Chapter 115: Collapse
The grey fog churned before Li Wen, twisting and transforming like a living organism. Tiny ash particles clung to the surface of her cloak, emitting faint “hissing” sounds, as if countless insects were devouring the fabric. She raised a hand to brush the ashes from her shoulder, her fingertips stinging as if burned—these seemingly harmless dusts were slowly eroding the protection of the Emerald Star Cloak.
“Tide…” Li Wen subconsciously repeated the word, her voice swallowed by the dense grey fog before it could spread.
The so-called “Tide” was the prelude to Doomsday Twilight. In her past life, she had heard of this catastrophic anomaly countless times, but she had only witnessed it and been deeply affected by it three times.
The first occurred in the small town where she lived, taking her sister and almost all her companions. It was said that this Tide had almost destroyed half of the Kingdom of Arthur, and it also laid the groundwork for the subsequent fall of the kingdom by Dark Dawn. The second happened on the eve of her hunt for the Frost Giants, when the Tide swept through the northern three kingdoms, turning the entire frozen tundra into an eternal dead zone, directly causing the “White Reapers” to descend into the Mortal Realm from the Void. As for the third time…
That was when Li Wen joined the Strategy Team and accompanied the front-line troops in search of a way to save the world in the outer seas. Li Wen still remembered that unremarkable evening; the Tide descended without any warning, instantly claiming the lives of half the members. It was the only time she had directly faced and survived the Tide.
Only because of this could Li Wen react so quickly, realizing that this grey fog and these ashes were all manifestations of the Tide’s power.
No one had ever been able to completely define the form or operational patterns of the Tide. It could descend in any form and at any time, bringing irresistible destruction. Based on her understanding, Li Wen believed the Tide to be a comprehensive collapse of existing order and laws, where life was no longer life, and matter no longer constituted things.
Under such circumstances, time would naturally become chaotic and disordered.
Li Wen’s expression turned solemn. Once she confirmed that this area was indeed affected by the Tide, she no longer believed she could find the Short Needle by passing through the Ash Corridor. At her current strength, it was impossible to escape the Tide without using Urd’s Sting.
However, she had no intention of retreating. Since she had come this far, she should at least figure out why the Tide appeared here, and how this Tide operated with its power.
A crackling sound came from the depths of the grey fog, like countless mirrors shattering simultaneously. Li Wen’s boots suddenly sank into the ground—not sinking, but the matter that constituted the ground was decomposing. She looked down and saw the black stone brick road beneath the ashes turn into fine sand, flowing from her feet. Each grain of sand continuously split as it fell, eventually turning into luminescent powder finer than dust.
“The material structure is disintegrating…”
She reached out to touch the half-broken stone pillar beside her. As soon as her fingertip touched the surface, the seemingly solid rock crumbled like a startled sandcastle. Even more eerily, the crumbling debris suddenly solidified as it fell, then inexplicably floated upwards, finally hovering at her eye level, forming a shattered three-dimensional puzzle.
The power of Twilight filled her entire body, and Li Wen floated up.
Suddenly, pale blue phosphorescence lit up in the grey fog. In the glow of the fire, Li Wen saw her shadow being torn into seven. They trembled at different frequencies: the leftmost shadow was raising a dagger in slow motion; the middle one had already completed its thrust; and the rightmost shadow simply turned into flowing bitumen-like substance, seeping into the void along the cracks of the disintegrating ground.
Li Wen instinctively floated back half a step, but her heel bumped against a soft obstacle. She suddenly turned around, only to see a fleshy, broken wall appear behind her. Colorless mucus seeped from the cracks in the wall. It was a substance between solid and liquid, devouring the wall at a visible speed. When the mucus touched the floating debris, both suddenly vaporized, leaving character-like traces in the air that lingered for a long time.
A child’s laughter drifted from the fog.
Li Wen gripped her dagger and looked in the direction of the sound. The grey fog suddenly thinned, revealing a little girl playing with a ball about ten meters away. The child wore a faded blue dress, and each time the ball bounced, it left a light golden trajectory in the air. These trajectories intertwined into a net, cutting the space into irregular geometric shapes.
“Sister, do you want to play too?”
The girl turned her head, and Li Wen saw that the left half of her face was that of a normal child, but the right half was covered in bark-like wrinkles. Even more terrifyingly, as the girl spoke, her mouth stretched to her ears, revealing not teeth, but countless eyeballs crammed together.
Li Wen’s alarm bells rang. She swung her dagger, sending a Spell-less Arc Light flying towards the girl, but it was swallowed by the grey fog that appeared at the right moment. When the grey fog descended again, all the anomalies vanished in an instant, as if the girl playing with the ball, or the collapsing ground, were all Li Wen’s hallucinations.
But Li Wen did not act rashly; she did not even cancel her Witch Form.
Just then, a light flashed from the depths ahead. Li Wen focused her gaze, only to see a familiar arc-shaped light blade fly out from the depths of the grey fog, swiftly and precisely severing her neck.
Fortunately, Li Wen in Witch Form was practically immortal—at least until the Twilight Erosion progress overflowed.
Li Wen righted her head, and the wound vanished in an instant. She quickly opened her character panel, only to find that the content had turned into random garbled text with no discernible pattern.
Without being able to see the panel, she didn’t know how much time she had left, so Li Wen no longer hesitated, accelerating to full speed and flying forward.
On her way, unknown objects flew towards Li Wen, and she dodged them one by one. However, the unknown objects exploded the moment they approached, and the splashing fragments condensed into ice crystals in the air, which then transformed into a flock of flapping grey moths. These moths had human faces on their wings, each face being one Li Wen recognized.
Li Wen snorted coldly. Before the grey moths could pounce on her face, she danced her dagger, knocking them down one by one. But the moment Li Wen killed the last grey moth, she suddenly lost her balance and fell heavily to the ground.
Her petite body rolled several times on the uneven ground before stopping. When Li Wen stood up again, she found that she had forgotten how she had been flying before.
Could this also be the effect of the Tide?
Li Wen gritted her teeth, used Divine Prayer to heal her injuries, pointed in a random direction, and proceeded forward at an extremely rapid pace. This time, she ignored everything and every situation. No matter what happened, she treated it as a hallucination. If the road ahead was blocked, she would go around; if she couldn’t go around, she would turn back and run in the direction she came from. If she continued like this, she would eventually find an exit.
Speaking of which, what was she doing here?
Before Li Wen could recall, the grey fog ahead suddenly cleared, revealing a vast and clear view—she had successfully passed through that grey fog.
What appeared before her was a vast, boundless grey desert. The sky was dim and deep. Within the desert stood countless ruins of pyramid-shaped temples. These temples formed mountains, supporting the remains of a city.
Li Wen looked down at the fine sand beneath her feet, her breathing calmer than ever. She had finally found it.
After a moment of hesitation, she stepped towards the city, but after only a few steps, she stopped, frowning as she looked up at the sky.
She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but the sky seemed even dimmer than she had seen earlier?
Soon, Li Wen knew this was not an illusion. The sky in her eyes was indeed slowly changing, becoming progressively darker and deeper in color. But this was not a change in weather, but another obvious situation—when a huge entity approaches you, its shadow naturally covers you.
Li Wen’s expression was deadpan. She really didn’t know what expression or words to use to face the upcoming situation, or perhaps it was all meaningless.
The next moment, the sky completely fell, destroying everything on the desert.
*
Passing through the bronze gate, Li Wen emerged from the stairs and cautiously proceeded through the gloomy grey fog at the lowest level of Amber City. Her boots made crisp sounds on the uneven ground, as if she had stepped on something, or perhaps it was just an illusion.
“Is this the outer city?”
