The moonlight sword in Shade's hand did not disappear. Because of the increase in his own strength, some tiny runes appeared on the translucent silver sword in his hand. Of course, it was still not comparable to the one owned by Miss Orlanod in the Thousand Trees Forest.
He looked at the blood mist vigilantly, and saw that the remaining dozen bats gathered together and turned into a middle-aged, yellow-haired man with a pale face, who looked like he was going to die in the next second.
The frightened little boy trotted over to the man and held his hand. The little boy also had yellow hair, and judging from his hair color, the two of them might indeed be relatives.
"Thank you for your help."
The middle-aged man thanked Shade cautiously, still using the Kasenric language, and he seemed to be quite wary of Shade. The boy he was holding hid behind the middle-aged man, as if he was afraid of strangers.
"You mean, you came in from outside to rescue someone?"
Shade asked in Draerion. The middle-aged vampire could understand but probably couldn't speak it, so he nodded and continued in Carsenric:
"Yes, our clan has a special talent that allows us to communicate with souls through blood. I used this talent to set up a ritual and let my nephew pull me in here. When I wanted to return, I unfortunately encountered this thing... Did you also come in from outside on your own initiative?"
Xia De nodded, but did not explain what he had done. Instead, he asked:
"Is there anyone else alive here?"
"I don't know about that. I haven't been here for long."
The middle-aged man said embarrassedly, his slightly slender and feminine eyes narrowed slightly, and then looked at the little boy behind him. Although the boy was still afraid, he still said intermittently:
"There are people. There are many people here. It's a gentleman, a gentleman with wings, who helps everyone."
"With wings?"
Shade and the middle-aged vampire frowned at the same time:
"Lester, what race is the other party?"
"I don't know. I can't see clearly."
"How many strange things are there here?"
The vampire complained quietly, then said to Shade:
"Sir, I'm Armand Bernhard, and this is my nephew Lester Bernhard. We are leaving now, and I wish you the best of luck. If I have the chance in the future, I will repay you."
It seemed that he was extremely afraid of this place.
"Wait a minute, where are the remaining survivors?"
Shade asked again, and the middle-aged vampire couldn't give an answer, so he looked at his nephew and encouraged him to say something else.
The little boy looked at Xia De timidly:
"The survivors are in the church over there."
Xia De looked in the direction of the boy's finger, which was indeed the direction of the Dawn Church:
"Thanks to that gentleman's power, we can survive here longer. It's just that I ran out because I heard my uncle's voice..."
"Is that gentleman also in the church?"
Xia De asked again hurriedly.
"No, he's gone. He said he had a mission to complete, so he left."
"Left?"
Shade was a little confused and didn't understand what mission Priest Augustus could have in this damn place.
"Okay, I understand."
"And, sir."
Perhaps because he saw that Shade had no hostility, the boy had the courage to say more:
"Don't ever step through that door."
"What door?"
"The real door to death. All the living who mistakenly enter this place can feel that there is a door here. Crossing that door means truly entering death."
Shad had heard Sister Michelle talk about this before, so he nodded to indicate that he didn't have that idea.
So the vampire uncle and nephew said goodbye to Shade, who was wearing a mask. They had to return to the place where the middle-aged vampire entered his dream, which corresponded to reality, before they could leave. Shade continued to move forward according to the guidance of the pendant on his chest. As for other living people who might still exist in the church, he had no time to care about them before finding Father Augustus.
The huge city of Midhill Castle was reflected here in a seemingly ambiguous form. Shade, who was walking forward alone, could clearly feel the rejection of living people in this place. It was not just the occasional evil spirits that appeared, the environment itself was corroding the vitality of the living. Although you would not die immediately after entering here, even if you escaped, you would probably fall seriously ill or suffer from a permanent disease.
Even though he intentionally avoided the evil spirits that lingered here, he still had to fight a few battles on the way. These battles were easy for Shade in his current state, but the spiritual and physical strength consumed were difficult to recover. Even with the support of divinity in his soul, the recovery was still far less than the consumption.
Finally, the pendant on his neck guided Shad to the church of the Church of Nature and Evil in the city center. Shad stood at the door of the church suspiciously, wondering why the priest would come to such a place.
The Natural Church of Midhill Castle was one of the few buildings that Shade could clearly identify from behind the abandoned tower in the mountains. The Natural Church was the first of the Five Gods Churches to settle in this city. The church was large and particularly magnificent.
After confirming that the pendant on his neck was still pointing firmly at the building in front of him, Shad walked up the nine stone steps to the church entrance, crossed the elegant white columns on the steps, and then stood in front of the tightly closed gray-white metal door.
It was the first time for him to see a church closed. Generally speaking, the church door was open 24 hours a day. He reached out and pressed the metal door of the church. The key did not respond, which meant it was not locked. So he pushed hard until his face turned red. He finally pushed the door open a crack, but it still did not make any sound.
Xia De then stepped sideways into the door, and then found that not only had the fog inside the church become much lighter and the temperature returned to normal, the air was filled with the smell of high-end spices, but there was actually light here.
The structures of the churches of the Five Gods Church are basically the same. The nave is the first thing you see when you enter the gate. The high ceilings, stained glass windows, and religious paintings and sculptures everywhere create a sacred atmosphere.
The nave of the church in front of you has everything it should have, but it also has things it shouldn't have.
Candles, white candles of varying lengths and golden candlesticks engraved with the emblems of the Five Gods, almost covered the entire floor, spreading between the long benches until they covered the pulpit in the front nave. There was almost no place to step, because the door was opened and the white mist outside the door slightly penetrated inward, and the flickering flames of these candles cast a huge shadow of Shade on the metal door behind him.
Golden divine runes were engraved on the ground, walls, and ceiling, and even the window glass was covered with runes of varying sizes. Silver metal wires shuttled overhead, intertwining and entangled with each other, and hanging on the metal wires were metal spells, parchment scrolls, holy bells, holy emblems, and other items with strong miraculous elements.
Entering the church, the strong miracle element almost completely overwhelmed the other three elements. If this scene in front of me appeared in the real world, even if it was suppressing a demon like the human pus, it would probably have a strong effect.
"Has the Church ever entered here?"
All of these divine magic items were colored, indicating that they were brought in from the real world. And this huge divine magic ritual in front of him, which also included the holy emblems of Mr. Dawn, Old Man with Lantern, Lady of Creation, Father of Peace, and Lord of All Things, could only have been arranged by a senior ring magician of the Five Gods Church.
"It turns out that the church not only has the means to seal this place in the real world, but also here... Could this be the core between life and death?"
He looked around with some confusion, and then he actually heard the answer.
“This is certainly not the core.”
It was not "her" who was speaking in my ear, but a man's voice.
Xia De immediately turned around and looked behind the door. A man wearing brown leather boots and a black hunting suit was leaning against the white wall next to the metal door with a crack in it, with his hands folded across his chest.
"Can you read minds?"
"No, every living person who sees this place will think that this is the core of the narrow space, so I guessed what you were thinking."
His body is transparent, and one can see the colorful murals of the righteous gods preaching and the divine runes on the wall behind him through his body. At the same time, on his chest hangs an equally transparent holy emblem of the God of Nature and the Lord of All Things, which represents that he was a member of the Church of Nature when he was alive.
"I thought that all the souls here had no self-awareness."
Xia De was not surprised, but looked at the soul in front of him curiously.
"Most of the souls sucked in here have no self-awareness due to the special nature of the relics, and there is a greater possibility of evil spirits being born here. I am one of the few souls that retains self-awareness, but it is not due to natural reasons. It is because I performed a ritual inside the church before I died."
The man said, his stern eyes also looking at Shade wearing the mask:
"So, sir, who are you?"