There was only white fog outside the church the previous second, but the next moment, the overwhelming souls of the dead had occupied almost every corner of the field of vision.
The miracle elements and divine power carried by the church spread instantly when facing the first wave of attacks, repelling the undead closest to the church building. Then, all the high-level sorcerers left the church and went to the outside to fight. The bells on the top of the side towers rang, and the golden divine light formed ripples that continued to spread outside the church, offsetting the invasion of the whispering elements that came with the tide of undead.
The stranger had never seen a real war in his hometown. He had experienced so many great events in this world, but he had never experienced a real war. Until this moment, he had never really seen a war between three-digit extraordinary people. Even though he had the Night Watcher in his hand, the Witch Necklace and the help of the Divine Afterglow, he still didn't think he could play a big role here.
Together with Iluna and other middle ring warlocks, he stood at the door of the church to resist the undead who were able to rush through the outer battle. While the power of divine magic bloomed around him, Shade was also affected by various amplification effects from others.
While his strength, agility, spirit and even soul resistance were improved, he also used "daylight rays" without reservation to attack in cooperation with the Night Watch.
The power of the sun and Shade's hard work made the church's ring warlocks trust him further. The high consumption of sunlight rays also made Shade unable to stay on the front line at all times. When he temporarily retreated to the campfire to rest, the nun in charge of logistics actually gave him three bottles of holy water, and they were high-purity No. 2 holy water puree.
This is a precious material that cannot be bought even if you want to. Only the Natural Church, which produces holy water itself, can be so generous.
It can be seen that even without Shade, with Iluna guarding the door and relying on the power of "balance" to suppress the power of the undead, the church can be defended. But with Shade, the "master of swordsmanship", the sunlight ray "light cannon" first cleaned up the scattered enemies, followed by the long-range magic attacks of the church ring warlocks, and finally everyone temporarily rushed out of the door to close combat to clean up the enemies who were still alive.
This standard combat procedure reduced the pressure of defense a lot. Even when a tough enemy broke through the outer defense rituals and the attacks of high-level warlocks and climbed the stairs in front of the church, Shade could rely on the Night's Watch who had a strong killing power against evil spirits to delay the enemy for a while.
It seemed as if an infinite number of undead souls had been rushing in from all directions since the church ceremony officially began. The undead souls in front were crushed, and the undead souls behind them rushed in again, stepping on their spirit bodies that had not yet dissipated.
Not only on the ground, but also in the sky there appeared flying undead creatures such as bone dragons and evil banshees, and underground there were also huge worm-like corpses trying to get out, but they were immediately suppressed by the power of the church itself.
On the ceiling of the main hall, where the lush mural of the World Tree used to be, there was a three-layered pale gold ring. As the ceremony progressed, the pale gold was transforming into bright gold, and once all three layers of the ring had transformed, it would mean that the ceremony was successful.
During the first hour of the battle, Shad would look up every time he took a break, but then he had no time to pay attention to the pattern on the ceiling.
This was not the most desperate battle he had ever experienced, but it was definitely the most exhausting battle. Every corner he looked at was an enemy, and when he pierced a target with his sword, the next target would appear immediately.
Joey Barton never showed up until 9:20 p.m. in the real world. When Shad returned to the campfire and sat cross-legged there, trying to recover his fighting state as soon as possible, a thunderous explosion suddenly came from outside the church.
"What's wrong?"
He quickly got up, uncorked the No. 2 holy water bottle at hand, and took a gulp. He looked up and saw that two-thirds of the three layers of rings on the ceiling had turned bright gold.
"A big guy is coming!"
There was a reply from the door, followed by two explosions from the air.
Footsteps came from deeper inside the church, and Sister Thorn, who had not appeared until now, walked out. She said a few words to the old nun who was in charge of logistics beside the fire, and then she also walked out of the church and flew into the sky.
This time, Shade clearly saw a golden lightning streak break through the clouds, and then a huge monster fell in the thick fog in the distance. But then, a roar like a wild beast came from right above the church, and the sound even made the building itself tremble.
The natural wind blows and the dandelion flowers bloom!
A hoarse male voice recited the words of sublimation, and Shade in the room could only see countless green dandelion shadows falling from the sky.
The effect of the Word of Ascension temporarily allowed the high-level warlock and the behemoth above the church to leave the battlefield. But then, a rumbling sound came from outside the door again. Shade, holding a sword, hurried to the door and saw with the people behind him who had their life rings revealed that the neatly lined up headless undead army wearing armor, riding on skeleton horses, was rushing towards the church quickly from the fog.
"The Headless Knights, a sage-level relic? How did they appear in Midhill Castle?"
Iluna was greatly surprised, but then, as the desolate horn sounded from the top of the church, a pale golden light penetrated from the outer wall of the natural church. In the golden glow, souls with transparent bodies and solemn faces walked out of the wall one by one, and among them was even the soul guarding the church that Shade had seen when he entered the church last time.
"They are the successive guardians of the Narrow Church!"
The undead ring warlocks of the Church of Nature appeared and charged outward, dispersing the Headless Knights who were about to approach the church. The appearance of these souls who volunteered to guard this place also spread the miracle elements in the church to a wider area outside the church, illuminating a larger area.
"The ritual is three quarters complete! The real world has sent the relic here!"
Someone shouted beside the bonfire, and then a brass box was sent to the second floor of the church. Then, green seeds were thrown from the second floor window to the square in front of the church. With the dazzling green light flashing, gray-green grass actually grew in the narrow space of black, white and gray. The grass stretched out crazily, and in just a few minutes, the area around the natural church was covered with weeds.
"The Angel-level (Level 1) relic of the Plant Protector housed in the Church of Nature is the Seed of Resentment. Once the relic gets out of control, it will ignore any conditions and grow plants crazily until all nutrients in the land are drained. This relic is enough to destroy most of the Old Continent if it is not restricted. The Church of Nature is very cautious when using this thing."
The emergence of plant power further pushed back the front line of the undead tide, and gave the living people a chance to breathe. But they were not happy too soon, because as a huge sickle swept across the thick fog, all the weeds on the ground were turned into ashes in an instant.
The sickle even swept to the door of the church, and the two middle-ring warlocks who did not have time to retreat back to the church were hit by the decaying black light and died almost immediately. This was the nth victim since the battle began.
“It’s finally here!”
The dense crowd of undead was split to the left and right, and a short, deformed figure walked out from it. Behind him, a tall black shadow wearing a cloak was holding a sickle, preparing for the next attack.
The whistle blew from high above, alerting people to the arrival of Joey Patton.
There was no need to make any tentative attacks. Mr. Barton, wearing a black windbreaker for children, slowly rose to a high altitude. The black sphere in his hand quickly expanded and exploded:
"Granting you—the destined death!"
The black light swept across, but this time Shade did not have the illusion that time had stopped. Because from a higher point, the crown of thorns was thrown down, and the crown caught Barton, forcibly encircled the spreading black light, and then perished together with the chosen one's innate ability.
"This is the final battle! The maze - the narrow space between life and death!"
Thicker fog came, and the compressed fog covered the top of the church. Joey Barton's figure disappeared along with almost two-thirds of the high-ring warlocks and entered the maze.
"Something's wrong. How could he be willing to face so many ring sorcerers at the same time? No, that's not the real person, it's a clone!"
Without Shade's reminder, the others also realized that something was wrong. All the high-level warlocks on the periphery rushed back to help, but at the same time, a huge black sickle swept in from the depths of the fog.
This time, the sickle was stopped:
"balance!"
The dark golden scales behind Iluna blocked the sickle.
The sickle was retracted, and another Joey Barton emerged from the fog. This time, he rushed to the church with the surrounding undead and entangled with the high-ring warlocks of the church.
"Here comes another one!"
The black sickle continued to attack, and the third and fourth Joey Barton walked out of the fog. He seemed to have the ability to enhance the power of evil spirits, and the undead around him became obviously more powerful.
"Beyas, don't leave the church door!"
After telling Iluna, Mr. Landau from the Peace Church had to leave the church and join the battle outside. After integrating part of the Life and Death Narrow Space, although Joey Barton was still no match for the church, he entangled most people.
Everyone knew what he wanted to do, so Iluna was on high alert at the church door.
“Here it comes!”
Xia De warned loudly, and before he finished speaking, a thick black beam of light rushed out from the white fog and shot towards the church door like a light cannon. Although he didn't know what it was, Xia De rushed forward immediately and thrust forward with his sword raised:
"Daylight~Ray!"
A warm yellow beam of light shot out from the tip of the sword, intersecting with the black beam of light. The huge thrust caused Xia De to stagger backwards, and the hem of his clothes rustled in the wind pressure. But he was supported by others behind him in time, and the spirit that had just recovered more than half was quickly consumed.
Four black lights flew past him from left to right and above and below at the same time, but Xia De tried his best to fight against the black light pillars and was unable to intercept them.
"Four Joey Bartons! Aren't the Chosen Ones too unreasonable?"
There was a cry of surprise from behind, and the subsequent burst of spiritual light was so dazzling that even Xia De, who had his back to them, felt blinded.
The battle took place inside the church. In just a few dozen seconds, Shade couldn't even tell how many times the spiritual light bursts appeared behind him. Until the end, the words of sublimation appeared twice in succession, which seemed to stop the battle, but then Iluna's voice came:
"It's a substitute. His power destroyed the defense ritual, and he entered the church invisible!"
These words were definitely directed at Shade, and then Iluna's footsteps faded away.
“Damn it!”
Shad uttered a rare curse word, and as Joey Barton went deeper into the church, the black light cannon that was fighting against him became weaker and finally disappeared completely in the sunlight rays.
Turning around and looking behind him, the main chapel of the church was in a mess, with silver wires and charms scattered all over the floor, and almost all the long chairs were smashed into pieces. But fortunately, the ceremony was not disrupted, and the three layers of rings on the ceiling were still slowly transforming into bright gold.
The ceremony had been going on until now. As long as the ceremony itself was not disrupted, the three passages were completely safe. Even if Joey Barton entered, he would never be able to come out again. But he rushed into the depths of the church as if he knew nothing.
Joey Barton did not attack the old priests, but the few ring warlocks guarding the place turned into statues, half of them were unconscious, and the only ones who were awake did not have the strength to stand up:
"They are heading towards the deepest point!"
Someone reminded him, and Xia De didn't care about his physical strength and spirit that had not yet recovered. He picked up the fishing rod and kerosene lamp beside the campfire and chased after him.
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