The fighting might stop soon, but it might continue for several hours.
Realizing that this place is very dangerous and that he might be taken away by some large-scale attack, Xia De now has the idea of retreating to a farther place.
He consciously hid himself in the dense woods, looking at the thick fog and pondering the causes and effects of everything he had seen tonight.
After confirming that it was safe, he crouched down and ran towards the depths of the fog with the cat in his arms. Fortunately, the power of the divine ritual still remained on this land, so there was no need to worry about encountering evil spirits in the fog.
The thick fog made Shade afraid to walk too fast, and he was still thinking about Joey Barton. At about 7:40 pm, Shade, who was hiding in the bushes and covered by illusion, ran into someone running in the fog again.
Although the sound was very close, it was not directed at Xia De. He was running through the woods ten meters away.
The fog was hazy, but through the leaves, Shade's eyes could still see a man dressed like a circus clown, tall and thin, wearing a red costume, and even a red nose ball hanging from his nose.
Generally speaking, if you see this kind of person in the woods at night, then that person must be abnormal, but the clown seems to be just an ordinary person.
"Where did this come from? No, it has nothing to do with me. You don't need to go out."
The stranger thought to himself as he carefully tucked the cat into his arms to prevent it from making a sound and attracting attention.
Although the man dressed as a clown was an ordinary man, he moved very agilely in the woods and disappeared into the fog in a short while.
At the same time, he felt a slight burning pain on his shoulder. He subconsciously covered his right shoulder, and then he realized that it was the Red Butterfly Mark that was getting hot, and that the Red Butterfly Mark seemed to be detached from Xia De's shoulder. Xia De had to work hard to suppress it:
"That clown, was he one of the nails sent to Middlesbrough by the narrow space?"
Xia De thought in surprise.
This could explain why the Truth suddenly called Mr. Patton away. Since Joey Patton could see the date of death of others, he could discover those who had died in the past.
He did not chase after him immediately because there were still sounds in the foggy forest.
Dozens of seconds later, five or six men in black suits caught up with him, and one of them Shade actually recognized as Professor Johnson, a high-level warlock of the Society of Truth who had killed two of his companions in the deserted village and escaped from Helen.
The people around him were dressed almost the same as him, and they all looked like scholars. These people were very fast, moving through the forest like the wind, obviously using extraordinary powers.
"People from the Truth Society? Are they chasing that clown? Did the clown take advantage of the Orthodox Church's siege to escape?"
But Shade still did not show up, but watched the group disappear. Because soon, the third group of people came up from behind, and this time it was Mr. Barton.
He looked extremely embarrassed, and because of his slight disability, he could not move very fast in the forest. It was hard to say who was scarier in the forest at night, the clown or Mr. Barton. With his strange childlike appearance and strange way of walking, normal people would probably turn around and run away if they saw him.
"Mr. Barton actually ran out?"
This scene surprised Shade more than the appearance of the nail. The situation this afternoon clearly showed that the Society of Truth was ambushed and surrounded by the Orthodox Church. It was unimaginable that Mr. Barton, a first-ring warlock, could run to such an outskirts.
As Mr. Barton ran, he used magic to restore the trampled branches and dead leaves in the forest to their original appearance. He was more afraid of being discovered than the people in front of him running and chasing without scruples.
His body was stained with blood, although it was very light, it was not difficult to track him in the dense forest. Therefore, Xia De did not chase him immediately, but weighed the pros and cons in his mind.
Squinting slightly, he looked into the distance. This time, it took a full minute for the fourth group of people to catch up. And this time, the people who came were finally from the True God Church.
It was a full-strength ring warlock team of the Church of the Sun, and Shade even saw Iluna among them. She was wearing a female hunting suit that was convenient for movement, with a huge sun-patterned holy emblem hanging on her chest, the Holy Bell of the Judge in her left hand, the cloth sword wrapped around her wrist, and the mirror she got at the Fire Festival banquet on her waist.
The group followed the traces on the ground, but because of Mr. Patton's cover-up, they were unable to find the direction to move forward in the thick fog for a while.
It's not that the first-ring sorcerer's magic is powerful, but the foggy woods at night are not a convenient place for tracking.
"Iluna has shown up, so I must help."
Thinking in his heart, Xia De released the right shoulder that was covered by his left hand. As the burning pain intensified, a red light appeared under the clothes. Then, a transparent red butterfly flew out from under the clothes, its wings fluttering, scattering dots of red light in the air.
“Go quickly!”
Xiade whispered in the direction of Iluna, and the red butterfly seemed to understand and flew away from the range of the illusion towards the church members.
"Miss Beas!"
The full-strength team of the Orthodox Church had its own division of responsibilities. The ring sorcerer who was responsible for searching the direction of advance soon discovered the red shadow in the thick fog. Then the shadow got closer and closer, and what came out of the white fog was a transparent red butterfly.
"Red Butterfly?"
The red butterfly stopped not far from them, and then repeatedly zoomed in and out, hoping that they would follow it in the fog. But out of caution, the group did not follow it immediately, and even Iluna looked a little hesitant.
Shade, who was hiding in the bushes, shook his head, dispelled the illusion, and then gently patted Mia's head.
"Meow~"
The slight sound of a cat's meow could not travel far in the forest, and since this was the suburbs of the city, even if someone heard the sound they would not find it strange.
Iluna's ears twitched, and she looked suspiciously at the fog around her. An expression of sudden enlightenment appeared on her face, and then she pointed at the red butterfly:
"Follow it, it's leading the way for us."
No one else questioned Iluna's decision, so the group followed the transparent red butterfly away.
"Don't make any noise for a moment."
Shade, who was in the shadow behind the tree, whispered to the cat he was holding in his hands. Mia, who was squatting, widened her amber eyes and nodded obediently. So Shade put her on his shoulder, and after making sure that no one appeared in the fog this time, he followed her into the thick fog.
After passing through the private woodland belonging to the local nobles, they arrived at the lake at the foot of the mountain. Shade had seen this lake on the sand table at the Red Water Camp. The mountain streams originating from the lake on the top of the mountain converged at the foot of the mountain to form this lake, and connected to the nearby water system. This lake is called "Bena Lake". There is woodland on one side of the lake and two small hills on the other side.
Maybe because of the water vapor, the thick fog around the lake has dissipated a lot. You can see the moon at this time, just stopping between the hills, reflecting the three-color moonlight on the lake, making the shimmering waves more textured.
When Shad followed the church members to the lake, the battle had already begun.
The battle took place on the lake. Someone had used magic to freeze the lake water on a large scale. Everyone was standing on the ice at the moment. The two sides in the battle were actually that ordinary man, the clown, and the three ring sorcerers from the Society of Truth.
“Hahahahahahahaha…”
The insane laughter became clearer as Shad approached the edge of the woods. The clown was still not a ring sorcerer, but the concentration of the whispering elements on his body far exceeded most of the relics Shad had seen.
On the lake under the moonlight, he laughed crazily, his shadow gradually faded and disappeared. Two extra hands stretched out from behind him, holding a Rhodes card, a red nose ball, a black short knife and an old-fashioned matchlock gun.
His crazy laughter even caused cracks to appear on the ice surface, and as he laughed, his figure under the moon kept disappearing and appearing. This turned out to be the ability to move through space.
Shade didn't fight him head-on, so he couldn't tell how dangerous he was, but even though the Truth Society's ring sorcerers had revealed their life rings, they were still outclassed. Of course, this was also related to their level.
Only two of them were in the middle ring, and the others were in the low ring. And the professor who was originally in the high ring had rust on his brass life ring like a red butterfly. It was obvious that Helen let him run away, and she was not worried that he would cause any other trouble.
The Joker's seemingly endless supply of Rhodes cards scattered around like a machine gun, and no one dared to touch the cards with cursed power. Once the thrown nose ball touched an object, it would cause the object to collapse like a jigsaw puzzle; the black short knife was extremely sharp, not only could it throw out black blade light, but it could even cut off the spiritual weapons in the hands of high-level warlocks; and the old-fashioned matchlock gun was even more exaggerated, although it took more than 20 seconds to fire a shot, but once it was fired, even cracks appeared in the space.
"It turns out that the 'nail' who knows his identity is so scary..."
Xia De was very glad that the woman in the deserted village was caught before she could show her strength. Considering that the fewer the number of nails, the stronger the remaining nails, I am afraid that things will be more difficult in the future.
At this time, Iluna and her group had followed the Red Butterfly to the lake, and the people on the lake had of course noticed them.
Even without the three members of the Truth Society leading the clown to them, the clown actually split apart under the moonlight. The flesh swelled, and then, entangled in disgusting black mucus, two identical clowns split apart from the swollen body, one on the left and one on the right.
One of them continued to fight against the Truth Society, and the other appeared beside Iluna with a crazy laugh:
"You are all going to die!"
The holy bell rang softly, and Iluna responded with the Sunshine Gun.
The scene became increasingly chaotic, and the clown seemed to be able to adjust his strength according to the number of his opponents. Even when he was fighting against the entire ring warlock team alone, he still did not lose the upper hand.