The Holy Image Palace was utterly silent. The vast, magnificent temple was completely shrouded in an eerie stillness. A murky, chaotic mist drifted in from who knew where, covering every inch of the palace floor almost evenly. In the dimness, a twilight-like glow filled the air, but there was no warmth in it. Instead, it conveyed only intense malice and a gloom that drove people mad.
This twilight glow had never appeared in any Chaos Tide before, so Kalasios and the others had no idea what it meant. Hao Ren, however, understood after coming into contact with those illusions. This was Lockmadon's omen.
It was seeping into the real world. First came the enormous shadow drifting over Luan City, and then the twilight glow filling the Holy Image Palace.
There were no survivors in the palace, but there were no corpses either. They could not find even the slightest trace of battle.
"No one... and no corpses..." Hao Ren muttered in a low voice. "The church's strongest fighting force should have been gathered here, yet every last one of them vanished without a trace. There isn't even any sign that they resisted."
Lily ran back and forth at the front of the group, occasionally lowering her head to sniff the surrounding air with her keen nose. Soon, she came trotting back. "Landlord, there's no smell of blood either!"
Kalasios took a Platinum Staff from his dimensional pouch. It released a steady, warm white light in his hand, slightly dispersing the thick malice and madness in the surrounding air. His expression was grave. "It looks like everyone vanished at the same time. Otherwise, there would be some trace left behind. What kind of power could accomplish this? The divine spell array in the palace doesn't even show signs of activation... That