While Iluna was facing Leggins Prisha in the ruins of Stonehenge, Shad chose the right path at the fork in the road, passed through the library maze, and entered the darkness, snow and fog alone.
He walked along the upward slope against the wind. In the dark withered woods, countless black shadows were lingering. At this time, the Pantanal Voodoo Society and its allies had dispersed all their forces to all directions. No one appeared under the tower to stop Shade, but the monsters on the island, which were becoming more and more crazy due to the power of the evil creatures, did not retreat.
They were spying on Shade in the darkness. When Shade was halfway up the uphill road, zombies with green mushrooms growing on their backs and a dried corpse with vines piercing its head suddenly appeared from the front and back.
"Silver Moon!"
The moonlight from fingertips illuminated the path in the dead woods in the wind and snow. The monsters that surrounded Shade were no longer intimidated by Iluna's skeleton horse. Even though they were scared away by the moonlight, they still refused to leave.
Her left hand reached for her waist and took out the "ebony pistol" with only one demon bullet left. She closed her eyes and stood still. She soon found the most powerful individual among the pairs of brown eyes in the dead woods:
To the left, yes, that's it.
There was no sound when the trigger was pulled. The doctor's pistol was finally shattered by the devil's power, and the devil's bullet flew out. At the moment of darkness, it pierced the leader of the mutated zombies.
The monsters retreated quickly, and Shade also ran quickly in the snow towards the old lighthouse at the end of the road.
There was a wooden door under the lighthouse, and it was not locked. But as soon as Shade pushed open the door, letting the island's wind and snow penetrate into the tower, he saw a man carrying a black suitcase, looking at him in the dark:
"How can a mortal maintain eternal beauty?"
The question was asked directly, and Shade subconsciously took a step back, but when he heard the sounds of the zombies coming from behind him, he gritted his teeth and entered the lighthouse and closed the door:
"Secret keeper?"
He didn't know what the human-shaped relic in front of him was, but as he had recently become familiar with various types of human-shaped relics that were kept secret, he was still able to tell that it was the Secret Keeper.
Suddenly startled:
"Wait, before I left home, Luvia said there was something useful to me at the bottom of this tower. Could it be that she was referring to..."
Thinking of this, he frowned again. He vaguely felt a familiar and miraculous power in the basement of the lighthouse under his feet. It was a faint fluctuation of miracle elements that could only be detected by those who had felt similar power and used it many times:
"There is a hidden space in the basement of this lighthouse that contains the statue of the ancient god?! Is this what Luvia is talking about?"
Although he was shocked, it was not the time to go home. So facing the keeper with the black suitcase, Shade took out the "Secret of Immortality" borrowed from Miss Carina and showed it to her:
"Eternal beauty? This book contains relevant information."
The keeper shook his head slightly:
"This book does contain the secret of 'eternal beauty', but you need to show it. The book in your hand is just a shell."
This shows that what Shade thought was right. This book is definitely not as simple as imagined, but he still doesn't know what the witches of the Fifth Age hid in this book:
"The gods can maintain eternal beauty."
So Shade answered again, but the keeper still shook his head:
"Tell me a way that a mortal can accomplish this."
Xia De shook his head to indicate that he didn't know the answer and gave up the test. Fortunately, he didn't need more Wise Pyroxene.
He still remembered what he had to do, so he found the staircase and walked up the old metal steps in the tower. But the Secret Keeper followed him. Shad looked back at him, said nothing, and continued to walk up.
The light of the "Original Fire" can only be seen by those who possess the power of the First Fire, such as Sister Shad and Sister Develyn. In fact, the top of the lighthouse only has a huge extinguished kerosene lamp (note) and a lens group used to move the direction of light and amplify the light. Rusty and broken iron fences surround the top of the lighthouse. Although there is still the spire of the lighthouse above, the wind still sends heavy snow to the top floor.
This is almost the highest point of the entire island in the middle of the lake. Looking around from the top of the lighthouse, thick fog is diffused everywhere on the island, and under the fog are the figures of the church's ring warlocks fighting.
At this time, at least four thirteenth ring warlocks had come to the island, but all of them were in other directions of the island, fighting those strange things. Shade had seen the power of the thirteenth ring warlocks more than once, but the thirteenth ring was still just a human being. Even if he could suppress those ancient evil things, he could not easily defeat them.
In particular, this is not the church's home ground.
The old lighthouse used a kerosene lamp as its light source, and the lighthouse owner manually operated the clockwork device to rotate the lens system that concentrated the light. The Pantanal Voodoo Society probably often used this place, so although the lighthouse was off at this time, the kerosene lamp and metal device could still be used.
Shad used flame to light the huge kerosene lamp, and the dazzling light immediately illuminated the top floor of the lighthouse. The light should not travel far in the fog tonight, but at least Iluna in Stonehenge could probably see it.
The "Original Fire" was sealed at the top of the tower, but he didn't know how to summon the flame, and he couldn't take it away now that the evil was about to be unsealed. Therefore, according to Sister Defulin's teaching, Shade stretched out a hand towards the central light source and closed his eyes.
Feeling the warmth of the First Fire in my heart, a cluster of very familiar bright flames gradually appeared in the dark vision after I closed my eyes. The flame core was a standard black circle, dragging a slender orange-red flame tail upwards.
Following Shade's induction, the flame absorbed Shade's own strength and tried to maintain itself. Shade opened his eyes and looked towards the dazzling light source. He could vaguely see the shadow of the original fire in the deepest part of the fire.
But he still maintained the posture of stretching his hand towards the light source. Only in this way could he stabilize the power of the First Fire and maintain the seal which was now extremely fragile.
In this state, he couldn't even use long-range throwing magic such as the "Thunder Gun" to help Iluna, not only because he had to concentrate on stabilizing the fire source, but also because the distance was too far.
Looking down from above at the open space between the dead forest and the lighthouse hillside, the flames of the Stonehenge were connected into one, like a standard fire circle. Lakins Prisha floating in the snow and Iluna on the ground were as tiny as ants.
“This time, I really became a spectator.”
Xia De sighed quietly in his heart:
"I wonder where Sister Defulin is now."
He continued to think in his heart, and counted down the ceremony for the chosen one for Lakins Prisha. Suddenly, he saw a flash of light from the stone circle. With a muffled sound of "dong", the arrow of knowledge of Aikenola flew over and nailed on the pillar beside him. The arrow head was completely inside the pillar, and the tail of the arrow was still buzzing:
"Iluna's shooting is really accurate. I remember that she even learned a spell to assist in aiming for the Sunlight Gun... As expected, this arrow alone is still not enough to defeat him."
He took off the arrow nailed to the pillar with his left hand and put it carefully into the quiver. Then he saw the secret keeper standing beside him. His presence was very low and he didn't say a word.
"I'm sorry, why are you following me?"
Shade asked, and the man with the black suitcase answered in an awkward ancient language:
"I am the tower keeper. In human cognition, I will test those who enter the ancient tower and then give them knowledge. However, I am also willing to help those noble people who voluntarily sacrifice themselves and fall from the tower. You have fallen from the tower, so I can give you some of the knowledge you want, even if you cannot answer my questions."
"I once fell from a tower? And died?"
Shad pointed at himself hesitantly, and then inexplicably thought of the autumn when Joey Barton, the chosen one of death, used the divination of death for him and believed that he had died under the tower in the spring of 1853, ten months ago.
At the time I thought it was a mistake in divination, but I didn’t expect to hear a similar statement again:
"What tower did I fall from?"
He was very puzzled by this. The past of this body investigated by the academy had no such experience. Grace and Helen, who had been waiting for Shade since the Fifth Era, had also investigated the past of this body and also did not mention any "tower".
"I can only give you knowledge, I can't trace your history."
The tower keeper continued speaking in the language of the Fifth Age, which was not difficult at all for Shade, who was fluent in ancient languages:
"You need to give me knowledge... Sorry, let me think about it..."
He kept his right hand pointed at the light source and tried to ask:
"Why do Cherubim reside in the material world?"
Shade had not forgotten the "Fourth Ring of the Trial of the Lady of the Lake", which represented a drop of divinity. But he did not hold out much hope, after all, even the gods of the Fifth Age refused to answer this question.
The tower keeper nodded slightly:
"I can give you the answer."
"What?"
Xia De looked up suddenly, almost unable to believe his ears. This was probably the most shocking thing to him tonight, and he had to confirm it again:
"Do you know why the Cherubim stay in the material world?"
"All secret-keeping human relics know it, because it is our past."
The man carrying the black suitcase looked at Xia De calmly:
"If you ask, we will tell you that it is not a problem."
But the problem is that for the sake of Pyroxene, Shade has never asked this question to any Secret Keeper in recent times. If the Secret Keeper in front of him had not thought that he had fallen from the tower and was willing to answer a question directly, Shade would not have chosen to ask the question instead of Pyroxene after completing the Secret Keeper's Trial.
This means that the answer has always been in front of him, but he has no way of touching it.
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