Chapter 126: The Tide

Boom!

Within the gray mist, an invisible, massive sound erupted and rapidly expanded outward. The sluggishly flowing mist began to boil frantically!

The intrusion of the "Darkness" was like a red-hot iron ingot dropped into water, triggering a violent reaction in the mist; the two were fundamentally incompatible. As the mist boiled, every survivor felt the weight on their shoulders lift, the transcendent, terrifying pressure significantly reduced.

"I thought I was going to die!"

This was the first thought that crossed almost everyone’s mind as they regained their ability to move. The next moment, driven by some instinct, those outside and those inside alike quickly pulled out their "Rare Filthy Blood" and filled their lanterns.

In an instant, in a night that should have been "day," hundreds of millions of lights were ignited! Then, almost everyone realized that the first thing affected by the recent anomaly was the communication channel.

"Look, everyone! The gray mist is boiling!"
"It seems the mist has thinned out quite a bit."
"Everyone, be careful! The countdown really did end early! Prepare to deal with the disaster!"

Information scrolled rapidly across the chat channel, but before long, the scrolling messages suddenly came to a halt. Because at this moment, the survivors realized with a jolt that the chat channel had turned gray and was unusable!

More bad news followed immediately.

"Damn it! Recruitment is disabled too!"
"We’ve all been isolated!"
"Only the trading market on the parchment is still working."
"Quick, buy everything useful and valuable! Especially those 'mysterious items'—if you're too late, someone else will snatch them!"
"Get rid of useless junk, see if you can trade it for Mist Points; at least that will ensure you have the funds to repair your vehicles and houses."
"That was close. Before this, Mr. Colin told us not to go outside at all."
"Now... what should we do now? What will happen tonight?"

After the night fell, apart from the boiling mist, nothing else seemed to happen. But everyone knew this was only temporary.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Suddenly, after a dozen minutes of calm, someone in a Level 4 territory exclaimed, "Aberrations! It’s the aberrations! The aberrations are coming!"

The people in this Level 4 territory were stunned. They looked over and, sure enough, at a distance that was neither too far nor too close, they saw a number of aberrations approaching.

The number was not large, but this was not good news. Aberrations never attacked "territories." Once survivors returned to their territory, no matter how relentlessly the aberrations chased, they would abandon the pursuit, as if the survivors had suddenly vanished from their sight. Not long ago, people had even joked that as long as they could secure the door, they could solo a Lord-tier aberration!

But now... they were starting to attack!

Meanwhile, in the underground area where multiple spaces overlapped, at the end of the "Light," lay the ruins of the High Court. On a gray stone throne, Colin struggled to lift his head to look at the darkness outside the High Court; he could feel a vast amount of unsettling energy surging. Soon, from the dim distance, he saw many terrifying creatures approaching. They varied in size, but most were hideously formed, impossible to look at directly.

"Aberrations."

Colin whispered. At this moment, he was bound to the stone throne, stabilizing the chaotic "Source of Light" from the recent incident. He had realized one thing: although nothing had truly begun in the real sense, and the fate of civilization remained unknown, his own outcome had already been written.

This fusion would not succeed; he would pay a price too great to bear. All he could do was minimize that cost, reducing it to a level that could be endured—a level that would allow him to survive. As for obtaining great power, that was no longer a consideration.

Moreover, compared to others, Colin, who could feel the horror of the "Night" more acutely, felt a glimmer of despair. But the moment this emotion appeared, Colin ruthlessly suppressed it. He had no time to be distracted; he needed to absorb the "Source of Light" as much as he could right now.

As he absorbed it, the light inside the great hall condensed and retracted. The High Court was no longer the place where one could not stay or look directly as it had been moments ago.

"The hall is accessible now. Buy me some time."

Colin’s voice came from above the gray stone throne. The others, who had broken free from the pure light barrier, did not know what had just happened. They looked back and saw the man to whom they owed their allegiance sitting on the gray stone throne, his eyes closed, one elbow resting on the armrest, his palm supporting his cheek, appearing as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.

Around him, a mass of light and shadow flickered and swayed, letting out silent screams, attempting to "escape" from him. But the influence of some force seemed to be dragging it into Colin’s body bit by bit. If everything had gone normally and he had fully merged with it, even he himself did not know how far he would have gone.

But unfortunately... that was no longer possible. His outcome was nothing but failure. He only knew that he had to take advantage of the fact that the influence was not yet deep, to accept this power as much as possible to gain more strength to cope with this "Night Event."

And then, fight to survive!

After Colin finished speaking, Shana and the others immediately began their preparations, entering the ruined hall that no longer had a dome. Shana tossed the "manhole cover" toward the main entrance, had Li Chou open it, and pulled out the hundreds of people inside. Just as they finished their preparations, the monsters were about to arrive.

"Suppress these 'aberrations'!"

Number One shouted. Since the number of these monsters was currently small, they did not intend to use artillery. Behind him, the "newcomer" servants, although slightly intimidated by facing these monsters for the first time, did not show the slightest cowardice. They quickly split into several squads to follow Number One in clearing the monsters.

One hour, two hours...

Time passed quickly. As the minutes ticked by, a certain gloomy sensation grew stronger, and the distant scenery began to blur, as if they were trapped in a dream. The number of aberrations also grew larger.

At this moment, hundreds and thousands of monsters roared and bellowed, surging toward the ruined High Court like a tidal wave from all directions. It would not be long before these abominable creatures arrived and destroyed everything here!

Fortunately, this area had the limitation of a special "ghost-path" restriction, so the monsters only came from one direction. Under the suppression of firepower, everything was still manageable.

I do not know how much more time passed. The number of monsters had clearly exceeded a thousand. They swept in like a scarlet "sandstorm"! Within the "sandstorm," those abominable masses of flesh ran and crawled, more violent than ever before. As they charged in swarms with overwhelming momentum, the very ground of the area began to tremble.

Just then, with a sharp whistle, a blinding beam of light cut through the night sky and exploded into the "sandstorm."

Boom!

A patch of aberrations was torn to shreds in the violent explosion. Large amounts of blood, bone fragments, and severed limbs splattered in all directions. But the next second, more aberrations let out strange howls and rushed out, completely covering the area.

Boom, boom, boom, boom—

More shells were fired from the cannons, tracing arcs through the air, rubbing against the atmosphere and emitting sharp sounds before crashing into the "wave," erupting with a deafening force that made the earth shake. In just a few rounds of rapid bombardment, the impenetrable "wave" grew noticeably thinner, and a large number of monsters were pulverized by the artillery fire before they could even reach the High Court.

But this did not mean it would be over soon, because this was merely the beginning. Everyone could feel that more horrors were on their way.

Finally, after dozens of minutes of intensive bombardment, some more powerful aberration individuals broke through and arrived at the High Court. These monsters were almost exclusively elite aberrations.

"Keep firing! We will handle these things; we must buy Mr. Colin more time!"

After Shana finished speaking, a bright, soft, and non-dazzling light erupted from her body, casting multiple blessings on everyone, including herself, in a short period of time.

"About 6-7 times the strength..."

Russell clenched his fists after receiving the blessing, estimating his power. Such strength was enough for him to deal with these "leaked" monsters and ensure that their rear would not be breached. But just then, a white figure rushed out ahead of him at a speed invisible to the naked eye.

Russell stood stunned on the spot. What happened?

Soon, he saw the priestess who had always been "protected" by Colin's side appearing at the very front. At this moment, she had somehow hooked her chains onto her holy book; she swung her arms, delivering precise strikes to the elite monsters, or using extremely violent means to execute the elite aberrations on the spot!

This made Russell, who had been preparing to rush up to deal with these freaks, pause after taking only two steps: "Aren't you a priestess?"

Bang!

Shana did not answer immediately, instead crushing the skull of an aberration with one hand. Residual blood splattered onto her cheek, only to evaporate under the purification of the holy light. Those terrifying aberrations that had broken through to this point, once struck by her, basically could not escape the fate of having large amounts of blood splatter everywhere before staggering a few steps and collapsing to the ground.

Above her head, a large number of shells were fired, tracing arcs of light, purifying and reaping the lives of one aberration after another.

A dozen seconds later, after resolving everything in a short time, she turned her head, her lake-blue, pure, and transparent eyes looking at Russell: "I learned a little bit of combat technique. Is there a problem?"

Not daring to have a problem, Russell shook his head hurriedly, feeling the same sentiment Colin had felt earlier.

The brief interlude passed quickly, and they no longer had time to speak, for the monsters were becoming more and more numerous... Even Shana began to feel a bit overwhelmed.