Chapter 1119: Ruins

Lugano stood at the edge of the gray-white mist, not daring to take another step forward into that dead Trier, that destroyed world.

He had always strictly followed the instructions of His Holiness the Pope.

This was also his choice from the bottom of his heart.

As usual, he remained hidden in the gray-white mist, observing the changes in the nightmare with both fear and curiosity.

I don't know how long it had been, but a figure turned out from behind a collapsed building.

It was a wild deer with light steps, happily gnawing on the fresh fruits produced by the green plants.

This looked quite normal, as if some towns were abandoned by humans and quickly recycled by nature.

However, Lugano saw that as the wild deer ate, it dropped pieces of flesh from its abdomen—no, that wasn't flesh, it was bloody fawns, newborn fawns.

The fawns quickly stood up, crowding around their mother, sucking its milk.

In just a minute or two, a sizable herd of deer was born.

They detoured behind several collapsed buildings and disappeared from Lugano's sight.

Lugano was not unfamiliar with such scenes at all. Over the past year, he had seen too many similar gestations and births in his nightmares, having developed from shock, confusion, fear, and disgust to numbness.

But even with so many frequent gestations and births, the Trier in the nightmare was still dead silent, with only a few sounds coming out occasionally.

Those newborn animals seemed to disappear quickly.

Lugano wanted to force himself to withdraw his gaze and return to a place where the mist was denser, so as not to see more horrifying pictures and scenes.

This was his experience. Every nightmare of his would have new terrifying things appear, causing his inner anxiety to gradually increase. Otherwise, just the dead, crimson Trier and the wild animals that frequently gave birth to fetuses in terrifying ways would not be enough to make him collapse day by day, his fear undiminished—if a scene and a thing were presented day after day, and did not cause direct harm to the witness, the witness would most likely be numb afterward, rather than anxious every day.

Lugano still failed to follow his heart's choice to leave the edge of the gray mist, or rather, his heart was more eager to stay here, continuing to observe the Trier in the nightmare, hoping to find the root cause of the continuous nightmares.

Sometimes, he even felt that he only had the feeling of truly being alive when watching such scenes.

Watching and watching, Lugano's gaze suddenly froze.

At the end of the collapsed street, five figures walked over.

Human figures!

Those five figures seemed to be half-integrated into the night, not illuminated by the crimson moonlight, appearing quite dark and not clear enough.

The leader was a man wearing a brown windbreaker and a gold brooch, with golden hair, golden eyebrows, and a golden beard, holding a straight sword seemingly condensed from pure sunlight in his hand.

Behind him, two men in white robes embroidered with gold thread were carrying a human corpse.

Two other figures were guarding on the left and right, one in front and one behind.

Lugano widened his eyes, trying to see the exact appearance of those figures, trying to see what the corpse being carried looked like.

For some reason, his attention was more focused on the corpse's face.

As those five figures got closer and closer to the gray-white mist, the corpse's face finally clearly entered Lugano's eyes.

That corpse had regular features, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, looking exactly like Lugano himself!

Lugano's pupils dilated instantly, instinctively retreating again and again, falling to the ground with a thud:

How is this possible?

How could it be my corpse?

I am clearly still alive and well!

Lugano supported his hands on the stone slabs seeping with water color and stood up again like a spring.

He ran back to the edge of the gray mist again. He wanted to confirm again whether that corpse was truly exactly the same as himself!

Unfortunately, those five people had changed direction and were walking to the other end of the gray mist, leaving Lugano only with blurry backs hidden in the darkness.

One of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" church clergy carrying the "corpse" said to Angouleme de François walking in front:

"Deacon, this guy's body has run out of the protected area unconsciously over a hundred times. Every time we need to go and retrieve it to avoid it coming into contact with abnormalities. Why not just purify him directly? He is still a Sequence 5 'Druid' of the 'Farmer' path!"

"Yeah, this is a high-risk Beyonder." Another clergy member carrying the "corpse" echoed.

Angouleme looked at his subordinate:

"He is an Archbishop of the Disease Cult."

"So what if he's an Archbishop of the Disease Cult? Can't the Disease Cult change another Archbishop? This kind of high-risk Beyonder is suitable for becoming a Beyonder characteristic and being sealed." The first clergy member to speak, Ouluan, was quite dissatisfied with having to leave the protected area, go deep into the ruin world, and retrieve the bodies of certain people wandering around.

This was very dangerous.

The lives of those high-risk Beyonders are lives, but ours aren't?

Angouleme explained calmly:

"The higher-ups said he still has use."

Hearing this, Ouluan stopped arguing about this matter.

He couldn't help but raise his head and look into mid-air.

The crimson moonlight was eerie and bright, making the stars look dim, but the red moon itself was nowhere to be seen.

"Why did it suddenly become like this..." Ouluan whispered in confusion and pain.

This question was asked by someone every day. The most common words on the lips of those Beyonders who needed to enter the ruin world to solve problems and thus know the truth of the protected area were this sentence.

Angouleme also looked into mid-air.

He suddenly recalled the scene at the beginning:

The crimson full moon got lower and lower, more and more exaggerated, truly descending onto the earth.

The entire Fourth Epoch Trier collapsed because of this. Whether it was the formless and colorless flames in the high sky or the white mist permeating the depths of the ancient city, they instantly dissipated and disintegrated.

Relying on the two "0" level sealed artifacts, "Fourth Day" and "Unmanned Kingdom," plus the fact that they were not the targets being focused on, Angouleme, Jack Walton, and others barely survived the first wave of impact.

But even so, they each lost a colleague, watching with their own eyes as the other alienated into a disgusting monster, as if gaining a new life, a life representing evil.

Later, because of the special nature of the "Fourth Day," they were lucky enough to be pulled into the protected area before the second wave of impact arrived.

Why did it suddenly become like this... Angouleme also wanted to ask this question.

At that time, the situation was clearly developing in a good direction—the Monsuri ghost had been dissolved by the "Fourth Day," Louis Gustave had been purified, and only the whereabouts of that Madam Pualis had not been locked.

As a result, suddenly, the red moon descended, and the world collapsed.

The emotions of Ouluan and the others suddenly became a bit low, until sunlight shone in this darkness, dispelling the panic and confusion in their hearts.

However, the sunlight did not break through the darkness created by the sealed artifact.

This was the result of intentional control, otherwise, there would be a very great risk.

Just as the emotions of Ouluan and the others were calmed, a rumbling explosion suddenly came from afar, the earth shook violently, and it seemed about to collapse.

Ouluan subconsciously turned his body and looked toward where the sound came from.

Dense white mist permeated in the distance, and in the mist, there seemed to be a giant monster with three heads wandering constantly.

Purple flames ignited in the mist, silver-white lightning illuminated the interior, and the cracking of the earth spread to the side of Angouleme and the others, with crimson magma flowing slowly inside.

Even at a very far distance, Ouluan and the others felt the aura of destruction.

That was a temperament different from the Trier ruins brewing new life and death in silence; it was ostentatious, magnificent, and wanton.

Ouluan felt fear and was about to withdraw his gaze, but his peripheral vision saw a female figure sitting quietly on the top of a collapsed clock tower illuminated by silver-white lightning at the edge of the dense white mist, her feet hanging in the air.

Behind the female figure, the giant monster with three heads walked back and forth, bringing volcanic eruptions, bringing thunderstorms, bringing blizzards and freezing, bringing the collapse of the earth, bringing purple flames flying, yet it did not affect her at all.

This... Ouluan suddenly remembered some horror stories he heard when he was a child:

The witch and the monsters she drove.

"Deacon, should we go and stop and clean it up? I'm worried that if this continues, the entire Trier ruins will collapse." Ouluan asked Angouleme.

Angouleme withdrew his gaze from the distance and looked at Ouluan and the others:

"No need."

"Remember, except for the assigned tasks, don't do anything in the ruin world. That is not only dangerous to ourselves, but may also threaten the maintenance of the protected world."

"Sometimes, the good things you think of may not necessarily make the situation better."

"Yes, Deacon." Amidst the rumbling sound, the expressions of Ouluan and the others suddenly became serious.

They had all heard more or less stories of colleagues mysteriously disappearing or alienating into monsters in the ruin world, and some had even experienced it personally.

It is unknown how many task forces have disappeared in the ruin world forever.

"Alright, we've reached the safe passage." Angouleme pointed to a place at the edge of the gray-white mist and said.

They would return to the protected world from here.

Ouluan and the others subconsciously looked back at the distance filled with dense white mist.

That female figure sitting quietly on the top of the collapsed clock tower had a different kind of charm.

Franca sat on the top of the collapsed clock tower, letting her thoughts spread and drift.

Time passed second by second, until the explosions, thunder, and wind whistling behind her all stopped one after another, and she pulled her attention back to her body and concentrated.

"Are you done?" She turned her body and said to Lu Mian, who had stood beside her and had returned to normal human size.

Lu Mian, still with three heads, nodded and said:

"It's time to be occasionally awake again, although this 'occasionally' will be relatively long."

"Also, I have finally mastered the power of the 'Conqueror' and the 'Witch of Apocalypse'."

"Didn't you already digest these two Beyonder characteristics by borrowing the Cheek clone and the fusion of Alista Tudor a long time ago?" Franca asked, puzzled.

"Digesting Beyonder characteristics and turning the power into your own are two different things." Lu Mian smiled calmly, "After all, I didn't digest the potion on my own."

Franca looked at him, then looked at Aurora and Jenna's faces with closed eyes and bloodstains on his right shoulder, and asked tentatively:

"Is your state not bad?"

Lu Mian smiled and answered:

"To do the things that follow, my state must be not bad."

"Besides, no matter what, things are about to come to an end. This is better than long-term torture."

As he spoke, his tone gradually became low:

"This time, I will no longer be arranged. I want to do what I want to do."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1120 =====