Chapter 1220
The Enraged Flame Heavenly Envoy
Eivass had been extremely busy these past few days. When he decided to help the Anxi people, he knew he couldn’t just focus on Heaven City. The Red Hand gang had been rampaging, causing immense chaos and disaster. Some who managed to escape fled to other city-states or were captured and became slaves to other Lords, willingly or unwillingly. Still others came to Heaven City in pursuit of “hope.”
The underground waterway built by the Goblin Merchant Guild was complete. Water from the water tower could now be directly channeled into Rock Cell City, freeing up Sherlock. In a sense, the others acted as Sherlock’s bodyguards, accompanying him to Heaven City. However, Sherlock’s water replenishment speed, while adequate for Rock Cell City, was clearly insufficient for Heaven City. He had only come there as a precautionary measure. While people were continuously migrating from Heaven City to the new Hrasal, others were also constantly moving into Heaven City. They would need water during their journeys. If the water ran out too soon, wouldn’t these people simply die of thirst?
With Sherlock present, it was at least possible to provide them with some water for their travels. After all, “Summon Water,” while appearing unremarkable, was actually an extremely profound spell. A Fifth Tier mage could easily summon a pillar of fire or lightning capable of destroying a small city tens of kilometers away, transport a person from one end of a country to another, melt stone into mud, or construct a barrier that could withstand artillery fire. Yet, creating a cup of water or a small pebble out of thin air was almost impossible. This was the limitation of this World. Only the Origin River of “Creation” possessed the authority to create. Condensing a cup of water from the air was easy, achievable by First or Second Tier mages. But truly creating it from nothing was something even Heavenly Envoys could barely accomplish.
Even with a Heavenly Envoy Fragment, Sherlock had only temporarily opened the wall between the Material Realm and the Dream Realm using the Heavenly Envoy’s “key” to summon water from the Dream Realm. The Lords did the same, with Abyss Heavenly Envoys being the ones to open the door with their “keys.” Fortunately, things in Anxi were gradually getting back on track, so there was no need to trouble Sherlock with constantly draining his spells to create water. Once mana was completely depleted, it would be incredibly uncomfortable. That feeling was akin to experiencing seasickness while extremely tired—nauseous, with a headache, unable to open your eyes yet unable to sleep.
Precisely controlling mana to the brink of depletion without overdrawing was quite difficult. After all, Sherlock didn’t have a system panel to see exactly how many units of mana he had left. It was like running or exercising; it was hard to distinguish the point at which strength was nearing exhaustion and the point of complete exhaustion, unless one had vast experience. Even the most experienced individuals occasionally misjudged or stopped prematurely while still having reserves. Sherlock had run into trouble several times due to pushing himself too hard. Thankfully, this time Yulia provided Alchemical potions that could soothe an overtaxed soul. However, it was also possible that the potions’ effects allowed him to recklessly overdraw his mana. Heaven City’s water reserves could last for some time. Now that he was in Heaven City, Sherlock could finally rest for a few days to recover.
It was also fortunate that Eivass had the foresight to bring a whole team when he went to Anxi. Otherwise, he and Sherlock alone would definitely not have been able to handle so many matters. Of course, the workload here was mainly in coordination and interfacing. As for reports and statistics, those were easier. Eivass had directly prayed for several deific Apostles of the Hourglass to descend. Many Apostles of the Hourglass were scholars and merchants, and they were quite efficient at handling complex data.
A few days prior, Eivass had also taken the time to write a letter to the Pope, detailing his speculations about “Sin Thorns” and “Firstborn.” Eivass had studied High-Tier Divine Arts, but he hadn’t encountered similar knowledge in his books. This meant that, at least at the Cardinal level, knowledge about Sin Thorns was not common knowledge. Regardless of the level of this knowledge, Grey certainly knew it—after all, she had been a legitimate Saintess and had received complete papal succession education. Although sending and receiving letters within the Ancient Kingdom of Anxi was very troublesome, such common knowledge was not an issue for Eivass and Grey. The Candlemaster’s Apostle, “Fiery Wings of Life,” was happy to help send items. Eivass and Grey could even summon an Apostle of “Fiery Wings of Life’s” caliber without needing any rituals. While they contacted each other infrequently, it could essentially be considered a portable mailbox.
Despite this, it took several days for a reply. Grey apologized for the delay in her letter and explained the reason for it.
“The Dwarves have completely messed up. Eivass, you can’t possibly imagine what the Northern Mountain Range has become. The Flame Heavenly Envoy’s personality is much more volatile than they imagined. This isn’t hard to understand, as the concept of the Flame Heavenly Envoy inherently includes elements of ‘elimination’ and ‘optimization.’ However, the Dwarves’ motivation for summoning her was tantamount to admitting their own backwardness and decline. But up to this point, the situation was still relatively stable. The Dwarves made another mistake—their contingency plans were too thorough. Or rather, they were overconfident. When they realized the Flame Heavenly Envoy’s attitude was clearly not very friendly, they activated their second contingency plan: ‘kill the Flame Heavenly Envoy and seize her Heavenly Envoy authority,’ while also allowing their most numerous Path of Devotion to ascend to the Sixth Tier more safely.
“…Setting aside the fact that their Path of Devotion profession itself was provided by the Magitech Heavenly Envoy, and her annihilation would mean the nullification of that power; let’s just assume they wanted to use this Heavenly Envoy Fragment to ascend to become a new Flame Heavenly Envoy… but the biggest problem was that they greatly underestimated the Flame Heavenly Envoy’s power. The Flame Heavenly Envoy’s power in the Path of Devotion is second only to the Candlemaster, and even more powerful than some weakened Pillar Gods. She rules the domains of fire, steel, and forging. If not for Calamity Red preemptively seizing the domain of war, the Flame Heavenly Envoy herself might have shifted her concept from machines and weapons to war.”
The Flame Heavenly Envoy… she was the Heavenly Envoy of Scorched Iron and Burning Steel, the Heavenly Envoy of Crucibles and Furnaces. This concept was intrinsically linked to civilization. What kind of civilization could exist without fire and iron? She had an extremely high degree of compatibility with the Origin River of Civilization, perhaps a bit skewed due to her extreme obsession. For such a powerful Heavenly Envoy to descend was not something a race like the Dwarves, isolated in their mountains for thousands of years, could handle. After their war with the Elves, the Dwarves had been living beneath the mountains, preparing frantically for battle against irritable Elves as their imaginary enemy. They did not share their technology with others, fearing that other races would “steal” it.
Only a very small number of Dwarves were willing to leave the Northern Mountain Range and go to other countries. They only learned about the Ouroboros Ring ritual half a month late, thanks to reports from Frost Giants living on the surface and specialized Dwarven intelligence gatherers.
“The Dwarves didn’t even understand the details of a Heavenly Envoy battle. They just felt that if even weak Humans could defeat a Heavenly Envoy, there was no reason they couldn’t. If they couldn’t even match Humans, they wouldn’t be able to contend with the Elves. Although there were intelligent Dwarves who tried to stop this, it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. The existence of the Frost Giants had already touched the Dwarves’ sensitive nerves. The once powerful Giants could be defeated, and even the invincible Supreme Heaven could fall, so why couldn’t they foster their own Pillar God? Without the protection of a Pillar God, even Giants would be reduced to guard dogs. Thus, under the overly excited public opinion… the Dwarves performed the Ouroboros Ring ritual without adequate preparation. After the Flame Heavenly Envoy was angered by the Dwarves, she directly moved to destroy the entire underground empire—”
