Ignoring the terrifying scene created by the “Summoner of Tobesk” behind her, the sea breeze ruffled the witch’s long brown hair. Miss Aurora, chasing her enemy across the sea, even had the presence of mind to recall the unfamiliar man in the temple who refused to follow.
She vaguely guessed that he was the Summoner of Tobesk. Now, thinking back, his sudden appearance in the temple didn’t seem to be because of the mermen, or because of the Chosen One, but because of the temple itself.
A Thirteen Ring Sorcerer, who should have been severely wounded by the summoning in Tobesk and unable to recover for decades, stayed in the temple alone for less than five minutes and actually recovered such terrifying power. This implied many things:
“Is there something else in the merman’s temple? He just wanted all of us to leave. How despicable!”
But before she could figure it out, Darkness suddenly turned around, and a curtain of Darkness appeared out of nowhere on the sea between them. The running witch pointed her finger, and light struggled to break through the Darkness.
Unexpectedly, after the Darkness, Darkness abandoned the small boat, using the transfer within the dark vortex to leap high above the witch’s head.
It’s hard to say if this inspiration came from Xia De just now.
Darkness’s right hand rapidly swelled, skillfully employing the new power he had mastered at the brink of death in the temple. Black pus flowed from his palm, making half of his body appear heavy and grotesque.
That massive right hand, like it was flowing with pus, descended with Darkness, striking towards Miss Aurora’s head. Unprepared for his counterattack, the witch could only raise her hand to block in haste.
The grotesque right hand, carrying astonishing power capable of easily dismantling the temple, forcefully pressed the witch from the water’s surface into the water. The surrounding Mermaids shrieked and scattered, fleeing. Darkness wanted to continue attacking the witch, but suddenly saw a figure like a swimming fish rapidly approaching from the direction of the fallen temple.
“What is this now?”
Without thinking, the middle-aged man, who had experienced too much today, didn’t even confirm who was coming before leaping into the black vortex beside him, then emerging from the vortex above his small boat, and steering it towards the more distant shore. Meanwhile, the brown-haired witch, forcefully pushed into the sea by the immense power, continuously sank into the depths.
Although she had only been in contact with Darkness for less than three seconds, the disgusting black pus on his right hand had stained the witch’s arm and was spreading across her body like a spiderweb.
She could feel how terrifying this materialized, viscous Darkness was. It was actually absorbing her negative emotions, gradually growing stronger, and attempting to kill her with it.
“A demon that absorbs negative emotions, combined with the power of Darkness, is actually this troublesome. The Pus of Humanity, such a terrifying thing still exists in the sixth epoch, so it was indeed right not to kill him rashly.”
Choking on a few mouthfuls of water, the witch wanted to fight the mass of pus in the sea. But unexpectedly, with a sound from the water, her somewhat cold right hand was suddenly grasped by an unfamiliar yet warm hand. Miss Aurora exhaled a string of Bubbles from her mouth, indicating that she wanted to say something.
Her gaze passed through her scattered brown hair in the water, and her golden eyes saw Xia De’s blurred figure in the sea. Xia De’s voice, thanks to Underwater Breathing, could be heard normally by the witch:
“Please close your eyes.”
She closed her eyes as Xia De instructed, then heard a soft sigh from the water:
“Silvermoon.”
The light, refracted by the murky seawater, didn’t hurt her eyes too much. And when Hivi Aurora opened her eyes again, the black, grotesque pus had actually disappeared.
Xia De held her hand, leading her towards the surface of the sea.
The witch, who had never experienced anything like this, was momentarily at a loss for words.
They emerged from the rainy sea one after another, the witch completely soaked, her hair plastered to her face, and her clothes clinging to her skin. Then, she saw Xia De looking as if he was on his last legs, barely able to keep his eyes open.
He had changed his clothes underwater just now to hide the traces of the temple battle, and then stuck his fishing rod into the seabed to prevent the witch from noticing anything amiss. Thus, as the ten minutes of divine power overflow came to an end, and the immense power converged with his soul, he could close his eyes and pass out at any moment.
“Hamilton? What are you doing here?”
The witch also noticed Xia De’s abnormal mental state. Xia De, fighting back sleepiness, shook his head:
“Good morning, Miss Aurora. I found the pearl I needed from the mermen, and then I accidentally got swept here by the waves. Oh, did you see what just happened? It was truly exaggerated. Look, Darkness ran away.”
They both looked at Darkness’s gradually receding figure. The witch casually shot a beam of light in that direction, but it was immediately swallowed by the Darkness:
“The Chosen One is too troublesome.”
She complained with dissatisfaction, then looked at her right hand, which was still tightly held by Xia De.
“Ha~”
He yawned, his eyes uncontrollably closing, desperately longing for a warm bed. His swaying posture made it seem as if he could no longer control his body:
“Let me try, Miss Aurora. I am severely injured and might pass out soon. Please take me to Princess Leia. Please tell her that I’ll probably wake up after sleeping for a dozen hours.”
Unlike the first time, this time he learned to control his power and knew how to utilize the glow of divine power overflow, so he didn’t completely exhaust his strength.
“What are you doing?”
As the witch spoke, she saw Xia De comically “climbing” out of the water onto the sea surface. He stood cautiously on the surging, faded tide, and under the gaze of the pretty Mermaid girls who had swum back and were curiously peering, the Outsider raised his arms towards the eastern sun, his eyes suddenly widening, and shouted loudly:
“Praise the Sun! Praise the Lantern Old Man!”
After speaking, the sleepy Xia De yawned again and pulled out the brooch with the sun god’s holy emblem from his pocket.
His boots pressed against the surface of the sea, his squatting body tilted slightly to the right and back, while golden lightning leaped across the surface of the holy emblem held in his right hand.
Xia De suddenly stood up and made a throwing motion forward. At this moment, the streaks of lightning in his hand converged into a golden spear in his palm, then left his hand, cutting through the air, leaving a dazzling light trail above the sea, and a series of jumping golden electric arcs on the water’s surface.
His eyes, at this moment, opened again as if in a final burst of light, and Xia De finally spoke the sentence he had wanted to say for a long time after witnessing this scene:
“Sunlight Gun!”
The astonishing heat made the Mermaids shrink back beneath the surface of the sea again, making them seem even shyer than Mia.
And that golden lightning, surprisingly, easily broke through the three layers of dark area that appeared behind Darkness on the distant sea surface, striking the middle-aged man squarely in the back.
“Ah!”
Ivan Darkness shrieked, trembling all over, and splashed into the ocean from the small boat, even losing the boot from his right foot due to the friction, which remained on the boat. Although he had sustained many injuries during the pursuit with the witch just now, the damage from this strike seemed particularly severe.
After all, he hadn’t shrieked just now.
Iluna Bayas, the Chosen One of “Balance,” had said that only Chosen Ones could better counter Chosen Ones. Although this holy emblem, containing Iluna’s strongest power, couldn’t kill Ivan Darkness, the first candidate of “Darkness,” such an injury would probably be very difficult to heal with his peculiar dark talent.
“Hamilton, are you a follower of the Lantern Old Man?”
Hivi Aurora asked, looking curiously at Xia De’s back, then watched in surprise as the young Detective fell backward, crashing onto the water and then sinking.
The witch quickly dove underwater, grabbed his hand, and pulled him up, preventing the Outsider from drowning there. Looking at Xia De’s face again, he was breathing evenly, his eyes tightly closed. More than unconscious, he seemed to be asleep.
Hivi Aurora inexplicably found this scene amusing.
The sea breeze blew, and the fishy smell on the sea surface gradually dissipated. Dazzling sunlight shone down from above onto the sea, the shimmering ripples making it impossible to tell that just tens of minutes ago, this place had looked like an apocalyptic scene.
The sunlight also shone on Xia De’s handsome face. The witch looked down at the man’s face, and somehow, she felt her face hot, and her heart rate suddenly quickened:
“Although there’s a big difference, you’re much more charming than that Summoner.”
She gave a self-deprecating smile, then looked up and instructed the Mermaid girls who had gathered around and were curiously discussing Xia De, to retrieve the small boat and the boot on it, and to search for Darkness who had fallen into the sea.
She had no hope for this, so she didn’t bother to participate in the search. Instead, before the church discovered the situation here, she personally carried Xia De and swam towards the shore, muttering softly:
“Daring to enter the sea to save me, providing effective information about the Chosen One, and even being able to cause effective damage with some unknown alchemical item… Jialinna, where on earth did you find this man… hmm…”
She suddenly stopped swimming and looked around alertly. After scolding a young Mermaid girl who was loafing nearby, and confirming that no one was watching, she lowered the hand holding Xia De into the seawater.
Soon, a blush rose on the witch’s face, but it also looked like the trace left by the morning sun on her face.
She squinted slightly, looking towards the direction of Coldwater Port at sunrise. The City was waking up; for ordinary people who didn’t know the truth, this would be a normal morning in the age of steam. And further away, that direction was also the direction of Tobesk.
Behind them, the Mermaids and the church were clearing out the remaining mermen, while the church and police on shore were presumably conducting the final cleanup operations.
The sun had risen; today seemed to be a good day.
“Jialinna, where on earth did you find this man?”
