A lifeless man sat in the corner at the end of the banquet hall. He was shrouded in a black robe, almost blending into the darkness around him. There were no decorations on the plain black robe. No one would have thought that he was one of the supreme leaders of the demon hunter organization. His face was covered with a weird mask, which was as lifelike as the golden masks of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, but made of black metal. The mask outlined a serious face. If Hao Ren was not mistaken, this should be the appearance of the sage before he was eroded by the taboo knowledge.
Teuton immediately recognized the man when he saw the mask. "Sage Beetholis …" he exclaimed in a low voice.
This was Sage Beetholis. They had been in the Coldpath dimension for a long time. It was not easy to break through the defense of the Council of Elders and go deep into the Netherrealm Clock Tower. Finally, they had met their first demon hunter saint, but under such circumstances, Sage Beetholis was a demon hunter.
Beetholis was not breathing. After a simple scan, the MDT determined that he was lifeless. Hao Ren carefully reached out and grabbed the edge of Beetholis's mask, and then slowly removed the layer of metal.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
There was no flesh under the mask, not even any physical substance. A cloud of grayish-white smoke slowly billowed in Beetholis's robe. There was nothing in the smoke that could be recognized as a core or a skeleton. As the mask was removed, the smoke seemed to lose its restraint. It immediately scattered in all directions and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Beetholis's black robe floated to the ground.
"He's dead," Hao Ren said, leaving only a weird black iron mask in his hand. "And he has turned into ashes."
"Did they turn into this' mist 'form from the beginning? Or did they mutate into this because they died? " Vivian turned to look at Teuton. She felt that this question was very important. She might be able to infer the cause of Beetholis's death.
"Ever since the Sages put on their masks, no one has ever seen their true faces." Teuton's expression was strange, as if he could not believe that a Sage had just vanished into thin air. "But what is certain is that when they put on their masks, they still have a physical form — although that form has been distorted beyond recognition."
"Let's assume that Beetholis' body turned into smoke in a horrible way." Vivian frowned. "Can you determine the time of death?"
The MDT circled around the clothes left behind by Beetholis. "I can't determine the time of death, but based on the dust on the clothes and the density of dust particles in the surrounding environment, he came here about eight days ago and stopped moving."
"Eight days?!" Hao Ren suddenly thought of the dusty tables he saw on the lower floor. The weird flow of time in the Netherrealm Clock Tower once again caught his attention. Until yesterday, the Netherrealm Clock Tower had been in contact with the outside world, and there was evidence that the Sages were personally commanding the frontline defense. But Beetholis had died here eight days ago. "The flow of time here is not right," Hao Ren said.
"I have also found this problem, but the flow of time is normal." The MDT had apparently calculated the data in this regard. "I have just calibrated with the Data Network and confirmed that the relative time distortion is zero."
"But the time here was definitely not normal before … and it is not normal even now," Hao Ren said as he straightened up and looked at the faded banquet hall. "The flow of time has indeed recovered. Perhaps it has recovered after we entered the clock tower. "
Y 'lisabet had been walking around. The little girl's eyes were glowing with the unique red light of the Balrog in the dark. The quirky little guy seemed to be thinking about something. Finally, she returned to the clothes left by Beetholis. "Is this man one of the supreme leaders of the demon hunters?"
White Flame and Teuton nodded in unison. "Yes."
"How could such a big shot die alone in this hall?" Y 'lisabet pointed at Beetholis's body. "What was he doing here?"
Y 'lisabet's words reminded everyone present that the Thirteen Sages had been living in seclusion in the Netherrealm Clock Tower for thousands of years. Not only did they never leave the clock tower, but they also rarely left their respective floors and secret chambers. They would only show up when they organized activities like the Demonic Gathering or the Disciplinary Council, and they only gathered the demon hunters in some specific places. So why did Beetholis die in such a banquet hall that did not match the seclusion of the Sages?
"What is this hall for?" Vivian asked curiously.
Teuton spread out his hand and said, "It's just an ordinary ballroom. We usually gather here to relax, but the Sages never come here because they can't interact with too many people. They have to carefully select the people they want to meet."
Lily muttered casually, "Why do I feel like these Sages are infected with the plague? They're spreading it everywhere they go."
"Taboo knowledge is no different from the plague," Teuton said, shaking his head gently. "The wisdom that does not belong to this world, not even the mortals, will distort reality. It lures the ignorant to understand the darkest and grotesque world. The deeper they understand, the more they will fall into that world. Those who fall into it will become strange things in the real world. At the end of the day, there are some things that we should not understand. Our weak brains simply cannot handle those things. The sages, in order to defeat the ancient otherworldling gods, voluntarily absorbed this knowledge, and they also paid a huge price for it. "
The others at the scene were a little puzzled when they heard these obscure descriptions, but Hao Ren was deeply impressed by Teuton's words. In fact, his understanding was even deeper than Teuton's. Because he had really come into contact with those things, those things that were beyond the mortal experience, and the mysteries that could twist a mortal into a monster with just a glance.
Raven 12345 once took him to look down at the entire universe from a hyperdimensional perspective, seeing every corner within hundreds of millions of light-years in an instant. He also entered the spiritual world of the brain monster and the First Born's dream. Every thought of those demigod creations was enough to burn any mortal's brain into charcoal. In addition, even reading the thoughts of ordinary alien races would cause a huge burden on the flesh and nerves. These super-experiential knowledge could not be processed and accepted by the human brain. If it were not for Raven 12345's blessing and the pope's physique, he would probably be like the Thirteen Sages, or worse.
The Thirteen Sages had forcibly used the demon hunter's brain to learn the knowledge of countless ancient alien species. Hao Ren could imagine how twisted they would be.
"Beetholis must have been seriously injured elsewhere and barely made it to this place before he died," Vivian said. "There are twelve other sages, and I think they are very suspicious."
Lily held up Flamejoy and shone it around as if she was looking for evidence of Beetholis' struggle. But she found something else. "Hey, look, there are words on the wall here!"
Hao Ren hurried over to check on the situation. Not far from where Beetholis had fallen, there was a line of crooked text engraved on the wall. The distortion of the handwriting seemed to indicate how weak the person who had left the message was at that time. There was only one sentence in the message:
"We have released the monster from the nightmare. It is at the top of the tower."
"Did Beetholis leave it?" Vivian asked Teuton.
Teuton carefully examined it and said, "It is hard to recognize … but it is indeed the handwriting of the Sage Beetholis."
"The monster from the nightmare?" Hao Ren had a bad feeling, and thinking of the true nature of the Coldpath dimension, the bad feeling became worse. "… Motherf * cker, please don't have anything to do with the true God. I only have a few days left before my year-end bonus."
Just then, a sudden rush of footsteps came from outside the hall, and it sounded like there were a lot of people.
Everyone instinctively tensed up. Y 'zaks waved his hand and said, "It's the follow-up troops."
Sure enough, it was the commanders of the 'normal demon hunters', a part of the demon king's army led by Lanina, and the elite soldiers of the coalition army.
It was a great thing to see friendly troops in this gloomy and weird place. Even Teuton, who had always kept a straight face, breathed a sigh of relief. Lanina quickly walked up to Y 'zaks and said, "My king, sorry for the delay. The guys from the Council detonated the last defense device, and the space turbulence caused a little trouble."
She then waved to her subordinates behind her, and the soldiers of the demon king's army immediately stepped aside. A demon hunter from the Order of Demon Hunters, escorted by three elven magisters, came forward. It was Claude, who had been captured before.
Hao Ren was a little surprised. "He can … communicate?"
Lanina nodded and said, "I don't know why, but he seems to have suddenly woken up."
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