The cultists didn't care about their dead companions. They stood there and looked at Shade, vaguely with the intention of surrounding him. With only three ring warlocks, they were able to tie with a team of ring warlocks from the Orthodox Church. Shade knew that there must be something more powerful in the damp little church, so he didn't have the confidence to risk another shot.
He held the remaining fat fishman priest hostage, and then glanced at Darkness and his companions, who naturally stood with the fishmen. But Shade was not panicked, the sea breeze behind him indicated that there was definitely a way behind the stone wall:
"Everyone stand back, or I can't guarantee that I won't pull the trigger."
He spoke loudly, not afraid of being recognized because he had put on a mask before sneaking in with his robe.
The fat fishman held hostage by Shade didn't even struggle. He continued to recite the prayer as if Shade didn't exist at all.
The cultists of the Scarlet Cult all looked at Shade as if he was a madman. But if he looked closely, he could see that everyone's lips were moving and they were praying.
The inexplicable feeling of uneasiness made Xia De a little surprised:
"Are there any traces of abnormal elements?"
Yes, look at the ground.
Looking downwards, because of the attack just now and the deaths caused by it, the blood of the fish people continued to seep downwards. After entering the sewage on the ground, it seemed to vaguely overlap with the lines under the water surface.
And with the buzzing prayers of the old fishman priest held hostage by Shade, there was no need for the reminder of the voice in his ear. The increasingly strong blasphemous elements had turned into materialized silver light radiating from the ground.
Xia De suddenly realized:
"I killed them, which was actually equivalent to a sacrifice for the ritual... How could such a thing happen? Wait, these guys, they didn't intend to commit suicide, so they didn't care about the manor being surrounded?"
Thinking that he couldn't wait any longer, Shade gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger, killing the old fishman who was still praying with one shot. The annoying buzzing prayer sound stopped abruptly, but then the prayers of the remaining cultists suddenly became louder.
Shade turned around and ran backwards, aiming for the stone wall where the holy emblem was placed.
It was impossible to escape the original route, as there was a ring sorcerer of unknown level in the wine cellar. And since there was wind blowing out from the hole in the wall, there must be another way behind.
"Don't let him get away!"
A voice came from behind. Although Xia De couldn't see behind him, "she" could see it.
The time is now!
"Raglai's Leap!"
The attacks of spells and magic coming from behind missed and hit the stone wall in front, opening up the rugged narrow path hidden behind, while the holy emblem rolled into the wreckage of the collapsed stone wall.
Xia De's figure appeared at the corner of the stone wall, and then he suddenly rushed towards the narrow path. With a neat roll, he rushed in.
“Chase after him!”
Darkness probably wanted to gain the favor of the cultists, so he arrived at the broken stone wall of the church faster than anyone else.
"Don't chase!"
But the person behind him called him and he turned around to see that it was the only six-ring warlock among the cultists. It was he who blocked Shade's Silver Moon Slash and prevented things from getting worse.
"No need to chase."
He knelt down and respectfully took out the intact holy emblem from the rubble. After kissing it, he handed it to the fishman behind him.
Seeing Darkness’s confusion, he frowned and looked into the darkness deep in the rugged passage, and explained:
"This road behind the stone wall may indeed lead to the outside. This was the passage we used to transport sensitive materials when we occupied the manor many years ago. But when we abandoned this manor sixty years ago, we sealed a clerical-level relic inside. It was a sea monster."
"Clerical level? Siren?"
The middle-aged man wearing red gloves stepped back immediately:
"Are you sure that the man just now will definitely die in your hands?"
"Of course, although it's clerical level, it took a lot of effort to seal it. Nothing went wrong for sixty years, but what happened inside now, even our church can't explain it clearly. Since he walked in on his own, we don't have to worry about it."
The man looked at the body of the fishman priest on the ground with sympathy:
"I wanted to draw lots to decide who would be the self-sacrificing ones... Never mind. The ceremony is over. There are still ten minutes until sunrise. Let's leave."
"etc."
Darkness, who had short yellow hair, extended her hand:
"Where's the thing you promised me?"
The Six-Ring Warlock waved his hand back, and the living fishman immediately searched for a box from his companion's body. He handed the brass ring in the box to Darkness, who showed an ecstatic expression on his face.
"Spell."
The cultist reminded, curious about what Darkness was going to do.
"Of course - the change between stillness and silence is the manifestation of hidden power!"
He took off his red gloves in front of everyone, chanted a spell, and put the ring on his right index finger.
The skin on the palm of its hand squirmed and cracked, revealing its terrifying mouth. As its mouth and sharp teeth moved, it actually spoke:
"I felt the blood and the fear, which was pretty good."
The mouth laughed loudly, and the terrible language it used seemed to have the power to directly pollute the environment, making the cultists of the Scarlet Cult feel nauseous and dizzy. This was certainly not the common language of Draerion, nor was it even the language of humans. No one except Darkness could understand it.
Seeing this strange scene, not only the cultists of the Scarlet Cult, but even Darkness's companion, the short bearded man, showed uncomfortable expressions on their faces.
He subconsciously took a step back and saw a large shadow covering Darkness. His lips moved, but he did not ask his question.
Their original purpose was to use their flesh and blood to nourish their technology in exchange for the fishmen's promise to help them leave Coldwater Harbor. The Poet-level Relic Fish Training Ring was a deal Darkness proposed privately.
Afterwards, the group began to clean up the traces of the ritual and used magic to bombard the narrow stone crack behind the wall where Shade entered, causing it to collapse. Finally, they cleaned up the bodies on the ground so that the blood and flesh could be more evenly distributed on the carved ritual traces.
About seven or eight minutes later, just as the cultists were about to leave, they suddenly heard clear footsteps coming from the exit of the damp chapel:
"Who's playing with steam bombs in my basement?"
This is a woman's voice.
(Shad is running...)
Xia De was running wildly, or to be more precise, he was running while calculating the time and making space jumps forward.
The wall was like a natural crack in the ground, and the curved road prevented him from being attacked directly by the person behind him. But the feeling of facing the enemy from behind was really terrifying. Xia De could only run forward as far as he could, and occasionally he would suddenly turn around and shoot a beam of light backwards, and then continue to run regardless of what happened behind him.
I ran for five minutes and saw that I had reached the end. Then I stopped and lay on the flat stone surface under my feet to listen, but there was no sound of any footsteps.
"No one is chasing us? Or is the road ahead actually a dead end?"
But at this point, Shade had no way to retreat. Besides, it was better if the other party didn't catch up. Miss Aurora might come here in a while because of the explosion of the steam bomb.
On the one hand, he had to find a way out by himself, and on the other hand, he had to wait for the witch's rescue. This was what Shade really thought.
Since we can't retreat now, we should keep moving forward. Finally, a human creation appeared in front of us. It was an iron door with a small opening three quarters of the way from the ground, just enough to drop an envelope. It was like a normal door installed upside down.
The wind was blowing out from the gap in the door and the small hole on the door. It was a fresh sea breeze. Considering that Aurora Manor itself is on the seaside, it is very likely that the back of the door leads to a place like a seaside cave.
"But if it's really that easy to find the exit, why don't the cultists catch up..."
Xia De looked at the iron door in confusion. This door must be quite old, and the surface was severely rusted. He could barely see that there was a pattern on the door. After careful identification, he could see that it was the holy emblem of the evil god, the Lord of the Scarlet Spiral.
"This door was placed here by the Scarlet Cabal."
He moved closer to the door. He felt an inexplicable sense of unease and dared not open the door directly. Instead, he asked in his heart:
"Is there anything unusual?"
Not at this time.
"So... ... "
There was no handle on the door. Panting, Shade pressed his hand on the rusty iron door and immediately felt that the spell door key was usable, which meant that the door was actually locked. But it was not difficult to unlock, just a little harder than Mr. Jude's safe.
"Could it be that the cultists outside thought that I couldn't open this door, so they felt relieved and didn't chase me?"
He couldn't figure it out, so after a more careful inspection, he actually found a series of ancient runes engraved beneath the rust on the edge of the door frame.
After translation, Shade confirmed that this was a prayer for the seal. Only the most dangerous seals would have this level of prayer written on them.
"What's behind this?"
Curiously looking at the door, the door was still dark under the moonlight. After thinking about it, Shade decided not to open the strange iron door rashly. He turned around and wanted to leave to see what the fishman outside was doing. Maybe Miss Aurora had already arrived.
Unexpectedly, after just two steps, the sound of explosion and whistling wind caused by air pressure disturbance rushed directly in along the passage.
"oh!"
The force of that strange wind was so strong that it directly knocked the unprepared Xia De away, and he hit the iron gate behind him with a bang.
At the same time, because of the explosion and the strong wind, the entire passage actually shook. Xia De sat in front of the door in amazement, listening to the sound of collapse coming from afar.
The passage leading to this door from the damp chapel collapsed, stopping a few dozen steps from Shad, raising dust that made him cough.
Now, even if I don't want to open the door, I can't.