Chapter 495: The Red Signal Flare

Chapter 495: The Red Signal Flare

"Haaah!!!"

Swordsaint Tyrion let out a furious roar, his voice carrying a special willpower unique to swordsaints. Ripples formed around him, spreading rapidly, and the surrounding mist began to stir.

As the sound waves reached the elite soldiers with their eyes rolled back, they snapped out of their daze as if waking from a deep slumber.

They checked their bodies and surroundings, their faces filled with shock. Years of training kicked in, and they quickly drew their weapons, forming a defensive formation as they retreated into the ranks.

Whispers, however, were inevitable.

"What's going on?"

"How did I end up here?"

"Yeah, just a moment ago, I clearly..."

Ren immediately deduced from the soldiers' conversations that the voice seemed to have a bewitching effect on their minds, pulling their consciousness into some sort of illusion.

As for why he, Tyrion, and Hernandez were unaffected, it was likely due to their resilience against such mental anomalies, be it as a dawn wizard or a swordsaint.

But Ren remained vigilant. The continuous whispers might still affect the three of them, and such subtle changes could go unnoticed in their current environment over time.

"Your Majesty Hernandez, I think we should block the influence of that voice on these soldiers," Ren said, turning to Hernandez beside him.

Hernandez nodded, having noticed that as Tyrion's roar, imbued with his unique will, ended, the elite soldiers began to undergo unnatural changes under the influence of the eerie whispers.

"Pay attention, I'm going to cast Silence on you. After that, you won't be able to hear any sounds, and you won't be able to make any noises either," Hernandez said, and immediately began casting his spell.

"Silence!"

Hernandez's lips moved rapidly as he raised his hand towards the soldiers at the back of the formation, casting a spell.

The soldiers' faces lit up with relief.

They realized they could no longer hear the whispers that had clouded their minds.

Although they couldn't make any sounds either, it wasn't a problem for them.

Ren and Swordsaint Tyrion focused their attention forward.

The 'click-clack' sounds became increasingly clear and frequent.

Suddenly, several tall shadows emerged from the mist dozens of meters away, each standing over three meters tall. However, these towering figures didn't resemble humans; instead, they looked more like animals.

"Swish!"

Tyrion confirmed the nature of the approaching figures and, with a flick of his wrist, unleashed over ten swift silver sword beams from various angles towards the front.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The sword beams sliced through several objects.

"Bang! Clang!"

A series of heavy objects fell to the ground in quick succession.

"Mechanical Striders?"

The elite soldiers at the back finally got a clear look at the source of the 'click-clack' sounds—ancient Gnomish Empire's creation, the Mechanical Striders.

"Strange. According to history, the Gnomish Empire existed thousands of years ago. How could there be a Mechanical Strider patrol team still functioning?" Hernandez muttered in disbelief.

Ren shared the same question as Hernandez.

If these Mechanical Striders were preserved in some sealed warehouse and were still operational, it would be relatively reasonable.

But if they had been functioning for thousands of years... The mere thought of it was eerie!

After all, even dragons rarely lived that long. What about these gnomes?

Wait, gnomes!

As Ren focused on the gnomes operating the machines, even his pupils dilated in shock. He saw that the gnomes, cut into pieces, had wrinkled skin and resembled dryads.

It was hard to imagine that these creatures had been controlling the Mechanical Striders just moments ago.

If these creatures were in control, it would explain how the Mechanical Strider patrol had been operating for thousands of years.

But another question arose. Were these dryad gnomes also responsible for maintaining the equipment? Could regular zombies retain their living consciousness?

Ren furrowed his brows.

"Zombies?!"

"Undead?" Tyrion's brows knitted together, and he turned to Hernandez for an explanation.

"It doesn't seem like regular zombies. If these dryad gnomes were turned into zombies, part of the undead, they shouldn't be able to control the Mechanical Striders," Hernandez said solemnly.

"In other words, the dryads are likely just a facade," Ren nodded in agreement and stepped forward to examine them closely.

He held a hardened ingot of refined gold, which quickly transformed into a knight's longsword. He used the sword to probe the broken remains on the ground.

Suddenly!

A small black bug scurried out from the side of a withered gnome's head, specifically from its ear. It moved at an incredible speed.

"Hmm?"

Most importantly, the black bug swiftly crawled up the knight's longsword and leaped towards Ren's face.

"Whoosh!"

The silver sword beam sliced through the air, instantly disintegrating the black bug.

However, what was strange was that the remains of the black bug did not fall to the ground but turned into a black smoke and dissipated in mid-air.

If there was anything left, it seemed to be some barely noticeable black dust.

At this moment, the black bugs in the minds of the other Dryad Goblins also started to wriggle and crawl out.

However, sensing the formidable presence of Ren's group, the bugs immediately scattered in all directions.

"Trying to escape?"

Swordsaint Tyrion swung his sword again! Instantly, a silver sword light followed each black bug.

In the blink of an eye, the bugs were annihilated.

However, just like before, the remains of the black bugs quickly turned into black smoke and vanished.

"Was this thing controlling the Goblins just now?" Hernandez's expression grew even more unpleasant.

"I think so, has Your Majesty Hernandez seen this before?" Ren asked.

"No." Hernandez shook his head.

"But I seem to have read about it in some ancient book. There's a record of a monster called the Xen grub, which devours the brains of intelligent beings and controls their bodies."

"However, the appearance of the Xen grub is quite different from the black bug in front of us, which resembles a beetle."

"The most important thing is that the bug has a clear physical form, while this one looks more like some kind of evil energy in disguise."

"Hmm." Ren nodded without saying anything.

Indeed.

When he first saw the black bug, Ren thought it was some kind of insect-like creature, but now it seemed otherwise.

"Why don't we send these soldiers out first? This place is not suitable for their exploration." Tyrion glanced at the group of elite soldiers behind him and spoke to Ren and Hernandez.

"Okay." Hernandez nodded.

"It might be difficult." Ren, on the other hand, shook his head.

"Hmm?" The two of them looked at Ren with surprise.

Ren pointed behind him and said, "Your Majesties, look behind. I just noticed it too."

Tyrion and Hernandez raised their heads to look back, and they saw that the familiar houses on both sides of the street within the thin mist had changed without them realizing it.

Although they were houses, both of them were certain that many of the houses were appearing for the first time, such as a shop with a huge beer bottle advertisement that had never been seen before.

"Are these houses moving?" Tyrion was also surprised for the first time.

"No, it's not just the houses. Ren spoke in a low voice.

Although the faint sound of gears he heard earlier seemed to be quite a distance away, Ren guessed something when he thought about the gears.

"I suspect that beneath this ground is not ordinary." Ren bent down and touched the ground.

Intense dusky silver light blossomed in his palm.

The ground trembled slightly, and the square marble slabs on the street cracked open, revealing a hard object with a metallic hue underneath. However, it was immediately extracted by Ren using Metal Morph.

"This is metal? There's metal underneath?" Hernandez and Tyrion exchanged a glance.

For such a large city, if there's metal beneath it, then the technology hidden in this ancient Gnome capital far exceeds everyone's previous judgment.

"Hmm, and it's not natural. This is some kind of high-purity alloy." Ren carefully examined the dark metal in his hand and nodded.

The latest chapter is out!

"Then let's go from below." Just as Tyrion was speaking.

Suddenly, in the right front of their position, several hundred meters away in mid-air, a red light point blossomed.

Even through the layers of thin mist, one could vaguely see the dimly glowing dark red light point.

"Hmm?" Ren squinted and looked.

"This seems to be the Federal distress signal flare." Swordsaint Tyrion spoke in a low voice.

Although normal signal flares are much brighter than this, considering the effect of the special mist here, the current brightness is reasonable.

"Just ask those soldiers, and we'll know."

In fact, there's no need to ask. The soldiers who were cast with 'Silence Spell' were all excited, pointing at the sky, indicating that this was indeed the Federal military's exclusive distress signal flare.

"It's not far from us. If it's a signal flare, it means someone is still alive."

"That's right, and it's most likely Helm's team." Ren nodded, and his eyes glowed slightly.

If Helm was alive, that would be great. It meant that Ren's Dawn Kill had taken effect.

"Why can't it be the two previous search squads?" Tyrion asked, not understanding.

"Tyrion, do you think that just with the whispers, even an elite military squad could resist?" Hernandez replied for Ren.

"That's right. That's what I was thinking too." Tillio nodded in agreement.

"So, shall we continue forward?"

"I agree. Once we rescue Helm and the others, we'll evacuate immediately," Hernandes said, nodding.

"I have no objections," Ren naturally agreed.

"Hmm." Tillio, the Swordsaint, furrowed his brows instinctively.

Despite easily dispatching the enemies, Tillio couldn't shake off a lingering sense of unease.

"This place makes me uncomfortable."

The team quickly adjusted their course and began heading towards the location of the recently spotted red signal flare.

The elite Federation soldiers, aided by their combat hand signals, continued to scout ahead and on both flanks, unaffected by the silence spell that prevented speech and sound.

Minutes earlier...

Within the force field of the jammer...

"Lord Helm, this is the second-to-last signal flare. We've been firing one every three hours today, but there's still no sign of any rescue," reported a second-tier liquefaction wizard, licking his parched lips.

"We still have some food, but our water supply is almost depleted."

While the jammer and the isolation magic array had nearly perfectly shielded them from the unknown terrors and dangers within the ruins, the problem was that they couldn't hold out much longer.

"The jammer's energy is running low too. It's been operating at full capacity for optimal effect, so we can only last another three days at most," a hoarse voice added.

This came from another second-tier liquefaction wizard from the Federal Mechanical Research Institute, who fidgeted with the jammer, his face grim.

"Has the Federation abandoned us?"

"No, but it's likely the rescue team has encountered the same troubles as us," the major from the exploration team shook his head.

"But the result is the same, isn't it? We won't be getting any help!"

"Damn those goblins and damn those monsters!" exclaimed a young wizard, clearly losing control of his emotions.

He had been confined to this small space for a whole week now," he added.

"Lord Helm, shouldn't we try to break out of here?"

The major turned to Helm, the highest-ranking individual among them.

"Do you think we haven't tried? Before we met you, we attempted twice, but each time we lost personnel and supplies. Otherwise, we could have held out longer," another wizard replied, thinking on Helm's behalf.

"Let's wait one more day. If there's still no sign of reinforcements tomorrow, we'll give it a try," Helm said, snapping out of his thoughts.

Meanwhile...

Ren and his group advanced swiftly towards the direction of the signal flare.

Whether it was due to the recent encounter with the bizarre Mechanical Strider patrol or not, within less than three minutes, Ren's group encountered two more patrols in quick succession.

"They're appearing more frequently."

"The second one was after a minute and a half, and this one after just forty seconds," Ren said gravely.

"It doesn't matter how many of these things show up; it'll be over in a second," Tillio dismissed the concern.

"Tillio, you don't understand what Lord Ren means. He's saying..."

As Hernandes spoke, a heavy metallic clanging sound suddenly echoed from ahead.

"Boom! Boom!"

This sound was entirely different from the previous clicking, causing the ground to tremble slightly.

"Looks like something big is coming."

"Hernandes, is that what you were about to say?" Tillio asked, drawing his longsword as he looked ahead.

"No, I was thinking that something must be controlling these Dryad Goblins' actions." Hernandes shook his head.

"Hmm? That's a Prototype!"

Suddenly, Hernandes's eyes widened as he stared at the massive mechanical figure emerging from the smoke, his voice filled with shock.

Ren examined the figure closely—a colossal humanoid golem standing over twenty meters tall, but its style was vastly different from the Destroyer of the Valzig School.

Its arms ended not in hands but in three dark gun barrels, and even more prominent was the thick six-barreled cannon at its chest, resembling a Gatling gun.

The diameter of these barrels was the size of an adult's fist, clearly marking it as a killing machine.

"A Prototype? Is it the giant golem that Helm controlled when he entered here?" Tillio, who was about to take action, paused in surprise.

Previous intelligence had indicated that Helm had entered the ruins with a Prototype, a giant golem excavated and restored from other goblin ruins.

Now, with the Prototype's appearance, Tillio wondered if Helm had been infected by the strange black grubs, or if he was still in a safe location but unable to get out.

For the moment, the Swordsaint Tillio held back from taking the initiative.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end