Leike walked over and took the bundle of Sealing Cloth from Glock. The writhing inside was weaker than before, but it had not stopped.
He untied the knot and placed the piece of Serpentine Chimera fragment, still wrapped in the Sealing Cloth, into the container. The fragment dropped into the vessel.
The grayish-white flesh suddenly contracted. Root-like tendrils stretched outward, only to curl back the instant they touched the isolation inscriptions on the inner wall. The lid closed, and the seal clasp locked shut.
Glock lowered his head for a look at the thing inside the container, frowned, and handed it to a soldier behind him to carry farther away.
Just then, the sound of metal rungs being stepped on came from within the Collapse Pit.
Adrian was the first to climb out. The old Bishop looked worse than when he had gone down, his lips pale, though his steps remained steady.
The Scripture hovered above his shoulder. Its Holy Light had completely withdrawn, leaving only an ordinary old book slowly turning in midair.
The first thing he did after climbing up was look toward the sky, his brows knotting tightly.
Lu Yuan came up right after him. He grabbed the edge of the Collapse Pit and pulled himself over, the night wind rushing into his collar and making him shrink his neck from the cold. Once he steadied himself, he saw it too.
High above the Tower of Erudition, scattered specks of light were still drifting away. Their colors had faded considerably. Most were now nothing more than faint glimmers, slowly dissipating in the night wind.
But the inscriptions on the Tower of Erudition itself were still pulsing, dark golden light flashing in waves.
Lu Yuan remembered the last sight he had seen before going down: several strands of