For all these reasons, the absurd proposal to stuff rare metals inside Shrek City's walls-which sounded like tiling both banks of a river-ultimately won the unanimous approval of the Elders.
Maybe some fool really would attack Shrek City, right?
"Star Dou Forest is flexing its muscles at us at Shrek, and at the entire human world."
"What, does it think that because the continent is in turmoil, it can follow suit and grab a slice of the pie?"
Inside Shrek City's walls, in a space as large as a conference auditorium, some of the supplies originally stored there had been moved away, replaced by all manner of illuminated large screens. Over a hundred deployed High-Altitude Detectors laid the situation throughout Star Dou Forest bare.
The Sea God Pavilion had no space large enough to hold all this equipment at once, so this supply depot inside Shrek City's South City Wall had become Shrek Academy's de facto Staff Headquarters.
In any case, practically everyone seated there was one of Shrek's pavilion elders, so there was no fear of the Staff Headquarters being wiped out in one fell swoop outside. As such, no one present actually worried about that possibility.
Elder Song, for instance, was watching the images on the display screens, her attention focused entirely on the beast tide.
On the distant horizon, dull thunder rumbled, and the sky outside was darkening at an astonishing speed.
From atop Shrek City's walls, they could only vaguely make out a dark line along the horizon, but inside the Staff Headquarters, where images from the High-Altitude Detectors were transmitted in real time, the scene was already fully visible.
The sky over northern Star Dou Forest was darkening, and rapidly at that. Yet there was something distinctly unnatural about it.
If it were merely a