The mist suddenly retreated to both sides.
A gigantic half-hidden face slowly descended from the dense Gray Mist, meeting the Guardian's gaze across the air at the edge of the canyon.
It was a face formed from gray-white stone textures, its features harsh and ancient, as though it had been carved into a sheer cliff by a clumsy stonemason a thousand years ago.
In the eye socket exposed beyond the mist, there was no eyeball, only a hollow gray-white void.
"How will you proceed?"
Layer upon layer of hoarse voices echoed low between the canyon and the cliffs.
The wind stopped, and the mist no longer churned.
The Guardian clasped his hands within his sleeves, his cloudy eyes devoid of ripples as he quietly stared back at the stone face.
A negotiation between the Night Watchers' strongest combatant and the remnant body of a Taboo Entity silently unfolded.
At the very moment negotiations atop the tower had just begun, something beneath Bronze City also lost its original balance.
Deep within the Pipe Network, at a sentry post on the Northwest Branch.
The Night Watcher on duty held up an oil lamp as he conducted a routine inspection of the massive Bronze Sin pillars erected within the cracks of the walls.
These Bronze Pillars had originally only been leaking faint Transcendence auras at an extremely slow pace, while a dim blue glow still shone within the Inscription grooves on their surfaces.
But just moments ago, the underground air had suddenly become shrill. The aura leaking around the pillars abruptly grew immensely dense, and even the dim blue grooves began to tremble.
The lamplight moved closer, illuminating the rough bronze surface.
A tiny patch of minute yet densely packed bite and claw marks emerged at the very bottom of the Copper Pillar.