These ever-shifting, twisted monsters owed their very existence to the Blood Path ritual. It was precisely because Digla had performed this ritual that he had summoned the will of the Crimson Queen, and the power contained within that will had created these monsters.
These monsters might have been ignorant and mindless, but their instinct for survival had made them understand from the very beginning why they had appeared and what their continued existence depended on. That was why they had to protect Digla, so that he could completely summon the Crimson Queen's power into this world. Only then could they truly continue to exist!
Rather than remain as they were now—mere temporary workers who would return to nothingness the moment the Crimson Queen withdrew her attention.
Before the ritual began, Digla himself had not known any of this. After all, ever since the ritual had been invented, no one had ever used it. No one knew whether it would succeed, much less what would happen if it did.
Everything Digla understood now had only become known to him after the ritual began and the Crimson Queen's gaze fell upon him. Being noticed by the Crimson Queen was not a pleasant experience. Though the Crimson Queen harbored no malice, that wisp of its will had remained utterly indifferent. When facing Digla, it showed no excess emotion whatsoever, only the faintest trace of curiosity.
Yet that tiny trace of curiosity made Digla feel as though every experience and feeling he had ever had, from birth until now, had been laid bare for all to see. Under that gaze, he had not the slightest privacy. Everything about him was plainly displayed before the Crimson Queen's will, free for it to peruse.
At the same time, waves of obscure knowledge and scattered fragments of