Xyrin Empire
Chapter 329 - Chapter 329 Chapter 329 The Disappearance of Artemis

Chapter 329: Chapter 329: The Disappearance of Artemis Chapter 329: Chapter 329: The Disappearance of Artemis “…Where have you hidden our relics…”

With a voice that seemed to crackle with blazing flames and electromagnetic effects, Sandora spoke from a lofty position to the middle-aged man, who stood dumbfounded below her. Her words carried an endless dignity and an almost cruel disregard for all life. At that moment, Queen Xyrin, the one who had destroyed countless worlds and burned countless lives with war, had finally descended once again.

If only this girl hadn’t been making “V” signs behind my back secretly…

Sandora was indeed a dignified queen, but her almost split personality gave me a huge headache.

“You’re not human!!”

The middle-aged man was worthy of being one of the leaders of the Olympus Organization. Even under the spiritual suppression and the threat of Abyssal Flames from Sandora, he managed to quickly regain his composure before suddenly realizing something, “What you just said… your relics!?”

“Useless prattle.”

Sandora snorted coldly, then unceremoniously thrust her claw into the man’s shoulder. Even though it was only a superficial wound, it turned his face instantaneously pale, and his features twisted into a bizarre pattern.

The power of the Abyssal Flames wasn’t something an ordinary human could withstand.

“Alright, Sandora.” I stepped forward, gently patting the golden-haired girl’s shoulder, stopping her intent to continue torturing the man. Sandora’s personality could be a bit cold-blooded when she was in Abyss Form, though she could keep her wits about her most of the time. However, the frail bodies of humans might not last until that rational moment came.

I stood in front of the middle-aged man who had forcibly calmed himself down but was soaked in sweat, and showed him a smile that was meant to put him at ease, “Alright, I am human, so you can relax a bit…”

What I was met with was a look that said, “You’re fooling no one.”

To be immediately excluded from the human category by my own kin just because I showed up with Sandora… Talk about a swift blow to one’s identity.

But I couldn’t blame him for his distrustful look. Sandora, just a moment ago, had been clearly labeled a “Demon” in his eyes, and I had effortlessly made the “Demon” obey. Of course, calling myself human would elicit such suspicious glances.

Why couldn’t this uncle think of me as a Warlock who had tapped into Demon powers instead?

“Speak, your name–that is, your codename in Olympus. I have no interest in your real name.”

I casually threw out my question. I was genuinely curious what identity this dejected looking uncle with a beard–who looked like he had just lost his last pair of trousers at a mahjong table, then got chased half a street by his wife wielding a rolling pin–really was. I had met a few members of Olympus, some arrogant, some foolish, and even some with self-inflated neuroticism, but this kind of brooding uncle was indeed a rare breed.

And by my side, Sandora started to gnaw away at her claws… cough cough, the previous passage was just a bit of an embellishment from my imagination, please ignore it… the impression of Sandora’s Abyss claws was just too strong.

The brooding uncle let out a few bitter laughs, sounding defeated, “If you’re really interested in that ridiculous name… call me Zeus.”

I was taken aback, “Uh… you’re not the top leader of this Olympus, are you?”

“It seems you have quite an abundance of information indeed.”

“No way?” I examined the dejected man in front of me with disbelief. My gossipy soul burst into flames, “How did you end up like this before we even made a move? This really is a good… cough cough, a regrettable outcome.”

And with that, the uncle bearing the once-shiny title of Zeus became even more melancholic.

“I told you, it was because of the rebellion. I never imagined that the hard work of over a decade would be torn to shreds like a joke. Even Poseidon and Hades, who I thought at least could get away safely, were killed off by you easily. In the end, I faced a betrayal. How could I forget? I should know best what human nature is like…”

I scratched my head awkwardly, then pointed at Sandora, who was still focusing on her claws (…), “If you’re talking about the rebellion, she’s the one responsible for it. So, you don’t need to be so brooding. Your brooding is seriously giving me a headache.”

“I know full well that those followers were under external influence,” Zeus shot me an unamused look, “I was injured by another Main God from Olympus.”

I muttered, “It’s a wonder you still have the cheek to utter the words ‘Main God’. You’re really self-hypnotized to a certain degree… Are you saying there’s been a dog-eat-dog battle among you leaders?”

Zeus paused for a second, then with a wry smile, “I didn’t expect to be defeated by such enemies.”

I said, “What do you mean by that!”

“A decade of planning, such a massive sacrifice made, and yet the only thing that came of it was a single place,” Zeus sank into a melancholy, utterly ignoring my tone, “Just as Poseidon and Hades were busy holding you off, we finally cracked the ultimate mystery of the Great Temple. But then we discovered that only one person could earn the right to enter the Divine Realm. My once closest comrade didn’t hesitate for a second to attack me. It’s laughable. I dreamed of creating a new Gods Era to rid humanity of its sins, forgetting that man’s most fatal flaw is his greed–a greedy villain who, even when endowed with the powers of a god, is still far more dangerous than any mere villain…”

“Here’s a suggestion for you,” I bent down to pat the uncle’s shoulder, accidentally hitting the spot that had just been scorched by the Abyssal Intense Flames, causing him to shudder violently, “Once you’re out, try to be a good person, aim to be an artist, or at least a philosopher or something. That’s much more reliable than being an Immortal. Also, I’m confiscating your Superpower for now. Maybe I’ll give it back to you later if I feel like it.”

A look of shock crossed Zeus’ face. With that single pat earlier, I had permanently sealed all his Superpowers. But soon after, he sighed in resignation, “Maybe this is a fitting end… May I know your identities? At the very least, I want to know who brought Olympus to its destruction. Your power… it far surpasses any human organization. It could even be said to be beyond human…”

“We already told you,” I stood up, turned my back to leave, and left a parting shot, “The relics you’ve been studying, they’re our construction debris.”

Zeus’s expression immediately stiffened, then smoothed over in an instant, his thoughts inscrutable.

I led Sandora and the others forward, striding ahead for a dozen meters before suddenly doubling back and asking the daydreaming Zeus, “Hey, which way is it to the front?”

Zeus: “…”

Talking to the folks from Olympus is always a bit of a hassle. Although they speak of things we’re quite familiar with, I always have to translate their words into Chinese in my head, which takes forever to understand. Just like this time, it took me several minutes to finally translate what Zeus had said: apparently, they’d finally found a way to activate that ancient Mother Nest. However, likely due to an energy shortage, the power of the Nest Crystal could only allow one person to “become a god.” At this critical juncture, a dog-eat-dog incident had erupted among their leaders. What I couldn’t figure out was what he meant by “entering the Divine Realm.”

As for that somber Zeus, I decided to spare his life. From our brief conversation, I had already guessed some of the truth: he was probably another poor soul who got carried away with the beautiful fantasy of being a savior–good intentions but not the smartest, essentially not a bad guy by nature. Now that he had become an ordinary person, I didn’t have the heart to completely annihilate him; better to let him live and atone for his sins.

Following the route pointed out by Zeus, we entered the base’s underground depths through a hidden emergency passage. Since the base was tightly connected to the Xyrin Mother Nest Relics beneath, we were actually within the ancient Nest’s interior as we ventured deeper. Despite being surrounded by Xyrin architecture of superior advancement deep inside, this path was distinctly different in style from the high-tech corridors we had traversed so far. Rather than being an emergency passage in a high-tech base, it felt more like a hidden corridor in an ancient temple. Whether it was the stone walls around us or the obsidian bricks underfoot with their eerie patterns, or the mysterious murals scattered about, everything here exuded a syncretic style of religious worship and idealism–a testament to this being the stronghold of a cult organization. Despite the murals depicting various mythical beasts and demons, they notably lacked any images of gods–a clear reflection of the Olympus ideology of “I am the God.”

Right when we were about to reach the end of the passage, Pandora suddenly stopped, turned, and pointed at a mural beside us, reporting, “High energy reaction.”

“Don’t…”

“Boom!”

I was utterly speechless about Pandora’s way of opening doors… This girl was not afraid of collapses at all!

“Precise calculation of the attack power,” Pandora retracted her hand cannon and continued with a mechanized tone, “Energy dispersal is zero.”

Alright, I’ll just assume Pandora knows moderation.

Behind the wall that Pandora had blasted a huge hole through was a massive stone hall. With the commotion that Loli had caused, enough to scare away even mummies, stealth infiltration had already lost all meaning–not that we intended to be subtle in the first place. We entered the gloomy hall that screamed “Evil Headquarters” without any pretense to disguise.

“Judging by the coordinates, this should be the location of the Nest’s engine room,” Sandora mumbled to herself by my side, “The core of Olympus can only be here.”

After blasting open the secret door, Visca and Pandora switched into combat mode. The two little girls, clad in matching silver-white war robes, walked ahead of us like a person and her shadow, their metallic combat boots clicking rhythmically on the ground and echoing through the expansive stone hall.

This dark hall, dubbed by Zeus as the “Divine Council,” might have had a glorious title, but it had nothing divine about it. All it had were the hazy red religious reliefs on the walls and the bizarre texts etched into large stone bricks. I’d be more convinced if you told me this was a testing ground for summoning demons.

As I was curiously studying the distorted symbols on the floor that resembled hieroglyphics, Visca suddenly called out from up front, “Found two people, they’re already dead!”

Sandora and I immediately rushed over and found two male bodies in black robes lying at Visca’s feet. One body was that of a gaunt black elder with strange golden symbols carved on his face, while the other was a slightly overweight European man. The shattered fragments of masks around them suggested that these two were also leaders of the Olympus Organization.

According to the information provided by Medusa, there were a total of six top leaders in the Olympus Organization, and so far, we had identified five of them. Besides Poseidon, who probably intended to make a flashy entrance but was accidentally killed by Pandora’s blast, Hades, who was so arrogant he hypnotized himself into a frenzy but ended up suppressed by Visca’s “Fantasy Killer”… cough cough… ability that nullified superpowers and was ultimately killed with a headshot by Ghost Energy Heavy Sniper, and the recently encountered melancholic uncle Zeus, there were two others lying here now, code-named Dragon Armor A and Dragon Armor B. Discounting them, and based on the information provided by Zeus, we could now confirm who the final victor was: Artemis.

This did not surprise me, although I was hearing the name “Artemis” for the first time. When Zeus confessed to us, I had already placed her on a high-risk list.

This individual, bearing the Divine Title of Moon God, could be said to be the most mysterious person in the entire Olympus Organization. Even Zeus had no idea where she came from. The only thing known was that she was female. But as for her age, appearance, abilities, and background – all of these remained an unsolved mystery. Moreover, according to Zeus, this woman was not a member when Olympus was founded. She first appeared about two years ago when Olympus was just an ordinary organization dedicated to studying Ancient Xyrin Relics and seeking to enhance the power of superpower users. Although they also aimed to achieve superhuman strength, Olympus at that time had not yet entertained the wild idea of becoming gods. That was until the mysterious woman appeared, and Olympus underwent earth-shattering changes.

Honestly, at first, I thought Zeus was outright lying. Would an organization like Olympus allow a suspicious character with an unknown origin, whose even appearance was unclear, to become one of its leaders?

But in the end, many contradictions in Zeus’s description dispelled my doubts.

Even he himself could not clearly recall what had happened in the two years after Artemis’s arrival. Although he felt there was nothing wrong with his memory, it became fuzzy whenever he delved into details. These memory fragments would gradually fade away from his mind in an absolutely unnoticeable manner, fostering the utterly wrong notion of “Oh, it’s normal not to remember that, right?” Even when disclosing these things to us, Zeus’s face maintained an expression as if it was all by course.

Without a doubt, this was the work of some kind of spirit-based ability. Considering this, the entire Olympus Organization must have been merely a tool. The one who truly wished to obtain Xyrin power and become a deity must be Artemis.

Not far from the two fallen Olympus leaders, we discovered a silver hexagram pattern etched on the ground. The indented lines seemed to have been filled with some energy-responsive substance. They were currently pulsating with a white light. Tiny silver-white specks of light moved according to some pattern along the hexagram’s primary lines. Whether they held any special significance, I couldn’t tell… Anyway, even if I explained it, you wouldn’t understand…

Besides the glowing hexagram array, there was nothing else of note in the entire hall. After killing her last two companions, Artemis clearly did not linger. But according to Zeus’s account, there shouldn’t be any other exits in this place, right? Where exactly had she gone?

Could this be the legendary locked-room murder case… Uh, that doesn’t seem quite right.

“Perhaps, is there an exit in this weird talisman-like dish?”

Sandora furrowed her eyebrows, raised her chin, and pointed at the glowing hexagram on the ground. This mysterious pattern, which carries countless fantastical tales and dreams of Western magic, held the same status in the Western fantasy system as the Tai Chi and Eight Diagrams in the Eastern one. Yet, in the eyes of our proud Queen Xyrin, it was just a dish…

Should I say Sandora’s obsession with dishes and chopsticks is a bit too intense?

Through a shared perception, Sivis analyzed the great hall for me: “This pattern itself emits no spatial energy fluctuations, and its surface lines are not structured to connect into an energy circuit. Aside from a vertical shaft placed below with a 3D imaging system, no hidden passageways have been detected within the radar’s effective range. I’m sorry, Leader, we can’t ascertain this pattern’s potential to be a portal.”

“Brother…”

While I was pondering whether Artemis had ascended by day, shattered the Void, or had simply failed to transcend and been struck by high-voltage electricity into high-carbon powder, Visca suddenly spoke up. She gently tugged at the hem of my clothes and pointed at the silver hexagram on the ground, saying, “These constellations… can we have Sivis search for them in the database?” (To be continued, for further details, please visit www.NovelFire.net. More chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)