Release that Witch

The other team did not appear until the battle was over.

Roland smeared his face with mud, made a few cuts in his clothes, and lay on a heap on the ground as if he was injured like everyone else, waiting for the rescue from the Martialist Association.

Although Ling had pressed the ”speaking” button on the walkie talkie by accident, fortunately, the communication was not open to all the teams. Therefore, only Fei Yuhan had heard their conversation. As she had lost her consciousness, Roland could totally attribute this bizarre communication to Fei Yuhan’s perturbed mind and convince her that it was simply her illusion due to her injuries.

As to why the monster vanished in thin air without leaving the slightest trace behind, Roland could simply claim that he had well passed out before this incident had occurred. But by doing so, he could only ascribe the victory entirely to the genius girl, Fei Yuhan, and washed his hands off the whole matter.

As he expected, the liaison officer did not take his statement very seriously considering that he had not witnessed the entire battle. Instead, the Association paid close attention to the corruption. The discovery of the new, man-made corruption obviously overshadowed the six deaths, including the death of two celebrated martialists, out of the twelve martialists who participated in the mission.

The only thing that astonished Roland was that Garcia jumped into the hole before anyone else when her team arrived at the scene. Roland felt a warmth flooded over him when he saw Garcia tried to search for him among the casualties frantically while calling out his name, and when her smile showed after she found out that Roland was alive. However, Garcia’s expression had returned to her normal state of indifference quickly. She mumbled, ”Wow, you’re still alive. Good for you.” as she threw Roland into the ambulance.

That was how this alliance mission ended.

After Roland returned to the apartment, Phyllis regarded the warning of the magic creature with apprehension. The monster had apparently noticed that Roland was different from all the other martialists, which meant that there was a possibility that what it said was true.

Roland would have contemplated the warning if this incident had occurred a year ago when he had been resisting the Dream World. At that time, the world had become increasingly complicated and foreign to him, as though it was gradually getting out of his control.

But now, he had made his decision.

The Dream World was not only a world where he obtained knowledge, but more importantly, a place that afforded the God’s Punishment Witches mundane pleasures. This virtual world might not necessarily remain in existence forever. However, before that day came, he would like these witches to have as many happy memories as possible.

Another reason that he dismissed the warning was that Roland trusted his own instincts.

The change of the Dream World might start from the moment he had released the first cyclone.

Despite that Roland had yet to understand the exact relationship between the release of cyclones and the subtle change of the surroundings, he did feel satisfaction when he had defeated the magic monster by pulling out its astrolabe.

He had a vague feeling that as long as he kept fighting the Fallen Evils, the answer would come up to him.

Furthermore, the whole event had not completely come to an end yet. Roland could imagine that the man-made corruption would spark panic among the Association and outrage in the martialist community. Once the other martialists regained their consciousness, the Association would definitely further investigate this matter and uncover the whole story of the battle. Accordingly, modern martialists would continue to criticize him and even feel animosity toward him.

Yet anyhow, Roland decided not to worry about them too much at this moment.

Three days later, the Detective Group returned to Neverwinter.

Summer had not only reconstructed the final battle but also recorded several important scenes with the Sigil of Recording. Roland thus immediately called a meeting in the hall of the Third Border City to invite all the executives to watch the show.

When they saw Ashes summon the divine power and die together with Ursrook, Roland felt a tremulous hand clasp on his arm. Roland held that hand until the magic movie ended. When he turned around, he noticed Tilly’s red-rimmed eyes. Despite being distraught, Tilly managed to finish the whole movie.

Now, they had the full picture of what had happened.

”This is my first time seeing a hybrid of an Eye Demon and a regular demon,” Pasha sighed at long last. ”How did they do that?”

The most confusing part was how the demons had managed to arrive at the scene right after the Special Unit had reached their designated ambush area, for Roland did not believe an Eye Demon had the intelligence to develop such a clever strategy. After he watched the movie, however, he found the answer. Usrook had cut open a Mad Demon’s face and deposit a box of frozen eyeballs into its wound. The eyeballs that smelled the blood instantly burst into life and anchored its roots to the Mad Demon, who screamed in great agony. It took nearly a week for the Eye Demon to completely possess the Mad Demon.

Moreover, instead of a God’s Stone of Toss, the Mad Demon had carried a very rare Stone of Flight that a regular demon was not normally entitled to.

This meant that Ursrook had prepared resources for his plan at least half a year ago.

The moment the transformed Mad Demon had left Taquila, Sylvie had been under the scrutiny of the Magic Slayer. To earn more time for his army, the Magic Slayer first flew toward the First Army and then turned around halfway to feign his defeat. While the Special Unit’s attention were drawn entirely on the decoy, the demons took this opening to set up their ambush. Therefore, unless they abandoned their mission and retreated to the west, by no means could the Special Unit escape from the awaiting demons.

”As far as I can tell, this is more like a type of manipulation than a hybrid. The transformed Mad Demon works like a host,” Agatha said thoughtfully. ”The decoy was not the Mad Demon but the miniscule Eye Demon that mounted on its head.”

”Why do you think so?” Roland asked.

”If the demons could create such a powerful hybrid, they should have used this technology in the second Battle of Divine Will. They could send a few hybrids to monitor and harass the army while dispatching a pack of Devilbeasts to attack us. If they did that, the Union would have been finished in less than five years,” Agatha explained slowly. ”I think it’s not an ability but a technology, just like those newly-developed Spider Demons.”