280 40 Million

“Ravenwood could be pulled into the Lake of Entropy at any moment?”

William summarized Nizemar’s words.

The other party nodded in confirmation.

“All Reborn Sovereigns, except for the Newborn Sovereigns, must cut off a piece of Currere to anchor Their existence and expand Their domain in the Moon Realm. The Lady of Starvation performed a ritual in Ravenwood and became a Void Sovereign. But instead of turning Ravenwood into an empty sea like the Ruins of Orsis, She created a lone lake in the Moon Realm, the Lake of Entropy.”

Nizemar continued nodding.

In other words, Camilla still had claims over Ravenwood.

William thought and concluded, “A thousand years ago, two rulers of Ravenwood died at the same time, giving the Lady of Starvation an opportunity. She planned on infiltrating Currere again by replacing the World Tree’s worship totem with Her symbol using Her remaining worshipers. She almost succeeded, but Nehe discovered Her scheme at the last moment. He didn’t help Her, but for nearly committing a heinous sin, he chose to exile himself.”

Why does that unlucky child always encounter such matters?

William couldn’t help but sigh. Then, he turned his gaze to the sleeping girl and asked, “And now… this girl who inherited the Eyes of God and claims that Sibylla exchanged consciousness with her… from different times told you all of this?”

Nizemar nodded gravely.

After a moment of silence, William asked, “You chatted with her for quite some time. Do you think it’s real?

Nizemar looked into William’s eyes and replied almost immediately, “My intuition tells me it’s most likely true.”

“Wait, let me think it through…”

William rubbed his temples as he felt that his brain was overloaded.

After a long time, he roughly sorted out his thoughts.

“We’ll verify it later. Let’s assume it’s true for now. The two most important questions are, what conditions does Camilla need to fulfill to pull Ravenwood into the Moon Realm.”

Such matters definitely required extremely harsh conditions to be completed. Otherwise, the other party would have done so long ago and wouldn’t have waited until now.

However, from another perspective, as long as they could strictly prevent that condition from being fulfilled, wouldn’t it be easy to foil the Lady of Starvation’s wishful thinking?

“Did the girl mention anything? Is there a ritual to be completed?” William asked.

Nizemar immediately replied, “There’s a ritual, but the ritual itself is easy. Even someone without magic skills can do it with the right tools. What’s really hard is the preparation—it requires a sea of tired and old souls as fuel.”

“A sea? How much specifically?” William pressed.

“According to Sibylla’s calculations… we’re talking about 40 million souls.”

William couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

The souls of 40 million elders?

The Vic Continent was a world of magic, but it still lived in a time between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The population wasn’t dense.

It was impossible to gather 40 million old souls from the entire continent, even if one included Ava State and the Damon Continent.

Now, the other party told him that this ritual needed the souls of 40 million elders gathered in Ravenwood to be burned?

Wasn’t this a joke? There were only over a million Forest Elves.

William noticed that Nizemar didn’t relax when she said this number.

“Wait… You were talking about the sins of the Forest Elf ancestors, weren’t you?”

William felt his scalp tingle when he thought of a possibility…

If that was the case, the Forest Elves were the only ones who could gather 40 million old souls.

This was because most of the Forest Elves weren’t truly dead. Instead, they became a part of Ravenwood Forest.

At least a third of the forest is the result of the treeification of old Forest Elves over the millennia.

…

After countless failed attempts to dismantle the barrier, Elise finally gave up.

She reluctantly acknowledged that the barrier set up by the Frost Lich Nehe was too much for an ordinary person with ordinary magical abilities like herself, even with the use of Sibylla’s body.

“Even if we can open this barrier and take out Nehe’s phylactery, it won’t change anything. We’re in shattered time. Once we’re pulled back to causal time, we’ll be abandoned as an unneeded possibility. We’ll never have existed,” Elise said, defeated.

“You want to correct a mistake made centuries ago and everything will be fine in the future? If time can really change, Currere will be no different from the stagnant Realm of Light. A world without surprises is a world without regrets.”

As Elena spoke, she looked around and found a root that looked sturdy enough to sit down. Then, she comforted her, “Just bring the information back to your era. That will be enough.”

“But what about all the people who will die in the next few centuries and their tortured souls?” Elise lamented.

“For us, it’s the future, but for you, it’s already destined history. Save your sadness for when everything is over. You may not even have the right to be sad in the future.”

With that said, Elena clapped her hands twice, to bring Elise back to reality.

Elise came back to her senses and replied, “Oh… Let’s continue discussing the Lady of Starvation. I’ll take note of everything.”

“Where was I? Oh, right, about Her true authority. The Lady of Starvation’s true authority is the concept of wear and tear. Corruption, festering, hunger, and withering are only the surface of Camilla’s strength.”

“Wear and tear?”

“As I’ve said, it’s all about the cycle in Currere. Life and death, day and night, the seasons, everything. It’s all like a wheel, turning and shaping the course of history. But as the wheel turns, it’ll eventually wear down. That’s where Camilla comes in. That’s why the Lady of Starvation’s Moon Realm is also known as the Lake of Entropy, symbolizing the inevitability for things to disappear,” Elena explained.

“But does understanding this directly help in foiling Her plan?” Elise asked.

“It can provide us with ideas. So-called wear and tear come from things stripped from a system that’s still in motion. Back to the previous example, She’s in charge of all the scraps that fall off the wheel, but She doesn’t want to completely destroy it. That’s the job of the Ruin Demon God, Ordin.”

“So?”

“Nothing can damage charred wheels. No signs of wear and tear. No rot will seep into the ashes. The only way to halt Camilla’s progress is…”

…

“Therefore, the best way to stop Camilla is…” William said as he looked at Floral. “Burn the entire Ravenwood Forest to ashes.”