Asura in Arknights

Li Ang made a grabbing motion, and said with a wry smile, "Are you saying that you brought the snow from your dream back to reality?"

Magellan, however, was not joking at all. She nodded seriously and said, "Although it sounds absurd, there is no better explanation."

Frowning slightly, Li Ang showed some interest in the 'dream' that Magellan had mentioned.

"...Alright, let's talk about your dream now."

Magellan then told Leon and Adele everything that had happened in his dream.

From initially wandering aimlessly through the mountains, to finally being guided by some force, they arrived at the canyon.

"...Finally, I found myself in front of a canyon."

"A voice came from inside the canyon, in an unknown language I had never heard before. The voice meant..."

Magellan suddenly stopped speaking at this point.

"Strange, why can't I remember?"

Magellan scratched her head. She found that no matter how hard she tried to recall, she couldn't remember what she had heard. It was like a broken videotape; all Magellan could remember was a series of blurry static.

After scratching his head in frustration, Magellan said, "Although I don't know what language it is, I can understand what the other person means very accurately, but now I can't remember anything..."

Li Ang could sense that Magellan wasn't lying; everything she had said was true, and some incomprehensible things had indeed happened to Magellan.

"Let's put that aside for now and continue. What happened after you arrived at that canyon?"

Nodding, Magellan recalled for a moment, then continued, "After that... a terrifying arm reached out from the canyon."

"That arm was about ten meters long and two to three meters wide, as if it were made of ice and grayish-white granite, and it covered most of the sky."

"When that hand reached for me, I was so scared I couldn't move. I thought I was going to die!" Magellan patted his chest, still shaken.

"And then? And then Magellan, you woke up?"

Adele couldn't help but ask, she was so captivated by Magellan's story that she couldn't wait to know what happened next.

“That’s not the case,” Magellan shook his head and said with a wry smile, “If only I could have woken up then, because… something even more terrible happened next.”

What's even more terrifying?

In Adele's opinion, the sight of an arm reaching out from the canyon was bad enough, but what happened next that made Magellan even more horrified?

Magellan slowly said, "Just as that hand was about to grab me, the sky suddenly split open."

Is that all?

The sky cracking open sounds terrifying, but compared to the arms in the canyon, it doesn't seem that different.

Just as Adele was about to ask another question, she noticed the fear in Magellan's eyes.

“Eyes…that crack was filled with dark red eyes.” Magellan’s voice trembled slightly.

It wasn't that Magellan was cowardly, but rather that the scene was so terrifying that words could not possibly describe even a fraction of the fear she felt.

Even the combined gaze of ordinary people can create pressure for others, let alone the situation Magellan faced.

After swallowing hard and calming himself down a bit, Magellan continued, "I don't quite understand what happened next. When those eyes appeared, the arm stopped moving and then retracted back into the canyon after a while."

"Then, I suddenly woke up."

Chapter Forty-Six: The Place Where Everything Converges

After listening to Magellan's description, Li Ang said thoughtfully, "So, in the end, those eyes didn't harm you, but instead helped you repel that arm?"

“…That’s right.” Magellan nodded, somewhat conflicted.

Although things were indeed as Li Ang described, Magellan still felt something was off.

After encountering a terrifying monster, he was saved by something even more terrifying—this is roughly the situation Magellan faced.

When Magellan found the clump of snow in her hand, she realized that what she had experienced was not a simple dream, but rather that she had entered a strange space that existed between illusion and reality.

Fortunately, those eyes repelled the arm in the canyon; otherwise, who knows what terrible things might have happened if they had been grabbed by that arm.

Thinking of this, Magellan couldn't help but shudder.

"You're telling us all this to ask if we know what's going on?"

Magellan nodded.

If she doesn't get to the bottom of this, she's afraid she won't be able to sleep peacefully at night. She's afraid that once she falls asleep, she'll return to that mountain range where black snowflakes are falling.

"Would it make you feel better if I told you that the dream was a hallucination you had when you were dying?"

After pondering for a while, Li Ang spoke up, "The arms in the canyon represent the energy that entered your body, and those eyes... you can understand them as the way I healed you. I don't know if this explanation satisfies you."

Upon hearing this, Magellan's lips twitched, unsure of what to say.

"So, saying this might just make you feel a little better," Li Ang said, shrugging. "Because I don't know exactly what happened."

However, not everything that Li Ang said was a lie to comfort Magellan.

At least based on the eyes Magellan saw, Leon's intuition told him that those things were likely related to him.

The reason is simple: even though Li Ang kept saying it was nothing, his blindness was always a sore point in his heart.

So much time has passed, and this matter has become a deep-seated obsession for Li Ang. Even if one day he can see the world through the eyes of ordinary people, he probably won't be able to let go of this matter so easily.

Magellan did encounter some incomprehensible things. The black snow in her hand alone could not be explained by common sense. It was not impossible that Li Ang's obsession was materialized into 'eyes' in her dream.

However, what does the arm that Magellan encountered in the canyon represent?

Snow Sacrifice? That doesn't quite seem like it. Besides, Magellan once mentioned that a voice came from the canyon and communicated with her in a language that Magellan didn't know but that she could understand.

This ability, similar to the 'voice of the soul,' should not be something that Yukisa should possess.

Moreover, Xue Si has long been dead. If he were truly that powerful, he wouldn't be a corpse now kept here by the Ursus people.

Perhaps... we should treat that aura and the snow sacrifice as two different things?

Li Ang had such a guess, but he had too little information at the moment, and guessing like this wouldn't make any sense. In any case, all of this was inextricably linked to Sami.

I never imagined that such a small, remote country could hide so many messy things.

It seems there's a reason why any country can survive on Terra. Let's just hope they don't encounter any of this mess on their journey ahead... That's a good idea, but reality often doesn't go as planned.

Seeing that neither Leon nor Adele could explain her strange dream, Magellan felt a little disappointed, but she quickly cheered up again.

Although she encountered many unexpected events this time, she is still alive, isn't she?

Moreover... thanks to these unexpected events, she also discovered many new and interesting things. Isn't the greatest pleasure of an explorer to explore all kinds of unknown things? Magellan had a premonition that if she could successfully overcome this crisis, she might never forget this experience for the rest of her life.

Just as Magellan had this thought, she suddenly felt her heart clench, as if a hand was tightly gripping her heart.

Magellan clutched her chest in pain and bent over, her brows once again furrowed with frost.

At this moment, noticing Magellan's unusual behavior, Li Ang placed his hand on her shoulder.

Magellan could feel a lethal dose of Originium energy flowing from Leon's hand, surging into her body through her shoulder. As the massive amount of Originium energy was injected, her heart gradually calmed down, as if what had just happened was an illusion.

Only Magellan herself knew that she had almost died here again.

"...No, I can't completely get rid of that aura."

After retracting his right hand, Li Ang couldn't help but frown.

How much time had passed? That aura became restless again. If Magellan hadn't been right next to Li Ang, she might have been in grave danger this time.

"It seems you won't be able to leave easily until a complete solution is found."

Perhaps they can find the answer to this question in Sami.

Ultimately, all the clues converged on the tiny country of Sami.

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Meanwhile, on the other side of Ursus' northern border, another team was also braving the wind and snow, heading towards Sami.

The group was quite large, roughly fifty or sixty people, and what was somewhat shocking was that they did not use any vehicles. They simply lined up in several rows and marched forward on foot through the snow and ice.

They didn't walk very fast, but with each step they took forward, their bodies would somehow lurch forward a considerable distance. The entire group moved across the snowfield in this way, even faster than when traveling by other means of transportation.

The blizzard was stopped by an invisible barrier when it reached within a foot of them, and the blizzard here seemed to have no effect on the team.

"How many more days until we reach our destination?" someone in the group suddenly asked.

"My lord, the local climate is affecting the effectiveness of the Swift Travel Technique. At our current speed, it may take two weeks to arrive."

"Twenty days..."

The man was silent for a moment, then looked up in Sami's direction, a strand of golden hair flashing from under his hat.

"Speed ​​up! We must get to Sami within ten days!"

"promise!"

Chapter Forty-Seven Hammerford

The blizzard lasted for nearly two weeks before gradually subsiding. Although it didn't completely stop, it became so weak that it couldn't affect the snowmobile engine.

During this time, they stayed obediently inside the fortress without going out, and no one from the outside came to cause them any trouble.

But after the blizzard subsided, the three of them, carrying enough supplies they had scavenged from the fortress, once again embarked on their journey to Sami.

Before leaving the fortress, he also caused a small avalanche, completely burying the entrance to the fortress. As long as no one is idly digging around on the ice field, the fortress is unlikely to be discovered by others.

It has been quietly sitting on the ice sheet for more than 30 years, and will continue to do so in the future.

Li Ang memorized the coordinates of the fortress, thinking he might need the things inside later. That large quantity of weaponry wasn't something that could be easily obtained; the problem was figuring out how to get it out of Ursus.

Magellan's plans have been completely disrupted by his reckless actions in the fortress.

She originally planned to part ways with Leon and his group after entering Sami, find a mobile city in Sami nearby, and then contact Rhine Life headquarters in Colombia for rescue.

However, the aura residing in Magellan's heart did not intend to grant her wish. Although it had become much more subdued after several treatments, if Li Ang had not helped suppress it when it erupted, Magellan would definitely not have survived for more than ten minutes.

Therefore, Magellan had no choice but to join Leon and the others in venturing into the darkest corner of the world.

Magellan didn't seem to feel any dissatisfaction with this; instead, she focused her attention on the way Leon treated her.

After receiving Originium therapy once while conscious, Magellan became very interested in this method. According to her knowledge, injecting this concentration of Originium into the human body would directly trigger an acute reaction, and she should have died suddenly in a short time.

She couldn't understand how Li Ang had suppressed the symptoms, so she kept pestering him to find out what was going on. Of course, Li Ang couldn't tell Magellan this secret.

After being rebuffed by Leon, Magellan set his sights on Adele.

Unsurprisingly, Adele also kept quiet about this matter, and after several unsuccessful attempts, Magellan reluctantly gave up his plan.

Although he couldn't tell Magellan what his abilities were, Leon still revealed some things that Magellan needed to be aware of.

First, Magellan should avoid bleeding as much as possible before Leon finishes Originium therapy and removes any residue from his body.

Her body is now a giant poison tank, every drop of her blood is a highly concentrated source of pollution. If Magellan is injured, she might accidentally be poisoned to death by her own blood.

If that were to actually happen, it would definitely be considered one of the dumbest ways to die in history.

Because there was one more person, Li Ang and his group were not as bored on the road.

After getting to know each other, Magellan gradually opened up and chattered on about his past adventures, such as discovering a ten-story-high Originium ice crystal on the ice plains, digging up ruins from underground, and trees growing inside ice blocks. All of this brought Li Ang and the other two a very novel experience.

Ordinary people can't have such a colorful life.

Under these circumstances, they gradually left the ice fields north of Ursus and entered the even harsher Sami region.

Having received ample supplies, Li Ang and his group didn't waste time in the mobile cities along the way, heading straight for the northernmost part of Sami, a mobile city located near the 'Dark Mountains'—

Hammerford, the place furthest from the civilized world.

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"Is this Hammerford?"

Li Ang observed the surrounding environment with great interest.

They encountered some trouble upon entering this mobile city, but not because all three of them were infected, but because of their status as foreigners.

There are no devices here to detect the identity of infected people, because apart from a few businessmen, no one would come to this remote place.

In the past, some people might have purchased devices to identify infected individuals for the sake of appearances, but after so many years, the devices are probably just gathering dust in the warehouse. No guard would bother to bring out such equipment just for the three of them.

"I was a bit surprised; I thought this place would be more dilapidated."

Magellan looked around curiously, then said.

Although the buildings here are not particularly tall, most of them are only two or three stories high, they look surprisingly exquisite, which is somewhat in line with the description of the Sami country resort villas in the rumors.

Although it is small in scale, less than the size of a district in the Great Knight Territory, it is indeed a mobile city.