Chapter 2973

The continuation of the night also means that people need to light gas lamps for a longer time, and the heating of steam factories cannot be reduced during the day. However, energy problems are still minor matters. Vesta Woodland does not have large coal mines as energy reserves, but there is no shortage of wood here.

At lunch that day, Margaret appeared on the ship for the first time in a long while. Her status was a witch apprentice, so her position at the table was slightly behind. Angelina wanted to invite her to sit beside her, but in the end, Margaret sat on the right side of Siris:

"I followed Xia De's suggestion and took people to the forest to dig open the well at the abandoned logging site, found Ashley Betany's corpse in the well, and then found Albert Bennett's photo on the pendant on the corpse's neck."

That photo was of course forged, used to let Margaret know the whereabouts of the boy among the illegitimate children as an ordinary person.

"Now the Church already knows that Albert Bennett is the father's illegitimate child. I applied to the Church in the father's name, requesting the Church to agree to let the child gain freedom after this event ends."

But the Church used the excuse that the current situation was very complicated and they would communicate directly with the father later to prevaricate, and they asked me to leave Vesta Woodland immediately."

In fact, Margaret had nominally set off with Sylvia to return to Wilndale City, but obviously Margaret couldn't really leave. So she reported the progress of this matter first, and would temporarily return to Wilndale with the fleet to report to King "Lion" Ryan, and then rush back.

Even if Wilndale City was downstream of Vesta Woodland, this round trip would take a lot of time, so Sylvia would open a portal for her later.

"The Church couldn't possibly agree to let that boy return to normal life, right? Bennett chose him as the next successor to the transit station. He has outstanding time talent, and he doesn't even belong to the current time."

Megan said, and Margaret nodded worriedly:

"I think so too. Father probably doesn't care much about the boy's future now, but the boy must appear to prove that there was no internal slaughter in the family. Father and the Church should eventually come up with a solution to let the boy show his face, and then find a way to arrange for him to die of serious illness and reasonably exit the public view."

That is to say, although Albert Bennett did not die unfortunately like his sister, perhaps in their father's view, it would be better if both children died many years ago. If they both died, there would not be the current royal scandal and the complex negotiations with the Church.

As for Miss Ashley Betany, she still hadn't left, but was still following Margaret. The distraught Margaret also had no mood to persuade her sister to go on for the time being. The Vesta Woodland event was nearing its end. The princess, who missed a series of actions by the Witch Council, even if she successfully completed the mission of coming here, failed to obtain what she wanted from her father in the end.

Because His Majesty the King was obviously not satisfied with this result. Margaret also thought that perhaps it would have been better if she had asked Xia De to kill the child behind everyone's back than to ask Xia De to save the child. The boy's death could let the royal family get rid of a big burden, but Margaret also thought that even if Xia De agreed to help her, she would definitely not be able to be cruel enough to really do it in the end.

Therefore, this investigation was destined to have only the current result.

After lunch, Megan contacted the Church on behalf of the 【Witch Council】 and sent the supplies Xia De obtained from Moon Bay in the morning. Because those eight "Dragon Transformation Potions" were private gifts, Xia De kept them all. The witches were very interested in the effect of this potion.

Vanessa even asked Flora:

"When Xia De drove the Glorious Messenger to send away that black dragon beast, didn't you say you also obtained a giant dragon transformation form? Why haven't we seen you show it to us since then?"

So Miss Owl said things like "it's not time yet" and "cannot be shown at will", but in fact, it was because she couldn't control this dangerous transformation form in her current state.

When Xia De first learned to transform into a moonlight dragon in the summer, he once faced the predicament of being unable to transform back, which fully explained the danger of transformation techniques.

The night was still continuing, and the tension in Vesta City in the night had gradually manifested. The City Hall had passed an emergency resolution, and King Ryan of Wilndale and the Parliament also sent orders. It was expected that the city would begin a comprehensive martial law at 10:00 AM tomorrow, lasting for about 24 hours.

The reason given by the official was vague, but the general meaning was still to link this martial law with the Delarion restorationists, the Kant family, and the Bennett family, vaguely revealing that someone in the local area was really plotting a rebellion.

Although the news that the whole city would be under martial law would not be in the newspapers until tonight, the wind had already been leaked, so the local residents were seizing the last free time to hoard food and handle things. The city under the night was instead more lively than during the day, and pedestrians holding kerosene lamps or even candlesticks could be seen everywhere on the street.

The lights of the gas street lamps were intertwined with these lights, making the city under the night look like it was celebrating a festival.

The Wilndale City train station could still be used for the time being, but not many people left the local area because of the one-day citywide martial law. Instead, idlers in neighboring cities came to the local area on the last few trains after hearing the news, wanting to experience what "citywide martial law" felt like.

The Church did not stop this action of jumping into the fire pit voluntarily. After all, the Orthodox Church was busier than anyone else now.

They had obtained all the information from the witches and were making final preparations for what would happen next. But even at such a busy time, the Church still wanted to meet with the "God-Caller" to discuss the specific details of this Battle of Vesta Woodland in person.

Xia De naturally refused. If not necessary, he had always insisted on not having direct contact with the Church. Therefore, this time it was still the witches who replaced him to connect with the Church to discuss matters related to the forest final battle tomorrow night.

It was still Megan who took on this job, but the witches and Xia De had not yet worked out their specific plan, so she only gave the Church a general idea.

In Xia De's view, this Battle of Vesta Woodland was essentially a war of racing against time. On the one hand, he had to race against time to help Emilia complete the battle of time, and on the other hand, the Paradox Worms would also race against time to attack the city.

The side that completed the task first would be equivalent to locking in the final victory, so not only was Emilia's matter important, but guarding Vesta City was equally important.

Therefore, he hoped that the Church and the Academy would be responsible for the defense of Vesta City, while he and the witches would help Emilia complete the battle of time as soon as possible.

This idea was also recognized by the Church. They had been preparing for the battle against the Paradox Worm army for a long time. Although this enemy was much stronger than the undead army in the "Edge of Life and Death" in Midhillburg last autumn, the Church's preparations were also much stronger than at that time.

Not to mention the Chosen Ones who had been confirmed to be able to appear to help, the basic strength of the Church and the Academy was also much stronger than last year.

It seemed that since last summer, when Iluna became the first Chosen One, the material world not only had frequent strange and weird things, things that might not appear in hundreds of years happened frequently, and various monsters beyond the Thirteenth-Tier appeared one after another, the Church and the Academy also successively discovered a lot of dusty knowledge and information that had been ignored in the past.

Even the number of high-tier Ringed Shushi had increased significantly in this year or so. Although there was only one Thirteenth-Tier Ringed Shushi who had newly broken through in the Witch Council and one in the Creation Church, many Twelfth-Tier Ringed Shushi had a premonition that they were getting closer and closer to the Thirteenth-Tier.

In other words, the strength of both positive and negative sides was growing. The official opening of the "Whispering Poem" prophecy had changed some basic rules of the current era of the Sixth Era. Although the power level of extraordinary people today was still not comparable to past eras, it seemed to have opened some kind of shackles compared to before 1853.

Therefore, the upcoming Battle of Vesta Woodland was not a battle with completely unequal strength. The Church had already found a way to deal with the white fog of chaotic time that the Paradox Worms used to protect themselves. There were no insurmountable difficulties in the defense battle guarding the city.

After Megan discussed with the Orthodox Church, it was also determined that the Church and the Academy would persist as long as possible in the attack of the Paradox Worm army, and if there was an opportunity, they would even try to find the Paradox Worm "Keeper".

However, neither Xia De nor the Orthodox Church had considered being able to eliminate all the Paradox Worms in the local area in one fell swoop. This was obviously impossible. Therefore, the city defense time of the Church and the Academy would eventually have a limit, and the "God-Caller" must let the Chosen One of time complete the ritual before Vesta City completely fell.

To facilitate the subsequent city defense battle, starting from Friday afternoon, the City Hall mobilized people in the villages around the city to enter the city area as soon as possible. While the local garrisons stationed in the forest area, "Twilight Forest Outpost" and "Alenson River Camp", were relocating, they also used the name of "special military exercise" to let people living in the outer city area go to the "shelter" inside the city to live temporarily.

Of course, the external propaganda would not be "shelter" but used other terms.

Vesta City had no city walls. The Church intended to minimize the range that needed to be defended to reduce its own pressure. However, no matter how insufficient the manpower was, they still dispatched a team composed of two Thirteenth-Tier Ringed Shushi and ten elite Twelfth-Tier Ringed Shushi to stand by in the city, preparing to support the "God-Caller's" action tomorrow night.