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“The ground on both sides of the Demon Palace is rapidly rising, and will reach sea level in three minutes!”

“The sea level itself is dropping, and seawater is swiftly disappearing at a rate of 26 million cubic meters per second!”

The North Sea was originally a calm body of water, but at the moment it was tossing and raging. A hurricane had whipped up waves that were tens of meters in height, while black clouds gathered as if heavenly tribulation was upon them, covering the skies. They threatened to come down on the land and sea, destroying everything.

!!

The ark on the surface of the sea had already sunk to the bottom of the sea due to the huge waves. The warriors were seated on flying beasts, quickly rising into the skies while battling the wind and rain. Fortunately, the troops were equipped with enough flying beasts, who had amazing constitutions and strong bones able to combat the hurricane, or the consequences would have been disastrous.

However, there were still some warriors who were still unlucky enough to fall into the sea. Their comrades tried to rescue them from their fates, but with the huge waves and powerful undercurrents, the difficulty of effecting a rescue was compounded, easily exhausting both the people that had fallen and the rescuers in a very short amount of time.

In any case, the North Sea right now was like a boiling bathtub, with the plug at the bottom undone. The sea’s water was very quickly being drained underground, forming huge eddies and waves in the process. It was a very strange phenomenon, a disaster that no one had ever seen before.

City Lord Cotillard and Calvinson had already gotten onto the backs of huge flying beasts, and after hearing about the reports from the various technical groups, they realized how pessimistic things were looking. Their expressions were looking more and more severe, while the howling winds and battering rain had yet to weaken in the slightest.

They could clearly make out from the scan that there was a movement similar to the shifting of continental plates taking place. The center of the seabed was sinking as the surrounding ground was raised, causing seawater to be diverted beneath the crust.

Normally this sort of large-scale movement required thousands or even tens of thousands of years to form, but today, everything was happening over the span of several minutes. The North Sea looked completely different in just a blink of an eye; the seawater had been all but drained out, revealing the rocky seabed below, with all the fish struggling painfully in the muddy ground, dying as there was no longer any water.

“Just what is going on? The North Sea area covers an area 14,335 kilometers square, and it actually lost seven meters of its sea level in just one minute? Curse it, at this rate, the entire North Sea will no longer exist! Just what sort of natural phenomenon is it that could cause such a great change in the plates?” Cotillard bellowed, staring out over the still-turbulent sea.

Calvinson shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s not a natural phenomenon.”

“What are you saying?” Cotillard was shocked. “Are you saying that there’s another power that could turn the Lower Realms upside down? Even someone like the King of Demon Lords Harikane does not have the power to cause such wide-scale destruction!”

Calvinson replied, “The Ancient Book of World Creation mentioned that the Lower Realm itself was originally a complete region, without being split into three levels. Later, an unprecedented great war broke out between the experts from the Upper Realm and the Lower Realm, known as the War of Two Realms mentioned in the history books.

“The War of Two Realms ultimately ended with the Lower Realm as the losers, and so their territory was split into three. The first level was given to the humans, and the third to the Demons. The middle level was caught between the two races.

“In order to prevent the Demons from rising up again, the Upper Realm recruited humans who possessed outstanding combat strength from the Middle Realm, which is the Subduing Demon City and the Demon Slayers.”

“The Lower Realm wasn’t split into three levels in the ancient times, but was something artificially created afterward. That is akin to how a person could build a three-story building on a piece of land, and it doesn’t matter what material you use. As long as it’s a man-made construct, weathering the elements across a period of time, there will come a day when they reach the limit of their service life and will collapse once it reaches that limit.”

“Given the intensity of the changes we are seeing to the land right now, I suspect that the service life of the three levels of the Lower Realm has come, and as time goes by, the entire Lower Realm will become more and more unstable, before ultimately collapsing and returning to its original state.”

Cotillard swayed slightly as the expression on his face changed drastically. “You’re a historian that specializes in ancient history. I know you’ve read practically every book in Subduing Demon City, but you can’t just spout nonsense!”

Calvinson shrugged. “Do you still remember that incident in the Sith Mountains? Overnight, the Sith Mountain Range that spanned the first level of the Lower Realm collapsed, and countless lives living in the buffer zone were lost. Even now, many are still roaming the remote areas of the land.”

Cotillard nodded, swallowing hard, and indicated for Calvinson to continue.

Xia Fan and Xia Geng had run into a tribe that was seeking to assault Meimei’s White Stone City when they first arrived in the Lower Realm. Those tribal residents were none other than the people who roamed the mainland after the Sith Mountains collapsed. In other parts of the land, there were even more intelligent lifeforms who originally came from the buffer zone. It was just that the main objective of the Slayers was to fend off Demons. With how the various lifeforms from the buffer zone weren’t particularly strong, Subduing Demon City did not engage in any large-scale mobilization against them.

“Aside from the Sith Mountains, there’s also the melting on the Southern Glacier, the warming of the Adria Basin, and the emergence of deserts in the once-thriving Rift Valley Rain Forest. All these geographical phenomena were classified as shifting plates by us.”

“Theoretically speaking, those things are indeed due to the changing of plates, but have you ever wondered why there have been more and more of these incidents recently?”

“Meanwhile, the activities of the Demon have increased during this period of time as well. Is that all a coincidence? That is what we’ve believed all this while, that the special geological structure of the three levels ought to be stable, but what if we are mistaken? What do we do then?

“I knew given your personality that you’d ask me for data and figures to prove my hypothesis, but I’m very sorry, my friend. I have no proof. All I have is my instincts as a historian from my years of studying the changing of the world through the ages. Some might feel that what I proposed is absurd, but history has repeatedly taught us that not everything in this world can be predicted through data and numbers, or that it could be understood through any scientific computing model.”

Calvinson was a historian who studied liberal arts, and was very different from a man of science and engineering like Cotillard. Though Calvinson spoke in an even tone, every theory he espoused would often be more astounding than the last, almost to the point of the whimsical.

Cotillard pursed his lips, “How could you see the Three Realms as some concrete building? That’s very unscientific! You know we need to take a super-powered Magnetic Elevator in order to go from Level One to Level Two, taking a total of seven days. The thickness and stability of the Lower Realm is nothing like concrete!”

Calvinson shrugged. “I already told you, someone who studies history like me would never be able to give you the proof or data you need as someone who values scientific data. My theory is solely based on my understanding of history. There have been too many strange changes happening to the land, and I’m somewhat worried.”

“Is that why all of you ignored my protestations and sought out the Skywings?”

Calvinson did not deny his part. “To be precise, what we sought was not only a Skywing, but also other clans who possessed unique capabilities and powers. It was just that the Skywings were the most outstanding of the lot, and were the most famous.”

“Who else? I do not wish to see the Lower Realm filled with all sorts of strange people,” Cotillard demanded.

Calvinson chuckled, “I’m very sorry, my friend. You, who voted against this, have been excluded from the executive committee, so you don’t know their names. All you need to remember is that, whether it’s the Skywings or other clans that we invited to bolster the forces of the Lower Realm, they are all like us, humans, and not demons.”

His expression suddenly turned serious. Calvinson said in a deep voice, “Actually, most of the City Lords are like me, caring most about the Upper Realm and not the Skywings.

“After all, it has been 12,673 epochs since we had any contact with the Upper Realm, and they seem to have forgotten our existence. Forgotten that we, the Demon Slayers, are under their command. This is very abnormal, and ought to be what we’re most worried about.

“Old friend, now is not the time for us to be quarreling. Using your understanding of these weapons and helping save our men before the seabed collapses would be the most important task at hand. Otherwise, they will only be buried in the deep dark ground, just like the Demon Palace.”

*sigh*

Cotillard heaved a long sigh and continued to gaze out into the stormy sky.

“I’ve already done everything I can. I had even bombarded the Demon Palace Domain, hoping that General Dresden would not be fooled. The reason why I did so wasn’t to bring it down, but to remind the people trapped inside that danger was imminent, and that they needed to leave immediately!”