Chapter 733

Chapter 733: After the Branch

With a howl that tore the air, a heavy alloy greatsword crashed down toward the ground like a falling star. The blunt-edged blade had no sharpened edge, yet it sliced a giant demon the size of a heavy tank clean in half as if it were butter. Then, with another thunderous boom, Vanna slammed her fist into the earth. In the terrible shockwave, several weaker demons gathered around her were crushed into pulp.

A strange, sharp shriek sounded from behind her. A projectile loaded with foul energy shot in from a tricky angle. Vanna moved quickly to her feet, but before she could raise her hand to block it, a fast black figure rushed in from the side. A two-handed greatsword, shining with silver light, intercepted the vicious sneak attack. Then several marine squad members with enchanted steel swords charged in and chopped the demon that had attacked from not far away into thin pieces.

Vanna looked up at the black figure and gave a small nod: “Your reactions are fast.”

Amber’s face lit up with joy. She nodded happily, then could not help looking at Vanna with eyes full of awe and envy: “You really… are even stronger than I imagined.”

“It’s fine. I’m in good shape today,” Vanna said. She gave the alloy greatsword in her hand a casual spin, then drove it backward into the mist beside her, skewering a Abyssal Hound that had just formed out of the thick fog. Her other hand flicked lightly on the hilt—the demon was crushed at once into fine dust. “And these demons are not very strong… they are much weaker than the enemies I’ve been dealing with lately.”

Amber’s face seemed to freeze for a moment, but she quickly recovered and went back to her position. She kept directing the warriors to clear the wandering demons near the cave entrance while arranging for the fighters to rest in turns and strengthen the defenses.

Vanna also lifted her greatsword again, but just then she seemed to sense something. Her eyes narrowed a little as she looked into the deep fog.

For a moment, she felt as if she had seen a figure—a figure in a tattered robe, hunched over as it walked across the rocky shore in the ravine.

The figure seemed not to notice the fierce fighting around it. It did not see the demons or the Church warriors so close by. It was like a phantom from another layer of time and space, hurrying through the mist.

It lasted only an instant. When Vanna blinked again, the figure was gone.

Right after that, a terrifying demon rose out of the thick fog not far away. It was made from countless bones stacked and woven together, and looked like a three-meter-wide, savage “bone ball”. The hollow howls from inside the sphere forced Vanna to push down her questions for now and raise her sword to meet the enemy…

In a burst of dense musket fire, the strange demons crawling out of the black gate were torn to pieces by the bullets fired by the toy soldiers before their bodies could even settle into shape. Then, with shouted orders and shrill whistles, the toy soldiers, their bodies painted in bright colors, quickly formed up again. They began digging works in the ground and pushed wooden carved cannon carts up into position.

Morris watched this scene with interest. Then he reached down, grabbed one toy soldier from the ground, and lifted it to his eyes to study it. The metal plate on his forehead slid back. Inside his skull, between countless spinning gears and trembling springs, a set of fine lenses was pushed out by a mechanical arm and focused on the toy soldier.

The toy soldier struggled hard and began to bang the butt of its rifle against Morris’s fingers. Wood and metal hit each other with a series of sharp “clang, clang, clang” sounds.

Morris let go of the toy soldier, stretched his fingers, and turned his head to look at the sea witch beside him. She was using a conductor’s baton to keep directing all kinds of toy soldiers, paper war chariots, and folded paper soldiers as they set up the lines. He said: “…Quite fierce.”

“…Could you stop grabbing my soldiers all the time just to study them?” Lucretia gave Morris a helpless look. “Why don’t you go study the demon corpses instead? They’re everywhere here…”

“What’s so special about demon corpses? We get those on the ship every few days,” Morris said. He casually took out a pipe, but as soon as he put it to his mouth he remembered that he was currently in his Forged State, and had to put it back in his pocket with some regret. “When we get the chance, I want to ask you about Doll technology. The way you drive them seems related to the Academy’s tech, but it goes in a different direction…”

“Of course, when this is over,” Lucretia said easily. “I’m also very interested in the forged body you use. I’ve dealt with the Truth Academy many times, so I know you have that kind of divine magic that can briefly transform part of your body into machinery. But turning your entire body into a ‘forged form’… this is the first time I’ve seen it.”

Morris laughed, a buzzing sound from the springs in his throat. But just then, something caught at the edge of his vision and cut off what he was about to say.

In the depths of the dim cave, on a patch of open ground beside the black gate, a figure seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The figure wore a tattered white robe and looked as if it had been standing there for a very long time. Neither the demons nearby nor the “soldiers” summoned by Lucretia seemed to notice this uninvited guest. The figure just stood there quietly on the battlefield, out of place with its surroundings, like a ghostly image cast in from another layer of time and space.

The figure seemed to be studying the black gate, keeping a fixed stance as it stared at the door without moving.

But it lasted only a moment. When Morris blinked again, that strange figure was gone.

Lucretia suddenly noticed that something was off with Morris. After directing the soldiers to destroy another demon that had crawled out of the black gate, she turned at once: “What is it?”

“…There was a figure near the black gate,” Morris said in a grave tone. “But it vanished in a blink. You didn’t see it?”

“No,” Lucretia shook her head, her brow tightening. “Damn it, I wasn’t looking that way just now…”

“…It’s fine,” Morris said. He glanced at the witch and waved a hand. “I took a picture.”

Lucretia froze for a moment: “A picture…?”

Morris nodded. At the same time, a series of clicks from turning gears and shifting parts sounded inside his body. Then his whole lower jaw joint dropped off in a very unsettling way. A dark opening showed, and from it he slowly spat out a palm-sized piece of photo paper.

Morris pulled out the photo paper and shook it in the air. With his other hand, he casually fixed his jaw back into place. Then he handed the photo to Lucretia: “It’s not very clear. It seems to have been disturbed, but you can still see a white shape.”

Lucretia took the photo with a strange look on her face. She saw the blurry figure near the black gate, but her eyes still drifted back to Morris: “…Why do you even have that function…”

Morris smiled slightly: “I told you, I had many adventures when I was young…”

Lucretia: “…”

…

Duncan had a faint feeling that when he pulled his hand back, something quietly changed. He could not say whether it was his own fate or the future of the world.

He only felt in some deep, unseen place that the decision he made at this moment was very important, whether it turned out good or bad.

He lifted his head and saw that the dark red core still floated calmly right in front of him. The light inside it flickered. The towering “mountain” behind the core had grown quiet, and the lights on its surface looked a little dim.

His refusal had not “angered” this Elder God. It only seemed… puzzled.

After quite a while, the core finally spoke: “Why?”

Then the light inside the core grew a little brighter than before, and it went on: “In theory, seeing the Sanctuary World repaired should match your wishes. You have already saved three city-states, and taking over this world would let all city-states be saved more completely. For quite a long time, they would no longer be under threat from runaway state and corruption. I have calculated all possible outcomes. You should be glad to see such a result, so why do you refuse?”

Duncan stayed silent for a while, then suddenly asked: “And then?”

The light in the dark red core seemed puzzled: “Then?”

Duncan’s tone stayed calm: “What happens after that ‘quite a long time’ you spoke of?”

The dark red core fell silent. Its slow, flickering glow showed its hesitation.

“I don’t know if there are other plans. Maybe your proposal really is the best choice for now. Maybe things really will go the way you said. But at least for now… I cannot agree to it.”

Duncan spoke calmly as he took a small step back.

“Call it instinct… I feel that there are big problems in your ‘plan’. I think there are other ways, not just resetting this Sanctuary World and letting it drag out a half-life.”

He paused for a moment and looked very seriously at the few rays of light inside the core.

“And just like your reaction a moment ago—it is clear that you cannot tell what will happen after that ‘quite a long time’. Maybe my takeover could truly bring the whole Sanctuary World back to its best state and fix all its current flaws. But even you cannot say how long a Sanctuary World like that, rebuilt and fully in line with its ‘blueprint’, would keep running.

“The Sun that was once thought ‘eternal’ has already gone out twice. The border mist called the ‘Eternal Veil’ has been collapsing again and again for decades. The gods are slowly dying, and you know your own state as well. All things decay. I do not believe that just by sitting in the place of the ancient Elder Kings and the gods I can change that. After all, as a ‘world’ meant for people to live and grow, this Boundless Sea is, in terms of both resources and space, far too… cramped.

“And from a selfish point of view, I do not want to take over everything now only to sit where you sit after another ten thousand years, watching this Sanctuary World fall into the End once again, just like you. When that time comes, who should I look for to ‘take over’ all of this from me?”