"You're Roland, aren't you?" When Roland was contemplating the "Erosion", Lan suddenly spoke.

"Ah... it's me." He recovered from his solemn thoughts and Garcia's words flashed across his mind... "Hang on, would she be trying to find trouble with me for having stood her up?"

"I've heard Garcia mention you several times." She did not face Roland, so he could not see her expression. "She said you're a rare and independent awakened who's not disturbed by desire and ambition. This is very rare for the average person, so she's very happy that you've agreed to join the a.s.sociation."

"Uh... Is that so?" Roland replied reluctantly.

It was clear to him that Lan must have been implying that he was a 'wild' Awakened when she said 'independent', but he wondered why she said that Garcia was elated when he agreed to join the a.s.sociation. He clearly remembered that Garcia had been expressionless when she had let him fill out the application.

"Although I hate people who aren't punctual, this is a common problem for many. After all, you can't feel the change of time nor can you hear it ticking, so for some special people, it's not an unforgivable flaw."

Inexplicably, Roland felt that there was a glimmer of emotion when the Chief Disciple said these words.

"There's one thing you should know about special people. Though they're uncommon, there're still quite a number of them. If they don't treasure their special feature and maximize it, they'll be eliminated sooner or later."

"Is this a warning that I should work wholeheartedly for the a.s.sociation and not cause problems like the other wild Awakened ones?" Roland secretly frowned as he really did not like this kind of preaching. Perhaps he would not have minded it before, but after he became the King of Graycastle, he had also changed his mentality.

"After you've finished watching, you can leave," Lan finally turned around and said calmly, "listen carefully to what I'm going to say next as it might help you. Next—!"

Roland twitched his mouth and did not take this brief conversation to heart.

He was overwhelmed by a cloud of confusion.

Whether the Martialist a.s.sociation could defeat the Erosion and save the world was something he did not care about.

After returning to his seat, he still frowned.

What are the "deities" thinking about?

According to the research data of the underground civilization, the b.l.o.o.d.y Moon is the key to transforming the magic power, and also the basis for the existence of the Dreamland—in a certain sense, it's the equivalent of the mastermind behind the scenes, existing like a background. Even if one wanted to annex the Dream World, there's no need to show their original appearance, right?

The witches can see the real body of the b.l.o.o.d.y Moon because that's the real world, yet this Dreamland is a domain purely founded on his and Zero's memories. Wouldn't this mean that the mastermind had seen the circuit signal operating behind the world?

Or could the speculation be wrong? Or maybe I had misunderstood some information that had pointed me in the wrong direction?

"So do you believe it now?" Garcia glared at him. "That's definitely not something that can exist in reality."

"I've never doubted you." Roland shook his head and tried to suppress his distractions. "But your master wasn't as scary as you'd described."

"Was there something wrong with the master?" She was a little surprised.

"She said quite a lot about how special I was and how the a.s.sociation thought highly of me," Roland said sarcastically, "by the way... she said you were elated about me joining the a.s.sociation. Was that so? I really couldn't tell at all."

He looked at the ex-Princess Garcia in antic.i.p.ation, as he wanted to see what kind of expression she would reveal. Would she deny everything completely or attempt to conceal herself hurriedly? No matter what she did, it should be very interesting.

But he never imagined that she would portray a look of "you're really such a fool".

"What're you talking about?" said Garcia as she rolled her eyes. "When you were on the platform, the master didn't speak at all... Do you think that I'm blind?"

Roland could not help but be stunned.

"This distance might be considered far for ordinary people, but I'm a martialist. I could even see clearly how many strands of beard you had on the stage. Don't try to lie to me. You're still too inexperienced," she said with a note of disdain.

Didn't... speak?

Just as he was about to ask more questions, Lan had already re-closed the gla.s.s chest. She clapped her hands and made everyone focus their attention on the podium—this time round, there was much less talk in the hall.

"Our world isn't flat, it's a membrane. Some can understand this and others can't. But it doesn't matter. Just listen to me." She turned around so that the screen behind showed what was being said. "The membrane has a curvature that, in popular terms, is like an arc—and in some places, this change is even more p.r.o.nounced. If there are other worlds beyond this one, then there'll be a possibility that the two worlds will intersect, and this intersection is the Erosion."

"Of course, this is only a speculation, but it's the only explanation for the vision that we saw—since the Erosion was discovered, all nations have kept up their research on it, but unfortunately the world there has completely different rules. Any means of detection are declared null and void, and even the matter here can't be stabilized beyond the borders. As you've seen for yourselves, the iron bar was the proof."

"Huh? What's the connection with the Fallen Evils?" someone asked.

"Of course there's a connection. The strength they gain comes from another membrane—and that's why the Fallen Evils aren't afraid of ordinary weapons in this world. The overlapping membrane temporarily connects the two worlds, and I don't know what kind of effect that would have on the other world. But for us, the rules still work: the movement of energy from high to low creates a series of phenomena that is incredible." Lan raised her voice and said, "To be exact, not just the Fallen Evils, any Awakened person would be related to this energy."

"What did.. you say?"

"My power belongs only to me. It's not related to any G.o.dd.a.m.ned membrane!"

"Does the Martialist a.s.sociation think that we're the same as the Fallen Evils?"

The hall suddenly burst into a commotion.

This time Lan did not say anything to stop the commotion but waited until everyone became silent by themselves before she went on to say, "Of course there's a difference, we can control it, yet the Fallen Evils can't. But we have to admit that in some sense were quite similar to the Fallen Evils—especially on this point about being able to resist injuries caused by ordinary weapons. Has everyone considered another point? How come the martialists can't dominate the entire world even when they can freely manipulate the Force of Nature and can't be hurt by ordinary weapons?"

"Well... " The crowd started to whisper.

"Because the Erosion won't last forever," Lan said straightforwardly, "as the curvature changes, the overlapping membranes will gradually separate until the next reunion—the cycle can be long or short. A short one could be a day while the long one could be millions of years. And we encountered the Erosion about 2000 B.C. and the overlapping lasted only less than a century. Once they separated, the Force of Nature will disappear without any trace. Given that, even the Awakened ones managed to dominate the whole world, two thousand years of interval would be enough for this empire to vanish."

"How can you be sure about what happened thousands of years ago?" Although someone still questioned her theory, his att.i.tude was much less aggressive.

"I don't know," said the Chief Disciple, frankly. "It's just an a.s.sumption. Even 2000 years ago, there wasn't even a scientific way of observation and recording. If you want to validate it, we'll have to wait until 2000 years later. But we mustn't forget that history is always full of surprising coincidences. By comparing the biographies and history books of different regions, you'll find that many epic heroes and legends were born during that period, and then further on the myths emerged—and most myths were related to doomsday and the salvation. Can we a.s.sume that it was the Erosion that caused this?"

There was a brief silence below the stage, and after a while, someone asked, "And even if those epic heroes are the Awakened ones of the Force of Nature, what does that have to do with us? According to what you said, the Erosion will end by itself, so what's the purpose of the propaganda of your a.s.sociation against the Erosion?"

"Don't forget that apart from us, there are also the Fallen Evils," Lan answered quietly. "This is what I said at the beginning. There's no evil force. The energy just spreads according to the rules. It has no malice, but that doesn't mean the affected people will also have no malice. We're just at the beginning of the membrane overlap, so such loopholes will continue to increase and expand. The Fallen Evils will also increase in numbers. And only the Martialists that use the same kind of force can defeat them—this is a compet.i.tion of the survival of the fittest, and only one party can survive. If we can't defeat the Fallen Evils, not just the Awakened ones, but the whole human existence will be completely destroyed by them."