This was—memory extraction!The only difference was instead of exposing their memories to the King in the Presiding Holy Sea, it was Hackzord voluntarily sharing his memory to him!
Silent Disaster accepted the connection after a long while.
Memories were difficult to be faked and far more precise than a recount. But at the same time, it had its shortcomings, that was the ease of accessing other memories aside from the "main scenes." Silent Disaster did not expect Sky Lord to bare open his memories without any defenses to relay the information.
"You—"
"There is no need to speak further." Hackzord"s voice was downcast, his actions obviously having exhausted himself. "If I didn"t do this, will you even believe everything that I"ve been through?"
The answer was undoubtedly a no.
A source of magic power that came in the form of an island actually existed near the Blackstone region. Even after going through Hackzord"s memories, Silent Disaster still found it somewhat surreal.
"You"re able to form your own Realm of Mind domain?" Silent Disaster changed the topic.
Hackzord looked at him with distrust. "I thought you would be more concerned over Valkries"s location. But you"re right… if I hadn"t, I wouldn"t be able to transfer my memory to you. When I saw the tree of light, my understanding towards the Realm of Mind suddenly deepened—if not for the interruption by the Sky-sea Realm, I might have taken a step deeper. Of course… Compared to the King"s Presiding Holy Sea, my domain is far smaller."
"I see." Silent Disaster sat back in the pool with his back facing Sky Lord. "Indeed, I yearn to know of Nightmare Lord"s whereabouts. Even after "seeing" that piece of paper, I so badly want to look for her in the human kingdom, but my rationality is telling me to refuse you."
"Refuse… What?" Hackzord turned and glanced at the other party"s clean back and long blue hair.
"I rarely speak, but that does not mean I don"t think," Silent Disaster replied. "Your goal was self-evident the moment you came to look for me first instead of reporting to the King. You wish to stop the Battle of Divine Will, or hope to find out the truth before making a decision. They undoubtedly violate the King"s decree, and no different from a betrayal. The King will not let you off once he knows of this. You can"t do it alone and require support. So you chose me to help you."
"No, I am definitely loyal to the King!" Hackzord refuted with a whisper, "Since we know that the Battle of Divine Will is all a trap, why are we still throwing ourselves into it helplessly waiting for the destined doom to come? You think that the King will cling to his way obstinately? As long as I can think of a way to contact Valkries, the King will definitely understand what is the right choice, so…"
"No, I am definitely loyal to the King!" Hackzord refuted with a suppressed voice. "Since we know that the Battle of Divine Will is all a trap, why are we still throwing ourselves into it helplessly waiting for the destined doom to come? You think that the King will cling to his way obstinately? As long as I can think of a way to contact Valkries, the King will definitely understand what is the right choice, so…"
"d.a.m.n it, you saw everything?"
"Yes," Silent Disaster admitted. "It was not intentional, but you can"t sieve and overlook memories like words. Ever since you left for the Bottomless Land, you already knew that the King will not agree with your actions."
The entire Battle of Divine Will was a lie and the Realm of Mind contained an even deeper and darker secret, which did not conflict with the destruction of the humans and Sky-sea Realm. a.s.suming that the information on the paper was real, so long as the demons did not combine the legacy shards, the "upgrade" would never occur, giving them the time to unravel the mystery. Regardless, dealing with anything related to the Divine Will by themselves was safer than leaving it in the hands of the enemy.
Of course, destroying the humans might lead to Nightmare Lord"s ultimate demise. But compared to the entire race, a senior lord was insignificant, even if it was Valkries. The King never allowed emotions to cloud his judgment, and everything he did was based on cold logic and rationality.
If they stopped the war, humanity might overcome the race"s advantage with their rate of development. This was something Ursrook had stressed and the King would never take the risk—Hackzord was definitely well aware of this.
"If it had been any ordinary time, I would have cut you down and prevent you from running to deliver you to the King for judgment." Silent Disaster sighed. "But seeing that you did everything in hopes of saving Valkries, I will act as though I am unaware of anything."
"Since you understand, shouldn"t you do something about it! Also—" Hackzord glanced towards Nightmare Lord"s body at the other side of the Red Mist Pond. "Your respect for Valkries is all a lie. Compared to her, your greater wish is to see an empty…"
BANG!
Silent Disaster punched the Red Mist Pond, causing a few cracks to appear in the rock foundation and also stopping Sky Lord from finis.h.i.+ng his sentence.
"Firstly, your entire plan is built on a piece of paper of unknown origins; although it is definitely Valkries"s handwriting, that"s all."
"But she foreshadowed the existence of the Bottomless Land."
"And she said that the Deity of G.o.ds isn"t safe, but the humans are incapable of stopping us," Silent Disaster replied. "You want me to publicly go against the King based on this piece of paper? In fact, It was already a risk listening to you and acting as though it never happened. If you were in my place, you could never have done this."
"That"s not what I meant, we can slow down the pace of the offensive and investigate covertly. As long as Mask doesn"t know…"
"That is the second point I was trying to tell you. You returned too late." Silent Disaster interrupted him. "The King gave us a new order, the Western Front will be handled by Mask, and Plan B is being implemented. You are no longer the commander, in other words, there isn"t any Western Front Commander."
"How is that…" Hackzord stood up in the Red Mist Pond abruptly, followed with a pained expression as he held onto his chest.
"You should have felt it right? The ripple from the Realm of Mind," Silent Disaster said indifferently. "In fact, the situation is worse than you think. Not only is Resentful Heart dead, Blackstone Region"s defensive line was proclaimed to be breached. In that emergency, the King merged with the core and transformed the city into a new Deity of G.o.ds. Currently, the entire race is migrating here, so everything that you"re thinking of cannot be realized. If you want to gain more time, you"ll be going against the order, which isn"t any different from going against the King openly. So, I am unable to agree to you."
Hackzord realized that the situation had truly developed out of his control. Although the loss of a senior lord was rare, it was not strange for it to occur in war. But he had never expected for the situation to have deteriorated to such a level so suddenly.
Could it be that the appearance of the Blades… wasn"t a special phenomenon?
He was naturally aware of Plan B—
While researching on the Deity of G.o.ds, Mask had mentioned a crazy war tactic. In the situation where cost was disregarded, they could compress the core and G.o.d"s Stone mine to the limits and allow the Deity of G.o.ds to reach an alarming alt.i.tude. At such a time, the immense weight was sufficient for the entire floating island to turn into a devastating weapon.
When the Deity of G.o.ds plummeted from a high alt.i.tude, the effect would be comparable to G.o.d"s Punishment. Although Hackzord was unaware of how devastating it truly was, according to Mask"s words, the land would crumble and produce a cloud of dust capable of blocking out the entire sun and cover a distance of over a thousand kilometers. Lava would seep out of the fissures and spew wantonly, transforming the entire land into a flaming abyss.
One attack would consume a single but precious unit of Deity of G.o.ds. Hackzord thought that the plan would never be implemented, but who knew that the King had agreed to it.
If that was truly the case, his ideas were truly just empty talk.
To disobey the King alone? Although the race"s future was unpredictable, his fate would undoubtedly be doomed. There wasn"t a second possibility other than being chased by the other senior lords.
"Maybe you"re right…" Hackzord lowered himself back down into the pool. "My reasoning wasn"t up to date and I almost made a grave mistake. Since we have transitioned into Plan B, I should return to Sky City and follow up with the deployment…"
BANG!
More cracks appeared by the walls of the pool.
Sky Lord was startled.
"Are you planning to give up on Valkries?" Silent Disaster stood up and turned to walk towards Hackzord, and looked down at him with chilly eyes, as though if the word "yes" was said, Silent Disaster would unleash a bloodbath.
"I…" Hackzord was at a loss for words.
I can"t save her, but I can"t not save her either, how can you be so unreasonable?
Suddenly, Hackzord felt as though he understood Mask.
"I might be refusing your request, but that doesn"t mean I"m giving up on her."
"What you"re saying is…"
"I don"t know. But it is because I have no clue as to what to do that requires you to think about it." Silent Disaster spoke in an unquestionable tone. "Regardless, do not hope that you can get away by running away."
He retracted the coldness in his words and closed his eyes, whispering, "… Especially after you"ve given me hope."