After completing everything, Jay only had a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, appearing remarkably relaxed. But only he knew the immense effort he had poured into these past two weeks.
He had employed a Ritual Magic, whose effects far surpassed those of other spells of the same level. However, this magic required extensive preparation time. During the casting, the power consumed wasn't Jay's own Magic Power, but rather the accumulated power from the magical materials he had meticulously arranged during the preparation phase.
At this point, Jay said, "But... now that the Demon King's City is created, what about the Demon Lord?"
Jay could use this ninth-level Arcane spell to conjure an entire city, populate it with countless civilians, and erect Mage Towers whose scrolls functioned perfectly. But he couldn't conjure the Demon Lord himself.
After all, this was merely a ninth-level spell. It was like asking God to create a stone too heavy for Him to lift. Jay's ninth-level Arcane spell naturally had its limits: he couldn't conjure beings whose power exceeded Ninth-Level strength.
Well, this analogy might be a bit abstract. To put it simply, Jay's ninth-level Arcane spell was clearly at a "Beyond Legendary" level. Therefore, at best, he could only conjure a Phantom of a Legendary-grade individual.
More importantly, the vast majority of his spell's computational power was dedicated to fabricating the city and its inhabitants, leaving him with little remaining capacity to create a powerful warrior. Ultimately, Jay's magic could only conjure a battlefield; beyond that, he was powerless.
Tribios said, "Then of course it's me. After all, aren't I the Demon Lord those fools keep talking about? I'll just wait here for those so-called Heroes to come."
Jay asked, "And then what? You'll just stand there and let those Heroes kill you?"
After all, the Demon King's City was destroyed, and the Demon Lord was slain by the Heroes—that's part of history.
Tribios remained silent. She certainly wasn't afraid of death. Truth be told, this body was merely one of her many incarnations. Even if it perished, she wouldn't truly die; at worst, her consciousness would simply return to Cipher and Castorice.
Her greatest concern was that if she remained in this era until the final battle, the Twelve True Gods would almost certainly intervene to prevent her from further disrupting the timeline.
Jay spoke up, "Tribios, with your exceptionally long lifespan, you're better suited to leading our people after they escape and guiding our kingdom to continued prosperity. Guarding Demon King's City and playing the role of the Demon Lord should be entrusted to someone else."
"For instance..."
Before he could finish, Tribios abruptly opened a Century Gate and said, "I'm going to continue searching for a suitable relocation site. See you later."
With that, she swiftly entered the gate and vanished, leaving Jay to sigh helplessly. "Never mind. I'd better get back to work. There's still a mountain of Magic Circles to prepare."
Another month passed in the blink of an eye. As expected, Jay's exposure had dramatically accelerated the formation of the Allied Forces by the various nations.
The four kingdoms besides the Kingdom of Ukel each dispatched substantial main forces. These armies successfully converged within Ukel territory. Naturally, the Kingdom of Ukel immediately sent its own contingent to join them, thus completing the formal establishment of the Allied Forces.
Beyond the main forces of the five kingdoms, a multitude of smaller grand duchies had also sent contingents, ranging from a few hundred to a thousand soldiers each. While individually small, the combined forces from dozens or even a hundred of these grand duchies totaled nearly a hundred thousand troops.
Their reasons for sending troops were simple: the Demon Lord's defeat would undoubtedly be a historic event. Even sending a token force to pose as war correspondents and join the fray would be a worthwhile investment.
Some grand duchies sent troops purely to curry favor with the five kingdoms, hoping to convey the message: "Boss, see? I've sent reinforcements to support you. When you invade me next time, could you perhaps go a little easy on us?"
On the same day, after a month and a half of searching, Tribios finally discovered a hidden paradise!
On future maps, this location would lie in the southwesternmost corner of the Dragon Ember Empire, shrouded by a vast, unbroken chain of towering, craggy mountains. Yet when Tribios arrived, she found herself standing on a vast, open plain!
Tribios immediately opened the Century Gate and returned to the Grand Duchy of Augustus. She found Olivia and the others at once, shared the news, and took them to tour the vast plain.
Gazing at the endless expanse before her, Olivia couldn't help but marvel, "This place must be two or three times larger than our entire territory! It's truly magnificent..."
After a moment's pause, Olivia turned to Tribios with a gentle smile. "Little Trib, as you suggested before, let's name the Grand Duchy of Augustus's second city Okhema. And for the time being, I'm counting on you to continue looking after the Grand Duchy."
Tribios froze, taken aback. "Wait, Olivia, what exactly do you mean by that?"
Olivia replied calmly, "The most suitable candidate to remain at the Demon King's City and become the Demon Lord is undoubtedly me, isn't it?"
Tribios's first instinct was to glance at Jay, suspecting he had persuaded Olivia to make this decision. But Jay immediately raised his hands defensively, exclaiming, "I didn't say a word!"
Olivia shook her head. "I'm not stupid, you know. I can figure this out. If someone has to become the Demon Lord, it has to be me. Little Trib, you have so much life ahead of you. You're so smart and capable—you can lead the Grand Duchy of Augustus to even greater prosperity. But if it were me, I'd probably mess everything up."
"Actually, I..." Olivia paused after uttering just three words, then sighed. "If there's an afterlife, I hope I can meet you again in my next life..."
"There is," Jay interjected. "After death, souls can reincarnate, though the new you won't remember anything from this life."
Hearing this, Olivia's eyes lit up. "That's perfect! After all, you're so beautiful, Little Trib. Even if I don't remember our past, I'll still be drawn to you and find my way back to your side!"
Tribios opened her mouth to protest, but Olivia's words rang true. Her staying behind was the best choice, leaving Tribios at a loss for a rebuttal.
Olivia smiled. "Alright, alright, Little Trib, open the Century Gates and let everyone from the Grand Duchy of Augustus through. We're running out of time, aren't we?"
Everyone in the Grand Duchy of Augustus already knew about the relocation. Though many were reluctant to leave, under the immense authority of Olivia and Tribios, they had all obeyed the orders, packed their belongings, and were ready to depart.
But another problem arose: the Grand Duchy of Augustus was vastly overpopulated, with over a million residents!
Even using the Century Gates for the move would take a considerable amount of time. Could Tribios simply open a Century Gate large enough to encompass the entire Grand Duchy of Augustus and suck everyone in?
Setting aside the question of whether this would be a relocation or mass murder, the fact remained that Tribios couldn't open a Century Gate that large. Her only option was to open multiple portals, allowing the people of Augustus to evacuate in an orderly queue.
Furthermore, these multiple Century Gates couldn't be opened in the same location. Otherwise, even if Tribios could open a thousand gates simultaneously, everyone from the Grand Duchy of Augustus would still have to crowd into the same bottleneck, wasting precious time.
The best solution was to open Century Gates at regular intervals across the Grand Duchy of Augustus. Crucially, each gate couldn't lead to the same destination; otherwise, everyone would converge in one place, creating a bottleneck at the exit even if the entrance remained clear. The result would be no improvement in traffic flow.
However, maintaining a large number of Century Gates simultaneously across multiple locations placed a significant mental strain on Tribios.
Worse still, a momentary lapse in concentration could cause the gates to "cross-link." For example, if entrance A was originally supposed to connect to exit A, a momentary lapse by Tribios might accidentally link entrance A to exit B, leading to further congestion.
This was akin to wiring a circuit: the entrances and exits were like the two ends of a circuit. When dealing with a complex circuit with numerous connections, mistakes were inevitable.
Ultimately, Tribios settled on maintaining exactly one hundred Century Gates. She now felt as if she were juggling a hundred tasks simultaneously, and any more would truly push her beyond her limits.
This was only possible because Tribios had long been accustomed to multitasking and possessed an intimate understanding of her current body, along with exceptional proficiency in wielding divine power. Had she attempted this at the beginning of her transmigration or when she first acquired this body, opening so many Century Gates simultaneously would have been utterly beyond her capabilities.
Once Tribios had deployed Century Gates throughout the Grand Duchy of Augustus, the citizens began evacuating in an orderly fashion. After an hour of continuous evacuation, Tribios calculated the number of evacuees during that time. Based on this estimate, even with 24-hour continuous evacuation, it would still take at least twenty days to evacuate Augustus's one million inhabitants!
"This won't work! We're running out of time!" Upon receiving this data, Jay frowned and opened a map, pointing to a specific location. "The Allied Forces are already massing at the front lines of the Kingdom of Ukel and could move out at any moment. If they advance directly towards us, they could reach Augustus in as little as fifteen to seventeen days!"
Although Duchess Witch's Hat had spent months searching for the Grand Duchy of Augustus, that was because she lacked precise coordinates and had to rely on guesswork. Now that the exact location of Augustus was known, the Allied Forces could chart the most efficient route, drastically reducing travel time.
We absolutely can't let the Allied Forces see the people of the Grand Duchy of Augustus evacuating through the Century Gate, or our entire plan will be ruined!
Olivia gasped, "This... What do we do?"
Jay said, "What else can we do? We have to intercept the Allied Forces. We need to hold them off for at least three days, but ideally five. They absolutely cannot reach this place before all the civilians from the Grand Duchy of Augustus have evacuated!"
Olivia countered, "But we only have 15,000 soldiers. How can we possibly hold off so many enemies for three, let alone five, days?"
Jay shook his head, his eyes fixed on the map. "No, we don't need the 15,000 soldiers. I can handle this myself."
"If they want to avoid the mountains and forests and travel from the Kingdom of Ukel to the Grand Duchy of Augustus, there are only two shortest routes."
Jay pointed to two locations on the map. One was a vast plain, while the other was a treacherous mountain pass between two cliffs.
Jay pointed to the plain. "I can set up a Magic Circle there in time. We can use Phantoms to simulate a massive army and stage a decisive battle to stall them! But there's another option..."
Before Jay could finish, Tide, who was also present, spoke in a low, muffled voice, "I'll stop them."
Jay hesitated. "Can you really stop them?"
Tide had previously charged into the Kingdom of Green Eagle's camp alone, captured their general alive, and brought him back. He was undeniably formidable, but offense and defense were different matters entirely.
In response to Jay's doubt, Tide repeated in the same low, muffled voice, "I will stop them."
Jay scratched his head. "Hey, I spent ages mentally preparing, carefully selecting the battlefield for our decisive battle, and even preparing the Magic Circle in advance. After all that, I finally dared to suggest stalling them, and you just casually drop that line? It makes me look so... inferior!"
This time, Tide spoke with a bit more conviction. "I promised Olivia I would protect her and this nation. Barbarians never break their oaths. No matter what, I will stop them."
"Ahem, that's more like it!" Jay chuckled, then pulled a thick stack of scrolls from his backpack and handed them to Tribios. "In that case, we all have our missions. Olivia will become the Demon Lord, Tide and I will intercept the Allied Forces."
"As for you, Tribios, you'll maintain the Century Gate for twenty days, guiding everyone away from here to establish a new homeland. This scroll contains my magic. Once all the Augustan civilians are in position, tear it open to conjure a massive phantom mountain range."
Tribios could see a deep weariness etched on Jay's face as he spoke. The dark circles under his eyes were particularly pronounced, as if he hadn't rested in ages. And it seemed he still wouldn't have time to rest.