What did you do with the dice?

"The end is near. He will once again bring blood, fire, and the supreme glory of war here. God of War, we, the devout believers, will surely bring you victory. Before that, please lend us your strength and transform this place into a desperate battlefield crisscrossed with hunger and fear!"

A column of blood-red light shot up into the sky, and the red fog became thicker and thicker, limiting the field of vision to a certain range. Even magical lights such as Light and Daylight could not dispel this strange fog.

The black flag in Tamamo's hand had completely transformed into bright red. She nodded with satisfaction and inserted the flag into the center of the ground. "Go! Hungry fellows, devour your enemies! Devour your lives to this endless feast!"

The corpses under the city were gone. With a burst of chirping and roaring, this army of strengthened, scarlet ratmen quickly rushed towards Alice City.

The city of Alice sounded the alarm for defense, and the sleeping city woke up again. Countless sharp arrows and boulders hit the ratmen from the air, splashing a lot of blood. Those terrifying-looking giant red ratmen were thought to have some special abilities, but under the pouring firepower of the defenders, they fell down one after another like ears of wheat harvested in autumn.

When they rushed to the city wall, they did not show anything particularly outstanding. They still could not climb up Alice's iron wall. They could only huddle together and become targets of boiling kerosene and explosives, and become nutrients for the blazing flames.

The newly formed mountain of corpses gradually disintegrated and evaporated, eventually turning into a red mist that blended with the environment. Apart from that, no other unexpected situations occurred.

The commanders on the city walls, who had been frightened out of their wits, breathed a sigh of relief and said contemptuously, "Oh, that's it! We went to great lengths to create a fog, only to find it was just to protect a troop of ratmen. But no matter how strong these ratmen are, what good are they? Rats are just rats. Just step on them and they'll die. No matter how many there are, it's useless."

When everyone felt relieved, in the entire Alice City, only Sanita and Rusalka realized the seriousness of the problem.

[War Banner of the Dead]

[Quality: Legend]

[Item Effect 1: Absorbs the life force of the dead souls, creating a battlefield with a [Random Difficulty Environment].]

[Item Effect 2: When it absorbs at least 20 points of vitality and is then used as the core of any [Major Ritual Spell], it will erode and directly alter the effect of the formation, transforming it into a [Endless Hungry Killing Field]. The number of people affected by the field is determined by the number of souls absorbed. If there are not enough friendly or enemy targets, the priority will be determined from the total number of [Commanding Lifeforms Killed], from the highest to the lowest, until the total number of people in the area is met.]

[Note: Within the area, the selected friendly forces will receive significant physical enhancement.]

The function of this field is to add a huge debuff to both sides - [Thirst for War].

At this moment, the system prompts of the two people showed that they were also affected by the effect of [Hunger and War]. Rusalka even sarcastically picked an exemption prompt, but when she opened it, she saw that a judgment value of 62 points was required to pass.

What have you been exempted from by birth?

[War Thirst]: Before the [Flag is Captured] or the [Ritual is Interrupted], all [Eating and Drinking] will fail to replenish the body's energy needs. Hunger and physical weakness will increase over time, reaching peak hunger after 3 days and starving to death after 5 days. During this process, all negative status effects equivalent to not eating will be incurred. The reduction of satiety can only be stopped by [Combat], and [Killing the target of the enemy ritual] will increase satiety.

How long can a person go without food?

It's hard to say. In this world, some powerful knights can even fast for a month. There are even the extremely ascetic monks in the legendary ancient Church of Joy. They can go without food for several years just by absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon and sucking a few drops of dew from the leaves in the morning. They have cultivated immortal bodies that are not affected by the world.

Well, ascetics are indeed professionals of the Church of Joy. This is probably a way to transcend the world after experiencing the world.

However, in the current situation, under the influence of the ritual, the limit of hunger has been compressed to 5 days, 5 fair and just days. No matter whether you are an ordinary civilian or a high and mighty wizard, everyone is treated equally. If everyone does not join the battlefield to fight against the El Empire, they will starve to death after 5 days.

It may even be shorter, as hunger is often accompanied by various other problems, and in the worst case, one can lose his life in 3-4 days.

And the worst thing is that those [enemies affected by the ritual] that can increase the satiety in the prompts, that is, those red ratmen, have now turned into corpses all over the ground in an instant under their suicidal siege and the full-scale killing of the defenders, and can no longer provide any effect to anyone other than the defenders on the city wall.

That Tamamo had no intention of relying on the bonus provided by the ritual to compete with the human side.

Haha, after all, that is the capital city that humans claim to be the most proud of in history. She can still distinguish between self-confidence and arrogance. Letting the troops to bite off a tough bone is such a barbaric and stupid behavior. How can it show that the Fox family is the king of playing with war?

Her purpose was clear from the beginning: to give 60 ratmen and more than 1 wolf cavalry troops to Alice City, use the information gap to complete this God-era ritual, and then force them to choose to fight outside the city, and perish like moths to a flame.

Therefore, she only allowed the entire army to bring 7 days of rations, because there was no need for more. After the city was captured, the food inside would of course be available to her army.

After all, when eating is useless, the first ones to starve to death must be those stupid humans hiding inside the city walls, who are still thinking they can rely on sufficient logistics to drag down their army!

The most terrifying thing about this ritual is that by the time people realize eating is useless, everything might already be over—how much combat power can a starving army still exert? Saying 50% is an overestimate!

Either starve to death or die in battle, this is the end of everyone in Alice City.

But now, there is still a glimmer of hope.

Sanita cleared his throat.

"Everyone, I am the Archmage Sanitta. I am actually a hidden elf. I am 426 years old this year and have been immersed in magic for over 300 years. I happen to have heard of this ritual. Although what I am about to say may be difficult for you to accept, please listen to me. For the sake of survival."

I really miss my old job.

At this moment, he turned back into the legal worker + bard.

True and false, it’s a scam!

Chapter 316 The Darkest Decision

Tamamo, who was on the opposite side and had already secured victory, could not have expected that by some strange coincidence, two people who did not belong here appeared in this world - Rusalka and Sanitieta.

Relying on the huge plug-in endorsement of the system, they directly saw through the effect of this ability.

But that's what Age of Gods magic is like. Even if you have the manual in front of you, it can still tell you how to crack it—just pull out the flag or kill the person who set it up.

But so what? You still have no choice but to fall into its trap. Facing the million-strong army brought by the El Empire, you have to choose to abandon Alice's high walls and iron walls, and lead your troops out of the city to fight the enemy desperately, because if you don't fight, you will starve to death, and countless historical records have proved that starvation is definitely the most painful way to die.

When the Sani Tower used public broadcasting to announce the effects of the ceremony to the entire city, almost everyone could not believe it, or rather, they were instinctively unwilling to believe it, and still had some beautiful fantasies in their hearts: perhaps the great wizard had misjudged.

"You said you were an elf, but there are so many elves here, you..."

"Is it important? All you need to know is that I know more than you all. Under the influence of the spell, no one can tell my bloodline, right? And as for this ritual, proving its effectiveness is very simple. If you don't believe it, then just eat something before the hunger kicks in and see if you feel full."

Generally speaking, food and other supplies in the military camp need to be strictly distributed according to the daily needs when defending the city, and each soldier needs to be rationed. It doesn't mean that you can eat whenever you are hungry, otherwise it will be a mess. But now that Sani Tieta said so, and the food problem has indeed been solved because of the "magic of the Pearl Tear Territory", the various troops can't argue with him anymore, so they sent people to eat something to verify the effect.

Soldiers from all over the country gave almost the same feedback: "My stomach is definitely full. I guess I can't eat anymore, but I'm definitely not full at all. How should I put it? It feels like my stomach is separated from my belly."

Their description sounded outrageous, but it perfectly confirmed what Sanita said. For a moment, everywhere fell into silence, and anyone with a little bit of common sense realized the seriousness of the problem.

People once imagined the effects of magic from the Age of Gods. Some said it could split entire continents in half with a single blow, some said it could evaporate the ocean, and some said it could crush a city. Everyone believed that the so-called pinnacle of magic was the pinnacle of violence. But now, encountering such a spell ritual effect that could be described as lingchi (a form of torture), it almost overturned everyone's concept of the irresistibility of magic from the Age of Gods.

If everyone died in an instant, that would be fine. What else could I say if I was not as skilled as others? I had already tried my best.

But it was precisely because of Sanita's words that everyone in the burning iron house was awakened, giving everyone a slim hope of escape and making them feel increasingly desperate about the current situation.

It is easy to wait for death, but I am unwilling to do so.

It's easy to say to charge, but we don't dare to do it.

An ominous red fog filled the air, and visibility outside the city was terribly low. Group battles required a wide field of vision, but in today's harsh environment, perhaps soldiers could only fight in small teams.

In the case of small-scale melees among small groups, those ferocious wolf cavalrymen have already proven their strength. Even if they fight individually on the wall, they can bring almost 1:1 casualties!

After leaving the city and facing such an unfavorable situation, how could they possibly be a match for the El Empire?

Most Sinidi people believe that dying on the battlefield is an honor, and they are not afraid of dying in war, but the situation is different now. They don't have time to prepare themselves mentally when they suddenly find that the power of life and death is in the hands of the other party. It is better to say that they are forced to die than to die voluntarily. How can there be any honor in this? All they feel is sadness.

"Everyone, running away will not solve the problem of the Aiel Empire's army, nor will it eliminate the effects of the ritual. If you wish to keep everyone in this city alive, please come to the palace and discuss this matter."

No one raised any objection to this. The leaders of all forces quietly prepared their things, prepared horses and carriages, and headed to the devastated battlefield that had just ended.

Sanita had been laying the groundwork for so long. He fabricated and revealed his identity, and then threw it out as a "definitely correct" ritual example, just to occupy the absolute dominance of the discourse. Sure enough, with his brief and powerful speech, he has now become the image of the "most knowledgeable wizard" in Alice City in everyone's mind.

In this way, even if he says something outrageous later, everyone will only question themselves before questioning him, thinking that they are not knowledgeable enough; and everyone will subconsciously obey every order he gives, because the status of other great wizards has been invisibly ranked below him - he lived to be 426 years old, alas, aren't creatures like wizards more powerful the longer they live? You are only half his age, which means your strength must be only half of his.

This is the effect he wants, and it is also the effect that must be achieved now.

Although, he has only been here for five years, and his exposure to magic is even shorter than that of many wizard apprentices.

His words suddenly dawned on Instin, the Ice Mage in the Mage Tower, the Supreme Mage. "That's right! I've long said that Master Sanita couldn't be human! Let's look beyond the surface and focus on the essence. His knowledge is so vast that it's impossible to achieve without three or four hundred years of experience. Absolutely impossible! But it doesn't matter. We humans have our advantages too. Magic knows no borders. Learn from him and your achievements will be limitless!"

The elves were all talking, saying things like: "Losing to an elf doesn't count as losing; it was a fellow elf who did it first, and since I did it myself, the little one doesn't count; it turns out the great wizard is also an elf, I wonder if his bloodline is pure; that stinking half-blood must be going back to the World Tree to get the Fountain of Life; this Sanita has lived among humans for so long, he should be expelled from the elf clan! This is the first time I've seen such a powerful male elf, but it's a pity that he looks like a human, which is weird; if he were good-looking, Her Majesty would have taken him in as the Sixth Elder long ago, so how could it be your turn?"

Shana was the only one who questioned Sanitieta's words: "How can Teacher Sanitieta say that he is an elf? Hasn't he always been a human? I can't accept it!"

Alice: "I think it's very possible. If I think about it carefully, he does have a strange affinity for magic, unlike humans. Besides, could what Mr. Sanitieta said be wrong?"

Shana only felt that her emotions were very complicated. Suddenly she found out that Sanita was not a human being. How would her feelings towards him change?

A: Furious, B: Overjoyed, C: Relieved, D: Indifferent, E: Totally uninterested

Shanna has always been an extrovert—an E person.

But when I thought about it, the Sunny Tower looked exactly like a human being, and I became happy again: It doesn’t matter, it’s all the same when the lights are on!

The cold wind swept through the red fog, bringing waves of desolation.

When entering the palace for the first time, Rusalka took the lead first, and the heroes started to fight for it. Each of them had his own ulterior motives, but they were all extremely confident. They used various methods to turn the magnificent palace into a scorched earth.

Now everyone came to the palace again, but the retroactive magic did not restore the place, leaving only devastation.

A strong wind magic circle enveloped the place, blowing away the red mist. At this moment, they would meet again in just two days, but everyone had already lost interest. Even though they watched Rusalka take out the key and threw it on the ground like garbage, no one around wanted to pick it up for a while.

This situation is just like when Pygmalion threw the key to Rusalka. The vision and planning of those gods are really too far ahead of their time. Only when the scene they wanted to create is realized, perhaps you can realize that you have become a part of their script at some point in the past.

Of course, this action of throwing away the key was not Rusalka's original intention, but Sanita asked him to do so to show his determination.

Theresa, Bloom, Yanar, Godwei, Rusalka, Grand Duke Oaks, several representatives of the earl's family, the leader of the Imperial Guard who had just been released from house arrest, and several wizard apprentices holding the Wizard's Eyes or communication props of those great wizards. Almost everyone who had a say in Alice City gathered here and looked at Rusalka who threw the key on the ground.

For such a lineup of people from different camps with different intentions, it would be as difficult as a chasm between them to get together even in peacetime. At the very least, they could only get together at a singing and dancing banquet with lights, delicious food, and fine wine, announcing a kingdom-level happy event.

Now there was nothing, not even a chair. Everyone just stood there, no one raised any objections, and no one put on airs of nobility. Faced with life and death, and facing the rituals left by the gods, they knew very well in their hearts that they were just ordinary lives that could be wiped out at will.

However, even in the depths of despair, no one would not want to try to struggle.

Rusalka looked around and said, "Everyone, time is running out. To make a long story short, there are only two ways to break the ritual."

"First, do you see that pillar of light to the south? At its center is a core flag. Pull it out, and we'll be able to break it."

"Second, kill the leader of the ritual, that Kyuubi Tamamo. However, this is almost the same as the first, as she must be there too."

He paused, then repeated Sanitta's words, "The Aiel Empire wants to delay us. They mistakenly believe we will foolishly starve to death without knowing what's happening. That's why they won't attack during this period. Instead, they'll sit back and wait for us to destroy ourselves. We only have this one chance. For the lives of everyone in the city, and for my own life, I will gather my most elite troops and charge forward with me to break through the enemy lines."

"Since we can't maneuver anywhere and the city gates can't be opened, we can only send our elite troops to charge forward. The two wings will be responsible for holding off the enemy from surrounding us and covering the center army as they rush to the high platform with the pillar of light. That will be victory."

After a brief silence, Grand Duke Oaks spoke first, "Do you have any experience dealing with the main force of the El Empire on flat ground?"

Rusalka: "It will be available in a few hours."

Grand Duke Oaks: "How are you going to get back after breaking the magic circle?"

Rusalka: "You will come back the same way you went there."

Grand Duke Oaks calmly asked Rusalka one last question: "Can we win?"

Rusalka: (We will win!)

Sanita: (Just, Xiao Ge, this time we really have to gamble our lives, let's really be a little auspicious.)

Her train of thought was interrupted by her good brother, and Rusalka could only think of a new sentence. It took her several seconds to organize her words: "Then this is actually a game you can never lose. It's either win or die. In any case, you can't lose. Do you want to come?"

Grand Duke Oaks smiled and held out his fist. "I've been hunting wild beasts since I was seven. At ten, I killed Wolf's sentinels. Now I'm sixty-four. I've spent at least fifty years of my life immersed in frozen blood. I feel like I should have died in that fortress several times. Now, I'm simply returning my life to the Supreme of Arcane."

He said to his adjutant, "If my body is lucky enough to return, please pour warm wine on my tombstone while you sweep the snow to dissolve it. I am the Grand Duke of the Oaks family. I was no less than anyone in life, and I will surely be superior even in death!"

Duke Gao Dewei paused and said, "My ancestors, generation after generation, have all sacrificed their lives for our country. In fact, what I fear most in my life is to die like my father, a life of mediocrity. Now that I have fulfilled my wish, I will fight for the Royal City. I will gladly accept any outcome."

"We now have 10 Grand Knights, 121 Knights, and over 2,000 elite members of our clan left. Grand Knight Rusalka, we will be your second, strongest shield."

Bloom looked at Jian Wuming.

Jian Wuming chuckled, "Just when I had a sudden realization, an enemy like this came forward to test my sword. Why not? Since ancient times, swords have been sharpened. Lord Rusalka, don't forget the ten-year agreement between us."

Bloom nodded. "The Delai family is also willing to send elite troops along, and I will personally command from the front lines. If I must die, I'd rather die for my country."

All the nobles nodded in agreement. Even if some did not want to go to the front line in person, they were willing to send their most elite troops, take out all their assets and trump cards, take out all the life-saving props on their bodies and throw them next to the key on the ground, and give them to Rusalka and others who planned to charge out of the city in person.

"Little Knight, I'll go with you." Theresa smiled at Rusalka.

"Lady Saint, no! I will lead the Golden Blade and go with Captain Rusalka. You will just stay behind and wait for our triumphant return. Your safety is our mission on this journey. How could we put you in such a dangerous... place again?"

Theresa waved her hand and refused him: "No, I've made up my mind."

Theresa's decision was the most unexpected for Sanita.

He asked Rusalka directly: "Why?"

In his opinion, Theresa had been planning for thousands of years and was the last person to disregard her own safety. Without absolute certainty, how could she allow herself to go to the front line of the battlefield again when her injuries had not yet healed?

But Theresa's response was simple.

"Because I will never put my fate in the hands of others. Even gods can't control me, let alone a mere orc."

A solemn and murderous aura that was totally inconsistent with her image spread out from her words, which even shocked Yanar into a daze. The people around her felt a chill all over their bodies and trembled unconsciously for a moment.

At this moment, the two recalled the fact that Theresa was not a believer in the end, but she was the messenger of the end.

What kind of belief supported her to accept this identity and survive for thousands of years? No one knows, and they don't know either.

Perhaps there is a deeper story behind this.

Although they are ultimately enemies in the struggle for faith, perhaps one day in the future they will be guided by the gods to decide the outcome of life and death.

But at least now, she placed her hands on the hands of everyone else, and added her life to the brave people who were struggling to survive in the ritual of the Age of Gods.

"Captain of the Golden Blade, Yanar, listen to my orders. As the Millennium Saint of Esidi, I command you to assist me in crushing the ambitions of the El Empire. Use the power bestowed upon us by the God of Light to protect the lives of countless innocent people in the Sinidi Royal City! What is the teaching of the Golden Blade? Answer me!"

Yanar knelt on one knee and said, "I wish to transform my body into a blood-stained golden blade to slay all the evildoers in the world!"

"Very good! I will become an unyielding banner of justice, shouldering and purifying all your sins of killing, and guiding you in the direction of progress! Even if our bodies fall and the sacred flame dies, our faith will never die, and Esdi will live forever!"