Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 45: Communications, Reinforcements
On the way back to the underground root system, based on the intelligence he had previously obtained, William carefully thought about how he could stop the ritual of the Starving Lady.
If you want to stop the ceremony, you can only start from four aspects: killing the host of the ceremony, destroying the ceremony space, destroying the firewood needed for the ceremony, and extinguishing the fuse of the ceremony.
It is unlikely to kill the host and destroy the space. After all, the host of the ceremony is Ms. Hungry and Corrupted herself, and the space of the ceremony is the entire Ravenwood Forest.
Destroying the ritual firewood was something he had been hoping to avoid. It didn't even matter what he had promised Flora. Killing 40 million tree-like elves in Ravenwood was not something he really had no other choice but to do.
As for the extinguishing ritual fuse, Flora has been working on it since she took office. Now, one fuse that can be confirmed is the "wedge" from another timeline - the so-called "resistance army" in the underground root system, which is essentially the undead and driven by memory.
"What I'm worried about is not that they will realize that they are from another timeline... The undead live on memories, so they are very insensitive to external stimuli and usually don't notice anything wrong. But if we let them live with outsiders and cause a lot of conflicting public opinion, it will be very dangerous."
That's what Flora said.
Today, the time in the Ravenwood area is still broken into two parts. When there are large-scale contradictions in people's memories of the same event, it means that the broken timeline is about to be cut, leaving only the only causal time.
This sounds a bit like the "Mandela Effect (note*)" that William had heard of in his previous life.
"So, can't we just kill them all?"
Nezemar asked curiously.
Hearing this, Flora
After confirming that Nezemar's words did not trigger any intense emotions in the Great Mother's listener, Flora replied:
"Killing them will only make the existence of people from another timeline an established fact in history, which may actually advance the progress of the timeline replacement. So the safest way is to let them stay in an isolated place. Maybe one day when they wake up, they will turn back into the people in the original timeline."
"But it's not safe to let them stay in Ravenwood, right?"
William asked.
"I have an agreement with the Platinum Palace to exile them to the Far North, the Land of Eternal Night."
"The land of eternal night in the far north?"
William asked in disbelief.
Flora nodded and continued:
"Or the Ruins of Osis. Anyway, as long as they are far away from the civilized world and don't come into contact with other people, and don't leave any written records, it will be fine."
William shook his head repeatedly when he heard this.
"Any questions?"
Seeing this, the other party hurriedly asked.
"If you really want to send them to those two places... I suggest that you kill them right here."
For most people, those two places might just be place names. But William happened to have been to both places... and after returning, he concluded that exiling people to those two places was basically equivalent to a more creative death penalty.
"Then... how should we deal with those more than forty people?"
Naturally, Flora would not question the judgment of this legendary adventurer who had even visited the end of the world. However, if things were really as he said, it would be troublesome to find a foolproof place of exile.
But for William, this is not a troublesome thing.
"Let's control them first. I have a place where they can stay safely later. But you've reminded me that now that things have become so serious..."
As if he had thought of something, William stopped and raised his right hand slightly to construct a simple spell in his palm.
“So the place you are talking about is…”
Flora stopped talking halfway because she felt an extremely huge magical power surging around the man in front of her.
In her perception, that was probably enough magic power to burn hundreds of people and then heal them five times.
Or enough to burn half of the Bone Palace to ashes - if she hadn't activated the defensive spell.
But the technique he constructed was the most basic communication magic.
Floro looked at Nezemal with some confusion, but the other party just made a gesture to her to keep quiet.
This magic power came and went quickly, and the communication magic spell lasted less than a few seconds. William moved his lips and seemed to say something, but no one present could hear it clearly. Then, before anyone could react, the entire spell was crushed by his fist.
"Let's go."
After finishing all this, William straightened his robe and said.
"Excuse me, who were you contacting just now?"
Flora asked a little uneasily.
Normal communication techniques would not require such a huge amount of magic power.
"helper."
William answered simply, and then he seemed dissatisfied with the answer, dusted off his robe and continued:
"Or you can understand it as reinforcements."
…………
Mountains of Sorrow, Dawnhold.
"...In summary, in order to solve the current problem in Jade Province, the Chief Judge asked us to send reinforcements. Do you have any opinions on this?"
Blake sat at the head of the long table and said this to the others present.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone sitting around the long table fell into silence.
"But... Lord Blake, the current situation in the Serpent's Mark is not optimistic. Since the Rainy Month, the number of incidents of various Moon Realm monsters descending has increased by about 30% year-on-year. Now the people are very dissatisfied with us... Frankly speaking, we can be said to be unable to take care of ourselves now. And according to previous intelligence, the Third Legion of the Empire was also transferred to the border pass not long ago. Wouldn't it be a bit wrong to mobilize our troops to the Jade Province at this time..."
After a while, the middle-aged man with the black thorn badge on his chest said with some embarrassment.
He is the newly promoted leader of the Black Thorn Guard.
His words seemed to open a channel for venting, and representatives from other armed departments all echoed and agreed. The entire venue suddenly became as noisy as a vegetable market.
Blake waited silently for them to finish speaking, until the entire venue returned to silence, then he slowly opened his mouth and said:
"What we have to do this time is to solve the problem of the Serpent's Mark from the source. Of course, I know you won't understand what I'm saying. So let me put it another way. I sensed your passion for defending the Blackwater Swamp from what you said before. So, of course, I won't let you mobilize your army to travel thousands of miles to the Emerald Province to fight a war to defend the forest elves. There is another form of war that can both defend the Blackwater Swamp and reinforce the Emerald Province."
"So what do you mean?"
The middle-aged man from before asked.
"Our battlefield will not be in the Emerald Province, but when the Lord Inquisitor begins the war with Lady Hungry and Corrupted in the Emerald Province, I need you to gather your troops and come with me—"
"Go through the Serpent's Trace, to the Lake of Entropy, and smash that bitch's rear end. Just like the Saviors did a thousand years ago. Should that satisfy you?"
…………
Ava Continent, Yuefa City.
After receiving the communication spell from William, Remedios walked out of the bedroom, silently came to the communication spell connecting the seven city-states, and lit the torch used for communication.
Her indifferent eyes reflected the blazing flames, and she spoke softly:
"The first counterattack against the Empire has begun."
