"Is this... what the world looks like?" Camilla seemed to realize something.

"That's right, if you roll up the floor, it becomes a world map." Roland put down his pen, staring thoughtfully at the floor. It was perhaps a coincidence that, historically, a fleet had set sail from Palos de la Frontera in Spain, and after seventy days and nights of sailing, finally reached the American New World, thus rewriting the world's map. Now, Qiong had also, in a similar way, first explored the approximate shape of the world.

Although the initial intentions of the two were different, these discoveries were real – history would not only remember Qiong's name, but the expedition team, from this moment on, would probably become worthy of its name because of her "circumnavigation."

But all that was in the broader sense.

For Roland, being able to precisely locate the Bottomless Land and Tianhai Realm was undoubtedly the most important thing at present.

Especially the former.

Qiong's discovery confirmed to him that the real existence of the realm of consciousness was not as far away as he had imagined, which was obviously good news. At least, the new bomber program and the improved Tianhuo had a clear purpose in their design performance parameters.

Of course, the Tianhai Realm, located in the ocean, was somewhat beyond reach. Fortunately, they were fighting devils, and even if they advanced eastward, they would first land on the west coast of the Dawn Border, still far from the Fertile Plains.

"Then only the last question remains," Nightingale hummed, "Who was the woman Qiong met on the isolated island? There are no traces of human habitation there. If she was really from the God's Will faction, there was no reason to help her, right?"

Roland was silent for a moment, "In fact, this is probably the worst problem."

"Why?" Camilla asked, puzzled.

"Theoretically, if the Battle of Divine Will, whether it wins or loses, ultimately leads to destruction, then the Gods are our enemies." He said hesitantly, "But the Watchers did not show the hostility they should have. Either their concepts of good and evil are very different from ours, or... they simply don't take us seriously. This kind of care is probably like when we bandage an injured bird."

The two witches looked at each other, stunned in place.

But what followed was a chill that went deep into the soles of their feet.

Everyone understood that if a flock of birds stole grains, humans would not hesitate to kill them, but no one would regard birds as true enemies, and occasionally they would snatch a chick from a cat's claws. The latter had nothing to do with good or evil, but was just a matter of personal preference.

The Battle of Divine Will had continued round after round, and countless races had been destroyed under the eyes of the Watchers. The life and death of civilizations would not cause the Gods a moment's hesitation, and their saving Qiong did not mean that humans belonged to a special category.

"This... is too terrifying," Camilla. Dairre murmured.

"I hope my guess is wrong," Roland sighed, "But since we want to stop the Battle of Divine Will, I'm afraid we will eventually have to deal with the Gods."

"This is the price."

"Stop your foolishness, you don't know what you're doing!"

"--Everything will return to nothing, and millions of years of accumulation will be destroyed."

"You can't afford such a crime--"

Fragmentary words echoed in his ears, like a microcosm of time.

It had paid such a price to keep the Battle of Divine Will going until now, how could it easily stop?

Whether in reality or in dreams, this struggle was inevitable.

...

Wolfheart Kingdom, Sunken Pond Bay Wharf.

This place was once occupied by devils, and the densely packed residential area had been reduced to ruins. But as the First Army's personnel and weapons gradually became complete, and the enemy was caught off guard by the truck and cannon offensive, in just one month, the devils were forced to withdraw from the port city.

The shattered Mist Stone Tower in the square, bombarded by fortress artillery, was proof – they drove humans to transport neatly cut obsidian from the north, and then stacked the towers by low-level devils who did not need red mist, until they were connected to the high towers of other cities to form a daunting fog area. However, this plan had not yet been realized, and the half-built Mist Storage Tower had already disintegrated in the roar of artillery fire.

As humans gradually launched a counterattack, the devils' control over the occupied territories was decreasing at a rate visible to the naked eye, and the escaped people who had disappeared for a period of time showed signs of recovery. Although the city was dead, the wharf became busy again. Even though the devils had destroyed most of the roads and trestles before retreating, the engineering team still built a temporary access road within a week.

For those who had finally escaped the red mist area, this was undoubtedly a lucky thing, but not every southerner thought so.

"Damn it, the rumors are true." Looking at the sentry posts set up on the road, Nigan. Moray said hatefully, "I wanted the devils to deal with this group of troublesome Graycastle people, but I didn't expect them to be unreliable either."

"Both sides are monsters, but one is more brutal." Taros. Moray replied expressionlessly - half of his cheek was hidden under a turban, and several scars spread out from the shadows, like earthworms entrenched under the skin. "But without the support of the nobles, the Wimbledon family will lose everything they have sooner or later, so we don't have to worry about it." Speaking of this, he looked at the queue, with a hint of sinister meaning in his tone, "The guys we have to deal with are already enough..."

"That's right," Nigan also became excited, "Anyone who joins Graycastle is our enemy. We can't let them get away without paying a price."

"But we have to be patient for now," Taros held his shoulder, "We can hunt however we want after dawn."

Although devils would never actively mention their failures, it was an indisputable fact that there were fewer and fewer monsters stationed in the Everwinter cities. Compared with the ignorant civilians, it was always possible for the nobles to find out the news from the front line by spending a little effort. After learning that the devils from hell were no match for the Graycastle people, the atmosphere of panic had already spread in the noble circle.

Compared with those upper-class nobles with large families and businesses, Taros, as a knight, did not have so many burdens. He was unwilling to work for this group of ugly alien races, and he could not possibly join Graycastle, who had a feud with him. Since there was no way out by staying in Everwinter, it was wise to go south to the territory not yet controlled by the Graycastle people as soon as possible.

Of course, hunting escaped people could be done anywhere. He had plenty of time to take revenge, or rather... enjoy himself. Unconsciously, he had fallen in love with the feeling of dominating everything, listening to the refugees begging, rolling, and wailing under the hooves of his horses, which was simply irresistible.

Whenever he bathed in the warm blood, even the old wounds on his face that were faintly painful would fade away a lot, as if in response to this sacrifice.

There was no possibility of reviving the family, so it was better to enjoy the hard-won comfort.

And there was nothing more worth looking forward to in the world than this.