Chapter 186: Servants of a God or Demigod

Looking at the celestial spirits flying toward them, Tom raised his gun and aimed, but did not pull the trigger right away, instead hesitantly asking Qiaozhi:

"Qiaozhi, should we fire?"

Qiaozhi was equally bewildered.

As an archaeology student, Qiaozhi had consulted a great many myths and folk histories, so he naturally knew that the creatures before them were like celestial spirits.

But why would celestial spirits exist in the real world??

But without time to think further, Qiaozhi said to Tom, and also to Kelaofu: "Wait, they seem intelligent enough; let's try to communicate with them first."

The other two had no objection.

Then the three lowered their muzzles, but still kept a tight grip on their pistols.

At this moment, Aisha and Hans arrived beside the three, and the five gathered again.

And the group of celestial spirits showing friendly faces also came to the five, speaking words they could not understand.

But they could sense that the spirits truly bore no malice, and each spirit wore a curious expression, circling around them and discussing something.

Especially Tom.

More than half of the spirits gathered around Tom; a particularly bold one even stretched out a small hand, trying to touch Tom's muscles.

Tom dodged the spirit that tried to touch his body, and the other spirits couldn't help but burst into a "Haha~" laugh, causing the bold spirit to cross its arms at its waist and scold its companions.

After this scene, the previous tension vanished instantly.

"Hans… what's going on?"

Qiaozhi was still a bit dazed, so he placed his hope for an explanation on Hans, who had watched countless movies and TV shows.

"This…" Hans said, looking at the spirits gathered around Tom, offering his personal view:

"The appearance of the spirits indirectly proves that the myths and folk histories we know did indeed exist."

"I recall that spirits should be very afraid of humans, at least they wouldn't approach us so easily; this shows that the spirits surrounding us are quite young, having never seen humans, and…"

At this point Hans said in a low voice: "Spirits usually serve the Greek gods or demigods as slaves."

"Slave… wait…" Hearing this, Qiaozhi, after regaining his composure, said: "You mean there are Greek gods or demigods nearby?"

"It's possible." Hans nodded without denying, raised his left hand to stroke his goatee, and turned toward the ruined temple, saying:

"Don't forget who this temple enshrines."

"Artemis," Kelaofu replied offhand.

Aisha, who was not pleased with the spirits, after hearing Hans and the others, sighed: "If people knew that deities truly existed in this world… wouldn't everything go chaotic?"

"It could very well be exploited by religions," Kelaofu said, his tone darkening.

"Alright, folks," Hans joked, "I'm just guessing there might be a god or demigod nearby; until we find concrete evidence, no one knows if a god exists."

"Kelaofu," Qiaozhi said to Kelaofu: "Please contact your father again and have the Bulgarian government support keep the existence of this temple as discreet as possible."

"Okay." Kelaofu immediately took out a Satellite Phone, preparing to contact her father.

"Hey! Look over there!"

However, Tom, surrounded by the spirits, pointed toward the sky.

?

Everyone, including the spirits, followed Tom's finger and looked that way.

In the moonlit night sky, three vague silhouettes of varying sizes appeared to be "growing larger," seemingly rapidly approaching their position.

In less than a dozen seconds, the three "silhouettes" suddenly materialized, revealing their true forms.

It was a flight formation consisting of two Yuyou and one Crane Ostrich Vessel.

The formation left little reaction time for the people and spirits present, circled once above the lake, and finally selected the open northern shore of the lake to land.

Hoo—!

The noise from the three landing craft echoed through the forest, and the previously mirror‑smooth lake surface began to ripple.

!!!

Seeing the three descending "Iron Beasts," the spirits were instantly startled, and the frightened ones scattered to hide behind Tom.

But their strong curiosity drove them to peek out, looking toward the landing spot of the three "Beasts."

"I mean, does Bulgaria have transport aircraft with this technology?!" Tom blurted, unable to hold back.

"Could it be that his father directly contacted a secret British unit?" Kelaofu said, equally surprised.

Although Bulgaria is also a NATO member, its armed forces number no more than forty thousand and its defense budget is under a billion dollars, so the five present instinctively doubted that this flight formation was a Bulgarian rescue.

The pilots, regardless of what the five college students were thinking, directly opened the doors of the three transport craft.

MTFs equipped with black‑painted, custom TPS Power Armor, wielding M36 Laser Rifles, quickly surged out of the two Yuyou.

Relying on the TPS's superior mobility, the MTFs immediately dispersed, eliminating any nearby threats.

Four MTFs instead walked slowly toward the camp built on the edge of the ruined temple.

One of these four wore a helmet painted with a highly personalized skull, indicating that this squad was the 141 long‑term unit stationed on the Hope Vessel.

After all, among Umbrella's MTFs, only Simon Riley, nicknamed "Ghost," likes to dress in such a skull.

The other three marching with Ghost were the 141's commander Pulaise, deputy commander Soap, and the unit's backbone Xiaoqiang.

Seeing this.

Standing at the edge of the camp, Qiaozhi proactively reminded his companions, with his pistol still on the ground: "Everyone keep your guns on the ground; don't do anything that could be misinterpreted."

Upon hearing this, Kelaofu and Tom both discarded their guns, and Hans also returned his beloved UM-UD3000 to his bag, carefully placing it nearby.

The five knew that against a unit of this caliber, even if the other side harbored ill intent, their little pistols could do nothing.

Rather than risk misunderstandings and needless deaths before the situation is clear, it was better to cooperate outright.

Soon, the four led by Pulaise arrived not far in front of the five.

Under his helmet, Pulaise, wearing a beret, held an unlit cigar between his lips, his brows slightly furrowed as he looked at Tom.

Or perhaps the group of celestial spirits hiding behind Tangmu.

The helmet's screen automatically scans the celestial spirits, displays the relevant data, and also uploads the spirits' physical images to the company network.

And Pulaise opened the comm and said, "The youngsters in charge of the investigation can come out now; this anomalous creature does not have a tendency to attack humans."

Receiving Pulaise's order, a large contingent of technicians finally emerged from the Crane Ostrich Vessel.

At this moment.

Sui Bian, who is on Minos Island, also saw the spirits' physical images through Pulaise's perspective.

(End of chapter)