Leyton turned around, looking in the direction of the sound, and softly uttered an ancient hermes word:
"Light!"
A clear, brilliant, and pure light descended from the sky, completely dispelling the darkness ahead, revealing the monster gnawing on the broken, decaying bluestone slabs in the ruins.
It was nearly four meters tall, entirely grayish-white, with scale-like patterns carved into its body. Its head bore goat horns, and its mouth resembled a hound's, revealing fangs when half-open.
It held bluestone slabs in both hands, bringing them to its mouth, and a seven to eight-meter stone long halberd lay beside its feet.
What was most striking about it were its eyes, burning with Red Light, and six pairs of grayish-white membrane wings. Meeting its gaze would gradually turn one to stone.
"Six-winged Gargoyle?" Leyton murmured as he looked at the monster that had revealed itself.
Bang! Bang!
Heavy footsteps echoed from the surroundings, and two more grayish-white, nearly four-meter-tall Six-winged Gargoyles emerged from the darkness. Each held a seven to eight-meter stone spear, their eyes burning with Red Light fixed on Leyton.
"Did I just stumble into a gargoyle nest?"
He muttered to himself, his body suddenly becoming transparent and illusory, turning into a pile of foam.
Under the illumination of the light, these foams reflected a dreamlike spectrum of colors, scattering and vanishing in an instant.
The next moment, his figure directly appeared beside the Six-winged Gargoyle that was still stuffing bluestone slabs into its mouth. His right hand, clad in a mechanical glove, pressed firmly against the Six-winged Gargoyle's grayish-white stone body.
Specks of bronze-colored light flowed from the mechanical glove, rapidly moving through the Six-winged Gargoyle's body, gradually disintegrating its physical structure.
Silently, the massive Six-winged Gargoyle turned into fragments of mottled, decaying dust, scattering across the ground. Only its eyes, burning with Red Light, remained intact, detaching from its body and falling onto Leyton's right hand, which wore the mechanical glove.
Having completed all this, Leyton turned his head to look at the other two Six-winged Gargoyles that had emerged from behind.
They seemed greatly startled, rushing into the darkness behind them at a speed unbefitting their heavy bodies, their huge feet landing on the ground without making a sound.
Leyton narrowed his eyes, reached out, and grasped at the air, condensing a white doll-like chess piece. He casually tossed the piece out.
In the darkness, the two rapidly moving Six-winged Gargoyles suddenly slowed their movements, unable to take a single step for a long time.
Leyton carefully observed the two fleeing Six-winged Gargoyles for a moment. Their grayish-white, massive stone bodies gradually became transparent, collapsing inward, and finally transforming into translucent phantoms the size of a normal human.
"Out of three Six-winged Gargoyles, only one was real. It seems it didn't realize its companions were fake; things with stone brains really aren't too smart."
After muttering a complaint, Leyton raised his left hand, and brilliant starlight swirled around him. These star-lights, as soon as they formed, flew away, contracting and condensing in mid-air into gleaming spears.
These spears easily pierced through the slowed translucent phantoms, gradually melting and disintegrating their bodies.
"Compared to Six-winged Gargoyles, the bodies of Bizarro Banes are much more fragile. I feel like if the sunlight I just summoned had been a bit more intense, it could have directly melted them." Leyton thought, evaluating as he moved closer, preparing to pick up the items formed from the Beyonder characteristics within the two Bizarro Banes.
They were peculiar eyes, predominantly dark, with intricate, unclear patterns around them, and pupils like lightless water.
Leyton picked up the main eyes of the two Bizarro Banes separately, then summoned several invisible servants, handing them the formed Beyonder materials.
After the invisible servants withdrew, he once again transformed into a pure information flow creature, rapidly approaching the Giant King's Court by means of Sights in the Spirit World.
Time passed, and the frequency of lightning strikes in the sky increased from once every one or two minutes to once every three or four seconds.
At the location of the Giant King's Court, an unobservable light, composed of countless pure and complex information, surged from the Spirit World.
This light carried a peculiar rhythm, as if it had integrated with this magnificent palace, moving freely within it without triggering the guards.
At the main entrance of the Giant King's Court, an indistinct, shimmering light, difficult to perceive, gathered in mid-air.
These lights suddenly became chaotic and distorted, as if they could collapse into countless information streams at any moment.
In a certain instant, these lights abruptly vanished from their original spot, completely disappearing without a trace.
Outside the Forsaken Land of the Gods, on the ocean formed from the Sea of Ruins, a hazy, shimmering light composed of countless complex and pure knowledge slowly floated in mid-air, as if it had entered a state of sluggishness.
The moment Leyton left the Forsaken Land of the Gods, countless prayers echoed in his ears. They were male or female, distant or near, ethereal or hoarse, carrying intense and pure emotions, earnestly confiding their confusion and stating their pleas.
It was as if a long-accumulated torrent of prayers had been received all at once. Leyton felt an overwhelming din in his ears, an urge to silence the entire world.
After a long while, Leyton finally managed to sort out the prayers echoing in his ears, directly blocking the irrelevant ones, marking those that required a response, automatically responding to some, and handing a portion over to the Hidden Sage.
Having readjusted his state, Leyton reconstructed his body from the complex and pure information. He instinctively raised a hand to touch his cheek, murmuring:
"My state is also more stable now that I've successfully received faith. The humanity that was suppressed and the emotions that were lost are gradually returning."
"This is a good thing. The more stable my humanity, the more of my self I can retain when I merge with my main body on the Western Continent later, and I might even be able to separate again."
After a moment of silence, he turned to look at the Giant King's Court behind him, bathed in the orange-red twilight, draped in a layer of golden-red.
The Giant King's Court, seen from the Sea of Ruins, was even more magnificent and spectacular than when seen from within the Forsaken Land of the Gods. It was more like a scene from a myth, more befitting Giant King Aurmir's divine kingdom!
After quietly gazing at the Giant King's Court for a few seconds, his body once again dematerialized, disintegrating into streams of complex and pure knowledge, surging away towards the outskirts of this Sea of Ruins.
On the Future, sailing in the northern Sonia Sea, Cattleya, leaning against the captain's cabin's bay window and looking out at the crew on deck and the distant sea, suddenly turned her head.
Directly in front of her, on the dark brown desk, a letter had appeared at some unknown time.
"The Queen's reply, isn't she planning to come over?" Cattleya murmured, a hint of disappointment in her tone.
She then quickly approached, picked up the letter from the desk, and unfolded it before her eyes:
I cannot give you precise revelation, as this involves the Hidden Sage, and the very pinnacle of this Sequence. I cannot make any form of "prophecy" regarding it.
If you accept his blood as the Sequence 4 advancement ritual, you will be fine as long as he remains himself, and you might even gain some benefits.
But if his personality completely vanishes, you are very likely to become a devout follower of the Hidden Sage, just like Bornova.
My advice is: do not take the risk. Advancing a few months earlier or later makes no difference and will have no impact.
Recently, the knowledge the Hidden Sage has been imparting to Mystery Pryers has contained many directional messages, always mentioning, more or less, an existence representing knowledge and mysteries.
He has begun to actively interfere with Beyonders of the Mystery Pryer pathway, influencing our minds and beliefs, which also makes this pathway more dangerous.
The God of Church of the God of Steam and Machinery has begun to pay attention to this matter; this might be a sign of the War of the Gods.
You can no longer remain on the fringes of the Moses Ascetic Order collective. Once war breaks out, it will be quite dangerous for you.
If you have time, you can come to La Cha soon. I will be heading into the depths of the Fog Sea shortly, and I don't know when I'll be able to return, or if I'll return at all.
Cattleya's fingers gently rubbed the paper. The letter burst into scarlet flames, quickly turning to ash, which was then swept out the window by a sudden gust of wind, scattering onto the sparkling sea.
She walked to the desk and sat down, picking up paper and pen to begin writing her reply to Bernadette:
I have already received the oracle from the Hidden Sage. All members of the Moses Ascetic Order should have received it. He has added descriptions such as "the essence of all knowledge" and "the root of all mysteries" to his honorific name.
Does this mean he has truly mastered this pathway and become a Sequence 0 Hermit?
Also, why do you say this is a sign of the War of the Gods? Can the God of Steam and Machinery not tolerate the existence of a true God from an adjacent pathway?
At the end of the letter, she wrote: "The Future is currently docked in the northern Sonia Sea. I will return to La Cha Island in the Fog Sea as soon as possible."
After writing the reply, she simply folded the letter and then stood up to quickly set up the ritual for summoning a messenger.
In a moment she didn't notice, a speedster traversing the Spirit World appeared from the passage created by the ritual, circled the captain's cabin a few times, and then picked up the folded letter from the desk before returning to the Spirit World.
Cattleya only felt a gentle breeze around her and saw an extremely blurry figure flash before her eyes.
When she looked down at the desk in front of her, the folded white letter paper was gone.
Cattleya looked at the closed Spirit World passage and murmured:
"What exactly is the Queen's messenger? Perhaps only when I become a Sequence 4 Mysticologist will I be able to clearly see its figure under the gaze of the Eyes of Mystery Prying."