Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 44: Ebony's Counterattack
When Floro bowed to him to express her submission, William kept glancing at Nezemar, who was so excited that the corners of his mouth were almost raised.
It's not that there was anything wrong with her previous behavior. After all, it was something he would do sooner or later to make Flora and the entire Jade Province government submit. But according to her words, wouldn't it confirm her identity as the eighth Holy Spirit in the minds of these people?
However, after feeling the solemn atmosphere around him, William sighed in his heart.
Forget it... We can slowly resolve any misunderstandings in the future. Looking at the current atmosphere, this is not the time to explain.
On the other hand, he was a little worried that the executive of the Temple of Punishment, who was in high spirits, would give him a passionate speech like "Celebrate..."
Fortunately, it was not known whether Nazemal noticed his averted gaze - although she seemed very excited at the moment, she opened her mouth several times as if she was going to say something, but in the end she suppressed it.
After completing this whole set of rituals symbolizing submission, William bent down slightly and reached out to help Flora up.
At this moment, a voice mixed with anger and ridicule came from behind them .
"Hahahaha, promise? Is there any value in your promise?"
Ebony said this while pointing at William, trembling all over.
At this moment, he clenched his back teeth, and the hoarse voice almost came out of his throat.
However, before William was about to reply, Flora spoke first:
"I know that you have been replacing the 'rotten root juice' used for executions with an alchemical potion used to fake a state of suspended animation. I also know that you sent those people to hide deep in the roots of the World Tree, but do you know why I have not exposed you?"
Her words were calm and peaceful, which made the other party stunned for a moment.
If he had heard the tyrant mention this secret about himself before today, he would have been horrified. However, at this moment, he didn't know what expression to use to respond to this question.
"You knew that a long time ago?"
He asked after hesitating for a moment.
"In fact, it is completely unnecessary for you to prepare those alchemical potions, because the 'rot root sap' is only effective on living people."
Flora did not answer the other party's question, but changed the subject.
But the meaning of her words was already very clear. Those people that Ebony thought she had saved were all just a group of undead.
And this is exactly what William said before. The forty-two people he rescued were all undead driven by residual memories.
"By the way, I have been sending people to maintain the Green Guardian that you released. Continuously releasing that spell with an undead body will indeed cause a great burden on the body."
Flora continued. She looked into Ebony's murderous eyes, and although her tone was emotionless, her words were full of provocation and ridicule.
"No, that's not impossible... they are the ones I have been with for all these years..."
After hearing these words, Ebony looked back and forth at William and Flora in front of him, his steps involuntarily stepped back slightly, and his tone was so light that it made people feel helpless.
"You guys... teamed up to deceive me, right?"
After saying this, he stopped his unconscious steps back.
"Yes, that must be the case! You are deceiving me together!"
At first, he sounded like he was mumbling to himself, then like he was trying to convince himself, and in the end, there was no more hesitation in Wu Mu's voice. He clenched his fists and looked at the two people in front of him, his eyes revealing a determination that was close to fanaticism.
It was like the look of a gambler who puts one arm on the table after losing a poker game.
Seeing this, William turned to look at Flora and asked:
"Can you explain? What's going on?"
The forty-two people he had seen in the underground roots before were indeed undead, although William was not quite sure why they could maintain that level of sanity.
But before, he had always thought that those undead were the work of the Duke of the Holy Tree. After all, actively letting the most radical opposition forces be controlled in his own hands, on the one hand, it can be used as a pressure relief valve for his high-pressure rule, and on the other hand, it can gather opponents together and eliminate them in one fell swoop before they become uncontrollable - this can be said to be the standard operation of the rulers of dystopia.
However, from their previous conversation, it seemed that Floro did not actively participate in the conversion of those forest elves into undead, but had only tacitly allowed them to operate their own power in the underground root system.
"Yes, Your Excellency Holy Spirit, if you want to know the answer...they, including Mr. Ebony, are the so-called 'wedges' that Ms. Hungry and Corrupted put in place for the final ceremony."
Flora replied with her head slightly lowered.
"A wedge? You mean they 'traveled' from another timeline to our current timeline, like a needle?"
William asked.
He didn't like this statement very much, because it was like saying that people in other archives might come to the current timeline, and that there might be two of him appearing in this world at the same time.
Fortunately, Flora shook her head.
"You know, this is impossible... The two timelines are not two parallel worlds, but two possibilities for one thing. So, he could be a tribal warrior abandoned on the ebony branch, or a warrior born in the ebony tribe; he could be a forest elf with a breath of life, or an undead created by Lady Hunger and Corruption."
She turned to Wu Mu and said:
"So for you, and for those poor people who are still plotting to overthrow me deep in their roots, it's possible that they just woke up one day and changed the timeline to what it is now. It's a timeline that is 90% similar to the original timeline, but it is completely different in details and essence."
After saying that, she held up the magic medium in her hand and looked calmly at Ebony, who seemed to want to eat her alive.
"This is a complete...lie!"
Ebony gritted his teeth and squeezed out this sentence, but apart from this sentence, he seemed to have no idea what else he could say in rebuttal.
William felt that the opponent would probably attack directly if he was provoked again, but considering that the opponent's fighting power could not last three rounds in the hands of Floral, he did not try to smooth things over, but continued to ask Floral:
"So you allowed them to stay deep in the root system just to keep them from noticing?"
Flora nodded and said:
"Once they realize that they are not in the same timeline as in the past, this cognitive conflict may cause chaos in the timeline, and then become the fuse for Ms. Hungry to trigger the replacement of the timeline. Therefore, once I find such people, I will 'actively' send them to the isolated place of the underground root system so that they will not notice the discord."
"As for him, I nominated him as the listener of the Holy Tree Mother. On the one hand, he can grasp the possible actions of Lady Hungry and Corrupted. On the other hand, in this temple, he does not have many opportunities to go out and get in touch with the outside world. He prefers to immerse himself in his own story and continue to plan here for things that have no chance of being realized..."
Before she could finish her words, the animal tattoos coiled around Ebony's body suddenly came to life.
A roar that seemed to be able to freeze a person's blood roared out from the mouth of the beast spirit, and Ebony rushed towards Flora at a speed that was inconsistent with his burly figure.
He clenched his left fist, and it was like a cannonball flying straight at Floral's face. Because of the high speed, the air was hit with a sharp whistling sound. At the same time, a pale lion head appeared on his fist, its mane was like burning flames, and its eyes were filled with violent savagery. And the bloody mouth opened, as if it could bite off Floral's entire upper body before Ebony's punch blew Floral's head off.
This is the special innate power of the forest elves. By signing a contract with the great spirits of wild beasts, they can gain the help of those wild souls.
"boom!"
It was like a truck hitting a wall. Almost instantly, a wall of ice crystals appeared between Flora and Ebony.
A punch carrying the might of the white lion spirit smashed into the ice crystal wall, and dense cracks spread rapidly on the wall like lightning.
Ebony's fist smashed into the ice wall several inches deep - almost the entire fist was smashed in.
The seventh-level frost spell [Ice Crystal Wall] is enough to block the purely physical defense spell that passes through the city-breaking crossbow.
Flora stood on the other side of the protective wall. The entire protective wall was bulged out by the opponent's extremely angry punch - the funnel-shaped bulge was less than two centimeters away from the tip of her nose, and new cracks kept extending around it, looking as if it would shatter like glass in the next moment.
"Good, at least you still have anger."
Looking at the ice crystal wall that seemed like it would break at any time, Floro stood where she was and said without blinking.
"And my anger can tear you to pieces!"
Ebony roared back, then tried to pull out his right arm, intending to use the white lion spirit to punch the protective wall.
In response, Flora sighed slightly .
"Sometimes I'm not sure whether explaining the cruel truth to the person concerned is a good thing or a bad thing."
William on the side had no interest in her exclamation, but asked another question:
"But is Ebony also a ghost? I didn't see any clues when I used [Dead Soul Detection] before."
In response to William's question, Flora slightly turned her magic medium. The ice-blue magic circle at the bottom of the staff changed with her movement.
"It's normal that no one noticed anything... After all, he has to stay in the Holy Tree Mother Temple. It would be terrible if tourists from other provinces discovered his true identity."
Wu Mu found that he couldn't pull out his right hand. The air around him cooled rapidly. Fine and regular ice crystals climbed up his right fist to his wrist, forearm, and elbow joint...
He tried to struggle free, but it was in vain. Every time he shook off a piece of ice crystal that was binding his joints, more ice crystals would begin to spread over his body.
In just a dozen seconds, half of the opponent's body was completely imprisoned. Seeing this, Fularo tapped the magic medium in her hand, and the ice crystal barrier between her and Ebony instantly shattered and dissipated.
She took two steps forward and stood in front of the other person. Then she gently took the antler crown off his head, then turned back to look at William and said :
"Lord William, what now?"
William didn't even need to use [Death Detection]. The moment the antler crown was taken off, he felt an extremely strong breath of death emanating from the other party.
"Um……"
William nodded.
Seeing this, Fularo turned to look at Wu Mu. At this moment, his entire face was frozen, so he couldn't make any complex expressions. But his eyes full of anger showed his current mood.
"That's why I gave you the antler crown... In addition, I believe you must have heard the 'Holy Tree Mother' tell you many times to take off the antler crown in front of outsiders in the revelations she gave you, right? Is this the extent of your devotion to the 'Great Mother', or is your desire for secular power in the Jade Province too strong?"
"After all, in your opinion, the person who should sit on the throne of Kuruorong should originally belong to you. In fact, in your timeline, it might really be like that... if you hadn't met me."
Flora said so.
For Ms. Hungry and Corrupted, she, who has inherited the legacy of Neh, is undoubtedly a blind spot and variable when the two timelines are synchronized.
"You... a vicious woman who plays with people's hearts..."
Moving his lips with difficulty, Ebony squeezed out these words.
Although he said this, the anger that had been brewing and could not be vented was now mostly released like a punctured balloon.
William also walked in front of Ebony and gently tapped the magic medium in his hand. The ice crystal restraints on the opponent's body instantly dissipated into nothingness.
After being freed from his restraints, Ebony fell to his knees on the ground, gasping for breath while supporting himself with his hands.
Seeing this, William frowned.
The other party was still trying to breathe, which was unnecessary for him. This proved that deep down in his heart, he still did not consider himself a dead spirit.
William tried to help Wu Mu up, but the other party shook his hand away and said coldly:
"No matter what, you didn't keep your promise."
In response, William shrugged, reached into his storage space and took out the "Judgment Three", a rough dagger that seemed to be made of obsidian.
"I think it's part of Camilla's plan to ask you to take this thing out to gain my trust and use me to get rid of the current Duke of the Holy Tree."
William said, causing the dagger to float in the air.
"Unfortunately, she didn't know that not long ago in Black Crow Watch, the Ironheart Widow herself told me that the 'Judgment Three' she created is now in the hands of the Takma Cult."
As he spoke, William activated the light spell [Item Destruction]. With a flash of strong light, the dagger turned into a pool of debris floating in the air.
"The Judgment Armament is not something that can be destroyed. So... you were the one who breached the contract first, right?"
After doing all this, William didn't care about him anymore but stood up directly, looked around and said:
"Next, we will control those 'wedges' of the underground root system."
