"Technology..." Roland frowned. He had seen in the memories of the devils how these alien races achieved promotion—by merging with more powerful magic stones to define their talents or abilities. Success meant life, failure meant death. In essence, it was not much different from the abilities of witches, all left to fate, and even more cruel.

But technology was different... as long as its rules were mastered, it could be rapidly scaled up and developed according to needs, which was not a good sign for humanity.

"Are you sure?" Anna, as the person whose thinking was closest to Roland's, obviously realized this as well.

"Further research is needed on the remains brought back, but..." She looked at Celine.

The latter nodded her main tentacle and led everyone to a cracked black boulder. "This is part of a giant skeleton. Preliminary dissection results suggest that it is likely a living thing."

"Hmm... it's not surprising that it's a living thing," Roland said, stroking his chin. After all, officers had mentioned in post-war reports that when the enemy's giant skeleton was hit by shells, it emitted screams that resounded across the battlefield. "This thing is like a deformed devil's armor."

"No, Your Majesty," Celine's tone was strange. "I mean... this stone is alive."

"What?"

Everyone was slightly stunned, then took a step back in unison.

"Wait, are you saying it has life?"

"Could stone also be a kind of devil?"

"I don't... understand. Can you explain it in more detail?"

For a moment, the hall was filled with questions.

"Simply put, it has an independent system that can autonomously complete simple actions." Celine rolled up a hammer and slammed it against the broken part of the stone. With a "clang," the stone actually trembled slightly. Through the cracks, Roland could see something like meridians wriggling inside, and this tremor lasted for half a minute before stopping, obviously not caused by the hammer.

"From what we saw at the scene, a huge mass of tissue was also hanging from the lower abdomen of the giant skeleton. We had always thought that it was the main body of the deformed devil. But the dissection results proved that the two were not the same thing." Agatha continued, "After discovering this, Celine and I could not understand why the deformed devil in the skeleton's abdomen existed if the skeleton itself could move. It wasn't until I saw the Demon Slayers modifying their subordinates that I suddenly realized that this was very similar to one thing."

Anna was the first to react, "A carrier?"

"That's right," Celine praised. "Whether it's the Primordial Carrier or the Devouring Worm, they both have a distinct characteristic: they are still alive even when there is no controller." She turned to look at Roland. "Your Majesty, do you remember what Kabradha said—'Did you also snatch a fragment of inheritance and gain ascension?'"

"There's another sentence after that," Roland nodded. The first time he heard the word "ascension," he almost blurted out "I am the Tal'darim," so the impression was particularly deep. "Those weapons were also made based on the contents of the fragments?... Something like that."

Tilly pondered, "Now it seems that Kabradha thought so because they had similar experiences and obtained the method of making carriers from the fragments? Does that mean that both the Spider Devil and the Giant Skeleton are actually combinations of two devils, one being the carrier and the other being the operator?"

"The possibility is high, after all, the two have too many similarities, such as the extraordinary vitality of the carrier, able to survive for extremely long periods in a dormant state; not easily dying even when severely damaged, and so on."

"Attributing the inheritance fragments in the devil's mouth to the underground civilization isn't impossible, but the latter controls the carrier through soul instruments, doesn't it? The devil's method seems quite different from that..."

"Perhaps... they didn't get the complete magic core manufacturing method, so they can't transform shells like the underground civilization," Agatha replied. "Or perhaps this is a more suitable method for their clan—like the Union inventing the God's Punishment Army transformation method when lacking sufficient carriers. In a sense, the God's Punishment Warriors are a kind of carrier."

"Wait, that's not right, is it?" Nightingale looked confused. "Although I don't quite understand your reasoning, one thing is certain: humans haven't obtained any inheritance at all. The weapons used by the First Army all came from His Majesty's ideas, and the God's Punishment Army transformation is the result of the Union's research. Didn't we still master the use of the magic core and take over the relics of the underground civilization?"

"In fact, this is the crux of the matter," Agatha said seriously. "I suspect that there is more than one way to obtain inheritance from the relics of the gods, which is also the main reason why I call it technology rather than ability."

Roland suddenly felt a chill all over his body, and an indescribable feeling surged in his heart. "Are you referring to... learning?"

"Yes," the Ice Witch breathed out. "Through teaching and learning, even without devouring the relics of the gods—or rather, inheritance fragments, as Kabradha said, one can obtain everything accumulated by civilization. I think this is the essence of 'inheritance.'"

A brief silence appeared in the hall.

After a while, Celine's words rang out again in everyone's minds, "Considering that so many new war weapons have appeared among the devils in the past four hundred years, perhaps the role of the relics of the gods is to greatly shorten the long learning process, or even complete it instantly—and the evolution gained by civilization from this is what they call 'ascension.'"

Roland finally knew what the feeling surrounding his heart was at this moment—perhaps Kabradha was right, humans had indeed obtained inheritance, but not by relying on the relics of a certain civilization, but by the oldest oral tradition. As a transmigrator, he had invisibly connected two worlds.

"If that's the case, doesn't that mean that the relics of the gods are recording everything about us at all times?" Wendy looked worriedly towards the secret room on one side of the hall, which was where the relics were stored.

"Unless we can also get a fragment, no one will know the answer." Agatha shook her head. "However, if the devils really master the carrier technology, we may encounter more challenges we have never seen before." She looked at Roland apologetically. "Sorry, Your Majesty... the war experience gained by the Union over hundreds of years may not be able to help you anymore."

"It doesn't matter, for the devils, the Third Battle of Divine Will will also be a completely new experience." Roland comforted, although the road ahead was unpredictable, he had to maintain confidence in front of everyone, and he couldn't take a step back no matter what. "Besides, if ascension is limited to technology, it means that we can also learn what we need from the other party, or even from those civilizations that have already lost their inheritance fragments, right?"

"You're right," Celine responded as if telepathically. "And this is precisely one of the responsibilities of the members of the Mystery Exploration Society."