Chapter 137: Stirring the Fury of the Seven Seas

Amy Ulysses retreated again and again.

What a joke!

No matter how far a Glorybearer’s physique surpassed the bounds of mortal flesh, there was absolutely no way to withstand a full volley from the city-defense cannons.

Flesh was still flesh, after all. It remained a considerable distance from steel and iron.

Then again…

Even a construct made entirely of iron would likely be reduced to a heap of scrap beneath firepower of this magnitude.

The newest steam-pressurization system, combined with alchemical enchantments dating back to the Age of the Ancient Kings, meant that a single shell could do more than kill a man—it could blast half a city wall apart.

Thus, without the slightest hesitation, the boy who had personally endured a round of heaven-sent justice beneath the omen of death tore himself free from the shadow of death. He immediately turned back, seized his friend before he had fully recovered his senses, and followed instinct through the screaming shells and billowing dust.

After roughly fifteen seconds, they finally escaped the heart of the bombardment.

Amy and Joshua, however, looked utterly disheveled. Their already tattered trench coats had been forcibly dyed the color of earth by mud and sand. Their hair and faces were so thoroughly coated in dust that not a trace of their original coloring remained. From a distance, they looked like refugees who had spent the entire journey begging their way across a desert. No matter how noble their identities had once been, all that remained now was wretchedness.

But the two survivors had no time to care. Compared with their lives, appearances and dignity were utterly insignificant.

“City-defense cannons,” Joshua Onions said with certainty as he stared at the fire flashing before them and the dust churning through the air. “You really did react quickly. If they’d managed to establish a proper overlapping barrage, we’d probably be keeping those cannon fodder company by now.”

“Relax. I won’t die.” Unlike his friend’s feigned composure, a smile appeared on Amy Ulysses’s dust-obscured face, whose original features could no longer be made out. He even found the leisure to make a harmless joke. “At least, I won’t die here. If necessary, I’ll write your epitaph for you: Here lies a brave man, a pioneer of the Onions family, who perished alongside the enemy. The magnificent cannon fire played the requiem for his funeral; the blazing heavens served as his fireworks. In the holy war between Order and Chaos, he used his life to proclaim—fire at me!”

“…”

The Glorybearer who had lost the defining trait of his silver hair studied the equally bedraggled boy before him with his crimson eyes, focusing on those bright black pupils.

“That’s enough.”

Amy merely snickered without replying.

Yet, astonishingly, the tension and lingering fear Joshua had brought back from a single stroll along the border of death vanished amid his friend’s good-natured teasing.

“Still… thanks.”

He quietly thanked the boy beside him.

“Come on, we’re practically brothers.” Amy patted his friend affectionately on the shoulder. “A high-quality shield like you is hard to find. If you really want to repay me, remember to let me have a little more of your blood next time we fight. Don’t worry. An ordinary person only faces a life-threatening loss after bleeding more than fifteen hundred milliliters, and a Glorybearer’s constitution is even better. Three or four thousand milliliters shouldn’t be a problem.”

“…”

The unit milliliter seemed to be recorded in alchemical texts. Joshua had no real sense of it, but from the boy’s tone, it was not difficult to imagine what three or four thousand milliliters meant for the human body.

He would die, wouldn’t he?

No—he would definitely die!

“Speaking of which…” The joking meant to lighten the mood ended there. The boy turned around and stared at the distant battlefire and flying earth. “Although I’m only realizing it now, how did they get past the Wall of Sighs? Those Deep Ones with special abilities may be troublesome, but ultimately they’re merely comparable to ordinary Glorybearers and Swordbearers. They shouldn’t possess any means of breaking through the Wall of Sighs.”

“Who knows?” The crimson-eyed Glorybearer spread his hands. “Perhaps they have another trump card.”

“They should have more than enough ammunition. Hemtika hasn’t activated its city-defense cannons even once in the several centuries since the Mist Zone fell. The firepower they’ve accumulated ought to be enough to plow through the Upper District from end to end, again and again.” Amy analyzed the situation. “If it’s merely a matter of numbers, they won’t be able to make any waves under concentrated firepower. But what I’m afraid of is… these creatures in front of us may only be expendable troops sent to test our strength.”

“That is certainly possible.” There was no doubt that those half-human, half-fish monsters possessed reason, even intelligence. And judging from the organized army before them, they seemed to have a civilization of their own. It was hardly strange that they would employ strategy in war against outsiders. “But the term Deep Ones… wouldn’t fishmen be more straightforward?”

“Perhaps.” The boy neither agreed nor disagreed. In terms of clarity, fishmen was indeed the more fitting name. But for some reason, some stubborn instinct deep within him refused to acknowledge it.

Unable to convince himself, Amy deliberately changed the subject.

“There’s no way for us to interfere with the battle from here,” he said. That was the truth. With the cannons firing indiscriminately, rushing out now would mean certain death. “What do you plan to do?”

“Regroup with the main force.” Joshua patted the dust from his hair, then raised an eyebrow. “Just as you said, those fishmen probably have another move prepared. Staying here serves no purpose and may instead invite disaster.”

“This time, I vote yes,” the boy agreed.

But…

They had barely taken a few steps when the earth began to tremble.

The silver-haired, crimson-eyed Glorybearer seemed ready to stop and investigate the cause of the disturbance. Yet the moment he slowed, Amy Ulysses seized his sleeve and gave it a sharp tug.

“Move—”

He quickened his pace.

“Don’t look back.”

Don’t look back?

Joshua was not without doubts, but he had no intention of ignoring his friend’s warning. Having recognized the potential danger his own actions might just have caused, he followed the boy without further hesitation.

At the same time, he asked bluntly, “What happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure.” Amy made no attempt to conceal anything. “I just have a feeling that something very bad will happen if we stay there.”

“For example?” Joshua asked instinctively, unaware of the true nature of the boy’s abilities.

Unexpectedly, he received an answer.

“For example…” Amy paused. “A great flood or something.”

“A great flood?”

His questioning voice had barely sounded when it abruptly stopped.

Because—

The roar of the raging sea had already exploded beside his ears.

“What is this?”

He followed closely behind the boy without looking back.

“As you can see,” Amy replied, paying no attention to the grammatical awkwardness of his words, “this is the prelude to the great flood.”

Yes. The great flood.

Amy had known that the Deep Ones must possess some source of confidence if they dared to launch an assault against Hemtika. But it was only when the Omen of Death activated once again that he realized…

Their trump card was not some vague, insubstantial thing.

It was genuine power.

It was brute force sufficient to overturn the entire table.

Dozens of meters? Hundreds?

No—no—no—

The waves raised by the Deep Ones far exceeded the limits of human sight. In that lightless world, the deep-blue sea and the pitch-black heavens seemed almost to merge into one. Though the supposedly indestructible Wall of Sighs still stood, even a wall that reached into the clouds could not restrain the waves blotting out the sky.

Amid the shrieking roar of the ocean as it surged and churned, monstrous waves repeatedly crashed against the wall, their deafening thunder resounding throughout heaven and earth. Foul seawater overflowed from the very top of the sky and came crashing down, as though the heavens themselves had collapsed.

The entire Upper District was like an anthill in a rainstorm, scattered into ruin by the sudden flood.

And, naturally, accompanied by countless deaths.

Perhaps that was why Amy could survey the whole scene from a detached vantage point, just as he had when he witnessed the awakening of an ancient ruler beyond the Wall of Sighs.

But…

That was all.

The future so close at hand could not be altered by his strength alone.

“Boom!”

A thunderous detonation that made the world tremble shook the very foundations of Hemtika. In an instant, cracks spread across the streets paved with bluestone. Limited by the illumination provided by fire-rune amulets and fire crystals, Amy and Joshua’s constantly shifting vision could not find a single intact building.

“Where are you going?” The silver-haired, crimson-eyed Glorybearer noticed that their route had already strayed from the meeting point they had originally intended to reach—and not by a little.

No, it had veered almost ninety degrees.

“The Tower of the Most High.”

The answer was entirely unexpected.

“Wait—”

But after only a moment’s thought, Joshua understood why Amy had chosen the Tower of the Most High as their refuge. If the great flood truly arrived, then as the tallest building in Hemtika, it was undoubtedly the safest place to be.

“You really are something.”

“We’ll talk when we get there.” There was not much time left, and Amy had no intention of sparing his attention for anything else.

“Agreed.”

With that token response, the silver-haired, crimson-eyed Glorybearer followed.

Driven onward by the threat of death, the two crossed several districts at tremendous speed and reached the deserted Tower of the Most High.

As the headquarters of the Order in Hemtika, the tower naturally possessed methods of resisting the corrosive influence of darkness. In the center of the first-floor hall, the Highest Light—enshrined as a symbol of the Order’s faith—spread a gentle, brilliant radiance through the darkness.

“Come on. Thirty-second floor.”

They reached the Sky Garden by means of the lift.

They had chosen this floor partly because its height was more than sufficient, and partly because it possessed numerous outward-facing windows, making observation relatively easy.

Or allowing them to escape through the windows.

After all, whether a steam-powered lift would remain functional after being submerged in floodwater was anyone’s guess.

“Tell me,” Joshua said solemnly as he looked down at the world outside, swallowed by darkness. “Do you think the council has any way to deal with this great flood?”

“Hard to say.” In theory, during the early years of the Age of the Ancient Kings, Hemtika had nearly been dragged beneath the sea by Leviathan, the colossal sea beast from the depths of the Sea of Chaos. The city’s rulers throughout the generations should have prepared countermeasures for situations like this. Yet from what Amy had seen in the Omen of Death, that did not seem to be the case. “Who can say what the great figures have planned? All we can do is wait—and keep hoping.”

Amy, too, gazed out at the darkness surging like a tide of mist. An unreadable gleam passed through his black eyes.

Still…

That was what he said, but would the future foreseen by the Omen of Death change?

He was not certain.

If possible, he hoped the answer would be—

Yes!