Integration

Aurelius took a step forward, and the others took a step back.

He took another step forward, and the others took another step back.

The two sides always maintained a gap. The red-haired young man asked: "What are you doing?"

"...Hahaha sorry sorry, I just thought about it..."

Rex came to his senses and realized that the people in front of him were his companions. What were they hiding from?

Even though he asked this question intellectually, his body still trembled involuntarily. His blood-gold eyes stared at them without blinking, reflecting the flames in his eyes, dark and cold.

The scarlet mist formed by the runes seemed to intentionally avoid humans, and still gathered around the queen, pinning her to the ground with the sword as the center.

But even so, the [Insect Queen] still did not die. She struggled furiously, and the web left burn marks on her skin, like a curse deeply engraved.

Rex quickly looked away, and it was hard to imagine how Orelius had defeated the opponent in such a short time. The terrifying SSS-level monster was completely powerless to fight back. But he also knew that the queen had the terrifying vitality of insects, and even if the current situation was miserable, she would still be in danger if she was not careful.

"Let's just go. There's no point in staying any longer."

The red-haired young man nodded. Flynn squatted down and pressed the ground, and the surging mud wrapped them up, and they quickly left in the direction away from the Insect City.

After they were some distance away, Oleus spat out a mouthful of blood and fell into Rex's arms.

The latter was startled, not caring about the blood on his body, and called out to Malcolm in panic: "Help him quickly, what's going on?"

"The consumption is too great. He didn't get into this state by his own strength. I..."

"......"

The sound of the sacrifice became farther and farther away, and the red-haired young man fainted completely.

Dimly, the evil blood light flashed before his eyes again.

Sad cries and wails echoed in his ears. The red-haired young man was in a sea of ​​blood, with a beautiful crystal floating in front of him.

The phantom stood opposite him, looking at him with a raised mouth. Compared with the original, his expression was even more arrogant and vicious.

"Well, my strength is pretty good, right? If you weren't so weak, that thing wouldn't be your match at all."

"Use it well, and let me see if you can make it to the end."

Aurelius finally asked, "Why are you helping me?"

"Help you? Hahahaha, you think too highly of yourself! I just fulfilled my promise with the World Tree."

[Oreus] laughed wildly, with an inexplicable meaning in his eyes: "Whether we are true gods or alien gods, we all come from the earliest wishes of mankind. We symbolize the two ends of the world. I will tell you mercifully, kid. That was a time far more distant than the era of God's favor. The world tree gave birth to its first fruit, which fell to the ground and turned into [Original Man]. That was the first creature in this world."

"In the beginning, the original humans were ignorant and curious. Each of them had powers comparable to those of gods. They were immortal and could change everything through the power of their will. Some of the original humans turned into elves, dragons, fairies and other creatures; some became gods in later generations, such as the Moon God; and some continued to survive as humans. As the population expanded, competition was born. Competition, deception, hatred, arrogance... In the end, the original humans died out one by one, and only a few remained. They were the ancestors of mankind."

At this point, [Oreus] snorted and laughed: "Those righteous gods only say that the original humans are the ancestors of humans, but they never mention their ending. The great original humans, the powerful original humans, the first child of the world tree——"

“Why did they disappear?”

Where did they go? They no longer fight, they are immortal, and they have the blessings of the World Tree. But they still disappear.

There is only one answer.

Looking at Oleus's changing expression, Phantom sneered, "Just as you thought, they killed themselves."

"Because of the proliferation of human beings, evil spread, and it was a truly chaotic era. So the last original human beings made a decision. At the cost of their own death, they created a [cavity] under the world tree to gather all the evil in the world. At the same time, the gods at that time decided to assist this plan. They projected their kingdoms into the [cavity] and became gatekeepers. And these gods were the original righteous gods."

"Through this, the world is divided into two sides, positive and negative, and the World Tree is used as a medium for adjustment. Whenever the positive side falls into evil thoughts, the positive gods will take action to correct it; whenever the evil in the negative side is excessive, a part of it will be drawn and invested in the positive side to relieve the pressure."

"But we have to say that the original humans were too naive. They just built a container according to their own ideas and did not fundamentally change the world. Our birth is the best proof. Like goodness, evil is absolute. Goodness is easy to be destroyed, but evil will not disappear. So, later the opposite side of the world got out of control, and the gods had to move their kingdoms into it to suppress the evil in this world."

"...This is also the reason why the Twelve True Gods suddenly established the Kingdom of God at the end of the Age of Divine Blessing."

"That's right. You should have seen my memories. I am a foreign god born during the period of the spread of the black fog. I come from a certain religion. They were frightened by the black fog at the time and believed that as long as they drank special blood, they would not be corroded by the black fog. When I was born, there was a huge fanfare, and millions of people were sacrificed. I was the most powerful foreign god at the time."

[Oreus] grinned and spoke indifferently about his birth. The bloody words made the red-haired young man frown slightly, but the former smiled as if he was pleased.

"Isn't this great? Look at your abilities, resisting the black mist, manipulating others, all of these human prayers have come true! Later, for the continuation of humanity, those troublesome gods actually came down to find me - ah, yes, that old man, the God of Medicine. To be honest, I didn't want to pay attention to him, but unfortunately I couldn't beat him, so I was forcibly tied to the World Tree and made an agreement with them."

"Agreed?"

"Hmm. So-called gods are the way to the future. The only difference is the method. Since the true gods can't save humanity, these guys have no choice but to come to us."

[Orelius] said smugly, "It's a pity that I left so little behind. I really should have let you see their faces at that time. It's so pleasant just thinking about it!"

"...get to the point."

Even in the tense atmosphere of escape, the red-haired young man was still attracted by the secrets revealed by the other party, and urged the other party to quickly tell him what was going to happen next.

Seeing this, Phantom curled his lips: "You are so boring."

"Don't make such a nasty expression on my face."

"Ha, I'm doing this for your own good. You just went through a big battle and you want to see a look that will scare you to death? Troublesome boy." After saying this, [Oreus] still sped up his speech. "Anyway, because I really couldn't beat them, I made a promise with the World Tree under coercion."

"In the future, the righteous gods will no longer eliminate the alien gods. We can do whatever we want, but there is one thing: after the collapse, our godhood will be gathered in the world tree. If someone comes later and obtains the godhood of our alien gods, we must not devour them, and we must tell them these things."

At this point, [Oreius] began to complain carelessly.

"...Even so, the God of Gods started the God War, and my good days didn't last long! Then the black fog completely enveloped the world, and I died."

"Wait, so you are the last of the gods to die?"

The red-haired young man suddenly grasped the point, and his heartbeat slightly quickened. He stared at the phantom in front of him and asked in a serious tone, "What is the source of the black mist?"

Too much time has passed, and with two invasions by the Monster Lord, the people of the Black Mist Era have lost too much important information.

Even though he traveled back in time as Canaan, he never returned to the year when the black fog came.

And now, there is a god in front of him who truly understands the situation and is willing to tell him these things!

Unlike humans, gods are born with eyes that see through everything. As gods, they are bound to see more. This means that the other party will know more.

The phantom looked at him with a very strange expression. For the first time, he avoided answering and said, "It's better if you don't know."

“Why?”

"Humans are very fragile. Since you don't know something this important, it means someone has deliberately erased it. This is good for you and others. If you want to know the truth, you must be determined to fall into madness and death."

"I do."

"...ha?"

His answer was so decisive that Phantom was stunned and looked at him subtly.

"You humans are really weird. You've been told that there's better, but you still want to try to get in. Are you afraid that you won't live long enough?"

The red-haired young man stared at him intently, his eyes flashing with a determination that could not be ignored.

"There are always things more important than life."

At worst, he could just change his alias and start over. He knew that the chance to get this kind of information was rare, so he definitely wouldn't miss it.

"......"

The phantom was obviously shocked by his spirit. After a brief silence, [Oreus] scratched his hair.

“Ahhh, that sounds really troublesome! You’re the type I hate the most—never mind, you’re the one making the decision, so I’m just responsible for speaking. Hey, listen to me—”

The face that looked like the red-haired young man suddenly became serious, and his figure gradually broke into pieces, fading along with the sea of ​​blood around him. Only the divine power was still clearly floating in the air.

The low voice flowed into the listener's ears, carrying with it an unimaginable solemnity.

Each word was pronounced with a pause, and there was a sound when it hit the ground.

"The black fog comes from the opposite side of the world."

"After the Twelve True Gods fell, a black mist enveloped the entire world. At that moment, all the gods and those who embarked on the path to godhood saw—"

"The other side of the world came alive."

"...!!!"

With these shocking words, the scene before his eyes suddenly shattered.

The red-haired young man woke up with aches all over his body and a buzzing pain in his head. The light around him was dim, and someone shouted in surprise, "Wake up, wake up!"

Someone handed water to his lips, and Aurelius swallowed the water in big gulps, and finally felt that he had woken up.

He opened his eyes hazily, and there seemed to be a layer of mist in front of him. Malcolm carefully took away the water bag to prevent it from choking him. Oleus pursed his lips and said in a hoarse voice: "How long have I slept?"

"It wasn't long ago that we came out of the area of ​​​​Insect City."

It was Rex's voice that answered. Oleus squinted his eyes and finally saw where the people were. This should be somewhere underground. There were small holes for ventilation on the top, and fluorescent plant lighting. As a temporary camp, it looked pretty good.

Seeing his surprise, Ricks smiled slyly: "Flynn often does this in our team. You must rest well in the wild to restore your strength to the greatest extent."

"Where's Flynn?"

"He went outside to see what was going on. After you fainted just now, the Queen seemed to have broken free from her restraints, and there was a strong sense of anger coming from there." Ricks smiled bitterly, "Now there is good news and bad news. The good news is that we have taken away the Heart of the Insect, so the next pursuit by the Insect People will not be a problem for us, as the Heart of the Insect can control them. The bad news is that since it doesn't work on the Insect People, the next person we have to fight is the Queen of Insects."

He handed the compressed food to Oreius: "Although the pollutants have increased your recovery ability, they have also increased your consumption. Eat more."

The red-haired young man didn't hesitate to sit up and eat the food. Ricks estimated the other party's speed and secretly clicked his tongue.

If Oreius were to eat as much as he wanted, he would have to empty at least nine-tenths of his reserve. But the man was very happy to feed him, and only said after he slowed down his eating speed: "We now have two choices."

Oleus looked at him, and Rex continued, "The first option is to return to the west. Now you are exhausted, your supplies are insufficient, and the queen is watching you covetously. This is the best option for our team."

"What's the second option?"

"Aga is dead. He was the traitor, or the messenger you mentioned. The Black Mist followers tampered with the coordinates, so the army did not arrive as scheduled. If we continue to explore and find out what the Black Mist followers are going to do, it will be very helpful to the association."

Flynn patted his head in frustration. "It's over. I left the Black Mist followers in the City of Insects. I should have brought them out earlier. I could have asked them what intelligence they knew."

"It's useless to bring them out. Their mission in the City of Insects is to receive the messengers. They are of no use to us in our current situation."

Aurelius hesitated for a moment and said, "Besides, is Aga really dead?"

Ricks was horrified: "What do you mean? I personally confirmed that he even broke his heart."

"I just think his death was too easy. He went through so much trouble to sneak into our team and hide his identity just to calculate the coordinates. If they really didn't want the black fog counterattack plan to succeed, couldn't they just lure a group of monsters in the middle of the way? Not many teams can escape the attack of a large number of monsters in the black fog. As long as a few nodes are destroyed, our plan will fail."

"...I understand what you said. Since you can get into these teams, it won't be difficult to attract monsters. This is the territory of the Black Mist believers."

Ricks was getting more and more confused, and said, "I'm beginning to wonder if Aga is really dead. Did I miss something?"

"I don't know, but their intentions are definitely not simple. I think the second one is better."

"call..."

Malcolm nodded vigorously. "I also choose the second option. We are the central team in the City of Insects. The other teams may not know what happened yet. Each of them is a valuable talent. Whether as a companion or for future consideration, we need to rescue them."

"Malcolm is right. I support the second option. We can't go back empty-handed. But the safest way is to merge with other teams first. How can we find them?"

"I don't know how to find the other teams, but there is one team that can definitely find them."

Flynn pricked up his ears. "Which one are you talking about?"

Ricks said helplessly: "Have you forgotten which family he belongs to?"

Oreius smiled without saying anything, closed his eyes and communicated with the soul in the sea of ​​subconsciousness.

The giant in a cloak stood in the sea of ​​consciousness. The souls around him communicated with each other and sent him a message: "We can contact the descendants of the Luo family who are also in the black fog. Dan should be to the south of you."

"Then I'll ask you to lead the way."

"It's a piece of cake. As long as the members of the Luo family are nearby, we won't get separated."

As Luo's subconsciousness began to move, Oleus immediately sensed a connection in the black mist. He opened his eyes and said, "Dan's team is in the south. Let's get ready to set off."

Since the entire team has no objection.

After a brief rest, the group set out on their journey again. Dan had apparently also received the notification from the souls and rushed over to where they were.

The two teams met in the wilderness and merged successfully. The blond nobleman jumped happily in front of Oreius and gave him a warm hug: "It's great to find you here, ancestor!"

The people following Dan watched this scene subtly. The word "ancestor" had a great impact on those who were not familiar with the Luo family.

Dan came back to his senses, coughed modestly and introduced: "This is Oleus, a member of our Luo family." At the end of the sentence, he smiled happily again. "Now that he is here, we don't have to worry about anything that happens next!"

This sentence made the people behind him stand in awe, they all knew how powerful Dan was. Since the other party said so, the rest of the matter became more reliable.

The two sides exchanged experiences. Dan's team was one of the closest anchor points to the Insect City. On the way, they met two other teams that had been broken up. The team had grown to eight people.

Looking around, there really wasn't a single Mecha City researcher among the remaining people. Before Oleus could ask, Dan said, "The Mecha City researchers in our teams are all robots. What about you?"

"Robot?"

Hearing this strange name, Rex was stunned: "Aren't all the robots in the Mechanical City destroyed?"

"Yeah, I don't know how they got into the visiting team from the Mechanical City." Dan rubbed his cheeks. "Anyway, there must be something wrong with Heise. How's the teleportation array?"

"The army failed to reach its intended target. It was the Black Mist followers who did it."

"Tsk, it's those damn Black Mist followers again... The equipment we brought can't contact the border, how can we tell them that there is a problem?"

"Don't worry, I have a special way to contact you."

Everyone looked at Oreius, who snapped his fingers and a black hole suddenly appeared in the air.

Dan, who had seen this scene before, was surprised: "This is..."

Before he finished speaking, a huge package fell from the other side of the hole. It contained weapons, medicines, and supplies. The quantity was quite sufficient, enough for everyone.

"The supply came from the profiteer. He has already informed the Nobles Association of what happened here, and will support our actions in the future. However, I have accepted the invitation of the Chairman of the Council and cannot come here in person."

"This has been a great help. There are some seriously injured people in the team. Can they be sent back?"

"no problem."

Oreius nodded in agreement and sent the injured back in exchange for treasures. With such the strongest logistics, the team's morale was boosted.

The two sides exchanged information and reached a consensus. They decided to further explore the situation inside the black fog. Ricks said: "I have the heart of the insect, and the [Queen of Insects] can locate my position. Let's go separately."

"That's too dangerous for you." Oleus flatly refused. "The Insect Heart can control the insects, and it is the Queen's heart. He will never give it up. I will go with you, so that the Insect Heart and you can be guaranteed safe."

"But……"

“No buts.”

Under Oleus' insistence, Rex finally compromised. He rubbed his nose to hide his somewhat emotional expression.

"Even so, we still don't know where to look for clues next. The Black Mist followers are dead or injured, and the rest are just some people who don't know the situation."

"I have a plan."

Hearing this, the people in the team couldn't help but whisper to each other, observing this strange bloodline person.

Flynn, Dan, and the priest immediately gave each other a reassuring look: "What should we do?"

The bloodline members who were observing looked over with a hint of hesitation and doubt on their faces. Flynn immediately shouted, "Don't underestimate Oleus. Rex has told me many times before that he is a man who can create miracles!"

The red-haired young man raised his eyebrows and looked at Rex meaningfully. I didn’t expect that you admire me so much?

The latter coughed and looked away guiltily, cursing Flynn a thousand times in his heart.

That person is his lifesaver! What's wrong with worshipping him? It's normal to mention him a few times in daily life!

Oreius gave him enough face. The red-haired young man snapped his fingers again, and this time a finger fell from the black hole.

The gorgeous cover was eye-catching and felt heavy to the touch. It fell straight to the ground, leaving a small hole.

What can one do in this situation?

Use it to smash a monster? I'm afraid it won't even scratch the monster's skin.

The feeling of unreality became stronger and stronger. Even the eyes of the bloodline people changed. For a moment, I didn't know whether to continue to accompany them in their madness or to hurry up and find clues.

But seeing Dan Duxin's expression, they still swallowed their unnecessary words silently. The red-haired young man bent down to pick it up, and lightly shook off the dust on the surface. Most of the bloodline members in the team were from noble families, and finally someone recognized what it was.

He was dumbfounded and doubted his own eyes: "Then, then——"

His companion quickly nudged his arm with his elbow: "Stop shouting, everyone is looking at you."

The other party ignored this and pointed at the wide-eyed person: "Isn't this the [Book of Answers]!?"

"……ha?"

Everyone looked at the book in each other's hand in shock.

This is the most famous S-rank sealed item of the Noble Association, the [Book of Answers] that is said to be able to answer all questions! ?