Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 342 The Defense of "Midnight City" (Seeking Recommendations)
"Correct."

Roger nodded; in fact, he understood Leomaster's current state of mind very well.

Because if Roger hadn't verified the route of the "Chaos Sea" aura through the "Original Core" and locked onto this location, he would never have believed that this was the entrance to the "Underground Midnight City" based solely on this bare mountain wall.

Moreover, even "Secret Insight" could not penetrate this mountain wall to allow Roger to see its true appearance. This was clearly because the power level of the seal far exceeded Roger's insight ability, and only the power of an archangel or the source material level could possibly reveal its secrets.

This is also an important defense mechanism, preventing those mystical supernatural beings with strength lower than Sequence 1 from easily discovering the entrance to the "Underground Midnight City".

In Roger's view, this might also be a test of Roger's "source" ability, because although he had heard Roger give a general account, his curiosity still drove him to see how Roger would solve the problem at hand.

After a moment's thought, he stepped forward and began to feel around on the mountainside with his hands.

"Not here."

After a moment, Roger shook his head, then touched the mountain wall with his hand and started walking again.

Along the way, Roger would press hard on the mountain wall every few steps, but the mountain wall did not change at all.

It wasn't until he had walked about ten steps and pressed down again that the mountain wall in front of him began to change.

Where Roger touched, within a radius of about three meters, the white mountain wall transformed into a mercury-like texture and began to bounce and ripple.

Roger frowned slightly. He tried to pull his hand away, but the mercury-like mountain wall stuck firmly to his wrist and began to spread rapidly upwards.

This made Roger feel extremely dangerous. He desperately tried to pull his hand away, but the faster he moved, the faster the mercury-like semi-fluid devoured his flesh.

Roger was about to use the "Rose Bishop's" flesh magic to sever his own arm when Alexis extended her left hand.

A thick, dark shadow burst forth from the woman's fingertips. The shadow flashed by, and Roger's arm was sliced ​​open from the elbow upwards.

Roger leaned back, and after a moment his right arm began to slowly regenerate.

The reason it is described as slow is not because of the "Rose Bishop," but because of the "Black Knight."

The current rate of flesh and blood regeneration is at best equivalent to Roger's level at the end of Sequence 6, and is still quite far from the level of the "Shepherd" era.

Although he could feel that as he broke free from the mercury wall, his recovery speed was gradually increasing and progressing in the direction that a "Black Knight" should be, the method that could weaken his recovery speed was still too strange.

Once Roger's once again grew back a fair and smooth arm, he finally stood up:
"Thank you, Lady Alexis."

"You are welcome."

Alexis shook her head, her expression somewhat complicated:
"Aren't you wondering why I cut off your arm before you could take care of it yourself?"

"Yes, you should know that this is not a difficult task for the 'Black Knight'."

Roger also looked at Alexis with some curiosity:
"On the other hand, I just felt that my regeneration speed has slowed down significantly... Judging from your expression, do you know something?"

"Yes."

Alexis nodded:
“I’ve seen this before.”

"Have you seen this before? Was it in 'Fog City'?"

Roger was slightly taken aback, but immediately realized what was going on.

"Yes, that was a very, very long time ago, about... according to the stellar calendar, it should be more than two hundred years ago."

Alexis wore a look of reminiscence:
"That was a temporary operation we organized to clean the dwellings of the 'servants of God'."

"This kind of thing was not common in 'Fog City'. It was done almost every few years to show the residents of 'Fog City' their respect and gratitude to the 'servants of the gods'."

"But an accident happened that time. One of my subordinates, the 'Rose Bishop,' who had fully digested the potion and was outstanding in both strength and temperament, went missing."

"disappeared?"

Roger's first thought was that she might have accidentally entered the cocoon of the "servant of the gods" and been swallowed up, but he immediately dismissed this guess.

Because at that stage, the "servants of the gods" were still the guardians of "Fog City," their relationship with humans had not deteriorated, and the fact that Alexis was able to single out this matter certainly proves that there was something unusual about it.

"Correct."

Alexis nodded:
“This kind of thing is very serious in ‘Fog City’ because it proves that there may be dangerous external forces infiltrating ‘Fog City’, so everyone is on high alert for a while.”

"Because the missing person was my disciple and the successor I was training, I personally organized the search."

“During the search, we discovered a stone chamber beneath Fog City that no one had ever found before, and my disciple’s footprints disappeared there.”

Alexis sighed, a hint of regret in her expression:

"During the exploration, a 'shepherd' touched a wall inside the stone chamber that was painted with the image of the 'Angel of Fate'... and then, that wall also turned mercury... just like what you just encountered."

"The 'shepherd' wanted to cut off his own arm, but perhaps because he was not decisive enough, he had tried to pull his hand out before he succeeded, and before he could take any further action, his upper body was swallowed up."

"The strangest thing is that he was completely unable to activate the 'Rose Bishop's' self-destruction at that time, and because his heart and brain were embedded in the wall, it was impossible to even sever his lower body to revive him."

"In the end, I watched helplessly as he was devoured... This made me very regretful, because that 'shepherd' was just like my disciple, a very outstanding young man from 'Mist City' back then."

"Another strange thing is that after the 'shepherd' was devoured, the wall returned to normal. Later, I sent my 'fallen shadow' with some flesh puppets to test it, but it didn't trigger mercury transformation... It's like that property just transferred away for no reason."

"Since then, 'Fog City' has reassessed the situation of the underground space and believed that there are some secrets there that we have not yet discovered. After that, for security reasons, we have greatly reduced the frequency of entering that underground space."

"What you just saw reminded me of what happened to me back then, so I instinctively wanted to help you."

"Thank you... Also, please accept my condolences, Lady Alexis."

Although Roger felt it was a bit too late to say these words, given that two hundred years had passed, he believed that the deceased should be shown sufficient respect in the present moment.

Alexis waved her hand to indicate that she had come out, and then breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that Roger's regenerative ability had been fully restored.

However, Roger did not feel relieved; instead, a very strange feeling arose in his heart.

First, Alexis was correct on one point: according to Amon, both "Mist City" and "Midnight City" have tributaries of the "Chaos Sea" beneath them, and both bear traces of Urelius's seal. Therefore, if Roger wasn't mistaken, those two Beyonders who followed the "Mystic" pathway were likely banished to some unknown closed loop by Urelius's special seal.

As for why they couldn't use the "self-destruct" ability, Roger guessed that it was a manifestation of the "fate" realm's extraordinary abilities at a high level, such as "shutting down" some abilities or "resetting" their identity to the state before they became "Rose Bishops," thereby indirectly achieving the goal of lowering the intruders' status and controlling them.

Roger took a deep breath. To verify his point of view, he once again separated a portion of his flesh and blood to create a "flesh and blood puppet" that was very similar to himself in both height and outline.

Afterwards, Roger used "Fate's Gift" to bestow the fate of being "Roger Abraham" upon this flesh-and-blood puppet, and then controlled it to move forward once again, toward the mountain wall that had returned to normal.

When the "flesh and blood puppet" in Roger's likeness touched the mountain wall, the mountain wall once again turned into mercury.

The mercury immediately engulfed the "flesh puppet's" wrist and spread upwards in the same manner as before.

At that very moment, Roger, who was observing from the side, had activated "Secret Insight." Through his mystical connection with the flesh puppet, he keenly discovered that the fate of the "flesh puppet" was rapidly weakening and regressing.

Just like going from an adult to a teenager, and from a teenager to a child, a branch from the past in the long river of fate is separated and displayed separately, while other identities are quickly shielded and disappeared.

Roger had a sudden inspiration. With the help of the "Original Motion Core", he removed the fate attached to the "Flesh and Blood Puppet".

The next second, the mercury-transformed mountain wall's devouring of the "flesh and blood puppet" came to a standstill, and even the devouring process began to regress.

It seemed to be puzzled by the humanoid creature in front of it. After a moment, the mercury wall began to writhe again, trying to devour the "flesh puppet".

However, this time, the devouring process did not occur as usual. The "flesh puppet" actually tore apart and exploded, turning into a rain of blood and flesh.

"Yes, I'm basically certain of my thoughts now."

Roger confirmed two things through the experiment he just conducted.

First, this mercury wall should indeed be the power of the "Mercury Serpent." Its mechanism is to divide and sever the intruder's fate, and then cause his identity to regress, thereby temporarily shielding some of the extraordinary abilities that the intruder acquired later in his life.

The principle behind its ability to disable the "Rose Bishop's" self-destruction ability also stems from this.

Secondly, this mercury wall can be deceived by "fate," as can also be seen from experiments.

When the "flesh puppet" with the identity of "Roger Abraham" came into contact with the mountain wall, it was clearly undergoing a similar process of devouring as before. However, when Roger used the power of the "Primal Core" to remove the false identity he had woven for the "flesh puppet," the mercury wall seemed to immediately fall into a judgment obstacle.

That is to say, its original fate was forcibly altered, its devouring process was halted, and it was forced to start devouring from scratch.

However, in reality, the "flesh puppet" has no destiny of its own, just like a blank sheet of paper. Therefore, the result of this devouring can only lead to its self-destruction—that is, the direct end of its destiny.

There were no other results.

After figuring out these details, Roger told Alexis and Leomaster about his findings. Instead of rushing to continue, the three of them sat down on the ground and began to discuss it.

To be honest, Roger wasn't afraid of the so-called devouring process. If that mercury wall really swallowed him, a cryptic garbage can with Outer God essence, and sent him into the Chaos Sea, Urolius would be the first to panic.

Not to mention, in his view, if he forced his way in, he could probably find the right exit by using the mystical connection between the "Primal Core" and the "Chaotic Sea".

However, he had to consider bringing Alexis, a Sequence 3 Saint who was extremely familiar with the history of the Forsaken Land and the Fog City, into the area; otherwise, it would be very difficult to manage on his own.

Let's analyze this matter carefully.

After thinking for a moment, Leomaster asked again:
"Could I confirm which path the 'Angel of Time' is the King of Angels?"

"This……"

After Roger thought it over and confirmed that there was no risk, he then spoke:
"The 'thief' route."

"Hmm, it seems my guess was right."

Leomaster nodded:
"Although I have never fought against a demigod of the 'Thief' pathway, I have discussed this pathway with Vinera in private."

“She said that the ‘stealing’ of authority through the ‘thief’ route is essentially the exploitation of loopholes in the rules. At the time, I didn’t quite understand it, but now I understand it much better.”

"Oh? How do you say this?"

Hearing this, Alexis, who was standing next to her, asked with some curiosity.

"This is easy to understand."

Leomaster shook his head, looking at Alexis's young and middle-aged heads:
"Let me ask you a question first: In your opinion, do you three all have the same mindset?"

"Of course they are different."

Alexis's young head spoke in a childish tone, containing a hint of dissatisfaction:

"I am me, and they are them."

"Although we look very similar, we still have different consciousness."

"Yes, you are right."

Leomaster nodded, then looked at the middle-aged woman:
"What do you think?"

“I share the same view… because we are of different ages, so our ways of thinking are completely different.”

The middle-aged woman looked at the elderly Alexis:
"For example, sometimes she feels that my thinking isn't mature enough, but the same opinion also applies to me when I'm looking at this young girl. "Regardless, from our own perspectives, we all believe we're right in the moment, so from that point of view, the three of us should be considered different individuals, possessing individual consciousness independent of each other."

"You're right."

Leomaster clapped his hands, then asked another question:
"Okay, next question: what are your names?"
“Alexis”.

The little girl answered, somewhat bewildered:

"What's wrong? Is there any problem?"

What are your names?

Leomaster then looked at the two heads, one middle-aged and one elderly, and asked.

"Also known as Alexis."

The other two heads opened their mouths simultaneously.

"Yes."

Leomaster nodded:
"Don't you find it strange? Since the three of you have independent thoughts, why don't you have independent names?"

"This……"

Leomaster was momentarily stumped by the question about the three heads, but the elderly Alexis quickly realized what was going on:

"You mean, we subconsciously believe that our fates are intertwined?"

"Yes, that's the key."

Leomaster nodded and smiled:
"Although your conscious minds are separate, your subconscious minds are consistent."

"Because of this subconscious existence, you subconsciously regard each other as a community of shared destiny, or as the manifestation of three age stages of the same person."

"It seems to be true."

The three heads looked at each other for a while before speaking in unison.

"Yes, in fact, I had considered the matter of advancing to the 'Tri-Headed Sanctuary' before, including how to split my personality from one into three."

"The simplest solution I can think of is to separate my childhood, youth, and adulthood selves, because I am very familiar with these three age groups and they each have their own cognitive foundations."

“I suspect that you, Lady Alexis, did the same thing.”

After hearing Leomaster's words, Alexis nodded:
"To be honest, these things happened so long ago that I don't remember them very well anymore."

"If it's really as you say, what implications does it have for our current situation?"

“I think I understand what Lord Leomaster means.”

Roger paused for a moment, then spoke:

"In fact, everyone has many selves, but they can be roughly divided into three."

"The first is the self in childhood, which is the self that is least polluted by the outside world, the purest, and the most authentic. This is the starting point of our self-awareness and the cornerstone of everything."

“From a fortune-telling perspective, the self at this stage has not yet entered the true cycle of destiny, but is more like an entity subordinate to one’s parents.”

After saying that, he made a "2" gesture with his hands:

"The second identity is the self in the middle of childhood to the present. At this stage, people have better energy than they do now, and almost all of them have some beautiful attachments and unfulfilled regrets. This is also a solid anchor point for the self."

"The third is the present self, which is the most solid foundation of the self and also represents an infinite future."

"So it can be said that these three selves roughly constitute a person's complete destiny. From a mystical perspective, these three are a trinity—this image is often used in theories related to psychological alchemy to describe the surface consciousness that emerges outward. The corresponding fourth pole, like the end of a cross that is buried in the soil, corresponds to various forgotten selves, shadows suppressed by morality and aesthetics, and various unconscious elements."

The metaphor of the cross is easy for believers of the "True Creator" to understand, because in the Aurora Society's scriptures, the image of the "inverted cross" symbolizes that the shadows and sins that were originally despised by the world and opposed to morality are borne and manifested by the "True Creator" and become a symbol of "perfect good".

This can also be seen from the external manifestation of the "Three-Headed Sanctuary". Because the surface consciousness is divided into three parts, the body below becomes the shadow itself. Therefore, extraordinary individuals who follow the "Mystic" path are also good at manipulating their own bodies, using various flesh magic, and using their own bodies as containers to contain and "suppress" various foreign souls that can be seen as "shadow" personalities.

After all, "enslavement" and "oppression" are synonyms in a symbolic sense.

"But in any case, no matter which consciousness it is, it is actually a part of the complete self. This combination of 3+1 is called 'self' in psychological alchemy, which is the most perfect state of a person, the sanctified mind, and the level where my Lord resides."

"Therefore, we should not view these identities separately, especially in terms of the consistency of fate... But it is clear that the 'Angel of Time' has the power to conceptually separate these selves and combine them with the 'Angel of Fate.' This restriction can weaken the fate of the other selves and instead infinitely amplify the fate of a certain self from the past at a specific point in time, thereby weakening the intruders or even causing them to lose control and die suddenly."

"Yes, that's exactly it."

Leomaster nodded, and then he said:
“Roger, you are indeed a devout believer of my Lord, having studied the scriptures so thoroughly.”

"You flatter me. This is all from the revelation of my Lord."

After the three of them simultaneously praised the "true creator," Alexis asked:

"So, how do we get in safely?"

"It's very simple."

Roger smiled and said:
"We can simply change our own destiny... or rather, we can simply change it in a mystical sense."

"I have an ability to forcibly distort my own destiny for a period of time, including the ability to combine the various parts of my own destiny together, so as to offset the weakening of this mercury barrier."

"But as I said before, this is just a way for us outsiders to break through the outer restrictions. To truly enter the 'Underground Midnight City,' we still need to meet the conditions we mentioned earlier."

Roger had a clear idea: the reason why the people of the "Underground Midnight City" were able to enter and exit this wall was most likely due to some design by Ouroles that allowed them to have an inherent consistency of fate under certain conditions, that is, to compress linear fate into a point, so that they could enter and exit freely.

Of course, another possibility is that they might allow the "Mercury Wall" to suppress their extraordinary abilities based on some special characteristic of themselves, so as not to get out of control.

Once they pass the test of the defensive restrictions and successfully enter the "Underground Midnight City," their supernatural abilities will naturally and slowly recover.

Those outsiders who are lucky enough to get through this wall but do not have the "qualifications" will most likely be drawn into another closed loop and exiled to their deaths.

We'll have to wait until Roger goes in to determine which situation it is.

"Lady Alexis, please follow me."

Roger helped Alexis up, and then the two walked together toward the wall.

“I will try to get into this wall again. If I wink at you, please cut off my arm once more.”

Although Roger believed he had analyzed the problem almost perfectly, he still wanted to consider both possibilities just to be on the safe side.

"Do not worry."

Alexis nodded slightly, then watched as Roger took a deep breath and walked towards the stone wall.

In this process, he used "fate" to alter his current destiny, but the degree of alteration was very low, and almost nothing new was added. He simply temporarily mixed his past and present destinies together.

During this process, Roger still took a look at whether his fate included the period before he transmigrated, but he was still disappointed to find that he only had the fate of the past year, and if he went further back, the only thing that could be mixed in was the original owner's fate.

To prevent any further mishaps, Roger joined in on this fateful encounter. Sure enough, this time when he touched the mountain wall, his hand passed right through it, and the mercury-like substance from before did not appear.

Roger and Alexis exchanged a glance, then he extended his hand and let out a long breath.

"It looks like it was a success."

The two exchanged a smile, and then Roger waved to Leomaster, who was not far away, and made a "done" gesture.

Leomaster breathed a sigh of relief, and then he watched as Roger once again used his strange Fate Domain ability to cover Alexis and himself.

Afterwards, Roger gave Leomaster a final reminder of the precautions, subtly mentioning that he should never pray or "listen" there, as there was a possibility of danger.

Only after confirming that Leomaster had accepted and understood everything did he and Alexis walk one after the other toward the mountain wall.

Just as his body disappeared into the mountain wall, Roger vaguely saw a large expanse of silver light shimmering with inexplicable colorful radiance, and Roger himself seemed to have entered the seabed.

This seemed to be some kind of "qualification verification." Roger subconsciously glanced back at Alexis and found that the elder of "New Fog City" had an equally interesting expression, as if she had also seen these things.

As the pressure from the water gradually dissipated and the colorful light faded, Roger finally saw a passageway lit by candlelight.

However, as soon as Roger landed, he and Alexis both sensed something was wrong.

"Demon Slayer" was unleashed in an instant, and Alexis transformed into a dark shadow.

The next second, beams of light, flames, flying fragments of flesh and blood, and countless sharp melee weapons arrived in front of Roger.

A ray of dawn shone, and all those attacks were blocked.

As for the attacks that flew towards Alexis, they were all swallowed up by the shadow. After a while, Alexis emerged from the shadow with a normal expression and without any injury.

"It seems the 'Underground Midnight City' isn't very welcoming to us."

Roger smiled slightly. He had long anticipated this situation. For thousands of years, the residents of the "Underground Midnight City," who had been in a constant standoff with the demigod-level puppets of the "Celestial Venerable," must have been in a state of high tension. If the two of them had rashly barged in, they would definitely have been besieged.

"Lady Alexis, please wait a moment, I'll be right back."

Roger turned around, gave a word of instruction, and then flashed into the deep passage.

Sure enough, Roger soon saw five extraordinary beings looking at him with horror as he sped towards him, and they launched another attack.

With the power "given by fate," Roger managed to dodge all the attacks by sheer luck, and in that short time, he finally landed in the crowd.

He stretched his two hands out to the sides, and at the same time, three more arms appeared on his body.

The moment these arms touched those extraordinary beings, they all collapsed to the ground.

Within a mere two seconds, they all heard some strange music in their minds, and before they could react, the music had already flashed by!

Roger caught these extraordinary individuals in time and laid them flat on the ground to prevent them from falling and getting injured.

Only then did Roger finally have the opportunity to take a closer look at these extraordinary individuals from the "Underground Midnight City".

Unlike the "New Fog City," these extraordinary individuals have almost no skin diseases or deformities and appear completely intact and normal.

On the other hand, these people also have a strange bronze color in their skin—not the kind of skin tone caused by genes, but rather the color of someone who is often bathed in sunlight.

This was very unusual, because almost all the residents of "New Fog City" that Roger had seen seemed to have a strange, pale complexion due to prolonged lack of sunlight. Even those whose skin was originally darker looked much paler than people with similar skin tones in the Northern Continent.

Furthermore, considering that about half of the attacks Roger had previously suffered were attacks using the "Sun" pathway, he became even more convinced that "Midnight City" was a human survivor city-state that excelled at and specialized in cultivating "Sun" pathway extraordinary individuals.

However, just as he finished settling the last extraordinary individual and turned around to greet Alexis, he saw the woman speak from all three of her faces at the same time.

"careful!"

Roger felt a strong spiritual warning and instinctively drew out the fully unleashed "Demon Slayer" and placed it behind his back!
With a loud "bang," a light as bright as day, carrying extreme heat, struck the dawn's rays heavily!

(End of this chapter)