"… Indeed." Anna recovered from her daze. "The effect of a force is easily felt, where the simple addition of an unremarkable component force into a balanced system will definitely induce change to the system, let alone magic power that exists everywhere. If magic power truly appeared out of nowhere, then the world before its existence ought to be completely different. But from your description, our world here sounds really similar to that world, where water flows, snow melts, the sun provides warmth and where mother earth provides life. Aside from magic power, it sounds exactly the same."

"That is why it is worth revering—I think this is what that line was is referring to." Roland suppressed the slight chill that ran down his back. "It isn't one of the four fundamental forces, but wields the ability to seamlessly enter the system and bring about a comprehensive change to the world, as though it is above everything else."

"Is that really possible?" Anna frowned.

"It's just a conjecture." Roland grabbed his own hand. "And I believe the appearance of magic power did bring about some change, but it might not be what the other party had antic.i.p.ated." Roland paused for a moment. "—That is why he called it a price."

"That sounds rather… terrifying." Nightingale covered her mouth.

"No, it is instead a good thing."

"Huh? Why?"

"Our current world is still filled with magic power. This means that even G.o.d is powerless to retrieve this price. If that is the case, magic power can continue existing forever," Roland explained earnestly. "And if magic power exists forever, none of you will disappear out of the blue."

"Ahem—" Nightingale tilted her head. "That sounds reasonable."

"But we are already in the third month of the Months of Demons, and we have yet to see a new Witch appear. Who should we blame for this?" Anna spoke with a faint smile.

"Well, about that—" He was stumped for words.

"Alright, enough joking." Anna chuckled. "In light of these inferences, the Battle of Divine Will and upgrades of races came about from the appearance of magic power, and ultimately turned into the present world which we are familiar with?"

"We can a.s.sume so based on this logic. Since the legacy shards and Realm of Mind are definitely related to magic power and all the evidences we have excavated, it proves that before we appeared, other civilizations used to exist." Roland relaxed his tone of speech. "I am currently more worried about two things, the first being the red cavity that is gradually taking shape and annexing a part of the world; the second being the pursuit of liberation as spoken by the Oracle that betrayed G.o.d."

"For the former, are you suspecting that it is affecting our planet?"

He nodded. "If we can only fly up there and take a look… a pity that it is still too difficult with Neverwinter's current technological advancements. As for Lan's liberation, it is definitely related to stopping the Battle of Divine Will. But as to what it signifies, I am afraid that we can only find out after entering the Bottomless Land."

…

Roland originally believed that a gargantuan organization like the Martialist a.s.sociation would take an extremely long time to go through the necessary procedures, even after achieving a preliminary consensus, and might not even have finalized a set of statutes even after two weeks. Instead of waiting for the higher-ups to produce concrete results, why not raise a few requests himself? For example, focusing on providing Scroll with technological information, as well as carrying out specialized training for Saint Miran, Dido, and the other Taqulia witches.

However, reality went far beyond his expectations.

In just a single day, which meant going back into the Dream world that same night, he received a call from Garcia.

"Mister Rock's secretary wants me to inform you that the first support plan has been negotiated and pa.s.sed by Prism City and the implementation of the plan requires your partic.i.p.ation. The meeting will be held at Clover Group's modern car dealers.h.i.+p's projects department. If you have no other arrangements, we can head over there immediately."

"Wait, us?" Before Roland could even react, the other party hung up.

Knocks were heard immediately from the living room door.

Roland immediately donned his jacket and opened the door.

It was none other than Garcia.

"Why was it necessary for Rock's secretary to inform you to inform me?" Roland did not understand. "Can't Mr Defender just call me directly? He even had to trouble you to make your way over."

"You still don't get it, do you?" Garcia said sourly, "This means that you have gained the approval of the Martialist a.s.sociation, and is the standard channel of communications from the higher-ups. Besides, there will be many public figures partic.i.p.ating in this coming meet. If you were to go alone, isn't that throwing the a.s.sociation's face? And yes, in the future, let me handle all future contacts for such meetings. If you're ready, let's go."

"Well… I haven't showered."

She rolled her eyes. "Then go!"

Seeing that the other party had no intentions of leaving, Roland could only comply. It was only when they reached the ground floor did they both realize that Garcia's luxurious sports car had been wrecked from the rescue.

In the end, the two boarded a vehicle and drove out of the neighborhood, still in Roland's familiar SUV.

"About that… I will compensate you for your car." He sat in the front pa.s.senger seat awkwardly. "But are you sure driving this vehicle will not affect the a.s.sociation's prestige?"

"Shut up." Garcia snapped; her expression livid.

Roland tactfully moved away from her line of sight.

After driving out of the city, her expression got better. "About that—since it was to save a person's life, we can only consider it as a collateral and I can let you off for the time being. As for what exactly went on there, I will comply with the a.s.sociation's discipline and hold off asking you about it."

Roland was startled and did not know what to say. After a moment of silence, he replied, "Yes, thanks."

"But this doesn't count as you writing off your debt to me, understand?" Garcia's tone immediately took a turn as she emphasized. "After this secret order is lifted, you have to tell me everything in its entirety—including who Zero is, and the true background of those relatives of yours."

Indeed, she had noticed their peculiarities.

But all of that was within expectations. While saving Fei Yuhan, Garcia had stood by the side and naturally witnessed the process of reviving Fei Yuhan. Regardless of it being Scroll who brought the magical sutures, or the unsurprised G.o.d Punishment Witches, all of them were obviously not ordinary people.

Even so, she was still willing to wait for his explanation. This trust caused Roland's heart to feel warmth.

And there was Fei Yuhan and Rock… With the help of so many people, the Dream World was indeed moving towards an unknown future.

But it was this unknown that made it worth protecting.

"When everything is over, I will tell you everything," Roland replied solemnly.

Roland immediately noticed that the eye-grabbing signboard belonging to the new modern car dealers.h.i.+p had disappeared after driving into the factory district. What replaced it was a brand new gold-plated signboard.

His eyes opened wide in surprise.

The words were clear as day. 'Design Bureau of Graycastle'.