The mysterious unknown signal vibrated in the invisible realm, no one knew how far it had traveled, and no one knew what meaning it carried—the faint ripples it stirred up in the ubiquitous magical field were so small that the most powerful and perceptive magicians could not perceive the traces it left in the atmosphere, but the faint fluctuations that humans could not perceive gradually became clear in the system of the Thorin Hub, received and amplified by a crystal array of more sensitivity, And after filtering and strengthening again and again, it becomes a clear and powerful "sound".

Bard and his colleagues had been chasing the voice for a long time, and the scholars who had laid the foundation for the Magic Web Nexus had been tracking it even longer before they set up the dedicated listening department.

"The signal density seems to be higher than before...... "The colleague next to him muttered to himself—what Bard had heard was now shared with everyone in the room, "and the vibrations seemed to be getting denser......"

"This hasn't happened before...... Bard frowned, "aren't these signals set in stone?" ”

"Who knows?" The colleague shook his head and looked at the holographic projection in the center of the room, "Wait, the picture seems to have been transformed." ”

Almost everyone's attention fell on the large magic net terminal in the listening center, and on the projected hologram, some lines were emerging, and quickly connected into patterns - this decoding technology from Lady Bertila has now been widely used in the eighteen listening stations in the empire, from the cold North Harbor to the imperial capital in the south, from the Paramel Observatory to the main hub of the Ten Forest City, no matter which listening station receives the signal, it will be decoded through this special "dot matrix mapping". Transformed into a flat pattern that seems to have some meaning.

To date, Bard and his colleagues (including those from all over the empire) have managed to capture signals several times and draw more than a dozen simple "decoded graphics" despite not much to gain from this massive surveillance operation.

They are all the most basic geometric patterns, and even the content is similar every time, and there is no subtlety in the simple dots and lines, and even children can easily draw them on paper - no one knows why these mysterious signals convey simple geometric shapes in such a complex way, and Bard's colleagues have aptly named them: "Naughty Doodles."

"Today's 'Naughty Graffiti' seems to be very stable......" The picture in the holographic projection is still continuing, several geometric patterns have been clearly presented, and the colleague on the side muttered softly, "Until now, there is no obvious sign of interruption or attenuation of signal strength...... Is it because we have a new main antenna crystal board? ”

"Quite possibly," said another listener casually as he watched the parameters of the device, "the raw materials for these antenna crystals come from the Oguray Tribal Country, and the crystal ore and primordial crystal dust produced by the Ancestral Peak are of much better quality than those from the Ash Mountain mines. ”

"The crystal ore of the Ancestral Peak? Hey, no wonder - I remember that the crystal ore from the Ancestral Peak before the trade line was opened was a top-notch spellcasting material, something that ordinary mages couldn't usually buy......"

Colleagues next to him whispered about international trade, crystal mines, spellcasters, and market movements, but everyone's attention was still focused on the lines that kept coming out, and Bard was engrossed in what was being presented on the holographic projection, and he had seen squares, triangles, circles, and hexagons that were the limit of the amount of information recorded by the working group in previous listening logs—

But the transmission of signals continues, and more patterns are being drawn.

When a spiral curve that spreads outward appears on the screen, the room becomes very quiet, everyone stops talking meaninglessly, and a dozen pairs of eyes are fixed on the picture.

When a set of dots arranged in a specific grouping appeared on the screen, Bard heard someone next to him whisper to break the silence: "We'd better ...... Report this immediately. ”

……

The ubiquitous woody scent wafted into Belsetia's nostrils, and the soothing scent made the Silver Empress relax.

After arranging for Elaine to rest somewhere else, she, along with Gawain and Bertila, stepped into a hall located inside the canopy of the giant tree.

Here, gracefully growing branches support the dome of overlapping green leaves, light-colored wooden columns hug the nearby walls like slightly curved skeletons, and vines wrap around the pillars and roof beams, from which shimmering mycelium or vines hang down, bringing a bright but not dazzling light, further soothing the spirit of every visitor who steps here.

"This is my living room," Bertila's figure moved forward under a tuft of vines, "General Margarita suggested that I create a place where I could serve normally, without having to take people to a deep biochemical lab or biomass factory every time - though I still insist that the split pool and biomass chamber I designed myself are quite cute. ”

Belsetia didn't care what the other party was talking about, she just looked at the place in amazement, which obviously exceeded her initial expectations - she came to a curved clearing at the end of the hall, and looked at the layers of green leaves in front of her with some curiosity: "The leaves here seem to be different colors from other places?" ”

"This is my balcony." Berthira said as she spoke, and as her words fell, the cascading leaves suddenly shook and rose like a curtain—a wide arc of openings appeared in front of Belsetia, and the bright sunlight instantly poured into the hall, and in the open field of vision, the small half of the Thorin Plains and the simple and elegant towers of Thorinnburg appeared before her.

"Sometimes I invite General Margarita or someone else to come here and look at the scenery, but more often than not, I'll test the photosynthesis efficiency of the different leaves, which is one of the best areas of the canopy." Bertila continued.

"It's beautiful...... Beersettia took a deep breath as she reached the edge of the open terrace, then she turned to look at Bertila and finally said what she had always wanted to say, "You've really changed a lot...... No, it's almost impossible to describe 'change'......"

"All of us have changed a lot, for better or for worse," Bertila said silently as she looked at the Silver Empress, who had grown up, and after a few seconds of silence, she suddenly asked, "Is there still a portrait of me in the Sage Ring?" ”

The Silver Empress nodded, "It's been hanging there." ”

"Take it off," Bertila whispered, "a dark cultist shouldn't be in that position. ”

The Silver Empress looked into Bertila's eyes, she was not surprised at all, but she still shook her head: "...... I guess you'd say that, but there's never been a precedent for the Circle of the Sages to have a portrait taken down from the sages—perhaps you think you're disqualified from attending, but your former exploits have not yet been completely denied. Seven hundred years is too short a time for the Silver Elves. ”

"That's not a long time?"

"Until this great tree withers," said the Silver Empress calmly, "only then will we be able to determine where Sage Bertilla's life has gone." ”

Bertila stared at the Silver Empress for a moment before turning her gaze into the distance: "...... You elves are stubborn creatures. ”

"We're just used to thinking in a larger time frame, and if you continue to survive, you'll understand our way of thinking sooner or later," Belsetia chuckled suddenly, and then changed her tune, "Compared to this, now that we've talked about the Death of All Things, we have some questions we want to confirm with you. ”

Bertila turned her head and fixed her gaze on Gawain and Belsetia for a moment, "It's about the cultists in the wasteland?" ”

Gawain was a little surprised: "How did you guess?" ”

Bertila spread her hands: "It has something to do with the end of all things, and it can still make you show this kind of headache now, I can't think of any other topic." ”

"It does have something to do with them," Gawain nodded immediately, and then informed them in detail about the information he had received from Veronica, "Recently we confirmed one thing, not only are those cultists still operating in the wasteland, but they seem to be working on the idea of fighting the remnants of energy in the Deep Blue Well, and even ......"

Listening to Gawain's narration, although Bertila's expression did not change much, the aura emanating from her body gradually became solemn, she waved her hand behind her, and the layers of leaves outside the balcony closed again, blocking the too bright sunlight from the outside, and a crack suddenly opened in the floor not far away, and a strangely shaped magic guide device rose from it.

It looked like a magic web terminal, but its base was entwined with many vines, and some extremely fine fibrous material extended through the gaps between the projection crystals and rune frames, these special structures made the whole magic web terminal look as if it was parasitized by living creatures - but this was not the result of "parasitism", but Beltila's own improvement of the assigned magic web terminal, which helped her directly control the magic device, and even allowed her mind to directly connect with the machine.

In the next second, the terminal activated, and the holographic projection clearly presented the picture outlined in Bertila's mind.

A tall, seemingly dry and twisted ancient tree-like creature appears on the canvas, and if you look closely, a distorted and strange human face emerges on the surface of the "ancient tree", and something that seems to be a tumor and a vascular growth covers "his" branches and withered yellow leaves, and the roots of the ancient tree are squirming on the ground, similar to the structure of Berthira's lower body, but more twisted and disturbing.

The moment he saw these things, Gao Wen's brows subconsciously wrinkled: "This is ......"

"This is the Cultists of the End of Life who operate within the Great Wall, in theory...... Our former compatriots. ”

"Incredible mutant ......limbs," Belsetia exclaimed, "this seems to be completely out of the realm of humans!" They...... How did they survive? ”

"It is because of this gesture that they can survive in the harsh environment of the Gondor Wasteland," Bertila said lightly, "This gesture is to adapt to the terrible environment of the wasteland, initially it was due to the mutation of limbs caused by magical radiation, and then those mutated dark cultists actively adapted and mutated, a process they call 'ascension and evolution', and finally stabilized into this." ”

"You just mentioned 'theoretically former compatriots,'" Gawain noted the words Berthira had just used, "it seems that the Cult of the End of All Things is not so united—and these cultists inside the Gondor Wasteland are very different from you 'outsiders'?" ”

"Until the eve of the completion of the False God Body, those of us who lived outside the walls thought that the sect was united within it, but in retrospect, it was nothing more than wishful thinking on our part," Berti tugged at the corners of her lips, as if to give a mocking smile, "Brother Gawain, I remember I told you something about the Dead Cultists inside the walls—who have lived for centuries in the horrific surroundings of the Gondor Wasteland, which we can't comprehend. Giving us first-hand data on things like Chaos Magic, Sentinel Towers, Aberrations, Divine Factors, etc., we have been working with them for so long, and have maintained a 'perfect understanding', which has led us to overlook a few things.

"If there is such a group of 'people' who no longer have the physical structure of human beings, who do not have the social organization of human beings, who live in an environment that humans cannot live in and understand, and who deal with their surroundings in a non-human way, and continue to do so for seven centuries - what are the chances that they will be able to maintain the essence of 'human'?

"What are the chances that they will still be able to identify with their human identity and see those of us who have always lived in the safe zone outside the walls as their fellow confidants?"

Bertila said, looking down at her now-human limbs, and shook her head slightly: "After becoming like this, I have confirmed this even more: even I need to make auxiliary thinking organs to maintain my personality, so those who live in the Gondor wasteland all the year round...... I'm afraid they ceased to be 'humans' a long, long time ago. ”

"So as I expected, you don't really know what those 'people' living in the wasteland are planning," Gawain shook his head, "You think the sect is carrying out a great plan of salvation, but in fact, your plan has little to do with the group of cultists in the wasteland......

"But if it really doesn't matter, why should they cooperate with us in a play that has been performed for 700 years?" Bertila looked at Gawain, with a stiff smile on her puppet-like delicate but lifeless face, "They live in the wasteland, and have successfully adapted to the environment there, this is an invincible state of security, and the people outside cannot threaten them, so why should they obediently cooperate with the orders from the Dark Grand Patriarch, pretend to be forever loyal to the sect, and pretend to be still dedicating their energy to the great cause?" Is it a fear of exposure? Obviously not, they should not have paid any attention to us. ”

(End of chapter)