The moment Rover's hand touched that cold stone statue—
Buzz!
As if time and space had inverted, the surrounding scenery violently distorted and collapsed, only to be swiftly reorganized.
The piercing whispers and the roars of the Tacet Discords abruptly faded into the distance, replaced by an ethereal silence that felt like countless overlapping voices echoing.
The squad members were shocked to find themselves standing on a... completely different piece of land.
The sky was no longer an oppressive dark purple, but displayed an eerie amber glow, as if twilight and dawn were intertwined. The surrounding ruins had vanished, replaced by the faint outlines of a once-prosperous town—Fabiana, the name of the Town of Murmurs before its destruction.
The air was filled with a faint smell of scorched earth and... a sense of calm before the onset of despair.
This was a "Sonora"—an echo space composed of intense emotional memories and residual frequencies, a place where the ghosts of the past continuously re-enacted their low murmurs.
"Is this... Fabiana? Sixteen years ago..." Augusta's voice carried a hint of unbelievable trembling. Her crimson eyes reflected the familiar streetscape, her long-buried hometown.
The echoes within the Sonora began to replay the events of that year.
They saw a young Augusta, a girl who also possessed fiery orange hair but whose gaze was even more rebellious and untamed. She was running and playing on the streets with another girl who had a bright smile, named Angel.
They were best friends, dreaming of becoming powerful gladiators and changing the fate of the Seven Hills.
Then, the overwhelming Black Tide arrived, and the scene abruptly turned bloody and terrifying.
The sky was torn asunder, and a pitch-black torrent carrying horrific monsters poured down. The town's defenses collapsed instantly. People screamed as they fled, were swallowed, or were mutated...
The echo focused on the young Augusta and Angel. They fought back with all their might, but the power disparity was too great.
Outnumbered and exhausted, the two stumbled through their escape. To protect Augusta, Angel was wounded by a Tacet Discord, her blood staining Augusta's vision red.
In front of that very tree hollow, the young Augusta held a broken small sword with trembling hands, trying to resist a strange, pitch-black muddy stream approaching them.
"Don't... don't come any closer!"
But that black stream seemed to possess a self-awareness. It directly bypassed Augusta and pounced on Angel behind her, devouring her companion right before her eyes.
"Run! Augusta! Live!" Angel's final voice was filled with resolve and a blessing.
"NO—!" The young Augusta let out a heart-wrenching cry. Immense grief and rage ignited something within her. For the first time, scorching lightning erupted uncontrollably from her body, instantly vaporizing the smaller Tacet Discords around her...
The scene blurred and shifted again.
They saw the surviving Augusta. Her gaze had turned cold and iron-like. Alone, relying on the uncontrollable berserk power that had erupted, she fought her way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
She also saw several Oracles using prophecies to comfort the survivors, telling her, "This is the arrangement of fate."
But Augusta, having lost everything, sneered at this. She only believed in the sword in her hand and her own strength.
A belated gladiator unit arrived to rendezvous with her and take her back to the Seven Hills. She merely nodded blankly and followed them back, limping and clutching her sword the entire way.
The echo gradually dissipated. The group returned to the statue deep within the tree hollow, as if they had just experienced a long and painful nightmare.
Augusta panted heavily, her forehead covered in fine sweat. Traces of pain and sorrow remained in her crimson eyes, but they were now overlaid with a refined determination. That memory was the source of her power and the reason she never trusted so-called "fate."
Rover silently reached out and gently pressed his hand on Augusta's slightly trembling shoulder. No words were spoken, but that steady, powerful touch acted like a silent pillar, transmitting understanding and support.
However, Rover also noticed something very abnormal in the visions. From beginning to end, he only saw a small number of the town's gladiators and people resisting the Black Tide. Support from the rear never arrived.
If he remembered correctly, this was also due to the interference of the old fogies in the Senate back then, who delayed reinforcements. By the time the main Seven Hills army arrived, Fabiana was already a wasteland.
In a sense, the grudge between the Senate and Augusta, the Governor, ran deep, though the other side likely had no idea and only viewed her as a hothead trying to harm the interests of the old nobility through reform.
Augusta looked at Rover, took a deep breath, and nodded heavily, her gaze turning sharp once more: "I'm fine. Continue the mission."
Bu Ling suddenly spoke, her tone serious: "Boss, Governor Augusta... the echo just now didn't just show what happened in the past. It also confirmed a suspicion of mine—those 'whispers' are not disordered noise."
"They originate from the Divine King. It can precisely dig out and amplify the deepest fears and regrets within a living individual's heart, using them as weapons and nourishment. We must remain vigilant at all times."
Just then, Bu Ling's monitoring equipment emitted a successful chirp: "Found it! At the peak of the echo, I captured a strand of extremely pure frequency sample belonging to the Divine King's main body! Though weak, it's enough for a final triangulation!"
The objective was achieved. The squad quickly retreated from the dangerous tree hollow. With the newly acquired critical data, Bu Ling soon completed the final calculation of the Divine King's coordinates.
"The core of the Black Tide... the Divine King is to the east! Deep within that giant basin!" She pointed to the map. "Right where the Earth-Piercing Wedge is located!"
Without a moment's hesitation, the squad immediately rushed toward the eastern outskirts of the Town of Murmurs.
There, they found a relatively defensible high ground and quickly established a crude but functional forward base, setting up communication and defense equipment. From here, they could already see the distant outline of the ancient, colossal Earth-Piercing Wedge entangled by the ominous Black Tide in the center of the basin.
The site of the final battle was right before them.
However, just as Augusta and Rover were preparing to discuss how to lure out and slay the Divine King, the base's communicator suddenly transmitted the near-desperate roars of Vibius, the commander at the Hunters' Camp:
"Lord Governor! Lord Rover! Emergency reinforcement requested! Emergency reinforcement!"
"The center of the Town of Murmurs! The Black Tide... a Black Tide of unprecedented scale has erupted! They are surging out like a tsunami, directly crushing our observation posts outside the town. Now... now the entire Black Tide has diverted its path! An army of countless Tacet Discords has completely submerged the passage between us!"
The communication signal was severely jammed and intermittent, but the following news made everyone's faces change drastically:
"...They... they discovered the camp is vulnerable! Thousands of Tacet Discords... bypassed the main frontal defense line and poured into the camp through a flank breach! We can't hold them back! Casualties are heavy!"
"Oracle Yuno and the commander of the Black Shores reinforcements are leading a desperate stand at the command headquarters on the high ground, fighting while retreating! The camp... the camp is about to fall!"
"What?!" Augusta snapped to her feet, her face turning as pale as paper.
The Hunters' Camp was not just the frontline hub; it housed a large number of wounded and support personnel. Yuno was also there!
She was almost about to immediately order the entire force to turn back and reinforce.
"Augusta!" Rover grabbed her arm, his voice calm to the point of being cold. "Calm down first! Look over there!"
He pointed with a grave expression toward the center of the Town of Murmurs.
There, it looked as if a gap to the abyss had been opened. A pitch-black tide, roaring as if it possessed life, surged forth. Its scale was so massive that it had completely severed all land routes back to the camp.
If the group attempted to force a crossing now, it would be no different from suicide.
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