“No, I can’t keep it open,” Xia De suddenly said when he and Tifa had fully entered the area circled by black pen ink on the map.
Tifa was riding the horse, so Xia De observed the erosion state of the darkness box. Now, more than half of the box's surface had turned into light-absorbing black, and Xia De felt this was already a warning sign.
“Alright.”
Tifa stopped the horse to make it easier for Xia De to close the box. But as the undead creature, which had been running for two and a half hours, stopped, it instantly crumbled into a pile of bones, scattering in the pitch-black forest.
“It’s reached its limit too,” Tifa said with some annoyance, steadying Xia De to prevent him from falling, while Xia De quickly squatted down to close the darkness box again.
“It’s okay, we’re not far from our destination,” Xia De said, holding the map and bringing his glowing finger closer.
“Although the Darkness Domain can expand infinitely, the core area is very small. If there are no mistakes, even if we walk, we should be able to see Ms. Jialinna in about twenty minutes.”
“This area gives me a very strange feeling,” Tifa whispered to Xia De, slinging the box onto her back, and then held his hand. Only through this physical contact could the inexplicable silver Moonlight emanating from Xia De help her weaken the influence of the Darkness. Having entered the core area of the angel-level relic, even Tifa was nearing her limit.
The feeling of being watched by something became clearer in this area, and at the same time, the lingering afterimages in the air became denser. Something unimaginable must have happened in the core area of the Darkness Domain.
“Be careful, this way.”
Xia De looked at the map and continued walking with Tifa through the black forest. The silver halo in the Darkness had a peculiar feeling; when it illuminated the surrounding scenery, it seemed to blur the vision somewhat.
Xia De was thinking about what might happen soon, contemplating the powers he could use. The voice in his ear suddenly spoke; due to the heavy blasphemy elements in this area, she had not given any new information for a long time:
“Outsider, watch your back.”
“What?”
He instinctively turned to unleash Moonlight, but what he saw was a familiar face appearing like lightning. Before Xia De could speak, it brushed past the two of them, as if it hadn't noticed Xia De and Tifa at all.
“Was that… Mr. Hogg Lundell, the Sunlight Greatsword of the Sun Church?” Tifa recognized who it was.
“Yes, it’s a phantom,” Xia De said with certainty. The voice in his ear would not be wrong about close-range targets.
“So, the Darkness in the core area can already record short-term phantoms?” Tifa asked.
“Probably, but why is he running so fast?” Xia De wondered, then continued forward with Tifa. During this time, more realistic phantoms appeared one after another, most of them Ring Sorcerers from the Church. Xia De and Tifa even saw a phantom of Ivan Darkness and Weeping Blood Hermons once.
Continuing forward, they left the forest corrupted by Darkness and entered a small rural village that even the sleeping couldn't find. This was almost the source of the Darkness Domain. The villagers had long been melted by the Darkness, and the village was overrun by wandering Servant of Secrets.
The houses were dilapidated, gnawed by the Darkness, and the walls had turned pitch black. This place was even more terrifying than the ghost village in the deep mountains that Mr. Riddle had described to Xia De.
Carefully avoiding the demons, even if they accidentally attracted the attention of a few individuals, Xia De and Tifa, working together, could still barely evade them. Standing on the field path after leaving the village, Xia De looked up into the far distance and vaguely saw a pillar in the depths of the Darkness, as if it supported the world. But due to the profound Darkness, he was unsure if it was merely his imagination attributed to the Darkness.
“Tifa, can you still hold on?” He turned to ask the black-haired girl. Although the maid’s face was a bit pale, she was much stronger than Luvia when she arrived at Ms. Jialinna’s manor:
“No problem, I feel that Ms. Jialinna should be nearby.”
In the sixth epoch, there were only Thirteen Witches; other women with witch powers received their powers as shares from these Witches. Tifa’s witch power originated from Ms. Jialinna, and the two had a certain degree of sensory connection.
“Okay, we need to be careful next…”
Before he could finish speaking, a dazzling golden light suddenly erupted from the dark fields not far away. Because his eyes had adapted to the Darkness, when this light appeared abruptly, tears almost immediately streamed down Xia De’s face.
Xia De heard a deafening sound:
“When the greatsword falls, the scorching sun will illuminate the land.”
“Sublimation Words!?”
Before he could react, Tifa immediately blocked his path.
A scorching golden light surged forward, almost violently sweeping away all impurities on this land.
“Greatsword, fall, scorching sun, illuminate, land. The Sublimation Words of the Sunlight Greatsword, a Thirteen Ring Sorcerer and follower of the God of Sun and Earth, the Lantern Old Man!”
Xia De, shielded by Tifa, heard her speaking. Even though he saw her back, he could feel the surroundings becoming brighter and brighter, and the scenery around them was changing.
“We’ve been affected by the aftershocks of the Sublimation Words. Don’t move, Xia De, we absolutely cannot enter the range of the Sublimation Words.”
Faint golden steps appeared behind Tifa and Xia De, but this power was not enough to contend with the Sublimation Words of a Thirteen Ring Sorcerer.
“Sublimation Words? Space Stabilization Aura!”
Invisible fluctuations spread out from under Xia De’s feet, superimposing with the witch’s power, and the light flashing in the surrounding environment immediately subsided. Sublimation Words possess some spatial properties, and Xia De, at the edge of this powerful influence, barely avoided being pulled in with Tifa.
Darkness reoccupied the area. The maid seemed to be injured; she grunted and was supported by Xia De.
“Is this the power of a Thirteenth Ring?”
Xia De took out a container of water to help her heal. At this moment, a strong light suddenly flashed in the high sky again. Then, two faint points of light appeared in the dark sky. One was golden, the other blood-red; both fell towards an area far from the core, as if still in pursuit.
“The Sunlight Greatsword won,” Tifa said softly, her complexion rapidly recovering under the silver light, her eyes fixed on the direction where the two points of light disappeared.
“I’m not surprised. If the Weepers could contend with the top Thirteen Ring Sorcerers of the Orthodox Church, he wouldn’t have hidden in the New World for so many years. It seems that due to the Church’s obstruction, Darkness and the Weepers have separated. Let’s continue; there seems to be something else ahead, and the elements nearby are truly chaotic.”
Xia De said, confirming that Tifa was fine, and the two immediately continued forward.
It was impossible to discern what was originally planted in this field; the corrosion of Darkness had turned all the plants in this area into something like mud, and stepping on it even made their shoes feel like they were being corroded.
Continuing forward, the black stains on the ground, which initially appeared like lichens or salt, began to accumulate into small black crystals, growing larger and larger as they advanced.
“Very pure blasphemy elements.” Xia De risked touching the terrifying black crystals with his hand; his fingertip quickly darkened but was soon dispelled by the light from his fingertip.
“These are top-grade alchemy materials. Why is it that every time something major happens, there’s a large amount of alchemy material?” he sighed, collecting some in a small bottle he carried.
Tifa, meanwhile, looked ahead anxiously; she seemed to sense that Ms. Jialinna’s situation was somewhat precarious. However, before meeting the red-haired Great Witch, Xia De and Tifa encountered another group of strange women.
These women walked together, and each wore identical clothing.
Their upper bodies were covered in white gauze shirts with unusually large sleeves, the hems reaching almost to their knees. Their lower bodies were clad in black floor-length skirts with no decorations, and black belts at their waists tightly bound their outer garments and skirts together.
But what caught Xia De’s attention more was that all these women covered their eyes with silver metal blindfolds. Upon closer inspection, those intricately carved blindfolds were clearly coronets, but they wore the coronets too far down.
There were nine of them in total, walking together in the Darkness. Although they didn't appear to possess any relics, nor did they emit any aura of Miracles or curses, the women were still enveloped in a white light.
The white light was very evenly distributed, as if they themselves were glowing.
The two parties were somewhat far apart, and only Xia De could still observe them. Xia De described his discovery to Tifa, who immediately smiled:
“They are the nuns, the nuns of the Spiritual Cultivation Order.”
“Spiritual Cultivation Order?” Xia De knew this Ring Sorcerer organization.
Although called a “Cultivation Order,” they actually had no unified faith, but instead believed in the spiritual essence of all things, thus revering nature, life, and death.
This organization was active in the eastern part of the Old Continent, consisting mainly of women. They generally lived simple lives and were very fond of helping women give birth; some child welfare organizations and hospitals were associated with them. They often advocated for environmental protection, which led to some friction with the Creation and Destruction Church, the promoters of the Steam Revolution, but they still belonged to a relatively gentle Ring Sorcerer group.
Using blindfolds to cover their eyes was a characteristic of the Ring Sorcerers of the Spiritual Cultivation Order. The Cultivation Order believed that covering their eyes could not only expand their “spiritual perception,” allowing them to better perceive the spirituality of the world, but also lock their own spirituality within their bodies, enabling better control over the power of the four elements.
