The Land of Shadows, the ruins of the Temple.

Lying on the ground, lazily basking in the sun, Todd half-squinted, a very comfortable appearance.

"The major cities of the Ulster kingdom have now stabilized, and the shaman and his warband commanders are dealing with the hidden chaos...... I'm talking, do you hear me?" Evie said loudly as she closed the paper in her hand and leaned into Todd's ear.

Like an old dog, Todd moved his ears and snorted through his nose to signal that he knew.

Annoyed, Evie thumped Todd's head and said angrily, "Rebuild the city, destroy the remnants of the enemy, and deliver food...... Everyone in Froststone City is busy, but you, the son of the gods, are idle all day long. ”

Todd opened a dragon's eye and glanced at Evie, "I'm in the middle of recuperation, and I can't do anything but lie down." By the way, apart from Ulster, how is Connaught doing now?"

"It's miserable...... Like a hurricane, Cúchulainn's army swept through Connaught and its vassals, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people and burning hundreds of cities, and warband soldiers patrolling the entire kingdom of Connaught in hopes of finding some survivors from the corpses. ”

Evie stroked the silver hair around her ear and said to Todd, "However, the opinion of the shamanic assembly still wants to focus on the Ulster Kingdom. After all, the Kingdom of Ulster was less damaged, had relatively intact infrastructure, was closer to Froststone City, and was relatively easy to rebuild. ”

"It's the right thing to do. Todd said slowly: "This war started by Cú Chulainn has implicated nearly a million people in the entire Northern Continent. The loss of population and the destruction of civilization will take at least ten years for the land to return to its original level. ”

"More than 10 years, I'm afraid. ”

Meredith's voice rang out not far away, causing Todd and Evie to turn their heads.

The woman in black crow feathers had a beautiful face, but her voice was like the cold wind of early spring: "The damage that Cú Chulainn has done to the land of the north is not only physical, but also mental, and he has brought those who have just adapted to civilization back to the barbaric age of bloodthirsty killing. ”

Meredith sat down on a boulder beside Todd, combing his feathers and smiling, "It's easy to heal, but it's extremely difficult to soothe the soul." ”

Glancing at the Raven Girl, Evie lowered her face and put away the battle report, stood up, and said, "I'm going back to Froststone City, I'll come back in two days." ”

Watching the Valkyrie ride her griffon into the air, Meredith said to Todd, "It seems that I am still hated by her. ”

Todd raised his head and looked at Meredith and said teasingly, "Evie has already told me...... In the face of her and the warriors of the Froststone Warband, in order to bring me back to the Shadow Country from the battlefield, you had no intention of discussing at that time, and directly used violence. ”

Meredith didn't care about Todd's accusations: "You were dying at that time, do you really think that I will take the time to convince those Valkyries and warriors who have lost their minds?"

Todd shook the dragon's head amusedly, "You're right. ”

The two were silent for a moment.

Meredith looked at Todd and asked in a low voice, "You have seen the tyranny of Cúchulainn, and now you have realized the terrible power of power?"

Todd turned his head to Meredith, "You still want to persuade me to give up the power of the tyrant and concentrate on being a human?"

"You are no longer human, but I want to remind you of the dangers of power. ”

The shadow of Meredith was reflected in the golden dragon pupils, and Todd slowly shook his head and said, "The power itself is not at fault, it is the person who uses it who is at fault. ”

Meredith followed up and asked, "Don't you think that any monarch who gains power and power, no matter how wise he is, will eventually turn into a tyrant and destroy everything?"

Todd stared at the woman and asked, "What are you trying to say......?"

"Throughout history, most monarchs and leaders who possessed power and power have chosen to run their countries away from human nature and instead use bestial thinking to govern their countries. For example, killing is used to silence all opposing voices, and enslavement is used to stifle people's calls for freedom. Meredith's sky-blue eyes, which looked like a lake, slowly rippled: "Todd, aren't you worried that you will become a second Cúchulaline?"

"I understand what you mean, you are worried that the monarch will run his country in the way that wild beasts dominate the herd, and thus forget the preciousness of humanity and liberty. Todd paused for a moment, then said to Meredith, "But if a country is in chaos and turmoil, is all fault confined to the power and power of the monarch?"

Todd's words made Meredith frown.

Todd continued: "I'll give you a simple example, the Silent Spear in Cúchulainn's possession was the direct cause of the tragedy of the Six Circles Massacre. I make an assumption if, with the exception of Cúchulainn, everyone in the Lands of the North has one such weapon. In this way, the monarch no longer has an advantage, and although the power is balanced, will the whole land really be at peace and tranquillity?"

Meredith shook her head and said, "If everyone had a dead silence, the whole world would be plunged into endless chaos, and there would be no order to speak of......"

"That's right. Those ancient people who possessed the guns of death and silence finally turned into the dust of history because of self-strife and internal wars. Not only them, but also the Age of Chaos, the Age of the Gods, the Age of the Ages, the Age of the Two Realms, and so on, as Skaha once said, all ended up being self-destructive because of internal strife. Therefore, the root of the problem lies not in the monarch himself, but in the greed of mankind and the progress of science......"

Meredith interrupted Todd: "I can understand what you said about human greed, but what does the self-destruction of species have to do with scientific progress?"

Todd looked at the snow-capped mountains in the distance and said slowly: "In the primitive era when Ru Mao drank blood, wars only took place between tribes, and the weapons were only rudimentary spears and bows and arrows. ”

"By the time of the ancient Tayloros, people had mastered the techniques of navigation, military formations, horseback riding, bows, crossbows, and stone-throwing, and warfare was further expanded, and genocide and kingdom enslavement occurred from time to time, and a protracted battle could cause the entire world's population to drop by half, but there was still some way to go before the world was destroyed. ”

"Later, in the age of gunpowder, the invention and improvement of muskets and artillery, the intensity of warfare increased once again, and a battle of only a few days, due to the introduction of heavy firepower, could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, and human civilization could regress into darkness, but not to be destroyed. ”

"But if technology continues to develop, I know that there is a weapon called the 'nuclear bomb' that will be available. It only takes 80 to 100 nuclear bombs to detonate on the surface of the planet, and the whole process will take no more than 37 minutes for the world to be completely destroyed and the pace of civilization will come to an end. ”

"Even if human civilization can survive the threat of the nuclear age, as science continues to advance, celestial quantum weapons, string space weapons, neural network touch weapons, including the Silent Gun you see, etc., will be one of the causes of species extinction. ”

Lowering his head, Todd found Meredith's expression that could already be described as shocked.

Todd, who realized that he had said too much, quickly pulled the topic back: "With the progress of civilization and the development of science and technology, weapons will only become more and more powerful, manufacturing will only get faster and faster, and use will only become easier and simpler." Therefore, in future wars, any tactical miscalculation or terrorist attack could trigger the extinction of an entire species. ”

Meredith rubbed his temples: "According to you, the end of the extinction of the race is inevitable? After all, we can't stop the progress of science, and we can't change the evils of human nature." ”

Todd hesitated for a moment and said softly: "Actually, there is a way, but it may not be mature. ”

"What's the solution?"

"Find a way of being that is suitable for the development and continuation of human civilization. ”

Meredith repeated Todd's words, shook his head and said, "I can't understand this sentence. ”

Todd pondered for a moment, and then said cautiously: "I think it is more feasible to find ways to improve the shortcomings of human nature than to interfere with the progress of science. ”

"There are two ways in which I can avoid a war of extermination by improving the evils of human nature: one is the indoctrination of reason, and the other is the restraint of faith. ”

"The so-called indoctrination of reason is the use of enlightenment to convey the element of rational thinking to all individuals within the race, so that they can be sensitive to the possible consequences of their actions when dealing with struggle. In the primitive period, when faced with conflicts of the same kind, human beings thought more about using violence to obtain everything, even if this violence might ruin their own lives, and human beings who have experienced education and enlightenment, when there are conflicts with their own kind, they will deal with disputes with game thinking and try to avoid losing both. ”

Todd gave an example: "For example, there are two kingdoms that are at enmity with each other, but they both have the weapon of silence. If the person who is weak in his mind wants to do something to destroy the opponent, the result is that when you throw the dead silence, the other party will also throw the dead silence at you, and finally the two kingdoms will end together. But people with more rational minds will use dead silence as a threatening means to eventually gain balance in the game. ”

Meredith asked, "What if the king of one kingdom is sane and the king of another kingdom is impulsive?"

Then the last two kingdoms will still go to ruin. Therefore, the decision-making person in the kingdom should not be the king, but the people, and through collective elections, determine a person or a group of rational national leaders, so as to avoid decision-making errors at the national level. And the king himself is more of a symbol, a symbol. ”

Meredith realized, "Oh, that's why I've heard that you, as king, left Dusk West to let the cabinet members and the Knights of Honor go with you to run the kingdom. ”

Todd nodded in agreement.

"And what about a way to avoid a war of extermination? and that is what you just called the 'Restraint of Faith.' ”

Todd closed his eyes and sighed softly, "This is what I'm doing in Froststone City, I hope to build a utopia of unity of faith." ”