"I am Krismona, one of the administrators of this Underground Catacombs," the black-haired woman bowed slightly and introduced herself gracefully. Her body under the loose white robe without any decoration made Christina and Dorothy feel a little hot inexplicably. "I am responsible for guarding the entrance to the fourth floor. Unless necessary, no one will be allowed to enter."
"But those tourists and Mr. Pierre just now have all been to the fourth floor, but he never mentioned you."
Dorothy said with confusion and frowned slightly, his eyes staying on the spot where the student Trier University suddenly disappeared.
"Because the fourth level of the tomb that most tourists enter is essentially 'Mirror World' that replicates everything in reality. They step into it, explore, and then leave with satisfaction, but they never really reach the next level from beginning to end."
Mirror World... This Ms. Krismona is also a high-ranking Demoness, just like Ms. "Chariot" we met before? Tina immediately thought of the overall dark and gloomy space, with only strips of gray Mirror Tunnel connecting different mirrors, unable to connect it with Underground Catacombs, which "replicates reality" and is difficult to distinguish true from false.
But according to this Demoness, she and Dorothy had already entered Mirror World at this time!
It is indeed not much different from reality. If she hadn't taken the initiative to tell me, I wouldn't even be able to feel the difference... Tina looked around, and in the circular area drawn by the dim light of the candle, he could only see the huge "Night Pillars" that penetrated the floor and ceiling. I realized that I couldn't tell the difference between Mirror World and Physical World.
By the way, this is "Krismona Night Pillar", and the Demoness in front of him calls himself Krismona. Just now Genie said that the stone pillar was formed after the death of Sequence 2's "Catastrophe" Demoness. Could it be that she, no, he is actually now...
Thinking of this, Tina's face turned pale. The fascination with Krismona's appearance and temperament was instantly diluted by cold fear, and he couldn't help but shudder.
"Are you, you are already dead? I mean, you have fallen..."
She asked stammering, her hand holding the candle trembling.
If the tombs and skeletons all over the wall before, as well as the college students dancing and singing around the corpses, only made Tina feel novel and interesting, this "corpse" behind her, Spirit Body but Demoness claiming to be the tomb administrator, really scared her.
In her fearful eyes, Krismona nodded slightly and replied in a brisk tone:
"To be precise, I died here, but I was resurrected with the help of Goddess of Calamity."
Resurrection... Can God do this? Then why do their believers still die? Does this kind of resurrection require harsh conditions? Tina immediately thought of the skeletons buried deep underground all around. It is said that there are more than one million dead buried in the entire Underground Catacombs. If the God they believe in can resurrect believers, why bother lying here?
As if he guessed what she was thinking, Krismona continued to explain:
"Of course, there are many prerequisites for this kind of resurrection, such as the integrity of Spirit Body, such as having strong power during his lifetime... Basically, except for some special circumstances, only the dead of Angel or higher have hope of resurrection."
So you are a Angel from Demoness Pathway...Tina concluded in his heart. His fear of Krismona gradually dissipated, and he was attracted by his face that seemed to be a mixture of all ages, which could make the opposite sex and even the same sex have the desire to get close. He couldn't help but take a few steps closer to him.
At this moment, Demoness, whose black hair was mixed with a little light blonde, restrained her charm and said in a more serious tone than before:
"As Guardian on the fourth level of the tomb, I need to ask three questions to everyone who wants to enter it. If your answers satisfy me, you can truly enter it and not get lost in the illusion of Mirror World."
"What is this? A quiz game invented by Emperor Roselle?"
As a student of Post-Rosell Era, Tina instinctively attributes everything she doesn't understand to "invented by Roselle", just like her parents often tease this great emperor.
"Of course not!" Krismona shook his head and denied, "In my time, Roselle was not even born."
Then you are at least two or three hundred years old... By the way, Genie just said that the "Night Pillars" that makes up the seal is the product of Fourth Epoch. This Demoness Angel is already over a thousand years old? Tina carefully calculated in his mind, and nodded after a moment, indicating that the other party could ask questions.
At worst, ask Genie secretly... As soon as she had this idea, Krismona added a rule:
"Only the two of you are allowed to answer. You cannot ask for help from other people or things, including Sealed Artifact."
Dorothy's arm that had just reached into his pocket froze, and Tina also subconsciously covered his satchel. The two of them looked at each other guiltily, and both showed awkward smiles.
Only then did they realize that every Demoness was a master of divination, including the most basic and practical method of "Mirror Divination". Naturally, the special nature of Arrodes could not be concealed from the other party.
Seeing that they no longer made any small moves, Krismona nodded with satisfaction and asked:
"The first question is, which one is more important, humanity or divinity?"
Humanity and... divinity?
Tina opened her mouth, not knowing how to answer for a moment. She originally thought that Krismona would ask some occult questions, or questions that were difficult for most people to understand in the fields of mathematics and history. The former she had just been educated by "Genie" and could answer one or two, and the latter could be left to Dorothy.
But I didn't expect that the first question would be such a difficult question that seemed to have no correct answer.
Only then did she realize that what Krismona wanted was not the "correct answer", but an answer that satisfied Him.
Before Ghost Ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" Ms. Anne introduced me to the difference between human nature and divinity. She mentioned that existences like Genie are only driven by divinity., there is no concept of good and evil in human nature. On the other hand, the Gods who protect this planet all have abundant humanity, and they need to try their best to maintain it to avoid being overwhelmed by divinity... She racked her brains to recall everything she experienced today, trying to find the answer.
As a human being, of course it is more important for me to choose humanity... But will this answer lead to a trap? After all, the person in front of him is Angel, the complete Mythical Creature. Is divinity more important to him... Thoughts popped up in his mind. Tina opened and closed his mouth, hesitating and unable to answer.
"It seems that you are stuck in a difficult choice?" Krismona did not urge me, but said in a soft tone, "You can listen to my experience and then make your own choice."
Tina, who was worried about how to choose one of the two, immediately nodded and acted like he was all ears.
"I am born Mythical Creature, born from the union and birth of two real God. I was born with a copy of Sequence 2's Beyonder Characteristic, and you should be able to guess that it is 'Catastrophe'."
This Demoness said melancholy.
Born Sequence 2 Angel... Tina and Dorothy looked at each other and saw surprise in each other's eyes.
And compared to Tina, who just got "Magic Wishing Lamp" today and really came into contact with the world of mysticism, Dorothy has to understand the relevant knowledge earlier, so it is more clear about the rules of inheritance of Beyonder Characteristic. High-ranking Beyonder is unwilling to expel characteristics, their descendants will not be born with the corresponding Pathway power, and even if they reach Sequence 0 and become True God, this law will not change in any way.
One of Krismona's parents is willing to hand over a copy of Sequence 2's Beyonder Characteristic to Him, which in itself represents a kind of help and a gift.
"You think it's a gift, Luck, right?" Krismona smiled, his expression no longer as beautiful as before, but a little sad, "This kind of natural extraordinaryness may not be a good thing."
"The third child of the most famous Emperor Roselle in this country was born with the same inheritance as Sequence 5 The characteristics of Beyonder showed all the peculiarities of 'Astrologer' when he was born. After adulthood, he was easily promoted to Saint and became the favorite of God of Steam. This may be a great achievement to outsiders, but the price is that he is born with insufficient humanity and insufficient emotions, as if he believes in the pure Holy Spirit instead of human beings.
"Sequence 5 will be like this. You can imagine what it would be like to be born with the personality and power of Angel.
"Looking back now, I would rather call it a curse than a blessing."
The power of Sequence 2, this should be what every Beyonder dreams of, right? "Fire Flame" Danitz was even willing to become Denise in order to have the power of Saint... Tina found it difficult to accept the term "curse", but she soon realized that along the way, she The Saint and Angel I encountered were full of humanity, and this was created by their life experiences before becoming the high-ranking Beyonder. They were memories and "anchors" that would not be easily discarded even if they had divinity.
With the help of this memory, Angels can balance humanity and divinity, so as not to become pure Mythical Creatures, driven by divinity and abandoning their original concepts of good and evil, humanity and emotions.
And if you are born with the power of Sequence 2... Thinking of this, Tina looked at "Catastrophe" Demoness in front of him.
The latter sighed softly and smiled bitterly, showing his extraordinary humanity, and then continued:
"My parents, 'Blood Emperor' and 'Primordial Demoness', died in the war between Fourth Epoch and God. The other became more unreasonable and killed me with his own hands after that... I don't blame Him, because my lack of humanity is partly responsible for this result. I failed to notice their changes in time, did not talk to them properly, and discouraged them...
"Now, do you still think divinity, or innate divinity, is a good thing?"
Blood Emperor and Primordial Demoness? They are all God that I have never heard of, but the name behind it makes people scared. Maybe it is an evil god. No wonder he would kill his daughter... Tina cursed, and then realized that this was disrespectful to God. He quickly shook his head and replied:
"No, I think humanity should be more important."
On the one hand, this is what she really thought after listening to Krismona's story. On the other hand, the other party was so instigative and prompted the answer, and she even answered "divine", which might anger Angel.
But after hearing this answer, Krismona did not make any comments, but let his expression return to calmness and continued to ask:
"The second question is, for a God, or further 'Great Existence', what is the most important tie and 'anchor'?"
How do I know this... Can an ordinary person like me guess about God? Tina subconsciously wanted to say he didn't know, but he felt that based on the situation of the previous question, Krismona would not randomly ask a question that was difficult for him to answer, so he suppressed the words he was about to blurt out and prepared to wait for the other party to prompt him before answering.
Soon, she noticed the hidden information in Demoness's question.
Doesn't Great Existence refer to God? Is there any further meaning?
Arianna of Church of the Eternal Darkness mentioned this title before. Evernight Goddess, Goddess of Calamity, Fool and other God all belong to this range. This makes Tina naturally think that God etc. Same as the great existence, the latter is just a more respectful name, but according to "Genie", Great Existence does not seem to belong to the God that has gone the farthest on Paths of the Divine and reached the end, that is, the Sequence 0 of each Pathway...
As if she had a tacit understanding, Dorothy beside her immediately raised this question:
"What does Great Existence mean? Isn't this the honorific title of Sequence 0's God?"
It seemed that there was nothing wrong with talking about God and profound occult knowledge with two girls of thirteen or fourteen years old. Krismona replied with a smile:
"You should understand that in Potion Sequence 0 in Pathway has come to an end, but there is another level above this, which we call Great Existence. Of course, ordinary people have no problem treating them as God, but the real high-level Beyonder must know how to distinguish between the two, because by Above the Sequence, Beyonder Ability of Potion will be replaced by the power of authority and symbol. They are the concepts and symbols themselves, the source of all power and the existence of all authority."
"Great Existence of Above the Sequence..." Dorothy murmured and repeated the other party's words, suddenly raised his head and asked in an eager tone, "So, are these Great Existence considered 'Beyonder'? Or, are they within the system of Potion?"
Stupid sister, you asked too many questions. It was clearly He who came to test us, not the other way around...Tina cursed, but immediately understood the purpose of Dorothy's question. His expression froze and he looked at Krismona, looking forward to His answer.
"Of course it doesn't belong to Beyonder."
This Demoness Angel slowly shook his head and replied.
"This involves some knowledge that you don't understand yet, but to put it simply, the Great Existences that appear in Oldest One are all born, which is equivalent to inheriting part of the power and authority of Creator, not Potion built them, but their power built Potion. The power from Sequence 9 to Sequence 0 is actually the embodiment and degradation of a certain authority of these born Great Existence.
"And these Great Existence that protect the earth now are all formed the day after tomorrow. As Beyonder, they walked through Paths of the Divine step by step and finally became Above the Sequence, but it does not mean that they are still part of it now."
It seemed that in order to hide some key information, Krismona's explanation was a bit awkward and obscure, but Dorothy obviously understood it. Her eyes lit up, as if an important doubt in her heart had been answered.
You can ask her later... Tina glanced at his sister and knew that the "occult science class" was over and it was his turn to answer the question.
Of course, after knowing that "Great Existence" was also developed step by step by ordinary people, she also had her own answer to Krismona's second question.
But before she could speak, Dorothy beside her raised her right hand as if answering a question in class:
"I think for these Great Existence, the most important tie is the profound memory, and the most important anchor... is the family and friends of the past and present."
Did she already know something... Tina was startled, swallowed the answer he was about to blurt out again, and looked at Krismona.
The latter showed a smile that would make any creature intoxicated, and said:
"If I had this understanding earlier, maybe many things could be changed."
He moved his gaze to look at the "Night Pillars" formed by his own remains, as if he could see the past from inside the smooth obsidian pillar, and see the deepest memory in his heart.
After a moment, Demoness withdrew his gaze and asked the last question:
"Do you think that a complete Mythical Creature can regain his humanity due to acquired experiences?"