Chapter 742 – The Beginning of the Long Night

Chapter 742: The Beginning of the Long Night

Sharp footsteps broke the calm inside the sanctuary, and the middle-aged cleric wearing a gold-printed dark blue hooded robe crossed the long corridor like a gust of wind, and under the silent gaze of the many sages on the frescoes on both sides, he arrived at the door to the prayer room – but before knocking on the door, a gentle female voice had already come out from inside the door: “Come in.”

The middle-aged Magus pushed open the door and saw the figure standing in front of the Storm Goddess’s icon – Helena was dressed in a simple Magus’s skirt and robe, with a string of beads of aquamarine crystals wrapped around her wrists, and it seemed that she had been praying devoutly up until the previous second, and she didn’t turn around when she heard the sound of the door being pushed from behind her, but instead, she still gazed at the lightly veiled Goddess’s icon quietly, while speaking softly: “Come in”, and she said: “Come in. The icon, while speaking softly, “What’s the situation outside now?”

“Dusk is still continuing, the sun is still in its original position, maintaining its ‘normal’ brightness and form,” the middle-aged Magus immediately bowed his head and reported, “Order in the city-state is still good, as the current situation is unclear, most of the citizens have returned home to wait for further instructions, Fang Fang has already returned home to wait for further instructions. have returned home to wait for further instructions, and there is no abnormality in all parts of the Ark ship for the time being, four teams of technical priests are already on standby near the steam boilers.”

Helena nodded gently and seemed to be quietly thinking about something before suddenly asking after a moment, “What about the situation of the other arks?”

“A contact was made just a few minutes ago, everything is normal on the Ark, the Academy Ark said that their observation equipment received a series of repetitive signals from the direction of the sun, and unlike the content of the previous signals, after converting them into sound they are sharp and short noises ……”

Helena “hmm”, then no longer speak, just continue to quietly gaze at the goddess’s icon, for a while as if she had forgotten the middle-aged cleric who was still waiting for instructions next to her, until a few minutes later, she spoke softly as if she were talking to herself: “The long twilight ah! ……”

Taran Ayer frowned tightly, looking at the data that the apprentice had just sent to him, the long paper tape automatically recorded by the machine is a large number of dazzling curves and seemingly irregular holes, and these data like a heavenly book presents, is that for a long time shining, sheltering this world, “Vision 001 – the sun! “The state of the moment.

After a long time, the elf scholar finally put down the paper tape in his hand, rubbing his temples tiredly, and did not speak for a long time.

A calm voice came from the side: “Tell us about the current situation, Talan.”

Taran El raised his head and saw Ted Riel who was standing beside the bookshelf, this Truth Keeper Secretkeeper was wearing an academy hooded robe, but underneath the hooded robe, one could see the close-fitting soft armor and armed hanging buckles, and while he seemed to be standing there calmly, his eyes were sharp like a soldier about to embark on a battlefield.

“…… The sun is flickering, although it is indistinguishable to the naked eye, it is indeed flickering, and it’s not that kind of regular ‘signal’, but more like a… . an electric light in bad shape,” Taran-El pursed his somewhat dry lips and pushed the information in front of him aside, “Also, the latest tracking records show that it’s not completely stationary on the horizon, but is still moving, just… . very, very slowly, so slow as to be imperceptible to the naked eye.”

Ted Ryer was silent for two or three seconds, “How slow is the ……?”

“It will fall below the sea level in about seventy-two hours, if the current speed remains constant,” Taran-El said, reaching his hand to a glass of water on the side, but nearly knocking it over-he hastily gripped the glass, and took two hard gulps of his already-cooled tea. His face looked a little better then, “But the worst part isn’t the twilight that’s going to last for the next seventy-two hours, it’s what’s going to happen after the twilight, Ted, you know what I mean.”

“…… Longer than dusk is night,” Ted Riel’s expression stared momentarily, and he certainly understood what his friend meant by that, “If we run at this rate, how long will the next night last? ”

Taran El, however, did not answer, he just put down his teacup and stared dead at those papers in front of him, as if he wanted to see the future of this world from those papers, to pluck out some enemy’s secret from them, and only after a long time did he show a bitter smile and spread his hands to Ted.

“…… I’ll arrange for the Knowledge Guards to be ready,” Ted Reel looked at his best friend before him for a moment in silence, nodding softly, “We have preliminaries for ongoing missions after an unexpected plunge into prolonged darkness, Lightwind Harbor That ‘glowing falling object’ next to it will also provide basic shelter during the night, it won’t be too bad.”

“Yes, things won’t be too bad in Lightwind Harbor – not so much in the other city-states,” Taran-El sighed softly after a few moments of silence, “Unlike before when the sun went out when the various city-states simply ‘skipped time’, this time we are facing the sun slowing down, and all the city-states are experiencing this world-class vision …… I don’t know how they are going to face the long night to come.”

“Every city-state has a survival plan for extreme situations, but how much they can do is another matter …… We can only wish and hope that the four gods shelter them.”

Ted said in a low voice, then shook his head and picked up the large, heavy book in his hand that recorded many miracles, as if he was planning to open a passageway to leave this place, but he suddenly hesitated again and put the book back away, and with a sigh he turned towards the door.

Talan quietly watched the back of this Truth Keeper, as if seeing off a warrior ready to embark on the battlefield, until the other party’s silhouette disappeared across the front door, he only withdrew his gaze, his eyes sweeping over the information that had just been pushed aside by himself.

At the end of one of the pages of information, slightly trembling strokes of the pen wrote a line of records left by the observers–

“…… According to current calculations …… seventy-two hours from the end of sunset ……… …”

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows to the side, the golden sunset still filled and covered the magnificent splendor of the city-state’s scaled rooftops.

And then he heard the illusory sound of a bell.

The bell was urgent, regularly repeated, as if calling to every one who heard it, calling to come and listen to this proclamation before nightfall–the Deep within the Prand Cathedral, Archbishop Valentine, who was discussing with Consul Dante Wayne on how to deal with this solar mutation, suddenly stopped and listened with his side ear to the bells that suddenly surfaced.

Consul Dante, who was sitting opposite Valentine, immediately raised his head, “Your Eminence, Bishop? What happened?”

Valentine gently waved his hand and after a slight hesitation replied, “It’s the Swift Bell.”

“Swift Bell?” Dante’s face changed slightly, even though he wasn’t a member of the church’s clergy, he knew a lot of things related to the church because of Vanna’s relationship, so he naturally knew what the “Swift Clock” was, “That …… “

However, Valentine shook his head, “No, let’s continue, Mr. Consul.”

“…… You don’t want to respond to the summoning of the ‘Swift Bell’?”

“Do not respond,” Valentine said slowly, as if recalling many things in a moment, but finally shook his head, “That is an order.”

Do not answer that bell, do not answer the Tomb of the Unknown King, do not answer the call of that Gravekeeper –

The bell was still repeating, a sharp and repetitive chime chiming over and over again in every city-state, every church, every ship, and in the minds of every acolyte who believed in the Four Gods.

The clerics unanimously stopped what they were doing at the moment the bell rang, yet after a short pause, everyone returned to their intense and busy work – continuing to receive and calm the faithful who came to seek help, continuing to care for the holy vessels and maintain the churches, continuing to prepare blessings for the warriors in preparation for the next, which could be a very long night ahead.

The sound of that bell echoed like the wind in the ears and the waves in the distance, but no more magi answered its call ……

And in that distant other dimension, in the ancient assembly grounds shrouded in darkness and chaos, the last of the ascetics stationed here were silently watching the center of the square.

Huge towering stone pillars surrounded the assembly ground, a chaotic stream of light flashed through the obscure sky, and the ancient pale pyramid mausoleum rose from the center of the square, and in the center of the desolate and deserted assembly ground, the tomb keeper, who was covered with bandages and seemed to be perpetually in-between life and death, stepped out and stood in the empty and deserted assembly ground.

Unlike in the past millennia, however, no saint stood here today, pen and paper in the hands of the Gravekeeper, but no one had come to hear the news from the tomb.

The ascetics stood away from the center of the square, at a safe distance, their bodies tattooed with runic tattoos symbolizing the blessings of the four gods, their eyes and ears having been closed by spells, and they perceived that mausoleum through the miracle of the divine gift in order to avoid witnessing directly the figure of that Gravekeeper, to avoid listening directly to his voice.

The tomb keeper in front of the mausoleum took a few steps outward, there were massive shadows growing from behind him, unnamable limbs and distortions spreading outward along his footsteps like undulating silt, he came to the ascetics, reached out and handed over the parchment, on which a single trembling eyeball continued to emerge, he opened his rotting, deformed mouth and called out to the ascetic vigilantes – –

His voice was like ten thousand blasphemous polluted curses, each tremor carrying the power to gouge out the heart and destroy reason.

The ascetic vigilantes just stood quietly outside the tomb, like statues, silently “watching” the guards of the tomb.

They could not respond, could not communicate, and could not leave their posts.

Invisible strange creeping shadows slowly calm, after a long confrontation, the tomb guard lowered his head, cloudy eyes staring at the parchment in his hands, he was silent for a long time, and finally slowly turned around, walking in the direction of the mausoleum.

Heavy, low murmurs came out from within the mausoleum, the gravekeeper’s murmurs and the voices coming from within the mausoleum gradually overlapped.

He was mumbling softly, repeating over and over-

“Dusk has come ……”

(End of chapter)