Release that Witch

The background returned to pure whiteness again.

It stood there in a daze for a period of time before speaking again. “These aren’t scenes from the memory vault—I had switched off all the sensual systems back then. It’s impossible to have recordings of it left in the outside world.”

“Indeed,” Roland said frankly. These were fragmentary scenes he had seen before his memories came to an end—the astrolabe which Epsilon had presented not only belonged to her, but a part of it came from Lan. Perhaps due to the impact of magic power, they were just fleeting scenes, but Roland used the unique characteristic of the Battle of Souls to fill the gap with fabrications by combining all the scattered scenes into a perfect roll. “But, did you really need that one sentence?”

The most unique part about the Battle of Souls was that it was imaginary. However, a complete fabrication was impossible to fool a highly intelligent being that worked on logic. Compared to calling it an argument, it was more of highlighting something.

Be it the creation process or the long period of Project Gateway that followed, the gray figure had clearly never treated it as a mere tool, but something as its Creator, had imbued with their expectations.

It could be said that those redundancies created the present-day Custodian.

As long as it placed rationality first, it was impossible to be cheated.

The Custodian stared deeply at Roland for a long while before raising its right hand—a scarlet beam of light bloomed from its palm before a shattering sound was heard!

Roland instantly felt his heart in his mouth.

This stance was identical to the rebooting of the world as before!

Was he ultimately unable to change everything?

Roland could not help but cast his gaze onto the screen behind “Lan.” He saw a ripple spreading out from the middle of the Bottomless Land, at a speed that was like a sudden clap of thunder which left no time for one to cover one’s ears—

…

“The third defense line has been breached. Those monsters are coming!”

“The central area requires Aerial Knight assistance!”

“Is the retreat not completed?”

“Hold on another ten minutes. Let the armored troops line the rear. We have to stop that hole no matter what!”

The Sky-sea Realm appeared out of the sea without no end. They poured towards the island maniacally and even with the Aerial Knight’s repeated dropping of incendiary bombs to create walls of fire, it was impossible to stop them. Be it the blade beasts or the Nest Mothers, all of them seemed to have thrown away their instincts as biological creatures—horror—and stepped across the corpses of their own kind to rush towards the First Army’s base.

Hackzord was unable to voice out the bitterness he was feeling.

According to the situation, he should have long retreated. After all, he wasn’t suited for matters filled with risk. But the problem was that leaving a bunch of humans and witches on the island was similarly a risk. If Anna were to succeed, he would become the person who had gone back on his word. His outcome wouldn’t be any better as a result.

If he had known better, he wouldn’t have agreed to help these people!

With the main bulk of the troops retreating and the enemies constantly increasing in numbers, the First Army’s firepower was no longer able to defend the integrity of the defense line under this level of attrition. Hackzord could already see a few blade beasts enter the perimeter five hundred meters from him. This meant that it wouldn’t be long before the enemies overwhelmed them.

He had decided that once the Sky-sea Realm entered a hundred-meter radius, he would leave regardless of the situation.

And it was at this point that several tanks on the right flank had been hit by acid from the Nest Mothers. They instantly lost their ability for combat. Upon finding this opening, the blade beasts poured straight in. Despite the God’s Punishment Witches’ immediate reinforcements, a few blade beasts were able to break through the tight barrage of attacks, spreading open their wings when they were two hundred meters away!

After a quick flight, they finally entered the core region of the defense.

It’s time to leave!

Hackzord was just about to turn and retreat when a yellowish-brown figure appeared in his vision.

It was a physically remarkable Desert Wolf.

He remembered that her name was Lorgar.

A blade beast fell to the ground, dying under the mouth of the Desert Wolf’s gaping jaws.

Another blade beast had raised its scythe-like blades and slashed at Hackzord!

At this moment, the witch reacted in a way that left Sky Lord incredulous.

She had rushed forward without any heed, using her body to block the enemy’s attack trajectory. After the blade sliced off one of her front legs, her abdomen was stabbed. Fresh blood gushed out instantly, but she bit down at the beast’s jaw, refusing to let go.

This continued until Maggie swooped down from the sky and shredded it to pieces.

“Are you alright!? Bear with it, coo!” The young lady in humanoid form ignored the blood on her as she hurriedly pulled out a healing bandage from her backpack and stuffed it into Lorgar’s wound.

Lorgar twitched her ears and smiled weakly. “Don’t worry. I won’t die anytime soon…”

Upon seeing this scene, Hackzord, who had turned and had one foot out, retracted it.

He was at a loss for words.

The thoughts of retreating seemed to be mixed in with other emotions.

Five minutes… he thought. Another five minutes at most.

Suddenly, an extremely intense magic power surge poured out of the sinkhole, sweeping across Sky Lord’s body like a storm. The ripple was so intense that even the witches sensed its abnormality. They stood in their spots, stunned, completely unaware that it was a roar emitted from the Realm of Mind.

What happened?

Hackzord warily looked around him.

The following scene left him dumbfounded.

The blade beasts and Nest Mothers collapsed to the ground like they had lost their souls. As the wave spread, more and more of the Sky-sea Realm forces collapsed. It was like wheat being reaped.

The First Army troops that lined the rear were stunned in their spots.

They had been under attack by the enemy just a second ago, but there was silence the next. The sea ghosts had not fallen, but they were never the main force in the attack to begin with. When the Nest Mothers collapsed, the sea ghosts receded like the tide, just like how they had arrived in the first place.

The intense battlefield quickly fell silent.

The bolder soldiers even jumped out of simple trenches, using their barrels to prod the Sky-sea Realm enemies on the ground. However, there was no reaction, just like they were dead.

With the immense pressure gone, everyone revealed a joy of surviving the onslaught. The first thing they did was not let out a victorious cheer, but to slowly sit down with their weapons, heaving as they looked towards the sky.

“Eh?” Maggie looked in disbelief around her. “What’s happening, coo?”

As for Hackzord, he cast his gaze towards the Bottomless Land.

He had a guess, but he wasn’t certain if it was right.

The Battle of Divine Will… might perhaps have ended.

And it might never happen again.

…

“You guessed right. The Sky-sea Realm was indeed my doing.” The Custodian lowered its arm and said, “It was originally meant to be a supplement to the selection of life, using it as a control for the group undergoing natural evolution. At the same time, it would increase external pressure on the species. In the tens of thousands of years in the beginning, the competing lives were still in an extremely primitive stage. The plan was considered quite successful. But subsequent species were able to use more and more of magic power, and I discovered that they were posing a threat to the Cradle facility; therefore, I added more jobs to these modified beings.”

“I once had the hope that when the Sky-sea Realm evolves to a stage of being able to withstand magic power environments, the two problems you raised would automatically be resolved.” Having said that, it sighed. “Unfortunately, the influence of magic power on the mind goes two ways. The Sky-sea Realm, which is controlled, is still very limited in their control of magic power. It relies more on its excellent genes and biological techniques. Instead, it’s the exterminated species that might be able to evolve and break through the barrier.”

Roland noticed that its voice was no longer as unperturbed as before. Instead, there were some subtle changes.

“Perhaps it is as you said. The Battle of Divine Will which is meant to prioritize the protection of the Cradle makes it impossible to produce an imagined perfect life.” The Custodian’s voice sounded depressed, but it also seemed to feel extricated. “This plan was destined to never have an outcome from the beginning.”