The area shrouded by the dark realm of angel-level relics is not just about people falling into coma and being forgotten. This darkness is trying to melt and devour everything around it, until all entities and non-entities are turned into part of the darkness.
As a result, the earth turned black, the trees and grass became more and more weird and twisted, and everything seemed to have the property of absorbing light. Even the space itself was affected by this darkness that enveloped everything.
There was some confusion in itself.
It's like a certain space has been dissolved by darkness, causing some locations to be connected to incoherent distances. If you make a wrong step, you may end up without knowing where you are.
This kind of chaos did not occur on a large scale, and the entire space remained normal. When Shade almost made a mistake, he became wary because of his core spiritual rune space and time.
If you really get lost in a place like this, even Shade may have a hard time finding the right path. After all, he only has thaumaturgy perception time and does not have the high-circle thaumaturgy perception space known as the nemesis of "lost syndrome".
There are demons "hidden servants" hidden in the darkness. On the periphery of the dark field, these one-eyed demons in robes are scattered evenly, because the magical rituals arranged by the church on the periphery of the area are preventing them from spreading more darkness.
to the outside world.
The power of the relics within the domain also affected Shade's powerful soul perception ability. Coupled with the restriction of his field of vision, he had just set out for five minutes when he ran into the hidden servant coming from the darkness. The opponent was in the darkness.
The field of view is extremely large.
But this time, Shade was fully prepared. He put his seal on the moonlight sword and faced the enemy with the sword in both hands. When the opponent rushed forward, he slashed forward fiercely. Even though the two-handed sword could not cut off this huge vertical sword on his face,
Hitomi's terrifying creature was split into two pieces, but the exorcism power attached to the sword itself still caused terrifying black smoke to emit from its body.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xia De pointed out again:
"Mind blast!"
The accumulated strength and high mental concentration caused the short creature that was pointed at to fly backwards. The vertical pupils on its oval face exploded, and then it flew into the darkness and disappeared.
Without the Light Spirit Rune, even if the opponent is divided into corpses, the "Secret Servant" cannot be completely killed, so Shade did not bother to chase after him. Instead, he took advantage of the opportunity when the mind blast caused the opponent to temporarily lose the ability to move, and quickly
leave.
Before arriving at the edge of Forest Town where the diviners were stationed, Shade encountered the Secret Servant three times in total. Except for the first time, he encountered a single individual, the second time he encountered a pair of individuals, and the third time he encountered a pair of individuals.
This time, he encountered dozens of individuals performing rituals in the black rice fields.
The second encounter ended with Shade escaping with his sword, but the third time he lay in the rice field for ten minutes without daring to move, witnessing with his own eyes the black flames of those demons offering sacrifices, and the expansion of those flames and the dark realm.
related.
At the edge of the dark realm, hidden servants wearing shabby robes are everywhere like rats, and each individual is not exactly the same, which is not only reflected in appearance, but also in power. This kind of demonic creature is everywhere
Within the race, there seem to be great differences between individuals. Perhaps in the core of the dark realm, there will be demons that are no less powerful than high-level warlocks.
Fortunately, the enemies Shade has encountered so far are not strong.
Just like outside the town, Forest Town was completely shrouded in darkness, with no signs of normal life at all. Black shadows wandered around the town, and there were some black crystals on the ground that looked like table salt.
Shade originally thought that the diviners would be able to resist when the domain suddenly expanded, but judging from the current situation, they might have suffered heavy losses when the relics got out of control.
Bang!
Shade was thinking about how to find Luvia when a shocking explosion suddenly came from the town.
The sound transmission inside the relic is also affected, and this darkness can also absorb sound. At this moment, Shade can hear sounds outside the town, which only shows that the explosion scene is definitely more terrifying than he thought.
"Is it a ring warlock's battle? Or something else?"
The distance is too far, and the strong whispering elements seriously hinder perception.
She whispered in Shade's ear, which made Shade turn his head to the side subconsciously. Every time he heard her voice in the dark, Shade always thought she was beside him.
Although Shade and the metal box behind him were both glowing, the darkness was extremely capable of swallowing light, so he didn't have to worry about being discovered by others from a distance.
Therefore, there was no deliberate avoidance and he headed directly towards the direction from which the sound came.
The sound came from Center Street in Forest Town. Shade entered the town from the east in the dark and needed to pass Douglas Street before turning onto Center Street.
But as soon as he entered the gloomy town, Shade saw people lying on the ground. These were residents of the town, who had fallen asleep due to the arrival of darkness. About six hours had passed since the incident.
Their condition is pretty good, and the blackening of their skin is not serious.
If the matter is solved quickly and the treatment is timely, they will not remember anything after waking up, and the church can easily handle the matter if they wake up.
After approaching the intersection of the two streets, in addition to local townspeople, there were also many outsiders lying on the street. This can be judged from the clothing.
After careful inspection, Shade understood through those Ouroboros pendants that these were people from the Prophet Association.
Luvia said that in order to cooperate with the Zhengshen Church, this time the Prophet Association dispatched one-third of the ring magicians and soothsayers in Tobesk, that is, 12 people, to this town. Shade counted in the dark,
Seven of them were found near the intersection, and two of the seven were wearing the metal magical amulets provided by the church that Luvia mentioned in her letter.
The diviners only provided support and did not need to enter the dark realm. Therefore, the church did not issue talismans to everyone. Judging from the current situation, they still resisted for a while and encountered trouble during the collective transfer.
.
"Has the power of the relic increased? Why is it still affected if you wear the amulet? There is another one here!"
Because the surroundings were so dark, Shade could only see the person lying on the ground when he was very close. Therefore, the woman leaning against the low wall at the street entrance was the last one Shade noticed.
He ran over quickly and was surprised to see that it was Luvia.
"Oh, my Mia, what on earth is going on~"
Shade sighed and knelt down on one knee next to the female diviner with short brown hair. She had her eyes closed and her head tilted, leaning against the low wall. There were no signs of injury on her body, just like a sleeping princess.
"Luvia, Luvia!"
He shouted softly and shook Luvia's shoulders, but there was no response from the other party. When Shade let go, he even fell forward because of his imbalance and fell on him.
"What should we do in this situation?"
Shade tried hard to think of a solution. At the same time, the sound coming from the central street continued. Now Shade was sure that it was two high-level warlocks fighting, and he felt the element of chaos.
"let me see"
He reached into his pocket and fed Luvia some water treated with satiety food, but it had no effect. Then he put the Evergreen Leaf into her mouth, but it still had no effect. So he divided the weak angel potion.
I took out a few drops and put them in her mouth, but it still didn't work.
Finally, he looked behind him:
谷/span> "It might be useful to put God's gift box on Luvia's head."
But after thinking about it, I felt that this was a bit too exaggerated, so I put my finger on her forehead:
"How about it?"
She has been eroded by the power of darkness. You only need to temporarily drive away the darkness and she will wake up.
If Shade had the light spirit rune, he would just have to summon the life ring and let the light shine on Luvia. But he didn't, so he could only think of other ways.
He reached out and took Luvia's hand, wanting to pass on his light to her just like the last time he and Tifa fought against the enemy. But the darkness that time was just caused by the appearance of the devil. This time it was real.
For angel-level relics, this method doesn't work at all.
"Well, that's all."
He took out the red ink pad box prepared for the seal from his pocket, cut his finger with a knife, and dropped his own blood into it. Then he took some No. 3 holy water drops and added it (note), and then mixed it with the luminous grass material he brought with him.
of leaves.
Glowing grass is a unique plant that can emit light spontaneously only in a completely dark environment late at night. It mostly grows in the primitive forests of the southern part of the Old World. It is a relatively common special plant and is often used in various ceremonies.
After mixing all the materials, Shade dipped his little finger in red ink pad and very carefully drew a circular ritual matrix on Luvia's forehead, and added some runes representing "light" in it.
.
This is the basic ritual that Shade needs to learn in the first grade - luminescence. Engraving the ritual on an object can make the object glow slightly for a short time.
After mixing many materials prepared by Shade, the completed ritual did not make Luvia shine. After the red traces flashed briefly for a few times, the girl with purple eyes made a sleepy sound, and then trembled a few times and opened her eyes.
eyes.
"It actually works. What ingredient is responsible for it?"
Shade was very happy.
"Oh, Shade, why are you here? Am I dreaming?"
Luvia still had a hazy look in her eyes when she opened them. Those purple eyes were blinking hard, and the expression on her face showed that her whole body was weak at this time.
Unlike Shade, she woke up directly inside the angel-level relic without any protection. The feeling at this time should be even more uncomfortable than Shade's experience on the fishbone pirate ship.
After a few breaths, the purple-eyed girl finally came to her senses. But she suddenly covered her mouth and asked Xia De with some exhaustion:
"What does this taste like in my mouth?"
It smells like youthful leaves and many strange potions.
In this darkness, Shade explained the current situation and helped Luvia determine the current date as Saturday at 12:23 noon.
Luvia also told Shade what she encountered, and the situation was probably similar to what Shade had guessed. Around 7:10 this morning, the darkness in the distance suddenly spread, reaching its current scale almost instantly.
The amulet handed over to the Prophet's Association by the church could still work for the first few dozen minutes, but when President Stan organized the prophets to prepare to join the church team for transfer, they encountered an enemy. Coupled with the deep darkness, it became more and more
It becomes stronger and stronger, so that the talisman becomes ineffective and all ring warlocks below the middle level are unconscious.
And Luvia was wearing two amulets given to her by Iluna, so she lasted a little longer.
"So what's the fight over there?"
The sound coming from Center Street still continues.
"Is President Stan fighting a powerful demonic entity?"
Shade asked again.
President Stan originally returned to the city after being controlled by the Dark Realm, but because of the Darkness incident, he once again entered the forefront of containing this angel-level relic. The diviners of the Coordinating Association helped the church find the target.
Luvia was not in the team originally, and came to town temporarily just to meet Iluna.
"It's not a demon, it's another magician."
With Shade's help, Luvia stood up with difficulty. In order to prevent the darkness from making her fall into sleep again, Shade originally wanted to give her the luminous box he was carrying behind him, but God's gift box could only be handed over to children.
Hold it, Luvia can't carry it at all.
So Shade collected the talismans from the unconscious fortune tellers, and together with Luvia's original two, the four talismans together could barely allow her to move around this area.
But she couldn’t leave Shade too far away. Luvia described it this way:
"You are like the sun now, no, the moon. Although the darkness cannot be completely dispelled, your side is the place where the darkness is most difficult to affect."
"President Stan is fighting the Ring Warlock. Have you found Darkness?"
Shade was shocked.
"No, no, in this area, there are not only Darkness and Bloodweeper who are external ring magicians."
Luvia reached out and patted her head a few times, trying to wake up her groggy brain:
"It's the Truth Society."
Shade knew about this organization. A few weeks ago, he and Priest August caught a madman in the cemetery who tried to fuse relics with his body. The Society of Truth is a ring warlock organization rooted in the south of the Old World, inheriting ancient and studying taboo rituals.
He Qi Shu, who is wanted by the Zhengshen Church all year round.
"The opponent is a nine-ring warlock and a five-ring warlock."
"But isn't Mr. Stan ten rings? And there should be other ring warlocks from your association around him. But from the sound, the two sides seem to be evenly matched? Could it be that the Truth Society has a method that is not affected by the dark realm?"