When he opened the wardrobe door, Ethan noticed that Isean’s appearance was changing. Wrinkles appeared on her fair and smooth cheeks, then fell away like peeling wall paint, bit by bit. Her gaze was complicated, seemingly wishing both for Ethan to leave immediately and for him to delve deeper.
Her figure didn’t last long, turning into withered dust and disappearing into the darkness of the wardrobe.
The wardrobe was empty, only darkness itself remaining.
Ethan closed his eyes again, several hours had passed since he had ventured into the pollution zone, and coupled with the high consumption of magic power, he was somewhat exhausted. The effect of the awakening potion was temporary, and once beyond its threshold, fatigue would flood him like a dam breaking.
He walked into the darkness of the wardrobe, almost immediately catching the pungent stench of rot, accompanied by the murmuring whispers of pain, and crawling sounds coming perilously close. Something was rapidly approaching him.
He was still in the grocer’s shop in Riverside Town.
In the instant he opened his eyes, assembled together in his view were six assemblers. They crawled on the ground, forming a wary circle.
A raspy, deep voice echoed from the depths of the darkness, tinged with fanaticism and impatience, asking, "Oh? Do we have a visitor? What kind of person is it? Is it someone with red hair, wearing a knight’s light armor?"
The assemblers let out low growls, and a hunched figure carrying a gas lamp emerged from the darkness into Ethan’s sight. His upper body was clad in torn white clothes, his chest riddled with pustules exposed to the air. His lower body wore a gardener’s apron, stained with soil and blood. Thin as a scarecrow, his hair was all gone, perhaps due to his long stay in darkness, leaving only the whites of his eyes.
On his left cheek were two healed scars, resembling a cracked mouth, the mark of the followers of Evil God Bazatous.
He raised the gas lamp towards Ethan, his other hand clutching a blood-stained shovel. Though separated by less than three meters, Ethan couldn’t see his face clearly. After a while, he spoke, "No, you’re not her. Who are you? Why are you here?"
The unfamiliar name puzzled the man, seemingly struggling to recall it, "Which Old Sen?"
Ethan thought the man must have stayed in the pollution zone for too long, his bodily functions and memory degraded. To help him remember better, Ethan decided to lend a hand.
Golden flames swept across the assemblers, piercing through the man’s chest, under the light his wounds rapidly expanded.
Ethan reminded, "Old Sen who can cast Fireball Skill."
The man’s screams made the assemblers restless, they anxiously paced in place, yet dared not approach due to the burning golden flames.
The man struck by the fireball rolled and crawled, Ethan followed him. As he stepped forward, the assemblers immediately cleared a path for him.
"Ha, you might as well kill me, make me her nourishment! Can’t waste it, mustn’t waste!"
The man crawled forward while muttering to himself.
He missed a step and rolled all the way down from broken stairs to the edge of the soil. A half-meter-high white flower grew there, its surrounding soil freshly turned, burying faces twisted in pain. The man embraced the flower stem, ignoring the pain from his wounds, and delightfully buried his face in the blossom, as if it were a rare treasure.
Thorns on the roots pierced his skin, and almost in the blink of an eye, the man’s body shriveled as the roots dragged the leftover skin into the soil. By the light of the gas lamp fallen on the ground, Ethan saw the face on the flower’s blossom—it was the dried-up man’s face, still wearing a blissful expression, until it completely disappeared, and the blossom gradually returned to its original state.
There were many such white flowers, almost everywhere on the streets.
Riverside Town’s outline was now almost unrecognizable, streets transformed into a field of flowers, though it couldn’t bring peace. Beneath the half-meter-high white blossoms were throngs of convulsing figures, densely packed together, howling and moaning.
The whole town’s people were here.
Some had become assemblers, some scattered around, waiting to be assembled.
In the fields were many people dressed in tattered gardener uniforms, all hunched over, bald regardless of gender, waving shovels, working diligently. Limbs were buried in the soil, soon new assemblers would break the ground.
The original houses of the town had become bizarre trees, chaotic and defying the laws of physics.
The gardeners noticed Ethan and saw what he had done, angered and raising shovels, rushing at him from all directions.
Ethan bent down to pick up the gas lamp, brushed off the dirt that clung to him, and the white flower caught his attention. As his hand approached the soil, sharp roots actively withdrew from him, not out of fear, but when his gaze moved to the flower, its blossom seemed to be looking back at him.
He struggled to describe this eerie feeling, despite the face on the flower having long disappeared, he still felt this strange sensation.
The white flower responded to him.
The blossoming bud trembled a few times, spitting out a faint glow, which vanished before touching Ethan.
"Don’t destroy our flower fields!"
The gardeners drew closer, and under their command and coercion, the assemblers finally overcame their fear, roaring as they surged forward.
This was one of the traps tailored by Evil God’s Followers for the Knight Commander; when she ventured into the second layer, all of Riverside Town’s souls would become her enemies, the assemblers from all directions enough to overwhelm her instantly. Even if she could fight her way out, it would surely deplete her considerable strength.
And these eerie white flowers, their roots present everywhere, once pierced through the skin, one would be drained into a dried corpse like the gardener before.
Gardners chanted in waves, "Become her nourishment!"
"It’s already too late."
Ethan picked up the gas lamp, his gaze beyond the flower fields, looking towards the sky completely engulfed by darkness.
This was a night without a moon, destined for no light to exist.
But the next moment, the gardeners and assemblers rushing towards him uniformly halted, simultaneously looking up at the sky.
Initially, it was just a weak light piercing through the darkness, but it became more prominent as it descended.
Something was rapidly approaching them.
They stared at the sky, until their pupils were completely filled with golden brilliance.
It was a gold fireball, vastly larger than the whole town.
The sky turned the color of the fireball.
Then, the entire sky collapsed.