Talco.
In the gradually brightening sky, the lit streetlamps illuminated a small courtyard and the rooms beside it.
In this seemingly ordinary room, the sounds of several phone rings and telegraph taps rang out continuously.
“Can you confirm how many people? ” a girl asked before a phone, then gasped, “That many? “
On the table beside her, another man held a phone receiver in one hand while writing with the other.
“Yes, yes, we’re already preparing to join in over here. “
Ring ring ring…
At this moment, the two oldest demon-blood guards of the Goas family, along with Rayne, a demon-blood warrior of the scarce type of the Haili family, were guarding both inside and outside this office.
Especially Rayne, who could hardly believe he was experiencing something so important, a situation that concerned the safety of the world.
Outside in the courtyard, Ma Shuo was busy putting on a sturdy, soft-textured linen jacket that was resistant to wear, with the help of two others.
His drawstring pants were already on. The cuffed trousers resembled indigo-blue riding breeches, with two distinct wrinkles gathered at the knees, ensuring that crouching to rest or engaging in labor wouldn’t feel too tight.
“Old pal, this outfit fits you just right. “
Rocmont tugged the shoulder of a coarse-spun tunic for Ma Shuo—a garment that had grown popular over the decades in the estuary region of the Grand Duchy as large numbers of “Fogfolk ” newcomers arrived ashore—and gave his shoulder a pat, telling him, “It’s all set. “
“But are you sure you want to make this trip? “
Ma Shuo, adjusting his sleeves, let out a warm, eager breath. “I have to be a part of something like this. The only question is whether we can get there in time. “
(Empty)
The young man beside him brought over the remaining supplies, asking, “Anything else you need from this lot? ” In his hands was a pile of gear, including a waterskin, a cloth blanket that could be used as a windbreak or to lie on, and other sundries.
Ma Shuo glanced them over.
He turned to Rocmont and said:
“The rest are fine, but there’s one treasure I’d really like to bring along with me. It’d put my mind at ease. “
“Oh? A treasure? What is it? ” Rocmont turned his gaze to Ma Shuo’s face.
“A little dog. ” Ma Shuo’s tone carried a hint of bashfulness as he added, lowering his voice, “Well, not so little anymore. Do you happen to know if you were here for it? “
Ma Shuo realized these people had only arrived in the middle of the night. He immediately turned to search, and just as he did, two somewhat familiar figures carrying a bucket of hot soup walked into the busy office in the morning light.
He quickly called out to the busy pair, “Hey there, please wait, friends. “
One of them stopped at the call: “What can I do for you, sir? “
“Where is that little black dog that Chairman Yang was holding yesterday? Can you help me find it? “
“Huh? ” The man was taken aback, immediately recalling an arm-length black dog praised by Chairman Yang.
After handing the bucket to the guard at the entrance, he approached Ma Shuo. Listening to the detailed description, he quickly ran out of the courtyard, exchanging hushed words with a few soldiers stationed at the gates. Soon, two soldiers sprinted toward a vehicle by the corridor, started it, and sped off.
“Phew~ ” Ma Shuo let out a long sigh of relief, tapping his head as he turned back. “Where’s that car going? “
“Helping you get the dog, ” Rocmont said, crossing his arms. “Is that enough preparation, my friend? “
Ma Shuo let out a slight hiss, then nodded after a moment of thought.
“As for me, yeah, I’m fine. “
……
The phone rang again in the room. Behind the largest desk, Hai Li Hui Kewen immediately picked up the call and quickly explained the information sent back from Keluen into the receiver.
“It’s the latest intelligence confirmed by the Empire. Uh, uh-huh, yes, Minister, as informed by a member of the World Ark. “
As he spoke, Hai Lihui Kewen glanced at the busy figure nearby, then looked up at the sky outside the window.
“I’m afraid things like that won’t work. Chairman Yang is not aware of the relevant information. This was discovered by the occasional sighting of an airship from our association. Therefore, it is not a case of deliberately concealing and failing to report; there are records of all of this. “
After saying a few more words, Haili Huikewen hung up the phone. A bowl of hot soup with vegetable leaves and some boiled green beans was placed beside the young man.
Rayne approached the table and said:
“Mr. Huikewen, since things here are done, let’s hurry back and discuss what needs to be done with the family in detail. “
“Ah, right. ” Haili Huikewen, thinking of the information surfacing in his mind, stood up from his seat. His gaze fell on the steaming soup simmering by the table.
Though it may be simple in ingredients, at this moment, to have a hot bowl of soup before breakfast in most places was already a special luxury and privilege.
The young man picked up the soup bowl with one hand and gulped it down.
Then Haili Huikewen grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and hurried out the door with Rayne.
But as they reached the doorway, a thud sounded behind them. They turned to see a girl lying in pain on the floor near the green-painted table. Two Goas guards beside her immediately rushed over.
“I… ” a man in the distance dropped the bowl in his hand, his face twitching as he clutched his chest and abdomen before collapsing.
Then came Haili Huikewen. He felt an strange sensation arising from within his body.
“The soup is poisoned! ” one of the guards shouted.
Haili Huikewen, his mind dizzy, leaned against the door for support, while at his ear, a medley of frantic and incredulous voices began to swell.
These medicinal soups had been tasted and checked by the Mist Folk; if there were poison, they would have known immediately.
He felt his internal organs wrung into a tangled mess of weakness. In the last second of clarity before collapsing, he thought, what if the one who served the soup, or the poison tester, was themselves the poisoner…
A series of low, rumbling booms sounded, and the ground began to tremble, as if someone was drumming up the earth itself, this greatest of carpets, from a distance.
The fallen Sea Glass Huikewen felt Rayne’s hands gripping him tightly, calling out his name.
His gaze, now vacant, fell upon the small patch of courtyard visible outside the door, in the corner formed by the corridor and the opposite wall.
It seemed that someone was bursting into the courtyard with great force.
But at the next moment, a flash of sword light streaked past, piercing through the several blurry figures outside the house, as well as the upper half of the inner courtyard wall.
The flying bricks and roofing exploded with a bang; the severed top of the house, cleanly cut at a height above a person’s head, was all blasted outwards by the sword energy, shooting in all directions.
Rayne, holding onto Sea Glass Huikewen, felt a chill sweep over his head and turned around.
This small area looked as if a deity had performed a clean surgical cut upon it. Whether high-rise buildings or low huts, trees, utility poles, or courtyard walls, all that remained were neat, single-person-high stumps sitting level to the ground.
In the far distance, the shouts of charging and killing that had just arisen vanished as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving behind only a few screams and groans.
A stalwart figure with a stubbly beard took a step out from a house, his gaze as calm and indifferent as ever.
“Still no trace of that one. It seems my guess is correct—your tactics are to ensure that one never engages us face-to-face until all our pieces have been devoured. “
Emerging from the dust thick with the stench of blood came two figures: a man in a black denim jacket with a hand resting on a long saber, and another, a handsome man with jet-black hair reaching his waist, clad in the uniform of the Double Lion Corps with no epaulets, his features clear and refined.
The handsome man casually wiped the bloodstained blade of his sword against the folded sleeve of his arm, leaving it clean and shining.
“To think you’ve whittled our ranks down this far in just one go. Hah. You really aren’t worried that a slaughter like this might trigger the Final Dawn in full, are you? “
The stellar yuan of Sword Thirteen rushed outwards quickly, rippling like water.
“It’s a mere six people, even if you count the two wounded whom you’ve dispatched. Compared to the whole night we spent burning the ground around here, this small amount of death shouldn’t be worth a second thought. “
“No, no, no… this is already very dangerous, ” the man across from them, dressed in a black cowboy outfit, stepped forward and said with a smile.
“And by the way, I imagine that in your offices, there will be at least… a few more who die, one after another. Hmm, I just left out the word ‘this very moment’. “
Ma Shuo, his face stricken with shock, followed Rocmont and the others, dragging the weak-legged Mu Tao toward a house standing to one side.
Sword Thirteen glanced at the chaotic scene in the office, a hint of contemplation crossing his face:
“Your Miss Full Moon Angel is hiding in the first place where hostages were taken under the threat of hijacking the end of the world, waiting for the situation to develop to a certain point before appearing. Is that it? “
The two across from them exchanged a subtle glance, their eyes shifting.
“Ha, ” the breath of the two grew stronger.
A tall, thin man wearing an apron emerged from the doorway of a half-timbered door that was nothing but a wall remnant, calling out with a cheerful smile:
“Sorry, you two, but that’s something you should be saying to yourselves. “
The two men fixed their eyes on him, and the man smiled, saying:
“Hey, hey, that poison of yours—I’ve already swapped it out for a fast-acting anesthetic, just a trick to make you let your guard down. “
The eyes of these two immediately showed a trace of disbelief.
They couldn’t understand—how could he, someone who had been arranged since shortly after the fall of the Ross Central Station, under family connections, to sneak into the World Ark, never having received any mission or secret communication, betray himself at this critical moment?
The cowboy, feeling something was wrong, gripped his knife handle and snarled fiercely, “Why is this happening?! “
The person beside him had pupils flickering with halos of thought within their eyes; then he looked up, gazing toward the stout man who had taken a step forward ahead.
Sword Thirteen said:
“You have come here at this moment, no doubt because you’ve learned that this place is a hub for the expansion of information regarding the Fourth Doomsday Contingency Plan, and that is why you’ve ultimately confirmed this location as the one you’ve all prepared an ambush for? “
Twisted phantom shadows instantly swept across the bodies of the two, and with a flash, they charged forward.
As they sprinted, the ground, which had already been bathed in a few faint rays of morning light, suddenly darkened by several shades, as if a disquieting distortion was being born.
Just then, Sword Thirteen raised his right hand, bringing the tips of two fingers together.
A faint, almost imperceptible edge of sharp Radiance—one seemingly capable of splitting heaven and earth—began to coalesce.
Boom! With a broad sweep of his arm, a streak of sword aura and radiant glow once again cleaved through the entire courtyard.
“Pfft! “
The shadowy figure of the sprinting handsome young man was struck as if by a heavy hammer. The force field that had flashed across his body collapsed instantaneously; his chest was torn and bloody. With a spray of blood from his mouth, he flew backward, crashing into the ruined rubble of a distant building, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
Clang!
A piercing, metallic collision sound erupted, accompanied by a shower of sparks.
The figure vanished in a flash, seizing this moment.
The ground beneath the courtyard rippled and surged like water. A vast whirlpool, traced by a dark purple glow at its edges, was materializing at an alarming speed, as if some colossal object was about to rise.
The corner of Sword Thirteen’s eye twitched. The Stellar Yuan he had released was suddenly retracted before exploding, transforming into a black sword that plunged into the earth.
The ground instantly erupted upwards, with soil and mud bursting into the air like a fireworks display.
Leave a Reply