Chapter 330
Chapter 330
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 330 – Lan Qi’s Sudden Confrontation with the Dread Bishop
Bandera City — a metropolis where grandeur and history danced together, embraced by a land of ice and towering snow-capped mountains.
Whether morning or afternoon, the snow land’s pale light bathed the city’s hard, gray stone in a faint silver glow. Every rugged line and scratch bore the weight of time, as though the stories of the Holy Wars were whispering once more in the wind.
Lan Qi and Sid heard the war-drums and orchestral battle songs growing clearer as they passed through layer after layer of Bandera’s wards.
The city gates were heavily guarded. After carefully verifying Lan Qi and Sid’s identities, the silent imperial officers allowed them entry.
The two walked through the long gate passage and stepped into the city’s upper tier.
Even as they moved forward, the soldiers and officers behind them seemed to continue staring straight at their backs.
“Do you feel anything unusual about these imperial troops?”
Lan Qi asked softly, looking toward Bandera’s distant spires.
The city bore the heavy imprint of ancient Helrom architecture — lofty spires, stained-glass windows, intricate stone carvings. The city walls were massive and solid, and watchtowers and arrow towers dotted the perimeter at regular intervals.
The streets were wide and winding, lined with tall buildings that seemed to compete for the meager rays of sunlight.
“No.”
Sid’s tone was flat.
Even so, she felt something in the city’s atmosphere was off.
They had walked the streets for some time without seeing any citizens.
Their current location was on the upper tier of the city — a closer look revealed that the “street” was actually a broad suspension bridge. From the side, one could see the lower tier far below.
Snowflakes drifted down through the bridge’s side openings, floating for a long time before landing in the lower tier.
From this height — sixty or seventy meters above — they could finally see the markets and shops below, with the occasional resident passing by. From food to magitek devices, everything could be found there.
Lan Qi put on a pendant — not a gemstone, but a small magitek recorder that captured everything he saw.
Its design was similar to the Shadow World recorders of the southern continent, but with stronger encryption. It not only stored images, but also recorded environmental details and magical fluctuations.
“We might need to go down to the lower tier.”
From the gray-stone street, Lan Qi could see only heavily-armored imperial patrols and robed clergy of the Dread Branch. They seemed normal — or perhaps their appearance revealed nothing at all.
If something had gone wrong in this city, the best evidence would likely lie among the residents.
But the stairways leading to the lower tier were likely deeper inside the city, and simply jumping down would require either immense physical prowess or flight magic.
Then it happened.
Before Lan Qi even registered the shift, a slender but powerful hand locked around his arm. The force was enough to shatter his bones — but Sid’s control was precise, causing him no harm.
Lan Qi tried to speak, but his words were devoured by a gust of frigid air. A crushing pressure descended from above, and he realized Sid had taken them aloft again — but this time, their destination was not deeper into the city.
Instead, Sid was carrying him outward — away from the city center.
Though surprised, Lan Qi did not question her judgment.
“There are no living humans left in this city — only the Dread Branch clergy.”
Sid’s cold, alert voice sounded in his ear.
Even the imperial troops they had seen at the gates were likely elite Dread Branch zealots in disguise.
Lan Qi’s emerald eyes widened as they soared higher. Through the clouds, he finally saw the entire city’s true face.
Only the entry area they had passed through still feigned normalcy. The city’s depths were shrouded in ominous darkness.
The city center was sealed within an illusion barrier — indistinct, murky. Yet even without sight, he could feel it: a solar-eclipse abyss, a domain built from mountains of corpses.
Collapsed buildings lay strewn with desiccated limbs and remains — elders, women, children, all heaped together.The entire border city had become a post-sacrifice feast of death, drenched in a pale, suffocating, unreal light.
Time seemed to stretch. The wind howled shriller. Lan Qi’s vision blurred from the cold, but Sid’s hand held him tightly as they raced toward the city’s edge.
Lan Qi did not speak. He didn’t need to — they both knew they had to move fast.
Even if they hadn’t gathered decisive evidence from the city’s heart, the Holy Tyrant Church’s confirmation of this aberration, combined with Major General Fanreku’s likely disappearance, would throw the imperial capital into turmoil once reported.
The sins committed here in the north could not be buried — they would be unearthed.
Just as Lan Qi thought this, a transparent, warped barrier appeared around them!
Sid’s speed suddenly slowed, halting them mid-air.
Her eyes narrowed, sharp with vigilance, as she caught sight of a figure who had appeared behind them without warning.
“So — what do you think of this lovely sight?”
A smiling voice echoed above the city.
Lan Qi turned to look.
The clouds churned darkly overhead, lightning flashing within, illuminating Bandera City’s dead silence with a ghastly glow.
And there — on the viewing platform atop the city’s tallest spire — stood a tall man in a deep gray coat, staring at them.
His skin was pale as snow, devoid of any color.
Even without exerting himself, a suffocating magical presence leaked from him.When he sealed the space around them, the very air seemed to freeze.Black lights flared all around, like countless stars in a void that didn’t exist in space yet pierced directly into the mind.
An ordinary person without strong mental fortitude, if confronted with this soul-striking radiance for the first time, would feel an inexplicable connection to the world — as if they had traveled through an eternity beyond flesh and time — before finally collapsing, kneeling, even weeping.
The runes swirling in the air belonged to no known age. Only those who had seen relics of the divine era would know their meaning.
This was the radiance of the Primordial Tablet’s blessing.
And a tablet capable of empowering sealing magic revealed the man’s identity beyond doubt.
Sensing Lan Qi’s gaze, the man turned his own toward him.
His deep gray eyes were like an abyss, able to swallow the soul.
Askson smiled at them.
Just by standing there, he radiated a formless terror that made all living things feel insignificant. And if he so much as moved, the very sense of stability in the world would collapse.
(End of Chapter)