"It's not a fountain, it's black mud, that black mud!"
Even the campfire on the ground was shaking due to the strong earthquake, and the horses tied to the trees were frantically trying to break free from the ropes and escape.
In the flickering firelight, Shade finally realized that it was black mud. The surging black mud spurted into the sky from the top of the low hill like a fountain, and then the sticky black mud flowed down from the top of the hill.
"roar!"
Roars appeared under the cloudy starry sky. From the land where the black mud flowed, dark stone arms stretched out from the soil under the hills one by one, followed by a large number of fallen earth elemental giants.
Those fallen earth elemental giants were taller and larger than the ones the three had encountered in the evening. As they walked towards the area under the hill with heavy steps, the mad land actually spread outward with their footsteps.
Before Shade and the other two took action, the church camp had already launched an attack. The team that came this time was mainly from the Church of the Sun. Dozens of middle ring warlocks used one of the basic spells, "Earth Wall", to summon a huge wall from the bottom of the hill, temporarily blocking the steps of those fallen earth elemental giants from moving out. Then the follow-up team of the church also launched an attack head-on.
Because the Mad Earth was too dangerous, the church's team did not enter the hill, but simply defeated the elemental aggregates summoned by the earth one by one outside the hill.
"There's someone on top of the hill."
Miss Benanis said to Shade, squinting at the dark shadows in the night:
"This matter is still not simple. The cultists and the Blood Spirit School are probably over there. But how did they get up there? No one saw them... "Notes of the Puppet Master"?"
"None of this matters anymore."
Shade shook his head and said to Luvia:
"You and Miss Benanis stay here, and I will go over alone."
"But... ... "
The girl with purple eyes wanted to refute, but the witch pulled her:
"You should trust Shade more than me."
She said to Shad:
"Luvia and I are on the periphery, helping the church to block the monsters that want to go further, and we are here to pick you up. Don't be too stubborn. If you find something wrong, retreat quickly. It's easy for me to escape with you two."
As he spoke, he took off his gold ring and handed it to Xia De:
"You need this more than I do tonight."
"clear."
Shade smiled and nodded, waved at them, and then ran into the darkness under the worried gaze of the two.
There were lights of battle everywhere in the darkness. Although those fallen elemental giants were slow and not very aggressive, it was not easy to defeat them completely.
Fortunately, probably because most people in the church cannot enter the area polluted by the crazy earth, Shad only needs to choose those locations where the fighting is not fierce and can directly enter the hills.
It seemed as if there were explosions everywhere. Dark clouds obscured the starry sky, but the light of divine magic made the area as bright as day. The closer he got to the bottom of the hill, the more certain Shade was that this incident was definitely related to the cultists.
When he and the Stone Mirror Demon Goethe first met outside Watson Manor, he accidentally smashed a statue of the evil god. The blasphemous power he felt at that time was very similar to what he felt now.
Looking up at the hill that was mostly covered by black mud, he suddenly saw a huge and terrifying shadow behind the hill. Shade was not sure what it was, so he could only walk through the forest as quickly as possible to face another challenge that he could not handle.
In addition to Shade who was constantly moving forward, there were also some strange shadows roaming in the forest. After entering the battle zone between the church and those fallen earth elemental giants, Shade also noticed that the church had sent out a thirteenth ring warlock again this time.
However, this time it was no longer the "Earth-Shaker" Granger, but Miss Maria, the 13th-ring warlock of the Church of Nature, an old friend of Sister Devilin, whom Shad had met during the Battle of Pantanal.
She did not join the battle, but floated above the forest, looking at the top of the hill, as if on guard against something. Even though Shade glanced at her unconsciously from below, she did not lower her head to observe Shade because of inspiration.
This means that something that even the Thirteenth Ring Warlock would find difficult to deal with will appear tonight.
Continuing forward, they officially entered the area of flowing black mud. The black mud had been erupting for ten minutes, and it still maintained a fountain-like appearance at the top of the hill, so that if Shade wanted to continue upward, he could not find a safe enough foothold.
There were some bare-branched trees growing on the hill, but now they have turned into gray stone withers. Although Shade can resist the pollution from the twisted earth to a certain extent, he still feels very uncomfortable if he is really exposed to it for a long time:
"This time, the crazy land is at a high pollution level again."
The church's ring warlocks were only on the periphery, so there was no one to stop the monsters on the hill. No matter how cautious Shad was when climbing the hill, he inevitably clashed with a stone giant during the process.
"Ragal's Leap."
He took a step forward and appeared behind the stone giant that was wrapped in a yellowish-brown light and rushed towards him sideways. He wanted to run away, but he didn't expect that the enemy he dodged would stop and immediately turn around to charge at him a second time.
If he continued to chase and run away, Shade was worried that he would make too much noise. When he reached the top of the mountain, there would be at least ten fallen elemental giants chasing after him. So he simply stopped, but this time he did not take out the Moonlight Greatsword, but opened his arms.
Just now, when he was fighting the enemy together with Miss Benannis and Luvia, he had the idea of Mo Hu, and now was the perfect time to put his plan into practice.
"roar!"
The bulky monster was already very close to Shade in the charge, and Shade took another step forward and disappeared. However, this time, he did not appear farther behind the elemental giant, but appeared directly on the giant's back, hugging it tightly with his arms open:
"Fossils to mud!"
Although "Fossils to Mud" is a basic spell, Shad's "Fossils to Mud" is somewhat different from others. This is the power given to him by the existence of the Landel Valley Earth Incarnation when he tried to go deep into the source of the black mud to explore the divine power.
Normally, "Fossils to Mud" can only work on natural, unprocessed stones, but Shade's "Fossils to Mud" can work on any stone that is no larger than his own size.
He originally just wanted to give it a try, but he didn't expect that after his body came into contact with the elemental giant, the back of this elemental aggregate really began to "melt" quickly.
Although Miss Benanis said that this kind of monster does not have a true "fatal point", he still directly stabbed his hand from behind the colossus into its chest:
"Feliana's Witch Light!"
In the first few seconds, the fallen elemental giant's movements suddenly slowed down. Then, the stone on its chest emitted a faint red light as if it was heated.
Finally, as the first crack appeared, dark golden light completely shone from his chest. The cracks continued to spread throughout his body, and the huge element aggregate turned into a pile of rubble in Shade's hands.
Shad patted his muddy hands and doubted that the "incarnation of the earth of Randall Valley" had given him this spell just to deal with today's situation.
Continuing forward, because of Xia De's caution, although he encountered enemies twice more, and the second time they were two enemies in a group, he successfully defeated his opponents without making too much noise.
At the end of the petrified forest at the lower part of the hill, there was a path winding towards the top of the hill. For some reason, after approaching the petrified forest area, there were no enemies blocking the way.
But there were other people here. When Shad reached the edge of the woods and was about to reach the top in one breath, he saw a tall, thin man barefoot and wearing a linen robe, holding a dirty brass oil lamp. He was standing at the edge of the woods with his back to him, facing the top of the mountain.
"A monk from the church? Why are you here?"
The ascetic's feet were completely stained with black mud, but even so, without using any spells or magic, there was no sign of petrification of his limbs.
If this wasn't a real living person, Xia De would really think that the guardian was waiting for him here.
When Shade got closer, he could clearly sense the strong element of miracle in the other person. That warm and heavy power undoubtedly belonged to the God of the Sun and the Earth. Shade even felt that the power of this unknown ascetic was purer than that of the Thirteenth Ring Warlock "Earth Shaker" Pierre Granger.
He hesitated for a moment, but still walked over quickly. He made up his mind that as long as the other party didn't take the initiative to talk to him, he would just pretend that he didn't see him. However, when he came to the side of the ascetic monk, the other party still spoke:
"You are a Godcaller, right?"
The ascetic spoke the Kasenric language with a strong eastern southern accent, which even sounded funny because the stress on each word was at the back.
Xia De could only stop and nod, wanting to ask about the other party's identity. But this time, he saw the other party's simple clothes from the side, and saw the kerosene lamp he was holding, which looked shabby but was quite old. A bold idea suddenly came to his mind:
"When I was in Midhill Castle, I met the 'Sister of Thorns' from the Church of Nature, Ms. Shirley Winster (Chapter 778)."