Now, three options lay before Roland. First, he could use Vakiris's created opportunity to ambush and kill Hexode. This approach carried almost zero risk, essentially netting him a devil grand duke for nothing.
Considering the difficulty of high-level advancement and Hexode's special abilities, this would provide tangible benefits to the front lines. Afterwards, the reason for the other party’s failure to appear could be attributed to an accident or other factors, and Vakiris might not see anything amiss. With enough luck, the same method could even be used to lure other grand dukes.
Second, he could allow Hexode to enter the dream realm for a face-to-face conversation with Vakiris. Since the latter had already taken a significant step forward in expressing its intention to cooperate, the key point was not the nightmare itself, but the negotiator. The ideal scenario would be for the nightmare to verify reality and, in turn, convince the Lord of the Celestial Dome to withdraw its forces from the human kingdoms and spread the information that "the Divine Will War must be stopped" throughout the devilish clans. In this way, the path from Eternal Winter to the Bottomless Land would be unblocked once more. As long as the last divine envoy was eliminated, he could directly confront the gods in the Bottomless Land.
If this were merely a war between humans and devils, Roland would undoubtedly choose the former. After all, eliminating Hexode would be a guaranteed gain, and the northern war situation would benefit greatly as a result. The longer the time dragged on, the more fully the industrialized war potential could be realized.
But when the perspective was widened to encompass the entire situation, things became drastically different.
Besides the devils and the Sky-Sea World, the threat of the gods was already imminent, and a Lord of the Celestial Dome became an insignificant victory. Even if the Divine Will War was won, human civilization would not escape its destruction.
At least Roland couldn't imagine what level of development would be necessary to survive such a terrifying catastrophe.
Time was not on their side.
It was probably because Vakiris saw this that it chose to take this risk.
It had to be said that this approach revealed a certain sincerity—at least, after witnessing the Erosion and the attacks of the divine envoys, it had taken Lan's warning as a top priority to seriously consider.
The problem was that the nightmare's enlightener, Qianxing, played a significant role in this, and it could be said that it had planted this idea in Vakiris's mind long before the Divine Will War had completely broken out. Being able to temporarily set aside the victory or defeat of a war and strive for the opportunity for the continuation of the clan from a higher perspective could be said to be a natural progression.
But Hexode did not have this kind of experience, and it remained questionable whether it could reach an agreement with Vakiris after the exchange. Generally speaking, such a choice concerning the fate of a race was probably not something that could be determined by a single negotiation, and the more times they met in the dream realm, the greater the risk would be, which was also something Roland found difficult to accept.
Currently, he was more inclined to the third option.
That was to temporarily maintain the status quo and strive to reach the Bottomless Land at the end of the continent with the strength of humans themselves.
Frankly speaking, this option was most to Roland's liking and was also the goal he had been striving for—no matter what reaction the devils made, humans had the ability to directly reach the destination across thousands of kilometers, which was undoubtedly the most secure result.
It was just that the area north of Eternal Winter was a continuous mountain range, and if they wanted to cross the continental spine, they would have to develop aircraft with a range far greater than the Skyfire, while also having the ability to defend against aerial attacks. From research and development to production, this process would undoubtedly take a lot of time, and it was also unknown whether the situation on the front lines would change during this period.
As he had realized before—in the face of the threat of divine will, choosing stability was also a kind of risk.
The only difference from the first two options was that the degree of risk of this option could be mitigated to some extent by relying on the efforts of humans themselves.
Next time I enter the dream realm, I'll try to seek support from the Association in related areas.
Roland thought.
After dinner, Anna walked into the office with a roll of drawings and sat down across from the mahogany table. This was their routine exchange time, and also a relatively relaxed and enjoyable leisure time of the day. As long as the research institute was not working at night, she would come to the office for two or three hours, and the content of the chat ranged from the work results of the day to the sudden flashes of inspiration.
At this time, Nightingale would also appear, leaning against the coffee table while chewing on snacks and flipping through the comic books replicated from the dream realm, occasionally interjecting a few words, creating a peaceful and warm atmosphere.
After solving the technical problems, Roland casually talked about the problems that were bothering him in the dream realm.
"So that's what's making you sigh all the time..." Nightingale pouted, "Do the two have to be related? What if the scenery you saw in the dream realm was just pieced together at random? The more you think about it, the faster your hair will turn white. Why can't some people understand that?"
Roland rolled his eyes, "The brain will degenerate if you don't use it. If everyone was like you, then the world would be finished."
"But if you keep thinking like this, you'll be finished even faster than the world."
"..." He decided to retract his previous peaceful and warm view.
Anna didn't respond, and after pondering for a long time, she said thoughtfully, "I think Nightingale might be right this time."
Nightingale and Roland couldn't help but be stunned, "Huh?"
Anna couldn't help but laugh, "I'm not saying not to think, but the matter itself... the connection between the two scenes may not be as complicated as you think."
"Did you find any clues?" Roland asked curiously.
Anna shook her head, "Just some guesses, not necessarily correct." She brushed the stray hair behind her ear and stared at her notes, "For example... the order in which the two occurred, or rather—'time'."
"The connection is... time?" Roland frowned and thought for a moment, then said in surprise, "If the second scene happened before the first scene..."
"They can be connected into a complete story." Anna continued.
"This is the price."
The price did not refer to the Radiant Clan who ascended to the Celestial Dome and whose final destination was unknown.
Nor did it refer to the survivors who were swallowed by tsunamis and storms.
The two differed by tens of thousands of years on the time scale... millions of years... or even more distant.
The price referred to something else.
The result was that gravity was no longer worthy of reverence, and huge red voids appeared in the universe.
And if what was implied in this line of text was magic power, then "from this moment on" pointed to an astonishing conclusion.
Roland and Anna looked at each other.
"—Magic power once did not exist in this world."
The two said almost in unison.
No magic power meant that creatures that needed magic power to maintain their existence would also cease to exist.
For example, devils.
And... witches.