"No, we can't keep it open."
When Shad and Tifa completely entered the area circled by black pen ink on the map, Shad suddenly said.
Tifa was riding a horse, so Shad was observing the erosion of the Dark Box. Now more than half of the surface area of the box had turned into a light-absorbing black color. Shad felt that this was already a warning line.
"OK."
Tifa stopped the horse so that Shade could close the box again. But when the undead creature that had been running for two and a half hours stopped, it actually broke into a pile of bones and scattered in the dark woods.
“It’s reached its limit.”
Tifa said with some annoyance, holding up Shad to prevent him from falling, and Shad quickly squatted down to close the Dark Box again.
"It doesn't matter. We are not far from our destination."
Shade said, holding the map and moving his glowing finger closer:
"Although the area of the Dark Territory can be expanded infinitely, the area of the core area is very small. If nothing goes wrong, even if we walk, we will be able to see Miss Carina in about twenty minutes."
“This neighborhood gives me a very strange feeling.”
Tifa put the box on her back, whispered to Shad, and then held his hand. She had to use this kind of physical contact, and the unknown silver moonlight on Shad's body could help her weaken the influence of darkness. Entering the core area of the angel-level relic, even Tifa was almost at her limit.
The feeling of being watched became more and more obvious in this area, and the afterimages of the past in the air became more and more dense. Something unimaginable must have happened in the core area of the dark realm.
"Be careful, this way."
Shade looked at the map and continued walking in the black forest with Tifa. The silver halo in the darkness gave a strange feeling, and when it reflected the surrounding scenery, it seemed to make the vision a little blurry.
Xia De thought about what might happen in the near future, and considered the power he could use. Suddenly, a voice rang in his ear. Because of the strong blasphemous elements in this area, she had not given any new information for a long time:
Outsider, watch your back.
"What?"
Subconsciously, he turned around to split the moonlight, but he saw a familiar face appearing like lightning. Before Shade spoke, he passed by the two of them, as if he didn't notice Shade and Tifa at all.
"That's... Mr. Hog Rundle, the Sunshine Greatsword of the Church of the Sun?"
Tifa recognized who it was.
"Yes, it is a phantom."
Xia De said with certainty that the voice in his ear could not be wrong in judging the close-range target.
"In other words, the darkness in the core area is already capable of recording short-term phantoms?"
Tifa asked.
"That's probably true, but what was he running for so fast?"
Shade wondered, and then continued forward with Tifa. During this time, more real phantoms appeared one after another, most of which were ring wizards of the church. Shade and Tifa even saw the phantoms of Ivan Darkness and Bloodthirster Hermons.
Continue forward and leave the forest corrupted by darkness, and enter a small rural village that even the sleeping people cannot find. This is almost the source of the emergence of the dark realm. The villagers have long been melted by darkness, and there are hidden servants wandering everywhere in the village.
The houses were dilapidated and eaten away by darkness, and the walls had turned pitch black. This place was even more terrifying than the ghost village in the mountains that Shad had heard Mr. Riddle describe.
Carefully avoiding the demons, even if they accidentally attracted the attention of a few individuals, Shad and Tifa worked together to barely avoid them. After leaving the village and standing on the ridge of the field, looking up into the distance, Shad actually saw a pillar in the depths of darkness that seemed to support the world. But because the darkness was too deep, he was not sure whether it was his imagination that gave the darkness.
"Tifa, can you still hold on?"
He turned to the black-haired girl and asked. Although the maid looked a little bad, she was much better than when Luvia arrived at Miss Carina's manor:
"No problem, I feel that the lady should be nearby."
There are only thirteen witches in the Sixth Era, and the other women with witch powers are all powers shared by witches. Tifa's witch power is the same as Miss Carina's, and there is a certain degree of induction between the two.
"Okay, we're going to do a little..."
Before he could finish his words, a dazzling golden light suddenly burst out from the dark field not far away. Because his eyes had already adapted to the darkness, when the light suddenly appeared, tears almost immediately flowed from Xia De's eyes.
Shade heard a sound, a deafening sound:
When the heavy sword falls, the blazing sun will shine on the earth.
"The words of sublimation!?"
Before he could react, Tifa stood in front of Shade.
The scorching golden light rushed over, sweeping away all the filth on the land almost violently.
"Heavy sword, falling, blazing sun, shining, earth. The sublimation words of the Sunshine Greatsword of the Thirteenth Ring Warlock, a follower of the old man with the lantern, the god of the sun and the earth!"
Shad, who was blocked behind Tifa, heard her talking. Even though her back was in front of him, he could feel that it was getting brighter and brighter around him, and the scenery around him was changing.
"We have been affected by the aftermath of the Word of Ascension. Don't mess with Shade. We must not enter the range of the Word of Ascension."
A blur of golden steps appeared behind Tifa and Shad, but the power was not enough to counter the Words of Ascension of the Thirteen-Ring Warlock.
"The words of sublimation? Space stabilization aura!"
Invisible waves spread from Shad's feet to the surroundings, and combined with the power of the witch, the shining light in the surrounding environment immediately subsided. The sublimation language has a partial spatial power. Shad, who is at the edge of the influence of this powerful force, and Tifa barely avoided being pulled in.
Darkness took over the place again. The maid seemed to be injured. She groaned and was supported by Xia De.
"Is this the power of the Thirteen Rings?"
Xia De took out a container of water to treat her. At this time, a strong light suddenly flashed in the sky. Then, two faint light points appeared in the dark sky. One was golden and the other was blood red. They fell together to an area far away from the core area, as if they were still chasing.
"Sunshine Great Sword won."
Tifa said softly, her complexion recovering quickly under the silver light, her eyes fixed on the direction where the two spots of light disappeared.
"I'm not surprised. If the Bloodweeper could fight against the top thirteen-ring warlock of the True God Church, he wouldn't have hidden in the New World for so many years. It seems that Darkness and the Bloodweeper have separated because of the church's obstruction. Let's continue. There seems to be something else ahead. The elements nearby are really chaotic."
Shade said, and after making sure Tifa was in good condition, the two of them continued to move forward.
It is impossible to tell what was originally planted in this field. The corrosion of darkness has turned all the plants in the area into a mud-like substance. You can even feel your shoes being corroded when you step on them.
Then, as we walked forward, the black stains on the ground that looked like lichen or salt began to accumulate into small black crystals, becoming larger and larger as we moved forward.
"The purest element of blasphemy."
Shade risked touching those horrible black crystals with his hand, and the color of his fingertips quickly darkened, but was quickly dispelled by the light from his fingertips.
"This is top-grade alchemical material. Why is it that wherever something big happens, there are always large amounts of alchemical materials?"
He sighed and collected some in the small bottle he carried with him.
Tifa looked ahead anxiously, as if she sensed that Miss Carina was in a bad situation. But before meeting the big red-haired witch, Shade and Tifa encountered another group of strange women.
The women traveled in groups, and each wore exactly the same clothing.
The upper body is a white gauze dress with unusually large sleeves, and the hem almost reaches the knees. The lower body is a black floor-length skirt. There is no decoration on the skirt, and the black belt around the waist tightly binds the outer coat and skirt together.
But what caught Xia De's attention even more was that all these women covered their eyes with silver metal eye masks. But if you look closely, those eye masks with fine patterns carved on them are clearly crowns, but they are wearing the crowns too low.
There were nine of them in total, walking together in the darkness. Although they could not see any relics, nor could they feel any magic or spells at work, the women were still enveloped in a white light.
The white lights were distributed very evenly, as if they were glowing themselves.
The two sides were quite far apart, and only Shade could observe them. Shade described his discovery to Tifa, who immediately smiled:
"It's the nuns, the sisters of the spiritual order."
"A spiritual sect?"
Shade knew about this ring wizard organization.
Although they are called a "sect", they actually do not have a unified belief. Instead, they believe that all things have spirits, and therefore revere nature, life, and death.
This organization is active in the eastern part of the old continent. Its members are mainly women. Most of them live a simple life and like to help women give birth. Some child welfare organizations and hospitals are related to them. They often promote some environmental protection ideas, so they have some friction with the promoter of the steam revolution, the Church of Creation and Destruction, but they are still a relatively moderate group of ring magicians.
Covering the eyes with a blindfold is a characteristic of the ring warlocks of the spiritual cult. The cult believes that covering the eyes can not only expand their "spiritual perception" and allow themselves to better perceive the spirituality of the world, but also lock their own spirituality in the body and better control the power of the four elements.