Chapter 1142 An Unexpected Battle <TOC> Chapter 1144 Safe Passage
Translator: SumTLMan
“What?!” came an abruptly heightened female voice, “Damn it, why right now of all times… Alright, I understand.”
Canter observed Sineva discontinue the communication and stride over from the obscurity.
“Canter, we received a message from Maher. Immediately recall Samantha, we must retreat,” within the fiery gaze of Sineva, the mix of perplexity and resignation was palpable.
Canter had been loosely monitoring Samantha, yet he still faintly caught snippets of the conversation between Sineva and Maher, suggesting that something had transpired in La Sutherland.
“I understand,” Canter responded without probing for specifics. Instead, through the resonance of the merging night, he located Samantha on the other side of the Hunting Museum.
At that moment, Samantha was perched upon a height, looking down at the Hunting Museum from above. The gloaming twilight outlined her figure in a faint aura of luminescence.
“Samantha, there’s been a change of plans, come back,” he murmured, letting the night breeze carry his message into Samantha’s ears.
Samantha frowned. She had been assigned to the other side of the Hunting Museum to keep an eye on any shifts in the situation. She had only just arrived, so why was she being abruptly asked to retreat?
While Samantha was questioning this, she suddenly sensed a gaze sweep over her.
Looking down, she spotted a figure standing before a window of the Hunting Museum. Through the iridescent window, she could make out the form of a figure in flaming red robes. She couldn’t see its face, but she knew the gaze she felt earlier definitely belonged to it.
“The Servant of Fire,” Samantha softly muttered to herself.
Sineva had encountered it before. But at that time, Sineva was in terrible condition, and instead of battling the Servant of Fire, she had chosen to retreat directly.
Samantha had assumed that the Servant of Fire would come out to confront her once it detected her presence. However, to her surprise, it just glanced at her lightly and then withdrew its gaze.
Afterwards, Samantha felt the Servant of Fire’s gaze shifting towards another direction before its figure vanished from the window.
The Servant of Fire’s behavior confused Samantha. It had noticed her, yet why hadn’t it made any move?
——Rustling
Suddenly, she heard a soft rustling noise coming from afar, seemingly from the direction where the Servant of Fire was gazing earlier.
Samantha looked towards the direction, but she couldn’t see anything unusual. As for the further distance, it was immersed in darkness due to the lack of light.
Although she couldn’t discern what was going on, Samantha had an ominous premonition that a latent threat was gradually brewing in the pitch-black darkness.
“Samantha?” Canter’s voice echoed again in the night breeze, laced with both confusion and urgency.
Samantha eventually drew her gaze away, her silhouette gradually transforming into a lucent aquatic reflection, vanishing on the plateau. A moment later, the lustrous figure returned to the crossroads with elegant strides.
As soon as Samantha materialized, she noticed a discordance in the expressions of Sineva and Canter.
“What’s wrong?”
Before Samantha could receive a reply from Sineva, she noted the rustling murmur that had been persistently echoing in her ears was intensifying, and it rapidly evolved into a thunderous rumbling. Accompanying this booming sound were rifts that made the ground shudder.
Turning her head abruptly towards the source of the sound, Samantha saw the tumbling of rocks affected by the rift. In the darkness far off, the high walls constructed from dust were roiling and surging ominously.
What in the world happened?
Samantha’s confusion was answered by Sineva in the next second, “Maher informed me that the master node rune that upholds the demon city has been destroyed. La Sutherland… is about to meet its end.”
Before Samantha could express her shock, the frequency of the earthquakes became increasingly powerful.
“We must evacuate. The outskirts of La Sutherland have already collapsed, and this collapse is spreading,” Sineva quickly explained, “Judging by the frequency of these rifts, in a matter of minutes, this place will fall entirely into the void!”
This collapse wasn’t just a disintegration. Samantha could also sense a frenzy in the spatial energy around her. If they waited until the ground collapsed before retreating, the chaotic spatial energy alone would be enough to tear everything apart, let alone the danger brought by the collapse itself.
Understanding the urgency of the situation, Samantha, along with the others, took to the sky before the spatial energy frenzy reached them.
During their return to the floating iceberg, Samantha clearly saw countless demons emerging from the dark void below. These demons had previously hidden themselves in alternate dimensions but were forced to abandon them and return to La Sutherland as the impending doom of spatial collapse approached.
In this do-or-die moment, demons paid no heed to humans or anything else. Even when they spotted Samantha and her company in the sky, they acted as if they had seen nothing.
Like flocks of birds, they rushed towards the central area in droves.
Samantha did not attack these demons either but turned to Sineva instead, “The Hunting Museum is closer to the collapsed area, what about them… “
“See for yourself,” Sineva interrupted, pointing behind Samantha.
Turning to look, Samantha saw that the Hunting Museum was already far away from them, appearing as a miniature toy house from afar. Suddenly, a streak of fiery light shot out from the museum.
The streak of light was incredibly fast and its target was clear, like the demons before, it was heading towards… the central area of La Sutherland!
Though Samantha couldn’t discern the circumstances within the fiery streak of light, she could guess that it was probably the group from the Hunting Museum, and perhaps Olucia was amongst them!
Samantha’s awareness dawned at this point, no wonder she had encountered a Servant of Fire, yet the entity had refrained from launching an attack on her. They were gearing up for evacuation, adverse incidents were the last thing they would welcome in such critical moments.
“If the situation persists, the central area…” Samantha’s gaze locked onto the towering Void Obelisk, flickering shadows marking its vast silhouette: “It is bound to serve as the final battlefield!”
…
Viewed from outside the void, La Sutherland seemed to be disintegrating, resembling a pile of bricks gradually collapsing.
However, this pile was now enclosed within a fiery sphere, as if entrapped within a birdcage — a barrier that locked the ones inside, while simultaneously barring entry from the outside.
At the base of La Sutherland, there was a vortex inherently connected to the inner layers.
From within the whirlpool, numerous silhouettes began to emerge. These apparitions, ghastly and bizarre, appeared to be fiendishly horrifying demons, illuminated by the glow from the “Fiery Birdcage” above.
The advent of the throne and the birth of a lord signified a grand event for the entire Wasteland Plane.
Countless demons began to pour out of the whirlpool, congregating around the outside of the fiery birdcage as if on a pilgrimage. They were unable to see the events unfolding within the cage but, undeterred, none of them chose to leave. They all waited patiently outside, longing for the moment when the cage would finally be lifted…
The fiery birdcage stood quietly in the void, drawing attention even from those who had not personally made the journey.
In the superficial layer of the Abyss, within the Ice Valley.
Inside the cliffside palace, Odeklaes, donned in a black robe, sat on a crystalline throne, his gaze fixated on the mural adorning the wall.
The mural portrayed an immaculate Abyssal Frost Dragon, none other than Bina Jonis.
His gaze was focused and filled with longing, reminiscent of a devout parishioner lost in the divine image within a church.
After an undefined passage of time, Odeklaes shifted his gaze from the painting. A Mark of Flame materialized out of thin air in the chilly hall.
This Mark of Flame mirrored the mark found on Angel’s ear.
Through the connection established by the mark, Odeklaes could observe the fiery birdcage suspended in the void. The sight of the cage informed him of an impending advent of the throne.
Even with the realization that the throne bore a relation to fire, Odeklaes’ countenance remained unchanged, his aura as calm as ever.
“Is it coincidence or are you orchestrating from the shadows?” Odeklaes lifted his gaze towards the mural, for a fleeting moment, he felt as though a human painter was whispering into his ear.
After what seemed like an eternity, the palace echoed with a soft sigh. Then, once again, the palace was engulfed in a profound silence.
In the cemetery of the Resting Ground, this area draped in the longest night from a time long bygone past, music echoed through the air.
Suddenly, the harmonious notes came to an abrupt halt.
In the core of the cemetery, within a diminutive tavern, Balalaika rested her crystal harp, her gaze drifting into the void. Despite the considerable distance, she could still vaguely perceive the existence of the fiery birdcage.
A puff of smoke exuded from Balalaika’s mouth and amidst the blurry fog, an exotic, yet entrancing voice softly muttered, “The vision of the Gazing Abyssal Eye wishes to endure through eternity. Though the aspiration is commendable, but the feat of personal immortality itself is a Herculean task, let alone preserving a city’s grandeur forever.”
“Ah, isn’t the lad still trapped within it? Tsk tsk, quite an intriguing human, I wonder if he can survive.”
Deep within the more profound void, an infinite spatial distance away from La Sutherland,
A luminescent portal ruptured the light-devoid shroud of the night.
Giallar emerged from the radiant gateway, silently observing the black abyss before him. With a subtle ripple, a phantasmal green flame was ignited within the darkened world.
This eerie green flame was strikingly similar to Olucia’s eye color.
“Giallar, your intentions are clear to me,” the entity communicated without uttering a sound, just a slow oscillation of ripples that made Giallar respectfully bow his head.
“I too, am surprised that the Profound Lord would covet the power of the Gazing Abyssal Eye at this juncture.”
As he said this, Giallar could palpably sense a flicker of yearning passing through the ghostly flame before him.
“Giallar, I need you to undertake a journey.”
Giallar nodded, ready to turn away and embark, but the presence in the void interjected, “Take it with you.”
A flash of light followed, and directly in front of the green spectral flame, an ethereal figure appeared seemingly from nowhere.
Upon seeing this spectral figure, Giallar’s normally placid eyes unveiled a trace of astonishment.
Chapter 1142 An Unexpected Battle <TOC> Chapter 1144 Safe Passage