Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 398 - Chapter 398 Chapter 402 Pervasive

Chapter 398: Chapter 402: Pervasive Chapter 398: Chapter 402: Pervasive After spending some time on the ship to adapt, Nina had grown accustomed to the minor challenges of reading and studying–which included but were not limited to shadows rising from the Spirit Realm, demons appearing from the Mysterious Deep Sea, and the books themselves undergoing strange changes. Along with her constant hard training, she had made significant progress in controlling her own power.

Specifically, she could even throw a kick at 6000degC without setting the bedding on the adjacent bunk on fire.

A blinding flash of light passed by in an instant, and the demon from the depths of the world turned to ash under the might of the sun, leaving no time for the scent of burning to linger in the air–only the warm smell of the bedding basked in the noonday sun.

The last Abyssal Hound, lured by the book, was left alone in the center of the room. Even though it was a Profound Demon with the nature of chaos and limited intelligence, acting solely on instinct, this fearsome creature seemed to be briefly lost, unable to understand why it suddenly lost two of its companions–now, in front of it was Sherry grasping a chain, leaning forward with a low growl, and behind it was Nina, approaching step by step, enveloped in a sunshine-like radiance.

The horrifying pressure from behind was far greater than the seemingly abnormal “peer” in front of it.

The Profound Demon subconsciously turned its head and met a gaze as scorching as the sun.

Nina slightly lowered her head, her hair completely suffused with a golden hue, dazzling light radiating from her seven orifices. Beneath this human shell burned the ancient might of a fierce sun, and as she gazed at the demon, its skeletal body began to burn to the core under her stare.

Sherry was scared; she had never seen Nina angry before. She even thought that her always sunny and cheerful friend was never angry, but now she knew she was terribly wrong–Nina was obviously very angry.

Her fury rose like a solar flare, and even though she had reined in the escaping heat, the light still seemed to sear one’s soul with its brilliance.

Just as Sherry grew nervous and was about to speak, Nina finally spoke–her mouth opened, and plumes of scorching plasma emanated from the corner of her lips, her voice thundering:

“My homework!” her voice even carried a wail of anguish, “My test papers! My reference books! And Sherry’s homework too! All shredded by these dogs!”

The Wrath of the Sun left the demons so petrified that they lost the ability to move. Sherry was so surprised that she almost laughed, “Really? My homework is gone too?”

But the next second, she came back to her senses and quickly stopped Nina, who was about to kick for vengeance on behalf of their homework, “Ah, wait! Leave this demon alive for a moment! Agatha has a question!”

At that moment, Nina had already raised her foot, but upon hearing her friend’s cry, she instinctively paused and glanced sideways at Sherry, “What’s there to ask–it’s just a Profound Demon that came to make trouble while someone was reading, right? We’ve killed several on this ship already…”

“But it’s daytime now!” Sherry said loudly.

Nina was taken aback, then suddenly realized.

It was daytime, and even though a heavy fog had rolled in and the sky had turned as dim as evening, it was still daytime–the time when the world was still shrouded by the anomaly 001.

At this time, the City-State should be safe, and reading shouldn’t attract invasions from the darkness–so why were these Profound Demons here?

Nina’s (6000degC) gaze immediately fixated on the last Abyssal Hound.

Bathed at close range in the starlight, the demon’s bones began emitting blue smoke as they burned–it struggled instinctively, seemingly trying to tear open a rift back to the Mysterious Deep Sea, but its natural impulse to flee was immediately broken.

Agatha disrupted the still-forming and undeveloped rift that had just appeared next to the demon.

“Can you get anything out of it?” Nina curtailed her power a bit, curiously looking at Agatha, “Didn’t you say that normal Profound Demons have little intelligence and can’t communicate?”

“Lacking brains doesn’t mean there’s nothing to investigate–they have memories, and their chaotic thoughts sometimes contain some consecutive fragments,” Agatha shook its head as if slightly dazed by the earlier headbutting with another Abyssal Hound, “Don’t worry, Profound Demons have their own ‘ways’ of communicating.”

“What ways of communicating?” Nina and Sherry asked in unison.

“…Not exactly pretty,” muttered Agatha, slowly moving towards the Abyssal Hound which had gradually ceased struggling under the sun’s scorching, then looked up at Sherry, “Close your eyes, Sherry.”

Sherry hesitated for a moment, but obediently closed her eyes.

Short growls, a struggle, followed by the sounds of bone being torn, ground, and chewed, accompanied by a tooth-grating crunching noise, the intense struggle of a demon was fleeting.

After a while, Sherry tentatively opened her eyes and saw that only a small pile of black ash, rapidly dissipating, remained on the floor in the room’s center, with Agatha standing nearby. Nina stood opposite, a bit dazed, and it took quite some time for the brilliance of the sun around her to gradually fade, before she exclaimed in amazement, “Wow–”

Sherry guessed what had happened while her eyes were closed, looking at Agatha with a complex expression, “I actually didn’t…”

“You would have had nightmares, I know you,” Agatha shook its head, then ground its teeth, spitting disdainfully to the side, “Pah.”

“Did you hurt your teeth?”

“These demons that can’t even recognize characters chew like stone, you can’t squeeze a complete sentence out of them–impressive that this one ran out in pursuit of knowledge.” Agatha disdainfully scoffed at her illiterate counterparts, showcasing her confidence and pride as a cultured hound. Then, she lowered her head as if seriously sensing the information she had just “communicated.”

A moment later, she lifted her head with some confusion, looking at Sherry and Nina, “Strange… The remaining memories of this Abyssal Hound show… it has never felt the oppression of anomaly 001…”

Sherry and Nina looked at each other in amazement.

“But now… it is clearly daytime…”

Sherry mumbled subconsciously, slowly approaching the window and peeking outside.

The increasingly dense fog had enshrouded all the streets, the thick mist and high clouds layered like curtains over Frost. And within this heavy veil, the Sky Light had dimmed as if it were dusk, and buildings across the main street were no longer visible in the distance.

But there was still a patch of light in the sky, where the sun was located–undoubtedly it was daytime, undoubtedly it was anomaly 001.

“Nina, look,” Sherry pointed towards the sky, “The sun is there…”

She suddenly stopped.

Deep within the thick fog and cloud layers, the bright light trembled quietly a few times before spreading like a reflection in water around it.

It seemed that from the beginning, it was not the sun at all–that was just a visual afterimage left lingering above the City-State as the veil rose.

Above Frost, the sun had disappeared.

…

At the same time, in the heart of the City-State, deep beneath the boiling gold mines, in the ancient and sealed second waterway.

The fog from the city hadn’t reached underground, and the slight anomalies above surface did not affect the actions of the exploration team–in the deep and deserted underworld, the church’s guardian forces were busily and methodically fortifying the advance base they had just established.

Steam-driven walkers, akin to spiders, glided across the spacious sewer corridors. High-powered searchlights swept every dark corner of the passageway, multi-barreled machine guns on the “spiders” adjusted their angles slightly at the sides, ever vigilant of potential shadows lurking within the dark branches. Silent monks clad in black robes quietly prayed in the shelters at the crossroads, accumulating energy for the upcoming advance, while the seasoned elites among the guardians stood watch over the checkpoints and gates, with lanterns hanging at their waists, one hand on a staff, and the other gripping specially modified shotguns or large-caliber revolvers.

The second waterway had been ruled by darkness for too long–conducting exploratory missions in this gloomy place was less about “investigating” and more about declaring war on a kingdom of terror that had gradually twisted and become deformed.

The enemy could be anything, the enemy was darkness itself.

From a distant branch came a strange hissing sound, intertwined with the movement and squirming of some immense limb. Two steam-driven walkers on alert at the base immediately responded, launching four powerful flare bombs from the front, and then the guardians manning the walkers unleashed a barrage in the direction of the noise–with deafening roars, that piece of darkness violently swelled, as though something was wounded and about to emerge from the shadows.

Twelve silent monks in black robes rose from behind their covers, lifting their sacred texts high, their bandaged arms pointing towards the darkness, issuing a thunderous shout in unison.

Pale flames ignited in the dark, working with the barrage fired by the steam walkers to burn whatever the intangible darkness had nurtured into ashes.

The restless darkness returned to calm, and the crossroads gradually shifted from pitch black to dim, and then to light–the light normally spread to that corner, illuminating its conditions.

There was nothing there, just small and large bullet holes on the wall.

And in the air, a faint and rapidly dissipating stench.

Agatha withdrew her gaze from the distant crossroads.

A branch had been reclaimed, and the guardians had dispersed another pocket of darkness from the underground world–yet, for the entire vast second waterway, this was just a tiny corner.

That was not why she was here.

“Take me to that door,”

The gatekeeper turned slightly, speaking to the subordinate beside him.

(Recommendation time, the book title “Sword of the Temple,” a story with a more traditional medieval historical setting, with an engrossing plot and immersive experience. Those interested may want to check it out.)