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The floating city's fall is a slow process.
Because it was slow, it looked very harmless at first, so much so that the legionnaires and cult warriors defending the embassy did not realize that the floating city had launched an attack.
By the time they began to wonder "Has the floating city become bigger?", the speed of the floating city had already increased to a terrifying level, and they had no time to feel fear.
Yes, fear is a treatment that only those outside the attack range of the floating city are entitled to enjoy.
Anyone who happens to be covered by the shadow that falls from the sky has no right to be afraid.
The collapsed "sky" crushed everything, including the embassy, the headquarters of the cult under the embassy, and everything disappeared in an instant. Everything was shattered and then hit the soft underground of Shallow Water City.
Those who were just out of the attack range were all knocked away. In the blink of an eye, two entire legions of armored soldiers were all flying in the air, mixing with the broken bricks and stones.
No one could perform the Feather Fall spell in this situation. In fact, most of the fragile spellcasters in the army lost consciousness the moment they took off.
While these unlucky guys were still in the air, the real secondary disaster occurred - yes, the shock wave was not a secondary disaster, but just a supplementary effect.
The ground collapsed.
The floating city was like a giant palm that fell from the sky and hit the earth hard. The target of this attack was the earth itself. Most of the palm force was borne by the earth and quickly destroyed the self-coordinated stress structure inside the earth.
A chain reaction occurs within the strata.
At first it was just a crack, but after a few seconds the crack expanded into a "canyon" and the earth opened its huge mouth to swallow everything.
The floating city that caused all this quickly rose into the air.
**
Wang was shocked: "How could it take off again?"
Central: "This is a reaction force, which may cause damage to the main body of the floating city."
Wang frowned and thought for a second, then asked, "You mean, we hit the ground and bounced back?"
"Yes, don't worry. The city's flying ability can ensure the stability of the rebound process. Currently, the main structure of the city is 93% intact, which is within an acceptable range."
Wang: "What do you mean? It means that the floating city lost 10% of its durability when I hit it?"
Central: “It’s 7 percent.”
Thank you for your correction!
Wang: "Then... if the structural integrity rate drops by 7%, will there be any impact?"
Central: "We need to inspect the department golem to determine the negative impact."
Wang: "How many maintenance department golems are operating now?"
"Zero. Maintenance department is completely offline."
Wang couldn't help but hold his forehead, which meant that it wouldn't be surprising if the floating city fell down next. So he added another item to his to-do list: get some knowledgeable people to check the status of the floating city.
But...what kind of person is considered to be knowledgeable?
At this time, Nini's voice came from the sound stone: "The ground is not in good condition, it looks like there is an earthquake!"
The king quickly touched the crystal ball and looked at the ground with the eyes of the floating city.
The entire ground was shrouded in a layer of smoke, making it impossible to see what was happening. A very clear boundary line formed between the water surface of the shallows near Shallow Water City and the smoke belt.
There was no smoke in the forest surrounding Shallow Water City, but the birds flying into the sky looked like smoke. If it weren't for this, the king would have had no idea that there were so many birds in the forest.
Wang: “Why does an earthquake happen?”
Central: "The secondary disasters caused by the landing attack, the slaves are really ignorant."
Wang was in a bad mood. If he had known that this attack could cause an earthquake, he might not have carried out this attack. His goal was only to destroy the Catalai Embassy and eliminate the teleportation array inside.
In his conception, after the attack on the floating island, Elzam's undead army would have to deal with the remaining legions.
Now it’s a problem whether the legion can survive and whether Shallow Water City can be left.
Nini: "Look to the east!"
Wang turned his view and saw smoke in the east, but he couldn't see what it was with the eyes of the floating city.
Wang: "Nini, what did you see?"
"The volcano, the volcano is erupting."
Wang: “Is volcanic eruption also a secondary disaster?”
Central: "I don't know. We need to collect relevant data in detail and conduct geological analysis to be sure. It may just be a coincidence."
Wang looked at the smoke and dust in the distance through the "empathy" of the crystal ball and was deeply shocked.
The Cyclops Empire regards this attack as a routine means of suppressing other intelligent creatures. What a terrible group of tyrants they are to other intelligent creatures living in this empire!
"Wait a minute!" he questioned the central control, "We also lowered it once before, and it wasn't such a big problem, right?"
Central: "It was landing before, not attacking."
"I didn't say attack... Oh shit!" Wang remembered that he did use the word "landing" when giving the order, but the language of the Cyclops Empire is very special. It has a set of changes to express importance and urgency. The same word has different meanings depending on the degree of urgency.
At that time, Wang felt that the situation was urgent, so he used the more urgent word "landing".
The result was interpreted by the central control as a downward attack.
Moreover, Wang’s original idea was indeed to “attack from below”, using the floating island to land and attack the enemy, so it was not wrong to express it.
But who knew it would be so terrible? The floating island, which was made of a whole piece of granite, lost almost ten points of strength, causing a secondary disaster of an earthquake.
It's over. Now we have to take the blame for the deaths of a large number of civilians.
The king touched his heart.
This was an emotion he had never experienced before.
Even now, after meeting everyone in the team and starting the adventure, when his knowledge of emotions had been greatly enriched, he had never experienced this kind of emotion.
He quickly found a possible name for this procedure in a book.
“Is this self-blame or regret?”
At this time, Elizabeth hugged him from behind: "I was watching from the side just now. I don't understand the Cyclops language, but I can understand your expression. Combined with Nini's words, I roughly guessed what happened."
The king was silent. He didn't know why, but he felt that holding Elizabeth's hand would make him feel better. So he raised his right hand and gently placed his palm on the back of Elizabeth's hand.
The back of the girl's hand was very cold, in stark contrast to her hot palm.
Wang felt the girl's face pressed against his back.
"No matter what happens," the girl's whisper was like a drizzle, gently falling on his heart, "I will face it with you. Even if people later call you a terrifying demon king, I will take the blame together."
Wang did not answer, nor did he conduct a quantitative analysis of his inner emotions at this moment. He just silently savored this emotion.
At this time, Rosalie rushed into the central control room. She had just gone to organize other residents of the floating city to "take shelter". Seeing this scene, she stopped and opened her mouth wide: "Huh?"
Marika walked over and explained the situation clearly in a few whispers.
Rosalie said "Oh" and tried to speak, but was stopped by Marika.
Time passed by minute by minute, and Wang finally calmed down, took a deep breath, and then said: "It has happened. Prepare to land and do your best to rescue."
Rosalie: "That's right, the damn undead army actually massacred everyone in the city. In order to stop them, the Savior Team resorted to this desperate measure! The lich is really abominable!"
Wang: “Eh?”
Xiaobai clenched his right fist and smashed it into his left palm: "Yes, there is this trick. I thought we were going to take the blame. Oh no, the lich is so abominable. Let's quickly land and wipe out the remaining undead creatures and rescue the living!"
Wang frowned and looked at Master Li Guang: "You... do you think so too?"
Li Guang looked at Wang: "Did you know in advance that this would happen?"
Wang shook his head: "I don't know. But if I knew, I could avoid this situation by changing the word form. I... don't think an 'I don't know' can excuse me."
Li Guang: "Ignorance is not a crime. Moreover, all of us, with our experience of the previous landing, thought that this time would be the same. If we really say so, we are all guilty.
"And what the donor has just done is enough, at least for me."
Wang: "But would those who died because of my fault think so?"
Li Guang: "Then carry this remorse and guilt with you and walk the rest of the way."
Rosalie yelled at Wang, "Come on! Return to your previous attitude of not caring about good or evil, but only calculating gains and losses!"
"Don't go out and say it was your own mistake that killed a bunch of people! This will prevent us from accomplishing our goal of saving the world. Reputation is also a resource!"
Elizabeth: "Yes, it has happened. The key is what to do next..."
Before she finished her words, Nini's voice came out from the sound stone: "There are new changes on the ground!"
The king quickly turned his attention to the ground.
**
At this moment, on the ground.
In fact, because there were few brick and stone houses in Shallow Water City and most of them were shacks, the damage on the ground was not as great as Wang thought.
It would be better to say that those who died were the powerful and wealthy people who lived in brick and stone houses, and not many civilians died.
Moreover, sturdy buildings like the church, which used dwarven masonry technology, actually survived the earthquake.
But now, the true enemy of the living begins to take action.
Elzam Malcolm's head floated up from the rubble left by the earthquake, and his body was reorganizing - this process happened automatically. After all, at this moment, the "death" gathered in Shallow Water City had exceeded the threshold.
Liches are the embodiment of death, which is part of the natural order.
Even if the lich can use his subjective consciousness to temporarily suppress the instinct to spread death, even if the lich is a funny guy, even if he was a kind person before his transformation and only extended his life in pursuit of the truth of magic, the fact that he will bring death will not change.
Elzam murmured to himself, “Maybe, brother, you are blaming yourself for your mistake now, but from my perspective, this is just part of my destiny.
"Besides, I've long had the urge to harvest these damned living beings, but I temporarily succumbed to curiosity."
Because of the death that filled the surroundings, Elzam's new body was completely black, and his entire skeleton was a whole circle larger than that of an ordinary human.
The light in his eye sockets also became many times brighter than before.
Elzam: "So, my young friend, don't trust the lich's kindness too much."
He opened his right hand - this time his hand looked like the claw of some beast.
As the core of the undead army, he didn't need to give orders through words. Just having a thought in his mind was enough.
But Elzam Malcolm is a man of great ritual.