It is the economic, cultural, and military center of southern Elsa, where countless beliefs converge and flourish into a brilliant civilization.
But it was missing, and this had nothing to do with the cataclysm that shook the heavens and the earth.
"The history of these records is even earlier than the advent of the Cataclysm Era, which means that the legends about it existed before the Cataclysm occurred." Hitzfeld frowned and analyzed, "It is said here that it exists and does not exist, and it appears and disappears in the sea fog."
What a strange description.
The gray fog had not fallen at that time, so sea fog was definitely not gray fog.
If it was gray fog, it could be understood that... it was moving back and forth with the unstable spatial phenomena in the fog, but Hitzfeld couldn't imagine how it could do this if it wasn't gray fog.
Are you going to push it to the God's Secret Realm again?
She had never heard of any secret realm that was so unstable.
"There are so many books available on the market that even if we only count those related to the South China Sea, they can fill up half of the Pierre."
Xia Yibing said.
"But she only left so many here. I don't think there will be any useless books here."
"Oh, really?" Hitzfeld chuckled and casually pulled out a book called "One Hundred Fairy Tales" and handed it to her. "Then this must be prepared for you... Do you want me to read it to you before you go to bed?"
She once thought that the books here were very useful, until she finished reading "One Hundred Fairy Tales".
There is no mystery to it.
No metaphors.
There is no ciphertext.
It's really just a fairy tale.
Many fairy tales that Hitzfeld had read before - such as "The Wings of Icarus" that he had learned about in the Crystal Sea - are included in this collection. The myths are described in a dreamlike way, and it can be regarded as the unified bedtime reading for the new generation of Sarah.
She originally used this thing to mock Xia Yibing for becoming childish after being with her for so long, but she didn't expect that the other party was so shameless and actually admitted it.
"If you want." The woman said seriously, "I can't stand jokes. ... I'm serious, right?"
Hitzfeld shut up and ignored her.
I flipped through the fairy tale book and happened to come across the illustration of "Ikaros" - also known as "Prince Boca" being exiled. ①
The simple drawing shows a howling child falling from the clouds. He cries while reaching out to the sky, gazing at the kingdom of God hidden in the clouds.
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①: Prince Poca, a fairy tale Easter egg from "Crystal Sea", is obtained by solving a puzzle in "Confessions of an Adventurer: Jessie's Adventures in Slaying the Dragon". Prince Poca plays the role of the lover of the protagonist Jessie in the story. The answer to the puzzle is as follows:
[Prince Boca is actually a child of God. His father, Ferenci, once lived in the kingdom of the Sun King and felt God's grace day and night.]
[But Ferenqi felt disrespectful to the goddess and attempted to make wings to touch the sun.]
[The closer Ferenqi gets to the sun, the hotter his body becomes, and he and Yuyi eventually turn into a fireball.]
[In order to punish Ferenqi for his crimes, Prince Boca was expelled from the kingdom of God and became a mortal again.]
Chapter 55: Wedding Plan
Time passed and the Pierre spent another day.
Hitzfeld rarely felt a mixture of self-blame and guilt, because it was obvious that she was being dragged by Xia Yibing and was somewhat out of tune with reality.
Leon Bariu was outside gathering intelligence, and the next day Ethan Darent and two clergymen also joined in. Madeline was reciting the nautical charts that she had never had the opportunity to see in the past, and even the idle Teni became fascinated with cooking and began to learn various innovative dishes from the chef on the ship.
Everyone was looking for something to do, except for the two of them, who seemed equally busy and hung out in the library every day. But ever since they were forced to wear those strange shoes yesterday and were pressed against the bookcase to do something bad, Hitzfeld felt that this job was "not proper".
How did Xia find these strange things?
Every time she recovered from a mess, she couldn't help but think about this question.
I remember I hid it very well... If she found out, it would mean she had touched my cabinet. How could she do that? This is too much!
Excessiveness might just be an excuse for guilt, because she soon realized that if the woman had discovered the strange shoes that tickled her feet, then there seemed to be no reason for her not to see the other stranger things hidden in the boxes.
Wearing strange shoes to add interest was already embarrassing for Hitzfeld. She didn't even dare to think about how messy her condition would be if Xia Yibing planned to put all those things into practice on her.
I'm afraid that my whole person and even my thoughts will be in a mess...
Thinking about these worries all day, Hitzfeld's work efficiency also dropped significantly. Xia Yibing began to care for her and took the initiative to help her take off the strange shoes.
After all, the main function of this thing is really to speed up the work efficiency of the two. Although Aisuen's shy expression when wearing this thing is very touching, it can greatly enhance the work efficiency here, but if the girl herself is too deeply troubled, the combined efficiency of the two sides will be insufficient.
Xia Yibing was still unwilling to do this kind of thing, so she stopped the process resolutely and took the initiative to let the girl take a rest. She would do the half-day work alone.
Hitzfeld...how to put it.
I was both relieved that she remained rational and touched that she cared about me.
It would be nice if she could be more mature and not pester me to tell stories every night before going to bed.
After changing himself into some thinner clothes, Hitzfeld went up to the watchtower and planned to jump onto the shore to relax.
Staying in the submarine all the time is not good for her mental health, and she will have to go ashore eventually. Getting familiar with the environment early can help her avoid acclimatization at a critical moment.
Acclimation is also a very common disease. This disease never makes sense. In many cases, its onset is only related to psychology. She even thought about getting a tent and sleeping on the shore to see if she could adapt to the tropical environment after losing the natural orb and recovering her health.
"Quack!" When she came to the shore and stood still, a majestic falcon flapped its wings and descended from the sky, as if it was about to land on her.
"Go!" Hitzfeld dodged, "I can't stand your claws, go and play by yourself~!"
The weather was hot, and she was wearing the common local clothing. She was basically wearing a sleeveless white dress, the hem of which was very light and fluttering, and it swayed in the sea breeze, revealing her calves without any socks.
So of course she couldn't take the black eagle's claws - her shoulders and arms were bare, and if they were touched by the sea eagle's claws, she would definitely leave bloody marks.
At that time, it would not be a question of whether to scold or not, but whether the Pierre should have a sea eagle soup as an additional dish in the evening.
"Quack!" The black owl glanced at her aggrievedly, flapped its wings and flew away again.
It likes it here very much. The hot climate has no effect on it. It still loves to fly, but its bathing frequency has increased three times.
It was only after he started raising birds that Hitzfeld realized that birds also need a bath, no matter how big or small they are.
Standing on the shore, looking at the blurry white sails on the other side of the cape, Hitzfeld's eyes were on the farther horizon. No one knew what she was thinking at this moment.
When Ethan and his team came back from exploring the city, what they saw was a scene that could be described as an oil painting.
Across the lush tropical rainforest, a spacious beach unfolds before your eyes. A girl in a white dress stands gracefully on the rocks, accompanied by the noisy sea breeze. Her existence seems like a song.
Especially the moment when she turned around and looked at him with her hat on, that touch of charm made Ethan couldn't help but complain inwardly - the child was indeed growing up.
"How's it going?"
Throwing away the beautiful shell in his hand, Hitzfeld put on his sandals and walked back, looking at the second wave of scouts.
They were all tanned compared to when they went out.
Ethan became olive skinned and Cybot became light brown.
Torres' skin used to be whiter than girls', but now it's so dark that it's almost as dark as charcoal.
Only Darent remained unchanged. The wooden man's skin did seem to be different.
But they were all in great spirits, especially their eyes, which were shining brightly, and it was obvious that they had come to report some achievements.
"The situation... is more complicated than we thought." Ethan whispered, "Corneril and his team have obtained the most intelligence. We can basically confirm that the local groundwater has been polluted by evil spirits. There is a monster of unknown origin hiding in it. It can send itself into almost every water tank through an alternative clone. If we don't take precautions, the entire city is almost under surveillance."
"A very advanced method." The girl commented, "Transcendent? At least level six, and the 'alienation' route... This means that it has already abandoned the human form. It is not even ruled out that it came from that world."
There is surprise, but more of it is calmness.
Since she already knew that there might be a space channel hidden in the gray fog, and that the channel could directly connect to the evil god's territory, she was of course prepared to meet and encounter more inhuman monsters.
"This is the distribution map of water wells they found." Sebot took out a roll of paper from his arms and handed it to her. There were still stains of her sweat on it.
Hitzfeld didn't mind and unfolded it directly. He found that it was a rough bird's-eye view of the city of Iverria. The royal palace was located in the center near the West Sea Port. There was a red circle near the palace, and the word "monster" was written in the same color handwriting next to it.
"Is this the size they guessed?" She raised her eyebrows slightly, "At least two kilometers... smaller than expected."
"It cannot penetrate all groundwater sources," said Dallent. "And you can see that it covers an area that specifically avoids several outlets to the sea... We boldly speculate that it cannot mix with seawater, and it may even be that salt water is a poison to it."
"That's a very groundbreaking idea." Hitzfeld nodded again. "So this is the main enemy we have to face. Are you sure the curse comes from this?"
"Apart from the polluted water, we didn't find that the city residents were eating anything else that was dirty."
"It's a bit troublesome." Hitzfeld said sincerely.
Monsters are easy to explain, and this strange situation is not mysterious in her eyes... But what she can't understand is that completely abandoning the human form and turning into a monster is obviously a characteristic of the extraordinary people on the "alienation" route. After breaking through the sixth level, this route will be directly induced to be distorted by the taboo knowledge, and the mind is very likely to collapse and lose, turning into a monster with only instincts left.
Naturally, the only desires for monsters are food and reproduction. Logically, Iverria should have been turned into a dead place by it, with bones left over by it everywhere.
But the reality is that it is still thriving here.
What is going on here…has the evil god learned to use his brain?
"Leon is contacting the Everey family. They are talking. Balyu took advantage of this time to sneak into the palace and work as a maid..." Ethan said.
"They applied to rescue people in three days. Let us ask for your opinion."
"My opinion?" Hitzfeld smiled.
They really respected her.
"Of course you can, but why three days later?"
"Because Aman's wedding is in three days!"
Torres couldn't help but shout out the answer.
"The selection of the concubine has been completed! He will be married in three days, and the entire West Sea Port will hold a grand ceremony!"
"By then, countless people will gather on the west coast. What we have to do is to sail the Pierre up there, jump ashore, and capture people with the cooperation of Baliou."
"Then jump back into the sub before they can react!"
When the white-haired priest got excited, he clapped his hands.
"When the time comes, I will sink...whoever comes after me will be killed!"
"There's absolutely nothing they can do!"
"We are invincible!"
Chapter 56: New Nightmare
It was a shame that we didn't have time to stop Torres from raising the flag, but the key point was that it was Torres - it had nothing to do with the raising of the flag itself.
Most of the core circle of the Pierre do not believe in fate. For them, there is no such thing as "it will be unlucky to speak it out".
Because they have already seen what true bad luck and true nightmare look like.
But Torres was still tortured by everyone - as mentioned before, he was Torres. Although he looked a little more mature than in previous years, he was still so straightforward. They all laughed at him for not getting any undercover missions because of this.
"One more thing..." After the torture, Cybertron in the corner whispered, "I think everyone should know that I am a dream demon."
Dream demons are a special species between nightmare monsters and humans. There is no evidence to prove that this species can be born naturally, so in the eyes of many people who know about this creature, they are mostly from the human experiments of the Eclipse Church.
It was an extremely cruel and evil ritual that attempted to combine the power of evil gods with local elements. The Slit-Mouth Wolf was the most notorious product of this process, because its rampage in the early years caused countless deaths and injuries to refugees.
Dream monsters are relatively docile. All dream monsters will have a long, black, tentacle-like tail at the coccyx. A very small number of dream monsters will continue to advance and grow hyperplastic exoskeletons on their knees, elbows, wrists, knuckles and even the top of their heads. At this time, dream monsters can not only travel through dreams and eat dreams, but can also gain extremely powerful real-life force. The strength of some hyperplastic exoskeletons is even enough to defend against the frontal blast of a 37mm mortar shell.
Cybertron is far from that stage. Although she is not young for a dream demon (the life span of a dream demon is extremely short, usually only about 40 years old), she only has two abilities: traveling through dreams and eating dreams. The reason why she was brought along by the second team is also because of these two abilities.
After all, when it comes to gathering intelligence, wandering around in reality for half a day may not be as efficient as a dream demon sneaking into a dream to travel around. Although entering dreams is something that all extraordinary people can do, most of them need the assistance of incense and need them to have a quiet and safe place to live, which is far inferior to the mobility of dream demons - Cybertroopers can travel through dreams even when walking on the street.
"Yes...is there anything particularly bad to discover?"
Hitzfeld looked at Cybertron and then at the others, and was very keenly aware that the atmosphere was strange.
The atmosphere was cheerful when the white-haired and black-skinned priest was being tortured, but as soon as the pink-haired nun opened her mouth, everyone's smile disappeared from their faces.
How serious could the matter be that could make Darent, who was ignorant of the world, start to get scared?
"You should know my ability. It's like this... I went into the dream world to investigate nightmares, but I found..." Cybert took deep breaths, "There are almost no nightmares here!"
"What's the meaning."
"It's just very rare. I have explored the area within 200 meters around my current location, regardless of day or night - they don't seem to dream at all!"
"At most, we stayed in Iverria for two days." Ethan helped her add, "During these two days, Cybertron went to many places, almost three-quarters of the city, but she only found less than thirty cases of nightmares in total."
“This place can starve nightmares to death.” Darent took out his pocket watch and fiddled with the buttons. Before the nun could glare at him, he continued, “…if they only eat nightmares.”
This is obviously not normal.
