Don't disturb the sorcerer's scientific research

Chapter 189 The Demon Race is a Plague Across Dimensions

After realizing that the civilization of this dimension was destroyed by the invasion of the demon race, the interdimensional adventure team fell into a somewhat oppressive atmosphere.

This is undoubtedly bad news.

After all, the demon race is something they are quite familiar with, and it's currently baring its teeth at various countries in the north.

All of the people present had seen real demons before. Except for Mia and Ram, the rest had all fought directly against demons.

Their view of the demon race, or rather the general societal view of the demon race, has always been that while they are powerful, they are not so powerful as to be hopeless.

The various races have already achieved the "victory" of trapping the demons in the northern wasteland. Although there is no way to completely defeat them yet, the demons are progressing faster than the other races. One day, the races will achieve a complete victory, driving the devils back to hell and the demons back to the abyss, so that they can never come out again.

Some people have even fantasized about going to hell and destroying the devil's homeland.

In general, most people are optimistic, or even extremely optimistic, about the threat posed by the demons; almost no one believes that the demons will successfully rule the world.

Now, two harsh realities are before us.

First of all, it's too early to be optimistic. The true strength of the demon race should be far more than what the northern wasteland has shown. At least it can be confirmed that there are still many types of demon individuals that they have not seen.

Secondly, the demon race's goal is probably not to rule the world, but something worse. Judging from the fate of the elemental tentacles, they seek destruction, not domination.

This means that if the demons win the final victory, none of the other races will even be able to become slaves of the demons.

This is too bizarre. The invasion was solely for destruction, without any other purpose.

It is completely incomprehensible from a human perspective.

There is no war without an ulterior motive; it is solely for the purpose of war itself.

Even orcs aren't this warlike.

Perhaps, in a sense, the demons are also "tools," driven by something to invade one plane after another.

“Is it possible,” Ram broke the silence after a moment of gloom, “that these strange tentacles here are far inferior to us?”

Jassi smiled helplessly. "I admire your optimism, Ram."

Then she asked the Radiant Knight, "Justina, as a genuine demigod of the Holy Light pantheon, do you know any inside information that can be shared, such as that the gods in our plane actually know about the situation of the demons, and that they know which planes the demons are currently distributed in, and that they already have a big plan in preparation?"

Justina did not answer Jassiu's series of questions.

Fortunately, she wasn't a goddess who could hide her true feelings on her face.

Judging from her slightly distressed expression, whether or not the higher-level gods of the Holy Light pantheon knew, she certainly didn't.

Moreover, I've begun to doubt just how marginalized I really am within the Holy Light pantheon.

At this moment, Mia also spoke up: "Hey, it's just the demons, what's the big deal? We're all going to die eventually anyway. Maybe by the time the main force of the demons launches a major invasion, I'll already be dead. No matter how much destruction happens, it won't concern me. I might as well think about how to find something more valuable here."

Sometimes, Jash is the most sane of the three in Larvin's group.

Compared to Ram, Mia not only has an optimistic spirit, but also a touch of pessimism, a mix of optimism and pessimism, while also possessing a pragmatic spirit that never forgets to make money.

Gillianice couldn't even bear to look at her great-great-granddaughter.

Shouldn't we be thinking about defeating the demons?

Bubu blinked and asked.

“You don’t understand Bubu. If the difficulties are too great, sometimes giving up is a way to deal with them.”

Mia earnestly shared her secrets to a peaceful mind.

At that moment, Jia Xiu suddenly felt that something was off, that there was definitely something he should have noticed, but he just couldn't think of it right away.

He stared blankly at the last few images in the mural, recalling the suspicious and strange places he had encountered since arriving in this plane.

Demon invasion, elemental tentacles resist...

"The elemental tentacles intend to resist to the very end!"

"Jia Xiu shouted."

"Boss, can you stop being so dramatic? It's kind of scary. We can see they're trying to fight to the very end. If they don't fight to the very end, how can there be any left?"

“That’s the problem,” Jia Xiu realized what was strange, “the elemental tentacles resisted until not a single survivor was left. Don’t you think that, given the intensity of the war and the extent of the destruction in the city, the damage was a bit low?”

After Jia Xiu said that, Mia looked around.

"It seems...so it is."

The city does indeed appear to have been ravaged by war.

However, there are differences between wars.

Battles fought in city streets and alleys are among the most troublesome types of warfare because it's impossible to predict from which nook or cranny the enemy will emerge.

Not to mention that the devil's goal is to wipe out all of the opponent's manpower.

Such an outcome would require either a large influx of demons into the city for a thorough cleanup, in which case things would not be as they are now, with a small portion of the buildings in the city appearing to be largely undamaged, but rather bearing the marks of battle in every single place.

Either the devil used a massive spell, the kind that could raze a city to the ground in one go, or if it were that kind of spell, there shouldn't be so many buildings left; the city would be a complete ruin.

Or perhaps the devil has found a spell that works against elemental tentacles, only harming the tentacle monsters.

But if that's the case, why was most of the building destroyed?

The elemental tentacles couldn't possibly surrender mid-fight. The content depicted on the murals showed that they knew the demons were there to destroy them, and surrendering would only lead to their deaths.

So what exactly happened?

The massive research value hints provided by the detection technology have yet to materialize.

There must be something even more important waiting to be discovered in this city.

Jia Xiu examined the annotations on every detail of the mural.

"Thanks to Anka Research Institute for providing professional content support."

Finally, in the very corner, he found the list of creators and acknowledgments.

The list immediately caught my eye about the Anka Research Institute.

The familiar name, Anka, is the same name Elizabeth uses for the portal item.

“We need to go to the Anka Research Institute; there should be more important knowledge there.”

"You're in charge, boss. But there's a problem: where is the Anka Research Institute?"

"Um, how about we look around for a map or something? Gillianice, how much oxygen do you have left?"

Jia Xiu needed to estimate the remaining time, since they still needed to return. The teleportation point of the Anka Gate was fixed, and to return to their original plane, they had to go back to the teleportation point.

"Right now, there are probably about 70-80% left."

"Then there should be plenty of time."

Jia Xiu immediately began preparing to deploy the Detection Eye.

Both the continued effectiveness of the low-temperature barrier and the pressure-resistance blessing applied to them indicate that their spell system can still be used normally in this plane.

Jia Xiu summoned a set of detection eyes and set off in different directions, hoping to find something like a map to directly locate the Anka Research Institute.

Otherwise, relying solely on the detection eye to pinpoint the target building would take a very long time, given the vast size of the city; unless one is extremely lucky, it would be impossible.

Wow! Incredibly lucky? "Ram, of the buildings you can see right now, the most likely one is the Anka Research Institute."

Jia Xiu asked directly.

"Boss, what is the Anka Research Institute?"

"It's similar to the research institute of the Spellcasters' Association, a place where people who are focused on cutting-edge scientific research gather."

“Oh, that’s a strange place, but Ram doesn’t know what the research institute should look like.”

"No need to know, just feel, go with the flow."

Jia Xiu didn't know what the research institute should look like either; to him, all the buildings in the city looked pretty much the same.

The same distorted abstraction, the same incomprehensible.

"Okay, I'll try."

As Ram spoke, he shaded his eyes with his hand and looked out into the distance.

A moment later, he pointed to a spire that was slightly taller than the surrounding spires; you wouldn't notice it was taller unless you looked closely.

He said, "I feel it's there."

"Very well, let's make this place then, let's set off."

With limited oxygen, Jia Xiu and his group wasted no time and headed directly toward the tower that Ram had pointed out.

Meanwhile, the surveillance cameras continued their thorough search as a backup plan.

Ten minutes later.

In front of the tower.

Even before entering, Jia Xiu was already basically convinced that this was the Anka Research Institute.

Not only because Ram's strong luck buff has always been very useful, but also because the outer walls of this tower are much more severely damaged compared to other buildings nearby.

It looks like it's leaking air from all sides, yet it stubbornly hasn't collapsed.

This is thanks to the estimated circumference of the base of the tower, which is about 400 to 500 meters. As a tower-like structure, its height is not its biggest feature that distinguishes it from other towers; rather, its thickness is.

The demon soldiers must have considered this place as a key target to "take care of".

The research institute is undoubtedly a very suitable place to be a key target.

Moreover, judging from the outside, the Anka Research Institute probably didn't suffer too much damage internally.

More importantly, thanks to the efforts of the demons, there were several large cracks in the wall.

Its size no longer qualifies it as a crack. Since the entrance to the elemental tentacles' coating is difficult to enter, for Jia Xiu and his group, the crack is now the door.

As the one with the most outstanding strength in the group, Justina was the first to enter the tower, just in case of any unexpected situation, such as the magical bombardment when she was teleported in.

The most effective way to deal with traps is to send someone who is not afraid of them to wade through the area.

The Radiant Knight walked around once, and the rest of the people followed in her footsteps, all the way into the tower.

The environment inside the tower was not quite what Jia Xiu had imagined.

There are no window-like structures visible inside. If it weren't for the fact that the demons had made many openings, it would probably be a closed tower with no other way to enter except through the entrance.

Inside, there were layers of strange protrusions that continuously provided light, and there was no sense of magic. Yet, over the course of countless days, they continued to illuminate the path for new visitors.

But to be honest, Jia Xiu felt a little nervous when he saw these lighting protrusions.

It looked like a mine, with no magical fluctuations, yet it had been lit for so long. Even before I came in, I could see the light coming from the outside.

With these factors combined, it's hard not to associate them with radioactivity.

"Mia, you can take this with you. Try to pry off a piece."

Jia Xiu said.

Since we're already here, and if there's any radioactivity, we might as well pack it up and take it back to study why it's been shining for so long.

The first floor of the tower, the thickest and longest in circumference, has no complicated layout; it is simply a rather spacious hall.

There wasn't a single pillar in the hall. Building something like this without using magic was no easy feat; the elemental tentacles were quite skilled at architecture.

The surrounding walls are covered with portraits, each accompanied by a text description.

The prefixes are all impressive, like "Master of Runeology" or "Master of Elemental Studies".

The introduction ends with a sentence they might say.

Clearly, this was a famous quote from a person from another dimension, and only then did Jia Xiu find a sense of familiarity in the elemental tentacles.

They've become somewhat similar to people.

There are no stairs; you can climb up to the second floor via a ramp. Given the elemental tentacles' physical form, the ramp should be much easier to climb than stairs.

On the second floor, Jia Xiu saw things that were more familiar and dearer to him.

books.

Paper books.

Although the elemental tentacles can split from their parent body, they still choose to record and transmit knowledge through books.

Jia Xiu could understand any piece of good news that contained words.

"Everyone, split up and find books containing the terms 'Anka's Gate' and 'Demon Race,' then give them to me. Mia, you're in charge of this area. Bubu, you're in charge of..."

Jia Xiu took out his pen and paper and wrote down the Anka Gate and the Demon Clan in the elemental tentacle script. He wrote several copies and distributed them to his teammates, also assigning each of them a bookshelf to look for.

Not long after, Bubu found a booklet on the shelf titled "The Final Counterattack Plan - Feasibility of the Anka Gate Project".

Jia Xiu immediately began to examine the contents of the booklet.

The opening is very tragic.

"There is no possibility of victory in the war against the demons. We should use up our last strength to strike the demons."

As expected, the elemental tentacles did not fight the demons head-on to the end, but instead unleashed a massive "deathrattle" or something similar, which consumed their last bit of life force.

The following text explains what exactly the Gate of Anka is.

It does have the function of a portal, but that is only one of its many functions.

Because they were no longer able to produce enough elements, the elemental tentacles chose to sacrifice themselves to provide the energy for the Gate of Anka.

These Anka Gates will be deployed to areas inhabited by demons and will infect them with the viruses they carry.

So the deathrattle of the elemental tentacles is a massive demonic contagion?
Jia Xiu continued reading.

"After being infected by this virus, demons will become extremely bloodthirsty and will have to feed on the blood of their own kind..."

and many more!

So, vampires were originally a method devised by the elemental tentacles to make the demon race kill each other.

How did it end up harming humans?

(End of this chapter)