When everything was over, the Second Team arrived late.

Roland smeared mud on his face and tore a few holes in his clothes, pretending to be as weak and exhausted as everyone else, waiting for the Martial Artists Association's rescue.

Although Wang Sheng's good intentions led Ling to make a big mistake, fortunately, she only imitated the "push-to-talk" step and did not switch the channel to the entire team communication mode. Therefore, only Fei Yuhan heard the knockout declaration at the time. Not to mention that she is still unconscious, even if she wakes up, Roland can firmly deny it and attribute these absurd ramblings to hallucinations caused by serious injuries.

As for why the monster disappeared without a trace, it was naturally an unanswerable question for him, who had "passed out early." Doing so was equivalent to giving all the credit for repelling the enemy to the genius girl, but in Roland's eyes, it was exactly what he wanted.

What followed was as he expected. Without witnessing the battle firsthand, his vague description did not attract the attention of the liaison officer. The association's focus was entirely on the new erosion—even the fact that only six of the twelve main battle teams survived, including the sacrifice of two star martial artists, paled in comparison to the shocking news of "man-made erosion."

The only thing that surprised Roland a little was that Garcia was the first to jump into the pit after the Second Team arrived at the scene—seeing her anxiously shouting his name while searching at the bottom of the pit, and the undisguised joy after finding him, made him feel a warmth he couldn't control. Of course, this emotion didn't last long. Garcia quickly reverted to her cold face, mumbled, "What, you're not dead yet," and dragged him to the ambulance in a rough manner.

Thus, the joint annihilation mission finally came to an end.

Back at the tenement building, Phyllis and the others expressed concern about the magic creature's warning. After all, the enemy's last words were quite shocking and didn't seem like empty talk—being able to detect Roland's anomaly at the first moment was proof in itself.

If it were a year ago, Roland would have considered the opponent's warning not to enter this place again—there was a time when he was full of vigilance and resistance towards this dream world that was gradually becoming complex and increasingly unfamiliar, as if something originally born from his will was gradually escaping his control.

But now, he had made a decision.

The dream world was not just a tool for him to supplement his lacking knowledge. For the God's Punishment Witches, it was a truly complete refuge. He might not be able to make this world last forever, but before that day arrived, he hoped to allow the survivors of Taqila, who had lost most of their senses, to accumulate more pleasant memories.

Another reason was that he trusted his feelings.

Looking back now, the initial subtle changes in the dream world may have started from the release of the first core cyclone.

Although Roland had not yet unraveled the relationship between the two, the sudden surge of comfort he felt in his body when he defeated the magic creature and seized its star plate was real.

He had a faint premonition that as long as he continued in this way, he would eventually find the answer one day.

In addition, the end of the mission did not mean the end of the incident. It was conceivable how much commotion the news of using an infected core to create erosion would cause within the association. After the other martial artists woke up, the association would inevitably reconstruct the entire conspiracy from multiple perspectives, and the corresponding investigation would continue for a long time. He would also be affected to some extent, and even be suspected and even hostile by the New Faction.

But in any case, that was all in the future.

...

Three days later, the Detective Team finally returned to Neverwinter City.

Asha not only completely traced back the entire process of the Battle of Taqila, but also recorded several important fragments with the Time Seal. Upon receiving the news, Roland immediately summoned the participating high-level officials to the Third Border City Hall to watch the beginning and end of the battle in a first-person experience.

When it played to the point where Ashes used herself as a sword, causing the power of God and Ursrook to perish together, Roland felt a slightly trembling hand grab his. He

opened his palm, gently grasped the other person's hand, and continued until the magic shadow ended. After the vision returned to normal, he noticed that Tilly's eyes were slightly red, but even so, she did not show any intention of escaping, but stood in place and watched the entire flashback without moving a step.

All the missing pieces were filled in at this moment.

"It's the first time I've seen the fusion of a Beholder and a common devil." After a moment of silence, Pasha sighed, "I just don't know how they managed to do it?"

A major doubt in the ambush operation was why the devils were able to reach the sniping location immediately after discovering the Special Operations Team. Although Andrea had suggested the possibility of a Thousand-Eyed Demon afterwards, it was still inconsistent with the latter's huge and clumsy image. Now the evidence was finally conclusive—a week before the final battle, Ursrook slashed the cheek of a Berserker Guard and stuffed a handful of eyeballs frozen in a box into its wound. Sensing the blood, the eyeballs seemed to awaken, and the roots beneath them pierced into the Berserker's body one by one, causing the latter to let out indescribable screams. This process lasted for nearly a week until the Berserker's head was completely occupied by the eyeballs.

And the Berserker was inlaid not with a thrown magic stone, but with an extremely rare flying magic stone—theoretically speaking, this type of magic stone could not be provided to lower-level devils at all.

This also meant that Ursrook had begun preparing the conditions and manpower needed for the trap at least half a year in advance.

The moment the modified Berserker flew out of Taqila, Sylvie's location was exposed. In order to buy time for the guard to encircle, it deliberately flew towards the First Army's position first, and then doubled back, disguised as "abandoning the defense and fleeing." Considering that this time difference could be controlled at will, no matter where the Special Operations Team was, they would encounter a large group of devils after firing. Unless they abandoned this opportunity, stopped monitoring the "modified Berserker" halfway, and quickly retreated westward, they might be able to escape the enemy's encirclement.

"Rather than fusion, I think it's more like a kind of control, like... a carrier." Agatha pondered, "The one acting as Ursrook's substitute is not the original Berserker, but the miniature Beholder on its head."

"Why do you say that?" Roland asked.

"If the enemy had this ability from the beginning, it would have been impossible not to use it in the Second Battle of Divine Will—after all, as long as a few are inserted into the army, they can prevent all harassment and reconnaissance, and the liberated Terror Beasts can be invested in the attack, and the Union would probably not last even five years." Agatha said slowly, "I think this is probably not an ability, but a technology—like those newly appeared Spider Devils."