Neritir's words created a momentary comprehension barrier for everyone present. No one could translate it, be it grammatically or semantically. A sentence even popped up in Gawain's mind — the language and knowledge of the gods were incomprehensible to mortals. Even if you could hear His voice clearly, you would not be able to understand His intentions …
He immediately shook his head and shook the thought out of his mind. This sentence was definitely not used to describe the situation at hand …
"What is the specific situation?" He looked at the girl in the holographic projection. "You said there was a 'woman without legs'? The intruder was a woman without legs? "
Naretil immediately nodded and made a very tall gesture. "And she was very tall, like a tower. She ran all the way to the unconscious area at the edge of the neural network and escaped from there …"
Gwen frowned a little. He realized that it would be difficult to get any useful information if they continued to communicate like this. He interrupted Naretil and said, "You wait over there for a moment. I will enter the network and talk to you directly."
Naretil nodded. "Oh, okay."
"You guys deal with the follow-up here." Gwen turned to Rebecca and Kamel beside him. "Although the network looks normal now, we can't let our guard down. Track the status of all the hubs for another twenty-four hours. At the same time, continue to monitor the network for abnormal signals. Also … Kamel, import the siren runes into the network in the form of a universal broadcast."
The last thing he suddenly thought of was a second ago. Recalling Naretil's messy description and the clues he observed in the previous vision, he vaguely felt that the truth behind this matter was perhaps extraordinary.
After completing a series of arrangements, Gwen did not waste any time in the real world. He quickly entered the neural network where Naretil was through the connection device.
…
This' new world 'built on the basis of the consciousness nodes of the human brain had gone through a storm. Now everything had calmed down. The special nature of the virtual world allowed it to repair itself at an extremely fast speed. The traces left by the storm were rapidly fading around the world. Now, only some cracks and chaotic lines in the sky were left as evidence, telling Gwen that an uninvited guest had' visited 'here.
In the mirror-image imperial capital at the center of the 'new world', a large pyramid-shaped building stood in the corresponding position of the 'Cecil Palace' in reality. This large pyramid facility was the projection of the imperial computing center and a series of distributed computing stations in the network world, assuming the responsibility of a management hub here.
At this moment, the senior technical personnel responsible for managing the neural network had gathered in the largest conference hall in the pyramid, including some of the former archbishops of the Eternal and several experts of the Institute of Magical Engineering. When Gwen walked into the hall, he was the only one there.
"I saw traces left in the sky outside," he said casually. "It seems that the fluctuations in the neural network are much more serious than in the real world."
"We have experienced a storm. Some kind of disruptive 'shock' has spread throughout the world." A cluster of wriggling starlight floated above the conference table, and the voice of Megor the Third came out from it. "But this storm did not substantially destroy anything. It only caused a large-scale visual interference. Now, the repair work is almost done."
"This will help us to determine the true intention of the 'intruder'." Gwen nodded and looked at one of the two special seats on his left. "Naretil, you can project what you saw here — if those images are 'safe'."
Naretil obviously understood what Gwen meant by 'safe'. She stood up, opened her hands and nodded. "It's very safe. The unsafe parts have been 'eaten' by me."
As her voice trailed off, a large number of changing lights and shadows suddenly spread around everyone and formed a projection illusion that covered the entire hall. In the thick fog, Gwen and the others saw the chase that happened not long ago at the border of the network. They saw the shadow that swept across the border, the 'lady' who was obviously not human, the fight between the white spider and the intruder, and how the intruder escaped …
Gwen opened his eyes wide and watched with rapt attention. As the images changed, he captured more and more details. When he noticed the symbols in the magical domain and heard part of the conversation between the 'intruder' and Naretil, he immediately frowned and his face became more and more solemn.
Beside him, many of the former archbishops of the Eternal Sleep also showed a serious look. Obviously, these experts who had been dealing with the 'power of the gods' for half of their lives, or one or two lifetimes, also had a similar association with Gwen.
That intruder … had very obvious' mythological 'characteristics.
Soon, Naretil's' memory 'ended, and the illusion in the hall receded like the tide. Gwen immediately looked at the person who experienced it all. "Naretil, when you were tangling with the intruder, did you feel that the intruder had some kind of' characteristics' similar to yours? For example … some kind of aura that both you and Duwalter have … "
Gwen had a hard time expressing his thoughts. He found that the human vocabulary was so poor when it came to describing the concept of transcendental experience. Moreover, Naretil was a 'young god' who did not have much experience. It was difficult for him to articulate what he wanted to say. But in the end, Duwalter, who was sitting on the other side of Naretil, understood what he meant. The old man in black nodded and replied on behalf of his' divine half ', "There was a similar aura. Naretil mentioned it when she came back. She felt that the intruder was a little like' our 'kind."
Almost everyone's expression changed in an instant.
Naretil then added with a serious face, "It's just 'like' our kind. The difference is still huge. I have more legs than her …"
Gwen was speechless.
Why was the white spider so obsessed with the issue of legs?
Naretil's weird obsession with 'legs' almost made everyone in the hall lose their coherence. But the seriousness of the situation quickly brought everyone's attention back to the matter at hand. Selena Geer, who had been silent all this while, stood up. "So we can roughly be sure that a god has invaded our network …"
Yuri broke the silence. "It's not necessarily an invasion. It's more like he's using our network to carry out some other plan …"
"That's still an invasion," Magnum said loudly. "He didn't ask for anyone's permission …"
"Now, the key is the identity of this god. Among the known gods, which god fits the image of this god? We can first rule out the god of war … "
The people in the hall began to discuss. At this moment, Heti's voice suddenly rang in Gwen's mind. It was an emergency call from Heti from the real world.
"Ancestor," Heti's voice had a hint of urgency and nervousness. "Something's not right … Grand Consul Victoria just sent a message. The prayers to the Goddess of Magic have suddenly lost all responses."
"What did you say?" Gwen's eyes suddenly changed. He sat up straight and asked quickly in his mind, "You mean, the Goddess of Magic … is gone?"
Heti did not seem to expect Gwen to come to such a radical conclusion. She was stunned for a moment, but soon gave an affirmative answer. "I'm afraid so … Although there's almost no response at the level of divine spells when praying to the Goddess of Magic, at least the prayers can feel the psychological feedback and the transcendent gaze from the gods. But since just now, even this most basic feedback has disappeared when praying to the Goddess of Magic, Mirmina. Winter Fort Academy has organized a large number of mages with different levels of strength and faith to conduct several prayer experiments, and the results were the same.
"Besides, I tried it myself when I received the message … There was no response."
Gwen's face was calm as he said slowly, "According to our research on the operating mechanism of the gods, as long as a god exists, there will be a connection with the believers. Prayer will inevitably produce feedback, and this feedback will not change according to the will of the god, unless like Amoun who destroyed his position and fell into suspended animation, or like the Lord of Storms who was replaced …"
"Yes, Ancestor," Heti said in a low voice. "So there's only one explanation for the current situation: the Goddess of Magic has disappeared … At least, the corresponding 'position' of the Goddess of Magic has disappeared."
"… I'm afraid that's the truth," Gwen replied. "Stabilize the situation on your side first. Most of the mages have shallow faith in the Goddess of Magic, so there shouldn't be too much chaos. First, announce the news of the successful connection, then release the things we prepared in advance to deal with unexpected situations. The news of the football game, the promotional video of the new magic movie, and the aerial documentaries, commercial advertisements, including the songs recorded by Venti … release them all. In short, let the ordinary people have something to watch and occupy their attention. As for the voices of the mages … the Goddess of Magic did not have a church, so let the Extraordinary Affairs Management Department in the government office to communicate with the mages. At this stage, only feedback from the people was received, and everything was waiting for the results of the investigation by the Magic Research Department.
"That's the arrangement for now. We'll talk about the details when I return to the real world."
"Yes, Ancestor."
Heti hung up, and Gwen turned his attention back to the hall. Venti, who was sitting not far away, seemed to have noticed something and cast a curious look. "Your Majesty, have you thought of something?"
"I'm afraid it's the Goddess of Magic, Mirmina." Gwen exhaled with a complicated expression. "Just now, Heti sent a message that the position of the Goddess of Magic, Mirmina, has disappeared."
The people in the hall suddenly looked at each other.
"Naretil." Gwen turned to the left. "The 'intruder' once told you that she can't have any contact with the mortals now, and that it wasn't easy for her to cut off contact with the mortals, right?"
"Yes." Naretil nodded. "And in the end, she also said that she owed a favor and asked me to tell you that she would pay it back one day … But I always feel that she has no intention of coming back at all …"
"… If everything is as I guess, then she definitely has no intention of 'coming back,'" Gwen said unhurriedly. A lot of clues took shape in his mind, along with a lot of conjectures and hypotheses. The originally chaotic fog seemed to have dissipated, and the ins and outs of this matter finally gradually took shape in his mind. Under the guesses, there was a shocking conclusion. If he had not seen and talked with Amoun, who faked his death, he was afraid that he would never have thought in this direction. "Another god who smashed her own position …"
Then he shook his head. Although he was now almost certain that the intruder that Naretil encountered was the Goddess of Magic, Mirmina, and he was sure that the intruder had no intention of "coming back," the "coming back" here meant "returning to the position of a god." As for the "Goddess of Magic" promised Naretil to "repay the favor," he was still looking forward to it.
The reason was very simple. It was difficult for gods to lie, and they would not make promises casually. Even the gods who had removed the restraints of their positions of gods were still limited in this respect.
But obviously, now was not the time to think about how a god would "repay the favor," because a wayward and reckless god suddenly ran away, leaving behind a lot of mess.
Of course, what she left behind was not only a mess. For Gwen, who was very good at seizing benefits, there were a lot of valuable clues in this mess that could help him understand the operating rules of the gods and even speculate about the status of other gods.
Maybe … it was time to talk to Amoun again.
…
In the deepest part of the Fortress of Disobedience, located in the "courtyard area" of the Realm of Looming Shadow, countless scattered boulders were connected to form a broken land floating in the air. The metal fragments of the ancient times and the restraint devices left from the Gondor era were intertwined, fixing the enormous "body" of the giant white deer together.
In this dark and chaotic world, Amoun was patiently dormant as always. Loneliness and silence seemed to be meaningless to him.
But suddenly, his closed eyes opened again. His eyes, which were as bright as gemstones, stared at the depths of the Realm of Looming Shadow.
A lavender figure, which contained many light balls and runes, suddenly appeared in the depths of the chaos and darkness. It flew quickly like a gust of wind and passed not far in front of Amoun like a gust of wind.
Amoun quietly watched the "gust of wind" appear and then disappear. He stared at the direction where it disappeared and waited patiently for a while. A moment later, he saw the lavender figure flying quickly from afar again.
The figure stopped. A lady, who was as tall as a bell tower and whose light was dim, stood on the broken land of the Realm of Looming Shadow. She stared at Amoun who was lying there and said in confusion and surprise, "You … So …"
But the next second, she shook her head and said, "No, I have to go deeper …"
Hardly had she finished her sentence when the lady turned into a gust of wind again and flew to the depths of the Realm of Looming Shadow. In the darkness, only a voice that was fading away came into Amoun's ears.
"Don't tell anyone that I've been here!"
Amoun did not make any sound or move during the whole process. He just watched in silence, and everything was quietly reflected in his crystal-like eyes.
"… Huh?"
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