Hello, is this a letter addressed to Demon Fortress?

All that remained in the hall was rubble, dust, and silence.

Cedric got up from the ground, his left arm hanging at his side, with a large swelling on his shoulder blade.

It was smashed when Cass pinned it to the ground.

He didn't look at his own injury, but stared intently at Morgan, his bloodshot eyes churning with anger and confusion.

There was also a trace of disappointment buried deep within, something they were unwilling to acknowledge.

Morgan.

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper grinding on a stone slab.

"You hesitated just now."

Leah also stood up.

She didn't speak, but her fingers gripped the dagger hilt tightly, her knuckles turning white.

Her gray ponytail had come undone, a few strands of hair clung to her sweaty cheeks, and her lips were pressed into a thin line.

Hewlett stood to the side, shield still held in front of him, his gaze sweeping back and forth among the group, without saying a word.

Cedric took a step forward, the gravel crunching beneath his feet.

"You hesitated."

He repeated it, his voice even deeper than before.

"You believe everything that old man says?"

"He said you're the one who ruined us, and you actually believe it's you?"

Morgan sat on the stone chair, motionless.

His hands were resting on his knees, his fingers slightly curled, as if he were grasping at something unseen.

His gaze fell on the ground, on the shattered fragments of the magic discs.

They landed on the scattered pebbles and dust, but didn't look at Cedric.

"Say something!"

Cedric's voice suddenly rose in pitch, echoing through the hall.

Leah reached out and grabbed his arm, gently, but Cedric shook her off.

He walked up to Morgan, bent down, placed one hand on the stone table, and pointed at Morgan's face with the other.

"When we came out of the City of a Thousand Towers with you, not one of us hesitated."

"You said you wanted to go to the forbidden area, so we'll go to the forbidden area."

"You said you wanted to build a shelter next to Satoguia, so we'll build it."

"You brought us to this godforsaken place, where we're starving, chased by demons, and hunted by those mages!"

His voice was trembling.

"None of us have ever blamed you."

"But you now!"

He stopped.

Morgan finally raised his head.

Those blood-red eyes looked at Cedric, without anger or explanation, only a kind of weariness that made one's heart ache.

"you're right."

Morgan's voice was very soft.

I hesitated.

Cedric's fists clenched so tightly they cracked, his jaw tightened, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

He wanted to curse, to yell, but Morgan's voice rang out again.

"Because I was thinking about... the future of the shelter."

As soon as he finished speaking, the hall fell silent for a moment, and Cedric's anger also paused.

How long did we stay in the barren wasteland?

"No more than six months."

Morgan looked around, his gaze sweeping over the uneven stone walls.

I glanced at the empty grain sacks in the corner, then at the few legends, their eyes slightly unfocused from hunger.

"What was our initial goal?"

No one answered.

"Leave the central city-state and go to a remote place outside the Alliance's transportation network to build a city-state that belongs only to half-demons."

Morgan's voice was flat, as if he were reading a yellowed business plan.

"We don't have to be at the mercy of humans, we don't have to be used as test subjects, and we don't have to live in constant fear that one day a document from the Alliance will drive us all out of the city walls."

Cedric's lips moved, but he didn't say anything.

But things didn't go as planned.

Morgan's voice rang out, no longer as calm as when he was reading a plan.

Instead, it carries a slow, heavy quality, like turning the pages of an old account book soaked in blood.

"The Great Sage has his eye on us."

He looked up, his gaze falling on Cedric's face before shifting away.

"And in the borderlands, a black tide broke out."

"The Black Tide surged out of the Withered Rift Valley and spread northward, like a wall, blocking our way to the outlying lands beyond the Alliance's reach."

"All paths that could escape the Alliance's transportation network have been blocked by demons."

"As long as we remain within the Alliance's transportation network, we will be discovered sooner or later."

"Once the Great Sage personally takes action, we will be completely powerless to fight back."

His voice lowered.

"So, I made what was probably the worst decision of my life."

"Set your sights on the barren wasteland, this forbidden land."

No one spoke in the hall.

The light from the magic stone cast deep shadows on Morgan's face, carving his resolute yet weary features into something resembling a stone statue.

"Satogua, the Throat of the Wasteland, an epic-ranked demon lord."

"It has been sleeping there for who knows how many years."

"I think that as long as we build our shelter next to it, the Great Sage will not dare to act rashly."

"No one dares to wage war on the head of an epic high-ranking demon lord, even if he is the Lord of a Thousand Towers."

"At the same time, although the Deadwood Wasteland is among the forbidden areas, it is only at the very end of the forbidden areas."

"I thought that with our strength, we could barely survive here."

"I thought I could properly settle you all who follow me here."

He stopped.

"But I was wrong."

"I underestimated the difficulty of surviving in the forbidden area, and I also underestimated the methods of the Thousand Towers City."

His gaze swept over the empty grain sacks in the corner.

"Food blockade"

"The surrounding city-states, under the instruction of the magic families, cut off all food transport routes."

"If we want to buy grain, we can only do so through intermediaries like the Dalton family, bypassing the Alliance's oversight and secretly smuggling it in."

"And magic towers in the surrounding city-states rose up one after another."

"It's not for communication; it's for surveillance."

"They have sealed us off in this barren wasteland; we can't get out, and people outside can't get in."

He chuckled again, very softly, and bitterly.

"So, Dalton's food is the only reason we've survived in the Forbidden Lands until now."

"Forty-four bags, forty-four bags every month, no more, no less, enough for all of us to keep from starving."

"But Dalton went missing a few months ago."

The air in the hall seemed to have been sucked out.

Leah closed her eyes.

Cedric's fist slowly loosened and then slowly clenched again.

"We can't go anywhere."

Morgan's voice finally showed a slight fluctuation, not anger, not sadness, but a calm of resignation, as if driven to the brink of despair.

"Even without this hunt, we're almost at our breaking point."

He lowered his head and supported his forehead with his hands.

"So that old man said I was a sinner... He was right."

Cedric's teeth were grinding together.

"If we hadn't been targeted by the sage, why would we be in this situation!"

His voice boomed through the hall, like a caged beast that had been locked in a cage for too long finally letting out a roar.

Then he froze.

He realized what he had said.

"Morgan, I...I didn't mean that..."

Morgan didn't look up; he simply waved his hand.

No, you're right.

His voice came through his fingers, muffled, as if through a thick wall.

"I opened Pandora's box."

"I took the initiative to approach the Great Sage, handed him my research results, and told him that demonic energy could break through the bottleneck of epic advancement."

"I thought he would support me and stand on the side of the half-demon."

He chuckled softly, a bitter laugh.

"He did support me."

"But he intends to turn all the half-demons into his test subjects."

Hewlett walked over, put a hand on Morgan's shoulder, and patted him on the shoulder.

The force was not heavy, but very steady, like an iron wedge driven into a crack in the rock.

"Morgan, this is not your fault."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.

"The Alliance Council's decision to expel half-demons, once it takes effect, will be an act of annihilation of the entire race."

"At that time, only a great sage had the power to stop this decision from being made."

He paused for a moment.

"And what happened later proved that you were right to go to him; at least, he was still willing to pretend to be on our side."