CHAPTER 257: CHAPTER 181: FORGOTTEN MATTERS_2

These black fissures are the result of staring into them.

The Deep Sea Council is already a relatively "clean" place. Lindong walks all the way from the direction of the manor; the residents of Ophira have formed temporary defense teams but ultimately cannot resist the invasion of shadows, even their prized steam carriages have been corroded, growing writhing black tendrils that fire "shells" into the crowd.

Anyone affected by them will instantly be swallowed by shadows, becoming assimilated into twisted darkness.

Under such an offensive, the residents’ defense line becomes increasingly fragile; comrades who stood shoulder to shoulder one moment, turn into monsters lunging at them the next. Total collapse is only a matter of time.

And killing these shadow creatures is meaningless.

Just like the polluted areas they encountered at Wolf Head Castle, Lindong quickly realizes she is experiencing a part of history—an incident that hasn’t happened yet. She finds some key information—it’s five days, the arrival of election day, Ophira’s proud tradition, all residents have come out onto the streets to witness this solemn scene.

Therefore, the speed of spreading deaths and injuries is alarmingly fast. When people finally react, most have already perished or been hurt.

Lindong sees uncommon sights at the city’s edge.

Towering waves, tens of meters high, surround the entire city. The waves seem endless, turning the entire Ophira into an isolated island. Steam-powered ships attempting to sail before the city’s destruction are invariably shattered by tentacles just before entering the water curtain.

Unlike Wolf Head Castle, this time Lindong finds the opening on her own.

After the battle at the Imperial Capital, she has gained a deeper understanding of the concept of "time."

Following the figure ahead, she enters the Deep Sea Council, which is enveloped by panic, and Ophira’s elite barely hold off the writhing shadows’ assault at the entrance. The real work is done by a mechanical creation that resembles Iron Man, commanded by Master Craftsman Gelb on the front line, establishing a defense in the lobby.

Surviving craftsmen have formed a new defense line here, achieving temporary warfare balance, but destruction is only a matter of time.

Lindong walks into the council hall, where a meeting is taking place. She sees many familiar faces.

The chairperson, diplomat Richard, Yue and his maid, everyone looks grave. The meeting’s content is singular—they need to devise an escape plan from Ophira before the craftsmen are overrun.

They can no longer prevent the sinking of the continent; escape is the only option.

Survivors engage in heated debates about their destination, inevitably falling into a deadlock, seemingly having nowhere else to go.

From the conversation of the councilors, Lindong learns that a civil war has erupted in the Empire; not long ago, the scarlet plague swiftly spread through the Imperial Capital, and after the Empire’s main leaders perished from the plague, turmoil quickly swept the Empire, dissatisfied people rebelling, seizing muskets to initiate a revolt, Evil God’s Followers ran rampant in various towns and villages, and a large population of the Empire died in Evil God’s rites.

Other continents have nearly simultaneously encountered similar predicaments.

In this impasse, the chairperson has no choice but to reveal to the handful of survivors the last secret left by the Master of Tides. He leads everyone into his room, moves a painting aside to reveal a hidden button behind it.

What follows is the sound of gears turning.

The Master of Tides hoped the knowledge He left would help the people of the Western Continent face the crisis destined to come after several epochs, but He also considered the possibility of failure. When the situation becomes irreversible, survivors must preserve the spark of humanity.

Then...

Connect with others chosen by "God."

That would be the most dreadful future.

However, the chairperson was unable to convey this secret to anyone, as the path leading under the council chamber became shrouded in shadows, a distorted and terrifying face vaguely visible in the darkness. Those who approached were instantly torn apart by countless writhing shadow tendrils.

The first victim was the chairman himself, who hadn’t even had the chance to say a word before becoming scattered chunks of meat.

Lindong faintly senses a familiar aura from the shadows.

He, Old Ba, and Kane seem to belong to the same kind of existence.

Yet another her ignores the shadows beneath the stairs, walking straight into them.

She also descends below the stairs.

Then, activate the realm, switching back to reality.

It’s a rather dim room; the way they came remains blocked. In the real world, the chairperson is still alive, now presumably on his way to the underground research facility with Flor.

Looking at a room filled with treasures, the kitten excitedly shakes her tail; she tiptoes onto the table.

She has broken into a forbidden zone.

Ophira’s forbidden zone exploration achieved!

This was an accomplishment she set for herself; with further mastery of Element Ascension, she has advanced her prowess in breaking into forbidden zones.

Now, there’s no forbidden zone in the world capable of stopping her steps.

The kitten decides to take some loot back as a reward for herself and in exchange, decides to leave a gift for the chairperson—a cat paw print on the table, as proof of her intrusion.

She carries off the parchment book on the table, whose cover reads "Enlightenment."

Ethan would love this.

.........

When Ethan returns to the manor, he encounters Lindong standing tall, appearing like she wants someone to admire her. Several parchment books are prominently displayed.

"What is this?"

Ethan asks along her line.

"Treasure, stolen from the chairperson’s secret chamber!"

Lindong maintains her appearance with cat ears and tail, her fluffy tail rhythmically swaying and attracting attention, "The chairperson could never imagine his home had been robbed."

"You truly live up to being a teacher; surely nothing in this world can block your mechanisms anymore."

"That is naturally true."

Lindong seems to want to maintain her dignity as a teacher, but she cannot suppress the smile at the corner of her mouth. She gestures for Ethan to sit down and then sits on his lap, arms wrapping around his neck, clearing her throat, trying to sound as authoritative as possible, "Ethan, although I admit you’ve achieved remarkable progress in Element Ascension lately, you still have many areas to learn and improve."

For instance, the skill of stealing things from forbidden zones.

It’s foreseeable that in their future journey, there will be many people like the chairperson who do not wish to engage in communication, so breaking into forbidden zones is a practical and necessary skill.

She places the parchment book titled "Enlightenment" in Ethan’s hands, "This book can answer your questions."

This is a message from the Master of Tides Himself.

He never gave up studying the Evil God, and when He sensed His own demise approaching, He wrote this book for the people of the Western Continent.

This is a qualified true god.

Even Lindong, who has no fondness for Divine Spirits, cannot find any fault; she can’t help but suspect perhaps every true god is like this, deserving people’s praise, yet as eras shift, these praises gradually became tools for maintaining domination.

"Theory of Forgetting."

In the most prominent position of the book, Ethan finds all the answers to his questions.

When he first arrived at the Western Continent, he was intrigued by the atheist system here. To him, the Western Continent’s atheism felt somewhat forced, reaching places that defied logical explanation; they pursued not truth and essence but ignorance, as if by denying the existence of the Evil God, those apocalyptic prophecies wouldn’t descend upon them.

He finds detailed interpretations within this book.

In later years, the Master of Tides studied the Evil God’s powers and their creation system, gradually realizing that the soul is the source of the Evil God’s power, and the operation mechanism of this power is faith.

Extreme fanaticism of faith drives Followers to eagerly offer their souls as fuel to their divine spirits.

Therefore, He put forward a hypothesis.

If some way could completely eliminate the concept of the Evil God, it might sever the supply of fuel from its roots.

Even if it can’t truly kill the Evil God, it can keep Them perpetually weakened, banishing Them to another realm forever.

However, this research was incomplete before death arrived.

The Master of Tides can only hope someone continues the research and delivers a mission to the successor, the first chairperson.

They need to erase the traces of the "God’s" existence.