Chapter 3304: Prophecy Once More, The Mysterious Pyramid

————It will be later~

————Haven't had dinner, so hungry I'm skin and bones, going to get something to eat, then come back to write.

By the time Xia Duo heard the news about the newly discovered Underground Passage in Illefarn, the nations of the Alliance had already reached a consensus to send explorers to the passage to investigate.

This time, when he returned to reality, he still hadn't received the entry permit from the Yierlan representative, but he no longer cared about such things; from the moment he learned that the other party had lost contact after returning home, he had decided to ignore the so-called entry rules.

This was simply because his research into the Illuminati's Excited State Magic Artifact was at a breakthrough point; if he hadn't happened to learn about it from Alanminuosi, he wouldn't even have bothered to ask.

After quickly grasping the situation in reality and completing the scheduled verification experiments, Xia Duo dove back into the Time Acceleration Array. He now performed all actions that did not involve practical operations inside the Time Acceleration Array to save time in reality.

The price was that his lifespan was consumed a bit more, but it had not yet reached a level he could perceive; in other words, this bit of lifespan was just a drop in the bucket.

……

Inside the Time Acceleration Array, based on the feedback from several verification experiments, Xia Duo cleared up, bit by bit, the role the Excited State Magic Artifact provided in the Time-Involving Ritual.

If his judgment was correct, there should be far more than one such Excited State Magic Artifact; together, they served to stretch and slow down the Time-Involving signal generated by the Time-Involving Ritual on a time scale.

At the same time, after in-depth research, Xia Shao discovered that once that delay effect ended, it had to be interrupted; otherwise, it was highly likely to produce an immeasurable Time-Involving effect, similar to the immense pressure suddenly generated when water outside a pipe is suddenly cut off.

"Danzo discovered a gathering place in the Underdark formed by demons scattered after the Drow War. An Abyssal Land Embryo has even formed there. The Alliance has currently sent relevant personnel to investigate and evaluate it."

And such a struggle where the information held by both sides is highly asymmetric is very likely to lead to the worst result, which is a lose-lose situation, with both sides together turning the Main Plane into a mess.

The larger the wavelength and frequency of light, the smaller the energy actually is; the delay of the Time-Involving signal is a similar effect, spreading out the impact that might have erupted in a short time over a longer time scale.

But the problems exposed by the Illuminati are also objective realities. For example, the Underground Passage discovered a few days ago, and the demon gathering place discovered by Danzo in the last two days—if the Illuminati hadn't exposed them in advance, perhaps even more serious consequences would have occurred in the future when the Alliance discovered them on its own.

It is even highly likely that it started before they attacked Ailan.

After learning these situations, Xia Shao immediately realized two problems. One is that according to the delay characteristics of the Time-Involving signal explored so far, the Illuminati likely started the relevant rituals long ago.

And this, once again, made Xia Shao sigh—"Good thing I'm here!"

The actual effect manifests as the signal intensity monitored at a single moment becoming weaker, but the duration becoming longer.

Hearing such news, Xia Shao's first reaction was—the Illuminati has made another move!

Not counting the Magic Web Decay Zone created in Ailan before, there shouldn't be too many coincidences in this; otherwise, the Illuminati wouldn't have hidden this kind of method until now.

……

Another problem is that this final decisive battle might far exceed everyone's imagination. The Alliance is unaware of these things and might think that stopping the Illuminati's Time-Involving ritual counts as the end, but in fact, it is not.

At this moment, even if he didn't believe in fate, he deeply felt an unprecedented sense of mission, as if the fate of the whole world was in his hands, left for him to play out!

But such a mission is undoubtedly also very heavy, especially under the current situation where they are still in a passive state regarding the Illuminati.

It is also because the Illuminati is still thinking about their so-called Ailan Rebirth Project; otherwise, they might have already started destroying the world by now!

Leaving the Time Acceleration Array once again, Xia Shao learned about the latest status of the outside world from Alanmidinuo. First of all, it is now January 17th; another two days have passed.

Therefore, in the decisive battle with the Illuminati, one must also be careful. Before having 100% or at least a relatively high degree of certainty in eliminating the influence, it is best not to push too hard, lest the other party breaks the pot and perishes together with the Northland.

Xia Shao certainly cannot sit by and watch the worst situation happen, but now the thing he worries about most has appeared—the Illuminati has mastered a superweapon capable of threatening the Alliance!

At that time, a continuous stream of demons will pour out from the Abyssal Land, and the number will very likely be so large that the vast majority of people cannot imagine it. By then, the entire Plane will become an Abyss Battlefield.

"After more than ten consecutive times, the field personnel can rotate, so there is no impact, but the morale of those Mages on the rapid response list is being worn down very quickly."

Perhaps the Illuminati also sensed this possibility, which is why they revealed this situation to the Alliance, hoping the Alliance would eliminate the hidden danger. This avoids the Main Plane becoming an Abyss Battlefield, and removing such a possibility will also make their Time-Involving ritual go more smoothly; it's practically making the Alliance act as their hired muscle.

The most serious of these is that demon gathering place; it has now formed an Abyssal Land Embryo. If it is delayed further, it may form a true Abyssal Land.

And the Yierlan representative still hasn't returned to the Alliance Headquarters, but has finally restored contact with the Headquarters. As for the entry permit Xia Shao wanted, it had already been sent to Evereska during Xia Shao's "seclusion."

Therefore, whether it is on the Illuminati side or the Alliance side, both need to avoid such things from happening as much as possible.

Moreover, judging from the various situations currently encountered by the Northland Alliance, the Illuminati seems to want to keep the Alliance running around, thereby making them unable or even unwilling to attend to their Time-Involving ritual.

"Another thing is the monitoring center at Headquarters. In the last two days, it has successively monitored Time-Involving signals from all over the Northland. People have also been sent to investigate, but none have encountered Illuminati members."

Decisions made based on this might be counterproductive. On the other hand, although the Illuminati also doesn't want to see such a situation happen, they are even less likely to expose their own weaknesses, but will instead exhaust all their strength to struggle against the Alliance.

It's just that what the Illuminati wants to do is to let this stretching and delay effect continue until the end, while the Alliance needs to eliminate such long-term effects as safely as possible, rather than just stopping the Time-Involving ritual that serves as the source.

Xia Shao speculates that there is a high probability of generating a large-scale Space-Time Mist; additionally, there is a smaller probability of the ritual completing directly, or failing directly.

This is somewhat similar to the redshift phenomenon on Earth.

Additionally, even if good news exists, it cannot make the bad news disappear. This time, Alanmidinuo directly told Xia Shao two pieces of bad news—

Such news made Xia Shao feel slightly comforted; it's not that every time he comes out he hears bad news, there is still some good news, even though such news actually doesn't provide much emotional value.

But now, the Illuminati can cause damage that the vast majority of people can hardly imagine to the Main Plane, or at least to the Northland, by actively abandoning their plan.

"Good thing I'm here!"