Chapter 1 Aftermath

After a period of adaptation on the ship, Nina had become accustomed to facing minor difficulties in her reading and studying – including but not limited to shadows floating up from the spirit world, demons appearing from the abyssal depths, and the mutations of the books themselves. Coupled with her persistent training, she had also made considerable progress in controlling her powers.

Specifically, even if she threw a 6000° flying kick, she could guarantee she wouldn't set the bedding on the adjacent bunk on fire.

Blinding light flashed by, and a demon from the deepest part of the world instantly turned to ashes under the might of the sun. The air didn't even have time to retain a burnt odor – only the warm scent of bedding after being warmed by the midday sun.

The last abyssal hound, attracted by the books, remained alone in the center of the room. Even as a chaotic, unintelligent abyssal demon driven only by instinct, the terrifying creature seemed to fall into a brief daze. It couldn't understand why it had suddenly lost two companions – now, it faced Ah-Gou, who was being held by a chain by Shirley, snarling low, and behind it was Nina, walking forward step by step, enveloped in a radiance like the sun.

The terrifying pressure from behind far surpassed that of the seemingly abnormal "compatriot" in front.

The abyssal demon subconsciously turned its head, meeting a gaze as hot as the sun.

Nina lowered her head slightly, her hair completely dyed with a golden halo. A dazzling light leaked from her orifices. Beneath this human shell burned the power of an ancient sun. She stared at the demon, and the bones in its body began to burn in her gaze.

Shirley was frightened. She had never seen Nina angry before, and she had even thought that this friend, who was usually cheerful and sunny, never got angry at all. But now she knew she was terribly wrong – Nina was clearly very angry.

Her anger was rising like the sun. Even though she restrained the heat emanating from her, those rays still seemed to burn the soul.

As Shirley became more and more nervous, and finally couldn't help but open her mouth, Nina finally spoke – she opened her mouth, and hot plasma flames leaked from the corners of her lips, her voice like thunder:

"My homework!" Her voice even carried grief and indignation, "My test papers! My reference books! And Shirley's homework! All torn to shreds by these dogs!"

The wrath of the sun caused the demon to lose its ability to move in fear. Shirley was even more astonished when she heard this, and almost laughed out loud: "Really? My homework is gone too?"

But the next second, she reacted and quickly stopped Nina, who was about to retaliate for her homework with a flying kick: "Ah, wait! Leave this demon alive for now! Ah-Gou has something to ask!"

Nina had already raised her foot, but after hearing her friend's call, she subconsciously stopped and glanced at Shirley out of the corner of her eye: "What else is there to ask – aren't they just abyssal demons who run over and make trouble while people are reading? We've killed several on the ship…"

"But it's daytime now!" Shirley said loudly.

Nina was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized.

It was daytime now. Although a heavy fog had risen outside, and the sky had become as dim as evening, it was daytime in terms of time – the time when Anomaly 001 still enveloped the world.

The city-state was safe at this time, and reading would not attract intrusions from the darkness – why were these abyssal demons appearing?

Nina's gaze (6000°) immediately fixed on the last abyssal hound.

Bathing in the light of a star at extremely close range, the demon's bones began to emit blue smoke – it instinctively struggled, seemingly wanting to open a rift to return to the abyssal depths, but this instinctive escape was instantly interrupted.

Ah-Gou interfered with the rift that had just appeared around the demon and had not yet formed.

"Can you get anything out of it?" Nina restrained some of her power, looking curiously at Ah-Gou, "Didn't you say that normal abyssal demons don't have much intelligence and can't be communicated with at all?"

"No brains or no brains, but if you really want to investigate, you can find something – they have memories, and sometimes continuous fragments appear in their chaotic thoughts," Ah-Gou shook his head, seemingly a little dizzy after butting heads with another abyssal hound just now, "Don't worry, abyssal demons have abyssal demon 'communication' methods."

"What communication methods?" Nina and Shirley asked in unison.

"...Not very pretty," Ah-Gou muttered, slowly approaching the abyssal hound, which was gradually stopping its struggles under the scorching sun. Then, he looked up at Shirley again, "Close your eyes, Shirley."

Shirley was stunned for a moment, then obediently closed her eyes.

Short growls, struggles, followed by the sound of bone fragments being torn, crushed, and chewed. The terrifying grinding sound accompanied a demon's violent struggle that lasted only a moment.

After a while, Shirley tentatively opened her eyes and saw that only a small pile of black dust, which was rapidly dissipating, remained on the floor in the center of the room. Ah-Gou was standing next to the pile of dust, while Nina was standing opposite him in a daze. After a long time, the fiery radiance on her body gradually dissipated, and she exclaimed in amazement, "Wow."

Shirley guessed what had happened after she closed her eyes. She glanced at Ah-Gou with a slightly complicated expression: "Actually... I didn't..."

"You'll have nightmares, I know you," Ah-Gou shook his head, then ground his teeth and spat to the side with some disgust, "Tui."

"Did you get something stuck in your teeth?"

"Chewing on these demons who can't even recognize words is like chewing on rocks. You can't even squeeze a complete sentence out of them – it's really a loss that this guy ran out chasing knowledge." Ah-Gou disgustedly complained about his illiterate kin, showing his confidence and pride as a cultured dog, then lowered his head, seeming to be earnestly sensing the information he had just "communicated."

After a moment, he raised his head with some confusion, looking at Shirley and Nina: "Strange... the remaining memories of this abyssal hound show... it never felt the suppression of Anomaly 001..."

Shirley and Nina exchanged stunned glances.

"But now... it's clearly daytime..."

Shirley subconsciously muttered, slowly walking to the window and peering outside.

The increasingly thick fog had enveloped all the streets. The thick fog and high-altitude clouds covered the Frost like layers of curtains, and in this heavy curtain, the daylight had dimmed like dusk, and the building facades across the street could not even be seen in the distance.

But there was still a ball of light in the sky, which was where the sun was – it was indeed daytime, and it was indeed Anomaly 001.

"Nina, look," Shirley pointed to the sky, "The sun is there..."

She suddenly stopped.

In the depths of the thick fog and clouds, the ball of bright light trembled a few times, and then, like a reflection in water, it晕散 spread out around it.

It seemed that from the beginning, it was not the sun – it was just a visual afterimage that remained in the sky above the city-state when the curtain rose.

Above Frost, the sun disappeared.

At the same time, in the central area of the city-state, deep underground directly below the Boiling Gold Mine, in the ancient and sealed Second Waterway.

The fog in the city did not spread underground, and the slight anomalies on the surface would not affect the exploration team's actions – in the deep and desolate underground world, the church's Guardian forces were tensely and methodically reinforcing the forward base they had just established.

Spider-like steam walkers glided through the wide sewer corridors, high-powered searchlights swept across every dark corner of the corridor, multi-barreled machine guns on the turrets on both sides of the "spider" carapace slightly adjusted their angles, constantly guarding against the shadows that might be lurking in those dark forks, silent monks in black robes silently prayed in the barricades at the crossroads, conserving their energy for subsequent advances, and elite veteran guardians guarded the sentry posts and gates at various locations in the intersection, with lanterns hanging from their waists, one hand holding a staff, and the other hand tightly gripping specially modified shotguns or large-caliber revolvers.

The Second Waterway had been ruled by darkness for too long – carrying out exploration missions in this dim place was less like "investigating" something and more like declaring war on a terrifying kingdom that had gradually become distorted and mutated.

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

A strange hissing sound came from a fork in the distance, mixed with the crawling and wriggling sounds of some huge limbs. Two steam walkers on guard at the intersection immediately reacted. Four powerful flashbangs were first launched from the front of the spider body. Then, the guardians on the walker manipulated the rotary machine guns to fire a volley in the direction of the strange noise – in the deafening roar, that darkness swelled violently, as if something was injured and was about to reveal its form from the darkness.

Twelve silent monks in black robes rose from behind the barricades, simultaneously raising the holy books in their hands, their bandaged arms pointing remotely at the darkness, and shouting in unison.

In the darkness, pale flames burned, cooperating with the barrage fired by the steam walkers to burn the things bred by the invisible darkness to ashes.

The restless darkness returned to calm. The fork gradually turned from pitch black to dim, and then to light – the light normally spread to that intersection, illuminating the situation there.

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

And the faint, rapidly dissipating stench in the air.

Agatha withdrew her gaze from the distant fork.

A fork was recovered. The Guardian forces dispelled another piece of darkness in this underground world – and for the entire vast Second Waterway, this was just a tiny corner.

She was not here to deal with those "forks."

"Take me to that door."

The gatekeeper turned his head slightly and said to his subordinate beside him.