Chapter 429: Chapter 431: Burning Ashes Chapter 429: Chapter 431: Burning Ashes The fog was dissipating.
For the first ti since the battle had begun, the dense fog that had entrenched itself over the Frost waters began to thin out—around “Sea Mist,” toward Frost, from the sea’s surface to the skies above, all the fog was receding at a visible rate. The all-encompassing gloom was retreating, gradually clearing the entire sea area.
On the now-clearing sea surface, one could see ships still ablaze, the bizarrely shaped counterfeit fleet, along with countless pieces of wreckage and burning fat bobbing with the waves.
Thick smoke billowed, spreading over the sea as the fog withdrew.
First Mate Aiden was the first to rush to the window, staring out at the sea where the fog was fading. It took him a long while before he finally shouted, “The fog is receding! Captain! The fog is receding!”
“I can see,” Tyrion quickly joined him at the window, but the solemnity in his one eye did not fade with the dispersal of the fog, “It’s gone.. really gone?”
“Isn’t that a good thing, Captain?” Aiden imdiately noticed sothing off in Tyrion’s tone and turned his head in confusion, “The fog is gone, which ans that the abnormal force occupying Frost…”
“No, sothing’s off,” Tyrion interrupted his first mate sternly. He stared fixedly at the far-off seascape, his gaze growing sharper, “The fog has cleared, but those ghost ships are still there, and the sea…”
“The sea?” Aiden frowned in confusion, turning to look at the distance. The next second, he involuntarily gasped in a breath of cool air.
Just as the captain had said, sothing was amiss—the counterfeit fleet showed no signs of dissipating, and new ghost ships were erging from the waters, and during this process, the entire sea area was gradually growing darker!
Stretching across the sea was the spread of vast patches of black. In the darkness, sothing was expanding, and countless shadowy entities were approaching the water’s surface, a scene… as if sothing trendously large or a swarm was rising from the depths!
“Damn it…”
Aiden muttered under his breath unintentionally, but before he could finish, a series of loud booms suddenly shattered the brief calm that followed the dispersal of the fog.
The nearby waters cracked open, huge ships erged onto the surface—so appeared as wrecks, others twisted like specters, and more carried a deceptive air of familiarity—as if every single one of the counterfeit vessels surged forth from the suddenly darkened ocean!
“Look out! Enemy ships appearing! Enemy ships… everywhere!”
A sailor shouted in fear, the close-defense guns at the deck’s edge roaring into action. The booming of the cannons nearly simultaneously echoed across the sea, with shells whistling through the air and great columns of water and explosions of fire once again covering the sea.
Amidst this sudden great upheaval and chaos, Tyrion still kept his eyes on the sea, watching the enemies erging one after another from the depths.
He recognized so of them—his soldiers did as well.
“It’s the ‘Knight’! The very ‘Knight’ we sank at the start!”
“The ‘Black Flag Soldier’! Sunk fifteen minutes ago, and it has reappeared!”
“The ‘Courage’! The ‘Prince Joton’ as well!”
“Captain!” First Mate Aiden’s voice reached Tyrion, carrying a panic he never had before, “All of the counterfeit fleet… those we destroyed… they’ve all reappeared!”
Tyrion opened his mouth to say sothing, but a voice suddenly erged in his mind, “…This is quite normal, for the root of the ‘mirror’ is still there.”
“Father?!” Tyrion exclaid, instinctively looking around for sothing that could produce a mirror, “Are you… now…”
“Don’t hurry, Tyrion—the timing is just right.”
Tyrion quickly composed himself while signaling Aiden to command the battle and ntally replied swiftly, “What do you need to do?”
…
anwhile, at the sa ti as the fog was gradually clearing at sea, the dense fog enshrouding Frost City-State was also dissipating—yet, just like the situation at sea, the lifting of the fog did not signify the end of the crisis.
The mirror was still rising, another even more terrifying Frost City-State was gradually overlaying onto reality.
Still fighting, the City-State Guards had erected barricades on the streets, holding off countless monsters that seed to appear out of nowhere. The booming of guns shook the city, the once peace and safety had long been utterly shattered, gunsmoke spread on every street, soiled mud and gradually cooling blood soaked the city, while more twisted spectacles continued to cover everything.
“Commander, they are everywhere!”
Before the fireplace at the street corner, a group of City-State Guards, previously trapped in the fog, relied on the firepower of the steam walkers to sweep the newly appeared monsters on the streets. The troops had no ti to cheer the dissipating fog as they were dragged into a new, fierce battle by even more monsters and terrifying phenona.
“Open fire everywhere!” the squad commander roared, firing into the distance as he charged under the steam walker, rushing to the communicator’s side, “Can you contact the other squads?”
“Team Seven, Team Six, and Team Four are still out of contact!” the communicator yelled, “Nearly a quarter of the squads have disappeared in the previous dense fog, sir!”
“Keep calling until soone responds or the reinforcents arrive,” the commander patted the communicator’s helt, turning his head to look into the distance, “The mist has cleared, hold on, the situation is changing — this might be the final assault!”
The steam walker’s machine gun turret emitted continuous thunderous noises, tearing another steam walker in the distance to shreds. As the massive machine thunderously fell, large quantities of filthy mud spewed out of its chanical bay, splashing onto the streets like horrific innards.
The warriors gathered their courage once again — or perhaps it was just numbness driving their extrely weary bodies, the commander uttered encouraging words he didn’t believe himself, and looked up into the distance.
He saw two Silent Sanctums standing tall on the mountain top, the terrain on the side of the City-State strangely curled upwards, massive and unfamiliar clusters of buildings gradually rising from the city, with layered buildings covering the familiar streets overhead, and twisted, leaning towers spreading out from the distant structures, like abominable bone growths sprouting from a giant, stretching and growing in the sky.
Countless amounts of mud flowed out from those elevated buildings, rushing down as if to swallow the entire city.
“Lord of Death…” At the highest point of the Silent Sanctum, Bishop Ivan overlooking the City-State, gradually twisting and being devoured by massive apparitions, finally couldn’t help but quietly speak, “Is today the day it ends…”
He looked into the distance, but could only see the vast darkness rising from all directions, the city hall on the opposite mountain top now shrouded in strange thorns at so point. Among the thorns stood another Silent Sanctum, and at the foot of the mountain, an array of buildings wobbled and heaved upward, the houses appearing chilling like the limbs of soft-bodied creatures.
Outside the City-State, the entire sea surface was gradually being covered by an ominous blackness, the darkness like a huge mirror, but reflecting another Frost City-State in its mirror, watched through a curved mirror observing another world, the mirrored “Frost” appeared distorted, chaotic, filled with illusory errors, riddled with pitch-black writhing malice.
The giant mirrored city was rising from the deep sea, simultaneously corroding everything from reality and illusion.
“Archbishop!” A high-ranking assistant rushed from the balcony’s door, running to behind Bishop Ivan, “The last reserve troops have fully assembled, the Silent monks and guardians will protect the Sanctum until the final mont!”
“Has Agatha not returned?”
“We still can’t contact the gatekeeper, Your Excellency,” the high-ranking assistant spoke hurriedly, “The exploration team that went down the well with her reported that the gatekeeper vanished after entering a strange stone wall — the mine is now being consud by darkness, I’m afraid…”
“The gatekeeper won’t easily fall, Agatha will complete her mission… she must complete it.” Bishop Ivan said calmly.
The high-ranking assistant hesitated, “Archbishop, you should evacuate…”
“Evacuate? Hide in so safe sanctum prayer room? Or escape from the city by boat?” Bishop Ivan turned around, slowly shaking his head, “I don’t need to evacuate, I will stay here. Go and command the guardian forces at the foot of the mountain, move as many civilians as possible to the mountainside, hold out even it’s just for a mont longer.”
The high-ranking assistant hesitated for a few seconds, finally nodded firmly, “Yes, Archbishop!”
The high-ranking assistant left, leaving the elderly bishop alone on the balcony.
He raised his head, gazing at the other cathedral shrouded in thorns, resembling a shadow of the Silent Sanctum.
The cathedral was lifeless, with no clerical figures visible within.
It was just a reflection, its appearance, however, marked the mirrored Frost City-State’s “negative phase” had reached its final step.
“Agatha… you must still be sowhere continuing your mission…”
Bishop Ivan spoke softly, as if talking to himself, or perhaps gently cautioning soone he had lost contact with.
Slowly he raised his hand, unfastening the ornate robe that symbolized the Archbishop’s authority, and also removing his crown, placing it beside him on the railing.
“Then you ought to rember, Bartok’s saints, never stop until death…”
Beneath the ornate garnts and crown revealed layers of bandages. Ivan reached out feeling them and then bit by bit untied a knot near his neck.
“We battle the filth with flesh and blood, defended faith with our tireless shells after life ends, and when the shell also ends…”
The bandages were unbound, as if seals suppressing decades suddenly broke free, beneath the bandages was not a dismbered corporeal body — it had long ceased to exist.
Beneath was only pale ash.
“We still have searing ashes.”
The bandages fell, the ashes scattered from the edge of the balcony, transforming into fine white smoke, gradually shrouding the skies above Frost.
Reviews
All reviews (0)