Chapter 1102 — Determination of Nature

The Silver Queen had spoken without intent, but Gao You, standing nearby, had taken it to heart. Something stirred faintly within him, and the topic suddenly seemed strange—letting the former God of Nature personally speak with those devout believers who refused to forget the past? This matter... to the Silver Queen it was probably no more than a whimsical notion, but for Gao Yang it was, physically speaking, actually feasible...

That "deity" was still in his backyard watching "television"—according to the monitoring team's reports, it spent at least twenty hours a day immersed online...

But then again, what was Amorn supposed to say to those persistent believers? How could one safely and reliably persuade a group of elves who had clung to their obsession for three thousand years to simply let it go? Have the God of Nature perform a death on the spot...

Gao Yun shook his head slightly, quickly casting off the strange notion that had surfaced for some inexplicable reason. He knew it was nothing more than idle musing; in any case, he dared not casually let Amorn come into contact with mortals again—not even to speak a single word to them, not even to manifest a single trace. The risks behind this were too immense; it could very well cause Amorn, who had already shed his divine office, to reestablish a connection with divine authority, while the benefits of such an act were impossible to predict.

He could not squander the fruit of three thousand years since the White Star's fall on such a joke of a gesture.

But... what if there were another way... another line of thinking...

Gao Heng lapsed involuntarily into thought, but his musing was soon interrupted by the Silver Queen. Bellatia cast him a somewhat curious glance: "What are you thinking about?"

"...Nothing, just some trifles," Gao Yang said, startled out of his reverie. He glanced at Bellatia, and certain plans surfaced in his mind, but he quickly suppressed these still-unformed ideas. He raised his head and looked toward a mechanical clock not far away, seeing its hands gradually approaching the topmost mark. "Our break is nearly over... let us return to the meeting first."

Within the Oathstone Ring, the representatives of the various parties were returning to their seats one after another—in fact, most had never even left the ring's perimeter. During the limited thirty-minute recess, they had seized the time to make contact with other representatives, gathering as much information as possible in hopes of gaining a firmer grasp of the situation. Even those who had stepped out were conferring with their own teams, seeking the counsel of think tanks and support in intelligence—no one would truly empty their mind during this brief interval, because everyone knew the meeting had reached its final stage, and true relaxation was best saved for after the Oathstone Ring reopened.

After confirming that all representatives had returned to their seats and that the staff outside the ring were prepared, Bellatia rose from her position. She swept a quiet glance across the hall, then raised her right hand slightly: "Then, in accordance with the meeting's procedure, the Oathstone Ring is now sealed. Barring any life-threatening circumstance, the sealed state will persist until this closed session concludes."

As the Silver Queen's words fell, a deep, low hum had already risen from the edges of the venue. Then, upon the surfaces of those majestic stone pillars, layer upon layer of magical radiance suddenly emerged. Countless ancient and abstruse runes surfaced from the stone walls and unfurled like petals, linking with one another in the air to form a pale green curtain of runes. Radiance coursed onward, and the spaces between the runes swiftly filled with spreading light and shadow—within mere seconds, a dense, boundless forest had risen outside the entire Oathstone Ring. The original wasteland vista and the distant townscape were wholly replaced by this suddenly appearing forest; not a trace of them remained visible.

Outside the Oathstone Ring, however, the various teams waiting in the rest area did not see that "forest." They merely watched as the vast ancient ritual ground was enveloped in a radiance, and the next second vanished from the wilderness into thin air—many were somewhat unsettled by this, but upon seeing that the elven affairs officers and the working teams from Typhon and Cecil were still resting quietly beside the grounds, those who had stirred soon calmed down.

Inside the Oathstone Ring, the Silver Queen concluded the "reversal" of the ritual ground. After she sat back down, Gao Yang stood up: "Then let us begin this session. Surely many of you have realized, after so many days of meetings, the topic we have deliberately been avoiding all along. So now... it is time to face this greatest of troubles: the gods of our world."

In the hall, grown much quieter for the reduced attendance, many representatives shifted slightly in their seats. Some faces changed subtly; some instinctively fell into thought; some clenched a fist and knocked at their temple—but no one cried out or lost composure at this topic. As Gao Yang had said, after so many days of meetings, after seeing the images left on the Typhon-Cecil battlefield and learning of the disaster that had befallen Tarronde, any person of intelligence should by now have guessed the content of this closed session.

"By now, I think no one will question the authenticity of the materials we saw at the meeting's opening," Gao Yang continued after a brief pause. "What I want to say is that those materials were far from complete—

"Years ago, Cecil had already come into contact with this part of the truth, and Typhon faced the 'dark side of the gods' even earlier than Cecil. Tracing back even to the ancient Gondor era, some who saw ahead faced this dark reality. They were called the 'Defiers,' and they spent their entire lives seeking ways to oppose fate...

"This is what I mean: this is not a crisis that has suddenly exposed itself to mortals. In truth, this crisis has accompanied our civilization for thousands, even tens of thousands of years. Many have faced it across the long ages and attempted to oppose it. It is a 'hidden river' in our civilization's development—the vast majority know nothing of its existence, yet it has always flowed deep within our history."

"That sounds far too general," the leader of the Northern City-States Union stood up. "May I ask whether there are more detailed materials that could help us quickly grasp the situation?"

"There are. The materials are placed in the compartments beneath your tables," Gao Yan nodded. "You may retrieve and read them at your leisure. We have explained the situation in as concise and clear a form as possible. If questions remain during your reading, you may speak up at any time."

Beneath the banner of the Augury Tribal Nation, Wenna Whitebloom soon found the materials Gao Yang had mentioned in the compartment beneath the stone table—what surprised her was that this was not the fine-quality manuscript paper widely used in earlier agenda items, but a parchment scroll with an unmistakably elven style, its surface faintly gleaming. The instant she unrolled it, she saw several shining runes flash past the paper's edge. This distinctive feature made her instantly realize what it was:

A magical secret covenant. The greatest function of such a covenant was that it could not be copied in any form, could not be overwritten or tampered with in any form once made, could not be taken out of a designated area, and could be opened only once.

Gao Song's voice came from nearby: "To ensure the security of the materials, we had to distribute them in the form of magical secret covenants. This is not out of suspicion toward anyone present, but where the gods are concerned, procedural security must be taken seriously."