Inside the Steam Train Station in Constant City, stars emerged one after another, densely packed and dazzling, rapidly forming a swirling mass of stardust that completely enveloped the suddenly appearing Steam train, dissolving it little by little.
From the surface of the dark Steam train, bits of debris continuously fell off, revealing numerous cables underneath, intertwining and wriggling, transforming into a Monster with countless black tentacles unfurled.
Silently, the surrounding gravity intensified, and the ground beneath their feet erupted with immense suction, causing buildings on the ground to collapse and cling tightly to the earth.
Even the starlight became heavy, drooping downwards little by little, completely absorbed by the ground, unable to rotate or float.
Freed from the starlight's restraint, the Steam train completely disintegrated, turning into a pile of mechanical parts and countless cables, which began to wriggle and coalesce, forming a giant, grotesque face, from whose features Horamick Haydn's appearance could vaguely be discerned.
This enormous face constantly changed and roared, emitting ear-piercing howls.
It grew larger and heavier, simultaneously generating a powerful gravitational pull that sucked surrounding objects towards itself, making them revolve around it, forming a terrifying "storm."
Above the Gray Fog, Klein rose from his seat and quickly drew his gun, firing.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
One Spirit-controlling bullet after another shot out, passing through Arrodes's prayer light spots and sinking into the "storm" that was continuously tearing and gathering surrounding things, growing larger and larger.
The terrifying "storm," which seemed capable of uprooting the entire Constant City, suddenly stalled. Carriages, goods, walls, and bricks that had been rotating around it lost the pull of gravity and fell to the ground.
Brilliant starlight surged forth, emerging from cracks in the ground, and fragments of starlight regrouped internally, revealing Leyton's figure.
He reached out and made a pulling motion in the air, and the light of dusk appeared, forming a long table and numerous figures, condensed into existence.
This was a scene of the Ancient Sun God being devoured, derived from the Mystical Reenactment, "Feast of Betrayal," a mystical spell created from the knowledge of the Ancient Sun God's death!
"How bold! To use this 'Mystical Reenactment' without any Concealment measures… Is this provoking the Eternal Blazing Sun and Them, or is it provoking the True Creator?"
Above the Gray Fog, Klein murmured, the scene he saw through Arrodes's prayer light spots shaking, seemingly affected by some interference.
On the edge of the table in front of him, on the quietly resting mirror surface, silver Loen characters appeared one after another:
"Many gazes have been drawn by this 'Mystical Reenactment,' and even the underlying rules of Constant City's transformation have been disturbed."
"Master, I think he, um, He must be doing it on purpose. This city has gathered too many important figures, including Arianna, an Angel of Concealment serving 'Evernight,' Bernadette, Emperor Roselle's eldest daughter, Larrion, the former Archpriest of the Church of the God of Combat, and Horamick Haydn, the former Archbishop of the Steam Church. This is clearly an abnormal situation."
"He might be trying to use this 'Mystical Reenactment' to connect with those true masters, attracting more people and Gods to cast their gaze here, making this place even more chaotic."
Klein nodded, his tone calm: "That's possible."
Above the now-vanished Steam Train Station in Constant City, as the scene of the Feast of Betrayal appeared, the giant face floating in mid-air suddenly convulsed, its entire face becoming distorted, as if it could split apart at any moment.
The components forming it became uncontrollable, as if every gear and every coil had developed its own sentience, instinctively wanting to betray the whole and break away.
Silently, the surrounding light dimmed, as if covered by an invisible shadow.
The acts of betrayal by the numerous components on the giant face were distorted, magnified, and then uncontrollably split, turning into individual entities, each growing a different human face, glaring at each other.
As the giant face split, the items previously contained within it fell out, including brilliant, star-shimmering gems, mechanical golden gloves, and ancient silver mirrors with strange patterns.
This mental and individual separation allowed Horamick Haydn to briefly regain some self-awareness. He looked around blankly, then at Leyton, seemingly not understanding what had happened.
"War of the Gods… Corruption of the Cosmos…"
Muttering a few dazed, fragmented words, Horamick Haydn, now just a face, suddenly looked at Leyton and said:
"…Are you here to kill me?"
Leyton nodded, reaching into the void to pull out an ancient-style long spear, from tip to hilt burning with clusters and specks of bloody dark red flame.
Without unnecessary words, the dark red long spear, the moment it formed, left his hand, ignoring distance, and appeared directly at the forehead of Horamick Haydn's face.
Bloody dark red flames instantly surged, completely enveloping it, decomposing and dissipating it bit by bit.
This attack was magnified countless times, possessing immense power, as if it could directly kill an Angel.
Horamick Haydn, pierced by the dark red spear, rapidly lost his aura, but he became stuck just as one foot crossed the red line of death, unable to truly die.
In the Constant City Lord's Mansion, a brass-colored book spontaneously flipped open, and on its pages, mercury-colored words floated, automatically compiling strict and precise legal provisions.
At the bottom of the existing legal provisions, mercury-colored words simply wrote: "Death is forbidden here."
This legal provision, which involved the fundamental rules of the world, seemed to have exhausted all its power, and the book, which had been continuously compiling legal provisions, temporarily stopped.
A pool of silver metallic liquid seeped out from the surrounding void, flowing rapidly, attempting to envelop the brass-colored book discarded on the ground. The brass book vanished from its spot just as it was about to be enveloped.
On the other side, in the city streets, Bernadette and Arianna's figures emerged from the void almost simultaneously.
The latter nodded to Bernadette before calmly speaking:
"0-02 seems to have gone silent after modifying the underlying rules here. It might have temporarily exhausted its power."
"I am searching."
Bernadette replied calmly, her eyes flowing with a deep blue, almost purple, radiance, outlining mysterious symbols one after another, rapidly collecting and interpreting the information within this city.
With the added boost of her spiritual awareness, she quickly found some abnormal, discordant information.
"In the city Lord's Mansion, besides Larrion and 0-02, there are others."
As soon as she finished speaking, her and Arianna's figures vanished simultaneously, one transforming into a complex and pure information stream, the other seeming to be erased as if by an eraser, their figures vanishing.
After the rule of death became ineffective, Horamick Haydn once again fell into madness. He extended black cables from his head, like tentacles, into the separated faces, reconnecting them.
Under the influence of the power of the 'Stars,' their consciousness and spirit were unified again, forming a whole.
"No, not completely unified. It's more like forcibly stitching together parts that were distorted and separated by Roselle."
As Leyton murmured, on Horamick Haydn's face, which had swelled to the size of a small mountain, one different face after another protruded, struggling and roaring with a strange rhythm.
In the sky, the Stars suddenly became dazzling, growing brighter and larger.
A smell of burning filled the air, accompanied by the sound of intense friction and sparks, as a crimson meteor shower was summoned.
At the same time, gravitational and electromagnetic disturbances caused chaos and closure in the hidden passages in the surrounding void, and the ground's gravity suddenly increased, making even Beyonders skilled in flashing unable to move an inch, forced to wait in place for the meteor shower to fall.
Silently, the falling meteors disappeared one by one, as if erased from a canvas, leaving no trace.
In less than a minute, all the meteors falling from the sky were wiped away. A disaster, before it truly arrived, was easily resolved.
Inside Constant City, everyone hid indoors, in basements, or nervously watched outside through windows, or prayed to the Gods again and again, hoping this strange disaster would pass quickly and not affect them.
In the city outside the bay window, rays of light that were not brilliant, not clear, and had no color emerged. Anything touched by this light silently disintegrated, turning into fragments and falling to the ground, even colors rapidly dissipating as if evaporated.
In the attic of a three-story building, two small heads leaned against the glass window, quietly observing outside.
A teenage girl in a floral dress and an eight- or nine-year-old boy, they were pressed against the attic window. The girl covered her own mouth with one hand and the boy's mouth with the other, not daring to make a sound.
They had just seen a drunken man on the street diagonally opposite silently shatter, turning into a pile of colorless powder.
In their terrified eyes, a ray of light flew towards them, towards this side.
Suddenly, the surroundings darkened, covered everywhere by a gloomy mist, and the entire city fell into a deathly silence.
After a long silence, the little boy tentatively moved his body, then nudged the slightly older girl beside him and asked:
"Latiel, are we dead?"
The girl called Latiel shook her head blankly: "I… I don't think so. I don't know either."
In reality, where Constant City had once stood, the entire city had vanished, leaving only a massive pit.
With the disappearance of Constant City, the people who had been hidden within the city were revealed one by one.