Chapter 402: Pervasion

This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation.com

Since joining the ship, Nina had become adept at handling the various challenges that arose during her studies. These obstacles were varied and complex, including apparitions from the spirit realm casting eerie shadows, sporadic appearances of terrifying abyssal shadow demons, and even inconsistencies in her textbooks. Her rigorous training had significantly improved her control over her magical abilities.

As evidence of her growing skills, Nina had mastered a kick so powerful that it reached temperatures of 6000 degrees Celsius. Yet, she could control the heat so precisely that nearby items, like beddings, remained unaffected.

One memorable incident involved a blinding flash of light filling the room—a manifestation of Nina’s power. Under its glare, a shadow demon was instantly reduced to dust. The intense light obliterated it completely, leaving no sign of charring or any burnt smell. Instead, the room was filled with the comforting scent of beddings warmed by the sun’s rays.

The last remaining dark hound, a creature conjured from one of Nina’s textbooks, stood confused in the center of the room. Even for a being driven by chaos and pure instinct, the sudden disappearance of its companions was baffling. Facing it were Dog, growling under Shirley’s control, and Nina, walking steadily towards it, glowing as fiercely as the midday sun.

As Nina approached, the shadow demon turned to face her, meeting her blinding gaze. The hound ignited, consumed by the ancient and raw power of the sun.

Shirley, who had never seen Nina angry before, was utterly taken aback. She had always considered Nina to be eternally cheerful, never displaying anger. However, her assumption was wrong—Nina was furious, and the intensity of her anger was as awe-inspiring as the sunrise. Despite Nina’s efforts to control her rage, the blazing light emanating from her suggested a force powerful enough to incinerate a soul.

As Shirley’s unease grew and she was about to intervene, Nina finally voiced her outrage. Flames flickered at the corners of her mouth as she spoke, her voice echoing like thunder, “My homework! My papers! My reference books! And even Shirley’s homework! These demons have torn them all to pieces!”

Nina’s anger paralyzed the demon with fear, while Shirley, struggling to suppress her laughter, stuttered, “Really? My homework’s gone too?”

Realizing the situation wasn’t a time for laughter, Shirley tried to intervene before Nina could retaliate further, “Wait, wait! Leave this demon alone! Dog has a question for it!”

Nina, already in mid-swing to kick the demon, halted at Shirley’s plea and turned to her friend, “What could we possibly ask? Isn’t it just another shadow demon that’s been interfering with our studies? We’ve dealt with plenty of them already on the ship…”

“But it’s daylight now!” Shirley exclaimed urgently.

Nina hesitated for a moment, then realization hit her.

Despite the heavy mist making the sky as somber as twilight, it was technically daytime—a time when Vision 001 still maintained its protective veil over the world.

During these hours, the city-state was safe from intrusion, and their study sessions wouldn’t typically attract shadowy entities. So, what was causing these shadow demons to emerge now?

With a burning intensity of 6000 degrees Celsius, Nina’s penetrating gaze fell upon the last remaining dark hound.

The demon, finding itself in the direct path of Nina’s solar brilliance, began to smoke as the heat started to consume its bones. It thrashed around, attempting to create a dimensional rift to escape back into the abyss. However, this instinctive response was quickly quashed by Dog, who interrupted the portal that had begun to form.

“Can you extract any information from it?” Nina asked Dog, pulling back some of her overwhelming power. “You’ve said before that standard shadow demons lack intelligence and can’t communicate, right?”

“Creatures without intellect remain so, but sometimes you can find fragments of memories in their chaotic minds,” Dog responded, shaking his head, likely from his recent clash with the other dark hound. “Don’t worry, shadow demons have their own ‘language’.”

“What kind of communication methods?” Nina and Shirley both asked, curiosity piqued.

“…They’re rather unpleasant,” Dog muttered, cautiously approaching the immobilized dark hound, which had stopped struggling under Nina’s blazing gaze. He cast a look at Shirley, “Close your eyes, Shirley.”

After a moment of hesitation, Shirley followed his instruction and shut her eyes tightly.

A brief growl, a scuffle, and then the gruesome sound of bones being torn apart, crushed, and chewed echoed through the room. The demon’s desperate struggle was short-lived.

A while later, Shirley cautiously opened her eyes. All that was left at the center of the room was a small pile of rapidly disintegrating black dust. Dog stood beside the remains, while Nina stood a bit taken aback on the opposite side. The brilliant aura around her took a few moments to fade as she exclaimed, “Wow!”

Shirley pieced together what had happened while her eyes were closed. She gave Dog a complicated look: “Actually… I didn’t…”

“You’d have nightmares, I know you,” Dog shook his head, then ground his teeth and spat out distastefully, “Ugh.”

“Did you break a tooth?”

“Chewing on an uneducated demon is like gnawing on a stone. You can’t extract a coherent sentence from it despite its peculiar desire for knowledge,” Dog remarked, expressing his disdain for his illiterate counterparts. His confidence and pride as an enlightened dark hound were evident. Then, he lowered his head, seemingly to mull over the information he had just “communicated” with.

A moment later, he lifted his head, an expression of puzzlement wrinkling his canine features. He turned towards Shirley and Nina, voicing his concerns: “It’s strange… the residual memories of this dark hound suggest that it hasn’t undergone the suppression of Vision 001…”

Shirley and Nina shared a glance of surprise.

“But at this moment… it’s clearly daytime…” Shirley murmured, almost to herself, slowly gravitating towards the window to survey the outdoors.

The fog outside had consolidated into a thick mass that swathed the streets in veils of white. This dense shroud muted the daylight to a twilight-like gloom, rendering the buildings across the street nearly indistinguishable.

Still, there was a visible patch of brightness in the sky marking the position of the sun—it was undoubtedly daytime under Vision 001’s watchful eye.

“Nina, look,” Shirley gestured towards the skies above, “The sun is there…”

But then her voice trailed off abruptly.

Within the conglomeration of dense fog and clouds, the bright luminescence fluttered a few times, then began to ripple outward like light reflecting off the surface of a pond.

Upon closer inspection, it seemed that it wasn’t the sun after all—it was merely a visual afterimage, a residual glow that lingered in the city’s sky once the curtain of day lifted.

Above their city of Frost, the sun had vanished.

…

Meanwhile, deep beneath the earth’s surface, within the ancient and sealed Second Waterway under the metallic mine at the city’s heart.

The city’s enveloping fog hadn’t seeped into the underground, and minor anomalies on the surface did not impact the exploration team’s operations. In the deep, forsaken subterranean world, the church’s guardian forces were diligently bolstering their newly established outpost.

Steam-powered mechanical creatures, resembling spiders, navigated through the vast labyrinth of sewer corridors. High-powered searchlights probed every dark nook of the passage, and the multi-barreled cannons on the spider-like machines subtly adjusted their angles, perpetually on alert for shadows lurking in the darker intersections. Silent priests cloaked in black robes quietly offered prayers in bunkers at the crossroads, amassing strength for the impending offensive. Elite senior guardians fortified the entrances and gates, lanterns swaying from their waists, one hand clutching a staff, the other wielding a specially modified shotgun or large-caliber revolver.

The Second Waterway had been under the dominion of darkness for an extensive period. Thus, venturing on an exploration mission into this gloomy abyss was less about “investigation” and more akin to declaring war on a distorted, terrifying realm.

The enemy could be anything, for the enemy was the darkness itself.

An unusual sibilant noise resonated from a distant connection, interjected by the sounds of a large body wriggling and contorting. Two steam-powered walking machines stationed at the intersection were quick to respond. Four potent flashbangs were launched from the arachnid-like machines, followed by the guardians manning the machine guns, who released a deluge of bullets towards the peculiar sound source. Amid the resounding clamor, the darkness rippled violently, suggestive of an injured entity on the verge of revealing itself.

A dozen silent priests draped in black robes arose from their hiding spots behind the bunkers. They hoisted their holy books and directed their bandaged arms towards the darkness, their voices merging into a harmonious battle cry.

In response to their call, pallid flames sparked into life within the darkness, aligning with the barrage from the steam walkers. The blaze immolated whatever monstrosity the darkness had birthed. Eventually, the agitated darkness retreated, calming down once more. The intersection gradually transitioned from an impenetrable black to a dim twilight until it was fully illuminated as it usually would be, rendering it visible to mortal eyes.

However, there was no sign of any entity—only bullet-ridden walls exhibiting holes of diverse sizes and a fleeting, rapidly dissipating stench pervading the air.

Agatha pulled her gaze away from the unsettling scene. Her mission wasn’t to engage with these “intersections.”

“Lead me to that door,” she commanded, her voice calm but authoritative, directed at one of her subordinates who nodded and turned to lead the way.

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