The Heart of the Goddess of Destiny
After all the phantom figures completed the kneeling ceremony and returned to the metal man, the latter answered Mason's question.
"This is a gift from the goddess. Each of us is walking on the path arranged by the goddess."
Bullshit! Do you know what you are doing? You use the body of a righteous God as the core power source of the city. Assuming that He really hasn't fallen, your behavior is blasphemous!
The greatness of the gods cannot be offended. Even if the Twelve Gods are more tolerant, they cannot forgive those who use their bodies.
It's like someone saying I love you while killing the other person and making them into human meat buns. If the other person can escape, they will have to kill you.
Mason looked like he was crazy: "Why is the heart of the goddess of fate here?"
"This is the gift of the goddess, this is the grace of the twelve gods. They nourished this world with their flesh and blood, and continued the future of mankind. Humanity should have perished, but the twelve gods sacrificed themselves to allow humanity to continue, and we can also survive here."
The thing I hate most in my life is riddle tellers. Why can't people speak more clearly?
Mason patted the mechanic's arm, and the woman snapped her fingers again. The metal face once again sensed the strange power in the other person, a powerful influence on machinery, which made him have a vague urge to obey.
It's incredible. Unlike divine power, the power of this human woman is only effective against machines.
Simply put, just as no mechanical creation would betray the program instructions input by the maker, she was able to invade the core of the machine in a way that the metal face could not understand, and complete control in a very short time. As she said, she is the king of machines.
It seems that I have to reveal something. The metal man sighed and changed his words in a cooperative manner.
"In the era before the Black Mist, the twelve gods fell one after another. Before they fell, the Goddess of Fate descended. She brought gifts from the gods, the Veil of Concealment of the Goddess of Night, the Long Sword of the God of War, and the Book of the Goddess of Magic. These artifacts supported the country through many disasters, but the most important one was the heart of the Goddess of Fate. It is because of the existence of this heart that the king has the power to support the endless cycle."
"The power of the gods comes from prayer. The devout believers use their souls as fuel for the artifact. After they are gone, we begin to provide power to the artifact through religious rituals. The nightly rituals are to purify the bodies and minds of the people, pass on the teachings, and drive them to do good. The second is to provide power for the artifact so that it can be used when necessary."
Mason frowned: "Are you sure that the goddess of fate personally gave her heart to you?"
A deity would not die if it lost its heart, but it would still become very weak. Most importantly, why did it do this?
"Yes."
The metal figure answered without hesitation.
"She said that we would be the ones to convey hope. When I was in trouble, it was the goddess who directed me back here. She lit the way for us and brought us together. We were grateful for the gift of the gods, and the whole country worked together to fight the black fog. You probably know what happened later. Unfortunately, we failed and are trapped here forever."
"Then why are the artifacts here not contaminated?"
"The heart of the goddess can isolate pollution. She has kept this city in a cycle of isolation forever. In the beginning, our territory was not so small. But the black fog spread and everyone died, which made our territory gradually shrink. In the end, we gave up other places and concentrated all our strength in this city. The artifacts were preserved because of this."
Mason asked in confusion, "Don't you want to escape this cycle of reincarnation? Even if there is no purification method, it can be done. As long as you break the constraints of your mind, reincarnation will end automatically."
"Yes, but we don't want to fall into the fog."
Phantom faces appeared on the metal man's face, and countless human faces turned to Mason and answered in unison.
"We died because of pollution, and we will never succumb to the black fog again. Therefore, we need a way to purify the pollution. After this, please give us peace, and we will give you what you want."
No, maybe you haven't failed.
The linen-haired boy stared at him straight, and a bold guess made Mason's throat dry. If this was really the case, the goddess of fate had really played a big game. He was even a little afraid to say this, but he still asked the question carefully after a brief silence.
"Answer me, was it really just an accident that the Black Mist Train brought outsiders here?"
The metal man hesitated for a moment, but finally answered truthfully: "...The Black Mist Train will select talented people to take the test here, but in all this time, you are the only one who has passed."
It is true.
Perhaps from the very beginning, the goddess of fate had already predicted that this country would [disappear], and was even one of its guides!
His oracle gave guidance to the [Lost Kingdom], allowing them to vigorously develop the machinery industry, which triggered a series of events. Ham was thus caught in an endless cycle, and after a long time he developed crystals. This was impossible in the outside world.
Breaking the cycle will inevitably lead to being eroded by the black mist. The dead souls do not want to fall into the black mist, so they can only stay in the cycle and begin to develop devices to purify pollution in order to get rid of it.
The dead citizens provided a large number of soul samples, the long reincarnation gave Ham enough time to study, and the artifact and the king provided security. Only in the "Lost Kingdom" can such a special environment appear, providing conditions for the birth of crystal.
The goddess of fate once made three predictions.
The first prophecy is that the Age of God's Favor will definitely end, and the gods will exalt their kingdom and leave this land.
The second prophecy predicts that the world will face a great disaster, an unprecedented crisis.
The third prophecy predicts that when mankind falls into despair, new heroes will inevitably emerge to lead them out of the predicament. This will be a road full of blood and death, but no one will retreat.
In the process of realizing these three prophecies, the goddess of fate made many attempts, including creating many other possible worlds. For her, the "Lost Kingdom" may also be just a possible choice.
He seemed to hear the sound of the river of destiny flowing, and the goddess, from a long distance, delivered the crucial key to his hands.
Mason could imagine that once this technology was mastered, the ability of human beings to resist the black fog would increase several times. But this was achieved at the cost of the lives of an entire country. A heavy weight weighed on his heart, making him feel a little heavy for a moment.
The metal face pleaded again: "We are souls from before this era. Please help us to be free and give us peace."
"Of course, isn't this something we've already agreed on?"
After thinking through all these things, Mason naturally took the matter of the "Lost Country" to heart. The metal-faced man heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing this. He glanced at the mechanic covertly. The ponytailed woman glanced back lazily, playing with her exquisite pocket watch with her fingertips. She seemed to care nothing about anything, just standing beside the boy to protect him.
Until now, the metal man still didn't know why the other party suddenly appeared in the core. He didn't dare to ask, nor did he dare to say, he could only regret why he dragged the other party in. But then he thought, since the other party can really control the artificial people to purify these pollutions, the citizens can leave with peace of mind.
The excessively long time was a torture, especially for the sole recorder. Especially for Ham, he felt annoyed.
It is both a hope and a threat. The souls are eager to end this never-ending drama, even if it means throwing themselves into flames. The Metal Face still doesn't know if his choice is right, but in front of the only winner, he can only throw everything he has.
Ham gathered his complicated thoughts and chose to bow his head in front of the other party. After a moment's hesitation, he said something even more explosive.
"You seem to be very interested in gods. If so, I have another piece of information."
"Perhaps the Twelve Gods did not perish."
Number One had said something similar before. Mason quickly recalled the information about the Twelve Gods and asked, "How did you know that?"
"When we were polluted, the God of War launched a war of gods, which dragged all churches into it, and the gods fell one after another. Only three of the twelve gods remained. They are the Goddess of Fate, the God of the Sun, and the God of the Moon."
The metal face weighed every word with great caution. The roaring sound became low and soft, as if it was afraid of something.
"This is just my personal speculation. Except for the goddess of fate who gave us the heart of God, humans have never found the body of a god."
This sentence gave Mason goosebumps. The message behind it was too terrifying: "Then why do everyone say that they have fallen?"
"According to the church's records, the God of War started a war between gods for no reason. Afterwards, the Twin Snake Gods teamed up with the God of the Sun to kill the God of War, and the Twin Snake Gods were seriously injured and fell. After that, the war between gods intensified, and in the end, everything was in chaos. The major churches could no longer contact the gods, so they had to announce the fall of the righteous gods one after another, and the world entered the most chaotic era. It was also at this time that the goddess of fate bestowed a gift. As the most powerful country at the time, we began to organize a counterattack against the black fog. I don't know what happened after that."
“….”
At this moment, Mason felt creepy.
He knew that the twelve gods had started a war of gods, but he didn't know the details as well as the other party had said. All twelve gods had perished, but no one had ever found or seen their bodies. Even the church could only judge the life and death of the gods by losing contact. Is this really possible?
If, as Ham speculated, the twelve gods did not perish, but lost contact with their followers, what made them make such a choice - no, even further back, what made the God of War start the God War?
He had been with the god of war, Harrison, who was a cheerful, enthusiastic, and carefree god. He admired the straightforwardness and strength of warriors, but also the strategy and meticulousness. Even though he had personality differences with other gods, it was still clear that their relationship was actually quite good.
The Twelve Gods were born to protect mankind. What made him wield the butcher knife against the other gods, becoming the wedge that triggered the disaster? What forced the God of the Burning Sun to take action and suppress him together with the God of the Twin Snakes? And what made the other gods continue to fight after the God of War "fell", and finally fell one by one?
Mason took a deep breath and a word popped into his mind.
【pollute】
The power of gods comes from people's faith. The original gods were transformed from primitive humans. They entrusted humans with their thoughts and became the protectors of humans. To gods, humans are the biggest source of pollution.
Mason suddenly realized that his previous thinking was too simple. He only thought that the mechanical city developed guns, which gave ordinary people powerful force and thus caused the spread of evil. But he forgot who would be the biggest victim when human evil spread.
Not human, not alien.
He is the god who gathers all the prayers of mankind.
The God of War has a duty to fight, so he is easily affected in the process. Even the World Tree can be polluted, so who says that the Twelve Gods can be guaranteed to be pure?
But the problem is if the Twelve Gods are really polluted.
Where would they be now?