AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 788 - 362: The... Clock Face of the Bell Tower_2

Chapter 788: Chapter 362: The... Clock Face of the Bell Tower_2

"The same goes for that art student. Don’t be fooled by the fact that I killed him; he was already sacrificed. Just now, he was merely struggling instinctively based on the obsession that persisted before his death. If we don’t destroy his body, although he won’t become a high-level fusion material for the alien sculpture, he would still inevitably meet the fate of being devoured by the nocturnal species."

"There’s another possibility that he would be collected by the zealots, and then through the sculpting class, they would mold them into Rage Angels."

As Old Mo spoke, he had already taken several turns on the stairs. After helping Lin Yi deal with things, his only remaining goal was to save Mu Daxian.

Lin Yi tightly followed Old Mo, rubbing the dormitory supervisor identity credential in his coat pocket, and suddenly thought that the state of the art student using himself to seal the Sneering Angel within the layers seemed a bit like... people trapped in spacecraft sleep chambers?

Once the chamber door opens, would they "wake up" from the moment they fell asleep?

"No, that’s not right! The Sneering Angel clearly seemed relieved, which means that its state is totally different from ’sleep’, it’s instead an ultimate torment – being awake but unable to take any action!"

So lonely!

Because they are just Sneering Angels, otherwise, if they were intelligent beings, they would certainly go mad. Lin Yi couldn’t help thinking, what if he was stuffed into a layer and also had to watch time pass by in the outside world...

Lin Yi subconsciously shuddered. That was simply exile - an absolute void and loneliness!

Time flows through the ages, yet it does not bestow itself upon me; is this not another form of exile?!

He hurried to catch up to Old Mo.

As the fog zone began to dissipate, the storm and rain overhead gradually seeped into this place. This mass of water mist, like the spray formed from ocean waves smashing against the city wall.

Lin Yi suddenly realized that the thin streams continuously flowing down the inner wall of the stairwell weren’t all seeping in through the cracks in the walls. Perhaps much of it was flowing down from above, all the way to the bottom of the stairwell.

"Wait, does this stairwell... even have a bottom?"

"If I’m not mistaken, when I was going upstairs with Old Mo just before, we seemed to have mysteriously ended up on this side, not climbing up from the bottom?!"

They had simply arrived at this section via a layer transition and then kept rushing towards the top floor without stopping.

So if that’s the case...

What is at the bottom of this bell tower?!

Lin Yi couldn’t help but become dazed, a ludicrous idea sprouting in his mind. It couldn’t possibly be that the bottom leads directly into a spiraling descent into the sea, could it?

Impossible, absolutely impossible.

"We’re here," Old Mo’s voice came from ahead, which snapped Lin Yi out of his thoughts, "Once this hourglass turns back into an oil lamp, you’ll be able to ’return the same way’ to the elevator shaft near the Watchtower."

"You’ll encounter attacks, but remember, no matter how injured you get, it doesn’t matter. As long as the oil lamp isn’t extinguished, you won’t die."

"Once you reach the elevator shaft, just do as I’ve told you."

"And what about you, Old Mo?" Lin Yi asked persistently.

"Me?" Old Mo gave a slight smile, "How awesome would it be for someone who’s already dead to still complete their last wishes?"

He patted Lin Yi’s shoulder.

"Don’t feel pressured. Your task is already completed. Now, it’s my turn to perform."

As he said this, Old Mo walked forward.

At the end of the bell tower’s corridor, there stood a sculpture that served as a waypoint, a Dead Body Sculpture, no different from the one that reminded Maozi to leave the staircase.

Only this time, there was no door, only an invisible medium, separating the two worlds.

If this was the cafeteria, there might at least be a symbolic plastic air curtain, but there’s nothing here, making it impossible to see anything resembling a "door".

The medium in front of them was like an exhaust vent, incessantly spraying wind and rain in their direction, almost as if there was a nuclear-powered humidifier hidden inside.

Aside from the mist, the medium also emitted intermittent dull "thud thud" sounds, which were identical to the noises Lin Yi had heard all along the way; it was clear that their source was atop the Bell Tower.

Old Mo’s figure vanished behind that layer of medium, and Lin Yi immediately followed suit.

As he traversed the medium, Lin Yi felt as though he had entered a distorted kaleidoscope, with the space around him twisting in an irregular fashion, and complex noises began buzzing in his ears, causing his head to throb.

At the same time, he felt rain continuously falling on him, soon soaking his hair.

The water streaming down his face carried a faint salty and damp scent, unmistakably mingled with seawater.

He began to wonder if he was falling through Layers again, but the gradually clearing view and Old Mo’s silhouette told him that the Layers were stable.

"So... is this the Bell Tower?"

The world in front of him quivered slightly, more like a fishing boat tossed and turned by the wind and waves than a bell tower. As soon as he stuck his head out of the cabin, he was drenched.

But as soon as he completely passed through that layer of nihility, the sensation disappeared, and his vision finally returned to normal.

This was a square "room" about the size of an ordinary living room, with the floor and surroundings still reflecting the usual design of a bell tower. The walls around were engraved with reliefs that resembled religious murals on three sides, and the remaining side was fashioned with a complex totem made of an unknown metal.

The totem strongly resembled patterns found on the face of clocks, with certain points seemingly corresponding to the positions of stars.

Around the totem, twelve equidistant markings circled it, and in the center were two hands of a clock pointing to a peculiar time: 10:42.

"10:42?!" Lin Yi was shocked in his heart. What was going on?!

He quickly glanced down at his quartz watch, which showed the time as 1:18.

He paused for a moment, then realized—there were no time engravings around the clock, and that side of the wall was transparent. The clock was inside the tower but meant to be read from the outside.

The time displayed, 1:18, when viewed from behind, is 10:42.

The moment he realized the time was not in error, Lin Yi let out a long sigh of relief, not even knowing himself why he had been so nervous.

Just then, through the glass of the Bell Tower, his gaze fell upon the scene outside.

Thick clouds had pressed down above the spire of the Bell Tower, covering the entire world like a waterlogged black cotton quilt, and the spire of the Bell Tower stood as the "highest point when the sky collapsed"

The space was filled with mist, making the square room’s atmosphere as uncomfortable as a rap song, and what provided the beat for this ’rap’ were those "thud thud" sounds!

"The ’thud thud’ sound?!"

As if prompted, Lin Yi quickly looked towards the area Old Mo had headed to and discovered a staircase leading to the top of the Bell Tower, built in the corner furthest from the clock face. As his gaze followed the staircase to the top, he was astonished!

The top of the Bell Tower was designed in typical Gothic style—no, according to Old Mo’s knowledge, it should be said that this design was the progenitor of Gothic architecture.

On top of the large square building with huge clock faces, they added a pyramidal spire supported by four pillars, tapering and sharp like a sword pointing toward the sky.

In the blank spaces between the pillars, six more cylindrical columns were constructed around each face.

These columns featured an open design, allowing wind and rain to pass through unimpeded.

And within the open area enclosed by these twenty-eight pillars, under the pointy dome above, hung a massive Ancient Bell!