Chapter 1472 — In the Mist

Beyond the display window there was only churning fog, and within it the dim yellow streetlamps lining the road and stretching into the distance, and the blurred outlines of buildings in that yellow light.

No human figure was visible on the broad street, as if this had always been an empty, deserted city, and the bustling crowd from minutes ago was merely an illusion left lingering in Hornet's mind.

"...Something is very wrong," Hornet said, her eyes fixed on the gray-white fog stirring faintly over the road outside. Observing and comparing every detail, she lowered her voice to her companion. "Night Owl, go check the communications station."

In the basement of the shop that served as their contact point was a hidden room housing a high-power arcane-net communicator. The device was linked to a "merchant ship" that had long shuttled back and forth across the strait, and through the ship's equipment it relayed to the Military Intelligence Bureau branch in Northport. In the coastal city of Prandell, this secret station was the most important channel by which Bureau agents contacted the homeland.

The young man called "Night Owl" nodded silently, quickly and noiselessly left the window, and went through a hidden door behind the counter. He returned moments later, his face grave: "Heavy interference. No signal from either the relay or the main station."

"...The supernatural anomaly has strengthened again. This time it is no longer 'contradiction' and 'wrongness' hidden beneath appearances, but acting directly on the real world," Hornet analyzed calmly in a low voice. Although before becoming a Bureau agent she had been only a mediocre mage apprentice, under Director Amber's teaching and with the support of the new era's technology and knowledge, even such an apprentice could analyze and understand a supernatural anomaly of this scale. "We may have fallen into some 'crevice' between the real world and the Distorted World. The interference is proof."

Night Owl frowned. He first quickly checked the shop, and only after confirming that the eerie fog had not invaded the interior did he breathe a slight sigh of relief. Then, as if something suddenly occurred to him: "Wait, you mean... Emberfall City, Palansanto, and Coldsea City may have suffered the same thing!?"

Hornet turned sharply: "What do you mean?"

"For some time now, intelligence about the 'inland' has been disappearing. First people's daily conversations naturally omitted Emberfall City, the 'kingdom capital'; then the local specialties from Palansanto became goods produced locally; then news from Coldsea City was cut off entirely. This is clearly not just 'communications cut', but more like the existence of these inland cities, even the evidence of their existence, being continuously 'erased'," Night Owl analyzed. "Think about it... these cities are distributed outward from the center of Violet Island..."

"You think... this gray-white fog is devouring the entire Violet Kingdom from the island's center outward?!" Hornet instantly understood her colleague's inference. "And the devoured regions... their very 'existence' is deleted?"

Night Owl shook his head: "That is only my guess, and it cannot explain why 'outsiders' like you and me still remember Emberfall City and Palansanto. If fog-devoured regions were completely deleted, we should not remember these inland cities either. But now it seems the anomaly affects only the Violetans' own cognition.

"But one thing is certain—this large-scale supernatural anomaly likely erupted from Emberfall City and is spreading and intensifying toward the borders of the Violet Kingdom!"

Hornet bit her lip unconsciously, her unease growing stronger. She had to admit that Night Owl's guess was highly possible, and she had to begin worrying about one thing: would the anomaly keep spreading? Would this gray-white fog spread beyond the Violet Kingdom? If it was uncontrolled and limitless... could it devour the entire world!?

She forced down the unease in her heart and filled her mind with Director Amber's teachings and her duty as a Bureau agent: "Analyzing all this now is probably useless. The more important question is how we escape this predicament and find a way to report what happened here to the Director... This fog does not look like anything harmless."

Night Owl frowned, his gaze on the foggy world outside the display window, his hand resting on the weapon at his waist. Yet this weapon, meant for fighting enemies, gave him no sense of reassurance on such an occasion: "If things really are as I guess, we must find a way out of Xuanque City. The southwest exit leads to the docks, where ships can return to Northport..."

"But first we need to step outside and cross that fog," Hornet said, her voice low and grave.

A difficult problem thus lay before the two senior Bureau agents: stay in this little shelter, or risk opening the door and stepping into the fog?

Hornet raised her head and looked around the shop. She saw that the doors and windows were still shut tight. Although ordinary doors and windows could not be completely sealed, the gray-white fog outside had clearly not seeped into the room through the gaps. The fog-shrouded, dark, eerie street outside the display window and the bright, warm interior seemed to be two different worlds, and the latter... now possessed an indescribable attraction.

But she knew that this little shop, which looked warm and safe, was probably not as "solid" as imagined. If Emberfall City, Palansanto, and Coldsea City had all been devoured by the fog, then this small shop could not be a safe shelter either. Staying here would most likely mean waiting for death—but was crossing that fog outside really feasible?

Hornet even suspected that the port southwest of the city had already been swallowed by the fog.

"It has only just turned night. There is a whole night until sunrise," Night Owl's voice came from beside her. "But if all this really is caused by a supernatural anomaly, sunrise may not dispel this obviously abnormal fog."

Hornet did not speak. She was still hesitating, but she also knew she could not hesitate any longer.

Just then, her gaze suddenly fell on the display window beside her.

The fog outside the window churned and surged. Under its constant licking, the surface of the cold, silhouetted crystal glass had at some point gained fine scratches. They were slowly lengthening before her eyes, as if an invisible hand were carving on the crystal with something sharp. Slowly they formed Youxing letters: "Do not stay indoors!!"

Hornet instantly held her breath. Beside her, Night Owl's eyes widened abruptly. They stared fixedly at the scratches on the glass. Then Hornet suddenly rose and walked toward the door: "Get out of here now!"

"Wait, aren't you going to confirm it?" Night Owl stood up and instinctively called out. "This might be a trap..."

"Don't you recognize it?" Hornet glanced back at Night Owl. "The letters are reversed, but that is the Shopkeeper's handwriting."

Night Owl's eyebrows jumped sharply, and he quickly followed Hornet. The two senior agents reached the shop door. Hornet already had her hand on the brass handle—through the small pane of crystal glass set in the door, the gray-white fog could be clearly seen flowing over the street outside like cold, silent pale fire.

Hornet took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open a crack—the fog swirled outside the gap, showing no sign of flowing into the room.

She suddenly pushed the door fully open and stepped into the fog-filled street. Night Owl followed close behind, the two keeping a pace neither too far nor too near, covering each other as they left the shop and came onto the avenue.