Chapter 963: Chapter 740: Nidhogg
"Boom!"
With a tremendous explosion, Reiger descended from the collapsing ceiling, engulfed in flames, accompanied by a shower of debris, landing in the stone passageway of a deeper floor.
Compared to the maze passages of the previous floors, there wasn’t a significant difference here, except for the increasingly dense air, indicating to Reiger that he was indeed delving deeper into this artificial maze.
"Huh?"
As Reiger prepared to smash the floor to proceed to the next level, he realized the situation around him had changed.
In the previous floors, Reiger was always blocked by the toughest metal doors wherever he went, followed by walls, floors, and ceilings cracking open, releasing countless monsters like the underground city.
But this time, Reiger noticed the monsters no longer poured out, the toughest metal doors no longer dropped, and the passageway ahead was wide open, unobstructed, with a faint divine presence wafting through, making anyone shiver instinctively, drawn to some honored presence(s) ahead.
Sensing this, Reiger stopped his actions and squinted his eyes.
"...Are they inviting me over?"
He understood the essence of this phenomenon and had a general idea of who was waiting ahead.
"Interesting."
So, Reiger didn’t continue moving down but instead put away his knife, placing the Hermit back into the storage space of the dimensional cube, and with the Fool tied at his waist, headed towards the direction from which the divine presence emanated.
As he walked, at some point, the structure ahead in the passage changed.
What appeared before Reiger’s eyes was no longer the monotonous stone passage but vast corridors unlike any in the underground maze.
Here, there was neither sunlight nor moonlight, only dim blue magic stone lamps illuminating the surroundings, creating a tranquil atmosphere.
Following this tranquil and spacious corridor, Reiger soon entered an even more expansive hall.
This was a hall supported by several long orderly columns, sustaining the entire space.
Seeing this hall, anyone would immediately think of two words.
One is temple.
One is ruins.
Although there were no statues, the walls were adorned with a series of murals, some painted on crimson stone slabs, others carved onto cracked and faded rock walls, seemingly not originally here but transferred from elsewhere.
Reiger glanced at the content of those murals.
Some depicted dragons, some painted monstrous birds, along with wild bulls, fierce beasts, lizards, giants, or indistinguishable creatures — all clearly numerous monsters from the underground city.
These monsters were roaring, howling, raging, rioting, relentlessly chasing after humans who screamed and wailed.
It’s undoubtedly the disastrous scenes humans in this world have faced countless times, reflecting humanity’s past, present, and even possible future plagued by monsters from the underground.
The murals displayed here were mostly depicting such scenes.
Except for one mural with different content.
Reiger’s gaze was instantly drawn to that mural.
In that mural, a terrifyingly large dragon stood in the center.
Around the dragon, six maidens in sacred attire surrounded it, forming a hexagram-like setup.
All the sacred maidens had their eyes closed, their hands clasped together, as if in prayer or song.
This is...
"[Immortal Spirit Six Circles]..."
As this term slipped from Reiger’s lips, a surprised voice suddenly echoed.
"You actually know the [Immortal Spirit Six Circles]?"
Upon hearing this voice, Reiger’s attention shifted from the mural to the direction of the voice.
Three figures had appeared there at some point, neatly aligned, standing at the deepest part of these temple ruins.
A faint divine presence emanated from these three individuals, informing Reiger that those who invited him here... no, should be said to be gods, were right before him.
Reiger also recognized the identities of these three gods.
Or rather, he had already guessed.
Standing on the left was the war goddess from the nation of combat — Kali.
Standing on the right was the mistress of Fengyue Street, akin to Frey, the Beauty God — Ishtar.
And in the middle was the main god of the dark faction remnants — Thanatos.
Regardless of the first two, the last one’s identity was one of the primary targets of Loki’s clan’s current mission.
He was the last surviving god of those termed "Evil Gods" from the dark faction by the world.
He led the remaining dark faction remnants, sheltering those who once belonged to the dark faction, including Valleta, and recruited countless members willing to become Death Soldiers, allowing the dark faction on the brink five years ago to persist.
He also led the dark faction remnants into the Polluted Immortal Spirit’s camp, accepted the invitation from the city destroyer (Enyo), and colluded with them, intending to use the avatars of the Immortal Spirit to wreak havoc on Orario.
The leader of one of the three organizations comprising the underground factions is none other than the god before us, like a condensation of darkness.
This means that the Loki Familia, if they want to protect Orario and eliminate members of the underground factions, must deal with this god before us.
Facing this Evil God, who may have allied with the Istar Clan and the Kali Clan, using this artificial maze Knossos against the Loki Familia and us, Reiger merely squinted his eyes, but his expression remained particularly calm.
"As expected, it’s the Immortal Spirit Six Circles."
Reiger, as if casually chatting, turned his head and looked again at the mural, or rather at the giant dragon depicted on the mural, and said thus.
"So, this dragon is the legendary Nidhogg, isn’t it?"
Upon hearing this, Thanatos was initially slightly stunned, then chuckled softly.
"You know a lot, Loki’s cherished child."
Thanatos explained to Reiger in a surprisingly calm manner.
"Everyone knows of the Three Great Adventurer Commissions, aware of the existence of the Behemoth, Leviathan, and the Monocular Black Dragon, these three Monster Kings."
"However, before the appearance of the targets of the Three Great Adventurer Commissions, namely the three Monster Kings, there was actually a monster deserving the title of King, bringing unimaginable disaster to the lower world, leaving its children in perpetual terror."
"That king is it, Nidhogg."
Thanatos shrugged his shoulders.
"Unfortunately, it has already been eliminated by the six fairies, otherwise the Monocular Black Dragon might have had to compete with it for the title King of Dragons."
It is a story from an extremely distant era.
The age of Nidhogg existed far before the ancient thousand years ago, surpassing the history of today’s three Monster Kings.
Therefore, few in the world know of Nidhogg’s existence, nor are there many records left.
Of course, the gods certainly know, after all, their existence spans billions of years, for them the era of Nidhogg might just feel like a recent occurrence.
"I’m quite curious that you know about this." Thanatos looked at Reiger meaningfully and said, "You know, even for us, if someone hadn’t intentionally mentioned it, we might have already forgotten about that time. These murals were brought here by Ye’en under Ernio’s command; He seems to have a particular fondness for this past affair."
Clearly, this was a probe.
As a god, Thanatos understands well that the true probe is not about conveying nothing and expecting to gain more information, that’s merely an illusion.
It’s only by first disclosing some information from one’s own side, limitedly guiding the opponent, that more detailed information can be obtained, that is the true probe.
Thus, Thanatos chooses to reveal information about the city destroyer (Ernio) which is most likely to intrigue the Loki Familia, ensuring no loss to himself, while also serving as a probe.
Especially when the target is a human, this probing method can be extremely effective.
Because humans cannot lie in front of gods, this is quite a favorable advantage for the gods.
In fact, within the underground factions, information related to Ernio is indeed the most crucial.
He is the initiator of everything.
It was He who discovered the Polluted Immortal Spirit, offering his own followers as sacrifices, turning them into aberrations, thereby connecting with the Polluted Immortal Spirit and obtaining its assistance.
It was He who found Thanatos, linked up with the remnants of the dark faction, formulating the destruction plan for Orario.
One could say, the reason the three organizations of the underground factions ended up colluding was entirely because of this city destroyer.
Thanatos believes that as long as he mentions the mastermind, the Loki Familia will be ensnared.
This thought isn’t wrong to say.
It’s just unfortunate that...
"There’s no need to probe me this way, Thanatos God." Reiger said calmly, "I know more about Ernio than you imagine, even more than you yourself, using His matter to probe me won’t work."
Upon hearing this, Thanatos’ expression slightly stiffened.
In response, Reiger gave a somewhat mocking smile and said.
"You don’t actually know much about Ernio, did I say anything incorrect?"
Indeed, Thanatos knows little about Ernio.
He hasn’t even met Ernio, not knowing whether He is a god or a man.
He’s only seen Ye’en, seen the masked monster loyal to Ernio, all of Ernio’s will and thoughts are conveyed to him through that monster.
"I must say, you are quite pitiable, Thanatos."
Reiger frankly voiced this sentiment.
"Among your faction, only you, the main god of the remnants of the dark faction, operate openly on the surface, while the other two parties haven’t shown themselves."
"The true form of the Polluted Immortal Spirit is still unknown within the underground city, only her clones and tentacles appear outside."
"Ernio too hasn’t shown himself yet, only His spokesperson has."
"Only you have been personally handling various matters all this time."
"Don’t you feel that such a self is very much like being their tool?"