Hearing Shade's question, Luvia smiled shyly in the darkness. Shade noticed that her two eyes were emitting a barely perceptible purple glow in the terrifying darkness, which was particularly obvious in the current dark environment:
"That's part of the reason, but more importantly, President Stan is not good at direct combat."
She let go of Xia De's hand and was able to stand up by herself:
"The president has gone so far on the path of divination and prophecy that he has neglected other aspects of research."
Xia De nodded to show his understanding. After all, everyone’s energy is limited.
The reason why Truth appeared in this area was probably for the second chosen one. As for why they were fighting with the Prophet Association, Shad and Luvia didn't know.
They did not try to intervene in this battle that had little to do with them, but before leaving the town, Luvia asked Shad to help gather the fortune tellers sleeping on the streets, place them in shops on the street, and set up rituals around them as protection to prevent them from encountering demons.
Later, Luvia left another letter, informing President Stan that she left alone after waking up to find a team of church ring magicians in the nearby area to come and help. In this way, Luviata's sudden disappearance can be reasonably explained.
"Do you know where Iluna might be right now?"
After leaving the town, they had to plan the next direction. Xia De asked the most critical question. The female fortune teller thought about it:
"We should head to the core area with the church team."
She also carries a map of the area, and the records of the dark realm itself will not disappear:
"From what I learned before I fell into a coma, the core area is nearby."
Shade looked at the map with the dim light from his fingertips. The location Luvia pointed to was a forest. The countryside far from the city was full of farmland, wilderness and woods. This place, named Millwood Forest, was a large forest farm in the south of Tobesk, supplying the city with fuel wood in winter.
Xia De had no memory of this place at all. After all, when he came to this world, the area had disappeared.
"Go to Muirwood Forest immediately?"
Luvia asked for Shade's opinion, and Shade frowned and thought for a while:
"Do you still have that pirate's blood money with you?"
"Yes, I always carry it with me."
"Use your divination to choose the direction we should go."
It was pitch black all around. Shade only knew that they were now one mile outside of the town. As for what was around them, no one knew.
"The current situation is very complicated. We don't know what happened in the core area of the relic, nor do we know what we will encounter if we continue to move forward. You are a third-ring and I am a second-ring. If we encounter a powerful demon, we will not be able to win. Therefore, use divination to point out the direction to move forward. I only need a direction or a specific destination."
Luvia nodded and took out the blood money that Shade had obtained from the Fishbone Pirate Ship from her pocket. She traded with herself to activate the properties of the blood money, then closed her eyes and threw it into the air.
In the pitch-black environment, it was easy to see the purple light particles floating from her fingertips, and the dim pure white light on her body at this moment.
The coin began to fall from the top, quickly decayed and dispersed into ashes in the air, which meant there was a conclusion.
"Strange, the divination shows that we should go here first."
She pulled out the map again for comparison, and this time it pointed to a field about a half mile from her current location.
"What do you mean? Can we meet help here?"
Xia De frowned and asked:
"But who will help us? Although Miss Carina's manor has also been swallowed by darkness, it is obvious that she will go directly to the core area... ... Will the doctor come? Or, is there any weapon against demons nearby, but isn't this just an ordinary countryside?"
"What made you think of the doctor?"
Luvia asked in surprise. She had heard about the doctor and the devil from Shade, but she had never connected Darkness with the doctor.
"And it may not be helpers or weapons. There may be other information there. Let's go as soon as possible, Shade. I'm not like you. I can't hold on for too long."
"But you never seem to ask how I am able to move here intact."
Xia De said curiously again.
"Whatever happened to you is normal. Compared to what you did on the night of God's Descent in Tobesk and Coldwater Harbor, isn't the current situation normal?"
Compared to traveling alone, being able to travel with others in the darkness gave Shade a great sense of comfort psychologically. The surroundings were extremely quiet, and Shade and Luvia tried to keep their voices low when exchanging information with each other.
Luvia's spirit was gradually weakening, so in order to prevent her from falling asleep again and leaving Shade without a way to seal the demon, she gave Shade the ritual information and materials she had prepared to seal the demon. With the God's gift box, even if Darkness was killed, there was no need to worry about letting the Human Pus Demon run away.
Shade was helpless about Luvia's situation and could only let her hold the immortal youth leaf that he had kept. He was already extremely surprised that Luvia could insist on going with him. This was definitely not only because of the four divine amulets, Luvia herself must have a way to resist the erosion of darkness.
But this resistance was not strong, the darkness was absorbing her mental strength, melting her will, and grinding her reason. In addition, after taking the risk of using the cost divination just now, Shade knew very well that he was probably the only one who could go to the core area of darkness.
Before that, Shad needs to find a safe place for Luvia to sleep.
Because there was no reference in the darkness, even with a map in hand, it took them at least three times longer than normal to find the location that Luvia learned from divination.
Just as Shad's eyes had just observed the corns that had been dyed black at the edge of his vision, Luvia suddenly pulled him, pointed at her ears, and signaled Shad to listen carefully.
Holding my breath, I heard a very faint singing voice coming from the cornfield in front of me, with the sound of stones hitting each other from time to time.
The vocalizations that make up the singing voice are composed of hundreds of shrill, sharp sounds. A normal person would probably have to pinch their neck to make similar sounds.
"What's going on? Who is singing in a place like this?"
Xia De was confused and wanted to enter the cornfield, using the tall black plants as a cover to explore. But just as he entered the cornfield, the light on his body suddenly dimmed, and the headache caused by the singing almost made Xia De take a wrong step and fall into the field.
Luvia's situation was even worse. The four amulets on her body cracked at the same time. Looking closely, cracks appeared on all four pieces of metal. She shook her body a few times and held onto Shade's shoulders to avoid falling down.
"The dark forces here are stronger."
"The singing is part of the ritual. The ritual held in this place is strengthening the power of darkness. I have encountered similar situations on the road, but not as exaggerated as this one."
Shade helped Luvia sit down in the black cornfield. After thinking for a while, he took off the metal box on his back and asked Luvia, who could barely open her eyes, to hold it. The golden light illuminated Luvia's face, and her breathing finally calmed down:
"Wait for me here. I'll go to the front to see what's going on."
"These low-intelligence demons should have gathered together to hold rituals within the realm to spread and strengthen the darkness."
Luvia pulled Shade's sleeve:
"This kind of thing has appeared in previous records. Don't go, Xia De. You can't deal with them."
"How can we know if we don't try? Our target is in the center of the cornfield. I must see what else is inside besides the devil."
Xia De asked seriously:
"To witness the thirteen chosen ones, is this your wish. Or, Luvia, are you willing to withdraw with me and wait for good or bad news from the church?"
In the worst case scenario, Shade still had two drops of divinity. Even if he was reluctant and his life was threatened, Shade would not be stingy with the power of divinity.
"Did you bring your pocket watch?"
He asked again.
“I have it with me.”
"Count down to twenty minutes. I will definitely be back."
Shade assured, taking out a weak angel potion from his pocket. After shaking it slightly, the potion itself seemed to sense the surrounding environment and emitted an extremely weak white fluorescence, but it soon went out.
"Take this to prevent any other danger."
He stuffed the test tube into Luvia's hand, then turned around, bent over, and walked towards the center of the cornfield.
Luvia tried to stop him, but in the blink of an eye, Shad disappeared into the darkness.
She held the bottle in her hand, not knowing what to say for a moment. In the dark package, it seemed that something invisible was peeking at her. Luvia held the box tightly in her hand, thinking of the departed Shade.
"It's okay, I will protect you."
She heard the voice in her ear, a smile appeared on her lips, and she closed her eyes, wanting to rest for a while. Behind Luvia, a white transparent figure, the more mature Luvia, gently hugged her, put her head on her shoulder and whispered:
“You’ve done very well.”
The white halo and the golden glow of God's gift box together formed a small safe area.
"Meow!"
And it seemed that because of Xia De's departure, the metal box actually vibrated slightly. But because the box itself had a sliding lid, even if there was something inside, it would be impossible to push the lid open by itself.
Luvia had closed her eyes and fell into a short sleep, so she naturally couldn't hear the sound. The white figure behind her didn't pay attention to the slight meow of the cat, but hummed a lullaby softly.
The sound is not loud, but it is particularly reassuring.