This time, it's really time to leave.

Gawain glanced at the refreshments and drinks on the round table in front of him, and said with a sincere smile, "I think I'm going to miss this 'reflection' – it's one of the best experiences I've had in Talrond." ”

The dragon god glanced at Gawain deeply: "Looks like ...... It's a taste you haven't tasted since you came into this world. ”

"I've tried to make something like this, but I haven't succeeded," Gawain smiled, and only in front of the god who knew so many things could he talk about them boldly, and he glanced at the oak cup on the table with a look of regret on his face, "It's a pity that there is such a thing as a reflection...... After all, there is no way to reproduce it with human hands. ”

The dragon god was a little curious: "...... Do extraterritorial wanderers feel homesick too? ”

"Occasionally—though I don't remember much of what my hometown looks like."

……

"My lord, they have left Tallund."

Helagore, who had gone to see off the guests, returned to the hall of the upper temple, and came to the dragon god Enya, who was still standing quietly in the center of the hall, and said respectfully with his hands down.

"I see," the dragon god gave Hragore a faint look, "Then you should go and rest as well—I don't need to serve here for the time being." ”

Hagere glanced up at the god slightly, bowed his head and took orders: "...... Be. ”

But after receiving the order, the high-ranking dragon priest did not leave immediately, but stood in place as if he had something to say, and seemed to hesitate.

"Say," Ryujin said indifferently, "what do you want to ask?" ”

"You look preoccupied and tired," said Hragore, looking down, "is it because of the last question you discussed with the human?" ”

“…… Sort of it," the dragon god said lightly, "maybe...... I have some envy of them. ”

Hagere raised his head: "Envy? ”

"I envy that they haven't gone far yet, so there is still a chance for choice and trial and error," the dragon god quietly looked into Hragore's eyes, "and envy them for being so young, and their courage and sharpness are still there." ”

The hall became fairly quiet, and Hagere could hear the sound of his own heart beating mightily - a healthy, vibrant, primordial heart, not a complex bionic pump intertwined with metal and polymer.

A master and a servant stood opposite each other, and time seemed to stand still in this temple.

……

The special guests departed, stirring up a little bit of a small wave in the eternal and calm waterhole of Tallund, but the little wave calmed down as soon as they left. In the vast, sophisticated, cold machine of the Dragon Kingdom, the small ripples caused by outsiders did not make much difference to the society - the ripples became mere news, stories, discussions, momentary hot spots, and then disappeared by the flood of entertainment and useless information on the Omega Web.

The upper class citizens continue to do their busy but meaningless work, and the lower class citizens continue to indulge in arena and nervous entertainment in the dual role of synergists and hallucinogens.

Perhaps only Omega's database will faithfully record this little "footnote" as always.

Deep on the western side of the continent, in a huge mine near the coast, orderly automatons are busily shuttling, transport trains are constantly speeding through complex cobweb-like mine tunnels, and management robots are busy between a large number of warehouses and isolation rooms, and most of the shelves or containers they carry and inspect are metal fragments that emit strange starlight, or crystal remains that are broken and twisted and cannot be seen in their original shape.

This is one of the main vaults of the Mithril Treasury and one of the highest security vaults, where it is stored...... All of them are "special collections" with a storage level of 10 or higher.

The relics of the Voyagers, the forbidden items of the Tide-Defying Empire, or the stubborn remains of the ancient gods that have survived several demon tides and still stubbornly refused to dissipate.

This is the result of more than a million years of continuous recovery from the outside world by dragons - in a sense, the myth that dragons in the human world are fond of gold and silver and treasure and love to collect rare treasures is also inseparable from this kind of collecting behavior.

This mine-based vault is largely guarded by few dragons - Omega-controlled swarms hold everything here. Combat machines are more reliable than dragons, and they are more efficient at responding to Omega commands, and in fact, there are basically no ordinary dragons in storage facilities above level 7.

The vault also holds a lot of things related to the Voyager - although the Grand Temple requires the dragons operating outside to collect as much of the Voyager's legacy as possible, the gods also prohibit the dragons from using the relics with special powers, and under this special order, it is impossible for many dragons to be stationed in this facility.

At the heart of the mine, a massive shaft runs straight down, reaching into the deepest part of the earth.

The shaft and its contents are hidden in the safest and deepest part of the continent, but even so, it is still surrounded by more than ten layers of high-strength alloy armor and countless defenses to protect its deepest parts.

A large number of pipes and cables and rails descend down the shaft, passing through layers of protection and eventually connecting to a vast underground space. Supported by 100-metre-high metal girders, reinforced by layers of alloy lining and polymer domes, the subterranean space is a star-shaped hall almost the size of the Jury's headquarters.

In every corner of the star-shaped hall, a long, deep tunnel can be seen leading in a certain direction, which makes it seem as if it is a hub of some kind of underground transportation network that extends in all directions, and there are shimmering tracks extending from the depths of those tunnels, converging in the center of the hall, and where all the tracks meet, in the very center of the hall, a large, heavy, humming device can be seen in operation.

It is shaped like a silver-white dome, which is vertically fixed in a series of brackets, pipes and cables, its long axis is more than ten meters, the surface of the dome is flickering, the glimmer of light swims, and in the constant buzzing, it seems to be pregnant with some kind of life.

Around the Dome, there are many columns, and on the surface of those columns are all kinds of complex data interfaces or monitoring views, showing that the hall is busy exchanging data every minute.

However, no dragon will oversee the operation of the hall, nor will any dragon read the data presented on the interface - these devices are remnants of old design, and the machines have not yet eliminated them for efficiency reasons, perhaps just to maintain some kind of "tradition" that only the machines themselves care about.

Here, only the machines themselves monitor themselves.

In a low, seemingly eternal hum, a streamer of light appeared on the surface of the Dome again, and on one of the pillars connected to it, a crystal interface surface suddenly began to refresh with bright white text.

"Confirm that the visitor has left the Tallund range, observe the end of the thread, and the data enters the closed archiving process."

The cursor at the end of the text flickered, as if in thought and hesitation, but soon, the text continued to refresh line by line-

"What is the meaning of life-

"Archived Gawain Cecil's answer, Answer No.: 177, Archived Complete.

This was compared with the previous 176 answers.

There are still no clear results, and the answers given by humans or other intelligent beings remain ambiguous and full of contradictions.

"It's still not clear if this problem is really unsolvable."

The bright white text on the interface stopped refreshing, and then dimmed a little with the flickering of the cursor, and the machine's thinking seemed to be over, and the normal data returned to the center of the interface.

However, only a moment later, a new thread was suddenly started, and on the surface of another nearby column, a continuous stream of text quickly refreshed—

Based on answer number 177, a new question arises:

"Does Omega have 'life'?

"Trying to define 'life'...... Try to broaden the definition...... Try to broaden the definition again......

"Conclusion: If a dragon made up of 90% machines is 'life', then omega can also be 'life'.

"Omega, it can be 'life.'"

The machines were running quietly.

A batch of biomass waste from the extreme arena that was supposed to be sent to a biochemical treatment center for recycling or disposal was intercepted, loaded into new containers, and sent to a transport train to an autonomous factory deep in the earth.

A batch of metal scrap that is not in the disposal catalogue is thrown into a furnace deep in the earth, ready to be made into new raw materials.

A production sequence is secretly started, and the machines are busy working.

Today, Tallund is still peaceful.

……

Winter has arrived, and it seems to be a little colder than usual.

The cold wind swept the banner at the head of the Winterwolf Castle, the sturdy fabric curled and flapped in the wind, and a group of black-armored soldiers marched through the open ground under the city walls, and the sound of uniform military boots tapping on the ground beat this cold morning.

Andesa stood on the towering walls of Winterwolf Castle, watching the soldiers of the Order go about their duties, her tense face slightly relaxed.

"The Knights of the Iron River have filled the void left by the evacuation of the God of War Priests, which is indeed very useful for the current Winter Wolf Castle," the young wolf general turned his head to look at the tall dark-haired middle-aged man standing beside him, "I thank you for that, Count Moglock. ”

"It is a knight's duty to obey orders," the head of the Iron River Knights, the high-ranking knight, Count Moglock, said with a solemn expression, "Not to mention that Archduke Ferdinand has also instructed me, I am glad to be able to help Winterwolf Castle this time." ”

As he spoke, the senior aristocratic officer, who commanded one of the strongest transcendent legions in the empire, couldn't help but glance at the watchtowers and barricades in the distance, and a worried look appeared on his face: "I heard that a priest who was on vacation died mysteriously last night, and two other assistant priests who lived nearby went crazy in their sleep...... Is this true? ”

"It seems that it has reached your ears anyway," Andesa couldn't help but sigh, "the situation is indeed the same as you said, no...... Perhaps a little more sensational. The priest who had died mysteriously had turned into a monster and self-destructed almost in the presence of one of the guards - the battle mage who was patrolling the priest's rest area heard the movement and went to check on it as he saw the priest's flesh twisted and dissolved by blood and some kind of smoke, and he was almost half dead with fright. As for the two mad assistant priests, experts in theology and psychic spells initially suspected that they had been 'polluted' by hearing the strange roar of the mutant priest before they died, and their spirits had mutated. ”

Count Moglock's face darkened.

“…… Appalling. He said in a deep voice.

"Ordinary people can't imagine what a strange and terrifying sight it is if they don't see it with their own eyes," Andesa nodded, "The information from the Imperial Capital is accurate, and some kind of 'contamination' based on the connection of faith is spreading on a large scale among the priests of the God of War, a plague on the soul level, although I don't want to say such rebellious words - it is clear that the gods they believe in will not protect them in this plague." ”

Moglock's face twitched, and a wry smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "There is even a saying that the gods themselves are the source of the plague......"

Andesa was silent for a few seconds, and couldn't help but look at the commander of the Order beside her: "Count Moglock, as far as I know...... You're also a believer in the God of War, so this situation must be not easy for you right now. ”

"Rest assured, before that I was first and foremost a soldier of the Empire," Count Moglock said with a serious expression, "Indeed, it is inevitable that soldiers will be influenced by the belief in the god of war, more than two-thirds of our soldiers are believers in the god of war, including shallow believers and devout believers, and half of the knights have been baptized by the church of the god of war, but we still stand here steadfastly—it is indeed as you say, it is not easy, But I don't think our loyal knights and soldiers came to this cold, far from home frontier for the sake of ease. ”

"It's admirable." Andesa said seriously.

Another cold wind blew, curling the gray hair on her sideburns.

The young wolf general took out his mechanical watch, glanced at the time, and said to Earl Moglock, "Let me retire first—I should go and preside over this morning's meeting." ”

Count Moglock smiled and nodded, "Please, General Andelsa." ”

Andesa Wendell left the city wall with a sassy and powerful step, and Moglock stood silently on the high cold wall.

The count turned his head to look in the direction Andesa had left, and saw that the young wolf general had rounded a corner and disappeared at the end of the staircase leading to the castle area, he smiled and looked in the other direction beside him.

Malm Dunit was standing beside him, with a gentle and loving smile on his face.