Hearing the last sentence, Roland could not help but tremble.
Why would there be a Battle of Divine Will in the Dream World?
He glanced at Garcia, but her expression did not change. Roland did not know whether she already knew about it or did not care about it.
Roland had no choice but to suppress his doubts and follow the crowd to the end of the square under the guidance of the light.
At the end of the square, he found that there were many honeycomb-shaped passages embedded in the towering stone walls. Whether it was entering from the ground or transferring between the passages, they had to take the elevators hanging on the rails. He did not notice it when the square was brightly lit, but now that his field of vision was dim, he saw dozens of elevators going up and down like floating fireflies, which made him feel like he was in a futuristic city.
However, although this design looked beautiful, it was extremely inconvenient to use. It would be fine if it was built in the city center as a landmark, but who would see it if it was buried underground? Once there was a fire, a power outage, or any other emergency, they would not know where to run.
Of course, it was against common sense to build the headquarters underground. If it was just to prevent others from invading or to keep it a secret, it would not make sense.
If it was not that the Martialist Association had too much money to spend, then there must be other reasons.
After entering the 24th passage, Roland found that the ground under his feet was also a transmission ladder. As long as he stood still, it would automatically move forward.
This kind of extravagance was simply astonishing.
"This place used to be a mine. The elevator passage on the wall is just an abandoned mine. Of course, some of them are newly excavated, which depends on the speed of erosion." Roland shrugged and said, "This place used to be a mine, and the elevator passage on the wall is just an abandoned mine.
"The Erosion happened in the mine?"
"Not exactly, but you can think so for the time being."
"So the Association built the headquarters underground to prevent the Erosion from spreading?"
Garcia showed a strange expression. "No, nothing can prevent the Erosion from spreading. The headquarters is not guarding against the Erosion, but against the Awakened with bad intentions."
Seeing that Roland wanted to ask more, she shook her head gently. "You'll understand when you see it."
The passage soon led them to another hall, which was decorated like a staircase conference room. The floor dropped down until a podium was formed at the bottom. The security measures here were obviously much tighter. Martial artists wearing the same clothes could be seen everywhere. They stood expressionlessly on both sides of the hall, coldly staring at the newcomers, completely without any intention of welcoming them.
Didn't they say that martial artists were straightforward, passionate, and unconstrained? Roland cursed in his heart. If this is how they treat new awakened ones, it's no wonder they don't want to join.
After everyone was seated, the chief disciple, Lan, stepped onto the podium again.
She did not say a word and directly lifted a curtain on the stage, revealing a huge glass box below.
Roland could not help but frown.
There was a dark red "crystal" in the box, floating in the center as if it was weightless. It reminded him of the magic core of Taquila. However, the Force of Nature in the Dream World was not as versatile as magic power. Moreover, this crystal did not seem to have any substance. It was more like a clumsy 3D projection. However, looking at Lan's serious expression, it did not seem that she was joking.
"This is …"
"Erosion," Garcia said in a deep voice, "or" loopholes. "
"What?" Roland was stunned.
"The one on the stage is just a small part of it." She sighed softly. "Our world is becoming riddled with holes. This is the essence of the Erosion."
"I think some of you have already guessed or sensed —" Lan glanced at the audience and said word by word, "An evil force has entered our world. It has caused an endless number of Fallen Evils and seriously threatened the safety of the awakened ones. But I have to say that this idea is wrong. There has never been any evil force. It is just... an overlay from another world. "
The audience burst into an uproar.
"What do you mean? Can you be more specific? "
"What do you mean by another world?"
"When did the Martialist Association become an academy of sciences?"
"Then what are the Fallen Evils? Aliens?"
Completely different from the real newcomers, the awakened warriors did not care about Lan's identity as the chief disciple at all and directly shouted.
"Silence." Lan was unmoved. "If you have anything to say, wait until the next show."
As she said this, the glass box slowly rose up and exposed the "crystal". Then three hanging rods hung down from the top of the podium, each with a camera hanging on top. At the same time, the wall behind Lan also lit up. It turned out to be a huge screen with three different angles from three cameras.
Roland soon noticed a phenomenon that made his blood freeze.
No matter which direction the camera shot from, the irregular crystal always showed the same appearance.
"How is this possible?"
"Shouldn't it be a perfect sphere that can do this?"
Things with edges and corners represented discontinuous changes. Visually, each facet must be different, but he couldn't find any signs of rotation in the three images. It was as if it wasn't an object, but a red spot on the screen.
His brain had subconsciously identified it as a virtual image and the crystal itself did not exist.
However, Lan's next move surprised Roland.
He saw that the Chief Disciple took an iron rod from his assistant and inserted it directly into the red crystal. The rod did not penetrate the virtual image as he expected, but disappeared directly in front of everyone. Through the screen, he could see that the three cameras faithfully restored the original appearance of the iron rod. The grinding marks on it were clearly visible, and the angle was completely correct. However, the red spot remained the same, as if three iron rods had pierced into the same place from different angles.
When Lan pulled it back, the stick in her hand was surprisingly missing a section.
The hall suddenly became quiet.
In the face of such a strange phenomenon, everyone fell into silence, as if an invisible hand had covered their mouths.
After a while, someone stood up and said, "Can I go on stage and have a look?"
"Go ahead." Lan nodded.
The man walked up to the podium and stared at the red crystal for a long time. Suddenly, he groaned and reached out to grab it. His skin glowed with a pale silver light, which was obviously the use of the Force of Nature. Warriors who could do this could not be underestimated. Roland had heard from Garcia that the release of the Force of Nature was similar to that of the Fallen Evils to some extent, and ordinary weapons could not hurt them. To practice this kind of skill, one either had extraordinary talent or had experienced many years of life-and-death battles, and was far stronger than ordinary martialists.
This was probably the reason why they were so arrogant.
Lan stood with her hands behind her back, showing no intention of stopping him.
Then there was a shrill scream. The man did not grab anything at all. His hand passed through the crystal without any hindrance, but the part that touched the crystal disappeared without a trace, just like the iron rod. He raised his hand, and there was only half a bloody palm left on his wrist!
Everyone sucked in a breath of cold air in unison.
Now Roland finally understood what Garcia meant when she said, "You absolutely don't want to touch it," because any contact would only turn into nothingness.
When the wounded were taken away by the martialists for treatment, several more people stood up one after another, hoping to go on stage and have a look. Lan also agreed, but this group of people was much more careful when observing. In the end, the Chief Disciple simply arranged for everyone to take turns to go on stage and see this incredible scene at close range.
Roland was no exception.
When it was his turn to go on stage, he pretended to walk around the crystal twice as if nothing had happened, but his heart was in turmoil.
The red ripples surging inside the crystal were so familiar!
In the Divine Realm, he had also seen a similar scene.
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