"If that’s her na."
The cultist softly relayed the words of the twisted figure.
"Where is she?"
"Bring back Elena, and I’ll tell you where she’s gone."
"You said the sa thing when we went to the library ruins," Katerina suddenly spoke.
"I’m sorry for what happened before."
The cultist bowed his head in apology.
"Pay us first, then we’ll help you," Katerina added.
"If I do that, you’ll leave imdiately."
Katerina stopped talking; that was indeed what she intended.
"We’re just ordinary people," Lu Li repeated once more.
"The Prophet believes you can."
Compared to Lu Li and his group, the twisted figure had more faith in the Eternal Drear from the other side of the library.
"I hope he’s right."
Lu Li decided to accept the twisted figure’s deal and asked about the situation in the Land of Vortex.
Twenty-four years ago, after the Vortex Church failed to summon their god, the church collapsed, the cultists either converted or were devoured, leaving only the Land of Vortex with residual twisted power.
After all, it was once influenced by the Evil God, and coupled with the Ruins of Belfast being vast, there was no need for the bizarre to consu energy to occupy the twisted land—it has always existed.
Over ti, so with nowhere to go began to flee into the Land of Vortex. Most were survivors, while a few were weak anomalies and so entered accidentally.
Such as avoiding dangers and hunting prey.
The remnant Evil God power still twists the land, and those who step in will have their bodies vortex over ti. When the transformation is sufficiently significant, the polluted intruders will never be able to leave the Land of Vortex.
It’s not just the body that vortexes, but the mind too.
At the beginning of the change, those entering the Land of Vortex might still want to leave and could successfully do so. But as vortex characteristics erge, what was originally several city blocks in diater will stretch infinitely; the twisted power imposed by the land makes it impossible for the entrant to leave until the vortexing intensifies, assimilating them into a resident who no longer wishes to leave.
In so sense, it’s a haven within the Ruins of Belfast. The residents won’t leave the Land of Vortex to start wars, and there is no fighting or killing inside, except the twist itself.
Before Lu Li asked "how to get out of there," two pendants, constantly reshaping, breaking, and folding like multi-faced polished crystals, floated from the silhouette of the twisted figure, delivered by the cultist to Lu Li.
"They will shield you from the land’s power as long as you carry them."
Lu Li pocketed the two crystalline pendants, which possessed an obscure power and could be destroyed with a touch of his left hand.
"How do I find Elena, is she still alive?"
"I can feel my sister is still alive... She has a stronger pendant, protecting her from the power’s erosion... The pendants will allow you to sense her. The closer you are, the stronger the sensation."
"If the pendant protects her, why doesn’t she co out?"
"I don’t know."
The landscape of the Land of Vortex cannot be glimpsed. Eternal mist blankets the area, and unless one enters or destroys it, no one knows what’s inside.
"Why don’t you go in yourselves?"
"The Evil God’s power infiltration runs deep. Our entering would trigger a confrontation with the remnant power, accelerating corrosion; only humans are unaffected."
Thus, the twisted figure only gave two pendants, corresponding to the only two humans, Lu Li and Katerina.
This also prevents Puxiu and the new companion Ophelia from joining in.
"What should we watch out for?" Lu Li asked.
The cultist gently replied, "The pendant’s power will last only one day. Make haste, find Elena, and bring her back."
"Why don’t you give us stronger pendants?"
Katerina frowned, the countdown of just one day unsettled her. If delayed for so trouble too long in the Land of Vortex, they might never get out.
"That would consu too much of the essence..."
Ending the questions, Lu Li and his group left the church, preparing to enter the Land of Vortex.
The twisted figure gradually dissipated, and "Saint Elena" reappeared on the throne, gently leaning, watching the group depart through the church gates.
mbers of the Twisted Church escorted Lu Li and his group to the edge of the Land of Vortex, with enough food and water for a day’s consumption.
"Ophelia, how do you maintain your sanity?"
Lu Li asked the blackened human form, wearing the pendant.
Katerina hesitated before taking the remaining pendant, slipping it around her pale neck, hidden under her leather armor.
She had no reason to let Lu Li go alone.
"Obsession... Knowledge. I love those books..."
Ophelia’s raspy voice suddenly beca excited and urgent: "How... do you... know my... na...!"
"I explored the basent during the Old Era, you almost found ."
Lu Li also tucked the pendant into his shirt.
"You are... the intruder... from then..." Ophelia rembered the events that happened.
The Prophet’s prophecy is an interesting thing.
He said Lu Li would et familiar people here, and it turned out to be true. And not just one, but three.
As for the so-called "not a bad ending," one can only hope.
Puxiu and Ophelia would follow Lu Li to the edge of the Land of Vortex, still escorted by the Tentacle Cultist.
In understanding that the Twisted Church is the Pan-Church, more of a gathering place than a church, Lu Li also learned it wasn’t a follower of the twisted figure.
It and so cultists with marine characteristics worshipped another entity, receiving protection from the twisted figure while spreading their faith in the gathering place, although they struggled to compete with the twisted figure.
A team of eight cultists and resentful spirits escorted them across half a city district’s ruins to the front of the Land of Vortex, which devoured the Oak Forest and surrounding blocks.
The cultists and Puxiu, along with Ophelia, stayed back as Lu Li and Katerina stepped into the pervasive mist.
The swirling fog hovered closely around, their visibility limited to barely a dozen ters and narrowing to just a few as they ventured further.
From the outside, the mist didn’t seem so dense; Puxiu could even make out the vortex outline from Seaview Cliff.
Lu Li and Katerina stayed close, avoiding getting separated in the fog.
Walking quietly for hundreds of ters, the thick mist gradually receded as they left the billowing fog range.
The surrounding mist beca thinner, then the ground shifted from cobblestone to dirt. After covering so distance, the thin mist faded away, unveiling the inside of the Land of Vortex.
Whirlwind clouds descended like chasms in the low sky, surrounding forests and tree trunks filled with spiral shell-like patterns, overlooking the foothills where interconnected houses ford extensive long houses, nesting in circles like a massive vortex on the ocean’s surface.
The sight before them seed like a swirling world drawn by an abstract artist or a child doodling out of boredom.
Magnificent and eerie.
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