Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1014 Even if I become a witch?
As the goddess wished, Tianjie made her own choice, although it might not be the choice that Tiantis wanted to see. She frowned slightly, said nothing, just raised her head and stared deeply at the girl in the air. This silent but intriguing gaze, especially coming from the strict and realistic kingship, was undoubtedly very oppressive, making Tianjie couldn't help but purse his lips, his eyes were erratic, and he didn't dare to look her in the eye.

In the two thousand years since the goddess left, Tianjie has spent much more time with Tiantis than with Alice. The impressions these two people left on her can be described as completely different.

Alice lives in mortal civilization most of the time, traveling from one country to another, seeing the local customs and the development of civilization on the continent, and helping the weak and punishing evil. She calls this adventure, while Tiantis mocks her for just "wandering aimlessly". At the same time, she also forges various ancient relics around the world, collectively called prehistoric heritage, and shares some books, crafts and technological creations from the earth world with mortals, in this way indirectly guiding the development of civilization.

She would occasionally return to the Holy Temple of Heaven, but basically she only came back to play games, and she especially liked to interfere with the work of the Heaven. She would always sneak into the control center when Tiantis was out for something, and use both force and coaxing to trick the girls who were working into going to the Game Museum on the 97th floor of the headquarters building, and ask her to play games with her. She also vowed that if Tiantis found out, she would take all the responsibility and would not let her be scolded... It was as if in the end, when the truth was revealed and facing Tiantis's wrath, the person hiding behind the little girl and trembling was not her.

Just as Tiandis said, she was a passionate, outspoken, but self-willed person, with some inexplicable thoughts in her mind that were hard to figure out. Strangely, Tianjie didn't hate such a self-willed person. Even when she forced him to play games, he felt more helpless than annoyed.

Unlike Alice, Tiantis stayed in the Temple of Heaven for a longer time. She needed to monitor the direction of magic in the entire Eden world through the magic recording device in the control center and formulate various measures to maintain its balance. Tianjie had the highest authority in the control center and was very sensitive to various data, so she was a very good assistant and was trusted by Tiantis. If Tianjie's impression of Alice was that she was eccentric, self-promoting, but inexplicably friendly, then her impression of Tiantis was that he was strict, meticulous, but patient and meticulous like a teacher.

She would get angry when she gave wrong data due to negligence, but the reason for her anger was not that her carefully planned project was ruined because of these wrong data, but that she felt that the heavens did not take this job seriously, otherwise, with the computing power of the control center, such a low-level mistake should not be made. And this is indeed the fact. At that time, the girl was panicked and confused because of the departure of the goddess, and she did not do her best in her job. For Tiantis, who also relied on the goddess but always believed that only by doing his job well could he not disappoint the goddess' expectations, this kind of weakness was obviously unacceptable.

But she would also point out the mistakes the girl had made one by one, causing her to fall into depression, and in a cold tone, she would ask her to go back to her room to rest, and she would stay alone in the control center to modify the data all night. And when the girl woke up, she found that there was a star-shaped gummy candy carefully preserved in a glass jar on her bedside table. It was the girl's favorite snack, because on the day the goddess left Eden, she stuffed a candy into her mouth when she was confused and helpless, which made the girl magically feel at ease.

She had always thought that she was the only one who knew about this, so she took the can of candy to ask Tiandis, but she only got a bland answer: "I don't know, maybe the cat gave it to me. Eat one if you are hungry, and you won't make such a stupid mistake again by replenishing the sugar. But don't eat too much, or you will get cavities."

"Oh." The girl ate a candy obediently. Miraculously, she felt the same sense of security as she did then.

Later, when Tiandis decided to control the population of mortal civilization through various means to maintain the stable operation of the magic circulation system, she was actually a little worried after agreeing, thinking that the goddess and Alice might not agree with this approach. It was Tiandis who listed the data and explained it to her one by one, from the increasingly unbalanced distribution of magic power in the Eden Continent, to the unreasonable trend of the population growth of mortal civilization, to the extremely unbalanced distribution of magic power between the strong, the weak and ordinary creatures... He argued that if this situation continued, the magic circulation system left by the goddess might completely collapse in the next two thousand years and lose its function of maintaining balance, which made her determined.

Tianjie has always grown up under the halo of these two sisters. She knows Tiantis very well, just as she doesn't know Alice very well. If her curiosity and closeness to Alice come from this, then her trust and awe of Tiantis also come from this.

That's why she felt dazed at this moment. Facing the silent but oppressive gaze of Tiandis, she seemed to have returned to the day when she made a mistake. She knew very well that such behavior might not be forgiven, so she shrank back, lowered her head and dodged, not daring to look her in the eye. She could only stammer and slowly squeeze out a sentence, as if she was defending herself, but for some reason, the girl felt more like comforting her. She hoped that Tiandis would not feel sad because he did not stand on her side. Both she and Alice were very important people to the girl, just like the person who created her: "This is... what the goddess said, I just, just..."

Just do what He expects.

"Hey!" Alice saw that Tianjie, who stood on her side, was bullied by Tiantis (at least on the surface), so she spoke unhappily, wanting to support her. However, before she finished speaking, she was interrupted by Tiantis, who said in a calm tone: "If you think this is the right thing to do, then from now on, you must learn to stick to your choice, Tianjie."

"And," she said, softening her tone, "you should call Him Mother."

Because you are also His child.

Tianjie was stunned, and Alice was also stunned, but Tiantis did not give them time to react. She turned her head and said to Alice: "Since Tianjie chooses to stand on your side, then I will respect your opinions. Of course, this is also respecting the opinions of mother. After all, He gave Tianjie the highest authority to make decisions, and even I cannot violate it."

"Great!" Alice excitedly raised her hands up and cheered, as if she had just finished a new game.

Tiantis stopped her and said, "Don't be too happy too soon, Alice. I have conditions."

"Eh?" Alice put her hands down and looked at Tiantis with suspicion and vigilance: "What conditions? If you still use such radical means, I won't agree to it, okay?"

Tiandis shrugged and smiled: "I don't have the hobby of taking advantage of loopholes. I just want to remind you that maintaining the stability and balance of the magic circulation system is the most important mission left to me by my mother. It is also the foundation for the existence of all things in the world and mortal civilization. Since you don't want me to use radical means to maintain it, then you should at least help me think of other ways, right? Don't say that you are just opposing for the sake of opposing, but you don't have any idea in your mind, okay?"

"Ugh!" Alice's face froze instantly, as if she had been hit in the soft spot. After hearing the news, she rushed to the Holy Temple of Heaven without stopping, and only wanted to dissuade Tiantis. She didn't think about why she did this, and naturally had no time to think of other feasible countermeasures.

Tiandis turned her gaze towards the heaven again. The silver-haired girl's eyes flickered for a second, and then she slowly and cautiously turned her gaze away little by little, as if she was afraid of being discovered, avoiding her question. This reaction reminded Tiandis of an idiom on Earth, which is to cover one's ears and steal the bell.

"Alas." She sighed helplessly. She knew it would be like this. Fortunately, she had already thought of a plan.

A relatively compromising plan. Tiantis did not like compromise, so she did not take this plan into consideration at first. But today, Alice and Tianjie proved to her with practical actions that sometimes compromise is also a part of reality.

"Alice, go back and tell Nigframe and the other mortals who claim to be gods that I remember that you have a pretty good relationship with them. If you tell them about this, maybe they will be more receptive. From now on, in order to maintain the balance and stability of the magic power circulation system, I will implement strict restrictions on their absorption and distribution of magic power. Let them be mentally prepared in advance."

"Restriction plan?" Alice blinked. It didn't sound like a good thing. "What do you mean?"

"What it means is that, based on the dragon race, there can only be one person in each race whose total magic power reaches the level of Nigflam, and their total magic power should stop there and they cannot continue to absorb magic power. Aren't these guys imitating Mother and calling themselves gods? The existence of gods is so noble and unique, so there can only be one god in each race. I think this is reasonable. And the total magic power based on Nigflam is enough for them to enjoy all the power, wealth, knowledge and lifespan in the world. If they still want to climb up, I'm afraid they are a bit greedy."

Tiantis looked at Alice and Tianjie who were listening attentively, and smiled silently: "Secondly, each race can only have a maximum of seven people with a total magic power of the ancient dragon level; each race can only have a maximum of thirty-two people with a total magic power of the ancient dragon level; and each race can only have a maximum of one hundred and twenty people with a total magic power of the ancient dragon level. As long as they can control the number within this baseline, then I can still use some relatively mild means, such as adjusting the atmospheric circulation, ecological environment and climate change, to barely maintain the stability and balance of the magic power circulation system."

Tiantis did not mention the levels below the ancient dragon because they are insignificant. Although the lifespan of these mortals has increased due to their contact with magic power, they have not yet reached the point where they can escape the normal cycle of life and death. Basically, they will age and die within a period of time acceptable to Tiantis, and then magic power will return to heaven and earth and enter the cycle.

In the next period of time, Tiandis's main task is to keep a close eye on these mortals. Once they die, she will take immediate action and distribute this part of the magic to the barren areas through the magic recording device, so as not to give mortals the opportunity to plunder them again. As long as the strong among the mortals are willing to abide by the restriction plan she proposed, even if there is only two thousand years, she is confident that the state of the magic circulation system will develop in a benign way.

Moreover, those mortal warriors who claimed to be demigods or gods, although their lifespans were long, were not infinite. It was only because their aging and death processes were too long that they could not form a positive coordination with the magic power circulation system. Once they also met their own death day, the extremely huge magic power that was instantly released, under the reasonable distribution of Tiantis, could even restore the entire Eden continent to the state when the goddess first created the world.

This was undoubtedly a conspiracy against the mortal race - or in other words, against those powerful mortals. Tiantis was not worried that they could see it, because mortals were always short-sighted, as could be seen from the fact that they would drive countless people to die in order to protect their own status. The only thing she was worried about was that before the plan got on track, the barely maintained magic circulation system was still very fragile. If someone did not follow this plan...

"What if someone doesn't follow this plan?" Alice asked the same question at this time, based on her understanding of mortals. According to what she saw during her travels, mortals always tirelessly pursue power, whether they are dragons, humans, vampires or werewolves. Perhaps only the fairies, who are born carefree, don't care, but the fairies' views on life and death and values ​​are naturally different from other races and cannot be generalized.

Tiantis glanced at her and said, "Then tell them that I killed the Rock Pillar God, Cremus. By the way, tell them that I don't mind if someone wants to be the next one. In fact, I would rather say that you are most welcome."

Alice was shocked. "Oh, Tiantis! Why are you like this? Didn't we agree not to use radical methods? You are just like the witches in human fairy tales!"

She spoke without thinking and said something that she regretted afterwards.

However, Tiantis didn't care and just smiled coldly: "Isn't that better? The girl's royal power cannot make mortals feel awe. Perhaps only the witch can subdue them with fear."

"So, in order to protect the world left by mother, what does it matter if I become a witch?"

Alice and Tianjie looked at each other in silence. They both felt that Tiantis was just speaking in anger and would never do that.

At this moment, they did not realize that in this seemingly angry sentence, there was a certain inevitable future hidden.

Today's real girl Tiandis, and the real witch Tiandis countless years later.

One is dying and one is about to be born.

……

"File X25, Spear and Shield Archival Record, playback complete."

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