"Then I'll go back first, brother."

At the end of her visit to St. Peter's Basilica, Nora said goodbye to Valyan and prepared to go home.

The Lateran Palace, the seat of the Holy See, is not close to the Licinius Building. If it had been in normal times, Nora would have taken the car home.

However, what she saw on this visit was so shocking that she needed to think about it on the way, so she politely declined her brother's invitation to send a car to pick her up, and walked back alone and silently.

The inner part of Solomon City is very safe even in the evening, after all, the unsafe elements (such as the homeless) have all been evicted to the outer city. Nora walked along the sidewalk of the mall earlier, still thinking about the previous thing:

Do transcendent beings really endanger human civilization?

Rewind the clock an hour ago:

"Nola, what you have to see next is one of the most important secrets of the Holy See at the moment, and the deterrence level is as high as R3." Valyan walked into the elevator with Nora and said solemnly, "I can't tell anyone in your team about this matter for the time being, including your group leader. ”

"Can't even the head of the regiment say?" Nora was surprised.

"Yes." Valyan said cautiously.

The elevator started to run down, and after about five minutes, there was still no sign of stopping. Nora looked up at the elevator's display, a little surprised.

We're going, going deep underground?

"Nola, do you remember the mutation you encountered in Stuttgart?" Valyan asked.

"Stuttgart?" Nora remembered for a moment, and finally remembered.

It seems that he was helping the Falcon family fight the Fishbone Earl, and ended up encountering some green-skinned monsters. They were powerful, pain-defying, and fond of screaming, which left a deep negative impression on Nora at the time.

"You're talking about the citizens of Stuttgart who have been transformed by mutations?" Nora asked in affirmation, "It's a green, very strong monster that likes to yell 'wow' before you do it?" ”

"It's not 'wow.'" VALYAN CORRECTED HER PRONUNCIATION, "IT'S 'WAAAAAAAAGH'...... Such. ”

Nola: ..................

I know I don't like it, but you don't need to correct it again. She thought a little feebly.

"Do you know the cause of that mutation?" Valyan continued.

"I don't know." Nora shook her head.

"The cause of those green skins is the infection of a substance." Valyan's voice was deep.

"Its name is 'essentia,' also known as Sarmatian essentia."

The elevator door suddenly opened, startling Nora. Outside, there is a dark passageway, with no lighting sources at the top, only emergency exit signs, and a faint light near the baseboard below the wall.

"Speaking of which, this one is related to the Life Order." Valyan took the lead in stepping forward, "You joined the Life Order last year, right? ”

"Hmm." Nora cautiously followed, "Is there a problem?" ”

"No, no problem." Valian replied, "They don't dare do anything to you, after all, you're a Licinius." ”

"Let's go back to essentia, this substance can be traced back to the Quaternary Empire in 311, when in the Eastern Solomon Empire, a demigod of the Order of Life set out from Constantinople and traveled all the way north through the provinces of Thrace and Dacia to the north of the province of Sarmatia."

"I remember that it was supposed to be the Principality of Kyiv, right?" Nora asked.

"No, in the early Quaternary period, it was still orc territory." Walyan replied, "The wasteland is inhabited by nomadic orc tribes. ”

"In short, at that time, this demigod had already reached level 39, and he was only 1 level away from the threshold of the true god who condensed the godhead in the legend. It's just that on the one hand, the demon tide has fallen, causing her to be unable to continue to upgrade; On the other hand, her rationality is also on the verge of losing control of madness. ”

"Therefore, according to the records of the Life Order, this demigod chose to travel alone to the north, where humans have never set foot before, in search of the 'Essentia Tree', which is said to give birth to orcs, in order to pursue his own promotion opportunities. Of course, if you fail, it can also be understood as going to death, to avoid your own fall and cause changes to harm others. ”

"As for essentia trees, according to limited orc legends, their ancestors, the first orcs, grew from the spores emitted by the essentia tree after falling into the soil."

"Growing from a tree? This is too ......" Nora subconsciously wanted to say that this was too strange, but suddenly another image flashed in her mind.

Before the invasion of Stuttgart, everyone had seen a large tree in the middle of the town, and every huge fruit on the tree would burrow a green skin when it landed.

She pondered a little, only to hear Valyan continue to say solemnly: "This demigod lost his whereabouts when he arrived in Sarmatia. As a result, in the 27th year of the Fifth Age, she reappeared. ”

"Returned?"

"Yes, she appeared on the borders of the Duchy of Transylvania and, in the days she appeared, destroyed a city."

"At that time, our Holy See had just been established, and its sphere of influence had not expanded to that side. The first to react was the Life Order, who sent a group of transcendents to try to capture the demigod and take him away, but failed. ”

Fortunately, the demigod did not continue deep into the heart of civilization, but continued to wander aimlessly near the borders of the principality. The Life Order tried several more times, but was unsuccessful. Finally, in the year 174 of the Fifth Age, the Order of Life turned to the Holy See for help and joined forces with us, ventured deep into Sarmatia to capture the demigod. ”

As the words fell, Valian and Nora had reached the end of the passage, standing in front of a heavy metal gate.

"Your Excellency Bishop Valyan, good afternoon." Raphael's voice rang out.

"Request a view of Keter-class project, number 682S19TW." Valyan replied.

"The application has been approved." Raphael replied, "Please be careful, Your Excellency Bishop Vallian, Miss Nola. ”

With Raphael's mechanical voice, the heavy metal gate slowly opened:

"You're about to face a Keter-class containment ...... with a deterrent rating of R3 and a threat index of 87%."

“…… It is also known as the 'Essentia Tree'. ”

Nora is greeted by a huge opaque container nearly 30 meters high, connected to the outside world by complex pipes and circuits.

"Tell me about the project, Raphael." Valian said.

"The Essentia Tree, now contained inside the Destruction Device." "The device is specially designed to contain the essentia tree, and the high temperature and radiation of nuclear fusion are used inside to destroy the essentia tree soaked in the superelectrolytic corrosive solution for a long time, so as to suppress the unique evolutionary ability of the essentia tree. ”

"According to analysis, the predecessor of the Essentia Tree should be Diolena, the demigod of the Life Order who disappeared in 311 in the Quaternary Age, with a bloodline of a shepherd and a major in the law of the realm of 'evolution'. During her disappearance, due to the loss of observation data due to the rising tide of the Demon Tide, it is believed that Diolena must have suffered some kind of mutation, causing her to fall uncontrollably in an attempt to reach level 40. ”

"After the fall, Diolena mutated into a Essentia Tree, which resembles a giant walking treeman, and will continue to secrete essentia to infect surrounding creatures, causing it to irreversibly transform into a Creature with Keter-class item number 682S01TE, also known as 'Greenskin', within 12 hours. It is not afraid of pain, aggressive, has a natural desire to attack human civilization, and has a strong ability to further spread essentia. ”

"As such, essentia trees need to be tightly contained to prevent irreparable damage to human civilization. Any information about essentia will be placed in Raphael's emergency queue as soon as possible, with priority at R2 level. For example, due to the high probability that the Life Order has hidden some essentia, its deterrence level has recently been raised to R2. ”

"Currently, there is no effective way to kill essentia trees. Due to its 'evolutionary' domain, essentia trees can adjust their morphological composition and evolve so that they can quickly adapt to the damage of their environment. Therefore, it is necessary to suppress the damage for a long time and uninterrupted in a high-temperature, high-radiation and high-corrosive environment. ”

"However, over the past few hundred years, this damage suppression has been continuously weakened due to the effects of the rising Demon Tide and the evolutionary adaptation of the essentia tree."

"Human civilization is nearing its end, Miss Nola. We need your help. ”