Chapter 272

Chapter 272

The Nameless One.

The Six Pillar Gods established the dome, isolating the three major evil gods outside it, but left three other evil gods inside: the King of Mushrooms, the Wandering Poet, and the Nameless One.

Leaving the King of Mushrooms inside the dome, Lin could understand its necessity—keeping animals healthy solely on starch and meat is incredibly difficult—but even Lin found it hard to comprehend why the Six Pillar Gods left the Wandering Poet and the Nameless One.

The Wandering Poet’s companion, the Wind Sylph, occasionally attacks the subway, hardly making it completely harmless. The Nameless One, on the other hand, is an unknown deity, but there must be a reason for Him being an evil god.

Just like now, this guy suddenly appeared, dropping a huge bomb without any regard for others' capacity to handle it.

The three Lins instantly began a theological brainstorm, starting from "calling out the name in the mirror counts as prayer because most people call out names in front of mirrors, but what makes the Nameless One special, why can He hear a few casual calls?" to "if ■■ is who He thinks ■■ is, then as the embers and ashes of ■■, what power does the Nameless One wield, and what kind of god is He?"

The textbook at the Inquisitor School states that the Nameless One is the God of Illusions.

But the ability to use illusion magic isn't exclusive to Him; Light Mages and Elemental Mages can also create illusions, and now there are Mirror Seers and Dreamers.

Illusion is hard to call a true domain, leading Lin to doubt while watching the swirling multicolored smoke.

—Is the Nameless One called the God of Illusions because His essence is a non-existent illusion?

Lin was engaged in academic research, but Hui Cui had already furrowed his brow.

With permission to read the forbidden library, he had seen records of how the Nameless One devoured life after life.

Humans and animals who mistakenly entered the smoke never reappeared, and if their loved ones missed them, they would hear the missing ones’ calls and see their figures in the smoke.

This predatory behavior ceased after the New Era began, but this doesn’t prove that the Nameless One gained sanity or self-control; it only indicates that His territory is very far from the city, too distant to pose much threat to human civilization.

"Lin..."

Hui Cui wanted to warn, but Lin had already seen the illusion.

Just as the loved ones of the missing saw their figures in the smoke, Lin saw bright stars light up one by one in the pale pink smoke.

Voices sounded in his ears, very familiar, as if calling a name, but when Lin tried to listen closely, the voices quickly disappeared.

As a Mind Master (or rather, the mirror avatar), the three Lins weren’t confused by such tricks, but many speculations did arise in his mind until he heard screams coming from the room where Bai Li and the others were isolated.

It was the fog seeping under the door, and Bai Li was already knocking, asking what was happening outside.

Lin said irritably, "Wait, don’t harm anyone."

The slowly flowing smoke paused, emitting a bewildered murmur.

Did I harm someone? It seemed to ask.

"Does your smoke have to spread so far?" Lin ordered rudely, "Pull it back, pull it back a bit, don’t affect others."

Why would it affect others? The Nameless One wanted to ask. Fortunately, He understood Lin’s simple command, and the spreading colorful smoke quickly converged into a slowly swirling smoke vortex, no taller than half a person.

To the Demon Hunters, the concentrated smoke became more polluted.

However, with the reduced area, the harm to ordinary people was indeed less significant.

An evil god who controls pollution—except for the Eye in the Mirror—seemed almost as strange as a plant that doesn’t attack in the eyes of the Inquisitors. The Demon Hunters looked at Hui Cui, hoping for an explanation from the apostle.

Hui Cui also wanted to explain why the Nameless One obediently listened to Lin, but he remembered the most important thing at the moment and instructed the Demon Hunters, "Please check how far the pollution has spread, and... Judge Huan Banxiang? Please purify the pollution on the bodies of the Eye in the Mirror practitioners in the room."

Each profession has its expertise; Eye in the Mirror practitioners can only purify mental pollution, while other types require the practitioners of the Dragon of Light.

The ordinary people downstairs, as believers of the Eye in the Mirror, narrowly escaped the cleansing fate; how could they suffer from the influence of other evil gods and return to a polluted path?

Realizing that the cleansing could still be salvaged, Hui Cui took on the responsibility of caring for the Eye in the Mirror believers. After arranging the matters with a few words, he straightforwardly told the Nameless One, "Don’t talk here, let’s go somewhere else."

Ordered to take care of the civilians, the Teleporter raised his hand to indicate, but Hui Cui shook his head, signaling that he didn’t need teleportation.

The essence of teleportation is to connect two points in space. However, if there is a massive object at one point, it can interfere with the effectiveness of the spell, and an evil god or a fragment of an evil god is such a massive object.

Unable to teleport, Hui Cui said, "Please follow me."

The Nameless One remained still.

Lin: "Let’s go."

The Nameless One slowly moved.

Hui Cui’s frown deepened, and he decisively drew his gun.

The Demon Hunter and the Teleporter, not knowing what he intended, widened their eyes as they saw the crimson revolver fire.

Boom! Boom! Boom! A large hole, larger than a person, was shot through the wall of the office building, directly piercing to a cave outside the village.

After violently creating this tunnel, Hui Cui didn’t enter immediately but looked at the Nameless One.

"You go first," Lin said without waiting for Hui Cui’s reminder.

So the Nameless One flowed into the tunnel, and Hui Cui gestured for the helmet in the room to fly over, following the Nameless One inside.

He put on the helmet, which had oxygen tablets in the visor, allowing him to breathe in low-oxygen environments.

This equipment design, originally made for the fungal forest, was perfect for the current situation. As the only one needing to breathe, Hui Cui walked last, and together, one god, one person, and three avatars arrived at a location where fighting wouldn’t significantly impact Oil Lamp Village, and they stopped.

Or rather, Hui Cui stopped, took out a small portable lamp, turned it on, and stuck it to the wall. Then Lin said to the Nameless One, "Here we are."

The Nameless One stopped.

Good boy, Lin thought.

Something's off, Hui Cui is on guard.

He holds the Mirror Church in one hand and touches his earpiece with the other, confirming that the connection with Solomon hasn't been severed before cautiously calming his magic, ready to fight at any moment.

Lin only speaks after he’s prepared, asking, "Unnamed One, how did you find me? Just because I called out to you?"

The question aims to clarify the conditions of the Unnamed One’s invocation, but the Unnamed One replies, "You are special."

"..." Hui Cui’s eyebrow twitches for some reason.

Lin dislikes such vague answers and continues, "Is your current state a manifestation?"

"What is a manifestation?" the Unnamed One counters.

Who has only awakened as a god for less than half a year? And you, as a senior, are asking me this?

Lin is almost full of questions, while another Lin sarcastically remarks, "Does being mouthed actually affect intelligence?"

The third Lin doesn’t want to tangle with such a stupid question and directly asks, "I am special, in what way? Why have you come to me?"

"You..." The murmurs from the smoke seemed to be piecing together sentences, saying, "Not long ago, you were sent down by the glue master, and the moment you awoke, I too briefly awakened."

Ah, do we have to start from so early?

And that wasn’t recent; it was almost four years ago.

The three Lins exchange glances, listening as the Unnamed One continues, "Because I am just embers and dust now, the related concepts have been shattered. So when you appeared with concepts from the old era, you couldn’t defy the rules and lost it upon waking."

Ah? What did I lose?

The three Lins try hard to recall. If it’s about star-related concepts, although he can’t express them in the old language, he still remembers them, right?

"It will be like this. All gods come from that era, so every time a new god appears, I am startled awake, then instantly forget and return to anonymity," the Unnamed One says without emotion, "When you appeared, I thought it would be the same, but unexpectedly, something different happened."

One Lin chimes in, "What kind of unexpected thing?"

The smoke flickers at this, moving closer to the Mirror Church, seemingly trying to enter the small box.

Hui Cui immediately steps back, and as the smoke continues to approach, Hui Cui retreats again.

Another Lin quickly stops this strange interaction, while the third Lin repeats his question.

The Unnamed One finally pauses, speaking slowly and softly, "You paid a price to retain the concepts related to me in your memory, even though you can’t articulate them."

"What price?" Hui Cui can’t help but ask.

"I don’t quite understand your statement," Lin is puzzled, "Don’t the Pillar Gods remember 'stars'?"

Here, "stars" is a term Lin coined in the common language, meaning "distant tiny points of light," which doesn’t quite match the concept of stars.

"Of course," the Unnamed One says, "They know what remains after my destruction, but what I originally was, even the few gods who witnessed my destruction have forgotten."

At this point, the murmurs in the smoke become more chaotic, and He begins to mutter to Himself:

"Another witness died today. I understand, nothing lasts forever. The remaining few witnesses will eventually meet their end, but I didn’t expect, I didn’t expect..."

The smoke swirls, opening its whispering maw.

He moves closer to the Mirror Church again, or rather, to the three Lins in the mirror.

The smoke of the Unnamed One envelops Lin and Hui Cui.

He chants, "But I didn’t expect to hear a call, and I didn’t expect a miracle to happen."

"Uh," Lin starts to feel something is off, asking, "So congratulations? But why have you come to me now?"

"I want the concepts about me in your memory, but you can no longer describe them," the Unnamed One answers, "To extract the concepts from your memory, please merge with me."

"?" The three Lins blink in unison.

He isn’t unable to understand the Unnamed One’s desire to reclaim His original self, but their domains are incompatible, right?

Click, Hui Cui chambers his gun.

"Step back," he commands, raising his gun.