Chapter 688: 534 Sea Shadows
What happened outside was naturally unknown to Reiger.
At this moment, he was watching the scene before him with a hint of amazement.
He saw Altoria, who had rung the Pilgrimage Bell, standing with her eyes gently closed, her body shrouded in rich starlight and Magic Power.
The starlight and Magic Power became stronger over time, making the aura emanating from Altoria even more intense.
Indeed, Altoria was growing stronger.
Just like before, when she had rung the Pilgrimage Bell in Salisbury, the fairy from paradise was slowly unlocking her true power by using the bell.
Reiger could feel that Altoria’s power had nearly reached the level of Lv.7.
If it were Altoria now, she would probably be on par with, if not stronger than, Spurgen’s lord’s trusted aide.
"Has she become this powerful just by ringing the Pilgrimage Bell twice?"
Reiger mused thoughtfully.
Given this rate of improvement, ringing the Pilgrimage Bell one more time would definitely elevate Altoria to Lv.7. If the remaining four bells were rung, reaching the pinnacle of Lv.7 would be a certainty, and she might even take the step into Lv.8.
Lv.8, an existence that is scarce even in the Fairy Country of Britain.
Including Reiger, the number of people capable of exerting Lv.8 strength would not exceed five.
If Altoria ultimately reached this level, she could probably stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Gawain and Lancelot.
"Is this the fairy from paradise?"
Such a remarkably potent being.
Just as Reiger was lost in thought, he felt a stir in his heart, turned his head, and looked at the entrance of the bell chamber.
There, a series of strong and urgent footsteps quickly approached.
"Swoosh!"
"Swoosh!"
"Swoosh!"
With several swooshing sounds, a group of robust fairies from the Tusk Clan burst into the bell chamber, appearing before Reiger.
"Attack!"
The lord’s trusted aide, leading the charge, barked out an order.
"By Lord Spurgen’s command, seize all from the Child of Prophecy’s party who have trespassed into the bell chamber!"
Having spoken, the trusted aide was the first to charge out, aiming for... Altoria, with astonishing speed!
Clearly, this trusted aide did not have the courage he appeared to possess and, in the end, had picked a soft target to exploit.
Witnessing this, Reiger’s gaze flickered a few times, but he chose not to take action.
A soft target?
Perhaps before, but not likely now.
It must be said, the opponent’s timing couldn’t be more unfortunate; neither earlier nor later, they chose to come just after Altoria had rung the Pilgrimage Bell, which was indeed unlucky.
As expected...
"Bang!"
When the starlight exploded within the bell chamber, the trusted aide who had pounced towards Altoria immediately let out a scream.
He was sent flying back with an even greater force than when he had lunged forward, crashing into the wall of the chamber.
He was covered in cuts and bruises, clearly having sustained severe injuries.
"That scared the hell out of me..."
The original agitator stood with the Staff of Selection raised, the starlight on it still not dimmed, his face filled with shock and sheer terror, looking immensely frightened.
"...Surely, you’re not the one who should be scared?"
Reiger couldn’t help but retort.
"Captain!"
"Captain!"
It was only then that the other Tusk Clan fairies reacted, looking at their injured captain lying wounded on the ground; everyone shouted in alarm.
Immediately, they glared at Altoria angrily.
"You damned invader!"
"How dare you harm our captain?"
"Kill her!"
As the brutes of the Tusk Clan, these fairies fully embodied what it meant to be ferocious and irrational, yelling as they charged at Altoria in succession.
That’s when Reiger took action.
"Corona Dragon, Head Dance!"
The dancing fire dragon appeared in the bell chamber, moving swiftly, and sending waves of flame spreading out, instantly raising the temperature around them.
"Psssh!" "Psssh!" "Psssh!" "Psssh!"...
The blades of flaming fury slashed through the Tusk Clan fairies one by one, gutting them.
"Ugh... Arrgh..."
"Aaaaargh...!"
"Gaaaaah...!"
The Tusk Clan fairies did not even have time to react; they only saw a flash of fire before them, followed by intense pain, making them scream and fall to the ground.
"Click..."
Reiger sheathed his sword, unexpectedly having appeared beside Altoria.
"Let’s go," Reiger said succinctly, "We’re leaving this place."
"Hmm!" Altoria realized what was happening and nodded hurriedly.
Since they had already offended Spurgen, they couldn’t stay here any longer.
Unless they wanted to start a massacre here and bring down Spurgen, staying in the treasury city, let alone in Norwich, was out of the question for Reiger and the others.
Therefore, Reiger placed his hand on Altoria’s shoulder, intending to activate a teleportation spell and leave.
However, a noisy commotion suddenly came from outside the Pilgrimage Bell, drawing the attention of Reiger and Altoria.
"Dong dong dong dong dong!"
This was the sound of bells, like an alarm.
As the alarm bells rang, a succession of exclamations, shouts, roars, and screams also erupted, changing the atmosphere in the air.
"What, what’s going on?"
Altoria was stunned.
A clear glint flashed in Reiger’s eyes as he looked outside the Pilgrimage Bell, or rather, beyond the treasury city towards the streets of Norwich.
That one glance made Reiger’s pupils constrict; he released Altoria’s shoulder, walked forward quickly, and came to stand before the openwork wall of the Pilgrimage Bell.
Altoria followed him and looked outside.
The next moment, Altoria was shocked.
...
It was a scene straight from hell.
In the direction of Norwich’s harbor, a vast expanse of shadows emerged from the sea opposite the city, rising gradually from the water like a growing darkness.
The shadows consumed the sea, turning it black, emanating a strange, evil, decadent, and sinister Magic Power.
It was the aura of a Curse.
It was the power of darkness.
And the real bodies of this power, this shadow, were the Moels—entirely black, like the creatures of mollusks.
An astonishing number of them formed a massive dark mass, as countless Moels appeared in the sea, converging towards Norwich in groups.
They invaded the harbor, submerging the ships moored there.
They poured into the city, appearing on its streets.
"Moels!"
"The Moels are here!"
"Why, why are they coming from the sea...!?"
"Aren’t they supposed to come down from that Vortex above!?"
"Ahhhh! Don’t come any closer!"
The fairies of Norwich were in complete panic, not even attempting to resist, fleeing in terror with fear written all over their faces.
The guards and gendarmes, however, bravely took up arms and rushed to fight the Moels, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the mass of Moels, either devoured amid screams of agony or infected upon contact, turning into new Moels and joining the ranks of the enemy, thus bolstering their forces.
Ordinary fairies stood no chance against the Moels.
The Moels were the natural predators of fairies; any fairy that touched one immediately became infected and assimilated.
Only the fairies of the Tusk Clan and those armed with iron weapons could offer some resistance to the Moels.
Iron was toxic to most fairies, and it had some restraining effect on the Moels; the fairies of the Tusk Clan also had a higher resistance to Moels’ infections, so these two groups could mount some defense.
Unfortunately, the resistance was extremely limited.
There was no helping it; the number of Moels that invaded Norwich was just too great, easily numbering in the thousands.
Faced with such a formidable army, Norwich could be described as utterly defeated and crushed.
To make matters worse, the defeated fairies were not just dying; they were being infected and assimilated, becoming new Moels and increasing the enemy’s numbers. This was an unsolvable nightmare that left the fairies with little will to resist and only to scream and flee in panic, turning the whole of Norwich into a cursed hell.
Witnessing these inhuman scenes, Altoria was shocked and dazed.
After a while, the fairy girl also cried out in horror.
"The ’Calamity’... has erupted...!?"
It was an unmistakably obvious fact.
Reiger, too, gazed steadily at Norwich, which turned progressively into hell, murmuring to himself.
"So it’s happening just like the prophecy?"
The outbreak of ’Calamity’ was something that everyone had anticipated.
Yet in the original story, the ’Calamity’ of Norwich erupted almost a month after Chaldea’s arrival in Fairy Country Britannia.
Now, Chaldea had been in Fairy Country Britannia for only a few days, and the ’Calamity’ of Norwich had already erupted. Clearly, this was due to the arrival of the prophesied child.
Just as Altoria had previously feared, her coming directly triggered the accumulating ’Calamity’.
This had nothing to do with timing; it was a fixed cause and effect.
"Let’s go!"
Reiger placed his hand on Altoria’s shoulder again and spoke calmly.
"First, let’s go to where Matthew and the others are!"
Reiger’s voice awakened Altoria, making the fairy girl realize it was not the time for shock.
"Okay!"
Altoria, clutching the staff of her choice, showed a determined expression and nodded firmly.
"[Advanced Teleportation]!"
Reiger activated the teleportation magic and disappeared within the Pilgrimage Bell of the treasury city.
"Dong dong dong dong dong!"
In Norwich, the alarm bell continued to ring incessantly, making the dark clouds in the vortex above seem to spin even faster.