This time, it was really time to leave.
Gwen glanced at the refreshments and drinks on the round table in front of him and said with a sincere smile, "I think I will miss this cup of 'reflection'. This is one of the best experiences I have in Tarlonde."
The Dragon God took a deep look at Gwen and said, "It looks like … you have not tasted it since you came to this world."
"I've tried to get someone to make something similar, but I didn't succeed in the end." Gawain smiled. Only in front of this knowledgeable god, he could talk about these things with confidence. He glanced at the oak cup on the table again with a regretful expression on his face. "It's a pity that things like reflections … can't be replicated by human hands."
The Dragon God was a little curious. "… Do outworld wanderers also feel homesick?"
"Sometimes. Although I can't remember what my hometown looks like."
…
"My Lord, they have left Tarlonde."
Helagol, who had gone to see the guests off, returned to the upper hall of the temple and came to the Dragon God, Enya, who was still standing quietly in the middle of the hall.
"I see." The Dragon God glanced at Helagol indifferently. "Then you should go and rest. I do not need to be served here for the time being."
Helagol looked up slightly at the god, bowed his head and said, "… Yes."
But after receiving the order, the high-ranking dragon priest did not leave immediately. Instead, he stood there as if he had something to say and seemed to be hesitant.
"Speak," the Dragon God said indifferently. "What do you want to ask?"
"You look troubled and tired," Helagol said with his head down. "Is it because of the question you discussed with that human?"
"… You could say so," the Dragon God said indifferently. "Maybe … I am a little envious of them."
Helagol looked up and asked, "Envious?"
"Envious that they have not gone too far, so they still have the opportunity to make choices and trial and error." The Dragon God looked quietly into Helagol's eyes. "And envious that they are so young and still have courage and drive."
The hall became quite quiet. Helagol could almost hear the sound of his heart beating powerfully. It was a healthy, primitive heart full of vitality, not a complex bionic pump made of metal and polymer.
The master and servant stood facing each other. Time seemed to have stagnated in this temple.
…
Those special guests had left. They had stirred up a little ripple in the eternal and calm pool of Tarlonde, but the ripple immediately calmed down as they left. In the huge, precise, and cold machine of the Giant Dragon Kingdom, the ripple caused by the outsiders did not make much of a difference to the society. The ripple only became a few pieces of news, a few stories, a few discussions on the Internet, and a few short-lived hot topics. Then, it was drowned out by the vast ocean of entertainment and useless information in the Omega network and disappeared without a trace.
The upper-class citizens continued to do their busy but meaningless work, while the lower-class citizens continued to indulge in the arena and neurotic entertainment under the dual effects of the enhancers and hallucinogens.
Perhaps only the Omega database would faithfully record this little "footnote" as always.
Deep in the west side of the continent, in a giant mine near the coast, orderly automated machines were busy shuttling. Transport trains were constantly speeding through the complex cobweb-like tunnels, and manager robots were busy between a large number of warehouses and isolation rooms. In the shelves and containers that they were carrying and inspecting, most of them were preserved metal fragments that emitted strange starlight, or broken and distorted crystal remains that could not be seen in its original form.
This was one of the main warehouses of the Mithril Vault, and also one of the warehouses with the highest security level. Stored here … were all "special collections" above Level 10.
The relics of the voyagers, the taboo items of the Tidetide Empire, or the stubborn remains of the ancient gods that stubbornly refused to dissipate after several demonic waves.
This was the result of the Giant Dragon's continuous collection from the outside world for more than a million years. In a sense, the saying in the human world that Dragons loved gold and silver and loved to collect rare treasures was also related to this collection behavior.
This secret vault, which was transformed from a mine, did not have many Giant Dragon guards. The fleet controlled by the Omega controlled everything here. The combat machines were more reliable than the Giant Dragon and more efficient in responding to the Omega's orders. In fact, in the warehouses above Level 7, there was basically no ordinary Giant Dragon.
And this vault also kept a lot of things related to the voyagers. Although the Great Temple asked the Dragons to collect as much of the voyagers' relics as possible, the gods also forbade the Giant Dragon to use the relics with special powers. Under this special order, it was even less likely that there would be many Dragons guarding this facility.
At the core of the mine, a huge shaft went straight down to the deepest part of the earth.
This shaft and the things in it were hidden in the safest and deepest part of the continent. Even so, it was still surrounded by more than ten layers of high-strength alloy armor and countless defense facilities to protect the things in the deepest part of the shaft.
A large number of pipes, cables, and rails went down the shaft, passing through layers of defense and finally connecting to a vast underground space. The underground space was supported by a hundred-meter-tall metal beam, reinforced by layers of alloy lining and a polymer dome. It was a star-shaped hall, and its size was almost the same as the Council's headquarters.
In every corner of the star-shaped hall, there was a deep and long tunnel leading to a certain direction. It seemed to be a hub of an underground transportation network that extended in all directions. There were also shimmering tracks extending from the depths of the tunnels and converging in the center of the hall. At the point where all the tracks converged, in the center of the hall, there was a huge, heavy, humming device that was operating.
It was like a silver-white giant egg, fixed vertically in a series of brackets, pipes, and cables. Its axis was more than ten meters long. The surface of the giant egg was flashing with light, and in the humming sound, it seemed to be nurturing some kind of life.
And around the giant egg, there were many columns, and on the surface of those columns, there were various complex data interfaces and monitoring views, showing that the hall was busy exchanging data every second.
But no Giant Dragon would supervise the operation of the hall, and no Giant Dragon would read the data presented on those interfaces. These devices were all remnants of ancient design, and the machines had not eliminated them for efficiency reasons. Perhaps it was just to maintain some kind of 'tradition' that only the machines cared about.
Here, only the machines monitored themselves.
In the low, seemingly eternal humming sound, a stream of light appeared on the surface of the giant egg again, and on one of the columns connected to it, a crystal interface suddenly began to refresh with bright white text.
"Confirming that the visitor has left Tarlonde's range. The observation thread has ended. Data entering the archiving process."
The light at the end of the text flashed as if thinking and hesitating, but soon, the text continued to refresh line by line.
"What is the meaning of life?
"Archived Gwen Cecil's answer, answer number: 177. Archiving complete.
"Compared with the previous 176 answers.
"There is still no clear result. The answers given by humans or other intelligent creatures are still ambiguous and full of contradictions.
"It is still uncertain if this question is really unsolvable."
The bright white text on the interface stopped refreshing, and then as the light flashed and dimmed, the machine's thinking seemed to have ended, and the normal data returned to the center of the interface.
But only a moment later, a new thread was suddenly started, and on the surface of another column, a continuous stream of text quickly refreshed.
"Based on answer number 177, a new question is derived:
"Does Omega have 'life'?
"Trying to define 'life' … Trying to expand the definition … Trying to expand the definition again …
"Conclusion: If a Giant Dragon whose body is made up of 90% machines is' life ', then Omega can also be' life '.
"Omega can be 'life'."
The machines were quietly operating.
A batch of biomass waste from the Ultimate Arena that should have been sent to the biochemical processing center for recycling or abandonment was intercepted, put into a new container, and sent onto a transport train to an automatic factory deep underground.
A batch of metal waste that was not in the processing catalog was thrown into a furnace deep underground, ready to be made into new raw materials.
A production sequence was secretly started, and the machines were busy working.
Today, Tarlonde was still calm and peaceful.
…
Winter had arrived, and it seemed to be colder than previous years.
The cold wind blew the flags on the top of Winterwolf Fort, and the sturdy fabric made a rolling and flapping sound in the wind. A group of soldiers in black armor walked through the open space under the city walls, and the uniform sound of military boots on the ground knocked on this cold morning.
Andesha stood on the towering city walls of Winterwolf Fort, and watched the soldiers of the Knight Regiment perform their duties, and her tense face relaxed slightly.
"The Iron River Knight Regiment has filled the gap left by the departure of the God of War High Priests, and this is indeed very useful to the current Winterwolf Fort." The young wolf general turned his head and looked at the tall, black-haired middle-aged man standing beside him. "I express my gratitude for this, Count Morglock."
"It is the duty of a Knight to obey orders," said the commander of the Iron River Knight Regiment, the high-ranking knight Count Morglock with a solemn expression. "Moreover, Grand Duke Ferdinand has given me pointers before, and I am very happy to be able to help Winterwolf Fort this time."
As he spoke, this experienced noble officer who commanded one of the strongest Extraordinaire armies in the Empire could not help but look at the sentry tower and wall in the distance, and a hint of worry appeared on his face. "I heard that a priest who was on vacation died mysteriously last night, and two deacons who lived nearby went crazy in their sleep … Is this true?"
"It seems that the news has reached your ears," Andesha could not help but sigh. "The situation is exactly as you said, no … perhaps it is even more sensational. The priest who died mysteriously turned into a monster and self-destructed in front of a guard. When the combat mage in charge of patrolling the High Priests' resting area heard the commotion and went to check it out, he saw the priest's flesh and blood distorting and dissolving into blood and some kind of smoke. He was almost scared to death. As for the two deacons who went crazy, after analysis by the experts in theology and mental spells, the preliminary suspicion is that they were 'contaminated' by the strange roar of the mutated priest before his death, and their minds mutated. "
Count Morglock's face darkened.
"… Shocking," he said in a low voice.
"If you did not see it with your own eyes, normal people would not be able to imagine how strange and terrifying that scene is." Andesha nodded. "The information from the Imperial Capital is accurate, some kind of 'contamination' based on the connection of faith is spreading on a large scale among the God of War High Priests. This is a plague on the level of the soul, and although I do not want to say such rebellious words, it is obvious that the god they believe in cannot protect them from this plague."
Morglock's face twitched, and the corner of his mouth showed a trace of a bitter smile. "There is even a saying that the god himself is the source of the plague …"
Andesha was silent for a few seconds, and could not help but look at the commander of the Knight Regiment beside her. "Count Morglock, as far as I know … you are also a believer of the God of War, so this situation must not be easy for you."
"Rest assured, before that, I am first and foremost a soldier of the Empire," Morglock said with a serious expression. "Indeed, it is inevitable that a soldier would be influenced by the faith of the God of War. More than two-thirds of our soldiers are believers of the God of War, and this includes both shallow and devout believers. Half of the Knight Regiment have been baptized by the Church of the God of War, but we still stand firm here. Indeed, as you said, this is not easy, but I think our loyal Knight and soldiers did not come to this cold and remote border region for leisure."
"That is admirable," Andesha said seriously.
Another gust of cold wind blew, and her grayish white hair fluttered in the wind.
The young Wolf General took out her mechanical watch and looked at the time. She said to Morglock, "Allow me to take my leave. I have to preside over this morning's meeting."
Morglock smiled and nodded. "Go ahead, General Andesha."
Andesha Wendell left the city wall with a valiant and powerful stride. Only Morglock stood quietly on the high wall.
The count turned to look at the direction where Andesha had left. He saw that the young Wolf General had already turned a corner and disappeared at the end of the stairs leading to the castle. He smiled and turned to look in another direction.
Malcolm Dunnett was standing beside him with a gentle and loving smile on his face.
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