Night Journey

Chapter 27 The Vanishing Light
Reality differs from fiction. In fiction, events require logical coherence and extensive build-up, but in reality, they do not.

One moment, everyone was dancing; the next, the end of the world had arrived.

What happened happened.

Like a meteorite falling to earth, it was full of suddenness and inevitability.

The parties involved had no choice but to accept it.

A fierce wind whipped up countless sparks, which pelted Cillian with a crackling sound.

Under repeated attacks, the high wall burned down to its towering ruins, while more foehn winds poured in from the breaches, sweeping away everything in their path.

Ciri watched helplessly as the gate, which had been repaired countless times, collapsed completely with a creaking sound, leaving the gates of White Cliff Town wide open.

The anticipated demon invasion did not occur. The demons that came from the gray fog were also reduced to ashes by the burning wind. Even the few survivors could only drag their burning bodies and crawl with difficulty on the ground.

Suddenly, the crimson sun's radiance intensified again, and correspondingly, the entire high wall curled up and collapsed.

Without any cover, the foehn winds crashed head-on into Baiya Town, sweeping across it with rubble.

Cillian managed to take cover behind a building, and when he looked back, the scene that greeted him sent chills down his spine.

In the center of the square, the people who had not yet evacuated were like ants overturned by a hurricane, their flesh sizzling and curling in the scorching air. Familiar figures were burned into fireballs, screaming as they were slammed to the ground by the heat wave, and then fell silent.

The silk was set ablaze and burst into flames, the children's rocking horse was carbonized into a black skeleton in the high temperature, and the stained glass shattered into fang-shaped fragments scattered all over the ground.

Cillian tried to think about the current situation, but only found a blank.

The wails were swallowed by the flames and turned into intermittent sobs. The man with the missing arm convulsed in the molten iron, and the survivors walked barefoot on the scorching bricks and stones, the bloody smell mingling with the ashes in their throats.

Baiya Town is being permanently pickled by the smell of despair and burning.

After another outbreak, the foehn winds outside the bunker gradually subsided.

Cillian rushed out of the bunker. As one of only two superhumans in White Cliff Town, he had to shoulder the responsibility at this moment.

At the gap where the high wall collapsed, countless hideous and terrifying figures emerged.

As the crimson sun ceased spewing its fiery winds, the demons were able to catch their breath, and a steady stream of them emerged from the gray realm of the narrow passage.

A burning pain emanated from the Ouroboros Seal, filled with hatred, rage, and a desire to annihilate the evil and twisted creature.

It is whispering—kill them all.

Cirien drew his sword and stepped forward, responding like a wild beast.

"Exactly what I want!"

With his soul essence surging and burning, Cirien cleaved the demon's head in two with a single sword strike, and then with another horizontal slash, cut another demon in half at the waist.

Hundreds and thousands of demons piled up at the breach, but they could not stop Cirion's advance. He was like a walking meat grinder, leaving behind only severed limbs and flying flesh and blood wherever he went.

Not enough, not enough.

The deaths of the demons were far from quelling the wrath of the Ouroboros Seal, nor could they bring peace to Cirion's heart.

Cillian fought his way through the wilderness and finally saw the crimson sun.

On the surface of the crimson sun, fiery streams repeatedly surged and gushed, but strangely, these streams of fire had overly specific forms, like burning, curled tentacles that grew wildly and spread along the edges, while the center was a deeper dark red, like an abstract sun.

At this very moment, the hatred of the Ouroboros Seal reached its peak; tonight, it sought to destroy not the endless demons, but itself.

Under the blazing light, the scarlet sun resembled a giant eye, gazing upon all things.

The rustling sounds came from all directions around Ciri. The earth, which had been scorched by the scorching wind, was now forming layers of ice crystals. The biting cold bypassed the body's senses and went directly to the depths of Ciri's mind.

The gray area of ​​the narrow space has grown stronger once again, unleashing boundless chaotic power to invade reality.

Looking at the crimson sun again, Cillian suddenly realized that the lower half of the crimson sun was not behind the horizon, but in the gray space between the spirit realms.

The arrival of the crimson sun overwhelmed the local reality.

"Teacher...?"

Under the crimson light, Cillian saw Nun.

Nunn stood before the crimson sun, sword in one hand and dragging a mangled corpse with the other.

applause.

"As expected of you, Nunn Soflowa. Even though you are old, you are still as powerful as the rumors say, and even more so."

The Deathbird praised, "I even invoked the power of my lord, yet I couldn't restrain you? Instead, you found an opportunity to kill Gene."

Nunn glanced at the mangled remains in his hand; half of Gene's face and half of his body had vanished.

No blood flowed from the cut. The moment he was struck, the high temperature of the boiling sword had already evaporated his blood and carbonized his flesh.

Released from its wreckage, it fell to the ground and shattered into pieces of carbon.

"Is this the power of your master? A monstrous creature unlike any I've ever seen before."

Nuen looked up at the crimson sun and said with a pained expression, "I have been living in seclusion in White Cliff Town for too long. What, has yet another giant fallen completely into chaos?"

The Deathbird advised, "A wicked man? My lord doesn't like being called that."

In this hellish scene, the two chatted like old friends, but the onlookers were not so happy. Toren silently moved to one side.

The moment the crimson sun rose, he thought the Deathbird would easily deal with Nunn, but in the howling winds, Nunn still killed Gene as easily as stepping on an ant.

Tania stared silently at the crimson sun, and no one knew what she was thinking.

hiss--

A bloodstained blade emerged from the rolling mist, its chilling killing intent jolting Tania awake. She instinctively turned to dodge, and then a cold glint flashed across her cheek.

A thin line of blood ran across the bridge of his nose, past his left eye, leaving a trail of blood.

Tania covered her blind left eye, raised her hand to summon her primal energy, but before the pure power could be gathered, Ciri broke through the fog and arrived.

"Death!"

The sharp metal severed several of Tania's fingers, embedding them in her palm, before stopping.

Cillian was unwilling to give up and tried to continue cutting, but at this moment, Toren rushed to his aid and his swinging longsword collided with Cillian's blade.

"Tanya, are you alright!"

Toren forced Cillian to retreat and asked nervously.

"What do you think?"

Tania's face was covered in blood, and her heart was pounding. If it weren't for the omens she possessed as a Stargazer, which alerted her to the impending danger, she might have already been killed by Cillian's sword.

Nunn and the Deathbird, who were facing off ahead, also noticed Ciri's intrusion.

"Another torchbearer, is he your student?"

Just as the Deathbird was about to further break down Nunn's psychological defenses, it suddenly sensed something and looked nervously at Cillian.

The blood in my body felt hot and burning; this was the call from my bloodline.

Not long ago, the Deathbird sensed this call from the depths of its being, which is why it traveled thousands of miles to the outer frontier of Flame, combining the intelligence it had gathered with clues about Nuen.

The Deathbird glared angrily at Nuen, the first time he had lost his composure since the start of the battle.

"You actually gave him the Holy Blood of the Torchbearer!" the Deathbird rebuked. "Such precious power wasted on him like this?"

"The Holy Blood of the Torchbearer?"

Nunn did not understand where the Deathbird's rage came from.

The Deathbird paused for a moment, then murmured, "You don't even know what it is?"

"Heavens, Nunn, you've been traveling with this treasure for so long," the Deathbird laughed wildly, "yet you know nothing of its immense power!"

“Commander Frey told me to protect it, so I protected it, that’s all,” Nunn said calmly. “And it seems your objective has failed.”

“It’s alright,” the Deathbird licked its lips, its voice hoarse. “He’s only at the first rank and hasn’t fully fused with the Holy Blood of the Torchbearer yet. As long as we drain his blood, we can eventually purify it again.”

Nunn said coldly, "It sounds like you think you have the victory in your grasp?"

The dead bird remained silent, gripped its sword and dagger, and plunged them into its chest once more. Blood gushed out, and the crimson sun once again whipped up a scorching wind.

“This wisp of malevolent power is indeed very strong,” Nunn said, pointing his sword at the crimson sun, “but this is not the malevolent power itself. To think you can use it to kill me is too naive.”

Nunn stepped forward again, his boiling sword glowing red-hot, emitting a blinding afterglow.

“Indeed, this power will at most severely injure you, but it won’t kill you. However…” the Deathbird said quietly, “Nun, you seem to have failed to recognize your own predicament.”

"If we had met decades ago, I would have had no chance of defeating you. Back then, you were all alone, filled with hatred and anger, and you were ruthless and unscrupulous."

Like an invincible being.

The Deathbird gazed into the distance, and at the edge of its vision, a corner of the high wall of White Cliff Town had collapsed. The demons had intended to swarm out, but after crossing the breach, they were burned to ashes by the holy light.

The beacon of light still stands.

The Deathbird plunged the dagger completely into its chest, embedding it into its flesh and blood, where it became one with the flesh.

"But what now?"

The Deathbird disdainfully raised its hand, pleasing the chaotic evils.

"You're too cowardly right now!"

The expanding, burning crimson sun rapidly collapsed inward, countless fiery tendrils coiling together in layers, intertwined and tangled, even the crimson hue reflecting the night sky returned to a single point, condensing into a dark red, narrow spear.

No one could see the trajectory of the spear, but everyone knew where it would hit.

The thick darkness of night was gently parted, revealing a scarlet sky, the angle of the boundary line falling precisely on the lighthouse.

In an instant, a raging storm erupted, and a terrifying tornado easily destroyed the towering beacon of light, extinguishing the dawn that was dispelling the chaos.

Pure darkness descended upon the earth, and primal energy and chaos surged and boiled in the gray fog, rampaging like a wild beast.

All things were corrupted by this evil power, falling into a frenzied agitation. Grass and trees moved without wind, as if convulsing in pain, and stones floated and trembled, as if emitting mournful cries.

Then the receding tide returned, determined to submerge all the land.

(End of this chapter)