“That’s terrible.”
Miss Carina, who was standing in front of Shade, looked down at her boots stepping into the muddy water on the snow, and then asked Miss Sylvia:
"What is the current position?"
The seven people gathered together. Shade, who was carrying a suitcase and a sword, saw Miss Sylvia floating a map of the Pantanal region in the air and pointing her finger to the southeast of the map:
"We are three miles off target, but still on track. Thaumaturgic spatial perception tells me that we are now on the outskirts of the Gulus ruins."
Miss Aurora tilted her head and glanced:
"6.5 miles to Central Lake? We need to move faster."
If it were in the plains, the seven people present could walk the 6.5-mile road in no more than two hours. But the terrain in the Everglades was extremely complex, and danger was everywhere. The Voodoo Society must have arranged obstacles around them, so 6.5 miles was indeed a long distance.
“We can go this route.”
Miss Sylvia, wrapped in a brown scarf, pointed to the light grey line on the map. The wind in the swamp area was cold but not strong, but the snowflakes in the sky were particularly amazing:
"Langma Ancient Road. It was the supply route used by the Kasenrick army while they were stationed on the island in the middle of the lake. Although this route is a little longer, at least it doesn't require passing through dangerous areas."
The Pantanal region is one of the few places in the Old World that still has a "dangerous area" recognized by the church. The animals living here are not necessarily ordinary animals. According to legend, there are even hybrid dragons living deep in the swamp.
"Can I fly over there?"
Xia De asked, and Miss Carina shook her head:
"It's probably due to the seal. Long-distance space travel is prohibited in the area ahead. Although flying is not prohibited, it is very likely to attract dangerous things. We still have enough time, so there is no need to take risks."
"Then let's go."
Miss Aurora waved her hand, took out some bone powder and poured it into the snow. As the sorceress cast the spell, the flowing bone powder multiplied and became plastic until it formed four undead skeleton horses.
The horse's hooves trampled the snow, and the mud beneath the snow, which had not yet frozen, made strange sounds of "Puffing". Blue flames were lit in the eye sockets of the skeleton horse's head. At the same time, rose vines wrapped around the black skeleton, growing from the eye sockets to the four hooves, and cleverly avoiding the position of the saddle, making these summoned undead appear even more magical.
"Xiwei, when did you improve your ability to summon the undead?"
Miss Carina looked at the rose vines curiously, but the lady with long wavy hair who had her hair tied up today frowned slightly:
"I did not improve the magic. This area is affecting my spellcasting."
"There are also anomalies in space, otherwise we wouldn't have deviated by 3 miles."
Miss Sylvia added, and Miss Carina nodded slightly, understanding that this was the characteristic of the depths of the Great Swamp. This land had long been polluted by evil things, and one must be extremely careful when casting spells here.
After confirming that the undead skeleton horses had only changed in appearance, they put on the horse harnesses that had been prepared in advance.
Among the seven people, Miss Sylvia, who was needed to lead the way in the front, rode a horse alone, and the other witches rode together in pairs. In the end, Shade sat behind Miss Carina.
This is not because Miss Aurora is "generous", but because she is the highest-level witch in the team and has to face more dangers, so she doesn't want Shade to follow her.
The time is now 1:03 PM on Wednesday, 24th day of the month of Slumber, 1853 of the Universal Calendar. The story of the fourth chosen one is about to come to an end.
The blizzard in the Great Swamp was much stronger than that in Huntington, which was located outside the swamp. After Miss Sylvia and her group found the ancient road, even though the skeleton horses were more suitable for moving in complex terrain than real horses, the environment in the swamp still greatly hindered their progress.
The snowstorm even forced Miss Avril, one of the three Nine Rings sorceresses, to cast a spell to summon a temporary shield for everyone to block the snowstorm. Even though they had to endure the low temperature, Miss Sylvia, who was extremely sensitive to space, almost lost her way in the swamp of the snowstorm.
"This is definitely not right. Previous reports did not mention the characteristics of lost roads in the Great Swamp. It seems that we have entered the area of influence of the Voodoo Society."
At the end of the ancient road that was about to disappear in the swamp, there was actually an ice-covered wetland. Miss Sylvia held the reins tightly and stopped at the front. After discussing with Miss Aurora, she borrowed the night watchman from Shade, smeared her blood on it, and swung it forward.
The wetland was split open like a canvas by a silver sword and blown away by the strong wind, revealing a path to move forward.
"It's not magic, nor is it a relic. It's some more terrifying power."
The witch spoke softly, and then the four skeleton horses continued to move forward, leaving only a series of hoof prints under the snow that were quickly covered up.
At 1:47 pm, the group continued along the ancient road and felt the ground shaking at the same time. The earthquake lasted for half a minute and then ended, but then there was an explosion from far away.
Miss Sylvia calculated the location and thought that the church team had fought with someone unknown, and the intensity of the battle was not low. At least one thirteenth ring warlock was fighting with all his strength, so the enemy was probably not a human at all.
At 2:35 pm, the group was attacked by scarlet vines hidden under the snow. The vines were so dense and dense that the sight of them all growing together was truly terrifying.
But the battle lasted less than half a minute before it ended. The six ladies called for fireballs together. The fireballs bombarded the ground like a steam cannon. After the battle, after Miss Carina's inspection, these vines were classified as "corpse vines" classified as Class II dangerous plants. They are extremely rare in the Old World and are generally distributed on small islands overseas. Even in the Pantanal region, there shouldn't be such things. They obviously did not grow naturally near the ancient road to form a settlement, but were specially set here like a hunter's trap.
"The Truth Society has studied this sort of thing."
Miss Aurora added solemnly that there will be more and more similar things in the future.
At 3:40 pm, the group continued to move forward and encountered an abandoned village in front of them that was not marked on the map. After investigating together, Miss Carina and Miss Aurora believed that this village was most likely the Sage-level relic Udyr Ghost Village. After discussion, everyone could only temporarily deviate from the direction of advance, wasting more time and completely bypassing the location-type relic that appeared here for unknown reasons.
But even though they were off-track, they still entered the abandoned village without noticing. The terrifying evil spirits gradually surrounded them in the snowstorm, and the inevitable battle began after Shade summoned the first huge snowball to hit the group of undead.
The three great witches and three high-level sorceresses attacked without mercy any foreign objects that dared to stop them, but the ghost village in the snow was not suppressed by humans in a head-on confrontation.
Fortunately, the purpose of the group was not to defeat the relic, but to escape from here. In the end, Shade led the way by relying on his ability to not be actively attacked by the undead, and Miss Aurora, whose rotating life ring swept through the undead and the army of zombies like a light cannon, ensured the safety of everyone in the end.
After confirming that the seven people could not stay, the deserted village, which seemed to have regained consciousness, finally opened the way for them to leave. But when the group of people on horseback left, Xia De looked back at the village, but he clearly saw the evil spirits still standing in the snow looking at them.
At six o'clock in the evening, there was no sunlight in the Great Swamp. Shade and the six ladies gathered around the crackling bonfire, and the skeleton horses were tied to a tree nearby, waiting to be used next.
The witch's follower, Miss Avril, was leading her companions, the brown-haired Miss Scarlett, to set up a perimeter defense ritual. They would rest here for half an hour and then go straight to their destination. The last sorceress, Miss Catherine, was boiling hot soup and adding some magic potions to expel the negative state for everyone. Her job was similar to that of Mrs. Marquez in the Silver Mountains.
Miss Aurora found an open space nearby that was large enough for use. She entered the parliament amid the singing and reported the situation to the members who were waiting for news. Miss Sylvia observed the starry sky from a high tree to make sure that their position was correct.
"Your temperature is really high."
A translucent shield covered the top of their heads, blocking out the wind and snow. The red-haired Duchess was wearing a blanket enchanted with constant temperature. She leaned against Shade without any scruples and whispered that the two of them were now sitting by the campfire waiting for dinner. Even though the environment was so harsh, the witches were still unwilling to just eat bread.
The long-haired Duchess also tied her hair up today for convenience. Shade could smell the scent of her red hair:
"Probably because of the First Fire and the flames of the sun."
The bonfire in front of him was the one that Shade had lit. Although the flame was not as good as the bonfires used by the witches that he had seen at any time in the Fifth Era, it was at least enough to resist the ordinary cold.
Miss Carina leaned her head on his shoulder. Although the conditions were a little tough, she was at least satisfied with the current situation.
“What will happen next?”
"We've encountered relics, traps, a mad drake..."
That is, it was an unintelligent dragon creature whose dragon blood purity was less than 5%. Because its meat was poisonous, the group threw it away.