As the sun set, the fog that had enveloped Midhill Castle for three days became thicker. Shade, feeling a little down, left Count Darak's mansion with Reverend Augustus, leaving only the grieving old butler to clean up the mess.
After the nails were pulled out, those vague memories would gradually recover, and the church should also be able to determine the disappearance of the third nail based on the next change in Mount Sikar. As for Shade and Priest Augustus, no one would know that they had been here.
Walking along the street in the thick fog, Shade looked down at the Rhodes Ancient Fairy Tale: Sleeping Princess in his hand:
"Priest, life and death always make people sad, don't they? I had nothing to do with the count, but I am still sad about his passing."
"This is normal, young man. I have seen countless separations and deaths in my life. There are too many such things. Although many people have said this, I still want to emphasize that since we are alive, we should cherish the present time and not leave any regrets for ourselves."
The priest stroked his pipe. Shade nodded and solemnly added the cards in his hand to his deck. He then used the magic treasure to assimilate it into the deck:
"Come to think of it, priest, just now in the earl's study, I used my eyes to signal you that I wanted to play Rhodes with the earl. How did you interpret my eyes?"
Xia De still remembered this incident, and the old priest smiled:
"Your meaning is very easy to understand - before sending the earl away, I want to get the Rhodes card from him to satisfy my Rhodes card collecting habit. You see, isn't my guess very accurate?"
He actually understood it completely wrong.
Father Augustus returned to the Dawn Church, while Shad braved the fog and went up the mountain, preparing to return home. The journey was not smooth, as the road to the mountain was temporarily blocked by the local police in Middlesbrough. According to the news released by the City Hall, there was heavy fog in the mountains recently. For the safety of the citizens, starting from today, the 17th day of the Dead Leaf Month, for a period of two weeks, no ordinary citizen without a special pass will be allowed to enter the mountain area from 6 pm to 7 am the next day.
This simple blockade certainly couldn't stop Shad, but it also meant that the church had realized the urgency of the situation, and Mount Sikar was really very dangerous at night.
On the way up the mountain, the thick fog almost made Shade lose the correct direction, and the undead wandering in the fog also caused him considerable trouble.
Even though the Night's Watch sword in his hand can detect the location of powerful spirits from a long distance without being hindered by the thick fog, and the blessing of the Witch Emperor can reduce the malice of the undead, Shad sometimes has to face the enemy head-on.
In order to fight against the undead in Middleburg, he actually prepared some means, such as the special alchemical item "Spirit Repelling Amulet" bought from Old John, and the simple magic potion "Spirit Repelling Dust" that he tried to make. The former can make the spirits subconsciously unwilling to approach, while the latter can directly cause damage to the spirits, and it can also serve as a warning when sprinkled beside the tent when camping.
But these conventional methods were completely ineffective against the powerful individuals among the Middleburg evil spirits. As long as Shade entered their detection range, the evil spirits would immediately pounce on him.
After the two earthquakes, the top evil spirits that came from the narrow space were as powerful as the middle-ring warlocks, and even Shad had to deal with them with caution.
If it was just one enemy, it wouldn't be a big deal, but there were countless souls hiding in the fog in the mountains that should have left. Therefore, if he accidentally moved the battlefield too far, Shade would have to face attacks from two or even three enemies at the same time.
Guiding death, mind blast, sunlight ray, light magic, silver moon slash... ... magic was performed one after another, and the Night Watchman used the Moonlight Greatsword and the Blade of Chaos Time countless times to leave streaks of light and shadows in the fog.
Even though he could use the illusion of the moon shadow to hide at night, when Shade approached the abandoned tower in the mountain, he was still followed by three undead spirits wrapped in thick fog. One was a headless woodcutter, one was an armored knight holding a long sword, and the last one was a two-headed tiger.
Xia De didn't know what the tiger had experienced in its life.
He almost ran away and rushed into the abandoned tower, only to find that the fog inside the tower was very thin. Turning back to look outside, he saw the three undeads circling around in the thick fog outside the tower, as if they were afraid of something and didn't dare to come in.
Only then did Xia De feel relieved. He had been worried that one day he would be suddenly attacked by the undead after walking out of the hidden wall.
"Since you don't dare to come in..."
He temporarily put the long sword in his hand aside, crossed his arms in front of his chest, pointed in the direction outside the tower gate, drew a cross arc, and then moved sideways and rushed forward:
"I'm welcome."
These evil spirits chased Shade all the way, and he must take revenge.
(Mi Mia is running...)
After solving the third problem, Shade suddenly found that he had no target in Midhill Castle.
I first stepped into the city in early autumn to rescue Father Augustus, and met many people during the trip. But now, if I look through my notebook, except for meeting Grace and Helen next week, everything in Middlesbrough is over.
Of course, the problem of the chosen one and the narrow space has not been solved, but that is the church's problem. As for who the chosen one will be this time and how the ceremony will be held, those are still unknown.
For this reason, Shade visited the Prophet Association again on Friday morning. When he met Vice President Mark, the middle-aged man in formal attire jokingly said to Shade:
"You come here almost eight times a week, and every time you use your cat as an excuse. Don't bring the cat next time. Who here doesn't know that you are here to see Luvia Annette?"
There were people coming and going in the lobby on the first floor, but because they were close to the reception desk, the young ladies in uniform all laughed.
"It's your working hours now. I can't call her out alone. This is against the rules."
Shad was not embarrassed. He still paid the divination fee and then met Luvia in the separate divination room on the second floor.
The good news that the third nail was successfully pulled out was naturally to be informed to Luvia. But after listening to Shade's story, Luvia became a little worried:
"The Life and Death Void is an unknowable relic. Although it is impossible for it to generate consciousness, it will not remain indifferent to this. Once you remove all four nails that fix the Void to the material world, the Void may explode prematurely."
"That's why the church conducts the removal of nails and the preparation ceremony at the same time. According to Iluna, the ceremony will begin as soon as all the nails are removed."
"The question is, what about the clown that Joey Barton took away?"
Luvia asked, frowning in thought:
"As long as it involves the Chosen, we must never let our guard down. Anything could happen to them... The Association headquarters plans to send two high-level prophets to arrive in Middlesbrough this weekend to predict Joey Barton's location. But things may not be that easy to resolve."
"The question now is what exactly this Chosen One Ceremony is."
Xia De put the soft Mia cat in his arms on the table. It lay there unwilling to move at all:
"Items related to the ancient god of death and an understanding of death itself are necessary. In addition, the fragment also mentioned that the ceremony is held at the border between life and death, and the candidate for the ceremony must have personally killed a person who had returned from the dead."
He counted the requests on his fingers:
"But it's still not the full ritual, and I'm curious whether Joey Barton will know what the ritual is."
"He will definitely know. This is the fate of the chosen one."
Luvia said, hesitating for a moment:
"I recently found out the whereabouts of a poet-level relic, the Dandelion Coin, from a friend from another place. If I'm lucky enough, I can get it this weekend and use it for divination. If not, I can also use the fortune teller's silver coin."
"Should I tell Sister Defulin that she is the second candidate? Let her prepare in advance?"
Xia De asked, and the purple-eyed girl narrowed her eyes slightly:
"Shad, what kind of person do you think that nun holding the fire is?"
"Reliable, calm, kind, and not very talkative."
Luvia pondered for a moment:
"Then, while making sure she won't leak the secret, tell her about the candidate. Since the spiritual sect led by that nun is a modern branch of the Ancient God Sect, it shouldn't be difficult to find items related to the power of the Ancient God. We must be prepared. I really hope that Joey Barton will die before the ceremony... In this way, Sister Defulin will become the chosen one, which is the best outcome at the moment."
The reason why they didn't want the third candidate, Priest Augustus, was because neither Shad nor Luvia wanted to involve the priest in such a deadly matter.
"no problem."
Shade nodded, but he still felt a little uneasy. What he was most wary of now was not the problem of the narrow space, but the problem of the vampires. He only had a preliminary guess as to what Armand Bernhardt, who came to Midhill Castle from the southern country with his nephew in the autumn, wanted to do.
And if this guess is correct, given Xia De's current state, he can't guarantee that he can control all situations. After all, the third-ring spirit rune is only missing the last one, and the fourth ring is just around the corner. And his divinity is only left with the last drop.
Stranger, what do you want to do with this power
There was a whisper in my ear.
"I have a drop of divinity, the united church and academy, the blood-sucking species who don't know what to do, the missing Joey Barton, and the ring wizard organization that came from other places. There are many players at the table now. I think I have the clearest view of the situation, but I also know best how dangerous the next thing will be... Maybe Joey Barton is not the biggest trouble."