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Chapter 517: Key

But, even someone like Katerina could sense that life here was better than life in the present.

People here didn’t need to use wooden buckets to draw water from wells. They only needed to twist a knob for a water pipe and obtain clean water. And, the streets here didn’t need to rely on oil lamps with their bad smell. Bright crystal pillars lit up the entire world. Those crystals appeared rather similar to the currently popular magical engineering lights, but these crystals were brighter and clearer. In fact, it was impossible to even sense the typical noise and heat of machinery coming from these lights.

And, people in this city didn’t need to use horse-drawn carriages or their feet to go outside. Instead, they got into strange box-shaped objects on wheels. These objects would take people swiftly to their intended destinations.

Colorful crystals could be seen everywhere. The streets were actually crafted out of diamonds and white jade. However, these robed humans ignored all this extravagance as if it was only normal. Strange creatures with visible gears lived in this city as if these machines were living. Humans weren’t the only species that lived in this city.

Seeing this strange yet familiar world, Katerina sunk into confusion. She believed herself to be only a rural bartender girl. The most famous person she had ever seen was the mayor of the nearby town. Such a scene had far surpassed her understanding.

As time and seasons passed, Katerina felt as if she experienced much in just an instant. This modern-seeming city became slightly older as many strange additions joined.

But one day, the color of the sky changed. The white clouds were ignited by flames, and began to boil in an abnormal scene. Soon, the fiery clouds in the skies appeared to boil over, spreading blood-red ripples everywhere.

This abnormal scene caused the people on the streets to panic. The next instant, the clouds opened up, and countless beams of light rained down as if some presence up above was watching this world.

“@#$@#$!”

“#@Dda@1321!”

Strange screams and howls could be heard from the streets. Even though Katerina was also standing there, nobody could see her. And despite the fact that this was a language Katerina didn’t know, she could instinctively understand what these words meant.

“Angels, angels are coming!”

“It’s Armageddon! We’re finished.”

“The prophecy, the prophecy was actually real!”

That’s right, the clouds opened up to reveal descending white-feathered angels. These angels were just as strong, beautiful, and powerful as in the legends!

Their golden armor shone with the glow of the sun. Their well-polished swords were burning with fierce flames. But unlike what the priests said about angels, these angels hadn’t come with kind intentions and blessings. The first ones who reached out to these divine messengers for aid directly had their hands cut off by the angels’ sharp swords. These beautiful angels had come down as butchers.

As Katerina watched, the beautiful angels emotionlessly swung their swords and slew all the residents of the city. Some people tried to use the city’s mechanical puppet guardians to fight against the angels, but such people were pierced through by flaming spears before they could even fight.

Something scarier happened next. All the clouds completely vanished, and a tremendous giant stood up in the skies. This giant had two heads and four arms, with one smiling face and the other head being a snake head. However, the smile didn’t represent mercy. This giant commanded the angels to slaughter, why he tore down the flower garden in the skies that was the pride of this culture, tossing the garden down as fatal projectiles at the humans.

Yet, this was only the beginning. Various Gods with strange appearance directly descended from their Divine Kingdoms. These Gods either sent out incarnations or even personally descended, becoming the most dangerous killers of all.

Most Gods wouldn’t have a human form. Their biggest appearance in common was having distorted bestial bodies. And, their bestial instincts helped them to upgrade this slaughter with even more cruelty.

As for Katerina, she was forced to watch this hopeless scene filled with death and despair. She faintly felt that something was wrong, but didn’t know what. Her ears were filled with explosions and death screams, and all she could see were butchers with icy expressions, along with all the slaughter they conducted.

She wanted to close her eyes and stop watching, but found that she was unable to close her eyes as if some power was forcing her to witness each and every scene.

“No, no, no!”

Katerina despaired, and fell to the ground, crying. The world and scene around her kept changing. The only unchanging things were people’s despair, screams, and curses against the Gods.

“No…”

In front of the angels and Gods’ high-efficiency slaughter, the death screams and cries didn’t last very long. However, explosions constantly sounded out as the slaughterers didn’t intend to leave any trace of this once magnificent city behind.

Katerina was rather dazed as she stood amongst all the rubble. Not a single person could see her, and she felt that she shouldn’t be here. Yet, she instinctively felt that she belonged here.

Katerina confusedly walked among all the rubble. Her logic and instinct both guided her to search for something. Suddenly, she noticed a pitch-black stone tablet that lay there with nobody around it. A mysterious delight entered her heart as Katerina knew she had found what she was looking for. She had found hope for the future.

But before she could touch the tablet, the double-headed giant God in the skies suddenly turned around and looked at her. Her presence had finally been discovered!

The next instant, the angels’ spears and divine rays came to smite her simultaneously. She saw nothing but blinding light as everything returned to silence.

“Wait, I just needed a little more…”

“Katerina! Are you alright?”

Fierce shaking helped Katerina to regain her senses. When she finally dazedly regained her wits, she found that she was still within the private room of the tavern, while her adopted father Old Barton was worriedly looking at herself.

On her other side, I also heaved a sigh of relief when I saw that Katerina woke up.

“How was the result?”

“My guess was correct. Katerina is indeed incredibly important, no matter if it’s to us or to any possible survivors from the Haletdam generation. She is the key, the key to the Sky Tower! Everyone is probably looking for her. It’s highly likely that the undead have her as their number one priority.”

Timlad skillfully pulled some electrical cords out of Katerina’s ear and forehead. He copied down the data recorded on his machine. Although he clearly received astonishing news and information, Timlad wasn’t happy about his harvest at all. Instead, he had a solemn expression.

“How long do we need?”

“I’m not sure. It depends on the situation.”

My seemingly unclear question didn’t receive a definite response. But since Timlad didn’t deny my guess, then it was highly likely that I was on the mark. Perhaps we were all in deep trouble this time.

But right now, Old Barton was still viciously glaring at me. It was as if he blamed my suggestion for casting a Memory Recovery spell on Katerina for all her suffering.

“Barton, your daughter is even more important than you realize. Running away is no answer.”

However, I wasn’t the one who said that. Although dragon lich Winlair was usually quite comical, he was still a lich who naturally understood the importance of the soul. It was quite obvious how unique Katerina’s soul was. He also noticed how important she was. Although Winlair was Barton’s blood-related relative, the dragon lich knew to help me out by supporting me here.

Meanwhile, Katerina was looking at me with a pitiful expression and watery eyes. The tears that just flowed during her dream seemed like they were about to start flowing again. It was as if she was telling me that she would cry again if I forced her to view such a dream again.

I shook my head, indicating that she could rest assured. I had no intentions of forcing Katerina with any more Memory Recovery spells. The soul was a fragile yet exquisite existence. Forcefully taking information from the soul would be the equivalent of running over a walnut with a bulldozer. Perhaps one would be able to pick up some broken walnut pieces after the bulldozer was finished, but the walnut would be broken beyond repair.

For the sake of the treasure as well as Katerina herself, I would have to take things slowly regarding extracting the treasure from her soul.

Seeing how Katerina collapsed in her adopted father Old Barton’s arms while sobbing uncontrollably, I knew that this was all we could do for today. Plus, I heard such shocking news about “reinforcements” coming to see me. It would seem that I needed to think about how to deal with those “reinforcements”.

“Everyone must be tired. Let’s finish here and all get some rest…”

Too much attention would make it difficult for me to do what I wanted. I didn’t choose to stay in the nice guest room that Salima provided for me. Instead, I chose to stay in this regular tavern. However, despite the fact that it was now late at night, there were constant loud booms from the next room. Even the floorboards kept shaking from the loud noise.

“Be quiet! Let me sleep!”

I kicked the wall, successfully causing the next room to quieten for a few minutes. But then, an even stranger subtle buzzing sound caused my hair to stand up on end.

“Sheesh…”

I felt rather helpless now. It would seem that having Timlad stay in the next room had been a truly foolish idea. With all that happened today, and so much new data for him to research, there was no way that he would sleep so easily.

“Ha, perhaps he even modified himself so that he doesn’t need to sleep anymore.”

And considering that the undead would likely come attack again tomorrow, I needed his research results as quickly as possible. In the end, I could only give up on the idea of stopping his strange noises. I took out some earplugs from my luggage, and clogged up my ears.

It wasn’t only because of the next room’s noise that I hadn’t gone to sleep yet. The holy hammer in my room was currently giving off a faint silver glow that made one feel reassured.

I touched the hammer, and tried to use its powers of Holy Light to dispel the curse of weakness that Amelia had placed upon my physical body. Soon, Holy Light enveloped my entire body, making me look like a bright lightbulb. However, the Holy Light was unable to dispel this curse of weakness.

“It would seem that this isn’t a curse at all. Holy Light isn’t even showing signs of enmity towards my condition. Holy Light feels that I’m in excellent condition. This… could this actually be a type of blessing?”

I had a strange result and an even stranger conclusion. When considering Amelia’s talent in life and plant magic, it was quite possible that she was capable of changing a curse into a blessing, or twisting a blessing’s effects into weakening a person.

This was just like how a recently cut off limb could still be reconnected, but a cut off limb from ten years ago would no longer be a part of you. Holy Light and healing magic would be helpless in that situation.

“It would seem that only the original person can solve it…”

While I was sighing, I suddenly heard some angry shouting from a downstairs guest in the tavern.

“What are you doing upstairs? Why is it so noisy! Nobody can sleep! Think about others!”

I shook my head helplessly and got up. It would seem that I needed to remind Timlad about the noise after all.

“And, that idiot next door to the noisy room, constantly lighting up and dimming your room! Are you so bored that you’re setting a fire in your room? Do you have any common sense? Aren’t you afraid of burning the place down?”

And so, I stopped, and silently summoned a low-level ghost. Perhaps this little ghost would give that noisy guest a nightmare… I mean, a wonderful dream! That would teach him a lesson that shouting angrily in the middle of the night was just as rude. If that person was dissatisfied, he should have expressed his dissatisfaction more politely.

“Forget it, let’s just go to sleep.”

When I turned around, I noticed that something was off about the silly cat’s condition. For once, she had transformed into her elf form, but was showing her cat ears and tail. She was also tugging on the blanket while rolling around on the bed.

“Meow. Master, the bed has been warmed for you. It’s so soft and warm. Please come sleep with me.”

Her sweet-sounding words caused goosebumps to crawl up my flesh. I was just about to ask what was wrong with her when I saw a memory crystal glowing, an indication that it was recording this scene.

I instantly understood what was going on. Instead of goosebumps, I now instinctively felt death arriving right on top of me.

“The hell, you’re recording this? You’re intending to show those crazy women this scene? Are you trying to kill me?”

“Meow, this kitty cat doesn’t understand. This kitty cat is simply warming the bed for Master like always.”

Harloys in her young elf form intentionally showed off her snow-white skin and legs. Although she indeed looked quite beautiful, now was definitely no time for appreciating her beauty.

“…Stop! I really will die!”

“Meow, does Master not like kitty cat warming the bed? But, back in the fitting room at that tailor’s, didn’t you say that you loved the kitty cat’s service?”

“Damn it, you’re still holding a grudge for that matter? Dear respectable Harloys, please forgive me! Don’t you think I’m in enough trouble already!”

“Meow, kitty cat knows nothing. Kitty cat is only a pet cat for warming Master’s bed.”