The Death's Gate is a magic that Shade learned after returning from death, which allows the souls who voluntarily leave and the caster to pass through. Because it is a one-way passage, Shade never thought that he would really step into death from here one day.
He knew Mr. Mathis was looking at him, but he did not look back, but stepped into the gap.
Stranger, you have entered death.
Stranger, you have a better understanding of "sleeping".
Cold, shaking...
A moment of nothingness and extreme cold almost made Shad's consciousness fall into the deepest sleep again, but he immediately realized that he had reached his destination.
There is no sound, everything is still; the dark moon shines on everything, and this moment is the end.
Behind him were the two giant stone doors, and at his feet was the faint, almost extinguished "Tree Kiss" bonfire. In front of him, the huge silver moon half-sunk at the end of the dark waters. The waters in front of him seemed to have no end. Just looking at it, a primitive sense of fear surged in his heart.
Countless white shadows were standing with their backs to the narrow beach by the water. They looked up at the cold moon, and their bodies gradually moved away and headed towards the silver moon.
There is no sound here, and even breathing is not necessary. Quiet and solemn, cold and deep, this is death itself.
Looking down at his hands, the cracks were spreading all over his body. The divine light shone through them, protecting Shade's soul from leaving.
"Iluna!"
He took off his mask and took a few quick steps to the side of Iluna who was lying on the ground. He stuck the Night Watchman into the ground, put down the kerosene lamp containing the First Flame, and then carefully picked up the seventeen-year-old girl.
A dark golden scale was suspended above her head to protect her safety, but Iluna was a living person after all, and she was very uncomfortable here.
Looking further away, Joey Barton was sitting sideways on a large rock at the end of the beach, his right hand supporting the rock, his left hand hanging naturally, his feet unable to touch the ground due to his short stature. He turned his head and quietly looked at the water and the dark moon in the distance, which cast its shadow on the gravel beach, and he seemed to be unaware that Shade had arrived.
"you... ... "
"She's fine. When I opened the door, she wanted to grab me, so she followed me in. She also has a talent for death. Plus, with that mysterious dark golden scale and the leaves she had in her mouth in advance, she didn't leave with those souls."
Joey Barton's voice was very calm.
Iluna was indeed temporarily unable to move, but after being hugged by Shade, it seemed that she was affected by the divine aura on him, and her body temperature and breathing rate were returning to normal. She tried hard to open her eyes and look at Shade, and her lips moved to spit out the pale leaves that had lost their effect. Shade immediately stuffed another one into her (note).
The seventeen-year-old girl tried to speak, but nothing came out.
"It's okay, I'll take care of the rest."
He said softly, and carried Iluna back to the Tree Kiss bonfire. Looking at the weak bonfire, he hesitated for a moment, opened the lampshade of the kerosene lamp, and carefully guided the weak first flame in it, letting the flame fall into the bonfire.
There was no sound, but the nearly extinguished bonfire was rekindled. Even the spirit and physical strength that had completely stopped recovering in death began to recover slowly.
After planting the Night Watchman next to the campfire and letting Iluna sit there with her sword in hand, Shad turned and walked to the end of the mudflat and came to Joey Barton.
Only then could we finally see the calm expression on his face. The light of the dark moon illuminated the deformed face of the young man. The middle-aged man looked at the hesitant and blurred white shadows, and Xia De didn't know what he was thinking.
"Is this what you really look like? You are so handsome..."
Joey Barton sighed softly.
"You still haven't given up?"
Shad asked.
"Yes, it's almost there."
"So, the you who are talking to me now, are you the clone or the real you?"
"One third of the body. I won't put all my eggs in one basket."
"I see."
Suddenly, his right hand was raised high, and when it fell, the Moonlight Greatsword in his hand had already taken shape. Mr. Barton did not dodge, and the Moonlight Greatsword chopped his shoulder, but it was like hitting an indestructible object, with no effect.
"Mr. Watson, you really don't understand this."
"What do you not understand?"
Xia De dropped the greatsword in his hand and did not feel ashamed of his sneak attack.
"This is death itself. We who come here are already dead. How can you kill anyone else here?"
His tone was still so calm as he explained the facts he had learned.
"Yes, this is death..."
Shad nodded and stopped observing Mr. Barton. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets and turned to look at the water in front of him and the thousands of souls on the water.
The tide was not calm. The surging water stopped in front of Shad's boots, retreated, and then surged in again, washing away the tiny stones and pebbles.
"The only thing that can hurt us here is entering these waters. No matter if it's you or me, if we come into contact with these waters without special methods, we will never be able to come back."
Mr. Barton continued.
"So, how are you going to find the soul you're looking for here?"
"Coming here, I have learned more knowledge and known more secrets. My wish, my love, is just ahead."
His thick, deformed finger pointed to the depths of death represented by the dark moon:
"Right here."
"Why not take action now?"
"Because I'm not complete yet."
As soon as they finished speaking, a voice came from behind them. It wasn't Iluna standing up, but a new guest arrived.
Turning around, another Joey Barton appeared at the door of death. Compared to the first one who seemed intact, he looked much more miserable, with his right hand missing and all kinds of strange scars all over his body. Even half of his head was cut off, but he was still alive.
The second Joey Patton seemed to have fully understood what was happening here. He walked across the campfire to Joey Patton on the rocks on the shore and merged with him.
Shad couldn't stop the process, but he noticed that someone had come here with Mr. Barton, the familiar old priest.
Father Rat Augustus frowned as he watched the scene before him:
"Really? I'm so old now, why should I get involved in this kind of thing?"
He walked to the campfire, then sat down carefully with his hands on the ground, and stretched out his hands towards the campfire, as if wanting to keep warm.
"Priest Augustus?"
Iluna, who had recovered a little, asked in a low voice. Because of the leaves in her mouth, her voice sounded a little strange:
"You are..."
Father Augustus was a very prestigious old priest in the Tobysk diocese, and even the pagans knew him.
"Good evening. Oh, it's Miss Bei Yasi. I was originally attending a ceremony on the top of the mountain, and then Joey Barton came up. He was severely injured by the three thirteen-ring warlocks of the church, but he still managed to fall into the crack on the top of the mountain. I originally wanted to stop him, and then someone unlucky followed in... Well, I took the initiative to follow him in. I couldn't watch him do bad things."
The priest shrugged:
"Relax a little and wait for Shade to solve this matter. Although I don't know what the detective wants to do, he always has a way... What kind of fire is this? It's really warm."
"I'm actually very curious."
At the end of the beach, two men looking at the dark moon and the departing souls were still talking:
“Why is it that no matter which of the three passages you enter here from, you can always see the Door of Death?”
Shade asked softly.
"Not only through the narrow gap, no matter what method or means you use to enter here, it's actually the same. Because the Death Gate is indeed the only correct way to enter this mudflat besides the normal death process. Therefore, theoretically speaking, the passage at the foot of the mountain is indeed the most stable."
Joey Barton replied that this knowledge probably came from being the chosen one.
"Then are you aware that the 'Scar of the Sacred Tree' ritual is almost complete, and now none of us can leave?"
Shade asked again, and Joey Barton hesitated:
"I don't know, but after I see her, there will always be a way."
Xia De shook his head, knowing that there was no way he could convince the man in front of him.
They did not continue talking, but looked together into the distance over the silent, dark water, watching the flickering white shadows appear, move forward, and disappear at the end of their sight.
"What do you think of this moon?"
Mr. Barton did not give an answer immediately, but listened attentively before speaking:
"After the ancient gods left, the dark moon that was supposed to guide death here also disappeared for some reason. But now it appears again. Maybe just like me, the chosen one who deeply grasps the power of the moon is also carrying out his own epic."
Shade shook his head. This dark moon appeared because the priest invaded his dream. In his dream, the moonlight above the wilderness shone into death. But he couldn't be the chosen one. Luvia had said this many times.
"This moon is really beautiful. The moon and death, two of the most fundamental forces, are displayed here, solidifying the rules of death and ensuring that all living things will die. If, if the Dark Moon could have appeared two epochs earlier, perhaps the narrow gap between life and death in Midhill Castle would not have expanded so quickly."
As he was speaking, a voice came from behind him.
The third Joey Barton appeared. In addition to severe burns, his legs were cut off, his eyes were gouged out, his nose and ears were cut off, and even his mouth was sewn with cursed black thread.
After he appeared, he lay on the ground and then crawled to the end of the mudflat with difficulty. The power of the curse was blooming in him, which was the curse of the witches. At the same time, Shade also noticed that his chest was glowing, as if there was an unextinguishable fire burning his heart.
Even when the third Mr. Barton merged with Joey Barton on the stone next to Shad, the latter still covered his heart with an expression of unbearable pain.
The appearance of the third Joey Barton brought a new ring warlock for the third time.
Sister Defulin was still so calm, wearing a gray-black silk nun's robe with a shawl of the same color on her shoulders. She wore a silver crown-like eye mask, and her silver-gray hair was tied behind her ears. Her long hair was braided into a complex pattern behind her, almost reaching her waist.
His hands were folded naturally in front of his body, his head was slightly lowered, but the eye mask still reflected the light of the dark moon.
Flames, red flames, were gradually appearing on the nun's body. At first glance, it looked like she was being ignited, but then it was seen that the nun's body was covered with fiery red cracks, not only on her skin, but even on her hems and hair. As the fierce flames gradually subsided, the embers of the flames floated out of the cracks until the afterglow of the first fire completely stabilized, protecting her so that she could stay here for a long time.
Although wearing a blindfold, Sister Defulin can still "see" everything.
She first nodded slightly to Shade who turned around at the end of the beach, and then walked to the bonfire of "Tree Kiss". She did not sit on the ground like Priest Augustus, nor did she sit sideways and lean against the night watchman like Iluna. The nun moved a stone and sat on it.
From the earliest era to the present day, this is probably the day with the largest number of living people here.
－－－－－－－Off-topic－－－－－－－