Crown of Chaos

A pyramid made of huge stones stood in front of Aaron. Its architecture was in the style of the earliest Saluk witches, which was simple and simple, with almost no other decorations except a holy emblem of the giant snake of the universe.

There is a long road in front of the pyramid. The middle of the road is very clean and tidy, with some stone statues on both sides.

Each stone statue has a different image, but Aaron quickly discovered the patterns on the stone statues.

The outermost stone statues have the most typical human appearance, with a naked human male and human female kneeling on the ground. Judging from the carvings alone, except for the weathering on their outer layers, they should all be relatively pure humans.

The second row of stone statues kneeling in the Face Pyramid has changed. These two stone statues still look human, but the difference can be seen in the subtleties - scales have grown on both sides of their shoulders.

The changes in the third row of stone statues are even more obvious, with scales, snake-like eyes, forked tongues and venomous snake fangs.

In the fourth row of stone statues, the symbol of humanity is further lost, with snake arms replacing human arms and snake tails replacing human feet.

The fifth row has snake heads and human bodies, and the sixth row has snake heads and snake tails, leaving only the humanoid arms and torso.

Their previous movements were also different. The outermost human knelt on his knees, as humble as an ant.

The snake man in the middle is kneeling on one knee, like a slave waiting for orders.

The snake men behind the fifth row stood on the ground, just bowing their heads slightly to show submission, like vassals with status and identity.

Until the seventh row, a creature that is obviously different from the snake people appeared. Although they look similar, they are obviously more gorgeous and noble. They wear robes studded with gems, have a gold crown on their forehead, and have exquisite eyes. With rubies embedded in them, they stand, clearly possessing a higher status.

The stone statues end here. What stands at the gate of the pyramid is no longer a stone statue, but a giant snake statue that surrounds the world and is carved from a giant piece of jade.

Although Aaron had never seen the giant snake statue, he relied on his previous knowledge to know that this thing was probably the "giant snake of the universe" worshiped by the Saluk witch and the snake-man empire.

By analogy, the stone statue from the outside to the inside represents the process of "evolution".

Aaron started thinking and analyzing.

The outermost human beings are the lowest and most useless symbols. They are not even worthy of being slaves.

Humans who have slightly mutated towards snake people are the lowest slaves. They are only qualified to serve other snake people as the lowest existence among snake people.

The snake-man stone statues that have initially completed the mutation of a snake head or a snake tail have begun to possess weapons and are obviously of a higher status. Facing the pyramid, they just kneel on one knee and wait for orders like a soldier.

In the end, the status of the snake people who had fully successfully mutated became higher. They no longer knelt down, but simply bowed.

Is this what snake people understand as evolution?

They gave up their human body step by step, abandoned their humanity step by step, and finally climbed up the ladder, transforming themselves into snake-like creatures, gradually approaching the god they believed in - the giant snake of the universe.

So, the snake man in the seventh row is probably the legendary Saluk witch, right?

Mortals are so eager for power and to become stronger. Some people choose to work hard to strengthen their bodies, some choose to master skills and reach the pinnacle, and some choose to explore the realm of magic and get in touch with the origin of the world.

All roads lead to Rome, but some people's roads are destined to be extremely difficult. For example, legendary warriors only live a few decades longer than ordinary people, and most of their good skills are killing people.

Some people's path is relatively easy. For example, the eldest warlock Miss Charlotte is born with a divine spark as a spiritual warlock, and her lifespan can be comparable to that of the Seven Northern Sisters and Elminster.

Similarly, some people choose to give up, worship, pray, or transform themselves into other creatures in order to obtain the mercy and blessings of higher beings.

The Snake People are such a race. They are a race created by the Saluk Witch. They are a combination of human genes and the genes of the Witch. But after the Saluk Witch retreated behind the scenes and gradually declined, the Snake People But they still maintain this fanatical worship. They regard human nature and the human body as a symbol of inferiority, and rush to transform themselves into snakes.

The closer one is to the image of the Saluk witch and the giant snake of the universe, the higher the status, and the more human-like, the lower the status.

Aaron found it difficult to judge this behavior.

This reminded him of the rituals of Chaos believers. In the process of believing in Chaos, every Chaos believer abandons humanity and body. They regard mutation as a blessing, madness as strength, and demon promotion as the ultimate reward. , from the most ordinary Chaos Warrior to Chaos Warrior, Chaos Champion, Chaos Chosen One, Chaos Lord and finally the Demon Prince, it is a model of a person's humanity and body that has completely mutated into a subspace creature.

The Four Gods of Chaos are always so generous and generous with their rewards.

Onlookers may think that the behavior of snake people is ridiculous, but any question must consider the background of the era - for that ancient era, humans were still consuming hair and drinking blood, and the Saluk witches were the ruling race of the continent and an interstellar-level civilization. , for the snake people at that time, it was the greatest honor to be the slave of the shaman, and the shaman indeed represented the most advanced civilization and the most powerful force at that time.

In this case, it is natural for the snake people to worship the shaman, which is several times ahead of the times.

At any time, the exchange of culture, technology, and ideas can bring about progress. The Wuhui at that time were several eras ahead in all aspects. Perhaps for the snake people, their creators were gods.

Is it wrong to worship God, imitate God, and become God?

But Aaron didn't want to abandon his humanity, nor did he want to abandon his human body. He wanted to become a god with the priesthood of Chaos, but he also wanted to maintain his emotions of joy, anger, sorrow and fear as a human being.

This is destined that he must resist while cooperating with the four gods of chaos, and cooperate while resisting.

He warned himself that he could never summon the clones of the Four Gods of Chaos again.

This time he summoned the incarnation of Slaanesh, he had used tricks to the extreme and successfully aroused Slaanesh's competitive spirit, but he still paid an extremely heavy price. He was not sure if he did it again, his humanity and emotional functions would completely fail.

Don’t do that kind of thing!

"Nasty snake man."

While Aaron was thinking, the female wanderer Eleonora was checking for traps. She spent nearly half an hour to make sure that all the traps in the pyramid were eliminated, and then came to the two dwarf corpses. : "Hey, Sir Salian, look at this."

"What did you find?" In the darkness, Aaron relied on his dark vision magic to come to the bodies of the two dwarves.

The behavior of the corpses is very strange. On the one hand, they are very "new", obviously they have just died not long ago, but on the other hand, they are very "old". Some places have been corrupted, exposing the bones.

"It's a trap!" Eleonora played with the dagger in her hand. A dagger quenched with blue venom flipped in her hand like a butterfly: "These two dwarves want to climb to the other side of Saruk." On the statues of witches and snakes, their eyes are inlaid with rubies."

"The snake people probably thought that greedy people would steal the gems from the stone statues, so they arranged magic traps on the gems." The female wanderer was a little cautious: "It's a petrification curse and an acid trap!"

"When a creature touches the gem, the petrification curse will be triggered, and then strong acid will be emitted from the mouth of the stone statue." The female wanderer pointed at the half-melted head of the dwarf: "This is how these two dwarves died. "

Strong acid trap is one of the most dangerous traps in low-level adventures, because strong acid can not only cause huge damage in an instant, but can also cause continuous corrosive damage and offset the effects of various potions and healing spells later.

The most famous one is the troll that Aaron and others have encountered. The troll's super powerful regeneration ability allows it to recover quickly even after suffering a lot of damage. At this time, the adventurers' method is to use fire or strong acid damage, because in When taking damage from either of these types, the troll's ability to regenerate is disabled.

Early adventurers were most afraid of this. Only warriors or barbarians who had acquired extraordinary physiques could forcefully save by relying on their physical attributes. This is why some legendary barbarians dared to bathe in magma.

Among the second-ring magic, the one that interested Aaron the most was "Ma Youfu's Acid Arrow", but unfortunately he just couldn't learn it.

Turning off Nurgle's power makes Aaron immune to poison, but not acid.

After looking at the ruby ​​​​eyes on the shaman statue, Aaron made a little estimate and knew that its value was more than 2,000 gold lion coins. Looking at the eager expression of the female wanderer, Aaron shook his head: "What does the dwarf have?"

"There's nothing." The female wanderer was obviously an expert at touching corpses. She took out a handful of currency that she took out from the dwarf.

There are almost a dozen gold dragon coins and dozens of silver coins. These coins were minted in Waterdeep City. Obviously these two dwarves came from Waterdeep City.

In addition, the dwarves only have a few small rune stones on their bodies, which are symbols to prove their identity, a scroll with incomprehensible language written in dwarf language, and a magic missile scroll worth 30 gold coins.

"Take it." Aaron said to the female wanderer. He is really not very interested in these miscellaneous things now, and the two parties are now in a cooperative state, and Eleonora is another one. Appropriate Favor and kindness can help her identify herself and avoid betrayal.

The people in the mix are not as easy to betray as everyone imagines. They have no sense of order and no sense of morality. Therefore, the quality of the relationship between the two parties and whether the other party approves of you directly determines the future.

To put it simply, whether the three views are in harmony or not, the brothers will be iron or not.

If you meet your taste, the bastard will stand with you even if you are the enemy of the world. If you don't meet your eyes, the bastard will just say "I'll repay you in the next life" and watch you die with a smile.

Eleonora is a quasi-master rogue, and Aaron doesn’t know how Samir met her or how he persuaded her. Eleonora didn’t talk about compensation, she only said that Aaron owed her Just a favor and came with full equipment.

It can only be said that the Harper Alliance is an organization that has always been very good at shaking people to help.

Whether it is the Zhentarim, the Red Robe Mage Guild, the Church of Shar, Lady of the Night, or the Cult of the Dragon, they all beat the Harpers to pieces, but the Harpers can always turn defeat into victory with powerful allies.

"What a generous man." Eleonora did not refuse. The female wanderer didn't seem to be very interested in wealth. She casually stuffed the coins into her pocket and made a joke: "Hey, let me tell you. , when you were fighting the trolls in the forest, it would have been nice if you had this kind of strong acid, hahaha~"

Aaron suddenly stopped. Where the female wanderer did not see, his pupils suddenly shrank, vibrating continuously for more than a second, and then slowly dispersed.

He understood the origin of this female wanderer.

"What's wrong?" Eleonora didn't see Aaron's expression.

"It's okay." Aaron shook his head calmly. He came to the door of the pyramid with his hands behind his back and stared at the statue of the giant snake: "Be careful and give me some time."

"Okay~"

Aaron stood in front of the giant snake statue for ten full minutes. He stared at the statue without saying a word.

Tzeentch's power shot out sparks, following Aaron's eyes toward the idol.

After an extremely long time, there is still an extremely weak ray of divine power left on the statue, which has fallen into a complete sleep.

that's enough!

ten minutes later.

"Okay." Aaron signaled to Eleonora that it was okay.

The Sons of Chaos headed directly towards the gate of the rear pyramid.

"Hey, are you crazy?" The female wanderer couldn't help but screamed when she saw this scene: "There is a trap at the door!"

"Ha." Aaron smiled faintly.

What you need is the agency!

As he approached the door of the pyramid, the eyes of the huge snake-headed statue above the door immediately glowed red.

"Hiss~hiss~hiss~"

A sharp hiss erupted from the throat of the Son of Chaos, his eyes turned blood red, and the shadow of a giant snake orbiting the universe appeared from behind Aaron and turned.

Fantasy was reflected in the red eyes of the snake-headed statue. Listening to the hissing, it reacted:

"Welcome back, Master."

"Dong~dong dong dong~" The mechanism sounded, the pyramid door was activated, and Aaron stepped into the tower with his hands behind his back.

The female wanderers watching this scene behind him were stunned.

Snake...Parseltongue?

Watch the club king’s last dance!