There were two ways to get out of the room filled with mysterious runes and where the magic device of the Eternal Sleeper was placed.
One was the path Bard took when he came down, the sloping ramp that connected the upper and middle layers, while the other continued to extend forward until it reached the middle and lower layers of the dark and chaotic world.
Standing in front of the corridor that led deeper, Gwen slightly focused his mind and sensed the distribution of magic in the surrounding environment.
The subtle energy field that shrouded the entire Solin Castle area still existed here. A steady stream of vitality escaped from the roots of the giant tree as if someone was releasing endless healing spells. All organisms within range were affected by this energy field. Even Gwen felt a little refreshed.
Apart from this energy field, he did not sense any other threatening aura.
The team that came down with Gwen gathered behind him. The team commander quickly ordered, "Five in a group. Line up in a one-two-two exploration formation. Advance cautiously."
The fully-armed magic-powered soldiers immediately acted. They were divided into several groups with one shield bearer as the vanguard, two observers, and two firemen as they began to move forward in this deep and long corridor. The comprehensive tactical eyepieces gave them a clear and intuitive view of the distribution of magic in the underground palace, and the runes on their magic-powered equipment calmed everyone's tense mood.
Only the sound of orderly footsteps could be heard in the underground palace.
Amber followed Gwen forward with her eyes wide open. The dim environment in this underground palace had no effect on her as she was born in the Shadow Realm. She could even see as clearly as it was daytime. However, she still activated her additional Shadow Vision because what she saw here was not only the scenery that could be seen with the naked eye, but also … some things that could only be seen with the Shadow Vision.
A layer of gold slowly appeared in her eyes, and a fine shadow mist rose around her. This appearance was somewhat similar to her "shadow fairy" form in the Shadow Realm, but it was obvious that she deliberately controlled it to ensure that she was fixed in the material world while maintaining the highest shadow affinity.
Gwen noticed the "half-elf"'s behavior and asked in a low voice, "What did you see?"
"Nothing, but this looks more professional …"
Gwen was speechless.
"Alright, I was just kidding." Amber noticed that they were surrounded by very hard stone walls. Once they were slapped on, it would be really hard to dig them out. So, he quickly put away his inappropriate joke. "There are indeed some 'things' here. They're Shadow Dwellers... They're everywhere, and there are more of them than other places."
"Shadow Dwellers?" Gwen immediately frowned and subconsciously looked around. Of course, with his human vision, he could not see the creatures hidden in the shadows. "What are they doing? Is there a threat? "
"There shouldn't be any threat. They are all on one side of Umbra, and they don't seem to care about us visitors from the material world." Amber blinked. "They are wandering in this corridor... They seem to be very interested in this underground palace, but other than that, there is nothing else."
As she spoke, she paid attention to the "scenery" that only she could see.
In the deep and dark corridor of the underground palace, the world gradually became black and white. In the faded world, groups of humanoid shadows wrapped in rune cloth were wandering in and out. They passed by Gwen and the others, completely ignoring the visitors in the material world. Only when they passed by Amber would the Shadow Dwellers occasionally stop and nod slightly or murmur a greeting.
Amber shrank her neck and suddenly felt a chill run down her spine when she saw these creatures who were quite friendly to her in the past.
She withdrew part of the Shadow Power, pulled herself out of the Shadow Realm, and more tightly fixed herself to the real world.
She belonged to this world, and she did not want to go back to that world.
At the same time, the team had walked through a long corridor. After passing through a collapsed and cracked door, Gwen found himself walking into a hall.
The hall was spacious, the roof was high, and the stone (or some kind of artificial material similar to stone) walls and floor had extinguished runes and cooled magic conductive metals. This should have been a solemn and important place, but now it was a mess. The long table used for gatherings was torn apart, the chairs were twisted on the ground, and a large number of roots had drilled out from the ceiling and the ground, almost completely occupying the entire space, crisscrossing the hall like a jungle.
In fact, if it were not for these ubiquitous roots entangling and wrapping almost the entire underground palace, this huge underground ruin would have collapsed long ago. After all, when the Artificial God drilled out, it had severely damaged the underground structure of Solin Castle, and then a plant bigger than the castle had drilled out here. The underground palace could only be maintained after such a torment, and it could only be attributed to these roots.
Plant roots could maintain water and soil, this was not wrong (fog).
Gwen glanced around the hall and vaguely recognized some features. Then he realized that he had "seen" this place before.
This was the "council hall" that appeared in the dream that Bard fell into, but what Gwen saw in the same dream was the complete appearance of this hall.
"It seems that I have only really entered the council hall now …" Bard also recognized this place. He murmured with some emotion, his eyes sweeping between the messy tables and chairs and the jungle of roots that filled the hall.
There was no pope in the middle of a meeting, nor was there any bright magic crystal lights. There was only a mess here, and the faint sounds of friction coming from the depths of the roots.
Slight friction sound?
Gwen and Bard heard the strange sound at the same time. The former immediately raised his head and looked at a dark corner in the depths of the hall vigilantly.
The soldiers also reacted. All kinds of weapons were pointed not far away at the same time, and the slight clicking sound of the weapons' safety was instantly heard.
"Stay alert — be careful of misfire," Gwen reminded in a low voice. Then, he picked up the Pathfinder longsword with one hand and walked forward vigilantly.
In the messy beam of light from the personal lighting equipment, a tangle of twisted roots (or vines) in the corner of the hall slowly wriggled. Gwen pressed his hand back, signaling the soldiers not to fire rashly. Then, he quietly watched the vines flip and change shape. In a pale green stream of light, a female figure slowly emerged from the plants.
Bertilla Augustus — in the real world.
Her eyes were slightly closed. Her face was still the same as Gawain's, but her body seemed to have been melded with the plants. She was covered in a "dress" that seemed to be made of a mixture of plant keratin and leaves. Roots and vines grew out of her back, legs, neck, and other parts of her body, which were connected to the roots in the hall. Instead of saying that she was connected to the roots, it would be better to say that …
Her current body was part of this giant tree. Part of the structure of this giant tree mimicked Bertilla, or … she became the giant tree of Solin.
Gwen did not know which was the case. He could only judge that this "Bertilla" in front of him was not awake.
She closed her eyes slightly and did not react to the uninvited guests and flashing lights around her. She was holding a strange, thick book in her hand as if that book was the thing she tried her best to protect before she lost consciousness. Beside her, Gwen sensed a very clear magic wave.
It was indeed a healing spell.
She continued to release healing spells, and the entire Thorin Great Tree was connected to the magic of nature under her influence, creating an uninterrupted life field that directly led to the complete recovery of the entire Thorin Great Tree in just a few days and nights, with life being reestablished.
"There seems to be no reaction …" Amber carefully observed the strange woman in front of her. She knew that the woman was once the dark and cunning fallen Druil, but now her form was closer to that of a dangerous monster. "Is she releasing healing spells … Closing her eyes to cure diseases in her dream, saving lives in her sleep?"
Gwen frowned as he observed the strange scene in front of him, guessing the reason for Bertilla's strange state. He looked up at the pile of tangled roots and vaguely had some thoughts.
"There should be something behind this," he suddenly said. "Open up these roots."
Immediately, a soldier came forward and began to clean up the tangled roots. Gwen turned to look at Bertilla, who still had her eyes closed as if she was sleeping, but on the latter's face … he did not see any change in expression.
The dark hierarch seemed to have become a real plant, and plants have no blood or tears.
The tangled roots were tougher than expected, and the soldiers took a long time to clear a gap. A soldier poked his head in to take a look and immediately shouted. "There's something behind this! It's a secret chamber! "
Behind the entrance, which was covered by the roots, was a secret room.
The secret chamber was filled with black 'objects' whose original form could not be seen, and only the outline of human bodies could be seen.
The scene was hair-raising: hundreds of human figures were piled up in the secret chamber, and countless crisscrossing vines grew around them, connecting their flesh to the roots on the nearby walls. Their vitality was clearly cut off, but the vines that connected them were still lush. And Bertilla outside the secret chamber …
She was still casting healing spells on the dead cult members over and over again.
The healing spells were not meaningless: she forcibly kept the lifeless human figures in a state of neither life nor death, and also imprisoned the last remnants of their spirit in this massive plant.
Now, Gwen finally knew how Bard's dream came about.
Amber also poked her head into the secret chamber, and the creepy scene inside gave her goosebumps. The half-elf quickly retreated and whispered to Gwen, "This thing is too creepy … While I don't like these cultists, but isn't it a little too scary for them to end up like this?"
"The lunatics finally got what they deserved." Gwen looked away from the secret chamber and sighed softly. "Judging from the timeline of the Crystal Cluster Army going out of control, the Manmade God went mad and came out of the ground after about half a month of confinement. During this time, the underground palace was sealed, and the last of the cult members and the monsters they created were locked in the dark underground … After madness, there was distortion, and after distortion, there was mutation. This giant tree that covers half of the Solin area is their final end."
He now vaguely understood how the giant tree came to be.
"What should we do?" Amber looked at Gwen. "Let them stay in this state? Or set them on fire? "
"While they are already dead … But if this continues, no one knows what will happen to them." Gwen shook his head. "As for setting them on fire … Maybe there is no need."
As he spoke, he came to the side of 'Bertilla' who had turned into a plant.
Plants were indeed bloodless and tearless.
But plants were not the only ones that could dream.
"Stop it, they are all dead." Gwen said to Bertilla.
Bertilla still had her eyes closed and did not respond to the sound outside.
Gwen raised an eyebrow. "Pretending to sleep won't solve the problem. Or do you want me to teach you how to be a human again in the real world?"
After a few seconds of silence, Amber and the rest were surprised to find that Bertilla's healing had really stopped.
The 'life force field' in the surrounding space was still maintained. This seemed to have become a characteristic of the 'giant tree of Thorin' and could not be easily dissipated. But Bertilla's healing in this underground space had really stopped.
She finally slowly opened her eyes, and with a strange, slow and low tone, she looked at Gwen and said, "Sure enough … It's you …"
Gwen knew that she was referring to the 'dream encounter' at the border of the Gondor wasteland. At that time, he disguised himself as the founding monarch of Augustus and fooled her. But obviously, Bertilla finally realized the truth now.
But even if she understood everything now, it would be meaningless.
Gwen suddenly felt a little emotional.
He really did not expect that he would see Bertilla again under such circumstances, and witness the final end of the dark Druil.
These crazy, paranoid, and extreme cultists finally buried themselves with their own twisted theurgy.
They themselves became the graveyard grass of this dark cult … The graveyard grass in the truest sense.
Although the size of this graveyard grass was a little too big.
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