"Damn it, your blood isn't right, what the hell are you?"
The devil's voice awakened Shad, and the long illusion corresponded to reality in less than two seconds. Even Iluna and Tifa had no time to react.
The mind returned to normal, and the runes on the chains of sin that were glowing with light returned to normal, but the dark color seemed to indicate that the chains were a little different.
Darkness's right hand seemed to have encountered a natural enemy, and it quickly let go of Shade's shoulder and retreated.
But the consequence of doing so was that the black chain piercing his arm was also pulled to Darkness' side.
The blessing of the Augustus priest disappeared, and the Dark Box ended its out-of-control state because of the power it swallowed, and the surroundings returned to the internal environment of the dark realm again. Shade covered his right shoulder and saw that the silver light on the right side of his body had gone out, and half of his body seemed to melt in the darkness.
But in the blink of an eye, the abnormal half of his body recovered, and the influence of swallowing the dark power completely disappeared. It was even as if he had adapted to the darkness because he had swallowed the darkness. His field of vision was wider than when Zhufu was still there. He could now almost completely see in the dark:
"Father Augustus's blessing is really nice. I must make a special trip to thank him when I get out."
Xia De thought.
She was chuckling.
Darkness retracted his arm, squirming and transforming into pus, "spitting out" the rune chain piercing his arm. With his spirit suddenly filled up, Shade leaped forward, once again using the Lagrai jump to break through the space and appeared in front of Darkness. He swung his right hand and chopped down. This time, Darkness just raised his right hand and grasped Shade's moonlight sword.
The fragments of the silver moon floated into the mouth of his palm, and the huge suction made Shade unable to move. But the abundance of spirit allowed Shade to maintain the existence of the silver moon sword for a long time. The demon, who was hurt by the weak angel potion and the chain of sin, was only barely able to suppress him this time.
At this time, the ritual array composed of thirteen light spots had moved from Darkness's feet to his waist and abdomen, and the ceremony of the chosen one was about to be completed.
"Hamilton, what level are you?"
In the glow of the moonlight sword, Darkness stared at Shade with her scarlet eyes and finally asked this question.
"What do you think?"
Although the suction force prevented Shad from retreating, he could at least let go of his sword and hold the other's hand. The Demon Hunting Seal touched the demon's mouth, and Darkness wanted to retreat as if he was burned, but there was a black stone pillar behind him, and the chain of sin that emerged again tightly bound Shad's hand to his right hand.
Darkness opened her mouth and blew a puff of black smoke at Shade. The black smoke covered half of Shade's face, and with a rustling sound, half of Shade's face completely crystallized.
But it doesn’t matter, Xia De’s goal has been achieved.
"What?"
The moonlight fell, and the Blade of Disordered Time summoned a second moonlight greatsword.
The right hand that was inhabited by the demon was held tightly by Shade and could not leave. The moonlight passed through his wrist, and the whole right hand fell to the ground along with the falling moonlight. But before being tracked and entangled by the chains of sin, the right hand turned into a pool of pus, escaped from the gap of the chain, and fell to the crystal ground under the feet of the two with a snap.
The gift box from God that Shade was carrying had a crack when he was knocked away. At this moment, the box was like the dark box that had lost control just now. The lid of the box was pushed open by an invisible force from the outside, and a black shadow suddenly rushed to the ground.
"My demonic power!"
In great pain, Darkness kicked Shade, who was close at hand, to the ground far away, covered his right wrist with his left hand, and howled miserably. But the ritual continued, and the demon attached to the body was not a necessary condition for the ritual.
"Is the current situation normal? Are you sure that the demon in you is not trying to bewitch you and take over your body?"
Taking advantage of the brief separation between the demon and Darkness, Shad, whose half body had crystallized, tried to squeeze out a voice with half of his mouth, and stared directly at the fading red light in the other's eyes with his non-crystallized eyes:
"Your talent is darkness, not the devil. Don't be deceived by the devil."
After being kicked by the opponent, Xia De felt very uncomfortable. In addition to the crystallization of his body, he even felt something climbing up his shoulders and crawling towards the box behind him.
After applying a "false immortality" state to himself, he slowly stood up, and the crystals quickly spread to the other half of his body.
"Shad!"
The two girls who were seriously injured by the dark impact just now supported him from behind, and the three of them looked at Darkness in the skylight together.
"No, I'm not deceived. No one can deceive me!"
The black pus on the ground flew up automatically. Darkness, whose expression was distorted by pain, stretched out his right arm. The black pus precisely connected with the bleeding arm and merged little by little in the twisted darkness.
He could have rejected the demon with the help of Shad's sword during the Ceremony of the Chosen One, but he chose to merge with the demon once again.
"Are you really going to use the power of the devil?"
Xia De looked him in the eyes and asked one last time:
"Are you sure you're right?"
"I never believe in good or evil, right or wrong, I only believe in myself. With power, I can define good and evil myself."
Darkness, floating in the strange light, looked pale, but he looked directly into Shade's eyes. He frowned, answering Shade's question seriously, thinking about the meaning of these words:
"No matter what level you are, don't try to stop me."
"I don't believe in good and evil either. Good and evil are determined by humans themselves. But you've done so many bad things. You betrayed your organization for power, slaughtered ordinary people who witnessed you, spread the power of the devil and distorted other people's souls. And you made yourself look so scary. Is it all worth it?"
Shad asked.
"Of course it's worth it. When I was a teenager, I pushed my cousin who knew my private secrets off a cliff. When I was young, I murdered my brother for the inheritance. After becoming a ring warlock, I poisoned the second-ring warlock who trusted me with a potion for the power of the devil. Do you think I will feel guilty? No, I don't have such emotions, because everything can be abandoned. Do you understand darkness? I understand. I will walk alone in the end. I only believe in myself."
"But in my opinion, darkness is not such a thing."
Xia De wanted to refute:
"Darkness is just darkness, the most profound natural phenomenon that can swallow everything. It is you who gave the darkness your thoughts. Your darkness is not pure, and you will be swallowed by it."
Darkness’s arm was reattached, and the scarlet light in his eyes was rekindled. The two looked into each other’s eyes:
"Be afraid!"
Extreme fear surged into Shad's eyes once again. Even though he had experienced the terror in the Dreadfort, this blow containing the power of the ancient gods still made him tremble in his heart.
Thinking about it carefully, this moment seemed familiar. It seemed that not long ago, he was standing with two ladies in the dark, but someone said something else at that time...
The soul was touched, and the long-dormant power was trying to revive. This was an impulse, a strange impulse. Shade understood the power he was looking for. Father Augustus was right. It was not light that defeated darkness, but the courage to face darkness.
He knew that he was only one step away from a new thaumaturgy, and he was not lacking in spirit. He just lacked the last touch, the touch that would push him to touch the great power.
The ritual array composed of thirteen light spots rose completely and arrived above Darkness's head. The black robe phantom merged with the six-ring life ring, and the power of the true dark chosen one swept over.
With a muffled bang, all the crystals on Shade's body exploded, and his skin and clothes also exploded. The cracks revealed the golden afterglow of the divinity that was lit up by the power of the ancient gods. The power of darkness rushed over, and Shade blocked the two girls behind him. The afterglow in the cracks on his body dragged a golden flame-like brilliance behind him. He touched the dice in his pocket and smiled:
"Just don't regret it."
Darkness stared into Shade's eyes, wondering what he would do at the last minute.
Shade narrowed his eyes, then suddenly bent down—
"balance!"
Iluna appeared close to the back of Shad's head, and her eyes replaced Shad's and looked at Darkness.
The world was eerily silent for a moment.
Above his head, Darkness’ life ring melted and transformed into a black robe dotted with golden spots.
The second chosen one officially appeared.
Squeezing the dice in his pocket, Shadra pulled Iluna and Tifa back. The three did not attack Darkness, and Darkness did not attack them either.
He fell back to the ground, and the beam of pure daylight exploded in the air. With a loud thunder, in the dark sky, creepy black lightning continued to bombard the ground, as if the world was also celebrating the appearance of the second chosen one.
He laughed wildly in the deep darkness, and his voice spread throughout the entire darkness.
The black robe transformed from the life ring was draped over his body, and thirteen points of light merged into his body. The power of the ancient gods poured into his soul from the distant void. The talent and knowledge that already existed in his soul were pushing him to a higher position:
"Success! Destiny is on my side!"
Black pus flowed out from the palm of his right hand, pouring the disgusting black liquid onto the crystal ground. The pus climbed up the black giant pillar from the ground, and at the same time, it spread to the surroundings like a spring.
In a blink of an eye, the open space in the Crystal Forest was filled with pus. Outside the forest, amidst earthquakes and mountain roars, black crystals spread across the entire area with the Crystal Forest as the center, and crystal stone pillars pierced the ground one by one.
Iluna turned around and took the golden scale floating behind her. The golden light formed a circular area, opening up a circular area in the gurgling pus that could accommodate three people.
Darkness's human form was severely injured by the church ring warlock, and his Devil's Mouth form was severely injured by Iluna and the weak angel potion. However, he did not enter the third form, which is the half-demon form, but directly let the human pus cover his right half of the body, entered the human pus demon form, and gradually merged with the black pillar behind him.
"He wanted to devour the corpse of the ancient demon. Don't worry, he was affected by my gaze at the last moment. Don't look at him smiling happily now. The power he displayed is more terrifying than mine at that time, but this is the power of the instantaneous sublimation of the soul. I bet that within half an hour, he will not be able to use his own power above the fourth ring. As long as we prevent the Human Pus from helping him devour the ancient demon and recover from my restraints, we will win this time."
Iluna reminded quietly, and Shade also said quietly:
"Don't worry, I'll open the puzzle and open his eyes."
"Mystery lock? Didn't you tell the young lady that you are not a god-caller?"
Tifa was very surprised, but Shade said:
"It's not the snowy mythal. I have my own mythal, which is related to darkness and courage, but it has not yet taken shape. One person cannot have two mythals, so it proves once again that I am not a Godcaller."
The rule that "one person cannot have two puzzles" does not actually exist, it's just that puzzles are difficult to learn and master, and the possibility of a ring warlock mastering two puzzles is almost non-existent.
The darkness around became thicker with the pus flowing under his feet, and the deep darkness seemed to swallow up everything here.
The three of them stood in a circular area held up by the balanced power of the Chosen Ones, but Shade ignored the darkness and took off the box on his back, opened the lid and looked inside:
"Before that, I want to make sure of one thing."
"Meow~"
The little orange cat, as if in fear, huddled in a corner of God's gift box. When it saw Shade looking at it from above, it raised its head, looked at him with its big amber eyes, and made a very aggrieved cry.
Iluna and Tifa also saw the cat. Although they guessed the source of the cat's cry, Shad still couldn't believe it:
"When did you drill..."
He was startled again, and saw Mia in the box seemed to be biting something. He first looked at his hand to confirm that the three rings were there, and then hesitantly asked:
"Mia, you... this ring... where did you get it from?"
"Why can't I use my power? Where's my fish training ring?"
Darkness in demon form suddenly shouted, and then Shad understood why he didn't enter the half-demon form.
Without the fish training ring, the human pus demon cannot speak through the demon mouth, and therefore cannot be transformed into a right-handed half-demon with a certain degree of autonomy.
The Ringwitch himself was seriously injured, and his right hand was reassembled, causing the Demon's Mouth to temporarily eliminate the threat, the half-demon could not appear, and the Dark Chosen's talent was suppressed by balance.
Although she completed the most crucial ritual and obtained her identity, Darkness now only had the final form of Human Pus to use. And because of the weak angel potion, Darkness in Human Pus form did not seem to have overwhelming power.
At this time, it was only four minutes before the steel right hand left. Although Shade and the ladies were all injured, it seemed that they had the upper hand.