The rescued Hoover followed the two back along the original route. Although the scene under the ice was so scary, it was at least much easier to deal with than the living Hound of Tindalos.
When he reached the corner of the main entrance, Joe Butran stopped.
"I'll give you a choice. Follow me to explore the second fork, or run all the way to an open plain."
“Now that we are here, let’s get to the bottom of it.
I gave up once, and I don’t want to give up again.”
The mouse confessed.
Hoover nodded slightly.
“Except for the main cave entrance, I haven’t been to other places yet.
It’s a slim chance, but there’s a chance my child will be in there.”
After hearing this, Joe Butron opened his mouth, hesitating whether to express his guess.
Hoover noticed the hesitation of Jobtran and took the initiative to say,
"Mr. Jobtran, if you have any ideas, please tell me.
The child has been missing for so long, I have been mentally prepared for anything.
Whether it’s good or bad.”
"Let's talk as we walk,"
Joe Butran sighed, and walked ahead helplessly, carrying the kerosene lamp that he had just relit in the room.
"Since you are mentally prepared, Mr. Hoover, I will boldly state my guess.
I believe you have seen some of the events in Katara's diary, and understand that there are unknown secrets behind the legend of the witch Katara.
The one who lured you and Bertha's child away is the dark secret behind the legend.
The high priest in Katra's diary, the evil force that Mouse and I had encountered before - the Evil Eye Servant. "
"Evil Eye Attendant?"
Hoover asked doubtfully.
"A supernatural being transformed from a human being, skilled in mind manipulation and illusion creation.
Since they have such abilities, it is easy for them to manipulate the child into talking in his sleep to frame Catra;
Even an adult's mental defenses are as fragile as paper after falling asleep, let alone an underage child."
Jobtran mixed some of the information that could be revealed with his own speculations. This was because Hoover had already come into contact with supernatural beings, so there was no need to hide all of this.
“I understand, but why Katla
There are all kinds of strange legends about Iceland, and there are also many dangerous places behind them, why is it here? "
the mouse asked doubtfully.
“It’s very simple to frame someone.
The image of Katla has been slandered as an evil, man-eating witch, and according to the legend, a young shepherd boy died, so people naturally associate it with the witch doing evil.
Secondly, the real place where the children are cannot be here, because here is the thing that the evil eye attendant fears.
This is what I concluded from what you, Hoover, said and the process of me being hunted by the evil eye attendant.
Whether it is the Ancient One or the Hound of Tindalos, either of them is an existence that can make them feel fear instinctively, so next we need the truth, and only after finding the truth can we find the children. "
Jobtran's deduction made the current dilemma seem clear, and all the mysteries on Iceland seemed to have been solved.
"Then why do we continue to take risks and look for starfish monsters - the things left behind by the ancients?"
"If you had three days left to live, what would you do?"
Jobtran asked rhetorically.
"If I were to die in three days, I would definitely go to the Ice Flame Bar to party, hug a different girl every day, enjoy the last days of my life, and then hold a grand funeral after I die."
The mouse shrugged and spoke his inner thoughts.
Joe Butran turned his gaze to Hoover, who lowered his head and seemed to be assuming his final life.
"And you?"
"I will try my best to find the child. If I can't find him, I will leave my best and most precious things to Bertha."
Hoover said solemnly.
"What if a highly intelligent race is about to perish? What do you think they will do?"
Jobtran asked with a smile.
Hoover and Mouse looked at each other and saw confusion in each other's eyes.
“At the height of despair, hope is born.
I guess what the ancients left behind is the heritage of their civilization."
As the three of them were chatting, they had already reached the end of the fork in the road.
It was an empty arc-shaped hall.
From the marks on the wall, it can be seen that this is a new protective measure built by the Ancients to avoid the Hounds of Tindalos.
Unlike the previous walkways, the ice and rock layers on the walkway have exquisite and even rigorous designs, and each wall is an almost perfect geometric straight plane.
Although the walls of the arc-shaped hall in front of him were a little bumpy, they were all exquisitely wide-angled. Even the floor connected to the ground was an arc, leaving no chance for the Hound of Tindalos to appear.
An Ancient was lying in the center of the hall, and on the ground around it were traces of dried mucus.
From these traces, it can be inferred that it crawled all the way from the aisle to the middle of the hall.
"Don't get close to it yet. Hoover encountered it several years ago. It may not be dead yet."
Jobtran warned, stopping the mouse from making any further moves.
Jobtran looked around the hall walls and whispered,
"Mouse, come and take a look.
Is this the style you saw under the frozen lake?"
There are some pictures painted on the walls with creative colors. Although some of the paint has peeled and faded under the ruthless flow of time, these pictures themselves have surpassed the artistic conception of modern human groups, despite being very different from the level of artistic appreciation in human civilization.
Jobtrand understood that what was truly valuable was not the painting techniques of these paintings, but the meaning of the paintings themselves and the content hidden in the paintings.
The mouse first helped Hoover sit on the ground, and then walked to Jobtran's side.
He took out a magnifying glass from his backpack, took a closer look, and nodded in confirmation.
“Yes, although this one looks younger, it should have been left by the ancients.
Whether it's the way it was painted or the bold colors, I can be 100% sure that this is the work of an ancient.
You see these horizontal boards of the same width, although they are bent, they have the same geometrically symmetrical vine pattern that I saw under the icy lake.
These patterns reveal the ancients’ profound understanding of mathematical principles;
These vine patterns are composed of complex parallel lines and angles, and the number of each basic element is a multiple of five.
The patterns on each horizontal board have been specially processed to make the patterns three-dimensional, giving a three-dimensional feel whether viewed from far or near.
Judging from the arrangement of these patterns, the ancients should have painted from right to left, so we should look at the first one on the right."
"It seems that you really like this tour guide job. When the Icelandic Investigation Bureau is rebuilt in the future, perhaps I can help you find a job opportunity in one of its departments."
Jo Butron quipped.
“Leave me alone.
Yes, I really like academic environments such as geological research and archaeology, but do you want me to live such thrilling days as my daily life
I can’t even think about it, it would be a disaster.”
The mouse put away the magnifying glass and walked to the far right side near the aisle.
He looked at the picture in front of him and said in a daze,
“I think you’ve guessed it right, Master Joe Butran.
These murals should be their history.”
Seeing the mouse's strange behavior, Jobtran immediately stepped forward, covered his eyes with his hands, and said very quickly,
"Stop reading this, and go sit with Hoover and rest.
The hounds of Tindalos cannot reach here.
If you keep watching, your mind will collapse and you will go crazy."
The mouse nodded helplessly, turned around and sat next to Hoover following Jobtran's action.
After Jobtran calmed the mouse, he walked alone to the mural on the right to study it.
The drawings depict ancient starfish-like creatures descending from outer space onto the purgatory-like newborn Earth, and other alien life forms arriving on Earth in the days that followed.
They were initially able to travel through the ether of interstellar space by relying on the membrane wings behind them, and when they landed on Earth, they began to transform the Earth, turning it into a habitable environment.
At the same time, they brought water, an element on which countless life forms depend, to Earth.
Gradually, oceans and ice sheets covered most of the Earth, and boiling magma solidified to form connected continents.
That is Mu Continent.
At that time, Mu Continent had not yet surfaced, and the ancients had already built many strange cities on the seabed.
The black ice cave in Iceland is one of their cities, one of the settlements they created.
They have a strict social system and class hierarchy, as well as advanced wisdom and technology.
Their strong and tough biological tissues and organs and simple physiological needs mean they have almost no natural enemies.
On the seabed, they used the knowledge they had and utilized some readily available elements to create the first life on Earth - cyanobacteria.
Cyanobacteria exist as their food.
Later they encountered an enemy from space, the Old One who descended to Earth - Cthulhu.
He likes this watery environment because He is the embodiment of water.
Cthulhu, who has always been tyrannical, came into opposition with the Ancients who had almost dominated the world, and a terrible war broke out on the newborn Earth.
Although the Ancients were ahead in technology, they were defeated by Cthulhu's numerous followers and eventually had to divide the Atlantic region and give it to Cthulhu as its territory.
After this, these clever intelligent creatures used their technology to create the primitive, straight, multi-cellular flesh masses - the Shoggoths - to fight against Cthulhu.
Initially, hypnosis-like techniques were used to make the Shoggoths obey all the commands of the Ancients, and then the plastic properties of the Shoggoths were used to form various organs to cope with both daily life and combat.
These Shoggoths have become ideal slaves, requiring no rewards or food, and are almost like perpetual motion machines.
After this, the Elder Ones allowed the Shoggoths to evolve freely, both animal and plant life.
These are all derived from the ancients as a blueprint.
The ancients used these Shoggoths as experimental subjects, creating a variety of life forms in large quantities, and then released them onto the gradually emerging Mu Continent.
Part of the life will be taken back by the Ancients, who will dissect and analyze the genetic structure of the individual, and the Ancients will use the relevant information to perfect the next step of the Shoggoth shaping project.
Every Shoggoth has a fear of the Ancients in his heart. This is the mental hypnosis implanted in the Shoggoth when it was created.
But the evolving Shoggoths occasionally display a very dangerous ability for independent thinking—intelligence.
The Shoggoths' dangerous ideas led to their rebellion against their creators, the Old Ones.
The Shoggoths in these drawings looked like amorphous lumps of sticky jelly, but during the battle they secreted tentacles and eyeballs.
Its eyeballs can emit rays of concentrated energy, and the tentacles on its body have powerful physical strength and corrosive abilities.
They don't need to eat, but they can devour.
Everything that is devoured becomes energy for the Shoggoth.
This horrific creature dealt a severe blow to the surviving Ancients after the war and accelerated their decline.
Although the Ancients defeated most of the Shoggoths with an energy gun that could break matter into molecular structures, a small number of Shoggoths still escaped and hid in the sea or in the mountains.
It wasn't until the Jurassic period that another invader from outer space, a half-fungus, half-crustacean creature called the Migo, dealt a devastating blow to the Ancients.
The Migos, who had lived on Earth for too long and whose wings had degenerated, were driven into the cities they had built.
A large number of ancients died in the struggle with the Mi-Go, and a five-pointed star cemetery was built in every city to commemorate their dead comrades.
The remaining ones are wandering in the ruined city like lonely ghosts.
The decline of the ancients is certainly worth lamenting. It is really sad that such an intelligent and creative race was defeated because of degeneration, but what shocked Jobtran even more was the spiritual impact.
The beliefs and creation of the Holy Light that I know are very different from the records of the ancients.
The worldview that humans understand completely collapses after viewing these pictures.
If Jobutran had not been in deep contact with the mysterious side, he might have gone crazy, but now Jobutran only felt incredible.
Jobtran understood why the mysterious black man Dallai Nyarlathotep had arranged for him to come to Iceland.
Because this is the cruel truth.