"Underground... civilization?"

Roland could not help but think of the turnoffs on the North Slope Mine and the cl.u.s.ter of grottos running through the Impa.s.sable Mountain Range... In his memory, no geological movement could create such unique landforms. At first, he thought that they were created by some sort of mutant hybrid demonic beasts. But according to what Pasha said, maybe they were traces left by the underground civilization?

"At that time, people didn't realize it, nor did they intend to communicate with it. Our forms were so different that we even considered them as a new type of demon, which was why there was a huge deviation on the recorded history. It wasn't until the final phase of the second Battle of Divine Will that there was a breakthrough discovery." Pasha's voice was low and deep. "By then, Taquila was the only city left of the three holy cities. The Union had reached a vital moment of survival or extinction."

"What do you mean by a breakthrough discovery?"

"With the help of the remaining lithograph, the Quest Society figured out the way to store souls and verified it on an unhatched original carrier. Since then, the Three Chiefs embarked on the research for the transformation of the G.o.d's Punishment Army."

"I know nothing about that..." Agatha said surprisingly.

"Soul Transfer was the top secret of the Union. Its cla.s.sification was even two levels higher than that of the G.o.d's Punishment Army plan in which witches were used as the experiment mice. At that time, only the Three Chiefs and a few senior officials knew of it," Pasha replied. "I only learned this astonis.h.i.+ng information with the fall of Taquila."

"So Natalia supported the G.o.d's Punishment Army plan in the beginning?" Roland asked, frowning. "What's an original carrier?"

"Because she was left with no choice. As to the latter... it's what we look like right now." Her tentacles drooped more and her body got closer to the light curtain. "My weird, ugly sh.e.l.l is the evidence that the underground civilization existed. It's the only tombstone that it left. It's a long story. Your Majesty, please allow me to slowly tell you."

Roland nodded, poured himself a gla.s.s of Chaos Drink, leaned back in the chair and began to sense the consciousness transmitted from Pasha.

"According to the clues on the lithograph, the evanescent civilization left a city in the Impa.s.sable Mountain Range. The Quest Society searched for a long time without gaining anything. Then one day it occurred to them that since this civilization was used to moving underground, could this city be built underground as well?"

"After extending the search area, the witches finally found this magnificent city. It consisted of four layers with an area of about half the size of Taquila. On each layer there were countless turnoffs and hollow cavities, which were as complex as a maze. Without the guidance of a witch who could sense directions, one could easily get lost and never get out. For this reason, the Quest Society also called it the maze ruin."

"Unfortunately before the Quest Society could carefully explore it, Taquila was occupied by the demons. Everybody had to escape from home. After paying a heavy price, we finally arrived at the maze. According to our plan, the Union would take away the original carrier stored in the maze, leave for the Hermes Plateau, and then build a new Holy City to restore orders at the east coast of the continent."

"But no one would've guessed what would happen next."

Pasha paused and the scales on her body dimmed. Even without looking at her facial expression, Roland could sense the grief in her heart.

After quite a while, she resumed transmitting. "Although it was after an interval, the Quest Society found the maze ruin that had been preserved in good condition. One can even say that it was an entirely new city. Besides the original carrier, the bottom layer of the ruin stored many unconceivable secrets, the most important three of which were the magic core, the central carrier, and the record of the evanescent civilization. Afterwards, the idea came to our minds that as early as the first Battle of Divine Will, the underground civilization had intended to lead us here." Pasha inhaled deeply. "The maze ruin was prepared for us."

"What for?" Tilly could not help but ask.

"For revenge." Another voice appeared in everybody's head. Compared with Pasha, this witch's tone was much colder. "It hoped that we could destroy the demons and take revenge for its clan's extinction."

"It's only Lady Natalia's speculation. It wasn't recorded in the doc.u.ment." Pasha waved her tentacles like shaking a head. "It could be that they simply wanted their civilization to be pa.s.sed down. Anyway, from the remaining record, the Quest Society retrieved many research materials related to G.o.d's will and magic power. In order for us to understand the details, most of its conclusions were expressed in lithographs."

"And the record about the magic core is the very root of the divergence between the Queen of Sunchaser and the Queen of Starfall City. One of the most important messages in the lithographs is, 'magic power offers infinite possibilities and the pursuit of G.o.d's will is the ladder to mastering magic power'."

Roland sensed the key point coming. "What's the magic core? Does it have anything to do with the Instrument of Divine Retribution?"

"You can take the core as an artificial Magic Cyclone. It's not confined to a witch's body and can adjust its forms at any time. This bizarre device almost overturned the Union's knowledge system." Using one of her tentacles to point at the light curtain, Pasha said, "For example, the phantom instrument we're using for our communication is a minor scaled magic core. When necessary, it can be converted into other instruments. As to the Instrument of Divine Retribution, it's the biggest magic core in the ruin."

"I see..."

Roland instantly realized the superiority of this instrument. Compared with the witches abilities which were inherently unchangeable, the magic core was virtually a universal terminal. Most of all, its effective distance far exceeded the five-meter limit. Either for production or for military use, it was way more powerful than the witches.

"But it's just the primary usage of the magic power. Just as the relations.h.i.+p between the original awakening and the high evolution, the lithograph predicted that with the deepening of the development of magic power, one day we could finally be equivalent to G.o.d..." Pasha said with a sense of loss as if she was not saying something significant. Instead, she sounded like someone who had lost their way.

Roland realized the point of her last words.

"But you ran out of time."

"You're right. At first, we didn't know how long it would take for that day to arrive. It could take a century or a millennium. In order to approach the magic core, several Quest Society members had lost their lives. Obviously, witches can't touch those bizarre instruments. We wanted to solve the problem, but didn't know how to do it, so our exploration came to a dead end. The lithograph could only show very limited information. If we were to carry out our research, we had to follow their instructions. Only when there were enough people integrated with the central carrier, could we comprehend their language so as to further read their more profound doc.u.ments and records."

"But we didn't have enough time. We'd spent three years figuring these things out. Many common people who had joined us earlier tried to get rid of our control and knowing how many witches were needed to integrate with the carrier remained unknown. But at that time, our resources could only sustain one attempt of research. If it went on like this, the great plan of the Union to restore order would have lost its foundation."

"The most important thing is that Lady Alice's plan of the G.o.d's Punishment Army has an irreconcilable conflict with the concept recorded in the underground civilization's doc.u.ments. If a witch abandons her body to become a G.o.d's Punishment Warrior, she'll not only lose the chance to be promoted," Pasha paused, then said, "but also lose G.o.d's Will forever."