Carrying the metal box on his back, Shad got on a carriage at Saint Teresa's Square and came to the southern edge of Tobesk, where he changed to a carriage that could leave the city. He spent a lot of money to persuade the coachman to head to the countryside further south.
Judging from the map, although the area of the dark territory has expanded a lot overnight, it is still a long way from the city of Tobesk. After comparing it with the woman's voice in his mind, Shade decided to go to Bode Village in the south of Tobesk first.
It’s not because the village is the closest to the disappeared area, but because judging from the terrain, if we go further, we will encounter the checkpoint of the Orthodox Church.
Due to the characteristics of the dark realm and the fact that the incident had only just happened this morning, the disappearance of such a large area did not attract the attention or notice of the locals.
Whether in the city or outside, everything showed that it was a very peaceful Saturday morning. Before the darkness came, ordinary people could not notice anything. Xia De even chatted with the driver, who claimed to have lived in the South City for 32 years and did not notice the changes in the terrain outside the city or the loss of large areas in his memory.
This change in perception is terrifying.
The driver dropped Xia De off at the entrance of Bode Village, and the stranger's visit to this inconspicuous village naturally aroused the curiosity and vigilance of the villagers.
The village is ordinary, with low houses connected in a row, forming a simple settlement of humans. The buildings are mostly made of earth, stone and straw. Compared with the city only half an hour away by car, the time here seems to have gone back to the pre-steam age.
But this is not true, because Xia De still saw traces of steam pipes and gas pipes. However, the two pipes were only distributed along the central axis of the village and did not penetrate the village completely. This shows that in this village with more than 30 households, only a very small number of people can enjoy the convenience of steam and gas.
There was a local sheriff in the village. Upon hearing that a stranger had arrived, he dutifully came to inquire about Xia De's purpose in coming here.
Shade originally wanted to lie about his identity and then leave the village and walk south. But thinking that he would have to pass through this village when heading south from the city of Tobysk, he introduced himself as the writer John Watson and pretended to ask the bearded sheriff casually:
"My friend left ahead of me. He should have passed by this village as well. May I ask if there are any strangers passing by here today?"
The sheriff with the police star on his chest was curious about the writer carrying a metal box to collect materials, but he still answered the city dweller's question enthusiastically:
"I'm sorry sir, no outsiders have passed through the village since this morning. But around eight o'clock, the little boy from the Osas family was peeing in the field and saw a large group of horse-drawn carriages from the Peace Church passing by the dirt road outside the village. Is your friend with the people from the Orthodox Church?"
So Shade understood that the dark realm went out of control around 7 o'clock this morning, because it took about an hour to get here from the city. The appearance of the Orthodox Church team meant that the out-of-control relics were still within control, so there was no need to worry that the darkness would swallow Tobesk in a few hours.
"It seems that the last God's Descent incident did have some benefits. At least it made the Orthodox Church more vigilant."
After leaving Bode Village, Shade continued to head south, running along the dirt road in the deserted wilderness with the metal box on his back. The area swallowed by darkness disappeared, but it could be entered through a specific method. If an ordinary person accidentally entered it, it would be almost impossible to get out. Luvia had already found out how to enter the relic, and what Shade really needed to worry about was being discovered by the church.
18 minutes after leaving Bode Village, he saw a small group of cavalrymen wearing Royal Army uniforms and riding horses in the distance. He bypassed them and continued forward. Not long after, he encountered a small group of infantrymen consisting of about 15 people, patrolling along the dirt road with long guns on their backs.
We still had to take a detour and rely on past echoes to learn that Tobesk City Hall had closed off the nearby area and prohibited anyone from entering, citing the Royal Army's experiment with a new type of steam cannon at the front.
This once again proves that everything is still under control, and the brief loss of control of the relics is most likely an accidental phenomenon caused by the appearance of the Chosen One.
Shade was lucky today. After encountering the patrolman for the second time, he continued forward half a mile (about 800m) and reached the edge of the dark area. He only found traces of divine rituals but did not encounter any members of the Church of the Orthodox God.
After all, the circumference of the disappearing area is so large that even if the church gave up defending the city and came out in full force, it would be impossible to have a guard post every ten steps.
"It should be around here."
Far away from the city, far away from the mist above the city. The noon sun in late summer was just as dazzling. Xia De flipped through the map in his hand, comparing the meaning of the divine ritual runes on the ground to confirm that he was not on the wrong path.
Standing on the country road with cow dung lying in front of him, he could not see any darkness around him. But in fact, the road should have forked about five meters from Xia De's feet, instead of being a straight road like it is now.
"Well, the adventure is about to begin."
Xia De held the straps on his shoulders with both hands, and the life ring slowly emerged from behind him, and the core spirit rune of time and space shone brightly:
"Space Stabilization Aura!"
The invisible wave spread out in all directions with Shade as the center. Using the magic with the life ring fully revealed, the magic effect was maximized.
As the spirit in his body flowed and the elements fluctuated, some fluctuations gradually appeared in Shade's field of vision, just like the scenery reflected in the water, which became blurred because the water surface was stirred.
Some black mist was finally noticed. Shade knew that it was his limit to interfere with the angel-level relic so reluctantly. Therefore, he did not continue to use magic to try to expel these unstable spaces. Instead, he ran forward quickly and jumped forward sideways.
Snap!
He felt as if he had smashed an invisible mirror, and then he jumped from under the sun into an ice storage room.
But what was even worse was that darkness suddenly surged up, covering up all the scenery in front of him. Having lost his vision, Shade was unable to immediately sense the existence of the ground, so when he landed, he thought he had jumped into the abyss. He was unable to control his balance and fell to the ground.
He first felt the ground with his sense of touch, and as the silver halo on his body gradually spread, it barely illuminated the solid ground beneath him. At the same time, the biting cold slowly flowed through his body.
This is the power bestowed by Priest Augustus on Shad. Although the source of the priest's power is still unclear, the chillness in the body does drive away the even colder feeling brought by the surrounding environment, dispels the almost uncontrollable sleepiness after entering the darkness, and the extreme mental pressure brought by the deep darkness.
Although this power is magical, it still cannot completely resist the negative effects of the angel-level relic. Xia De felt that even if he stood still, his physical strength and body temperature were rapidly draining away, and his spirit's recovery speed was at least twice as slow as that of the normal area. The feeling of headache, nausea, and numbness all over the body gradually became clearer and stronger. This space clearly had a strong malice towards Xia De, a guy who could glow by himself.
After being protected by the Augustus priest, the feeling now was much better than when he first broke into the fishbone pirate ship. Since there was no external manifestation of the "divine afterglow" on his body, it meant that the dark realm, an angel-level relic of the demon's lair, had nothing to do with the old gods.
“This is the best news so far.”
The surroundings were extremely quiet, but when Shade got up, he could clearly feel that something was watching him from the darkness. Maybe it was just a small creature, but maybe it was a giant crouching in front of him.
He squinted his eyes and looked into the darkness, but he was completely unable to see beyond the darkness. He could only wonder in his heart what he was looking at, and the creepy feeling in his heart became stronger and stronger.
Shivering suddenly, Xia De closed his eyes and took deep breaths in and out, adapting to the strange environment around him.
He adjusted his mood and called out to Yin Yue softly, but the moonlight from his fingertips could not illuminate his eyes at all. The moonlight only covered a fingernail-sized area. Even though the coldness in his body rushed into his eyes, allowing Xia De to barely see a small area around him, the surroundings still seemed to be wrapped in thick black fog, and his vision was only slightly better than the state of "not being able to see one's hand in front of one's face".
"An angel-level relic is indeed extraordinary, but fortunately I was prepared."
He dug out of his pocket a thick, bright yellow, oil-like medicine prepared by an ophthalmologist, and carefully dropped it into his eyes. He blinked, and the darkness in front of him gradually dissipated. The area covered by his field of vision finally seemed to be in the deepest night.
Although it is still inconvenient to move, at least there will be no trouble in close combat.
He touched the items on his body to make sure that he didn't lose anything when he fell. Then he looked behind him. The heavy box was still there, but the box itself was also emitting a faint golden light.
The light was not strong, but Shade was still very happy to see a stable light source other than his own in the darkness.
Except for those like Shade who are protected by other powers, or have amulets provided by the church, ordinary people will fall into a deep sleep inside the dark realm, and will gradually be assimilated in the darkness and melt into an unknown corner.
If you look closely at the air around you, you can see barely perceptible black shadows moving back and forth. These are the last traces left by the people who melted into the realm of darkness, and can be said to be the old traces of history recorded by darkness.
As for the core of the Dark Realm, that is, the place where Ivan Darkness might hold the Chosen One Ceremony, Shade actually knew it. He only needed to know the specific topography of the disappeared area and then find the center point in the space.
But he couldn't rush directly to the core area of the relics, not only because he alone could not deal with the many demons in the darkness, but also because without Iluna, the chosen one of "balance", Shad knew that he could not defeat Darkness.
“First, here.”
He took out his notebook and looked at the simple map he had drawn. The place illuminated by the faint light of his finger was Forest Town. This town itself was not strange, but before the scope of the Dark Realm expanded early this morning, most of the prophets of the Prophet Association were stationed here. In the last letter sent by Luvia, she also said that she had contacted Iluna who was deep in the front line in this town.
"Meet up with Luvia first and then make plans."
Thinking about his next plan, he took back the notebook and walked deeper into the darkness.