The golden light was extinguished.
The phantom was pulled back into the statue.
The cracks on the statue's surface turned into charred scars, and the gold faded to a deathly grey. The eyes that once radiated sacred light were now hollow black pits.
The archbishop collapsed to his knees.
"Impossible... impossible..."
His voice sounded like a mumble in a dream, his entire being seemingly drained of all strength.
The ritual had failed.
A deathly silence fell over the surroundings.
No one spoke.
There was only the sound of rain, the nearing gunfire, and those "resurrected" heads frantically screaming for their "Mother" once again.
"It's over..." someone's voice trembled.
"It's really over..."
Despair spread through the crowd like a plague.
Lu Yuan knew there was no longer any need for concealment. He decisively took out the parchment scroll and unfurled it.
But no miracle occurred; or rather, nothing happened at all.
The red characters on the parchment scroll twisted and coiled together like startled animals, huddling into a mass. Even when Lu Yuan looked at them, his Sanity didn't fluctuate.
"...This seems a bit bad."
The corners of Lu Yuan's eyes couldn't help but twitch.
What exactly was going on?
The rain grew heavier, as dense as a sheet, stinging his face.
The grey-white text was still flickering frantically.
From the west came the roar of collapsing buildings. The flesh trees began to accelerate their advance, their root systems writhing on the ground, while the heads hanging from the canopy sang in unison.
Their faces were filled with fanaticism as they sang ethereal songs. The frontline was collapsing.
A soldier of the Holy Armored Army was ensnared by vines around his ankle. Before he could react, he was dragged into the darkness. His scream lasted only an instant before another head appeared in the canopy.
"Hold the line!" Sivating roared, his great blade sweeping out to sever several vines. "Do not break formation!"
But they were already failing to hold. The firepower they had brought during the evacuation had long since been exhausted. A lone transcendent was of little use against such a massive swarm of flesh trees.
An Arbiter was dragged inside, metal fragments flying everywhere, and another head was added to the canopy.
"It's over."
This was the sentiment shared by everyone.
"Sigh, I'm really quite unwilling to go like this. Let's kill a few more, then." Allen was the first to step forward. Having seemingly accepted his fate, his expression grew calm.
The golden longsword in his hand shone with a brilliant light.
But before Allen could strike.
The earth began to tremble.
It wasn't a vibration caused by battle, but a pulse originating from somewhere much deeper.
From the west, the direction of the sea, came a low boom. Every raindrop seemed to freeze for a moment, and the battle halted for an instant.
Clutching the parchment scroll, Lu Yuan instinctively turned his head toward that direction.
Something was rising over there.
On the horizon, a black shadow was slowly ascending.
The silhouette was too vast—so vast that it could be seen even from the inner city, blotting out a corner of the skyline.
Lu Yuan could not describe its shape. His brain refused to process the image, leaving only a single concept in his consciousness: massive, incomprehensibly massive, as if the entire ocean had come to life.
"What is that..." Mary's voice was shaking.
Others looked in that direction.
And then their eyes burst.
Blood poured from their eye sockets. They collapsed, twitching, making meaningless sounds.
"Don't look!" Allen was the first to react, shouting sternly. "Everyone, look down! Do not look directly at it!"
But it was too late. Most of the people present had already shifted their gaze.
Lu Yuan instinctively lowered his head, not daring to look directly.
But even so, the text at the edge of his vision began to dance frantically.
【Warning! Presence of █████ detected!】
【Sanity: -5... -5... -5...】
【Warning! Contamination has reached its peak; you are about to transform into a believer transcendent!】
【Leave immediately! Leave immediately! Leave...】
The prompts began to twist and blur.
Lu Yuan felt his consciousness being torn by something—an irresistible force, like standing on the edge of a cliff with an endless abyss below.
His Sanity was plummeting: 22... 17... 12... 7... 3... 2...
【Sanity: 1/70】
【Warning! Sanity on the verge of collapse! You have received the gaze of ██... Sanity locked...】
The number stopped at 1.
Lu Yuan was in a daze. He didn't know what had saved him—perhaps the presence that had always been watching him, or perhaps something else.
But he was still alive and hadn't gone completely mad.
Everything around him was crumbling.
The archbishop knelt on the ground, laughing madly as tears of blood streamed from his eyes, his mouth chanting something—part prayer, part curse.
The armor of the Holy Armored Army, which symbolized unyielding will, all went dark. They struggled to grip their swords.
But they had already lost control of their bodies.
The few civilians who had followed began biting each other or curled into balls, letting out meaningless screams.
The air was thick with the scent of blood and madness.
Lu Yuan looked at the familiar faces but couldn't take a single step.
Old Morgan was on one knee, his hands propping him up on the ground, his body shaking violently.
The old man's eyes still held a sliver of clarity, struggling in agony.
Hans was still at the front, still swinging his sword, but his movements were getting slower, as if bound by invisible chains. A warrior's instinct kept him going until the very end.
Mary lay on the ground, her hand still clutching her gun and her eyes tightly shut, her Sanity having already overloaded.
The power around Allen flickered. The strength of a fourth-rank Eerie transcendent was resisting the contamination, but the light was growing dimmer.
Scales began to grow on their skin—grey-blue scales spreading from the backs of their hands to their arms, from their necks to their cheeks.
Lu Yuan's vision was distorting. Was that the sound of waves or whispers in his ears? He couldn't tell anymore, feeling as if he were about to "melt," to dissolve into this madness.
Just then, a red blood vessel descended from the sky again, landing on the parchment scroll in his hand.
As the vessel touched it, the parchment scroll began to heat up. Lu Yuan's left hand was scorched at a visible rate, the flesh twisting hideously.
But Lu Yuan could no longer feel any pain; he only stared down.
He watched as the scroll unfurled naturally, the twisted runes upon it beginning to glow with a blood-red light.
The characters detached from the scroll as if alive, writhing and reorganizing in the air, eventually transforming into countless tiny red threads.
The threads wound around Lu Yuan's arm, piercing his skin and taking root in his flesh.
Lu Yuan instinctively wanted to break free, but his body no longer obeyed.
Strangely, as the threads sank into his body, there was no pain; instead, there was a sort of icy clarity. The feeling of being about to "melt" vanished, and his consciousness became clear.
The threads spread outward, bypassing everyone else and flying straight toward that charred Angel statue.
Wrapping, eroding, and swallowing—the statue turned into white powder and dissipated with the wind.
Seeing this, the last shred of reason in the archbishop's eyes vanished. He slumped to the ground and moved no more.
Rate on N.U.
