Putting aside Shiroyasha's inner mutterings, after the Halloween Queen's frank declaration, the three parties formally signed a contract and became allies.
The Halloween Queen's reason for being an enemy of the pantheons was hatred. Shiroyasha's reason was to protect Little Garden. Su Mo's reason was a conflict of paths. All three had sufficient reason to maintain the same position.
After signing the alliance contract, the Halloween Queen looked at Su Mo.
"According to Shiroyasha, it was your idea to form an alliance with me, correct?"
"Mm," Su Mo nodded.
"Then do you have any plans for what's next? We can't just sit around and wait for the final Last Embryo of humanity to appear, can we?" the Halloween Queen continued to ask.
The incident of the Knights of Avalon's destruction had always been a thorn in her side. She had tried to investigate, but had found no information. Now that she finally had teammates, if they still couldn't find any clues, wouldn't she have formed an alliance for nothing?
Su Mo had anticipated the Halloween Queen's worries.
"Of course! Before we solve the problem, we at least need to know who the mastermind behind the scenes is."
In the original work, it was never revealed who the Devil King who had repeatedly attacked the Arcadia Alliance was, only slightly hinted at. Therefore, Su Mo was also quite interested in the mastermind behind the Devil King alliance. Even if he had already guessed a few possibilities, actually verifying them would be a bit of fun.
"You've found a clue?"
Shiroyasha's eyes widened, and the Halloween Queen also cast a very concerned gaze.
"Not yet, of course," Su Mo shook his head, but his expression was very relaxed. "However, there is a way to make the mastermind jump out on their own."
"How?" Shiroyasha asked curiously.
"Think about it. Why were the mastermind's actions so clean that even the great demon Laplace, who had mastered the domain of omniscience, couldn't find any traces, and even the Halloween Queen couldn't find any clues for so many years?" Su Mo asked in return.
"Because... the enemy's Gift is very special, they were well-prepared, and their forces are too powerful, so we can't find any flaws?" Shiroyasha blinked, giving a reason that she herself didn't find very reliable.
"No..."
On the side, hearing Su Mo's question, the Halloween Queen shook her head.
"To be able to keep it a secret to this extent is not just because of ability. It's more likely because they don't dare to reveal their name, for fear of being condemned by everyone... Fear. They are afraid!"
Thanks to the Halloween Queen, the Knights of Avalon had been very famous in both Little Garden and the outside world for many years. As the only existence that dared to confront the Dystopia Devil King head-on, all the communities in the Arcadia Grand Alliance were highly regarded in the lower and middle floors of Little Garden.
A great reputation and high attention meant that even the pantheons could not do as they pleased. This was also a protective umbrella for them. Once the mastermind's actions were exposed, even the top-tier pantheons would suffer a huge blow. Not to mention a crisis of faith, the questioning from other pantheons would be fatal enough. The pantheons themselves had never been a monolith.
"That's right! So what we need to do is to use this fear," Su Mo nodded, revealing his thoughts.
"Use this fear?" Shiroyasha tilted her head, not quite understanding Su Mo's meaning.
The Halloween Queen showed a thoughtful expression, but she also didn't grasp the key.
Seeing the two of them thinking hard, Su Mo didn't keep them in suspense, but said frankly, "What do you think, for someone who has done something shameful, is there anything that can stimulate them to the greatest extent and force them to expose themselves in a panic?"
"Of course, it's to lay out the ugly things they've done in the open!" the Halloween Queen answered immediately. The more they feared, the more they wanted to cover it up. When the covered-up truth was revealed, the more they would lose their calm judgment.
"But how do we do that? If it's just evidence, they won't take the bait so easily!" The Halloween Queen had had similar ideas, but she knew that it was very difficult to make the mastermind break down.
"If evidence won't work, how about a witness?" Su Mo suddenly said. "If the victim from that time were to appear, and the victim happened to know the truth of the attack... what do you think? Is that enough to startle the snake out of its grass?"
"A victim?" Shiroyasha was slightly taken aback, not knowing what Su Mo meant. Weren't all the victims of the attack dead? How could they appear to testify?
Before she could react, with a flash of light, Su Mo summoned his personal attendant to this world.
"Master!"
After the blonde ahoge king appeared, she immediately stood beside Su Mo, her holy blue-green eyes curiously sizing up the two people in the room and this unfamiliar world. She was already used to traveling between worlds.
"This... this spiritual rank... you are, Arthur?!" Looking at Artoria, her eyes were filled with shock, nostalgia, and a hint of loss.
"Excuse me... who are you?" Looking at the unfamiliar young woman before her, Artoria asked in confusion.
"..."
Noticing the other party's unfamiliar gaze, the Queen fell silent for a moment. She knew that the young woman before her was not her former subordinate. Both her gender and personality were a bit off. But as the head of the Celtic pantheon, she would never mistake Artoria's spiritual rank.
The young woman before her was the leader of the Knights of Avalon, King Arthur.
She had once had high hopes for this subordinate, believing that she could, together with the allies of Arcadia, defeat the Dystopia Devil King and revive the Celtic pantheon. But all hope and trust were severed on the night before the subjugation. If she remembered correctly, she had fallen on the eve of the final battle, along with the other members of the knightly order.
Even if the one before her was also the real King Arthur, she was definitely not the child she had watched and nurtured.
So, after a few seconds of silence, she finally spoke. "I am the Halloween Queen. You may call me Queen."
"..." Hearing this, Artoria looked up at Su Mo. Only after seeing Su Mo nod did she accept this form of address. "Greetings, Your Majesty the Queen. I am my Master's Servant, named Artoria Pendragon."
"Mm, good child. I'll give you a meeting gift later," the Halloween Queen showed a rare smile, her tone toward Artoria exceptionally gentle.
After speaking, she looked up at Su Mo, finally guessing his thoughts.
"Lord Su Mo, are you planning to have this child come forward to stir up trouble, attract the mastermind's attention, and thus smoke out the enemy behind the scenes?" With her intelligence, it was naturally not difficult for her to guess Su Mo's plan.
"That's right," Su Mo nodded slightly. "A hero who should have been killed by a Devil King controlled by the pantheons suddenly appears in Little Garden. At this time, whose reaction will be the greatest?"
"Brilliant!"
Now that things had reached this point, even Shiroyasha understood Su Mo's plan.
"At this time, the ones who will be most anxious will definitely be those masterminds. They will worry whether this survivor will say something that shouldn't be said."
"So, at that time, we just need to observe the movements of the pantheons to know who is guilty!"
The white-haired loli became more and more excited as she thought about it, almost thinking that the enemy's identity was within their grasp.
Just then—
"No!"
The Halloween Queen shook her head, expressing her lack of optimism.
"If it's just King Arthur's return, the mastermind might not make a move immediately. They might think that I summoned King Arthur again. If so, they will only choose to wait and see."
As mentioned before, the Halloween Queen could summon any existence from the Celtic pantheon. This naturally included the completely wiped out Knights of Avalon, and also King Arthur. However, after the existing gods had died in battle, the individuals summoned through mythology, although they had the same spiritual rank as the original, did not have the same memories and were not the same person at all.
This was the reason why the Halloween Queen herself had never used this trick. The newly summoned King Arthur would be a brand new knight, without any memory of the attack, and would naturally be unable to identify the culprit. As long as they knew this, the mastermind would not have an overreaction. Su Mo's strategy would naturally be ineffective.
"It won't even work with this?" Shiroyasha's eyes widened, feeling it was a great pity. "Then isn't this move completely useless?"
As long as the pantheons thought that Artoria was a new King Arthur summoned by the Halloween Queen, they would most likely not take the risk, and it would be very difficult to distinguish who the mastermind was.
"Generally speaking, it would seem so," hearing their words, Su Mo shook his head slightly. "But what if we change it a little, and make the pantheons think that this King Arthur could absolutely not have been summoned by the Queen?"
"Change it a little? Make it so King Arthur absolutely couldn't have been summoned by the Queen? How is that possible!" Shiroyasha scratched her head, unable to think of how Su Mo could do that.
The Halloween Queen's gaze was also a little puzzled, not knowing what to do.
"It's actually very simple..." Su Mo smiled slightly.