Dick had actually discovered this during yesterday's battle. But it was easier said than done. Because injecting enough magic power to cause elemental disorder required a huge amount, if Dick did it, he wouldn't be able to do it as easily as Behemoth.
It can only be said that those at the peak of the Saint level are definitely not ordinary people, and the abilities of the old seniors are not fake.
The group's progress was not fast, mainly because the number of monsters had increased significantly compared to the first time they came yesterday, almost to the point where they could encounter one every few steps. In the later stages, they were surrounded, and from time to time, one would pop out from behind them.
At this time, Behemoth became the main force pushing forward from the front, while Dick and his men guarded him and helped him guard against enemies coming from other directions.
We continued on this path for more than an hour, and the progress was much faster than yesterday.
Suddenly, a large open space appeared in front of the crowd. The open space appeared abruptly in the middle of the woods, like the Mediterranean Sea above the programmer's head. All the trees in the central area of the pine forest disappeared strangely, replaced by a white area.
Dick reached out and wiped the ground, and found that it was not snow, but something more like accumulated white frost, which was as solid as ice when stepped on.
And in the center of this frosty land, they finally saw the giant white tree.
At this time, several more leaves fell from the tree. As soon as the leaves fell to the ground, they immediately began to merge with the surrounding objects. After a while, a new "mountain monster" was formed. Its body was even larger than the one seen before. After it took shape, it immediately pounced on everyone.
However, these guys were just larger in size after all, and were easily dealt with by Behemoth.
"Let's go over and take a look."
After witnessing the formation of the mountain monster, Dick immediately released a wind-based floating magic that surrounded the tree and prevented the fallen leaves from touching the ground.
When they came closer, Behemoth reached out and touched it without saying a word. Seeing this, Dick hurriedly stopped him.
"Uncle Master, please take it easy. This is a whole tree, not a small branch!"
After hearing Dick's reminder, Behemoth thought about it and it seemed to make sense.
After persuading Behemoth to stop his suicidal behavior, Dick was also looking at the giant tree. Compared with the description of the little village girl Jasmine before, this thing has obviously grown a lot taller. It has grown from a small tree four or five meters high and as thick as a bowl to a towering tree more than twenty meters high that requires two people to hug. The torch-shaped crown is very huge, but strangely it does not cast any shadow on the ground.
And standing next to the giant tree, although Dick could hear a faint whispering sound lingering around him, he did not feel uncomfortable or painful.
"Can you hear the sound?"
"what sound?"
"Someone was talking, but I couldn't hear what they were saying."
Black and White Gunda and Rita both said that they didn't hear it, but Behemoth looked at Dick meaningfully, and after a long time he suddenly spoke.
"How about...you try touching this tree?"
"Fuck! Uncle Master, please don't play with me. Even a branch can kill me. If I really touch such a big tree, I will go crazy even if I don't die!"
"But the sound you mentioned can only be heard by you. Even I, who has stepped half a step into the threshold of becoming a sub-god, cannot hear it. This means that this tree wants to communicate with people, and you are the chosen one."
"But what if it doesn't mean anything good?"
Behemoth didn't say anything more. He took off the deer antler artifact "Wild Crown" on his head and put it directly on Dick's head.
"This is a divine weapon created by the goddess of nature. It can protect the soul from being polluted. You have elven blood in you, so your effectiveness is much stronger than that of a human like me. Try it, and Uncle Master will protect you!"
After putting the magic weapon on his head, Dick suddenly felt much more energetic.
The Wild Crown is a magical artifact that many magicians dream of. It has no active skills, but it is full of god-level passives and top-level buffs. Just by wearing it on his head, Dick felt as if he had leveled up half a level, and was a little bit close to the threshold of the Saint level.
Behemoth could put this thing on Dick's head without hesitation. Even if it was to encourage him to commit suicide, it was quite generous!
So under the gaze of everyone, Dick took a deep breath and reached out to touch it.
In just a moment of panic and a blink of an eye, Dick felt as if he was standing still, but the surroundings suddenly became completely quiet and his companions disappeared.
It seemed as if he was teleported to another dimension the moment he touched the white tree.
At this moment, the murmured whisper was heard again, but this time it was much clearer, and the person who spoke seemed to be on the other side of the tree.
Dick walked around carefully and found a "figure" squatting there.
That’s right! It was a human figure in the literal sense, with a human-like appearance, but it was blurry and blurred, and I couldn’t see the specific outline clearly. At first glance, I thought it was a ghost!
Because they were close, Dick was able to hear clearly what the other person was saying this time.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean it... I didn't want this to happen..."
Emmm...I feel like I have done something wrong and am deeply regretful.
At this time, the other party seemed to sense Dick's presence and slowly turned his head to look at him. There were no facial features on that blurry face, not even any eyes, but Dick could feel the gaze.
The two sides looked at each other (?), and Dick subconsciously took a half step back, but the shadow's reaction was much more intense. It screamed and crawled back seven or eight meters, shouting "Don't come over here", leaving Dick speechless.
Brother! It's obviously your appearance that's more scary, okay?
Why do you make it seem like I'm the ghost?
Although he was speechless, Dick still tried to comfort the "figure" and quickly stated that he had no ill intentions.
Before coming in, Uncle Behemoth told Dick that he could sense a chaotic divinity from this giant tree, and the being that was trying to communicate with him was most likely a god.
Although we don’t know why this unknown god stays in the human world and does not go to the realm of gods, the opportunity for mortals to come into contact with gods is extremely precious and must be treated with caution.
So Dick thought that he would see a god with a solemn appearance sitting in a magnificent temple, but what he saw was an autistic patient with an extremely abstract appearance.
Just... a little bit disillusioned!
With Dick's constant verbal comfort, the human figure god finally calmed down, but still maintained a "safe distance" of nearly ten meters from Dick.
In the other person's own words, he was afraid that he would hurt Dick.
When Dick heard this, he thought that if someone could have such thoughts, then even if he had made some mistakes, he should not be a bad person. Anyway, the distance of ten meters would not affect their conversation, so they could still chat.
The first thing Dick needs to figure out is what this god is called?
Although he was not a theologian, he knew the names of the gods in this world, whether good or bad. Because the magic school had a special theology course, the original intention of this course was not to guide students to become believers of a particular god, but to mainly introduce the basic information of gods and their related sects to avoid unnecessary conflicts caused by some unintentional actions during the contact process.
Like the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of Pleasure, these two are said to be twin sister gods, but they have completely opposite personalities.
The god of love advocates pure love and faithfulness, while the god of pleasure likes sexual liberation, and they dislike each other.
However, the names of these two Gemini goddesses are very similar and it is very easy to call them incorrectly, so it is easy to cause "disrespectful incidents" and bring about their divine punishment.
The punishment from the god of love is “lack of relationships with the opposite sex” or “quarrel with one’s partner”.
The punishment of the God of Pleasure is "You~cannot~come~to~the~orgy!"
Therefore, when dealing with gods, you should first know their name and never make a mistake. This is the most basic etiquette.
026. Winter Elegy
Out of politeness, Dick introduced himself first and then asked the other party's name.
The shadow was silent for a long time before speaking in an unclear tone.
"I can't remember clearly. I seem to have had many names... Snow, Winter... I can only wake up on days like this... They, they call me..."
It seemed that memories themselves brought pain. The voice of the phantom gradually changed from confusion at the beginning to violent, and finally turned into hysterical howling.
The key point is that when he shouted like that, Dick's head also hurt.
At this time, Dick held his forehead and touched the wild crown on his head. He suddenly thought that this thing could help people ensure that their spirits are not polluted. From a magician's point of view, it would prevent people from going astray.
If I give this thing to Xuying, will he return to normal?
Dick is not a psychologist, and he has little experience in counseling others, especially someone who has been crazy for who knows how many years. Instead of just fighting on, he might as well give it a try.
So Dick held the Wild Crown in his hand and rushed towards the crazy shadow. He said to himself "Let's fight", then took off the Wild Crown and put it on the other's head.
The wailing shadow suddenly stopped, its emotions gradually calmed down, and at the same time a magical scene happened.
This guy's body, which looked like it was covered in mosaics, is now becoming "high definition" visible to the naked eye!
Soon, the other party returned to its original appearance. Although it was roughly in human shape, this guy had obvious animal features. He had a bear's head, and fangs that were curved and upturned like a wild boar in his mouth. His body was covered with very thick dark brown hair, and except for the upper third of his thighs, the rest were deer legs.
Dick was wondering, how could this be a Fu Rui Shen! ?
After the other party regained consciousness, he touched the wild crown on his head, looked at Dick in front of him, and said with a sad smile.
"Thank you, stranger."
"You're welcome. What's your name?"
"I am the Lord of the Snowfield, the Singer in the Blizzard, the Guide of Winter. People call me Ajax, the God of the East."
Reporting the full name was not for show, but the basic etiquette for gods to introduce themselves. However, Dick noticed that when Ajax said these titles, his expression became more and more depressed, and he looked embarrassed that he might cry at any time.
Dick thought for a long time and finally remembered where he had seen the name "Ajax".
This is the legendary winter god who sealed the northern kingdom that perished in the snowstorm.
According to legend, when the winter god Ajax died, his followers chose to be buried with the ancient god they believed in and went to the paradise of the dead together.
But just like many folk tales, which can be distorted in the process of being passed down due to intentional or unintentional slips of the tongue, myths are sometimes not true and may be very different from the truth.
Dick guessed that the extremely cold winter that had plagued Lagug for a long time might be related to the occasional madness of the ancient god in front of him. If his crazy mental illness could really be cured, Lagug's future life would be much better.
And based on his current observation, this Ajax should not be a bad god, but more like someone who has suffered some cruel mental blow, which has harmed him for a while.
Dick suddenly regretted not bringing in the wine and peanuts.
So Dick sat on the ground face to face with Ajax, and while trying to calm him down, he tried to ask him why he was so sad.
Ajax pondered for a moment, as if he had been depressed for years and finally had someone to talk to. He told Dick about his past experiences.
Just like the beginning of the legend, Ajax, the God of Winter, was once the god of state religion worshipped by the Northern Snow Country. However, that was a relatively barbaric era, and the so-called country was more like a huge collection of tribes.
Because this primitive nation lives in the north, they have to face the harsh winter environment every year. Out of awe of blizzards, they gradually developed a belief that there is a god who can control blizzards. Therefore, they would hold sacrificial activities on the days when strong winds and heavy snow fall, praying that the wind and snow would end soon and that the great winter god would no longer be angry.
Ajax was born out of such belief, and tragedy also came from this.
Mortals are ignorant and believe that the gods created the world. They are ancient and great, but they do not know that gods are born out of faith. Ajax was born in a primitive worship in a wild country, but at that time, his self-awareness was not clear, and because of the imagination of mortals, he looked like a half-human, half-god.
Ajax observed his followers like a confused newborn baby.
He liked these people, but like a child still learning to speak, He misunderstood what His followers meant.
The Snow Country held sacrificial activities during the snowstorm because they prayed that the wind and snow would stop quickly, but Ajax misunderstood it as "his believers like snowstorms", so he used his own divine power to increase the dosage, making the wind and snow come more violently.
Thus began a cycle that was both hilarious and sad, yet destined to end in tragedy.
As soon as the newborn Ajax had divine power, he would create a blizzard to make his followers "happy". When the blizzard came, the Snow Country began to hold sacrificial ceremonies. Ajax's divine power was strengthened again, so the snow fell even harder.
A small number of people from the Snow Country could not bear it anymore and fled over the mountains to the warm south. The remaining believers thought that this was the anger of the Lord of the Blizzard and that their sacrifices were insincere, so they began to carry out bloody and cruel human sacrifices.
Ajax was also frightened when he saw this. He thought his followers were unhappy because he didn't make a big enough snowstorm, so they started killing each other. At that time, he didn't even understand the meaning of human sacrifice.
Finally, Ajax, whose divine power became stronger and stronger, brought down a doomsday-level snowstorm on his believers in one breath, wiping out hundreds of thousands of people in the Snow Country.
This horrific super-sacrifice made Ajax gain unimaginable divine power all at once. He successfully advanced and gained a higher level of mental intelligence, but he also realized the terrible tragedy caused by his previous misunderstanding. Ajax, unable to bear the blow, went crazy.
The whole story from beginning to end is a tragedy caused by misunderstanding.
Ajax is not a bad god, he loves his believers and wants to make them happy, but the newborn god is as ignorant as a child, and his behavior is like a parent who does not understand his child's preferences and blindly buys strange things.
By the time he came to his senses, it was too late to regret.
Sometimes gods are not omnipotent. Ajax tried to use resurrection magic to revive the believers of the Snow Kingdom who were killed by him, but he soon discovered in despair that the souls of those who voluntarily accepted sacrifices had long since turned into divine power and merged into his body, and a body without a soul could not be resurrected.
Ajax tells his story, which may not sound very long, but the whole story spans more than two hundred years. The increasingly severe winter has long driven away the ordinary citizens, and the only ones left are the absolutely devout believers of the Winter God Ajax. In addition, the priests deceive the believers that there will eventually be a doomsday snowstorm that will destroy the entire northern world, and these devout people will go to the Kingdom of God where the Winter God is.
So when Ajax really brought down a blizzard that was big enough to destroy the entire Snow Kingdom, those believers who voluntarily stayed did not panic. Instead, they felt that the prophecy had come true and they could finally be relieved.
This is the story of Ajax and the Snow Country. The truth is completely opposite to the beautified legend. The people of the Snow Country who escaped gradually forgot their traditions. Some ancient legends were distorted in the process of transmission, so that even the name of Ajax was forgotten. Only a few words about him could be found in some ancient mythological books.
As for the legend of the mountain monster circulating in Laguge, it is actually a variation of the story of the God of Winter. The twisted monster is the mad God of Winter, or the incarnation of the God of Winter, and its image is distorted beyond recognition.
It is worth mentioning that other gods once found the winter god Ajax and invited him to settle in the already built divine domain.
The power of the gods is too strong, and it is better for them not to stay in the mortal world, because this will cause trouble to mortals. Therefore, the good gods and the evil gods reached a rare consensus, each establishing the divine domain and the devil domain, and then withdrew from the mortal world, only giving enlightenment to mortals, but not interfering with the development of mortals themselves.
To put it in an analogy, mortals are God's wheat, and the mortal world is the wheat field. Regardless of whether the gods are good or evil, they depend on the wheat in this field for their livelihood, so even if they have hatred or grudges, they cannot fight in the field.
But Ajax didn't want to leave the Snow Kingdom, nor did he want to cause trouble to other mortals, so he asked other gods to seal him, and they sealed him in the land that once was the Snow Kingdom.
Because Ajax accepted sacrifices from hundreds of thousands of people, his power became unprecedentedly strong. Even if all his believers were killed, he could still live for tens or even millions of years, and gods could not commit suicide.
Seeing this, several gods who came to persuade him to go to the divine realm didn't say much. They thought that since it was Ajax's own request, they would follow his wish and join forces to seal him here.
But it is obvious that their seal is not very reliable, or the sealed Ajax does not sleep very well. He will have a minor seizure every ten years or so, and a major seizure every hundred years. This is how the super winter and the doomsday winter came about. The white tree on the surface is the concrete manifestation of Ajax's divine power leaking out after the seal is loosened.
"In fact, I have been having the same nightmare these years. I dreamed about the day when I woke up and lost everything. I can feel that the world is constantly distorting my story, and I am becoming more and more weird, but I think this is what I deserve."
As he spoke, Ajax suddenly turned his head and looked at Dick opposite him, speaking in an apologetic tone.
