Madam Doll raised her head and said gravely:
"I don't know."
Everything they had experienced a month ago had gone far beyond anything they could reach: Origins and Jailers, burning skies and crumbling earth. Even someone like their Female Host could only struggle to protect herself on that Battlefield.
And the spark that had set it all off had actually been Lynn.
She drew a deep breath.
"Let's go take another look. No matter what..."
But before she could finish, she suddenly caught something out of the corner of her eye: an unusually deep, faintly glowing crack in the still darkness outside the window.
In an instant, before either of them could react.
A tremendous crash, like a glass mirror shattering, suddenly rang out. Boundless light erupted from the distant darkness, and the terrifying surge of power made the Cursecraft patterns on the Barrier surrounding the Castle light up all at once. Shrill alarms echoed inside and outside the Castle.
"What's going on?!"
Madam Doll and Cang Xuanyue jolted.
The Castle's defenses activated in that same instant. Guardian Dolls emerged one after another from the shadows within the walls and flew toward the edge of the Barrier.
Even the entire Castle seemed to come alive, shifting like a giant beast and trembling briefly.
"The Black Fortress's defenses have been triggered! Something terrifying has locked onto this place!"
Madam Doll immediately rushed to the window.
She had once spent a long time here and knew many of its safeguards inside out, but this was the first time she had ever witnessed an alert on such a scale.
Could it be...
Those Jailers?!
The immense disturbance just now, as though all of space were splitting apart, also sent a chill down Cang Xuanyue's spine.
"What is it?!"
They stared fixedly toward the