Chapter 660 — Remnants of Bone
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The Eastern Frontier, the White Sand region.
The raging storm had finally subsided. The apocalypse-like darkness and curtain of rain, and the deep-sea creatures that had risen within that rain, were gone.
At the very end of the "feeding," a vast rift had opened in the swirling vortex of clouds overhead, and within that rift had shimmered a glimmering light like an ocean turned upside down. Through that rift, those deep-sea allies had returned to their own domain, carrying away the greater part of the giant stag's remains and leaving behind only a few "remnants of bone" at the site.
Those remnants now lay quietly several thousand meters from the Iron Throne, between the White Sand Hills and the White Water River. It had once been a flat, open stretch of ground, but now a vast crater gaped there, filled with shattered and fractured rock and lifeless soil, as though a piece of the earth had been torn away whole.
Ma Qi led a group of officers and soldiers to the crater's edge. Looking down at the bone fragments and scraps of surviving flesh at the bottom—still radiating powerful magical fluctuations, still twisted and tangled together—the commander could not help but feel a flood of emotion.
A mighty "artificial god," one that even carried a measure of divine power, had simply died.
Died in the midst of a gluttonous feast.
A rustling, writhing sound came from nearby. Ma Qi turned his head and saw the siren lady who had been temporarily stranded in Cecil—Tyr, who had been hiding somewhere unknown until now, only now emerging once the dust had settled.
"You really did... eat it?" Ma Qi could not help but ask.
"Well, it wasn't exactly all for eating..." Tyr scratched at her hair, but suddenly felt that explaining the matter clearly would be rather a hassle, so she waved a hand. "But your understanding isn't wrong either. Once they get back, they're definitely going to feast."
What a terrifying species.
Ma Qi thought with a trace of awe, and at the same time could not resist glancing at the enormous crater.
Not only terrifying in power, but terrifying in teeth and appetite as well.
"It really is astonishing—you even gnawed out such a huge pit in the ground while you were at it..."
Tyr froze at the words, then hurriedly waved her hands. "This pit wasn't gnawed out! The magical reaction was just too violent, and then when the fold-field pulled people back it caused an energy-field oscillation, and that's what made this pit..."
Ma Qi's face was full of embarrassment. Born a noble, he immediately felt he had been rude, and hastened to apologize: "Ah, my apologies."
"It's fine, it's fine. A little misunderstanding between different species is only natural. We sirens always suspect that you land-dwelling creatures must have your intelligence affected by living in dry places all the time..." Tyr said, waving her hand carelessly. "Never mind that. The energy surge here has already calmed down—when do you plan to start studying these remains?"
She pointed at the "remnants of bone" left at the bottom of the crater after the siren expeditionary force had withdrawn. Though they were only fragments of remains that had lost their vitality, their value was still beyond measure; to any researcher, those bones and bits of flesh were an enormous treasure.
"The news has already been sent back to the Southern Frontier. Professionals will soon come here to take over," Ma Qi said, then felt a touch of curiosity. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I was just going to say that if you're not going to start studying them anytime soon, I was planning to go down and have a couple of bites first..." Tyr said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "I've been in charge of maintaining the guiding beacon this whole time—I didn't even get to join my sisters' feast..."
Ma Qi: "..."
This commander of noble birth had dealt with all sorts of people in his life, but he had truly never imagined that dealing with sirens would be this difficult!