Chapter 1299: The Crumbling Prison
What the old archbishop said was beyond their wildest imagination. It was so unbelievable after there was a half a minute of silence. At last, Hao Ren broke the silence. “You mean the entire of Fidelinopolis has disappeared?”
“Ninety percent of the city has disappeared, only a ring area around the holy mountain of Asurmen, a small part of God’s Side Precinct, including Basilica Icon and a few annexes, remain. Our investigation team was unable to get close to the area due to the blockage of the power of Chaos. But we can confirm that the sacred light of Basilica Icon has gone out when looking from the outside. The entire building is lifeless.”
Calaxus was surprised. “Goddess!”
The cardinal clenched his fists involuntarily, and then cricked and released. His heart missed a beat, and he felt helpless upon hearing the shocking news.
Only Hao Ren, who had been maintaining as a third-party, could remain calm. “Did you send someone to check out the outside after that? Is there any remaining town around Fidelinopolis? Any survivors in the wilderness? Maybe all these would tell us what happened.”
The old archbishop shook his head. “Of course we have also thought about it earlier. But the repeated attacks of the Nightmares have drained the priests. It is already a miracle to be able to defend the cathedral, how could we possibly send out another team of people? The first team was organized based on the hope that we could seek reinforcement from Asurmen and it suffered high casualties as a result. Now Fidelinopolis is gone, We would not send another investigation team.”
Hao Ren looked at Calaxus, who was still in shock and sorrow. The cardinal remained calm with his extraordinary willpower. Calaxus let out a long sigh and said, “Mr. Hao Ren, do you have a plan?”
Calaxus had never forgotten the Pope’s edicts before he left Sanctum. He firmly believed that Hao Ren, the ‘miracle’ from the Cassouin Grand Temple, was the hope of saving Asurmen, even if the situation had worsened. This ‘miracle’ was almost the only reason to keep him going. In the time when Fidelinopolis had disappeared, faith was the pillar of his actions.
Hao Ren did not answer as he was in thought. “Bishop Holtzman, Fidelinopolis has stopped its contact with the outside world before the Chaos completely shrouded the land?”
Hao Ren asked because he sensed something was miss from the description of the old archbishop.
The old archbishop nodded.
“Fidelinopolis had not disappeared at that time?”
The old archbishop continued to nod. “I guess so. We could still see the glow of the sacred city at that time, and divination had also confirmed the sacred city was still there, but all communication channels had been cut off.”
“That means, at least until the first Nightmares, Fidelinopolis was fine but only completely blocked off at the time. After that, it disappeared mysteriously, and no one knew what happened.”
Puzzled, Calaxus looked at Hao Ren. “What’s in your mind?”
“I suspect that someone has actively cut off the communication between Fidelinopolis and the outside world. This person could only be the ruler of the city.”
“His Holiness the Pop? Impossible,” Calaxus said immediately. “Why would he do that?”
“There could be many reasons. Perhaps the Pope had been controlled. Perhaps he wanted to protect the sacred city or other places. Maybe he was trying to stop some evil forces from spreading through the magic links between cities?” Hao Ren looked up slightly. “I didn’t say anything else.”
While saying, Hao Ren glanced at Lady Gloom, who stood silently at a corner. “Lady Gloom, what do you want to say?”
This woman had said before that she had a mission in Sanctum. But now here she was in Sanctum and yet she had said nothing as if this place had nothing to do with her. Besides curious, Hao Ren would like to hear what she thought.
Lady Gloom seemed to have spaced out until Hao Ren called her. Her hood moved a bit, and her hoarse voice was heard. “Before going to Asurmen, I need to check those people who have fallen into the nightmare.”
Hao Ren and Calaxus’ eyes landed on Bishop Holtzman, who nodded without hesitation. “Sure.”
Despite having to hide in the cathedral, the surviving priests of Louen had never given up. The study of the Nightmares phenomenon was still ongoing, as they hoped to find a way out of the predicament. They found those people who had been affected by the Nightmares and brought them back to the annex behind the cathedral, trying to find a cure for the Nightmares to reverse the infestation. But until now, there had not been any progress.
Hao Ren and his team saw a dozen of Loeun residents were asleep on both sides of a long room while a few junior priests were attending to these ‘living corpses.’ The room looked like a morgue.
The annex was initially a medical clinic.
Those who were infested by Nightmares looked indistinguishable from ordinary people. They lay quietly and breathed slowly, but their vitality sign such as heartbeat was as usual. It was as if they were sleeping. Some pipes extended out from their bedding and were attached to hardware beside the bed. Milky-white halos and runes were floating on the equipment, which seemed to be divine-powered medical devices the church used.
As the old archbishop had to stay in the underground palace to preside over the shelter, Bishop Bernstein would be the guide again to explain the condition of the residents who were asleep. “These people look like ordinary persons, but their soul lingers between reality and illusion. Their body is here, but shadows born in their spiritual world wanders on the streets. It is as if soul detachment, but ordinary magic or sedative spell does not affect them.”
Lady Gloom walked past the ‘living corpses’ and carefully examined two of them, but she remained silent.
“Have you found anything?” Hao Ren could not wait but ask.
“Their souls have fallen on the other side,” Lady Gloom said in a whisper. “Those things lurking on the outside are not their souls but the illusion refracted from the other side. It is more elusive than soul and weaker than a dream. But those imaginary shadows are a huge threat because they carry the energy of the other side. It is a precursor to the breaking free of the imprisoned who would cross the barrier soon. The more shadows are in the real world, the more vulnerable the barrier is. As more energy leaked from the other side, it would speed up the collapse of the prison wall.”
Lady Gloom’s lengthy explanation surprised and confused Hao Ren. He squinted at her. “Can you explain in a simpler language? What is ‘the other side’?
Lady Gloom raised her head slightly. “It’s the folded part of Collow, the cage of eternal exile, the Forgotten Abyss that locks up Lockmarton.”
Father Bernstein, standing behind Hao Ren, was shocked.
“Did you mean these nightmare people were sucked into the prison cell of Lockmarton?” Hao Ren asked as he stared at Lady Gloom. “And then their actions in prison are projected into the real world, becoming the shadows that lurked in the city?”
“Exactly.”
Lily could not help but poke the hood of Lady Gloom. “Hey, how do you know so much?”
“When I get to Asurmen, I will tell everything. But now is not the time.”
“She likes to keep people in suspense.” Lily rolled her eyes at Lady Gloom.
Hao Ren looked at the sleeping residents and gently touched Lily’s arm. “Does this sleeping phenomenon have anything to do with the Shadow of Nightmares that you have caught?”
“Would you like to bring it over?” Lily’s ears flickered. “It was able to communicate normally the last time. But only when it wants to talk most of the time and it would not respond to questions.”
Father Bernstein heard that they were talking about the shadow. “The Shadow of Nightmares? Have you caught the culprit that caused the nightmare?” he asked.
“It was caught in the Ansu mainland, and related to the attack on the border of the Kingdom of Taros.” Hao Ren said. “We were not sure about the situation in the city before we came, so we kept the monster in the woods with our men guarding it.”
The father became nervous. “Outside the city? Your men are guarding it? Is it safe?”
The forces of Chaos were temporarily forced out of the barrier, but the minions of Chaos were everywhere, nowhere in the city is safe, let alone the wilderness. So the father was shocked.
But Hao Ren smiled. “No worries. Each of the men carries a divine object.”
The so-called divine object was dog fur.
It seemed that today was not Hao Ren’s lucky day. As soon as his voice trailed off, the light on his communication radio blinked.
A panic sound was on the other end. “Aw, aw, aaaaw…”
Hao Ren was struck dumb. Hearing that, Lily grabbed the radio from Hao Ren and shouted, “Send someone who could talk!”
There was chaos on the other end before a church knight hurriedly said, “Alpha, something is wrong with the monster!”
It was a slap on his face; earlier, Hao Ren had told everyone that everything would be fine.
“What is the situation?”
“The thing is vaporizing!”
