Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 1678 - 255: Gaia’s Torment and Endurance

Luciella’s pain is unknown to anyone.

But the one who orchestrated this chaos could certainly guess.

And some bystanders, who were well aware, were also happily watching.

Even Gaia herself could speculate a bit... Although she still couldn’t guess how much her schemes had been exposed, at least she understood that Luciella was inevitably the focus of the Undead Tribe’s pursuit.

But she couldn’t give up this one usable avatar unless she could create a new son right under those watching eyes.

Yet now, she couldn’t even step out of the grand estate of the Ishmael Household.

Some well-informed members of the Great Nobility in the Danboro Capital knew a bit of the situation... After all, since some time ago, the famous aerial garden of Great Sage Ismael had been shrouded in endless white fog and was no longer traceable.

The servants in the manor weren’t all thrown out, but the only master left was that well-known lady.

And those women of the Ismael Family showed no concern for the trusted aides left in the manor, only occasionally exposing a hint of uncontrollable hatred when asked about them.

The nobles who understood the ins and outs of family strife naturally grasped instantly... Those servants, even the personal maids of some ladies, had long since changed sides in secret.

Though the Danboro Royal Family remained silent, they did send a perfunctory warning to the residents of the capital, clearly prohibiting them from approaching the fog-covered manor, stating any violators would bear the consequences themselves.

Clearly telling the curious folks that even if Great Sage Ismael returns, he would not spare any enthusiastic individuals who dared enter the manor.

No matter if they held any sense of justice or irresistible curiosity, the result remained the same.

If the Danboro Royal Family had displayed a particularly serious, even stern attitude, and dispatched a royal army to monitor outside the fogged manor, perhaps some might have been tempted to act impulsively.

But the Royal Family’s actions were so perfunctory, almost as if saying outright, "Go ahead and die, it has nothing to do with me."

Thus, everything remained calm instead.

Of course, there were still some attempts—dispatching a few expendables to signal their presence wasn’t uncommon.

Even for cannon fodder, they somewhat screened them, mainly choosing those with just days to live... No choice, as manpower was scarce.

Firstly, they couldn’t use coerced cannon fodder; if discovered by the Undead Tribe, the whole family might be doomed.

Secondly, enticing with benefits... In such a disaster period, even lifelong household servants barely had enough to eat by hugging the Temple gates, who could be enticed?

In such times, insufficient gold coins held no value compared to enough food.

Yet, who would spend so much gold for cannon fodder?

So, the staggering, stumbling poor faced with the Undead Tribe’s obstruction, wore smiles and cheerfully walked in... They barely had time left, earning future survival resources for their families was their happiness.

Those Undead Tribe members in the Danboro Capital, although feeling uncomfortable, didn’t step up to stop... Most stationed here were from families designated to guard the capital; Scattered Ones wouldn’t waste combat opportunities for Military Exploits just waiting for unknown tasks?

Thus, despite wanting to prevent this, when reporting to the Commander and receiving the response "Respect others’ lives, but also respect their dignity and freedom," the Undead allowed these dying individuals to slowly enter the white fog.

After all, once they went in, Gaia couldn’t utilize them.

Even killing them would be a waste... Great Sage Ismael was a ruthless man; his arrays, once fully activated, would require Gaia, even as a Deity’s avatar, to pay a significant price to resist and neutralize.

Therefore, after entering, they’d probably just find an empty house to await death... but they could eat well.

After all, the green plants in Ismael Manor remained unaffected, and there was endless spring water bubbling.

Those hundreds of villas had dedicated kitchens and warehouses; surely food wouldn’t be scarce.

Ismael’s decisiveness and ruthlessness caught Gaia off guard.

She could break the manor’s blockade... but doing so would force her to exceed the world’s permissible power range.

And Aesces would definitely not give her the chance to walk the tightrope.

Setting even half a foot on it would result in being thrown out of this world by the Law.

She hadn’t entirely lost her chance, and Gaia wasn’t willing to easily abandon a High-level Mage avatar accumulated through countless resources.

However, the relentless attacks targeting her from within the manor also prevented her from fully controlling Luciella’s side.

The Immortal Tribe didn’t yet need Gaia to fully transform due to the pressure of that semi-embodiment... Although others didn’t know which family the beautiful boy beside Luciella belonged to, the child knew himself.

Mrs. Demit, having learned a lesson from Lucimar’s rebellious attitude, showered boundless love on this youngest son... Gaia had always let children naturally discover how to live after giving birth; this was the first time she put in so much effort!

Even though the child didn’t have many opportunities to see her in this body, it didn’t mean she wasn’t personally raising him.

So, of course, the child knew she could switch bodies at any time... Although the mother-son bond was strong, it wasn’t without side effects.

The child harbored odd feelings toward the women around him and found it difficult to develop romantic inclinations.

Gaia was quite dissatisfied with this situation... However, it was impossible for her to make the child live like a true son of a Greek God while his father occasionally visited him.

Gaia didn’t plan to descend into that body until the child, at least, developed some feelings for Luciella.

She truly didn’t want the child to suddenly recognize her identity and create a big mess.

So, Gaia continued to endure... She would never abandon Demit’s identity before a certain event happened.

And as for the Immortal Tribe, although they wanted to capture Luciella and others, they didn’t act too recklessly after ’Snow Cloud Peak’ quietly controlled the situation.

After all, the extent of that girl’s storyline, mainly a PVE target, naturally relied on those PVE families to strive for.

However, Black and White Path always desired warfare with others.

The rise of PVP families depended on the presence of enemies.

Therefore, after fixing the main structure of the oasis and turning the First Ring building around the Dimensional Gate into a fortress of steel like a hedgehog, the members of the Black and White Path family began to diligently search for a way to unlock that Light Gate.

As long as Eosca did not intend to completely seal this gate, mere accumulation of energy and the array’s repair were not too difficult for the Black and White Path family, who had spent considerable time in Toril’s Underdark.

Of course, the main reason was that their family had many Space-Time Warlocks.

Space was their inherent talent... Even the laziest of them could not fail to sense the spatial nodes on the array.

Once the nodes were located, testing each one would only be a matter of a few troublesome days.

Meanwhile, the large and small oases in the desert were on high alert, ready to face the coming Immortal Tribe, while the tribe already had grander objectives in mind.

Of course, the Danboro people couldn’t foresee this yet, which was normal. After all, the large number of Undead Tribe members in the inland cities had already begun a frenzied rush towards that oasis.

Especially those originally in the desert turned and sprinted in that direction without hesitation.

Thus, the Noble Coalition, previously probing, immediately bolstered their spirits.

The nobles had garnered some understanding of the Undead Tribe:

If they could, by their own abilities, take control of these oases, the Immortal Tribe wouldn’t idly interfere... This was presumably the right granted by the World Master for this world’s people.

But if they couldn’t clean up the battlefield before the Undead Tribe grew impatient, even if Aesces personally intervened, it would be impossible to stop the tribe’s advance.

They never hesitated; once determined to act, they swept through like a terrifying desert storm, obliterating even sand dunes dozens of meters high.

The world had turned into such a difficult state, and everyone could only bravely face it.

Since no noble wanted an oasis controlled by the Immortal Tribe on their main trade route, they had to seize the opportunity, before the tribe playing unknown games reappeared, to completely eradicate this band of thieves.

Anyway, at this point, the possible connections some had with any thieves had lost their value as a trump card.

If everyone was in the same boat, then no one had leverage.

Of course, there were still requirements: all the thieves must die, not one spared, and even those underground merchants who dealt with stolen goods must never see the sunlight again.

It was practically a colossal joke... Something that generations of wise and extraordinary Danboro Kings couldn’t achieve was accomplished the day the Royal Family lost power.

Surely, those watching from the Styx would not feel happy.

After all, the nobles’ daring acts were based on the premise that even if all thieves were eradicated, the desert territory belonging to them remained theirs.

The Royal Family couldn’t touch it.

Moreover, it was different from before when they couldn’t touch it... The current Danboro Royal Family didn’t even dare to think, let alone have the power to act.