Chapter 1 The Fall of Prinn

All the cathedrals fell in a short time. Round after round of blazing "fireballs" rose from the ground throughout the city-state, burning the last anchor points of reality in Prinn. The chimes stopped one after another, and in just a moment, all that remained of this pearl of the sea was endless ruins and ashes.

Vanna rushed like a whirlwind through the burning intersections and streets, towards the cathedral in her sight where a pillar of fire was rising to the sky. But in her vision, the cathedral had changed its appearance in a short time – the main building had collapsed, and the architectural framework with a thousand-year history had melted and fallen like wax. The towering side buildings were reduced to twisted, red-hot skeletons in the blink of an eye. Above all this, a "sun" with a white edge but a dark red, blood-like interior was quietly suspended above the cathedral, looking like a terrifying hole leading to an endless abyss, yet constantly releasing destructive light and heat.

The edge of this blasphemous sun was constantly flowing and dripping with bright red droplets – scorching lava, or the blood plasma of the blasphemers.

What could she do by rushing over there now? Kill a culprit? Reverse the overlapping history? Or, with this power, bravely but futilely prove her faith and loyalty?

Vanna didn't know, nor did she know what else she could do, but she still instinctively rushed towards the cathedral. Just then, in the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw some distorted, ghostly green shadows, as if something had flashed by in the sea of fire. Immediately afterwards, a dignified and deep voice rang directly in her mind: "Go to the Great Bell Tower."

The voice came so abruptly that Vanna stopped subconsciously. She looked for the direction of the voice, or any trace that could prove the ghost captain was watching, but all she saw was a raging sea of fire, and the lava dripping from the blasphemous dark "sun" was igniting the last inch of land near the cathedral.

But at that moment, a sound broke Vanna's brief hesitation.

She heard a melodious bell suddenly ringing – the bell came from the ancient bell tower behind the cathedral.

The bell sounded as if it would re-envelop the entire Prinn, and the bell tower had already been completely burned by the fire, making it impossible to make any sound.

At this moment, Vanna abandoned all the hesitation and concerns in her heart, and ran towards the bell tower.

She no longer cared what the ghost captain's intentions were, nor did she care what the consequences would be of following his arrangement – with all the cathedrals falling in an instant, and in the face of the fact that the entire city-state had been burned, the only path she could choose was the bell tower that was still ringing.

She passed through the square in front of the cathedral. The defense force that had gathered in the square had been completely wiped out. In the rolling heat, she could only see countless twisted and scrapped steam walkers and steam tanks. The defense line built by the guardians and city-state guards had turned into layers of coke, occupied by appalling ashes.

She chopped down countless ash shadows that swarmed towards her, and passed through the main building and sanctuary of the cathedral, which had been burned to ruins, and through the wide-open courtyard, seeing the bell tower standing tall at the end of her vision.

Hot ashes fell from the sky, and sparks flew like fireflies.

This reminded her of the scene she had seen not long ago on the other side of the "Veil," and reminded her of the Prinn that she had seen burned down in 1889.

False history covered true history, and what was behind the Veil replaced the real world in front of the Veil.

But the bell was still ringing.

The gate leading to the upper level of the bell tower had collapsed, and the stairs inside had also broken and fallen. After confirming this, Vanna gave up the idea of climbing the tower through normal means. She came to the foot of the outer wall of the bell tower, and after simply determining the route, she directly reached out and grabbed the protruding structure on the wall and began to climb up.

The outer wall had been scorched by the flames for a long time and was as hot as a red-hot iron plate, but Vanna's climbing speed was not affected at all. She rushed up almost like a gust of wind, and in a short while, she had reached the upper part of the bell tower, and crossed the mechanical dial that had stopped working, and came to the top of the tower where the fire and big bell were placed.

It was very wide here, with a four-sided open spire structure as a cover. Under the spire, in addition to the brazier, was the bell ringing device – a huge machine that used gears and levers as a power mechanism.

The big bell was placed under this mechanical device, hidden in a resonance chamber.

Vanna jumped onto the top of the tower and landed.

She looked back at the direction she had come from, and saw the city-state falling into a sea of fire under her feet, and scorching lava flowing through the streets, leaving shocking ravines. She overlooked purgatory from this city-state's edge, her eyes full of devastation.

Then, she turned her head and looked at the bell-ringing device that was obviously out of power, but was still working continuously.

A figure... or rather a charred lump barely maintaining a human outline, was clinging to the lever next to the bell-ringing device, manually pushing the heavy gears to continue turning.

Vanna subconsciously took a step forward, and the charred lump seemed to notice her approach. He slowly raised his head, turned his face, and a pair of human eyes stared at the young Inquisitor who appeared at the top of the tower.

"Guard... the bell tower..."

The charred lump said hoarsely, and then he crashed to the ground, his completely carbonized body falling apart, and the red fire marks gradually extinguished among the remnants whose residual heat had not dissipated.

A storm emblem symbolizing the Deep Sea Church rolled out of the coke.

The last bell of Prinn finally stopped.

"Archbishop!"

Vanna recognized the eyes just now. She rushed forward, wanting to save the pile of ashes, or re-push the stalled bell-ringing device, but just as she took a step, a sudden and powerful pressure stopped her.

Vanna stopped abruptly and turned to look in the direction of the powerful pressure. A tall and thin figure wearing a tattered gray robe, withered and gaunt, like a ascetic, was standing quietly on the edge of the platform.

The "ascetic" looked at Vanna with compassionate eyes, and in the sky behind him was the dark sun that was constantly dripping hot lava and inlaid with a circle of dazzling bright edges.

The figure appeared there at some unknown time. His arrival was so silent that Vanna didn't notice it at all – as if he had been standing on this tower from the beginning, from a long, long time ago, before the fire started.

"You struggled as much as you could, child, all of you struggled as much as you could, and even delayed for several times longer than expected, but this delay and persistence are meaningless... No one will come to save you. In this closed-loop historical anomaly, any reinforcements are destined to be unable to reach Prinn before the historical correction..."

The withered black figure said slowly, and he slightly raised his hand, his skeletal arm seeming to float with a layer of fire in the reflection of the dark sun, "Now, embrace this new future, child reborn from the ashes... Your survival and return have not changed anything."

Vanna was silent, and just silently took off the greatsword from her back.

"Oh, negotiations have broken down..." The Doom Prophet saw Vanna's actions, but still had a compassionate and calm expression. "Of course, you can easily kill me, but it's meaningless... The children of the sun have prepared to welcome the arrival. As for me, I am just a witness to this end. I will witness it at this moment, and I will witness it in the future, and you... Did you see that sun?"

Vanna raised her eyes slightly, and her gaze passed over the figure of the Doom Prophet, and finally noticed that something seemed to be slowly pulsating in the darkness deep in the blasphemous sun, like an embryo being conceived, a heart gradually reviving.

A strange palpitation suddenly surged into her heart.

She finally realized that the powerful oppressive force that had suddenly descended was not from the skinny and weak Doom Prophet in front of her – but from the black sun behind him.

Something was awakening in the depths of that sun!

"There have been many twists and turns in this plan, and a force that has always been impossible to see clearly has interfered with our correction of history again and again," the Doom Prophet, with a look of compassion, stared quietly into Vanna's eyes, his voice low, as if carrying some kind of bewitchment, "And the disturbance it brought allowed some eyes that should not have been opened to perceive the truth... You were actually only a little bit away from uncovering the whole truth, really, just a little bit – but fate is like this."

"Child, fate is so unreasonable."

He sighed compassionately and slowly walked forward. He came to Vanna, who was still standing firm, and said as if declaring some kind of truth: "But you are blessed. You die and are resurrected, and you will be resurrected and die again. You have received the supreme blessing... so you have the opportunity to embrace all of this."

Vanna clenched the hilt of her sword. For the first time in her life, she was driven by such strong hatred, rather than justice or duty, to surge with killing intent. However, in the last second before she raised her sword, her movement was suddenly interrupted by a stream of flames that ignited out of thin air at the edge of the platform.

A ghostly green flame gate suddenly appeared behind the Doom Prophet, and a tall and majestic figure shrouded in spiritual flames stepped out of it.

The Doom Prophet seemed to be completely unaware of the gate that appeared behind him. He opened his arms to Vanna, and proclaimed like a prophet preaching to the world before the final judgment came – "Blessed child, do not resist. As you can see, the times have changed."

He suddenly stopped.

An unspeakable fear suddenly crept into his chaotic mind. A chaotic noise that seemed to come directly from the subspace mixed into Prinn’s blazing fire. In a hurry, the madman wanted to turn around, but before that, a hand had gently placed itself on his shoulder.

"Change back."

A calm voice said.