"Grass (a plant)." The boy even subconsciously moved his gaze to the top of the truck, fortunately, there was no turret there, otherwise he would really think that this was a unique cow power tank in the Terra continent: "In order to adapt to the mountain jungle environment, it's outrageous, no wonder you need a giant bull to pull it, what kind of camel beast can hold it!" ”

It's one thing to think it's outrageous, but looking at the crowd around him who weren't particularly surprised, Ian knew that all of this might be quite mundane for the locals of Terra.

And just as the caravan arrived, the Viscount's Mansion and a group of important people in the city walked out of the mansion.

Ian noticed that the expressions of both the viscount and the elder Pud were quite solemn, although the viscount's expression was slightly soothing after seeing the caravan, but overall it was still solemn.

With the bells of the Huaiguang Church in the center of the city and the city guards running around to make announcements, most of the residents of Harrison Harbor came to the central square.

Because of the battle with the crocodile, the flat stone square in the center of the harbor has been destroyed, and now it is just a solid land, where nearly a thousand people have gathered, and many more are approaching from all directions.

Many people put down their work, for they knew that it was a matter of concern to all of them that it was important for them to make the lord, whose daily life was to drink and feast and enjoy beauty, so serious, and they talked uneasily and worriedly, and the noise echoed around the square.

Soon, as Viscount Grant spoke, everyone fell silent.

"Citizens of Port Harrison, we have once again repelled another large-scale invasion by the natives after twenty years, and I have promised that when the support of the Imperial Capital arrives, all those who have made meritorious contributions will be rewarded—I will not break my promise, as you can see, the aid of the Imperial Capital has arrived, and we will have sufficient materials for reconstruction, the best seeds of the Imperial Capital, and twelve Byson Bulls."

"A third of this will be used to reward the heroes, and the rest will be used to support the reconstruction of the port and the recultivation of farmland destroyed by the storm."

The Viscount's voice was loud and clear, and the moisture in the wind helped him to vibrate the atmosphere, and the good news he announced did cause the crowd to burst into cheers, but the truly intelligent ones still frowned, for they heard the uneasy turn.

"But."

Sure enough, the Viscount changed his words, he took a deep breath, and then said in a deep voice: "This is also the last batch of aid. ”

"From today onwards, until the next five, ten, or twenty years, there will be no more assistance from the imperial capital."

The brown-haired and blue-eyed nobleman paused for a moment, waiting for the suddenly quiet citizens to digest the news, and then said slowly: "You must also want to know why, I will tell you the truth now." ”

"The Flame Kingdoms have opened up the mountain path at the junction of the Abasarom Mountains and the Bisson Mountains to connect with the Berners Plains to the west, and from then on, the Constructed Knights of the Flame Lands can drive long into the western hinterland of the Empire."

"The war has not yet begun, but it is close at hand."

Not everyone knows how close and far away the names and geographical locations of those mountains are, but whoever knows what that word means.

War.

- War is coming.

Unlike Port Harrison's endemic conflict with the natives...... The Flying Flame Kingdoms and the Central Empire, two behemoths that confront each other across the Great Desert of the Flying Flame Land, are now bordering in the true sense of the word!

“…… That's big news. ”

Ian, who was listening intently to the Viscount's speech in the square, suddenly heard a familiar voice, and he felt a large, thick and warm hand over his head.

The boy turned his head, and Hilliard, disguised as Orsna, had already come behind him, and the old knight looked solemnly into the center of the square, and he muttered in words that could only be heard by Ian, "Have they found a way to tame the Steel-Pterodactyl Dragons in the Abasarom Mountains, or will they do whatever it takes to wipe out the nests of the dragons?" ”

"In any case, the great rear of the western front of the empire will now become the front line, although there is no war yet, but the pressure is even greater...... After so many years of recuperation, is it so difficult to have a stable peace? ”

"Even if you pay such a big price to open up the mountain road, do you have to start a war?"

Ian heard a deep, unspeakable sadness in his teacher's calm tone.

- not for the Empire, but for those who are going to die.

The boy thought.

It is normal for an Imperial wanted criminal to feel compassion and anger for the future dead from the bottom of his heart, if it is someone else's may be a little incomprehensible, but if it is his own teacher, then it is very normal.

Because Hilliard is such a person...... He is such a strong, gentle, powerful person, but he does not feel that he is superior.

That's why I really see each other as a teacher.

"War is bound to start."

Thinking like this, the young boy lowered his eyes, and he said lightly: "It's not for the sake of war at all costs, but it's already to the point where you have to start a war, so you will do whatever it takes." ”

"Of course I know ......"

The old knight whispered to himself, "How could I not know? ”

Viscount Grant was still speaking from the stage in the center of the square, and he had to unite the people, because the official roads of the Southwest Plains were no longer safe, whether it was a possible invasion of the Flying Flame Lands, or simply the empire itself felt unsafe and needed to change the trade route, it would have a great impact on Harrison Harbor, the most edge of the world.

But at this time, neither Ian nor Hilliard wanted to hear it anymore.

However, at this very moment.

Suddenly, Ian felt a blur in his eyes.

- Vision? No, why is it so strong?!

There was only time for such a thought to flash through my mind, and a strong sense of penetration appeared in my mind.

Suddenly, bright light and interlaced light and shadow began to emerge in Ian's vision, and thousands of staggered and fragmented fragments began to merge and reassemble.

With the sudden suddenness of going deep into the skull, as if burning the soul, Ian, who thought he was temporarily blind, saw a scene that seemed to originate from an extremely distant side.

"It's—"

The boy's eyes widened, but he didn't look at the teacher who was holding him in surprise, his gaze was very empty, as if his soul had spread along that gaze to a very distant place, before and after a long time.

The brain seemed to be torn apart, but at this moment, the boy saw the beacon smoke and saw the overturned city.

Ian saw that the houses were set ablaze by blazing flames, that the behemoth kingdom was torn apart in the drums of desolate war, that the land was suffering, and that billions of beings were struggling and roaring between heaven and earth, but that they could not escape the infinite darkness, and could only sink to the end of eternal calamity, rotting into ash.

He saw, saw the vast plains stretching beneath his feet, and at the end of his vision, a line of blackened cavalry galloping across the decaying scorched earth, massive armor unleashing pillars of light that tore through the night, turning city after city into a sea of fire, and then extinguishing it again, like a dazzling but rapidly extinguished torch in the night.

Ian saw, he saw, at the end, the ruins of cities rising black smoke that covered the earth, the sky, the planets, and even the starry sky of the universe.

This darkness is death, an ominous, and an omen.

The black-red mist lingers over everything and all living beings, and no one can be liberated or escaped.

- The cowardly have nowhere to hide, only the brave can survive.

Everything dissipates.

"Hah...... Ha ......"

Breathing heavily, Ian woke up from a dream, and he had turned on the Prophetic Horizon at some point, and then looked around at everyone around him.

Gray, White, White, White, Gold, Purple, Blue...... Ordinary people, teachers, Viscount Grant, Elder Pudd...... Even the squares, the streets, the whole Port Harrison...... All the fog is perfectly normal.

"There is no black...... But I saw it, I saw it...... The whole world is filled with ......"

The psionic energy was overloaded, and bright red blood overflowed from the corners of his nose and eyes, but Ian suddenly realized that if it hadn't been for Hilliard's breath and a warm current of essentia into his body, I'm afraid he would have continued to watch.

"What's wrong, Ian, your psionic energy is suddenly out of control, what's going on?!"

Before he could catch the attention of those around him, Hilliard sensed that something was wrong with his disciple, his brow furrowed, and a silver glow lit up in his eyes, sweeping over the boy's body.

Immediately afterward, he made a decision to bring Ian home as quickly as possible, urging essentia guidance, but he couldn't get the other party back to normal.

"Teacher ......"

Ian, who came to his senses, blinked, raised his hand, and wiped away the blood that had spilled from the corners of his eyes and his mouth and nose.

He closed his eyes, closing the foresight, and then said slowly, "I just saw ...... See ......"

Ian was silent for a long time before he looked up at the teacher with a complicated expression.

The white-haired and blue-eyed boy spoke softly, his voice ethereal, as if he had come from a far, high place, like a prophet of prophecy: "I see the world in ruins, a dark mist descending on the world, and great destruction and calamity are about to occur. ”

"I see all beings fighting each other, destroying hope with fire and thunder, and the eternal calamity of definition is toppling the heavens."

Ian was silent for a while, and under Hilliard's equally silent gaze, he showed a painful and vulnerable expression for the first time since he came to this world, after experiencing several life and death crises: "Teacher...... I saw ......"

"And I saw that all the stars were extinguished in the heavens."

"There was only darkness...... Darkness like a cage...... Deathly dark ......"

“…… Don't worry, child, there is no real prophecy in this world. ”

On one knee, the tall man reached out and hugged the overly mature child in front of him, showing himself a vulnerable child for the first time.

He sighed and said softly, "Believe me, there is no established fate in this world. ”

Hilliard comforted her student softly, and seemed to say to herself, "Ian, whatever you see or know don't believe it. ”

"As long as you can see, you can change it...... As long as you are willing, there must be a better future! ”

On October 9, 766 in the year of Terra, the Flying Flame Kingdoms opened up a mountain pass at the junction of the Abasarom Mountains and the Baissen Mountains to connect with the Berners Plains in the western part of the Central Empire, and built a checkpoint fortress on the other side of the mountain road to build a permanent fortress complex.

The peace of the past vanished on this day, and the powerful neighbors who had been isolated by mountains and deserts were close in an instant, and the Central Empire urgently dispatched a total of nineteen legions from the west and south to garrison the Berners Plain.

Towns and villages were razed, forts were erected, old inhabitants were relocated, and people who had lived on the land for hundreds of years were forced to leave their homes.

They reluctantly looked back, but they could only see that everything in their homeland had changed beyond recognition.

But that's just the first step.

In the rainforest south of the continent of Terra, Canaan Moore declared peace with the Heavenly King's court, ending the state of war that had nominally lasted for one hundred and thirty-five years.

At the same time, on the opposite side of the Gantrigham Labyrinth Fortress Group, the battle banner of the Khan was erected on the Scorching Sun Plain, making the sun's brilliance even more dazzling, and the originally scattered dwarven guards shook off the wine glasses in their hands in panic, and the Five Mountains Committee urgently issued a war preparation order, and the three thousand heavily armored escorts stationed in the Heaven Seeking Domain stepped out of their holy land for the first time in two hundred years.

Huaiguang Shengshan and the Religious Order jointly called on the major powers to remain calm, and released their observations of the 'New World', the voice of the largest group of independent sublimators in the history of mankind is enough to suppress the movements of various countries on weekdays, but this time no one cares about their predictions of the 'natural disaster'.

History is moving forward.

The factories of Fort Steep are spewing blazing black smoke, and new armor and armament are being produced continuously, at the cost of black mountain rocks stained by soot and the average worker's life expectancy of less than forty years old; The Capital of Knowledge has developed a suspended engine that can fly for three hours, taking Cloudview City to a higher level of explorable Celestials, but according to rumors of a report from the Far Shore Spy, a new massive ship that can levitate in the sky is being perfected under the supervision of the Stargazers, and no one knows what their goal is.

Everything has changed, and nothing has changed.

What has been there, there will be again. What has been done, it will be done again. Everything that has happened in the past on this land will happen again in the future.

Whether it's war, death, destruction; Inventions, creations, constructions, and even the struggle for power between human beings, whether noble or despicable, are nothing but boring and boring repetitions - and now, human beings are about to start fighting each other again and again, repeating themselves in this cycle of fate.

Only after that, high in the sky, another star that had been bright for billions of years briefly twinkled and then went out.

Nobody cares.