Hao Ren and Lily exclaimed when they saw the skinny old man. "It's you?"
The old man was none other than the mysterious old man whom they had met at the monitoring station when they encountered the ancient phantom.
At that time, the old man said a lot of inexplicable things. But just when Hao Ren and his team wanted to catch up with him, the old man disappeared into thin air. Hao Ren and his team never thought that they would meet the old man here under such circumstances.
The old man sitting in the chair was not surprised to see Hao Ren and his team. He slowly got to his feet. His skinny and weak body was as still as a rock. "I saw you coming in my dream. Welcome, guests from afar."
"Dream?" Hao Ren repeated the word. "What we saw before was —"
The old man nodded slightly. "This is the world of nightmares. There is no boundary between dream and reality. Let's not dwell on it."
"You are the pope?" Calaxus could not help but ask. "The pope I know is Auguste VII. I have never seen you before! Who are you? "
"You have seen me, you have seen every one of me." The old man, who claimed to be the pope, just smiled in the face of Calaxus' doubts. His words were as mysterious and obscure as ever. As he spoke, his appearance began to change, turning into a different old man and a middle-aged man. His voice gradually changed as if countless people were speaking at the same time. "I am Charles I, Harold III, Auguste VII, and Saint Ivan. I am each of them and all of them. I am the pope, every pope you know."
Calaxus' eyes widened. He saw familiar faces in the old man's changing appearance. Those faces had appeared in the Basilica Icon's Corridor of the Saints, painted as tall as a man, and hung neatly on both sides of the corridor. Calaxus had walked the corridor many times since he became an assistant bishop, and he knew the faces of every pope by heart. He also saw Auguste VII. That was the old man's last change. That familiar voice and smile only lasted for a few seconds, but it made Calaxus tremble from the bottom of his heart.
"You … you …" Calaxus trembled as he pointed at the old man, but he could not say a word.
"You are a combination of the past popes?" Hao Ren was more familiar with similar situations. He looked at the old man curiously. "What are the festered creatures we encountered in the real world? What about Auguste VII in Asurmen? "
"Lockmarton thought that it could easily corrupt a Saint, but it didn't know that the people of the Sanctum never have the habit of yielding," the old man said lightly, as if what he was about to say had happened to someone else. "For the sake of faith, we can abandon our bodies, tear our souls, and destroy everything we have, leaving only an obsession. Lockmarton, in the end, can only corrupt an empty shell. If there is no other choice, we would rather choose self-destruction and come to this world to perish together with the minions of Chaos than to give in. "
Hao Ren had vaguely guessed the truth of the matter, but there were still many things that he needed the old man to explain. "So those in the real world are just the corrupted bodies? Wait a minute … we encountered a very strange nightmare monster, it claimed to be — "
"Benedict III made a noble sacrifice in order to spread the news to the outside world." The pope's combination shook its head gently. "He had already failed and lost his self-consciousness before he could spread the news. But we did not expect that he would meet you and the alpha. By a freak combination of factors, he still managed to spread the news."
"So you … you have been controlling the situation?" Calaxus' voice trembled. "Your Holiness, why didn't you tell me?"
The first half of his sentence was a conversation with the pope's combination, but the second half was obviously a question to Auguste VII.
"Because Lockmarton monitors everyone's dreams, these secrets have always been limited to the sleepless dead," the pope's combination explained. "After the death of the popes, they were buried under the Basilica Icon, and the saints, sages, and living saints of various eras were also buried in the mausoleums of the Holy City. Some of these heroic souls were summoned into the Eternal Battlefield of the Forgotten Abyss to fight with the Warden Corps against Lockmarton's invasion of the real world. Some of these heroic souls joined together and became the will of the dead to protect the living …"
Geddon, the Lord of the Mountains nodded. "It is true."
The pope's combination nodded to the Lord of the Mountains and continued, "After the Warden Corps fell into Chaos, we realized the changes in the situation and deduced the worst case scenario. That was when the early plan began. However, no one expected Lockmarton to escape so quickly. Not only did he continue to pollute the Forgotten Abyss, but he had also infiltrated the real world through the corrupted Warden Corps. The bodies of the saints were the first to be corroded, followed by the souls …
"We realized that this pollution was irreversible. If we were trapped in the real world and only relied on the War of Chaos that happened once every century to fight back, the mortals would never be able to fight against the power of the Nightmare Realm. It would not even be an effective defense, let alone counterattack.
"However, the door to the Forgotten Abyss was sealed. To break through it, we had to obtain the power of the gods or find the crucial key. We did not have either of these things …
"But the turning point came when we did not expect it. It was not only an opportunity for us, but also for Lockmarton. A few months ago, a powerful fragment penetrated through space and time and hit Asurmen," Hao Ren said.
Hao Ren could not help but interrupt. "Wait a minute, did you use the power of the crystal to teleport Fidelinopolis here?"
The pope shook his head. "We could not use the power of the shard. We only used the 'vibration' that it triggered. That collision destroyed Asurmen's functions and caused a hole in the seal that imprisoned Lockmarton. However, it also opened a path for us, a path that only the dead could see. Thus, the plan that had been in preparation for a thousand years was finally implemented. When Lockmarton's power found Auguste VII, the time was ripe. Auguste VII sacrificed his body and became one of us as the last member. When Lockmarton thought that he had finally corrupted and possessed a pope, his connection to the Basilica Icon became a beacon for us to hunt him down. Although he was cautious and cut off the connection to the real world, we still came … to make him pay! "
The old pope narrowed his eyes as he said this. His face finally showed some emotion. It was pride and determination.
Geddon, the Lord of the Mountains, was shocked by this grand and decisive plan. He could not help but stare at the pope for a long time. "You people always surprise me … I did not expect mortals to be able to do this …"
The pope looked at Geddon quietly. "We are mortals, but mortals have integrity."
"I admit, I never thought that you people would have such power." Geddon shook his head. Although the spacious cathedral could accommodate giants like him, it was still too small for him. It was uncomfortable to stay here for too long. "But you have to know that Lockmarton is an evil god, and he is not easy to deal with. Although you have moved the most powerful armed forces in Sanctum and the souls of the saints that have been accumulated for tens of thousands of years into this world, these forces may not be enough to destroy Lockmarton."
"At least we can defeat him and let our descendants enjoy at least a few thousand years of peace," the old pope said. "We have no other choice. Instead of waiting for death, we might as well fight to the death. That way, we will die like the people of Sanctum."
The resolute speech touched everyone present. Lily could not help but step forward. "Well said! Don't worry, old man. We are here to help! "
The pope nodded. "I know. It seems that the Goddess is still protecting us. In the darkest and most critical moment, she has sent a powerful army of reinforcements. But what is your plan? "
Hao Ren stepped forward. "I have the most powerful attack. If I'm not wrong, I am the only one here who can truly destroy Lockmarton."
Y 'zaks continued. "But first, we need to find Lockmarton's true body and understand some of its characteristics. For example, under what circumstances can it be destroyed, if it has any hidden or resurrection plans, how strong its counterattack is, and what form it takes."
"More, more!" Lily joined in as well. When it came to the topic of breaking the ice, her entire body perked up. "If Lockmarton is killed, what changes will there be in this Nightmare World? We have to prepare a backup plan, right? "
"That Locke something, does he have a hidden trump card? Does he drop anything good after he dies? " Y 'lisabet jumped in. It was obvious that she had been playing games on the Petrachelys for the past month.
"One by one, one by one." Hao Ren quickly gestured for everyone to quiet down. He then turned to the pope. "Let's talk about where to kill and how many to kill."
The pope looked at the group of people in front of him and finally came to a conclusion. He nodded slightly. "Beyond the Scorched Plains, at the border of the Sea of Turmoil, there is a place called Spiral Hill. It used to be a node of the prison where Lockmarton was imprisoned. It was also the node that collapsed first. Lockmarton is now entrenched in that place."
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