Chapter 688 - 688: If I Say You're a Beautiful Girl, Then You're a Beautiful Girl

Snap—

Within the frozen flow of time, everyone walked through the streets of Gomag.

This place perfectly recreated the appearance of five hundred years ago, before humanity's extinction. Every street, every building, and every person was exactly as they had been back then.

"Are we inside a dream right now... or reality?"

Chtholly looked a little dazed. She touched a loaf of bread displayed outside by a merchant, and it still felt warm and soft beneath her fingers.

"Somewhere between the two."

Setsuna answered.

"Almaria's will was too powerful. At first, this was probably nothing more than an illusion. But over several centuries, it gradually began to take physical form, becoming something caught between reality and illusion."

"Oh..."

Ely, Rita, and the others found it astonishing.

Compared to those bizarrely shaped wild Beasts that attacked humans on sight, a Beast that had shut herself away here to maintain an illusion was indeed exceptionally unusual.

"Then... could outsiders live here forever?"

Nephren asked an even stranger question.

"No. Although everything here has already condensed into physical form, so your food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and entertainment could all be taken care of..."

"Gomag's timeline isn't continuous. It only reenacts a certain period before the end of the world."

Setsuna cleared his throat and clapped his hands again.

Whoosh—

Time and space around them began flowing once more, but this time, everyone had been separated from the illusion.

Although they still stood on the street, they could no longer interact with anything here, and the people within the illusion would no longer notice them.

Hum...

The city regained its vitality and continued its peaceful daily life.

The cries of merchants, prayers, and children's laughter rose and fell all around them.

As time accelerated, the sun rose and set, one day passing after another.

Until one afternoon.

As the setting sun sank toward the horizon, disaster suddenly descended upon the city.

Crack—

Almost instantly, the moment the Visitor's fragments ceased functioning, the Beast transformation began.

Pedestrians and merchants on the streets, men and women, old and young alike, shed a thin layer of glowing light from their bodies before twisting and deforming.

Some sprouted extra limbs, while others became grotesquely bloated, swelling into enormous Beast-like monsters in the blink of an eye.

At first, screams and cries for help rang throughout the city. The humans who transformed into "Beasts" first had already lost all reason and began frantically hunting and attacking the remaining survivors.

The merchant who had handed Chtholly an apple moments earlier turned into a gigantic worm and swallowed a customer standing before his stall in a single bite.

The priest inside the church transformed into a many-legged beetle, using its mouthparts and enormous pincers to dismember the screaming worshippers at will.

The survivors hiding in rooms and basements also began mutating one after another, people beside them turning into monsters in rapid succession.

Roaring, they tore apart the remaining humans, destroyed the city, and exterminated every living creature they could find.

Gomag burned amid raging flames until it was reduced to ashes.

In the end, it became nothing more than ruins swallowed beneath the yellow sands.

"Ah..."

"So this is Gomag's true history..."

Chtholly opened her mouth.

It was exactly the same as what had happened in thousands upon thousands of human cities across the surface. Once the Visitor's fragments ceased functioning, humanity's apocalypse became unavoidable.

Every city would eventually meet its own final destruction.

However, before she could fully process what she had seen...

Whoosh—

Her vision blurred as though time itself had reversed.

The city returned to its original state.

Children's laughter and playful shouts mixed with the cries of merchants. The priest who had just transformed into a monster was preaching to worshippers, while the fruit merchant energetically haggled with customers.

Everything seemed so peaceful, tranquil, and normal, as though nothing had happened at all.

"!!!"

Rita, Raven, and the others looked around in utter shock.

"Understand now?"

"Under the influence of Almaria's illusion, Gomag continuously reenacts that final period before its destruction."

Setsuna patted the few people who were still staring blankly.

"Over the past five hundred years, this place has repeated the cycle hundreds, even thousands of times. If we leave it alone, she'll keep repeating it forever."

"Almaria doesn't recognize spacecraft, nor does she know about humanity's complete transformation into Beasts. She knows nothing about the Fairies, the floating continents, or the merchant guilds either, because all of that knowledge belongs to the future."

"Her illusion can only reenact the history she herself knows."

"Hiss..."

After marveling over it for quite some time, everyone finally set off again.

They passed through Gomag's buildings and followed a hidden passage all the way underground.

Before long, they arrived within a strange subterranean ruin.

It was located directly beneath the city, hollowing out an area spanning thousands of square meters.

Objects once used for rituals and stone pillars lay scattered chaotically all around, their original forms rendered unrecognizable by the erosion of time.

At the center stood an enormous crystal pillar, countless faces appearing within it.

Some of those faces were smiling, some crying, some delighted, some sorrowful, some furious, and some terrified, yet all of them were singing at the same time.

Around the middle of the pillar, a crystal statue resembling the upper body of a young girl protruded from its surface.

Her face was identical to Almaria's appearance within the illusion, her body resembling a figurehead extending from the prow of a ship.

"Almaria!!"

Everyone was startled.

As they approached the crystal pillar, they could hear the faces sealed within it and Almaria quietly singing a beautiful song.

They could not understand the language. It belonged neither to humanity nor to any known species, yet it irresistibly made those who heard it want to lose themselves within the melody.

"Ah..."

Chtholly and Nephren grew dazed and reached out as though to touch the pillar, only for Setsuna to stop them.

"Stop. Do you want to become part of her too?"

"Ah!—"

The two jolted awake and quickly shook their heads.

"Commander, what is this?..."

"This is her ability."

Setsuna was not particularly surprised.

"As the First Beast, Almaria's ability allows her to draw souls into her dream world through her song."

"She also uses psychological manipulation to make those dragged into the dream world become addicted to it, causing them to lose their memories and identities. Eventually, the outsider's soul is absorbed by the illusion, while all the energy in their physical body is drained away until they become part of this place."

He knocked lightly on the crystal pillar.

"She devoured all of Gomag. No wonder this illusion has become so powerful."

If an ordinary person lived in Gomag long enough, sooner or later their soul and memories would be absorbed by the illusion, assimilating them into a part of it.

However, the train crew's abilities were clearly far beyond anything the illusion could handle. Ely had sensed something abnormal the moment she stepped inside.

Setsuna merely appearing there had already caused the entire space to become unstable.

"..."

The Beast of Moonlit Lament let out a low, murmuring roar. Sound waves swept across the entire underground chamber, causing the ground to tremble several times.

She seemed to be warning these intruders, yet at the same time, she also sounded somewhat confused.

She did not understand how strangers could have broken through the illusion and found her.

Setsuna placed one hand against the pillar and exerted a little force.

Whoosh—

Imaginary energy spread outward, calming the agitated First Beast.

Crack—

Under the infusion of unfamiliar power, the crystal pillar shattered with a thunderous crash.

The girl fell from midair and was caught in Setsuna's arms.

Part of her body had already mutated and fused into the crystal pillar, while faint characteristics of a "Beast" had appeared across her form.

Her obsession had allowed her to preserve her human will and survive for an extraordinarily long time, but without the Visitor's soul fragment, her transformation into a Beast had still been unavoidable.

Setsuna placed a hand against her forehead and injected a stream of energy into her.

The girl's damaged body gradually restored itself. The areas deformed by her Beast transformation returned to their original state, leaving her exactly as she had appeared within the dream.

"Here."

Setsuna handed Almaria to Ikaros, who had accompanied them.

"Her genes have been completely distorted by the Beast's power. I've reconstructed part of her body."

"Once we get back, have Herta and the Life Sciences Department make further adjustments."

Nominally, she was the "First Beast Who Laments For the Moon."

Fortunately, her consciousness and physical body had both been preserved reasonably well. With a bit of genetic medicine, she could eventually become a unique existence possessing both the abilities of a "Beast" and the consciousness and body of a human.

"Yes, Master."

Ikaros accepted the order.

At the same time, after the illusion lost Almaria, its core...

Crack, crack!—

Fine fractures spread like broken glass across the surrounding space and throughout the entirety of Gomag before everything shattered with a crash.

The dream broke apart, revealing the bleak and desolate real world.

There was no city, no warm orphanage, no bustling streets, and no endless stream of carriages.

There was only boundless yellow sand, along with the ruins of a city buried deep beneath the desert, most of it already swallowed by the dunes.

A sandstorm swept fine gravel across the ground. For a thousand miles in every direction, not a single trace remained that life had ever existed there.