Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

925
Even at noon, Bansi was unusually eerie, with the cries of crows or other seabirds echoing from time to time.

An inconspicuous red light quickly approached the broken dock and the dead city that had become ruins, and entered the abandoned Bansi city. On this uninhabited island, it was unknown when a fearless little pirate ship would appear to search for the items in the ruins. Naturally, no one would notice this sudden arrival.

The red figure stretched his body, looked around, and continued to move deeper into the city without saying a word.

As it walked, its outline kept changing. Medici's image gradually faded, and his iconic red and black armor also gradually faded and disappeared. It became like a human figure made of a vague blood-red mist. Sometimes it was an image of slightly curly red hair tied up behind the head, sometimes it was a tall blond figure from behind, and sometimes it was a majestic man wearing a crown.

These images are constantly changing.

Finally, its face disappeared, as if it had given up on choosing a definite image for itself. Only its eyes were vaguely visible, like a humanoid creature made of mist.

As the figure walked deeper into Bansi, rustling sounds began to be heard from the surrounding ruins. Something like a snake was weaving through the weeds and dead leaves, following the red figure's feet, but it left behind winding blood-red trails. Finally, at a corner ahead, the thing hidden in the bushes revealed its true appearance.

——It was a human head with a complete spine extending from the back.

The head dragging its spine and the headless zombies are both unknown specialties of Bansy Port.

Apparently, this thing was using its spine to snake across the ground, leaving shocking traces.

As they walked, the figure suddenly stopped and found the original location of the Bansi Telegraph Office. In the middle of the collapsed building, there were two bright red blood marks, as if they were left after two people were crushed into a meat paste.

Next to the two shadows, the door of the telegraph office fell to the ground, and on the other broken wall, there was a painting of an octopus-headed monster wearing armor, stepping on the waves and holding a trident.

Its face turned towards the armored octopus-headed monster, and it seemed to think for a moment, but in the end did nothing, tacitly allowing this strange abstract work to remain in its territory.

Then, the figure walked purposefully to the location of the fallen wooden door, reached out to lift the door up, and leaned it against the broken wall.

It reached out and opened the wooden door, and a blurry world suddenly appeared behind the door frame. It tried to enter the space behind the door, but a layer of gray mist suddenly appeared on its body, isolating it from the outside.

It tried several more times, and after confirming that it still couldn't enter the world behind the door, the red figure suddenly stopped, as if it was lost in thought, not knowing what to do next. After a while, the red figure closed the wooden door, and its body suddenly disintegrated. After realizing that something containing the breath and mark of "Source Castle" appeared on its body, and that it would prevent it from merging with the "main body" on the other side of the seal, the City of Disaster immediately cancelled its materialization and merged itself into the entire ruins of Bansi Port.

It needs a certain amount of time to ensure its own safety, and it also needs to find the location of the items related to the "Source Castle" and eliminate them as soon as possible.

Soon, a thin white mist appeared on this lifeless island. The hidden monsters also lay dormant quietly. The city and ruins were gradually swallowed up by the thick fog and disappeared behind the fog, making them difficult to see clearly.

The fog seemed to spread endlessly around, and finally, the entire Bansi Island was shrouded and disappeared.

……

In the afternoon, after working all morning, Anderson saw off the last familiar guest and finally had a chance to take a breath.

After quickly wiping the table in the restaurant, Anderson found an excuse to slip out. Balam was different from the North Continent. Although it was afternoon, there were few people on the street.

However, when Anderson first came here, the operation here was the same as that of the Northern Continent. It was the river that was still under construction that changed the living habits of the people of Balam. At first, only the Beyonders of the Church of the God of Death were preparing to dig out the river. Although many people were moved by the church's propaganda and took the initiative to help, even the government of Balam did not participate in the church's actions. However, after ten days and a half months, the high priest of the Church of the God of Death - that is, the Pope and the Holy See on their side - suddenly announced the closure of the government, and only those involved needed to continue working.

From then on, Balam's day and night were reversed, because the Church of the God of Death only allowed construction between sunset and noon, and no civilians were allowed to approach the river at other times.

“This country is incredible.”

"It's amazing that everyone can participate in a religious event."

Anderson looked towards the river, shook his head, and walked away.

Although the restaurant provided two meals, Anderson was tired of his colleague's cooking skills. Moreover, he had just received a fortune from several old customers who had a good relationship with him, so he was in a good financial situation. He strolled leisurely on the street and walked towards the dim sum restaurant he often went to. From a distance, he saw the old lady in the dim sum restaurant was already clumsily closing the door and squinting her eyes to find the keyhole of the old iron lock.

"Hey! Hey! Don't close the door yet!" Anderson hurriedly called out. He walked over quickly and spoke to the old woman skillfully in Dutan with a local accent. "Are you going home so early today? I want to have a portion of the dried fruit milk cake you made!"

The old woman was old and her hearing wasn't very good, but there weren't many people who liked this old-fashioned pastry. She vaguely saw a person with familiar hair color and heard a familiar voice, and she immediately recognized the other person's identity.

"You are here again." The old man with white hair also said respectfully, "Sorry, I can't make snacks today. I want to go home and sleep."

The word "sleep" in the Tutan language originally means to sleep peacefully or have a long sleep. Anderson naturally understood what the other party meant, but he didn't know that his understanding was wrong:

"You're going home to rest so early? Are you still going out to do business in the evening?"

Of all the traditional Balam pastry shops Anderson had eaten at in the past few months, this old lady's was the best. I heard that her ancestors were court pastry chefs who cooked for the Eggers family or some fallen Balam nobles. Anderson not only liked it himself, but also planned to buy a few more and give them to Edwina as souvenirs. After all, she was an old friend he hadn't seen for a long time, and he had troubled her to come two days earlier to pick him up. She would definitely be interested in this kind of food with a historical atmosphere, and maybe she could save him some money on the boat ticket.

"I won't come out at night either." The old woman smiled and shook her head, "I won't come out again in the future."

Hmm? Anderson was stunned for a moment, then he realized that this "sleep" seemed to have a different meaning. He quickly asked, "Today, is it today? Did the church notify you that it's time to prepare to go to the kingdom of God?"

Anderson looked the other person up and down, not quite believing it: "But you look very energetic, could it be..." Was it a sudden accident?

"No." The old man said, "It's 'that moment' that is coming."

“We will all receive eternal silence… That’s what the Church tells us.”

Anderson was stunned for a moment, then his eyes slowly widened and his breathing suddenly became rapid. He immediately raised his head and looked around the street, which was indeed more desolate than usual, and cold sweat broke out on his back.

He twitched the corners of his mouth, his eyes were a little flustered, and his expression was forced to smile:

"Mother-in-law, what you are talking about is... is it what I was thinking about? That river... wasn't it next week? Why is it today...?"

"That's not only a river, it's also the royal road for our gods to return, so the high priest did the construction work and everyone worked very hard."

The old woman's eyesight was not good, and she did not notice the slight uneasiness on Anderson's face. She thought that the other party's trembling voice was due to excitement, so she grabbed Anderson's hand with her old hand and patted it twice: "Yes, it's today, the high priest has told us..."

"We have fallen into a peaceful sleep, and are about to return to God's embrace together to welcome eternal silence."

"Child, stop walking around and go home."

"Lie down with your family, hold the bones of your ancestors, close your eyes... We will be forever, this is forever."

The old woman's words were gentle, yet strangely reassuring, as if she were still speaking with the loving tone of a younger generation who treated Anderson as if he were already dead. Even Anderson was slightly calmed down, and for a moment he actually thought that this might not be a bad thing.

...Not a bad head! No matter how poetic death is, it is still death, and I don’t want to die!

The smile on Anderson's face disappeared instantly. He no longer cared about bringing any gifts to Edwina and his old acquaintances. Instead, he immediately said goodbye to them and racked his brains to think about how to leave.

Although Anderson knew neither the origin nor what the "Styx" was, the high priest said that it was something related to the god of death. No matter how arrogant Anderson was, he could not think that he could escape alive from the coverage of such a thing!

Why is it today? Why is it coming today?
No, no, calm down for now, at least for the night...

It's not too late to send a message to Edwina now! Maybe extraordinary abilities like spirit travel can be useful!

Anderson had contacted Edwina using the simplest method of sending letters. After all, Balam's private port was in contact with many pirates. He found "Vice Admiral Iceberg" and obtained some occult communication methods. He could have spent the last 30 hours in Balam leisurely and quietly in the second half of tomorrow night when others were busy working on the construction site, and watched the moment when the "River of Styx" emerged from the spirit world on the boat with Edwina - but he didn't expect it to be tonight! Why tonight!
Anderson was really panicked now. He didn't care about being absent from work and hurried back to the small house he rented to start preparing a simple ceremony.

Roselle’s dream technique… is useless!
"Edwina is still very far away from me now..." Anderson's pupils shrank slightly.

After more than ten minutes, the summoning of Edwina's spirit failed as expected.

"They are all beyond the effective range."

Anderson's expression suddenly became very ugly.

He hadn't been an adventurer on the sea for a long time, but he still remembered the approximate speed of ships on the sea. Since it was not yet within the scope of application of "Roselle's Dream Technique", it meant that the straight-line distance between Edwina and him was more than 1000 nautical miles.

If there were still 30 hours, they would definitely be able to reach the speed with the extraordinary ship "Golden Dream", but today - they would get up and continue working after dark at o'clock, and Edwina would not be able to make it within these five hours! - She might not even know that she couldn't make it, because no one told her that the channel was completed more than two days ahead of schedule, and she might not have left the port yet!

Anderson's heart sank to the bottom in an instant.

But after being stunned for two seconds, he immediately stood up, ran outside frantically, and sprinted wildly on the empty street.

At this moment, Anderson heard the footsteps of others. He found that another Balam man was also running wildly. They happened to look at each other, and their eyes were filled with bottomless fear and desire for life.

……

Because the west is close to the sea, there are many docks, and it seems to be the only place to escape. But when Anderson ran over and looked at the calm waves on the sea, he suddenly felt an extreme fear.

Driven by a dangerous intuition, he stopped in front of the dock and waited for a moment. Then Anderson activated his clairvoyance.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw countless spirits and spiritual creatures that were as powerful as himself or even more powerful wandering on the seashore. There was an almost invisible mist floating on the sea surface, and they were hiding in the mist. When he approached, many spiritual creatures stared at him, even opened their mouths and stretched out their claws, eager to walk over and enter their mouths.

"Hold."

Anderson couldn't help but curse, then turned and ran in another direction.

The territory of the Balam Empire was very vast. If he couldn't walk along the seashore, then he would have nowhere to escape. Even if he was a Sequence 5 Beyonder, it was impossible for him to cross a country in a few hours.

But despite knowing he had no escape, Anderson still tried his best to escape.

Time passed by minute by minute. Anderson didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but he felt that the sky seemed to get dark especially early today. Even in winter, the night in Balam would not come until around seven o'clock, but today it was not even five o'clock and the sky had already started to get dark!

The temperature around him was dropping rapidly, and Anderson's hair stood on end. Even strenuous exercise could not dispel the chill in his heart.

He realized that he had no way to escape, and the "River Styx" was really going to descend on the earth tonight!

As he was running, a voice suddenly floated into his ears.

"It's actually not difficult to stabilize Medici's existence. Since you said that his soul has not completely perished, and you have temporarily stabilized his state with other methods, then it's very simple to continue his fate under this premise."

"Oh, okay, just think about it when you need help, and I'll notice it."

"That's it."

Medici?
Isn’t Medici... Anyone who can talk about Him should also be a High-Sequence Expert, right?

Anderson perked up and immediately prepared to slide down to his knees. He turned around and ran towards the source of the voice, but on the way he heard the other party start talking to another person:

"...Really? I actually like Balam's death culture. In the Fourth Epoch, when the cooperation between the Hades and the Primordial Witch was still in its ambiguous stage, love and death were the main themes here. I remember that many interesting festivals and anniversaries were derived from it."

"The human you are in control of, wasn't he also very interested in these exotic cultures when he was a child? Maya, Aztec, Inca... Hehe, it's a pity that in the end of those books and documentaries, these civilizations always 'mysteriously disappeared', becoming a mystery that can never be solved. After he grew up, he gradually realized why these civilizations 'mysteriously disappeared', and they can only be recorded as 'mysteriously disappeared'."

"Now, this place is about to 'mysteriously disappear', and it's real..."

Before he finished speaking, Anderson saw the other person.

A gray-haired man, wearing some strange clothes, holding something that looked like a camera, but smaller and more sophisticated.

At first glance, he seemed to be just an ordinary tourist sightseeing and taking photos everywhere.

"I've seen you."

Just as Anderson was thinking about the content of the sliding kneeling speech, the person on the other side suddenly spoke up, and then denied himself with a smile: "No, you can't say that. Humans have a relatively simple understanding of identity. It's not me who saw you."

"..."

The chill this sentence brought to Anderson was no less than that of the "Styx" which had already entered the countdown to its arrival. He instantly realized that the person on the other side might not only be a high-sequence being, but might even be a high-ranking being from another race that was not even considered human!
Anderson immediately backed out.

"Your life will end in less than five hours."

The other party suddenly spoke again, looking at him with those strange eyes without pupils: "I see, the River of Eternal Darkness descended upon the earth at that time. His actions were quite fast."

TBC
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"What do you want to do by running here?"