Chapter 612: Chapter 16: The Town

“What’s going on?” Lynch and Kong immediately stopped, turning back to look at her.

Messiah frowned, her body instantly covered with a golden glow, advancing once more.

However,

“Buzz!”

The enormous magic array on the door flashed brightly! A repulsive force several times stronger than before suddenly erupted! Messiah was hit as if by an invisible giant hammer, and her whole body was sent flying, heavily crashing onto the hard ground ten meters away.

Messiah’s brows furrowed tightly, her fingers repeatedly pointed in the air, and the golden glow on her body grew increasingly intense, clearly intending to increase her strength to try again.

However, at that moment, a hand stopped her.

“Stop, Messiah!”

Messiah was taken aback.

Lynch frowned, looking at the stone gate, explaining, “There’s a force repelling you. No matter how many times you try, it’s likely useless.”

He speculated it might be related to Messiah’s soul.

Messiah’s soul was created from the soul energy after the collapse of the resentful spirit Lucien, and that part of the soul energy originally came from the huge soul crystal in the plaza of this underground city.

From various indications, that crystal might have come from inside this stone gate, at the very least, it’s closely related to it.

In addition, the domain revealed by this stone gate seems to be related to the soul, so Lynch speculated that the contents inside this stone gate might be associated with that soul crystal, which might be the main reason Messiah was being repelled here.

Messiah,” Lynch decisively decided, “you stay outside the gate to keep watch. Guard the entrance and watch for any unusual movements. Kong and I will go inside to investigate.”

Since they couldn’t get in, they might as well leave Messiah outside. The unknown danger behind the door made having a fully capable Messiah standby outside a more prudent choice.

Messiah nodded, not saying much.

Lynch and Kong exchanged a glance, hesitated no longer. Both turned around, their bodies glowing silver with void ripples, and plunged into the deep darkness behind the stone gate, which was devouring everything.

The heavy stone gate, after their figures disappeared, emitted a heavy boom and slowly closed, only leaving the last glimmer of light between the door seams completely swallowed by darkness.

Inside and outside the door, it seemed to be instantaneously separated into two completely different worlds.

…

The pressure all over the body suddenly tightened, then abruptly loosened.

As they blinked, and when their vision recovered, Lynch and the others were no longer in the underground city, but in a strange land.

They stood on a vast, boundless grey plain. The sky was leaden grey, heavy, low clouds like solidified lead blocks pressed motionlessly overhead, with no sun, moon, or stars—only suffocatingly silent darkness.

The air was cold, carrying the scent of damp soil and decaying plants. Inhaling it slowed even the flow of blood.

Beneath their feet were withered, lifeless wild grasses, stretching to the horizon with no hills or trees in sight.

There was no wind, yet the grass blades swayed eerily, as if silently moaning. The surrounding silence was terrifying, an oppressive absolute silence pressing against the eardrums, making even the chirping of insects and birds a distant luxury. This deathly stillness was more hair-raising than thunderous noise.

“This place…”

Lynch’s voice sounded exceptionally abrupt in the silence, immediately lowering his volume, filled with caution, “The spatial coordinates are completely chaotic, perception is greatly suppressed. It’s not an illusion, it’s a real… alternate dimension?”

He tried to mobilize the power of the space domain to perceive, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea. The spatial structure here was exceptionally solid yet filled with an indescribable stickiness, as if the entire space itself was the interior of a massive, slowly writhing living organism.

Kong’s expression was more solemn than Lynch’s. She extended a finger, gently touching the swaying withered grass beside her. The moment her fingertip touched it, an extremely faint, almost imperceptible grey-white glow appeared on the grass blade, then vanished again.

“It’s not just an alternate dimension.”

Kong’s voice, still ethereal, had an unprecedented seriousness, “The space has been distorted by powerful soul power… Or rather, this very space itself is a prison forcibly constructed and bonded by a massive, fragmented soul. We… are inside a giant soul.”

The two exchanged a glance, reading one thing from each other’s eyes—

Be careful.

Just then, Kong’s sharp gaze turned towards a spot on the distant horizon: “Over there… there’s a gathering of soul waves. Not fragments, rather… a node.”

Lynch followed her gaze. Against the drab, monotonous background, a vague outline of low, obscurely shaped gatherings appeared far away on the horizon—like… the silhouette of a town?

“Should we take a look?” Lynch suggested. In this bizarre space, any unusual point might be a clue, or it could be a trap. But staying put seemed even less wise.

“Okay.” Kong briefly replied.

Remaining highly vigilant, the two moved toward the direction of the suspected small town. The withered yellow grass beneath felt spongy underfoot, as if stepping on a thick layer of ash, soundless. As the distance closed, the outline of the town gradually became clearer.

It indeed was a small town.

Low, stone-wood mixed buildings, their style quaint and crude, with a crooked clock tower pointing towards the oppressive sky. A barely passable “street” of dirt road ran through it. The edge of the town had a half-decayed wooden sign, its writing long eroded and unreadable.

This small town, in the dead wasteland, was unexpectedly vibrant.

On the streets, figures could be seen moving. Farmers in coarse clothing carried hoes, walking leisurely; women with baskets stood at doorways, apparently chatting with neighbors; a few men in tattered leather aprons gathered at what seemed like a blacksmith shop’s entrance, pointing at something inside; even a few children squatted by the roadside, seemingly playing a game.

The bustling scene of traffic and voices resembled an ordinary, lively small town.

However, seeing the animated scene before him, Lynch couldn’t help but frown slightly.

Beside him, Kong noticed Lynch’s peculiar expression and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Lynch hesitated, saying, “I’m not quite sure exactly what it is, but it just feels weird…” Google seaʀᴄh novel⦿fire.net

Exactly what was weird he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

It seemed to be a…

Gut instinct?

A premonition from the Eye of Death God?

Anyway,

He always felt as though the souls of these people before him were somewhat bizarre.

Just as the two were captivated by the scene of this eerie town, an extremely abrupt yet exceptionally clear nursery rhyme broke the suffocating silence of the town, like an icy awl piercing into Lynch and Kong’s ears.

The sound came from a small alley at the town entrance.

Two small figures, hand in hand, skipped out from the dark alley. They wore the same ashen, simply styled children’s clothes, their small faces pale without a hint of blood, their large black eyes hollow as bottomless ancient wells.

As they ran, they chanted in a sharp and crisp childlike voice:

“Knock knock, knock the bones,

The furnace burns bright and clear.

Daddy’s hammer, Mommy’s sorrow,

Smelted gold shines brightly!

Burn burn, burn the souls,

The inside of the furnace gleams bright.

Sister’s tears, Brother’s name,

Forged into the throne for peace!

Grey sky, black earth,

Never able to escape.

Dreams of gold, play of souls,

We are all but clay in the furnace!”

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