Chapter 159: Fireseed Shelter, a War Fortress?

Chapter 159: Chapter 159: Fireseed Shelter, a War Fortress?

Dustin Sullivan’s gaze swept across his surroundings, and he saw the others, still not fully lucid, in various states of disarray.

The most conspicuous of them was Nicholas Jensen.

The man was kneeling on one knee before a thoroughly dead yet still faintly twitching Night Worm. He spoke in an absurdly exaggerated tone, one he likely thought was elegant but was, in reality, utterly ridiculous.

"Oh, my loyal servant, why do you not kneel before your Queen? La la la~ The Dark Power heeds my call!"

As he spoke, he even tried to command the worms to place an invisible Crown on his head.

Dustin Sullivan was speechless.

He silently averted his gaze, feeling as if his eyes had been spiritually contaminated.

Just then, he heard the goofy voice of his sister, Coco Sullivan.

"Hee hee hee, hee hee hee, so yummy!"

Turning his head, he saw Coco Sullivan facing thin air. Her hands were cupped as if holding something, and she kept grabbing at it, taking one imaginary bite after another.

Her cheeks were puffed out as she ate, mumbling indistinctly, "Mmm... so good! Hamburgers... chicken legs... they’re all mine! Don’t you try to take any, Brother! They’re all mine."

Seeing this, Dustin Sullivan pressed a hand to his forehead. A profound sense of helplessness and shame washed over him.

He’d never imagined a monster like this could exist, one with such a peculiar Ability.

With his last shred of hope, Dustin Sullivan looked at the only lucid one among them, Seraphina Sullivan, his expression one of utter despair. His voice held an imperceptible tremor.

"Um... did I... just now, was I... was I acting like them?"

He couldn’t bear to imagine himself pulling a stunt like Nicholas Jensen’s. If he had, how would he ever maintain his cool, aloof persona?

Hearing this, the corners of Seraphina Sullivan’s mouth lifted uncontrollably into a meaningful smile.

’She had seen it all perfectly clearly. The usually calm and dependable Dustin Sullivan had been affectionately cradling his longsword, murmuring sappy lines like, "Old pal, I swear I’ll never let you down."’

Seraphina suppressed a laugh and deliberately drew out her words. "Hmm... well... let’s just say everyone had their own special moments."

Dustin Sullivan instantly read everything in Seraphina’s expression and tone.

He took a deep breath.

A rare, suspicious blush crept up his cheeks. He immediately clamped his mouth shut, deciding not to press the issue that would lead to his social ruin.

Fortunately, the Effect of the hallucinogenic dust seemed to be temporary.

A few minutes later, as the dust gradually dissipated, the others began to emerge from their bizarre Illusions.

Sean Chandler shook his head, looking dazed. Eli Bolton and Wanda Lynn stared at each other in bewilderment, completely oblivious as to what had just happened.

When they learned they had been affected by the Night Demon Moth’s scale powder, all three gasped.

"Oh god, we didn’t do anything weird, did we?"

Seraphina said, "Compared to the person who was proclaiming themselves queen to a worm, you guys weren’t strange at all."

"Queen?" Ken Quinn asked.

He was curious. He knew the Night Demon Moth possessed an illusion-creating Ability.

’But the Illusions it created were based on a person’s deepest desires,’ Ken Quinn thought. ’So, the one who wants to be a queen...’

His gaze shifted to Wanda Lynn and Coco Sullivan.

Nicholas Jensen grinned. "Proclaiming themselves queen? Wow, how ridiculous can you get!"

Seraphina Sullivan...

Dustin Sullivan...

Everyone saw the two of them staring at him as if he were a clown.

"What’s with that look, you two!" Nicholas Jensen demanded.

Ken Quinn immediately realized he’d been looking at the wrong people. As his gaze fell on Nicholas Jensen, he thought, ’You really can’t judge a book by its cover.’

Nicholas Jensen instantly understood what they were implying. "What do you mean? I proclaimed myself queen? No way! That’s absolutely impossible!"

Nicholas Jensen froze on the spot, utterly mortified. He wished a hole would open up in the ground and swallow him whole.

A strange atmosphere hung in the air, a mixture of embarrassment, lingering fear, and dull headaches.

Only Seraphina Sullivan seemed to be in a good mood, cheerfully taking stock of the new "items" she had collected in her Space.

The scale powder and blood of the Night Dust Moth.

"Ahem!" Dustin Sullivan cleared his throat, forcibly pulling everyone back from their embarrassment and residual dizziness.

"Alright, now that everyone’s clear-headed, let’s move. We’re still a good distance from the Shelter, and the wilds are too dangerous. We don’t know what other monsters might attack. We have to get to the Fireseed Shelter as quickly as possible."

His tone was serious, filled with an undeniable urgency.

Recalling the recent danger and the insidious hallucinogenic dust, the group’s embarrassment was swiftly replaced by a more pressing sense of peril.

Everyone nodded, composed themselves, and silently continued on their journey, following Ken Quinn’s lead.

The darkness seemed endless. The ruins and mutated plants underfoot never seemed to change.

They marched on through the oppressive silence for what felt like an eternity. Just as everyone’s physical and mental stamina was nearing its limit, with even Dustin Sullivan showing signs of exhaustion...

...Coco Sullivan suddenly pointed excitedly into the distance and shouted:

"Look! Up ahead! There’s a light in the sky!"

Everyone’s spirits lifted, and they immediately looked where she was pointing.

There, at the edge of the inky blackness, a single, steady point of brilliant light hovered in mid-air, emitting a reassuring signal.

"It’s the Fireseed Star!"

Ken Quinn’s voice was filled with joyous relief. "We’re near the Fireseed Shelter! That’s its navigation beacon!"

Coco Sullivan, who had been about to instinctively ask what it was, clamped her mouth shut and quickly pretended she knew all along.

She just hummed in agreement, secretly relieved that she hadn’t exposed their "ignorance" again.

Seraphina, however, gazed at the floating orb, which emanated a soft glow. It was like an artificial star marking the path to safety, forcing her to reassess the Shelter’s level of technology.

As they drew closer, the silhouette of the Fireseed Shelter finally came into clear view.

But when Seraphina finally saw the Shelter in its entirety, even she, who had seen much of the world, was stunned by the sheer scale of the structure before her.

She had assumed the so-called Shelter would be a reinforced underground bunker or a large fallout shelter at best.

But what stood before them was nothing less than a towering War Fortress.

Massive metal walls gleamed with a cold, hard luster under the beams of searchlights. Soaring towers stood like giant sentinels at each corner, its sheer scale far surpassing her imagination.

What surprised her even more was that this steel fortress did not stand alone. It was surrounded by twelve immense stone pillars, spaced evenly around its perimeter.

The pillars were ancient and weathered, seemingly carved with indecipherable patterns. Like silent, ancient guardians, they encircled the entire Shelter in a strange, protective formation.

Beside her, Nicholas Jensen’s jaw dropped. He almost blurted out a "Holy shit," but managed to clap a hand over his mouth just in time. The shock in his eyes, however, was impossible to hide.

Sean Chandler and Dustin Sullivan exchanged a look, seeing the gravity in each other’s eyes. The power this Shelter represented was far greater than they had anticipated.

A flicker of doubt crossed Seraphina’s eyes.

’A fortress this brightly lit... aren’t they afraid of becoming a sitting duck for the monsters of the night? Won’t it attract their attacks?’

However, her question was soon answered.