It was a snowy night.
The ancient and strong fortress of Frost Snow City stands in the wind and snow just like the past few thousand years, standing like proud guards on the first sentry post in front of the Gorgon Abyss, like layers of petal-like city walls welcoming With the cold wind, the blizzard from the plain was blocked outside the city, but the howling sound produced by the cold wind sweeping across the plain could still enter the fortress city through the gaps between the city walls. The sound passed through the double distortion of the city wall and the magic barrier, and became a low-pitched sob that echoed for a long time on the outermost streets of the fortress city, just like the cry of the earth.
It might be difficult for outsiders to fall asleep peacefully at night like this. Even the sturdy northerners would inevitably feel a little upset when they heard the wailing and wailing circling outside the city. The traditions of the northern region made them regard this ominous sound hovering over the snow field as an ominous omen, so the pubs on the outermost streets of the fortress city lit up the brightest lights one by one, and the spirits were barreled into barrels. Carrying it on the table, it turns into courage and heat and melts into the blood vessels.
The people staying in Frost Snow City chatted and laughed loudly in the tavern, using their voices to disperse the ominous sounds from the plain. They talked about the battle on the front line, about the black sword knights who lost their minds, and about Ge Ge who had entered a relatively peaceful state. Ergon Depths - There is also talk of the "Embassadors" that entered the city during the day.
No matter what they were talking about, it was necessary to heat up the atmosphere. Only in this way could they resist the blizzard that was sweeping across the entire snow field.
But almost all the noise was at the foot of the mountain, the more people went to the upper part of the city, the less human voices became, and in the area where the lord's castle was located, almost only the whistling of the wind and snow could be heard.
The cold wind carried snow dust through the courtyard of the post house, rattling the flags in the courtyard, and in the dim light, one could occasionally see a figure flashing by near the gate of the post house. For the legionnaires who went to inspect the city defense facilities, the outside world was gradually being frozen—this made the warm room look like an isolated paradise.
Lily lay at the window watching the snowstorm for a long time, and finally looked away reluctantly: "Woooo... such a big snowstorm, even I don't feel like going out..."
Vivienne, who was adding firewood to the fireplace, gave her a blank look when she heard the words: "You have been struggling for a long time whether to go out for a walk in this horrible weather, you are really sick, okay?"
"Don't make things difficult for her. The king of the transportation industry in the Arctic Circle was forced to watch the snow fall outside. It's a miracle of education that she hasn't demolished her house yet." Hao Ren waved his hands and turned to Leah. , "How about it, do you have any clues about the 'source' of the Tumen Empire and the collapse of the world?"
After finishing his exploration of the Gorgon Abyss, he called Lily, Vivian, and Leah into the room to discuss the clues found by the three probes, and the one who was most likely to give reference information was naturally It is the goddess of creation who has been sleeping in the dark realm for ten thousand years.
It's a pity that, just like nouns such as Black Pine Forest, Hersonga, Gorgon, Tiamat, etc., Liya also knows nothing about the so-called Tumen Empire.
"I've never heard of the former, and I don't understand the latter," Liya shook her head and sat on a high-backed chair, shaking her calves back and forth. This was not because she was in a good mood, but because she was slightly irritable. Expressed, "Although I don't understand it, I have some bad discoveries about the changes in this world."
"Bad discovery?" Hao Ren frowned, feeling something bad from Liya's simple words, "What's going on?"
Leah raised her face: "Do you still remember the connection between the Gorgon Abyss and the black pine forest?"
Hao Ren nodded: "Of course, remember, it was because of this incident that we took a shortcut and rushed directly from the black pine forest to the northern border."
"Then you should also remember what I said at the time, which roughly means that the black pine forest and the Gorgon Abyss are not different in essence, they are both 'deep fragments of the world', and they are now 'floating'. There is a state of interconnection in the real world," Liya stopped her wobbling movements, her expression became serious, "I confirmed two things just now."
Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other and said in unison, "Which two things?"
"First, 'floating' is absolutely true. I have been saving a little mental power on the connection point between the Gorgon Abyss and the Black Pine Forest. Now I can confirm that the connection point is becoming more and more stable, and there are new connections The point is being established, which shows that the 'world line wreckage' deep in this world is indeed rising, and has begun to affect the structure of the real world," Liya said slowly, "Second... I found that with the rising of those things, the entire The stability of Laherien is declining, and the speed and intensity of the decline far exceed the rising speed of the wreckage of the world line."
Hao Ren frowned slightly, and pinched his chin with his hands: "What does it mean to translate into human words?"
Leah glared at him, but still explained: "Lahrien is surrounded by my divine barrier, so it can be regarded as a closed 'small world', and the information cycle of this small world is like The mini-universe presents a self-consistent and stable state, but since there is stability, there will naturally be moments of instability—at this moment, the stability of Laherien as an information structure is declining—converted to normal In the world, the entropy value is skyrocketing, and the universe is collapsing! And its stability declines far faster than the rising speed of the wreckage of the world line, which means that something else is speeding up the process of bringing the whole world into chaos !"
Hao Ren listened in a daze, and finally realized the seriousness of the situation: "You mean... Laherien is gradually collapsing?!"
Leah nodded silently.
For some reason, Hao Ren suddenly thought of the inexplicable civil war that was going on in the Dragon Empire.
Originally, he thought it was just a routine conflict within the indigenous civilization, but clues gradually emerged in his mind, making him vaguely feel that he had caught something—
The unknown energy response in the center of the earth, the mysterious signal connection between the center of the earth and the Dragon Empire, the secret of the Broken Sword Knight moving freely in the Black Pine Forest, the connection between the Black Pine Forest and the Gorgon Abyss, Princess Constance and The link between the Gorgon Abyss...
He listed all the things that happened so far, and the explicit or implicit connection between them became more obvious:
The Black Sword Knights bound together with the Dragon Soul Emperor collectively showed the "symptoms" of being polluted and corrupted, and at the same time, the Princess Constance suddenly raised the banner to confront the Black Sword Knights as if she had been preparing for a long time. The regiment fought, and the six northern provinces responded instantly, and the Gorgon Abyss also weakened the activity intensity at the same time—while these series of events occurred, the deeper parts of the world were also undergoing changes simultaneously.
Those "collapsed worldline fragments" began to float up from the bottom of the world, and the stability of the entire Laherien declined rapidly.
Obviously everything can be said to be an "emergency situation", but when everything is added up, it feels like it has been rehearsed countless times and the cooperation is seamless.
Lily couldn't help but get serious at this time, she took her eyes away from the wind and snow outside the window, turned her head and asked, "Could it be related to the residual influence of the Crazy Lord?"
"I still haven't felt the power fluctuations of the Lord of Madness," Liya pinched her brows with her fingers, her tone frustrated, "This world doesn't feel good to me—it's like a machine that is operating according to the established program. Everyone is meant to run in this machine."
"If Laherien's stability continues to decline, how long can it last in the real world?" Hao Ren asked the most critical question.
"Two years, at most two years," Liya said with certainty, "and in the process, the 'world line wreckage' like the black pine forest and the Gorgon abyss will completely rise to the surface, and more than half of the planet will be destroyed." Regions will be replaced, and more than 70% of the population will be devoured; then, the remaining "safety islands" will lose order, the rules of physics will become chaotic, and the material world will fall apart; finally, the entire world will be broken down into basic information elements, and there will be no more When something is born and nothing dies, it will be the last day of the world."
Hao Ren opened his mouth, stretched out his fingers and tapped the casing of the data terminal: "Is this... beyond the scope of my work?"
"Damn chicken, since the day you signed the contract, how many things have you done that are not beyond the scope?" The data terminal bounced on Hao Ren's shoulder, "But it's okay, now we are home in the dream plane The cause is great, and an immigrant fleet can still be assembled. If this ball really cannot be kept, at least it will be no problem to pick up people, and then Liya will play a little bit, and she should be able to pack half of the ecological circle... "
Hao Ren heaved a sigh of relief: "That's okay, there should be no need to write an inspection. But those are the next choices, we can't wait for this weird 'end of the world' to continue like this. How can a good world collapse? What about Beng? And it is still protected by Leah's divine power, why is it still going to end somehow in this situation?"
No one could answer his question, even Liya could only shake her head with a wry smile, while Lily turned her eyes to the snowstorm outside the window again.
"It's snowing so hard..." the husky girl muttered, "I always feel like something is going to happen tonight..."
Vivian gave her a sideways glance: "Don't talk nonsense, the dog spit..."
Before she finished speaking, a sudden palpitation caused everyone in the room to stand up from their chairs.
Liya jumped directly to the ground, her face became extremely gloomy, she came to the window in a flash, and then pushed the window open.
The wind and snow outside the window rushed towards this breakthrough, but before touching Liya's body, all the wind and snow stopped abruptly, and then receded to both sides with fear.
Leah looked in the direction due south.
The sky in that direction became extremely dark—even though it was indeed night, the sky was still darker than imagined, as if there was an extremely huge dark vortex hanging upside down there, absorbing all the light in the sky and the earth.
"Lord of Madness..." Leah said through gritted teeth.