The fog is dissipating.

For the first time since the war began, the thick fog that had been lingering in the Frost Sea showed signs of dissipating. Around the Sea Fog, in the direction of the Frost, from the sea surface to the sky, all the thick fog was receding at a speed visible to the naked eye. The darkness that enveloped everything receded, and the entire sea area was gradually becoming clearer.

On the sea surface where the thick fog had dissipated, one could see ships that were still burning, fake fleets with hideous and weird shapes, and countless debris and burning grease that were swaying with the waves.

Thick smoke billowed over the sea as the fog cleared.

First mate Aiden was the first to run to the window. He stared at the sea outside where the thick fog was gradually dissipating. After a long time, he shouted, "The fog is dissipating! Captain! The fog is dissipating!"

"I can see it," Tirian also walked quickly to the window, but the solemn expression in his single eye did not fade even though the mist dissipated. "It has retreated... Really retreated?"

"Captain, isn't this a good thing?" Aiden immediately noticed something wrong in Tirian's tone and turned his head in confusion. "The fog has receded, which means that the abnormal power entrenched in the frost has also..."

"No... there's a problem," Tirian interrupted the first mate with a serious expression. He stared at the sea in the distance, his eyes becoming more and more fierce. "The fog has dissipated, but those ghost ships are still there, and the appearance of the sea..."

"Sea surface?" Aiden frowned in confusion, turned his head to look into the distance, and the next second, he finally took a breath.

Just as the captain said, something was wrong - the fake fleets coming from all directions showed no signs of dissipating, and new ghost ships were even floating up from the sea, and in the process, the entire sea area was gradually getting darker!

Large areas of darkness were spreading in the sea water. Something was expanding in the darkness. Countless shadowy things were approaching the water surface. This scene... was as if some extremely huge thing or group was floating up from the deep sea!

"Oh my god..."

Aiden murmured subconsciously, but before he could finish his words, a series of huge roars suddenly broke the extremely brief calm after the thick fog dissipated.

The nearby sea water was splitting apart, and countless huge ships were floating on the surface. Some of them looked like wreckage, some were twisted like ghosts, and some looked vaguely familiar - in the sea that suddenly turned dark, it seemed as if all the fake fleets had rushed out at once!

"Attention! Enemy ships appear! Enemy ships...are everywhere!"

Some sailors shouted in fear, and the close-in defense guns on the edge of the deck roared at the same time. The roar of artillery fire almost resounded across the sea at the same time. The shells whizzed through the air, and huge columns of water and fireballs produced by the explosions covered the sea again.

In the midst of this sudden chaos, Tirian still kept his eyes on the sea, watching the enemies rising from the water one after another.

He recognized some of them—and so did his soldiers.

"It's the Knight! The Knight that we sank at the very beginning!"

"The Black Flag! The Black Flag that sank fifteen minutes ago! It appears again!"

"The Courage! And the Prince of Jotun!"

"Captain!" First Mate Aiden's voice reached Tirian's ears, with unprecedented panic, "All the fake fleets... those we destroyed... have all appeared again!"

Tirian opened his mouth and was about to say something, but a voice suddenly appeared in his mind: "...This is normal, because the root of the mirror is still there."

"Father?!" Tirian was startled and subconsciously looked around for something that could produce a mirror. "You are now..."

"Don't worry, Tirian - the time is right."

Tirian quickly calmed down, motioning to Aiden to lead the battle while quickly responding in his mind: "What do you need me to do?"

※※※

At the same time as the thick fog at sea gradually dissipated, the thick fog covering the Frost City-State was also dissipating - but just like the situation at sea, the dissipation of the thick fog did not mean the end of the crisis.

The mirror image is still rising, and another even more terrifying frost city-state is gradually being superimposed on reality.

The city-state guards who were still fighting built barricades to resist countless monsters that seemed to appear out of thin air. The roar of guns and cannons shook the city. The former peace and security had long been torn apart. Gun smoke filled every street, dirty mud and gradually cooling blood were soaking the city, and more distorted scenes continued to cover everything.

"Sir, they're everywhere!"

At the intersection of Fireplace Street, a city-state guard that had been trapped in the fog was using steam walkers to fire at the monsters that appeared on the street. When the fog dissipated, the soldiers had no time to cheer before they were dragged into a new fierce battle by more monsters and terrifying phenomena.

"Then fire everywhere!" the squad commander roared, shooting into the distance while rushing to the foot of the steam walker and to the signalman, "Can you contact the other squads?"

"Teams 7, 6, and 4 are still out of contact!" the signalman shouted, "Almost a quarter of the squad was lost in the thick fog, sir!"

"Keep calling until someone responds, or until reinforcements arrive," the commander patted the signalman's helmet and turned to look into the distance. "The fog has dissipated. Hold on. The situation is changing - this may be the final attack!"

The steam walker's machine gun turret roared continuously, tearing another steam walker in the distance into pieces. As the huge machine fell to the ground, a huge amount of dirty mud gushed out of its engine room, splashing onto the street like horrible internal organs.

The soldiers mustered their courage once again - or simply let the numbness continue to drive their extremely exhausted limbs. The commander said encouraging words that even he himself did not believe, and looked up into the distance again.

He saw two silent cathedrals standing high on the top of the mountain. The terrain on one side of the city-state was rising strangely as if curling. A huge, continuous and unfamiliar building complex was gradually rising from the city. The stacked buildings covered the sky above the streets he was familiar with, and twisted and tilted towers spread out from the buildings in the distance, like the hateful bones growing from a giant, extending and growing in the sky.

Countless muds were flowing out from the tall buildings, rushing down as if to swallow up the entire city.

“Lord of Death…” At the highest point of the Silence Cathedral, Bishop Ivan looked down at the city-state that was gradually twisting and being swallowed by the huge vision. He finally couldn’t help but whispered, “Is today the day of the end…”

He looked into the distance, but could only see a huge darkness rising from all directions. The original town hall opposite the top of the mountain had been covered by a strange bush of thorns. In the bush of thorns, another silent cathedral vaguely stood. At the foot of the mountain, a series of buildings were swaying and piling up, and the houses looked like the limbs of a mollusk, giving people a chilling appearance.

Outside the city-state, the entire sea surface is gradually shrouded in an ominous black color. The darkness is like a huge mirror, in which another Frost is gradually reflected - just like observing another world through a curved mirror. That "Frost" looks distorted and disordered, full of specious errors and dark, creeping malice.

A huge mirror city is rising from the deep sea, eroding everything from reality and fantasy simultaneously.

"Archbishop!" A high-ranking deacon ran from the terrace gate and ran behind Bishop Ivan. "The last reserve troops have been assembled. The Silent Monks and Guardians will protect the cathedral until the last moment!"

"Agatha still hasn't come back?"

"We still can't contact the gatekeeper," the senior assistant priest said quickly, "The exploration team that went down the mine with her reported that the gatekeeper has not been heard from since he entered a strange stone wall. Now the mine has been swallowed by darkness. I'm afraid..."

"The gatekeeper will not fall easily. Agatha will complete her mission...she will definitely complete the mission." Bishop Ivan said calmly.

The senior deacon hesitated for a moment: "Archbishop, you should seek refuge..."

"Take refuge? Hide in a safe prayer room in a church? Or take a boat to escape from this city?" Bishop Ivan turned around and shook his head slowly. "I don't need to take refuge. I'll just stay here. Go and command the guards at the foot of the mountain to move all the civilians who can be relocated to the mountain. We should hold on for a while longer."

The senior deacon hesitated for a few seconds before finally nodding vigorously: "Yes! Archbishop!"

The senior deacon withdrew, and once again the old bishop was alone on the terrace.

He looked up at the other cathedral, shrouded in thorns and like a shadow of the silent cathedral.

The cathedral was lifeless and no clergy were to be seen inside.

It is just a mirror image, but its appearance represents that the "reversal" of the mirror frost has reached the final step.

"Agatha... you should still be fulfilling your mission somewhere..."

Bishop Ivan spoke softly, as if he was talking to himself, or as if he was whispering instructions to a younger generation with whom he had lost contact.

He slowly raised his hand, untied the luxurious robe that symbolized the authority of the archbishop, took off his crown and placed it on the railing beside him.

"Then you should remember that Bartok's saints never stop before death..."

Under the gorgeous clothes and crown, layers of bandages were exposed. Ivan reached out and groped, then slowly untied the knot near the neck.

"We fight filth with our flesh and blood. After our lives end, we defend our faith with our everlasting bodies. And when our bodies also end..."

The bandages were removed, as if the container that had been sealed and suppressed for decades suddenly broke free from its restraints. Under the bandages, there was no fragmented body - there was no body at all.

There was only pale smoke and dust below.

"We still have the glowing embers."

Bandages scattered, and ashes flew out from the edge of the terrace, turning into fine white smoke that gradually enveloped the sky above the frost.