Embers Ad Infinitum

Behind the reddish-brown wooden door was a spacious hall that took up every inch of space.

The entire tower wasn't divided into levels. Shang Jianyao—who was standing at the door—could directly see the dome that rose into the sky when he looked up.

Large holes appeared in the surrounding walls, embedded with glass that formed rows of windows. They stretched from bottom to top, all the way to the dome. They were currently reflecting blinking lights that flickered.

In the middle of the hall was a large blob of darkness. Deep in the darkness, countless lights flickered and alternated.

They seeped out of the darkness and shone on the window, turning into light.

At this moment, the darkness was constantly expanding and contracting like a beating heart. Balls of shimmering air spewed out, either crashing into the wall, flying toward the dome, or striking the ground.

Every impact these gusts made stirred up a violent tremble in the ground, producing a violent hurricane as if it were the source of the chaos.

At this moment, a low and ethereal voice sounded in Shang Jianyao, Liu Chuan, Flora, and the others' ears.

"Go. Go to the darkness. As long as you destroy it, you can return to the Ashlands and obtain freedom.

"Go, go to the darkness. As long as you destroy it, you can return to the Ashlands and obtain freedom…"

This voice repeated in Shang Jianyao and the others' minds, quickly strengthening their beliefs. They no longer hesitated and passed through the door one after another, entering the hall and walking into the darkness.

In front of them, light flickered, and gusts surged. The darkness swelled and contracted, giving off a surreal feeling.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Suddenly, a faint stream of air spewed out of the darkness and slammed into the tower's wall. It didn't collapse directly and rebounded toward the New World powerhouse carrying Flora.

The two of them couldn't react in time and couldn't dodge. They could only use Matter Interference to hurriedly prop up an air wall.

The shimmering air stream silently passed through the air wall and slammed into Flora and the New World powerhouse carrying her.

Their bodies suddenly turned illusory, and their expressions instantly turned extremely terrified, almost warped.

In the blink of an eye, the air stream dissipated, turning Flora and the New World powerhouse into bubbles. They burst with a single touch of the wind, leaving no traces.

Their human consciousnesses were extinguished.

Liu Chuan, Barnard, and the others were shocked when they saw this, and their expressions clearly changed.

"No!" Shang Jianyao's right hand grabbed the air twice. He tried to save them, but it was too late.

Compared to the New World powerhouse who had been ignited by the light shard, Flora—who was known for her friendliness and was more familiar with everyone—had her consciousness collapse under the air stream's impact and dissipated on the spot… The shock she caused to Barnard, Liu Chuan, and the others was greater. For a moment, they couldn't help but feel grief and horror.

The very strong and intelligent Flora actually died just like that…

When they looked at the gigantic darkness again, their gazes changed with deep confusion. Why are we approaching it? Even if it's really the key to leaving, how can we destroy it without knowing anything? Will it bring us disaster?

Including Shang Jianyao, the remaining New World powerhouses subconsciously slowed down.

…

The metal door opened in front of Jiang Baimian.

In front of her was a white wooden wall that separated the entrance area from the space behind.

In front of the wooden wall was a platform that looked like a spindle. It seemed to be prepared for the receptionist.

Jiang Baimian slowly walked over and looked at the platform's surface.

There were no pamphlets or business cards there. It was so empty that there didn't seem to be any dust.

No, it wasn't seemingly dustless. Jiang Baimian reached out to touch it and confirmed that it was clean as if it had just been wiped.

Is it the dust removal effect brought about by the electromagnetic environment here, or are the Heartless in charge of cleaning it every day? Jiang Baimian muttered to herself silently.

She no longer looked at the various gauges displayed on the military exoskeleton visor. Their indicators were in a mess as if Shang Jianyao had possessed them.

After circling around the white wooden wall, the space behind her opened up. But according to Jiang Baimian's estimation, the light-colored hall in front of her only occupied one-tenth of the vortex-shaped building's basement, maybe even less.

After all, this building only had a few floors. It was mainly built horizontally.

Looking at the seven to eight casually placed sofas, Jiang Baimian determined that this was likely a waiting area or a lounge.

At this moment, a corpse in a black uniform was sitting on a sofa. It had already turned to bones.

In addition to it, there were nearly ten skeletons here. They were all wearing the same black uniforms, and their submachine guns and other weapons fell beside them.

Most of them were at the end of the waiting area. The silver-gray metal sliding door there was ajar.

The remaining corpses were gathered in front of Jiang Baimian, beside the white wooden wall, in the entrance to the waiting area.

Jiang Baimian relied on her rich knowledge of the Old World to frown and mutter to herself, "Security personnel?"

The corpses in black uniforms did resemble a team of security guards. When they were alive, they were in charge of the entrance to this special building.

Another term flashed across Jiang Baimian's mind: Second Research Zone.

In the office of the Eighth Research Institute's president, President Du Heng had once signed a document to repurpose the Second Research Zone.

Was the staircase leading to the Deities' Forbidden Zone built here? Jiang Baimian was in no rush to advance. She squatted down and examined the three corpses suspected to be security personnel from the Research Zone.

As she swept her gaze around, she realized that a bag of items was on the circular coffee table resting on the sofa beside her.

The item's packaging was made of relatively hard brownish-yellow kraft paper. On it were printed cute bears.

Jiang Baimian's heart palpitated as she maintained her genuflecting posture and reached out to take the bag of items.

The packaging had long been torn open. Inside were tempting biscuits that showed no signs of mold.

Jiang Baimian examined the bag of biscuits and muttered with a frown, Bear biscuits?

Her most recent impression of bear biscuits came from Ceningmis. In the residence of Ceningmis's Kalendaria's Son, Brooklyn Garland, there had been a bag of bear biscuits produced in the 37th year of the New Calendar beside the ink bottle on the desk.

Back then, Jiang Baimian—who had heard Shang Jianyao's report—was rather confused because Ceningmis's situation wasn't extravagant enough to specially maintain a production line for bear biscuits.

Shang Jianyao believed that this might be a childhood memory of the Kalendaria's Son. As a savior, he had the privilege of being a little willful.

Therefore, Jiang Baimian was a little surprised and doubtful when she discovered such a bag of bear biscuits in the vortex-like building with the most chaotic electromagnetic environment deep in the New World.

She temporarily put down the bag of bear biscuits and checked the three white human skeletons in front of her.

On the right chest of their black uniforms hung a black metal name tag. On it was the deceased's identity and name in golden Ashlandic: "Security personnel: Gilbert Simmons."

"Security personnel: Fei Yingwu."

"Security personnel: Winst Garland."

Winst Garland… Jiang Baimian's eyebrows twitched, and her gaze instantly froze.

1

…

In the tower of the New World, Shang Jianyao and the others stopped.

The low and ethereal voice sounded in their ears again. "This is the darkness's weakest moment; it's about to collapse. All you need to do is walk over, combine your strength, and deliver a fatal blow to it. That will resolve the problem.

"Don't worry; I'll help you."

This voice constantly echoed in Liu Chuan, Barnard, and the others' minds, dissipating most of the hesitation in their hearts.

"That's right. That darkness doesn't seem to be in good shape."

"The chaos started because of this, and it will also end because of this…"

"It's like a castle on the beach now. It will collapse as long as we use a little strength."

"…" As similar thoughts rose and fell, Barnard and the others took another step forward.

"Wait!" Shang Jianyao—who walked the fastest—suddenly shouted.