Night Journey

Chapter 18 Night of the Tide
Cillian saw the signal flare exploding in the distance.

In my memory, the last time a signal flare exploded over Baiya Town was several years ago.

That night, hordes of demons squeezed through a gap in the high wall and invaded Baiya Town through the shadows between the buildings.

Nunn held firm at the breach all night, never retreating an inch, while the brave guards opened fire with their swords, slaying one demon after another.

That was still the bloodiest night in Baiya Town in recent years.

As daylight descended, countless ashes rose from the ground, and gray-black snow began to fall.

Another night that felt so familiar has returned.

After blood shrouded Baiya Town, piercing alarms blared incessantly, lights came on in every household, and people bustled about.

Tim's eyes widened in disbelief. "This is..."

Cillian calmly gave his reply.

"Night of the Tides".

Every so often, Baiya Town would experience such a night, when the power of the gray mist would surge, suppressing the light of the soul essence, and pouring into Baiya Town like water overflowing from a cup, covering everything.

Previously, Cillian did not understand where this strange phenomenon came from, but now he fully understands it.

Cillian commanded, "Tim, remove the high wall and gather the townspeople in the mayor's hall!"

Tim descended the long ladder back to the ground, at which point Cillian's voice came again.

"Make sure everyone is in the light, and never step into the shadows!"

No one knows whether the shadows are pure darkness or deadly gray fog.

"I see!"

Tim landed on the ground, looked up, and shouted, "The rest is up to you!"

"it is good!"

Cillian ran wildly along the high wall.

He was incredibly fast, like a cheetah at full speed, covering great distances with each stride without ever feeling tired.

Within minutes, the distant city gate came into view of Cillian.

Baiya Town is nestled against a cliff, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. The town gate is the entrance and exit from Baiya Town to the wilderness, and it is also the most dangerous place in Baiya Town at night.

According to the original night patrol plan, Cirien should have met up with Nunn here. Now, looking into the distance, one can see groups of armored guards standing ready for battle.

They wore longswords at their waists, carried guns in their hands, and their faces were covered by helmets, but Ciri could sense the fear emanating from them from afar.

This is a self-organized guard by the townspeople, who, after training by Nunn, possess a certain level of combat capability.

The members of the guard were not purely soldiers; this was a voluntary part-time job for them, and most of them were carpenters, bakers, cooks, etc.

The impoverished town of Baiya was unable to maintain a true guard, even if it consisted entirely of ordinary people.

Ciri had once wondered where Nunn had gotten so many sets of armor and weapons; now it seemed they were all supplies left behind by the Yangkui clan.

The tides surged, and the gray fog rolled in.

In the shadowy depths, hordes of demons surged and crowded behind the door, their figures twisting and shifting in the dim light like a revelry of dancers.

The sharp claws scratched at the city gate, making a creaking sound.

Through the gaps in the city gate, the guards witnessed the demons struggling to squeeze through the only gateway to White Cliff Town.

"Stay calm!"

Someone in the group shouted, but their voice revealed obvious unease.

The gurgling sound of blood was clearly audible. Blood and bits of flesh seeped out from the narrow cracks in the city gate, as if the gates of hell had quietly opened, filling the air with a suffocating stench of blood and decay.

Ciri rushed to the city gate and called out loudly.

Where is the teacher?

The guards looked at each other, then pointed in unison toward the city gate.

Cillian's gaze pierced through the thick, dark fog outside the city gates, and in the chaos and gloom, he caught a faint glimmer of light flickering in the distance.

Upon sensing the energy tide, Nuen stepped forward, leaving White Cliff Town to confront the horde of demons that were converging there.

With a torch in one hand and a longsword in the other, Nún, like an indestructible reef, cleaved countless roaring and howling demons into rotting flesh and severed limbs.

Blood mist rose and surged.

He split the tide of death in two before him!
Even so, many demons still survived Nún's sword dance, crawling on the ground with broken limbs or suddenly emerging from the surrounding shadows.

They repeatedly pounded on the city gate, continuing even when their bodies were mangled and their teeth were broken.

The city gate was teetering on the brink of collapse, yet it stood firm.

At the same time, a bright yellow streak suddenly flashed across the sky above Baiya Town.

……

The moment the alarm rang, Mick was jolted awake from his sleep.

Mick disliked the piercing alarm; every time it rang, many more corpses would appear in White Cliff Town.

Just like many years ago, when the promotion ceremony failed, the bell rang all day, and Mick's parents left all day and never returned.

At the time, Mick was still young and his understanding was still hazy. He didn't have a real feeling about his parents' death. It wasn't until he gradually grew up that the pain came belatedly, tormenting Mick in nightmares.

Mick didn't even have time to change out of his pajamas; he grabbed a pair of daggers and rushed out of the cabin. Signal flares were slowly falling from the night sky, illuminating the earth in a blood-red hue.

Mick arrived at the Lighthouse and, after a long climb, reached the top.

This is the highest point in Baiya Town, offering a panoramic view of the entire area.

Looking outwards, Mick understood the situation at first glance.

A gray fog rolled in.

"Damn it!"

Mick adjusted the power of the lighthouse, making it shine even brighter.

Meanwhile, in order to replenish the rapidly depleted soul essence, he clumsily carried bags of soul essence and threw them into the open furnace.

After finishing all that, Mick was covered in sweat, but he didn't stop. Instead, he picked up his binoculars and began to observe the situation of the high wall.

After a round of inspection, several torches that should have been burning on the high wall on the east side were extinguished and plunged into shadow.

Mick was certain that the demons had climbed up along the shadows.

"The rest is up to you."

Mick picked up the signal flare and fired it toward the high wall on the east side.

……

A bright yellow light streaked across the sky like a shooting star, and under its glow, Ciri was rushing along the high wall.

Where the signal flare landed, demons surged up the high wall, one after another, followed closely by a surging gray fog.

The torches standing on the high wall were swallowed up, but the area below the wall was still within the illumination range of the lighthouse, and with no building shadows to block them, they were temporarily trapped there.

Xilian dared not imagine what kind of bloodshed would have ensued in White Cliff Town if the anomaly had not been discovered in time, allowing the demons to find a place to infiltrate.

Suddenly, a burning pain surged up.

Again.

The Ouroboros Seal once again sensed the power of chaos, urging Cirion to unleash a bloody revenge.

"Blessing and nurturing all things..."

Cillian murmured the words that came to mind instinctively.

The blessing is still being conceived, and the nourishment it needs is the slaughter of chaos.

Before the first demon had fully emerged from the gray mist, Cillian's longsword had already cleaved its skull.

As the sword pierced through, a crisp sound could be heard as the hard armor shattered. The blade tore down to the chest cavity, and the sticky cutting sound was mixed with the popping of burning grease.

The blade showed no sign of restraint, continuing its fierce slash into the depths of darkness.

In the blink of an eye, the three demonic bodies were torn to pieces.

Not content with simply halting the demons' advance, Ciri slammed the torch heavily onto the ground. The exploding sparks briefly illuminated the darkness and drove some of the gray mist away.

"Hahaha!"

Amidst the fighting, Cillian felt a sudden surge of joy and burst into laughter.

He gripped the blade, slashed open his palm, and blood flowed down the spine of the sword and into the flames beneath his feet.

With a bang, the flames leaped up a few inches, and the core of the flame glowed with a pure white light.

Flames burned upwards along the blood, clinging to the longsword, and with each swing of Cirion's sword, they traced burning arcs.

The demons were not deterred by Cillian's offensive at all, and screamed as they attacked again.

Cillian's muscle memory reacts before his thoughts do.

The third strike severed a demon in half at the waist; its upper body convulsed in mid-air, while its lower body landed in front of Cirien, where it was torn to shreds by countless outstretched claws.

He spun around, and the sharp point at the bottom of the sword hilt precisely pierced the eye socket of the demon behind him, shattering its skull and causing its brain matter to spill out from the gap.

The fascia-adhesive limb fragments piled up at Cillian's feet, like a constantly growing swamp of corpses.

Cillian took a deep breath.

His nasal cavity and throat were filled with the stench of blood, as if he were inhaling not air, but foul-smelling blood.

Are you endless?

The blade tore through new flesh, and the splattered blood was vaporized by the high temperature before it even hit the ground, forming a swirling vortex of blood mist around Ciri.

In a split second, four deformed bodies lunged at him simultaneously. The longsword suddenly reversed in Ciri's palm, and a sharp short sword appeared in his other hand.

The cold light flashed in an instant, and several more pieces of corpses were thrown to the ground.

When the demons were cut in half at the waist, their hind halves still carried them forward, dragging their charred intestines for several meters before finally coming to a stop.

After the sword finally cleaved the head of the nineteenth demon, Cirion slowly withdrew his stance, stepping on the still convulsing giant corpse.

Turbid blood dripped down the blood groove at the tip of the sword, scalding tiny holes in the gelatinous flesh scattered on the ground.

Amidst the rising, foul-smelling mist, the shattered remains of demons still nervously scratched at the ground, their broken bone fragments and half-melted teeth gleaming like pearls in the firelight.

"Looks like you can still kill them all."

Cillian was panting, his tone mocking the darkness.

(End of this chapter)