Chapter 209

Anilas, and tried to suppress her level of Synchronization, immediately feeling a noticeable lightness in her body.

"Really..."

Without further hesitation, she immediately disengaged from the Synchronization, and her gorgeous combat dress vanished, replaced by a close-fitting camouflage uniform.

"That makes me feel much better..."

Anilas breathed softly, tied her golden hair up, and sat down to regulate her breathing.

Now only Efnir remains in her Exile Form, looking at everyone with confusion, completely bewildered by the situation.

"What exactly is going on? What are you doing?"

Efnir's words drew everyone's attention.

Yuan, Lan, and the others looked at Efnir and sized her up, all with puzzled expressions.

"Senior... you weren't affected?"

"What impact? What are you talking about?"

Efnir was baffled.

107. Underground Research Institute

"Senior, don't you feel at all the significant depletion of the Order Force?"

"No..." In response to Lan's question, Efnir sensed for a moment and shook her head, saying, "The Order Force is still sufficient. The previous battle didn't consume much of it, and I've recovered almost completely along the way. I'm almost at full strength now."

"It seems that the senior was indeed unaffected."

Lan drew a conclusion.

Indeed, this was the case—Lan, Yuan, Feng, Anilas all experienced varying degrees of exhaustion, which only subsided after they were released from their Exile Form. In contrast, Efnir showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever, and Efnir rapid pace did not suggest a lack of Order Force.

This only made Efnir more puzzled.

"I still don't understand what happened. What happened to you before? Or what was that? Could you explain in detail?"

Let me explain.

Anilas had rested for a while, was much better than before and took over the conversation.

"Since arriving here, my power has been constantly weakening and dissipating. The more power I lose, the more it feels like I'm being swallowed up, and the more our power is suppressed. At first, I thought it was just my imagination, but in the last ten minutes or so, I've increasingly felt the imbalance of the Order Force within my body. Since entering this space, my vision has been getting dimmer and dimmer, and just now I couldn't even distinguish distant light anymore. Besides, considering that my physical strength has also been depleted along with the Order Force, I think the abnormalities here are probably far more than that."

The loss of the Order Force should not have stripped the agent of their physical strength, or rather, the extent should have been negligible, but here it has been magnified infinitely.

As soon as she finished speaking, Efnir frowned deeply. It wasn't that she hadn't noticed the flare; it seemed that Anilas had already noticed this anomaly beforehand.

"This phenomenon, however, did not affect the tunnel. That's when I finally realized that something was amiss here, and I immediately summoned the others back. I rushed to find you before my power completely dissipated. But I didn't expect that the closer I got to that pillar, the faster my power would drain away. As for what happened next... you already know."

It turns out that Anilas sensed something was wrong with this space, which is why she rushed here to find Efnir after firing the signal flare, wanting to bring Efnir back.

However, her strength was completely depleted earlier, which is why Anilas was exhausted.

Efnir then understood.

"Could it be... that you've all experienced the same thing? Is it still possible to Synchronization now?"

"It's a pity," Yuan shook her head, "While it's not too difficult to Synchronization, my Order Force is almost depleted. If we were to encounter a battle at this time, I probably wouldn't be able to handle it easily..."

"Me too."

Feng echoed in agreement, while Lan remained silent.

Anilas for a moment, then frowned. "What's worse is that we're not carrying any weapons... This is the first time I've felt this way since becoming an agent."

In short, Anilas and the others all experienced varying degrees of loss of the Order Force, while Efnir, for some unknown reason, was not affected in the same way as Anilas and the others. But that was precisely what was strange. Efnir nodded silently, beginning to ponder the cause of this situation, while her gaze fell upon the "dust" scattered throughout that space.

Efnir noticed a somewhat intriguing coincidence.

She looked at Anilas: "You just said that the feeling of being swallowed up would disappear once you left that place and entered the tunnel?"

"Yes," Anilas replied truthfully after a moment's recollection, "If we go back into that area, that feeling will reappear, and the closer we get to the center, the stronger the feeling will be, and the faster the Order Force will be lost."

"This is truly concerning..."

Efnir lowered her brows in thought.

--Efnir had felt something was strange before, wondering why that space was filled with "dust." But if we look at it from another angle, is it that the "dust" fills that space, or was that space itself excavated and built along with that "dust"?

Dust doesn't lie, but our eyes and our thoughts can.

What is the relationship between that underground space built around the cylinder and the surrounding buildings that prostrate themselves like subjects? Is there some causal relationship between this space and the "dust" that fills it?

Or rather,

"Thank you..."

With her thoughts in mind, Efnir didn't show her suspicions on her face; instead, she began to Anilas.

Although Efnir didn't experience any of the "effects" they were talking about, Anilas risked great danger to find Efnir, and for that alone, Efnir deserved her gratitude.

Fortunately, no Mutated Entity are found here.

Anilas shook her head.

"Don't worry about it. It turns out my worries were unnecessary," Anilas smiled faintly, paused, then composed herself and asked Efnir, "By the way, Efnir, did you find anything in there?"

Efnir nodded and recounted everything she had seen.

Anilas others listened attentively, while Lan, Feng, and Yuan would occasionally add their own observations.

"In other words, that strange cylinder doesn't actually look like it was built at the same time as the surrounding buildings; it existed much earlier than the other buildings, which puzzles me."

"Moreover, this is very likely a research base."

Yuan took out her combat recorder, which clearly recorded the various research equipment she found in those buildings. Efnir immediately recognized the extraordinary nature of those sophisticated instruments.

This is actually a huge and quite advanced research institution.

"Research institutes of this size are quite rare."

"If this place has existed for a very long time..." Anilas, "Then there are only two possibilities. First, when Xijing City was first established, this underground space was not actually discovered, and its existence was only later discovered and concealed. Second, this space was deliberately concealed from the beginning, and some unknown work was carried out right under the nose of Xijing City."

"The latter is more likely."

"Could this be related to the Apostle?"

"I don't know... The entire Maesakagawa Garrison District was destroyed, and this place was no exception. We haven't seen any clues left by any living people along the way, so we have no way to search."

"Perhaps..."

Efnir raised her gaze, looking into the distance at the massive cylindrical building behind her, and slowly spoke, "Perhaps it does have some inevitable connection with the Apostle, but I don't believe this thing could have existed peacefully under the noses of Xijing City for so long."

"Xijing City..."

Anilas sensed something different in Efnir's words.

108. Passage

Meanwhile, on the other side, Lapith, Trilice, and Lynn's trio...

"How interesting. Xijing City is just a medium-sized city, yet so many things are happening here... Or is it that things turn out this way as long as you get involved with the Apostle?"

Lapith squinted, staring into the depths of the dark tunnel, her gray bangs highlighting her deep red eyes. The air was thick with the stench of decay and blood. The ground and walls were covered with foul-smelling black blood and terrifyingly large Fracture. Beneath the viscous flesh lay countless vines and corpse remains.

At first glance, it looks like it's all flesh and blood, as if it's been haphazardly shredded by a blender, with entrails and chunks of meat scattered all over the place.

"It smells awful..."

Trilice looked distressed and grief-stricken. Lin patted her head to comfort her, but Trilice glared back at her with her claws outstretched.

"Don't touch my head! It really will stop my growth!!"

"Sorry, sorry... I couldn't help it..."

"You better hold back!"

Lapith glanced at the two bickering, sighed softly, and tried to dissuade them, "Alright, alright, you can flirt after the mission is over, okay? Now, focus on your work."

"Oh... wait! Who are you saying is flirting!"

Just as Trilice calmed down a little, she immediately started jumping up and down in a panic, but Lin held her back tightly.

"Captain, we're so sorry, we'll be more careful!"

Lin tightly covered Trilice's mouth to prevent her from making a sound, and apologized to Lapith on Trilice's behalf as well.

Lapith shook her head and sighed, but she wasn't really angry about it.

She simply waved for Trilice and Lin to come over, then squatted down, ignoring the dark gray blood, and flipped open a section of the corpse, examining the severed limb in her hand.

She stared at the wound where the limb had been severed.

The trauma was neither caused by ordinary firearms nor by sharp or blunt instruments; it was as if the body had been torn apart—or rather, wrung out—by some enormous force, like a wet towel being wrung out, with muscles and bones ripped and broken, then forcibly ripped from the torso.

Lapith handed the severed limb to Trilice.

"Trilice, can you identify what kind of attack left this mark?"

"I've never seen this type before," Trilice, still feeling awkward. She glanced at it casually, but frowned after just one look. She pinched her nose, squatted down, and examined it more closely. "What is this? Such a strange wound. Why did it get like this..."

Although Trilice seems very unreliable, in fact, Lapith would occasionally ask Trilice for advice.

In terms of combat experience alone, Trilice is superior to Lapith.

In terms of seniority, Trilice is practically Lapith's mentor. Trilice joined the agents earlier than Lapith, and a few years ago she was one of the leading agents in Suzuda City, even close to becoming the "chief." However, two years ago, during a global Specific Erosion Disaster, Trilice was severely injured while saving Lapith and Lin. Her chest was pierced, her heart was damaged, and her lungs suffered severe Dregsification, bringing her to the brink of death.

She miraculously survived, but her heart was damaged and part of her lungs were removed. After that, her strength was greatly reduced and she could not fight at full strength. So she stepped down to the second line and became a member of Lapith's team. She was also the team's coach and strategist. As for her seemingly idle appearance on weekdays, it was, to some extent, a facade she put on in order to train Lapith and let Lapith make more decisions.

"They're not our people. Could it be that these Mutated Entity are killing each other? But that doesn't seem likely."

Trilice muttered.

Lin also squatted down next to Trilice, collecting samples while frowning in thought.

"It looks like it's been thrown into a washing machine and churned up."

"What's even more concerning is that these corpses all died in extremely gruesome and similar ways, exhibiting a very awkward, twisted, and contorted shape—making it hard to believe they weren't the work of the same person."

"These bodies appear to have died relatively recently, likely sometime between last night and half an hour ago."

Based on these Trace, it is easy to deduce that the other party was neither a soldier nor another agent of the Maesakagawa.

The corpses and the Trace scattered across the walls and floor looked recent; the blood still clung to them. Clearly, someone had walked this path before them, and that person might not have been gone long—perhaps even a few hours earlier, still at the other end of the tunnel.

"Is it possible that he is Apostle?"

Lin asked what was on her mind.

During yesterday's battle, four members of the Apostle Squad that Ayse was pursuing managed to escape, but their whereabouts have since become unknown. The search for them has continued without success.

If the Apostle reappear, they will have to be cautious—even if they are not afraid of a single Apostle Squad, if they are surrounded by a large number of Apostle, they will immediately be caught in a fierce battle, not to mention that the Apostle Organization also has powerful weapons like the "Angel".

If the other party is Apostle, the best course of action is to send someone to follow them while the others return along the way to request support.

Trilice looked around, her casual attitude replaced by a slightly more serious expression. "But it could be done by Apostle, although Apostle generally don't use such inefficient methods."

"Be cautious, let's keep going. If they really are Apostle, then we'll immediately rejoin Efnir and the others and request reinforcements—of course, if they don't outnumber us, we'll wipe them all out."

"Wait, I think we should leave a mark here as a precaution for the worst-case scenario."

"Use this."

Lapith handed the fluorescent powder to Lin, who took it to mark the area, while Trilice glanced at it and walked straight ahead.

There seems to be an exit ahead.

Trilice gazed into the depths of the dark tunnel, where tiny specks of light floated in the air.

Lapith squinted, carefully sensing the sensation.

"There's a breeze. This journey is finally coming to an end. Let's see who's been ahead of us all this time, and at least find some clues."