Time Enough to Love

It was like witnessing a Hell Church ritual.

Too horrible to look at.

Within the vast space beyond the door, everything in sight—the walls, ceiling, floor—was covered in countless twisted traces smeared in blood...

Like murals painted in madness, or words written while clutching at the last shred of hope in despair...

Yet it was impossible to tell what they had actually written.

Every stroke had been warped beyond recognition.

Only laughter, like an auditory hallucination, lingered all around them, sending chills down their spines.

Huai Shi gripped Hatewater tightly and surveyed his surroundings. Though the detection equipment had already confirmed that there was air outside, he still did not dare lower his heavy defenses.

Was all this an illusion, or something else?

He could not be sure.

But Garlandon had been right—as the location farthest from the Central Engine: Outflow Layer, Kingdom Gate was the safest place.

Everyone knew that.

Including the alchemists aboard Helios.

That was why they had chosen to flee... fleeing to the place farthest from the nightmare.

Unfortunately, the edge of a nightmare was still nothing but nightmare.

The ground was a complete mess, as though a dozen beggars had lived here for years. Old clothes, garbage, even excrement were piled everywhere.

And corpses.

The bodies of the dead.

Huai Shi only gave them a cursory glance before forcing himself not to look again.

They were too strange. Some had already become dry bones, while others remained lifelike, every detail of their final moments perfectly preserved. Some were both at once. Some had become seedbeds for plants, while others had been completely petrified.

The only thing they had in common was the... smile curling at the corners of their twisted mouths.

A smile from the bottom of their hearts.

As though they could truly empathize