hotmtlnovel Chapter 106: Awakening
Chapter 106: Awakening
Outside the Destruction Gathering Point, beneath the mask, Hedda’s scholarly features twisted with a touch of nausea.This game was far too realistic…
When her superior ordered the eradication of this gathering point, Hedda had followed the command without hesitation. But the moment she acted, she realized this was nothing more than a one-sided massacre. That black-coated agent from Military Intelligence looked like a demon crawling straight out of hell, cold, calculating, making sure not to miss a single target, even finishing off the undead with an extra shot.
Though unsettled, Hedda did not attempt anything foolish.
She knew that even if every player here turned against them on the spot, that black coat could still slaughter them all alone. As for reasoning with him, that was even more impossible.
NPCs in Fractured were born and raised under the world’s order: nobles and transcendents stood above commoners. In a desolate place like this, dozens of untaxed, troublesome peasants dying would be nothing more than wasted lives. Besides, this gathering point clearly bore the mark of the Church, cleaning it out was only natural.
The only difference was that the players came from a world where the average moral standard was higher than in Fractured.
To watch a massacre unfold before their eyes, even knowing this was only a game, their covered faces still twisted with negative emotions. They could never be like certain NPCs, who could carry out their duties while smiling and chatting as if nothing had happened.
Just as turmoil churned inside Hedda, the black coat who had finished counting the corpses walked toward her.
“Woodpecker, when will your nail take effect?”
Woodpecker was Hedda’s codename in Military Intelligence, meant to signify extracting something of value from solid wood. But Hedda herself disliked the title.
“When the Bell tolls, that’s when it takes effect.” Her calm, confident voice carried conviction, she firmly believed her judgment would never be wrong.
“Let’s hope you don’t disappoint the Council. Quite a few nobles have their eyes on you. This exceptional talent of yours, you must keep it.”
The black coat wiped the blood from his gloves. His magnetic voice carried a chilling menace, not because he raised it or forced an aura, but because danger seemed to radiate from him naturally, like a beast ready to tear its prey apart.
This was Black Eagle, a Black-Iron peak transcendent.
No one knew his true identity. They only knew he reported directly to the Noble Council, handling matters best kept in the dark. He also happened to be Hedda’s superior for her advanced-class quest. More than satisfied with her, he was already considering handing over some of his duties and connections to this promising junior.
“Understood, sir.”
Hedda lowered her gaze to the ground, a show of respect. Black Eagle valued hierarchy and deference more than the old-line nobility themselves. She had long known this. Seeing his junior display such proper conduct, he nodded in satisfaction, just as he was about to speak again, DOOOONG…!! DOOOONG…!! DOOOONG!!!
From deep within the forest, accompanied by a dreadful aura, countless startled birds erupted into the sky, shrieking madly in all directions!
“ROAR!!”
The Bell tolled, and with it came a primal savagery, as though something feral had torn through time itself from the primordial wilds. Everyone who heard that roar of rebirth felt a crushing intimidation, the kind that came from gazing upon an immense, undying being, and the terror that welled up unbidden within.
The Forbidden Lord of Cinder was awakening from his long slumber!
………………
Fifteen minutes earlier.
At the sealing site, the clergy’s working grounds.
The priests responsible for reinforcing the seal hurried about, stabilizing the flows of power in the sealing lines. Each reinforcement required the seal’s strength to be weakened to a low point before additional lines and materials could be woven in.
Otherwise, the very power capable of binding a Lord of Cinder could, in an instant, drain a reinforcing priest into a dried husk.
“Is the Bell ready?” the lead priest shouted as they suppressed the seal’s strength.
“Ready!”
Every time the seal was reinforced, the Bell was present as a safeguard. For the Lord of Cinder slumbered by nature; even if the seal failed, his sleep would not end immediately. The Bell was only the last resort.
Here, the “Bell” was not an actual great bell, but a fragment of tolling sealed into a scroll.
Yes, the sound itself.
This sound had traveled with the Forbidden Lord of Cinder from the divine realm of Lordran, carrying the mysterious power to govern his slumber and awakening. To preserve a toll within a scroll, retaining its full effect, such miraculous magic survived only in Lordran. In the mortal world, such wonders simply did not exist.
Inside the ten-meter stone sarcophagus lay the sleeping Lord of Cinder. What manner of being was he?
Even Lady Maria could not help but feel a spark of curiosity. She watched the coffin, aged by centuries, its moss and dust now shaking loose as the seal pulsed. Waves of white energy flared from the chains, spreading outward and sketching a transparent half-dome barrier.
As this sealing power neared Maria, it seemed to sense something, diverting around her rather than touching her.
And in her blood, the Cainhurst lineage stirred, entering a half-awakened state in instinctive response to the threat.
“The seal is weakening… all priests, silent prayer… reinforcement phase one, maintain synchronization. Nine marks… eight marks… seven…”
The lead priest stood close to Arthur, visibly more tense than the others who, familiar with the process, felt little danger.
‘Why does this look so familiar…’
Maria suddenly realized where the déjà vu came from. In her previous life, when watching blockbusters, those scenes where higher-ups sent subordinates into danger while concealing the truth, it was exactly what she was seeing now. Only, she was no longer the viewer, but one of the higher-ups.
At least she knew the truth. Even Archbishop Mark likely did not know as much as she did.
“Six marks… five…”
The moment the seal dropped to five, a dull thud came from within the sarcophagus. Everyone instinctively fell silent, eyes locked on the coffin. Seconds later, the thudding came again, rhythmic and powerful.
It was the sound of a heart beating.
CRACK!!
The coffin, bound tightly by chains, was forced open just a crack of impenetrable darkness. And at that instant, every person felt their body tremble in primal terror.