Wasteland Echoer.

Chapter 527: Deepthroat's Call (Part )

Soon, "El Mimana", which was previously knocked down by Dark and Wolfya, also joined the ranks of decomposition and melting.

They twist, wriggle, and sway wildly like earthworms, as if they were dancing an enchanting and crazy Cruz's swan dance.

However, this artistic act, which should have been characterized by flexibility and ultimate beauty, turned into a visual feast that made people feel frustrated and crazy as the robots' legs, waists, abdomens, chests, arms and heads melted one after another.

In less than half a minute, these "Hermimanas" that had endured hundreds of years of pain and torture, these robots that Ivan XXIII had envisioned as the "guardians" of his father, finally disappeared completely in the long night of this wasteland that seemed to never see the dawn.

After engulfing these "El Mimanas", these special asphalts actually emitted a deep purple glow that condensed resentment and pain under the churning bubbles.

Immediately afterwards, the special asphalt began to solidify rapidly, revealing the "double-headed eagle holding a sunflower in its mouth" pattern exclusive to the Cruz royal family.

Deng!Deng!Deng!
The searchlights on top of the "Honghuan Experimental Field" that had been extinguished for nearly a thousand years were turned on one by one under the influence of the gradually growing "ancient" power. In addition to illuminating the broken and rusty lampshades themselves, the entire experimental field was covered with a relatively bright white glow.

"Did we... win? Is this... the first level, over...?" Dak said, gasping as he sat down near a straight, huge steel pillar.

The intense battle just now made him have no time to care about the energy consumption of his body. It was not until the enemies fell to the ground one after another that he realized that his magic power had been running out due to the continuous activation of the [Chaos Instigator] professional ability and water-based skills.

An intense feeling of hunger and dizziness instantly eroded his body and mind, leaving him sitting on the ground in a state of extreme exhaustion, saliva flowing from the corners of his mouth in desperation for food, his arms waving helplessly, as if he wanted to swallow into his stomach everything within reach.

Until a sweet taste symbolizing happiness entered his tongue, taste buds and mouth, and spread along his esophagus to his entire body.

"Don't force yourself to starve, Dak. Especially, don't starve in a place where extraordinary power is overly concentrated. The military commanders told you this more than three years ago, when you first joined the 'Special Task Force' in Mayan City." Wolfya reminded with a worried look on his face.

Seeing that Dak's eyes had regained their vitality, Wolfya breathed a sigh of relief, touched Dak's head with a smile, stood up from in front of him, and threw the last sugar cube in his pocket to Dak.

"This is..." Dak asked in a hoarse voice, looking down to see a piece of white candy wrapper lying alone on the ground covered with solidified special asphalt.

Dak picked up the candy wrapper and examined it carefully. On it were written "Military Special Sugar Cubes" and "Crusde Federation Binglin City?? Factory" in distorted and blurred Crusde language.

He understood instantly that he had just fallen into a state of temporary hunger due to the near exhaustion of his magic power and excessive physical exertion. If Wolfya had not fed him a piece of sugar, he might have fallen into an irreversible state of madness and even degenerated into an "alien monster" under the erosion of the rich "antiquity", "sorrow" and other extraordinary powers around him.

“Thank…thank you, Wolfya.” Dak said from the bottom of his heart. After his breathing became a little more stable, he supported himself on the ground with one hand and barely stood up.

"Don't thank me, Dak. You can thank me after you meet the 'Echo' that you've been 'dreaming about' and after we have dismantled the 'Fire of Divine Punishment' placed by Ivan XXII." Wolfya deliberately made a smug expression, but when his eyes touched the solidified special asphalt that the "Hermimanas" had just melted, his face instantly darkened and his brows slightly frowned.

"Dak, you should have sensed it a long time ago. This place is home to countless powers left behind by the 'ancient gods.' Yes, your sense of smell is right. The breath of the deep sea you smelled just now was indeed theirs." Wolfya said.

"They?" Dak asked.

"Yes, it is them, the 'old' gods." Wolfya nodded, then raised his head, staring at the unbearable messy light of the searchlight, and said:
"Legend has it that the ancient gods and their servants were born earlier than any existing gods we know of. The Creator created the continent we live on and the planet that supports it in the gap between the two time periods of 'the formation of the universe' and 'the reproduction of the stars'.

"The original planet was a hell world made of lava. When the Creator descended and cast the first water source, clouds formed and heavy rains began. The new lava continued to squeeze the existing lava, and eventually sent them into another dimension attached to our planet, which we call 'Hell'."

"I heard that the Ancient God and the Ancient Power came from the ocean. So, did the Ancient exist from the moment the ocean was born?" Dak tilted his head, half of his vision was looking at the special asphalt that was churning and bubbling, and the other half was looking at Wolfya's face that was gradually losing its expression. "That's not accurate," Wolfya replied.
“It should be said that the ancient gods did not appear during the birth of the ocean. Instead, when the ancient ocean was finally formed, the Creator threw the ‘dark life seed’ that could breed the ‘ancient’ into the ocean.

"That period was almost the end of the Seven Epochs. The world was shrouded in darkness and a long night. There was no light, no warmth, and not much life with self-awareness. Everything was dim, gloomy, and lifeless, just like what was described in the classics of 'Only the Bishop'."

"Which classic?" Dak asked, but his attention was attracted by the bubbles that were gradually increasing in speed.

After a brief pause, Wulfya continued to answer:

"In the first few volumes of the Old Dark Scripture, there is a passage that says: Every life belonging to the ancients is bathed in endless darkness and loneliness, just like a piece of white paper that is always in the night sky. No matter what, it will never be favored by the light.

"The ancient gods are entities that wander in pain, delusion, illusion, evil thoughts and sorrow. The darkness has existed for millions of years, and they have been tortured for millions of years. Even if a bright and friendly creature comes into contact with them, even if they accidentally look directly at them, they will be instantly turned blind, deaf, or crazy by the thick "sorrow"."

"The ancient gods are too cruel." Dark teased.

"It's not that the gods are cruel, but that 'ancient' itself is cruel. The gods don't bother to target a certain person, and they don't even bother to communicate with lowly creatures like humans, who are like ants. But these 'ancient' auras have been with them for millions of years." Wulfya replied:
“The key to human beings being eroded by ‘ancient’ is actually ‘connection’.”

"connect?"

“Yes, contact.” Wolfya explained, keeping his head held high.
"All matter in the universe has its own inherent connection with other matter. This 'connection' is like the 'principle' of the Creator, which has been engraved since the birth of the universe until the universe evaporates and time and space reach the end of death.

“When you look directly at the Ancient, even if you accidentally see a cute little eye on Cthulhu’s tentacles, you will passively establish a connection with it. From that moment on, your body will begin to continuously and unstoppably receive the devastating part of the Ancient’s power.” Having said this, Wolfya finally lowered his head, smiled at Dak, and continued to explain:

"But Dak, you don't have to worry about collapse. You have 'divinity' in your body, which can offset some of the erosion of 'ancient power'. As a [troublemaker], as long as you don't collapse under the mental pressure of the first two stages, your mind will be difficult to be affected by any force. Just like that legendary profession, [Orderer].

"Unless, your body and mind are disconnected and you fall into a state of frenzy. In other words, the dangerous hunger will only cause your body to run wild out of instinct in the process of searching for food, causing you to degenerate into a 'monster', but your consciousness will be very clear from beginning to end."

"But this will be more painful for me." Dak pursed his lips and said:
"If my consciousness collapses along with my body, I won't feel any pain. But if my mind is clear and my body collapses, I will be in a nightmare of endless mental torture but unable to collapse. To be honest... I don't know... what kind of existence I will become in the end."

"So, Dak, it would be more dangerous for you to endure hunger. This is why the Federation will maintain the food supply to the mutants no matter how scarce the food is." Wu Fuya patted Dak's shoulder, but turned his head to look at the boiling special asphalt not far in front of him, lowered his voice, and said:
"You just asked me if we had won the victory and passed the first level by defeating these 'Hermimanas'. Now, I will answer you. 'The door has not been opened, and everything is still closed.' These 'Hermimanas' that finally died have been using their bodies and the special asphalt that has been fused with [Dark] ore to provide them with energy to summon the projection of the old 'Dark Collaborator'."

As he spoke, the fusion of boiling asphalt and machinery began to evaporate. The black steam continued to hover and fly in a spiral state in the air, and finally condensed into a semi-black monster about 5 or 6 meters tall, with scarlet eyes, octopus whiskers, bone wings, eagle claws and tentacles.

"What is that...?" asked Dark.

But before he could utter the word "who", one of the monster's tentacles turned into something harder and straighter than steel and pierced straight through his chest.

"Deepser."

Before the blood gushed out, Dak heard this horrible name pronounced in an ancient, weathered voice.

(End of this chapter)