Chapter 817 Sudden Conflic (2/2)

All remnant vigor of the Seventh Abyss—or perhaps all hope it had to return to normal was hence destroyed.

And from the looks of it, the Frost Demons must have done that themselves.

”Weird… what actually happened here?”

Joshua truly could not imagine what transpired there—landing above the lake, he stamped on it and broke through thousands of meters thick ice, directly tunneling an entrance in it. As the warrior lowered his gaze at the Frost Demon's birthing place that was now a dead lake, there was incomprehension in his eyes.

Demons were not lunatics so violent and evil that they have to destroy everything in this world, or they would have long since destroyed themselves. In fact, they would not destroy anything with ill-intent if unnecessary, or at least converting the world into an environment that they were comfortable with. They needed souls and the power of Creation to reignite the Flame of their worlds, and even their dreams were to restore vigor to their world. So, before that, they would invade other worlds like nomads, plundering soul and lives to maintain the vigor of their own world.

Joshua believed that Demon General Helm he fought against would never destroy the vigor of its own world. It was equal to vanquishing all hope for the future, reducing the Abyss into a dead world utterly unsuitable for living.

With such misgivings in mind, Joshua kept streaking through the Void, heading off to look at other Abyssal realms.

And reality left him utterly shocked.

In the span of three to four days, the warrior carefully patrolled twelve Abyssal realms once inhabited, including the Toxic Sea which Syndicate the Balrog lived for some time. But like the Seventh Abyss, there were no trace of demons in every Abyssal realm, just as the last vigor in the world was diminishing.

***

Now, it was Starfall Year 840, the 25th of April—the fifth day since Joshua ventured deep into the Abyss.

At present, the warrior was flying high above the Toxic Sea and pondering.

In the past few days, he had seen many unbelievable sights.

Within the Oceanic Abyss, the wandering giant sea insects and dragons had all vanished, just as the fire lizards and balrogs that lived in the volcanic worlds of magma realms could not be found.

Still, there were substantial traces of civil wars in the demonic habitats, with considerable corpses of powerful demons sprawled over settlements that had wounds left on each other.

Likewise, all signs of life in the Oceanic Abyss had been extinguished by various measures from seismic shift, triggered volcanic eruption, incinerated Abyssal forests, underground fungal caverns caving in… Such cruel actions actually Joshua frown despite his heart of stone, quietly murmuring of the insanity.

Some ancient Abyss still existed since the inhabiting demons were diligently maintaining the vigor within. Even though Joshua believed that he would destroy the Abysses after wiping out the demons, he also found it a fine choice to restore them as normal worlds if possible.

After all, it was much more difficult to start from nothing than to restore a world to a normal one. As in the case of Kronos, worlds with surviving ecosystems have the chance to recover just like any Abyss.

Even so, the most horrible thing here was not the decimation of all life, but that its destroyers were the demons that once lived in that world.

There appeared to have been a great battle before they left, the civil war forcing them into self-destructive measures, laying waste to all Abyssal vigor therein.

Naturally, Joshua did not head to the Sixth Abyss this time.

Even if Joshua did not mind fighting Goliath the Demon King and experiencing the true power of an Abyssal Liege, he held back his desire to prevent alerting them and thus allow the crafty Insectoid Demons to escape. It was also exactly why he would not know if the Sixth Abyss shared the same fate as other Abysses, with widespread civil discord and self-destruction.

But if that was indeed the case for the Sixth Abyss, Joshua would not be pleased.

Demons were certainly the enemies of all Order and civilization, failures that represented Chaos and barbarism, and their mutual slaughter was a good thing for any civilization. However, if the Sixth Abyss that was very near Mycroft proved to be a similar case, it meant Mycroft's turn would come soon—the abnormal, unreasonable destruction was simply a foe of all that lives.

Joshua slowly descended on the surface of the Toxic Sea. According to Joshua, this was the first place where it answered his summons—beneath the acidic ocean were innumerable creatures that enjoyed acidic environment, a local species that was 'Acidic Demons' to a certain point of view.

”Although I sense no Chaos presence…”

Crouching, Joshua reached out to touch the surface of the acidic sea, and narrowed his eyes at the dark green liquid that corroded his fingertips. ”I suspect that this is an Evil God attack!”

Just like how Fertility simply had to pass by, all things in the world would 'flourish' like never before and 'decline' unstoppably.

Just like how Wither's presence could reduce any courageous army and civilization into lazy races that have no impulse for improvement.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.

Just like how Famine would descend, leaving barren plains and dust of all things that were once beautiful.

Calamity, Apocalypse, Disparity, Pestilence… there would be omens before each Evil God appeared and wreaked utter ruin. Their presence was specific doomsdays given form, obliterating all life and civilization.

However, Evil God minions and the power they embodied would always get everyone to neglect those aspects. After all, both of them were beings that destroyed worlds—who would be concerned with their means?

But Joshua was different. Being one who had long considered Evil Gods a future enemy and knowing many Evil God origins, he was especially attentive about the different attributes of the Evil Gods from the very start. And this time, the unusual phenomenon in the Abyss was remarkably similar to the omens before Evil Gods appeared! Having witnessed the descent of Calamity's clone in Illgner, he was almost certain of that after having felled the Ten Calamities.

”Have to tell His Holiness and others about this.”

At the very thought, Joshua no longer hurried to explore other Abysses. Rising slowly above, he tore apart the World Barrier and flew swiftly toward Mycroft's coordinates.

With his present abilities, he quickly returned to the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, and used the communications system in the research center to contact Pope Igor. However, just when he was prepared to describe what he saw in various Abyssal realms for the past few days, Igor's tone appeared much somber and dejected than when they previously met.

”What is it, Your Holiness?”

He asked, puzzled. ”Why do you sound troubled?”

Igor hesitated on the other side for a moment, before quickly explaining the reason for his pause.

”It's very sudden, but this is all true.”

The pope shook his head as he spoke somberly. ”The civil conflict in the Far Southern Kingdom is exacerbating. Many nobles and some citizens are intent on revolutionary policies that would force the king to abdicate, while all existing thirteen autonomous domains are declaring independence, with plans to establish nations.

”Apart from that, there are widespread demonstrations in the Eastern Plains. Many smaller mage academies and spellcaster guilds are organizing joint protests, boycotting the Skypiercing White Tower for invading their inherent boundaries. Some were also protesting about the White Tower's local enchanting and modification, claiming that they were ruining tradition.”

”Things are still fine in the Northern Empire with the presence of the Skynet system and the eradication of some nobles that had extreme conflict against citizens, meaning that the lower levels are alright. But according to Israel, the new and old nobles of the Empire are now in deep conflict, with both sides executing assassinations—and it is a matter that he could not interfere directly with as Emperor.”

At that point, even Joshua could understand what was transpiring, just as the elderly pope rubbed his temples helplessly and smiled bitterly. ”There's no need to mention the West Mountains—Grand Duke Romain is now Grand Emperor Romain, and has directly launched blitzkriegs against neighboring countries.”

”To be frank, Joshua, I never imagined that the sporadic conflicts that had already been suppressed would suddenly worsen to such states in four to five days!”