"Your Majesty?"
Shadow Robe stood beside the crystal throne in the dream world, calling softly to Alka who sat there.
Because he was a creature of the dream world, his voice didn't emanate as sound waves, but rather, it was transmitted directly into Alka's mind through a wave of consciousness.
So, even though it was only a gentle call, it resonated clearly in Alka's mind, reminding him.
Sitting on the throne.
Alka stared into the air with his eyes open.
His eyes shone with a golden light, but that golden light was completely eerie.
The golden light seemed to distort, and the golden color enveloped it made one wonder, was this gold truly gold?
Hearing the call in his mind.
Alka's eyelids began to tremble.
Then, seemingly exerting all his strength, he finally closed his eyes.
The moment he closed his eyes...
Alka could clearly see a sigh of relief, his entire body relaxing from its tense state.
He took a deep breath, relaxed, and then opened his eyes.
By then, his eyes had returned to their normal state.
"How long have I been sitting here?"
"According to real time, fifteen days and nights."
He nodded at this.
Then he gently waved his hand.
Shadow Robe nodded and disappeared.
Alka sat alone on the throne, staring ahead, lost in thought.
To be honest, as his strength approached the ninth stage,
His strength in the dream had almost reached the pinnacle of the eighth stage.
But at this stage, it seemed that advancing further was no longer so easy.
It seemed that there was an extremely large gap between the eighth stage and the levels above it.
This was the obstacle Alka, who had already become the Dream King, faced within his dreams.
In the outside world, ascending from the eighth stage to the top would be even more difficult.
Of course, this was merely Alka's speculation and conjecture about the current situation, without any definitive information.
But as his strength approached the ninth stage, once he used these prying eyes in his dreams, he became increasingly susceptible to their influence.
Influence didn't mean he couldn't control himself.
It meant he couldn't escape the things he saw.
But within the dream, Alka had to remain for extended periods to maintain the operational strength of the entire dream realm and provide sufficient support for the scars in the real world.
It was a dilemma.
Shaking his head, clearing his mind of thoughts, Alka vanished from his original position and reappeared in reality.
When Alka got up and walked outside onto the deck...
Lucilia, who was reading under a tree, stood up immediately.
Instantly, she appeared beside him.
"You're finally awake."
Alka nodded.
"I'm so hungry! I haven't eaten in ages."
Hearing this, Juanlu, who had just come up from below, looked at Alka and, having just overheard, smiled.
"Wait ten minutes."
With that, he walked into the dining room and into the kitchen.
Sofia also approached him and looked at him. "If you don't come out soon, we'll be at our destination."
"So fast?"
"That's not fast. It's been eight months," Jason muttered, watching him from a distance.
Alka had been in a dream for so long that sometimes he barely noticed the passage of time.
Thinking of this, he leaned against the railing and couldn't help but say, "Now I finally understand why other dream creatures are so insensitive to time."
"After spending so much time in dreams, from a dream creature's perspective, time does seem to speed up and slow down, making it difficult to perceive."
Take these eight months, for example.
Alka spent almost 80% of his time in dreams. To be honest, he didn't really feel how long he'd been there, probably only a month.
It's not that the passage of time in dreams is out of sync with reality, but rather that the perception of time in dreams is difficult to detect, or there's not much comparison.
"Does that mean we're almost there?"
Sofia nodded, checking the data on the mirror panel in his hand.
This was a small device Alka had constructed himself, effectively helping everyone on the ship complete small tasks.
"It looks like it'll take about three more days to reach our destination."
Hearing this, Alka couldn't help but recall the location of the first Trial Tower and the intelligence he had learned at the time.
The sixth Trial Tower was located within the sphere of influence of an ordinary nation occupying the Signpost Island.
This nation believed in life, meaning the church above was the Seed of Life. This Trial Tower was clearly controlled by the Seed of Life, awaiting Alka's arrival.
One could only hope that no more trouble would arise this time to hinder their progress.
After all, the entire Infinite Ocean was currently in a state of chaos and unrest.
After finishing his meal, Alka returned to reality. He planned to spend the next few days in reality, except for sleep, to give himself a break.
Soon.
As the ship sailed rapidly.
They had already seen ships passing each other.
The numerous encounters they'd seen throughout the day signaled they were nearing their destination.
After all, the only way to encounter other ships in the chaotic Sea of Dark Clouds, aside from the constantly changing landscape surrounding the landmark island, was in the Linking Sea.
As the curtain of night fell once more, the island on the distant horizon appeared at the edge of their field of vision.
"Finally," Jason said, stretching as he gazed at the island.
The ship soon drew closer. The island itself appeared before them.
Like the other landmark islands, this one practically obscured their field of vision as it drew closer, indicating it was a large enough island.
However, there was nothing unusual about this island; it looked like any other.
The warm climate and, save for a few small hillsides, the island was almost entirely flat, covered in lush greenery.
Well, if I had to point to a difference, it might be the sheer amount of vegetation on this island.
‐‐ It felt a bit like an undeveloped, pristine island.
‐‐ However, they were only seeing one side of the island.
‐‐ After following the surrounding boats for a good portion of a circle, they finally arrived at the actual harbor.
‐‐ Only after truly circling the area did they realize the forest and vegetation in front of them were even more extensive than those on the back. It was so densely packed that, except for the areas covered by the treetops, they had no idea what was going on inside the island; they couldn't even see any buildings.
‐‐ It felt as if this was truly just a pristine jungle island.
‐‐ However, looking at the harbor, some man-made structures finally appeared, if the structures formed by the vegetation and trees in the bay could be considered man-made structures.
‐‐ The boat slowly stopped at the harbor.
‐‐ Alka and the others didn't disembark, but instead surveyed the island's surroundings.
‐‐ From this altitude, they could finally see the structures beyond the harbor. These structures seemed to have grown directly from the trees, forming one treehouse after another.
Some treehouses stretched out like a single, thick branch, woven together from other branches and suspended from the waist of a massive tree.
Some dwellings were simply housed within the tree, visible through naturally formed hollows in the hollows, forming structures similar to windows.
Most of the residents who came and went wore normal clothing, but some featured natural elements.
For example, decorations made from flowers, plants, and vines.
Even small wild animals could be seen here, completely unafraid of humans wandering freely.
"Nice island! Get off the boat!"
Arka said, jumping off the boat first.
It had been a while since they had landed on a large island, so naturally, no one wanted to stay on the boat.
Everyone disembarked.
Including Simon.
The group headed towards the interior of the woods.
"Are you going to the Seed of Life?" Julia asked from the side.
Alka nodded, but smiled and said, "It wouldn't hurt to wander around here a bit before we go."
The group wandered around like this, and as the group gradually dispersed, each headed in a different direction.
After all, everyone had different interests.
After agreeing on a time, Alka wandered around for a while before he and Lucelia followed Julia to the Seed of Life.
"Speaking of which, there are a lot of humans with pointy ears and green hair here," Alka said, looking at Lucelia on his shoulder.
Hearing this, Lucelia looked at him and said, "In the Sea of Life, pointy ears and green hair aren't uncommon. What's so surprising about that?"
Not to mention, this is a country that believes in life.
Who knows if the people who founded this country were from the Sea of Life? Passing through the woods.
Sunlight streamed through the gaps between the trees, creating golden beams.
The path beneath his feet wasn't a road built by the locals, but rather a strange, interwoven surface formed by countless tree roots.
It looked incredibly uneven, and yet, despite its bumps and lumps, it felt strangely smooth, without any sense of bumps or lumps.
I thought it must be some strange plant.
Soon, in the distance,
Arka spotted a large building formed by the intertwining of several giant trees.
It looked like the Seed of Life's church here.
Due to everyone's differing philosophies, there was no such thing as a prayer hall in Life.
Instead, there was a sea of flowers and a forest path that wound its way around.
Trees, flowers, and vegetation stood on either side, forming a cave-like structure.
Circling the church.
Alka and the others followed Julia along the forest path.
They bathed in the golden light cast through the trees.
They listened to the chirping of birds and insects, and inhaled the lingering scent of earth and the fragrance of plants.
They basked in the radiance of nature's life.
They circled the church with the others, completing their reflections on life.
They arrived at the church entrance again.
A believer who had walked out with them at some point stood beside them and asked with a smile, "How are you feeling?"
"Breakfast to help digestion?" Alka asked, baffled.
Hearing this, the believer couldn't help but smile, laughing twice.
She wore ordinary linen clothes, like no other commoner, without a single ornament.
She had long emerald green hair, and aside from her pale skin, she looked unremarkable.
As she spoke, she made a prayer gesture, a symbol of life teaching.
"May you be bathed in the light of life."
"May the Virgin Mary bless you."
Alka crossed her arms, a typical greeting among church members.
It seemed the seemingly ordinary believer before her must be the church's administrator.
She also looked at Julia, and the two nodded to each other.
There were no pleasantries or anything like that.
After all, the ideal of life is equality among all beings.
For those of the Seed of Life, the ideal of equality will be passed down.
"Come with me. You probably have a lot of information you'd like to know."
She smiled and led Alka and the others into the church.
It truly looked like the interior of a tree. The surrounding walls, the fog-proof roof, and even the interwoven patterns of vines could be seen.
There was nothing elaborate.
He casually found a wooden stool and sat down.
He then placed some intelligence on the wooden table.
"This is the latest intelligence from the past year or two. It should be what you need."
After all, the Four Gods Church knew the route of Alka and his men's movements. This was especially true for a place like theirs that clearly controlled the Trial Tower.
Information about matters like this was almost universally shared within the Four Gods Church.
So he knew for sure that Alka and his men had resolved the problem facing the Holy Machine Church the previous time.
It was also known within the church that a traitorous god had descended.
Simply put, Alka and his men had accomplished something that, from the outside world's perspective, was a major event.
Their deeds had already been spread.
Based on the intelligence that Savlev had relayed to other directions, it was clear that due to the crisis they faced at the time, they were almost unable to provide Alka and his men with the additional information they sought.
So, after eight months, this information would need to be provided by them.
After calculating the intervening time, the seeds of life here had already been prepared, or rather, they were already readily available.
Alka and the others couldn't help but flip through the information in their hands.
This was what they desired at this stage. They had been offline for almost a year in the entire Infinite Sea.
And a lot had happened during that time.
This was the inconvenience of the Infinite Sea.
The inconvenience of transportation.
The inconvenience of information transmission.
There was no way around it. The Infinite Sea was too vast, and apart from the signpost islands, it was too chaotic. Even the distance between signpost islands couldn't guarantee consistent navigation time.
Even for the Four Saints Church, after all this time, they had no means of disseminating information in real time.
Alka looked at the information in his hands. The source of this information was already a month old.
The first thing he looked at was the information on the World Scar.
Overall, the World Scar was in very bad shape.
The magic-proof wall they once defended was already in jeopardy.
Even with an optimistic estimate, it might not last more than two years. Many areas had already been breached, and then repaired at the cost of human lives.
After reading the information on the World Scar, Alka quietly put it aside.
He began to take a macro view of the situation across the Infinite Sea.
First, Alka was most concerned about the events unfolding beyond the heavens.
The conflict between the Four Gods and the Betrayer Gods had been going on for over a year.
This Over the past year, widespread chaos has begun to unfold across the Vast Sea.
The most significant of these is naturally the increase in pirates and the alliances between pirate forces and cults.
This has made it difficult to obtain resources to the World Scar, with various waypoint islands and regions being attacked.
Even due to harassment from these forces, many previously scheduled resources have been canceled.
The front lines are already facing difficulties, and the dwindling resources have created a vicious cycle.
Meanwhile, these groups in the rear, backed by the traitorous gods, have begun widespread chaotic actions.
The previous bloodbath on Whiteman Island was one of the larger man-made disasters.
The intelligence above is noteworthy:
The most powerful enemy, the God of War, has unleashed his might.
Internal rebellions and conflicts have erupted within numerous factions.
Even many small and medium-sized factions have been completely overthrown, replaced by other regimes.
These new regimes, in turn, worshipped the gods of these traitors, as their success depended on the assistance of these churches.
The influence of this god of war on the entire world was truly profound.
Everyone was affected.