Chapter 612: Frozen
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The explosion the MDT carried out had succeeded in destroying the portal, and now the deep-sea maelstrom had gone. However, that was not the end—something was wrong with the water body.
The waves of riptide began to gather from all directions, which appeared odd, as it was different from normal water activities. Sea temperature fell rapidly, which again was odd, unnatural phenomenon. The siren queen raised her head in alarm. Scales below her cheeks glimmered in pale-blue light. She had sensed something. "There is something out there... something's awakening... A consciousness is watching us!"
Hao Ren quickly picked up the radio. "MDT! Something's wrong here. What can you see?"
There was interference in the radio. "The sea is changing shape... two streams of cold air are forming in the north and south poles at the same time. The sea is behaving weirdly. Something's on your way! Get the hell out of there quickly!" the MDT told.
Hao Ren had noticed that as well. It was a freezing current coming out of nowhere. It froze the water body on its path in just the blink of an eye. Now the freezing riptide was just a few hundred meters away from them!
"Get the hell out of here!" Hao Ren shouted. He was forced to abandon the engineering ship and grabbed Shaqira who was next to him and rushed back up to the surface. "MDT, send us out now!"
There was still a strong interference in the radio as the MDT replied. "...I can't! Coordinates misaliged! The Wall of Reality hasn't completely restored yet. Teleportation is interrupted!"
"Dang it…" Hao Ren turned to looked back across his shoulder. "Give me a solution! There's a minus-200-degree ice storm up on our tail. The water pressure is going to crush my shield!"
"Keep going. Get out of the sea. Once you're away from the collapse point of the Wall of Reality, I'll be able to send you out," said the MDT quickly. "Move as fast as you could. The water surface has begun to freeze up. Something's not right!"
"Dang you! Of course nothing's right here!" scoffed Hao Ren while rushing with Y'zaks and the three sirens up to the surface as quickly as they could. Behind them was a bizarre swath of ice half a kilometre in width. An invisible freezing current could freeze steel into metallic powder in an instant. Soon, Hao Ren quickly realized that this freezing current was not the worst: in fact, the entire ocean was freezing up!
As icicle formed in the water, sharp ice crystals were crushing on their shields and enchantments like bullet rain. At the same time, as the water pressure rose, they felt the water was dragging them down despite that fact that they were actually rising. Out of nowhere, a strong, imminent sense of drowning hit, Hao Ren finally experienced what deep-sea phobia was like.
"We almost lose control of the water!" Shaqira warned. A thin layer of ice crystals had covered her tail as she struggled to maintain the water enchantment. Hao Ren and Y'zaks had to rely entirely on the three sirens underwater. Now they had slowed down significantly. "Something much stronger is in control of the sea... it doesn't listen to our command anymore!"
Y'zaks roared and he suddenly burst into flame as magma and molten iron erupted from his body. The heat instantly melted a large area of ice. He had turned into a giant magma demon and used his dark-green Demonic Barrier covering the water enchantment of the sirens. This reduced the pressure on the sirens.
Y'zaks turned his head around and said to the siren queen in a loud voice, "Bring us back up to the surface; I'll handle the water pressure and the cold."
Despite of that, the great demon could only drive the freezing ice out to a certain limit as the entire ocean had almost frozen completely. Water froze in from all directions and blocked their escape route. Looking up, under the illumination of Y'zaks demonic flame, Hao Ren saw glacier was forming in the water. Recalling what the MDT had said just now, an incredible reality suddenly struck him:
The entire planet of Io was rapidly freezing up!
As unbelievable as it was, Hao Ren believed that the planet (or some ancient consciousness on the planet) had awakened. It was trying to trap the intruders. The glaciers that contained a powerful energy were not a natural phenomenon; this power force was not going to allow the intruders from escaping!
Hao Ren took out his gun from the dimensional pocket. However, he quickly realized that the radiation produced by the gun would contaminate the entire water body and even poison the sirens and the demon. So he chose to use the Graviton Grenades. He threw the grenades out at the glacier and called out over the radio. "Can't you send us out yet?"
"In a bit!" The voice of the MDT sounded as hurried. "Something slows down the Wall of Reality's recovery. Now the noise from the friction between both worlds prevents me from locating your position. We're talking about the natural forces of two universes! Give me a minute!"
Huge ice shards crushed on their shields. Sorma and Shaqira screamed in fear; they had completely lost control of the water.
The scales on the siren queen were glimmered with light. Using her powerful magic, she tried to regain control of the water from the sea and she succeeded. They could not afford to stop; stopping even for just a few seconds, they would be trapped and frozen in an instant.
"Hurry up!" Hao Ren struggled to clear a way. He yelled over the radio. "I think I'll be frozen with the three fish in a few minutes! Only Y'zaks is free from ice, for now!"
An even more powerful freezing current and riptide began to bring down the Demonic Barrier. It was the power of the entire ocean of Io. With each wave of impact, the current was powerful enough to flatten any mountain on the surface. It was impossible for Y'zaks to fight the forces of nature no matter how strong he was. His Demonic Barrier dimmed.
The great demon's voice rumbled from behind Hao Ren. "I feel the ocean is filled with anger, hatred and resentment... that negative energy feels very familiar. It shouldn't be here!"
Hao Ren cleared a passage by blowing up the underwater glacier, which barely allowed them to pass through. "What did you say?"
"I said that negative energy sounds very familiar!" Y'zaks rumbled again. "It's the restless spirit! This ocean is filled with their cry! I've heard it many times in the spirit furnace in Serathon!"
Hao Ren froze for a moment; he was shocked. "Is there such a wicked restless spirit in this world?"
"That's why I said it shouldn't be here!" said Y'zaks loudly.
Before Hao Ren could say anything more, a deafening boom came from above, everyone froze.
"Boom—"
The continuous loud booms reverberated across the frozen sea like the sound of a large bell, like a hammer pounding on a solid ice ball, and like the world was tumbling down.
The surrounding seawater had completely frozen; no route of escape for them, however the slightest. Even the power of the sirens would make no different in such circumstances. However, just as the boom continued, the heavy ice above them began to crack open.
"Boom—"
Another boom. Then Hao Ren began to notice flashes of light above the thick ice—it came from the explosion.
It did not matter what the explosion was; now there was an escape route.
Hao Ren threw out two Graviton Grenades to blow a wider fissure in the glacier. He led everyone climb before the fissure closed again. "Everyone! After me!"
Finally, after getting out of the glacier, the interference caused by the collapse of the Wall of Reality declined. In a flash of light, they were teleported out of the planet, which was now a frozen hell.