After Dorothy left, Xia De continued to wait.
At eight o'clock in the evening, Luvia sent a letter to Xia De through someone.
The letter said that the Peace Church had found traces of Darkness and Weepers in the south of the City, but due to the appearance of other Ring術士 organizations, the pursuit of the two was not going smoothly.
“There are other Ring術士 organizations.”
Xia De, who remained in Saint Delan Square, felt that the situation seemed to be getting worse.
The Ring術士 organizations pursuing the Chosen One were far more than just the Church, Academy, Council, and Blood Spirit School.
If it was delayed for a few more days, new Thirteen Ring Sorcerers might even appear.
In addition, Luvia had already contacted Iluna.
The interior of the out-of-control relic, Darkness Domain, was incredibly dangerous, so the Church had made some amulets to protect those who needed to enter it.
Iluna had already acquired two extra ones, and Luvia would bring the amulets when she next came to Saint Delan Square.
She also seemed to believe that Darkness would most likely successfully enter the Darkness Domain, so she told Xia De to be ready to depart at any time.
Thus, it came to Saturday morning, the thirty-first day of Flourishing Flower Month, the end of Flourishing Flower Month in August.
When he woke up in the morning, Xia De thought that if he still couldn't confirm Darkness's whereabouts by noon today, then he would go to Luvia and no longer wait.
But just after breakfast, the downstairs door was knocked.
However, when Xia De, full of anticipation, opened the downstairs door, he found that the visitor was not Luvia, nor the maid holding the darkness box, but Priest Augustus.
“Why are you so disappointed to see me? Xia De, do you dislike me that much?”
The Priest was not involved in the Chosen One matter, so while Xia De was anxiously and expectantly waiting for the decisive battle, the Priest's life was still very leisurely.
“No, no, I’m very happy you could come.
But I’m waiting for Luvia; I have some very important things to ask her.”
Xia De said, then moved aside from the doorway to let Priest Augustus enter.
“Luvia? Who is that? Have you met a new girl again?”
The Priest asked with a smile, and as he was about to enter, he saw Xia De frozen there:
“Detective, you’re very strange today, what’s wrong?”
He frowned.
“Priest, Luvia Annett, do you not know her?”
“Who is that?”
Priest Augustus asked strangely, stroking his chin, and he didn't seem to be joking.
At this moment, Xia De somewhat doubted if he was still asleep, but then immediately thought of the characteristics of the Darkness Domain:
“Then Priest, please think carefully, how many people are in our team, including you and me?”
Xia De asked again.
“And the doctor and the Writer, four people, huh? Why does it feel like there’s something wrong… Wait, isn’t our team complete with five people?”
He looked up at the Detective at the door:
“Have I been affected by something that altered my memory?”
“It’s not memory alteration, it’s cognitive change.”
The areas covered by the Darkness Domain would not only completely disappear but also be forgotten by people, and any related records would also disappear in a relatively reasonable manner.
Therefore, people who entered that area would also be forgotten by everyone.
However, even if all records disappeared, people would gradually discover some anomalies, which is why the Church was able to initially discover the Darkness Domain appearing around Tobesk.
“Follow me, Priest, there’s something very important that needs to be confirmed.”
Xia De quickly walked up the stairs, and the Priest closed the door behind him, following him while pondering:
“Oh, don’t walk so fast, do you think I’m the same age as you? Xia De, tell me first, what level of relic is it this time?”
Xia De was almost at the second floor by now; he was very fast, while the Priest had just reached the stair landing:
“It’s an Angel-level (Level 1) relic, the Darkness Domain!”
“As long as it’s not an inconceivable-grade relic (Level 0), that’s good; I don’t want to experience the bad luck I encountered last time again.”
“Priest, have you experienced an out-of-control inconceivable-grade relic incident?”
When the Priest arrived on the second floor, panting, Xia De’s voice came from the study.
“Yes, yes, that time was truly terrible; it was me and Annette… Oh, I remember Annette!”
The Old Priest said joyfully, catching his breath as he walked through the living room towards the study:
“The inconceivable-grade relic, Time’s Reversal, looked like an hourglass with silver sand inside.
This thing caused the Tobesk area to repeatedly cycle through a single day, and as the number of cycles increased, the covered area grew larger and larger.
When she found me, the relic’s influence had almost reached the southern border of the Kingdom.”
“Hmm?”
Xia De’s head poked out from the study door:
“Time loop? You two solved something like that?”
“Mainly Annette; she was completely immune to this kind of time reset and could remember the content of each loop.
She tried 8 times herself and couldn’t find and contain the relic within 24 hours, so she came to me for help.”
The Priest was slightly smug:
“Although I’m only a Two-Ring, after knocking Bishop Owen unconscious and stuffing him into a broom closet, I was able to mobilize all the Ring術士 of the Dawn Church under the pretext of searching for the missing bishop.”
He walked into the study and saw Xia De carrying a huge rolled-up map towards the door:
“Priest, no need to come to the study.
Please help me open the door to Room Two on the living room wall; this map can only be fully unfolded in the next room.
So how did you deal with that inconceivable-grade relic? Did you sell such a troublesome thing to the Academy after containing it?”
“No, no, Annette believed that since we finally got an inconceivable-grade relic, how could we easily let it go?
That hourglass was placed in the church.
I dug up the floor beneath the statue and buried the hourglass at the statue’s feet to prevent it from going out of control again.
Speaking of which, that time Annette also saved the world.”
The Priest said, opening the door and walking into Room Two first.
“Priest, you certainly have ideas.
But isn’t this blasphemy?”
“Of course not.
I actively used the power of my Lord to suppress an inconceivable-grade relic.
If this matter could be told, the Church would canonize me after my death.”
The Priest said proudly, and together with Xia De, they unfolded the map, which Miss Jialinna had described as “military-grade,” on the floor.
“However, Xia De, what I just told you, don’t tell anyone else.
I originally promised Annette I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
The Priest reminded him with some concern:
“I’m only telling you because of this incident, and because you have a very good relationship with Annette.”
“No problem, Priest.”
Xia De squatted down, looking at the map of the southern Tobesk region, while explaining what the Darkness Domain was to Priest Augustus.
Although the Priest was not a Ring術士 of the Church, he had heard of this dangerous angel-level relic that appeared in the Tobesk Diocese, so Xia De didn't need to elaborate too much.
“However, why aren’t you affected by the Darkness Domain?”
The Priest stood behind Xia De and asked with confusion.
“I’m not completely unaffected, but the impact I receive is weaker.
When I woke up this morning, I was thinking I seemed to be waiting for someone, but I just couldn’t remember.
When you knocked on the door downstairs, I somehow blurted out ‘Luvia is here,’ and then realized I was waiting for her.
Haha, I even thought I was still groggy from sleep.”
Xia De explained this, and the Priest nodded, accepting the explanation:
“However, I really can’t figure out why Annette isn’t affected by Time’s Loop.
In my impression, she doesn’t have any time-related powers.”
The Priest muttered softly, and Xia De knew the answer to this question.
When kissing Luvia under the moon, “she” unromantically reminded Xia De that Luvia Fiocchi Annett was cursed by the Time Curse.
Any great power of time was irrelevant to her, and the harm of time would be more evident on her.
Perhaps the time loop also counted as a great power of time.
Although Xia De slandered “her” as unromantic, the voice in his ear still assisted Xia De and Priest Augustus in comparing the current map to the one Xia De had seen last time, to determine how large an area had disappeared.
The situation was better than Xia De had expected; the City area was not affected.
A month ago, at the Opera House, when he heard about this relic with Dorothy, the Darkness Domain had only swallowed a small town in southeastern Tobesk.
This time, upon inspection, the missing part of the map had expanded north and west, reaching the southern outskirts of Tobesk.
Even Miss Jialinna’s Lakeview Manor was included.
This indicated that the relic, which had largely been under control, had undergone new changes, but the changes were not particularly significant.
This was very likely related to the approaching Chosen One of Darkness.
This situation must have occurred only a few hours ago, because before Xia De went to bed in the early morning, he had studied the terrain of the southeastern City on a simple map, and everything was normal then.
“The Darkness Domain went out of control, and then it was brought back under control.”
Priest Augustus made the same judgment as Xia De.
“Yes, the culprit the Church is pursuing must have done something.”
Xia De stood up and looked down at the map:
“Priest, I need to do some things that I should do.
Please inform the Church about the relic going out of control… Well, they must know, I’m underestimating the Orthodox Church a bit too much.”
Xia De shook his head.
Priest Augustus frowned and looked at Xia De:
“What are you going to do?”
“Sorry, I can’t tell you about this.”
“Is it related to the demon you once asked about? And related to the Darkness Domain?”
“Yes.”
Xia De nodded:
“And Luvia is probably in that area too; I need to save her.
Priest, you don’t need to stop me, nor do you need to follow me.
I’m already prepared.
Don’t forget what I did at Lakeview Manor; I can use that power one more time.”
The two returned to the living room of Room One.
The Priest watched as Xia De packed up the items on the coffee table, preparing to leave.
The old man hesitated to speak:
“Alright, at my age, even if I follow you, I probably won’t be of much help, Xia De.”
“What’s wrong?”
The Outsider looked at the Old Priest, who had suddenly raised his voice, in surprise.
“Darkness is never insurmountable.
I have always believed that the human heart is initially Darkness and needs to be purified through faith, but I also believe that even the deepest Darkness will surely encounter someone who can devour it.”
Priest Augustus’s expression was serious:
“Now, please close your eyes and do not look directly at me.
Before you depart, I can give you some blessings and strength.
Detective, if your journey is a righteous act, you will surely receive the blessing of the divine.”
Xia De was holding the cat, intending to put it on the sofa and close the lid of the god's gift box.
Hearing the Priest say this, he put the cat down:
“What do you want to do… Alright, I believe you.”
He stood by the coffee table and closed his eyes.
Then, the air around him began to flow, and he seemed to hear the sound of wings flapping.
Xia De understood that the Priest had spread his wings.
Cold fingers suddenly touched Xia De’s glabella.
A chill that almost froze his soul entered Xia De’s forehead from Priest Augustus’s fingertips, making him almost unable to resist trembling from this chilling cold.
Outsider, you felt the “whisper.”
This is the power of death.
Such brilliant, such beautiful, such dazzling death.
She was whispering softly, as if singing.
“Alright.”
The fingers withdrew, and Priest Augustus said weakly.
Xia De opened his eyes and saw the Priest, pale-faced, leaning on the sofa and sitting down.
“Priest, you are…”
“I’m fine.”
The old man waved his hand with difficulty; the wrinkles on his face were more pronounced than ever, and he certainly didn't look fine:
“I’m too old, Xia De; I can’t go with you.
The blessing just now isn’t very effective; it can only protect you from the influence of those darknesses once you enter the relic’s affected area.”
Xia De hadn't received the Church's special amulet yet.
He had originally intended to rely on his divinity, just like when he ventured into the Fishbone Pirate Ship, to endure the relic's influence, but he didn't expect the Priest to provide him with convenience.
“Are you really alright?”
“Really fine.
I just need to rest a bit; I’m really too old, no match for you young people.”
His tone was still weak, and seeing Xia De wanting to treat him, he waved his hand again:
“This is due to excessive consumption, not injury.
Go quickly, Xia De; be careful, and don’t think there’s no danger just because you have my blessing.
You must remember, overcoming Darkness relies on courage and strength, not on light.
Light and Darkness are inherently one, and Darkness is also power; Darkness is never equivalent to evil.”
The Priest instructed, and this rhetoric was very consistent with the identity of an Old Priest of the Church of Light and Shadow.
“I remember.”
Xia De nodded, then turned to close the lid of the god's gift box on the coffee table and put it into his self-sewn canvas backpack.
Priest Augustus clearly didn’t recognize what it was.
After packing up and putting on his backpack, he then realized that Mia, who had just been on the coffee table, was gone.
The cat probably ran into Room Two again through the open door to sharpen its claws.
Xia De tried calling a few times, but the orange cat didn't come running.
Because time was tight, he didn’t go looking for Mia again; after all, it wouldn’t be in any danger staying at home.
“Oh, right, Priest, what did you come to tell me about?”
Xia De only remembered this matter then.
“Oh, I almost forgot.”
Priest Augustus patted his face, which had regained some color:
“Schneider asked me to inform you that today’s study session is canceled.
He has important things to do outside the City and will probably return very late.”
“That’s great; I definitely won’t be able to return to the City this afternoon.”
Even if Xia De moved quickly within the Darkness Domain, it would still take a lot of time to get from the City center to the south of the City.
“Alright, when you see Annette later, also tell her that today’s study session is canceled.
I’ll rest here for a bit, then go inform Louisa.”
“Priest, just rest here in peace.”
Xia De adjusted his strap to a comfortable position and tossed the house keys to the Priest:
“Please lock the door for me when you leave.
Well then, I’m off.”
“Whatever you’re going to do, be careful.”
The Priest sighed:
“Light illuminates shadow, shadow follows dawn.
May Mr. Dawn protect you, Xia De.”
