Brain bloom

This promise reassured B considerably. She obeyed God's command, went to the kitchen, and vowed to present God with the freshest breakfast. Incidentally, she was also responsible for keeping an eye on the woodpecker, in case it pecked through the cutting board and dropped in any hidden insects…

But the kitchen was peaceful.

The woodpecker is working hard, while the dandelion is learning quietly in the corner.

"Time sprite, please write down another number for me. Remind me in thirty-two seconds that is the perfect time to fry the fish."

Shan was about to agree, but her open mouth remained silent.

She didn't disrespect Master Woodpecker; something unexpected happened.

"What's wrong? You look so confused," Master Woodpecker asked.

"Is it not being fed enough? What do we usually feed our revered god?"

"Wait, it needs to eat?"

"No, this is..." Suddenly, Master Woodpecker put the pot lid on, jumped off the stove, and flew to the pocket watch. "It's observing the flow of time and is about to announce the countdown... This is the first time I've ever seen this!"

The dandelion couldn't understand, and searched everywhere, but the forest was nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, the woodpecker master wanted to take this opportunity to show off his knowledge—

The Time Sprite can foretell calamities.

Because they can see the flow of time, they can, in a sense, make extremely accurate predictions. The more terrifying the calamity and the greater the events it triggers, the higher the accuracy of the predictions.

This was the first time I'd ever heard of dandelions; I never imagined they had any other use besides telling time and being used as alarm clocks…

Aside from the freckled girl who had been sent away, and Mori who was busy forging iron, everyone else gathered around the tiny sprite. While its form was rare and beautiful, people were more interested in what Shan would say.

Shan was gazing into the distance.

A dazed face, blurry eyes.

Exhaust your strength to gaze upon the torrent called "time" that lies beyond the world.

Unbeknownst to her, the few silent seconds quietly passed, and Shan finally saw the answer clearly, immediately making a cold and detached prediction.

"I didn't see anything."

"Uh?"

“I should have seen it… but time was obscured, and fate was blurred.” Shan became somewhat frightened, and crawled back into her pocket watch, leaving only her voice, “It’s as if a fog shrouded that time.”

Master Woodpecker appeared very solemn, constantly conveying this atmosphere to every corner of the room.

"How long ago was that period of time that was obscured?"

"About four days."

"...So fast?!"

Its anxiety, mixed with a heavy atmosphere, polluted every breath of air and quickly infected everyone with each breath.

B's mind worked quickly: "So, in about four days, a calamity will occur that even the Time Spirits can't foresee?"

"Yes, but I can't see the end from the beginning, I don't know what it will be like... what the impact will be."

Shan tried to lie on the gear and tell him everything she knew. Even though she was a young time spirit with limited abilities, she could still see many special things.

“I’ve seen it once before… This calamity was caused by the ‘traveling souls’ awakening the primal evil, and it will probably happen in about five months…”

"But now?"

"Some kind of murky fog obscured time, seemingly... reversing it, but it didn't seem to be reversed by this fog. Rather, it seemed to be a true god who could control the rules of the world, unintentionally altering the fate of the world."

"In any case, four days from now..."

B immediately walked to the window and pushed open the half-closed glass. Whether it was psychological or real, the silver ring worn by the statue of God seemed to dim even more.

Before he knew it, Master Woodpecker had recovered from his earlier panic and continued cooking as if nothing had happened.

Its voice was also unusually calm—

"Sometimes, we don't realize we've walked onto a volcano... until it erupts."

“Master Neil, stop cooking. What will happen if the primordial evil is awakened? You were once a true god, you should know, right?”

"Natural disaster."

"A natural disaster?"

"If the primordial evil is awakened, the world will gradually return to its original state. Plants will wither and die, and then desolation and death will return... It will be a world where nothing grows and evil fog pervades. It is what the native inhabitants of the human world, the traveling souls, seek."

"The plants...withered."

B suddenly remembered that the scriptures mentioned such a scene, which was described as the beginning of the world...

Recalling those somber words, B gradually foresaw the terrifying prospect of reduced crop yields and land turning into desert. At that time, the very foundation of the human world would be utterly destroyed…

Volume 1 #283: The Way to Prevent the Destruction of the World

Original evil—that is, the original state of the world.

Desolation and death.

B swiftly pulled out paper and pen from his armor and jotted down these intriguing thoughts. But now is not the time to explore the world as it is; the human world should not be destroyed.

Although B understands what evil the original evil will do and what kind of impact it will have, he still has many questions.

"If the primordial evil is bound to be awakened, how can it be eliminated?"

"You really think I know everything?" Master Woodpecker said with an annoyance.

What price do you want?

"I'm not the ancient king of demons... Fine, I'll just tell you everything I know, after all, this is a serious matter."

It stopped wielding the knife, stood up from the cutting board like a spring, shook off the tomato juice on its body, and no longer put on airs.

There are many ways.

"Oh?"

B's tension was somewhat relieved by these many methods that have not yet been revealed. In any case, the fact that there are many ways to alleviate the calamity indicates that the primordial evil can be dealt with.

"First, prevent it from being awakened."

"Of course, we'll definitely try it."

"Secondly, if it is indeed awakened, within an hour, as long as we spend a lot of money to find that owl, it will take care of everything. But if it's too late, its strength may not be enough..."

"The one who can save the world... is it the devil?"

Master Woodpecker realized that this option would damage their reputation, given that they were always bathed in divine light.

But the King of Demons would definitely take money and do things, even if the customers were them.

"That guy has never defined himself as good or evil. From beginning to end, he just lets others smear him without caring. But he always adheres to his own principles: he won't act without a price to pay, but if the price is high enough, he will definitely do it."

"What about other methods?"

"If it takes more than an hour, we'll have to see if you have enough strength. If we gather all sorts of powerful figures and wipe out the place where the primordial evil was awakened, that can also solve the problem."

“Erase…” B’s eyebrows furrowed, finding it very difficult.

"Yes, wipe it all away. The ocean in this world wasn't this big before... but that was a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with you."

Its claws scratched at the quartz wooden table, emitting several sharp cries, before it spoke—

"The last resort—if all hope is lost, then seek out the Seasons. These races, blessed by nature, are not corrupted by mere primal evil; they too can overwhelm decay and withering, bringing life back to the world."

B immediately turned to look at the dandelion, her eyes shining with hope—the look of someone grasping at straws.

“This method won’t work,” Dandelion said, “because I won’t help.”

"……Why?"

Why should I help?

Seemingly anticipating this outcome, Master Woodpecker flapped his wings and urged, "I have told you everything I know. The rest is up to you. I don't want this world to be without fresh vegetables and fruits either, because then... I'll have to go back to sleep."

……

Mori was completely focused, even though he was hungry, he was still planning what to display at the auction.

Auctions... she was an expert at it.

She could hire some people to drive up the price and leak some rumors beforehand. Although it was all a clichéd approach, it became much more appealing when it made her money.

Mori planned to forge a pair of beautiful blades, and then see if he could infuse them with the power of the True God to give them unique attributes that would increase their value. Besides that, he also needed to prepare a few healing scrolls, which cost at least a hundred gold coins each.

Counting money can be very enjoyable, even though it will all be lost eventually, at least you had it once.

……

The land of chaos, the capital.

This was originally a barren and dry land. Except for the winter when the land was covered in snow and ice, the other three seasons were filled with large cracks spreading across the earth.

Yet the city was still built.

The Demon Queen, single-handedly, created a miraculous structure: a palace built of black crystals. These crystals, capable of absorbing excessive sunlight during the day, were then processed into spiritual energy crystals using a special method, which were then supplied to the entire city as a resource.

After that, the Demon Queen had a batch of domesticated rain cloud worms bred to bring rain to the earth.

From then on, the parched land was miraculously saved and even developed into a prosperous capital city.

This miracle is known as "Black Crystal and Sun," and people praise her wisdom, but some say it was the ingenious idea of ​​the Queen's father, but no one can explain it in more detail.

For Melia herself, this desolate yet vast Black Crystal Palace was her second home where she handled political affairs.

Now, those old feelings of sadness have disappeared, and I only feel that it is perhaps a little too small to accommodate a true God for a long time.

"Queen of Demons and Banshees, so you finally decided to come back?"

A very familiar maid greeted the Queen, looking quite disgruntled.

"You know how many troublesome things have piled up that need your approval... uh... Lord Finanda."

"Don't kneel, it will affect work efficiency. Now that I've brought our playful little vixen back, you supervise her and make sure she finishes all the state affairs."

"Ok!"

Melia clenched her fists, her resentment bubbling up – “Damn it, I need to find a few more smart people to govern the country. Isn’t the so-called queen just someone who squanders the country’s wealth and only cares about indulging in pleasure?”