The area shrouded by the angel-level relic Darkness Domain was not just about people falling into a coma and being forgotten. This Darkness was attempting to melt and devour everything around it until all entities, both tangible and intangible, became part of the Darkness.
As a result, the earth turned black, trees and weeds became increasingly bizarre and twisted, and everything seemed to possess light-absorbing properties. Even space itself was affected by this all-encompassing Darkness, causing some spatial distortions.
This was as if a certain space had been dissolved by the Darkness, leading to connections between some locations and disjointed distant places. One wrong step could lead to an unknown destination.
This distortion was not widespread; the overall space remained normal. Xia De was only alerted to it at the last moment when he almost took a wrong step, thanks to his core Ling Rune of time and space.
If he truly got lost in such a place, even Xia De would find it very difficult to find the correct path again. After all, he only had the Miracle of Time Perception, not the High-Ring Miracle of Space Perception, which was known as the bane of 'getting lost syndrome'.
Hidden within the Darkness were the demons, the "Servant of Secrets." On the outskirts of the Darkness Domain, these robed, one-eyed demons were relatively evenly dispersed, as the divine rituals deployed by the Orthodox Church on the periphery were preventing them from spreading more Darkness to the outside world.
The power within the Domain, which belonged to the relic, also affected Xia De's powerful soul perception. Coupled with the restricted visibility, he had only been traveling for five minutes when he ran head-on into a "Servant of Secrets" pouncing from the Darkness. Their vision in the Darkness was exceptionally keen.
But this time, Xia De was well-prepared. With the seal pressed onto the Moonlight Greatsword, he held the sword with both hands, ready for battle. As the opponent charged, he unleashed a powerful forward slash. Even though the two-handed greatsword couldn't cleave this terrifying creature with a huge vertical pupil on its face into two, the exorcising power attached to the sword itself still caused black smoke to erupt from its entire body.
Seizing the opportunity, Xia De pointed a finger again:
"Mind Blast!"
The accumulated power combined with intense mental focus caused the short creature he pointed at to fly backward, its vertical pupil on its oval face directly exploding before it vanished into the Darkness.
Without the Light Ling Rune, even dismembering the opponent wouldn't completely kill a "Servant of Secrets," so Xia De didn't bother to chase after it. Instead, he quickly left, taking advantage of the "Mind Blast" temporarily incapacitating the opponent.
Before reaching the edge of the Town of Forrester, where the Diviners were stationed, Xia De encountered the "Servant of Secrets" three times. The first time was a single individual, the second time was a pair, and the third time he encountered dozens of individuals performing a ritual in a black rice field.
The second encounter ended with Xia De fleeing with his sword, while the third time he lay motionless in the rice field for ten minutes, witnessing the demons sacrificing to black flames, which were related to the expansion of the Darkness Domain.
At the edge of the Darkness Domain, "Servant of Secrets" in tattered robes were everywhere like rats, and each individual was not entirely identical. This was not only reflected in their appearance but also in their power. Within this demon species, there seemed to be significant individual differences, and perhaps at the core of the Darkness Domain, there would be demons no less powerful than High-Ring Sorcerers.
Fortunately, the enemies Xia De encountered so far were not strong.
Like the area outside the Town, the Town of Forrester was completely enveloped in Darkness, showing no signs of any normal life. Black shadows patrolled the Town, and there were some black crystals on the ground that resembled salt.
Xia De had assumed that the Diviners would be able to resist when the Domain suddenly expanded, but from the current situation, it seemed they had suffered heavy losses the moment the relic went out of control.
Bang!
Xia De was just thinking about how to find Luvia when a startling explosion suddenly echoed from within the Town.
Sound transmission within the relic was also affected, as this Darkness could absorb sound. The fact that Xia De could hear the sound from outside the Town only meant that the explosion site was definitely more terrifying than he imagined.
"Is it a Ring Sorcerer's battle? Or something else?"
The distance was too great, and the dense whisper element severely hindered perception.
She whispered softly beside Xia De's ear, causing him to instinctively turn his head to the side again. Every time he heard her voice in the Darkness, Xia De always thought she was right beside him.
Although Xia De and the metal box behind him were glowing, this Darkness had an extremely strong ability to devour light, so he didn't have to worry about being discovered from a distance.
Therefore, he didn't deliberately hide, but directly advanced in the direction of the sound.
The sound came from Central Street in the Town of Forrester. Xia De entered the Town from the east in the Darkness and needed to pass through Douglas Street to turn onto Central Street.
But as soon as he entered the somewhat eerie Town, Xia De saw people lying on the ground. These were the Town's residents, who had fallen into a coma due to the arrival of the Darkness. It had been about six hours since the incident, and their condition was still good; the blackening of their skin was not severe.
If the matter was resolved quickly and treatment was timely, they would remember nothing upon waking, and the Orthodox Church could easily handle the aftermath of this matter—provided they woke up.
As he approached the intersection of the two streets, in addition to the local Town residents, there were many outsiders lying on the street, which could be judged by their clothing.
After a careful inspection, Xia De realized through the ouroboros pendants that these were all people from the Prophet Association.
Luvia said that to cooperate with the Orthodox Church, the Prophet Association had dispatched one-third of Tobesk's Ring術士 Diviners, which was 12 people, to this Town. Xia De fumbled in the dark and counted, finding 7 of them near the intersection. Among these 7 people, two were wearing the metal divine charm provided by the Orthodox Church, which Luvia had mentioned in her letter.
The Diviners were only providing support and were not originally required to enter the Darkness Domain, so the Orthodox Church had not issued charms to everyone. From the current situation, it seemed they had resisted for a while and encountered trouble during their collective transfer.
"Has the relic's power increased? How can they still be affected even with charms? Oh, there's another one here!"
Because it was too dark around, Xia De could only see people lying on the ground when he was quite close. Therefore, the woman leaning against the low wall at the street corner was the last person Xia De noticed.
He quickly ran over and was surprised to see that it was Luvia.
"Oh, my Mia, what on earth happened?"
Xia De sighed, kneeling on one knee beside the brown-haired female Diviner with great concern. Her eyes were closed, her head tilted, leaning against the low wall. There were no signs of injury on her body, like a sleeping princess.
"Luvia, Luvia!"
He called softly, shaking Luvia's shoulder, but she didn't respond. When Xia De let go, she even fell forward due to imbalance, collapsing onto him.
"What should I do in this situation?"
Xia De tried hard to think of a solution. Meanwhile, the sound from Central Street continued. Xia De could now confirm that this should be two High-Ring Ring術士 fighting; he felt the chaotic elements.
"Let me think..."
He reached into his pocket and first fed Luvia some water treated with Gluttony's Feast, but it had no effect. He then put a youth everlasting leaf into her mouth, which also had no effect. So he dripped a few drops of weak Angelic Potion into her mouth, still useless.
Finally, he looked behind him:
"Putting the god's gift box on Luvia's head might work."
But after thinking about it, he felt it was a bit too exaggerated, so he placed his finger on her forehead:
"How is it?"
She has been corroded by the power of Darkness. You just need to temporarily expel the Darkness, and she will wake up.
If Xia De had the Light Ling Rune, he would only need to summon his Destiny Ring and let the spiritual light shine on Luvia. But he didn't, so he could only think of other ways.
He reached out and took Luvia's hand, wanting to transmit his light to her, just like he did when fighting alongside Tifa last time. But that time, the Darkness was merely brought by the appearance of a demon; this time, it was a true angel-level relic. This method was completely ineffective.
"Alright then, this is the only way."
He took out the red ink pad box prepared for his seal from his pocket, cut his finger with a small knife, dripped his blood into it, then added some No. 3 holy water (Note), and finally mixed in the luminous grass leaves he carried with him.
Luminous grass is a peculiar plant that only glows spontaneously in complete Darkness at night. It mostly grows in the primeval forests of the southern Old Continent and is a relatively common special plant, often used in various rituals.
After mixing all the materials, Xia De dipped his little finger into the red ink pad and very carefully drew a circular ritual base array on Luvia's forehead, adding some runes representing "light" within it.
This was a basic ritual Xia De needed to learn in his first year - "Luminescence." Inscribing the ritual onto an object could make the object emit a faint glow for a short period.
However, after mixing with the various materials Xia De prepared, the completed ritual did not make Luvia glow. After the red marks flickered briefly, the purple-eyed girl let out a dream-like murmur, then trembled a few times and opened her eyes.
"It actually worked. Which ingredient played the role?"
Xia De was very happy.
"Oh, Xia De, why are you here? Am I dreaming?"
Luvia's opened eyes still held a hazy look. Her purple eyes blinked hard, and her facial expression showed that she was completely weak at the moment.
Unlike Xia De, she had no protection and woke up directly inside the angel-level relic. Her current feeling should be even more uncomfortable than Xia De's experience on the Fishbone Pirate Ship.
After a few breaths, the purple-eyed girl finally fully regained consciousness. But then she suddenly covered her mouth and asked Xia De, somewhat exhausted:
"What is this taste in my mouth?"
It's the taste of youth everlasting leaf and many strange potions.
In this Darkness, Xia De explained the current situation and helped Luvia confirm that the current date was Saturday, 12:23 PM.
Luvia also told Xia De what she had encountered, which was roughly similar to Xia De's guess. Around 7:10 AM this morning, the distant Darkness suddenly spread, reaching its current scale almost instantly.
The charms given by the Orthodox Church to the Prophet Association were effective for the first few tens of minutes, but when President Stan organized the Prophets to prepare to rendezvous with the Orthodox Church team for transfer, they encountered enemies. Coupled with the deepening Darkness becoming increasingly stronger, the charms failed, and all Ring術士 below Middle-Ring fell unconscious.
Luvia, however, was wearing two charms given to her by Iluna, so she lasted a little longer.
"So what's going on with the battle over there?"
The sound from Central Street continued.
"Is President Stan fighting a powerful demon individual?"
Xia De asked again.
President Stan had returned to the city after the Darkness Domain was brought under control, but due to the matter with Darkness, he had once again entered the frontline of containing this angel-level relic, coordinating the Association's Diviners to help the Orthodox Church find their target.
Luvia was not originally with the team; she had temporarily come to the Town to meet Iluna.
"It's not demons, it's other Ring術士."
With Xia De's support, Luvia struggled to stand up. To prevent the Darkness from making her fall into a coma again, Xia De originally wanted to give her the glowing box he carried on his back, but the god's gift box could only be held by children; Luvia couldn't carry it at all.
So Xia De collected the charms from the unconscious Diviners. With Luvia's original two, the four charms combined were barely enough to allow her to move around in this area.
But she couldn't stray too far from Xia De. Luvia described it like this:
"You are like the sun now, no, the Moonlight. Although you cannot completely dispel the Darkness, your vicinity is the place least affected by the Darkness."
"President Stan is fighting a Ring術士? You found Darkness?"
Xia De was greatly shocked.
"No, no, within this area, it's not just Darkness and the Weepers who are foreign Ring術士."
Luvia reached out and patted her head a few times, trying to clear her groggy mind:
"It's the Truth Society."
Xia De knew this organization. A few weeks ago, he and Priest Augustus had caught a madman in the cemetery who was attempting to merge with a relic using his body. The Truth Society was a Ring術士 organization rooted in the southern Old Continent, with ancient traditions, studying forbidden rituals and Miracles, and had been wanted by the Orthodox Church for many years.
"The opponents are a Nine Ring Sorcerer and a PentaCircle Sorcerer."
"But isn't Mr. Stan a Ten-Ring? And there should be other Ring術士 from your Association with him. But judging by the sound, why do both sides seem evenly matched? Could it be that the Truth Society has a method that is not affected by the Darkness Domain?"
