Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1012: Is this the first change of destiny?

"Don't think I didn't try to solve the problem with methods other than war, Alice." Tiantis tapped her fingers on the operating platform a few times and retrieved a document. The complicated and obscure words and numbers on it were dazzling, but to her, it was just the most insignificant part of her daily work: "In the 851st year after my mother left, the signs of collapse of the magic circulation system began to appear. At that time, I warned the leaders of various tribes and countries, including Nigflam, to restrain their behavior and not to be so greedy and demand magic. But they agreed on the surface, but still acted on their own in private, and did not take my warning to heart."

"In the 1,172nd year after my mother left, the dragon king Nigflaim usurped the throne and declared that the throne of the world must not be vacant for a day. He received a revelation from the goddess in his dream that he would replace the goddess who had left Eden and take on the mission of guiding civilization. He called himself the virtual dragon god and led the dragons to expand their territory wantonly. In just 50 years, the dragon clan had two more ancient dragons, 15 ancient dragons, and 132 ancient dragons. The price was that all the magic power in the million-mile area of ​​the Hogarth Mountains, where the dragon clan lived, was concentrated on the main peak of Hogarth. The climate in the area began to develop towards extremes, and the scale of the endless snow-capped mountains was expanding, encroaching on the living space of other terrains and species. For the powerful dragons, they naturally would not care about such trivial matters, but for other species in the same area, it was undoubtedly a disaster. In order to repair this imbalance, I spent a full 300 years to draw magic power from all over Eden, and I was very careful and calculated before I could barely repair it."

"In the 1,351st year after my mother left, the leaders of the mirror elves also called themselves gods. Led by Naloriga of the Abyss and Araknovara of the Sky, the sea nations began to expand their territory wantonly, plundering magic from remote seas and uninhabited abysses, building fisheries within their own territories, and cultivating a large number of algae, shellfish, and fish, causing serious ecological imbalance and magic pollution. Even 9.27 million square kilometers of sea area were polluted. In order to purify the pollution of the ocean, I spent 231 years, but I still couldn't do it, because while I was purifying the pollution, the mirror elves' sea kingdoms were also expanding, and their tentacles of grabbing and plundering even began to extend to coastal areas. In the end, I had to secretly trigger a super-large tsunami to destroy the mirror elves' Baklartar fishing grounds in the Far Ocean, and barely curbed this trend. This is the beginning and end of what they call the Baklartar Great Disaster."

"In the 1,688th year after my mother left, the King of the Dust Elves, the God of Rock Pillars, Cremus, in order to fight against the giants, arbitrarily absorbed all the magic power in the Silastak Desert, causing the entire area to enter the most serious state of magic exhaustion. The dry sand even piled up like salt, and countless salt-granulated plants, animals or natural terrain were buried underneath. The crime this guy committed was so serious that I had to personally take action and execute him..."

"Wait!" Alice couldn't help but say, "Did you kill Cremus? Tiantis, mother clearly said that we are not allowed to do it without permission? And why have I never heard you mention this matter?"

Of course it was because I didn’t want to fall out with you at that time.

I am the guardian and arbitrator of the world, and I only care about the world itself, but you are the guide and agent of civilization. Because of your long-term contact with mortal civilization, you have developed an inappropriate closeness and pity for them. The conflict between us is so obvious, but you have not noticed it until now?
What a naive and slow guy.

Tiantis glanced at her and avoided the main point: "Because the situation at that time was so serious that I had to take action. Ironically, when I killed Cremus and released all the magic power in his body, the Silastak Desert, which had been completely exhausted, quickly regained its vitality and returned to its original state in less than five years, even better than before. From then on, I understood that the collapse and imbalance of the magic circulation system was not an inevitable phenomenon accompanying the development of the world, but was caused by those greedy termites. Without them, Eden will be a better place!"

When she finished speaking, a fierce look flashed in her eyes. Alice was startled and said in a panic, "But, but, I heard that the Silastak area is still a desert. It's desolate and dead. No one wants to live there."

"That's because you have been in contact with mortals too much and have been indoctrinated with some wrong concepts. I want to tell you, Alice, prosperity in the sense of the world is different from prosperity in the sense of civilization." Tiantis said in a serious tone: "Mortals are always selfish and think that only an environment that can meet their own survival needs is called prosperity. Therefore, when I want to repair the magic imbalance in the snow-capped mountains, the proud dragons will say, what does it have to do with me, the top of the snow-capped mountains where the dragons live is the place that needs magic the most; when I want to purify the magic pollution in the uninhabited sea and the dark abyss, the self-righteous mirror elves will say, what does it have to do with me, those seas where even jellyfish are unwilling to live have no value to exist; when I warned Krimers to stop his crazy behavior, he even dared to question me, why put a barren and dead desert above him, the king and god of the dust elves, is his value to civilization not even as good as these flying sands?"

"So I told him that I don't care about civilization, I only care about this world." Tiantis's tone suddenly became cold, making Alice shudder. "If the mountains are useless because the dragons look down on them, if the abyss has no value because the creatures avoid it, if the desert is discriminated against because it is barren and dead, if all this is unnecessary, then why did Mother create them? They exist not because life needs them, but because they exist, they constitute the foundation of life. As long as the world they constitute exists for a long time, then even if the civilizations of the dragons, mirror elves and dust elves disappear, there will be new races and new civilizations to replace them."

"A grain of sand, a stone, a blade of grass, a tree, a false god, or a mortal... in my eyes, they all constitute this world equally. If one party attempts to dominate the other and destroy the foundation of the world's balance, can't I disobey the order of my mother and execute it in the name of Tiantis? Don't forget, Alice, besides being a guardian, what is my other identity?"

Real girl Tiandis, the guardian of the world and——

"arbiter."

……

Seeing that Alice seemed to be speechless, Tiandis raised her thin eyebrows, retracted her gaze, and prepared to continue her work. She was very busy, unlike Alice, who always had time to think about some messy things. Tiandis believed that if Alice was willing to focus on her job, then she would not need to spend so much time explaining the simple and easy-to-understand principles just now.

Unfortunately, this is impossible.

Because she is a fantasy girl queen, when her mother created her, she gave her the most romantic fantasy and the most incredible miracle. However, another meaning of fantasy and miracle is instability. This instability is destined to make her unable to bear overly complicated and cruel work. Perhaps this is the reason why her mother created her.

There are always some people who need to face reality, while others can indulge in their own fantasies and live in comfort.

Tiantis laughed at himself in his heart and quickly put the thought behind him.

"I think……"

Suddenly, Alice's voice came in a low but firm voice, causing her to stiffen for a moment as she turned back: "I've thought a lot, Tiantis, maybe what you said makes sense, but I still feel that we can't solve the problem this way, right?"

Should have guessed it.

This guy is much more stubborn than I thought.

Tiantis sighed silently, then turned around and glanced at her coldly: "Are you still going to protect those mortals, Alice?"

"This is not favoritism. I just think that we should use a more gentle method to solve the problem. If we rely on war, natural disasters, or even famine and plague to control the population and maintain the stability of the magic circulation system, then what is the difference between that and us killing people directly? Killing one person is wrong, and killing tens of millions is even more wrong. I don't think mother will agree with this method, Tiantis." Alice persuaded earnestly, her eyes full of sincerity, which made Tiantis fall silent.

Perhaps she was indeed too naive and too weak, but at least there was one thing she said right in that passage, which was the attitude of the goddess. It was precisely because she knew that the goddess would never agree with this approach that when “He” was still in Eden, Tiantis never showed any radical thoughts, and only changed her previous attitude after “He” left.

When the goddess was still alive, she could suppress those mortals with her prestige, so that they dared not cross the line; after the goddess left, even the borers on the big trees began to call themselves gods. This change was once the most contemptuous thing about mortals by Tiantis, but she changed her mind and felt that she was no different from those mortals: Wasn't her nature also suppressed by her mother, and she dared to release her nature only after her mother left?

It's just that the nature of mortals is greed and desire, while her nature is absolutely cold and harsh.

Treat everything ruthlessly, and strictly draw boundaries for them. If you violate this boundary, you violate reality, and reality is different from fantasy. Fantasy always indulges in tenderness, hoping that creatures can change their will and restrain their desires; while reality will ruthlessly wipe out those conceited rebels, using their corpses to prove that their value to the world is neither as great as they think, nor as small as those who complain about themselves think.

Not only is this how she treats mortals, perhaps this is also how she treats herself and those close to her.

"So, what do you want to do?" Tiantis turned around, raised his head slightly, and looked down at Alice's eyes, looking for a trace of hesitation in the depths of her crimson eyes, but found nothing: "Are you going to fight me for those mortals? I don't care much, but Alice, are you sure you can beat me?"

"Well!"

Alice couldn't help but hesitate, and then an embarrassed look appeared on her face: "No, don't say it so seriously, Tiantis, I don't want to fight with you. It's just that mother had anticipated this situation a long time ago, so didn't she prepare measures in advance?"

"Oh, you mean?"

Tiantis's eyes flickered, and then the two of them raised their heads at the same time, looking at a silver-haired girl in the air who had been silent and had a low sense of presence as a bystander.

Heaven: “…”

Although the goddess did say before she left that as an observer, she could make a decision from a third party's perspective when the positions of the real kingship and the fantasy kingship conflicted, and both parties had to accept the decision regardless of whether it was in line with their wishes, which could be said to have given her a lot of autonomy. But the problem was that more than two thousand years had passed, and she had never exercised this right.

And today, has the conflict finally reached the point where it has to erupt?

"It's up to you to make the judgment, Tianjie." Alice looked at her with sparkling eyes, her eyes full of expectation and encouragement: "At this time, it's your turn as an observer to step forward. This is what your mother expects of you!"

"I think you are confused, Alice." Tiantis laughed at her mercilessly: "Don't forget, Tianjie has always been assisting me in my work. She even sorted out these materials and data for me personally. Don't you think she doesn't know about this?"

If it weren't for the tacit attitude, how could the heavens assist Tiantis in carrying out this work?
"How, how come this!"

Alice was struck by lightning and could not accept this fact. She immediately cast an inquiring gaze towards Tianjie, but the latter's gaze did not change, as if she acquiesced to this matter. Because the fact was exactly as Tiantis said, when she explained the necessity of this work to Tianjie, the girl only took one tenth of a second to pass the order and defined it as necessary work. As for why Alice was not notified, it was entirely because this matter had nothing to do with her. The girl's royal power also needs to be clearly divided into rights and responsibilities, otherwise it will be like today, confused.

The attitude of the heavens implicitly explained something. Alice bit her lower lip unwillingly, slowly lowered her head, and her whole body exuded a depressed aura.

Tianjie couldn't help but look at her, his eyes were as calm as ever, but deeper in those eyes there were some complex and profound emotions buried, as if he was recalling something from the past.

As the control core of the Heavenly Temple created by the goddess, she has always stayed here since her birth. She has no concept of the passage of time, and she is not aware of the difference between the past and the future. However, when she retrieved that memory from the database in her brain, she still felt a faint sense of nostalgia and strangeness, as if for her, this past happened not only two thousand years ago, but even longer ago. When she was still sleeping in the void and could not feel anyone's breath, someone gently said to her: "You should wake up."

"skyline."

That was the first time her destiny was born and the first time it was changed.

Give me some meow