Theus froze for a moment.
Monica said, "You said before that the ritual could still be performed, it just needed more than ten times the Pollution... Now that the main pipeline for the Stellar Furnace is almost finished, why don't we complete the ritual first and see what happens?"
Theus wanted to say that it might not help, but on second thought, there seemed to be no harm in trying. Humanity's allied forces could still hold on for now.
Maybe there really would be a change?
Perhaps revealing his secret had been the right choice. Putting their heads together might really uncover a way to break the deadlock.
Theus said, "The previous arrangements remain unchanged. Everyone will continue taking over the work I was responsible for. As for the ritual... let's give it a try."
Over the next few days, Castel devoted itself fully to preparing the ritual.
Stellar Furnaces across the world were completed one after another, but the opportunity for the next step was put on hold. The allied forces shifted from restraining the gods to tracking them, merely preventing them from approaching major cities.
Before long, Castel's main Pollution pipeline was rebuilt. Its current output of Pollution was nothing like before; the Sea God was clearly more than an order of magnitude stronger than the Pirate King.
Castel's newly constructed Stellar Furnace alone could supply more than half of humanity's energy needs. If they could truly defeat the gods, human civilization would undoubtedly undergo a tremendous leap forward.
Finally, on this day, Theus sat inside Nora's self-propelled artillery once more, ready to carry out the ritual.
"You could have stayed outside, actually. This is Castel. Nothing will go wrong," Nora said expressionlessly, casting him a glance.
"I've gotten used to sitting here. Think of it as a