Chapter 206: Chapter 210: Rain of Fire
The rain turned into fire.
Heidi gasped in shock, and this seemingly illogical outcry was the only description she could think of at the moment—she simply couldn’t comprehend the scene before her eyes, couldn’t understand what was happening, she only knew that a fiery downpour was falling from the sky.
It was just a momentary event.
The torrential rain that had enveloped the City-State was instantly transformed into a cascade of flames falling from above, as if the dying sun was plummeting, its corona inverted, and in less than a second the entire City-State had shifted from a rain-soaked city to a scene of molten, living fire.
Everything was ignited—trees, houses, towers, bell towers, even the ground itself was spewing flames, and the water flowing on the ground turned into scorching lava. The deafening thunder turned into explosions all over the City-State, caused by the continuous bursting of all steam pipes, gas pipes, and pressure vessels within a short time. These explosions were even more terrifying than the previous thunder… The whole cathedral was shaking violently!
Heidi backed away in terror, witnessing the apocalyptic destruction overlaying itself on the current reality dimension, then she heard the sound of a bell.
The sound seemed to come from behind a thick barrier as if it was originating from a far-off place—it came from the steam bell tower behind the cathedral.
The loud, melodious ringing of the bell shattered the fiery rain, followed by a proliferation of bell sounds, both distant and near.
The cathedral matrix of the City-State rang with hundreds of bells, reality stabilization barriers were triggered reflexively. The fiery rain seemed to be disturbed by an invisible force amid the bell sounds, the flames above the cathedral transformed back into ordinary torrential rain, even the already ignited spires and flags of the cathedral returned to their former state in the blink of an eye.
The entire City-State was ablaze, yet all the cathedrals stood firm against the flames from the sky. The bizarre rainstorm and even more bizarre sea of fire were strangely mixed on this burning land. Each cathedral appeared like lonely islands in purgatory, serving as continuous anchors amidst the cataclysm.
It was only then that Heidi finally heard a calm and aged voice coming from behind her. It was Bishop Valentin breaking the silence, “The enemy is attacking… Destroy all targets attempting to approach the cathedral’s bell tower!”
Heidi turned around, about to ask for clarification when a series of deafening roars suddenly came from the direction of the square outside the cathedral.
She ran to the window and saw the assembled defenders firing—steam walkers’ turret guns spraying bullets down the street, steam tanks firing their main cannons continuously. The forces urgently dispatched from the City-State Guards had already built fortifications at the edge of the rainstorm, pouring firepower into something within the sea of fire.
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Heidi finally saw the enemy.
They were writhing humanoid ashes, endlessly emerging from the sea of fire, their appearance chilling to behold.
These ashes seemed to spontaneously generate from the flames, their shapeless forms appeared to be screaming and wailing in agony every second. They surged from all directions, like herds of animals drawn by some unknown force, heading towards all the reality stabilization nodes—the cathedral bell towers.
The warriors triggered their triggers in bewilderment, most of them had no idea why the battle started or what had happened to their familiar homes, nor dared to think where the exceptionally unsettling “enemies” came from. It was only the mission to defend the City-State, instinctive obedience to orders, and the will to survive that kept them firmly holding the line in the face of this hellish sight, responding with muscle memory honed through hundreds of training sessions.
Thus, the defenders’ gunfire echoed in unison, easily tearing apart the first wave of clustering ashes.
However, the next moment, even more ashes, along with more warped things burnt to a cinder, emerged from behind those torn apart, engulfing flames and dense smoke sweeping toward the cathedral.
Their numbers seemed as vast as the population of the entire City-State.
“Hold the bell tower,” Valentin’s voice suddenly resonated, echoing over the entire cathedral square and even across the entire City-State, “As long as the bell is still ringing, our reality will not be altered or overwritten! Believers, the time to witness our faith has come… Hold the bell tower!!”
Heidi watched all of this amidst tremendous chaos, feeling as if her world was already falling apart at that moment, but after a brief adjustment, she forcibly calmed her thoughts. Realizing this was a reality invasion-level disaster, she forced herself not to focus on the sea of fire across the square, not to ponder the “fact” that ninety percent of the City-State was already substantially destroyed, but to immediately run to Valentin: “Is there anything I can help with?”
“Comfort the civilians taking refuge in the cathedral, we need to prevent mental breakdowns in the area as much as possible,” said Valentin solemnly, “Then wait with them for the storm to end.”
Heidi nodded immediately, but then Valentin suddenly looked up, his gaze as if piercing through the high walls of the hall, gazing into the distance.
The Archbishop’s eyes reflected flames and flashes, a bird’s-eye view of the entire City-State emerged in his sight.
He clearly saw the entire City-State blazing in the fire rain, each cathedral transforming into isolated islands in a sea of fire, every cathedral facing invasions from beyond reality, released from some apocalyptic branch, feverishly attacking those still-ringing bell towers as if desperately trying to drag this still-existing reality into an equally tragic end. And behind those ashes, countless tall, thin shadows.
Those shadows stood silently in the flames, silently pushing the City-State towards doomsday.
Scions of the Sun’s minions.
Scions of the Sun’s minions?
Valentin’s expression slightly changed, faced with this reality invasion-level major disaster, he suddenly remembered an issue that seemed to have been resolved long ago and therefore almost forgotten.
He suddenly turned to a high-ranking assistant beside him, “Are those Sun Heretics still in the Underground Sanctuary?!”
“Sun Heretic?” The high priest assistant didn’t react at first, he was stunned before he hurriedly spoke, “Yes, they are still imprisoned in the Underground Sanctuary, guarded by a whole squad of guardians. They can’t escape…”
“They never intended to escape from the start!” Valentin quickly said, “They wanted to be locked inside the church from the very beginning!”
“Wha…”
The high priest assistant’s eyes widened, and just before he could finish his sentence, a dull, massive sound suddenly emanated from the depths beneath the church.
It was as if some giant beast was awakening in the Underground Sanctuary.
Some of the clergy in the cathedral, who had experienced a Sun Crisis four years ago, were reminded by this loud sound of another event—
Four years ago, hundreds of Sun Heretics gathered at their hideout and during a bloody, frenzied sacrifice, they summoned a brief but terrifying forbidden power. A fake, fierce sun formed underground, nearly causing a catastrophe.
But before their plot could succeed, it was detected by the then newly appointed Judge, Fenna, who led her team to quash it.
“…That was a test…”
The high priest assistant, eyes wide, muttered to himself.
Heidi felt the sudden rise in temperature around her and the vibrations from deep underground, growing stronger and stronger.
…
A sea of fire ascended, bells rang in unison, steam whistles shrieked sharply amid the fiery rain, and countless ash monsters emerged from all directions, running rampant in the mortal world.
Fenna had faced many perilous battles; she had confronted Heretics, forbidden creatures created by Heretics, even out-of-control Profound Demons, and deranged Doomsday Preachers, but none of these battles could compare to the hell she faced at this moment.
What she faced was no longer merely a battlefield, but a sudden apocalypse.
Or perhaps, the apocalypse had already descended long ago, only shielded by a veil until today, when suddenly the veil was lifted—those alive had no time to react before becoming ashes of the apocalypse.
But she was still alive, slashing a bloody path through the sea of fire and ashes, laboriously moving toward the towering cathedral at the center of the City-State.
Every breath was a burning sting, the fatigue on her body was enough to crush an ordinary person multiple times, Fenna’s armor was severely damaged, and her body’s recovery gradually couldn’t keep up with the injuries, her wounds slowly worsening.
But the young Judge continued forward.
The bell of the cathedral was still ringing, indicating that Bishop Valentin’s defense had not yet been breached—perhaps the guardians were unaware of this history-tainting conspiracy, but they were always prepared for all conspiracies and battles.
Since the battle at the cathedral continued, she had a duty to return to her battle position.
Fenna thought.
She noticed that Bishop Valentin had initiated reality stabilization measures, which meant he had realized part of the truth. That part of the response was not an issue, and as long as the bell tower was not lost, the Heretics’ attempt to replace real history with “pseudo-history” would not easily succeed.
As long as the process of overlaying was ultimately disrupted, removing the contamination from history at its source, the City-State could still be saved—the current destruction was not real destruction, it was just the terrifying “possibility” of two histories overlapping…It was not too late, not too late yet.
Fenna repeated this in her heart as if to encourage herself; she struggled not to think about the possibility of other churches being breached, or where that mysterious and terrifying Captain Duncan might be lying in wait, but just mechanically moved her feet, destroying all obstacles she encountered on the burning streets, narrowing the distance between herself and the cathedral.
Suddenly, however, she stopped not far from the cathedral at an intersection.
A dark grey car was upside down by the roadside, apparently rolled over in the accident, several corpses were strewn beside the road, looking as if they had been thrown out of the car.
And inside that car, there was another person—a hand had reached out through the twisted car window, stuck on the deformed car door.
Fenna instantly recognized the car and the arm.
It was her uncle, Dante Wayne.