Chương 1401: 1400. Little Break

"If we manage to contain it, how much time do we have before a beast of calamity would rise?" Seth asked solemnly, his finger tapping the desktop in tension. The blacksmith had taken off a couple of days. Thanks to Monique's sudden revelation, his schedule had shifted, so he decided to take two days break for various reasons. He wanted to relax a little after the race that was the first Sky Dragon Armor and wait for Monique to return. He had already prepared the <Olympian Silver> as instructed by the chosen one.

Another reason was to give Leana time. The princess actually intended to try and convince everyone that Cade deserved the second Sky Dragon Armor. Seth had decided to give her the time until he finished Monique's armor. Just when he got ready to relax a little and entertained the thought to go and meet the lost son, Paolo, Mary, and Leana slammed him with the findings of the team in the Sea of Trees. The team had actually met horned ones, who were able to give them detailed info on the inside of the forest.

Although that led to the team's initial task being completed quite quickly, Seth couldn't be happy about it. It was as they feared, a chasm had already opened at the center of the forest. According to the description of the horned ones, they suspected the chasm to have opened close to the abandoned district of Cerebellum, which would now be roughly in the center between Ypselon and Avernum, where Seth came from.

Things would have stood better if the Theocracy had not razed the Starta Village, which had kept the pocket of corruption and the forest at bay. Although what the village sealed was only a small side source, they may have found the main well earlier if things had gone differently. They had another potentially world-ending threat to deal with, in addition to all the other internal and external foes already present. At least the ones they knew of.

"The horned ones seem to have impeded the chasm for some time now, so it can't be that big yet. If we reinforce the seal and aid the horned ones, I think it will take at least 3 more years before things become irreversible. But that is just an estimate. Idyllon will know more once he had a look," Leana explained, concerned.

"If we send people out now, it might be enough time to find a deity willing to help us," the princess added. Like the space mage, she was convinced that divine intervention was their most likely option to solve the problem.

"Why do you ask that?" Mary asked Seth suspiciously. While Leana was ready to eagerly talk about problems and solutions, the secretary found it suspicious that Seth's first question after hearing everything was to ask how long they had.

"If it is that long, we can concentrate on guarding it. We should give the horned ones all the tech they could need and leave that duty to them," the blacksmith suddenly said.

"What are you saying? We have to act immediately! The three years are next to nothing. We will probably need it all to prepare a ritual, in case we find a god who is willing," Leana urged, jumping half off her chair.

"Seth, what is going on?" Mary didn't quite react like the princes. She understood that the situation was urgent, or at least Leana judged it to be; however, it was not so urgent to her that she lost her composure.

"Leana may be overreacting, but don't you think that it is a little too... little, considering the potential danger?" She tried to argue with Seth, but the blacksmith slid deeper in his chair. Then he suddenly lifted his arm and pointed out the window of the meeting room. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Outside, they could see the sunlight fall through the crown of the Guardian Tree, which was towering above the district. Seth was pointing at it.

"Have you ever seen a bigger living being than the guardian tree?" he asked all of a sudden.

"No, but that doesn't matter. The tree won't be able to resist the corruption for long, if we allow it to grow stronger for too long," Leana argued almost desperately. Seth ignored that the princess had misunderstood his words. He was not trying to boast about their big tree.

"I... have seen a bigger one. You know the beast slumbering at the center of Y-City?" the blacksmith asked calmly.

"The bear with antlers?" Mary asked, cocking her head, slightly puzzled. She had read the reports about the battle in Y-City. She vividly remembered the descriptions of a huge part of the city being lifted up into the sky on the antlers of the giant bear.

"We don't need a god, we already have one. Lezzekai is the primordial beast of the Land of Urth. At this rate, it won't take any longer than a year for the slumbering realm to awaken completely, and Lezzekai with it."

"... but how are we making it go against the corruption?" Leana finally asked after processing his words.

"That is the neat part, we don't have to get involved at all. Lezzekai is the guardian of Urth's land. When corruption is eating away at his domain, won't they be natural enemies, to begin with?" the blacksmith proposed his hypothesis.

"Seems a little too vague to bet the fate of the whole world on, don't you think?" Leana asked doubtfully.

"But is it any worse than selling out to some god to beg for their mercy? Who knows what they may ask of us? Would there even be any god willing to move on a condition we could agree to with a clean conscience?" the blacksmith countered. Gods were not non-profit organization. Everything they did was to increase their faith. Even altruistic acts or acts of boredom always had this side effect.

Seth couldn't imagine any god helping without trying to force a congregation of their church onto Urth, and that was the smallest price he could think of.

"Okay then, how about this? We start monitoring the chasm for now and start looking for a church whose god would be willing to help. There is no loss in looking at the possibilities. Maybe we won't even find one before Lezzekai awakens, but if we do and the price is acceptable, we won't tempt fate. On the other hand, if we don't find one in time, we wait for Lezzekai to awaken.

If the beast does as you say, everything will be dealt with, but if it doesn't make its move against the chasm, we will at least know the options we have to deal with to still save the situation," Mary suggested a compromise both could agree to.

"Fine, let's do that," the Tower Master agreed. There was no reason to refuse if the help of a god came cheaper than Seth expected. Maybe there was even a chance that one of their allied gods grew strong enough to help.

"On another note, since Alison has technically finished her journey, how are the plans to spread the seeds?" Seth asked about their original plans. After all, the whole reason they sent Alison and the others into the green hell was to share it with Spatia.

"Drosi and the other Tiijahk volunteered for the task. Once Karina has prepared the seeds, they will use the remaining stone gate to enter the frontier world and infiltrate Spatia from there. We decided to provide them with the invisibility cloaks of the Scene to ease their mission," Leana explained.

"Alright, that means the only one we are waiting on now is Mike. At least for this matter. Is there any news of his party?" Seth asked.

"There were no significant updates after they helped Adam and departed from Thres. It seems like the whole of the unclaimed mountains is now infested by beasts and people, infected by these worms," Mary explained.

"So far, he has placed 2 gates, but he is still looking for the perfect place to set up the third one," she explained Mike's current progress. After the invasion of Spatia, Minas Mar was able to take possession of 7 sets of Stone Gate and one massive Spatial gate, thanks to Idyllin Mo's hard work. The spatial wizard had closed all but one gate; they kept up for access to Spatia. Of the remaining 7 sets, three halves were given to Mike.

The Chosen of Maahes would set them up as anchors in the unclaimed mountains, while Drosi and the other would set up their other halves on key worlds of Spatia, to create a spatial connection and allow the hordes of cybernetic monsters to bother someone else.

"Good, then Drosi and the others can set off, once Alison delivered the material and Karina makes the seeds," Seth mumbled. With some luck, they would be able to stabilize the pending catastrophes by the time the chasm became critical.

"To change the subject again. How about we hold a joint welcome party for Paolo and Monique the day after tomorrow?"