Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 326: Is the roar coming from the clouds thunder and lightning?
Alice chased after Linger and climbed up the ground from the secret passage. She found that the sky was gloomy and scary. The dark clouds piled up together, not letting any light in, giving people a feeling that a storm was coming. The closer they got to Nimsher, the lower the clouds became. In the end, they almost swallowed up the entire wilderness and connected with the horizon. The sky and the earth, which had been clearly separated for billions of years, collided for the first time at this moment.

"What is this?" Even the well-informed Xiao Ai could not help but gasp in amazement, recalling the classic plots in countless games: "Is the world ending?"

Her tone was not panic at all, but rather had a sense of "it should have been like this long ago", which made Ling Ge a little confused as to whether she was really a big-headed person or a pure social terrorist. After being speechless for a while, he ignored her. He looked around and suddenly walked towards an abandoned tower room in the village ruins. He opened the door and found the wooden stairs and climbed up. He wanted to find a place with a wide view to figure out what happened.

The buildings in the village ruins are a combination of windmills and houses, so they are much taller than ordinary houses, and it is very appropriate to call them towers. Although many windmill towers have been destroyed and collapsed in the past disaster, a few still retain a relatively intact appearance, but the wooden windmill blades have long been covered with moss and vines over the long years, and they themselves are also rotten. People are very worried that if there is one more person's weight, they will break and fall, and then cause the collapse of the entire tower.

Fortunately, this did not happen. Until Ling'er's feet stepped firmly on the top wooden floor, these huge wings were still staring quietly at the dark sky in the distance, as silent as the memory projection left here by ancient times, which did not actually exist.

The young man casually pushed aside a bunch of bell flowers hanging from the gap in the roof, strode to the open window, looked in the direction of Nimscher, and was immediately stunned.

Behind him, Alice also followed with a grunt. This guy seemed to never know how to restrain himself. His footsteps made a creaking groan as he stepped on the rotten wooden floor. If it suddenly broke, it must have nothing to do with Lingge's weight, but was because a certain golden-haired maid did not know how to cherish historical relics.

"What are you looking at? Let me see too!"

She shouted, forcing her way over, and poked her head out of the window to look, then she opened her eyes wide and let out an ambiguous exclamation: "Wow!"

What appeared in the eyes of the two people was a scene of a snowstorm. Under the dark and heavy sky, the whole city of Nimsher was shrouded in howling wind and snow. The howling storm rolled up the snowflakes all over the sky, and the whiteness seemed to be falling thousands of miles of goose feathers. From buildings to fields, to mountains and hills, grass, sand and gravel... only hazy and swaying shadows were left, as if countless strange beasts were roaming in the depths of the snow. The scene had a magical feeling.

The largest shadow in the blizzard was walking slowly and with heavy steps towards the direction of Salia Field. Its eight sharp rock legs dug deep into the ground with each step, bringing a terrifying shock. The feeling of the earth shaking could be felt even from a long distance. The most typical evidence was that the windmill tower room where the two were was shaking. The brick and stone walls were wailing faintly, the rotten wooden floors were creaking, and the windmill blades were shaking slightly between the vines and ivy, as if they would start to turn in the next moment.

"So," Alice understood, "all the noises in the valley before were caused by it? What is that thing? Is it the conceptual god that Professor David mentioned?"

Lingge had no idea. The only thing he was sure of was that the appearance of this monster must be related to Rochelle.

But, how many casualties would be caused by such a huge and terrifying monster being summoned in the city? Has Rochelle never considered this? Linger saw that in its path, the shadows of tall buildings were like toys in the hands of children, which could be easily pushed down and destroyed. Under the earth and rocks that collapsed and buried, how many people would not have time to evacuate, how many people would be swept up in its shadow, and how many people would be crushed by it like invisible dust ants? Linger watched this scene with his palms, subconsciously clenching the window frame, and suddenly felt a little regretful.

He had known for a long time that the believers of animism were trying to unite with the cult to fight against it, and he had heard it from Rochelle himself. However, he felt that the walker of the Fertile Soil Sect was a calm and rational person who would not involve too many innocent people in this struggle, so he neither tried to dissuade them nor thought of reporting to the cult. Instead, he made the decision he would make at any time, which was to walk away and pull himself and his companions out of a vortex that was destined to erupt, becoming bystanders who stayed out of the matter.

He was indeed watching from the sidelines, but what he was watching was not two giants fighting each other for some ideas and beliefs, but a tragic disaster, a vicious incident that caused countless deaths, and the consequences seemed to be so great that the young man could not bear it. Rochelle called himself a true believer and regarded himself as a true believer. But are true believers crazy people who are crazy enough to sacrifice countless lives for their beliefs? Are they cold-blooded animals who can choose to watch coldly and ignore the impending disaster for their own interests? In fact, neither of them is qualified to do so.

If it was Mr. Yang Ke...

This thought suddenly popped up in his mind, but he didn't have time to complete it because the shaking and wailing of the tower room became more frequent. The terrifying monster gradually walked out of the range covered by the blizzard and appeared in the sight of the two people, allowing them to finally see its true appearance.

A venomous scorpion clay doll with eight sharp legs, which looked like it had crawled out of a filthy swamp, with rotten water plants and algae entangled all over its body, and a crystal stained with corruption by mud on its back. Inside the crystal was a goddess with her eyes open, ignoring the world, with ochre-colored lines climbing on her exposed skin, looking holy and wild. On the surface of the crystal grew dozens of rough and hard rock arms, waving wildly in the air like the hands of a giant. A hideous and ugly head like a beast poked out from the heavy vortex on top of the crystal, and when it opened its mouth, sharp and chilling animal teeth appeared… With a sacred yet evil appearance and a twisted and contradictory temperament, it seemed as if two completely opposite creatures had merged together to create such a deformed and blasphemous monster.

Is the so-called "imagined god" that Rochelle summoned through the summoning ritual actually a monster that brings disaster and destruction?
Lingge fell silent.

"Could this thing be the final boss of this map? That doesn't seem good." Alice grinned. "I can't think of any game to use to beat this guy, or is it just a cutscene? We don't need to fight it, someone will be responsible for solving it?"

The "someone" she mentioned should be referring to the combined forces of the cult. Ling Ge could see the airships flying in the sky and the steam chariots running on the ground with his naked eyes. The airships kept dropping blue light spots, and they formed a formation of three-three groups and rushed towards the monster to distract and attract its attention; on the ground, there was a constant sound of artillery fire, and a dense network of magic rays formed, which was so dazzling in the dark snow curtain that it was dazzling.

However, these attacks were like ants trying to stop the collapse of mountains, and they seemed weak and powerless. The monster called the Conception God did not stop its pace and continued to move firmly towards the direction of the Salia Plain. Occasionally, when it was annoyed by the artillery attack, it would swing its rock arm and smash it into the ground and the sky. This simple attack contained the most wild power. In an instant, it could clear a large area of ​​vacuum within the range of the arm sweep. The light spots in the sky fell one after another, and the sound of artillery fire on the ground stopped. Ling Ge even noticed that an airship failed to escape in time and was hit by the thick stone arm. It exploded immediately. The brilliant flames melted the wind and snow, like a short-lived firework blasting into the sky.

Animists who claim to be true believers summon imaginary gods and bring tragic disasters to ordinary people; the united sects that extremely reject illegal religions and cruelly persecute aliens and magicians are sacrificing themselves to protect ordinary people... This contradiction based on the past and present, ideals and reality, reason and faith, may be more ironic than the existence of gods themselves.

The joints of his hands that were pressed against the window frame gradually turned white. Lingge stared blankly at the area where the cult troops and the conceptual gods were fighting fiercely, wondering what he was thinking. Alice took out her game console and cartridges, muttering to herself, thinking about what type of game she must play in order to stop or even completely eliminate that guy.

"RPGs definitely won't work, the levels and equipment aren't good enough; Souls games? I can't control them, they're too difficult; or Monster Hunter, where a small hunter fights a big monster? Uh, this size is beyond the scope of normal hunting... I'm so annoyed, can you be quiet!?"

Alice, who was concentrating on thinking, was disturbed by a sudden vibration. She yelled impatiently in the direction of the monster, but Ling was stunned because he found that this sudden vibration did not come from the monster that was moving forward, but from... another direction?
The vibration became stronger and stronger, accompanied by a low but powerful sound, like wheels running over rails, or tracks rolling over the ground. The young man raised his head thoughtfully and looked at that place.

Beyond the ruins of the village, in the dark clouds in the distance, a grim and majestic giant shadow was rushing towards them at an incredible speed, roaring and roaring.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)