“It’s right here.”
After reuniting with the familiar unicorn, the elf lady led Shade and continued to walk eastward. She seemed to be in a good mood. When she walked beside the unicorn with her hands behind her back, Shade even saw her jumping a few steps occasionally.
There are low woodlands nearby, and outside the woodlands are plain grasslands for grazing unicorns. Further away are the shadows of snow-capped mountains lying low in the night.
Not long after they walked, they saw a simple wooden watchtower outside the forest:
"This is the tower we use for observation when we do ecological research on alien species."
Emilia explained as she flew up on her unicorn while Shad climbed up the ladder with her cat.
The view at the top was quite wide, but Shade still did not observe any abnormal areas in space.
"This passage is quite old. I don't know what era it is from, but it is definitely not from the Sixth Era. This is probably the last time I will take this road, but since the past will not be pursued, I think this is a good result, so you don't have to apologize to me."
The elf girl said, patting the little beast beside her:
"The entrance is hidden and can only be found at night. Also, I have only found the horns of female unicorns that can reveal the entrance. I only found out about this entrance when I was chasing Lianna and saw her coming here... I have always suspected that the rumors about the unicorns in the Randall Valley were spread because they sneaked out."
The young unicorn could understand Emilia’s gestures, so it lowered its head and let out a “hum” sound, and then its golden horn began to emit a brighter light.
Shade thought for a moment:
"If I remember correctly, the unicorn's horn has a very strong effect of breaking illusions, purifying, and opening seals. And the females in the unicorn population have stronger power than the males."
"Yes."
The elf girl nodded, and Shade was thinking about how he could get a unicorn horn and bring it to the Evernight City in the Fifth Age. But thinking carefully, after the unicorn died, the body must have been handled by Saint Byrons, and maybe Miss Danister could help him get one.
But this final rescue adventure was not Tree Father's mission, so even if the road ahead really existed in the Eternal Night City of the Fifth Age and he could still find it, whether he could reach the Fifth Age with such a powerful item was still a big question.
The next moment, these thoughts were completely unimportant, because Shade saw the little beast gently shake its neck, and then the glowing horn on the top of the watchtower seemed to lift up an invisible curtain in the air.
Not an invisible curtain.
She reminded gently.
It was indeed not an invisible curtain. What was lifted by the golden horn, which Shade had not noticed before, was actually the night itself. Its horn lifted the curtain of the night.
"Um?"
While Shade was surprised that the shape and color of the curtain looked quite familiar, Emilia said proudly:
"After Lianna led me to discover this passage, I also looked up a lot of information in the academy. In fact, there are many secret ways to leave the academy without permission, but I bet that I am the first one to discover this path in our time!"
She puffed out her chest slightly and raised her head.
"So has anyone discovered this before?"
Xia De asked curiously, and the elf girl nodded:
"Inside the passage are some things left behind by students from past eras. One of the notebooks written in the year 351 of the Sixth Era mentioned that two conditions are required to open and use this passage: first, a tool that is powerful enough to lift the curtain, which requires a horn similar to that of a female unicorn, or at least a sage-level sword relic. Second, one must possess one of the Space Night Spirit Runes."
The elf girl in front of him had the space spirit rune, and she also asked Xia De to help purchase materials for the space ritual at Lengshui Port.
"According to the information left by our ancestors, the formation of this passage must have a lot to do with darkness. Therefore, this place can only be used at night. The usage time varies in different seasons. I usually come here after dark."
The elf was still talking, but Shad had already stretched out his hand and touched the "night curtain" that was opened by the unicorn's glowing horn.
Yes, that's the one. According to your timeline, this curtain was wrapped around Fiona Drago's waist about half an hour ago while you were packing your bags.
"She" directly gave Xia De the answer he wanted to know, and Xia De took a deep breath. It seemed that his idea was correct:
"Let's go. Miss Danister is waiting for us on the other side. By the way, is the way inside very long?"
Xia De asked curiously. He remembered using this curtain. It was clear that the destination was reached after passing through it. There was no passage for storing notes or the like.
"It's not long. It will only take a minute or two to walk. But..."
Emilia warned again:
"Some parts of this passage are eroded by the power of the night. Even the strongest individuals in the Lianna population cannot come into contact with that kind of night, otherwise they will be assimilated by the night. So, you must follow me closely in a while. This is not a joke. It is really quite dangerous."
"Meow?"
Little Mia, who was squatting on the unicorn's head, cried out.
The unicorn lifted the curtain and walked in first, as if it had disappeared into thin air. Then came Emilia, and finally Shade.
After passing through the curtain, he did not reach the Randall River Valley directly. Shade originally thought that he would see a scenery similar to Evernight City, but he was completely wrong.
The ground beneath my feet was covered with white ash, and left clear footprints of elves, Shade, and unicorns. A narrow and old brick and stone corridor stretched from my feet to a place that could not be seen in the distance. Dim torches were inserted on the walls, illuminating these ancient ruins that had gone through a long time.
But even those torches could not illuminate the large dark areas in the corridor.
Those are the colors of the night. Instead of destroying the integrity of the corridor, they add a weird and mysterious atmosphere to the already ancient corridor.
The darkness eroded the corridor, but it was not evenly distributed. The closer you got to the end where St. Byron's was, the more eroded the area became, and the farther you looked, the smaller the black area became, as if someone had splashed black paint from the entrance of St. Byron's.
"The passage in front of the Witch Council?"
Xia De was startled, and then realized that although they were not exactly the same, the architectural style, atmosphere, and even the appearance of torches and bricks were extremely similar. In other words, the passage in front of the Witch Council that could only be reached by singing and the corridor in front of him were like corridors in different locations in a large ruins.
Of course, Emilia had no idea what Shade was thinking, she was still talking to herself:
"Very smooth, let's keep going forward. I don't like this place very much. It gives me a very dangerous feeling. We should not stay here."
Shade nodded in shock, but more and more questions were in his mind. He hugged the cat that jumped over the unicorn's head, followed Emilia, and moved forward carefully in the corridor.
Although the darkness had encroached on part of the corridor, there was still enough space to continue forward. Miss Elf meant to go straight ahead, but Shade suddenly called her.
They were now at a quarter of the passage, near a relatively large night shadow. After Shade called the elf girl, he carried the cat into the dark area in her shocked eyes.
But Shad did not disappear, his body and Mia's body radiated light. In the light of the sun and the moon, the sourceless night gradually faded away.
"How is that possible?"
The young elf girl could not understand the scene she saw, but Shade, who had close contact with the night colors, was completely certain that although the degree of danger and traces of miracle elements in these night colors were far weaker than those in the Eternal Night City, the source of these powers was definitely the Eternal Night City.
In other words, when he escaped with Fiona in the last century, he most likely used this passage.
"Emilia, you really helped a lot."
As he continued to walk forward, Shade did not forget to thank the elf girl again. The latter was still in shock. After shaking her head to indicate that it was okay, she asked curiously:
"There are only two of us here... Lianna and your cat, so can you tell me why you want to know about this passage?"
She blinked and looked at Shade. Although she had lost her "secret passage" tonight, this "big adventure" was actually not bad. Compared with the comfortable student life at St. Byron's, even if there was no fighting tonight, just participating in things outside the school was interesting enough:
"If it's a secret, you don't have to tell me."
She didn’t forget to add.
"It's no secret, it was really about helping a friend."
"A very important friend?"
The elf girl asked again, and Shad nodded, and he heard "her" laughter again in his ears.
"Why are you laughing? Am I wrong?"
Xia De asked in his heart, but "she" didn't answer immediately because Xia De felt something moving in his pocket.
"Mia!"
His first reaction was that the cat's tail was rubbing against him again, but after quietly warning Mia, he looked down and saw the cat looking up at him with its big innocent eyes.
"It's not you? Then what's moving in my pocket?"
So he signaled Emilia to stop again, and then under the latter's curious gaze, he took out a small glass bottle with an oak cork from his pocket. In the bottle was a small golden stone that kept hitting the bottle wall.