Chapter 111: The Maze of Time Sand |
Jonas pressed the tip of his sword against Claude’s throat, the cold gleam reflecting the interwoven patterns of metal and flesh on the mechanic’s face. “Three hundred years ago during the Great Catastrophe…” Claude’s voice ground like rusted gears struggling to mesh. “The Linglian tribe, to preserve their bloodline, transformed some of their people into mechanical lifeforms. We ‘Mech Spirits’ appear to serve the Mechanical Church, but in truth, we are the last barrier protecting the Fountain of Life.”
Before he finished speaking, Veldeline suddenly emitted a painful shriek. On the glassy wings behind her, purple-black veins writhed wildly like a horde of awakened snakes, and dense sand-like bumps surfaced beneath her skin. Jonas’s pupils constricted sharply as he immediately pulled out the glowing Life Seed from his pocket and pressed it to her forehead. Instantly, the emerald light clashed violently with the dark purple miasma, filling the air with a sulfurous, acrid stench. Veldeline’s clothes turned to ash amid the energy clash.
“No time left!” Claude suddenly tore off his left arm, blue sparks flying from the broken metal joints. A miniature hourglass hidden inside the armbone was eerily flowing backward, the black sand’s surface emitting an ominous glow. “Retifus accelerated the seal’s collapse using the polluted Sand of Time. We must—”
Boom!
A violent tremor cut off Claude’s warning. The ground cracked like a spiderweb as thick purple mist surged from the fissures, wilting plants and grass into dust instantly. Even more chilling, the scattered silver sand particles on the ground began to self-assemble. Countless cold-glowing arms stretched out from the mist, piecing together faceless sand men.
“Take Veldeline to the Mechanical Church!” Jonas spun around, swinging his sword with a dragon-like roar. The sand men struck down by his blade turned to silver dust on the ground but immediately reformed. “Find elders ranked seventh seat or above to purge the corruption!”
Katdera wasted no words, hoisting the unconscious Veldeline onto her shoulders. The slender female knight unleashed incredible strength, muscles bulging beneath her chainmail. However, as they turned, hundreds of sand men had formed a nearly impenetrable wall, their hollow eye sockets flickering with dark purple flames.
Claude slammed his severed mechanical arm against the ground, revealing neatly arranged energy crystals inside. “Get down!” His roar blended with sharp alarm sounds. A blinding white light burst from the mechanical arm, unleashing a spatially distorting shockwave. Half of the sand men shattered into powder amidst the roar.
Amid the explosion, Claude tossed a gear-shaped badge. The edges were engraved with intricate star track patterns, and the obsidian center flickered with eerie red light. “Use this to activate the Church’s underground ‘Clockwork Between’! The truth of Mobius lies within—”
“Run!” Claude spat blood mixed with gear fragments and suddenly activated leg thrusters, charging into the tide of sand men. His body disintegrated midair, countless parts turning into a deadly metal storm. “Tell the Church… Retifus’s target is…”
The deafening explosion swallowed the rest of his words. Jonas clenched the burning badge tightly and turned to see Katdera using her shield to carve a bloody path. Veldeline’s wings were completely enveloped in purple mist, and sand particles beneath her skin began seeping outward, forming an eerie hourglass shape around her.
“Follow me!” Jonas brandished his rune-engraved longsword to clear the way. Sparks flew as the blade clashed with the sand men, and the silver sand hissed when touching the runes. But the sheer number of sand men meant each step forward came at a tremendous cost.
When they finally broke through the encirclement, the Mechanical Church in the distance was already shrouded in an ominous purple glow. The towering clock tower began to tilt, the sound of gears turning mingling with the groan of twisting metal. Katdera suddenly staggered, and Veldeline slipped from her shoulder. Jonas caught her and found the girl’s lips had turned to granular sand, her breath so faint it was almost imperceptible.
“Hold on!” Jonas pressed the Life Seed against her chest again. The green light barely suppressed the corruption but could not cleanse it completely. He turned to Katdera. “You take her through the secret passage on the west side. I’ll lure the guards away!”
Before Katdera could protest, Jonas charged toward the Church’s main gate. There, numerous corrupted mechanical guards gathered, their hollow eyes glowing purple, chainsaw swords buzzing in their hands. Jonas took a deep breath and inserted the badge into the lock. Instantly, the entire building rumbled with the grinding of gears. As the gate slowly opened, a holographic projection appeared in midair.
The projection showed an elderly man in a black robe, his face completely shadowed by his hood. “Outsider, you bear the Church’s highest authority badge yet bring a corrupted Linglian inside. To enter the ‘Clockwork Between,’ you must answer three questions—”
“No time for riddles!” Jonas swung his sword at the projection, but the sword energy passed directly through the image.
“The first question: What is the nature of time?” The old man’s voice echoed from all directions.
Jonas gritted his teeth and recalled Claude’s mention of the Sand of Time. He tightened his grip on the sword hilt. “Time is flowing sand, capable of both creation and destruction!”
The projection flickered slightly as the old man continued, “Second question: Why does the Mechanical Church guard the Fountain of Life?”
“Because the Fountain of Life is the key to fighting pollution!” Jonas caught sight of Katdera sneaking in through the side door with Veldeline, calming his heart slightly. “The Linglian and Mech Spirit tribes were once one; protecting the Fountain of Life means protecting the future of both tribes!”
“The final question…” The old man’s voice grew icy. “Why do you believe you have the right to open the Clockwork Between?”
The Clockwork Abyss
Jonas looked at the unconscious Veldeline in his arms. Fine cracks began to appear on her skin like a parched riverbed. Wherever his fingers touched, black sand mixed with metal fragments oozed out, corroding his armor with sizzling sounds. The gear-shaped badge Claude sacrificed himself to deliver grew hot at Jonas’s waist. The star track pattern on its edge absorbed the surrounding light at a visible speed.
“To stop Retifus, to uncover Mobius’s truth!” His voice echoed through the trembling air as runes on his sword suddenly blazed with dazzling light. Just then, the black-robed old man in the projection shattered into thousands of gears, each fragment reflecting different scenes—a city turned to sand, an hourglass running backward, and a massive gear hidden in dense mist.
As the gate fully opened, a rust-scented cold wind blew in. Rotating staircases covered with gears flickered in eerie blue phosphorescence. The walls on both sides were embedded with countless mechanical eyes, their brass pupils lighting up one by one as Jonas approached. He had just stepped forward when the floor suddenly flipped, revealing countless sharp spikes.
Jonas used the momentum to leap up, piercing his sword precisely into a crevice in the wall. As he anchored himself to the vertical surface, he noticed the mechanical eyes projecting a crisscross laser grid. The cold glowing beams swept over the stairs, instantly melting any metal they touched into molten iron. He moved slowly along the wall, the grinding of his boots’ anti-slip patterns against the gears producing a harsh sound.
“Warning: Contamination carrier detected.” A mechanical synthesized voice suddenly blasted overhead. Over a hundred floating mechanical guards burst out from hidden ceiling compartments. Their energy cores glowed ominously purple, and their arms instantly transformed into chainsaws and spears. Jonas flipped to land, clashing his sword against a chainsaw, sparks flying and igniting moss-like circuits on the wall.
The battle noise triggered deeper defenses. The ground twisted as countless metal vines burst from the earth, wrapping around Jonas’s ankles. He slashed to sever the vines but saw the broken ends rapidly regenerate and secrete corrosive slime. Suddenly, one vine exploded, releasing dozens of beetle-shaped reconnaissance machines. Their compound eyes scanned Jonas while sending positioning signals into the air.
At that moment, Veldeline in his arms convulsed violently. The purple-black veins on her wings solidified into tendrils, coiling tightly around Jonas’s neck. The girl’s skin began peeling away, revealing flowing sand beneath. Jonas had no time to attack; he forcibly pressed the Life Seed against her heart. The green light clashed fiercely with the purple miasma again, stirring an energy storm in the confined space.
Seizing the opportunity, the mechanical guards launched a full-scale assault. A death whirlwind of chainsaws swept toward them. Jonas rolled, holding Veldeline, and slammed his back heavily against the gear-covered wall. The pain sharpened his senses. He noticed the energy fluctuations in the guards’ attacks were identical to those from the polluted Sand of Time inside Claude’s mechanical arm.
“So that’s it…” Jonas wiped blood from his lips and suddenly inserted the badge into a gear recess nearby. The entire wall roared with the grinding of gears, revealing a hidden ventilation shaft. He ducked inside with Veldeline as mechanical guards thundered, breaking through the wall behind him.
The ventilation shaft smelled sharply of machine oil, oily grime occasionally dripping onto Jonas’s shoulder. Automatic cleaning devices appeared every so often; the rotating steel brushes nearly scraped through his armor. Worse, Veldeline’s condition worsened; the breath she exhaled turned to sand particles, scratching small wounds on Jonas’s neck.
After crawling for an unknown length of time, a faint light appeared ahead. Jonas pushed open a rusty iron net and found himself in a massive gear hall. Countless gears meshed, forming a complex transmission system. Broken mechanical debris littered the floor. At the center floated an hourglass spinning backward, with a faint human face visible within the black Sand of Time.
“Finally.” A hoarse voice emerged from the hourglass as a figure cloaked in black slowly materialized. He held a staff embedded with Sand of Time. Every step he took left sand-like traces beneath his feet. “Jonas, last guardian of the Linglian tribe, do you think bringing the Life Seed can reverse everything?”
“Retifus!” Jonas gently placed Veldeline into a gear recess and gripped his sword. “You were the one manipulating the Great Catastrophe three hundred years ago!”
Retifus laughed harshly. The hourglass atop his staff suddenly exploded, unleashing countless sand blades flying toward Jonas. Jonas swung his sword to block but found the sand blades reassembled immediately after being cut. Even worse, as the battle continued, his blade began showing signs of sandification, and the rune light gradually dimmed.
“Do you think the Life Seed can resist the Sand of Time?” Retifus’s sandified arm stretched from beneath his cloak. “Look at your companion. Her soul is being crushed by time.”
Jonas glanced back. Veldeline’s body had become semi-transparent, green life energy wildly coursing within her but unable to suppress the purple corruption. He suddenly remembered Claude’s dying words and scanned the gear structures around the hall. Behind one enormous gear, faint characters read “Core Controller of the Clockwork Between.”
“You’re wrong.” Jonas suddenly dashed toward the core controller. Retifus’s sand whip grazed his cheek, carving deep furrows in the wall. “The Life Seed can’t fight the Sand of Time, but time itself can!”
The moment Jonas inserted the badge into the controller, the entire hall began rotating backward. All the gears groaned under unbearable strain. Retifus’s face twisted in terror as his body was remolded by time flowing in reverse. Jonas took the chance to embed the Life Seed into the controller’s energy core. The emerald light violently resonated with the reversed Sand of Time, forming a massive time vortex.
“No!” Retifus struggled in the vortex. “You will break the balance of the Mobius ring!”
“Perhaps true balance was never eternal repetition.” Jonas looked at Veldeline, who was gradually regaining human form, and spoke softly. In the time vortex, he seemed to glimpse the truth from three hundred years ago—the Linglian and Mech Spirit tribes were once one but torn apart by their struggle for time’s power, causing the Great Catastrophe. The Mobius ring was merely a tool for some to maintain control.
With a final thunderous roar, the time vortex shattered. Retifus turned to sand and drifted away on the wind. Veldeline slowly opened her eyes; the purple-black veins on her wings had completely vanished. Jonas picked up the broken badge, noticing new patterns on the obsidian center—a continuous infinity symbol with a break at one node.
“It seems a new story is about to begin.” Jonas’s voice mixed with the crisp sound of gears breaking as he helped the weak Veldeline to her feet. The girl’s fingertips touched the solidified sand scars on his armor and suddenly trembled violently. The seemingly lifeless black sand began to flow again, sketching unfamiliar runes on the metal surface.
In the distance came Katdera’s heart-wrenching shout, accompanied by muffled sounds of fierce battle with mechanical guards. Jonas was about to respond when countless gears suddenly poured down from the dome overhead. Instinctively, he shielded Veldeline beneath him as sharp metal pierced his back. Looking up through gritted teeth, he saw the falling gears automatically assembling into a giant hourglass projection, the flowing sand’s pattern matching exactly that on Retifus’s staff.
“Watch out!” Veldeline suddenly unleashed astonishing power, her glassy wings smashing approaching sand blades. Her eyes shimmered with interwoven emerald and dark purple light. The moment she touched the ground, all scattered Sand of Time began converging backward. Deep within the ruins, the grinding roar of gears grew louder as a bronze light pillar soared skyward. At its center floated an unprecedented timepiece—twelve dials each displaying different flow speeds of time, their hands encrusted with Linglian life light and Mech Spirit mechanical patterns.
Katdera broke through the wall and saw the two bathed in mysterious light. The female knight’s chainmail was scorched and her shield dripped corrosive liquid, but joy sparkled in her eyes. “The Mechanical Church’s central system… is reconstructing!” Before she finished, the entire building emitted a rebirth-like hum. All corrupted mechanical guards simultaneously ceased movement, the purple mist on their shells dissipating to reveal their original silver luster.
Jonas gripped the timepiece fragment, feeling the vast energy contained within. As he embedded the fragment into a dial, memories of the three races flooded his mind like a tide—Retifus was merely a pawn, and the true conspiracy lay buried in far older folds of space-time.
“Let’s go.” Veldeline’s wings