Chapter 430

Chapter 430: .

The mad took madness as their final road – the Annihilation Heretics who followed the Abyssal Lord embraced their deaths in the most chilling way.

In the wake of the ritual being completely destroyed, the Annihilators who survived at the scene chose a collective sacrificial rite to forcefully complete the Inversion of the city of mirror world.

Even with all of Lawrence’s experience from spending half his life at sea, he had never seen a sight so terrifying, so insane –

Hundreds of Annihilators threw themselves in ecstasy toward that churning pool of sludge. They melted and broke apart in the mud, yet were wild with joy. The Abyssal demons that had a symbiotic pact with them roared as they snapped their chains and self-detonated around the “pool”. The filthy smoke and corrupt breath even blocked the advance of the Queen’s Guard Corps. A huge crown of thorns rose from the center of the sludge pool. As the cultists carried out their mad sacrificial rite, it grew fast and in the blink of an eye covered the whole hall.

“I have understood!”

A crazed roar came from within that crown of thorns, as if a thousand voices were stacked inside it.

“We have understood!”

Countless cultists who had thrown themselves into the sludge shouted as well, their voices shaking the Second Waterway.

“I will carry it out!” “We will carry it out!”

“Fulfill the Creator’s Blueprint!” “Fulfill the Creator’s Blueprint!”

Boom!

A blazing fire rose and spread through the hall, almost at once swallowing that crown of thorns. Lawrence only had time to look up before he saw the crown breaking apart and collapsing in ghostly flames, turning into drifting gray-black dust that fell down. The pool of black sludge in the center of the hall also caught fire. As the spirit flame rose, the churning of the mud quickly slowed and soon turned into dry, burnt earth.

The last group of cultists who had flung themselves toward the sludge pool turned straight into ash in that fire.

Yet the shaking of the Second Waterway did not stop. The howling that echoed in the sewers still circled around. The crazed shouts of the cultists during their sacrificial rite now echoed through this underground space like ghosts, sending chills down one’s spine.

Lawrence lifted his head in shock and confusion and looked around. He still did not quite understand what had happened, and spoke without thinking: “Did we make it in time? The ritual did not finish, right…”

“It looks like all the cultists are dead… and that ‘tree’ burned up too…” Anomaly 077 spoke in a nervous voice, eyeing this place uneasily. “But why do I feel like…”

“Not yet.”

A voice mixed with the crackle of flames suddenly came from not far away, cutting off the exchange between Lawrence and the “sailor”.

Lawrence looked up at once toward that side.

Agatha also turned her gaze toward this group of “strangers” who had come to help.

She still stood there, still in the pose of someone burning in flames. Compared with when she had first entered this city of mirror world, she had become something completely different –

Her black clothes had turned into a ragged outer robe that hung on her like the tattered cloth of a poor monk. Her body looked like a broken doll, with shocking wounds and even cracks everywhere. Her blood had long since drained away. Now, only green flame flowed like water from those wounds. Her eyes had been burned out by the fire of the Flame Usurper, leaving only empty hollows.

Yet in those empty sockets, two of the brightest flames danced. She had lost the eyes of her flesh, but gained another kind of sight beyond imagination.

She could see that the energy in the hall still flowed. She could even see the energy of the whole city of mirror world flowing. She saw an enormous structure running through the entire city, still lifting it upward, making the city keep “rising” toward the world of the Mortal Realm.

Agatha took a step forward. The spirit form flames spread under her feet, making the floor sizzle. She reached out, grabbed a thorn vine that stretched out from the sludge pool, and squeezed gently.

That piece of “thorn” had already been dried by the spirit form flames. She crushed it into pieces with ease. Yet among the falling fragments, tiny motes of light still flowed.

“mirror world is still rising…” She sounded as if she was talking to herself, yet also as if she was reporting to someone. “The heretics here are all wiped out, but what they left is still running… This city of mirror world is alive. It is moving toward the Mortal Realm on its own… I am sorry, I do not know how to stop it.”

Lawrence walked over, looking at Agatha in curiosity: “Who are you talking to…”

As he spoke, a violent shaking and a roar from above cut him off. He and the sailors looked up in panic, and a sight they would never forget filled everyone’s eyes –

The hall shook hard, and the rock, concrete, steel, and earth above it, no one knew how thick, suddenly turned transparent. Through that suddenly transparent ground, he clearly saw layer after layer of structures above their heads!

Drainage tunnels, power pipes, steam delivery systems, the subway, and above that the mountain, the streets, the buildings, the Cathedral… the entire city-state of Frostholm!

He saw Frostholm. Across the thick layers of ground, he saw Frostholm in the world of the Mortal Realm. He saw the city wrapped in heavy fog. Countless monsters still attacked everything inside the city from within the mist. The city-state’s Guard Corps and the Guardian units fought the monsters in despair. Darkness spread through the city. Fear brewed in every corner…

Blood, smoke, death.

“Oh… I think we are in big trouble…” Anomaly 077 also raised his head like everyone else and muttered after a long time, “Or maybe the people above our heads are the ones in big trouble…”

Lawrence shuddered awake and realized what was about to happen. Even though the cultists were all dead, their final sacrificial rite, their ritual, had still worked. This city of mirror world had gained the trait of independent existence and was still rising according to some “Blueprint” design. If this continued, Frostholm in the Mortal Realm would never survive!

“It cannot be stopped?!” He stared, eyes wide, and turned to Agatha, shouting, “We are about to overlap with the world of the Mortal Realm!”

But Agatha only turned her head in silence, her gaze full of flame falling on Lawrence.

She did not speak, but a calm and solemn voice sounded directly in Lawrence’s mind: “Do not rush. This is only one part of solving the problem.”

Lawrence froze for a moment, then realized where the voice in his head came from. The muscles all over his body visibly tensed. “C-captain!”

“Relax a little. And – stand steady in a moment.”

Lawrence stared blankly, eyes wide.

At the same time, on the side of the Mortal Realm.

The roar of cannon fire still echoed over the vast endless sea. The remaining City Navy of Frostholm and the Sea Mist fleet still fought hard to hold back the “ghost” ships that kept rising from the dense fog.

As time passed, the number of ghost ships coming out of the fog did not drop. Instead, it kept growing.

“Unknown vessel sighted off the port side! It is a fast gunboat… close-in guns, prepare to fire!”

“A Frostholm Navy frigate has sunk in nearby waters, hull number S-30, strike it from the identification list!”

“Fire on the aft deck! Damage control, damage control!”

Shouts passing orders, the roar of the main guns firing, explosions, the heavy crash of water columns slamming into hulls, all the sounds mixed together and brewed an almost Doomsday-like air.

Tyrian stood on the bridge of the Sea Mist, both hands on the rail in front of him, his single eye fixed on the distant sea, his face dark as if it held a brewing storm.

The battle had gone on for a very long time, yet there was still no hope of victory. Enemy ships like ghosts still poured out from the thick fog around the city-state, and the blockade over the whole sea area had not been broken.

Undying sailors did not feel tired, but this long, intense fight still kept draining the strength of the Sea Mist fleet. The Sea Mist’s own repair ability was close to its limit. It could no longer even put out the great fires on its deck and could only rely on damage control teams rushing back and forth. The ship Crow had just pulled out of the battle a dozen minutes ago and was now dragging its broken hull back toward Frostholm’s main island.

If even the Sea Mist fleet was in this state, there was no need to think about the Frostholm Navy made of humans.

From the reports over the radio alone, one could tell that the Frostholm Navy was in bad shape. Their exhaustion had reached the limit, and the damage and losses on each warship were close to a critical point.

The ironic part was that for the past half century, almost everyone in the Sea Mist fleet had mocked and cursed that navy almost every day. Yet now, almost every member of the Sea Mist fleet hoped those humans could hold on a bit longer, and that a few more of them could live.

A thunderous boom came from far away, and a huge flash of light appeared in the dense fog. Right after, that huge flash turned into a string of continuous fire bursts and explosions.

Tyrian looked in that direction on instinct and at once ordered the signalman to find out what those explosions were. After a bout of chaos, First Mate Aiden brought bad news.

“The Frostholm Navy main battleship Lord Blücher has had its steam core badly damaged. The reactor boiler has exploded. She is sinking.”

Tyrian did not speak. He only slowly closed his eye.

The Lord Blücher… the Sea Mist had dealt with her a few times in the past two years. The ship’s commander was a very traditional Frostholm man.

He was a good man. It was a good ship.

But now, farewell forever.

“Write it down. Maybe in the future, we will have a chance to mourn,” Tyrian opened his eye and slowly shook his head. “Right now we do not have…”

As he spoke, the scene outside the porthole suddenly changed and cut him off.

He looked out the window in surprise. The first mate and many others on the bridge also looked out on instinct.

The fog over the sea… was thinning.