Golden light poured down from that eye, illuminating the entire void.
The flickering golden patterns on the bronze pillars flared to their absolute limit the moment the golden light fell, only to completely extinguish in the next instant, and the bone-clinging pressure vanished along with them.
The flesh blanketing the void collapsed and disintegrated in the golden light.
Wherever the golden light reached, the flesh lost its color piece by piece, losing all vitality from its surface to its depths and turning into a layer of dead ash.
As the golden light swept over the passage they had come from, the blocking flesh collapsed from the inside out, revealing a gap barely wide enough for a person to pass through.
Kraus did not waste this split second.
The moment the heavy pressure pinning him down dispersed, his suppressed power surged back. No longer trying to force the afterimage he had been holding in reserve, green light flared brilliantly around his body. He grabbed Lu Yuan and Adrian, who were closest to him, as dark green crystals exploded from beneath his feet, and the figures of all three vanished instantly.
The Blue Knight's threads snapped taut at the exact same moment.
She left most of her threads behind, retracting only a few strands to wrap around herself. Reaching out, she grabbed the wrists of Margaret and the attendant, dragging them both as she dashed into the passage blasted open by the golden light.
The Great Ascendant was the last one.
It was as if he had been targeted; his entire body was covered in a faint, hazy golden glow. When that golden eye had opened, it seemed to have included him in its purge range.
The gears all over his body emitted a rapid clattering sound, and steam violently erupted from his joints, forcibly breaking through the binding layer before he lunged into the passage.
The exact moment everyone made their escape, the golden eye overhead cast a glance in the direction they had vanished, and then slowly closed.
The golden light gradually receded from the void, and the flesh began to squirm once more, new dark red oozing from beneath the layer of dead ash.
But the group had already escaped.
In the passage, Kraus led the way with Lu Yuan and Adrian at the very front.
His power had not yet fully recovered. The seamless, instantaneous teleportation he had used before felt somewhat obstructed now, forcing him to blink forward in short segments.
His figure would materialize out of thin air ahead, vanish in the blink of an eye, and flash even further forward shortly after landing.
The Blue Knight propelled herself forward with her threads, pulling Margaret and the attendant close behind at a slightly slower pace.
The Great Ascendant brought up the rear, the metallic clatter of his footsteps echoing through the passage as he sprinted forward.
The flesh behind them surged forward again, trying to catch up to the group, but it could not close the distance.
The passage grew wider and the air colder. The mass of flesh had not yet managed to spread to the upper layers, as if the uncorrupted soil and rock walls were dragging down its expansion.
Lu Yuan glanced back. The pursuing flesh had stopped at a bend in the passage, halting exactly at the boundary line between flesh and soil, advancing no further.
Its domain ended there, unable to chase them any further, yet the rocks began to mutate at a speed visible to the naked eye.
But there was still time...
However, what Lu Yuan truly cared about was something else.
Just now, when Adrian had summoned that golden eye, a new line of grey-white text had appeared in his vision.
【You have received the gaze of the Angel.】
Lu Yuan's heart sank slightly.
It was likely because he had been continuously leeching Adrian's blessing power for free that he had caught the attention of this entity.
As his power gradually returned to its place, Kraus's speed noticeably picked up.
A moment later, he led Lu Yuan and Adrian to be the first to burst out of the sinkhole.
Several Nightwatchers immediately surrounded them, scrambling to pull Lu Yuan and Adrian back up to the surface first.
The moment Lu Yuan was pulled up, a cold wind rushed down his collar, making him shiver.
The Blue Knight and the others were still lagging behind, climbing up from the sinkhole.
Lu Yuan stood up, resting his hands on his knees as he looked around, but a sense of unease crept into his heart.
There were actually no ghouls near the sinkhole. On their way down, these creatures had been everywhere, but now this area was unnaturally empty.
The square was more than half empty compared to before they went down.
Of the Nightwatchers and Holy Armored Army who had originally guarded the sinkhole, less than a third remained, with the rest having been redeployed somewhere unknown.
On the vast Old Council Square, only a scattering of flags and two temporarily erected copper fences stood. Several sections of the fences had been knocked askew, stained with dark red blood.
Distant, scattered roars and the clashing of metal echoed. Judging by the direction, it was the southern side of the inner city, with chaotic battles breaking out in more than one place.
Glock trotted over to meet them, his face covered in soot and dried scabs, his clothes tattered and torn.
The moment he saw Kraus, he hurried over, his voice hushed and his words rapid.
“There are already thirteen sinkholes on the surface. Four of them were indefensible and have been abandoned; we only had time to apply the simplest seals and weigh them down with copper plates. We're still holding the remaining nine, but we've long run out of manpower. Our casualties are severe.”
Kraus listened, his expression unchanged.
Glock continued.
“Two districts in the outer city have already been infiltrated by ghouls, and the surviving residents are evacuating to safe areas.” He lowered his voice a fraction. “As for Lake... he was heavily injured, and his insects seem to be acting up.”
Standing a few paces away, Lu Yuan heard every word.
The news of Lake's severe injury made his heart sink.
Kraus nodded and asked, “How is the inner city?”
Glock hesitated, as if what he was about to say next was the most critical matter. “There's a problem with the wall inscriptions. The ghoul invasion is still manageable, but the inscriptions on the inner city walls have gone out. The pressure of the Bronze City... seems to be on the verge of failing.”
Kraus said nothing more.
The extinguishing of the inner city wall inscriptions meant that the outermost defense of the Bronze City had been depleted, and the bronze pillars beneath had been eroded to an irreparable degree.
His gaze swept across the empty square, then settled back on Glock.
“Let's go. Back to the branch first.”
Just then, a commotion came from behind them. The Blue Knight and the others had finally climbed up from the sinkhole and quickly caught up.
It was also at this moment that a layer of white mist had risen over the square at some point.
It was an extremely faint white mist, so thin it was almost imperceptible, spreading across the ground in all directions.
When the light from the remaining torches on the square passed through the mist, it refracted with an indescribable softness.
The surrounding Nightwatchers and Holy Armored Army showed no reaction. Their eyes swept over the white mist, taking it for a common night fog and giving it no further thought.
But Lu Yuan noticed. He recognized this mist.
On the night of their return journey from the Bronze City, a similar layer of mist had drifted across the trade route. Something passing by had been hidden within the mist. It bore no ill intent, yet it could rewrite human memories; everyone traveling with him had forgotten it completely afterward, and only he still remembered.
Before that thing departed, it had left him with a single sentence.
“Something is about to wake up. Go take a look.”
To make an entire team forget its existence—that trick alone was enough to prove its level. It was at least on the verge of the Forbidden.
Clearly, it had arrived, and it had already slipped into the Bronze City.
What made his heart sink even lower was another matter.
After gathering four fragments, the faint, tenuous connection that had always linked them had now completely snapped.
Even though the fifth fragment was clearly still out there, he could not sense it at all.
How could this be?
He only had time for this thought to flash through his mind.
Right now, the more pressing matter was to warn Kraus about this mist.
Lu Yuan walked over to Kraus's side, lowering his voice to a bare whisper.
“There's something wrong with this mist. Be careful, I'm afraid something is hiding inside.”
He spoke very vaguely, making no mention of the phrase “passenger in the mist” and revealing nothing more.
Since this thing was associated with a forbidden existence, directly calling its name or speaking of more specific details might draw its attention.
This had been proven long ago, and Lu Yuan would not let Kraus take that risk.
Kraus's gaze lingered for a moment on the slowly spreading white mist.
The green light on the bone ring in his hand flickered slightly, as if he were trying to sense something.
“Let's return to the branch together.”
He quickened his pace and called out to the group behind him.
As they were heading toward the branch, two red lights suddenly flared up from the direction of the city walls.
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