Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The timer indicated that there was only one minute left for the world to exist, and those who failed to reach the Sea of Purification was completely desperate.
The ground was vanishing while a flood crashed down from the sky as if someone just tore a hole in heaven.
The apprentices finally understood what was up there upon seeing the incoming flood.
But it was too late—those still on the ground was unlikely to push through the deadly current and head to the sky now.
The helpless apprentices were either swallowed by razor-sharp turbulence, incinerated by scorching lava, or devoured by unexpected sinkholes. Together with monsters that failed to reach the barrier, they slowly became compost corpses that facilitated the growth of the garden.
The chaos of destruction became irrevocable, and slowly, it came to an end.
After dealing with the Lord of Tentacles and the Ignis Medusozoa, Lawson had returned to the machine tower.
The monitor hall was empty. Wizards always valued their available time, and nobody wanted to spend too much time watching the apprentices struggling for their lives. As for Lawson, he had to come since he was responsible to watch over the purification garden.
Seeing the entire world slowly becoming a burning furnace that digested everything inside, Lawson nodded in contentment.
Knock, knock!
“Come in.”
A middle-aged lady with a well-developed overall body shape cat-walked inside.
“When did you get back?” Lawson turned his chair around and looked at the woman who was dressed in a black uniform.
Her expression was made stern by a pair of glasses and her coiled-up hair bun, and yet, the trace left by age and time couldn’t deny that she used to be a beauty.
“I should have half a month ago, as planned. But I dropped by at the capital of Evory, which took some time,” she replied in a serious tone that fitted well with her looks.
“Evory... You visited your mother?” Lawson lowered his head a little. “Is she... alright?”
“Heh, she was fine. A simple tombstone was all she needed. She never hated father, and she said that meeting you was the best thing in her life. There’s nothing other than a cloudian tree beside her, and the flowers were falling when I arrived. It was... beautiful.”
A cloudian tree was a common decoration used in Floating Mech City, but outside of the city, it would be hard to find it. The tree had cotton-like flowers, and when they withered, they would create a cloud-like sight around them.
“She passed away?” Lawson seemed sad about something. “Yeah... A mortal’s lifespan is but an instant to wizards. You’re well over 100 years old now, right? Then she must have lived until 200. Impressive, for a commoner.”
“Have you ever loved her, father?” The lady also grew sad about her dead mother. The sadness was made worse when she saw her mother was still living in a simple wooden cottage when she went back to retrieve her things.
It was in this cottage that her mother met Lawson, and she had never left the place even though Lawson once invited her to the floating city.
The lady knew that her mother was worried about dying as a mortal and damaging Lawson’s reputation, so she chose to stay in the mortal realm. Basically, her mother chose to accept the inevitable.
“I appreciate what she did, and nothing else,” Lawson said in his emotionless tone.
The lady chuckled in self-mockery.
Lawson had more than enough to turn a mortal into a supernatural, but he did not, which already explained everything.
Of course, someone as important and powerful as Lawson wouldn’t be entangled in love affairs.
“Your mother is no more, Melantha, and I hope you can shake yourself away from mortal emotions as fast as possible. Since you have returned, don’t go wander off again. You’ve been with Brute Cavern, right? You should know that Brute Cavern cannot help you achieve what’s on your mind,” Lawson lectured his own daughter sincerely even though this “daughter” of his looked older than him.
Melantha was the chief manager who helped Angor in Sky Tower.
So will YOU help me them?
Melantha looked past Lawson. She saw the screen that was showing a world approaching its end with every creature within drained of their lives. “So the sacrifice already started?”
“A little obstacle but nothing serious. We moved it ahead of schedule. As far as I can see, the small incident helped us reduce the required casualty by 40%,” said Lawson.
He watched as the chaos gave birth to a pure energy stream. He then changed the display to the Sea of Purification.
Angor was still watching the wall arts inside the fortress of the “Toad Skin”.
Melantha didn’t recognize the boy since Angor was wearing his top hat, and besides, the room was pretty dark.
“Oh? Someone found the Dugons so fast? Then he’s not far from the goal.” Melantha looked surprised.
Lawson had been keeping an eye on Angor’s movements. He snickered when he heard Melantha’s comment. “Not really. He can’t use Discern Letters, so he’ll have a hard time finding the Altar of Demise when he can’t read what was written.”
“Really?” Melantha shook head. “Such a pity.”
Lawson was sure this Angor boy wouldn’t reach the destination any time soon due to his lack of knowledge, so he stopped minding him and changed the display to another individual.
“You didn’t come here just to say hello, am I right?” Lawson glanced at his daughter.
“I came here for the Fountain of Souls.”
“Fountain of Souls...” Lawson gazed at Melantha for a while. “Baroque told you?”
Melantha nodded.
“Hah. He can never sit tight without doing mischief.”
...
Starting from the strange fortress, Angor searched the expanse about a hundred miles around it carefully, but he didn’t find another man-made or mermaid-like structure.
He was currently floating above a dark sea trench. He could see nothing in it apart from the bubbles that occasionally emerged from the entrance.
He wondered if he should go in there and check.
It was in human nature to fear the unknown, which was amplified while he was around the bottom of the sea. Angor was only in the wizarding world for two years, and that was not enough for him to develop fearlessness that allowed him to dive into a giant trap dug out by nature without worrying about his life.
However, compared to his fear, he was more afraid of missing the possible clues left by Toad Skins, which would probably force him to remain in the garden. In the end, he might become another victim.
He absolutely didn’t want to die since there was still a lot for him to do.
Thinking about this, he puffed up his courage and headed straight into the silent darkness below.
Just after he left, a fire stream descended to his previous position, leaving a trail of roasted monster fishes behind.
The fire was powerful enough to repel water. Across the dancing embers, one could see a girl in red dance shoes floating within.
Her black cat, Luna, was joyfully swimming around by paddling its chubby paws. The creature didn’t seem scared of the place at all.
“This is the place then?” Keely frowned. “But why would he go into that pit?”
She couldn’t help getting angry when thinking about Angor. According to her plan, she was going to protect Angor while dragging him along as she took the initiative and explore the garden. But after witnessing how Angor confronted the Lord of Tentacles, she changed her mind and was willing to treat Angor as an equal teammate.
But then, Angor suddenly said something about going to the sky and left on his own, and he was too fast for Keely to catch up.
Keely would not care where Angor went or what became of him had she not agreed to her teacher to assist Angor.
While still not showing much of her emotion, Keely grabbed her cat by the scruff and pointed to the sea trench. “Angor is in there?”
Luna’s nose twitched and released some bubbles. It seemed the creature was choked by water, so it failed to answer Keely for the moment.
Finally, Luna nodded after receiving more of Keely’s angry stares.
“Did he find the exit or... is this actually the exit?” She considered and also dived in.
Angor had no idea Keely was following his track. He had swum for over 3,000 kilometers now, and he was getting slower since it was growing colder and terribly pressurized.
The barrier created by the Purification Field was forced to shrink. If it somehow failed, Angor would have to rely on his own mana or spirit power; otherwise, his untrained body would easily get squashed.
Thankfully, the Purification Field seemed stable enough.
There were also different types of fishes down here, including dangerous-looking ones.
At one time, he ran into the first supernatural creature he met in this sea—a horned seal. But it wasn’t strong enough to withstand a single attack from him. He kept going after dismembering the animal.
When the purification barrier started to flicker dangerously, he finally reached the end of the trench. As he speculated, the trench was more than five thousand kilometers deep, which was pretty impressive when compared to the famous deep-sea trenches on Earth.
There was soft, white sand under his feet, inside which several shrimps were wiggling about.
Probably because of the lack of light, the creatures living in this depth all had random, terrible appearances since there was no need to look pretty. The shrimps appeared more like scorpions.
Without minding the insignificant wildlife, Angor used Light to survey the environment.