Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 16 Three Boundaries
"Why? I suppose there's nothing to lose by doing this?"
In response to the other party's firm refusal, William asked with an unchanged expression.
"There are losses. I have been running this resistance settlement for several years. The people here trust me very much, and I trust them as well... It can be said that all the preparations I made to resist the Duke of the Holy Tree were based on this."
Ebony replied in a deep voice.
But in response, William just said:
"That's not a reason."
If you find yourself being cheated, the stupidest thing to do is to sink deeper into the trap because you are reluctant to give up the sunk costs.
After hearing William's answer, Ebony's eyes passed over him and turned to the group of people practicing in the open space not far away, to the craftsmen who were making rune props, and finally to the children who were playing and fighting.
After a long silence, he slowly said:
"Because of that, whether what you say is true or not, I can't afford to say it."
Regardless of whether these forty-three people were transformed into undead or not, as long as I pointed this out to them in person, it meant that things had reached an irreversible point.
If this is true, then as a listener of the "Big Mother", or as a forest elf who abides by the ancient contract, he must make these people return to death completely.
If it was false, then there would be a rift in the rebels that could never be healed. It was not impossible that they would split up. After all, accusing a forest elf of being an undead was definitely the most vicious accusation in their culture.
In other words, no matter what choice you make, you will lose the trust of these people.
"Is that so?"
As if he had already guessed the other party would give this answer, William nodded and did not force it.
"Then continue to maintain it as you wish. I don't mind."
William shrugged and replied.
After all, he had no hope for the so-called resistance forces here.
Regardless of whether these people were alive or dead, the combat power they could provide to him was too insignificant. Moreover, based on his previous brief encounter with the hot-tempered Solo, William could not be too confident in handing over the entire Ravenwood to these forest elf fundamentalists in the future.
To be honest, if Ebony had not claimed that he had a Judgment Armor, the World Tree's Hundred Years of Life Condensation that could completely heal his wounds, and most importantly, the Frost Witch Nihle's Lifebox, William might have been more willing to contact the Holy Tree Duke who had the same surname as himself, and then consider who he should cooperate with.
Perhaps to the forest elves, Fularo, who abandoned the ancient covenant and chose to side with the empire, was an out-and-out sinner and traitor to the forest elves. But to William, this kind of person who would prioritize practical interests rather than blindly follow the tradition of faith might be more suitable for negotiating terms - the criteria for this kind of person to select allies is to judge the actual strength of the other party and the benefits they can obtain, rather than listening to the voice of "God" that they heard in a trance after drinking the hallucinogenic potion.
Whether it was power or profit, these were things William could control. But he really couldn't control what the other party would hear after falling into a hazy hallucination, or what he would do afterwards.
If the Duke of Holy Tree is really the kind of fence-sitter who only clings to the strong as Ebony said, then he will have more bargaining chips when negotiating cooperation with her - after all, as far as William knows, there should be no one in the world who is more powerful than him, and no one can promise more benefits than him.
So, for William, it didn’t matter whether Ebony was willing to trust his judgment or not.
"But I'll give you a piece of advice."
Without waiting for the other party to reply, William also looked at the forest elf who was busy with his own things in the open space not far away and said:
"How you want to deal with these undead souls is your own business. But when you make the final choice, please don't deceive yourself. You may still have a chance to redeem some people now, but if you continue to deceive yourself like this, you will not be able to save anyone in the end."
William said in a calm tone.
Although the other party seemed to rationally explain to him why he was unwilling to accept the trial plan, William could vaguely guess the other party's real reason for not wanting to do so.
Compared to the fact that all his hard work over the past few years would go to waste, he was more afraid of discovering in the end that all of this was caused by his own hands.
For the forest elves, becoming neither alive nor dead, spreading corrupted undead spirits, is a far more horrible ending than death. If what William said is true, then he would be the biggest sinner for calling back those who should have died peacefully as undead spirits.
"I……"
Looking at William's indifferent eyes, Ebony could only utter one syllable for a long time.
"I suggest you investigate your priests, especially what kind of alchemical potion they made to fake death... But these are things for the future. For now, you should give me the promised reward. The previous agreement between us is still valid. You pay me and I will help you sit on the throne."
William spoke slightly faster.
Compared to the truth of the matter, William was more interested in this.
Seeing that William didn't dwell on this topic any more, Wu Mu breathed a sigh of relief and continued:
"The thing is in the deepest part of the tree hole, and it is protected by three layers of seals. After everyone is gathered and the meeting is over, I will take you there to open the seals."
William frowned and said:
"It's your own business if you want to play house with these dead spirits. I'm not interested. I'm only interested in the things you mentioned earlier."
William said, pointing to the bottomless dark hole not far away and asked:
"Is that the tree hole you mentioned?"
Ebony nodded, but before she could say anything, the man next to her disappeared.
All that was left was a human silhouette flashing with tiny electric lights.
As for where the other party went, there is no need to say more.
"But, those three seals definitely can't be opened without my help...especially the third one."
Ebony stood there in a daze for a long time before he came to his senses and said this.
…………
"Finally, you can freely choose to skip this boring cutscene."
William said this while standing at the bottom of the tree hole and stroking the invisible barrier with his hand.
Although he was indeed very curious about why those forest elves "rescued" by Ebony could still maintain their spirituality, compared to this, he was more concerned about the life box of his former companion.
After confirming the authenticity of those things, I have plenty of time and methods to investigate other things.
When he arrived in front of the tree hole, he found the scenery here a little familiar, as if he had been to a similar place in the past - but this was also normal. In the previous game, there were about seven or eight dungeon copies around the World Tree. If he played the Forest Elf save, there would be three more special dungeon copies.
Therefore, he couldn't remember for a moment which copy the scene here was more similar to.
As he thought about it, William used a transformation spell to tear a crack in the first layer of the three barriers, enough for him to pass through.
The magic attainments of these forest elves can only be described as tragic. It can be seen that these people who cast spells have tried their best to make the seal of this cave stronger. But in William's eyes, this level of enchantment is not much stronger than plastic wrap.
The second layer was a barrier built by life magic, which was much stronger than the previous one. But just like the barrier outside using [Green Guardian], this strength was only due to the huge vitality of the World Tree, and the number of bricks was too large. William used the same trick again by grafting the external source of magic power, and it was also very easy to break it.
But the third barrier made William stop.
The third barrier looked like a translucent film with a faint frost. Like the first barrier, its actual strength was not much stronger than plastic wrap. William, who was somewhat impatient, used his fingers, which were infused with a large amount of magic power, to easily tear it into pieces.
However, just as he easily tore open the barrier and prepared to step over, the barrier instantly recovered and blocked him outside.
Not patched, nor rebuilt.
Instead, it was like replaying a video of a broken mirror, restoring it as if time had flowed backwards.
Faced with this situation, William fell silent for a moment.
In his knowledge, there is only one spell that can do this, and that is the pinnacle frost spell [Anti-Entropy].
The effect of this spell in the game is to rewind time within a certain range to the state five seconds ago. Whether it is the state of the body, the position of everyone, or the cooldown of the spell, it will be returned to the state five seconds ago regardless of friend or foe. Of course, this spell can only affect everything that is still alive, and cannot revive the dead through rewinding.
After crossing over, William found that he could control the specific range size (not exceeding the maximum casting range) and duration (within five seconds) more precisely.
As far as William knows, apart from himself, there is only one person in the world who has learned the spell "Anti-Entropy".
And that person was given the title of Frost Witch because of his attainments in frost magic.
"Nehe, is it really you?"
