"I thought you would choose to follow yourself." An Wang looked at the remaining members of the Tumbleweed—their leader was carrying his back, unloading simple camping equipment from the Fuller goat. The night became more and more intense, and she couldn't see his expression at all, and even the outline of his body was a little blurred.
"I'm not the most suitable choice. Mr. Cross knows the Church of the Abyss well, and he can't fight alone." Oliver broke off a twig, simply stripped the bark, and looked at the surrounding terrain. "Ann, can you help me draw three hidden circles on the west side? The simplest one will do."
"Okay." An nodded quickly, "Great, you didn't become a dizzy fool. Speaking of which...you didn't tell Nemo in advance, you weren't afraid he would care?"
"I didn't plan to hide it from him, but it didn't work at first." Oliver shook his head. He dipped a branch with the liquid material in the glass bottle, and carefully drew a fixed circle on the tree. "I don't want to put too much pressure on him, he's nervous enough - when he manages to get in, Mr. Cross will find a chance to pick him up."
"Really considerate." An snorted from his nose, and there was a little more smile in his voice.
"After all, Duran Vergil's details are unknown." Oliver tilted his hand, and the magic circle on the bark burst into a cloud of green smoke. He adjusted his mood and dipped the branch in the glass bottle again. "But at the branch, Mr. Cross said he was a 'real exorcist'... Mr. Cross isn't the type to lie easily, and you don't seem too surprised?"
"Ah, that thing." Unlike Oliver, who was tied up, Ann simply drew three hidden magic circles in the corner. "Actually I'm not sure... But since Cross said that, it should be right."
Oliver finally finished drawing the camouflage circle he had just learned from the knight commander, and a thin layer of sweat dripped from his forehead. He raised his sleeves and wiped it. The uneven surface required a very high degree of completion for the circle. Got sore arms. "How to say?"
"Those things on him." Ann took out a bag of preserved fruit from the Fuller goat and chewed it slowly. "Very complete exorcism materials, that is not the depth that can be learned by casual disguise."
"I thought it was a painting tool." Oliver started to build the first simple tent. "But he is a demon warlock? Nemo shouldn't be mistaken."
"Who knows?" Ann shrugged and patted the white icing on her hands. "To be honest, I'm also a little concerned... If I'm not mistaken, he's not a simple 'amateur exorcist', but the most ruthless-"
Her voice stopped for a moment - Oliver's response was not slow this time. All the magic circles just drawn came in handy, concealment and camouflage were activated at the same time, and the silence and darkness completely eliminated their breath.
The two of them attached two trees to each other, staring at the team that suddenly appeared not far away.
The team was small, but it felt very bad. It was so dark that they couldn't see what those people were riding, but they didn't look like horses. A flag was fluttering at the front of the procession, and the entire procession was dressed in black cloth armor, with only the meager light provided by the floating lanterns on either side of the procession.
Oliver realized something was wrong—the team wasn't far from them, but they didn't make a sound. Not even the sound of the mount hitting the ground.
Like a team of shadows moving forward.
Oliver held his breath subconsciously, even if he was protected by a hidden magic circle, he still did not dare to be careless. A faint smell of cold and decay floated from not far away, like a moldy and rotten coffin. That blurry-faced cavalry team just stepped into the dead forest, and its movements did not stop for a moment. They moved forward lightly, as if gliding through lifeless ground, and finally their figures melted perfectly into the night.
"Silent Knight." Ann said first, keeping the volume down to a minimum. "I'm afraid things won't go well this time... Hope Cross and Dylan go far enough."
Adrian has indeed gone far enough. He drew his magic from the blood of sacrifice on the back of his neck to maintain a floating circle that could support two people—they were orbiting them like planets, making sure they wouldn't instantly turn into rotten mummies.
And the master of that magic power was pulling the long blond hair that was hanging down behind his ear, and the other hand was tightly clasping the hand of Adrian Cross.
"...Why?" The knight commander finally spoke up. The hand that held it was dry and warm, and the skin was smooth, not as calloused and scarred as his own—but it had an unpleasant stickiness and the unpleasantness of a slug crawling across it. "I remember spiritual sacrifice without this step."
"I'm not after you? Look, how romantic." Jesse's blue eyes sparkled. "And you know, it's a lot of magic to maintain this kind of thing—I'm not quite standing right now."
"If the two of us were twenty years younger, this pursuit might be romantic."
"I'm only twenty-seven!"
"Yes, that's what I meant."
"You're going too far." Jesse tutted, exerting some strength in his hands. "It is said that humility and courtesy are the virtues of a knight of judgment. What about your virtue?"
"Together with my removal order."
"..." Jesse sighed faintly, looking up at the sky still covered with thin clouds. The next second he threw a dagger with a warm white light that broke through the darkness and produced a hoarse scream in a corner a few steps away. Adrian stopped knowingly, and the two immediately formed a back-to-back formation.
"Interesting," Jesse said briskly. "It came so quickly."
"It's all small characters." Adrian opened his right hand, and his five fingers danced for a few seconds - a magic circle was forming on his palm, and it was getting bigger and bigger. When the magic circle stabilized and began to rotate slowly, he slammed it directly to the ground. The array did not sink into the soil, and then countless needles of light emerged from the soil. This time, a dozen screams came from the darkness nearby, followed by the rustling sound that quickly disappeared.
"It came fast, and it was very fast to escape." Jesse put away the dagger. "Maybe it's my illusion... They seem to be a little flustered?"
"Perhaps." Adrian didn't seem very interested in this question, and he quickly resumed his forward stance. And Jesse didn't move, he couldn't go very far—after taking two steps, the knight commander turned his head in dissatisfaction. Even in the dark of night, the wrinkles between his brows could still be clearly seen.
However, the "cause of panic" of the monsters also surfaced at this time. The suffocating rotten smell instantly drowned the two of them, something pale and arched out of the soil, followed by thick white bones still stained with carrion—
What burrowed out of the soil looked like the skeleton of some kind of carnivorous fish. It's just that its height is more than ten meters, and there is a piece of nearly black flesh pulsing, and the thick stench brought by the pulsation makes the air instantly thick several times - different from normal fish bones, as the skeleton stretches out. There are several "feet" with only bones left. Half of those insect-like bones were still buried in the soil, curling up aimlessly, like a poisonous spider twitching wildly before dying.
"I'm curious." Jesse threw down three daggers, they hit the same spot one after another, and the white light directly shattered the knuckle of one foot. "Why don't you consult with Mr. Wright?"
"What to discuss?" Adrian finally took off the bow on his back and fired several dazzling arrows again.
"You have such an outstanding talent, it's a pity to waste it - there are not many people who can temporarily transform the magic circle." Jesse turned his head, the attack in his hand did not stop at all, and the blue eyes showed a dim light in the moonlight. "Although the nature of surface magic and abyss magic are completely different, they are also close. According to your talent, you will soon be able to master the use of abyss magic. Then you don't need to..." He deliberately paused for a few seconds, his tone became very ambiguous. "... subject to me."
"If I heard correctly." Adrian's voice became colder, and the light arrows penetrated the monster's bones one by one, accurately piercing the pulsating flesh. "You are advising me to become a demon sorcerer?"
The monster began to struggle more fiercely, and rows of dead trees were swept away by the bones.
"Yeah, Mr. Wright doesn't look like he doesn't need that much power anyway, and he doesn't care about the loss." Jesse deftly dodged the flying debris, as if chained to Adrian by an invisible chain , did not exceed the protection range of the magic circle at all. "He can voluntarily give you a little flesh and blood, and then don't make a contract. In your case, it will not be much twisted, at most a tail or something - maybe it is unexpectedly suitable."
"Are you sleepy, Mr. Dylan?"
"how?"
"Meng said it loudly." The former knight commander sounded very unhappy, he drew his bow again, this time the light arrow looked more like a huge light spear. "It's impossible for me to accept such an offer."
"Because 'demons are evil'?"
"No, because I'm not going to renege on my beliefs. Please don't make fun of this." Adrian's attitude was very determined, he drew the bow more fully, and then let go.
The spear pierced straight through the flesh. The monster's whole body made a strange clicking sound, it had a long mouth, and the surface of the pitch-black light ball flashed with a red arc like lightning, and it was about to bombard.
Jesse stopped attacking.
"But your faith has betrayed you. You see, if I take my 'sacrifice' now..." The blond young man about the same height as Adrian approached, making a quick move, clasping his fingers directly on the exposed back of the knight commander's neck . As the giver, he could destroy that bloodstain with just a touch of his finger. "You'll turn into a dead bone in no time. How unreasonable."
"There is no 'turning away'." Adrian shook his head, he stretched his right arm, and a pure white light shield covered the two of them.
The ball of light blasted down. The land around the two instantly turned into dark and sticky debris, splashing everywhere. The place where the two of them stood was intact, and at first glance it looked like a strange and small stage. The monster let out an angry neigh, and it dragged its injured bony foot into the dirt again.
It was undoubtedly aware of the disparity in power, and wisely chose to retreat - the bulge in the soil was getting further and further away.
And Jesse raised his eyebrows and brought his face closer, the tip of his nose almost hitting the tip of the other's nose - the former judge knight commander did not avoid it, those dark brown eyes were almost black against the light shield, but this did not weaken the Awl-like gaze.
"There is no 'turning away'," Adrian repeated. He even gave a faint, mocking smile. "God has no obligation to 'respond,' and of course there is no such thing as 'betrayal'."
"Hey? Don't you crazy believers like the 'God loves the world' thing the most?"
"I can't represent others without authorization, but I personally don't agree." Adrian's voice was low.
"... The Radist can make you a Judge Knight Commander, it's really forgiving."
"Because I do love Chenni deeply." Adrian seemed to ignore the beautiful face that got closer and closer.
"Sorry, as an atheist, I can't understand your thoughts at all." Jesse was now very close to him, lips quivering, warm breath on his cheeks.
Adrian finally took a half step back and broke free from the opponent's fingers. He sighed and stretched out his hands - white threads of light intertwined above his palms, emitting a soft, warm glow.
"Is it beautiful?" he asked quietly.
"… okay?" Jesse's eyebrows rose higher.
"It's just my personal opinion that 'magic' is a miracle of some kind, and it must have its source," he said softly, "I love this light, but I'm only a small part of it. Moment. To be rightly convinced that it loves me, too, I think that's... a bit arrogant."
"It's enough as long as it exists."
"Okay, I get it," Jesse whispered. "You're not a fanatic, you're just a masochist."
"I'm still saying that, what you think." Adrian took a step forward again, walking in the air above the gap bombarded by the monsters. "There is too much noise, we have to get out of here quickly."
This time, Jesse followed up honestly, and those blue eyes swept across the magic circle flying around the two of them, and finally locked on Adrian's back. It's a pity that all the prepared remarks were blocked by the other party's few words. Jesse sighed disapprovingly.
"But about the arrogant part." The blond young man's smile disappeared, and he murmured in a volume that he could only hear. "I agree with your point of view."
a few kilometers away.
"If I remember correctly," Nemo tried not to sound too confused, "you said 'there are other barriers behind'?"
They have been traveling for a long time, and it is estimated that it is already late at night. However, apart from the bad scenery along the way, this journey is very smooth in other aspects. Nemo also stepped on four or five inactive multi-eyed slime molds along the entire road, and received four or five extremely aggrieved "chucks". Other than that, the only living things he had ever seen were Virgil and the thorny corpse bird on his shoulder.
"Strange, it stands to reason that there should be a large guardian demon nearby." Fergil scratched his head, "This is not normal."
Nemo suddenly felt a lot of slippery staff in his hand, and his palms must be sweating rapidly.
"Be careful anyway." Duran Fergil said in a low voice, "We'll be there soon... shh."
His left hand suddenly made a quiet gesture. He picked up the paintbrush in his right hand and quickly threw a string of rough traces in the air. The air seemed to be colored by the pen, and then the handwriting turned into a faint shadow, isolating them in the darkness.
Nemo put down his hand silently, and secretly rejoiced for a few seconds - he was so nervous that he almost forgot to cast the staff directly.
They were now close enough to the Church of Silence to see what it generally looked like. For a large church, its shape is very irregular, and the slightly twisted building reveals a bleak and eerie beauty. A long dark carriage was heading towards the church, and the driver's face was wrapped in a wide white cloth, but he - or she - clearly did not intend to waste energy dealing with the cage behind the carriage. Five or six figures who were not very sturdy were crowding together, and the sound of the chains rubbing against each other was particularly clear in the silent night.
It was a few young people who looked young, but Nemo could see clearly. The oldest in the cage looked like he was at most the same age.
"What's that?" Nemo swallowed quietly, trying to ease his nervousness.
"It's a sacrifice for the Demon King." Vergil's face was extremely ugly, "Damn, the time is obviously wrong... Now we are in trouble."
,Wonderful!
(m.. = )