Chapter 1384: Taking a Step Forward

“I’m heading out.”

Valkries walked out of her bedroom to find Fei Yuhan already at the front door, bag in hand.

“The Martialist Association?”

“Yes—we’re close to the final battle, I can’t afford to fall behind.” Fei Yuhan’s hands paused over her zipper. “Will you come later?”

Valkries took in the expression on the other woman’s face—that particular focus, unguarded, turned entirely outward toward a problem and not inward toward how she appeared while solving it. She found herself nodding before she had decided to. “If there’s nothing else.”

“Then I’m off.”

The door opened and closed, and the warmth went with it.

Valkries stood in the empty room and looked down at her open palms. Slowly, she closed them into fists.

Damn it. What am I doing.

A month in the Dream World. Thirty days of soft peninsula bread and afternoon tea and missions against the Fallen Evils in places the cities never saw—and she had integrated herself into it so completely that she could no longer pretend the integration was tactical. She had become a member of the Martialist Association. She had stood beside others and fought. She had stayed.

She understood the mechanism, she had always understood it: she could not bear the helplessness of being trapped here, unable to act, unable to do anything that mattered for the actual war. The battles against the Fallen Evils were a substitute—something to press her hands against so the walls didn’t feel so close. She knew exactly what she was doing and she kept doing it.

What disturbed her was the other thing.

She was getting used to this life. Not tolerating it. Not enduring it. Used to it. The bread was sweet and she noticed when it was. The company around the supper table was bearable and she noticed that too. And every time she noticed, the shame landed harder—her people were dying in a war she was not part of, fighting a battle that might already have turned against them, and she was sitting here noticing that the bread was good.

Her rationality, inconveniently, remained intact.

It told her that venting her rage on the people around her would not shatter the Dream World, would not help her race, would make her situation worse and accomplish nothing. It told her this clearly, in the voice she had always used to think—the same voice that had led armies, that had reasoned through the Battle of Divine Will, that did not distort under pressure.

She hated that the voice was right.

And underneath the shame, underneath the rage and the helplessness, was the other truth—the one she had been walking around the edge of for weeks. She did not loathe Fei Yuhan as much as she had expected to. The woman had eavesdropped on her conversation with Roland: a calculated act, done to understand her own situation. Valkries could not call that unreasonable. And afterward, when confronted with the reality that a demon Senior Lord existed inside the Realm of Mind and had observed everything she’d ever done—Fei Yuhan had not broken. She had been curious.

Pure. Determined. Clear about what she was and what she wanted.

Heathalese had been like that. The Transformer, who had crossed the gap between races on nothing but the quality of her thinking and been accepted into the Cloud School for it. A few people, in every age, were like that. Sufficient to prove the gap was not absolute.

That was ultimately why Valkries had not left.

But the recognition only added to the weight pressing down on her. Because she was faintly aware—had been aware for some time—of the single thing that could actually help her race. She could see the shape of it. She had been refusing to look at it directly, because once she looked, once she took that step, there was no return. All of the pressure, all of the risk, would become hers to carry alone.

She was still standing there when her phone rang.

Roland.

She stared at it for a moment before answering. “What do you want? If you’re going to give me another one-sided report on the battlefield without any confirmation from Hackzord, I will not—”

“I just wanted to ask: what’s the floating island?”

She stopped.

Rose Café.

Roland pushed a cup of coffee across the table. Valkries wrapped her hands around it and didn’t drink.

She had listened to him describe what the Witches had seen—the altitude, the distance, the column of red above the continent’s spine. Then she had sat with it for a long time, testing his face for calculation, for the shape of a trap. There was none. He genuinely hadn’t known what they’d found until they told him. Exposure of the Deity of Gods was an accident, the kind that happened constantly in war, and while it would not help the demons it would not fundamentally change anything either. The higher-ups had probably counted on the humans seeing it eventually—knowing the enemy possessed a weapon of that scale was its own kind of defeat.

But Valkries thought past that.

The Deity of Gods was a weapon built for one purpose: to contend with the Sky-sea Realm. For it to appear at the Western Front meant the Western Front had fallen into a position desperate enough to justify drawing the trump card early. The King would not have agreed to deploy it against humans unless the situation had become genuinely dire.

Which meant everything Roland had reported previously—the battles, the losses, the state of the war—was true.

His sincerity was confirmed.

Unless another Senior Lord had already told him about the Deity of Gods and this was an elaborate performance. She examined that possibility and discarded it. If another Senior Lord were willing to collaborate with Roland, there was no reason to construct a theater this complex.

Pain pressed through her ribs like a blade finding a seam.

Her rationality would not let her lie to herself. It never had.

She felt as though her feet were at the edge of a cliff, and the only way forward was a single log laid over nothing.

Then—in the precise moment the pressure became large enough to overwhelm her—she heard Fei Yuhan’s voice in her memory. The conference room door, slightly open, the other woman’s words carrying through:

To fear the future and give up on forging ahead is simply the mentality of cowards. Even if we know that defeat is the eventual outcome, we should do all we can to turn that around.

To do everything we can. And forge ahead.

Valkries looked at Roland for a long time.

Then she shut her eyes.

“The thing you saw is called the Deity of Gods.” Her voice was steady. “It is my race’s trump card against the Sky-sea Realm, and the legacy of the underground civilization, refined over centuries. Several hundred years ago we escaped dependency on the Red Mist as you understand it—the restriction of needing it present in the environment. One answer we pursued was a tower capable of producing Red Mist and moving freely, but the fundamental problem remained: you cannot move a massive tower, much less the God’s Stone mines beneath it.”

She exhaled.

“Until Mask—Nassaupelle—obtained a complete command of the underground civilization’s magic power technology and built further on that foundation. What changes occurred inside him, I cannot say with precision. But in essence, he is capable of refurbishing a Birth Tower into a gigantic magic power core and amplifying the core’s effects. With sufficient magic power input, the result approaches what your language would call a miracle. That is why the King named it as he did. The Deity of Gods.”

Chapter 1384 - Taking a Step Forward

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

“I’m heading out.”

“You’re going to the Martialist Association?” Valkries walked out of her bedroom in a nightgown and saw Fei Yuhan packing her luggage at the front door.

“Yes, we are nearing the final battle, I have to hurry.” The other party stopped abruptly. “Will you be coming later?”

Looking at Fei Yuhan’s all-out expression, Valkries was distracted for a moment before nodding her head. “If there isn’t anything else.”

“In that case, I’m off.”

The doors opened and close and the chilliness in the air quickly dissipated. Valkries lowered her head and looked at her opened palms. She then gradually curled it up into a fist.

Damn it, what am I doing?

In the month that she had been in the Dream World, she had completely integrated herself into this society. Not only did she become a member of the Martialist Association, but she had also gone alongside a few others to fight against the Fallen Evils.

To prevent the world from being destroyed, they had to go against God. That might had been the reason for her to participate, but Valkries knew in her heart that it was a method of suppression. The true issue she had to face was not in the Dream World, but outside of it—she was unwilling to accept the fact that she could not do anything about being trapped in here, and thus

participated in the battles to make it seem as though she was exerting some efforts to resolve the Battle of Divine Will.

It was fine if the battles were just cruel and difficult, after all, they were fighting against “God”. But the fact remained that the Fallen Evils only occurred in places unseen to the masses. The cities remained calm and peaceful. When there were no missions, everyone spent time having tea in the afternoon, or gathering together to have supper at night.

This was in stark contrast to what she was used to.

What made her feel worse was the fact that she was getting used to such a life…

The sweeter the soft peninsula bread was, the more intense the guilt and shame she felt in her heart. The future of her race was unknown, and to win the Battle of Divine Will, many had given their all; yet, she was enjoying her freedom and carefree life. This contrast made Valkries feel miserable, so much so that there were times she felt the urge to vent her anger on the people around her.

The more painful truth was that her rationality still existed without having any distortion or changes due to the immense pressure. Her clear consciousness told her, saying that such actions would not shatter the Dream World, nor would it help her race in any way. It would even bring about worse circumstances to her already terrible situation.

At the same time, the reason why the Nightmare Lord had stopped herself from doing so was that she realized she did not loathe Fei Yuhan as much as she thought.

Although the female human had eavesdropped on her conversation with Roland, that was a reasonable choice as she wanted to grasp her own fate. Additionally, Fei Yuhan’s response towards the fact that she existed in the Realm of Mind and revealing all that she had done in the past was something remarkable.

She was pure, full of curiosity, determined, and clear on her objectives… These traits caused Valkries to associate her to the “Transformer”, Heathalese.

The brilliance of a few was sufficient to transcend the gap between races, like how the Transformer was accepted into the Cloud School.

This was ultimately her reason for not leaving.

But this brilliance not only lessened the pressure on her, but left her even more lost.

In fact, Valkries was faintly aware of the method to truly benefit her race, but her emotions prevented her from confronting it. Once the step was taken, there was no possibility of turning back, and all the pressure and risk would be hers to bear. As such, it was difficult for her to make a decision.

In terms of confronting destiny, she was far inferior to the female human.

Right at this moment, her phone rang.

The caller was Roland.

Valkries hesitated for a moment before accepting the call. “What’s the matter? If you’re calling to give me a one-sided report of the battlefield, without obtaining Hackzord’s confirmation, I will never—”

“I just wanted to ask, what’s up with the floating island?”

The other party’s first sentence stunned her.

…

Rose Café.

Fatter listening to Roland, Valkries leaned back into her chair, exhausted. She gently exhaled and muttered, “Deity of Gods…”

“Deity—what?”

She stared at him silently, hoping to see a reaction from his eyes, but the outcome told her it was not some premeditated scheme; Roland himself was genuinely unaware of the thing he had discovered. The exposure of the Deity of Gods was a complete coincidence, something that happened all the time, but would not greatly affect the situation as a whole. As the trump card of the entire race, the higher-ups most probably wanted the humans to witness the marvel achieved from magic power. After all, informing the other party of its existence would make them fall into despair and fear.

But Valkries thought further.

The Deity of Gods was the ultimate weapon meant to contend against Sky-sea Realm. For it to appear at the Western Front clearly meant one thing.

The situation on the Western Front had fallen into a difficult situation.

If not for that, The King would had never agreed to use the Deity of Gods to defeat the humans.

It was a route condemned for death.

Only if the Western Front had suffered such a huge loss would the higher ups mobilize the Deity of Gods to reverse the situation. That was the only reason that could lead to the Witches being able to see the Deity of Gods. This meant that everything that Roland had previously reported was true, which was a confirmation of his sincerity.

Unless Roland had learned about the existence of the Deity of Gods from another Senior Lord.

But the probability of that happening was minuscule. If the other Senior Lords were willing to collaborate with him, there was no need for him to pull off such an elaborate act with her.

The pain in Valkries caused her to clench her fists.

But her rationality prevented her from lying to herself.

She felt as though her legs were standing at the edge of a cliff with only a single-log bridge to walk. The conflict of emotions were nearly swallowing her up. Right when the earth-shattering pressure was on the verge of overwhelming her, Fei Yuhan’s words to the people suddenly appeared in her mind—

Back then, she had opened the doors to the conference room slightly and heard that unyielding refute.

“To fear the future and give up on forging ahead is simply the mentality of cowards, even if we know that defeat is the eventual outcome, we should do all we can to turn that around!”

To do everything we can… and forge ahead…

Valkries stared into Roland’s eyes for a long time before shutting them.

“The thing you saw is called the Deity of Gods.” She repeated, “It is the trump card that my race had prepared to ascend the Sky-sea Realm, and also the legacy handed down by assimilating the underground civilization. A few hundred years ago, my race already escaped our dependency on the Red Mist —the Red Mist restriction that you know of. One of the most direct answer we had was to be able to produce a tower capable of producing Red Mist and moving freely, but that was hard to accomplish. Just moving a massive tower itself was a problem in itself, much less moving the entire God’s Stone mine underground.”

“Until Mask gained a complete grasp over the underground civilization’s magic power technology and brought the foundations to the next level did we see the light of hope. I am unclear of what changes occurred to the Mask, but in essence, he is able to refurbish Birth Tower into a gigantic magic power core, and increase the effects of the core. As long as there is an abundance of magic power, it leads to a large-scale phenomenon, one almost equivalent to that of a miracle. Thus, the King bestowed it a name— the Deity of Gods.”

Valkries chose to take that step.