Release That Witch - Chapter 733
Chapter 733: The Time Before the Past
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When Roland stepped into the living room, his attention was suddenly drawn by the light curtain that sheltered half a wall.
The edges of the light curtain exuded a flickering purple light as if a passageway connecting with different planes was dug through the wall. On the other side, the scene was quite dark, which looked like a huge hollow cavity under the ground. The reflections of the red river which flew in thin streams like cobwebs, lightened the rocky walls and the dome, vaguely showing the ancient ruin and its silhouette. Judging from the vivid visual effect, it should not be a built-up illusion, but a live broadcast transmitted from tens of hundreds of kilometers away.
A giant sarcomatoid monster with its tentacles spreading was facing Roland. A strange voice sounded in Roland’s head.
“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting, my respected king of Graycastle, Your Majesty Roland Wimbledon. I’m Pasha, one of the survivors of Taquila. I think you must’ve heard of us from Phyllis.”
“Ah, this is what direct communication means.” Roland sat down facing the light curtain while being joined by Nightingale, Tilly, Agatha, Wendy and Scroll. “It’s good that you’ve talked to each other, I don’t have to introduce myself.”
“You don’t seem to be surprised by my appearance at all.” Pasha was a little surprised. “I thought it would take quite some time before you could accept the idea that I am indeed a witch.”
“Because I’m really not a stranger to the sort of concepts such as appendages and prosthesis,” Roland thought to himself, but he said in a peaceful voice, “With the Bloody Moon drawing near, time is precious for both of our sides. Rather than concealing from each other and suspecting each other, it’s better that we just be honest with each other from the very beginning. Since you’ve been the rulers of the continent, I guess you all agree with me?”
Pasha was startled for a moment, then burst into a light laughter. “Phyllis was right. You’re indeed a rare and extraordinary person.”
“Only because I stand on the predecessors’ shoulders,” Roland said with his hands laid out. “Let’s get to business. We have a common goal, and that is to fight against the demons. The purposes you sent Phyllis out with were, to search for the Chosen One and to communicate with the worldly kingdom, am I right?”
“Totally,” Pasha admitted frankly. “At first we wanted to infiltrate secretly, then gradually recruit or control some common people to search for the Chosen One. But the failure of the church made us realize another way to success, which is to show ourselves above board and gather all the witches.”
“So you chose Graycastle as your destination?”
“According to the information that we collected, the Sleeping Island in Fjords possesses the hugest witch organization, the leader of which is your younger sister. Moreover, Graycastle is a big country which defeated the church, so choosing it as our first destination in search of the Chosen One was quite plausible. But I didn’t expect that Phyllis would connect with you so soon and bring us an astonishing message. To be honest, I thought it’d take us two to three years to achieve this.”
“Great. It seems we’ve saved two to three years of precious time. Our meeting is worthy of being written into history for this accomplishment alone,” Roland said, smiling.
“It seems so,” Pasha also smiled and said, “but the premises are that we defeat the demons and then live and prosper in the Land of Dawn.”
“Sure, as long as the commoners and witches could drop the misunderstandings and cooperate hand in hand, demons aren’t an indestructible enemy.” Roland paused and said, “I could also help you in your search for the Chosen One. After all, it’s not a bad thing to have one more powerful weapon to compete with the demons, but our cooperation must rest on mutual understandings. What do you think?”
“Agreed.” The tentacles on Pasha’s body waved tidily. “If there is anything you want to know, please just ask, Your Majesty.”
Roland turned around, looked at Tilly and all the other witches, then said slowly, “After hearing about the buried history, my biggest confusion is, what on earth did you find in the ruin? For that, Taquila took on the huge cost of breaking with Starfall City, which then led to the collapse of the Union.”
This was also one of the key reasons why Roland decided to actively contact the survivors. The technique of Soul Transfer was something that even modern science and technology could not tackle. The Instrument of Divine Retribution which the witches believed could replace the God’s Punishment Army plan and thoroughly destruct the demons, must be extraordinary. He would not blindly believe the scientific and technological knowledge he possessed was perfect. Drawing on each other’s merits and raising the level together was common sense to modern people.
As a matter of fact, he had always wanted to combine this seemingly omnipotent magic power with science and technology. When he saw the witch precisely transmit live images onto the western region castle with the aid of the objects taken from the ancient ruin, he was determined that this meeting was absolutely necessary.
There was no doubt that this must be beyond the witches ability limit.
“Pasha!”
“Are you sure you want to tell him all about it?”
“That’s God’s secret!”
“We made a big sacrifice to…”
Instantly, several voices full of worries or dissatisfaction rushed through his mind. Roland then realized that many other Taquila witches were also witnessing this meeting.
“It’s exactly because we’ve made a big sacrifice… We shouldn’t do that in vain.” Pasha interrupted the crowd’s discussion. “If we can’t withstand the demons massive invasion, do you wish for us to bring this secret to the grave, like those tombstones we found?”
Her loud retort quietened the crowd. It was probably because she made a crucial point, nobody else stood out to object to her anymore.
This reaction drew Roland’s attention. “It seems that what Phyllis said about the survivors was mostly true. They have, to some extent, eliminated the influence of class and status, otherwise, they wouldn’t have argued about such a major issue on the spot. But generally speaking, Pasha remains of relatively high prestige among them.”
“Sorry, this information is indeed of vital importance…” Pasha’s tentacles drooped toward the living room as though they were expressing an apology. “Under these circumstances, it can’t remain a secret anymore. At least not between each other.” After a moment’s silence, she added, “To be precise, it wasn’t that we found the ruin, but it was the ruin which reached out to us.”
Roland frowned, “It reached out to Taquila?”
“Not Taquila, but a time prior to ours… approximately not long after the beginning of the first Battle of Divine Will.”
“By ‘us’, does Pasha mean the entire human race?” Somehow, Roland felt a chill spreading from under his feet. “That was almost 800 years ago.”
“That’s true. Unfortunately, we didn’t get its meaning then.” Pasha sighed. “What reached out to us was a civilization. One that had disappeared underground.”
Chapter 734: The Root of the Divergence
p>“Underground… civilization?”
Roland could not help but think of the turnoffs on the North Slope Mine and the cluster of grottos running through the Impassable Mountain Range… In his memory, no geological movement could create such unique landforms. At first, he thought that they were created by some sort of mutant hybrid demonic beasts. But according to what Pasha said, maybe they were traces left by the underground civilization?
“At that time, people didn’t realize it, nor did they intend to communicate with it. Our forms were so different that we even considered them as a new type of demon, which was why there was a huge deviation on the recorded history. It wasn’t until the final phase of the second Battle of Divine Will that there was a breakthrough discovery.” Pasha’s voice was low and deep. “By then, Taquila was the only city left of the three holy cities. The Union had reached a vital moment of survival or extinction.”
“What do you mean by a breakthrough discovery?”
“With the help of the remaining lithograph, the Quest Society figured out the way to store souls and verified it on an unhatched original carrier. Since then, the Three Chiefs embarked on the research for the transformation of the God’s Punishment Army.”
“I knew nothing about that…” Agatha said surprisingly.
“Soul Transfer was the top secret of the Union. Its classification was even two levels higher than that of the God’s Punishment Army plan in which witches were used as the experiment mice. At that time, only the Three Chiefs and a few senior officials knew of it,” Pasha replied. “I only learned this astonishing information with the fall of Taquila.”
“So Natalia supported the God’s Punishment Army plan in the beginning?” Roland asked, frowning. “What’s an original carrier?”
“Because she was left with no choice. As to the latter… it’s what we look like right now.” Her tentacles drooped more and her body got closer to the light curtain. “My weird, ugly shell is the evidence that the underground civilization existed. It’s the only tombstone that it left. It’s a long story. Your Majesty, please allow me to slowly tell you.”
Roland nodded, poured himself a glass of Chaos Drink, leaned back in the chair and began to sense the consciousness transmitted from Pasha.
“According to the clues on the lithograph, the evanescent civilization left a city in the Impassable Mountain Range. The Quest Society searched for a long time without gaining anything. Then one day it occurred to them that since this civilization was used to moving underground, could this city be built underground as well?”
“After extending the search area, the witches finally found this magnificent city. It consisted of four layers with an area of about half the size of Taquila. On each layer there were countless turnoffs and hollow cavities, which were as complex as a maze. Without the guidance of a witch who could sense directions, one could easily get lost and never get out. For this reason, the Quest Society also called it the maze ruin.”
“Unfortunately before the Quest Society could carefully explore it, Taquila was occupied by the demons. Everybody had to escape from home. After paying a heavy price, we finally arrived at the maze. According to our plan, the Union would take away the original carrier stored in the maze, leave for the Hermes Plateau, and then build a new Holy City to restore orders at the east coast of the continent.”
“But no one would’ve guessed what would happen next.”
Pasha paused and the scales on her body dimmed. Even without looking at her facial expression, Roland could sense the grief in her heart.
After quite a while, she resumed transmitting. “Although it was after an interval, the Quest Society found the maze ruin that had been preserved in good condition. One can even say that it was an entirely new city. Besides the original carrier, the bottom layer of the ruin stored many unconceivable secrets, the most important three of which were the magic core, the central carrier, and the record of the evanescent civilization. Afterwards, the idea came to our minds that as early as the first Battle of Divine Will, the underground civilization had intended to lead us here.” Pasha inhaled deeply. “The maze ruin was prepared for us.”
“What for?” Tilly could not help but ask.
“For revenge.” Another voice appeared in everybody’s head. Compared with Pasha, this witch’s tone was much colder. “It hoped that we could destroy the demons and take revenge for its clan’s extinction.”
“It’s only Lady Natalia’s speculation. It wasn’t recorded in the document.” Pasha waved her tentacles like shaking a head. “It could be that they simply wanted their civilization to be passed down. Anyway, from the remaining record, the Quest Society retrieved many research materials related to God’s will and magic power. In order for us to understand the details, most of its conclusions were expressed in lithographs.”
“And the record about the magic core is the very root of the divergence between the Queen of Sunchaser and the Queen of Starfall City. One of the most important messages in the lithographs is, ‘magic power offers infinite possibilities and the pursuit of God’s will is the ladder to mastering magic power’.”
Roland sensed the key point coming. “What’s the magic core? Does it have anything to do with the Instrument of Divine Retribution?”
“You can take the core as an artificial Magic Cyclone. It’s not confined to a witch’s body and can adjust its forms at any time. This bizarre device almost overturned the Union’s knowledge system.” Using one of her tentacles to point at the light curtain, Pasha said, “For example, the phantom instrument we’re using for our communication is a minor scaled magic core. When necessary, it can be converted into other instruments. As to the Instrument of Divine Retribution, it’s the biggest magic core in the ruin.”
“I see…” Roland instantly realized the superiority of this instrument. Compared with the witches abilities which were inherently unchangeable, the magic core was virtually a universal terminal. Most of all, its effective distance far exceeded the five-meter limit. Either for production or for military use, it was way more powerful than the witches.
“But it’s just the primary usage of the magic power. Just as the relationship between the original awakening and the high evolution, the lithograph predicted that with the deepening of the development of magic power, one day we could finally be equivalent to God…” Pasha said with a sense of loss as if she was not saying something significant. Instead, she sounded like someone who had lost their way.
Roland realized the point of her last words.
“But you ran out of time.”
“You’re right. At first, we didn’t know how long it would take for that day to arrive. It could take a century or a millennium. In order to approach the magic core, several Quest Society members had lost their lives. Obviously, witches can’t touch those bizarre instruments. We wanted to solve the problem, but didn’t know how to do it, so our exploration came to a dead end. The lithograph could only show very limited information. If we were to carry out our research, we had to follow their instructions. Only when there were enough people integrated with the central carrier, could we comprehend their language so as to further read their more profound documents and records.”
“But we didn’t have enough time. We’d spent three years figuring these things out. Many common people who had joined us earlier tried to get rid of our control and knowing how many witches were needed to integrate with the carrier remained unknown. But at that time, our resources could only sustain one attempt of research. If it went on like this, the great plan of the Union to restore order would have lost its foundation.”
“The most important thing is that Lady Alice’s plan of the God’s Punishment Army has an irreconcilable conflict with the concept recorded in the underground civilization’s documents. If a witch abandons her body to become a God’s Punishment Warrior, she’ll not only lose the chance to be promoted,” Pasha paused, then said, “but also lose God’s Will forever.”
Chapter 735: Legacy of the Civilization
p>Roland could easily guess what had happened next.
After knowing that God’s Punishment Army was not the only way to compete with demons on the battlefields any more, the Taquila survivors who didn’t want to reduce their own kind to the materials for shells must have caused a great conflict with Alice.
Given that, the Battle of Faiths recorded in the written history of the the church probably is just a story made up to cover the truth of this dispute.
As for the root of this disagreement, it did not just lie in the difference between the faith in God’s Punishment Army and that in the Chosen One. At that moment, all the leaders of the Union must have been very clear that neither of the choices was able to guarantee their victory in the war against demons.
According to Phyllis, the plan proposed by the Queen of Starfall City to have God’s Punishment Army rest in an everlasting sleep would indeed create 3,000 to 4,000 powerful, experienced extraordinary warriors before the third Battle of Divine Will, but the survivors of the Union had also noticed a fatal defect in this plan. As souls needed lots of time to adapt to their shells, once this army suffered an inevitable loss during the wartime, it would be impossible for the Union to replace casualties with new warriors in a short time. As a result, this army might only be able to block demons for a decade, or even, by any chance, retrieve the ruined Holy City of Taquila, but they could never recapture the whole Land of Dawn.
As for the choice to search for the Chosen One, they had thought it as an even more risky plan because of its extremely slim chance of success. However, they had also seen the benefit of it. If they found the one, human beings would be able to win the war at little cost and would even get closer to the deities based on the records on the lithograph.
For the survivors of the Union, searching for the Chosen One meant betting on the future while the God’s Punishment Army plan the present.
“What about the result? Did you defeat the Starfall City?” Roland asked.
“Taquila was not the final winner. No one would be in this conflict. When both sides lost their Transcendents, Lady Eleanor stood out to stop this internal disaccord and integrated herself into the central carrier. She was the first witch merging with it.”
Shocked, Agatha asked, “You mean, in the ruins of the maze, all the Three Chiefs were…”
Pasha said plaintively, “Yes, the Union lost all the three Transcendents in this internal struggle. It was also the end of the Three Chiefs system. As a result, the ruins of the maze became an indispensable part of the Union. Both sides decided to stop fighting and then reached an agreement through negotiation. As agreed, the survivors of Taquila stayed in the ruins studying the magic core and those of the Starfall City went to Hermes and built a new Holy City there. Due to the limited number of the original carriers, the survivors of the Starfall City also agreed to offer us a certain number of empty shells in the next 100 years. ”
“We also agreed that if we failed to make a breakthrough in the Chosen One plan or found no leads of her, they would have the right to take back all the research results in the ruins, including the soul containers and the original carriers. They claimed that by then they would come with their God’s Punishment Warriors and that if we broke the agreement, they would never compromise again.”
Notice something was wrong here, Roland interrupted, “wait… After 100 years, the church didn’t come to you, did they?”
Based on what he knew, in the past hundreds of years, the witches of Taquila had hid underground and never had a say in the world. Meanwhile all the church’s God’s Punishment Warriors had been soulless. Despite the defect in the warriors, the church still greatly outnumbered the Taquila witches, yet it had never sent any troops to the ruins of the maze. Roland wondered whether the church people had totally forgotten about this agreement.
Pasha sighed. “For a long time we were unable to know what was going on in Hermes or any other things that happened outside the ruins of the maze since the original carriers could not be exposed to the sun and the witches who transferred their souls into new bodies needed a long time to adapt to them. When we were able to go outside, we were surprised to discover that they didn’t follow lady Alice’s will when building the new order.”
Agatha said through her teeth, “I knew that! I knew lady Alice would never create such rules. As compared to her plan of God’s Punishment Army, what the church did was destroying the foundation of the witches!”
All the Taquila survivors agreed with her at once.
Roland waited until they calmed down and changed the subject. “What’s a central carrier? Is it different from the original carriers?”
Another voice started to explain, “They’re all shells. As the living beings of the underground civilization were extremely fragile, they had to live in shells. These things were immortal, but we can’t find any detailed information about where they came from in the documents left in the ruins. Based on what we know now, the original carriers are the most common shells, whereas the central carrier which looks similar to them stores many unconscious memories. You can consider it as an original carrier which had been used for many years but had no self-awareness. We need to integrate all the memories into it to understand the remaining documented experiement records in the ruins.” She sounded soft and elegant, different from Pasha and the angry witch.
Listening to this voice, Roland quickly pictured in his head an academic woman who had a long thick braid and wore a pair of black-framed round glasses. He said to her, “Thank you for explaining this to me, you’re…”
“My name is Celine, Your Majesty. I was a member of the Quest Society and used to work with Agatha.”
Agatha got closer to him and whispered in his ear, “I’m not familiar with her. We worked in the same research tower but on different floors. I heard that she was a quiet girl, but every time when it came to magic power, she would become passionate, acting like a totally different person.”
Hearing this, Roland thought, “Only someone like this woman would become a faithful follower of Natalia.” He cleared his throat and asked her another question, “So, are the witches who merged with the central carrier still alive?”
Celine replied, “not really. Apart from the dozen witches who severely injured in the internal battle, there was another thirty-six of us who volunteered to follow lady Eleanor to merge with it. Not everyone was willing to turn into such a monster or spend the rest of her life trapped in a body that can’t feel anything. Their sacrifice finally activated the central carrier, but unfortunately, it can only say yes or no in a dialogue but can’t make a normal conversation.”
Roland was intrigued at once. “It can answer yes or no to any question?”
Celine also grew a little more excited. “It only answers a question it understands and it’ll respond more quickly if you specify your question. It enables us to mend or adjust the magic core. It’s essentially a combination of all the Taquila witches’ willpower. The more witches merge with it, the faster its reaction is. For us, to accompany Lady Eleanor was the last we can do to contribute to the search for the magic power.”
Meanwhile, Roland was excited about something else. “Doesn’t the mechanism of input and feedback sound like a primary bio-computer system? If I set all the conditions, will the central carrier be able to solve an equation or complete some complex calculations by itself? I really want to take this thing to Neverwinter and thoroughly study it here!”
Knowing that it was not the time to make such a request, he decided to put those thoughts aside at this moment and express his wish in future negotiations.
He drank all the Chaos Drink in his cup and said, “I see. Now I’ve got a basic understanding of your situation, but I still have one question. You, the church and those ancient books have repeatedly mentioned the Divine Will, and I heard that one could even feel the existence of the deities in a secret chamber exclusive for the Pope on the top floor of a secret temple under the Hermes Plateau. Could you tell me what the Divine Will is? ”
Chapter 736: The Giant Paintings and the Divine Will
p>Pasha was astonished at Roland’s question for a moment and then said, “Phyllis is right. You do know lots about us. As for the Divine Will, we didn’t know much about it until the fall of Taquila, so it’s impossible for you to get this information from Agatha.”
Roland put on some airs by propping his chin with interlaced fingers and said, “Don’t forget it, the church was defeated by me. All the Pure Witches who held management positions in the Holy City of Hermes now are imprisoned in Neverwinter.”
“I see.”
With these words, Pasha became silent, as if she were looking at Roland carefully. Even though she had no eyes, he could still felt her gaze. After a long time, Pasha’s voice appeared in his head again. “I can tell you what the Divine Will is, but you have to promise you’ll keep this secret forever and so do the others in this meeting. If people are running after or protecting something intangible, they won’t easily fall into despair, but when this something becomes tangible, they’ll probably get stressed out. I mean if this information is leaked out, it’ll do no good to human beings.”
Roland made an eye contact with all his witches to confirm that they would keep this secret and then asked in a deep voice, “So that’s to say, the Divine Will is something tangible?”
Pasha slowed down, as if she was talking while recalling. “Yes, it looks like a transparent God’s Stone of Retaliation, shaped like a spindle apparatus, but it can’t affect the use of magic power or has any other special function. As long as you open your heart near it, you’ll truly feel the call of the deities and see something incredible.”
“Like what?”
“You’ll see an infinitely spacious hall with the Bloody Moon high above your head and four giant paintings around you. The paintings seem to be alive and change all the time…” The ancient witch described the illusion created by the Divine Will in detail.
Tilly could not help asking, “What do those paintings stand for?”
Hearing this question, all of them held their breath waiting for the answer.
Pasha’s tentacles stood up at once. “This question baffled the people for nearly 1,000 years. The Quest Society kept on looking for the answer but failed. We had no idea about it either until we decoded the contents in the documented records in the ruins of ruins. The four paintings the deities showed us respectively represent the mankind, the demons, some unknown enemy and the underground civilization. The shape of the Divine Will corroborates this speculation, as it’s not a complete spindle apparatus but a quarter of a sphere which we called the relic of the deities.”
Roland knitted his eyebrows. “Four Giant Paintings and a quarter of the relic of deities… Do you mean every civilization pictured in the paintings has a relic like this?”
“Not everyone. The underground civilization lost its part of the Divine Will. As a result, one of the paintings showed by the deities is always black. It turned black right after the end of the first Battle of Divine Will. According to the documented records in the ruin of the maze and those in the ancient documents of the Union, we surmise that the underground civilization is already removed from the Battle of Divine Will forever.” Gooseprickles crawled up everyone’s arms when they heard Pasha’s answer.
They were shocked to learn that all the civilizations had fought for hundreds of years just for some relic, and more importantly, for each civilization, losing its part of relic would mean losing everything.
Hearing such a shocking news, Roland knitted his eyebrows even more tightly together. As compared to some unknown enemy in this war, what he cared more about was who had set up the whole thing. He wondered, “is it merely an accident or carefully arranged. Did it happen randomly or due to human being’s doomed fate? What’s the purpose of leaving behind this relic? Does it have anything to do with the Bloody Moon which emerges periodically? More importantly, did the Taquila survivors understand these things correctly?” He was lost in thought and meanwhile felt he caught a vague clue…
He thought,”What if I replace the word ‘deities’ in this story with something else?”
When he was absorbed in thought, Tilly asked, “If we collect all of the four parts of the relic, what will happen? Didn’t the deities give you any guidance?”
Pasha calmly replied, “No one knows the answer, and the deities have never responded to our calls. The deities don’t love people. They only favor the winner.”
Wendy exclaimed in disbelief, “How come… we’ve fought for hundreds of years just because of a useless stone? The Divine Will is… so cruel.”
The ancient witch tried to comfort her. “So it appears. I hope these words in the documented records in the ruins of the maze will solve your question, although they are quite hard to understand. ‘All of us are the deities’ children, but only a few of us will be able to see the dawn. Since we sensed magic power, we’ve been destined to lead a life uncommon. This competition has lasted for a long period of time. We are already one-in-a-thousand elite. Birds weren’t birds, and we weren’t us. Fighting makes things thrive, and competition makes living beings eternal.’”
Something flashed across Roland’s mind like a bolt of lightning.
He abruptly interrupted, ‘What did you say?”
“All of us are the deities’ children?”
“No, something after this.”
Scroll replied, “‘this competition has lasted for a long period of time. We are already one-in-a-thousand elite.’ Your Majesty, I’ve memorized all of it.”
What does that sound like?
This thing described by the underground civilization resembles the process of evolution! From barbaric period to civilized age, every civilization that exists now has defeated numerous opponents during its development course.
And all the four different civilizations we know have a thing in common, which is they all know how to use magic power.
Among human beings, witches are the ones who can use this kind of power, and demons and the underground civilization seem to be even better at controlling it. Given that, the other unknown enemy must also be able to use it.
If that’s true, everything will be consistent with the underground civilization’s description. The “children” in the sentence “All of us are the deities’ children” probably refers to the species who were gifted to manipulate magic power.
In this way, the Battles of Divine Will aren’t caused by the deities’ relic. Instead, they are just a means of accelerating evolution or the basic rules of this magic world. This also corroborates the underground civilization’s conclusion that elevating magic power is the way to get closer to the deities.
Pasha’s voice reverberated across Roland’s head. “Your Majesty, are you all right? I feel your mind is a little out of order.”
“Oh? Are you able to see what I’m thinking?”
“No, I can only know what you are thinking when you are ready to communicate with me through your mind. For example, now I’m willing to talk with you through my mind, so you are able to hear what I’m thinking.” Pasha paused for a while and asked, “It’ll be more efficient to communicate that way. Do you want to give it try?”
Roland shook his head, smiling. “No, I prefer to express myself using my throat and my tongue. As for the confusion… I just thought of something interesting. But relax, it won’t affect our communication.”
Thinking that sometimes rules were just rules, and there might not be a reason for them, he felt it was acceptable to consider them as something created by the deities. As far as he knew, the origin of life and the Cambrian explosion on earth were also puzzling things. Life is said to form out of lightning and boiling water where organic molecules constantly collided, merged and split and then formed a molecular chain which could reproduce itself. The chance of that is as slim as that of a hurricane assembling a Benz sports car by whirling lots of metal parts into the air.
As for the Cambrian explosion, it was even more mysterious. A sea which only had had some simple creatures such as algae and mollusc for several hundred million years seemed to be filled with various kinds of animals overnight. In a short span of time in the Cambrian period, most major animal phyla of the earth appeared in a sudden. No matter how living beings on the earth evolved in the following years, they can all be traced back to their origins that formed in this period of time.
As these two great changes which gave a strong impetus to the species evolution on the earth are both events of extremely low probability, some people attribute them to some mysterious power beyond description. They believe that it’s an invisible hand that pushed the world on the earth to develop into what it’s like today. What about this strange magic world? Does such power really exist in here?
Chapter 737: The Leader
p>Roland was clear that it was nothing but his own speculation.
I can’t jump to a conclusion based solely on the documentation of the underground civilization since their contents still need further verification. For example, the underground civilization thought that they successfully survived a series of competition, but what about their opponents who probably were also able to use magic power? Where did they leave their traces? What about human beings? Did witches first appear before the first Battle of Divine Will— or rather, was the mankind gifted with the sense of magic when they were still primates or even at the beginning of the Mammalian age?
Maybe, human beings in this world didn’t go through such a long process of evolution at all. Could they directly become what they are now through mutation after gaining a victory?
He was afraid that to answer these questions, he would need a great number of outstanding explorers like Thunder.
As compared to those researches, his top priority still remained to be human survival, but he believed that it was just a matter of time for him to find out the answers.
He looked at Pasha, asking, “Before you moved this part of relic underground, had it been kept by the church… no, I mean the Starfall City all the time?”
Now that he knew the importance of the relic, he started to care about its safety.
“Yes. Due to the existence of the giant paintings, burying it underground can’t prevent the Divine Will. Therefore, it’s always kept by the most powerful witch organization. During the Months of Demons when magic power reaches its peak, demonic beasts will come for it. That was why they launched frenzied attacks at Hermes during those months before.” With these words, Pasha moved her giant body away, revealing the scene behind her. Two piles of dead bodies of demonic beasts stood there with light blue blood dripping down and flowing all over the ground. Pasha continued, “After we knew the Starfall City had suffered a serious setback, we took back the relic as soon as we could. Now it’s very safe in our hands.”
Wendy gasped at the sight. “How did you kill that many hybrid demonic beasts?”
“The Instrument of Divine Retribution can deprive the targets of their magic power, and these monsters will die soon without the power in their bodies.” Pasha briefly described how this instrument worked and continued. “But it’ll only become a mighty weapon when it’s activated by the Chosen One.”
Roland caught the keyword immediately. “Deprive them of their magic power? So does it mean that it’ll do no harm to normal animals? Can God’s Stones influence the instrument?”
“No, it directly affects magic power, and God’s Stones can’t do anything about it at all.”
Learning that this instrument could affect an area within a radius of over 5,000 miles without causing any side effects to living beings without magic power, Roland had to admit it was really an environmentally friendly weapon. Unfortunately, however, its start-up requirement seemed too harsh.
He wondered whether the underground civilization had really tested this instrument’s power or not. “Maybe they’ve just done it in theory? Otherwise, they wouldn’t end up losing its relic in the war. Wait, did they create something they couldn’t use? This kind of absurd things could only happen in this strange magic world.”
Thinking that the underground civilization had an advanced magic theory and demons were able to cultivate various kinds of abilities, he realized human beings seemed to have no advantage in manipulating magic power at all. The witches were not a stable group. Their awakenings happened randomly among people and their abilities were hard to predict and control. Given that, he believed they still need a long time to evolve, but now there was not much time left for human beings.
Roland suspected that by the time the Taquila witches found the Chosen One, Neverwinter’s armies equipped with advanced steel weapons had already gained an upper hand in the war against demons.
Despite all those thoughts, he would never try to deny the existence of magic power in this world.
He decided to carry out research on both science and magic power at the same time. In this way, the new findings of magic power would increase their productivity. In the meantime, the development of productivity would generate more resources for the studies on magic power.
He believed all research projects could be successfully carried out as long as there was plenty of money and manpower, including the one on magic power.
Now that he knew the basic situation of the Taquila survivors, he thought it was time to negotiate with them.
He said, “Pasha, thank you for telling me your situation and research results. As demons are obviously our common enemy, we should work together and pool our resources to fight against them. How about we building a united front of Divine Will to further our cooperation and coordination?”
Pasha tapped with her tentacles. “I agree. We only hope Your Majesty will continue your policy to gather more witches. All the Taquila witches want is to find the Chosen One among them. We’ll send another God’s Punishment Witch to bring you a new Five-Colored Stone.”
“I’ll continue the policy anyway. Even if you don’t say that, I’m still going to expand the witch organization in my kingdom, but…” He paused for a while. “I think you’d better move to another place, such as the western mountains near Neverwinter.”
“Well…”
Before Pasha gave her answer, all the witches in the reception hall stirred. “Your Majesty?”
“What about demonic beasts?”
At this moment, all the witches were staring at him. Some seemed worried and some nervous. Only Agatha gave him an approving look as if she had known that he was going to make such a request.
Roland surveyed them and signaled the witches to calm down and relax. After that, he turned to look at Pasha on the light curtain again and said, “To be honest, I can’t agree with your plan to protect the relic on your own. Once you lose it, all human beings’ efforts will be wasted. Demonic beasts aren’t tough enemies, but without the defensive line in Hermes, are you sure you can protect the relic when demons launch a surprise attack on you?”
Having heard that the underground civilization diminished probably because they lost its part of the relic, he thought it was better to put this thing under his own protection or somewhere near him. He would feel better if he would be able to send an army to support them immediately when they were attacked.
Celine seemed to be disagreeable. “As long as we change the annihilation core, demons will become easy targets as demonic beasts.”
“No, they won’t. Demons are way more powerful and intelligent than demonic hybrids. I can tell from the packed dead bodies that those demonic beasts were once very close to your core region. If I guess correctly, the Instrument of Divine Retribution isn’t far away from the phantom instrument.” Roland noticed that the little tentacles on Pasha stiffened for a moment when she heard this sentence. “If some Mad Demons who can throw spears attack you guys, how many magic cores will be able to remain intact?”
“But…”
Roland continued to explain patiently, “If you still think I won’t do any better than you or worry about that demonic beasts would be attracted by the relic, you can settle down on the side of the western mountains close to the Fertile Plains and I’ll build a road to connect your place with Neverwinter. In that case, I’ll be able to help you whenever you’re in trouble: Trust is the foundation of cooperation, and placing the relic where both parties regard as safe is the first step to build our mutual trust, isn’t it?”
Pasha remained speechless with her tentacles intertwined with those of the other blobs. They seemed to be communicating with each other rapidly in this way. After seven or eight minutes, she started to talk again.
“Before I give our reply, I’d like to ask a question first. If we do form a united front of… Divine Will as you said, who’ll lead us to fight against demons?”
Chapter 738: Only One Leader
p>Surprised by this sudden question, Roland fell silent for a moment and then asked with a smile, “You seem to have something else to say?”
Pasha replied, “As this united front is related to the survival of all human beings, we hope that every decision we make here can be given full consideration. To this end… we the survivors of Taquila suggest we adopt a co-governance mechanism for the united front. Under such a system, all decisions will be jointly made by the heads of the most powerful groups after negotiation. By doing so, we’ll be able to avoid misjudgment and ensure an equal interest of every party.”
“Uhm… it sounds like the Union’s Three Chiefs system.”
The ancient witch further explained, “A triumvirate can ensure a quick and well-balanced decision-making process, but it’s not the only choice. Regarding the current situation, we’d better build a system to include the Four Kingdoms and all the witch organizations. In the early days of the Union, there were 11 leaders planning our military campaigns at the roundtable.”
Hearing this, Roland had to admit they were quite clever in this matter since this co-governance mechanism they proposed would surely guarantee their own status in the united front. At this moment, except his Graycastle, all the kingdoms and witch organizations such as the Witch Union and Sleeping Island could hardly compete with the Taquila survivors who had taken over all the magic power instruments left by the underground civilization and owned over 100 God’s Punishment Witches. They had accumulated rich fighting experiences during a decades-long battle against demons and were overwhelmingly powerful when fighting with other witches and common armies.
Roland believed that if he agreed, the Taquila witches would naturally become one of the policymakers of the co-governance system. They would further ensure their own interests by stressing their identities as witches to gain recognition from and establish good relationships with the other witch organizations.
He thought that they made such a request probably because they wanted to protect themselves not because they were planning something like restoring their rule over human beings or overthrowing the kingdoms. He understood that every group would be prudent and want such a self-protecting measure before joining in a large organization. If he had been the old Prince Roland who had recently become a lord of Border Town, he would have accepted this suggestion of the Taquila witches, but now he was different.
With an air of authority, he said, “An interesting suggestion, but the united front won’t adopt a co-governance mechanism. It’ll have only one leader. That is me. This is the most efficient and reliable way of managing it.”
He agreed that modesty was a virtue but also knew that now was not the right time for him to be humble, since he was clear that the Three Chiefs system might be a good choice for the Union but not for him.
He was the only one in this world who knew what industrialization was and how to make the best use of all the resources in his domain.
To see rapid industrialization, he had to make all his administrative departments do what he said and work together like a set of machines toward the same goal. He wanted every order issued by his City Hall to smoothly reach all his subjects and all the resources within his domain to be allocated and managed in accordance with his plan. Adopting a co-governance system under which he would have to explain and convince all the other policymakers to carry out a policy obviously would slow down the process of industrialization.
Seeing Roland reject Taquila’s idea outright and bluntly, all the people in the meeting was fell into an awkward silence, including those ancient witches.
Roland cleared his throat and calmly continued. “The united front is built to guarantee that we’ll work together to fight against demons, but I don’t require you to join in it at the very beginning. I want you to move to the Western Region to build mutual trust first. As compared to some oral agreement, the facts you’ll see here will be more convincing.”
“What… are we going to see?”
He explained, “You’re going to see our strength and determination to fight against demons and the current situation of some other organizations, both those that are a part of the united front and those not. After that, you can make a decision to join in or not. Even if you don’t join in, we’ll still be able to cooperate on many other projects, such as experiments and the search for the Chosen One. I promise I won’t interfere with your internal affairs.”
Celine interrupted, “You won’t mind if we don’t give you the relic and the magic core?”
“No, and in fact, I’ve never planned to depend on those instruments in the ruins of the maze to defeat demons. Regarding the relic, as long as it’s kept in a safe place, I won’t have a problem with it. Like I said, working together to look for the Chosen One and protect the relic is the first step to build our mutual trust. As for further cooperation, we can take it slow.”
The cold voice which remained silent for a long time appeared again. “I’ve got to say you’re very uncommon, you common man, but have you ever thought that controlling the united front on your own can be very risky. If the Battle of Divine Will lasts decades and during this period of time you inevitably become old and weak, how can you ensure that your successors will follow your will to lead us in the war? Only a co-governance mechanism can effectively prevent such a problem.”
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem at all. I’m not sure how long will the war last, but I’m afraid my life will be longer than all of yours combined.” At this moment, he felt he needed to bluff. Although, he was not sure whether he had got Zero’s lifespan as he obviously did not get her magic power. He knew that to convince these ancient witches, he had better explain his decision with some incredible power rather than persuading them that a special system which they had never heard of would guarantee that his successors would carry on his work.
He described to them the Soul Battlefield in detail and many witches chimed in. After that, there was a long silence.
He saw that the tentacles of the blobs knotted together again and the scales on their bodies turned from grayish brown to reddish brown, which indicated that they had a heated discussion now.
After a long time, their tentacle hang down.
Pasha said solemnly, “I understand, but we need at least a month to move all the things we need. I hope you can offer us some building materials as one cave isn’t enough for all our things. We need to build a palace and a laboratory inside the western mountains.”
Roland was surprised and asked, “Wait a minute, how can you build something like that underground?” It was not easy to conduct an underground construction, for the environment below the earth was wet and dark. As such he had planned to ask Lotus to connect some underground caves in the western mountains for the Taquila survivors since their bodies would not require very comfortable living conditions. However, they seemed to have mastered better construction skills than him and even planned to build a new palace underground.
Pasha explained, “Our devouring worm will do the job. It’s a big shell looking like a wild beast. We’ve got one in the ruins. That was the shell we used to sneak into the City of Glow in the Kingdom of Dawn.”
Chapter 739: The Handshake
oland felt a jolt, thinking, “Why do these things sound similar to the giant demonic beast in the snow mountain?”
When he was about to raise this question, Agatha asked Pasha, “Are you the ones who entered the Devil’s Town and devoured the Blackstone Pagoda?”
Pasha was confused, saying, “Devil’s… Town? No, we didn’t. We’ve only used our devouring worm to mend the ruins and build the tunnel to the City of Glow. We can’t afford to use it so frequently since it eats a lot.”
Roland described the witches’ adventures in the Misty Forest and the Devil’s Town located to the west of the Western Region. After that, he asked Scroll to take out the pictures of the scenes drawn by Soraya and explained, “this monster, much bigger than any wild beast, seemed to move toward the great snow mountain.”
Seeing the vivid pictures, Pasha took a deep breath and said, “Yes, it’s indeed a devouring worm. I’m afraid that there’re also some ruins left by the underground civilization in the snow mountain you mentioned. According to the literatures we read here, this civilization once could be found everywhere in the Land of Dawn. This record is reliable, as now we can easily find tracks and numerous tunnels left by devouring worms in every high mountain.”
“But you think the underground civilization has already perished.”
“Yes, we do, but the worm was just a shell like an original carrier. A soul can get into it and then move it.”
Hearing this, Roland’s heart sank in a sudden. He glanced around and found all the witches in the reception hall looked solemn at this moment. Obviously, everybody guessed that the one who sent the worm to Agatha’s research tower and the Devil’s Town must be the unknown enemy in the Battle of Divine Will.
Roland wondered whether this enemy had happened to find the ruins and some worm shells in the snow mountain and transfer souls into those shells.
If this was the case, he believed it would not be a big problem.
However, if they had also found some magic cores and a central carrier, he believed he would have big trouble. Will these things drastically improve their magic theory and even enable them to create some Instrument of Divine Retribution against the witches?
He thought they had an excellent chance of finding some shells and even instruments in the snow mountain. Unlike the Impassible Mountain Range and the Dragonspine Mountain Range, it did not stretch very long, but its major peak was the highest mount in the Western Region. According to Pasha, such a great mountain was a perfect place to build a large underground city for the underground civilization. Given this, he decided that he must do something about it.
Celine anxiously said, “Your Majesty, please assist us in exploring the snow mountain as soon as possible, in case there’re some remaining instruments.”
“And the various kinds of shells recorded in the literature. If the unknown enemy gets them, I’m afraid it would cause us lots of trouble.” Compared to Celine, Pasha still sounded calm, but all her tentacles were waving rapidly, showing her anxiety inside.
This news apparently caused a stir among the blobs, as it was getting noisy behind Pasha.
Roland quickly got why they were so excited.
Living in the God’s Punishment Warriors’ bodies for hundreds of years resembled being imprisoned in endless emptiness, which explained why they were so interested in the new carriers. However, compared with living in the bodies of God’s Punishment Army, the carriers at least enabled them to have some feelings including a sense of smell, though they would not look like human beings anymore.
Roland pretended to hesitate, saying, “I see your point. I’d been planning to explore the snow mountain of the Western Region, but as I didn’t have any suitable means of transport and didn’t want the witches to take any risk, I had to postpone in the end. If I could get the help from your devouring worm for this exploration, I think it’ll be a good opportunity…”
Pasha immediately promised, “We’ll start to move as fast as we can.”
Roland, who had been thinking about how to start the cooperation with the Taquila survivors, was also happy to get this chance. In fact, even if they didn’t ask him to explore the mountain, he would do it sooner or later in order to eliminate potential threats around Neverwinter and satisfy his own curiosity toward the big carriers which were able to drill huge tunnels underground.
He could easily think of a long list of things these carriers could do.
He had planned to use the Impassable Mountain Range as a natural barrier against the demons, but current engineering techniques did not allow him to do so. The transportation of cement and bricks alone would be a tricky problem, as the mountain paths were rugged and sinuous and the weather condition there was very unstable. If some soldiers were garrisoned on the mountains, he would have to build barbette for them. Near the military facilities, he would also need to build barracks, roads, and necessary living facilities, which would be a big challenge for Hummingbird and Lotus.
However, if he had a devouring worm, he could solve all those problems by drilling a straight underground tunnel connecting the barbette on the mountain with Neverwinter and building underground ammunition reservoir and barracks which could keep them away from the snow storm. He could even build a railroad in the tunnel so that steam trailers could be used to transport soldiers and goods.
With reinforced concrete blockhouses on the ground and convenient transportation lines underground, that would be the natural chasm defense line he wanted.
This devouring worm could also be used to build underground utilities and sewage discharge system for the city. When that happened, he would proudly announce that in this age, Neverwinter was the first city to have an underground drainage system in which people could walk freely. He believed that this worm would be praised highly as a magic tool in the civil engineering field before the invention of tunnel boring machine and would be considered as important as the magic core and the bio-computer.
Roland rose and walked to the light curtain, extending his right hand toward Pasha. “I hope this is the beginning of building our mutual trust.”
“Your Majesty, this is…”
He looked at this monster who was several meters taller than himself and calmly explained, “It’s a handshake, representing a preliminary agreement between us.”
After a little hesitation, Pasha dropped the thickest tentacle on her head. It moved in a spiral and touched his palm in the end.
He thought, “What a pity. Soraya isn’t here to witness and record this moment worthy being memorized forever.”
When the image of Pasha started to distort, he suddenly asked, “Ah… wait, you said every high mountain might have ruins left by the underground civilization. What about the mountains in the deep sea?”
Pasha was surprised, saying, “Are there mountains under the sea? According to the literature, they did not go to the sea and only lived on the Land of Dawn. I think they might not be able to move around in the sea, as most of their carriers were heavy and clumsy. Why did you ask about this?”
“Nothing, I’m just curious.” Roland shook his head and lost in thoughts.
They only lived on the Land of Dawn… so the weird underwater spire and telescope have nothing to do with the underground civilization, but who owns the Giant Stone Gates that Thunder saw through the old telescope and the land which only appears during flood tide? The unknown enemy in the Battle of Divine Will?
I hope Thunder can find the answer.
At this moment, the purple light curtain distorted and then disappeared.
The reception hall got back to normal.
Chapter 740: A Beautiful Night
p>As night fell, Wendy went to the door of Scroll’s bedroom.
She held out her hand, hesitating whether she should knock or not. However, just at that moment, Scroll opened the door.
“I knew you would come find me.” Scroll smiled. “I also wanted to talk to you, just like we used to.”
Scroll had apparently taken an early shower as her long, wet hair was randomly hanging over her shoulders instead of being tied up. She had also placed a towel on her shoulders in order to avoid getting her night robe wet. At first glimpse, she appeared to be a little younger, with her flowing hair covering the wrinkles on her forehead. After leading an increasingly comfortable life in Neverwinter, she looked more mellow.
Only her wise and mature eyes remained unchanged.
Wendy could not help smiling and asked, “In your bedroom or mine?”
“Yours. Nightingale will come back much later than Leaf.”
“Ok.”
“You serve the Chaos Drinks.”
“What?!?”
“Of course you do, whoever initiates the conversation is also responsible for the drinks. That’s our old rule and you know it.”
“So that’s why you waited for me behind the door?”
“That’s right. Patience is the most important thing and also one of the lessons l draw from life. Now, have you learned your lesson?”
“Fine…”
As they went back to Wendy’s bedroom and cleared up the desk, Wendy took two glasses and a bottle of Chaos Drink out of a drawer and poured it into the glasses. The orange-red drinks reflected a flame-like light against the light from the Magic Stone.
“That’s what you got?” Scroll took a sip of it. “You’re lucky. In winter, it’s as good as Fire Dragon Wine…”
“I’m jealous of you.” Wendy stretched her hands.
“Don’t put it like that. We can enjoy such a drink thanks to Miss Evelyn.”
Roland figured out a very interesting way to distribute the Chaos Drinks of various tastes to each witch of the Witch Union. Each witch, every month, had an opportunity to pick up a bottle of the Chaos Drinks created by Evelyn. No one knew what kind of flavor they would get as they would only see a number before the draw was revealed.
Therefore, on that day, the witches used to exchange their drinks or drink others’. Somehow, Maggie always got the most popular drink, making everyone wonder if Evelyn had revealed it to her.
As they took their time to enjoy the orange-red drink that warmed their hearts, they heard the sound of the cold wind outside the windows. They felt tipsy in the warm bedroom. They talked little as they could understand each other just by looking at one another.
In fact, Wendy had nothing specific to say and just felt very happy at the moment. When she closed her eyes, Roland Wimbledon’s earlier declaration would appear in her mind.
“Only I can be the leader.”
Before this, Roland, in her opinion, was very approachable. She was concerned that he would mess up or show weakness on some critical issues, which was unbecoming of a king. But now, he was much better than she had expected. Judging from his tone and expression in dealing with other people, he had become more mature and developed his compelling authority thanks to the last two years of experience.
To her surprise, Roland was much better at being a dominator. Even so, he treated the witches and common people the same as before. It seemed that it was his nature to be nice to witches, which was very odd, especially for a royal noble.
She knew that Scroll also had felt this change, so she had waited at the door for her.
It was a habit they had kept since they were in the Witch Cooperation Association. When they had some good news to share, Wendy, Scroll, and Cara would always get together to drink some cheap ale and talk about it overnight. However, they had to drink wild fruit-water instead of ale when their conditions became worse later on.
Sadly, they gradually talked about their concerns and problems instead of good news or plans because Cara had a different purpose from them, leaving Wendy and Scroll behind. As the eldest witches and the founders of the Witch Cooperation Association, Wendy and Scroll had to be strong, because if they gave up, all witches would lose their faith in seeking the Holy Mountain. That was how they survived through all the suffering and tough times.
And now, those times became the past once more.
Wendy drank out of the drink, let out a deep sigh, and said, “Well, after the meeting, I handed the test results of the witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart to His Majesty.”
“Oh? What kind of abilities do they have?” Scroll leaned on the bench and replied casually.
Wendy gave a general description of each of their abilities but was deliberately vague when it came to Broken Sword. “Can you guess who he assigned Broken Sword to?”
“Uh, probably Nightingale or Ashes…only they can make full use of Broken Sword’s power.” After some more thought, Scroll said, “Anna and Leaf indeed have strong magic power, but they and other witches aren’t able to fight against enemies face to face. Additionally, there are few combat witches in the Witch Union.”
“Great minds think alike, but His Majesty didn’t think so.” Wendy revealed her gentle smile. “He didn’t assign Broken Sword to anyone.”
Scroll was stunned. “Why?”
“According to him, a weapon needs to be carried by the owner personally at all times, but in that case, Broken Sword would have limited freedom. Besides, the enemies won’t always launch an attack at her working time and her sword’s aura isn’t as powerful as gunpowder. Hence, she can partner with each witch to test their overlapping effects rather than to be a weapon. Then, based on how interesting the combination is, His Majesty will assign her job.”
“Assign her a job based on how interesting the combination is?”
“Yeah, those were His Majesty’s words exactly.”
He attached more importance to her feelings instead of giving her a role that limited her. Perhaps, that was the reason why Nightingale chose to support him with her entire heart.
Now in hindsight, it was fortunate that they chose to believe Nightingale’s judgment.
Thinking of this, Wendy could not help smiling. After filling her glass again, she held it before Scroll. “To us, for finding such a good king.”
Scroll smiled, holding the glass to gently clink hers. “Yes, to our Holy Mountain.”
“Ah… it’s empty.” Having drunk the last sip, she found that the bottle had been emptied out when she wanted to fill the glass again.
“Do you want me to return to my room to get mine?” Scroll also wanted to continue drinking.
“No, we must follow the old rule.” She waved her hands and took a bottle from another drawer. “But next time, I’ll wait for you to knock on my door.”
“Wait a moment. Isn’t that Nightingale’s?”
“Yes, but she doesn’t mind at all.”
They cheered up again and continued to talk on this warm and wonderful night.
Chapter 741: The Art of Sound Transmission……
..
Roland wiped the fine sweat beads from Anna’s forehead and held her in his arms.
In the dim light, he could still see the attractive blush on her face.
Roland had the feeling that Anna had become more active in this regard since the last time they talked about the Dream World. She also tried to learn some new tricks—though her progress was much slower than her learning from books. Anna’s clumsy and serious manner gave him an entirely new experience. His visual enjoyment far surpassed the sensory experience and he could not help but feel a sense of superiority as an old hand.
Of course, they would not miss the storytelling session after their time of joy.
As he was indulging in Anna’s fragrance, Roland started to narrate in detail the news brought by the Taquila Witches as well as his speculation about the Battle of Divine Will.
“Although we’ve already known that where we live is no larger than a corner of the mainland, I didn’t expect that there were actually completely different civilizations scattered beneath the mountains… this world is really full of unknowns!” Anna sighed and said, “Perhaps one day, we can also set foot on that faraway land to see what kind of secrets are hidden in that world across the sea.”
“I promise that day will come,” Roland answered with a smile.
Even if they could not travel by sea, they could still fly over it—any land that could be seen through the telescope would not be too far away. As long as they had the internal combustion engine, the large airship could come into play.
“But does God really exist? He left relics causing us to fight against one another… maybe he is now looking at us from somewhere.”
“Are you afraid?” Roland could not resist holding her even closer.
“No, I want to thank him.”
“What for?” Roland was a little surprised.
“For he sent you to me.” Anna looked up and whispered.
Roland saw the rippling blue lake in her eyes—that was her unconcealed emotions.
He felt a warm current surging in his heart.
“I’ll always be with you.”
“But you can’t stay with me all the time.”
“I…”
Anna covered his mouth before he could finish speaking.
“You’re the king and also the future commander of the army that will combat the Army of Demons. How could you stay forever in Neverwinter? I can’t possess you entirely just for my personal desire. The soldiers who fight in the front line need to see your presence and your subjects in the other cities want you to be with them,” she said softly, “Roland, I’m already very content that I can listen to your stories like this.”
Roland was silent for a moment. “You’re right. But wherever I am in the future, you will always be able to hear my stories… I promise you this.”
Anna blinked, as if she had heard the meaning behind his words. “Without the Sigil of Listening?”
“Exactly.” He nodded.
How could they speak out their words of love if they had to communicate through the Sigil of Listening?
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll let you know tomorrow.” Roland rolled over and lay on top of Anna, then kissed her neck… and slipped all the way from her neck to the clavicle, leaving a shallow mark on her fine, tight skin. “But, now it’s my turn.”
Once again, they became one, and their sweet breathing sounds rising and falling for a long time before fading away.
…
The next day after breakfast, the invigorated Roland walked into the backyard of North Slope Mountain with Anna.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.” Lucia, who had arrived even earlier, put her work aside and bowed before him.
“Good morning, Your Majesty! Good morning, Sister Anna! Sister Nightingale!” Ring followed the actions of her sister, and started to bow and cry out cheerfully.
Roland waved his hand with a smile, indicating that they did not have to be too formal. Then he walked to the workbench and pulled out a piece of white paper on which he started to draw a design. He intended to carry out the promise he had made last night to Anna before the Taquila survivors moved to the Western Region—a communication tool that he could use to speak to Anna at any time without magic.
That would be the wire telephone.
The principle of the telephone was very simple and that was the most basic application of electromagnetic induction: the sound wave would vibrate the metal reed in the voice tube causing the change of the magnetic flux formed in the magnetic field, and finally a fluctuant induced current would be generated. While the earpiece, on the contrary, would use the magnetic force generated by the electromagnetic coil to vibrate the membrane and reduce the current into voice.
In other words, it was fundamentally the same as a generator or an electric motor, except that the latter turned the vibration into a rotation and had a much larger power.
As soon as he articulated his idea and design, Anna immediately understood how this unprecedented calling tool worked.
“Let me get Mystery Moon and Soraya!” Her eyes shone with excitement.
“Electric current… exchange with voice?” After hearing what Roland had said, Nightingale still had a vacant look on her face, and when she turned to see if Lucia had understood, she found Lucia was also pondering.
“Electricity and magnetism originate from each other, and the magnetism turns into power… I see.”
Even the little girl Ring also showed off her knowledge. “Sister, are you talking about something in the second chapter of ‘Elementary Physics’?”
All of these reactions suddenly frustrated Nightingale. She gloomily picked up a dried fish and walked into the Mist.
Roland could not hold back his laughter at this scene. He knew that although the principle was simple, it was not that easy to make a functional phone, and the problem lay in the signal transmission.
The electrical signal would abate.
That was the reason why the phone was not widely used in the early stage after it was invented—once the distance between the callers was too long, it was hard for one side to hear exactly what the other side was saying. The phone was not widely used until the electron tube that could amplify the signal was invented.
Roland was not very good at electricity, so he barely wrote about it in his books. Even now that he had the help of the Dream World, he still found it quite problematic to make an electron tube.
Since he did not intend to amplify the signal, there was only one way to do it—by reducing the attenuation.
For example, increase the size of the wire and reduce the loss of the signal in the route.
The former was very simple to achieve. The required copper wire could be accurately processed by Anna’s Blackfire. According to the knowledge he had acquired from his Dream World, a 4 mm diameter wire could be used to maintain a 50 or 60 km communication without a repeater, while the general telephone connecting wire was only 0.4 to 0.6 mm in diameter. Although it was somewhat wasteful to use the thick wire, it could effectively avoid the trouble of having to make a signal amplifier.
The latter could be achieved through coaxial-cable—the so-called coaxial-cable was made by wrapping the wire with a layer of metal mesh which would be sandwiched by the two wires that were coated with insulating materials and turned into a Faraday cage so as to minimize the divergence of the electrical signal. Before the telephone came into widespread use, the technology of wrapping the metal layer was not mature yet, so at that time, people used the loading coil, which meant overlapping the wire with a spirally wound coil casing to reduce the signal loss. But Roland did not need to follow this rule since he had Anna’s processing skill and Soraya’s special coating that could complete it in one step.
Chapter 742: Love From a Distance
ombining the two techniques should allow the telephone signal to be read as far as a few hundred kilometers without a relay, which basically lets it cover most of the residential areas in the Western Region, and would allow Neverwinter to receive real-time updates from the defensive line in the Impassable Mountain Range.
If he wanted to further extend the range, he would then have to use a signal relay.
The reason why Roland chose to develop the wire telephone was not only because he was inspired by Anna’s words, but also because of the vast usage and practicability of this tool. It would serve as a crucial piece for controlling the political situation, enhancing the centralization of the government, and commanding the wartime efforts.
More importantly, the industrial projects in Neverwinter had already reached a saturation point.
The new immigrants still had to pass the primary education before they can be absorbed into the various industries. The four major industries—civil construction, mineral processing, machine manufacturing, and chemical production—had occupied over 90% of the workforce. According to current predictions, it would not be difficult for these four industries to employ 60,000 to 70,000 new immigrants once they pass through primary education.
As these industries were vital for future war efforts, their production could not be interrupted. On the other hand, the bicycle plant, which was enthusiastically built by Roland in the beginning, wasn’t even able to meet the demand of the First Army. The city hall would first shut down the bicycle factory whenever there is a power shortage and reallocate the workers to the steam engine plant whenever there is a shortage of manpower.
Even though construction on Kingdom Main Street and Route 67 had already been completed, and Border Area neither raised horses nor stables for horses to rest in, the roads were still mainly used by carriages that came from the Longsong Area or other cities. Also, with the construction of the railway already underway, the citizens never did start riding bicycles between the Border Area and the Longsong Area.
Of course, Roland would never admit to Barov that he had made this strategic mistake. Since then, he would always take into account of Neverwinter’s production capability when planning for new facilities.
The phone happened to be a good product that wouldn’t burden Neverwinter’s output, and it also does not require much maintenance.
First of all, Roland would not provide telephone to the market. He would only provide it for military communication purposes and basic communication between the Border Area and the Longsong Area. Roland only intended to lay down a one-to-one cable that connects both sides. In this way, it would save him the time and energy of setting up a complex wire network.
Secondly, starting with a limited number of telephone systems meant that it would only require Anna, Mystery Moon, and Soraya to help out during their spare time without having to utilize Neverwinter’s labour force.
Moreover, once they manage to produce vacuum tubes, they could develop telecommunication for the public.
Therefore, the wire telephone is the most appropriate project to start with before exploring the Great Snow Mountain with the Taqila survivors.
…
The prototyping stage of manufacturing phones went smoother than he had expected. By afternoon, two basic telephones containing magnetic speakers appeared in the backyard of North Slope Mountain.
It had no shell and looked like an assembly of a coil of wire and magnets. It was equipped with a hand-operated generator and a “Mini Dawn” battery. Due to the low power requirements, the battery was only as thick as a finger and could last for at least a month, saving him from the trouble of making an independent dry battery.
“How does this work?” Mystery Moon asked curiously, “Can my ability really do this?”
Roland naturally ignored the second half of her sentence. “It’s very simple. Watch carefully… This hand-operated generator is used to start a call. When the user rotates it quickly…” He grabs the handle and rotates it forcibly, and the magnetic bell on the other side suddenly rang out a sound of “jingling”. “That ringing means that there’s a call coming.”
He gave Anna a glance, and she picked up the earpiece and the voice tube.
“When the earpiece is picked up and the switch pops up, it means the voice line is connected and people on both sides can start talking. The current that transmits the electrical signals is provided by Mini Dawn, so without this copper bar enchanted by Mystery Moon, the telephone can only ring but no sound would be transmitted.”
“Oh, I see!” Mystery Moon thrust her chest out and vigorously nodded her head twice.
“Your Majesty, may I try speaking through it?” Soraya was eager to try.
“And me.” Ring raised her hand up high.
“Of course… It was created by all of you, and naturally, you’re eligible to be the first few to experience this era-defining communication tool.” Roland laughed. There was no need to explain the significance of the phone, since it completely changed how humans could communicate with each other across distant worlds. “There will be no signal attenuation in such a small yard, so connecting the phone with ordinary copper wire will do.”
In a quiet, snow-covered forest, a crisp bell rang out continuously. Obviously, they could talk through the phone directly, but they insisted on starting over again, from the step of rotating the handle to generate electricity.
“There really is a voice!”
“It sounds like Lucia!”
“Uh, what should I say?”
“Let her guess who you are!”
The witches, who were separated by the wall, were vying to shout at the voice tube. For a few moments, peals of laughter echoed from both ends of the yard.
Roland also tried out listening twice. To be honest, he thought the prototype wasn’t very good. The voice he heard fluctuated a lot and there was a lot of static. Anyways, it was definitely not up to standard. But he knew that as long as he kept adjusting the size of the metal reed and the space between the electromagnets, he would find the right parameters for the best call quality.
Soon, the voice tube reached Roland’s hand once again.
He shook his head with a smile and placed the earpiece beside his ear and habitually said, “Hello?”
He heard nothing but interference from the weak conductance of the copper cable.
For some reason, he knew who it was on the other side of the phone as if their hearts were linked.
“Anna…?” Roland whispered.
After a moment, he heard a slightly distorted reply.
“I like you… Roland.”
After protecting Roland for a whole day, Nightingale returned to her bedroom in a bad mood.
This was not the first time she felt like this because she did not understand anything that the others were saying. And every time this happened, only dried fish and ice cream bread could comfort her.
Well… now there were also the Chaos Drinks.
She truly envied the intimacy between Roland and Anna. Meanwhile, a faint but unceasing bitterness flooded her. She thought that she would get used to it sooner or later, but it turned out to be harder than she had imagined.
The more invested she got in her feelings, the deeper the thorns dug into her heart.
Now Nightingale somewhat understood what Wendy had told her.
She walked to the table and pulled open the drawer, but she found out that the bottle inside was empty.
Did I take the wrong one?
So she pulled open another drawer and found that bottle inside was empty too.
“Wendy? My Chaos…” As soon as Nightingale turned around, she was hugged by her roommate, and Wendy’s ample bosom almost squeezed her out of breath.
“Nightingale, how many years have we known each other? You’ve been with me since you left the Gilen Family in Silver City, right?”
“Yeah… almost four or five years, but my Chaos…”
“We’ve experienced so many dangers and hardships along the way before today. Nothing can undermine our friendship, right?”
“Of course, I’ve always treated you like a sister, but my Chaos…”
“I drank all your drinks. I’m sorry!” Wendy held her even closer. “I’ll definitely make it up to you with my share next month.”
What? All of them?
Nightingale fumbled the bag of dried fish and felt that it was empty too.
Only dried fish, ice cream bread, and Chaos Drinks can comfort her.
Now, all of them were gone.
Nightingale heard a crack in her heart.
In an instant, the bitterness flooded her once again.
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