Confirming the old fishman was dead, the Thirteen Ring Sorcerer, wearing a holy emblem pendant, shook his head and spoke first:
“I don’t know what grudges you have, but I’m leaving now. The Scarlet Cult’s High Priest is dead, and there’s still a lot to do outside. Although the Sea Return is destined to fail, we still need to minimize the casualties as much as possible.”
“Oh? Can’t you tell that he is the second Chosen One?”
The Witch pointed at Darkness, who frowned slightly, apparently still not understanding why he was being hunted.
“Of course, I know.”
The Orthodox Church follower nodded, looked at Darkness, and carefully memorized his appearance:
“But compared to the Chosen One, who we don’t yet know how to handle, saving the innocent who can be saved is my responsibility. I really want to take him back to the Church, but compared to the whispering chapters whose truth is still unknown, I’d rather do something more practical.”
He quietly prayed to the deity, then nodded slightly to Xia De in respect before leaving the passage.
“See, while the Orthodox Church people can be annoying sometimes, most of the time they are worthy of admiration.”
It wasn’t until the Thirteen Ring Sorcerer’s figure completely disappeared that the Witch spoke to Xia De again.
“What is a Chosen One?”
Darkness asked softly. Xia De and the Witch certainly wouldn’t answer him, but the half-demon on his right hand actually spoke:
“I seem to have heard of this…”
It was, of course, not human language. That language itself seemed to represent evil, its tone like sticky insects crawling on liquid.
“Yes, I remember now. It’s the Witch’s Great Prophecy. See, I just found out that you’re actually the Chosen One.”
The voice sounded somewhat like the tone of desire when it tempted Xia De. It was tempting Darkness, and Xia De would bet the demon already knew about the “Chosen One.”
“The Chosen One? Is this some knight novel plot?”
Darkness repeated, his brows slightly furrowed.
“Your strange dark power, have you never wondered about it yourself? The frequent anomalous phenomena you encounter, aren’t you curious? The whisper you hear in the Darkness, is it really just an illusion? Oh, my Darkness, there is only one truth…”
The half-demon on his right hand wrapped around his neck and whispered into his ear, but both the man’s and the demon’s eyes looked at their enemies:
“What is the truth?”
“Perhaps, you can use the manipulator’s script, and we can try to find the answer together. Perhaps it’s a ritual, a ritual that can make you fully understand your power.”
The ancient demon seemed to know more.
“Script…”
“Ivan Darkness, do you truly believe in the Blood Spirit School’s ideals? Golden humans, are they so easy to achieve? Don’t you want to gain more powerful strength through other means?”
The demon asked in a low voice. Darkness narrowed his eyes slightly, then suddenly inserted his left hand into the demon’s mouth and pulled out a brass ring.
The swollen right hand immediately contracted, returning to the size of a normal arm. The mouth in his palm opened and closed, seemingly wanting to say something, but no sound came out.
“The poet-level relic, the fish training ring, allows intelligent beings who cannot speak human language to speak. This originally belonged to the Scarlet Cult, used to train large mute sea beasts, and is now used by Ivan Darkness to make demons speak.”
The Witch said softly. Xia De immediately thought of his cat. If Mia could get this ring…
“This relic is useless for creatures like cats and penguins that like to eat fish. Although its rating is only Poet Grade, I didn’t expect it to be useful for Evil Spirits and demons.”
Xia De immediately lost interest in this ring.
“Witch, what exactly do you want?”
Darkness asked.
“I want to kill you, but killing you would release the demon inside you, so I can’t kill you.”
She whispered, as if talking secrets to someone:
“It’s a pity that our demon expert isn’t on the Old Continent right now…”
She suddenly looked at Xia De. Xia De’s heart skipped a beat, but he was certain his identity hadn’t been exposed.
“Help me catch him, and the promised twenty thousand pounds won’t be a single penny less.”
“Of course, no problem.”
Xia De nodded.
The Witch extended her hand and pointed at Darkness, and a bright yellow beam of light shot out from her fingertip, but as Darkness appeared between the two, the light beam also disappeared.
“Is that all you can do?”
The Witch’s Destiny Ring finally appeared behind her, and dense Ling Runes radiated light in sequence. Before Xia De could decipher her core Ling Rune, dozens of light beams shot forward from the surface of the Destiny Ring.
The dark area controlled by Darkness only swallowed two of the light beams. The remaining dozen or so light beams struck in Darkness’s direction with power even greater than a steam cannon.
He dropped a leaf, and the Ling Rune for “Wind” on his back flickered with light. The man coexisting with the demon, truly like a leaf in the wind, skillfully dodged those fatal Ling Rune attacks. But even so, his side was still grazed by one of the black light beams.
That light was like an eraser, directly wiping away a quarter of Darkness’s waist area. But he was immediately swallowed by a dark vortex, and when he reappeared, the lost body parts were filled with Darkness. The wriggling Darkness transformed into a part of his body and quickly grew flesh and blood.
Xia De had seen this appearance on the Fishbone Pirate Ship, only back then his entire half-body was this terrifying Darkness.
A clattering sound appeared in his ears. Darkness frowned and looked up to see black chains, clinging to the ancient pillars of the temple, descending from above. He tried to dodge again, but he didn’t expect these black chains, controlled by Xia De, to actually cling to his Destiny Ring.
The Great Sin Chains could only affect a Twelve Ring Sorcerer for an instant, but Darkness was only a Hexacle.
“What?”
The middle-aged man looked behind him in surprise. While the Destiny Ring was a tangible substance, it also possessed an intangible quality when facing attacks. It was common knowledge among Ring術士 that very few things could directly attack the Destiny Ring.
The chains struggled to entwine the Destiny Ring, and the originally spinning brass ring actually began to slow down. While the mass of desire was still effective, Xia De could be considered equivalent to a Middle-Ring approaching a High-Ring Sorcerer. Coupled with the opponent’s undeniably strong desire, it was quite normal for the Great Sin Chains to take effect.
“Lady, quickly!”
Xia De immediately prompted the Witch, grabbing the chains extending from his sleeves with both hands. The chains wrapped around the Destiny Ring, but the Destiny Ring was also resisting. The harsh sound of metal deforming and sparks showed that Xia De couldn’t hold on for too long.
Miss Aurora took a deep breath. All the light on the Destiny Ring behind her disappeared. Then, Xia De faintly saw golden-colored steps behind her.
“This is something I painstakingly learned…”
She raised her right hand high, and the glow from her fingertips and her familiar movements made Xia De look on in astonishment.
“Felianna’s Witch Light!”
The Witch shouted loudly. The golden-yellow light was not a ray, but a shockwave rippling outwards. The dazzling light shot towards Darkness, who was unable to move due to his fixed Destiny Ring, as if to destroy all obstacles in its path, twisting the boundaries of time and space.
It passed by Xia De, but only made Xia De tremble all over as he felt its power. He felt as if he understood something.
The large dark vortex summoned by Darkness tried to swallow this dazzling and violent golden-yellow light, but a full-power strike from a Twelve Ring Witch was simply something an unawakened Chosen One could not resist.
Furthermore, being restrained by Xia De at this moment, he could only stand still and take the blow head-on. And at this very moment, that right hand, which could no longer speak, actually began to swell on its own. This time, it swelled not with flesh color, but with black muscle.
The entire arm was like a huge parasite attached to the middle-aged man. Amidst Darkness’s heavy gasps, his right half of his body turned into a black, pus-like texture.
The pus-like black right arm and body, swelling like a burst of fluid, were at least three times larger than his left side. Xia De was very curious how he managed to stand steady.
Darkness, of course, wouldn’t answer that question. He used his swollen, enormous arm to block in front of himself, and then, at the cost of his entire right arm nearly evaporating, he truly managed to block the Witch’s attack head-on. And when Miss Aurora wanted to make another move, Darkness, whose right eye was covered by black pus and whose left eye faintly glowed red, actually used his massive black right hand, which was rapidly flowing with pus and recovering, to smash the ground.
This ruin itself was a spatial dislocation caused by a spatial anomaly, and beneath the temple, naturally, were rolling waves.
That hand smashed onto the floor, making the ground vibrate again. The temple floor, which even the old fishman priest’s self-destruction couldn’t destroy, was actually smashed with a hole, and blood-red seawater gushed into the temple like a fountain.
He wanted to jump in, but the Destiny Ring behind him was still bound by the black chains. Darkness looked at Xia De, and the red light in his eyes made Xia De feel as if his soul had been punched—punched with the force of Mia.
“Hmm?”
Xia De glared fiercely at Darkness. The red light in the latter’s eyes suddenly flickered, as if he had seen something incredible.
“Karma?” (Demonic language)
The huge black right arm grabbed the chain and pulled fiercely, trying to drag Xia De in front of him. Xia De stumbled forward, knowing in his heart that the opponent’s unreasonable physical strength was far superior to his own. He could only cancel the Miracle, retract the chains, and then watch as the giant monster jumped into the waves beneath the hole in the floor.
The floor slowly healed, as if the temple had a life of its own.
“Are you coming with me?”
The Witch looked at Xia De, who immediately took a step back:
“The opponent is the first candidate for the Chosen One, and I am severely injured right now. You can see my condition, Lady. I don’t have your strength; I can’t do anything.”
He was usually very honest when facing the Witch.
“Cowardly man.”
Miss Aurora clearly didn’t believe that excuse. The brown-haired lady sneered and leaped into the hole in the floor.
Xia De heard strange conch sounds from below, but it wasn’t the eerie sound of the Scarlet Cult; instead, it was light and melodious. There were large groups of creatures swimming underwater, but they didn’t sound like fishmen.
“What did Miss Aurora summon? It doesn’t matter… The ability to control Darkness is really troublesome, and there’s the demon on him. If the Witch really can’t catch him, when Darkness reaches Tobesk, he’ll still need Iluna to suppress him…”
He stood in the old temple, pondering. After confirming that the cracks in the temple floor, caused by the impact, had completely closed, he bent down, picked up his fishing rod, and left the place.
Only Xia De remained here. The dim light made the shadows of the statues scattered throughout the temple appear exceptionally terrifying. After the battle ended, an eerie silence descended. The Outsider turned with a serious expression and looked at the blood-dripping white bone holy emblem hanging in the deepest part of the temple.
He silently adjusted his attire, temporarily setting aside the matters of the Witch, the fishmen, and the demon, allowing himself to calm down. He took a deep breath, then slowly approached the holy emblem step by step.
Although he didn’t know what would happen, a sense of ritual was still necessary.
After saving Leia, he had no intention of achieving any more goals in Coldwater Port. He would let the Orthodox Church deal with the fishmen, as the Orthodox Church was well-prepared; he would let the Witch chase Darkness, as he was already prepared for Iluna to deal with the demon-possessed guy in Tobesk.
All Xia De wanted now was divinity.
With divinity, no matter how bad the situation, it would no longer be a problem for Xia De.
“Outsider, your desire is truly strong at this moment.”
She whispered in his ear.
“No, I just know what’s important.”
In his eyes, there was only that golden-yellow light.
