A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 623: Washing the Feet of the Girl

This was the first time Rorschach had ever seen a living dragon. This white dragon was even more elegant than the spirit of the Arcane Tower, with a slender body, and it should be the same type of dragon as the exhibits in the Storm City Museum in Istani.

But now is not the time to admire the flying lizards: "Master, let's help the dwarves instead; they are our allies now."

"Allies? These dwarves have lost their homes and mines, and can't provide adamantite and mithril. What value do they have?" The chief of Storm Tower didn't have a good impression of dwarves, nor was he very enthusiastic about doing good deeds. He scoffed at his colleagues' eagerness to provide aid.

"You son of a bitch!" Singhrev cursed after hearing the other man's blunt words.

The Confederate capital city has now largely stabilized. The most severe damage was to the upper and lower levels. The upper level, with its high inter-level spacing and many magnificent buildings, suffered significant collapse in the earthquake. The lower level, on the other hand, was largely swallowed by the surging lava. It must be said that Singhlev has been incredibly lucky, managing to survive his decades-long adventuring career unscathed.

Several high mages used their unique abilities to prevent a secondary disaster from occurring in the main city, but other cities still suffered severe damage. These ancient dwarven city-states, mostly located underground and having gradually developed from mines, have now become terrible landfills.

The immense casualties became a living sacrifice, with tens of thousands of lives plundered. The process of souls being released and returning to nothingness caused the symbolic realm of the far north of the continent to boil. A large number of souls were forced to leave their already dead bodies, and their fears and desires for life would be used by the Mother Goddess, who would promise and "redeem" these souls, turning them into fuel for their descent into and destruction of reality.

The snowstorm had not yet stopped, and the controlled bear god zombie was still drawing energy continuously, meaning that similar attacks were yet to come.

Rorschach came with two purposes: first, to inform the archmages what had happened in the polar regions, and second, to deal with the controlled god corpses. However, he now has an urgent mission.

News of the Confederation's misfortune had been sent from the dwarves' own signal station, and the information would then be transmitted through the Tree of Law and the portals to the various dwarven starships mining in other planes. Rorschach received feedback from the Tree of Law that two starships, which had not been at sea for long, had returned to the teleportation point and were now awaiting the activation of the dwarves' own ladder system to return home.

Unfortunately, the ground station has been destroyed. The remedial measure is that the upper ring level will be temporarily taken over by the human system, while the terminal station, with so many high-level spellcasters, can temporarily replace the equipment, and the machine team and the human team will take over.

The Confederation's chief executive and the other surviving high-ranking dwarves were rescued by the mages and placed separately in an intact open area for negotiations. Rorschach also saw Ruger Lurk Schwanno, the high-ranking diplomat he had met with before. Now, he was covered in dust and blood, and had lost the swagger he had when he trampled the head elf.

After the various parties met, Rorschach briefly explained the cause of the disaster and asked all the members of the Senate to cast a spell to create a temporary, massive portal that would allow the dwarven starship to arrive.

The white dragon, also in elf form, listened to the meeting. After hearing Rorschach's account, he gradually understood: the world was doomed, and the collapse of the Dwarf Confederation was just one phase. After patiently waiting for the seemingly youngest but, as his experience told him, undoubtedly the most ruthless mage, the white dragon jumped up, pointed at Ruger's nose, and berated him:

"You despicable and shameless bastards! So you all knew the world was going to end, and you were all planning to escape to somewhere else, even thinking of exchanging the North Sea fishing grounds for my life savings!"

Luger, who had been listless, rekindled his anger upon hearing "sweet potato," and retorted passionately, "Nonsense, you stupid lizard! If it weren't going to fetch a low price soon, why would we trade it to you?"

Rorschach and the other mages naturally didn't care about the dirty dealings between the winged lizards and the sweet potato kids; they wanted to discuss what to do next.

"We can't possibly move so many dwarves all at once; they have four starships outside."

"Four? We only have seven starships; the eighth and ninth are under construction."

"First, they have no shortage of materials and unique construction techniques; second, the dwarves' starships are not used for research and immigration, but only for mining and transportation, and the living facilities and comfort are the most basic." Of course, there is also a major premise, which is that they have Byrne's technical support, but Rorschach was not boasting, he was just responding to the doubts.

Rorschach continued, "Two ships have already teleported to the vicinity of the stargate. Once the ground-based ladder system is ready, they can cross the stargate and return to the ground to evacuate the dwarves affected by the disaster. However, the teleportation gate near the ground has been destroyed, and we need to ask you all to work together to open a temporary one."

"If it's just two ships, we can indeed help." The Storm Tower chief glanced at the devastated underground city and snorted, "Anyway, they don't have many survivors left to relocate."

However, Feuerbach discovered a problem: "The magic in the environment is abnormal now, and we may not be able to cast the spell successfully." The effects of the massive dissipation of souls have not ended; on the contrary, under the influence of the Mother Goddess, they are showing a trend of intensification. He keenly sensed the abnormality and worried that the teleportation would fail.

"That's right, that's what I need to solve."

After saying this, Rorschach disappeared again. He didn't leave, but instead entered a state similar to when he cast [World Weaving Technique]. Delyuaz's will remained projected onto him, establishing a connection immediately.

"There is too much death here; the Mother Goddess is about to penetrate through. You come to smooth over the distortion of magic; I will deal with the souls of the dwarves."

Even in his ethereal state, Rorschach could sense numerous spirits entangled and nearly fermenting within him. They didn't want to leave the world, yet were drawn together by malice, beginning to band together and devour each other. Some spirits were on the verge of collapse, seemingly about to melt into a crystalline river.

This was an abstract and vague feeling. Because there were enough of them, Rorschach was able to perceive the process under special circumstances. Thanks to his previous research on the necromancy-based [Enlightenment] spell, he quickly understood what was happening:

These souls began to disperse, reverting to the homogeneous, unconscious spirituality of the Creator.

But from the same source of the Creator, upstream of that long river, a black element flows downstream and merges into these spirits, attempting to pollute them and cause them to degenerate.

A blurry image of a young girl appears, wading barefoot into the water. The silver light of the long river is tinged with blue, neutralizing the abnormal black pollution. The girl then reaches out and gathers the tangled, corrupted souls on the riverbank into the "water," where they instantly dissolve into nothingness.

As He gathered some together, new, twisted clumps of souls would emerge, but Dryaz was very patient. When he encountered any that were struggling violently, he would gently stroke them and let them flow peacefully into the river.

Rorschach felt the scene was somewhat familiar and watched silently for a moment. Dryaz reminded him as they moved, "Now that these souls have been released, you still need to clean up the magical environment."

He sensed that the boiling phenomenon was nearing its end, and instead of focusing his attention on the River of Spirit, he concentrated on restoring and transforming the magic of this place.

Once Rorschach's gaze disappeared, Delyuaz turned his attention to the upper reaches of the Spirit River. He saw a terrifying black wave coming from there and immediately transformed into the shape of a deer-headed creature, then expanded into the colossal image of Vidal, holding a thick iron sword in his hand, assuming a stance like that of a dwarf fighting a giant beast in legend.

(End of this chapter)