As the ground shifted and moved, several of the Soundless cultists' bodies became transparent as they moved into the aspect of silence, but very quickly, their bodies reappeared in the air.
Their faces were horrifyingly twisted, their veins almost popping out from beneath their skins, their bodies then rapidly withered and turned into dried-up solid masses.
The thing that was hiding in the shadows also revealed its true self: a large number of roots.
The greatest strength of the Soundless Cult was their ability to move into the other aspect of reality. In that other aspect, living life forms would become shadows, non-living objects, while non-living objects in the real world would become living lifeforms.
However, plants were an exception to this rule, while they were living lifeforms, most of them did not actually possess an [Origin] in the real world. On the contrary, their individual characteristics and [Origin] became more prominent in the aspect of silence. In another aspect, they might even thrive as a plant civilization.
And it was due to this characteristic of plants that made the Soundless Cult appear insufficient against plant-based supernatural creatures.
These roots were the results of the other underground survival research conducted by the elves thousands of years ago.
At the time, due to the harsh underground environment and the Mother Tree withering away, most plant life and crops weren't able to survive. To counteract these two issues, two plans were devised, the first of which resulted in the sprout that became the Moon Tree's substitute.
And the second plan resulted in the main body of these roots: a super plant nurtured and raised by using elven corpses. Other than the ability to perfectly adapt to the underground environment and bear a large amount of edible crops, this plant also had a certain level of offensive capabilities.
For the past few thousand years, it had been protecting the vicinity of the Mother Tree, consuming a not inconsiderable number of Gluttonous Demon Ghosts, which honed its offensive capabilities. Furthermore, under Pernod's meticulous care, this super plant that was originally meant to serve as a source of food had now become a carnivorous man-eating supernatural creature.
The plant swung its tentacle-like roots, bursting forth from the ground. In no time at all, each of these roots were capable of fully absorbing all bodily fluids from a person; and considering how the roots had spread all around the vicinity of the Mother Tree, this gigantic network was sprawling with vitality.
It was no wonder that Darr perceived danger, if he had recklessly charged in, he would have been trapped by the large number of roots; quickly losing his life even with the power of the mutations.
…
Observing this group of earless weeds, Pernod immediately recognized who they were.
The three pillar Gods of the elven pantheon were the Dim Silence Envoy, the Life Scion, and the Hunter. Each of them had their own jobs, and governed the elven race as a whole under the Moon Tree's management.
Among them, the Life Scion was responsible for the breeding and spreading of elven life within their world, the Dim Silence Envoy was responsible for infiltrating other worlds to gather intelligence, while the Hunter was responsible for the actual invasions.
This elven city was originally under the influence of the Dim Silence Envoy, and it was after the Dim Silence Envoy was killed that the city sank underground.
The Anti-mages were also the divine soldiers of the Dim Silence Envoy.
Every true Anti-mage had the Mana Eye, which allowed them to see through the cracks of illusions, as well as entering other aspects of reality. Relying on the Dim Silence Envoy's great power, they were able to sneak into other worlds, and relying on their characteristics as an Anti-mage, they could evade detection.
This was the reason why the will of the Moon Tree had arranged for Chromie to learn the Mana Eye above all else, as the Mana Eye was the central secret technique of every Anti-mage.
From the very beginning, the will of the Moon Tree actively tied the Soundless Cult with Chromie in order to further strengthen Chromie.
"Some humans that happened to obtain the Dim Silence Envoy's power?" Pernod looked up. He could sense that the Dim Silence Envoy hadn't fully been vanquished in another aspect of reality.
He had indeed been killed by the seven Gods, but at their level, death was merely a different state of life, especially for the Dim Silence Envoy and other entities who researched the aspects of reality, their comprehension of themselves were simply incredible.
It was for this reason that a part of the Dim Silence Envoy now still remained in the aspect of silence, regarded as a God by the Soundless Cult.
Naturally, he was merely hard to completely destroy, as there was not even a need to seal the Dim Silence Envoy away in his current state. If he displayed any traces of recuperation, Eternal Heat would immediately suppress him.
…
"There is no need to fear, nothing can stop our path"
The Grand Priest wasn't panicked, as a certain amount of retaliation was within expectations. On the contrary, if he had easily been able to obtain the crucial artifact, he might even doubt it.
Several bald cultists stepped out from among the group, the light of the burning fire illuminating their bodies.
These bald men took off their cloaks to reveal their burly well-toned bodies, as well as the numerous gems engraved on it.
The Soundless Cult's supernatural abilities originated from the Dim Silence Envoy, by utilizing the blood of evil – the elven bloodline within their bodies, they obtained the Dim Silence Envoy's warped mana.
However, there was a limit to using blood of evil, as they would immediately trigger the curse if there was ever too much of it. So they came up with remedies for this issue, one such mainstream remedy was the use of gems to contain mana, this way, as long as they had gems as support, they would be able to use a large amount of mana.
The reason why the Soundless Cult could no longer wait to awaken their God was due to a certain drawback of using gems. After becoming mana containers, the gems must remain in a fully-charged state, otherwise, the gems would crumble into rocks. In other words, gems were essentially single-use consumables, which brought up the biggest drawback to using mana gems: they were costly.
While being under both the suppression of the Sun Shadow church and the Hermit Order's constant erosion of their benefits, the Soundless Cult had fallen into a terrible state of destitution, no money meant no gems, and no gems meant their strength would greatly plummet. This was the true reason why they had to gamble everything on this venture, and their unspeakably horrible state.
The gems on the bald men's bodies started shining, emanating their warped mana. The surrounding dirt and rocks started to become alive, turning into lively other-aspect lifeforms and began attaching themselves to these bald men's bodies.
Their bodies continuously grew, forming genderless giants lacking any facial features; they opened their gapping mouths to utter a fearful resounding howl, then stepped into the defensive encirclement.
A large number of roots sprouted from underground and pierced the giants' bodies, but couldn't absorb any vitality from them. Borrowing the warped mana, the cultists had unified the characteristics of life forms from two aspects, giving the giants both the characteristic of living beings, as well as the characteristics of rocks and dirt.
The giants howled and moved their gigantic feet, ripping the roots away with their bare hands. But more roots quickly attached to the giants' arms, as soon as one root was ripped from the ground, two more would arrive to reinforce the rest.
Compared to this super plant that had been raised for a few thousand years, several giants were still insufficient.
Watching this, the Grand Priest's mouth twitched, then painfully swung his hand. Several cultists brought a trunk over to him, taking from it a glittering blue sword made of pure sapphire.
A cultist with a devout expression walked up to the Grand Priest, displaying nothing but zealous passion on his face as he loudly declared: "May silence be eternal!!"
"Ye shall enter my Lord's divine kingdom, becoming his Saint!" the Grand Priest wielded the gem sword and pierced it into this cultist's body. The warped mana from within quickly surged forward, the cultist's body quickly became warped and incorporeal while a pale blue shadow slowly manifested from within.
