Nightmare's Call - Chapter 357
Chapter 357: Turmoil: Part 1
The holy flames came and went in a blink of an eye.
By the time Lin Sheng regained his senses, the white flames before him had totally disappeared. He was still inside the hole within the ruins near the blast crater with blackened debris all around him.
“Ancellia… Blackfeather City? Perhaps that’s the start of everything…” Lin Sheng was impassive.
“There had not been any problems before when I backtrack through the memories. But this time, something happened. The red-haired swordswoman in the memory actually noticed my presence…”
As he thought of that, a feeling warning him against summoning the swordswoman
“Nah, no hurry… I’ll just look for someone else to summon. I cannot afford to go summoning this one before I’m sure what’s going on with her.”
With that, he got out of his hiding spot.
A massive cyclops with green-greyish skin appeared out of nowhere. The cyclops lowered its head and its massive two-meter-odd frame onto the ground seemingly looking for something as it stuffed items found into its mouth.
The crunching sound was jarring against the silent backdrop of the city ruins. Seemingly noticing Lin Sheng’s appearance, the cyclops turned over as its pale eye stared at Lin Sheng.
*Guhguhguhguhguh…*
It broke into a bizarre laugh as it revealed a mouthful of saw-like teeth with mud-like junk stuck between its teeth.
“That’s a fugly smile.” Lin Sheng simply picked a handful of smashed rocks from the ground, his face impassive.
*Hahh!!*
He then threw the rocks in his hand out.
The rocks were smothered in pure white holy light and turned into a storm of white meteors as they crashed against the cyclops’ head.
*Bam bam bam!!*
With no opportunity to react, the cyclops’ head ate the full brunt of the attack. For all of its thick hide, it was badly wounded by the rocks.
Sensing that Lin Sheng was not someone to be trifle with, the cyclops roared as it pulled out a handful of rocks from a gray bag hanging around its waist and threw them at Lin Sheng with violent abandon.
*Bamm!!*
A storm of rocks crashed violently against Lin Sheng, but with his Armor of Dawn, they merely left scratches on his armor.
Seeing so, the cyclops was shocked as it turned away and ran. Lin Sheng was just about to give chase before something struck him as he picked up one of the rocks from the ground.
“This rock…looks familiar…” He felt like he had seen this rock somewhere before. The rock was emanating a mysterious yet familiar aura.
As Lin Sheng ran through his memory, he suddenly paused in horror.
“Is this Ancellia’s heritance stone?”
He recalled getting a new Ashen Seal after finding a similar stone back in Stormgale Fortress.
“Just right when I’m lacking Ashen Seals.” Without another word, Lin Sheng quickly returned to his previous hiding spot as he infused the stone with holy power.
Soon, strands of white holy power broke out from the stone and light up the place.
Lin Sheng looked into the cracks, as the light engulfed his entire vision.
His consciousness started to waver as he felt no different from a car-sick person. Soon his strength faded and he felt weak.
Time seemingly passed quickly without any meaning as Lin Sheng once again opened his eyes.
“Was that just a message note?”
He had not obtained much information from the stone, only a letter with roughly a thousand words. It was almost as if the whole thing prior was just for show.
The person who wrote the message was Ancellia.
The Light of Hope that once managed the Holy Sanctum in Blackfeather City.
“…I’m glad that someone has managed to open this message.
“Thank you, stranger.
“My only hope is for many more traces to be preserved and carried forth while I am still alive.”
The content of the message, be it the tone or the message within, felt off. There was a faint sense of despair.
Lin Sheng continued to read.
“I cannot remember how many days has it been since I evaded the last Blacktide.
“Time and time again, aside from running, I’ve had no other way. Whether it is the Corrupted Ones or the Twisted Ones, they are nothing but fodder for the Blacktide. The real trouble is deep within it…
“A terrifying lifeform that cannot be sensed, yet still exists.
“I am unable to record down anything about them as anything that mentions them becomes a conduit for them to latch onto and grow stronger.
“So I will only leave this one reminder here. Do not underestimate the Blacktide!
“Do not underestimate everything hidden inside the Blacktide.
“Why have so many powerful chants, so many powerful people not been able to escape that fate? I have been searching for the answer to this question for so long. Perhaps the most omnipotent yet ethereal of gods in the legends could provide me an answer…”
As he got to this point, something felt really off to him. Yet, he remained patient and continued to read.
“…There will be a very clear mark when the Blacktide invades a world. Mostly through small-scale incursions to pick out a few conduits from the world.
“The conduits’ mind will be twisted, and believe that total emancipation is the true path of salvation. That is one of the main traits.
“In the second stage, before the large scale incursion of the Blacktide, the world will fight back, as countless powerful people will appear as Transcendents and seeds of great power will appear. All of these individuals are the final salvation of the world.
“Thirdly, dark ethereal vortexes will appear in the sky, and the vortexes will be the massive entry points of the Blacktide.
“If you see the third stage, then it means the end is nigh for your world.”
Ancellia’s tone was forlorn at this point.
“Of course, once you have reached the third stage, the entire world will descend into the Blacktide as a shapeless mist will engulf everything. At that moment, if you can find four Distortion Nexuses within the shapeless mist. Then there will still be hope.
“Destroying each Nexus will extend the time the world has…”
The message cut off abruptly right there, and the latter part seemed to be incomplete. But what Lin Sheng needed to know was already well documented.
Of the three stages before the Blacktide’s Incursion, Lin Sheng could see that the first stage was currently what was happening.
With the Sevenlocks Tower as the primary heretical force whose goal was seemingly emancipation of everything as they sought to find another way to fight against the Blacktide.
In truth, they had already been tainted by an unknown power.
“This… sure is heavy.” Lin Sheng regained his senses as he looked at the ruins before him, his emotions still ran wild.
“However, of these three stages, aside from the last one, the remaining two do not have much obvious defining traits.
“Heretical cults appear across any age, and a large number of Transcendents is not necessarily caused by the Blacktide.”
*Tick tock, tick tock…*
The familiar ticking rang out once again.
Lin Sheng knew his time was up as he slowly sat down and waited to leave the dream.
Gradually, everything before his eyes started to distort, blur, fade, and disappear as darkness engulfed him.
