Chapter 432 – Burning Ash

Chapter 432 Burning Ash
The fog was dissipating.

For the first time since the start of the war, this dense fog that had been entrenched in the Frost Sea had a tendency to dissipate, around the Sea Mist ship, in the direction of Frost, from the surface of the sea to the high altitude, all the dense fog was receding at a speed that was visible to the naked eye, the kind of dimness that shrouded everything receded, and the entire sea was gradually becoming clearer and clearer.

On the surface of the sea where the fog was dissipating, what could be seen everywhere were still burning ships, a fleet of forgeries in hideous and strange shapes, and countless fragments of wreckage and burning grease that rose and fell with the waves.

Thick smoke rolled out and filled the sea as the fog subsided.

The first mate, Aiden, was the first to run to the window, staring out at the sea as the fog lifted, and only after a long time did he yell out, “The fog’s lifted! Captain! The fog is receding!”

“I can see it,” Tirian said as he too came quickly to the window, yet the gravity in his one eye had not faded at all as the fog receded, “It’s receding …… It’s really receding?”

“Captain, isn’t that a good thing?” Aiden immediately noticed the wrongness in Tirion’s tone and turned his head suspiciously, “The fog has receded, which means that the abnormal force that was entrenched in the Frost has also ……”

“No …… there’s a problem,” Tirian but with a serious expression interrupted the words of the first mate, he stared dead at the distant sea, his eyes became more and more stern, “The fog dispersed, but those ghost ships are still there, and the look of the sea ……”

“Sea surface?” Aiden frowned suspiciously and turned his head to look into the distance, and in the next second, he finally sucked in a breath of cold air.

Just as the captain had said, something wasn’t right – the fleet of fakes on all sides showed no signs of dissipating, and there were even new ghost ships coming up from the sea, and in the process, the entire sea was darkening!

The seawater is diffusing a large swath of pitch blackness, there is something in the darkness that is expanding, there are countless shadowed things that are approaching that layer of water, and this scene …… is as if there is something extremely large or a group of things that are floating up from the deep sea!
“I’ve got a ……”

Aiden subconsciously muttered and opened his mouth, but before his words fell, a series of loud booms suddenly broke the extremely short-lived calm after the fog dissipated.

The nearby sea water was cracking, and countless huge ships were surfacing, some of them resembling wrecks, some twisted like ghosts and monsters, and some even looked plausibly familiar – it was as if all of the fake fleets had come out in one go in the suddenly dark sea!
“Attention! Enemy ships appearing! Enemy ships …… everywhere!”

A sailor yelled out in fear, and the close defense guns on the edge of the deck hissed at the same time, and the roar of artillery fire resonated through the sea almost simultaneously, the shells whistling and slicing through the air, and the huge columns of water and fireballs from the explosions once again covered this sea.

And in the midst of this sudden and drastic chaos, Tirian still gazed at the surface of the sea, at those enemies who surfaced from the sea one after another.

He recognized some of them – and so did his soldiers.

“It’s the ‘Knight’ ship! The Knight that we sank in the first place!”

“The Black Flag Trooper! The Black Flag Soldier ship that sank fifteen minutes ago! It’s back!”

“The Courageous! And the Prince Jotun!”

“Captain!” First Officer Aiden’s voice reached Tirion’s ears with a panic he had never felt before, “All of the fake fleet …… of those we wiped out all of them have reappeared!”

Tirian opened his mouth and was about to say something when a voice suddenly surfaced in his mind, “…… This is normal because the root of the mirror image is still there.”

“Father?!” Tirion was startled and subconsciously looked around for something that could produce a mirror, “You are now ……”

“Don’t rush, Tirian – the timing is just right.”

Tirian quickly calmed down, signaling Aiden to take command of the battle while responding quickly in his head, “What do you need me to do?”

……

And at the same time that the dense fog on the sea was fading, the dense fog shrouding the Frost City State was also fading – but just like the situation on the sea, the fading of the fog did not mean the end of the crisis.

The mirror image is still floating, and another, even more terrifying Frost City is gradually being added to reality.

The city-state guards still holding out for battle built barricades against the countless monsters that seemed to appear out of thin air, the roar of guns shook the city, the peace and safety that was once there had long since been completely torn to shreds, smoke filled every street, filthy mud and gradually cooling blood was soaking through the city, while more twisted sights still continued to cover everything.

“Sir, they’re everywhere!”

In front of the intersection of Fireplace Street, a squad of city-state guards that had been trapped in the fog was relying on the firepower of the steam walkers to sweep the streets for the freaks that had appeared, and the soldiers hadn’t even had time to cheer as the fog dissipated before being dragged into a new vicious battle with more monsters and horrors.

“Then fire everywhere!” The squad’s commander roared, firing into the distance as he rushed to the foot of the steam walker and rushed to the comms officer, “Can you contact the other squads?”

“Squads seven, six and four are still out of contact!” The comm trooper shouted, “Almost a quarter of the squads were lost in the fog earlier, sir!”

“Keep calling until someone responds, or wait for reinforcements,” the commander patted the communicator’s helmet and turned his head to look into the distance, “The fog is lifting, hold on, the situation is changing – this could be the final attack! ” The steam walker’s machine gun turret let out a continuous roar, tearing another steam walker in the distance to shreds, and as the massive machine came crashing to the ground, huge amounts of foul sludge spewed out of its mechanical compartments, splattering the streets like ghastly entrails.

The warriors mustered their courage once more – or just let the numbness continue to drive the exhausted to the bone limbs – as the commander spoke words of encouragement that even he didn’t believe, and looked up into the distance again.

He saw the two Great Sanctuaries of Silence standing high on the hilltops, the ground on the side of the city-state rising eerily as if in a curl, and huge rolling and unfamiliar complexes of buildings rising gradually out of the city, tiers and tiers of buildings over the streets he knew so well, and twisted and tilted towers spilling out of the buildings in the distance, stretching and growing in the sky like abominable bone accretions from a giant’s body.

And uncountable amounts of mud were flowing from within the towering complex, rushing down as if to engulf the entire city.

“O Lord of Death …… “At the highest place of the Silent Great Sanctuary, Bishop Ivan looked down at the city-state that was gradually distorting and being swallowed by the huge vision, and finally couldn’t help but speak softly, “Is today the day of the end ……”

He looked into the distance, but could only see massive darkness rising from all directions, the original city hall across the hilltop had been shrouded by a bizarre patch of thorns at some point, and in the midst of the thorns stood another Silent Great Sanctuary vaguely, while at the foot of the hill, the rolling mass of buildings were shakily piling up and rising upward, and the houses were like the limbs of mollusks presenting a chilling appearance.

Beyond the city-state, the entire sea was gradually enveloped in an ominous blackness, a darkness like a giant mirror, in which another Frost was gradually being reflected – like looking at another world through a curved mirror, the Frost looked Twisted, confused, full of plausible errors, full of black, writhing malice.

Huge mirror cities are rising from the depths, eroding everything from reality and illusion in tandem.

“Archbishop!” A high ranking assistant priest came running through the terrace doors and ran behind Bishop Ivan, “The last reserves have been assembled, the Silent Monks and Guardians will protect the Great Sanctuary until the last moment!”

“Agatha still hasn’t returned?”

“Still no contact with His Excellency the Gatekeeper,” the High Priestess flew in, “The exploring party that went down the shaft with her reported that the Gatekeeper had not been heard from since entering a bizarre stone wall – now that the mine is engulfed in darkness , I’m afraid ……”

“The Gatekeeper will not fall so easily, and Agatha will fulfill her mission …… surely.” Bishop Ivan said calmly.

The high ranking assistant priest hesitated, “Archbishop, you should take refuge ……”

“Take refuge? Take refuge in some safe sanctuary prayer room? Or escape the city by boat?” Bishop Ivan turned back and slowly shook his head, “I don’t need to take refuge, I’ll just stay here. You go command the Guardian troops at the foot of the mountain and move any civilians that can be moved to the mountain, holding on for a little while longer is a little while longer.”

The high-ranking assistant priest hesitated for a few seconds at last before finally nodding vigorously, “Yes! Archbishop!”

The high-ranking assistant priest retreated, and once again only the old bishop himself remained on the terrace.

He raised his head and looked out at the other cathedral that was shrouded in thorns and seemed like a shadow of the Silent Cathedral.

That cathedral was dead, and no acolytes could be seen in it.

It was only a mirror image, but its appearance meant that the mirror image of Frost’s “anti-phase” had reached its final step.

“Agatha …… you should still be somewhere to continue to fulfill your mission …….”

Bishop Ivan said softly, as if talking to himself, but also as if whispering to a younger generation that had lost contact with him.

He slowly raised his hand and unclasped the flamboyant robes that symbolized the authority of the Archbishop, and removed his own crown, placing it on the railing next to him.

“Then you should remember that the saints of Bartok never stop before death ……”

Underneath the fancy robes and crown, layers and layers of bandages were revealed, and Ivan reached out and fumbled with them before pulling away a little bit from a knot somewhere near his neck.

“We fight filth with flesh and blood, and after our lives end, we defend our faith with our unending shells, and when the shells end as well ……”

The bandage was undone, as if a vessel that had been sealed and suppressed for decades had suddenly broken free, and underneath the bandage was not some fractured body – there had long since been no body.

There was only pale soot under there.

“We still have the searing ash.”

The bandages fell apart, and a flurry of ashes flew out over the edge of the terrace, turning into a thin white smoke that gradually enveloped the sky over the Frost.

(End of chapter)