The darkness was thick like ink that could not be dissolved. The sea wind had stopped its whimpering. The waves had merged into the Dark Tide. Time had become tormenting.
This was the most profound feeling Imperator currently had.
It, who had recovered to its complete form, did not even have time to cover the entire Rinascita with spatial barriers before it saw all its people merge into the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare high in the sky.
"Truly… plans cannot keep up with changes…"
It sighed and returned to Ragunna. All that met its eyes was a silent city on the water.
High in the sky, the pitch-black mirror surface seemed to have broken through some kind of bottleneck. Ripples rose, and the entire mirror surface began to fall.
"Imperator, look. Your people are wailing in my Heavenly Kingdom. When the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare completely falls to the ground and the fantasy Heavenly Kingdom thoroughly merges with reality, the entire Rinascita will cease to exist. Do everything you can and come stop me!"
Leviathan's fish body swam in the inverted mirror sea and let out a carefree sharp laugh. The mocking voice echoed:
"Noah is dead. Cartethyia is dead. The people you wanted to protect have all merged into the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare."
"Look, Sentinel Imperator. How weak you are. You have actually continuously lost so many things that cannot be lost."
"If you had known it would come to this, why didn't you submit to me from the beginning and be thoroughly swallowed by me? That would have saved all these twists and turns."
Confident, arrogant, and arrogant—the Plague Threnodian held victory firmly in its hands.
Imperator raised its head and looked at Leviathan that was getting closer and closer inside the mirror sea. It only felt heavy in its heart.
Even though a layer of mirror separated them, it could clearly sense that the Plague Threnodian was madly increasing its power at every moment.
Perhaps this was exactly the reason it refused to leave the mirror surface.
"Leviathan, where exactly did you obtain such powerful strength from?"
"Hehe! Still trying to dig information out of me. Truly worthy of being the old opponent who has fought me for several hundred years. Even at this time you are still seeking intelligence."
Leviathan spoke mockingly:
"If you kneel down and beg me, perhaps I will be merciful and let you die understanding!"
"…Sigh."
Imperator let out a low sigh.
Civilization was in critical danger. As the Sentinel that protected civilization, it was powerless. Truly… it had failed the trust of the Driver.
"Even if only I alone remain in Rinascita, I will resist until the very last moment!"
It heavily stomped. An invisible frequency was transmitted into Ragunna's central beacon. A pure and warm white light shot up from the central beacon like a sharp sword.
That white light was pure without a single impurity, as if it were sacred light from another world. Wherever it reached, the darkness dissipated as if it had met its natural enemy.
Immediately after, as if summoned by the central beacon, identical white lights successively lit up in various corners of Rinascita. Like brilliant stars, they echoed one another.
Countless white lights shone into the sky above. The falling speed of the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare indeed suddenly dropped.
"Origin Light?!"
Leviathan pretended to cry out in shock, then immediately grinned ferociously:
"Is this your final trump card? You actually want to rely on Origin Light to stop me from digesting the civilization's consciousness."
"I admit that Origin Light indeed has an extremely great suppressing effect on the Dark Tide, but—"
"Do you really think that I, who am continuously growing stronger by harvesting consciousness inside the mirror, will not be able to free a hand to destroy these beacons?!"
"You are completely wrong!"
Several strands of Dark Tide crossed the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare, transformed into twisted giant pythons, and fiercely lunged at Ragunna's beacons from the side.
Imperator was struggling alone.
...
Inside the mirror world, Noah finally arrived at the Order of the Deep together with the people of the Troupe of Fools.
The closer they got to the white light, the fewer Tacet Discords they encountered. By the time they reached this place, they could no longer see any Tacet Discords at all.
There were more people than expected.
On the ground, on the trees, on the walls, on the pillars—as long as it was a place where people could stand, it was densely packed with no empty space left.
"Members of Montelli and the Order, push the protection circle outward. Expand the range of the inner circle and let more people in. The elderly and children should move toward the inside."
At the outermost edge of the crowd, Carlotta ordered the protection circle formed by family members and Order clerics to expand. Zani worked hard to maintain order.
"This way."
"Thank you."
The members of the Troupe of Fools followed the guidance of the Montelli Family members and smoothly entered the street in front of the Order. Before their eyes was a shocking scene.
One human figure after another either lowered their heads with exhausted expressions or looked up at the pitch-black mirror surface in the sky in confusion and helplessness.
Their bodies generally carried wounds caused by Tacet Discords, more or less.
Although there was no bleeding, just looking at these shocking wounds made people feel fear from the bottom of their hearts, afraid that they would be the next victim.
An atmosphere of unease, fear, and pain spread among the dense crowd.
"Not long ago, our world was still perfectly fine…"
Carlotta quietly looked back at the tide-like crowd behind her. A trace of sorrow appeared in her eyes:
"How did it suddenly become like this…"
"Little Potato?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Carlotta turned her head. When she saw the person who had come, her expression immediately lit up with joy:
"Tall Chestnut! Great! I've been looking for you the whole time. Now that you're here, everyone can be saved!"
"…No. I don't know how I can help you."
Noah's expression was complicated as he stretched out his hand. His palm passed through Carlotta's cheek.
In an instant, Carlotta's expression froze. She subconsciously reached out to grab Noah's hand, but caught only empty air.
"Tall Chestnut, how can this be…"
"Time is urgent. I'll keep it short."
After Noah's simple explanation, Carlotta quickly realized that the place they currently existed in was not the real Ragunna, but the "Heavenly Kingdom" inside the Threnodian's creation.
"Little Potato, I need your help."
Noah spoke seriously:
"The Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare made from the sorrow and fear of a civilization is indestructible. You understand materials like gems. Do you know how to break an extremely hard substance?"
Hearing this, Zani nearby could not help but speak up:
"A hard mirror made of sorrow and fear… no matter how you think about it, it should be broken by materials made of joy and courage, right?"
"Zani, if you don't understand, don't speak randomly."
Carlotta pointed at the depressed crowd behind her and shook her head:
"With the current situation, collecting joy and courage is already a luxury, not to mention that we have no idea how to turn the emotions of a civilization into weapons."
Therefore, what Tall Chestnut wanted from her was a kind of inspiration by analogy, wanting to obtain another line of thought for breaking the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare.
"I don't believe a mirror can truly be so hard that it cannot be broken. Everything must have its weakness."
Carlotta tightly furrowed her brows, forcing her brain to think hard.
Threnodian, Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare, Heavenly Kingdom inside the mirror… every sentence she spoke now might come at the cost of the entire civilization of Rinascita.
Huge pressure pressed down like the Five Finger Mountain, making even her breathing heavy.
How exactly could one use an alternative method to shatter this hard mirror that gathered the negative emotions of a civilization?
The more she thought, the more panicked Carlotta became—could she really give Tall Chestnut the inspiration that would save civilization?
In the end, she still shook her head sadly, raised her head, and helplessness rose like water mist in her originally brilliant eyes, like broken glass:
"I'm sorry, Tall Chestnut. I cannot give you any inspiration. Under the end of days, every chance to try and err is extremely precious. I'm afraid… of giving a failed method."
"…I should be the one saying sorry." Noah fell silent and reached out to virtually stroke the top of Carlotta's head:
"I was just grasping at straws in a desperate situation. This kind of pressure shouldn't be placed on you—it's fine. Don't overthink it. No matter what, I won't let anything happen to you."
He lowered his hand, took a deep breath, and turned to look toward the depths of the Order of the Deep, the source of that pure-white pillar of light.
Would there be a method to save Rinascita there?
He did not know.
"Wait, Tall Chestnut. I thought of something."
Carlotta clenched both hands tightly and spoke with the determination of putting everything on the line, her words coming out extremely fast as she voiced her guess:
"The Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare is still a mirror after all. Most mirrors are made of glass, and glass is generally fragile. There is only one kind of glass that can be called the hardest."
"Prince Rupert's Drop. Its head is an ultra-high-density compressive stress layer that can withstand twenty tons of pressure and even withstand bullets."
"But as hard as it is, it has a fatal weakness. Its fragile tail contains internal tension. Once the tail is broken, the entire Prince Rupert's Drop will completely shatter at a speed of 1500 meters per second."
"I hope… this can be of some help to you."
The tail of a Prince Rupert's Drop?
Noah raised his head and looked at the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare high in the sky that was so flat not a single fold could be seen. His heart instead became even more confused.
Did this mirror whose boundaries could not even be seen really have a tail?
Suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply.
High in the sky, the distant Ragunna reflected inside that mirror seemed to… have enlarged a little?
An illusion? No, not an illusion. The Ragunna reflected inside the mirror was still continuously enlarging!
Clearly, he was not the only one who had noticed this.
Among the crowd at the Order of the Deep, someone cried out in panic:
"The sky—is going to smash down!"