438 A Dead End
Selma Payne’s POV:
Mental illness was a disease for humans, but it could kill many people for demons.
I had a bad feeling when Leviathan became more and more excited as she spoke, and what she said next made my eyes almost pop out of their sockets.
“So far, I’m very satisfied with this play. It’s a pity that the actors seem to be lacking in succession, causing this play to begin to slide in the direction of cliché. How about we have a half-time break? Get the actors to take a break and get the clown to come up and do some light-hearted entertainment.”
“So far, this city has forty-four thousand five hundred and seventy-six humanoid individuals. There are pointy-eared individuals and your puppies. Of course, a great city-state would not have only this few people, but since those who left have already left, we shouldn’t force them to come back and perform, right?
“I heard an ancient legend that’s especially popular in the human world, and authors use it as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. The seawater will slowly submerge the city in the bubble in the next hour. Note that it’s submerged! If you can find a way to save everyone within an hour, then this play of a great hero defeating the flood will be completed!
“On the other hand, if you fail...” Leviathan laughed. “That’s nothing. Didn’t I say that I treat all endings equally? Tragedies are often renewed after a long time!”
Flood! Human lives! One hour!
This was an almost impossible task.
Even if the ‘bubbles’ made by Leviathan burst like soap bubbles, it would be difficult to send tens of thousands of panicked people out of the city in one hour.
And I did not doubt that judging from Leviathan’s malice, the eye of this ‘Play’ was not the ‘flood’, but the ‘one hour’. If the crisis were not resolved in an hour, she would not be stingy to be the villain who would destroy the world!
The fishy smell of the seawater had begun to spread over my feet. I knew I had no time to waste, so I looked deeply at Leviathan, turned around, and ran away.
Behind me, Leviathan was still shouting excitedly, “I have to put in more effort to please the audience!”
Just as I had expected, the Elven Capital City was in an uproar. After discovering that all the exits were sealed by a layer of seemingly soft but firm and corrosive film, the panic among the people could no longer be appeased by the weak interim government.
This was especially so for some of the ‘big shots’ who had yet to leave. They even went to the Great Elder to demand an ‘explanation’.
What kind of explanation could the Great Elder give? Dorothy had told him about Leviathan’s malice. Could he release the news of the devil’s arrival at such a chaotic juncture and let everyone die in madness and despair before the flood drowned them?
It wasn’t that they didn’t have any hope that their will would be united, but it was a pity that the premise of everything was that everyone could be of one mind. Judging from the current situation where they had to scheme against each other at the moment of life and death, once the truth was revealed, let alone fighting against an undefeatable demon, there might even be a few traitors like the Crown Prince.
When the Great Elder and the others retreated, the Elf King’s slumbering body was also transported out, accompanied by a few birds. The moment Nature saw the Elf King, it automatically returned to his side, but Dorothy’s natural vision was still temporarily retained.
Master Hayley, Dorothy, and Mr. Cage tried to break the bubble with sorcery, but to their surprise, although they couldn’t make the bubble disappear, it was not because they couldn’t understand the structure of the bubble but because the power contained in the bubble was too strong.
This meant that New Flow could absorb them easily and open up an escape route.
But would things be that simple?
Looking at the endless crowd of people gathered in front of the city gate, I suddenly understood Leviathan’s bad taste.
Be it the flood or the bubbles, these were not the main point. The main point was the people.
Just like the creatures in the legends who always sought their destruction at the critical moment, the black mass of people in front of me was the most uncontrollable.
As war had broken out in the palace, most people had subconsciously run away from the palace through the west and south gates. The south gate was relatively closer to the palace, so the Great Elder and the other ‘important figures’ had come here at the first moment. This move led more people to the south gate, thinking there was a way out.
The power split caused the people’s distrust of the government to peak. People did not believe in the government, so they naturally would not listen to its command. There were tens of thousands of people here, and the gate was only a few dozen meters wide. What would happen if everyone ran out fighting for the city?
Pushing, stomping, death.
They couldn’t even blow up the city wall because the people surrounded the city gate so tightly that they couldn’t even clear out a safe zone.
At this moment, be it the ancient city walls that pretended to be old-fashioned or the people’s hearts worn down in the fight for power, everything came together and sounded the death knell of self-inflicted suffering.