Arthur froze in place, watching helplessly as the darkness flowed past him along the patterns.
Those were the inscriptions of the Polymath Tower, inscriptions he had personally repaired and verified. This set of patterns connected to the tower's foundation, to the massive pillars of The Bronze Sin beneath the earth, and stretched all the way into the sealing foundations of most of Bronze City. Something was currently using these patterns to burrow toward the deepest depths of the city.
Hilde's face turned pale in an instant.
"Something terrible has happened."
She only managed to squeeze out those words, her voice trembling slightly.
Beneath Bronze City, there was more than one sinkhole. Whether it was the North Ward or the Northwest Branch that had long been backfilled and sealed, or the passage in Old Council Square beneath Glock's feet used for diving—the interconnected bronze patterns beneath them all suddenly lit up the moment that pitch-black energy sank into the bottom.
Ghostly blue light churned and boiled within the inscription grooves. The entire network of patterns looked as if a fire had been lit from the very bottom.
No one knew exactly what was being suppressed at the deepest point of those patterns.
Immediately after, the ghouls scattered underground, which had been gnawing on copper individually, all stopped for a brief moment in unison.
In the next moment, they changed direction, surging together toward the surface.
That synchronized movement bore no resemblance to a common beast stampede; they were clearly following a silent command.
...
Within the domain, the Guardian narrowed his eyes, staring at the place where the stone had melted in.
The moment the stone vanished, it wasn't just Bronze City that suffered a setback.
He himself, along with The Man on the Wall before him, had also undergone a change.
The Guardian could clearly feel that invisible thread. Originally, it had only loosely connected him to the Polymath Tower and this head, but at this moment, it suddenly tightened, twisting into a single, unbreakable cord.
Previously, the two entities were merely sharing the massive vessel of the Polymath Tower, both restrained by mutual concerns. If it really came to a life-and-death struggle, he could still have struck at it, and it could have barely managed to pull him into its domain.
But with the fall of this stone, the two entities were deathly locked together as one.
From now on, neither could even think of harming the other.
A deeply suppressed killing intent flashed through the Guardian's cloudy eyes.
He understood everything now.
This stone was the very one Kraus had questioned him about. It had been taken by this head sitting atop the tower, silently and without notice, during the period when he had personally released his domain and shrouded the entire Polymath Tower in darkness.
It had been calculating this move since then.
What truly made the Guardian unable to stomach this was not the fact that he had been outplayed.
He had lived in this locked city for five or six hundred years, valuing his remaining human identity more than his life. Yet now, he was completely bound to such a forbidden thing.
He did not speak.
At a time like this, any words were redundant.
In contrast to the Guardian's suppressed fury, The Man on the Wall appeared exceptionally calm.
Since the stone had already been played, there was no reason to take it back. Now that it was locked with the Guardian—two souls in one body—neither could interfere in the unfolding collapse of Bronze City.
"The piece has been played."
The overlapping voices were neither heavy nor light.
"Now, let us see how each plays their hand."
Whether it was the piece it had played, the Guardian's previous plans, or the people in the city relying on their own abilities—at this stage, everything had to be laid out on the table for the final outcome to be decided by true worth.
However, it hadn't gained this advantage without a cost.
Under the Guardian's pressure, it had been forced to act prematurely. The black stone had not yet been nurtured to full maturity, so its effectiveness was somewhat diminished. Its ultimate schemes might not be fully realized in one go.
Both sides had their steps disrupted by the other, and neither had emerged unscathed.
It was precisely because of this that they had reached this stalemate where neither could do anything to the other.
...
After an unknown amount of time, the churning grey mist suddenly receded in all directions.
When the Guardian opened his eyes again, the rock platform suspended in the void was no longer beneath his feet.
The rough stone floor, scattered glass shards, and the railings knocked over by the shockwave returned to his sight. He stood atop the Polymath Tower, facing the grey-white head resting within the dark red array.
The eyeballs on his body were still surfacing one by one under his skin and then sinking back down.
The Guardian stared at the head for a moment, his expression unreadable, showing no sign of what he might have perceived.
He did not say another word, turning around and walking down the tower.
In the next moment, the suppression that had been holding the entire Polymath Tower loosened.
Arthur was scrambling toward the top of the tower when the communication crystal in his robe, which had been dead silent, lit up without warning.
He understood almost immediately that the Guardian had withdrawn his seal on the tower.
Arthur didn't have time to think. He scrambled up the last few steps, only to run straight into the white-haired old man walking down.
The Guardian paused in front of him.
The old man opened his mouth, wanting to relay some of what had happened in the domain. But as soon as the words reached his throat, they were firmly suppressed by an invisible force, and he couldn't utter a single syllable.
Only then did he truly taste just how poisonous the scheme of the so-called Man on the Wall was.
The Guardian was silent for a moment, finally forcing out the only words the rules hadn't locked away from between his teeth.
"Things are about to descend into chaos beneath Bronze City."
His voice was low and raspy.
"Evacuate the civilians and hold the openings below."
Leaving behind those two sentences, he didn't stay a moment longer, brushing past Arthur and walking down the tower step by step.
Arthur froze on the stairs, unable to move for a long time.
Behind him, the massive head hung quietly within the array, showing no movement from beginning to end.
But he knew better than anyone that something had completely changed.
Arthur suddenly snapped back to his senses, his trembling hand gripping the newly lit crystal. He relayed the Guardian's two sentences to the branch headquarters without missing a single word.
...
Nightwatchers Branch, Vice Director's Office.
Lu Yuan had just left when emergency reports from underground began to pour in one after another.
The messenger's voice was urgent and frantic, the roars in the background almost drowning him out. Though intermittent, it was enough to piece together the current situation: Greater Ghouls were surging at the main sinkhole, and Glock was leading his men to hold the front line; the four surface bronze pillars of the Northwest Branch were also showing signs of collapse at their bases from being gnawed.
Kraus listened, showing no surprise. He grabbed a crystal and first sent a batch of reinforcements to the main sinkhole. He and Hilde had both anticipated that these openings would eventually cause trouble.
As he was deploying personnel, the crystal on his desk vibrated again.
This time it was Arthur, sending a message from the Polymath Tower. His voice was extremely tense, conveying only two short sentences: "Things are about to descend into chaos beneath Bronze City. Evacuate the civilians and hold the openings below."
Those were the Guardian's original words.
Kraus's hand holding the crystal stopped.
The Guardian was locked to the Polymath Tower by inscriptions, yet even he had gone out of his way to send such a message. This meant the underground activity was definitely not a normal overflow. Something had gone wrong at the very root of the seal. Hilde's two-month calculation was now void; this disaster had arrived early.
His expression gradually darkened.
But the Guardian's message was unusually short.
Given the old man's status, if he really wanted to give a warning, he wouldn't have sent such terse sentences. Unless he had more to say but simply couldn't.
Kraus had no time to delve into the reason behind that inability to speak. With only this much information in hand, he had to rely on it to endure this night.
His heart had always been braced for this.
From the moment Hilde gave that deadline, from the times they had gone underground to reinforce and backfill the sinkholes, he had been waiting for the day the seal could no longer hold and the things below surged up.
He just hadn't expected it to come so suddenly.
Kraus's expression turned cold and resolute. What was meant to come had finally arrived.
He no longer hesitated. Following the previously arranged deployment, he issued orders one after another through the crystal. Every Nightwatcher team was to take their positions immediately at the designated defensive spots underground.
But what truly weighed heaviest on his mind was another matter.
The main opening was in danger, but would those previously backfilled and sealed sinkholes also crack open a second or third gap?
The openings beneath Bronze City were scattered across several locations: the North Ward, the Northwest, and the inner city. He couldn't just focus on Old Council Square; he had to inspect every site one by one and block wherever trouble emerged.
None of them could be abandoned. The entire underground of the city was interconnected; losing any single opening was equivalent to opening the door for the things below.
Things hadn't collapsed to that point yet, but Kraus was used to preparing for the worst.
He picked up a pen and wrote a deployment order: "First, move those who cannot help and are likely to cause trouble away from the subsidence zones. Residents near those openings are to be led by Nightwatchers and evacuated to nearby towns overnight."
With such a large commotion, it was impossible to keep it hidden. Rather than waiting for the people in the city to panic and run aimlessly, it was better to clear the areas near the sinkholes early. This would save them from having to divert their attention to rescue trapped civilians once the real fighting started.
Only by offloading these burdens could they free their hands for the tough battle ahead.
At a critical spot like the main sinkhole, relying on Glock alone wasn't enough; they needed a rank 4 to oversee and stabilize the situation. Kraus selected someone and ordered them to rush to Old Council Square immediately.
As for Lake, he had other arrangements.
He would have this rank 4 eerie transcendent patrol between the several backfilled openings, reinforcing whichever one showed signs of movement.
The available manpower wasn't small, but Kraus didn't commit everyone at once.
No one could say for sure how many more openings would split open beneath them tonight. He had to keep some strength in reserve—a card to be played at the worst possible moment.
As the deployment orders went out, Kraus stood by his office window, looking toward the Polymath Tower in the inner city.
It was dark and silent there, showing no sign of anything unusual.
Of the two strongest, one was locked atop the tower, and the other couldn't even speak the truth. Whether Bronze City could hold tonight was no longer up to them; it all depended on whether the Nightwatchers and the various factions in the city could each hold their own ground.
Kraus knew better than anyone.
This was only the beginning.
Lights in the city began to flicker on one by one.
Nightwatchers were assembling at the various underground openings throughout the night, and neighbors near the subsidence zones were being woken door to door and led toward the city outskirts.
The entire Bronze City was fully prepared before the worst moment arrived.
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