Chapter 295: Earthquake

Just past noon, the Professor and Brother Wading hurriedly set off on their return journey.

Outside the monastery, people busy with farm work continued to toil tirelessly; perhaps at some moment their bodies truly felt a slight dizziness, but it was covered up by mild heatstroke symptoms.

In any case, the irrigation channels must be repaired as soon as possible; without rainfall replenishment, moisture on the surface and underground is gradually decreasing.

Beneath the land they worked lay a fertile and noisy expanse, densely packed with loose Kong Dong where moisture-loving creatures were active; they had just been awakened from the recent rainy season and, stimulated by changes in moisture, had become lively.

This activity had not yet lifted the layer of soil crust, raising only a few mud bubbles or turning over mossy leaves, but given time, no one could guess what kind of thing would hatch from the familiar land of yesterday.

It seemed as if nothing had changed: the same roads, the same scenery, and the increasingly unbearable sunlight.

No, something had indeed changed.

Passing through knee-high tall grass, swarms of black shadows, disturbed by the tremors, darted out, exposing themselves in the middle of the unobstructed road, like sewage breaching a dam and flowing from one side of the road to the other.

The horses, unable to be reined in, stepped directly into the midst of the black shadows; sharp squeaking sounds and dirty red matter erupted from beneath their hooves.

It was a massive swarm of rats; Kraft had never seen so many mice. These nocturnal animals had been driven from their nests, venturing out at the most unsuitable time, merging into a nervous dark tide that spread and overflowed across the ground.

The death of their own kind had no effect on their behavior; or rather, their meager brain capacity was already full, unable to accommodate anything extra, so they only struggled to flee under the lash of a premonition of danger.

As if an extremely ominous prelude, an unusual atmosphere was enveloping them, growing more intense as the distance to the city shortened.

Flocks of birds circled in the sky, insects beat their wings; the instinct of living beings to avoid harm made them restless, causing various abnormal behaviors. They flew like a swarm of bees, instinctively turning back to avoid the gullies formed by the collapse of tunnels.

It seemed as if something was rising from within, cleaving the wilderness into fragmented pieces.

And the reaction of humans was obviously much slower.

When they arrived in the city, sweating profusely, they found that the order here had not undergone any particularly great changes.

The outer market was still operating spontaneously; stalls and sheds selling agricultural products and various handmade goods stood one after another, occupying advantageous positions on both sides of the main road, where people of all kinds picked and chose.

Stall owners were busy arranging shelves, organizing scattered goods, and propping up tilted and loose shed supports back into place, not forgetting to hawk their dust-brushed wares to potential customers passing by.

The impact here was obviously much greater than at the monastery, but still limited; one could only see the situation at the time from a few fallen roof tiles.

Before mass panic could arise, the abnormal phenomenon, which had lasted only a few seconds, had already ended; there were no casualties.

But life must go on; the crowd was gradually returning to its original track, and even the few overthinking individuals were, under the inertia of the group, uneasily drawn into this abnormal normality.

Tense emotions hidden in the shadows flowed through unintentional gestures; the flow of people was faster than usual, and even a tiny conflict could escalate into an argument, only to end hastily.

Several carriages passed by, carrying daily necessities out of the city, seemingly preparing to stay temporarily in suburban manors.

Although they did not understand the situation, there were still quite a few people who, unwilling to stand under a crumbling wall and having the means to go out and observe for a while, chose to do so.

The further one moved into the city interior, the more obvious the signs of this undercurrent became. Damage to the low-rise residential houses on the city outskirts was generally minor, but traces were magnified on the historic multi-story buildings.

The slight misalignment caused by the vibration was reflected in cracked exterior walls; suspicious cracks pried open the thick plaster shell, extending and branching out like climbing plants, eroding the thick plaster to reveal the old brick and stone wall surface.

Perhaps it was precisely these signs that made people realize that those massive structures built of stone were not eternal; sooner or later they would merge into the ruins beneath their feet, becoming part of the broken walls, and so would they.

A corner of the street had collapsed and sunk; water gushed out from the gaps in the sinking stone bricks, forming a pool like a spring, while onlookers discussed the possibility of groundwater, considering that if it could remain stable and continuous, it could be converted into a small fountain for use.

The Professor followed Brother Wading toward the tall spired building visible from any position, merging into the streams of people spontaneously gathering from all parts of the city.

A large number of residents gathered before the Cathedral of the Holy Mother, seeking comfort and answers from their spiritual refuge.

The clergy and guard units of the church were drowned in the crowd, shouting loudly in an attempt to maintain order, but in an environment noisier than the market, they had little effect; limited by their status, they could not really resort to force.

The two, having dismounted and entered the church square, struggled to part the crowd, reaching the vicinity of the church, only to find the main gate already closed; the Winged Helm Holy Knights had also joined the ranks controlling the crowd, and merely preventing stampede casualties was already their limit, leaving no time to attend to other matters.

The scene was chaotic; the crowd, which had previously maintained a semblance of normality, seemed to have been stirred into some emotion by the crowding and physical clashes, and an ominous tendency was gradually fermenting.

Brother Wading exerted great effort to find a familiar colleague, learning that they had received temporary orders to seal all entrances and go out to comfort the faithful when the incident occurred; now they too were blocked outside, and until further news arrived, no one knew where one could enter.

This was a decision of foresight; although the interior space of the church was large, it was not enough to accommodate a crowd of this scale.

The incident happened suddenly; perhaps the church was also discussing what to say, and still had to consult with other powers in the city; to date, no one of sufficient weight had come forward to give an explanation.

Since there was no explanation, explanations would grow automatically; they had already heard various discussions in the crowd, which had even developed into "Heavenly Father intends to punish the corrupt behavior in the city; the earthquake is a warning."

The nearby priests had no time to reprimand the continuous stream of fallacies; scanning the crowd and ordering guards to seize a few, they found there was simply no one to grab.

At the edge of their vision, something fell from a height; the heavy impact and shattering sound coincided with screams.

The dense black crowd exploded outward from the point of impact, fleeing and pressing in all directions without understanding why, accompanied by meaningless wails and shouts of "Devil," completely detonating the atmosphere that had been tense to the breaking point; a large group followed, blindly fleeing, pushing open a path through the congestion regardless of the consequences.

"Stop, stop!"

"In the name of the Heavenly Father, all of you stand still!"

The colleague who had just been talking to Brother Wading turned to try to curb the tide of people spreading to this side, but in an instant was scattered and disappeared.

Realizing the danger, the two almost drew their swords, but reason held back their hands reaching for the hilts; instead, they used their scabbards to block believers charging at them, and when necessary, had to strike hard, using counterweights to pry open unconscious grasping hands; while dealing with the crowd, they moved against the current along the wall toward the place where the chaos had erupted.

Bursting through the encirclement in a state more wretched than emerging from a sewer, Kraft stepped on a protruding object and nearly twisted his ankle.

Looking down, he saw it was actually a half-face, dark and fearsome, with curved fangs piercing through the lips; the chin, covered in moss growing like whiskers, was stained with fresh, viscous red liquid.

The unexpected fright made him jump away immediately; his brain, having shut down, spun blankly, wondering if something had leaked from the nearby river island.

Once he calmed down slightly, he could see that this frightening object had no characteristics of a living creature except for the moss on its surface. The exquisite craftsmanship effectively created that fearsome feeling, and with the natural patina of time, it became even more terrifying.

But it was merely a stone statue; the rest of it had shattered and scattered, tripping even more people in the trampling.

Kraft looked up; a section of the eave directly above was clearly missing something, and the empty, broken edge revealed the origin of this object.

The church's waterspout, or gargoyle. Already cracked due to age, it had loosened because of the vibration and finally broke and fell.

Originally, it would have at most crushed one or two unlucky souls, but it encountered the most coincidental, or rather the most unfortunate, circumstances, resulting in the worst possible situation.

On the empty square where the crowd had receded lay victims whose life or death was unknown; the nearest one, presumably struck directly, was clutching his arm and wailing loudly, still quite energetic. Among those who had been tripped and trampled, a few lay silent, their condition not optimistic.

Although it was only a slight earthquake, the first victims had already appeared—half a day after the tremor.

Kraft sighed and called out to the few scattered people still standing on the scene, those who could climb up on their own: "Do you need help? There is a doctor here!"

He had a premonition that the trouble here might still be the smallest of those to come. The vacation had ended before it even began.