Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

Due to its proximity to the furnaces, the air quality here is extremely poor and the environment is extremely harsh. Lacele even feels that even if there is no Homecoming blocking the sunlight overhead, this camp would probably have difficulty seeing the light.

Just like the capital of Victoria in the rumors, Sheffield, known as the "City of Steel and Steam", is shrouded in thick and difficult-to-disperse smog all day long, so it is nicknamed the "Fog City".

"But the current Lentiheim may be even more foggy than the foggy city."

Lacey couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

After all, there aren't a few huge furnaces in Sheffield that are constantly emitting billowing black smoke...

Oh, not necessarily.

Rachel had never been to Sheffield. All she knew about the city came from gossip. As for what the real Sheffield was like...

It's hard for her to say.

Let’s take a look at nearby Lentiheim.

Located at the foot of this giant tree, Lentiheim is undoubtedly the tallest city in the world. It would probably save fuel to launch spacecraft such as rockets here? From this perspective, the elves even have a unique advantage in space exploration.

Lacele was almost amused.

But at this moment, someone suddenly elbowed her gently.

Who else could it be? She knew without thinking that it must be Charles - so she turned around and wanted to ask Charles what was the matter.

Charles didn't say anything, but just winked at her, indicating that she should look up.

Top of head?

Apart from the Homecoming that blocks out the sun, what else could be above our heads?

Lacie raised her head and looked upwards in confusion.

Then, she saw what Charles pointed out to her -

On the edge of the Homecoming's massive hull, there is a branch branching out from the trunk of a giant tree. Originally full of vitality and green leaves, it has now been smoked bare by the billowing black smoke from the furnace. Not a single leaf is left, and the bark is dark and cracked, revealing a lifeless yellow color.

It's dying.

Lacee stared at the dead branch in a daze, almost forgetting to move forward. Fortunately, Charles grabbed her hand in time and led her to continue moving forward.

"The Matron planted this giant tree called Lentiheim," Ciel said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "and then, she gave birth to the elves in the giant tree."

"But now, the elves have cut off the crown of the giant tree and put it into the furnace to use as consumables."

"The poisonous smoke from the furnace has caused the giant tree to dry up day by day, and the reconstruction of the Homecoming has not yet been completed. The elves still need to scavenge materials from this giant tree that has sheltered them from wind and rain for thousands of years... The ship-borne host that the elves called mother in the past is the mother of the elves, but isn't this giant tree in front of us, which has protected the elves for many years, another mother of the elves?"

Lacele felt her hand being tightened by Charles.

With a strange feeling, she heard Charles continue:

"The elves are killing their 'mother' with their own hands."

Lacie bit her lip and whispered:

"No way, at least... it's not that exaggerated, right? This tree is so big, even if all of it turns into fuel... the elves shouldn't need that much fuel, right?"

Her gaze shifted from the dead branch to the Homecoming.

"Isn't the Homecoming almost finished rebuilding? I think it's almost finished..."

Charles shook his head.

"No, I feel..."

He lowered his head and looked at the crown of the giant tree covered with cinders and soil at his feet:

"I can feel that the tree is dying."

"Ah?" Lacie was a little at a loss.

Charles told her:

"I was born with a very strange...ability. I can feel the existence of 'life'. Didn't you ask me before? Why do I have such a keen perception? And this is the answer--"

He closed his eyes, but it seemed as if another pair of eyes opened silently on his face.

Through those eyes, he saw the existence of "life". He saw that the giant tree under his feet was dying and could face death at any time; he saw that the Homecoming hanging high in the sky was accumulating the magnificent vitality he had never seen in his life, as if countless lives were gathered there.

——Those are the elves.

They are the elves who have already abandoned the city-state of Lentiheim and the giant tree and chosen the starship Homecoming, planning to leave the Pangaea and return to the depths of the starry sky.

They have ruthlessly squeezed all the value out of the giant tree.

"I'm afraid that by the time the Homecoming sets sail and the elves leave Pangaea, this giant tree will lose all its vitality and dry up completely. By then, the entire city-state will probably fall down with the death of the giant tree, smashed to pieces, and turned into a ruin like Diesel..."

At this point, Charles paused:

"No, maybe it's not just this giant tree, but also the world that contains Lentiheim. I feel that everything is irreversibly heading towards ruin. I think this is the price the elves have to pay to rebuild the Homecoming."

At this time, Lacie didn't know what to say.

She could only stare silently at the Homecoming above her head, a starship that had consumed all the resources of an entire microcosm to be rebuilt.

"I see," the witch murmured, "I was wondering... where did the elves get the resources from?"

The answer is simple, even right at their feet, in front of them.

Equivalent exchange.

The elves resurrected their "mother" - at the cost of killing the miniature world before them.

[To be continued]

-

30. Don’t be soft-hearted

The miniature world that hosts the elven city-state is about to die.

The elves drained all of its life force, turning it into a hollow shell.

Lentiheim is no longer prosperous, and the epic of the elves will most likely become an insignificant footnote in history in the near future, just like countless insignificant countries and races that have disappeared in the long river of time... right?

No.

If the elves were determined to leave Pangaea and actually accomplished this feat, then, ignoring the warnings of previous civilizations, they might have accomplished an unprecedented feat in the history of Pangaea -

They want to cut off the history of Pangaea directly.

So no matter what, Lackey and the others had to stop the Homecoming from setting sail.

As for the visiting delegation stationed in Lentiheim... Lacele believed that as long as she told them the warnings of the previous civilization, they would be able to understand her ideas and then join her in stopping the elves.

But she did care about what Mr. Broda had said before.

Obviously, part of what he said was wrong - Lentiheim was not without incident; and the other part, about the assumptions they had made about the city before arriving in Lentiheim...

"What Broda said seems to be true. At least from the surface, neither the visiting group nor the elves have been contaminated by the Slender Man."

Lacie thought as she observed the behavior of the scholars and mages in the camp.

They worked when they should work, and rested when they should rest. A few people noticed their arrival and cast curious looks at them.

Apart from being a little dirty, crowded, and a little dirty, there was nothing unusual about this camp.

But that was also the case with Diesel.

Aside from instinctively praising their emperor and ignoring outsiders' discussions of Slender Man, Diesel is normal in every other way.

Just like a pond full of duckweed, the surface looks extremely calm without any ripples, but most of the living things under the water have already died due to the excessive proliferation of duckweed, and the whole pond is filled with a foul smell.

"So, the current Lentiheim won't be like the previous Diesel, who looks fine on the surface but is actually rotten to the ground, right?"

Laceel lowered her voice and asked Charles beside her.

Charles was silent for a moment and shook his head.

"At least, in my perception, everything is normal."

"Haha," Lacier sneered and said sarcastically, "But you said the same thing to me at the beginning when we were in Diesel, my dear hero."

Charles didn't answer, but raised his hand, pinched Lacie's cheek and smiled.

Now Lacie felt a little embarrassed.

She shook her head like a rattle, shook off Charles's hand, tightened her face, put on a serious expression, and criticized and taught:

"What are you doing? Take your claws back, let's get down to business. You're an adult, but you don't know how to be serious. Sigh..."

After saying this, she didn't even give Charles a chance to respond. She nimbly moved around Charles, followed Bloda, and was the first to enter the tent in the center of the camp.

Charles sighed helplessly, followed closely behind, leaned over, opened the door of the tent, and bent down to get in.

At Broda's invitation, the members of the brave team sat down on both sides of the long table in the tent. Broda himself did not sit down, but stood at the head of the long table, straightening his back and standing upright.

Bai Ta Lao Deng stood at attention!

Lacey almost couldn't hold back her laughter.

But in the end she still held herself together, pretending to be cool and noble, and asked Broda:

"How much do you know about Diesel's situation?"

Bloda replied:

"Not much. In the news that Ms. Verliden conveyed to us, it was only mentioned that Diesel was contaminated by the Slender Ghost. Later, Mr. Charles and you solved Diesel's abnormality together. With the help of the legendary investigator Mr. Nicholas, the entire Diesel was exiled into the starry sky."

"Well," Lacier nodded modestly, "It's basically fine, but it missed some crucial details..."

"——Starry sky." The witch raised a slender finger and pointed upwards, "Before leaving the Pangaea, the Emperor of Diesel, Longin Tyr, told us something..."

"He told us that in certain books and documents, extinct civilizations left us warnings: 'Don't touch the stars.'"

Being able to be the head of the visiting group and manage the entire delegation, Mr. Broda is certainly not a fool, so he understood the implication of Lacie's words at the first time.

"You mean, the elves' plan to return home violates the warnings of the previous civilization?" He frowned and asked, "Their actions will bring disaster to Pangaea?"

"That's right," Rachel nodded, her expression serious. "Just like the tragedy that happened in Diesel, we suspect that the elves' plan to return home will awaken something hidden in the remains or ruins of former civilizations across the Pangaea."

"Those... Slender Figures?" Mr. Broda asked. "Did those Slender Figures destroy the former civilization?"

"I'm not sure," Rachel shook her head. "In fact, who can be sure?"

She suddenly sighed:

"Pre-civilizations left us almost no written records. What we have excavated from ruins all over the Pangaea are only things with strange and twisted shapes, which make people wonder what they are used for. Therefore, over the years, the academic community has been struggling to study the mystery of the fall of pre-civilizations, and has never made any breakthrough progress."

"So far, all we know is that the former civilization was suspected to be extremely prosperous and created many miracles. But how prosperous was the former civilization, and what kind of miracles did it create..."

Lacey spread her hands and shrugged:

"Who knows?"

"However," she changed the subject, "since such a prosperous previous civilization perished because of touching the starry sky, then we, who are far less prosperous and advanced than those previous civilizations, will probably find it even more difficult to resist the coming of disasters."

“So, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of previous civilizations, we’d better honestly listen to the advice left to us by previous civilizations - if we can avoid touching the starry sky, it’s best not to touch the starry sky, so as to avoid unexpected disasters.”

Bloda was silent for a long time after hearing this, and finally nodded slowly:

"I see."

Lacee thought, it's good to know, now she can say to the entire visiting group with a clear conscience, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

The elves who wanted to touch the stars would undoubtedly become enemies of the entire Pan-Continent. She believed that there was no reason and no possibility for the visiting delegation from the White Tower to become accomplices of the elves and declare war on the entire Pan-Continent.

"Speaking of which, is it popular to declare war on the whole world these days?" Lacele thought with a bit of a smile, "First it was Victoria, then it was Lentiheim, so what's next? Who will be next?"

It can’t be the White Tower, right?

When she had this thought, Lacie felt that she was just setting a flag - but just as she thought this, she contacted Lao Deng and he told her in a serious tone that the White Tower had passed a resolution to launch the second magic reform.

But when I think about it, perhaps when it comes to declaring war on the whole world, White Tower is the predecessor of Victoria and Lentiheim.

After that, Lacie looked at Broda with a subtle mood, intending to ask him how the elves had rebuilt the Homecoming in such a short time, and why they insisted on leaving the Pangaea and returning to their homeland.

But at this moment, Charles next to her suddenly spoke:

"Mr. Broda, you should still remember the communication that Ms. Verliden sent to you earlier, right?"

Lacele didn't know why Charles suddenly asked this, but she was sensible enough to shut her mouth and didn't ask any more questions. Instead, she chose to listen obediently.

She heard Broda answer:

"I remember, and I gave the answer. When I first met you, I told you..."