Advent

The golden light faded.

The phantom was pulled back to the statue.

The cracks on the statue's surface turned into charred scars, and the gold turned grayish-white. The eyes that once radiated Holy Light were now two empty black holes.

The Archbishop knelt on the ground.

"Impossible... impossible..."

His voice sounded like a dream, as if all his strength had been drained away.

The ceremony failed.

A deathly silence fell over the surroundings.

No one spoke.

Only the sound of rain, only the gunshots growing ever closer in the distance, only those "resurrected" heads beginning their frantic cries of "Mother!"

"It's over..." someone's voice trembled.

"It's really over..."

Despair spread among the people like a plague.

Lu Yuan knew there was no need to hide anything at this point, so he decisively took out the Parchment Scroll and opened it.

But no miracle happened, or rather, nothing happened at all.

The red characters on the Parchment Scroll were twisted and intertwined, like a frightened animal, condensed into a ball. Even when Lu Yuan glanced at them, his rationality remained unaffected.

"... This seems a bit bad."

Lu Yuan's eye twitched involuntarily.

What exactly is going on?

The rain intensified, becoming fine and dense, stinging my face.

The gray-white text is still frantically displaying prompts.

The sound of collapsing buildings came from the west. The Flesh Tree began to advance faster, its roots wriggling on the ground, and the heads hanging from the canopy sang in unison.

Their faces were flushed with fervor as they sang ethereal songs; the front lines were crumbling.

A soldier of the Holy Armor Army was dragged into the darkness before he could even react after his ankle was entangled in vines. His scream lasted only a moment before a head appeared in the tree canopy.

"Hold on!" Xi Wading roared, sweeping his giant blade and severing several vines. "Don't panic!"

But they were already at their limit. The firepower they had brought with them during the retreat had long been exhausted, and a single Transcendence was of little use against such a massive group of Flesh Tree.

A Judge was dragged in, metal shards flew everywhere, and another head appeared in the treetop.

"It's over."

This reflects everyone's emotions.

"Sigh, I'm really unwilling to accept this. Let's kill a few more." Allen was the first to step forward. He seemed to have accepted his fate, and his expression gradually became calm.

The golden longsword in his hand shone brightly.

But before Allen could make a move...

The earth began to tremble.

It wasn't the tremor caused by battle, but some kind of pulse from deeper within.

From the west, towards the sea, came a deep rumble; all the raindrops seemed to Immobilization for a moment, and the battle paused for a moment as well.

Lu Yuan clutched the Parchment Scroll and instinctively turned his head to look in that direction.

Something is rising up there.

A dark shadow is slowly rising on the sea surface.

The outline was so large that even in the inner city, it could be seen obscuring a corner of the skyline.

Lu Yuan couldn't describe its shape; his brain refused to process the image. Only one concept remained in his consciousness: enormous, incomprehensibly enormous, as if the entire ocean had come to life.

"What is that..." Mary's voice trembled.

Someone was looking in that direction.

Then their eyes burst open.

Blood gushed from his eyes, he collapsed to the ground, convulsing, uttering meaningless syllables.

"Don't look!" Allen was the first to react, shouting sternly, "Everyone, head down! Don't look directly at me!"

But it was too late; most people present had already turned their attention away.

Lu Yuan instinctively lowered his head, not daring to look directly at him.

Even so, the text at the edge of my field of vision began to jump wildly.

[WARNING! █████ detected!]

[Rationality: -5...-5...-5...]

[Warning! The Contamination has reached its peak; you are about to be transformed into Believer Transcendent!]

[Leave immediately! Leave immediately! Leave immediately...]

The message begins to distort and become blurry.

Lu Yuan felt his consciousness being torn apart by something, an irresistible force, like standing on the edge of a cliff with an endless the Abyss below.

Reason is rapidly declining, 22...17...12...7...3...2...

[Sanity: 1/70]

[Warning! Your sanity is on the verge of collapse! You have been monitored by ██... Sanity locked...]

The number stopped at 1.

Lu Yuan was in a daze at the moment, not knowing what had saved him. Perhaps it was the being that had been watching him all along, or perhaps it was something else entirely.

But he's still alive; he hasn't completely gone mad.

Everything around us is collapsing.

The Archbishop knelt on the ground, laughing maniacally, tears of blood streaming from his eyes, muttering something that sounded like a prayer or Curse.

The armor that symbolized the indomitable will on the Holy Armor Army went out, and they struggled to grip their swords.

But they have lost control of their bodies.

The few civilians who followed were either tearing each other apart or huddled together, emitting meaningless screams.

The air was thick with the stench of blood and madness.

Lu Yuan looked at the familiar faces, but couldn't take a step forward.

Old Morgan knelt on one knee, his hand supporting him on the ground, his body trembling violently.

The old man's eyes still held a sliver of clarity as he struggled in agony.

Hans was still on the front lines, still wielding his sword, but his movements grew slower and slower, as if bound by invisible chains. His warrior instincts kept him going until the very end.

Mary lay on the ground, still clutching the gun, her eyes closed, her mind overwhelmed.

Allen's power flickered in and out of existence; the Eerie Transcendence power of a peak Fourth Order cultivator was resisting the Contamination, but the light grew dimmer and dimmer.

Scales began to grow on their skin, bluish-gray scales that spread from the back of their hands to their arms, and from their necks to their cheeks.

Lu Yuan's vision was distorted. Was he hearing the sound of waves or whispers? He couldn't tell anymore. He felt like he was about to "melt," melting into this madness.

Just then, another red vein descended from the sky and landed on the Parchment Scroll in my hand.

As the veins slid down, the Parchment Scroll began to heat up, and Lu Yuan's left hand was visibly burned, the Flesh twisted together in a grotesque manner.

But Lu Yuan could no longer feel any pain; Lu Yuan simply looked down at the scene.

As the scroll unfurled naturally, the twisted runes on it began to glow, a blood-red light.

The words detached from the scroll, as if alive, twisting and rearranging in the air, eventually transforming into countless tiny red threads.

The silk threads wrapped around Lu Yuan's arm, piercing his skin and taking root in his Flesh.

Lu Yuan instinctively tried to break free, but his body was no longer under his control.

Strangely, as the silk threads slid into my body, instead of pain, I felt a cool, refreshing sensation. The feeling of almost "melting" disappeared, and my consciousness became clear.

The threads spread outwards, avoiding everyone, and flew straight towards the charred Angel Statue.

Enveloped, eroded, devoured, the statue turned into white powder and vanished with the wind.

Upon witnessing this scene, the Archbishop lost his last shred of consciousness, collapsed to the ground, and never moved again.