To Ed-Bear’s senses, the worms crawling everywhere were not mere soft, naked invertebrates of the natural world. Instead, they were linear carriers of matter and information.
His innate logical intuition told him that the Crimson Phantom Light was a self-aware signal source—an intelligent life form. Compared to humans, its intelligence was more diversified, possessing greater depth and breadth.
Unlike the monsters that acted recklessly under the cover of the Gray Mist, the Crimson Phantom Light harbored no subjective malice toward humans. It was the same way a person feels no malice toward a slice of bread while eating it. Searching his vocabulary, Ed-Bear could only find the term “natural evolution” to describe its behavior.
More and more Calamity Worms gathered around the Crimson Phantom Light, surging upward like a back-flowing river of lava, clustering into a terrifying physical form imbued with intense heat and destruction.
The debris shed as the worms twisted and fused was like the scale falling off forged steel, while the interior glowed as bright and deep red as molten iron.
The upper half of the monster gradually solidified into a shape, though its base remained crumbling and fluid, connecting to the ground through a network of vein-like vessels that intertwined with tree roots.
The Crimson Phantom Light was embedded deep within the monster’s chest. The Calamity Worms swarmed, winding around it to extend upward into massive, branching antlers. It shed flickering sparks along its constantly fluctuating silhouette, drifting through the air like gray sleet.
Before this advanced life form—one that Ed-Bear found breathtakingly divine—his inherent spiritual intuition made him feel his own mediocrity, humility, and the omen of his death.
Ahead lay the boundary between life and death.
The key lay in the choice, did it not?
He simply did not want to lose the precious memories of the time he had spent with them.
Receive this, Wang Yue! This is my final synchronization!
Ed-Bear’s tentacles suddenly lengthened, wrapping around the girl and the little one, pulling them into his body to protect them.
Then, he lunged off the ground. Before the giant stag formed of molten iron could finish manifesting, he sprinted across the earth with mad intensity, reaching the Lighthouse entrance in an instant!
The Crimson Phantom Light fluctuated violently!
A withered, ghostly claw, barely formed, reached out toward him.
Twisted, sharp talons tore through space, splashing black sparks. The fingertips trailed chaotic conical shockwaves that scattered like rolling clouds, instantly whipping up a fierce storm.
Like a hurricane sweeping through, rows of floor tiles in the plaza were uprooted first, followed by the simultaneous tearing of wall plaster and window frames. Finally, the walls of the Tudor-style buildings surrounding the plaza shattered and collapsed in a backdraft of dust!
In a single instant, Ed-Bear was skewered by the claws. The power of “Incinerating” erupted, and his massive body was burnt to nothingness, leaving only a charred wreck riddled with holes, its edges still dripping with residual sparks…
But!
The two people inside had already been ejected, sprinting up the spiral staircase of the Lighthouse!
The top of the tower was a terrace with a wide view. In the center sat a giant concave mirror made of hundreds of silver-plated reflectors.
Talitha did not hesitate for a second. She flipped the sliding mechanism on the edge of the brazier. With a click, an illusory golden flame roared to life!
In an instant, a band of white-gold light cut through the dark skies of the Evernight Realm!
The Cardinal Light of Recall!
A gentle, crystal-clear light enveloped the two girls. It felt warm all over; though their vision blurred, their hearts grew still.
Within the bright curtain of light, a massive figure appeared.
Beneath a hood was a face as exquisite as a work of art. The eyebrows and hair were coated in bright yellow pigment, and the eyes held a concentrated glow. The pupils were actually regular, I-shaped slits, resembling data interfaces.
The entire face exuded a non-human aura.
The newcomer was extremely tall, over two meters. Talitha only reached his waist, and Little Helen couldn’t even see over it.
Talitha’s face was stunned at first, then it lit up with the glow of hope.
A Lantern-Bearer!
“Well done, children.”
The man’s voice was as crisp as a blade being struck, possessing a uniquely high-pitched tone.
His silhouette flashed.
Talitha chased after him for a few steps, watching the figure leap from the top of the tower. She shouted excitedly, “It’s him! Shining Wright!”
Hearing the familiar name, Helen was equally invigorated. Her little face flushed red, and her eyes sparkled.
Talitha didn’t notice another massive figure appearing within the curtain of light. Then, a large hand, formed from twisted, slender, translucent fungal stalks, pressed down on her shoulder.
This hand was deep purple, shimmering with a strange metallic luster. Its texture was tough yet still hydrated, filled with a fluorescent liquid teeming with floating bubbles. Its fingers were covered in rings as pale as bone.
Talitha subconsciously looked up and saw a strange female face.
Green hair fell around a face with the texture of soft jade. Fungal filaments intertwined to form a surface mesh, and within her transparent interior clustered crystal-clear fruiting bodies. Her eyes were beautiful green spores.
Her body was even taller than Wright’s, nearly three meters high. She had a slight hunch, her back wide as a curtain. Her flowing black robes bulged with seven or eight lumps—it was unclear if she was carrying heavy equipment or if they were part of her body.
“Remember, do not leave the Lighthouse~” the woman whispered in Talitha’s ear.
With that, she kicked off into a whirlwind of shimmering spores, flickering through the air as she vanished.
Talitha’s mouth hung open. It took her a long while to react. She clenched her fists and shouted in excitement:
“It’s Decaying Aminata! Both Lantern-Bearers stationed at Sector G24 are here!”
In front of the tower, the iron-flow giant stag had finished forming and cooled down. Its surface was covered in a layer of dense, obsidian-like crystals, with a dark red light glowing from within.
Its antlers, trailing back a hundred meters, looked like black lightning, and its elbow spikes pointed toward the sky!
The Crimson Phantom Light had formed a massive blood-colored crystal orb, firmly lodged within the metallic skeletal cage of its ribs.
The monster lowered its massive frame, its lightless pupils staring at the tiny Lantern-Bearers below. It suddenly erupted with a silent roar!
The Phantom Light vibrated, sending out ripples like waves on water. The Gray Mist boiled, rushing in from all directions.
“A little lord wandering over? This is no place for you to run wild…”
A Lantern-Bearer’s hand, composed of glass shells and metallic components, emerged from the black robes.
In the hand was a lamp twisted into a funnel shape. The geometrically cut transparent cover possessed a strange beauty, containing a pure white glowing liquid.
“Recall!”
A straight pillar of light shot into the sky!
The light shimmered, and the mist rolled back.
The radiance surging from the lantern like a torrential tide rotated and expanded around him, growing larger and larger until it washed away the darkness and eerie mist of the entire district!
Meanwhile, in a forest two or three kilometers away from the town, two fast-moving figures came to an abrupt halt. They turned to look at the pillar of light piercing the dark sky.
“Quick! The Light-Seeker!”
The middle-aged man in the black-hooded robe shouted urgently. He pulled a silver device, shaped like a long lighter, from his tactical belt. He flicked the exquisite lion-head engraving with his thumb. With a click, his silhouette spun and vanished into the sweeping light.
“Hey! Master!”
The youth following him scrambled to find an identical device. Holding it clumsily with both hands, he struck it hard, and his figure vanished immediately.
On a neatly maintained ridge, a team of people patrolling on lizards called their mounts to a stop.
The chestnut-haired woman leading them frowned. “Something happened in Fishmouth Town. By my command, everyone—Recall!”
Having said that, she flipped off the lizard. A metallic prosthetic limb emerged from her black robe, pointing a glass-shelled finger toward the light shining from across the river. Her figure spun and vanished.
The rest of the people pulled out various Light-Seeker devices. Their figures flickered, shooting back toward the town.
In a small boat with upturned ends drifting down the Corrupt Root River, a round-faced girl resting her head on her hands while watching the stars suddenly saw a light as bright as day bloom in her vision. She sat up quickly, looking downstream into the distance, then turned and shouted:
“Brother! Something’s happening at home!”
The man steering at the stern saw the dazzling light spreading across the river at the same time; even the silt and water plants at the bottom were illuminated. He asked calmly, “Did you bring the Light-Seeker?”
The girl fumbled around her person and cried out in a panic, “Ah! I forgot!”
“Hold onto me.”
The man’s hand brushed his waist, calmly retrieving a short silver-headed wand. He pointed it toward the west, and in a flash, he and the girl clutching his arm disappeared.
…
Near the Lighthouse, figures continued to emerge from the curtain of light, landing silently on rooftops and streets, quiet and solemn.
Hiding in their homes on the brink of despair, people ran to their doors. Seeing the figures in black-hooded robes holding bright lamps in the streets lit as bright as day, they could not contain themselves. Tears flowed as they choked out:
“It’s the squad of Light-Seekers!”
“The Light-Seekers are here!”
“We’re saved!”
“The Lantern-Bearers are here too!”
“It’s Shining Wright!”
“It’s Lord Wright!”
