Chapter 1128 — Beyila's Hint

Beyila stared at the Silver Empress for a while before turning her gaze to the distance: "...You elves really are a stubborn breed."

"We are simply accustomed to thinking over a larger span of time, and if you continue to live, sooner or later you will come to understand our way of thinking," Belantia said with a sudden soft laugh, then shifted the subject. "But rather than that — since we have touched on the matter of the End of All Things, there are some questions we would like to confirm with you."

Beyila turned back, her gaze resting briefly on Gao Yang and then Belantia: "About those cultists in the wasteland?"

Gao Yang was somewhat surprised: "How did you guess?"

Beyila spread her hands. "It concerns the End of All Things, and it is something that still puts that troubled look on your faces even now — I can't think of any other topic."

"It is indeed about them," Gao Song nodded, and then told her in detail the intelligence he had obtained from Virodai. "We recently confirmed one thing: those cultists are not only still active in the wasteland, but they seem to be scheming after the residual energy in the Deep Blue Well, and even..."

As she listened to Gao Song's account, Beyila's expression did not change much, but the aura emanating from her grew gradually heavier. She waved a hand behind her, and the layered leaves beyond the balcony closed up again, blocking the overly bright sunlight outside. A crack suddenly opened in the floor not far away, and a magic-conduction device of somewhat peculiar design rose from it.

It looked like a Magic Web terminal, but its base was wrapped in many vines, and some extremely fine fibrous substances extended from the gaps between the projection crystal and the rune frame into its interior. These special structures made the whole terminal look eerily as though it had been parasitized by some organism — but this was no result of "parasitism"; it was Beyila's own modification of the terminal issued to her, which helped her control the device directly and even allowed her thoughts to connect straight to the machine.

The next second, the terminal activated, and the holographic projection clearly displayed the image Beyila had sketched in her mind.

A tall creature, like a withered, twisted ancient tree, appeared on the display. Looking closely, distorted and eerie human faces surfaced on the surface of that "ancient tree," and things like tumors and vascular growths covered its branches and sallow leaves. The roots of the ancient tree writhed and squirmed along the ground, somewhat resembling the structure of Beyila's lower body, yet more twisted and more unsettling.

The instant he saw these things, Gao Song's brows knitted instinctively: "This is..."

"These are the cultists of the End of All Things who move within the Great Wall. In theory... our former brethren."

"Unbelievable mutated limbs..." Belantia could not help exclaiming. "This looks like it has completely departed from the realm of humanity! How... how do they survive?"

"It is precisely because of this form that they can survive in conditions as harsh as the Gondor wasteland," Beyila said calmly. "This form is an adaptation to the terrible environment of the wasteland. At first it arose from limb mutations caused by magic-energy radiation; afterward those mutated cultists actively underwent adaptive mutation, a process they call 'ascension evolution,' and finally stabilized into this shape."

"You just mentioned 'in theory, our former brethren,'" Gao Yang noted the wording Beyila had used. "It seems the End of All Things is not so united internally — and these cultists inside the Gondor wasteland are in significant disagreement with you 'outer cultists'?"

"Until just before the completion of the false god's body, we believers living outside the wall still thought the sect was united from within. But looking back now, that was nothing but our own wishful thinking," Beiyi La said, tugging at the corner of his mouth as if trying to force a mocking smile. "Brother Gaoyang, I recall I once spoke with you about certain matters concerning those Myriad Silence cultists inside the wall — for centuries they have lived in that terrifying environment of the Gondor Wasteland that we cannot comprehend, and they have provided us with firsthand data on chaotic magic energy, the Sentinel Towers, the aberrants, divinity factors, and the like. Our cooperation with them has lasted so very long, and we have always maintained a 'perfect rapport' — which is precisely what led us to overlook certain things.

"If there is a group of 'people' who no longer possess human bodily structure, who no longer possess human social organization, who live in an environment where humans cannot survive or understand, and who relate to their surroundings in non-human ways — and who have gone on like this for seven whole centuries — what chance is there that they can still preserve the essence of being 'human'?

"And in such a state, what chance is there that they can still identify themselves as human, and regard those of us who have always lived in the safe zones outside the wall as their kith and kin?"

As he spoke, Beiyi La lowered his head and looked at his own limbs, which were no longer human, and gently shook his head. "After becoming like this, I have become all the more certain of it: even I need to manufacture auxiliary thinking organs to sustain my own sense of personhood. Then those Myriad Silence cultists who have lived year in and year out in the Gondor Wasteland... they must have ceased to be 'human' a very, very long time ago."

"So it is roughly as I expected — you do not actually know what those 'brethren' living in the wasteland are scheming," Gaoyang shook his head. "You believe the sect is carrying out a great plan of salvation, but in truth, to those cultists in the wasteland, your plan has little to do with them..."

"But if it truly had nothing to do with them, why would they play along with us for seven hundred years?" Beiyi La looked at Gaoyang, a stiff smile on that puppet-like face — exquisite, yet devoid of life. "They live in the wasteland and have already successfully adapted to its environment. That is an invincible state of safety; no one from outside can threaten them. So why would they meekly obey the commands of the Grand Hierarch of Darkness, putting on the appearance of eternal loyalty to the sect, of still devoting their energies to the great cause? Out of fear of exposure? Clearly not — they ought to care nothing at all about us."

(End of Chapter)