The mist was dissipating.

For the first time since the start of the war, the dense fog that had shrouded the Frost Sea area was showing signs of disappearing. Around the Sea Fog, towards the Frost direction, from the sea surface to the high sky, all the thick fog was receding at a speed visible to the naked eye. The all-encompassing dimness was receding, and the entire sea area was gradually becoming clearer.

And on the sea surface where the fog had dissipated, one could see burning ships everywhere, grotesque and bizarre counterfeit fleets, and countless fragments of wreckage and burning oil floating with the waves.

Thick smoke billowed, filling the sea as the fog receded.

First Mate Aiden was the first to rush to the window, staring wide-eyed at the gradually clearing sea outside. After a long while, he shouted, "The fog is receding! Captain! The fog is receding!"

"I can see," Tirian said, striding to the window as well. However, the solemn expression in his single eye did not diminish with the receding fog. "It's receding… Is it really receding?"

"Captain, isn't this a good thing?" Aiden immediately noticed the strangeness in Tirian's tone and turned his head in confusion. "The fog is receding, which means that the abnormal power entrenched in the Frost…"

"Something's wrong… There's a problem," Tirian interrupted the first mate with a serious expression. He stared intently at the sea in the distance, his gaze becoming sharper. "The fog has dissipated, but those ghost ships are still there, and the appearance of the sea…"

"The sea?" Aiden frowned in confusion and turned to look into the distance. The next second, he finally gasped.

Just as the captain had said, something was wrong—the counterfeit fleets in all directions showed no signs of dissipating. New ghost ships were even emerging from the sea. And in the process, the entire sea area was gradually darkening!

Large patches of black were spreading in the seawater. Something was expanding in the darkness, and countless shadowy things were approaching the surface of the water. This scene… It was as if something extremely large, or a group, was rising from the deep sea!

"What the…"

Aiden subconsciously muttered, but before he could finish speaking, a series of huge roars suddenly broke the extremely brief calm after the fog dissipated.

The nearby seawater was cracking open, and countless huge ships were floating to the surface. Some were shaped like wreckage, some were twisted like ghosts, and some looked vaguely familiar. In the suddenly darkened sea, it was as if all the counterfeit fleets had poured out in one go!

"Attention! Enemy ships appearing! Enemy ships… everywhere!"

A sailor shouted in fear. The close-in defense guns on the edge of the deck roared simultaneously. The roar of artillery fire resounded almost simultaneously across the sea. Shells whistled through the air, and huge columns of water and fireballs from explosions once again covered the sea.

Amidst this sudden and chaotic change, Tirian continued to watch the sea, watching the enemies that emerged from the sea one after another.

He recognized some of them—his soldiers recognized them too.

"It's the 'Knight'! The Knight that we sank at the very beginning!"

"The Black Flag Soldiers! The Black Flag Soldiers that sank fifteen minutes ago! It's appeared again!"

"The Courage! And Prince Yorton's!"

"Captain!" First Mate Aiden's voice reached Tirian's ears, carrying a panic he had never heard before. "All the counterfeit fleets… the ones we destroyed… they've all reappeared!"

Tirian opened his mouth, about to say something, but a voice suddenly appeared in his mind: "...This is normal, because the source of the mirror is still there."

"Father?!" Tirian was shocked and subconsciously looked around for things that could produce reflections. "You're now…"

"Don't worry, Tirian—the timing is just right."

Tirian quickly calmed down. While signaling Aiden to command the battle, he quickly responded in his mind, "What do you need me to do?"

…

At the same time that the sea fog was gradually dissipating, the fog shrouding Frost City was also dissipating—but just like the situation at sea, the dissipation of the fog did not mean the end of the crisis.

The mirror was still rising, and another, even more terrifying Frost City was gradually superimposed onto reality.

The city-state guards who were still fighting tenaciously built barricades, resisting countless monsters that seemed to appear out of thin air. The roar of guns and cannons shook the city. The former peace and security had long been completely torn apart. Gunsmoke filled every street, and the muddy sludge and gradually cooling blood were permeating the city, while more and more distorted scenes continued to cover everything.

"Sir, they're everywhere!"

In front of the intersection of Hearth Street, a city-state guard squad that had been trapped in the fog was using the firepower of a steam walker to sweep the freaks that appeared on the street. The soldiers didn't even have time to cheer when the fog dissipated, and they were dragged into a new and fierce battle by more monsters and terrifying phenomena.

"Then fire everywhere!" the squad commander roared. While shooting into the distance, he rushed to the foot of the steam walker, to the side of the communications soldier. "Can you contact other squads?"

"Squads Seven, Six, and Four are still out of contact!" the communications soldier shouted loudly. "Almost a quarter of the squads have disappeared in the previous fog, sir!"

"Continue calling until someone responds, or until reinforcements arrive," the commander said, patting the communications soldier's helmet, and turned to look into the distance. "The fog has cleared, hold on, the situation is changing—this may be the final offensive!"

The machine gun turret of the steam walker fired continuously, tearing another steam walker in the distance to pieces. At the same time that the huge machine crashed to the ground, a huge amount of muddy sludge also spewed out of its mechanical cabin, splattering on the street like terrifying entrails.

The warriors mustered their courage once again—or simply let numbness continue to drive their extremely tired limbs. The commander said encouraging words that even he didn't believe, and looked up into the distance again.

He saw the two Silent Cathedrals standing tall on the mountaintop. The terrain on one side of the city-state seemed to curl up in a bizarre way. A huge and continuous unfamiliar building complex was gradually rising from the city. Layer upon layer of buildings covered the sky above the streets he was familiar with, and twisted and tilted towers stretched out from the buildings in the distance, extending and growing in the sky like hateful bone matter proliferating from the body of a giant.

And countless muds were flowing out of the high-rising building complex, rushing down as if to devour the entire city.

"Lord of Death…" At the highest point of the Silent Cathedral, Bishop Ivan looked down at the city-state that was gradually being distorted and swallowed by huge anomalies, and finally couldn't help but open his mouth softly, "Is today the day of ending…"

He looked into the distance, but could only see a vast darkness rising from all directions. The original city hall opposite the mountaintop had been shrouded in a strange thicket of thorns at some point. In the thicket of thorns, another Silent Cathedral was vaguely standing. And at the foot of the mountain, continuous building complexes were piling up and surging, the houses showing a creepy appearance like the limbs of soft-bodied animals.

And outside the city-state, the entire sea surface was gradually being shrouded in an ominous blackness. The darkness was like a huge mirror, but in the mirror, another Frost was gradually reflected—like observing another world through a curved mirror, that "Frost" looked distorted, chaotic, full of seemingly correct errors everywhere, and full of black, wriggling malice everywhere.

A huge mirror city was floating up from the deep sea, eroding everything simultaneously from reality and illusion.

"Archbishop!" A high-ranking deacon ran from the terrace door, running behind Bishop Ivan. "The last reserve forces have been assembled, and the Silent Monks and Guardians will protect the cathedral to the last moment!"

"Agatha still hasn't returned?"

"We still can't contact the Gatekeeper," the high-ranking deacon said quickly. "The exploration team that went down the well with her reported that the Gatekeeper has not been heard from since entering a strange stone wall—now the mine has been swallowed by darkness, I'm afraid…"

"The Gatekeeper will not fall easily, Agatha will complete her mission… she will definitely complete her mission," Bishop Ivan said calmly.

The high-ranking deacon hesitated for a moment: "Archbishop, you should take refuge…"

"Take refuge? Hide in a safe church prayer room? Or escape from this city by boat?" Bishop Ivan turned around and slowly shook his head. "I don't need to take refuge, I'll just stay here. You go command the Guardian forces at the foot of the mountain, transfer all the civilians who can be transferred to the mountain, and hold on for as long as you can."

The high-ranking deacon hesitated for a few seconds at last, and finally nodded forcefully: "Yes! Archbishop!"

The high-ranking deacon stepped back, leaving only the old bishop alone on the terrace again.

He raised his head and looked at the other cathedral that was shrouded in thorns and looked like the shadow of the Silent Cathedral.

That cathedral was lifeless, and there were no clerics to be seen inside.

It was just a mirror image, and its appearance represented that the "reverse phase" of that mirror Frost had reached the last step.

"Agatha… you should still be somewhere continuing to fulfill your mission…"

Bishop Ivan said softly, as if talking to himself, and as if gently exhorting a junior he had lost contact with.

He slowly raised his hand, untied the magnificent robe symbolizing the authority of the archbishop, and took off his crown, placing it on the railing next to him.

"Then you should also remember that the saints of Bartok never stop before death…"

Under the gorgeous robe and crown, layers of bandages were revealed. Ivan groped around and then untied a certain knot near his neck bit by bit.

"We fight against filth with our flesh and blood. After the end of life, we defend our faith with our unceasing shells, and after the shells are also ended…"

The bandages were untied, as if a container that had been sealed and suppressed for decades had suddenly broken free from its restraints. Under the bandages, there was no fragmented body—there was no body left.

There was only pale smoke dust below.

"We still have scorching ashes."

The bandages scattered, and the flying bone ashes scattered from the edge of the terrace, turning into fine white smoke, gradually covering the sky above Frost.

(End of this chapter)