Chapter 486: The Activation Ritual

"You say it doesn't count? How truly troublesome!"

Master Mazida twisted his yellow face to stare at Finubar; in the eyes of this cold-blooded helmsman, everyone below the rank of Demigod was but an ant or a crawling insect, fit only to obey orders. Listening to them speak was a pure waste of his precious time spent contemplating the Great Plan.

Likewise, he did not understand why, when conditions allowed, the warm-blooded ones were not led by the oldest and most powerful among them. Being nominally in charge of the work but often unable to coordinate his peers and their forces left him feeling deeply irritated.

"Teclis—my Chief Mage, he was the one contacting everyone previously; Tyrion—his brother, the Champion of Ulthuan; Alithara—Daughter of Eternity, my wife could not leave Awalong, so she represents her; Princess Aitila of Tailuoluoke—a rising star among the generals."

Following Finubar's hand, Sinuoli's gaze swept across the faces of the High Elf heroes one by one. When the Elves had appeared in a group, he had once felt that he was alone and lacked presence, but as they each avoided his gaze, he realized his reputation was no longer confined to the scope of the main continent.

"That is enough, I will only say this once."

Master Mazida's patience was exhausted; he did not care who these pointy-eared fellows were or who was in charge of what. Communicating with Teclis, who was the strongest and also a mage, was sufficient.

"The great First Generation, our mentor Lord Kroak, is a precious asset of the Great Plan. To bring his soul back to the Mortal World, we will hold a resurrection ritual. Before the ritual is fully initiated, your troops need to complete their deployment."

"We will exert our full strength to maintain the energy transmission and have no time to attend to other matters. The Geomantic Web operating at full capacity will drain the Winds of Magic within a radius of a hundred miles, which means spellcasters below the rank of Demigod will be of almost no use."

"If Chaos wishes to obstruct the plan, besides assaulting Itza, destroying enough geomantic nodes can also achieve this. For this reason, the third and fourth generations will guard their respective Shenmiaochengshi; by the way, the Great Vortex is also one of the important nodes."

Demigod spellcasters do indeed have a certain reserve of the Winds of Magic, but top-tier Great Incantations also consume a massive amount—one cannot expect a Demigod to deign to cast fireballs one by one in a cost-effective manner!

"Yes, therefore I will remain to guard the Great Vortex, and the Swordmasters of the White Tower will fight alongside you all." Teclis added for Sinuoli; the Slann spoke very methodically, explaining the reasons and the situation in just a few words.

"Drain the Winds of Magic? This means the strength of the Sichenmojun will be greatly restricted!"

As the one among the warm-blooded present with the most experience fighting Daemons, Sinuoli grasped this good news. The little bit leaking out from the Chaos Rift would barely be enough to maintain their forms.

"The great white lizard of Itza—Gor-Rok will lead his legions to hold the front, and your troops will be responsible for covering their flanks. In the best-case scenario, you might not even need to engage in melee combat."

The Lord of the Sun pointed again, and the defense map of Itza appeared out of thin air. The Slann had clearly made a contingency plan to abandon the outskirts of the city and shrink the defensive line to the perimeter of the main pyramid—if Lord Kroak could return, repairing the buildings would be a matter of a snap of the fingers.

"First, count it as two legions per faction of yours. The specific defensive perimeter will be finalized before the battle based on our assembly situation. We will teleport your armies over, and the beacons will be provided later."

"Warriors should preferably be elites with experience in fighting Daemons—if the opportunity for battle is missed, there will be severe punishment. Although practicing the Great Plan is your duty, given its generosity, there shall be rewards bestowed."

For such ancient intelligent beings, coordinating to play the good cop and bad cop required no technical skill, especially since both sides had already decided to provide support and even prepaid the rewards before arriving.

The Slann did not consider the short-lived races represented by Humans—being weakened by the Great Vortex would not affect the Daemons' talents for "terrifying the enemy" and "causing fear." Those lacking sufficient courage would see their sanity plummet upon seeing their hideous, deformed appearances, and those even more fragile could even be corrupted and fall directly.

"Resisting Chaos is the bounden duty of the Asur—from the day the Great Vortex was completed!"

Finubar immediately stated his position; the Taishi Xiongdi had already done the work to persuade him, and the main force would also be composed of them and the kingdoms that relied on them. The Sea King appearing in Itza, besides exercising his authority to go through the motions, also had the important goal of seeing Sinuoli, this Dwarf hero, with his own eyes.

"Just as promised to Lord Mazdamundi, I and my troops will respond to the summons. Also, I was interrupted just now; does arriving before the final stage mean that the process of the ritual cannot be detected before then?"

"No, the movement to contact the Lord's soul is very large. But Chaos should not be able to do anything—we are completely free before we fully channel the energy."

High Priest Adoxi shook his head slightly; he felt this Dwarf was overthinking things, but it seemed that being conservative was the nature of this race.

"Is there anything else unclear? If not, then disperse; we are preparing to start the ritual." Master Mazida raised a claw, and teleportation energy surged in the air.

"Why not start it now? Opening one's eyes to see the world is one thing, and it will be easier to promote and organize manpower when I go back."

Sinuoli followed the pole up; the Slann brainstormed briefly and nodded slightly. Following the solemn spellcasting, a rift opened in the center of the tower top, and a thick, milky energy shield floated up.

Squinting and observing carefully, inside was the remains of Lord Kroak sitting cross-legged on a palanquin; his body was orderly wrapped in burial shrouds, and the golden mask and the scepter in his hand were as upright as when he was alive.

"Boom—!"

After an exchange of glances, the second-generation Slann stood up simultaneously, and the vast energy of the Geomantic Core converged onto the shield, transforming into a beam of light that shot toward the firmament. Sinuoli's mouth hung wide open, and a layer of cold sweat broke out behind his back—how could the Old World have such a spectacle!

"The Second Column will thrust straight east into the Vault Mountains, leaving no one alive; the Third Column will deploy along the southern Grey Mountains to block enemy reinforcements; Clan Skryre, how are the sea mines and anti-aircraft weapons deployed along the coast of Blackwater Bay? The beard-things might arrive very quickly! Kelitesilike, you lead the attack, I will oversee the rear. Remember, I don't want casualty numbers, I only want Tongshanbao!"

In the Broken Tower, the totem stone representing the Great Horned Rat had been removed, and a giant rat with four horns larger than a stag was perched on the thirteenth seat issuing orders. It was Lord Sikuqi—a Inner Circle dama favored by the Great Horned Rat.

Having just finished a fierce battle and returned to the ruined kingdom, it had been ecstatic when receiving the order at the Warp version of the Council of Thirteen personally presided over by Him—this kind of cushy job of being an imperial envoy to the Mortal World had once been monopolized by the right-hand men of the Great Horned Rat.

After descending, it hadn't even had time to enjoy the offerings before it realized how thorny the matter was. His target, that Dwarf, could actually defeat even Skarbrand—when that star of disaster was at its most ferocious, let alone itself, even the Great Horned Rat would have to tuck its tail!