"You're going to the Martialist Association?" Valkries walked out of her bedroom in a nightgown and saw Fei Yuhan packing her luggage at the front door.
"Yes, we are nearing the final battle, I have to hurry." The other party stopped abruptly. "Will you be coming later?"
Looking at Fei Yuhan's all-out expression, Valkries was distracted for a moment before nodding her head. "If there isn't anything else."
"In that case, I'm off."
The doors opened and close and the chilliness in the air quickly dissipated. Valkries lowered her head and looked at her opened palms. She then gradually curled it up into a fist.
Damn it, what am I doing?
In the month that she had been in the Dream World, she had completely integrated herself into this society. Not only did she become a member of the Martialist Association, but she had also gone alongside a few others to fight against the Fallen Evils.
To prevent the world from being destroyed, they had to go against God. That might had been the reason for her to participate, but Valkries knew in her heart that it was a method of suppression. The true issue she had to face was not in the Dream World, but outside of it—she was unwilling to accept the fact that she could not do anything about being trapped in here, and thus participated in the battles to make it seem as though she was exerting some efforts to resolve the Battle of Divine Will.
It was fine if the battles were just cruel and difficult, after all, they were fighting against "God". But the fact remained that the Fallen Evils only occurred in places unseen to the masses. The cities remained calm and peaceful. When there were no missions, everyone spent time having tea in the afternoon, or gathering together to have supper at night.
This was in stark contrast to what she was used to.
What made her feel worse was the fact that she was getting used to such a life…
The sweeter the soft peninsula bread was, the more intense the guilt and shame she felt in her heart. The future of her race was unknown, and to win the Battle of Divine Will, many had given their all; yet, she was enjoying her freedom and carefree life. This contrast made Valkries feel miserable, so much so that there were times she felt the urge to vent her anger on the people around her.
The more painful truth was that her rationality still existed without having any distortion or changes due to the immense pressure. Her clear consciousness told her, saying that such actions would not shatter the Dream World, nor would it help her race in any way. It would even bring about worse circumstances to her already terrible situation.
At the same time, the reason why the Nightmare Lord had stopped herself from doing so was that she realized she did not loathe Fei Yuhan as much as she thought.
Although the female human had eavesdropped on her conversation with Roland, that was a reasonable choice as she wanted to grasp her own fate. Additionally, Fei Yuhan's response towards the fact that she existed in the Realm of Mind and revealing all that she had done in the past was something remarkable.
She was pure, full of curiosity, determined, and clear on her objectives… These traits caused Valkries to associate her to the "Transformer", Heathalese.
The brilliance of a few was sufficient to transcend the gap between races, like how the Transformer was accepted into the Cloud School.
This was ultimately her reason for not leaving.
But this brilliance not only lessened the pressure on her, but left her even more lost.
In fact, Valkries was faintly aware of the method to truly benefit her race, but her emotions prevented her from confronting it. Once the step was taken, there was no possibility of turning back, and all the pressure and risk would be hers to bear. As such, it was difficult for her to make a decision.
In terms of confronting destiny, she was far inferior to the female human.
Right at this moment, her phone rang.
The caller was Roland.
Valkries hesitated for a moment before accepting the call. "What's the matter? If you're calling to give me a one-sided report of the battlefield, without obtaining Hackzord's confirmation, I will never—"
"I just wanted to ask, what's up with the floating island?"
The other party's first sentence stunned her.
…
Rose Café.
Fatter listening to Roland, Valkries leaned back into her chair, exhausted. She gently exhaled and muttered, "Deity of Gods…"
"Deity—what?"
She stared at him silently, hoping to see a reaction from his eyes, but the outcome told her it was not some premeditated scheme; Roland himself was genuinely unaware of the thing he had discovered. The exposure of the Deity of Gods was a complete coincidence, something that happened all the time, but would not greatly affect the situation as a whole. As the trump card of the entire race, the higher-ups most probably wanted the humans to witness the marvel achieved from magic power. After all, informing the other party of its existence would make them fall into despair and fear.
But Valkries thought further.
The Deity of Gods was the ultimate weapon meant to contend against Sky-sea Realm. For it to appear at the Western Front clearly meant one thing.
The situation on the Western Front had fallen into a difficult situation.
If not for that, The King would had never agreed to use the Deity of Gods to defeat the humans.
It was a route condemned for death.
Only if the Western Front had suffered such a huge loss would the higher ups mobilize the Deity of Gods to reverse the situation. That was the only reason that could lead to the Witches being able to see the Deity of Gods. This meant that everything that Roland had previously reported was true, which was a confirmation of his sincerity.
Unless Roland had learned about the existence of the Deity of Gods from another Senior Lord.
But the probability of that happening was minuscule. If the other Senior Lords were willing to collaborate with him, there was no need for him to pull off such an elaborate act with her.
The pain in Valkries caused her to clench her fists.
But her rationality prevented her from lying to herself.
She felt as though her legs were standing at the edge of a cliff with only a single-log bridge to walk. The conflict of emotions were nearly swallowing her up. Right when the earth-shattering pressure was on the verge of overwhelming her, Fei Yuhan's words to the people suddenly appeared in her mind—
Back then, she had opened the doors to the conference room slightly and heard that unyielding refute.
"To fear the future and give up on forging ahead is simply the mentality of cowards, even if we know that defeat is the eventual outcome, we should do all we can to turn that around!"
To do everything we can… and forge ahead…
Valkries stared into Roland's eyes for a long time before shutting them.
"The thing you saw is called the Deity of Gods." She repeated, "It is the trump card that my race had prepared to ascend the Sky-sea Realm, and also the legacy handed down by assimilating the underground civilization. A few hundred years ago, my race already escaped our dependency on the Red Mist—the Red Mist restriction that you know of. One of the most direct answer we had was to be able to produce a tower capable of producing Red Mist and moving freely, but that was hard to accomplish. Just moving a massive tower itself was a problem in itself, much less moving the entire God's Stone mine underground."
"Until Mask gained a complete grasp over the underground civilization's magic power technology and brought the foundations to the next level did we see the light of hope. I am unclear of what changes occurred to the Mask, but in essence, he is able to refurbish Birth Tower into a gigantic magic power core, and increase the effects of the core. As long as there is an abundance of magic power, it leads to a large-scale phenomenon, one almost equivalent to that of a miracle. Thus, the King bestowed it a name— the Deity of Gods."
Valkries chose to take that step.