Meanwhile, the ground trembled continuously throughout the city, causing large amounts of gravel and soil to rain down.
Almost immediately, roars and screeches erupted from all directions as ghouls and greater ghouls surged out from underground like a rising tide.
The Nightwatchers and the Holy Armored Army, who had long been prepared for battle, immediately formed their ranks and charged forward to meet them.
The bronze-paved ground and those copper structures still held some natural deterrence against these ghouls, but it was only minor.
The remaining two Rank 4 Nightwatchers did not blindly rush to provide support everywhere.
One stayed at the Nightwatchers branch to ensure nothing went wrong, while the other rushed toward Lake.
After all, such large-scale subsidence often meant that special amalgamations would emerge, and with Lake's abilities, dealing with those things was highly inefficient.
By now, Lake had already arrived at the sinkhole at the boundary between the inner city and outer city.
The situation here was far worse than what had been described in the communications.
Every Nightwatcher stationed here had already fallen. A massive horde of ghouls was surging out of the breach, and the bronze ground hissed wherever they stepped, showing signs of necrosis piece by piece.
At that exact moment, the inscriptions on the inner city walls of the Bronze City suddenly lit up.
A massive pressure swept through the entire Bronze City, freezing a vast number of ghouls in their tracks and finally giving the struggling Nightwatchers a moment to catch their breath.
Yet, as Lake looked at the ghouls pouring out of the breach, their numbers rivaling those from the sinkhole at the Old Council Square, his expression couldn't help but darken.
In the next instant, the Swarming Worms beneath him began to spread from under his legs.
The immense pressure of the Bronze City bore down on Lake, visibly slowing the squirming speed of the swarm.
But there was no other choice; he had to hold the line first.
The reinforcing nuns had also arrived one after another. Layers of holy light enveloped and resonated through the area, temporarily suppressing the greater ghouls' offensive.
But things were not that simple.
The ground continued to tremble, which meant more sinkholes would appear, and the Nightwatchers' forces were no longer sufficient to cover any more breaches.
Holding ten sinkholes was already their absolute limit, even with the assistance of the Holy Armored Army.
The remaining breaches could only be left to the private armies of the inner city nobles. He could only hope those knights would pull their weight.
At this moment, the Bronze City was deathly silent as everyone prayed, hoping the Nightwatchers would emerge victorious.
The gas lamps along the streets flickered with a weak light.
Lake's Swarming Worms had now completely spread out, trapping a vast number of ghouls within their hunting ground.
The swarm surged like a tide toward the massive sinkhole, instantly swallowing up the ghouls that had just crawled out.
Lake stood atop the swarm, staring down into the tunnel below, but the unease in his heart only grew heavier.
An extremely powerful aura of pollution was brewing below.
Something was approaching.
Unfortunately, the Bronze City's restrictions on him were too severe. This location was right at the boundary of the inner and outer cities, pressed right against the city walls, making the pressure particularly intense.
Before Lake could come up with a countermeasure, a massive arm reached up from below.
No, it wasn't just one.
Four or five massive arms thrust upward simultaneously. It was a giant amalgamation, even larger and more powerful than the one that had emerged from the sinkhole at the Old Council Square.
Lake's form had long since lost any resemblance to a human, leaving only a pair of bright red eyes resting upon the hive of Swarming Worms.
He knew in his heart that this time, he would likely have to fight for his life.
In the next instant, the hive formed by endless Swarming Worms crashed head-on into the tide of ghouls crawling up from the Abyss.
Meanwhile, inside the Polymath Tower.
The Guardian was currently sitting at the top of the tower. He had sensed it the very moment the subsidence began; the black threads wrapped around his body and connected to the Polymath Tower had begun to warp slightly.
Suspended before him was a giant head.
Or rather, a small head condensed from grey-white mist.
It floated before the Guardian, seemingly having detected something as well.
The misty head slightly parted its mouth, and a voice echoed in the Guardian's ear.
“We must not act. The chessboard is set; let us watch.”
The Guardian ignored it. His hair was completely white, and eyes constantly surfaced and vanished within the pitch-black, slime-like aura surrounding him.
He stared intently toward the direction where the ghouls were most densely packed, falling into silence.
Over the past few days, his connection with the Polymath Tower had deepened, as had his connection with the Bronze City and the so-called Man on the Wall before him.
Now, the two of them were completely bound as two souls in one body, restraining each other. If either of them made a move, both would suffer.
Yet, the Guardian knew in his heart that he had a fatal weakness.
In terms of vitality, he was far inferior to the entity before him. If they truly fought, he would undoubtedly be the first to break.
He had only one chance left to act. Only once.
The Guardian withdrew his gaze and stopped thinking about it, simply remaining seated where he was.
His current plan was simple: to bind this Man on the Wall completely to himself.
While he himself could no longer act, this Man on the Wall wouldn't be able to communicate with the outside world either, regardless of whatever hidden means he possessed.
As long as he did not die, both of them would remain trapped within this information barrier.
And he, at least, could still summon Arthur and Hilde to his side.
Although some details would be lost when sending messages out, at least some things could still be passed along.
He could only hope that Kraus and the others had already made their preparations.
On the Polymath Tower's side, the giant head before the Guardian did not seem to care about his silence.
Just as it had said, the game of chess in the Bronze City had already begun. Every piece that needed to be played had been laid down, and all that was left to do was watch.
It was equally unwilling to clash with the Rank 5 human transcendent before it. The eyes of the misty head flickered slightly; calculating the time, it should be about ready.
Meanwhile, in the pipe network layer of the Bronze City.
A large number of Nightwatchers were forced to disperse to the various temporary sinkholes that had suddenly appeared.
There were simply too many sinkholes. Aside from those who absolutely could not leave their posts, nearly every available Nightwatcher was deployed to guard the breaches.
Meanwhile, Selena, carrying a case and accompanied by several Polymath Tower mentors, slipped down through a pipe network channel near the Polymath Tower.
They avoided all sinkholes and Nightwatcher outposts along the way, moving through the pipe network layer as if they had calculated everything in advance.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, they arrived at an extremely dark channel.
The pipe network around them had completely vanished, and something seemed to be warping and twisting on the walls. Further ahead, four Nightwatchers were standing guard on shift.
Selena gestured for the mentors behind her to stay hidden, then stepped forward alone.
Selena's footsteps were barely audible in the pipe network layer. Or rather, the perception of the Nightwatchers near the eerie inscriptions had been compressed to an extremely narrow range.
It was only when Selena emerged from the darkness that the Nightwatchers ahead grew alert.
“Halt! This area has been taken over by the Nightwatchers. No one is permitted to approach without Kraus's orders!”
Selena held up her badge. “I am a mentor from the Polymath Tower...”
Before she could finish, the four Nightwatchers stepped forward in unison, blocking the channel.
“I repeat, halt. No further. This is your first warning,” the leader said, his hand already resting on the weapon at his waist. “Upon the second warning, retreat immediately, or it will be deemed a provocation against the Nightwatchers.”
They stared at Selena, showing no intention of backing down, their eyes filled with deep vigilance.
This area had been locked down by the Nightwatchers. How did this mentor bypass the blockade, and how did she even know about this place?
Selena smiled helplessly. She had expected this; it was exactly as the Master had described.
She took two steps back and waved her hand. The Nightwatchers narrowed their eyes, hands tightening on their weapons as they stared at her, but in the next instant, more mentors emerged from behind her.
The Nightwatchers immediately realized they meant trouble. Four silver-plated short-shotguns were chambered simultaneously, and they fired without a moment's hesitation.
At the exact moment they pulled their triggers, the mentors opened the cases in their hands.
Inside those bizarrely colored cases lay writhing masses of flesh, like living eerie entities.
The moment they were released, the distortion within the entire channel deepened dramatically, and a faint, translucent barrier materialized between the mentors and the Nightwatchers.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Muzzle flashes lit up the darkness of the pipe network.
A dense hail of silver-plated bullets sprayed forward, but a bizarre scene unfolded: the bullets, which almost filled the entire pipe network layer, froze mid-air.
Were all the bullets stopped?
“Rank 4 transcendents? How is that possible?”
The leading Nightwatcher's face paled. In the next instant, they threw their mithril simultaneously.
Yet the mithril still seemed to hit something, burning furiously in the air before the mentors, forming what looked like a wall of silver fire.
But then, that wall of fire parted slowly to both sides like a curtain, extinguishing bit by bit in the blink of an eye.
“Uh-oh, they're not Rank 4...”
The four Nightwatchers exchanged glances. One of them grabbed a communication crystal, only to find that the area was already shrouded in distortion, making it impossible to contact the outside.
“Looks like we're in trouble...”
Before he could finish his sentence, the bodies of all four men began to twist. The flesh of the leader even started to slough off—he was clearly channeling his transcendent power in an attempt to resist.
However, the pieces of flesh released by the mentors had already merged into a single mass, as if connecting to something.
In the channel behind the Nightwatchers, the twisted eerie inscriptions suddenly emitted a peculiar light, trapping the four of them right in the middle.
The leading Nightwatcher captain immediately realized what they were trying to do, but it was already too late.
A massive wave of dizziness rushed over them from all directions. The world spun wildly, and a sudden wave of weakness made them sway violently. In the next instant, their consciousness plunged completely into darkness.
Selena looked at the four unconscious Nightwatchers and gestured for the other mentors to move them aside.
Two figures wearing Polymath Tower academic robes stepped forward and dragged the four men to the side of the wall.
“Make sure they don't die,” Selena said, closing the case once more. The mass of flesh was sucked back inside.
The group picked up the cases and strode toward the copper wall.
“There are still thirty minutes before the next shift change. Hurry up.”
As Selena spoke, her figure vanished into the pipe network covered by eerie inscriptions.
Rate on N.U.
