Before his eyes, there was no ghost or demon, just a massive figure radiating the gleam of steel, frowning down at him.
It was the Great Grandmaster.
On the palm reaching out to Huai Shi, the glow of the Alchemy Secret Rite slowly faded away.
Unbeknownst to him, the eting had ended, and there were no others around. The Director of Affairs, upon seeing Huai Shi awake, turned and left.
"How long did I sleep?"
"Ten minutes."
The Great Grandmaster answered indifferently, "After the eting ended, Simon noticed that no matter how he called, he couldn't wake you, so he dragged over. At that ti, I was preparing for an important step before cracking the refinent. The entire Mystic Ritual was delayed by ten minutes because of you. I do hope you can make up for those ten minutes later on."
"I will." Huai Shi forced a smile and wiped the sweat from his face.
"Had a dream?" asked the Great Grandmaster.
"Yes…" Huai Shi nodded, recalling the scenes from his dream, his brows furrowed. "The Sun Caster...it felt like...he had sothing he wanted to say to ."
"He's not the only one with sothing to say to you; there's also the one in front of you."
The Great Grandmaster looked down, examining his face, asking slowly and emphatically, "Now, Huai Shi, answer —are you still lucid?"
"...Yes." Huai Shi nodded.
"Then, are you capable of carrying out your own mission?"
"I am."
Huai Shi gave his response.
The Great Grandmaster didn't speak again, watching him in silence as if sniffing out any trace of unease or panic. Eventually, he gave a slight nod. "Let's hope so."
He picked through a potion box beside him, rapidly mixing potions, and finally took a syringe, pressing it against Huai Shi's neck and triggering the plunger.
The chill of the potion shot straight into the carotid artery. After a mont of discomfort, Huai Shi's drowsiness and lethargy began to rapidly dissipate, returning to clarity.
It seed even his breathing beca much smoother.
"What is this?"
"A stabilizer for use with Spirituality, allowing your consciousness to temporarily remain clear. Actually, you should have taken 'Regret Drug,' but very few can endure the effects of ntal chanization."
The Great Grandmaster pulled out the syringe and casually tossed it into the trash. "After all the Control Centers are activated, the Town of Dusk will enter the active phase," he explained. "The residual records in Hell will be more active than usual and will affect you more deeply. It should have been more subtle, but you've been locked up in Ivy Vine recently. Suddenly coming back to the surface, you'd have trouble adapting."
"Am I... having an allergic reaction?" Huai Shi asked in disbelief.
"This is also a congenital defect of the Heavenly Kingdom Genealogy. Outstanding individuals will gain adaptability to the Abyss, but at the sa ti, they are more vulnerable to the influences of Hell's records. The possibilities for being assimilated and solidified by Hell also increase significantly."
The Great Grandmaster cautioned, "You need to be careful not to end up like Condra."
Huai Shi stiffened for a mont, rembering the figure assimilated by this piece of Hell.
It had been a long ti since Huai Shi had seen him, but that did not an Condra had disappeared... As long as the Town of Dusk existed, he could not be freed.
"Is there really no way to save him?" Huai Shi hesitated for a long ti before finally asking.
"Perhaps there is," the Great Grandmaster queried back. "But do you think, after being assimilated once, that the one brought back would still be the original Condra?"
Huai Shi had no answer to that.
In the brief silence, sharp bell tolls sounded in the distance, mingling with a vague rumbling.
Alarm bells echoed one after another.
Huai Shi looked up in shock. "What's that?"
"A prelude to the stage's opening."
The Great Grandmaster withdrew his gaze. "Rest ti is over, Huai Shi. The final curtain is about to be lifted; everyone should return to their own places, including and you."
"Sounds like I'm quite important."
"Yes, who says expendables aren't important?"
The Great Grandmaster patted his shoulder, and before leaving, took one last look at him. "Everyone has sothing they should do well. We will do ours…"
"The rest is up to you."
.
A minute later, Huai Shi had changed back into his gear and stepped back into the hangar.
The roaring outside grew more intense.
The world had never paused for Huai Shi's breaths. The battle between the Nanoscale chanical Sequence from the Ivory Tower and the Synthetic Titans from Ivy Vine continued unabated, even growing more fierce.
Countless winged machines flew along the tracks into the sky, comncing another struggle in the clouds, only to fall once again.
Through the vast blood rain and dense fog outside the door, one could glimpse the intermittent flashes of fire.
In this genuine Hell, both sides were striving to make Hell even more hellish... Was it because it was already Hell and nothing could make it worse, or because arriving in Hell freed them to unleash their true natures without restraint? Hard to understand.
And in front of the departure gate, a truck, its armor and equipnt entirely replaced, had been waiting for so ti. Its door opened, quietly awaiting his arrival.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Huai Shi entered the truck cabin, greeting his seated colleagues on both sides.
August, sharpening the blade of his axe, looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "You seem to be in good shape after a sleep."
"I just hope it's not only appearances."
User Comments
0 comments from readers