Chapter 70: You Don’t Understand the “Shoreguards” at All
Jagged shards of time, like peeling flakes of wall plaster, kept surfacing around Grey.
The entire Frostwater Town, including the dim sky above, was riddled with fracture lines.
Just moments ago, Grey had made her choice.
She did not choose the release of death.
Nor did she choose to remain intoxicated by the false dream, unwilling to face reality.
Instead—
She acknowledged her own weakness, and also admitted the sins she had committed in the past.
She chose to bear the weight of others’ lives and face her own future head-on.
Even if… that future might not be as beautiful as the illusion before her, and even if it would end in death, it didn’t matter.
Because that future belonged to Grey alone,
Something neither evil gods nor fate had the right to take or taint.
But before that—
What Grey needed to do was to break the illusionary Frostwater Town before her with her own hands.
To shatter the beautiful dream that she herself had woven.
……
Elsewhere, in Rast’s mind, lines of azure prompts drifted by slowly.
【Ascension Quest “The Tower”: Uncover the truth of Frostwater Town, hidden beneath the fog.】
【Ascension Quest Completed】
【Your Arcana Sequence Long Order “The Tower” has ascended to the Second Tier】
【The “The Fool’s Library” has gained new power】
【Tower · Navigator (Unlocked): Second-tier ability of the Tower sequence. Your eyes can pierce through fog and darkness. Even in a pitch-black sea, you will never lose your way.】
As expected, the Second Tier ability of the Tower Sequence was “Navigator”.
Rast looked at the lines of azure text in his mind and wasn’t surprised.
Though the extraordinary knowledge of the “Tower” sequence had disappeared from the modern world, general descriptions of its abilities had still been passed down.
If that hadn’t been the case, Shiltina wouldn’t have immediately identified him as a “Tower” Sequence night traveler when they first met at Deep Blue Port.
Boom—
In that fragmented and broken world,
From a distant direction, a dazzling and surging starlight burst out once again.
Had Shiltina used “True Name Liberation” once more?
Just as that thought arose,
The next moment, a new line of azure prompt appeared in Rast’s mind.
【Your “Bond” with Shiltina Ingrit has deepened. The “The Fool’s Library” has gained new power】
【‘War Chariot’ · Shiltina’s current Bond Level increased from 3 to 4】
【You have unlocked a new Codex】
【Nightblade “Infinite Blade” — All Things Are Weapons Unlocked】
What had happened on Shiltina’s side to force her into using “True Name Liberation” twice in a row?
The price of doing so could very well be the complete destruction of “Shimmering Morningstar”.
Moreover, it seemed that in the process, his bond with Shiltina had also grown deeper.
But soon, Rast dismissed all the cluttered thoughts.
Shiltina had placed all hope of overcoming the Disaster Remnant on him, using his own methods against him.
So, regardless of what happened on her end, all he could do was trust her.
At this very moment, the only thing he needed to focus on
Was to fully clear all of Frostwater Town… to fully clear this entire Disaster Remnant.
……
Crack—
Crack—
The sound of shattering rang out repeatedly, transforming into fragments of light.
This was a massive trial for Grey.
Because after countless resets, Frostwater Town had already become a domain of temporal disorder, with numerous time rifts crisscrossing through it.
And now, what she needed to do was to stop relying on mental fluctuations to unconsciously stir that power capable of disturbing time and space.
Instead, she had to consciously use her own spirit and will to connect with it, to command it.
To stop it from rampaging uncontrollably, and completely turn it into a power under her dominion.
Then, she had to obliterate Frostwater Town within this chaotic timeline, restoring it to its original temporal laws.
This was undoubtedly an extremely difficult process. That was a power capable of distorting time and meddling with fate… even the slightest misstep in Grey’s control could lead to irreparable catastrophe.
Yet the greatest obstacle she faced wasn’t even this.
Above the night sky, the grotesquely writhing crimson blood moon suddenly began to surge.
The blood mist within the town boiled violently like scalding water, condensing into one twisted vortex after another.
Then, in Grey’s ears, came the sound of mad whispering.
Her emerald eyes, like gemstones, showed a blood-red hue filled with struggle.
At the same time, the blood mist spread abruptly, surging toward Rast and Grey.
This was a counterattack from the source of the pollution within Frostwater Town.
After countless loops of distorted time, the old Frostwater Town had fused with the polluting entity at the source of the blood mist, becoming an inseparable whole.
And now, with Grey choosing to face the future and destroy the illusion of Frostwater Town—
When this distorted timeline was corrected… it would also mean that the pollution fused with the town would be erased within that corrected time.
Naturally, such action provoked violent resistance from the pollutant.
Even though all the string puppets had already been annihilated by the light of True Name Liberation, the blood mist—this power belonging to the pollutant—still remained.
Originally under the protection of an invisible fate, the pollutant couldn’t truly harm Grey.
Each time Grey faced death, that invisible fate would guide her onto a different trajectory.
But now, Grey was attempting to suppress, restrain, and command that uncontrollable power with her own will.
Turning the ripples of fate into her own strength, no longer something that passively activated unconsciously, but something she could wield at will.
Yet this also meant that the fate's protection over her had been forcibly suppressed by Grey herself and no longer existed.
She was no longer the favored child of destiny, but merely an ordinary girl without strength to even truss a chicken.
……
“No… Rast ge-ge…”
“I can’t suppress the source of Frostwater Town’s pollution.”
Grey barely managed to utter these brief words.
The next instant.
Boom—
The blood mist surged without restraint, completely engulfing both Rast and Grey.
At the moment of engulfment, countless maddened whispers echoed in Rast’s heart.
Madness, despair, corruption, anger—countless negative emotions flooded his mind in a heartbeat, carried by those whispers.
To summarize the whispers simply:
They echoed phrases like, “A madman sharpens his blade at night; the Emperor Star trembles as Mars ascends,” and, “Heaven gives birth to all things to nourish man, yet man has no virtue to repay heaven.”
For an ordinary person, even a single second of these whispers might be too much to bear—they’d immediately fall under the blood mist’s control, becoming no different from the puppets who had lost themselves.
And having been trapped in Frostwater Town, bound by twisted time, subjected to thousands of cycles… it seemed the pollutant at the blood mist’s source had grown manic too.
Now that the protection enveloping Grey had vanished, the blood mist turned utterly frenzied, trying to swallow, corrupt, and transform both Rast and Grey into its slaves.
At the same time, it could take this chance to seize the mighty force of fate it had long coveted from Grey.
“Rast ge-ge, I can’t hold on anymore.”
“Kill me…”
“As long as you kill me now… then all the twisted time within Frostwater Town, along with the source of the pollution, will be buried with me.”
“Then you and Sister Shiltina can escape.”
“Kill me…”
From within the blood mist came the girl’s sobbing plea.
She begged Rast to end her life… before her will was fully corrupted and she turned into the pollutant’s pawn, raising arms against him.
Previously, Grey had also pleaded for death, but her reasons then were entirely different.
The first time, she believed death could pay back all her sins and karma, offering her relief and closure.
It was less a plea for death, and more a form of escape.
But now, Grey asked to die in order to protect others.
To bury the crimson moon’s pollution at the cost of her life, allowing Shiltina and Rast to escape Frostwater Town’s deathtrap—and shielding many strangers from the pollutant’s reach.
Yet in the next moment.
Rast’s light chuckle suddenly rang out beside Grey.
He walked to her, gently tousling her messy, dust-covered gray hair.
Even though Rast himself was also engulfed by the blood mist, his body covered in dense red markings, enduring the same pollution as Grey, and those mad whispers had already torn apart most of her mind and will within seconds—
Rast’s bloodshot eyes remained clear and bright, like luminous stars suspended in a lake.
“I don’t like those kinds of stories that only feel complete and profound when someone dies at the end.”
“Some people say tragedy is the only thing that leaves a lasting impact on the audience, that it elevates the narrative… but to me, all tragedies stem from one thing: the weakness of the protagonist.”
“Not just physical or in terms of power—but weakness of heart.”
“Because of their weakness, the protagonist can only watch helplessly as others die for their sake, unable to do anything.”
“Because of their weak heart, they can only cry or rage impotently after the tragedy happens… never thinking to stand up before the end arrives—”
“To change the imperfect ending into the one everyone hoped for, with their own hands.”
Rast’s words were calm, with no trace of a person enduring the madness and corruption within the blood mist.
“Since the only remaining obstacle now is the pollutant at the blood mist’s core.”
“Then why not just crush the source directly?”