After all, the emperor did not find the whereabouts of the Tidal Church crew in the town, and he disappeared from this world forever as if he had been swallowed up by the fog on the road.

However, it is also said that he has returned to the territory of the Church of the Tides. It is located in the central sea surrounded by archipelagos, and only the followers of the Church of the Tides know how to get there, and they, the reserve sacrifices, have no right to know these secrets.

In addition, they did not meet any high-ranking councillors who had arrived in the archipelago. Surveying the town yielded almost nothing, the emperor gradually realized that it seemed that even the townspeople had accepted him

As "meat", they are always ready to be tied to a fishing boat and sacrificed to the Lord of the Tides, and when the members of the Church of the Tides come to the town to call their names, it is a relief for them.

They look like the inhabitants of Silvermoon Harbor, but they resemble the walking dead. Whenever he offered to leave the island and live outside, they would look terrified in their eyes, and their fear of the Lord of the Tides was written into their genes and blood, so that they would not dare to complain about their master even in the face of death.

The Emperor noticed this subtle detail, and the townspeople and the Tide Church called the gods they believed in

"Master" not God the Father. After returning to the hotel, he could only spend the day in the town for the rest of the day, waiting for Diego's father...... Take care of his waist.

He felt that this might be the first god in the world to be troubled by back pain. The fierce battle on the sea made it clear to the Emperor that if he wanted to go deep into the Misty Isles, they would have to come from

The help of "God the Father." The red ball of light above the clouds vanished, giving them an idea of time in the town at last.

It was now just after nightfall, and most of the townspeople had returned to their homes.

"Dong Dong Dong, Dong Dong Dong-" The sudden knock on the door interrupted the emperor's thoughts, he opened the door, and found that the person who appeared at the door was an old man in a gray robe, the old man's hair was messy, and it looked like he hadn't taken care of it for a long time, after opening the door, he looked into the room vigilantly, and after confirming that there were only the emperor and Diego in the room, he finally entered the house with peace of mind.

Earlier, the emperor had seen the old man at the town's bazaar, when he was far away and hidden in the shadows, and there was no intersection between them.

If it weren't for the prosthetic eye, which automatically recorded the old man's information, he probably wouldn't have been able to recall these details.

"Paladin, that's my name." The old man's voice was low, and this was the first person with a name they met after coming to the town.

"I've heard you've been asking about the Tides Church in town, so that means you're supposed to be with those guys, right?"

"The guys?"

"A few days ago, your companions captured several coastal towns, they repelled the attack of the Church of the Tides, and now they are looking for a way to enter the Church." The old man said in a firm tone.

All this could not have been more obvious, the emperor was like those foreign invaders, his body had turned into iron bumps.

"I've seen your boats, they can still fly in the sky, and I think there should be a lot of space in there, enough to accommodate a lot of people." As the old man spoke, the emperor also reacted.

He mentioned

The "companions" are supposed to be the robots in the steel fortress, and it is revealed to them that there are other fleets besides them that have broken through the sea monster's defenses and successfully reached the Misty Islands.

He didn't know where the mech fleet came from, and even the coalition government's intelligence services didn't know about their existence until then.

The laser weapons used by the mechs, and the equipment installed in the airships, appear to be more advanced than military technology.

The emperor deliberately did not clarify the misunderstanding, and instead asked,

"Why do you ask?"

"If your ship can accommodate the townspeople, maybe you can take them with you when you return and send them to the outside world?" The old man's tone was hurried, mixed with pleading,

"In return, I may be able to help you find your way to the Church of the Tides." He secretly observed the emperor for a long time before he finally mustered up the courage to come to him.

Because as far as the old man knew, his companions stationed in other towns were not friendly to the natives, and they did not know what they did to the townspeople, and the bodies of the inhabitants began to change slowly, and the skin of those people was gradually replaced by metal, and their flesh and blood were devoured by machinery, and finally became mechanical creations as cold as those people.

These rumors had been heard by him from several Tidecultists who had fled after the defeat, and they seemed to have been completely frightened by the mechanical monsters.

Seeing this, he hid in the shadows, impersonating the tone of those robots, and extracted a lot of news from the mouths of the disciples.

Hearing this, the emperor was even more confused about the arrival of the old man.

"In that case, why would you do it? Aren't you afraid that I'll turn you into a mechanical monster too? "The transformation that the old man mentioned was obviously the mechanical plague they encountered in Silvermoon Harbor, and now it is certain that this plague was brought by those mechanical fleets that appeared out of nowhere, and the ultimate purpose of this plague is to transform humans into their own kind, so as to make up for their losses in the war.

"Because compared to the curse we carry, the changes in our bodies are nothing at all." The old man gritted his teeth and said, his eyes were resolute,

"As long as you can be free, you will not hesitate to become a machine, even a stone." He pulled out a book with yellowed paper.

In small towns, books are contraband, and anyone who keeps them in their possession will be punished with death. This is the code that the Church of the Tides has been promoting, and the membership in the church will expose people to some bad thoughts, and the townspeople who exist as sacrifices will not use them at all

"Thoughts", that's not something they should think about. He only needed to make sure that he was healthy enough to complete the sacrifice in full condition.

The only remaining book in the town was the work of the old man, who was probably the longest-lived man in the town, and was lucky enough to avoid every list of sacrifices to be able to record everything he saw on the island.

If one day he dies, his thoughts and observations will continue in this way. As for Paladin, that's not his name either.

His parents, like everyone else in the town, did not name their children, and when he was very young, his parents were chosen to be sacrificed, boarded a fishing boat that went to sea, and never returned.

And when he saw it from a stone monument on the island

The name "Paladin" was deeply impressed by his deeds. Paladin was a general of the kingdom and a hero in the eyes of the people.

On the surviving inscription, Admiral Paladin once led his fleet in a decisive battle against the evils that inhabit the depths of the sea.

The war encompassed the entire kingdom, but even with all the power of humanity, he was unable to conquer the sea, and Paladin's fleet was wiped out, and he sank to the bottom of the sea along with his beloved homeland.

Today's Misty Islands are the remnants of that civilization.

"They destroyed the monument to Palatine, burned all the historical texts, and since then, those woes have become the masters of the survivors." The old man told him everything he had learned.

He spent his life traveling to every corner of the Misty Islands, piecing together an incomplete story from the broken wreckage, and this secret has always pressed on his heart, and he dare not share it with anyone.

He also came to understand why they had been stripped of their names and existed as sacrifices. This is

A curse from God. Even after the death of Paladin and his followers, their descendants were not at peace in the land.

The Lord of the Tides uses this method to make it clear to all who want to rebel against her. It's a millennium-long curse.

The people who have come to the islands have long forgotten what happened on this land; Long enough that they had accepted their fate, stripped of their names and identities, and perpetuated the curse as sacrifices.

The emperor read the words in the book, and he had emotional fluctuations for the first time in a long time. He had heard some legends about the lost kingdoms, but historians generally believed that those civilizations were fictional and never existed in this world.

And at this moment, he really met the remnants of a lost civilization on an archipelago with an unknown geographical location.

The old man hoped to gain courage from Paladin's deeds, but all he could do was record everything he knew, and that was the best he could resist.

Unfortunately, the emperor was pessimistic about the old man's efforts. Over the course of the millennium, the descendants of the warriors have long been completely domesticated by the Lord of the Tides, and they can no longer have the idea of taking up arms.

And just as they were talking, a group of uninvited guests arrived in the town. The blinding light dispelled the night.

The people from the Church of the Tides came. The townspeople, even the old men and children, who had no choice but to leave their houses and gather in the town's square, were neatly arranged in a daze-eyed manner.

The congregation shone a lamp on everyone's face, and then someone brought out a list with a portrait of the chosen one.

Because of the recent war, their masters needed more sacrifices. The people who were pointed out did not resist, and there was not even a negative emotion of fear and unwillingness on their faces.

They just stood there, their arms tied behind them with ropes by the cultists. That's their life, and that's the whole purpose of their existence.