Rumble! The fog expanded to more than six meters, and muffled booms echoed from within.
An hour later the mist dispersed, revealing a five-meter-tall, pitch-black hound. Its head was unusually long, studded with six yellow-glowing eyes.
"Woof! Woof!" The moment it appeared the dog barked at Jiang Yan.
Though it was barking, Jiang Yan understood: it was calling him "Master".
"Bocchi?" Hearing the barks, the distant Blackgold leapt off the sofa and stared at the hound.
Jiang Yan also checked the dog's profile.
Bocchi: a monster from another world, possessing extreme defense and a simple nature!
Size-shift: Bocchi can freely enlarge or shrink, maxing out at a hundred meters and shrinking to an ordinary dog's size!
Super Defense: Bocchi's defenses are overwhelming!
Laser Cannon: each eye can fire a laser—(power is immense; please don't fire at random)
While Jiang Yan read, Blackgold had already run over.
Bocchi's six eyes widened; it barked a few times: "Woof! Woof!"
Then it dashed to Blackgold and started sniffing him all over.
Jiang Yan, curious, asked, "You know this dog?"
Blackgold patted Bocchi's head and answered, "Master, Bocchi and I come from the same world; Centipede Emperor knows him too, but I'm the one who gets along with him."
Bocchi has a straightforward temperament; Blackgold treats him as just another dog.
Jiang Yan nodded. Bocchi's abilities were easy to grasp, so he skipped testing; when the time came to fight the Federation they'd see his true strength.
After summoning Bocchi, Jiang Yan stayed put, waiting for the next summon.
The next summon would cost 99,072,000—9.9 billion—and would take at least five or six days.
While Jiang Yan waited, on a Blue Planet seventy or eighty light-years from Earth…
…two continents dotted the globe, along with countless islets.
On one continent's lower reaches, hills ringed a small town.
The buildings were 1970s British-style.
"Stop them—seize that heretic!!!" A roar tore through the night.
A dozen black-robed men, blades or muskets in hand, chased a young man and woman.
"Damn, how did the Church's lackeys find us?" the young man muttered, face grim.
Bang! He spun and fired an old revolver at the black-robed men.
Effective range: barely ten meters; the bullets flew wide.
Bang! One pursuer leveled a musket and fired.
His shot was even wilder, plowing into the dirt behind them.
"Quit chasing!" the girl shouted. "We only took one raw ore—we'll give it back!"
A middle-aged blond among the black-robes sneered, "Today a rock, tomorrow a murder—you low-born heretics deserve the stake."
The fugitives were dusk-skinned; every pursuer was fair, blond, blue-eyed.
Bang! Nelly's temper flared; he fired again.
"You Church dogs are the real heretics—this is our homeland!" Nelly roared; if not for their numbers he'd have lunged at the blond man.
The black-robes only smiled in contempt.
The chase left the town and headed into the mountains.
Swish-swish! Nelly and Maggie tore through weeds and brambles.
Yet the sounds behind grew thicker, closer.
"Haa… haa…" Maggie's strength waned; dread of capture clouded her face.
Suddenly mist loomed beyond the weeds ahead.
"Maggie—fog! If we reach it we can lose them!" Nelly grabbed her hand and plunged in.
Without hesitation the black-robes followed.
"They're nearly spent," the lead blond shouted. "Even in the mist they can't run far—after them!"
The fog was thick—visibility barely a meter. Inside, Nelly and Maggie lost all sense of direction and simply ran.
After a while Nelly paled. "Maggie… are we lost?"
The brambles had thinned; he hadn't brushed any for over ten seconds.
Maggie's eyes widened as she pointed at the ground. "Nelly—look!"
Nelly glanced down—and his breath caught.
The familiar dirt path was gone, replaced by smooth gray-blue flagstones.
"What the—" His face flickered with alarm.
Impossible. A local, he knew these hills; nothing like this ought to exist here.
Maggie, pale, whispered, "What do we do now?"
Nelly had no answer—turn back and the Church would catch them.
"Keep going—see where this leads," he said, pulling her onward.
One step later the scene blurred; the mist vanished and they stood in a street.
Both stared, utterly dumbfounded.
"This…" Maggie gazed at rows of gray-blue two-story houses without windows—only darkness inside, as if something stared back. A smaller-than-normal moon hung overhead, amplifying her dread.
A smaller-than-normal moon hung overhead, amplifying her dread.
Nelly looked back: kilometers away a towering wall of white fog loomed.
We just walked through—how are we this far inside? We should be at the edge, he thought, eyes narrowed.
Everything felt wrong. The street stretched endlessly; alleys yawned between houses.
Footsteps echoed from a side alley behind them.
They spun to see a cluster of equally bewildered black-robed men step into view.
Both groups froze, stunned.
"Run!" Nelly grabbed Maggie and bolted into a side alley.