Two days later, a strange-looking concrete boat slowly departed the dock of Neverwinter.

There was a huge swell, which looked like a moving hill, on the deck of the boat. It was completely covered with burlap cloth and guarded by fully-armed soldiers standing erect on either side of the boat, and a dozen G.o.d's Punishment Witches.

The boat was the "Victory". It was en route to transfer the soul device to the Great Snow Mountain where the Taquila witches would complete their incarnation ceremony and be integrated into the worm carriers.

Out of the confidentiality reason, the witches did not bid farewell. No whistle was blown as the boat took off, and even the loading job had been completed the night before without being noticed by anyone.

Roland stood at the sodden dock built with bricks and slabs, watching the shadow of the boat gradually fade away. He knew once the conversion was completed, there would be three worm carriers in Neverwinter, which would provide great help for both munic.i.p.al construction and the defensive line project. However, Roland somehow did not rejoice over the progress as much as he had antic.i.p.ated.

The two volunteering witches were called Jasmine and Lyra. From their original appearances in the Dream World, the pair looked just a little over 20 years old, almost the same age as Tilly. They both have outgoing personalities.

In order to let them have a good time, Roland had taken the two girls, Phyllis and the other witches to the amus.e.m.e.nt park in the suburb, where they had hopped on a Ferris wheel, ridden a roller coaster, experienced the haunted house (during which Jasmine had accidentally broken a ghost's head dropping down suddenly) and taken a spinning pendulum ride. He had also allowed them to eat as much as they had wanted. Had Roland not earned some money by killing a few Fallen Evils a few days past, he probably would not have been able to afford such a revelry.

Jasmine and Lyra, in the past two days, had been in a total shock, but they had followed Roland submissively without raising a single question. They had screamed as everybody had when the roller coaster had inverted and had laughed like any girls next door when they had had strawberry sundaes. All in all, they looked no different than ordinary people.

If he had not known it beforehand, he would have never believed that these two girls had made a decision to sacrifice their human bodies and devote themselves to the battle against demons, just like the decision they had made 400 years ago at the bottom of the ruin in front of the magic core.

When the dream had ended, they had looked more serene than Roland had expected.

Roland had wanted to console the two girls, but words had caught in his throat. There was no point to dissuade them from converting to devouring worms, for it was an action neither in his interests nor in the interests of the united front. Words, in this case, had all become frivolous and more sounded like feigned kindness.

In the end, Roland had become the one who had been offered solace.

He still clearly remembered their words and the expressions on their faces back then.

"Thank you," Jasmine had said with a smile, "and..."

"We don't regret it." Lyra had finished the latter half of the sentence.

At that moment, Roland could hear the throbs of their hearts.

They liked everything here.

But they did not regret making that decision.

"Your Majesty?" Phyllis, who came to send off her companions as well, looked at Roland. "Aren't you... going back to the castle?"

The words pulled Roland back to the reality. By the time he realized it, the "Victory" had disappeared from his sight, leaving a haze of fogs behind it.

Roland put the thoughts out of his head. He took a deep breath and asked, "They really can't disconnect themselves after being integrated into the carriers?"

As if to know what he wanted to convey, Phyllis lowered her voice. "A G.o.d's Punishment Witch is different from a carrier. The former retain some basic consciousness even without a soul transfer. Our conversion to a G.o.d's Punishment Witch was more like giving commands than a fusion. But carriers are different. They're specific vessels that seal the soul permanently once the integration is completed, although those vessels will become dormant if not used for a long time. n.o.body has ever managed to get out of one up to this date, at least none of the witches, not even Pasha, is able to do that."

"But there're beams of light above the carriers, right?"

"That's right." Phyllis nodded. "Without magic power, those c.u.mbersome bodies can't move independently."

"Perhaps one day, we can also find a way to have their souls return to the Dream World," Roland looked up at the distant, azure sky and said slowly.

After a moment of silence, Phyllis turned her eyes in the same direction. "Well... perhaps one day."

...

To Lorgar, the jungles covered with snows in the Western Region were something completely new.

For more than once, she had heard from traveling tradesmen what snow looked like and envisioned them as some cold, white sand. When she saw it in person, however, she found snow was way finer and whiter than her imagination, even finer and whiter than the purest river sand in Silver Stream.

The whole world was wrapped in a different color.

According to Ashes, although the Months of Demons had pa.s.sed, it would take at least half a month for the snow to melt completely.

Lorgar thought that was exactly what she wanted, for, in that case, she could see a pure white snow city.

There was little she could occupy herself with during the voyage. Lorgar had turned the steel s.h.i.+p inside out but still could not find its source of power. Even Andrea failed to give her a definite answer. She only said evasively that a machine that continuously boiled water was pus.h.i.+ng the boat forward. As to its detailed mechanism, Lorgar was informed that only King Roland and Miss Anna knew about it.

Lorgar did not know much about King Roland, but she had heard from Ashes that Miss Anna had a place on the "Battle Strength Ranking of Neverwinter".

Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan thus became more impressed with and also more interested in powerful and intelligent Anna.

When she mentioned the ranking to Andrea, the latter, however, dismissed it with a scornful smile.

"A battle strength ranking?" Andrea cast a sharp, sideways glance. "A man is different from a wolf. No individual can compete with a group of people. Isn't it animal to only make an emphasis on individual fighting capacity?"

"Wolves are also social animals," Lorgar corrected her.

"Well, fine. Then just take another animal as an example, like tigers and snow leopards." Andrea coughed. "Anyway, Anna is the power source of Neverwinter. It was Anna's ability that enabled the First Army to quash the watchdog and Iron Whip clan with one blow. I bet Ashes didn't tell you that she was almost beaten by an ordinary man."

As Andrea had expected, the wolf girl was taken by surprise. Andrea went on, "That ordinary man used the exact weapon made by Anna. There's no point to discuss fighting capacities without talking about those weapons. If you want to become stronger, I suggest that you ask His Majesty to grant you a set of professional weapons." At these words, Andrea patted the long-barrelled gun on her back and said, "If you can carry these big tubes on your back after your transformation, that would be more useful than any combatting skills."

Lorgar did not really agree with Andrea, but she took a note of her advice.

Her father often told her to listen and observe, and also to always remember what she had wanted in the first place.

As they moved against the current and as the water suddenly rose, the iron s.h.i.+p slowed down drastically. On the fifth day after they had entered the Western Region. the wolf girl saw a beautiful, big, fat pigeon.

It hovered in the air for quite a while before darting straight toward Ashes at the bow.

When Lorgar thought she would have an extra meal for lunch, she noticed that Ashes, smiling, produced a bag of cooked solid food and fed the pigeon. The pigeon, on the other hand, nuzzled up to Ashes as if they were old friends who had not seen each other for ages. It was when the pigeon started to speak that Lorgar realized that it was actually a witch.

"Coo, coo coo!"

"I got it. Tell Princess Tilly that I'll be there soon."

"And me!" Andrea did not like being left behind.

"Coo!"

The pigeon gave a nod, spread out its wings and took off. It soon disappeared in the northwestern direction.

Lorgar asked, "She's..."

Ashes turned around. "Maggie. Like you, she's also a witch who can perform a full-body transformation."

"I see..." thought Lorgar, but she then suddenly remembered that Maggie should transform into a fierce, aggressive and frightful giant monster. She wondered why Maggie would turn into a pigeon.

While Princess Lorgar was still in a daze, Ashes patted her on the shoulder. "Time to pack up. We'll soon reach Neverwinter."