Chapter 347 (2/2)

Undoubtedly, the most pressing problem was about the demons.

What was the cause of the war with the demons, and why did the demons cease fighting? This information was essential to Border Town. No war could have been started without a reason, but the demons’ behavior didn’t seem like an attack motivated by resources or expansion. They didn’t occupy the Barbarian Land, nor did they pillage mankind. What they did seemed like an act purely for the joy of slaughter.

Roland also noticed that Elsa mentioned the term Battle of Divine Will. Could it be that the two sides waged the dreadful war under the will of God? But at that time, the Church hadn’t come into being, so there wasn’t the one and only God that the Church declared. Without this explained, his mind remained unsettled.

Meanwhile, he needed to figure out the basic necessities of life in the Holy City’s civilization as soon as possible, or in other words, assess its degree of economic and civil development. He needed this information to measure the level of this civilization and deduce the demons’ capabilities.

As for the Union, Roland wasn’t too concerned about it. Its witches were scarce and their abilities were unstable. This organization’s capability for organized combat wouldn’t be very high. Historical experience had repeatedly stressed that before the formation of a generation gap, a comprehensive war was all about attrition. A few sophisticated weapons wouldn’t reverse the overall disadvantage.

The second question was about the Magic Stone.

Considering what Tilly said, the magical nature of such stones could greatly compensate for the witches’ unstable ability, enabling the witches to exert powers that didn’t belong to them. In this way, even auxiliary witches could be sent to war. However, in Roland’s point of view, that was like putting the cart before the horse. He’d rather turn all the combat witches into auxiliary witches and put them all to work in production roles.

Oddly enough, the Union, which had large numbers of witches, didn’t make use of Magic Stones to fight against the demons. Instead, it chose to produce God’s Punishment Army, which in Roland’s view was beyond comprehension. Maybe the Magic Stone had some unknown shortcomings, or its production was extremely difficult?

Fortunately, Elsa was a member of the Quest Society, an organization similar to the current Alchemy Workshop, which gathered a group of highly talented witches specializing in the research of Magic Stones and magic power. Roland faintly felt that there must be a wealth of potential information to be exploited.

The last question was about the Church.

He drew a circle on this column. Obviously, he couldn’t count on getting details from Elsa about the organization’s foundation and development. What he could infer from the scattered information at hand was that the Church was founded after the witches’ defeat. After obtaining the Union’s secret, the Church concealed everything about the witches and declared them as incarnations of demons. If the people of the Four Kingdoms were seen as descendants of aborigines, the Church would be a veritable outsider. Since the aborigines didn’t have their own civilization, they could be easily fooled by fabricated history and prophecies.

“Was it only because the witches used to suppress ordinary people that the refugees took the witches as their enemy and went on to hunt the witches on this continent?” Roland frowned. “All these deductions did sound reasonable, yet… he felt that there was something wrong.”

The Union had a great number of Bliss Warriors, Extraordinary Witches, and even Transcendents. Even if the Church managed to get a hold of God’s Stones of Retaliation, was it possible for them to defeat an opponent like the Union?

To wipe out a much stronger force, you couldn’t purely rely on hatred. Clearly there was some key information missing.

“That witch seems to dislike you,” Nightingale suddenly said.

“After all, she used to live in a world where the witches were considered superior to the human being.” Roland laughed. “I’m afraid I’m just no different from the roadside weeds in her eyes.”

“Don’t you hate her?”

“Why would I? She is nothing but a poor woman abandoned by her own time.” He shook his head. “She’d been sleeping in the frozen coffin for 400 years, and woke up to find the world had completely changed. The strangeness brought by the new world would bring her fear, so it was no surprise that she would build a defensive wall in her heart. After she accepts all this, she will probably gradually change her point of view.”

“What a typical response of yours,” said Nightingale with a smile. “But rest assured, I won’t allow her to offend you in any way.”