Lightning flies over the Hidden Forest.
In her eyes, the world seems to have become smaller. As far as the eye can see, the details are hidden, leaving only pieces of color. The brown is the earth, the gray is the mountains, the green is the forest, and the blue is the river.
And green occupies most of the field of view.
Different from the bright and bright grass green in the fields of Border Town, the green here is mixed with gray and black, and it is deep and thick. Whether you go west or north, you can't see the end of this dark green. If you look at it for a long time, there will be a feeling of falling, and the lightning has to look up at the sky every once in a while to dispel the growing sense of restraint.
Behind him, the gray clouds pressed down very low, obscuring the peaks of the Desperate Mountains, and shrouding Border Town under the rain and fog.
She is now looking for the ruins of 450 years ago in the Hidden Forest, which is undoubtedly a great expedition. Half a month ago, when she heard Roland's assignment to her, Lightning immediately agreed with her chest. Unlike Hakara, the snake magister who held on to the ancient book, His Royal Highness Roland repeatedly explained that this drawing can only be used for reference, and urged that you must pay attention to safety, and it doesn't matter if you can't find it. This made the little girl very happy.
She knew that His Highness was right, even a castle, after more than 400 years, would be swallowed up by plants growing everywhere and gradually turned into a pile of dust. But she still wanted to find this place—determining the location of the six-pointed star was equivalent to determining the location of the holy city of Taquila. Lightning, who had heard the ins and outs of things, naturally understood what Taquila meant.
There, she will likely help His Royal Highness discover the real reason why the Church concealed the war with the devil.
This is much more exciting than when my father took him to explore the route!
According to the method of making nautical charts, Lightning drew equidistant grids on a square piece of parchment, and then simply calculated the content of the grid based on the distance it flew in a period of time. When the grid is filled, almost this area has been searched.
Now she is half filled.
The approaching speed of the rain cloud behind her was faster than lightning imagined. The little girl could even faintly hear the thunder rolling in the clouds. She lowered her height and swept towards the forest below.
At this moment, a grayish-white shadow flashed across the corner of his eyes.
She was stunned, pulled her body to a stop, suspended in the air, and glanced back at the area she just passed by.
Nothing was found.
Is it an illusion? Lightning thought about it and decided to fly this area again.
This time, she pressed the height even lower, and the forest was no longer a single piece of green, with mottled tree trunks, forked branches, leaves of various shapes... The details were separated from the color blocks and returned to Lightning Eyes again.
After dozens of breaths, she suddenly saw a small half-section of a white stone pagoda under the layers of branches. The top of the stone tower was completely cut off, causing the tower body to be covered by trees and difficult to see in the sky. If it wasn't for sheltering from the Nimbus, she would probably have missed it.
Lightning's heart beat violently, is this the location of the ruins indicated on the map
She circled around the stone tower and found nothing unusual, so she decided to take a closer look.
After landing, the little girl discovered that it was not appropriate to say that it was a white stone tower.
Its surface is covered with vines and moss, turning a grey-green on closer inspection. The tower is slightly inclined, as if it had been hit by a huge force. There are scattered stones around it. The material and color are similar to those of the stone tower. They should come from the broken top of the tower. Small estimates have been buried in weeds and dirt. The entire stone tower is quite huge, and the area of the bottom of the tower is comparable to that of His Royal Highness Roland's castle. Man-made objects like this usually have basements.
It stands to reason that at this moment she should record the location of the ruins and return to Border Town.
The various adventure stories in her brain are also reminding her that it is not a good choice to break into a ruin that has been sleeping for hundreds of years alone. The gas enclosed in the ground can kill her.
But Lightning found that she couldn't move at all, and curiosity was constantly nagging in her ear: go in and take a look, just take a look. She raised her head and looked at the sky, the sky that was still bright had turned gloomy and gloomy at the moment, obviously, a heavy rain was coming.
Well, she told herself, it would be uncomfortable to fly when it rained, so go to the tower to hide from the rain and take a look. If you find a basement, never go in alone.
After thinking about it, Lightning obeyed the curiosity that could no longer be suppressed, walked to the entrance covered with vines, pulled out the knife from his waist, cleaned out a small hole for himself to pass through, and climbed in. The door panels made of wood had long since been corroded, and she entered the tower smoothly.
Since the top is removed, the inside can be seen clearly without the need for torches. Lightning circled the bottom of the tower without finding anything. Obviously exposed objects and traces have been erased by time, and except for the dilapidated partition wall, everything on the ground remains. She also found a step-up hole in the wall, which was supposed to be used for the stairs, and the stairs themselves had disappeared.
The passage to the basement is very conspicuous, just southwest of the first floor, facing the entrance to the stone tower. Lightning suspects that by heading towards the barren land in this direction, he can find the holy city of Taquila recorded in ancient books.
Just then, fine rain fell from the sky and dripped on Lightning's nose. She slowly walked into the passage extending underground, turned a corner, and a wooden door appeared in front of her. Although not completely corroded, it looks dilapidated and will fall apart with just a little touch.
Soon, the light rain outside turned into a heavy downpour, and the crackling sound of the rain hitting the ground gradually became one piece, from chaos to inseparable. Although there is no rain in this place, the accumulated water quickly flows down the stone steps. In order to avoid getting his shoes wet, Lightning took his feet off the ground and slowly floated up.
Suddenly, she vaguely heard a cry, mixed with the sound of rain, almost indistinguishable.
The sound suddenly made her hair stand on end, and the little girl looked around in panic. There was nothing but a few scattered withered vines in the narrow aisle. Taking advantage of the weak light from outside, she opened her pocket, took out a portable torch and flint from inside, and wanted to light a fire to examine it carefully.
At this time, the shouting sounded again, this time it seemed to come from the wooden door behind her. Lightning couldn't help shaking all over, and turned around quickly. The torch fell to the ground by accident, splashing a cloud of water.
This time the voice seemed to be much clearer, and she vaguely recognized that it was a woman's voice.
Someone in the basement? This thought made a layer of cold sweat break out from her back, how is this possible! The stone pagoda should be a relic left more than 400 years ago, and it is located in the depths of the hidden forest. Who else can get here except yourself
"help me… "
When the third sound sounded, it was already very clear, the sound really came from behind the wooden door, and it sounded like a cry for help. Lightning swallowed, carefully placed his hand on the door and pushed it gently. The wet and slippery wooden door fell backwards, hitting the ground with a muffled thud.
A tall figure suddenly appeared in front of her!
Lightning felt the blood in the whole body coagulate, and the figure of the figure was exactly the devil in Soraya's painting! In the dim light, the devil seemed to be watching her as well, the huge body leaned forward slightly, and the large hand with only three fingers held an axe, and the axe reflected dark red bloodstains. In an instant, the bloody images of these brutalists killing the sisters of the Mutual Aid Society all flooded into my mind.
"Ah!" She screamed in shock, threw the flint in her hand at the opponent, turned around and rushed out of the passage at the fastest speed, flew directly into the rain, and fled in the direction of Border Town.
Lightning didn't notice that the piece of flint hit the devil's chest, making a crisp crashing sound. A circle of tiny cracks appeared at the smashed position, and then spread quickly until it spread all over the body. The devil's body collapsed and shattered in these more and more cracks, turning into waves of white dust, which disappeared with the wind.
...