She looked only twelve or thirteen years old, so frail that a gust of wind might knock her over.
Her pale skin was almost translucent, with thin veins faintly visible beneath.
Long, silver-white hair cascaded over her shoulders, its ends nearly touching the floor.
She wore a simple white robe that draped over her legs.
Most striking of all was her eyes.
A white bandage was wrapped around her head, slanting down from her forehead to completely cover where her eyes should be.
The ends of the bandage hung over her chest, fluttering slightly in the breeze.
She “looked” in Jiang Lin’s direction.
Even though her eyes were covered, Jiang Lin could clearly feel that she was “watching” him.
“You’ve come.”
The girl spoke. Her voice was as soft as wind chimes, yet it carried a composure far beyond her years.
Jiang Lin took a step forward and stopped three meters away from her.
“You knew I was coming?”
The girl nodded slightly, a faint smile touching her pale lips.
“I saw it. Seven days ago, at the exact moment the pollution tide was at its weakest, I saw the moment of your arrival... among countless possible timelines.”
She raised a hand—pale and thin—and a speck of silver-white light coalesced at her fingertip.
“You aren’t from this world, are you?”
Jiang Lin remained silent for a moment before slowly nodding.
“I’m not.”
Ed and the silver-haired woman who had brought him in whipped their heads around to look at him, their eyes filled with disbelief.
But Jiang Lin didn’t explain. He simply watched the blind girl.
The smile on the girl’s lips deepened slightly.
“Good. Honesty is the first step toward cooperation.”
She lowered her hand, and her wheelchair turned silently to face Jiang Lin.
“My name is Leah. I am the third-generation Leader of Ember, and its chosen guide.
“Since the Great Cataclysm began three hundred years ago, the original leaders of Ember foresaw this day.
“They used various methods to cultivate numerous lifeforms, and I am one of them.
“And I am the most successful one.”
She raised her pale hand, her fingers tracing a light path through the air.
Despite the bandage over her eyes, the movement suggested she was “seeing” something, or perhaps touching invisible threads.
“Although I cannot see the world before me, I can see the future.”
Leah’s voice was calm.
“Within countless possible timelines, I can see fragments of what ‘might happen.’
“Most of the time, I see only death.
“Endless death...
“This outpost destroyed, that city collapsed, everyone consumed, the world returning to a dead silence...”
She paused, a complex expression flitting across her pale face.
“But seven days ago, at the moment the pollution tide was weakest, I saw a different image.
“I saw a golden light descend from the heavens, tearing through the dark red sky.
“I saw countless blood-colored figures surge from that light to slaughter the Aberrants.
“I saw... you.”
She “looked” at Jiang Lin. Even through the bandage, her gaze seemed to pierce through everything, reaching into his very soul.
“In those visions, you led us to victory over ‘Mozos.’”
A brief silence fell over the room.
Sunlight spilled through the dome, casting warm light and shadow on the polished floor—a sharp contrast to the dark red, hopeless world outside.
Jiang Lin looked at her quietly, his golden eyes reflecting the girl’s pale face.
“Mozos?”
Jiang Lin asked.
Leah nodded.
“Yes. ‘Mozos, the Life-Devouring Black Goat.’
“The source of all pollution in this world, the monster that is currently draining the world core.”
Jiang Lin was silent for a moment before asking:
“What is the world core?”
The wheelchair turned silently as Leah faced the greenery protected by the purification zone outside the window. Her long, silver-white hair fluttered in the breeze.
“The world core... is the ‘heart’ of this world. It is the place where the most fundamental energy condensed at the birth of this planet.
“It lies deep underground, at the center of this continent. The power of all life, when traced back to its source, comes from there.”
She raised her pale hand, and the silver-white light at her fingertip expanded slightly, transforming into a blurry holographic image.
She held a device similar to the holographic projector Jiang Lin had.
However, hers was intact, unlike the broken one the little girl had given him.
Jiang Lin looked up at the image within the projection.
In the image, beneath a blood-red sky, a dark red tumor resembling a massive heart could be seen suspended over the shattered continent.
Above the tumor, it seemed to be connected to some colossal entity.
Below it were countless pitch-black tentacles like blood vessels, extending from its body and plunging deep into the earth.
As the tentacles writhed, the entire surface of the continent trembled, like a patient having their blood drained while still alive.
“This is where ‘Mozos, the Life-Devouring Black Goat’ is located.
“In the far west of this continent.
“If you were to go there, this is what you would see.
“The part connected below is the world core.”
Jiang Lin nodded in understanding.
“Additionally, I have some recordings from before the Great Cataclysm. Would you like to see them?”
Jiang Lin nodded again, only to realize after a few seconds that she hadn’t reacted.
He remembered she probably couldn’t see his nod.
So he said, “Show me.”
Leah then adjusted the holographic projector in her hand.
“These are copies of recordings from the early days of the Great Cataclysm.
“They contain the actual records of when ‘Mozos’ first arrived three hundred years ago.
“As well as footage left by the first leaders of Ember, who risked their lives in the first contaminated zones.”
Click.
A faint sound of gears turning came from within the machine, and the glass lens at the top projected a hazy beam of light.
The light expanded in the air, becoming a flickering, grainy holographic image.
It was an ordinary farm.
The sun was bright, the grass was green—a typical pastoral scene.
Dozens of goats were kept on the farm—white, black, spotted—huddled together, grazing leisurely.
In one corner of the frame, a unique black goat stood out.
Its fur was a pure black, so dark it seemed to absorb all surrounding light.
Unlike the docile eyes of the other goats, its eyes were dark gold, with vertical pupils like a snake’s.
“This is a record from three hundred and twelve years ago,” Leah’s voice spoke over the footage.
“The location is Oak Farm in the western part of the continent.
“The farmer was named Thomas Gray, an ordinary shepherd.
“This is Mozos, the Life-Devouring Black Goat. When it first arrived, it appeared on this farm.
“This was likely its most vulnerable state.
“Unfortunately, no one realized at the time that its appearance would mark the beginning of this world’s destruction.
“And this footage comes from the farm’s surveillance at the time.”
In the video, Thomas was crouching by the fence, curiously observing the out-of-place black goat.
He reached out to pet it, but the black goat stepped back, its dark gold eyes staring at him coldly.
Thomas seemed to sense its aura but found it wasn’t a transcendent creature, so he didn’t mind and turned to leave.
The footage fast-forwarded.
A portion of the middle footage was missing.
When the image reappeared, it was early the next morning.
Thomas pushed open the door to the goat pen.
In the next second, he froze.
Inside the pen, the corpses of over twenty goats were strewn about, blood soaking the hay.
Every goat had been eaten beyond recognition, their entrails scattered—a scene so bloody it was nauseating.
The black goat sat in the center of the pen, chewing on its kin’s organs.
Its dark gold eyes looked up, meeting Thomas’s gaze.
Blood dripped from its mouth.
In the video, Thomas backed away in terror, stumbling out of the pen.
“The middle part showed it killing and eating the other goats. This is a condensed version, so it was edited out.
“If you want to see the full version, it’s in the archives,” Leah added.
“The surveillance didn’t record what happened after that.
“He ran out and called the police.
“Then the law enforcement arrived. The following footage is from their body cameras.”
The video continued.
When law enforcement arrived, they only found Thomas’s corpse.
He was hanging from the doorframe of the pen in an extremely bizarre posture.
His hands were tied behind his back, his feet were together, and his body was bent in a strange arch, as if forcibly twisted by an invisible force.
Most unsettling was his expression.
His eyes were wide open, his pupils dilated, yet the corners of his mouth were pulled high in a grotesque grin.
The black goat was gone.
“At the time, people thought it was just an ordinary incident of a transcendent creature attacking humans,” Leah’s voice continued.
“Transcendent powers have always existed in this world, and occasionally, demonic beasts would lose control and attack people.
“Law enforcement searched for three months. When they couldn’t find the black goat, they gradually gave up the hunt.”
The footage fast-forwarded.
Five years later.
Hundreds of people were gathered in a small town square.
They wore identical white robes and knelt on the ground, worshiping a statue.
The statue was in the likeness of a black goat.
“The earliest form of the Devouring Abyss Cult,” Leah said.
“The black goat didn’t leave. It hid in the deep mountains and spent five years developing its first group of followers.”
In the footage, some people in the kneeling crowd began to convulse. Black veins appeared under their skin, and the whites of their eyes turned dark red.
Some collapsed, and when they stood back up, they had become the early forms of Aberrants.
Their torsos were twisted, their limbs bent backward, and crystalline protrusions appeared on their skin.
“It granted its followers ‘power,’ at the cost of becoming monsters.”
A hint of hatred appeared in Leah’s voice for the first time.
“While gaining power, those followers were also losing themselves. But they didn’t care; they called it ‘evolution.’
“Any normal person could see something was terribly wrong.
“But this evil god seems to have the ability to bewitch the human heart.”
The footage fast-forwarded.
Twenty years later.
Reports of Aberrants began appearing all over the continent.
At first, they were just isolated attacks, but they eventually evolved into organized hunts by packs.
Law enforcement struggled to keep up, and the military began to intervene.
In the footage, a well-equipped army was battling a swarm of Aberrants.
Firearms spat tongues of fire, and energy weapons fired beams of light. Aberrants fell in droves.
But even more Aberrants surged from the ruins, as if they could never be fully killed.
“At that time, the strongest people in this world could reach the 5th-rank,” Leah said.
“A 5th-rank warrior could take on a thousand soldiers alone.
“They attempted to hunt down that black goat several times. Each time they thought they had succeeded, it would reappear shortly after.”
In the footage, a figure soared into the sky, surrounded by blazing light.
This was the combat state of a 5th-rank powerhouse.
He held a greatsword and slashed at the black goat on the ground.
The sword light descended, the ground split open, and the black goat was sliced in two.
Cheers erupted off-screen.
But in the next second, the two halves of the black goat’s corpse began to writhe.
Each half grew, becoming two complete black goats.
Both goats looked up simultaneously, their dark gold eyes staring at the powerhouse in the sky, their mouths curling into a grotesque grin.
“It cannot be killed.”
Leah’s voice was like ice.
“No physical attack, energy attack, or even soul attack can completely destroy it.
“Every time you think you’ve killed it, it revives soon after, and it becomes even stronger.”
In the video, the two black goats opened their mouths simultaneously.
Black mist surged from their mouths, instantly blanketing the entire battlefield.
Wherever the mist passed, soldiers collapsed. Their bodies began to twist and mutate, turning into new Aberrants.
The 5th-rank powerhouse roared as he charged into the mist, and then... he never came out.
“The hundred years following that were the darkest era of human civilization,” Leah said.
“The evil god’s power grew stronger and stronger. It stopped hiding and began to openly drain the world.
“It found the location of the world core deep beneath the center of the continent. It bound itself to the core, drawing energy day and night.”
The footage fast-forwarded again.
Cities collapsed, civilization was wiped out, and survivors hid underground.
Aberrants ran rampant on the surface, devouring one another and evolving into even more powerful forms.
Aggregates began to appear, followed by even more terrifying things... ‘corrupted behemoths,’ ‘crystallized titans,’ and ‘abyssal creepers.’
“It created countless types of monsters.”
Leah’s voice was weary.
“Those monsters are both its minions and its tools for gathering energy.
“They devour life and then transmit that energy back to the core through some means for it to absorb.”
In the video, a corrupted behemoth over a hundred meters tall walked across the land.
Where it walked, the earth turned scorched black, plants withered, and the air twisted.
Countless Aberrants followed behind it like pilgrims on a pilgrimage.
“And the most terrifying part is...”
Leah paused.
“The upper limit of power in this world is constantly dropping.”
Data appeared on the screen.
“Before the Great Cataclysm, the maximum was 5th-rank.
“One hundred years after the cataclysm, the maximum was 4th-rank.
“Two hundred years, 3rd-rank peak.
“Now, over three hundred years later, it can barely reach the 3rd-rank.”
...
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