Chapter 495 - 465: Bizarre Time Flow! The Storm is Coming

Chapter 495: Chapter 465: Bizarre Time Flow! The Storm is Coming

"There’s no need to hide. Welcome to Silver Radiance City, my friends from afar."

The voice had a strange resonance, as if it were sounding directly in their minds.

Roland and Avril exchanged a wary glance. His right hand was already on the hilt of his sword as he stepped out from behind the sand dune to face the uninvited guest.

He was a tall but unusually gaunt man, as thin as a reed.

Beneath deep-set sockets were a pair of narrow eyes. His dark amber pupils gleamed with an eerie light, reflecting the faint blue crystals.

A prominent, aquiline nose gave him a sharp look. And while his almost-too-handsome face wore an amiable smile, the unique combination of his features made him seem sinister and inscrutable.

"I am the Reception Envoy of Silver Radiance City."

The man gave a slight bow, his movements as elegant as if they had been rehearsed a thousand times.

"Do you wish to enter Silver Radiance City?"

In response to the man’s invitation, Roland’s eyes narrowed slightly as he shook his head.

"Thank you for the kind offer."

His voice was calm, yet it carried an undeniable note of refusal.

"We’re only passing through. We have no plans to enter the city at this time."

His decision was not made lightly.

The scorched earth before him, the recent site of a bloody battle, stood in stark contrast to the eerily perfect city. That, and the living mist encircling it, put him on high alert.

When he finished speaking, the tall, gaunt man simply stared at Roland in silence, not saying a word for a long time.

Only the sound of the wind moaning over the scorched earth remained, filling the air with an unsettling silence.

Roland keenly observed that the man’s gaze held not just scrutiny, but also a faint, almost imperceptible hint of familiarity.

It was as if the depths of those dark amber eyes had known him for a very long time.

’Could... could he also be an old acquaintance of Rudolph’s?’

As Roland pondered this, the tall, gaunt man bowed elegantly once more.

"In that case, I won’t insist."

He produced a quaint pocket watch from his coat.

The case was simple and unadorned, save for the back, which was exquisitely engraved with the image of a serpent eating its own tail. It glinted strangely in the dim light.

"My name is Yemiga."

The man’s voice was like a distant echo.

"I shall remain here for three days. If you change your mind, you may come and find me at any time."

With that, he turned and walked toward the train.

Just as the doors were about to close, he seemed to recall something and turned back to add,

"Ah, that’s right. Tomorrow morning, this area will be hit by a ’Void-Bite Storm.’ I would advise you all to find shelter as soon as possible."

His gaze swept over the distant Shell Ship, a barely perceptible sneer touching the corner of his lips.

"That ship alone... I’m afraid it won’t be enough to keep you safe from the storm."

Before he had even finished speaking, the door slid shut without a sound.

Only after the strange train had glided silently into the distance and come to a stop did the other two emerge fully from their hiding spot.

"Yemiga..."

Galvis repeated the name under his breath, his brow furrowed.

"That man is no mere receptionist."

Avril shook her head, her long elven ears twitching slightly.

"Something’s off about his aura. He’s polite on the surface, but those eyes... ugh!"

As she spoke, the Elf Maiden rubbed her arm as if trying to wipe something off it.

In the middle of their conversation, the leather pouch at Roland’s waist suddenly twitched.

A small, furry head poked out of the bag’s opening, and Squirrel Qiao’s black eyes darted about warily.

It was followed by a slender, emerald-green figure that flew out of the bag.

Tress fluttered her transparent wings and landed on Roland’s shoulder.

"That two-legger."

Qiao nervously groomed his tail with his paws.

"He felt like the most dangerous predator in the jungle."

"Just sitting there quietly in the shadows, but you never know when he’s going to pounce."

Tress’s voice was as clear as a wind chime, yet it held an unusual gravity.

"The very air around him was trembling... not in fear, but in submission to him. That kind of... not even the Fairy Queen can do that..."

The warnings from his two non-human partners made the atmosphere even heavier.

Roland clapped his hands, breaking the tense atmosphere.

"Let’s get back to the Shell Ship and figure out our next move."

Back on the ship, Roland recounted the encounter in detail to Duraga and Bronson, then turned to the Gray Dwarf.

"Have you ever heard of someone named Yemiga?"

He then described the man’s tall, gaunt frame, his aquiline nose, and his unsettling, dark amber eyes.

Duraga frowned, lost in thought for a long moment before shaking his head.

"Rudolph, you and I haven’t known each other for long, and we spent most of that time in the Dark Nether Realm."

"Since he looked at you like an old acquaintance... maybe he’s someone you knew from your time on the surface?"

Having learned nothing of value from Duraga, Roland turned to the scholar.

"Mr. Bronson, is it possible to lock onto coordinates leading off the Aiselon Continent from here?"

Bronson was fiddling with the Magic Net Disturbance Detector, its surface covered in erratically shifting points of light.

Finally, he looked up with a sigh of resignation, his gaze falling on the towering city walls in the distance.

"Silver Radiance City itself is the largest of the Magic Nodes."

"If we were within the city walls—even if not in the core area—we might have a chance of capturing a stable anchor point. But out here..."

He pointed to the flickering dots of light on the device.

"The signals are too scattered. It’s impossible to get a lock."

Roland’s brow furrowed even deeper.

’Do we really have no choice but to enter that bizarre, inscrutable Silver Radiance City?’

The moment that thought crossed his mind, he suddenly noticed an abnormal change in the light around him.

At first, he only felt his vision dim slightly, but when he looked up at the porthole, he couldn’t help but gasp.

The sun, which had been high overhead, was now moving west at a visible speed, its trajectory tracing an unnaturally bright arc across the sky.

The clouds streamed past like a fast-forwarded film, and light and shadow danced wildly across the deck, as if an invisible hand were spinning the arms of a clock.

"Wait..."

Roland’s voice was uncharacteristically urgent.

"Haven’t you noticed? The flow of time..."

He pointed out the window. The sun had already sunk to the horizon, and the afterglow was painting the entire sky at an astonishing speed. Hues of orange, crimson, and deep blue washed over one another in mere moments.

Shadows spread like a tide, swallowing the land.

Yet Avril and the others merely looked at him in confusion, clearly oblivious to the bizarre passage of time.

Just as darkness was about to fall completely, Squirrel Qiao’s sleepy voice drifted from the leather pouch at Roland’s waist.

"That’s weird... Why am I so sleepy all of a sudden? How did it get dark so fast...?"

Roland glanced in surprise at the little squirrel, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.

"Duraga! Activate it now—"

His command was cut short by the sudden appearance of dawn.

The eastern sky was already brightening; dawn was breaking with the same unnatural speed.

But this time, the dawn was accompanied by a breathtaking sight in the distance.

On the horizon, a wall of sand that blotted out the sky was slowly rising.

It was no ordinary sandstorm. Dark purple vortices of energy churned within it, periodically erupting in flashes of ghastly white lightning.

Space itself seemed to twist and distort wherever the storm passed, and even light bent strangely at its edges.

A distant rumbling could be faintly heard. It wasn’t the sound of the wind, but rather the low roar of some ancient behemoth awakening.

The storm was advancing in their direction at an astonishing speed.