Chapter 93: “The Nation-Destroyer” Rast and “Queen of the Underworld” Akxia
That faint, ethereal veil of night before his eyes gradually dissipated.
Along with it, even his self-awareness was slowly recovering.
Rast opened his eyes to see a small wooden cabin before him. Its interior was not lavishly decorated, but it was quite clean and bright.
The window was open, and the air was fresh.
A damp sea breeze blew against his face, and the curtains swayed gently.
Through the window, one could faintly see the sea. Waves shattered into fine spray against the reefs, and the sound of the tides echoed as if between heaven and earth.
Rast lifted his head and saw the prominent spire outside the window.
And at the very top of the spire was a silver winged emblem, with two pristine white wings completely encompassing the coastline.
Rast knew full well the meaning of that emblem.
Back in the last historical remnant at Frostwater Town, he and Shiltina had fought while wearing such an emblem.
But compared to the emblem he had once worn, the one on this spire was more intricate and magnificent… those silver-white wings stretched out as if to blot out the sun.
“Guard of the Coast”
This was the symbol of the Coast Guards.
Correspondingly, the place where Rast currently found himself, and the spire carved with the massive winged emblem before his eyes, its name was self-evident...
“Guard's Spire”——
This was also the headquarters of the Coast Guards organization, located at the Shattered Coast.
Using Grey’s words from the last historical remnant...
Here resided the most powerful person in that world, making it the safest place in the entire world.
【Identity Background Introduction:
Rast — a name buried by time, forgotten by the ages.
You once walked the Deep Blue Port at the twilight of the Golden Age, consorting with the beasts of torment known as the Iron Cross.
You once strolled through the mist-shrouded Nameless Town and shattered a girl’s illusory dream.
And now, your current identity is that of an ordinary Coast Guard within the “Guard's Spire”... but it seems someone has vaguely perceived your past and wishes to entrust you with great responsibility.
This is a turning point of the era, and also the prologue to a grand, sweeping event that will change the course of history.】
【Current Historical Remnant Type: “Epoch Remnant”, no tier limit】
【Mission Objective: As a participant in the epic, fully experience this historical segment and survive until the end】
【Note: This remnant has no fixed time limit. You cannot leave the Nightworld through a timeout】
【Note: Upon fully experiencing this historical event, the Night Traveler may freely choose to escape the historical remnant or remain】
【Note: Nightworld mission rewards will be issued based on the Night Traveler’s importance, participation, and specific performance in this historical segment】
【Note: Night Traveler has obtained a reasonable identity within the historical remnant and is fluent in the base universal language of this world】
Once again, information surfaced in his mind.
Staring at those deep blue lines of Nightworld background prompts, Rast fell into deep contemplation.
Undoubtedly, compared to the previous two historical remnants he had experienced, this “Epoch Remnant” surpassed them by several levels in terms of map scale and narrative grandeur.
After all, in Deep Blue Port, aside from the purely background-role evil god who descended and triggered an instant plot kill…
The strongest enemy he had encountered was merely Langley, the leader of the Iron Cross who had awakened his abnormal abilities.
According to modern classifications of extraordinary beings, even if Langley devoured other Iron Cross variants and absorbed their abilities, at best, he would only be a Tier 3 or 4 entity.
The only reason Rast and Shiltina had ended up in such a miserable state was due to the overwhelming number of enemies—they were hunted by an entire city’s worth of Iron Cross.
As for Frostwater Town, the final enemy was actually just an activated Scarlet Moon pollutant.
Though its ability to control puppets and weave dreams was bizarre and tricky... its actual tier was not high. That much was clear from the fact that the Disaster Remnant restricted entry to Night Travelers below third tier.
Otherwise, Rast could never have destroyed that pollutant’s core on his own.
But this time was completely different.
Previously, it was limited to a single city or small town, but this time, his starting point in the Epoch Remnant was directly the headquarters of the Coast Guards—Guard's Spire.
The reputation of the Coast Guard leader—Rast had already heard of it from many sources.
Perhaps the strongest among the Order Faction in this era.
And based on the well-known game design principle of schemer Gou: “The stronger the friendly NPCs, the stronger the enemy boss that corresponds to them.”
Combined with the name of this Epoch Remnant—“Prologue to the Legendary War”
Legendary War.
As the name suggests, only if both sides in the conflict are legendary figures could it be called such.
“Looks like I’ll get to witness quite the spectacular scene this time.”
Rast gently exhaled.
Fortunately, he was currently only in the “Prologue”.
Since it was the prologue, that meant this phase was still about various factions making their moves in the shadows. The real war wouldn’t erupt just yet in this historical remnant.
Otherwise, with his current strength—still one step away from third tier—if he got caught up in that scale of war, he might get vaporized by the aftershocks without anyone even noticing.
Of course, encountering such a grand occasion was also within Rast’s expectations.
After all, this was an “Epoch Remnant”, which differed greatly from “Disaster Remnants” and other ordinary historical remnants.
According to Professor Barbalossa’s explanation, the historical backdrops of Epoch Remnants were all significant turning points in an era’s history.
And within an Epoch Remnant, Night Travelers could no longer play the sole protagonist of the background narrative like in previous remnants.
In most cases, Night Travelers were nothing more than minor characters swept along by the tide of the times in the epic tale...
The real protagonists were still those great figures from the original history.
Of course, going from protagonist to side character wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for most Night Travelers.
As the saying goes, when the sky falls, let the tall ones hold it up. At least their chances of survival would greatly increase.
“To fully experience this historical segment and survive until the end”
This completion requirement sounded difficult, but was actually fairly simple.
After all, if one didn’t care about Nightworld mission rewards and simply wanted to survive…
All they had to do was keep a low profile while the god-level entities clashed, lurking on the battlefield’s periphery and tossing a few shuriken from eight hundred miles away—and that would technically count as “fully experiencing the historical segment”.
Of course, more importantly...
What truly caught Rast’s attention was the background information related to his identity in the latter part of the text.
And—
“Grey.”
“According to Starfall University’s hypothesis, the historical remnants Night Travelers experience in the Nightworld are completely independent instances and reflections.”
“No matter what one does within them, even if they change the very heavens, it should bear no relation to actual history.”
“But if that were really true...”
“Why would the name ‘Grey’ appear?”
The girl from Frostwater Town who possessed a high-rank “Fate” sequence was a real person in history.
Even without meeting Rast, by the original historical trajectory, she might have been rescued by other Coast Guards or escaped the endless dream of Frostwater Town through sheer coincidence.
In the future, she could have passed the Coast Guards' assessment and joined the organization—none of that would be surprising.
But if that were the case—
Then her name should have been Xiao Hui, not “Grey”.
“Grey” was a transliteration of “Grey” from Rast’s past-life language—
It was a name that Rast himself had given to the nameless girl.
It could not be explained by mere coincidence.
“So this means...”
“Even within an Epoch Remnant, traces of my past Nightworld experiences still remain?”
This was something Rast had never considered before.
Was it that the Nightworld automatically generated these character relationships based on his past experiences?
Or rather—
Was the Nightworld more than just a replicated copy of old history?
Rast couldn’t help but recall that unique skill from the Fool’s Library—“Origin of Fate”—whose function he still had not figured out.
Knock, knock, knock—
A knock came from the door, but soon stopped.
“Rast, there’s a directive from Guard’s Spire.”
As if aware that Rast was inside, a voice came directly from beyond the door.
“The leader says he wants to meet you.”
The leader?
The head of the Coast Guards—the one suspected to be a legend?
Rast couldn’t help but recall the words from the background description.
【Someone seems to have vaguely perceived your past and wishes to entrust you with great responsibility】
So the one who wished to entrust him with responsibility—was it him?
Thoughts flashed through Rast’s mind. He opened the door.
Then, he nodded at the Coast Guard outside, who also wore the winged emblem.
“I understand. Lead the way.”
……