ntal contamination is mutual.
At least that’s how it appears to Gawain.
Based on the experintal references provided by the Eternal Sleepers and the technical data left by the Defier, Gawain can almost determine the birth process of gods is related to mortal beliefs, or more accurately, it’s the collective human thought projected onto a deep dinsion of this world, leading to the birth of gods. If this model holds true, the process of dealing face-to-face with gods is essentially a sanity-dropping interaction—mutual contamination.
Gods’ knowledge will uncontrollably contaminate any mind it connects with (Gawain doesn’t currently know how to block this connection), and conversely, those minds that establish connections with gods inevitably exert a reverse influence. Yet one thing is clear: a normal mind is simply incomparable to that of a god, turning the sanity-dropping process into a one-sided erosion.
But what if there is a mind not affected by gods’ knowledge, while possessing a vast mory repertoire to "connect" with the gods?
The Supre Narrator, resembling a mountain, begins to crack, with its fragnted body slowly collapsing. Its remaining power struggles to sustain itself, but this remnant of power swiftly dissipates as the divine patterns dim. Gawain quietly stands, observing all of this, while continuously suppressing and dissolving the erosion pollution he experiences.
The erosion he suffers is quite severe, much more than it seems on the surface. This ti he’s no longer confronting godly flesh sealed within crystal cubes, nor a stitched corpse of a fake god created with biotechnology. The Supre Narrator is a true, complete, living god. Even though it’s weak, it possesses a special status, and to clash with its contamination is a highly risky move.
Yet, it’s the only thod Gawain can think of.
Blades and swords can’t kill the Supre Narrator; high combat skills can’t fight against the nightmare itself. To destroy the intangible, formless god, one must use equally intangible and formless power. In the previous fight, using a longsword against Duvalt was rely a façade, with each side masking their ntal contamination.
Gawain looks down at his hands, noticing his arms gradually returning to human form, and finally heaves a sigh of relief.
The Supre Narrator is a young and inexperienced god; this is Gawain’s only advantage. If it were those gods that have existed in the real world for countless years... better not take such a risky gamble again.
In the depths of darkness, beside the web, the inexplicable material birdcage silently disintegrates. Selina feels the invisible influence suppressing her strength start to truly dissipate. Without checking her condition, she quickly approaches Gawain, watching him slowly return to human form. Only then does she quietly sigh with relief.
"Is it all over?" she asks incredulously, looking at Gawain and then the collapsed Supre Narrator.
Gawain doesn’t respond imdiately; instead, he keeps his eyes fixed on the giant spider crouched in the web’s center, internally asking himself—Is it really over? Just like that?
A trace of doubt mixed with alertness rises in his heart, and Gawain’s expression suddenly turns serious: "Wait, perhaps it’s not over yet!"
He fixes his gaze on the lifeless-looking spider god, speaking quickly: "Duvalt claid he represents the ’humanity’ of the Supre Narrator... then where is the corresponding ’divinity’?! Also, earlier we saw the Supre Narrator protecting so ’cocoons’—where are those cocoons?!"
Selina quickly realizes too, as if a part of her mind previously influenced and blocked suddenly begins operating, making her aware of critical points she ignored: "That girl called Nariteer?!"
...
Deep in the underground ruins of the Eternal Sleepers, Archbishop Semyr’s voice echoes through the corridor leading to the central area:
"Not long after the action started, issues arose, starting with the contamination of the containnt area, then other areas. Many originally normal priests suddenly beca followers of the Supre Narrator—we had to treat everyone with extre caution..."
"I understand," Magnan said gruffly, "The Supre Narrator... this thing is truly bizarre. I almost couldn’t return just from glimpsing it inside the sandbox! Fortunately, I found a quick way to identify the contaminated..."
"Stop ntioning your ’thod’," Yuri interrupted with a face of unpleasant recollection, "In decades, I’ve never spoken such vulgar words, and now I’m very suspicious that you left the Sect of the God of War not for privately researching heterodoxies, but because you were driven away for vulgar behavior!"
Magnan glared: "That was indeed one of the charges they gave , so what?"
Semyr’s expression, grim and serious as always, was even darker than usual. He ignored the conversation behind him, walking forward with a tense face.
Yuri sighed, refraining from further comnts.
Finding himself unacknowledged, Magnan shrugged indifferently, then took big strides, marching in the middle of the group.
The deep, lengthy corridor seed endless, extending towards the center of the underground ruins. The light from the magic crystal lamps illuminated the helts of the Spirit Knights nearby, reflecting bright glimrs.
A faintly visible translucent shadow suddenly swept across the corner of his eye, causing Magnan to pause instinctively.
It seed like a part of so huge limb, almost invisible in its transparency, penetrating the nearby walls and ceiling, fleetingly passing the boundary of Magnan’s vision before retracting into the walls.
"Archbishop Magnan?" Yuri noticed Magnan’s sudden halt and stern expression, imdiately stopping as well, "What’s the matter?"
"Yuri, I think I just saw sothing flash by," Magnan replied solemnly, "like so kind of limb... a spider’s."
Semyr imdiately frowned, scanning the surroundings and confirming his mory, shaking his head: "I didn’t see anything."
Everyone shook their heads, seemingly only Magnan saw the fleeting shadow.
An illusion? Misvision? Hallucination induced by nervous tension?
Several thoughts flashed through the minds of the present priests for less than a second before being directly dismissed, and Yuri lifted his hand, invoking magic power to manifest the magic symbol, sending a wave-like radiance throughout the corridor—"Mind Detection!"
Other priests and Spirit Knights acted accordingly, so activating protective spells, others scanning for unknown ntal states, and so raised weapons forming formations to protect the relatively fragile priests in the center of the group.
The Eternal Sleepers never say things like "I was mistaken," nor do they easily believe in so-called "delusional tension."
They are experts in the realm of dreams, explorers of the spiritual world, and have already embarked upon the dangerous path of opposing the gods. Being almost neurotically vigilant is every Eternal Sleeper’s occupational habit. Did soone in the team report seeing abnormal sights? Regardless of the truth, let’s throw twenty ntal detection spells first!
However, after all the detection spells were activated, no one saw the things Magnan ntioned, nor did anyone perceive any abnormal ntal state in the nearby space of the corridor.
"Found nothing..." Archbishop Semyr said in a low voice.
"Regardless of whether anything was found, maintain the highest vigilance. Detection spells are not omnipotent—there are too many things in this world that mortals cannot see," Yuri reminded, then looked at Magnan, "Pay close attention to your surroundings. So things... maybe only you can see."
Magnan paused for a mont, looking into Yuri’s serious eyes, understanding what the other ant.
Once, he accidentally glanced directly at the Supre Narrator without protection.
Perhaps so irreversible damage has already been left in the depths of his soul.
The whole team remained extrely vigilant and began to continue returning to the central area of the underground ruins.
And behind them, in the deep and long corridor far away, a blurry, almost transparent shadow flashed by again.
That was a joint of a spider, penetrating the walls and ceiling, moving swiftly, as if an enormous transparent spider was traversing the stone and dirt of the underground, weaving invisible webs.
Magnan and Yuri followed the team led by Semyr, finally safely arriving at the central region of the underground ruins, which was also the central control hub and largest computing center of Sandbox One.
This is the most important and core area of the entire Eternal Sleepers headquarters; under any circumstances, it must be prioritized for safeguarding and not allowed to be breached.
Relying on the sturdy barriers and relatively spacious interior spaces here, Archbishop Semyr constructed several defensive lines and urgently assembled a "Bishop Combat Group" composed of incumbent archbishops and bishops to guard here. Currently, all priest personnel confird to be safe and unpolluted have been gathered here, and there are several teams of Spirit Knights and Combat Priests operating in other areas of the underground ruins. They continue to suppress those polluted by the Supre Narrator while searching for other still-conscious comrades.
The vast, sturdy hall was in a state of tense readiness for battle.
Fully ard Spirit Knights guarded all the entrances and exits of the hall, setting barriers in the external corridors and several sturdy rooms connected to the corridors. Combat Priests, clad in battle robes and lightweight tal armor, stood ready behind the barriers, constantly monitoring the ntal state of their personnel.
Within this tightly guarded hall, around the large stone pillars in the central area, the technical priests responsible for controlling the Sandbox System and the ntal network were linked to neural cords at the back of their heads, sitting neatly at the control seats, maintaining the normal operation of the system.
Before connecting, they had already subjected themselves to powerful psychological suggestions; even if the hall were breached or swords were at their throats, these technical priests would keep the system running to the last mont.
Yuri noticed that there were still traces of battle remaining in the outer corridor, and in a corner of the hall, lay so technical priests who seed to have lost consciousness.
He and Magnan had been active in the Sandbox World for a day and a night; outside, only two hours should have passed, but in this short span of ti, so much had happened in the real world.
The pollution and commotion occurring in the underground ruins... were perhaps even more dangerous than Semyr had described.
Before Magnan walked into the hall, he first carefully observed the barricades set up in the corridor and the configuration of the combat personnel. He then glanced at the state of the weaponry placed against the wall inside the hall and the readiness of the reserves, finally nodding to Semyr: "Not bad."
As a forr War God Priest, he could tell that the ergency defenses here had been constructed with guidance from professionals.
"There are several priests who were once soldiers; I temporarily raised their command privilege. Without them, the situation might have been worse," Semyr said in a deep voice, "Just before I set out to confirm your situation, we were counterattacked; the polluted Spirit Knights almost broke through the hall’s defenses... Drawing swords against comrades is never a pleasant thing."
"Leave professional matters to professionals; your decision was correct regarding drawing swords against comrades..." Magnan shook his head, "We’ll sort out this ss once we’re all alive."
"Archbishop Yuri, Archbishop Magnan, it’s a pleasure to see you safely appearing."
Accompanied by a gentle and magnetic voice, a female priest clad in a white long dress, with a gentle and graceful deanor, erged from the depths of the hall.
"Archbishop Wendy," Yuri imdiately noticed the erging woman, "I heard it’s you... Are these stains blood?!"
He looked in surprise at the leader of the Psychic Choir before him, seeing the white gauze dress now stained with blood, the sharp dark red soaking the fabric, forming complex and twisted magic symbols at the chest and hem of the dress, appearing strange and mysterious.
But after taking another look at those symbols, the tension in Archbishop Yuri’s mind dissipated greatly; he realized what those symbols were—gifts from the Wanderers from Outer Realm—a "Deep Sea Offering" capable of resisting the gods’ ntal contamination.
Wendy smiled faintly, her complexion slightly pale: "I needed to co out to report, but I worried that once I left the room, leaving those symbols, the contamination within would resurge, so I had to ’wear’ the symbols—to carry with the blood, which was the only ’magic-conducting material’ I could find below."
She lifted her wrist, revealing the wound on her arm, which had partially healed under the influence of healing spells, but the dried blood remained, not yet wiped away.
Using her own blood to draw symbols was a last resort. The containnt area originally contained many polluted followers of the Supre Narrator, but Wendy was greatly concerned about the safety of blood that had been contaminated, hence she chose to use her own to draw the symbols.
Seeing "Spirit Singer" Wendy erge to report in blood-stained attire, seeing the traces of battle in the corridor outside the hall, and observing the barricades set up within the underground ruins, the priests and knights behind them, Yuri sighed slightly.
After sighing, raising one’s head is necessary—because the danger has yet to end.
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