God's Punishment Witches could enter the dream world by severing their consciousness, thus obtaining complete bodies and sensations. This was already common knowledge for the survivors still residing in the Third Border City. Roland had heard Phyllis say more than once that whenever she returned to the underground, she would be besieged and questioned by her fellow guards, the content of which was mostly about the experiences in the dream, and their eagerness was beyond words.
Now that there were other ways to restore their senses, would they still be willing to merge their souls with their carriers as before?
Of course, the latter was not without its advantages. At least the dream world could only be experienced when he was asleep, while the sensations of the carrier existed at all times, and if the shell was undamaged, it could almost be considered immortal.
It probably wouldn't be easy to make a choice between the two.
However, they had another option, which was to conceal the news of the dream world first, transport the equipment over, and then carry out the transformation. Even if they were unwilling afterwards, there was no way to undo it. However, Roland felt that Pasha and the others would not adopt this deceptive approach. After spending more than a month with them, he found that although these people had been isolated from the world for hundreds of years, they had not become a rigid and inflexible organization. Not only did they have a positive and proactive attitude towards new things, but they had also truly eliminated class differences among themselves. Obviously, the sacrifice of the three Union seats had touched them greatly, and the threat of the devils forced them to keep moving forward.
"You don't need to worry about this," Pasha said, as if reading his mind. "More carriers are beneficial to defeating the devils—the original carriers can operate the magic core, and the Devouring Worms can speed up the construction of the defense line. As long as it is beneficial to the Battle of Divine Will, they will not hesitate. In fact, the witches participating in the transformation will go to the Great Snow Mountain with the equipment."
Volunteers who feared no cost... Roland pursed his lips. "It seems that I was indeed overthinking it. When the exploration is complete, I will send a fleet to transport the transformation equipment."
"Thank you for your help," she said with a smile.
Roland nodded and spread the pictures drawn by Soroya on the table. "The information sent back before was just textual clues. These pictures were only delivered to me today—they can be seen as a true reproduction of the scene. I wonder what you think of this monster?"
"Please wait a moment." Pasha waved a tentacle and called Celine and Erxue, who were repairing the God's Punishment instrument not far away. The three fleshy lumps crowded in front of the light curtain, looking at the lifelike "continuous shots."
This time, the silence lasted unexpectedly long. They connected their tentacles to each other and communicated with their consciousness. With the fleshy lumps themselves not showing any expression, Roland even had the illusion that they had disconnected.
After a long while, Pasha's voice sounded in his mind again, "Sorry to keep you waiting, because some of the pictures surprised us, so we had to confirm them again and again."
"It's neither a Demonic Beast nor a devil, right?"
"That's right," Celine replied, "and the skeleton when it fell into the water once appeared in the Realm of the Gods described by Lady Nataya."
"Can you be sure?"
"We have been underground for hundreds of years, but we are not so senile as to forget such important news—the carrier's memory ability is actually far superior to that of humans." Erxue said unhappily, "Lady Nataya once saw the sea and the skeleton in the third scroll. Judging from the description, it is very close to the pictures. Adding the fact that the lake leads to the sea, this judgment is even more credible."
"So, now we can be sure that it does belong to that God who has never appeared?" Roland asked, stroking his chin. He was not surprised by this result—when he discovered that the Devouring Worms did not even spare the devil's camp, the forces behind it were only two possibilities left: either the Stand-alones who disliked everyone, or the last party in the Battle of Divine Will. The exploration of the snow mountain, in addition to helping the survivors of Taqila, was also an action to eliminate threats and find out the details of the opponent.
In addition, in Jie Luo's memory fragments, he had also seen similar records, but they were described very vaguely. Now, with the confirmation of the Taqila witches, the true identity of the monster could almost be confirmed.
"Very likely, but..." Pasha hesitated before continuing, "There are still many unexplained points, such as—Demonic Beasts."
"These beasts that are all over the Realm of Dawn should have been mutated by the erosion of magic power, just like the witches who obtained magic power, but why do they obey the instructions of this monster? This is different from the devil's forced enslavement of mixed races. It's more like a relationship between a commander and a follower."
Roland had also thought about this question. If the Demonic Beasts were regarded as part of that God, it would be equally difficult to explain why they did not accumulate the mixed races and then flatten humans and devils in one fell swoop. Any intelligent race would not allow its own forces to be wasted so much during the Months of the Evil.
Perhaps the origins of these deformed beasts were not as simple as they thought.
"We will always know the answer when the Battle of Divine Will begins," Roland shrugged, pretending to be relaxed. "If they are also considered relatives of the monster, then that would be even better. In this way, when we defeat all our opponents, even if the Months of the Evil comes, there will be no ugly creatures in the vast snowfield."
"...That's true," Pasha paused for a moment, then chuckled. "You do see clearly. Indeed, no matter how they were born, as long as they appear in the Battle of Divine Will, they are enemies we must defeat."
The following discussion focused on how to block the underground river of the ruins and build the defense line of despair. When the meeting was about to end, Roland suddenly thought of a key question.
"By the way, now that we have caught the tail of the hidden God, we should give them a name," he cleared his throat, "just like the God of the First Scroll is called the devils."
"Is this important?" Pasha tilted her main tentacle and asked, "Devils is just the most widespread name. In the Union, some people also call them Blood Beasts, Deformed Demons, or Polluters."
"Of course, a suitable name is very important for publicity and mobilization. The more evil it sounds, the more it can arouse people's psychology of resistance."
"Then... what do you think we should call them?"
"Well, since they are potential enemies and stay in the sea for a long time, how about calling them Sea Monsters?"
"..."
The whole place was silent.
"Uh... is it not good?"
"I thought the name Third Border City was bad enough, but I didn't expect it to be even worse," Erxue sneered, "Sea Monsters? It sounds like calling a giant octopus."
"Erxue!" Pasha slapped the former's head with her main tentacle. "Your Majesty, as long as you think it's okay... I think... there's nothing wrong with it."
Although that's what she said, why was the other party's tone so reluctant? Roland picked up his cup and took a sip of tea to cover up the awkward atmosphere.
"Cough cough," Quill, who was taking notes on the side, coughed twice, "Your Majesty, how about calling them Deep Sea Devils."
"Deep Sea... Devils?" he repeated.
"Yes, the concept of devils is deeply rooted in people's hearts, and we don't need to describe it too much. Everyone can understand what it represents, which will help the promotion of the City Hall's propaganda work, and the people will not feel that they have to face multiple enemies at the same time." Quill explained, pinching his quill.
"It seems to be a little better..." Roland pouted unwillingly, "Then let's do it your way."
Thus, the God of the Second Scroll had a formal external name.