The surging narrow cracks spread out across the sky and earth.
An abnormal storm gathered, and as it descended, the cracks scattered into dense, hexagonal shimmering lights.
But at the same time, amidst the scattered and fragmented shimmering waves, some faint, seven-cornered fine particles also emerged from nothingness in the dim air, aggregated, and burst outward with mixed collisions.
Matters concerning White Violet City, the unexpected rescue at Waldestadt, the display of using a Scientific Demon for human purposes. The incentive actions to boost the survival confidence of people in the Dead Zone…
Expansion of the borderless rescue mission…
The World Ark overlooking the mainland coverage of Dawn Coast, the successful breakthrough and ongoing exploration of the Demonic Doctrine Science Apocalypse Future…
Halting those who would commandeer the world, blocking the calamities of the end times, probing into the reality of what Demons of Extinction are…
Yang Zicang’s entire frame quaking in layered waves his consciousness welling up in a rush of shimmer fine gold characters before his inward-glance in ever-quicker flashes.
/The memoir of an ordinary person.
/And the partial events and experiences of the world as remembered by them.
He came across a news item from his youth within this memory.
/An Alaska Airlines Boeing passenger plane and a FedEx Boeing cargo plane… were almost simultaneously landing on two intersecting runways.
Through a series of minor errors, the air traffic controller only ordered the passenger plane to abort its landing at the last moment, forcing an emergency go-around.
As the passenger plane executed the go-around, the cargo plane passed over it, a mere ninety-plus meters above.
/Current affairs news… The “Salyut 7 ” space station suddenly malfunctioned and lost contact with the ground.
In the 3D simulation from a movie, it tumbled uncontrollably through his memory of space, becoming a cold, orbital tomb.
/Two astronauts accepted the perilous mission, piloting their spacecraft to the rescue.
Relying on courage and skills honed through long-term training, they manually performed a highly difficult blind docking of their ship with the powerless space station, where even visual identification was near impossible. In the extreme cold of low oxygen, they repaired the electrical circuits and life support system, bringing the space station back from the dead.
Amidst densely flickering lines of data…
/The 0:16 news video… A fire in a truck was spreading from the cabin into the cargo area… The driver and passengers of a bus arriving from behind then acted together, using the onboard fire extinguishers to quell the blaze. No casualties were reported.
/… After the flight landed, smoke suddenly billowed from a seat inside the cabin, causing passengers to panic. Investigation revealed that a passenger’s phone had fallen into the seat gap, causing a battery short circuit. No one was injured, and the flight route remained unaffected.
This was but a temporary emergence caught in a casual glance.
Yang Zicang closed his semi-translucent eyelids that fluctuated like waves, and countless fine lines scattered like a violent rain across all corners of the world, into countless hearts.
/ Breaking news pop-up on Uncle Zhang’s phone…
The next moment, a streak of light pierced clearly into view without warning.
/ On the 24th, a Canadian pilot flying a plane died in a car accident.
“What are you doing!“
Two seconds later, the roaring sound of flames finally came.
Lightning flashed within the dark clouds; gusts of wind, arriving unannounced from the ground to the sky, swept through once more, rustling the shadows of trees and vegetation afar!
Rumbling! Thunder and lightning flashed across the sky. The swiftly approachingPhoenix-Perching Treestood behind in awe as it witnessed the spreading ripples.
It subconsciously moved to block, just like the clouds.
The formless phoenix murmured as it watched the gale churn the vast, dense clouds.
Raindrops that had already begun to fall in the distance, still unfulfilled, had their dark clouds scattered and dissolved by this sweeping wind.
Myriad shimmering, water-like lights scattered across the sky.
Witnessing the radiance spreading, the phoenix transformed itself into resplendent, flowing clouds and hovered there, slowly stunned into place, condensing.
Suddenly, it surged madly past the ancient spear still suspended midair, racing with tremendous speed toward the thunder on the distant horizon.
Behind it, the spear plummeted stiffly and straight into the dark, boundless wilderness.
……
Inside the glass jar, rock fragments resembling seaweed emitted a shimmering glow, resting on the tabletop.
The boy, who was yawning nearby and using the makeshift pencil he had trimmed himself to complete the writing assignment little Liu had assigned.
The air around them became unusual, tinged with a strange quality.
Liang Xi’s hand froze. Taking a moment to read the surroundings, he suddenly yanked the entire drawer from beneath the table and forcefully threw it behind him, reaching inside until he could retrieve something resembling a modern fob watch from within. He carefully retrieved it, drawing it out with intent. Before he could lift the lid to open it, Liang Xi slowly turned his head, his entire form ridged still, shifting his gaze slowly toward the stretch of shadows stretching to his left and extending deeper beyond his shoulder.
Shifting currents of air converged, shaping a indistinct human figure.
“Big brother! You… what’s wrong?! “
— —{I… have collected, intelligence on the New World. It’s salvageable… clearly incomplete after all I bore base we unearthed finally… }
Liang Xi’s gaze widened fiercely, and he shot to his feet.
“Did you die over there?! “
In the next instant, light ripples collided and scattered wailing figures, twisting wildly into chaos and rippling everything.
……
Warriors of the Demon-Blood, from lane to every public thoroughfare, who spotted the city facing havoc — to all sharing omni directional brilliance emanating webbing from channers beneath the chest-pace these sacred dawn figures distributed mist such area they own knowledge person-to-block staying drawing evacuating civilians high-security meanwhile everyone kept acting chaotic scene pulling gurneys parting, carefully protecting hapless civilians kept as safe as possible when the world crumbled.
“Get closer to me! ” A silhouette on a two-story rooftop waved his right hand to the people rushing into the city.
At the very same moment, on the once-again darkening skyline, a faint golden path shimmered and appeared. A figure stepped down from a pushed-open rattan door, his stride descending onto the meandering path rising from the ground.
Four hundred years. Hardly believing sometimes.
The alien road left to the world for over 400 years was finally, in this destined return of the all-crafty ‘octagonal’ President Yangerliner, only then restored to its own proper course of redemption.
Yoya thought to himself: The safe routes sought by the pioneers can withstand minor fluctuations, yet must never shatter into total ruin—no, they must never do wholly undone.
As all energy converged towards that person step by step lowering down into fading vista?
The sky suddenly shone with a deviating anomaly; a splash of vastly-in close details bits akin subtle crystalline ripple shattered broadly grown outward from Earth… nothing else yet left soon dispersed no mere residual of after traces anywhere…
“This would be the wrath? New?“
A small number stopped overhead glancing at spreading circles racing away to Sea-horizon flotsime gaps in on fleeing wings…
Immediately came in Echo renewal swift after always!
With battered rattle previously cold in new and sturdy ones— soon these boxes, la odd rattan shape in crossing press ripples burst forth sudden sudden queery start to shake next things till shock across the heaves to unstable twist all down anew faster shake fit.
Every viewer snapped alert at neat scroll unwrapping breath’ glimpse—so bent…
“That exactly appears as now though once it creeps one ?“
In cascade tear…
Faint lap each time began to drift–ripple telling within all they animals around across same fine fold acre heights aglow wide sound step’ peace and empty dawn waves both alive joined together together wild-hunting of odd toe draft across time late shall go…
Light flickered fleeting over beneath retreat surface cool the head stance— once graze bound deep absent… is lost quickly at still at brush time of uncertain pause here:
Yangliner, with short, fluttering hair and a face that was striking yet refined, stood with his shirt snapping in the wind, squinting slightly as he looked up.
Shlash-shlash-shlash…
An even more delicate and fine shattering sound, accompanied by a rapidly expanding ring of irregular, fine lines, rippled out from the clouds outward towards the horizon.
“What is itnowup in the sky?! “
The people in the city, who were battling some figures that had come from outside and others hiding within, looked up in alarm.
“That’s not President Yangliner’s ability! ” a burly man shouted in shock. “Could there be another Dominion Angel?! “
“No, look at those lines spreading… “
As another person yelled this, one of the spreading red lines seemed to come alive. It instantly twisted and coiled around the shouter, but then, like a vermilion lightning bolt, it shot across the ground and through the air, racing through the figures of people and fleeing among the structures like an electric current heading towards the distant horizon.
Suddenly, an invisible wall of qi, like a storm front, swept across both the ground and the sky in a rapid shockwave.
Rumble!
A mighty and oppressive wind pressure swept over the land.
The mountains, lakes, rivers, and deserts; the gathered crowds and abandoned buildings; the swaying trees and the horse-drawn wagons fleeing—all bore witness.
“Whatisthat?! “
On a wagon, a man who was looking up at the sky shouted.
With his cry, the entire world suddenly roared with an ear-splitting, bone-rattling sound.
Countless fine particles of light streaked into thin lines, collapsing and scattering across the vast heavens and earth.
……
Haili Koni, whose eyes had been lowered to gaze upon the sea as the ship swayed, opened her beautiful eyes amidst a few soft gasps of surprise; it seemed as if the people were glowing, only to fade once more.
Woo~, the wind squeezed through the gaps between doors and windows.
“Miss, you too!” The stout, rustic old woman turned her head, staring in astonishment, her eyes fixed on the circular ring of light inlaid within the edges of “Miao Duling’s” eyes.
Haili Koni took a light breath and looked toward the old woman’s originally ordinary pupils; there, a ring-shaped arc of light had appeared.
Shua shua!
Turning her head sharply, she saw countless fine particles of light streaking down from the sky with faint trails; some of them crashed into the ship and struck those screaming inside the cabin.
Then, everyone around saw it— within those affected eyes, fine rings of light quickly emerged, shifting from dullness to brightness.
“What’s happening?” Haili Koni asked in a soft voice.
“Oh, I have no idea!“
The old woman slapped her hands together, shouting, “Come see! A lot of people here have got something glowing in their eyes!“
……
A glistening, fine light expanded, scattering across the entire sky.
At the doorway of the headquarters of the World Ark —Talrk City.
Glowing particles streaked across the sky, falling into a crackling, shielded crowd, which burst again into a cacophony of unrestrained emotions of unknown meaning.
Several large, hexagonal forcefields encompassed the area, sited over the plaza.
Zhao Anlong and the others, who were busy repairing the vehicle, distributing weapons in the truck bed, and trying to cover a longbow with Stellar Yuan, looked up as they sensed the roar of flames.
A raging cloud of fire slammed into the ground, and Zhao Anlong saw it transform into a fire phoenix that rushed towards him in a blur.
“Our president broke his circuit. “
“What? ” Everyone there seemed not to have heard clearly.
Suddenly, Zhao Anlong’s head buzzed and his whole body trembled. Instantly understanding the information contained in those words, he realized, in disbelief, shock, and utter incredulity, what had changed about the people shouting around him.
Destruction-bloodline circuits surged visibly in his eyes, expanding outward in naturally fluctuating ripples!
He swept his gaze over all the natives around him.
“Within destruction also lies the power to live! “
Beyond the four bright rings, a fifth bloodline circuit began to emerge bit by bit, like a dashed line.
Several pieces of information from the distributors, whom he had renamed with the surname Zhao, surfaced one after another in his mind.
A cold voice echoed high in the sky.
“Return to the inevitable path of history. Your efforts are futile; he is already dead. “
“Urgh!!! “
In an instant, a blazing void flame erupted from Zhao Anlong’s body, veiling him like a curtain. He bent his bow to the sky, glaring at the clouds with eyes wide and cracking!
“You’re the one who’s dead! “
Inside the house, Zhao Xuemei, who was stacking a pile of glazed document cases, suddenly sensed something and turned her head in panic. “Anlong? “
Zhao Anlong’s eyes and the halo on his chest rapidly flickered and converged to the tip of the arrow as he said, “We’re breaking up! “
Zhao Xuemei opened her mouth slightly, a look of disbelief on her face.
Amidst the drifting phantoms, a shadow of fission coalesced at the apex.
“Chairman, what are you doing?! “
The bustling members of the Dragon’s Domain nearby sensed an unprecedented violent fluctuation of Stellar Yuan and turned around sharply.
“Stop! Your rank means you’ll die if you do this! “
The Flame also boomed deeply in warning, “Don’t copy him! And ignore the false intel from that guy up there. I’ve already given the time series back to the chairman. I believe that kid won’t be the one dying. “
On the golden path high above, President Yangliner sensed a concentration of danger gathering in the city and swept his gaze across it.
He listened slightly, tilting an ear.
“Die? Not a chance! ” Zhao Anlong’s face and body blazed up like the sunset clouds. “Perfect! I’ll just give that good-for-nothing brat a chance to resurrect me! “
A slight ripple crossed the skin on President Yangliner’s face.
Swoosh!
A shadowy light that cleaves everything sorrowfully tears across the sky.
Yangliner’s pupils shifted slightly, and the illusion of the city expanded and spread as if to cover everything.
Within the city, Yoya, who was maintaining the winding path of light to allow President Yangliner to return from the void to the earth, lifted his gaze. He saw a thin beam of light—seeming to tilt and drag the shadows of the entire Tarkose along with it—hurrying toward the man who was holding the memories of the ancient city together above the path of light, crashing straight into him.
Yoya braced his wooden staff against the ground, and his figure materialized beside Yangliner, who had turned to glance at him. Like an arrow carrying endless visions of destruction and a phantom city, it shattered into them both.
Within the city, Zhao Xuemei lunged forward, her legs transforming into a blur of motion as she charged towards the man who was falling stiffly backward.
……
In this pitch-dark carriage, the wind once again stirred outside the window.
Haili Fenny, her neck drooping like a fledgling swan leaving the nest, felt the rocking of the carriage come to a halt.
Accompanied by two low, surprised exclamations, she lifted her listless eyes to look out the window.
Soldier Number Five, propping up the carriage with one hand, stood rigidly in place. Then, he raised his left hand and gently touched his own eye.
A few specks of light descended, one landing upon a soldier holding a horse’s reins beside a giant bird. Another speck passed through the window and vanished into the darkness within.
Haili Fenny, roused by a concerned inquiry from the awakened Jennifer—whose eyes glowed with sliver-white halos—lowered her head and watched as the spec of light that had fallen on her faded from sight.
……
In an abandoned underground warehouse.
WhitPeara, leaning against the wall, her body twisted and cracked like dried earth, felt a refreshing sensation and opened her eyes. She saw a faint dot of light illuminating the room’s darkness, slowly melting from her skin and integrating into her body.
……
In the domain of General-Admiral Odlev.
The Old General froze, sitting rigid yet powerless in his chair as if turned to stone.
He looked at the faint glimmer on the back of the first knuckle of his right index finger; it was seeping in.
Faint rays of light, carrying a peculiar aura, were slowly spreading from this point to his entire body.
What is this?
No,
Why would…
In the dim and silent office, the people who had been bustling about in slight chaos moments earlier now all slowly turned their gazes to the knuckles of their own thumbs or index fingers.
“This is the spot where you draw the bowstring. “
“The place where you pull the trigger… “
“Yes, it seems like… ” one person mumbled, his lips parting, “Why did I become a Fogfolk? “
Suddenly, they heard a sound. Reflected in the wind and rain that began to fall outside the window, the Old General seemed transformed, rustling as he opened the documents in front of him.
Not long after, on two sheets of paper, he saw text that would have been difficult to discern so clearly in such darkness.
“The Plan?? This plan actually… how is this possible… “
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