Chapter 66: It’s Up to You, Rast
The illusion shattered, turning into countless mottled fragments.
In the sky, on the ground, and from all directions were white threads stained with bl**d, resembling a gigantic spider’s nest.
Outside the window, the distorted red moon continued to surge and writhe.
Rast’s spirit returned to his body along the spiritual pathway.
He rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath, the discomfort caused by the return of his spirit slightly alleviating.
According to the hints from the “Library of Fools,” Hiltina’s self-will should have broken free from the illusion by now.
As this thought arose.
In the next moment, he saw the sudden brilliant light before him, shining like a morning star.
The tip of the sword dragged a silver thread in the air, cutting, piercing, and drawing a crisscross trajectory at a terrifying speed.
In a thousandth of a second, the massive cocoon before Rast was annihilated into nothingness by the swift wind of the fine sword.
Hiltina emerged from the cocoon, her slender body untouched by any of the overwhelming threads.
She sheathed the “Flickering Morning Star” and came to Rast’s side, both gazing out at the night sky where the bl**d moon had replaced the moon.
“Is this the mastermind behind Frozen Water Town?”
“Considering the Calamity Echo that restricts Third Tier Night Travelers, isn’t this level of enemy a bit exaggerated?”
Hiltina’s voice held a hint of shock, but there was no trace of fear.
“This bl**d and flesh moon is not a real creature but merely a kind of illusory projection with a semblance of power.”
Rast smiled.
His eyes turned silver, swirling with mysterious hues, his “Eye of Revelation” activated silently.
“A being whose form can embody the moon must be, at the very least, a true Evil God.”
“If its true form were to descend, we would have no means of resistance and should just wait to d*e… The Calamity Echo in the Night World is indeed dangerous, but it would never assign such a guaranteed d*ath mission.”
He slowly surveyed everything within Frozen Water Town with his silver eyes.
“Of course, the ability to manifest an Evil God’s projection, even if merely an illusory facade, is significant.”
“I call this projection in the night sky ‘bl**d Moon’… And the bizarre culprit of Frozen Water Town is a pollutant related to ‘bl**d Moon,’ just like that pollutant sculpture in Deep Blue Harbor.”
“However, the sculpture in Deep Blue Harbor is in a sealed state; the Evil God behind the Iron Cross Plague seems to have some limitations on intervening in the current world, passively creating coincidences and being carried by cultists to leak aura and create Iron Cross pollution.”
“But the pollutant currently present in this little town seems to have entered some activated state… It can even actively create a domain, enveloping the entire town in this bl**d mist.”
This reminded Rast of what he read in the Lighthouse Keeper’s diary when he first entered this Calamity Echo.
Since the outbreak of the Iron Cross Plague… the order of the Sixth Epoch after the Catastrophic Era seems to be increasingly collapsing.
Gods that were originally in different dimensions, only capable of interfering with the world through cultists and similar means, can frequently descend after the Catastrophic Era.
And those pollutants that were once either sealed or inactive, only waiting passively for opportunities to come, have also become much more active following the Catastrophic Era.
They no longer need to create coincidences nor rely on others to drive them; they can actively unleash power, destroying countless human towns.
It is precisely because of this that the once-thriving civilization of the Sixth Epoch has become riddled with wounds, and humanity can only survive in the shadow of foreign races and disasters.
Rast shook off his thoughts.
He looked out the window at Frozen Water Town, shrouded in endless threads.
“These threads are the means by which pollutants erode living beings, enveloping all creatures and life within the dreams they weave with the mist cocoon.”
“And once lost entirely in the dream, the soul and self will also be erased by these threads.” Hiltina interrupted Rast’s narration: “Turning into a body of void, merely manipulated by these threads like a marionette, right?”
“That’s correct.”
Rast nodded gently, casting a somewhat surprised glance at Hiltina.
This time, he did not share the “Eye of Revelation” with Hiltina, so he had no way of knowing how she acquired this information.
After all, Hiltina’s abilities were primarily focused on self-enhancement and combat, and she likely did not possess any detection skills.
“My intuition told me.”
Hiltina smiled, her expression containing some inexplicable meaning.
Intuition?
Rast was momentarily taken aback.
But in the next moment, the sounds that reached his ears told him the answer.
Swish—
Swish—
Swish—
From the thick mist, faint sounds emerged.
These sounds were peculiar, resembling the noises of a chick pecking open its shell, breaking free.
They also sounded like the coffin lid in a grave being pushed open, with decayed bodies seeing daylight again.
At first, there were merely one or two faint sounds that one would instinctively overlook.
But soon, those faint sounds multiplied into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands…
Rustling, as if coming from all around.
Bang—
Rast abruptly drew his g*n, the muzzle of the revolver bursting into flames toward the empty darkness.
The b*llet shot out rapidly, then quickly embedded into the floor, leaving only sparks and a few uneven b*llet holes on the ground.
At the same time, shadows began to wildly move in the once-empty darkness where Rast had shot.
Like boiling ink, several spears formed from shadows shot toward Rast’s body.
Snap—
In the blink of an eye, Rast swiftly switched the card equipped from “Hermit Isda” in the “Library of Fools” to “Chariot Hiltina.”
The silver light swirling in his eyes quickly faded, and the Night Blade “Eye of Revelation” lost its effect.
But correspondingly… Rast regained the long tier of the Chariot sequence and part of Hiltina’s Night Blade ability “Infinite Sword.”
“Intuition” activated.
No need for excess thought.
Based solely on the sound of the shadow spears cutting through the air and the changes in the room’s light, Rast instantly deduced the optimal solution at this moment.
The trajectory of the shadow spears evolved into discernible ballistics in Rast’s mind.
Then, in the fleeting moment, he sidestepped and slid, narrowly avoiding them.
While evading, Rast quickly reloaded his revolver with new ammunition.
Not the previous ordinary Full Metal Jacket Bullets, but black bullets engraved with complex runes, resembling fine craftsmanship.
These were custom bullets tailored for Rast’s “Iron Pattern Moon” revolver, forged by “Ashen Academy,” which specialized in weapon and equipment crafting during his time at Starry University.
Alchemy b*llet “Demon-Breaking b*llet.”
Compared to ordinary Full Metal Jacket Bullets, this ammunition’s lethality on a physical level could be described as negligible.
Its sole efficacy lay in its name— “Demon-Breaking”—
Disrupting the normal flow of magic circuits, possessing extraordinary penetration capability against Night Blades, sequence abilities, and other realms involving the supernatural.
The black b*llet sped out of the revolver’s muzzle under the enhancement of “Infinite Martial Refinement.”
Perhaps because the cost of practicing shooting is lower than that of wielding a sword, Rast’s lethality, permanently enhanced by “Infinite Martial Refinement,” could only be described as minimal after each gunshot.
However, during those days at Starry University, Rast fired tens of thousands of bullets. Such a volume of practice allowed his shooting skills to improve significantly.
If he returned to Deep Blue Harbor again, even without using armor-piercing bullets, Rast was confident he could pierce the steel membrane of the Iron Cross heart with ordinary ammunition.
Boom.
Though Rast aimed his revolver at the previously empty shadow,
This time, the Demon-Breaking b*llet did not silently embed into the ground as before.
Instead, it produced a violent roar of flesh being pierced.
In the corner, a previously silent shadow began to twist.
The shadow, like ink, spread out, transforming into a figure wrapped in shadow.
The silver spike flashed in the air.
Almost at the moment the shadow began to twist and change under the influence of the Demon-Breaking b*llet, Hiltina’s crystalline fine sword pierced through.
The figure wrapped in shadow was pierced at the neck by Hiltina’s “Flickering Morning Star,” instantly exploding into a massive bl**d hole.
Its form fell to the ground, dissipating like a shadow, twitching slightly before going still.
At the same time.
Thin threads, formed from the condensed bl**d mist, silently manifested in mid-air, detaching from the shadow figure and vanishing from sight.
“Roya.”
“Scout team member, ranked twenty-seventh in the Stellar Obelisk, Night Blade is ‘Shadow Leap.'”
Hiltina looked at the twitching form on the ground and softly voiced her conclusion about the identity of the foe.
“To be more accurate, the one here is no longer Roya.”
“But rather, after the soul and self were consumed by the bl**d mist… it’s merely a marionette controlled by that pollutant.”
Rast added.
At the same time, he realized what the thousands of rustling abnormal sounds echoing throughout the town were.
Since it was a woven cocoon, there had to be a moment of breaking free.
However, for those lost in the dream, who had not escaped the illusion with their own will—
The product of breaking free from the cocoon was no longer their original self, but puppets and dolls manipulated by bl**d mist threads, void of consciousness and soul.
And among these puppets transformed into bl**d mist thread servants, there were not only the original residents and creatures of Frozen Water Town.
Even those Night Travelers who had entered the Calamity Echo previously and had not returned became slaves of the bl**d mist.
Roya, who held the Night Blade “Shadow Leap” and arrived first, was merely the first, but certainly not the last…
At this moment, these former companions of Hiltina and Rast, fellow students from Starry University, were under the control of bl**d mist threads, becoming cold combat marionettes.
Using the sequence abilities and Night Blades that were originally meant to fight against the Night World to desperate ends to try and leave Hiltina and Rast behind, turning them into soulless puppet companions just like themselves.
…
“Seventeen scout team members lost in the Calamity Echo, excluding Roya, there are sixteen more.”
“Even though most of their Night Blades are focused on scouting and stealth… as members of the raid team, they are at least Third Tier.”
“This is truly going to be a tough battle.”
Rast calculated the disparity in strength in his mind.
Moreover, in addition, there were the original residents of Frozen Water Town and other animals.
Even if they were originally ordinary people, once controlled by the bl**d mist threads and losing the restraint of pain, they would likely gain enhancements from the bl**d mist, just like previously with the Iron Cross.
In a certain sense, this was a more perilous situation than the previous battle in Deep Blue Harbor… After all, in this Calamity Echo, Rast did not have the experience of having rolled back over eight thousand times as he did in Deep Blue Harbor, nearly perfecting all the details within the harbor area.
Moreover, the most important thing was—
Even if they defeated all the puppets manipulated by bl**d mist in front of them, it did not mean they could clear the Calamity Echo of Frozen Water Town.
Rast had not forgotten everything described in that Lighthouse Keeper’s diary… that similar to himself in Deep Blue Harbor, the time reset that repetitively cycles.
As soon as this thought arose.
In the next moment, Rast heard Hiltina’s soft whispers in his ear.
“Rast, have you found clues to clear this Calamity Echo using the ‘Eye of Revelation’?”
“Grey… right?”
“If not, with your personality, you wouldn’t possibly have talked so much to a little girl who has nothing to do with you.”
“Yeah.”
Rast nodded: “But given our current situation, discussing anything before dealing with those pursuing marionettes is futile.”
“Then, if someone intercepted all the puppets for you, eliminating all distractions, how long would you need to resolve everything?”
“Uncertain, but if all goes smoothly, perhaps around fifty minutes.”
As soon as Rast finished speaking, he sensed that this conversation felt somewhat familiar.
Not long ago in that coastal city, he seemed to have had a similar conversation.
And the counterpart in that discussion was the girl with the fine sword before him.
However, the roles they played in the dialogue appeared to have undergone a dramatic change.
“Is that so…”
For some reason, Rast detected a subtle hint of mischief in Hiltina’s words.
“Then this time, you will have an hour.”
Boom—
At the moment the words fell.
The rushing wind that had lingered around Hiltina dissipated.
The “Swift Wind Steps” that had long been imbued upon her was now actively undone by Hiltina.
But in stark contrast to the calming winds was the azure flame that suddenly surged around Hiltina.
“Burning bl**d.”
The third-tier ability of the Chariot sequence.
Burning the body, incinerating the soul.
Squeezing all potential from the flesh and releasing all power within a very short time limit.
The azure flame that enveloped Hiltina was the manifestation of bl**d and soul burning together.
In the fiery azure flames, Hiltina smiled slightly: “Earlier in Deep Blue Harbor, when you took charge, I wanted a chance to take the lead.”
“This time, unlike Deep Blue Harbor, these puppet beings were once members of the raid group. When it comes to their Night Blades and sequence abilities, I am more familiar than you…”
“Moreover, all my abilities are enhancements to combat power, which are useless in breaking through time loops; I can’t assist you in that.”
“Having me intercept these controlled marionettes is undoubtedly the optimal choice.”
Hiltina’s figure burned in the azure bl**d fire as she stepped forward to the open window.
She turned back and gazed into Rast’s eyes.
“Last time, you entrusted your hope of escaping Deep Blue Harbor to me… You bet that I would win.”
“Then this time.”
“I bet that you will win.”
The red and white knight outfit fluttered, and chestnut hair danced in the wind.
This dignified fine sword wielder leaped out the window, her slender figure shrouded in azure flames standing out in the night.
She rushed toward the night, facing the incoming footsteps in the bl**d mist.
Just like many years ago, when the knight named Cecilia faced the roaring fire elemental king and stepped bravely into the raging flames of the Autumn Leaf Territory.
“So—”
“It’s up to you, Rast.”
“Completely end this damned Calamity Echo.”
…………
PS: One more chapter to go.
(End of this chapter)
