Deep Sea Embers

All the churches fell in a short period of time, and round after round of hot "fireballs" rose from the ground in various parts of the city-state, burning the last anchor point of Prand's reality, and the bells stopped one after another, but After a short while, the only thing left of this pearl on the sea was only endless ruins and ashes.

Fanna rushed through the burning intersections and streets like a gust of wind, and rushed towards the cathedral that was burning with pillars of fire, and in her vision, the church had already changed its appearance in a short period of time——

The main building has fallen, and the main frame of the thousand-year-old building has melted and collapsed like wax. In the blink of an eye, only the twisted red-hot skeleton remains of the towering wing buildings. The "sun", as black and red as dry blood, is quietly hovering over the cathedral. It looks like a terrifying hole leading to an endless abyss, but it is constantly releasing destructive light and heat. .

The edge of this profane sun wheel is constantly dripping with bright red droplets—that is fiery lava, or the plasma of the defiler.

What can I rush over to do now? Kill a certain culprit? Reversing an already overlapping history? Or with this strength, in the end heroically but in vain to prove his faith and loyalty?

Fan Na didn't know, and she didn't know what else she could do, but she still rushed towards the church instinctively, and at this moment, some distorted green light and shadow suddenly appeared in the corner of her eyes, as if something Things flashed in the sea of ​​flames, and then, a majestic and deep voice sounded directly in her mind: "Go to the big clock tower."

The sound came so abruptly that Fanna stopped subconsciously. She looked for the direction of the sound, or any signs around her that could prove that the ghost captain was watching, but only saw a sea of ​​flames, The lava dripping from the blasphemous "sun" is igniting the last inch of land near the cathedral.

But at this moment, a voice broke Fan Na's brief hesitation.

She heard a sudden melodious chime--the bell came from the ancient bell tower behind the cathedral.

The bell sounded as loud as if it was going to cover the entire Prand again.

And the bell tower had been completely burned by flames before, so it was impossible to make any sound.

At this moment, Fan Na threw away all the hesitation and worries in her heart, and rushed towards the direction of the bell tower.

She no longer cares about the ghost captain's intentions, nor does she care about the consequences of following the other party's arrangement—with all the churches falling instantly, and before the fact that the entire city-state has been burned, the path she can choose is already All that remains is the bell tower, which still rings.

She crossed the square in front of the church.

The defense forces assembled on the square have been wiped out. In the roiling heat, only countless twisted and scrapped steam walkers and steam tanks can be seen. The defense line built by the defenders and city-state guards has turned into layers of coke, covered in shocking ashes. occupy.

She chopped down countless shadows of ashes that swarmed towards her, and passed through the burned ruins of the church main building and the sanctuary, and through the open courtyard, and saw the bell tower standing tall at the end of her vision .

Hot ash fell from the sky, and sparks danced like fireflies.

It reminded her of what she had seen not so long ago on the other side of the "veil", recalling the Pland she had seen that had been destroyed by fire in 1889.

Pseudo-history overlays official history, and what is behind the curtain replaces the real world in front of the curtain.

But the bell was still ringing.

The gate leading to the upper floor of the clock tower has collapsed, and the internal stairs have also broken and collapsed. After confirming this, Fan Na gave up the idea of ​​climbing the tower through the normal road. She came to the foot of the outer wall of the clock tower, looked up and made a simple confirmation. If you don't know the route, you reach out and grab the raised structure on the wall, and start climbing up.

The outer wall has been scorched by flames for a long time, and it is already as hot as a red-hot iron plate, but Fanna's climbing speed has not been affected at all, she almost rolled up like a gust of wind, and within a short time, she had already reached the upper part of the clock tower, and Passed over the mechanical dial that had stopped working, and came to the top of the tower where the bonfire and the big clock were placed.

It is very wide here, and there is a spire structure open on all sides as a cover. Under the spire, apart from the brazier, is the bell ringing device-a huge machine that uses gears and levers as the power mechanism.

The large clock is placed under this mechanism, hidden in a resonance chamber.

Fan Na jumped to the top of the tower, turned over and landed.

She looked back at the direction she came from, and saw that the city-state was engulfed in flames beneath her feet, and hot lava flowed through the streets, leaving shocking ravines. She looked down at Purgatory from the top of the city-state, seeing dilapidation everywhere.

Immediately afterwards, she turned her head and looked at the bell ringing device that had obviously lost its power, but was still in operation.

A figure...or a mass of coke barely maintaining the outline of a human being is clinging to the pull rod next to the bell ringing device, pushing the heavy gear to continue to rotate with human power.

Fanna stepped forward subconsciously, and the lump of coke seemed to sense her approach. He slowly raised his head, turned his face, and stared at the young judge who appeared on the top of the tower with a pair of human eyes.

"Hold... the clock tower..."

The lump of coke said hoarsely.

Then he fell to the ground with a bang, his completely carbonized body was torn apart, and the scarlet flames gradually extinguished among the remaining heat of the wreckage.

A storm emblem symbolizing the Deep Sea Church rolled down from the charcoal to the ground.

At last the final bell of Purland stopped.

"archbishop!"

Fanna recognized the pair of eyes just now, and she rushed forward, wanting to save the pile of ashes, or to push the stopped bell mechanism again, but just as she took a step, a sudden strong oppressive force stopped her. Stop the action.

Fan Na stopped abruptly, and turned her head to look in the direction from which the powerful oppressive force came from.

A tall and thin figure in a tattered gray robe, withered and shriveled, like an ascetic monk, was standing quietly on the edge of the high platform.

"Ascetic Monk" looked at Fanna with compassionate eyes, and in the sky behind him was the dark sun that was dripping hot molten lava and inlaid with a dazzling bright edge.

That figure appeared there at some unknown time, and his arrival was so silent that Fanna didn't notice at all—it was as if he had been standing on this high tower from the very beginning, from a long, long time ago, from here It was like standing there before the fire started.

"You struggled as hard as you could, kid, all of you struggled as hard as you could, and even delayed several times longer than expected, but this delay and perseverance are meaningless... No one will come to your door, in this closed-loop history In the vision, any reinforcements are destined to be unable to reach Purand before the history is corrected..." The skinny black figure said slowly, he raised his hand slightly, his bone-like arm seemed to be covered with a layer of fire under the reflection of the dark sun. , "Now, embrace this new future, child reborn from the ashes...Your survival and return have not changed anything."

Fan Na was silent, but silently took off the giant sword on her back.

"Oh, the negotiation broke down..." Finally, the preacher saw Fanna's actions, but he still had a look of compassion and indifference, "Of course you can easily kill me, but it's meaningless... The Sons of the Sun have already prepared for the meeting. Get ready for the coming, as for me, I am just a witness of this last moment, I will witness it now, and I will witness it in the future, and you... have you seen the sun?"

Fanna raised her eyes slightly, and her eyes passed the figure of the final missionary, and finally noticed that there seemed to be something slowly beating in the darkness deep in the profane sun, like an embryo that was being conceived, a gradually The resurrected heart.

A strange palpitation suddenly came to my heart.

She finally realized that the sudden strong oppressive force just now did not come from the emaciated and final missionary in front of her—it was the dark sun behind him.

Something is waking up in the depths of the sun!

"There have been many twists and turns in this plan, and a force that has never been seen clearly has interfered with our revision of history time and time again," said the preacher of the end Yan with a face of pity, quietly watching Fanna's eyes, with a low voice , as if with some kind of bewilderment, "And the disturbance it brought made some eyes that should not have been opened aware of the truth... You are actually only a little bit away from revealing the whole truth, really, just A little bit - but that's the way fate is.

"My child, fate is so unreasonable."

He sighed in pity, and walked forward slowly. He came to Fanna who was still standing firmly, and said as if reading some kind of truth: "But you are blessed, you are resurrected from death, and you will be resurrected from death. You have received that supreme blessing... and you have the opportunity to embrace it all."

Fanna clenched the hilt of the sword. For the first time in her life, she was motivated by such strong hatred, not justice or duty, but at the last second before raising the sword, her actions It was suddenly interrupted by a stream of flames ignited out of thin air on the edge of the platform.

A dark green door of flames suddenly appeared behind the final missionary, and a tall and majestic figure covered in flames from the spirit body stepped out of it.

The final missionary seemed completely unaware of the door that appeared behind him, he opened his hands to Fanna, and declared like a prophet who preached to the world before the final judgment came——

"Blessed child, don't resist, as you can see, times have changed..."

He stopped suddenly.

An unspeakable fear suddenly drilled into his chaotic mind, a chaotic noise that seemed to come directly from the subspace mixed into the burning of Purand, the madman wanted to turn back in a hurry, but before that , a hand was already lightly on his shoulder.

"Change back."

A calm voice said so.