Chapter 491: Black Tide: Part 2
A large, deep blue planet was slowly rotating in s.p.a.ce, surrounded by several satellites blinking with light. What differed, however, was the existence of black smoke on its surface. It was difficult to see with the naked eyes. Like worms, it was corroding the planet from the outside. Judging from the level of corrosion, it must have been happening for some time.
As time ticked by, one of the satellites shook, and the signal light on its surface flickered before it suddenly went dark. The same thing happened to another satellite, and then another, until all satellites suffered the same fate. Some of them had even started to disintegrate.
As all satellites were gone, communication on the planet’s surface went haywire. There was no more satellite communication.
Black smoke was spreading throughout the surface of the deep blue planet. It happened rapidly and within a short time, turning the planet into a grayish black celestial body.
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Fucard Hidden Realm in Xylond was just a small secret realm, the size of a small town. Staying here was the Fucard clan, which had been controlling the realm for a hundred years. This place was on the outer edge, away from the Black Tide. The nearest city was a hundred kilometers away.
The good thing was that most of the family members of this realm were Darksiders with powerful abilities. Under the command of the family’s most powerful patriarch, a Six Winger, they killed any invading mutant creatures and successfully kept a small area of land safe. Because of this, the mysterious realm had provided a refuge for many survivors.
Inside the defense border, Darksiders, smoking as they chatted in dirty jokes, were coming in and out of sentry towers.
The survivors had just woken up, carefully fetching water out from the well, preparing for their lives for another day. A few powerful Five Wingers were guarding at different locations around the area, warning everyone about the threat of monsters.
Someone pointed to the black mist outside. “It must be because of a lack of sleep. I feel the black mist outside is becoming thicker and closer.”
No one had noticed that until he spoke. A few Darksider sentries looked out to the black mist. After a careful observation, everyone began to have a bad feeling.
“This is not right! The black mist is indeed moving!”
A Darksider, who was good at data a.n.a.lysis, had observed the anomaly using the instrument in his hand. His expression changed as he called out to warn the others.
“Get the patriarch. Quick!”
“Activate the purification array! Quick, quick, quick!”
The purification array was a special magic circle, invented by the Darksiders here, after they studied the Sanctum’s holy power magic circle. It used dark energy instead of holy power to push out the black mist, leaving no s.p.a.ce for the black mist to exist, keeping it away from an area.
People were in a panic, making telephone calls on their mobile phones, trying to warn their counterparts on sentry duty in other locations. Someone had barged into the mysterious realm, bringing the news to the Darksider patriarch, who was now still in a cultivation session.
But before everyone could react, the black mist in the surroundings suddenly surged and swept toward the mysterious realm as if waves coming to sh.o.r.e.
The activated magic circle was emitting a green light to ward off the attack. Unfortunately, it only lasted less than three breaths before the black mist wiped it out.
People started to scream in fear as they ran back toward the mysterious realm. In time of this, the mysterious realm was the only place they could find safety. They would be safe as soon as they were inside, away from the surging black mist. But they were too slow.
In less than a second, the black mist overrun the entire survivor settlement like a hungry leopard. Screams and cries were heard in the black mist, but it quickly died down. Voices started to fade, thinning, and at last, silence took over.
It was not just Fucard Hidden Realm was under attack, the entire Xylond, Olro, Redwin, Miga and all other places that had not been affected earlier was overrun by black mist. Only the large defensive cities, which was built earlier, still survived. But their area was shrinking. They only managed to protect a smaller area of land. These places might survive, but compared to the area of defense they had before this, it was a lot smaller. The black mist attack had not only shrunk their land size, but it also caused many other problems.
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Henricqal.
Lin Sheng sat on the top of Tower of Dusk, checking the defense situation in different locations through an LAN monitoring system. On one display, the image of multiple top management appeared on the screen. They were teleconferencing.
The atmosphere was depressing. Everyone was trying to attend to the mult.i.tude of incoming requests, queries and applications. All major lines of defense were shrinking, and the area under the influence of the holy light’s purification force field had also reduced under the black mist’s attack.
Fortunately, the Tower of Dusk, with the enhanced holy power force field and the holy crystal font, managed to stop the corrosion of the black mist. Henricqal had lost little ground to the black mist.
“Things are not looking up! We have lost contact with the other mysterious realm. The satellite phone is unusable. We can’t even control the drones we have sent out earlier. Those units that have returned all have some kind of damage.”
Led by Cainphas, Baine University was the technical support unit.
“Although we have brought many top research talents from the capital, and more workshops are restarting operations, we need raw material supply from the mysterious realms in the vicinity. If this situation goes on, we are going to run out of essential supplies!” Cainphas sounded desperate.
“We are no better there, too. I have sent out a few prisoners of war to check out the black mist. They all dropped dead to the ground just ten meters out. I have tried other more resilient animals, and even the monsters we have captured earlier. Once released out there, they all died instantly!” Margaret said, sounding panic-stricken.
“We have not much food left here. The population influx earlier has exhausted much of it. We are about to run out of reserve of food and monster meat,” a top executive in charge of logistics support said.
“How long could it last?” asked Lin Sheng.
“Not more than a month!”
“A month…”
Lin Sheng’s brows knitted together in a frown. He finally knew how it felt when Blackfeather City experienced the same crisis. It was not about combat strength. When facing the black mist attack, solving the logistics problem was the priority. Food was the single major challenge with so many people to feed. Not to mention the impacts of frenzied, negative emotions.
“Panic buying is happening in the city. Everyone is scrambling for food and water. I’ve limited the sales in all shops and supermarkets,” the logistics manager said.
“Good job! Is there any problem in the safe zone?” Lin Sheng asked.