What happened back then?

The hallway was lit up, and there was nowhere to settle on the filthy staircase, and the Arcanists could only walk down on the dirty, disgusting things, and as they stepped on them, they could still feel the disgusting touch coming from under their feet.

Not only does it feel soft when you step on it, but it even feels like stepping on top of a soft mud monster, and there is a surge of water under the soles of your feet that are wrapped in fur.

Just stepping on it made them feel a chill rising from the soles of their feet and heading straight for the Heavenly Spirit Cover.

After walking, one of them looked back, looked at the 'unknown things' along the way, couldn't help but shiver again, and hurriedly lowered his head to keep up with the team.

When the door at the staircase behind him was closed, he seemed to see a touch of darkness again, but when he opened the door slightly in confusion and took a look, he found that the corridor was still full of light.

The door to the staircase closed, and even the slight sound echoed through the empty hallway, and no matter how lightly they slowed down, the footsteps would be very noticeable here, so they hadn't paid attention to it since two days ago.

This floor is like the previous floors, the hallways are wide and tall, the walls, floors, and ceilings are covered in black-gray viscous filth, the only difference from the previous floors is that the filth-covered walls on this floor are almost all a cold silver-white color, and there is more filth.

Because they had personally experienced the disgusting parts of these filths before, when they saw these things, they felt very uncomfortable.

To their surprise, even on the fifth layer of top secret, there is still a 'map'.

Not only did the floor plan show the room where the Elemental Furnace and Taling were located, but it also marked a top-secret archive room, which was where they were targeting.

The Arcanist and his guards looked at each other, it stands to reason that there shouldn't be such a map in this kind of absolute sound meter, but it just appeared in front of their eyes...... Why is that?

Since entering this secret base, until now, they have accumulated a stomach full of doubts, this place is too secretive, even the original 'deputy speaker' of the Arcane Council, and the current 'speaker' only roughly know the direction of their research, and do not know what they are studying.

I'm afraid that only the original 'Speaker' can know about these things, but the former Speaker died in the Great War more than 800 years ago in order to cover the last power of the empire to escape from this world, so these things have become 'headless public cases'.

If they can find information related to the research of that year, then perhaps they will be able to figure out the truth about the events of that year.

It's not that they don't want to call someone to search here, it's just that outside is the lair of the overlord monster, and if something like this happened before, it must have raised its vigilance, and if they left here in a short time, they would definitely be targeted by that monster.

In order to bring the complete news back, they can't leave here, not to mention, if they flee in the direction of the Empire, it will cause that monster to clash with the Empire, which is something that no one wants to see.

If it's just for 'a' secret base, the Empire will certainly not be so willing to pay that price.

Therefore, they can only choose to go deep into this hidden base, try to find valuable information, and then leave here to seek refuge in the Empire.

But as they deepened, doubts grew, and more and more doubts piled up, making them uncontrollable and fearful of this place.

Fear comes from the unknown, and there are too many 'unknowns' here.

...... Eventually, they stood in front of the 'top secret' room.

What really made them wonder and frighten was that this room was an extension of the area where the 'Elemental Furnace' and 'Taling' were located, that is, this room should not be 'marked' in the first place!

If you wanted to hide this room in the first place, why did you mark it on the map?

The Arcanist swallowed hard, as he felt as if they had stumbled into something unimaginable, and the secrets that had taken place more than eight hundred years ago would most likely be revealed before their eyes.

When they marked it on the map before, they were only slightly uneasy, and they didn't really notice the direction of this room, but simply thought that this room was close to the 'master control room'.

However, now a cruel truth is in front of their eyes - what happened here more than 800 years ago may have something to do with the 'Silent King', or it may be that the Arcanists did something back then, trapped and dying here, and before they died, they were ready for everything......

But when you think about it this way, there's something wrong with it.

The war was fought for a long time, and during those years, it was impossible for this secret base not to communicate with the outside world, and as long as there was communication, then it would definitely know that the empire was an enemy of the whole world.

Even if the Empire were to take care of itself, it would be impossible to ignore what was happening in these secret bases.

So, what exactly happened back then?

The Arcanist pressed his chest, his heart was beating wildly at this time, and the others were sluggish, probably not having figured these things out yet, but they were also terrified and nervous because they had come into contact with this 'secret thing'.

After thinking about it, the Arcanist looked back at the center of the main control room, where the Elemental Furnace was, embedded into the ground, with only one top remaining, which became the spire of this 'inverted pyramid'.

Back then, it was here that his predecessors and Taling encountered an unexpected incident, and they could not resist it, so they could only choose to leave instructions for the newcomers, but what puzzled him was, how could they be sure that the newcomers must be from the Empire, and how could they be sure that the Empire would be able to come here before the Elemental Furnace stopped?

There is already a trend towards 'automation' in this base, but these things are based on the foundation of 'energy has never been scarce', and if the energy supply system is damaged, then those things will naturally disappear with it.

With a stomach full of doubts, the Arcanist took a deep breath and told the guard to pull down the air-exposed 'mechanism' that he thought of it.

More than 800 years later, the mechanism was still undamaged, and the door in front of them slowly opened with the sound of a 'click' of mechanical turning.

Without the need for an arcane master's reminder or order, one of the guards walked in the first place in fear, walking slowly, for fear of alarming something.

But behind the door, there was no movement, and even the filth that could be seen everywhere outside was only a speck here, like ugly specks, dotted on the steel walls, quite conspicuous.

The Arcanist behind him then walked through the door and looked at the specks, his brow furrowed slightly and thoughtfully.

But he ignored the stuff and walked straight to the only thing in the room.

The room was relatively small, with a vertical safe standing against one wall, up and down against the floor and ceiling, and on the left and right against the walls, almost a wall.

The safe has four doors, each with a roulette wheel marked with a circle of numbers on the periphery, but what is even more remarkable is that each door of the safe is engraved with a series of numbers.

I'm afraid that's the 'password'.

Getting closer and closer to the 'answer' and the 'truth' is why the Arcanist feels his heart beating faster and faster, and at the same time his mouth is dry.

Back then, his predecessors made all preparations here, and then died......

He couldn't imagine what kind of thing would make them choose to sit back and not struggle.

Of course, it is also possible that they have struggled and tried, but they have not succeeded, all their efforts have been in vain, and in the end they can only choose to wait quietly for death to come.

Just imagining the situation at that time, he felt creepy, indescribably terrifying.

Waiting for death in boredom, how desperate it could be, and what kind of things could happen, those were all things he didn't dare to imagine, just a little thought, and he couldn't help but turn pale.

The Arcanist took a few deep breaths, forced himself to composure, pursed his lips, and said in a deep voice, "Open these things." ”

He had to open the safes to know the truth, and even after opening them, he couldn't tell the truth......

The Arcanist frowned as he watched the guards spin the wheel in order, and he let out a sigh of relief as the doors of the safes were opened one after the other.

The guards tugged at the door with force, pulling the heavy door open, exposing the contents of the safe to the Arcanist's sight.

A bottle, a stack of paper, a crystal, and, a notebook.

As his gaze swept over the objects, the first thing the Arcanist noticed was the bottle, which was made of steel, and it was not ordinary steel, it had the properties of 'demon-weary'.

Activating the magic trinkets, opening the [Magical Vision] - the Arcanist was careful not to use spells directly - and the bottle he saw was a place of chaos in and around it.

It was unclear what was in the bottle, but the Arcanist already had some guesses in his mind, so he didn't touch the bottle for the time being.

And then he also saw a note next to the bottle, which said, 'Handle with care'.

His gaze skimmed over the stack of materials and crystals to the notebook, and after a moment's hesitation, the Arcanist finally decided to reach for the notebook.

When I opened it, it was, as expected, a 'diary'.

The first page seems to be the record of their successful experiment: [The experiment was successful, but that thing was dangerous—much more dangerous than expected, maybe we were really wrong, maybe the empire was wrong, we should listen to the advice of the gods, and not be so arrogant as we are now......]

Just a few words made the arcanist stunned on the spot, and his eyes couldn't help but drift to the stack of materials, but he quickly shuddered and hurriedly withdrew his attention.

That's not something he should care about, after all, even his predecessors could have been killed by 'that thing'!

[Everyone was excited, they thought that they could use this to defeat the gods, but it was not an easy thing to do, even if the thing was already quite dangerous, but for the 'gods', it should not be of much use. It's just dangerous enough for us!]

Seeing this, the Arcanist was a little surprised, because it was not dated, as if he was doing an inner narrative in the legend.

[R&D has entered a predicament, that thing is terrible, but it seems to be frozen on the day it was developed, even we can't continue to modify it further, is it in the wrong direction of our research?]

It seems to have been quite a while since the last recording, and the owner of the note seems to have put aside his doubts about 'that thing' and began to think about the direction of his future research.

【...... The experiment went wrong, Pavel died, it's hard to imagine, how did the experiment go wrong?

The owner of the note was very emotional, and the arcanist felt a little scary, and the arcanist who was able to participate in this top-secret project in the first place could not be too weak - if a mage-type caster wanted to become strong, it was often tied to 'knowledge'.

[Damn!, it's that thing, it seems to have learned to hide itself and evolve itself, the original restriction method is useless, we have to find new ways to limit it, and until then, all experiments have to be stopped!]

That thing...... The Arcanist swallowed hard, and though the owner of the note didn't specify exactly what 'that thing' was, he already had some guesses.

[Zast's madman!! obviously said that he would 'stop the experiment', but he did the experiment without authorization, and now it's okay, a test site is scrapped, and he himself is dead, what a good calculation!]

The Arcanist smiled reluctantly, and now it seemed that his decision not to go directly to the proving grounds was a pretty wise one.

[That thing is draining mana......]

[We've found a new way to limit it.] 】

What exactly happened between these two?

[Neither Pavel nor Zast died, they survived, of course, in the body of that thing! No wonder that thing was able to learn to hide, it turned out to be because of the previous 'experiment'. 】

'That thing' can devour souls? And do animals know what 'clumsy' is?

The notes didn't stop abruptly here, but a dozen pages were torn out, and when the Arcanist saw the traces, he was stunned again.

[Latecomer, this is probably my last diary, under the illumination of the modified light, those things will not move violently, and in the dark, they or 'it' will also go into hibernation, now let me introduce our 'madness' - the blood of the old gods. 】

[This thing doesn't have an exact form, if nothing else, you should have seen that thing on the way here, that thing was born from the corpse of an ancient god who had been dead for a long time, born from the 'blood' of the corpse, our research was not successful, it just came to this world through our hands, and it has nothing to do with our research and experiments!]

[I don't know if this thing can evolve itself and become resistant to light, it is afraid of the Holy Light, but even the Holy Light is difficult to completely destroy it, it can only be slowly consumed, because it can absorb most forms of energy, magic, psionic energy, ether, and even kinetic energy, the only thing to be thankful for is that this thing cannot absorb gravity and matter, otherwise it will be really bad.] 】

[There is no doubt that this thing is 'divine iniquity', and we thought that we had studied something special, but at last, when we woke up from our arrogance, we found that what the gods said was not false, and they had been admonishing us sincerely, but it was too late...... We are just blinded by our own great power, and we have not reached the level of gods at all!]

[The light is only able to simulate the holy light, and can suppress the movement of that thing, so I suggest that when you read this note, if the God of Light still exists in this world, it is best to seek His help, even if it is an enemy, He will not be able to sit idly by. Of course, this is just one of my suggestions, choose from you. 】

[Finally, may the empire prosper forever!]

"Fries, what's going on? You found the base?"

At this moment, a voice came from behind them, startling them.

The Arcanist was frightened into a cold sweat and hurriedly looked back, but found nothing, and it took him a moment before he reacted.

The information exchange mechanism of this secret base...... Is it a coincidence?