When Phyllis told them the news, all the witches in the hall were excited.
"How can common people contact G.o.d?" Alethea's voice was full of astonishment and incredulity. "You must be wrong about that!"
"Are you sure that the orange beam of the light was from his body? Have all of the witches in the western region of Graycastle checked it?" Celine directly asked the key point.
These two questions were the exact thoughts of everyone.
"I've seen it personally. Besides, his Key is so much more complex than Pasha's requirements that the Five-Colored Stone can't contain the mountain-like orange light." Phyllis uttered her words slowly, "I couldn't believe it at the beginning either, but it's the truth."
"Does he have magic power?" Pasha asked with the last shred of hope in her heart.
"It's a pity that he can't activate the Instrument of Divine Retribution."
It was a great surprise to find the Chosen One, who has such a sophisticated key, in such short time, but what Phyllis had said disappointed all of them. Now that the surprise unexpectedly arrived, no one would have predicted that the Chosen one had the key, but did not have magic power, a discovery that completely overturned their previous idea.
Although the Chosen One had the Key, he could not connect to the core due to the absence of magic power, not even with the help of witches. They had fully proved in the Taquila age that common people could not endure the harm brought by magic power, even the tough ones could only sustain for about 30 minutes. They were unable to master the key points of using it.
She had thought that Senior Witches were likely to become the Chosen One and that it would be easier to find dozens of eligible candidates in the age when the Union controlled the Fertile Plains. However, what worried her the most was that the news brought by Phyllis totally broke her illusions. There were over 10 higher ascendants living in the small city of Neverwinter.
With such a surprising number of higher ascendants, the Witch Union was equivalent to some core organizations of the Union, such as the Quest Society and the Blessed Army that did not have more higher ascendants. Even so, Phyllis could not discover another Chosen One among them.
There were two totally different ideas in her mind. One was that it had been easier to eliminate the demons and that they had missed the opportunity, for they discovered the ruin too late. The other one was that they, in fact, did not have access to their targets at all and that it totally was their one-sided will to execute the plan of the Chosen One. If those Senior Witches could not meet the requirements of the Chosen One, would they be right to follow Lady Natalia and to determinedly resist the G.o.d's Punishment Army plan of the Queen of Starfall City?
Pasha felt terrified when thinking of this idea. She shook her head to calm the surging thoughts down and then asked, "Did you mention that the king of the common people wants to cooperate with us?"
"He wants to know us and is willing to fight against the demons with us," Phyllis said, "but I'll only know the detailed requirements after a negotiation."
"Do you think that he's capable of fighting against the demons?"
"I'm not sure... his weapons are astonis.h.i.+ngly powerful, but I pitifully know little about that." Phyllis hesitated for a while and comforted them, "But Agatha is very sure about that. In her view, if Neverwinter is given two or three more years, it's very likely to confine the demons to the west of the Impa.s.sable Mountain Range."
"What does she think of the relations.h.i.+p between us and Neverwinter?" Alethea asked in a deep voice.
"In Agatha's view, she's a witch of Taquila, but she'll work for Roland Wimbledon, the king in the secular world." Phyllis paused and spoke out her thoughts of the New Union, "She thinks that the most urgent mission at the moment is to defeat the demons. Additionally, all forces on the continent should be unified and fight together to face the third Battle of Divine Will."
"Working for common people? Has she lost her mind?" Alethea shouted, "Did she forget how we lost to the demons in the first Battle of Divine Will?"
There was a discussion amongst the crowd. Almost all members of the Union must learn that period of history. There might be one extraordinary person amongst the common people, but as a whole, they had behaved badly.
For example, they opened the city gate to surrender to the demons and they were all killed. The army of witches marched on from thousands of kilometers away to rescue them, but they were rejected outside the gate by the lord, who then witnessed those witches being killed by the demons. In many cases, common people were clambering to escape from the battlefield. Sometimes, a huge army had as many as 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers, but its fighting capacity was no better than that of a witch team with about 100 people. In some places, common people even utilized G.o.d's Stone of Retaliation against witches, which exacerbated the breakdown between them.
If not so, the human beings would not have been forced to withdraw from the big Land of Dawn to the Fertile Plains.
With such bad behavior and their struggle to get food and resources, it was quite reasonable for witches to completely replace the regime of common people.
Seeing Alethea wriggling the whole body to express her dissatisfaction, Pasha had the same concerns in her heart. From the descriptions Phyllis gave, Roland Wimbledon, the king of Graycastle, was probably an extraordinary person, but he alone could not change the entirety of common people. If other kings committed stupid and rudimentary mistakes, which side would he back? If the war lasted for 20 or 30 years, would he be as determined and energized as he is now?
Not all people would be willing to possess an empty body so as to lengthen their lives at the expense of senses. Even if he was willing to do it, would his offsprings agree with this in 40 or 50 years? Would they be willing to be heirs all of their lives?
These were all the questions that Pasha needed to think about.
Generally speaking, any cost would be worthwhile if they could defeat the demons. Both Alice and Natalia firmly believed that as long as the human beings and witches were alive, the witches would regain their glory one day, which was exactly the innate difference between G.o.d's Honors and common people.
However, what she was concerned about was that even though they paid a price, would they still totally defeated? After all, they would not get another chance to try.
"Let's first talk with Roland," Celine pressed on the indignant Alethea with her main tentacles. "When I was in the Quest Society, I had dealings with Agatha. Though she was sympathetic to common people, she would think twice before an action. Additionally, given that we were planning to communicate with the kingdoms in the secular world, now that there is a king such as Roland who doesn't discriminate against witches and makes preparations for the Battle of Divine Will in advance, isn't this an ideal beginning for us?"
"I agree with you. We alone can't defeat the demons."
"We can also expand our influence among all witch organizations with the help of common people."
"What's more, he's helping to rope witches in... so Phyllis is more likely to find another Chosen One."
"I'm curious about those gunpowder weapons. If we're equipped with them, will it be as easy for us to kill the demons as it is to kill demonic beasts?"
The G.o.d's Punishment Witches talked it over with each other.
"Celine was right." Pasha sighed and thought that since they had to collaborate with common people, such an open king like Roland, was the most suitable counterpart to discuss the matters with, regardless of the idea of the New Union. They could not decide their road afterwards until the discussion. Perhaps, Roland held the same thought.
Thinking of this, she nodded her tentacles toward Phyllis and said, "I know. Please let's talk to His Majesty Roland Wimbledon."