Chapter 67 The Kindling

In the harbor district, Lister, who was commanding the garrison forces to resist the attack while trying to maintain the harbor's operation, suddenly raised his head, looking blankly towards the city-state.

Within the city-state, mysterious, twisted structures were surging and emerging from the normal streets, the distant land was warping and inverting, vaguely thorn-like phantoms covered the mountains, and chaotic, disordered light and shadows were descending from the illusion—yet in this terrifying and bizarre scene, a delicate and pale "dust" suddenly fluttered and scattered.

The pale dust appeared out of thin air in the sky, falling like the first snow of winter. It passed through the overlapping phantoms and distorted alien blocks, scattering little by little on the frost-covered streets—weightless, yet seemingly endless.

Where the dust settled, the city-state, originally blurred and chaotic due to the overlapping phantoms, seemed to suddenly become "distinct" again. Although only for a moment, although only a slight change, Lister clearly saw that there was a boundary between the phantoms and the real streets again.

But at this moment, he had no time to think about what was happening, or even to think about his fate in the next minute.

The roar of the steam walkers firing and the distant booming of the coastal artillery pulled him back to reality.

"Keep those freaks out of the dock area!" Lister shouted to the soldiers and commanders as he passed through the walkways between buildings, through the defense line made up of steam walkers and temporary barricades. "Ensure the fuel depots and ammunition channels are clear! The port must not fall!"

Gunsmoke filled the air, mixed with the pungent smell of blood, machine oil, and the dried-up sludge. A steam walker was destroyed, and immediately another spider machine rushed out of the bunker to maintain the fragile defense line.

And inside this line of defense were the battered dock facilities, and teams running between the port buildings.

Lister went to a high point and looked towards the docks.

When those monsters poured out of the thick fog, the port almost fell. He and his soldiers paid a great price to clean up the pollution within the port area and build a defense line on the road leading to the interior of the city-state, and had been resisting until now.

And according to the last external communication, this was currently the only functioning port in Frost—other ports were either still in intense contention, or had been lost, or were unable to operate due to critical facilities being severely damaged.

He had to keep this place running at all costs—because the naval front was already in danger. If they lost their only coastal support, the city-state's navy would be finished.

But... with another terrifying, twisted city-state gradually invading reality, could this place really be defended?

Lister turned his head, took one last look at the deformed land that was rising from the city-state like a swollen pustule, tried to ignore its gradual spread towards the port, and turned away from the defense line, returning to the defense headquarters.

It was also a scene of bustling activity, with officers and staff overwhelmed. The intelligence coming from all directions was not optimistic, and the calls and beeps of various radio communication devices sounded incessantly.

A communications soldier was sitting in the corner of the room, repeating hoarsely into the radio: "Notice to all ships inshore, this is East Port, we still exist, repeat, we still exist—this is the only safe supply port, do not approach other ports..."

Lister went straight to one of his subordinates: "What's the situation at the supply dock?"

"'Laurel' is replenishing ammunition and repairing the ammunition elevator. Her sister ship has lost power and is being towed back by a barge. Our ammunition, fuel, and fresh water are still sufficient, but the crane on Pier Four has been destroyed and is paralyzed..."

Lister listened with a grim expression. Immediately afterwards, hurried footsteps came from the side, and another junior officer came to his side, looking nervous: "Sir, we have a situation..."

"Everything is a situation now," Lister said loudly, "report directly!"

"Yes, a ship is requesting to enter the port for repairs. It's... a ship from the Sea Fog Fleet," the junior officer said with a complex expression. "The Undying on board say their transmission mechanism is malfunctioning, and the repair equipment on board cannot cope."

Lister was stunned for a moment, and three seconds later, he gritted his teeth: "Let them enter the port, and help them repair it as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir."

The subordinate left, and Lister quickly went to the window, observing the situation on the sea.

A warship billowing thick smoke was slowly approaching the repair dock, the banner of the Frost Queen fluttering at the bow, and in the more distant sea, debris floated everywhere.

"Half a century... this banner has finally returned to Frost in this way..."

Lister muttered subconsciously.

But the next second, a commotion suddenly came from the direction of the corridor, interrupting the harbor defense commander's sigh.

"What's going on now?" he turned his head and asked loudly.

A soldier nervously and hurriedly pushed the door open, and said to the commander with an embarrassed face: "Sir! There are two... ordinary citizens, two girls, I don't know how they got in, and they insist on talking to you..."

"Ordinary citizens? Arrange for them to take shel—" Lister opened his mouth subconsciously, but halfway through his words, a series of noises quickly approached from the corridor. Then he heard a young girl's voice shouting outside—

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Time is precious! What's that word... window, oh, the window of opportunity is only for a moment!"

Lister raised his head in astonishment, and the next second, he saw two young girls had broken through the soldiers' blockade and forcibly broke into this crucial command post.

One was short and thin, wearing a black cotton dress, but she pushed two burly soldiers out of the door in one fell swoop. The other was slightly taller, wearing a plain brown coat and cotton dress, and her face seemed a little nervous.

Both of them looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, and the thin one even looked younger.

"Leave immediately," Lister said immediately, his tone unkind due to annoyance. "This is not a place for you to mess around. If you are separated from the evacuees, then..."

"Are you the boss here? We have important things to say," the thin girl interrupted before he could finish speaking, "Is there any place nearby that is temporarily not in use? We need to set a fire..."

"Set a fire?" Lister couldn't help but be stunned, and then realized it was a bad joke—he couldn't understand why two inexplicable civilians would come here to make trouble at this time, but then the vigilance brought by his profession made him alert, and he immediately ordered loudly, "Soldiers, control them!"

Several soldiers rushed in immediately to grab the two strange girls. The short one immediately jumped and shouted: "We really have important things! The angle of your place is too suitable, just need a vacant lot! You..."

She suddenly stopped, staring at the window with wide eyes, as if she had discovered something.

"Hey! That side is okay! There's no one on the whole avenue, and it goes straight to the coastline!" The girl jumped high, and two or three soldiers couldn't hold her down. Then she turned her head and beckoned to her companion, "Nina, you go there, and then add the two arson points we just found in the south, that's definitely enough for the city-state!"

"Ah... okay!" The young girl called Nina responded immediately, and then she turned her head, bowed slightly to Lister with embarrassment and apology, "I'm... I'm sorry, sir, my friend is not very good at dealing with people, we'll leave now..."

Lister stared, the absurd situation before him making his mind a little confused, but he still took a step forward subconsciously: "Stop, you..."

He didn't finish his words.

Because something even more outrageous happened.

A heat flow suddenly surged around the young girl in front of him, and then, in the blink of an eye, she turned into a leaping and dazzling arc of flame. The flame rose in the room, its dazzling brilliance seemed to be able to burn people's souls with just one glance—the next second, the flame flew towards the open window, like a shooting star flying backwards, straight towards a high platform near the port area.

Lister stared in astonishment at this scene, but before his mind could turn around, the flame suddenly rushed back into the room.

The flame bent down towards him, outlining the silhouette of a girl, and a polite voice accompanied by crackling sounds came from it: "Thank you for protecting the city, I'm leaving! Goodbye!"

The arc of flame rushed out of the room again.

"Goodbye, goodbye!"

In the room, the short girl also shouted repeatedly. Then, a dark crack suddenly appeared beside her, shadows surged in the crack, dragging her out of thin air and disappearing before everyone's eyes.

"This... this is all..."

Lister looked at this scene in astonishment and bewilderment, and subconsciously rushed to the open window, but only had time to see an arc of flame shooting straight into the sky from a distance.

And below this flame, the coast illuminated by the dazzling brilliance... suddenly burst into flames!

"The Frost Coast is lit!"

On the lookout platform of the Sea Fog, an Undying sailor picked up a loudspeaker and shouted loudly.

The waves rose and fell, the cold wind swept back, and Tirian stood on the edge of the bow deck like a standing reef. In his one eye, the burning Frost Coast was reflected.

A bright fire was jumping over the city-state, constantly igniting the uninhabited areas on the edge of the city-state—towering cliffs, protruding reefs, lost towers, damaged turrets, and the fire points were gradually connecting, like... a continuous candlestick.

Around the Sea Fog, the vast and endless sea was burning in large swathes.

The wreckage left by the counterfeit fleet was burning, the Sea Fog Fleet or the city-state navy ships were burning, and the leaked fuel was burning.

The entire sea was ignited by the flames of war.

And in this burning sea, the twisted and bizarre light and shadows of the mirror world were reflected—the constantly rising ghost fleet, the distant, grotesque, and terrifying mirrored Frost, and the boundless darkness filling these twisted things.

"Captain!" First Mate Aiden ran over and said loudly beside Tirian, "The last barrel of oil has been poured, and the surrounding fire is about to engulf the ship!"

"I know," Tirian said calmly, a smile slowly appearing on his face. "What's the reaction from the Frost Navy?"

"They also lit the excess whale oil according to our instructions, but they still don't understand what we're doing, and are completely following orders in chaos—they hope we can give them an explanation."

"Explanation..."

Tirian murmured softly, slowly raising his hand, pointing at the Sea Fog, pointing at the increasingly bizarre sea that was constantly covered by a thicker darkness.

"Aiden, what does this sea look like?"

Aiden was stunned for a moment, and looked up at his surroundings.

The next second, his expression gradually solidified, and even a trace of horror appeared.

On the sea, the wind and waves had quickly subsided at some point, and the boundless darkness was gradually giving the entire sea area a mirror-like texture.

The flames were burning in front of the mirror, from the Frost Coast to the sea area where the fleet was fighting, and the continuous flames of war... were like ritual candlesticks in front of a mirror.

The wind and waves and the sound of artillery fire on the sea seemed to suddenly weaken, and everything was so distant as if it came from another world. In this bizarre and brief silence, Aiden heard his captain speak softly.

"Father said that if you want to actively find him, find a mirror and light a fire in front of the mirror."

Tirian slowly opened his hands, facing the sea that was gradually turning into a black mirror.

"The fire is lit, are you there?"

So, the Frost Sea opened its eyes.

"I am."

(End of Chapter)