My dear witch, please turn evil according to the script!

Chapter 187 The Brink of Collapse

"Your Excellency Roland!"

Seeing Roland nearly lose his balance, Allen exclaimed in surprise and tried to help him up.

But Roland simply waved his hand.

"It's nothing... I'm just a little dizzy, it's nothing serious."

Roland was right; his actions just now had consumed more of his mental energy.

The cost of inscribing runes on physical objects was much greater than he had anticipated.

But the results were surprisingly good.

Looking at the rapidly growing, lush green trees that had completely covered the entire ship in the blink of an eye, Roland shook his head and then straightened up.

Neither magic nor physical strength was greatly affected, and mental strength began to recover rapidly under the influence of the World Tree phantom. Even the unidentified monsters on the sea surface around the ship began to keep their distance from it.

“Allen, you’re a crew member, right? Take me to the nearest inhabited location.”

"Yes! But are you sure you don't need to rest a little longer, Your Excellency?"

Roland shook his head: "No, the key now is to find other people."

"I've made such a big commotion, yet not a single person has come looking for me."

"and……"

Roland frowned, looking at the World Tree's less-than-ideal dispelling effect, and he had a bad feeling.

The risks of this sea voyage were much greater than he had imagined.

Originally, releasing some of the World Tree's power was enough to dispel cognitive interference, but now, while the effect was still good, it no longer felt like a cure-all.

Cognitive interference persists, and has become more severe.

In other words, the anomalies encountered by the Pomegranate Flower were no longer simply cognitive interference.

Interference is everywhere, even affecting the internal spatial structure of ships.

Roland has personally tested this.

The interior of the cabin has become a maze, but it is feasible to break a window and reach the deck from the outside using spatial magic.

Fortunately, the spread of the World Tree's power was still effective.

At least the ugly, shadowy monsters in the sea were afraid of this power and dared not approach.

"And what about Mr. Roland?" Allen had just taken a magical gun from under a cover on the deck, and then nervously gripped the gun in his hand, whose caliber was no smaller than the Hatter's cannon, and asked in a low voice.

"It's nothing. Besides, you're a third-ring mage, you don't need this kind of weapon for self-defense, do you?"

Hearing Roland's words, Allen said somewhat awkwardly, "I don't know many offensive spells. And I'm not very proficient at them."

"Moreover, the captain said that the guns hidden in the arsenal below deck were all pre-loaded with specialized ammunition."

"It has a remarkable effect on dealing with sea monsters."

Roland laughed: "I see. You seem so nervous. Is this your first time encountering such a monster?"

“Yes! We usually don’t get this close to the dividing line before; we usually hover around a hundred nautical miles away.” Allen was still nervous, but after a round of conversation, he had stopped stuttering.

"I haven't been with the team long, and this is the first time I've been inside the 50-nautical-mile danger zone."

Roland tilted his head: "Danger line?"

"Ah, it's a safe zone where the boundary line might change! Fifty nautical miles! Fifty nautical miles is the safe zone!"

As if he had gotten to a professional point, Allen began to speak at length: "According to the Society's observations, whenever the boundary line changes and begins to approach the fifty-nautical-mile boundary line, a giant magic storm will generally form."

"After the magic storm subsides, the dividing line will also recede to its original position."

"That was true at least for the past few decades."

"This kind of giant storm has formed four times in the last thirty years."

"According to records, the first time was thirty years ago, in August of 999."

"The second and third storms both occurred in 1013, but some scholars argue that these two storms should be combined into one."

"After all, there was only one day between the two storms, on November 28th and November 29th respectively."

"As for the fourth time, it occurred on November 28, 1021."

"These giant storms are forming more and more frequently..."

"Stop, stop here, that's enough." Roland interrupted Allen's story.

He has gotten the answer he wanted.

And there were unexpected gains.

Giant storm... four time points...

In August 1999, the Iris made its last appearance in Isfar's ice-free port.

November 28, 1013, was Roland's birthday.

On the 29th of the same year... it was Kalia's birthday.

This is the information Roland learned from Fram.

After all, her birthday was the day her hometown was destroyed.

And...his eighth birthday in 1021...

Four times, at four different points in time, at four anomalies that Roland is currently aware of...

If it's a coincidence, then it's too much of a coincidence.

Roland, however, did not ask any further questions.

That's not the most urgent matter. He needs to find another living person as soon as possible.

After a quick rest, and once Allen had grabbed a gun and a bullet belt to hang on his body, Roland set off with him.

……

Captain's cabin.

Götze and Max each lit a cigarette and leaned back in their blood-stained seats, puffing away.

"Phew... that was close. If I hadn't reacted quickly, you would have been cut in half. Luckily, you only got a small cut on your waist."

Max put down the bandage in his hand and thanked the experience of his life as a sailor for instilling in the scholars of the Riscan branch the habit of carrying medical supplies with them, at least emergency hemostatic bandages and pressure bandages.

Incidentally, every room on the ship should be stocked with the necessary medicines.

Götze shook his head: "What's the big deal? I knew I shouldn't have gone back to the captain's cabin. It would have been much safer with Ms. Flam than with you."

"Ha, you ungrateful bastard, you would have been killed by that thing that came out of the shadows without me."

As soon as they finished speaking, the two men, who had just experienced life and death, smiled at each other.

After a brief silence, Max asked, "Even though we've entered the safety zone... why is the boundary line still shifting outwards when no magic storm has been generated?"

"A monster in the shadows... strange cognitive interference, a disorienting cabin space..."

"This is exactly the same as the records kept within the Society from the end of the Great Exploration."

"I never expected that I would actually see these things today after being adrift at sea for ten years."

Götze's expression was equally serious: "Do you remember that paper published by the Society's headquarters two years ago?"

"An internal paper on the anomalies of the Storm Ocean."

Max waved his hand: "Come on, ever since I took on this sailor's job, my academic level has declined to the point where I can't even understand academic papers anymore."

"Just tell me straight. Stop beating around the bush."

Götze sighed: "No matter what, you're a researcher at the Society. Even armed explorers have academic assessment requirements. It's just that the Riskan branch is special... Never mind, let me sort out that conclusion."

"The gist of it is that Dayuan's self-correcting mechanism is reaching its limit."

"The ocean will become increasingly dangerous over the next hundred years."

"The so-called far sea and near sea are no longer regarded as the criteria for delineating safety zones."

"Judging from today's situation... the paper's viewpoint is quite accurate."

Max laughed: "Come on, what if it's just an isolated case?"

"And who knows, we might be able to find the source of the sea's anomaly this time."

"Didn't Ms. Fram and Lord Roland both say that this trip is to find the Iris, the ship that may have held a divine descent ceremony?"

“That’s their goal, not our Max,” Götze said irritably. “Our mission is to find Ms. Natalia, this armed explorer who vanished into thin air, and to find out why she disappeared. That’s our mission.”

“Sounds about right,” Max replied with a smile.

But the laughter soon stopped.

Max sighed: "This situation... can Ms. Flam and the others handle it?"

"I don't know... Spatial distortion and cognitive interference are both challenges for life forms living on the continent."

Götze sighed as well, then continued to offer his opinion: "Not to mention the time when Ms. Flam lived. The ocean wasn't that dangerous."

"The last time she crossed the Stormy Ocean to return to Avalon, according to her, was more than 30 years ago. Although the ocean was dangerous back then, it wasn't to this extent."

"However... perhaps flying at high altitudes can indeed ignore these threats. Who knows?"

Just as the two were sighing and beginning to despair about the situation, Götze suddenly heard something. He looked at Max and asked, "Did you hear any footsteps?"

"Footsteps? Are you hallucinating? Where did those footsteps come from?" Max complained irritably.

"No...listen carefully, it really is there!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a light spear pierced through the wall behind Götze.

The shadow monster, still hanging on the spear of light and scorched by its blazing sun-like light, melted away as quickly as ice cream until it disappeared completely.

The next moment, the light spear began to slide.

The sturdy alloy wall, strong enough to withstand a full-force attack from a seventh-ring transcendent being, melted rapidly under the slash of the light spear, like a hot knife cutting through butter.

An oval hole, about the height of a person, was quickly cut out.

"boom!"

As the walls collapsed and smoke from the burning metal created by the light spears filled the air, Roland led Allen into the captain's cabin.

Seeing Götze and Max standing there, stunned and injured, Roland laughed: "It seems this accident wasn't as serious as I thought."

"Let's go, you two, come with me to find the others."

Seeing Roland descend like a divine warrior, and behind him, Allen, who was nervously holding two guns but still trying to look cool, Götze was somewhat confused.

Only after Max was helped to his feet by Allen did Götze ask, "Sir, you..."

"We'll talk about the rest later. Allen said you know the general whereabouts of the others?"

"Where is Ms. Flam? Take me there. If it's inconvenient for you to go there, then go find Cherlinina and Grand Inquisitor Suren first."

Götze nodded: "Okay. Let's find someone first. Ms. Flam is at the port side, battery number four, where the anomaly first appeared."

"At first she said she wanted to stay and investigate the anomaly, so I went back to the captain's cabin. I didn't expect this to happen as soon as I came back..."

"As for Ms. Cellina and Grand Inquisitor Suren, after discovering the anomaly, they went to check the situation of the other batteries, and it is expected that they will start from the nearby port side battery number three."

(End of this chapter)