It can even be said that it is as if it wants to choose a dragon to devour.

Moreover, the leader of this negotiation was changed from the previous Steel Gold Dragon to another Fire Gold Dragon. The Steel Gold Dragon now retreated into the dragon group.

"Everyone, I thought I was late." Ashe Frame didn't care about the emotions of the Elemental Holy Cult members. Or rather, the more anxious they were, the more relaxed Ashe Frame became. "Then, let's continue exchanging prisoners."

To his surprise, faced with this reversal of attitude and stance, the Holy Church of Elements did not vent their anxiety and anger. Instead, they showed an unusual patience and just waited quietly for him to produce the list.

...?

Ash Frame narrowed his eyes slightly.

He was somewhat confused about the attitude of the Holy Church of Elements.

Could it be that the scattered soldiers on their side have achieved some remarkable results in the past few days?

But after carefully checking the list, he found that it contained only some unknown crusaders, who were a perfect match for the adventurers on their side. Therefore, the ransom would not be much.

Or is he the illegitimate son of some archbishop?

Although Ashe was not actually familiar with the inside story of the Holy Church of the Elements, it did not prevent him from making up stories in his mind.

However, after the Holy Church of Elements solemnly took over the list, the atmosphere silently became increasingly tense.

They said nothing, but the elements in their bodies became more and more active.

When they reached the last line of the list, their claws dug into the rocks of the floating island.

Finally, the leader of the envoys looked up and said, "I hope to receive a complete list. You may state your conditions."

Then, he stared at Ash Frame with great concentration, as if trying to see something from him that he seemed to be hiding.

This feeling is very bad.

Ashe Frame suddenly realized that today's negotiations seemed far beyond his control.

The Holy Church of the Elements must have some extremely important request. But the frost-red dragon Ashe Frame had no idea.

The only trump cards he brought were the unnamed territory occupied by his descendants and this list. These things were certainly important, but they were probably not important enough to make the Holy Church of the Elements take such a serious precaution.

According to Greenwalt a few days ago, although he found some natives there, he did not find any traces related to the Holy Elemental Church.

What are these charlatans worried about?

With this in mind, Ash Frame said, "Of course I have a complete list. But it will be more expensive than you think - first, you have to tell me who you want."

This demand for the other side to reveal their bottom line was close to a bluff, and few would reveal it at this moment. But what shocked Ashe Frame was the Elemental Holy Church's unwavering clarity: "We demand that you release the Fire Dragon Leclerc immediately and immediately."

"Oh, him." Ash Frame showed an extremely artificial expression of sudden enlightenment, as if everything was under control. "Then you have to pay a high price."

"No!" At this moment, the Holy Elemental Church showed unexpected ruthlessness. "The issue isn't price, but time. We demand his immediate release and we want him today. This alone is not negotiable."

What is this doing?

Ashe Frame has also been dealing with the Holy Church of the Elements for hundreds of years. In fact, they have always maintained a strange contempt and disgust for the Fritia Alliance.

And now, the emotions they show are very rare.

Serious, horrified, and fearful.

Dragon King Kornai, how important is that Fire Gold Dragon?

The Elemental Holy Cult pulled out two documents from beneath them and held them down. "Now, here are two documents. One is an exchange agreement, with the numbers blank. As long as you are willing to return the Flame Gold Dragon Leclerc immediately, we will pay any ransom."

Then, the leader of the Elemental Holy Cult, the Flame Gold Dragon, said solemnly, "If we can't reach an agreement on the Flame Gold Dragon soon, this exchange agreement will be invalidated, and I will deliver your second document."

"...We have been researching elemental blood sacrifices all along."

In the underground of Halayah, the Sarabi family who were brought here from the Temple of Taras are honestly confessing everything they know.

"The dragons of Abel are overly reliant on their bodies, and their knowledge is not very systematic. In this sense, they are just barbarians. Therefore, our participation has actually accelerated the progress of elemental sacrifice research, and our research has quickly gained the attention of the Holy Church of the Elements."

"The point." Mars sighed and patted the table. "Talk about your achievements first. We'll talk about your relationship with the Holy Elemental Church later."

The head of the Serab family wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Yes. In short, we have realized the true nature of elemental sacrifice. In a sense, it is a kind of corruption unique to the planet Abel."

"Corruption?" Mars frowned. "The corruption here, specifically, refers to the corruption after the body dies?"

"Yes." The Serapi chieftain coughed. "Elemental sacrifice actually answers a question: once-powerful creatures lose all ability to move after death, eventually turning into bones. Where did the once-all-powerful power within them go?

"And the elemental sacrifice provides the answer to this question."

Serabbi replied, "All deceased Abelian creatures can, to a certain extent, become the birthplace of elemental amber. The more flesh and blood a unit volume contains, the stronger these creatures were in life, and the stronger the amber produced. Furthermore, because the originally complex life forms are purified into amber, the power that a piece of amber can unleash in a short period of time is often stronger than a dragon's breath in life. However, amber is surprisingly dull, so it is not easy to stimulate its power."

Elastrid said, "So, you mean to say that you didn't use the bodies of mothers and babies as sacrifices. Those young mothers haven't accumulated enough elements yet, and the babies are too weak."

"Yes!"

At this moment, Mars thought for a while and said, "-I think that even if elemental sacrifice has only been studied to the current stage, its harm is far beyond imagination..."

"Why?" asked Alestria.

Mars slammed the table anxiously. "...The power of elemental amber can even surpass that of the living. Does that mean that if the battle is going badly, instead of concentrating our forces on a counterattack, we might as well just sacrifice the counterattacking troops? Rather than exchanging prisoners for ransom, we might as well just kill them on the spot and use them as blood sacrifice materials."

"This is absolutely a technology that could trigger a world war! If it were to spread, all of Abel would be immediately engulfed in endless bloody slaughter. In this war, there might be no civilians, no prisoners. There would only be slaughter and the slaughtered!"

After realizing that the Holy Church of the Elements possessed some secret, Ashe Frame immediately left his seat and contacted various parties, trying to find the mysterious Fire Gold Dragon.

But in Abel, communication is not an easy task. The most convenient and quickest way is to have a giant air dragon try to write in the clouds.

But no matter what, an hour passed and Ash Frame did not receive any answer.

At this time, the messenger of the Holy Elemental Church, who had been waiting anxiously for a long time, was looking at the sky.

It was already dusk and the sun was about to set below the horizon.

The messengers looked at each other and then let out a collective breath.

I don’t know if it was because I had made up my mind or if I had finally found relief.

The leader of the Holy Elemental Church turned over the document that had been lying on the ground and hidden from view, held it before the dragons, and read it aloud.

"The Freetia Alliance has arbitrarily detained our important scientific researcher, the Flame Gold Dragon Leclerc, and has refused to return him. Negotiations have been fruitless, and they have wantonly trampled upon the friendship we have worked so hard to build since the Second Abel War."

Ashe Frame felt the blood rushing to his brain so intensely that he was about to faint. The other attendees were almost ready to turn around and flee.

This statement is clearly...

The Elemental Holy Church read out the last sentence indifferently: "We strongly condemn the Fritia Alliance's inaction, which has completely wasted years of efforts by both parties."

"So, from the moment the document was read..."

"The Holy Church of the Elements has ended its truce with the Freetia Alliance."

The Third Abelian World War has begun.

Thirty-nine Lantan (1)

The Presbyterian Church in Halrua has never been busier.

Who could have imagined that the relocation of hundreds of thousands to several million people would be just the beginning of the trouble?

Halruaa is now as bright as day.

A large number of young mages did not have time to cheer for their promotion for too long before they were forced to do hard labor by their elders, teachers and direct elders.

Before the Spellbane, the Halruaan people lived in a world of magic. They chose to use constant magic instead of any infrastructure that could be replaced by magic.

Although some of these spells had been restored over the past eighty years, it was obvious that with the city's population increasing dozens of times in a short period of time, these new and old spells were far from enough.

Similar situations have occurred in every part of Halruaa.

Halruaa had been silent for the past few days. Even the elders had little time for bickering—in fact, to ensure Halruaa wasn't overwhelmed by administrative chores, the residents who had moved into the Twin Cities maintained the original administrative structure. Under these circumstances, few elders were idle.

The work of pastors is even more arduous. Most pastors in churches have only been in office for a week or less. These clergy, still struggling to adapt to their new roles, are routinely assigned to the most repetitive tasks.

There was still enough food stored throughout Halruaa, but as a precaution, the priests were still required to continuously produce food and drink—even Elastrid and Sigurd were dragged into the work.

Over the years, the number of injuries that have accumulated due to not being properly handled is countless!

However, there was one question that remained unresolved, yet no one dared to ask it at this time.

Now, they are both dealing with the living problems of the two cities - who will be responsible for the defense against the dragon?

Are we just waiting for the dragon to come and then rush forward?

This solution may not be useless, but it is ultimately too crude and cannot avoid the damage caused by various aftereffects.

But now, Emilia was also very busy with housing issues, and for a moment, no one had the time to ask this question which was supposedly extremely important.

However, there is still an idle dragon in Halrua, whose duty is to spy on the situation in the outside world.

Because of this, he was the first to learn that Abel was about to be turned upside down.

And Halrua was most likely at the very center of the storm.

Greenwater swooped down from the sky again, headed straight for the Elders' Hall, and circled outside the window.

Then, he was disappointed to find that the conference hall was empty and there were no elders there.

Are the Halrua people so busy?

The dragons of the Fritia Alliance have plenty of free time throughout the year.

However, he soon found Emiya's trace with extraordinary skill.

As long as you find the houses that are being uprooted from the ground, you will definitely be able to find the red-haired wizard who is casting a spell.

When Emilia heard the bad news, she didn't panic. She just sighed and said, "Really? This day has come so soon."

Emiya thought that the two factions were already at loggerheads. They were caught between them. In order to divert the conflict, they tried to use Greenwater to introduce some ingredients.

But no one expected that the relationship between the two sides would be so fragile.

The day of all-out war had come so quickly.

Emiya pondered for a moment and said, "This matter requires another elders' meeting. I'll contact the other elders."

The communication crystal ball of the Elder Council had just been restarted a few days ago, and during this period of time, it was almost sparked by Emiya and his group.

Then, he said to the newly arrived Halruaan civilians beside him, "Sorry, we're having a short hiatus. Give me another ten minutes and we'll be done."

-----------------

The truce between the Freetia Alliance and the Holy Elemental Church has ended.

The relationship between the two parties is so bad that there has never even been a peace agreement signed, only a ceasefire agreement binding them.

"In a sense, this kind of truce is the most stable," one elder even joked. "Both sides fought until their blood ran dry before deciding to cease fire. When everyone began to breathe, they naturally knew that war was about to break out again."

The atmosphere was so relaxed because they discovered that the first target of the Holy Elemental Church was not Halrua.

"In my opinion, this proves that the Holy Elemental Church is serious," Mars said. "Halrua was originally a place where hostile nations might be conducting forbidden weapons experiments. It was the most important place. We relied on the adventurers of the Fritia Alliance to get through it.

"However, if the two sides truly engaged in an all-out war, even with the goal of completely destroying the other, then an unpredictable wasteland like Halrua would lose its strategic value. According to common sense in Faerun, upon the outbreak of war, both sides would first fight for known strategic locations: highways, passes, fertile areas... and Halrua doesn't fit any of these criteria. Therefore, I can conclude that until a decisive battle is fought, Halrua will be temporarily safe, and neither side will commit large numbers of troops to the Halrua region."

Although Greenwalt's personality had been corrected and he had a certain sense of identification with Halrua and Toril, in order to ensure that his ambush was flawless, his recognition of Fritia and his hostility towards the Holy Elemental Church remained unchanged. He was not in a relaxed mood at the moment.

The giant dragon was currently lying outside the Elders' Council, with only its head sticking out of the window. "What about us? We can't just sit there and do nothing, right? Where will the Holy Elemental Cult attack next?"

It was somewhat strange to ask such a question to a group of outsiders like them.

The elders present sighed subtly.

Their knowledge of the outside world came entirely from Greenwater. If Greenwater knew the answer, then they knew it too. Conversely… if Greenwater didn't know the answer, then they certainly didn't know it either.

What's more, most of the people present had no knowledge of military affairs.

Emiya naturally felt the same way. However, since it was his teacher who brainwashed Greenwalt personally, he didn't really treat Greenwalt as a mindless puppet. So after thinking for a while, he answered seriously: "I think the Elemental Holy Church should first hope to capture an area they are relatively familiar with and has certain strategic value. I don't know Abel well, but in my opinion, there is only one area nearby that best meets this condition-"

"Floating Islands."

Hearing this, Greenwalt's eyes suddenly lit up, and he exclaimed, "Indeed! This place is at a very high altitude, with a good view. It's actually quite large, and the resources are quite abundant. Furthermore, the charlatans of the Holy Elemental Church frequently fly around here, so they already know the nearby lords very well."

At this point, his face darkened. "...The great lord closest to the Floating Islands is my father, Ashe Frame. If a war breaks out, I will definitely go to help him."

And Emilia was thinking about another question at the moment.

Just how deeply will Halrua and the others be involved in this war?

What can they gain from it?

As Emiya pondered this, Tachi thought of another key point: "So, Greenwater. As far as we know, the water elemental river is located at the border between the two countries. And the Thunder Flower is in Fritia? What is the current position of the Thunder Flower in the alliance?"

"Thunder Flower..." Greenwalt flapped his wings in distress, sending up a shower of electric sparks. "Actually, the Alliance still doesn't know the purpose of that Thunder Flower. We only know that one of the existing Wild Spirits planted it without informing the Alliance first. Therefore, the Alliance's plan has always been to absolutely prevent the Holy Elemental Church from obtaining it, no matter what it is. The same goes for Tianhe."

At the moment, the two most meaningful landmarks for Abel to Emiya and his group are undoubtedly the Thunder Flower and the Sky River.

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