal.

Roland heard the main point of this sentence.

"But you don't have time."

"You're right, we don't know whether someday will take a hundred years or a thousand years. At that time, in order to contact the Magic Core, several members of the Seekers Association were sacrificed. Obviously, witches cannot directly touch these strange instruments. We wanted to solve the problem but couldn't find a way, and the exploration was temporarily stalled. The things that stone slabs can record are extremely limited. If we want to continue the research, we can only follow their prompts and merge with the Hub Body—only when enough people are fused can they understand their words, so as to further read those more profound documents and records."

"But we don't have time. It took more than three years just to figure these out. Many mortals who set off earlier began to try to get rid of our control. The number of witches that the Hub Body needs to fuse is also unknown. The resources at that time were only enough to focus on one research. If this continues, the Union's grand plan to rebuild order will lose its foundation."

"Most importantly, Lady Akalisi's God's Punishment Army plan has irreconcilable conflicts with the concepts recorded in the documents. Abandoning the witch's body to become a God's Punishment Warrior not only loses the possibility of advancement," Pasha paused here, "but also means forever losing Divine Will."