Chapter 585: The City of Chaos
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Shaqira peeked from behind the black boulder and looked into the Nasaton's direction; her facial expression was getting worse. After a moment, she turned around her head and said, "That's unexpected... I'm afraid getting in isn't going to be easy."
The corner of Hao Ren's eye twitched. "What's wrong?"
"See the light blue barrier outside the walls of the city?" Shaqira pointed shield of Nasaton with the tip of her tail. "That's the city's aqua dome, and The Tarani Crystals on the wall are glowing. That shows that the aqua dome has been possessed. In this case, the shield is connected mentally with the Queen. Anything that passes through the aqua dome the queen will feel it. She will find that you're not siren, and then she would use the aqua film to cut the intruder into pieces."
Lil's was wide-mouthed. "…how it works?"
"Water is amorphous, it can turns into the shape of a human, or a city. The Tarani Crystals can enlarge the mental power of the Queen and make the aqua dome an extension of her body. This is the key to her ability to control the entire city," said Sorma before she sighed again. "This was supposed to be the last resort for the Queen to protect the city when the city was in danger, but little did we expect it's been used to confine its own people now."
Y'zaks scratched his chin. "This kind of thing will consume a lot of energy. Can the queen always connect her mind to the aqua dome? Doesn't she even need rest?"
Shaqira shook her head. "The Torrent Core bears most of the magical energy consumption. The queen is standing above the Torrent Core. Her magic and energy are endless. Oh, the Torrent Core is the energy core of the city. It's located inside the royal palace."
Hao Ren smacked on the forehead. "My god, why did you people create so many high-tech thingies? Can you just be a mermaid?"
At this time, Lil Pea bravely swam to the outside. Looking from afar, she appeared like a small fish thanks to her small size. She swam low on the sands to the back of another boulder before she suddenly turned back as if she had seen something. Dad-dee, there's something there! A big boat!"
The little one could not say it clear enough. No one could make head or tail of what she meant. Therefore, they decided to go and check it out for themselves. Shaqira controlled the current to form a barrier that could interfere with the perceptive ability of the sirens to a certain extent, shielding the team as they moved to the back of the boulders. Lil Pea immediately nudged Hao Ren. "That!"
"Oh my god..." Hao Ren was surprised by what he saw on the distant beach. "How did that thing come here?"
A black steel object with a rusty, ruinous, wreckage was lying on a sand bank a few hundred meters away. It had a huge hole in the middle, and this hole could be the reason it sank. In addition, the porthole, thruster, tail rudder, and superstructure were still clearly visible. Nangong Wuyue stared at the torpedo launch tube on the front of the thing for a long moment before she pouted. "It's a Soviet submarine. Model unknown."
"Have you ever seen this thing?" asked Shaqira, surprised. She had been hiding in the mountains after she surfaced. She knew very little about modern human weapons such as submarine and warships—except coastal artilleries.
"I saw it a few times while swimming, but I didn't dare to get near," Nangong Wuyue nodded. "This thing might have got lost at the nearby sea and wandered here by accident. Such an old submarine wouldn't be able to withstand the water pressure in the deep sea.
"It was dragged here," said Nangong Sanba, who suddenly pointed to the sand bank behind the old submarine. There was a huge gully behind it and according to the water and grass near the gully; it might have been lying here for many years. "Do sirens like to collect human ships?"
"No, usually we will throw these things into the trenches, or push them onto the coastline of humans—depending on whether we're able to move them," Shaqira shook her head, then flinched abruptly. "Wait a second, somebody is coming!"
They quickly hid themselves. The water body in front of the submarine suddenly warped before a stream of water quickly converged into a figure; it was a siren in the form of a sea snake. The siren's hand held a polearm glowing in bright blue light, with a gigantic aquamarine in the middle of the crescent blades. She raised her polearm in front of the submarine and began to sing an old incantation in a weird and creepy tone before she stuck the polearm in the sand. "Get up, it's time to work!"
A cloud of smoke-like dust immediately circled around the submarine. Then there were dozens of shadows coming out of the hole in the submarine and the nearby sand. These figures were wrapped in tattered military uniforms that looked more like shrouds. Although the figures were physically intact, the skin and muscles were blue and grey as in dead body. Some of them had also swollen and weird wounds from which fine sand was flowing out.
Hao Ren stared at all of this in shock. Undoubtedly, these soldiers were not normal living people. Their chests were inlaid with a grey-blue crystal, which was why they could move.
These controlled fighters stared blankly at the siren. Their muscles twitched slightly as if the rebellious thoughts remained tenaciously deep inside them. However, the crystals on their chests continued to resonate with the polearm in the hand of the siren. These people were unable to resist. The siren standing in front of them was obviously not free either: her eyes were dark and the expression on her face was stiff like the dead. This suggested that her condition was far more serious than that of the siren general. This siren had thoroughly lost its freewill, and now become a remote-controlled machine that faithfully carried out orders.
The siren raised the polearm and swam into the distance. "Get to work."
This horrifying group of figures left the submarine. Hao Ren, who was hiding in the shadows, awed there for a long moment until Shaqira gritted her teeth and broke the silence. "How could the Queen allow this? This isn't in keeping with the tradition of the sirens!"
"It's not the queen. It's that brain." Vivian placed her hand on Shaqira's shoulder. "We'd better go and take a look at it. I got a weird feeling of the work that the siren mentioned."
Shaqira nodded silently and followed the scent left behind by the siren in the water.
They followed from far behind the 'dead squad,' and after a short swim along the beach, they turned into a beach with many grey and white porous rocks. It was already very close to the outer wall of Nasaton. They must be careful not get spotted by the sentries on the high walls of the city, but the white porous rocks around them could act as cover. Vivian suddenly frowned. "I could sense the smell is much stronger here."
"I felt it too, it was the smell of the dead," Hasse whispered. "Keep your eyes open."
Rollie had been following Hao Ren from behind obediently. She must have grown up a lot. After a short swim, she suddenly poked Hao Ren's arm. "Big Big Cat, there."
Hao Ren ducked and peeked from behind a porous rock and was shocked to see a large construction site!
There was a large open area surrounded by porous rocks, where construction works were on going. The dead were working under the supervision of the siren. They were World War II sailors in tattered a variety of military uniforms, dark blue skin with stiff faces. Their chests were inlaid with grey and blue, spooky crystals. Hao Ren could barely recognize the clothes. However, Lily had recognized some as the British, the Soviets and the Americans—they were all the Allied soldiers.
Considering that, there had never been eyewitness' reports of sirens attacking human warships, these soldiers should have sunk into the sea during the war and been 'collected' by the sirens.
A dozen or so sirens holding polearms were patrolling the nearby space. Under their watch, the dead were assembling some metal twigs that shaped like corals and installing them in some huge, deeply buried, silver-white pillars in the ground. The silver-white pillars spread far out to the other end of the site, and appeared neat like a weird metal forest.
The MDT had read an amazing energy level from those devices.
"These things can cross the spatial layer, and their lower portion must be nailed deep in the earth," said Y'zaks, whose voice sounded serious. "They are extracting the energy of the earth's core... But I can feel its energy flow isn't complete, there should be some other devices connected to them."
"There're not only dead people here," said Nangong Sanba, who suddenly pointed to the other side of the open space. "Look over there."
Looking into the direction Nangong Sanba was pointing, another group of slaves were working under the watch of the sirens—it was a group of aliens, sturdy werewolves, pale vampires, and shadelings with dark and twisted limbs.
Obviously, they were all living people.