The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 587

Chapter 587: The Hidden Passageway

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Hao Ren was stunned beyond word. “Your city is a spaceship?”

Shaqira and Sorma looked puzzled. The latter froze for a while before she asked, “What?”

“Don’t you know your own city?” The siren’s response surprised Hao Ren. He pointed to the nameplates on the pipe next to him. “Look at this, the Nasaton. This is obviously the naming scheme of a spacecraft. We have just passed a facility called a resonant wheel. Its written operating instructions indicate that it’s a device used to offset the changes in water pressure during the acceleration process. Besides, there is this thin pipe on your left where its sign indicates that it leads to the engine compartment—why would a city need an engine? Only vehicles have this thing.”

Shaqira froze for a long while before she came to her sense and grabbed Hao Ren’s arm suddenly. “You know the siren script? You know what these things mean? Where did you learn it from?”

Hao Ren and other people looked at each other while Y’zaks was wide-eyed. “What do you mean? Don’t you know your own language?”

Shaqira shook her head. “Nobody knows what these signs in the city mean. We might have used this written language before but for some unknown reasons it was lost. The sirens responsible for maintaining the city probably only know how to operate some key equipment. The Queen and some scholars are said to be able to recognise some of these ancient texts, but not much.”

It was much unexpected. Hao Ren felt it incredible. “I couldn’t believe it… have you not cracked your own written language for the past ten thousand years?”

“Cracked a part of it, but the grammar of these ancient texts is very unique, and it’s very difficult to understand them, especially if they are used in a jargon, they’re totally incomprehensible,” said Shaqira, looking embarrassed. “Now the language we use was reconstructed based on the ancient texts thousands of years ago. Apart from the glyphs, there’s no connection with what is written in the signs in terms of meaning, but it was good enough for daily use—only the professional scholars continue to study these symbols in the city. The ordinary sirens have no interest in them.”

“The symptoms of amnesia as a result of crossing to Earth,” Vivian said in a whisper, pulling Hao Ren’s sleeve. “There are similar phenomena in other aliens.”

Yes, this was exactly the weird condition experienced by all aliens on Earth, including the demon hunters. After they came to Earth from The Plane of Dreams, they suffered from memory loss as if it was erased from their minds. Not only had they completely forgotten their memory about The Plane of Dreams, there also existed some bizarre innate memories, such as hostility towards the otherworldlings. This kind of memory erasure seemed to be random: some races still remembered the Letta Runes, some remembered their own written language, some remembered more or less their production techniques, some were said to have degenerated into primitive animals during the mythical era. The memory erasure of each race was not the same, and what the sirens had forgotten was undoubtedly their writing and everything about the city.

It was hard to tell as to what extra memory or racial instinct they had.

No wonder they did not even know how the city was built: The city was already there before the sirens ‘got’ their memories, and Nasaton seemed to exist in the deep sea matter-of-coursely. The sirens were following some vague instincts to thrive here, fumbling with the equipment that, theoretically, they had made themselves, but otherwise they knew nothing about their homeland.

It was hard for outsiders to imagine what kind of lifestyle it was, but it was clear that they were already accustomed to it all.

“Compared with other aliens, the sirens are really the most amazing race,” Hao Ren looked at this incredible city in disbelief. After he found out the city was a spaceship, the many doubts about the city were resolved instantaneously, which included its weird, completely enclosed structure and architectural arrangement. “You actually landed on this planet with a space fortress? You know how to operate these equipment… don’t know what these written instructions mean on them? It’s incredible that you’re essentially challenging the cognitive rules of a smart race.”

Shaqira looked puzzled. “I’m not sure if this is a compliment or something else.”

“At least it’s not malicious,” Hao Ren hurriedly waved his hand. “I’ve seen many different otherworldlings. You people are the most incredible race. Obviously, your advanced technology … or advanced magic has played a big role. You people have done very well compared to other aliens on Earth.”

Hasse looked on quietly. His face showed not much animation. However, the gleaming of his eye suggested that this old demon hunter was not as calm as he pretended to be. He patted the pipeline next to him. “That is to say, Nasaton is a spaceship from an alien planet? The siren came from another planet?”

Hao Ren shrugged. “More distant than other planet … but there’s nothing wrong with your understanding.”

White Flame finally could not hold back but asked, “What about us?”

“Oh, looks like you finally believe what I said earlier,” Hao Ren laughed cheerfully. “I’ve said before that except for shamans and witches, all alien races are not indigenous to Earth. You people come from almost every corner of the universe—but now you all fight among yourselves on Earth like some headless chickens. Look at this spacecraft; do you still think that demon hunters’ killing instinct is a natural phenomenon? You’re not even sure if you and the other aliens are from the same planet, where does the sense of hostility come from?”

Hasse silently sinking into deep thoughts, and Teuton touched the metal groove around him and said, “Incredible.”

“Let’s put the problems of siren language and the otherworldlings to a side for now. How far is it the palace from here?” asked Y’zaks, suddenly interrupting the conversation.

Shaqira pointed forward. “Going along this channel until the end, turn left and you will enter a passageway that lead directly to a building next to the palace zone. However, I’m afraid that’s not as easy as it seems; there must be guards in there.”

Nangong Wuyue moved its attention away from the nearby facilities. “Let’s keep going. Time waits no one.”

With Shaqira and Sorma leading the way, they quickly swam in the direction of the passageway. Lily suddenly smelled something at the corner near the channel. “Wait, there’s someone up there!”

They hurriedly hid themselves under the main pipeline, and then a team of sirens was swimming a dozen meters above the pipeline. More than a dozen grey-eyed sirens armed with tridents escorted dozens of their compatriots, which were in mermaid form, looked weak, and trapped in bubbles.

A siren soldier seemed to have sensed something, as she looked down at the channel. Sorma quickly tightened his control over the current, and completely shrouded their breath. A moment later, the siren soldier left to keep up with the team.

Lily said, “I can fight ten!”

“But there are at least a hundred thousand of sirens controlled by the gigantic brains in the city, not to mention the mighty Queen of the Sirens.” Hao Ren smacked the back of her head and said, “Stop talking. Let’s move.”

The team moved toward the passageway again. Vivian whispered about the team she had just encountered. “The siren’s eyes have not yet completely changed their colours. This shows that their minds are relatively sound. They should be puppets responsible for patrolling the city. We’ll be in trouble if get spotted by them.”

“They were probably escorted ordinary sirens to extract their energy, or send them for brainwashing,” Nangong Sanba’s face gloomy. “I reckon there will be more sentinels; is there any other safer route?”

Shaqira shook her head. “The secret passage is the only possible way; there are sentries in other places, and even sensors.”

They proceeded ahead and encountered two patrolling soldiers on the road. However, Shaqira, who was particularly familiar with the area, and Sorma, who was good at shrouding their breath, eventually passed through without incident. They found the secret passage leading to the imperial palace area: it was beneath a metal ramp, wider than expected with several small pipes extending along the passage.

Above the entrance was a sign which read: 7th Resonance Maintenance Tunnel”.

Hao Ren followed Shaqira and swam into the passageway, but moving for quite a long distance, Sorma suddenly stopped everyone. “Wait a second! There is a sentry in front!”

Chapter 588: The Veterans

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

At the end of the dark channel was a shell-like gate, but in front of the gate were two armed siren sentries. Hao Ren hid behind a bundle of pipes and looked up at the guards in the distance. “I wondered if they would allow us to pass… and they don’t look puppets which have lost their thinking ability.”

Hasse carefully drew this crossbow. “Looks like a fight is inevitable. I’m confident I can remove them in an instant and make little noise.”

Shaqira quickly stopped him. “Wait a second!”

“No, we must act now,” Hasse seemed to have misunderstood Shaqira. “These sirens are under control. Now they are enemies.”

“That’s not what I mean. If you kill them here, they will soon be resurrected elsewhere in the palace and attract a large group of guards,” Shaqira shook her hands slightly. “It’s very difficult to completely kill a siren if there isn’t enough preparation which requires a complicated sealing ceremony.”

Lily pulled her ears and said, “Arf—so why do you people evolve to become like this?”

However, the ‘seal’ had reminded Hao Ren of something. He quickly observed his surroundings and gestured with his hand saying that he had an idea. “Step back. Shaqira, can draw them over here?”

Shaqira had no idea what it was about, but she still nodded, and when the others had stepped back, she opened her mouth in the direction of the two sentries but they heard nothing. However, the two sirens were alert. The two looked at each other before writhing toward the corner where Hao Ren was hiding.

As the two sirens moved a little bit closer, Hao Ren tensed up. The two siren sentinels apparently had sensed the breath of strangers from the water from five meters away. Their expression slightly changed before wielding their tridents high!

Hao Ren rushed out of the corner, his movement was quick and powerful as if he had launched himself from a spring. This shocked the two siren sentries. However, when they realised what was going on, Hao Ren had caught them by their tails. With just a swoop, the two sirens were gone.

Hao Ren dusted his hand as his mouth spat out a series of bubbles. “Done.”

Shaqira was stunned. “Where have you thrown them to?”

“In the dimensional pocket,” Hao Ren shrugged his shoulders. “Now they’re fighting with two mechanical arms. Oh, there’ve been tied up…”

Shaqira: “What?”

Nangong Wuyue looked at Hao Ren’s hand quirkily. “Wait, why do I feel that your move is a little familiar?”

Hao Ren smiled wryly and said, “Oh, that’s how I usually drag you back up when you crawled around the house.”

Everyone: “…..”

Vivian patted on Hao Ren’s shoulder and said, “Let’s move. The monster brain might soon discover that it has lost two chess, and send someone to investigate. We better get moving.”

They quickly swam toward the gate, and this time they finally got lucky: The gate was not locked, and Shaqira and Sorma pulled the lever next to the gate and the gate slid open to the side producing a string of bubbles in the process.

Hao Ren took the lead and swam in. As he crossed the gate, he was taken aback by what he saw. “What the heck… look!”

Behind the gate was a fan-shaped hall. In the centre of the hall, a spherical luminous object like a super-giant pearl was suspended in there. Under the illumination of this luminous object, they saw many rectangular platforms neatly lay around the hall. On each platform there was a ‘person’ lying lifelessly. Their skin was dark grey and stiff, wearing tattered World War II soldier uniforms and their chests were inlaid with grey-blue weird crystals.

They were WWII allied soldiers!

Vivian came in following Hao Ren’s exclamation. She was surprised by what she saw. “The dead? Are they charged being charged here?”

“Looks like this resonance chamber is the place where they can charge up their crystals,” said Hasse, pointing to the grey-blue crystals on the dead’s chest. The crystals echoed with the glowing sphere in the centre of the hall, and pulsated with light. “These bodies seem to be asleep.”

Y’lisabet looked curiously at the glowing sphere, and underneath it was a mysterious rune platform. She wielded her a small screwdriver and swam up about to poke the sphere, someone plucked her up and said, “I’ve told you don’t touch anything here!”

Y’lisabet waved her limps in mid-air and called out. “Uncle Ren, there’s a thing stuck here! There’s something stuck here!”

Then only they saw a large piece of crystal was embedded in the centre of the Rune platform below the glowing sphere. The crystal looked a little familiar. White Flame scratched his chin for a moment and suddenly it crossed her mind. “Look at the shape, seems like it’s the same crystals that were inlaid on the polearm of the sirens.”

This only reminded them of the strange weapons of the siren overseers outside the city. The weapon was like a polearm, but the most striking feature if it was the sapphire-like object on the crescent blade, making it more like a wand than weapon. Moreover, only the siren supervising the ‘dead’ had this sapphire, the sirens who guarded the alien slave labourers had only normal polearms.

The crystal and the sapphire were almost the same in shape and colour, even their surface rune lines were similar, but this crystal was much larger. Vivian suddenly realised what it was. “Is it this thing is controlling the dead? Is this a master controller?”

When Shaqira heard this, she immediately reached out to touch the crystal. “Then we must destroy it!”

Nangong Wuyue immediately stopped her. “Don’t do that! What if this isn’t a controller but an alarm?”

Shaqira suddenly hesitated, and Hao Ren stepped forward and wanted to pull her hand back. “Wait a minute. Let the MDT do a scan to determine what this thing is all about.”

Before his voice trailed off, his hand accidentally touched a corner of the crystal. Cracks quickly spread on the surface of the crystal before turning into a pile of debris.

Hao Ren was rooted to the spot. “Wait… I didn’t do anything!”

Vivian was also stunned, then she smacked on her forehead. “It’s your anti-devil ability that works intermittently.”

“Oh shit,” Hao Ren felt that fate had failed him again. “This ability… oh, wait! They’re moving!”

The breaking of the ‘master-controller crystal’ had not triggered any alarm, but it produced an even more unexpected result: With a strange sound like wind chimes, the sleeping dead around the hall began to wake up one by one as the a strange wind chime sound echoed in the air.

It was horrible, as the World War II souls, which looked like zombies, woke up one by one, adjusted their balance with their stiff postures, and checked their state in confusion, before they turned their gaze to Hao Ren. Pairs of distorted eyes stared at Hao Ren, causing cold sweat to trickle down his forehead—of course he was under water but he could still feel his sweat. That speaks a lot about how scared he was.

Of course, Hao Ren was not actually afraid of these zombies; he just felt that the atmosphere was too creepy!

Lily and Rollie had their hair puffed up; one of them had the tail between her legs while the other one bent her body up like an arc as they stepped back. The others were on guard. Only the naive Lil Pea happily swam out to greet the uncle zombies but Nangong Wuyue was holding her back. Hao Ren looked bizarrely at these staggering World War II souls. He slyly raised his hand and waved to them. “Hi there! We are not bad people… We just want to help.”

He spoke alternately in English, French, and Russian. Hasse was surprised. “I didn’t know you’re multilingual!”

Hao Ren just shrugged but said nothing. Instead, he looked at the World War II soldier who was a Soviet submarine commander was wearing a military uniform that happened to be near to him. “I’m sorry to disturb you. We were just passing by and saw you being enchanted and unable to rest in peace. We just want to help. I didn’t mean to screw the operation steps.”

The allied army officer tilted his head slightly, seeming to make his stiff brain recover. Then he looked down at the grey-blue gemstone on his chest before suddenly raising his arm high, as if he was cheering in silent.

Hao Ren: “?”

Chapter 589: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Soviet submariner captain’s movement was as if a signal as the Allied soldiers around him too checked their body before making the same odd gesture. Their hands were waving in the air as they shook their body. It took Hao Ren a while before he realised what was going on. The soldiers were indeed cheering by throwing their hands in the air, they were glad that they had escaped the nightmare.

But they could not speak as their vocal cords had already stiffen and they did not know any other way to speak.

“Ugh… seems like you lot are pretty happy.” Hao Ren smiled stiffly. “So… can you understand what I’m saying?”

A submariner gestured clumsily and Hao Ren knew immediately that the soldier understood him and they had regained their thoughts. Vivian was amazed by the scene and realised that they have something really valuable before them. “Wait, so this is to say that you remember what happened when you were under control?”

The submariner captain nodded as he made an indignant gesture.

Hao Ren continued. “So you have seen us moving about then? It’s just that you were not able to move at your own will?”

The captain nodded again and if Hao Ren was not wrong, his stiff motions was probably a gesture of thanks.

“This is just too troublesome.” Vivian turned around. “Can anyone use necromancy? It’ll be easier to figure out what is going on in their minds.”

At that moment, Teuton stepped up. “I’m well versed with necromancy and a few common human languages. These dead here are probably no different than your usual spirits. I can give it a try.”

“Ugh, I almost forgot that you existed before you spoke.” Hao Ren ruffled his hair, slightly embarrassed. “Give it a go then. But be quick, we have already made quite a ruckus, sentries will be coming soon.

Teuton nodded and came before the Allied navy crews, chanting some ancient spells with his head down. Black markings soon appeared around his eyes as the marks symbolised the darker parts of a life’s cycle. He then looked up as he took half a step back. “It’s done. I shall be your means of communication. Speak.”

Vivian immediately threw out the first question. “What has become of the Queen? And what is happening in the palace area?”

Hao Ren did not place much hope in getting answers to the questions but he soon realised why Vivian thought they might hold key information in getting into the place. The navy men had knowledge of Nasaton beyon anyone’s imagination as they were the city’s most ‘loyal’ of servants. They were pawns that could easily be controlled compared to the Sirens who resisted at very opportunity. So the brain monster had let the dead do most of the jobs, including maintenance of the palace area and sentry duty at times. Some of the navy men were even posted to the dungeons beneath the palace and the monster was being ‘locked’ there. It seems like the latter was being very cautious. It did not let ordinary Sirens any chance to approach it and for the longest period of time the dungeon was only manned by the dead navy crews.

And this situation lasted until enough Sirens were thoroughly brainwashed to replace the walking dead.

And from the very beginning, the dead were being controlled directly via the domination crystal. During the time where the Sirens were not fully under thrall, the monster had used the crystal to order the dead about. It was only two years back did the Sirens replace the dead as his guards.

The submariner captain was called Ivan, and he went into the palace before as a labourer and have seen the monster with his own eyes. Through Teuton he had described what he saw and the details were pretty lurid.

Before Teuton’s necromantic ability faded away, Vivian had tried to understand what was going on in the palace, and as she looked to the other side of the hall, “Based on what Ivan said, there is a water circulatory pipeline that leads straight into the palace. The entrance is just beyond that door.”

“How about the soldiers?” Hao Ren looked at the dead navy crews before him. “Leave them here?”

At that very moment, the soldiers did something totally unexpected. With their leaders orders, the soldiers put their hands on their chest as they forcibly ripped the greyish crystal out!

A series of cracks rang out as the soldiers destroyed the crystal that controlled and sustained them. Fine sand flowed from the wound on their chest like blood as the soldiers quickly weakened, yet they stood firm. Ivan came before Hao Ren and motioned towards the giant door on the side of the hall and nodded without a sound.

“They need to destroy the crystal to find peace.” Teuton had reactivated his necromancy ability. “Before that, they will lead the way.”

Ivan nodded as his skin disintegrated rapidly and fine sand gushed out of the wounds. But with much effort, he broke his stiffening face into a smile. This was their last mission, with their own free will.

Hao Ren did not dither and turned towards the door. “No time to lose!”

A few hundred soldiers surged forward as they led the way. The party went through dozens of blast doors and tunnels as they charged towards the Siren Queen’s palace. They had circumvented pathways that were easily defended and after going through many inspection tunnels and circulatory pipelines, their destination was just before them.

A sharp siren wail rang from afar. Sorma quickly reminded the rest. “That’s the warning siren. The sentries must have seen what happened back there.”

Shaqira increased the flow of water to hasten everyone’s movement speed. “Quickly! The palace is just in front!”

Hao Ren noticed from the signboards in the tunnel that he was fast approach the ‘Core Command Chamber’. He then looked around him and he saw the group of disintegrating soldiers, a mixture of feelings almost overwhelmed him. The soldiers’ body were falling apart by the minute and fine sand flowed out from each wound marks, leaving a trail behind the party. There were soldiers who dropped out of the group as they withered into fine sand, leaving only their rotten uniform. The party was large when they departed, and now, less than a third remained. A few hundred soldiers had simply dissolved into fine sand after losing their sustenance.

Shaqira approached Ivan, her voice sombre. “I… apologise on behalf of my kin…”

Ivan’s body too was falling apart and was almost just a skeleton. Yet he tried hard to smile as he shook his head. Teuton’s voice came from behind. “They have seen how the Sirens was being gradually controlled. Even though they had lost control of their body, they knew who was the culprit of all this mess.”

Shaqira looked down. “Thank you. That…. eases my heart.”

Ivan nodded and moved quickly with another Allied army officer towards the last blast door.

Just meters before the blast door, Ivan’s body fell apart, and turned into sand.

A British officer passing by lowered his head as he paid respects before he too headed towards the door.

Beyond the blast doors was a rest area and a dozen of shocked Siren guards turned to look at the raiding party in horror.

The first Siren was the first to recover as she raised her trident and let out a piercing shriek. A visible shockwave blasted out from the Siren as a few soldiers charged at her. Their bodies were immediately destroyed as they were torn apart by the shockwave into clouds of sand but their still intact head still darted forward and actually bite the Siren’s wrist before fully disintegrating!

The cloud of dust and sudden attack had somewhat slowed the Siren’s reaction. Hao Ren lead the team into the fray. “End this quick!”

A chaotic scene of battle erupted as shrieks and explosions rang out from the narrow pipeline. Everyone knew that the sentries had already raised the alarm so they had little to lose by going loud, and fought with everything they had.

The battle lasted barely over a minute, and the last siren was evaporated by White Flame’s searing holy flames. The surrounding air had the smell of boiling water and floating dust. Hao Ren only managed to send a few of the sirens into his Dimensional Pocket while the rest were simply killed. That means they will be resurrected nearby soon and will probably lead a torrent of guards to block the path.

Most of the soldiers had fallen and only a few soldiers and officers remained behind them. They had ran out of strength to lead the way and most of their comrades had turned into dust in the pipeline. They too realise that their long service had finally came to an end. They made a few more steps before stopping in the tunnel.

Two Allied officers lay slumped by the side of the tunnel as their bodies were coming apart uncontrollably. A captain stiffly motioned as he tried to say something and Teuton immediately activated his necromancy spell again. But even he could not understand what the two disintegrating soldiers were trying to say.

But Hao Ren quickly caught the gestures and understood what the soldier was trying to say.

He bent down as he held the captain’s hands. “You’ve won. The Jerry’s are done for.”

He then turned towards the last Soviet soldier. “Leningrad stands.”

The two soldiers nodded, their faces satisfied and they returned to dust.