In the area covered by the dark realm of the angel-level relics, not only did people fall into sleep and forgetfulness, but the darkness was trying to melt and devour everything around it until all entities and non-entities became part of the darkness.
As a result, the earth turned black, the trees and weeds became more and more strange and distorted, and everything seemed to have the property of absorbing light. Even space itself was affected by the darkness that enveloped everything, and space itself became somewhat disordered.
It was as if a certain area of space had been dissolved by darkness, causing some locations to become connected to incoherent distant places, and if one took a wrong step, one might not know where one was going.
This disorder was not large-scale, and the space as a whole remained normal. Xia De was almost taking a wrong step, and he became alert because of his core spirit rune time and space.
If he really got lost in such a place, even Shade would find it difficult to find the right way. After all, he only had the ability to perceive time, not the high-level ability to perceive space, which was known as the nemesis of "lost path syndrome".
Hidden in the darkness are the demons called "Servants of Secrets". On the outskirts of the dark realm, these one-eyed demons in robes are dispersed relatively evenly, because the divine rituals arranged by the church on the outskirts of the area are preventing them from spreading more darkness to the outside world.
The power of the relic within the domain also affected Shade's powerful soul perception ability. Coupled with the limited vision, he had only set out for five minutes when he ran into the hidden servant who rushed out of the darkness. The other party had an extremely wide field of vision in the darkness.
But this time, Xia De was well prepared. He put the seal on the Moonlight Great Sword and held the sword with both hands. He slashed forward fiercely when the opponent rushed over. Even though the two-handed great sword failed to split this terrifying creature with huge vertical pupils on its face into two pieces, the exorcism power attached to the sword itself still made it emit terrible black smoke all over its body.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xia De pointed again:
"Mind Explosion!"
The long-accumulated strength coupled with the high concentration of the mind caused the short creature that was pointed at to fly backwards. The vertical pupils on its oval face burst open, and then it flew into the darkness and disappeared.
Without the Light Rune, even if the opponent was dismembered, it would be impossible to completely kill the "Servant of Secrets", so Shade did not bother to chase after him. Instead, he took advantage of the opportunity when the opponent was temporarily unable to move due to the mind explosion and left quickly.
Before reaching the edge of Forest Town where the fortune tellers were stationed, Shade encountered the Secret Servants three times. The first time he encountered a single individual, the second time he encountered a pair of individuals, and the third time he encountered dozens of individuals performing a ceremony in a black rice field.
The second encounter ended with Shad escaping with a sword in hand, and the third time he lay in the rice field for ten minutes without daring to move, witnessing with his own eyes the demons sacrificing black flames, which were related to the expansion of the dark realm.
At the edge of the dark realm, the secret servants in ragged robes are everywhere like rats, and each individual is not exactly the same, not only in appearance, but also in strength. This kind of demon creatures also seem to have great differences between individuals within the race. Perhaps in the core of the dark realm, there are demons that are no less powerful than high-level warlocks.
Fortunately, the enemies Xia De encountered so far were not strong.
Just like the outside of the town, Forest Town was completely shrouded in darkness, with no signs of normal life. Black shadows were wandering around the town, and there were some black crystals on the ground that looked like salt.
Shade originally thought that those fortune tellers would be able to resist when the domain suddenly expanded, but judging from the current situation, they would probably suffer heavy losses the moment the relics went out of control.
Just as Shad was thinking about how to find Luvia, a shocking explosion was heard from the town.
The sound transmission inside the relic was also affected, and the darkness could also absorb the sound. At this moment, Shade could hear the sound outside the town, which only meant that the explosion scene was definitely more terrible than he thought.
"Is it the battle of the ring warlocks? Or something else?"
The distance is too far, and the strong whisper elements seriously hinder perception.
She whispered in Xia De's ear, which made Xia De subconsciously turn his head to the side. Every time he heard her voice in the dark, Xia De always thought she was beside him.
Although Shade and the metal box behind him were glowing, the darkness had a strong ability to swallow up light, so he didn't have to worry about being discovered by others even from a distance.
Therefore, he did not try to avoid it deliberately, but headed straight towards the direction where the sound came from.
The sound came from Center Street in Forest Town. Shad entered the town from the east in the dark and had to pass Douglas Street to turn into Center Street.
But as soon as he entered the somewhat gloomy town, Shade saw people lying on the ground. These were the residents of the town, who had fallen into a coma due to the coming of darkness. It had been about six hours since the incident, and their condition was relatively good, with the blackening of their skin not being serious.
If the matter is resolved quickly and they are treated in time, they will not remember anything after waking up, and the church can easily handle the follow-up of the matter... ...provided that they wake up.
As we approached the intersection of the two streets, we saw that in addition to the local townspeople, there were many outsiders lying on the street, which could be seen from their clothes.
After careful inspection, Shade realized from the Ouroboros pendants that these were all members of the Prophecy Association.
Luvia said that in order to cooperate with the Orthodox Church, the Prophet Association dispatched one-third of Tobesk's ring soothsayers, or 12 people, to this town. Shade counted them in the dark and found 7 of them near the intersection. Among these 7 people, two were wearing the metal divine amulets provided by the church that Luvia mentioned in the letter.
The fortune tellers were only providing support and did not need to enter the dark realm, so the church did not give everyone amulets. Judging from the current situation, they still resisted for a while and encountered trouble during the collective transfer.
"Has the power of the relic increased? Why is it still affected when I'm wearing the amulet... Oh, there's another one over here!"
Because it was so dark around him, Xia De could only see the person lying on the ground when he was quite close. Therefore, the woman leaning against the low wall at the street corner was the last one Xia De noticed.
He ran over quickly and was surprised to see that it was Luvia.
"Oh my Mia, what on earth is going on~"
Xia De sighed and knelt on one knee beside the brown-haired female fortune teller with great worry. She closed her eyes and leaned against the low wall with her head tilted. There was no sign of injury on her body, just like a sleeping princess.
"Luvia, Luvia!"
She shouted softly and shook Luvia's shoulders, but she didn't respond. When Shade let go of her hand, she even fell forward due to imbalance and fell on him.
"What should we do in this situation?"
Shade tried hard to think of a solution, and at the same time, the sound coming from the central street continued. Now Shade could be sure that it should be two high-level warlocks fighting, and he felt the element of chaos.
"Let me think..."
He reached into his pocket and fed Luvia some water treated with the food of fullness, but it had no effect. He then put the Eternal Youth Leaf into her mouth, but it still had no effect. So he put a few drops of the weak angel potion into her mouth, but it still didn't work.
Finally, look behind you:
"It might help to put God's gift box on Luvia's head."
But after thinking about it, I felt that this was a bit too exaggerated, so I put my finger on her forehead:
"How about it?"
She is corrupted by the power of darkness, and you only need to temporarily expel the darkness and she will wake up.
If Shad had the Light Spirit Rune, he would only need to summon the Life Ring and let the light shine on Luvia. But he didn't have it, so he had to think of other ways.
He reached out and grabbed Luvia's hand, wanting to pass on his light to her like he did last time when he and Tifa fought against the enemy together. But the darkness that time was only brought by the appearance of the devil, and this time it was a true angel-level relic, so this method was completely ineffective.
"Well, that's all we can do."
He took out the red ink box prepared for the seal from his pocket, cut his finger with a knife, dripped his blood into it, then took some No. 3 holy water and added it in (Note), and then mixed it with the leaves of the luminous grass that he brought with him.
Luminous grass is a peculiar plant that can only emit light spontaneously in a completely dark environment late at night. It mostly grows in the primeval forests in the southern part of the Old World. It is a relatively common special plant and is often used in various rituals.
After mixing all the materials, Shad used his little finger to dip into the red ink and very carefully drew a circular ritual array on Luvia's forehead, and added some runes representing "light" in it.
This is the basic ritual that Shade needs to learn in the first grade - luminescence. By engraving the ritual on an object, the object can emit a faint light for a short period of time.
After mixing the many materials prepared by Shade, the completed ritual did not make Luvia glow. After the red trace briefly flickered a few times, the girl with purple eyes made a dreamlike sound, then trembled a few times and opened her eyes.
"It actually works. What ingredient is responsible for the effect?"
Xia De was very happy.
"Oh, Shad, why are you here? Am I dreaming?"
There was still a hazy look in Luvia's eyes when she opened them. Her purple eyes blinked hard, and the expression on her face showed that she was completely powerless.
Unlike Shade, she woke up directly inside the angel-level relic without any protection. The feeling at this time should be more uncomfortable than Shade's experience on the fishbone pirate ship.
After a few breaths, the purple-eyed girl finally came to her senses. But she suddenly covered her mouth and asked Xia De in a somewhat exhausted manner:
"What's this taste in my mouth?"
It smells like the leaves of eternal youth and lots of strange potions.
In the darkness, Shad explained the current situation and helped Luvia determine that the current date was 12:23 noon on Saturday.
Luvia also told Shade what she had encountered, and the situation was roughly the same as Shade had guessed. At about 7:10 this morning, the darkness in the distance suddenly spread and reached its current size almost instantly.
The amulet that the church gave to the Prophet Association was still effective in the first few dozen minutes, but when President Stan organized the prophets to prepare to reunite with the church team, they encountered the enemy. In addition, the deep darkness became stronger and stronger, so that the amulet became ineffective, and all the warlocks below the middle ring fell into a coma.
Luvia was wearing two amulets given to her by Iluna, so she lasted a little longer.
"So what's the fight over there?"
The sounds coming from Center Street continued.
"Is President Stan fighting a powerful demonic individual?"
Shade asked again.
President Stan originally returned to the city after being controlled by the Dark Domain, but because of Darkness's incident, he once again entered the forefront of the containment of this angel-level relic. The fortune tellers of the Coordination Association helped the church find the target.
Luvia was not originally in the team, but she came to the town temporarily to meet Iluna.
"It's not a demon, it's another ring sorcerer."
With the help of Shade, Luvia stood up with difficulty. In order to prevent the darkness from making her fall asleep again, Shade wanted to give her the glowing box on his back, but the God's gift box could only be held by children, and Luvia couldn't carry it at all.
So Shade collected the amulets from the unconscious fortune tellers, and added them to Luvia's original two amulets. The four amulets together were barely enough for her to move around in this area.
But she couldn't leave Shade too far away, Luvia described it this way:
"You are like the sun now, no, the moon. Although you cannot completely dispel the darkness, your side is the place that is least likely to be affected by the darkness."
"President Stan is fighting the Ringwitch... Have you found Darkness?"
Shad was shocked.
"No, no, there are more than just Darkness and Bloodweeper in this area who are foreign ring sorcerers."
Luvia reached out and patted her head a few times, trying to clear her dizzy brain:
“It’s the Truth Society.”
Shade knew about this organization. A few weeks ago, he and Priest Augustus caught a madman in the cemetery who tried to fuse his body with the relic. The Truth Society was a ring magic organization rooted in the south of the Old World. It inherited ancient traditions and studied forbidden rituals and magic. It was wanted by the Orthodox Church all year round.
"The other party is a nine-ring warlock and a five-ring warlock."
"But isn't Mr. Stan a Ten Ring wizard? And there should be other ring wizards from your association around him. But from the sound of it, why do both sides seem to be evenly matched? Could it be that the Truth Society has mastered a method to avoid being affected by the dark realm?"