After returning to Cecil City, Gawain immediately found Kamel, who was tossing a small arcane focuser in the Magic Technology Research Institute, and Nicholas Egg, who was working on a gearbox in the Machine Building, and the three of them (strictly speaking, a satellite spirit, an LED spirit, and an iron ball star) gathered in the cutting-edge laboratory built by Rebecca, studying the crystal left over after the death of Fran B. B. B. Braun.

The crystal was still glowing slightly, and even though it had been left for days, there was still a slight amount of heat coming out, and when I put the crystal to my ear, I could faintly hear some indistinct sounds, as if it was some kind of resonance, and it seemed to be a painful murmur.

Kamel lifted the crystal into the air with his plastic hand, carefully observing its form in the light, and from time to time using a small beam of arcane fire to stimulate the surface of the crystal, sensing the energy readings it transmitted.

Gawain paid attention to Kamel's work and asked curiously, "How?" Can you see any clues? ”

"Morphologically, it does resemble the crystal growths found on the early products of the Divine Sin...... The energy reaction is slightly different, perhaps due to the interference of the power of the Light......" Kamel placed the crystal on the laboratory bench in front of him and began to use the crystal resonator to detect its subtle structure, "In short, I have to look closely before I can conclude - the collection process is too rough, and the balance of magic inside has been severely disrupted. ”

Gao Wen was a little embarrassed: "This collection process ...... Probably a little rough. ”

Kamal casually asked, "How did you get it?" ”

"The ...... blown up with a howitzer" Gawain coughed dryly, "Ahem, strictly speaking, there is only so much left after the explosion......"

Kamel's movements suddenly stiffened in mid-air, and the Nicholas Egg floating on the side let out an exclamation: "Mommy-"

"It's a special situation, it's a battle, and the enemy won't stay where they are and honestly wait for someone else to dig up the crystal on their own," Gawain waved his hand and looked at the Iron Ball Starman, "You also came into contact with the gods back then, do you think this crystal is the same as the one on those test subjects back then?" ”

"I was mainly researched, and I didn't have much contact with the details of the project," Nicholas said, shaking his body and saying in a rather serious tone, but then he continued, "but if you don't mind losing some of the samples...... I can do a devastating analysis of it. ”

Gawain looked at the crystal sample that was fixed to the center of the crystal resonator - it was slightly smaller than a palm, the edges were jagged, and it had cracked in some places: "How many samples do you need?" ”

"A little bit, the size of a fingernail."

Gawain looked at Kamel again: "Will cutting this sample affect its property stability?" ”

"You've all blown up with howitzers and you're still asking me about this?"

Gawain: "...... Then cut a piece down. ”

The texture of the crystal was not very hard, and the assistant in the laboratory quickly finished cutting it, and then a small sample of the cut was sent to Nicholas Egg, and under Gawain's curious gaze, the Iron Ball star first carefully touched the sample with his round body, and then it was directly sucked on him, and was quickly absorbed into his body.

Not to mention Gawain, even Carmel was taken aback: "You take it ...... Eaten?! ”

"Just analyzing the ingredients—of course, it's eating," Nicholas Egg made a buzzing sound, "When I was first studied, I tried most of the substances around me in order to understand my environment, and I also tried the crystal chips on the god by chance, and I can tell the slight difference in the subtle composition of these things......"

The Iron Ball Star Man took all this for granted, and Gawain could only sigh in his heart - the world is really big, and this is probably the most hardcore "taste" he has ever seen in his two lives combined......

And just when he began to worry about whether Nicholas Egg's habit of picking up and eating casually would hurt his stomach, the Iron Ball Star finally spoke: "This thing...... It seems to be the product of God's iniquity. At the very least, the ingredients are exactly the same. ”

The crystal left by Fran B. Braun was indeed a growth of the gods—that Bishop Luan had really activated the genes of the gods in his body?

Although he also had some inferences in his heart, Gawain couldn't help but be a little surprised after the evidence was conclusive, but he quickly controlled his surprise and looked at Carmel: "Is it possible for a descendant of Gondor who has used a stable genetic factor to become an out-of-control god under the right conditions?" ”

Although Kamel had no expression, his whole body was already yellow, and his tone became extremely serious: "Theoretically impossible!" Although we did fuse the divine cells of the giant deer Amone and the human cells by rewriting the genetic factors, the loss of control of the gods is not entirely due to the genetic factors, but because of the precipitation and loss of control of the divinity - those crystals that grow from flesh and blood are actually generated after the precipitation of the 'divinity' power that cannot be controlled by humans, and this part of the divinity is because our technical level is not enough at the beginning, and we can't completely filter the divinity when piecing together the genetic factors, which causes them to contaminate the test subjects- Later, we improved the filtration technology to completely remove the divine power that humans cannot control and made a stable injection, so as to ensure the stable survival of the vaccinated. In other words, as long as they are descendants of living humans, then the genetic factors that their ancestors have been inoculated with must be 'clean', and as long as there is no divinity lurking in their bodies, it is impossible for a mortal body to generate any divine power on their own......"

Carmel's explanation was full of jargon that was too difficult for a man of his time, but Gawain easily understood what he meant—the reason why the gods were fleshy. The reason why the body collapsed and grew crystals was because there was an uncontrollable divinity in the body, and as long as the descendants of Gondor did not collapse and survived, there would definitely be no such "divine pollution" in the body, and with the physique of mortals, it would be impossible to produce this divine pollution on their own - even if they had been inoculated with the genetic factors of the giant deer Ammon.

So...... Why is François B. Braun "polluted"? Who polluted him? Or rather...... Where did the "divinity" that pollute him come from?!

Thinking of the possibility behind this, Gawain's expression couldn't help but become serious.

"We don't know exactly what happened in the prayer room of Luan Cathedral when the White Knights stormed the church district, but there is no doubt about one thing: Fran Béran was contaminated by a divinity of unknown origin during that time, the Divine Factor in his body was activated, and he himself became a monster made of crumbling flesh and crystals," Carmel analyzed solemnly, "Considering that he is a fanatical believer in the God of Light, and considering what he might do in the prayer room, there may be only one answer." ……”

"The god of light threw a ...... at the South," Gawain took Carmel's words, "and this one directly twisted Fran Béran into a monster. ”

Nicholas Egg: "...... Mommy. ”

However, despite such a terrifying conjecture, Gawain was still full of puzzlement: "If it is really the God of Light who has descended on Luan for a short time...... How could He sit idly by and watch the cathedral be breached? How could the power it descended from be unable to withstand even a small group of white knights who had just finished training? Even Wright and Amber were there at the time...... The power of the two of them can't compete with the gods, right? ”

After studying the power of the gods for thousands of years, Kamel fell into thought, and after a moment, he began to talk about his conjecture: "According to our summary and analysis of the laws of the gods back then, the gods seem to be ...... It is a very logical and regular existence. ”

"What do you mean?"

"The power of the gods is far superior to that of mortals, but they rarely directly help or harm any mortal individual, they will only strictly follow a certain law, through prayer rituals, blessings, revelations, or very vague wills to let mortals figure out, when a mortal directly violates a specific ritual rules, they will send divine punishment, but on the other hand, believers or unbelievers who are hostile to the gods will not be punished by the gods even if they never live according to the teachings...... This may indicate that it is extremely difficult for the gods to intervene directly in our world—even if they are as powerful as them, they must act according to some strict law......"

Listening to Carmel's description, Gawain couldn't help but look thoughtful: "This sounds like some kind of logic machine that automatically responds......"

"Truth be told, during the Spark Age, many theological scholars also had this kind of speculation," Carmel gradually changed his color back to a calm and wise light blue, recalling as he responded to Gawain's conjecture, "There is even a group of radical scholars who believe that the essence of the gods is an automatic system of unknown origin, that they operate automatically like a response mechanism, manage a huge amount of divine energy, and distribute energy according to the needs of mortals...... It's like the array of artificial intelligence around the Deep Blue Reactor that is responsible for distributing the mana. ”

Gawain didn't expect that there would be a group of scholars in this world who could put forward such radical hypotheses, although considering the high level of civilization of the former Gondor Empire, it was not inconceivable for a scholar to conduct such extreme research, but he was still curious about the results of such a group of people who dared to study the nature of gods in a world where gods existed - after all, according to Carmel's tone, those people did not seem to be members of the "disobedience" project: "The idea of these scholars is kind of interesting—where did their research go?" ”

"The next year, the funds were not approved, and I changed careers to sell aquatic products...... "Kamel sighed, "I thought they would be selected for the ...... of the Disobedience Project"

Gawain: "??? ”

Thankfully, Carmel didn't dwell too much on the recollections, and he quickly got back to business: "This kind of radical research would be unimaginable in this day and age, but the proud and fearless Gondor of the Starfire Age, and the overdeveloped magical technology and abundant resources gave scholars the opportunity to do such deviant things—and the Disobedience Project would not have been possible without this foundation." But it was precisely because of my participation in the Disobedience Program that I was certain that the gods were by no means as simple as the so-called 'automatic response agencies'. ”

After a little thought, Gawain knew what Kamel meant: "Is it because you saw the giant deer Amone with your own eyes?" ”

"That's right, Amon, a real god of flesh and blood, although he has fallen, based on the analysis of the remains, we believe that he is wise, he can think, he can act autonomously, so we are more inclined to think of a god as a being with a high degree of intelligence and at the same time acting strictly according to certain 'rules'...... Perhaps it is their 'racial characteristic' to follow the rules strictly. ”

Gawain listened quietly to Carmel's story, he took a deep breath, and his gaze fell on the "Divine Crystal" on the experimental table.

It took him a long time before he broke his silence: "In other words, according to the 'rules' strictly followed by the God of Light, even such a thing as a civilian storming the cathedral is not a real 'blasphemy'?" ”

"We can only guess."

It seems that there will be no more progress.

Although Gawain was keen to understand the nature of the gods, the laws of their actions and the restrictions on them, the truth was in front of him: he did not have enough access to the secrets in this area.

The only thing that is certain is that the God of Light may have "touched" Fran Béran and "touched" the Luan Cathedral at some point, but he didn't pay attention to what was happening in the land.

"This research can only be put aside for now," Gawain exhaled, "I will let the Luan Cathedral carefully probe for clues and pay attention to the 'divine will'." ”