thefictionvixens Page 421
Page 421
"Hiss... Miss Snyder, are you alright?"
This child isn't as resilient as the knights; he's probably already fainted several times already...
He released Snyder's hand, only to find her nestled in his arms, head tilted back, gazing at him obediently, a soft glow on her face. Seeing him let go, Snyder curiously glanced around, then asked:
"Master, have we arrived?"
"We've probably arrived."
Latis scratched his head. He could sense that the stag beetle had slowed down to a very gentle speed, and with the faint light coming from the cave entrance ahead, it seemed that they had indeed arrived.
Even traveling at such a high speed through the tunnels, it still took several hours. I wonder how long it took Ms. Rosette to slowly make her way through as she groped her way.
Snyder blinked, lowered his head slightly to loosen his mask, listened for a moment to the slow, pattering footsteps of the stag beetle, and then looked up at Latis.
"What's wrong?" Latis looked at the white-robed girl's various little actions with a puzzled expression, and was a little confused for a moment.
"that……"
The girl sat sideways in Latis's lap, a slight smile playing on her lips before she pursed them tightly, averting her gaze and whispering:
"Sir, your face is covered in dust."
"Oh..." Latis coughed awkwardly, then raised his hand to wipe his face, trying to appear calm.
"It's the other side, sir."
The girl's soft reminder reached Latis's ears. Just as he was about to reach out to wipe his other cheek, he suddenly felt a gentle friction on his face.
Latis paused for a moment, looked down and met Snyder's gaze. Then she saw Snyder tilt her head, withdraw her hand, and begin to gently brush the dust off her sleeve.
Her short, dark brown hair, with natural curls, draped over the girl's slender neck. As she patted her sleeves, the fluffy hair began to sway back and forth, which, for some reason, seemed rather cute.
Latis scratched his face, seemingly a little dazed. Suddenly, the stag beetle's "humming" came from ahead again. So he shook his head, looked at the stag beetle that had stopped and crouched down, unbuckled his seatbelt, picked up Snyder, and jumped out of the car.
"Wow, this place feels even more fun than the human world..."
Amidst the clanging of armor, Jennifer landed lightly, carrying the dazed Leafa. Releasing her unfortunate apprentice, she stretched lazily, stepped forward, draped her hand over Latis, chuckled, and whispered:
"Isn't the little girl well-behaved? She's clearly a good candidate to join the Church of Light!"
"Ahem...that's true."
Latis watched as Snyder, who had curiously followed the wobbly Void Ray to the cave entrance, pondered for a moment, then suddenly turned and asked seriously:
“Speaking of which, Jennifer, I suddenly have a question. You said… if the Supreme Radiance is truly a real deity, why did the Pope insist on believing in a new God of Light from the very beginning, instead of bringing the Supreme Radiance out from underground?”
"Perhaps it's because of differing ideologies?" Jennifer glanced at Gita, who hurriedly jumped off the car seat to help Leafa, and couldn't help but smile. Then, she stroked her chin and said:
"As you know, for the Pope, the gods themselves are not that important. On the contrary, it is more important to ensure that the common people of the Wilderness Territory can protect their lives in the light. If he had chosen to serve the Supreme Radiance back then, he might not have been able to freely practice his ideals."
“That makes sense.” Latis nodded slightly. On the way here, he had been thinking about what attitude he should have towards the Supreme Radiance. Thinking about it this way, he didn’t need to be too reserved because of his so-called divine status. In the end, the real common people were more important.
Holnett leaped from his seat, landing beside the two men. He rolled up his cloak, dusted it off, straightened up, and said in a calm voice:
“On the other side of the earth, in the place where I wandered in previous years, there were also rumors of supreme radiance, but I didn’t pay attention to it at the time. Now that I think about it, something seems wrong.”
"Oh?" Latis showed a hint of curiosity.
“The name Supreme Radiance is quite unique. When you first mentioned it, I felt a vague impression of it, but it took me a while to remember it.”
Holnet withdrew his hand, rummaged inside his cloak for a moment, and then pulled out an old pottery shard, which he handed to Latis.
"These are things I seized from the forest near the outskirts of the goblin. Based on my examination of the victim's clothing and personal belongings, these items may have come from the area around the United Nations of Yanium, probably looted from the underground entrance there."
"Is that so... Indeed, in the Kingdom of Norard, due to the existence of the magic network, underground monsters rarely risk being targeted by mages to come to the surface..."
Latis took the pottery shard and examined it closely.
This pottery shard appears to come from a handmade basin or jar, with an extremely intricate pattern engraved on the inside, and the words "Unscrupulous Merchants' Club" written in common language below the pattern.
“It really is from Yanium; the name comes from the underground merchant guild there.” Latis nodded slightly, explaining to Holnet. Just as he was about to hand the pottery shard back to her for her next explanation, his pupils suddenly dilated, his gaze immediately locking onto a certain spot in the center of the pattern, and he couldn’t help but mutter:
"Wait, no way..."
“You saw it? Yes, I was shocked too.” Holnett took the pottery shard, gently stroked the intricate pattern on it, and whispered:
"If it's an organization affiliated with the United Nations of Yanium, why would it bear the Illuminati's emblem? And why is it so closely connected to other symbols..."
"The Illuminati have connections with Janium? No, no, that can't be..."
Latis's mind raced, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. He quickly called out:
"Wait, I see! Although the underground merchant guild in Janium is nominally composed of various merchant organizations, in Janium, all organizations have divine backing. In other words, the 'Illegal Merchant Guild' is actually related to all the gods of Janium, and the presence of the Illuminati symbol among them likely indicates..."
“The Supreme Radiance is connected with the gods of Janium.”
Holnett picked up the conversation, his expression serious, and said:
"When I was searching for fragments of containers among the historical artifacts piled up in the monster territory, I came across a totem that recorded the names of many gods. After trying to pronounce the names of the gods using the pronunciation habits of those monsters, I discovered that one of the gods was called Radiance. Because it only sounded similar, I didn't remember it very well until just now."
"Now it seems that this totem probably appeared long before the Supreme Radiance appeared in the human world."
"So, the Supreme Radiance actually existed underground before... and even knew the gods of Anium..."
Latis pondered for a moment, shook his head, looked at the girls surrounding him, smiled, and said:
"Anyway, let's go ask the moth tribe first. We can't figure it out by guessing on our own."
He turned around, gently patted the stag beetle beside him, and smiled:
"Thanks a lot this time, buddy."
"Hmph." The stag beetle snorted, nudged Latis's shoulder with its antlers, then pawed at the ground before turning and walking away into the deep tunnel.
Latis glanced at the stag beetle's retreating figure, stroked his chin, clapped his hands at the girls, and then took the lead out of the tunnel exit.
……
The dim firelight flickered, illuminating the bells of the stag beetle station. Latis looked up and glanced around, then paused, startled:
"Still inside the cave?"
Although it was still in the cave, it looked completely different from the station in the Naga tribe. It not only had a platform-like foothold, but also benches and some stored candles. Looking from the platform, a long corridor led far into the unknown area, which must be the real location of the Moth tribe.
"That way, we won't be affected by those roaming monsters and forces of light."
Jennifer jumped onto the platform, glanced at the dim light of the torches around her, snapped her fingers to create a ball of light, and turned to her teammates with a smile:
"Come quickly! I sense a very strong aura of light ahead!"
……
……
The fire is shining.
An unknown chant echoed through the tunnel. Latis listened intently for a moment, frowned slightly, and cast the "Language Proficiency" spell on the team.
"Distant...light..."
May the sacred flame illuminate... the path ahead...
"Forgive...the sins of the gods..."
The veiled prayers seemed to come from ancient times. Even with the blessing of magic, the words were veiled, and only certain words could be heard clearly.
Latis walked to the end of the corridor as he pondered.
At the end of the corridor, a tall stone door was ajar, and bright firelight shone through the crack in the door, almost as bright as the ball of light in Jennifer's hand, even through the door.
"Such a bright light."
Jennifer raised an eyebrow slightly, extinguished the light in her hand, stood before the door, sensed for a moment, and said:
"It seems somewhat like the light, heat, and power of a holy knight, but without any superfluous will."
"So this kind of light exists underground too," Holnet said with some surprise. "I thought the underground was only filled with the power of light and will."
"A light similar to that on the earth's surface..."
Latis stroked his chin, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.
hum...
A bright light instantly shone in front of everyone. Latis couldn't help but squint. His powerful body quickly adjusted his pupils to the almost blinding light. He closed his eyes and then looked back at the scene inside the door.
In the center of the arena, a torch several tens of meters high was burning fiercely. At the base of the torch was a tall stone statue of a moth, surrounded by several giant swords. Although the statue's face was not visible, a chilling fighting spirit was palpable.
Latis took a small step forward, shielding everyone from the powerful aura. He turned back to check on his teammates, composed himself, and then surveyed the interior of the Moth Tribe once more.
Contrary to Latis's expectations, the Moth Tribe was not teeming with large, fluttering moths. On the contrary, apart from the faint chanting and the crackling of flames, it was surprisingly quiet.
He noticed that the interior of the moth tribe seemed to be cylindrical, with stone walls surrounding a central torch, and each level seemed to have many caves, which were probably where the moths lived.
“wee!”
The cry of the Void Ray came from not far away. Latis turned his head to look and saw several girls curiously looking at something. When they saw him looking over, they quickly called out:
"Master, Grandmaster, there's a huge moth here!"
"Sir, please take a look at this!"
"Wow, this is the first time I've ever seen something like this..."
These little guys seem quite curious...
Latis muttered to himself, then rushed forward, stood beside the girls, and looked down, only to be immediately startled.
A moth-like monster, about two meters long, was seen sleeping against the stone wall. Its body was slightly curled up, its pale skin was wrinkled, and its wings folded behind its back were dry and curled at the edges. It did not seem to be in good condition.
Latis didn't know what to do with the moth for a moment, but he didn't feel uneasy, so he stopped worrying about how to deal with it. He shook his head, straightened up and looked around. Suddenly he found that many places seemed to be slumbering with all kinds of moth monsters. They were either sitting or lying down, and it was unknown how long they had been slumbering. They had almost blended into the environment.
"strangeness……"
Latis stroked his chin. He instinctively felt that the moths were dead, but he could still sense some signs of life, so he couldn't figure out what was going on for the time being.
He thought about it. Logically speaking, they made quite a commotion when they pushed the door open. If there were anyone from the Moth Tribe, they should have come out to see them by now. But there was no movement at the moment. Could it be that there was no one from the Moth Tribe?
"It's not good..."
Latis muttered something, pondered for a moment, then bent down to search the giant moth for any clues. However, the moment his hand touched the moth's body, an old voice suddenly rang in his mind:
"Guests from afar, please let the children remain peacefully in their dreams, a slumber bestowed upon them by the gods, one they cannot resist..."
"If you have any questions, please go to the top floor. I will be waiting for you there in the bright firelight..."