As he continued to go down the mountain, Xia De realized where he was.
This was the forest where he and Mia hid on the night when the Orthodox Church surrounded the Truth Society. And if his guess was correct, then the destination should be the once frozen lake - Lake Bena.
Passing through the misty woods, following the bloody shadows of the two girls, I actually came to the shallows by the lake again.
The edge of the forest was very close to the lake. On the narrow beach, hundreds of figures in black robes were lying on the ground. Slender wooden stakes stood by the lake, and on the stakes were mummies of various sizes. On the stake closest to the center, the mummies were hugging eight relics, and the blood thorn scepter in Shade's hand was the ninth.
Grace and Helen supported each other and stood by the Bena Lake, looking in the direction where the black-robed figures were kneeling. That was the direction of the lake. The lake water should have been crystal clear in the mist, but in the moment Shade blinked, it turned completely blood red. He blinked again, and it returned to its normal color.
In the middle of the lake, there was an object floating that was not clearly visible. But if you look closely, it is clearly a coffin that Mr. Bernhardt bought at an auction.
Above the heads of the crouching people, images of small bats were floating, and everyone was praying quietly, praying to the blood and the blood moon.
It was still ten minutes before midnight. Although thick fog obscured the night sky, if you looked up carefully, you could vaguely see the huge red full moon looming in the white fog.
Walking out of the jungle and arriving at the lakeside, all the sounds around me disappeared. The lakeside was unusually quiet and solemn, even the ghosts that could be seen everywhere disappeared, leaving only the overlapping whispers and prayers, reverberating and interweaving.
The sound of the splashing lake water was the accompaniment to all of this, and the air was filled with not only the smell of blood, but also the aroma of wine.
The space here seems to be completely isolated from Mount Xikar.
Suddenly, a clear bird cry broke the silence, and the sound of the bird instantly spread throughout the Xikar Mountain area. Amid the shaking of the ground and the roar of the mountain, the Xikar Pass, which had been erupting since earlier, once again emitted billowing black smoke. And in the black smoke, the bright red phoenix spread its wings and flew towards the giant cocoon above the city.
"The Phoenix has also come to help. It seems that this is really the last resort... Grace, Helen!"
Xia De came running:
"Follow me!"
The crouching vampires did not stop Shade, allowing him to cross the mudflat and hold the two girls' cold hands.
They looked at the lake in front of them in a trance, looking at the coffin in the middle of the water, which was not moved by Shadra:
"Sir... ...please go quickly, we know our fate."
They all looked at the calm lake. Every time they blinked, the color of the lake changed between normal and blood red. The surrounding white mist was rapidly dyed blood red, and the blood moon in the white mist became clearer and clearer.
Xia De felt that some kind of terrifying gaze had been cast upon the shores of Lake Bena, and if he didn't leave now, he would really be unable to leave.
"You can't defeat Him. We... the problem in the narrow space will be solved soon. Our mission is over... Is this the end?"
Grace in the white dress asked softly.
"This is the end, sister. It has been over five thousand years. Finally, it is coming to an end."
Helen in a black dress said with tears in her eyes.
Xia De couldn't believe that the girls who had vowed to be together forever would give up hope of life and voluntarily become bait for the evil god. Looking closely, their eyes were actually wine red, as if reflecting the full red moon:
"This is not the end. Girls, I was able to save you thousands of years ago, and I can save you now."
Kissing the ring on her finger, the Yellow Moon Spirit Rune glowed:
"At least, let me try. Since the Red Moon can confuse you, then the Yellow Moon can also confuse you!"
The moonstone ring flashed an ambiguous warm yellow light. Grace and Helen were startled, but then the blood mist around them turned into scarlet shackles that bound them tightly.
"I knew I could do it—Moonlight Greatsword!"
Even though the current state was so bad, Shade still endured the fatigue and emptiness of his soul, letting the silver moonlight crackle and shatter the scarlet shackles. However, the blood-red marks still clung to the two of them. It was not that the mortal rituals easily restricted the angel-level relics, but from the beginning, from that cocktail party, the gods left marks on them.
“Go!”
Xia De held Helen and Grace's hands with his left and right hands respectively, and without even having time to talk to them who had just regained consciousness, he turned around and wanted to leave.
But someone wouldn't let the three of them leave.
The crouching blood-sucking species were still praying in low voices, waiting for the arrival of midnight. And from the dense forest, two high-ring blood-sucking species walked out with expressionless faces:
"Sir, this matter has nothing to do with you, please leave."
After temporarily letting go of Helen, the big sword in Shade's right hand represented his attitude. Having come this far, he had to fight no matter what. Helen and Grace couldn't use their own strength at this time, and Shade knew that he couldn't beat the high-level warlock, but at least he could delay for some time:
"Girls, you go first."
The high-ring vampire stopped talking, and the eleventh-ring and tenth-ring life rings shone brightly in the blood mist.
The blood stains on the black and white skirts became clearer and clearer. Grace and Helen knew what it meant to let Shade stay. They grabbed Shade's shoulders. Since the man in front of them had done this for them, even if their souls were broken at this moment, they would give him their last strength:
"Sir, meeting you is the most wonderful thing in our lives..."
But before Grace finished her words, a golden light lit up from the side. In the light, the familiar voice of a middle-aged woman appeared:
"Are you giving up just like that? You guys go together, I'll take care of them."
A proud woman in a dark blue dress emerged from the woods. Although she looked to be in her forties or fifties, she was still graceful and elegant.
Xia De was stunned, as if time had returned to the last cocktail party many years ago. Gemini looked at that figure, feeling sad, upset, and grief-stricken. All the grievances in this life were contained in this voice:
"teacher!"
After meeting each other after two eras, tears unconsciously rolled down my cheeks.
The soul that appeared at this time was the middle-aged witch at the God's Baccarat Party. She became the teacher of the twins after the party. She also participated in the battle of Mount Xikar when the twin gods descended in the fifth era.
According to Miss Samuel of Zarath Academy, she was taken in by Zarath Academy after the war.
Xia De never thought that she would appear here.
"My students."
The witch's glowing soul looked at them with a gentle expression. Her soul was so powerful:
"I am very happy to wake up from my long sleep in the narrow room and see you again. Let's leave with this gentleman. Although the road ahead will be dangerous, I hope you can go on."
She picked up a branch, stroked it, and threw it to Shad. When Shad took the branch, it turned into a glowing sword, almost as powerful as the Night's Watch in its normal state.
In the fifth era, she participated in the drinking party for strength. After that, she really touched the highest achievement of the witch system.
"Sir, please protect my students and let the butterflies fly freely."
"Ma'am, you use this."
Shade threw the blood thorn scepter in his hand to the middle-aged witch, who then faced the two high-level vampires.
Even though she was extremely reluctant, Helen, in tears, was pulled by her sister Grace and followed Shad into the dense forest.
"Did your teacher die in Mount Xikar?"
Xia De asked, and Helen nodded:
"After the Battle of Sikar, the teacher was taken in by the Zarath Academy. After recovering from her injuries, she was introduced by the academy's witch Miss Samuel and officially joined the academy. In the following hundred years, she helped to establish the prototype of Zarath Academy of Literature. But by then we had turned into disasters wandering the world and could not see the teacher. Before she died, the teacher came here and saw me and my sister for the last time... She died in front of us."
She choked up and said:
"Since then, except for every time I reunited with my sister, I can't remember how long it has been since I cried."
Grace gently hugged her sister, and Xia De nodded silently, leading them through the forest:
"We'll talk about other things later. Now let's go to the Natural Church in the city. The Natural Church is ready to summon God. As long as we enter the church, even if He really comes, you will be fine."
With a loud rumble, something seemed to be ejected from the black smoke-filled Xikar Pass. At the same time, the surrounding mountains and forests, which were covered with white fog, suddenly turned into a forest of dead trees, but the next moment they returned to normal again, as if reality and the narrow space completely overlapped in an instant.
"Hazama is making a final resistance."
Grace said, the girl in the white dress took Shade's left hand, with a firm look in her sad expression:
"Sir, the road ahead will be very difficult."
Countless white mists floated from the city and the mountains toward the giant cocoon above Middleburg, like chains. Finally, a huge crack appeared on the surface of the cocoon. Amid a strange roar that only the ring sorcerers could hear, a giant black hand broke through the crack and stretched out from the cocoon.
Professor Pigman and the Phoenix immediately launched an attack and easily suppressed the hand, but this was only the most primitive force before the giant cocoon broke out.
Spiritual light flashed in the city and the mountain at the same time. The Holy Tree Mark Ritual had reached its final stage. Once the giant cocoon was resolved, the ritual would be a success. Countless streams of light flew from the top of the mountain, the mountainside, and the bottom of the mountain to the sky above the city. The ritual in the narrow space had been basically completed, and the large army was returning to the real world to defeat the last undead aggregate together.
Perhaps Iluna was also in those streams of light, but it was a pity that Shad could not participate in this final battle:
"It's okay. It will be okay soon."
He comforted the increasingly weak girls. Although they were far away from the ceremony site, the ground beneath their feet was spreading blood from the lake to the direction they fled. Blood mist followed closely, and there were even a large group of bats in the mist chasing the three people who fled.
The blasphemous silver aura flickered in the air, and the blood color even corroded the power of the narrow space. The narrow space of life and death is a level 0 relic, but the strange ritual going on by the lake is a genuine ritual of summoning gods.
The vampires are calling out to the evil god - the blood-sucking god.
Even in the dense forest, one could see that more limbs were emerging from the giant cocoon above the city. Not only human limbs, but also animal limbs, limbs of alien creatures, and even limbs of indescribable horrible creatures. The giant cocoon was breaking apart, and almost half of the whispering elements in the narrow space were continuously transported to the giant cocoon through the white mist.
The hatching of the giant cocoon is inevitable. Once it is born, it can be directly regarded as a subspace evil creature that transcends the thirteenth ring.
The light of the Five Gods Church turned into chains, wrapped around the surface of the giant cocoon, slowing down its hatching process. Countless attacks bombarded the giant cocoon, weakening its power before it was born.
Not only the church's ring sorcerers, but even witches, phoenixes, and Sister Develyn all joined the battle—Shad recognized the fireball in the sky. The power of the Fifth Epoch and the firelight of the mountains bloomed with a brilliance that should not have appeared in this era, fighting against the final enemy together with mortals.
Sister Develyn was flying in the air, her right hand still holding the ashes of fire, and her left hand holding the black sickle derived from the power of the Chosen One of Death. Illuna, holding the Night Watch, was flying in the air on a translucent spirit horse with the bone whistle hanging around her neck.
The life ring on the back of Professor Pigman, the "Silver Guardian" and the headmaster of Saint Byrons, turned silver. The high-level magic Silver Key opened the forbidden space, and the invisible hand stretched out from the void crushed the green tentacles of the corpse that stretched out from the cocoon.
But he did not fight with all his heart. Instead, he observed the city and the mountains subtly, as if he was expecting something.
Inside and outside the narrow space, inside and outside the city, on and off the mountain, at this moment, fires seemed to be lit in every corner, and the four elements of spiritual light illuminated the Midhill Castle Parish. The time was about to reach twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, and the battle finally reached its most intense and final moment.