Lumian had previously briefly told Ryan and the others about the black thorn symbol protruding from Guillaume Bene's chest, the secret existence with the word "destiny" in its name, and the corresponding field materials including gray amber, tulips, lilacs and musk. He simply attributed all the sources to the parish priest and had nothing to do with him.
Now, upon hearing his reminder, Leah, Ryan, and Valentine immediately became alert and made corresponding guesses.
"A place of sacrifice?" Ryan whispered to himself.
As he spoke, everyone turned their eyes to the basement.
With the little light coming down from the stairs, they could barely see the general appearance of the interior: the space under the church was larger than the entire Lumien family.
The first floor is even bigger, with gray-white stone slabs on the ground. The surroundings are extremely dark because there is not much light, and there is a stone platform half a person's height in the middle.
The top of the stone platform is slightly concave, as if something is hidden, but it is difficult to see clearly.
Lumian thought and whispered, "This might be the place where the parish priests prayed for 'blessings' from the evil beings."
"They actually built an altar to the evil god under the church!" Valentine was extremely furious. Lumian suspected that he would burn up in the next second, turning into holy light and purifying everything here.
"Calm down." Ryan patted Valentine's shoulder, "Get ready to light the fire."
He then motioned for Leah to do some reconnaissance.
Leah maintained her sweet smile, sniffed her upturned nose and said:
"That mysterious being whose name contains 'Destiny' really likes scents..."
She sighed as she walked into the basement. Her mouth moved as if she was silently reciting something.
The four little silver bells jingled again, sometimes loudly, sometimes softly.
One step, two steps, three steps... .Liya turned around and said to Ryan and others: "There is nothing unusual in the entrance area.
Ryan, Lumian and Valentine then walked through the old brown wooden door, entered the basement, and came to where Leah was staying.
Leah continued to move forward.
After she took a few steps, the silver bells hanging on her veil and boots began to shake violently.
Ding ding dong!
The sound spread rapidly in all directions.
Points of light like the morning glow immediately appeared around Ryan. They condensed together and created a set of silver-white full-body armor on Ryan's body.
At the same time, Ryan had a huge sword of pure light in his hand.
Valentine half opened his arms, allowing the golden illusory flames to burn beside him.
One of the flames suddenly stretched and widened, and Leah's figure walked out from it.
She returned from her position near the altar to where Lumian and the others were.
So magical... Lumian was once again amazed at Leah's performance. Compared to the understandable and imaginable "Sun" path ability and Ryan's combat status, Leah's performance was even more weird and magical. For example, the ability to transfer his wound from the thigh to the edge of the calf yesterday was simply incredible.
Faced with the sudden "alarm", Lumian still made his only response:
He pulled out the iron-black axe and shrunk behind Ryan, whose body had grown much larger.
During this process, he took the opportunity to look around and found no unusual changes.
You know, he has his "clairvoyance" turned on.
Of course, Lumian also made some discoveries - with the help of the light brought by the golden flame, he saw piles of human bones at the edge of the ground, some of which were covered with light-colored sheepskin.
Is this the sacrifice from before? The parish priest and his men have been performing cult rituals here for at least half a year, and Aurore and I were completely unaware... Lumian's thoughts raced, and he felt once again that the village of Cordu, where he had lived for nearly five years, was so unfamiliar. He didn't know when this place became abnormal, or perhaps it had been abnormal from the beginning.
"Is everything okay?" Ryan asked Leah while looking vigilantly in the direction of the altar.
Leah shook her head
"I don't feel anything is wrong, just a sign of danger."
"It's very strange..." Lumian just turned his head to look at Leah, and his voice stopped abruptly.
He saw that the face of this beautiful girl had become translucent, and there seemed to be twisted worms crawling around underneath her, drilling in and out. She was more terrifying, more evil, and more terrifying than the evil spirits in the legend. She made people's scalps tingle and their hearts beat wildly.
This was beyond Lumian's imagination, and he suspected that he would have nightmares for a long time because of it.
"You, your face!" He reminded Leah with difficulty controlling his fear.
Leah subconsciously touched her face with her right hand, and her eyes suddenly changed.
As for whether her expression changed, Lumian couldn't tell from the transparent and twisted worms.
Leah quickly looked at the back of her hand. The skin there also became translucent, and the flesh underneath seemed to have turned into strange worms.
"You're almost out of control!" Valentine also noticed Leah's condition.
Liya wondered to herself, “But my mental state is still okay.
"First make sure if this is your hallucination." Ryan tilted his head to remind.
Almost at the same time, Lumian discovered that the tall warrior was shrinking rapidly. The silver-white full body armor on his body and the huge sword of light in his hand also disintegrated. The latest and fastest updates are first released.
In the blink of an eye, Ryan turned into a dwarf who was only about 1.5 meters tall. The brown shirt and light yellow trousers were either too big or too long.
He has also changed? Only Valentine and I are safe... Lumian's pupils dilated sharply, and he subconsciously looked at Valentine.
"Ryan, you've become smaller!" Valentine, who had already become a pure light man, hurriedly reminded his companions.
"..." Lumian, who was almost blinded by the light, asked Leah, "Have I changed?"
Leah said with countless transparent worms that seemed to want to crawl out but couldn't leave their flesh and blood: "You are normal. But in this case, normality may be the biggest abnormality."
Am I normal? Could it be that the black thorn symbol protected me, making the "danger" here think I'm one of their own? Lumian suddenly had a guess.
At this time, Ryan had finished checking his body and said while being on guard:
"I didn't become smaller, but I returned to my previous state, even losing my supernatural powers."
“What it looked like before?” Lumian blurted out.
He had a vague idea in his mind.
Ryan nodded: "Well, I was born short, which is a great misfortune for a man, so when I chose the 'potion', I chose 'warrior', which can effectively change my height.
"I don't know whether it's lucky or unlucky, but in the past five or six years, there have been many extraordinary monsters and abnormal phenomena involving the 'Warrior' path, which has allowed me to worry less about the materials needed for promotion."
After listening to Ryan's words, Lumian roughly understood the source of the change: "You have returned to the 'past'!
"As far as I know, the authority of that hidden existence involves the past. Having said this, he imitated the mysterious lady, deliberately paused for a few seconds, and added some other words:
"It also involves the present, and, and, and, the future.
Although he was currently speaking Intis, he still had to be cautious.
Leah reacted very quickly and blurted out, "Valentine and I have entered the future. What is our future state?"
"And I am now?" Lumian confirmed Leah's guess with a counter-question.
He then thought of the three-faced monster he encountered in the dream ruins.
The monster had only one head, but three faces: one old, one middle-aged, and one young.
Lumian suspected that this was also a gift from the owner of the black thorn symbol, and it was of a higher level, but the recipient could not bear it, or encountered some accident and turned into a three-faced monster.
Liya nodded gently and said, "Probably, but this change in state did not affect my spirit. I didn't feel close to losing control at all."
"I don't feel like I'm burning either," Valentine added.
Ryan thought for a moment and said, “Similarly, I haven’t lost my memory.
“Maybe there’s just a little bit of power left here that can’t affect the spirit, mind, and memory, but if this state lasts for a long time, I’m not sure if there will be any serious sequelae.
"I'm fine. At worst, I can just take the potion again and advance again. As for you, your future should have been full of possibilities, but now, your future may have been doomed. One of you is out of control, and the other is transformed into holy light. This is, um, what I understand as 'fate'."
"It's really scary." Leah sighed with a smile, "Fortunately, we can restart the cycle, and we can still try to find the 'present' here."
Seeing that there were no terrifying monsters attacking from all around, Lumian suggested, "Why don't we go out first and see if we can recover naturally
"Besides, you might even encounter the power that represents the present along the way."
Ryan did not object: "You can try."
He is now an ordinary person, and it would be dangerous to go forward.
"I'm afraid that another change in status will directly lead to loss of control." Leah said cautiously.
It would definitely be good to encounter the "present", but it would be troublesome to encounter the "past", and who knows what would happen if you add the "future" again.
Lumian took the initiative and said, "Let me explore the way. I still have one chance to change my status."
He mainly wanted to try whether he was lucky to encounter "now" or the black thorn symbol on his chest protected him.
"Be careful." Ryan did not stop her, but just gave a warning, and Leah nodded.
Valentine's eyes towards Lumian also became less cold.
He couldn't help but think: This young man has a great spirit of sacrifice, and is also a devout believer of our Lord. Once the cycle is resolved, I will see if there is any way to remove the hidden pollution in him and let him join our team.
Seeing Lumian about to take a step, Valentine regained his composure and suggested, "Shall I try to dispel this state first?"
No one objected, including Lumian, because he was in the "present" and did not need to expel the "negative state" or undergo purification.
The next second, he realized that he had miscalculated.
Instead of creating holy water directly to purify Leah and Laile, Valentine first used the "Solar Halo".
A dark golden light flashed, and invisible power spread out in all directions.