Chapter 687 - 687: The First Beast of Moonlit Lament

Click—

The spacecraft landed at the edge of the town.

As Setsuna and the others accompanying him entered the town, their clothing stood out conspicuously, drawing sidelong glances from passersby.

The children stood far away, secretly sizing up this group of uninvited guests.

The merchants lining the street watched them with both curiosity and confusion, moving aside to clear a path.

"What is this?..."

The more Chtholly and Nephren looked around, the more puzzled they became.

Humanity had already gone extinct five hundred years ago. After losing the the Visitor's soul, every human had turned into one of the Beasts roaming the surface. That was an indisputable fact.

Even if a handful of humans had somehow survived on the continent, there was no possible way they could have lived in this wasteland for more than five hundred years, much less maintained a small city in the middle of the desert.

Even setting aside attacks from the Beasts, the planet's surface had long since been buried beneath yellow sand. There was simply nowhere to obtain water or food.

Yet on both sides of the street, Elysia and Chtholly saw shops piled high with apples, pears, oranges, and all kinds of other fruit.

There was clearly no trace of farmland anywhere outside the city, yet fresh vegetables were stacked everywhere.

"Are you new guests from outside? Welcome to Gomag."

A merchant warmly greeted the group.

He handed Elysia and Chtholly an apple each.

"Life isn't easy around here. If you need somewhere to stay, try the inn in the center of town."

"Gomag? Is that the name of this place?"

"Oh..."

Chtholly took a bite. The apple was crisp and pleasantly sweet.

The farther they walked, the more puzzled she became.

This resembled a human town, yet it was also somewhat different from the floating cities.

Its level of technology lagged far behind the floating islands. The residents' clothing and manner of speech, as well as the city's overall structure, were more reminiscent of five hundred years ago.

Before long.

A young girl with a long black braid and dressed in a short outfit suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Hello! Are you people from outside?"

"Where did you come from? Things aren't very peaceful out there right now."

She possessed the simple, unpretentious air common to a country girl, with a pure and pretty face as she curiously studied these visitors from beyond the heavens.

"Who are you? And what exactly is this place?..."

"My name is Almaria Duffner. This is the city of Gomag."

The girl introduced herself openly and without reservation.

"Oh?..."

Hearing that name, Setsuna frowned. He swept his gaze over their surroundings, then shook his head.

Chtholly did not understand why, but she sensed something inherently approachable about the girl, something that made people instinctively want to believe her.

"Didn't humanity go extinct long ago? How can there be a city here?"

"Hmm... Did it?"

Almaria stared at them and froze for a moment.

"Gomag has always been like this. It's never changed."

"No outsiders have ever come here before. If you'd like to look around some more, why not stay here for a while?"

She walked ahead, enthusiastically leading the way.

Driven by their confusion, the train crew followed along, intending to get to the bottom of this.

"I work at an orphanage here in Gomag. I mainly take care of the children there."

"You know a lot about the outside world, right? Could you tell me about it? If you don't mind, why don't I take you somewhere to settle in first?"

Not far beyond the bustling market district, they arrived at an orphanage in one corner of the city.

A number of children lived there. The moment they saw Almaria, they crowded around to greet her.

They also surrounded Setsuna's group, timidly observing these unfamiliar strangers.

Almaria gathered up the sheets and clothes drying in the courtyard, then brought over tea and snacks and invited everyone to sit down.

"Welcome!"

"Gomag may not be as prosperous as Corna di Luce, but you can find just about anything in the city. There's no problem living here long-term."

She greeted everyone warmly.

Her face was filled with curiosity as she looked at Setsuna and Elysia.

"You're not locals, are you? I heard you came here aboard some huge thing that can fly?"

"Could you tell me about yourselves, and what's happened in the outside world?..."

She possessed the pure innocence unique to a girl her age, sincere and enthusiastic.

"Wait!"

Chtholly and the others were equally baffled.

"I have a lot of questions too!"

"How has Gomag continued to exist here all this time? When humanity turned into Beasts five hundred years ago, wasn't this place affected?"

"And how do you even survive here? There's no water, and crops can't grow. Where do all those fruits, vegetables, and loaves of bread come from?..."

With careful perception, they could sense faint traces of magical power leaking throughout the city. Something felt wrong, yet none of them could quite put their finger on what.

"Humanity? Turning into Beasts?... Why would you ask something like that?"

Almaria did not answer those questions. When she heard those two phrases, she suddenly froze where she stood and murmured something under her breath.

Then she violently shook her head.

"Turning into Beasts? Turning into Beasts? You mean humans became Beasts? No, I'm sorry..."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what these Beasts you mentioned are either, or where any humans might have turned into them."

"?"

Rita felt an intense sense of incongruity.

From the subtle changes in the girl's expression, she believed Almaria was not lying, but that only made the situation even more absurd.

If there really had been a city capable of surviving on the surface for more than five hundred years, there was no possible way its people could have never heard anything about the "Beasts."

Click—

She reached behind herself and drew out her scythe, becoming vigilant.

"Miss Almaria, please don't joke with us."

"No, I really don't know what you're talking about... Where did all of you come from?... Why did you come here?..."

The girl's gaze became somewhat unfocused.

Her figure seemed unstable, flickering several times.

Clack—

Raven and Ana also assumed combat stances.

"Commander, what is this?..."

"What she said is true."

Setsuna sighed.

"Almaria has never seen a Beast, because before her, the seventeen Beasts that swept across the entire planet simply didn't exist."

"She was the first human to become a Beast, and the one and only First Beast—Moonlit Lament's first Beast."

"!!!"

"What did you say?!"

Almaria's pupils contracted violently as she instinctively retreated two steps.

"No, that's not true. I..."

Snap—

Setsuna snapped his fingers.

Everything before them instantly froze.

Almaria's shocked expression solidified on her face. The children running and playing nearby, the pedestrians on the streets, the merchants, and the entirety of Gomag were all brought to a standstill in that instant.

The originally bustling town immediately fell into deathly silence.

Only then did Rita finally notice something unusual.

"This place is an artificially created illusion?!"

"No, that's not right. This illusion is completely lifelike. Even touch, taste, and smell have all been perfectly reconstructed? It... It's practically become physical?!"

"Yes."

Elysia nodded.

"I thought this place was strange from the moment I first discovered it."

"In theory, there's an extremely powerful Beast here, but she doesn't behave anything like the others. She never attacks us in a frenzy."

"She's remained inside this illusion she wove for herself, repeating the exact same life day after day."

An individual "Beast" was exceedingly weak in the eyes of the train crew, but after five hundred years, the illusion Almaria had woven had become powerful enough to blur the boundary between reality and illusion.

Quite a few people had failed to notice anything at first.

"What is she doing here?"

Rita tightened her grip on her scythe without lowering her guard.

"Obsession."

Setsuna answered.

"After the final battle against the Visitor, humanity's transformation into Beasts had already become unavoidable."

"Almaria was the first human to become one of the seventeen Beasts during that catastrophe. At the moment she transformed, she held an intense wish in her heart: to wait for her father to return."

"That wish drove her to devour every resident of Gomag into her barrier world. Over the next five hundred years, she continuously reenacted and repeated humanity's final days before the apocalypse."

"She is also the only human who retained a trace of self-awareness after turning into a Beast. Without outside interference, this illusion would continue looping forever."

Whoosh—

He tapped several times on the holographic interface and pinpointed a location.

"Almaria's true body is directly beneath Gomag. She's the most unusual of all the Beasts."

"Let's go. Bring her and Elq home, and our mission will be complete."