True Apocalypse Game

CRASH! A steel beam plummeted, instantly crushing more than a dozen Purifiers into a bloody pulp before they could even scream.

Blood splattered across their faces, stunning everyone for a moment.

Seeing this, Shen Feng immediately shouted:

"Everyone back to the warship! Leave the island and start circling it! If there’s an emergency, leave the Fog Sea at once and head for the Holy Corpse Market. I’ll rendezvous with you there! That’s an order! Go!"

"But..." Witch Tower looked at Shen Feng, trapped in the chasm, her eyes welling with tears of desperation.

"Captain!" Old Bill was equally frantic, not knowing what to do. Even if they followed the captain’s orders and returned to the warship, it was clear the Minstrel wouldn’t agree.

Shen Feng shot him a look, signaling him to take Witch Tower away. He then smiled at her and said:

"Don’t worry. I’m the one who came here on an Iron Ship. I won’t go down that easily."

He deliberately spoke the phrase "came here on an Iron Ship" in a foreign language. Hearing those words, Witch Tower froze for a second.

In that brief moment of shock, Old Bill and a few others grabbed her arms and dragged her out of the aircraft carrier wreck.

The group of sailors supported Witch Tower while leading Eddy, running frantically for the outside. The blind Purifiers were now blundering about like headless chickens. Every so often, one would be crushed into a bloody pulp by falling steel beams and debris. Those who weren’t killed instantly writhed on the ground, letting out piercing screams.

In their minds, they had no idea what was happening. They even thought their previous actions had blasphemed the Divine Spirit and brought on the punishment of the Shouter, father of the Whisperers.

The more cunning of the blind Purifiers had sensed the danger and fumbled their way outside at the first sign of trouble. Now they were running wildly all over the island, as if driven mad.

The ground trembled without pause. The moment the crew pulled her out of the entrance to the carrier wreck, Witch Tower wrenched herself free. She spun around, ready to go back for Shen Feng.

THUD! With a muffled crash, a massive metal plate fell from above and blocked the entrance to the carrier wreck, sealing it completely.

Seeing this, Witch Tower gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. She fought to compose herself, pushing down her grief, then turned and led the sailors in a sprint toward the Sail Warship.

Things had come to this point; she could only trust Shen Feng’s words.

But Shen Feng’s words, "came here on an Iron Ship," sent waves crashing through her heart.

Although she didn’t fully understand the finer details of the legendary prophetic verse, she knew what "came here on an Iron Ship" meant. The Minstrel who had taught her the verse had explained it.

’An Iron Ship... a ship made of iron!’

Witch Tower’s mind was in turmoil, and the ground was shaking beneath her. She had no time to overthink things; all she could do was run for the warship.

The farther they ran, the more they realized the entire island was heaving and shuddering, as if about to collapse.

The aquatic creatures that had been clinging to the island—octopuses, oysters, and the like—seemed terrified and were now fleeing in droves.

Fortunately, while the tremors were violent, they weren’t strong enough to knock them off their feet. Otherwise, they could only have stood in place and waited for the end.

As they sprinted, they noticed the island seemed to be sinking and rising in turns. The path they’d taken to get there even seemed shorter; after running for just a short time, they could already see the Sail Warship docked at the shore.

The crew remaining on the warship spotted them as well. They began shouting and quickly lowered several rope ladders. To their confusion, however, they couldn’t see the captain anywhere.

Pushing herself to the limit, Witch Tower was as nimble as a swallow. In just a few quick movements, she scrambled up to the ship’s rail, where a female sailor pulled her aboard.

"Witch Tower, where’s the captain? Why didn’t he come back?" the female sailor asked worriedly.

She didn’t know what had happened, but from the crew’s panicked expressions and the island’s violent shaking, it was obvious something terrible had occurred.

Just as Witch Tower was about to answer, she heard the sailors beside her cry out in alarm:

"It’s collapsing! It’s collapsing!"

"It’s falling over!"

"By the Savior, what in the world is happening!?"

Witch Tower whipped her head around to see the towering aircraft carrier wreck finally give way to the island’s violent shaking. Its upright hull collapsed, smashing into the ground with a deafening crash and roar!

Metal plates that had endured for countless years cracked and even snapped under the immense force of the collapse.

The impact sent another shudder through the entire island, making the ground tremble even more violently. Deep fissures began to split the earth, swallowing many of the frantically fleeing Purifiers.

Seeing this, Witch Tower paradoxically felt a sliver of relief. The original entrance to the carrier wreck had been blocked, but now that the structure had collapsed, there were many more new openings.

’If Shen Feng can climb out of that chasm, he should be able to get free.’

VMMMMM—

A deep, resonant boom suddenly echoed from the seabed, as if the island itself was cracking open. Immediately after, fissures hundreds of meters long appeared across the island’s surface and continued to widen.

This cataclysmic transformation made the surrounding sea churn as if it were boiling, stirring up enormous waves!

The entire Sail Warship lurched violently, nearly throwing everyone on deck off their feet.

By now, the last sailor had scrambled onto the deck. He collapsed, still shaken; the violent lurch had nearly flung him from the rope ladder.

Seeing the island transforming once again, Witch Tower shouted:

"Weigh anchor immediately! Circle the island!"

It was the order Shen Feng had given earlier. He had clearly foreseen this cataclysm.

With Shen Feng gone, the Minstrel—the person closest to the captain—was now the highest authority. Spurred on by her command and the urging of Old Bill, the first mate, the crew scrambled to get underway and begin circling the island.

Sailing quickly on the weak wind alone was impossible. Fortunately, the ship was also equipped with the legendary Steam Engine. While their fuel supply was low, it was enough to circle the island once, and the captain had trained them in its operation.

With the roar of the Steam Engine, the Sail Warship began to slice through the waves, heading counter-clockwise toward the collapsed aircraft carrier wreck.

The surrounding waves grew larger and larger, as if the island itself was their source.

The island’s tremors grew even more intense. The deep fissures continued to widen and deepen, and it looked as if the entire landmass could shatter at any moment!

Witch Tower was frantic, her eyes fixed on the site of the collapsed carrier, desperate to catch a glimpse of Shen Feng.

Just then, a deep, resonant hum suddenly emanated from the seabed, like the first cry of something awakening from a long slumber.

In the next instant, the center of the island violently swelled hundreds of meters upward, forming a small mountain in a matter of seconds!

Dozens of colossal black shadows burst from the seabed, surging into the air as if to form bridges to the sky!

Each of these black shapes was tens of meters thick and hundreds, if not thousands, of meters long, like ropes lashing out from Hell.

One of the black shadows erupted from the sea right beside the Sail Warship. It shot toward the sky with a deafening roar, pulling up curtains of seawater that rained down on the deck like a torrential storm.

Ignoring everything else, everyone on deck stared wide-eyed at the pitch-black Hell’s Rope hanging in the sky.

It was a colossal tentacle, far beyond anything they could have imagined.