Release that Witch

Roland was stunned.

If he remembered correctly, Garcia’s master was called Lan.

Which meant that the lady who had met him in the Rose Café this morning was… dead?

How could it be possible?

Even though Lan was bound by the rules in the Dream World, she was, after all, the Defender’s student and should have the capability to deal with Fallen Evils.

The Prism City used to be a mine, so the main part of it was built underground. It was constantly guarded by the Awakened. How could the Fallen Evils breach the city so easily?

There were so many things that Roland failed to understand, but he managed to calm Garcia down. “Get in first.”

Garcia rose feebly as if all her strength was gone.

Roland put Zero in her bedroom and gave Garcia a glass of water. The latter gradually regained her composure, although her eyes were still kind of out of focus, but she, at least, stopped crying.

Roland then noticed that there were six unread messages and a dozen phone calls. He scrolled down and realized that they were mostly from Garcia.

“Oh, sorry… Zero suddenly got a fever, so I had to go to hospital and left my phone here,” Roland said in embarrassment. “What happened in the Prism City? How did you know that your master was killed.”

It took a long time for Garcia to find her voice. After what seemed to be an eternal silence, Garcia finally broke out inarticulately, “I received an urgent message from C02 around noon, saying that something happened to the headquarters. He requested support from martialists from all over the world.”

Roland remembered that C02 was the liaison officer for that joint mission he had attended a while ago. Now, he understood why Garcia had called him so many times, so he asked, “But nobody went there?”

Garcia should have immediately gone to the Prism City.

“Nobody was able to, because the Erosion in the middle part of the building suddenly expanded,” she muttered. “Nobody knew how it happened, and the video camera didn’t catch it either. C02 told me that by the time the Association realized it, the Erosion had already slashed the Prism City in half, and all the connection between the upper and lower floors were disrupted.”

“The Erosion expanded?” Roland’s heart pounded against his ribs like a frantic bird. If the Bloody Moon was actually the hollow created by the Erosion, it should have been able to appear anywhere, including the underground area. If the emergence of the Bloody Moon marked the beginning of the Battle of Divine Will, then could the expansion of the Erosion be another form of Bloody Moon?

“When did it occur? Do you know?”

Garcia nodded slightly and said, “Around 9:00 in the morning.”

That was almost the same time he had seen that wave!

Was it a warning from the Dream World that the Erosion had begun?

“Then what about the Fallen Evils?”

“They… they came out from underground…”

Half an hour later, Roland finally had a full picture of the incident.

Noticing that the Erosion had reached the middle part of the building, the Martialist Association immediately decided to send reinforcements. The Prism City wedged into the ground like a giant awl. Although it was well fortified, there were also several drawbacks in its architectural structure. For example, they must constantly maintain the ventilation system to make sure that people on the lower floors could breathe easily. Apart from that, all the life essentials, such as water and food, had to be transported from the upper level to the bottom. Therefore, when the supplies were cut off by the Erosion, the staff at the bottom level might be in peril.

The most pressing task for the Association now was to find out how large the Erosion was and then reconnect the upper and lower level. The archtects who had built the Prism City had indeed also thought about the possible disconnection and thus equipped the building with a few evacuation exits so that people could quickly escape the building in an orderly manner upon an emergency.

Since the Martialist Association figured out that the disruption was caused by the Erosion rather than an enemy attack, they soon withdrew the reinforcement request. At that time, the Defender and his students were all there in the building, and what the Association actually needed was the engineering team and paramedics, so the martialists did not come to rescue at once but waited for further instructions.

However, something out of expection had happened.

While everyone was going down through the evaucation exists, Lan and her team at Exit No. 04 were suddenly attacked by the Fallen Evils.

Later, somebody noticed that many Fallen Evils used to be their colleagues on the lower level.

It was quite shocking and incredible news. Nobody knew what had happened at the lower part of the building a few hours after the disruption. What they saw was a group of monsters with fallen cores transformed from ordinary staff members and martialists.

Most people at the lower part of the Prism City were elites of the Association. What had made them betray the Association within half a day remained as a mystery. However, the moment they had chosen to merge with the fallen cores, they were no longer human. Even Roland was astonished at the turn of the event, let alone the rescue team at the scene.

That was why Lan’s team had been caught offguard.

It was a miracle that a few people managed to escape when the whole team was outnumbered and overpowered. However, the team leader Lan did not make it. Some Fallen Evils attacked her when she was trying to close a door.

At these words, Garcia started to sob again.

Roland handed her another glass of milk. After a moment of hesitation, he asked what concerned him most. He knew it was not a good time to ask a question like this, but he must know the answer.

Roland took a deep breath and said, “These are all what the survivers reported to the headquarters, right? Did anyone actually see it when your master was killed?”

Garcia would have retorted ferociously had she not been so perturbed and devastated. She croaked, “My master… my master blocked the switch that controls the door… Then she was torn to pieces by the Fallen Evils… Many people in her team saw it…” Her voice again perished into a suppressed sob.

“… I’m sorry,” Roland sighed.

He did not know what would happen to a dead person in the Dream World. Would she return to the Realm of Mind or completely disappear? If God did control almost everything in the Realm of Mind, neither would be a happy ending. Without the protection of the Dream World, Lan, as a traitor, would definitely be punished severely.

Roland had a very good reason to suspect God, for this attack seemed to be targetting Lan.

And Lan was not the only person God intended to eliminate.

He wanted to tear down the whole Dream World.

“If you lose this Dream World, then you’ll be shut out from the Realm of Mind forever,” Lan’s voice reverberated across his head.

It appeared that there was going to be a Battle of Divine Will in the Dream World as well.

His enemy, however, was neither the demons nor those in the Sky-sea Realm.

He would be confronting God directly.

…

“Hold on…”

She heard loud noises. Sometimes the noises were so far away, but sometimes they were suddenly so close.

What had happened?

She felt excruciating pain. It seemed that her leg was broken. She had never suffered so severe injuries before, not even at the upgrade ceremony.

For a split second, she thought of death.

“Ah, right, I’m dying,” she thought. She felt that her body gradually turn cold, her mind drifting off. She felt hard to concentrate.

“Hold on…”

The voice drew nearer.

Was there somebody out there?

Strange… she had heard this voice somewhere before.

“Someone’s still alive here. Can anybody help me remove this stupid stone?”

“She’s hurt badly. Quick, move!”

“One, two, three!”

Suddenly, the weight on her was lifted, and she was transferred to a soft bed.

“Hold on. You’ll be OK,” someone talked to her from above. “The Association has sent for the best doctor and medical equipment. You’ll be fine once you get to the hospital!”

“The Erosion expanded?”

“By the way, you came from Cargarde Peninsula, right? What’s your name?”

“My… my name?”

“Yes, do you still remember it?”

She used all her strength to reply.

“… Valkries.”