"Obviously, they didn't find Darkness."
At eight o'clock on Thursday morning, in the restaurant on the second floor of No. 6 St. Teresa's Square, Shad said this to Luvia at the table.
The curfew was lifted at 3 a.m. today, and the newspaper and milk companies were affected, so the delivery of newspapers and milk and goat milk was delayed. When Luvia came to the door, Shad had just started to eat breakfast with the cat who was enjoying breakfast now.
He had already told Luvia what happened last night. Fortunately, Shade was not too involved, and with the help of Bishop Owen of the Dawn Church, he was allowed to go home after signing a confidentiality agreement. The church did not embarrass him. Unfortunately, little Dimoke was still forced to stay in the church after being rescued.
"Darkness has appeared in Tobesk. Last night, he was most likely following the instructions of the puppeteer's script to obtain materials for the Chosen One's Ceremony."
Shade expressed his judgment, stirring the milk in the bowl with his right hand. Last night, his left hand rashly entered the mouth of the demon that seemed to be able to devour everything, and was seriously injured. But fortunately, it was only a superficial wound, without any attached elements. With the fullness food and the Silver Moon Gift of Cyndia, it was healed even before the arrival of the church.
“Although the Puppet Master’s Script can influence fate, this relic tends to make those who try to manipulate fate face greater misfortune, such as the ‘Heart Collector’. So guiding Darkness to Yodel Palace and even letting him meet the ‘Iron Right Hand’ and you may be the negative characteristics of the relic itself.”
Luvia said that the Prophet Association is very knowledgeable about such relics.
"Yes."
Xia De nodded, frowned and said:
“Even through my connections at Yodel Palace, I still can’t find out what was stolen. The worst guess is that Darkness has gathered all the materials for the ritual and went straight into the Dark Realm after leaving Yodel Palace last night.”
"That would be troublesome."
The purple-eyed girl also had a serious look on her face; they knew that the final moment had arrived.
"So, I think we have to take some risks. At least to find out where Darkness is now."
Xia De was wearing a shirt at home. He took out a small glass bottle with a cork from his shirt pocket and put it on the dining table. Hearing the sound, the cat, which was licking goat milk, immediately raised its head, but was not interested in the bottle when it saw it.
It had sniffed this thing last night and was sure it was not edible.
There is a small layer of clear water inside the bottle, and a mass of black and red things can be vaguely seen in the clear water. The red is very light, and the black mixed with the red looks like some kind of sticky pus:
"This is Darkness's blood. I don't know why there is such a disgusting thing in his blood. But Blood Echo works best on fresh blood. If we delay any further, this blood will be useless."
"You want to put this in your eyes?"
Luvia was very surprised by Shade's idea:
"The black liquid in his blood is obviously human pus. Are you going to drip human pus into your eyes?"
"Of course not. I won't do anything risky. Luvia, please close your eyes."
Shade said, pointing at the bottle:
"Silver Moon!"
When the fortune teller opened her eyes again, the black pus mixed with the blood in the bottle had completely disappeared.
"That's all."
Shade said, and then pushed the bottle to Luvia:
“Please control the droplets from entering my eyes. We need to act quickly. If we confirm that Darkness is still in the city, report his news to the church immediately. If he is outside the city, we will pack up and set off for the Dark Territory this evening.”
"No problem, we have been waiting for this day for more than half a month."
Luvia uncorked the bottle and looked at the blood inside with her purple eyes:
"It's a pity that Iluna was assigned a search mission by the Church of the Sun. Otherwise, we could have acted together with her and it would have been safer."
"It's normal that we can't always get everyone together when we need to act together."
Shade said, then he held the table with both hands and looked up at the ceiling. Luvia walked in front of him and pointed her finger at the liquid in the bottle. Large drops of liquid flew up in a string like a pearl necklace.
"I estimated that a normal drop of blood can maintain the effect of Blood Echo for about an hour. I was worried about being discovered last night, so I didn't get much blood in a hurry. I removed the pus from the person who was just removed, and because it had been overnight, the blood had deteriorated a little. Therefore, these liquids can only maintain the effect of Blood Echo for three hours at most."
As the liquid continued to drip into Shad's eyes, Shad explained.
Luvia used magic to manipulate the liquid precisely, but she was able to distract herself and talk to Shade:
"Three hours is enough. If he is still in the city, we can follow his tracks and find him. We will definitely be able to find his whereabouts."
After all, the church launched a city-wide manhunt shortly after the incident last night, and it was impossible for Darkness to wander around the city.
"So where do we start?"
Luvia asked, and after making sure the bottle was empty, she corked it and put it on the table. The cat, who had eaten its fill, immediately jumped onto the table and pushed the bottle around, as it had always liked round things.
For example, the Transformation Ring.
"Let's start from the vicinity of the Yodel Palace and look for the person who left."
Xia De tilted his head back and opened and closed his eyes repeatedly, trying to adapt to the awkward feeling caused by the large amount of liquid entering his eyes.
Because of the magic, some of the liquid was repelled from the eye and slid down from the corner of the eye. In fact, there were very few liquid components that were useful for the blood echo, and the magic actively absorbed them. The blood that flowed out was still blood, but it no longer had the ability to cause an "echo", so it was repelled by the magic.
"Luvia, let's set off immediately."
He stood up from his chair, blinked, turned around and looked through the kitchen window at the bustling Silver Cross Avenue and the Jodel Palace not far away:
"We must determine Darkness's whereabouts today."
Coming from Saint Teresa Square to Silver Cross Avenue, Shade easily caught a series of blood-red halos in the air that formed the trajectory of human movement. But that trajectory was moving in the direction of Yodel Palace, which meant that this was the figure of Darkness entering Yodel Palace.
After circling the Yodel Palace, we finally saw Darkness jumping over the wall of the back garden on the street behind the palace complex, Felicien Field Street.
"Felice Pastoral" means "mythical wonderland" in the Drarian language, and if this street goes further west, it is the Terraril River that runs across the entire city of Tobesk.
Darkness was indeed moving towards the Terrarelle River. Shad took Luvia all the way west and finally saw Darkness's figure disappear on the river slope on the east bank of the Terrarelle River.
Stairs led down from the street along the river, where residents living nearby washed clothes or dumped domestic sewage. The blood-red halo ended here, leaving no trace.
“Did Darkness jump into the water?”
Luvia guessed as Shad looked around.
"No, even if I jump into the water, I can at least see the other person's figure when he enters the water."
Shade stood on the steps, his hands in his pockets, looking at the cargo ships on the river. The water volume of the Terraril River is quite large during the flood season in summer, and the city's waterways can also allow large steam cargo ships to pass through.
It blew its whistle and moved southwards. Its three smokestacks dragged black smoke to the rear. The black smoke gradually merged into the misty air, forming an ordinary river scene in Tobysk, the pearl of the northern Steam Capital.
The sailors on the deck were busy because they would soon stop to unload cargo, but there were also some idle people lying on the deck and looking at both sides of the river.
The rude sailors whistled at the women washing clothes by the river, and laughed with their companions after being scolded by them. Naturally, some people also noticed Shad and Luvia standing on the stairs down to the river. They whistled, and Shad took out a pistol from his waist and raised it to the deck, and the noises disappeared immediately.
"Darkness can move through darkness, but the distance is short, not enough for him to cross the river directly to the west bank."
As Shade put the gun away, he reasoned, and Luvia understood a little:
"So, in order to avoid being hunted down by the church, he passed through the black vortex and went directly into the water?"
"Yes, that's why I lost him."
Shad nodded. Fortunately, unlike when he and Dorothy chased the Mercury Blood member carrying the merman scales, the flowing water now could not hinder the Blood Echo from taking effect.
The best way is to enter the water and look for the blood halo, then track it in the water.
But once in the water, it would be inconvenient to move. So Shade asked Luvia to divine, and then the two walked upstream for a distance, and saw the traces of the other party appearing near the water surface about 1,200 feet (about 365m) upstream from the northern part of the place where Darkness entered the water.
Darkness probably didn't have a spell like "breathing underwater", but as a sixth-ring sorcerer, he should have other means to stay underwater for a long time. He came up to see if there were any pursuers, and this action just happened to facilitate Shade and Luvia's search.
Darkness went upstream, so Shade and Luvia also walked along the river toward the northwest of the city. They walked from the central area of Tobesk to the intersection of the west and north districts. When they passed the Disc Bridge across the river, Shade talked to Luvia about the first time he helped the witch pick up the goods. At that time, he didn't realize that the witch was testing his gender.