"You're standing on my head now," Ertos said slowly.
Lily, who had just transformed back, was tidying up her skirt and picking at the fur on her tail. Hearing this, she jumped up in surprise. "Ertos? The Ertos of Ertos?! "
The slow voice sounded again, as if there was no emotion. "I don't quite understand the way you put it …"
"You don't have to pay attention to her. She's in literature." Hao Ren pressed Lily down and then looked up at the sky. Because the energy accumulated in the previous battle had not dissipated, the invisible "jellyfish" in the sky reappeared. Its undulating surface was sparkling, and countless slender tentacles hung down from the sky like silk threads between the clouds, connecting to the colossus on the ground. "You … are the one in the sky?"
"You are the first to observe me. Before I was affected by the energy-rich environment, you observed part of me," Ertos seemed to confirm Hao Ren's guess. "This made me interested in you … Few creatures can observe the spirit of the Chaos Wanderers, except for those very special or very ancient guys. But no matter who or what you are, I owe you my gratitude. Thank you for freeing me from this long period of toil … "
"Chaos Wanderer? Is that the name of your race? " Hao Ren frowned. He did not ask what "long labor" meant, but first became interested in the creature itself. "Didn't you die many years ago? Killed by the 'great ruler' … "
Speaking of this, he suddenly remembered something. "Was the 'great ruler' who fought with you the evil spirit in the pyramid?"
"Chaos Wanderers do not die easily. Most of the time, death is just a change of form for us," Ertos said slowly. Its huge spirit body stretched out in the sky, seeming to repair the damage caused by the previous battle. "As for the 'great ruler' you mentioned, she is indeed the fallen monster in the pyramid … But I noticed that one of you looks like her. May I ask this person's name first?"
"You can call me Vivian," Vivian said. "Don't worry, I'm not the same as the crazy guy in the pyramid. We just look alike."
Ertos seemed to believe this statement. "I see … That's interesting."
Hao Ren coughed and brought the topic back. "Ahem, so you're not dead? The great ruler was actually deceived by you after the battle? "
"No, although the ruler destroyed my body, we were not enemies, and I did not deceive her," Ertos answered, surprising everyone. "There was never a fight between us."
This time, even Y 'zaks could not help but ask, "What does that mean?"
"The murals we found described you as a destructive monster in ancient times. Many human cities were destroyed by you. Later, the great ruler suddenly came and completely destroyed you," Hao Ren frowned. "Is this legend wrong?"
"Humans will use their own way to understand what they see, but they often do not see the true side of things," Ertos' voice seemed to be lamenting. "The first half of the legend is correct. My activities led to widespread destruction — but that was not my intention. I could not control the leakage of my energy, just as humans could not control the operation of their organs and the birth and death of their bodies. To the Chaos Wanderers, storms and flames are just a part of our bodies. But in the eyes of humans, they mean devastating natural disasters … I once tried to persuade those creatures to get close to us, but communication stopped at war … Ah, war, it was really war everywhere back then … "
Hao Ren's heart skipped a beat. Ertos was actually a pacifist?
Lily stared at the big jellyfish in the sky and suddenly asked, "So what was the truth of your fight with the great ruler?"
"She suddenly appeared in front of me and showed great power. I realized that this was an opportunity to solve the dilemma, so I reached an agreement with her," Ertos replied. "I asked her to help me change the form of my life to undo the damage I had inadvertently caused to the outside world. As you know, the way to change the form of my life was to dismember my original body."
Hessiana could not help but stick out her tongue. "… Plastic surgery in that era was really tasty …"
"So you and the great ruler were not at war at all?" Hao Ren never thought that the truth would be like this. He was stunned for a moment before he continued, "What about the record on the slate that you two fought against each other for several days? You two were throwing balls of lightning back and forth … "
"That was us talking — but for humans, this kind of conversation is probably a bit scary," Ertos said faintly.
Hao Ren: "…"
Hessiana continued to mutter, "The doctor-patient communication in that era was also tasty …"
"I see … I see," Hao Ren did not know what expression to show. He could only sigh, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Alas, human history is always limited by time and vision, even more so when it comes to ancient gods like you. So what happened after that? I think you stayed in this city all the time, right? Why was the city of Ertos destroyed? What about the people here? What about those stone statues? How did the evil spirits in the pyramids' fall '? "
Faced with the sudden onslaught of questions, Ertos's voice remained unhurried. "That was many years ago. When the great ruler finally helped me get rid of the shell that I could not adapt to the environment, some of the natives began to rebuild their homes with the local materials and fragments of me. They used my armor to make weapons and golems, my organic matter to make medicines and living materials, and my bones to build a city. My spiritual body had been wandering near them, because I was truly curious about such a lively little creature … And after wandering for a while, I discovered that the 'almighty ruler' had actually moved into the city from the wilderness, which was even more surprising. So, I simply attached my spiritual body to the city, wanting to kill time by observing the activities of these short-lived little creatures like 'humans' …
"In the early days, all the races in the city lived in harmony. The humans worked diligently, and the tribal leaders who were slightly larger, known as the 'Beast Head God', were responsible for giving orders. The 'Ruler' lived in the Grand Temple in the city center, receiving worship from everyone as the supreme ruler in name."
Hao Ren could not help but interrupt. "The 'evil spirit' really was the 'master' of the city for a while? How long? "
"Not very long, maybe a few decades," Ertos said, ignoring Hao Ren's interruption. "And she never really 'ruled' the city. She just slept in the pyramid most of the time, and occasionally woke up to talk to herself. But in any case, the city was peaceful for the first few decades … and then the situation gradually deteriorated.
"The ruler's mood was not stable. In fact, I suspect that she did not have normal reason and logic most of the time. She seemed to be completely immersed in her own world, and her response to external stimuli seemed strange even to me. In the popular phrase of that era, she was a 'moody and unpredictable God of Chaos.' At first, her mood swings only caused her to be occasionally irritable, but over time, her irritation gradually became tyrannical.
"The Ruler's increasingly tyrannical nature has certainly caused panic among the residents of the city, but no one is a match for her. The only ones in the city who have combat power are the Beasthead Gods, but they and the combat statues they create are not enough to suppress the enraged Ruler. The conflict became more and more serious day by day, and the ruler's behavior gradually reached a completely unreasonable level. So the residents of the city finally rebelled under the leadership of the priests, the Beasthead Gods.
"What's strange is that the Dominator, who has always been cruel, turned a blind eye to such blatant rebellious behavior. When the humans and the Beasthead Avatars gathered in the city, she had been watching coldly from the sidelines, and when the rebels were about to rush to the high ground, she disappeared from the Grand Temple, leaving no trace. The angry rebels were so overwhelmed by their emotions that they did not realize the abnormality of the situation. They looted the entire temple and took all the gold and silver treasures home. Based on my years of observation of humans, I think this is exactly a manifestation of fear. "
Lily nodded. "Fear will make people do things beyond fear, because only by acting crazily can they numb themselves to escape the uneasiness in their hearts."
Hao Ren felt that the question in his mind had finally been answered.
Why did the Great Divine Temple appear to have been ransacked? It seemed that it was really because of a rebellion, but the specific form of the rebellion was very different from what people had guessed. It was not the lower-class people who rebelled against the higher-class priests, but everyone, including the priests and the people, rebelled against the 'god'. In the early stage of the rebellion, the so-called 'god' did not do anything at all, which led to the great temple being ransacked and no more serious signs of damage.
"That 'evil spirit' certainly did not suddenly change and become a good person," Y 'zaks said in a muffled voice. "She should have made her move soon, right?"
"Yes. Just as the rebellion came to an abrupt end, and the priests and the people dispersed, the 'Lord' suddenly appeared and unleashed a great calamity," Roland said with a smile.
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows and asked, "She destroyed the city of Ertos?"
"It was more terrible than that," Ertos said. "She summoned a bloody moon and bathed the whole city in moonlight. The moonlight controlled everyone's mind, so everyone in the city began to kill each other. Some tried to escape from the city gate, but the moonlight formed a wall in front of them. Some tried to record what happened here before they died to warn future generations, but the moonlight made them hallucinate. They just carved words in the air. The last group of Beasthead Avatar, who remained conscious, fought a dying struggle and almost succeeded: they summoned the power of the ancestors to blow down a section of the city wall and punch a hole in the moonlight barrier, but they still failed …"
"Why?" Lily asked impatiently.
"Because the space collapsed," Ertos said. "The ruler tore the structure of the space and threw the whole city into a different space and time."
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