West District, the spire of the Archbishop’s residence.

This was a miniature clock tower. A large bell hung here, and at this moment, several figures stood around the bell.

This was a “viewing platform” no less significant than the landmark clock tower. From here, one could see the movements in half of the West District.

Ciel looked at the smoky, hellish scene below. There was no ripple in her heart. It seemed she was somewhat accustomed to such a scene… She even felt as if she was watching a movie completely unrelated to herself.

There seemed to be traces of blood tears on her face. Her pupils had already turned dark black, and there seemed to be a dense array of pores within them, as if something could emerge from inside at any moment.

A bottle of potion was twirling flexibly between her slender fingers—the crystal particles inside remained suspended in the bottle. They neither hit the surrounding crystal bottle nor collided with each other due to Ciel’s movements.

The hard, dark green bones within those dark purple crystals seemed to be continuously spreading outwards. After completely encasing the crystals, they would be purified back into dark purple crystals, repeating endlessly.

This was the “Source of Cholera” potion, and it was the last bottle of potion.

Tara stood beside Ciel, looking down at the chaos below. Her heart trembled slightly.

Even though Tara had seen so many ancient texts and had personally experienced and even designed many sacrificial rituals, she had never seen such a terrifying scene as the one below.

Panicked middle-class people scattered and fled. They cried and watched as their former relatives opened horrifying bloody mouths and bit at them.

Soldiers firing in formation had their defenses breached while reloading. Monsters bit at their former comrades, and in just a few seconds, their former comrades also transformed into equally terrifying monsters and began killing indiscriminately…

These monsters were a huge psychological shock to anyone… Tara had once fantasized that the most powerful “Source of Cholera” could create a highly toxic substance that could instantly kill tens of thousands of people, but those were nowhere near as visually impactful as the crimson pathogen before her.

Ciel was the first person she had ever seen who could consciously engineer a pathogen like this…

Not only was Tara shocked by the scene below, but Tier 4 Percy and Eleanor were also on edge.

They couldn’t guarantee that they would be able to completely resist the invasion of this pathogen if they unconsciously ingested it… After all, they had personally witnessed the entire process of a Tier 3 being infected.

But more terrifying than being infected, from their perspective as powerful individuals, was something else.

That was… those infected by the crimson pathogen would consciously prioritize attacking transcendents, and those infected transcendents would also open their bodies to accept more crimson pathogens into their bodies—it looked like consumption and evolution.

This was simply creating mad transcendents in bulk.

Boom——

With a violent explosion, fire and smoke rose from the direction of the Parliament Building. The massive building, which symbolized Ansu’s center of power, was now engulfed in flames.

This was simply… the apocalypse.

The infection was spreading rapidly. Originally, this infection wouldn’t have erupted and spread so quickly, but with the inaction of the Church of the Savior Goddess and the Church of the God of Order, the pathogen proliferated wildly.

Those cobblestone streets stained with blood, if one were to look closely, would see that a thin layer of red mycelium was spread across them. These mycelium mats writhed rhythmically, transporting nutrients, like capillaries covering the city.

Buzz——

Suddenly, just then, a light flashed in the dark night sky.

A point of light shone above Forte’s mansion. From afar, one could see a phantom aircraft hovering at the center of the point of light.

“It’s Forte… he’s gathering his troops.”

Eleanor looked at the point of light and said in a hoarse voice.

Here, besides Ciel, she was likely the most familiar with Forte’s methods.

A layered, phantom sound began to spread outwards from the point of light.

Within it were children’s voices, the harmonies of different men and women. Each voice seemed to symbolize a famous figure in Ansu’s history.

And the most obvious, and easiest to recognize, was Forte’s voice.

“Warriors of Ansu!”

All the gas streetlights erupted with flames again, relighting the streets which seemed to be swallowed by darkness and flesh.

“Behold your trembling hands—etched in the palm lines are the cannon fire that defeated the invincible fleet, inscribed with the glory of the first drop of molten steel from the dawn of industry!”

“And these hands today! Are not to hold bread and pocket watches!”

“The monsters and living corpses wandering the streets and riverbanks are not divine punishment!”

“They are cowards curled up in the darkness, foolishly attempting to defile the immortal steel heart of the great Ansu Empire with blood curses!”

“There are no souls in those filthy, evil monsters! They are merely remnants created by pathetic poison masters! Failed products that even hell refuses to contain!”

An impassioned piece of music began to spread outwards through that point of light.

“Any warrior who kills more than ten infected monsters before dawn——”

“Will receive the highest Medal of Valor from Vitalis Palace! Your children will inherit your glory for all eternity!”

“Ansu will never fall——”

“Because tonight we fight for survival!”

“Now! Take up your weapons! Show your loyalty to the greatest empire in history!”

“At dawn, we will see all the monsters burned to death at the docks on the South Bank!”

At the end of the speech, the orchestra’s music reached its most impassioned passage. A sense of grand tragedy and epic significance surged in Ciel’s heart for no reason, but after a chill ran through her mind, this influence quickly disappeared.

“Quite passionate.”

Ciel nodded slightly and commented.

As expected of someone who had been in countless battles. He was indeed good at pre-battle mobilization. He even brought his own background music while acting as a loudspeaker…

However, merely relying on sentimentality could not stop the spread of infection.

Ciel could already see that the infected were frantically rushing towards the East District.

The moment it spread in the densely populated East District, Forte was destined to lose. Even if he killed all the infected, all that would be left for him was a ghost town.

Thump——

Ciel stopped playing with the potion in her hand and muttered, “It’s almost time…”