Lu Yuan did not walk out on his own; he was absurdly pushed out by the threads, as if something was disgusted by him, or perhaps protecting him.
At the moment he was pushed out, Lu Yuan turned his head desperately, wanting to catch one last glimpse of those people.
The bodies of Old Morgan, Hans, Mary, Allen, and Sivating were distorting.
Scales emerged from beneath their skin, greyish-blue and overlapping one another, covering the backs of their hands, their arms, their cheeks, until their entire bodies were encased.
Gill slits tore open on both sides of their necks, blood gushing out before quickly congealing into a mucous membrane.
Webbed membranes grew between their fingers as their fingernails fell off, replaced by black keratin.
Their eyes were the last to change, pupils dilating and irises fading until they became the deathly grey of a dead fish.
Those who once fought alongside him were no longer human.
They were forced to abandon their human identities, transforming into the Abyssal Kin.
The moment the door closed behind him, Lu Yuan saw it.
The sea surface exploded.
It wasn't waves; the entire ocean was boiling and roaring.
Giant waves a hundred meters high rose from the sea level, with black foam rolling at the crests, carrying broken ships and unknown wreckage.
Amidst the tide, countless tentacles surged toward the sky.
Each one was thicker than a city wall, covered in scales and suckers, twisting in the air and blotting out half the sky.
The earth began to tear apart.
Starting from the coastline, cracks spread toward the inner city at a speed visible to the naked eye; buildings toppled into the rifts, roads broke into fragments, and the entirety of Gelimu Port was like a cookie being broken into pieces.
Tentacles wrapped around the city's edges, around the collapsed clock tower, and around the burning church.
Then, they tightened.
Gelimu Port was dragged, sliding into the sea.
Lu Yuan heard a sound—the sound of countless people singing in unison.
The sun-blotting flesh trees stood close together, the heads atop them singing something.
The ground emitted a low grinding sound; it was the sound of the entire city's foundation separating from the continent.
Seawater poured into the cracks, sweeping through the streets and submerging every building.
The entire city continued to sink before Lu Yuan's eyes; the last thing to disappear was the church's spire, the Angel statue upon it swaying a few times in the seawater before being swallowed by the waves.
Gelimu Port vanished.
Along with everyone inside.
At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text flickered quietly:
【Gelimu Port Status: 51/50】
【You witnessed the sinking of a remote port in the Ores Empire】
【This location has been erased from both memory and the physical world】
【You are... the Omitted, and also the Witness; you will move forward carrying the weight of unknown history.】
【You have gained more attention, unlocking passive — Hidden Witness (1/1): After witnessing history that should have been annihilated, you have gained something difficult for ordinary people to comprehend; your memory will never be affected or erased by external forces.】
【Sanity III: +... 70/70 (Experience)】
【Level Up! Sanity IV: 1/120 (Experience)】
【You have taken a step further on the path of exploring the limits of human Sanity; perhaps you truly can walk in the real world.】
【Forbidden Lore - Seeker: +40... 48.3/50】
【Ores Empire Status: +2... 2/100】
A series of prompts surfaced one after another, but Lu Yuan no longer had the energy to look as the parchment scroll in his hand rolled up automatically.
The red threads connecting his body pulled away from his skin, turning into fine ash and dissipating into the air.
Lu Yuan looked down at his left hand.
The skin was charred and the flesh was mangled, its original shape no longer recognizable.
But he felt no pain; he could feel nothing at all.
Stiffly, he tucked the parchment scroll into his breast.
The array on the parchment scroll had completely disappeared by now, leaving only a dry, blank scroll.
He stood at the end of a broken road, a cliff before him, and the sea below the cliff.
Gelimu Port had once been there.
Now, there was nothing.
At the same time, in the Ores Empire, in Jinsezhidu.
A Platinum Spire piercing the heavens stood at the center of the city, its tip disappearing into the clouds.
Around the spire, layers upon layers of palaces and temples spread outward like stairs, their red tiles and golden walls shimmering in the sunlight like a mountain built of gold.
At the city's outermost edge, a massive curved dome spanned the horizon like a crown left behind by a god, enveloping the entire capital within it.
Runes were densely engraved upon the dome, appearing and disappearing within the clouds, radiating an ancient and solemn glow.
A straight grand avenue extended from the foot of the spire, wide enough for ten carriages to pass side-by-side.
On both sides of the avenue were rows of shops and manors; pedestrians moved like a weaving thread, with noble carriages, merchant wagons, and scholars in long robes all moving in perfect order.
There was no darkness here, no madness, as if the nightmare of Gelimu Port was merely a story from another world.
Inside the spire, in the Hall of Imperial Territory.
A circular hall with a dome reaching a hundred meters high allowed sunlight to pour down from a skylight at the top, forming beams of golden light in the air.
A massive pure gold relief map was embedded in the wall, marking every inch of the empire's territory and every city.
A white-haired old man dressed in gold-trimmed robes was pacing through the hall, clutching a bundle of documents.
A soft "clink" sounded.
The old man stopped in his tracks and turned toward the source of the sound.
He saw a small piece of metal fall from the relief in the western corner of the giant map, hitting the floor with a crisp ring.
The old man walked over, bent down to pick up the piece of metal, and frowned at the gap on the map.
"When did the Empire... have an extra piece?" he muttered to himself, his brow furrowing. "I seem... to have forgotten something."
He stood there for a moment, attempting to recall something, but his mind was a complete blank.
Shaking his head, the old man casually placed the piece of metal on the windowsill and turned to leave.
Outside the window, the golden capital remained prosperous, the massive dome flashing with eternal light under the sun.
No one knew that in some corner of the empire's west, there had once been a small city called Gelimu Port.
A light rain began to fall.
Lu Yuan stood at the end of the broken road, looking at the sea before him; the sea breeze blew, carrying a salty, fishy scent and a faint smell of blood.
Lu Yuan's previously chaotic brain gradually recovered a sliver of sanity.
【Sanity: +1... 2/120 (Available points)】
Old Morgan's face surfaced before his eyes—that face covered in scales, those eyes that had maintained clarity until the end, and that silent "go."
Hans, Mary, Allen, and those whose names he could not call.
They were all in that city.
Now, they had all sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Lu Yuan opened his mouth, wanting to shout something, but every word he tried to utter concerning Gelimu Port was blocked by something, turning into silent whispers.
"Live on. Yes, live on."
As if thinking of something, Lu Yuan turned around stiffly to face the road.
The road extended eastward, disappearing into the rain curtain.
He did not know where that road led, nor did he know what else was waiting for him ahead.
But he had no other choice.
One step.
Another step.
He walked forward stiffly, not knowing where he was going, just walking.
The rain hit his face, cold and piercing to the bone.
Lu Yuan could not tell if it was rain or something else.
Bewilderment, despair, and numbness intertwined.
But mostly, there was only a void.
Lu Yuan's silhouette grew smaller and smaller, finally vanishing into the rain curtain.
Behind him was the empty surface of the sea.
As if a city had never existed there.
Rate on N.U.
