Chapter 213: The End of the Road

Chapter 213 – The End of the Road
All the churches fell in a short period of time, round after round of fiery “fireballs” rose up from the ground in all parts of the city-state, burning the last anchor of reality in Prand, the sound of bells ceased to ring one after another, and in just a few moments, all that was left of this pearl of the sea was endless ruins and ashes.

Vanna rushed like a gale through the burning intersections and streets to the cathedral that was blazing with pillars of fire through the sky in her vision, and which, in her vision, had been transformed in a short time – the

The main building had fallen, the main frame of the thousand-year-old building had also melted and collapsed like wax, the towering side buildings were only twisted red-hot skeletons in the blink of an eye, and on top of all this, a round of white edges, but the interior was as black and red as withered blood, “the sun” was quietly suspended in the sky over the cathedral, which looked as if it were a horrifying, It looked like a horrible hole leading to an endless abyss, but it was constantly releasing destructive light and heat.

The edges of the profane sun-wheel were constantly dripping with reddish droplets – hot lava or the blood of the profane.

What could one do now? Kill one of the culprits? Reverse the history that had already been repeated? Or with this power, a final heroic but futile demonstration of faith and loyalty?
Vanna didn’t know, and she didn’t know what else she could do, but she still instinctively rushed towards the church, and it was at that moment that out of the corner of her eye, something twisted and ethereal green light suddenly surfaced, as if something flickered through the fire, and the next thing she knew, an authoritative, lowered voice rang out directly in her head, “Proceed to the Great Bell Tower. ”

The voice came so suddenly that Vanna stopped in her tracks, looking for the direction of the voice, or any sign that the spectral captain was watching, but all she could see was a sea of flames, the molten lava dripping down from the blasphemous darkness of the “sun” that was setting fire to the last inch of land near the cathedral.

But just then, a voice broke Vanna’s brief hesitation.

She heard the sound of a bell ringing – from the ancient bell tower at the back of the cathedral.

The sound of that bell seemed to be as loud as if it was going to re-cover the whole of Prand.

And that bell tower had previously been completely burned by the flames, and it would have been impossible for it to make any more sound.

At this moment, Vanna threw away all the hesitation and concerns in her heart and drew her legs and rushed towards the direction of the bell tower.

She no longer cared about what the ghost captain’s intentions were, nor did she care about the consequences of following the other party’s arrangement – in the situation where all the churches had fallen in an instant, and in front of the fact that the entire city-state had already been burned down, the only road she could choose was the bell tower that was still ringing.

She crossed the square in front of the church.

The defense forces that had been assembled in the square had been completely wiped out, and all that could be seen in the rolling heat were countless twisted and scrapped steam-powered walkers and steam tanks, and the line of defense that had been built up by the defenders and the city-state’s guards was turned into layers of charcoal and occupied by shocking amounts of ash.

She hacked over the countless shadows of ash swarming towards her, and made her way through the main church building and sanctuary, which had already been burned to the ground, and across the wide-open courtyard, to see the bell tower standing tall at the end of her vision.

Hot ashes fell from the sky, and sparks danced like streaming fireflies.

It reminded her of what she had seen on the other side of the “curtain” not long before, of the Planders she had seen that had been destroyed by fire in 1889.

Pseudo-history overrides history, and what lies behind the curtain replaces the real world in front of it.

But the bells still tolled.

The doors leading to the upper floors of the bell tower had collapsed, and the interior staircase had broken and collapsed, and Vanna gave up on the idea of climbing the tower via the normal path once she confirmed this; she came to the foot of the bell tower’s outer wall, looked up to briefly determine her route, and then simply reached out and grabbed onto the wall’s raised structure and began to climb upwards.

The outer wall had been scorched by the flames for a long time, and was already as hot as a red-hot iron plate, but Vanna’s climbing speed was not affected in the least, and she rolled upwards almost like a gust of wind, and in just a few moments, she had already arrived at the upper part of the clock tower, and crossed the mechanical dials that had already ceased to function, and came to the top of the tower that housed the bonfires and the big bells.

It was a very wide place, sheltered by a spire structure open on all sides, and beneath the spire, besides the fire-pit, was the bell-ringing mechanism-a huge piece of machinery with gears and levers as a mechanism of power.

The bell was housed beneath this mechanism, hidden in a resonating chamber.

Vanna leapt to the top of the tower and tumbled to the ground.

She glanced back in the direction she had come from and saw the city-state plunging into flames at her feet, hot lava flowing through the streets, leaving a shocking gully as she looked down on Purgatory from the top of this city-state, full of destruction.

Immediately afterward, she turned back to the bell-ringing device that was still in constant operation, even though it had clearly lost power.

A figure …… or a mass of charcoal that barely maintained a human outline was climbing on the drawbar next to the bell ringing device, pushing the heavy gears to continue turning with human power.

Vanna subconsciously took a step forward, and as if the mass of coke had sensed her approach, he slowly raised his head and turned his face, a pair of eyes belonging to a human gazing at the young Inquisitor who had appeared at the top of the tower.

“Guard the …… bell tower ……”

The mass of coke hissed. He then collapsed to the ground with a loud thud, his thoroughly carbonized body in pieces, the crimson traces of fire fading between the remnants of the lingering heat.

A storm emblem symbolizing the Church of the Deep rolled to the ground from the coke.

The last bells of Planders finally stopped.

“Archbishop!”

Vanna recognized the eyes that had just been there, and she rushed forward to save the pile of ashes or to re-power the stopped bell ringing mechanism, yet just as she took a step, a sudden and powerful pressure stopped her in her tracks.

Vanna stopped hard and turned her head to look in the direction of the powerful pressure.

A tall and thin figure clad in tattered gray robes, withered and dried out, as if he was an ascetic, was standing quietly at the edge of the high platform.

The “ascetic” looked at Vanna with a compassionate gaze, and in the sky behind him was the dark sun that was constantly dripping hot molten lava and had a ring of blindingly bright edges.

The figure had appeared there at some point, so silently that Vanna did not even realize it – as if he had been standing on the tower from the very beginning, from long, long ago, before the fire started.

“You struggled as hard as you could, child, all of you struggled as hard as you could, and even delayed several times longer than expected, but this delay and perseverance is meaningless …… No one will come to your door to save you, and no reinforcements are destined to arrive in Prand before history is revised in this vision of history that has closed its loop …… “The withered dark figure said slowly, raising his hand slightly, his withered, bony arm seeming to float in a layer of fire in the light of the dark sun, “Now, embrace this new future, O child reborn from the ashes… . your survival and return has not changed anything.”

Vanna was silent, only silently removing the giant sword at her back.

“Oh, negotiations have broken down ……” the Final Preacher saw Vanna’s move, yet still had a look of pity and equanimity on his face, “Of course you could easily kill me, but it would be pointless… …The children of the sun are ready for the coming, and as for me, I am but a witness to this final moment, I will witness it now, and I will witness it in another day, and you …… do you see that sun?”

Vanna raised her eyes slightly, her gaze crossing over the figure of the Final Preacher, finally noticing what seemed to be beating slowly in the darkness deep within the wheel of that blasphemous sun, as if it were a gestating embryo, a gradually resurrecting heart.

A strange palpitation suddenly surged through his heart.

She finally realized that the powerful oppressive force that had suddenly descended just now did not come from the withered and frail Final Preacher in front of her – but rather the wheel of black sun behind him.

There was something that was awakening in the depths of that sun!
“There have been many twists and turns in this plan, and a force that has never been able to see clearly has interfered with our revision of history time and time again,” the compassionate-looking Final Preacher gazed quietly into Vanna’s eyes, his voice low, as if carrying some kind of compulsion, “and the perturbations it has brought about have caused certain eyes that were not supposed to be open to perceive what was going on. eyes that should not have been opened to perceive the truth …… You are actually just a little bit away from uncovering the whole truth, really, just a little bit – but that’s the way fate is.

“My child, fate is so brutally unreasonable.”

He lamented compassionately and slowly walked forward, he came to Vanna who was still standing stoically, and said as if he were pronouncing some kind of truth, “But you are blessed, you died and rose again, and you will live and die again, and you have been given that supreme bestowal …… of blessings to embrace it all. ”

Vanna’s grip on the hilt of her sword tightened, and for the first time in her life, she was motivated by such intense hatred rather than by justice or duty, yet at the last second before she raised her sword, her movement was suddenly interrupted by a stream of flame that flared up out of nowhere from the edge of the high platform.

A green flaming doorway suddenly appeared behind the final preacher, and a tall and majestic figure shrouded in spiritual flames stepped out from it.

The final preacher did not seem to be aware of the doorway behind him, but opened his hands to Vanna and proclaimed, like a prophet preaching to the world before the final judgment- “Blessed child.

“O blessed child, resist not, for as you see, times have changed ……”

He stopped abruptly.

An unspeakable fear suddenly burrowed into his chaotic mind, a chaotic noise that seemed to have originated directly from subspace mingled with Prender’s roaring fire, and the berserker made a hasty attempt to turn back, yet before he could do so a hand had gently rested on his shoulder.

“Turn back.”

A calm voice said so.

(End of chapter)