When the plot-skips players into the game world

Aiwass has been extremely busy these days—when he decided to save these Parthians, he resolved that he couldn't just focus on the people of Heaven City alone.

The Red Hand Gang rampaged everywhere, causing massive chaos and calamity. Those who escaped, some were captured and taken to other city-states, willingly or forcibly becoming slaves of different Benevolent Lords; while others came to Heaven City seeking "hope".

The underground aqueduct built by the Goblin Commerce Association was completed, allowing water from the water tower to be directly channeled into Rock Cellar City, freeing Sherlock from Rock Cellar City.

In a way, others could be considered Sherlock's bodyguards... so they followed Sherlock to Heaven City. However, Sherlock's speed of replenishing water was adequate for Rock Cellar City but clearly insufficient for Heaven City, as he was here merely as a precaution.

Although people from Heaven City continuously migrated to New Herasal, there were also people constantly migrating to Heaven City. They needed to use some water on their journey, and if it ran out early, wouldn't these people just die of thirst?

But with Sherlock, at least providing them with some water for the road isn't a problem.

After all, "Summon Water" seems ordinary but is actually an extremely advanced spell.

A fifth-tier mage can easily summon a pillar of fire or lightning that can destroy a small town tens of kilometers away, teleport someone from one end of a nation to another, or melt rock into mud to construct a barrier capable of blocking artillery... yet almost impossible to summon a cup of water or a small pebble out of thin air.

This is the limitation of the world because only the Source River of "Creation" can possess creative authority.

Condensing a cup of water from the air is easy, achievable at the first or second-tier; but true creation out of nothing remains almost impossible even for Celestial Marshals.

Even though Sherlock possessed Celestial Marshal shards, he merely used the Celestial Marshal's "key" to temporarily open the wall between the Material Realm and the Dream Realm to summon water from the Dream Realm; similarly, what those Benevolent Lords did too, the key just opened the gate using the Abyssal Celestial Envoy.

Fortunately, things in Parthia were gradually stabilizing, so Sherlock didn't need to exhaust his spells to create water daily—depleting mana is incredibly uncomfortable.

That feeling is akin to being carsick when extremely tired, feeling nauseous and experiencing headaches, unable to open the eyes yet unable to find solace in sleep.

Precisely controlling mana until it's nearly depleted without overdrafting is quite difficult. After all, Sherlock doesn't have a system interface to accurately see how many units of mana he has left.

It's like when a person is running or working out, how to determine when energy is nearing depletion or fully depleted; unless someone is extremely seasoned, it's hard to discern. Even the most experienced person sometimes misjudges or stops early with leftover energy.

This time Sherlock made several mistakes due to his perseverance.

Luckily, Yulia provided alchemical potions to soothe his overly fatigued spirit. But perhaps, it was precisely the potion's presence that emboldened him to heedlessly deplete his mana.

Heaven City's water reserves could last for a while longer. Sherlock, upon arriving at Heaven City, could finally take a few days to rest and recuperate.

Also fortunate, Aiwass foresaw—this time going to Parthia, he directly brought a team. Otherwise, managing so much with just him and Sherlock would be impossible.

Of course, the workload here primarily lay in the integration aspect.

As for the work regarding reports and statistics, it was manageable—Aiwass directly used Prayer Arts to summon a few Angel Envoys from the Hourglass down to the Lower Realm. Many of the Hourglass's Angel Envoys are scholars and merchants, their efficiency in handling complex data is quite high.

A few days earlier, Aiwass even took some time to write a letter to the Pope, in which he shared his speculations regarding "Sin Thorn" and "Firstborn".

Aiwass too had studied Advanced Divine Arts, but at that time he hadn't seen similar knowledge in the books... meaning at least at the Cardinal Archbishop level, the knowledge about Sin Thorn was still not considered common knowledge.

Regardless of the knowledge level, Grey certainly knew—she was once a genuine Holy Maiden, receiving complete papal inheritance education.

Although it was extremely cumbersome to write and send letters within Parthian Ancient Country, such common knowledge was not applicable to Aiwass and Grey.

The Angel Envoy "Wings of Life Fire" of Candle Master himself was pleased to assist in delivering items, and when Aiwass and Grey summoned such tier Angel Envoys, there didn't need to prepare a ritual. While their contact frequency was somewhat low, it could essentially be understood as a portable mailbox.

In this situation, it took several days to get a reply—in the letter, Grey apologized and mentioned the reason for her delayed response.

"The dwarves have thoroughly messed up. Aiwass, you probably can't even imagine what the Northern Land has become now.

"The personality of the Flame Celestial Marshal is much more violent than they imagined. It's not hard to understand though, the Flame Celestial Marshal concept inherently includes elements of 'elimination' and 'optimization'. To summon her with the motive of the dwarves is tantamount to admitting their backwardness and decline. Up to this point, the situation was still stable.

"But the dwarves made another mistake—their contingency plans were too well-prepared. Or rather, they were overly confident.

"When they realized the Flame Celestial Marshal's attitude was notably unfriendly, they initiated the second contingency plan. That was to 'kill the Flame Celestial Marshal and seize her Heavenly Department Authority', while allowing their most numerous Path of Devotion to more safely advance to the sixth-tier.

"...not mentioning, their Path of Devotion occupation itself was Magus Craftsman, a profession provided by the Flame Celestial Marshal. If the Flame Celestial Marshal were annihilated, it would signify the invalidation of this power; take it as they want to use this Celestial Marshal shard to ascend as a new Flame Celestial Marshal... but the biggest issue lies in their gross underestimation of the Flame Celestial Marshal's strength.

"The Flame Celestial Marshal is the second strongest in Path of Devotion after Candle Master, even stronger than some weakened Pillar Gods. She oversees the realm of flame, steel, and forging... if not for the Red Calamity advancing forward and seizing the domain of war, the Flame Celestial Marshal might have transitioned from concepts of machinery and weapons to war herself."

The Flame Celestial Marshal... she was the Celestial Marshal of burning steel, of crucibles and furnaces.

This concept is intrinsically linked to civilization, can a civilization without fire and iron be considered civilization? Her path aligns highly with civilization, just a little skewed due to an excessive focus... such a scale of Celestial Marshal descending isn't something a race like dwarves, secluded for thousands of years, can cope with.

After failing in the war against elves, the dwarves had been sealing themselves beneath the mountains, taking high-strung elves as imaginary enemies and frantically preparing for war. Their reluctance to share technology stemmed from fears of other races "stealing" their techniques.

Only a few dwarves were willing to leave the Northern Mountains, venturing to other countries. The information they learned about the timing of the Ring of Ouroboros ceremony, all relied on reports from Frost Giants living above ground and dwarves specializing in intelligence.

"The dwarves weren't even aware of the details of the Heavenly Battle—they merely thought that if even weak humans could battle against Celestial Marshals, there was no reason they couldn't. If they couldn't even surpass humans, then contending with elves would be hopeless.

"Though some intelligent dwarves attempted to prevent this, it was like using an ant's strength against a cart. The existence of Frost Giants had already triggered the sensitive nerves of dwarves—if giants of yore could be defeated, if the invincible Supreme Heaven could fall, then there was no reason they couldn't foster their own Pillar God; and without the shelter of a Pillar God, even giants would become mere guard dogs.

"Hence, under overly inflated public sentiment... dwarves held the Ring of Ouroboros ceremony prematurely.

"After the Flame Celestial Marshal was provoked by the dwarves, she directly obliterated the entire underground empire—"