Chương 84: Irked

The bell tower was the tallest structure in Rising Tide apart from Victor's castle. Standing five stories high, it overlooked the entirety of Rising Tide and was used as a universal clock for the citizens below.

Built of ivory stone and accented with shells and pearls, it was a symbol for Rising Tide. Willow, of course, arrived at the base of the tower in just a few moments.

Emile peeled off her back and stumbled on the ground. He leaned his arm against the tower to keep his balance and opened the doors.

Upon entering, Emile found himself in an empty and dark room. He made his way to the spiral staircase in the corner and began his ascent.

Just to be safe, he looked at his soul's stats.

[Soul Rank: Chosen]

[Soul Saturation: 103/1000]

[Soul Essence: 16/500]

[Gift: Breath of Essence]

[Description: Accelerate cell growth and division and increase soul essence production]

[Enhancement: Breath of Essence is applied to self]

[Relics: Enlightened Nimbus Charm, Enlightened Royal Scimitar]

Emile continued to watch his soul essence as he climbed the tower's steps. After a moment, it dropped from sixteen to fifteen; he was still healing.

He passed the second floor and continued to the third. With each passing step, Emile could feel his body getting lighter.

The distance between each step felt smaller and the tension riddling his body loosened. At this rate, Emile will be fully healed by the time he reaches the top of the tower.

The third floor was more emptiness, unless one considers a window something to report. Although, the inclusion of a window arguably means there's even less in the room since part of the wall was missing.

Feeling incomparably stronger than when he first arrived at the tower, Emile bolted up the stairs towards the tower's peak. He flew past the fourth floor and arrived at the massive bell, although the bell wasn't unaccompanied.

Standing beside it, with his hand pressed against the surface of the bell, King Alexander overlooked the kingdom of Rising Tide.

Unsure of his intentions, Emile raised his scimitar and pointed it towards Alexander.

"I thought you left to fight on the front lines." Emile said.

Without turning around, King Alexander replied:

"You're not affiliated with Rising Tide, Spright. Doesn't something irk you about this?"

'What?'

Emile lowered his blade and apprehensively approached Alexander. He arrived next to the blonde king and cast his gaze down onto the ruined Rising Tide.

"What do you mean?" Emile asked.

"Where is everyone?" Alexander asked, his gaze still tightly locked on the city below.

"They evacuated, probably before we found out about the attack. There were a few tremors before we were notified." Emile reasoned.

"The first tremor was what, fifteen minutes before we were notified? In fifteen minutes thousands of people were able to easily evacuate? And I'm not even including the fact that kids will put up a hassle; what clothes will they bring, where did they put their favorite toy? Is it even possible to run to the gates of Rising Tide from the center of the city in fifteen minutes?" Alexander questioned.

With all this in mind, Emile too looked at the city more closely. Nobody was screaming. The only color of blood he could find was purple. And after running into countless homes, Emile himself only found one family.

Rising Tide was deserted.

"And I'm sure you had to enter the city the same way I did, there's nothing out there. It's an endless expanse of snow and ice. These creatures are coming from the sea, wouldn't it make more sense to try and seal the dome protecting Rising Tide and bunker everyone together rather than sending them outside, directly to where the monsters are coming from?"

Emile remained silent. Everything King Alexander was saying made perfect sense. It was so clear from the beginning, but Emile was too occupied fighting the Sea Crawlers to notice.

"In the meeting I pressured Victor over his advisor Murik, do you know what his Gift is?" Alexander asked.

"I don't." Emile responded.

"He creates warp gates." King Alexander stated flatly, "A different version of teleportation. While I'm able to freely zip around wherever I'd like, Murik must set up both ends of his warp gate in order to activate it."

"And Murik was last seen near the Dead Tree." Emile slowly put the pieces together.

"That's right—" Alexander agreed, "the people of Rising Tide are probably already dead and we're sitting here fighting a pointless battle."

King Alexander let out a disappointed sigh and finally looked away from Rising Tide.

"Oh my—" Alexander slightly jumped when he saw Emile's disheveled appearance, "what happened to you?"

"I guess you could say I was swallowed by a Perfected Slime. Its stomach acid was not kind to me." Emile turned around and began heading down the tower's stairs.

"Don't walk down the stairs—" Alexander stopped him, "come here."

Emile obeyed and arrived next to Alexander. The king placed his hand on Emile's shoulder and instantaneously Emile found himself standing on top of the glacial dome protecting Rising Tide.

They stood on the edge of the shattered sky, far above the bell tower. The first thing Emile felt was the chilling breeze from the ocean, but then the putrid stench of blood and salt assaulted his nostrils.

"Look." Alexander pointed behind Emile at the ocean.

Turning around, Emile finally witnessed the true battlefield. The shore was painted purple, if the bodies of the creatures didn't return to essence, there would surely be a mountain of corpses piled on the shore.

Beyond the shore, in the ocean itself, a six-legged monstrosity raged. It had a midnight purple exoskeleton and razor sharp, onyx claws.

Protruding out of the back of the beast, its head erected towards the sky. It had a single, elongated eye that glowed toxic green and, from what Emile could see, didn't have a mouth.

King Ulmor currently stood on top of the creature, easily bobbing around and avoiding the constant assault from its six claws.

"What is that?" Emile asked.

"A Scarab—" Alexander replied, "a kingdom killer."

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