“Ivan Darkness, no matter what, you won’t escape. The Sunlight Greatsword will return soon, and there are more High-Ring Sorcerers transferred from other parishes outside the Darkness Domain.”
Mr. Pierrot stated the facts, looking directly into Darkness’s eyes:
“As I mentioned in Yodel Palace, surrender, and I can guarantee you at least 20 years of life.”
“The power is right at my fingertips, and you want me to stop?”
Darkness laughed, but despite his fanatical tone, his condition was not good at the moment:
“When I become the Chosen One, what will you all be?”
“The lady behind me is the Chosen One. Although she can suppress you, do you think she’s very strong?”
Mr. Pierrot stated another fact.
“I am not like her; she only has herself, but I have this.”
Darkness shook his right hand at Mr. Pierrot, letting his center of gravity lean back completely against the pillar. That pillar was thicker than the giant trees Xia De had seen in the Thousand Tree Forest, but it grew thinner towards the top. It was the largest black crystal itself, and even Xia De dared not look directly at it from his current position.
Darkness’s lips trembled, and his face was pale, not at all like he was devouring power, but rather like he was devouring raging fire. His right hand absorbed the continuously surging terrifying Darkness, and the shadows swirling in the air were slowly absorbed into the Demon’s Maw, causing terrifying rune tattoos to appear on Darkness’s body.
“As long as the ritual succeeds, I, I, Ivan F-Fris D-Darkness, hereby declare!”
His body trembled as he spoke, not at all like Iluna when she performed her ritual.
“May the ancient god, the crawling darkness, bear witness, I shall devour Darkness, having witnessed…”
Behind him, between his faintly golden Destiny Ring and himself, a tattered black robe’s phantom was slowly appearing. This was the symbol of the ancient god of Darkness.
“Witch, what are you still waiting for?”
Mr. Pierrot suddenly said. The Red-haired Witch, leaning against the crystal, opened her eyes, and the Hexacle Destiny Ring behind her appeared, overlapping with the golden staircase. She made an extremely complex gesture with her right hand and pulled her golden necklace with her left hand:
“Command – Stop!”
The flowing Darkness suddenly stopped, and Darkness froze there, but as the price for stopping the flow of Darkness in the entire Darkness Domain, black crystals rapidly spread over Jialinna’s body.
She tore off the necklace from her neck and threw it behind her.
“In the name of brass, steam be with me!”
Mr. Pierrot leaped high into the air.
Behind him, a brass-colored light erupted from the flowing Darkness, instantly illuminating the entire clearing in the crystal forest. In that light, the phantom of a City slowly emerged. Huge steam machinery floated in the sky, steam pipes connected the entire skyline, and the color of metal enveloped the entire City.
This was the true steam City in his heart, and within this colossal City phantom, a massive ball of brass-colored light, carrying steam, descended towards Darkness like a falling steel cannonball.
This power even warped the space of the Darkness Domain, causing ripples to spread through the static Darkness. Xia De, who was particularly sensitive to space, even felt terrifying cracks appear in the space through which the light and steam passed.
The extreme wind pressure made it impossible for Xia De to even lift his head; just witnessing this scene allowed him to feel its terror. If this strike were to succeed, Xia De even suspected that the giant black pillar formed from the ancient demon’s corpse would collapse as a result.
A black vortex appeared around Darkness, but his body, fixed by the immense pressure from above, could not move at all. He wanted to use the demon’s power, but Jialinna had somehow blocked his connection to the Demon’s Maw.
Under this seemingly world-ending strike, the right hand wearing the fish training ring moved on its own.
The writhing muscles transformed, first into the form of a half-demon, and then from the half-demon form into Human Pus.
However, because Darkness’s main body was severely injured, the Human Pus demon had not absorbed enough power to restore the ancient demon to its peak. Even if it transformed into the Human Pus form, Xia De did not believe it was a match for a Thirteen Ring Sorcerer.
“It’s going to end, the Orthodox Church won!”
Xia De thought excitedly, but just as he believed it was finally over, the pitch-black right hand, like a giant tree, suddenly swung upwards.
A large mass of black pus detached from the Human Pus body and transformed into a giant black spider in the air.
The spider collided with the ball of light, and the instantaneous explosion of fire forced Xia De to squint his eyes, the violent noise in his ears made him suspect that even this angel-level relic was about to collapse.
In the fire, the giant black spider rapidly expanded as if it had absorbed all the power of the explosion, but before it exploded, it fell into the black vortex below.
The next moment, a roaring explosion came from the far southeast. It seemed a mountain in the distance had collapsed, and the sound was able to penetrate the dense Darkness.
The terrain in the Darkness Domain, affected by Darkness, was more difficult to destroy than outside. This meant that if Mr. Pierrot’s strike had been in a normal place, it would have been enough to easily wipe out the entire Tobesk and surrounding areas.
The strike did not work, and Mr. Pierrot tried to change direction in the air. But Darkness, spitting blood profusely, suddenly pointed a steel needle upwards with his left hand, and at the same time, waved his right hand in the air.
Under the effect of the relic, the Murderer’s Steel Needle, the Thirteen Ring Sorcerer’s movements froze for half a second. But in that half-second, vortices appeared on all six sides—up, down, left, right, front, and back. The vortices converged inward, and Mr. Pierrot fell into the Darkness, transferred to an unknown location.
“If I can’t beat you, do I not have other ways to deal with you? There’s only one last step left, as long as I perform the ritual, only the ritual…”
“The spider demon just now wasn’t Human Pus, nor was it a crystal demon. You can summon other demons that have appeared here before?”
Jialinna, whose half-face was already covered in crystals, frowned and asked:
“Another talent of Darkness, this is truly terrible; have you gained ‘history’?”
“Yes, Witch, I understood more things in the Darkness Domain. Destiny is favoring me, and this is the proof. I gained new power at the most critical moment.”
Darkness painfully spat out a mouthful of blood, which was dark black and smoked on the crystal ground. When he looked up again, the Witch was completely enveloped by black crystals:
“Now there’s you left, Miss Chosen One. Are you sure you want to disturb me?”
He then smiled and looked at Iluna, whose expression had not changed:
“Do you believe in Destiny?”
The light in her left eye flickered like a flame.
“If there were no Destiny, even if Weeping Blood Hermons sacrificed so many people, it would be impossible to send me here.”
Darkness said, panting. Even though he had used the power of other demons to withstand that blow, it didn’t mean he was truly unharmed.
“You believe in Destiny, and the Church also believes in the Destiny of the Chosen One. Everything is still within the plan. The Church anticipated the worst-case scenario. Now, the Sunlight Greatsword will return in 12 minutes, and the Steel Right Hand will return in an unknown amount of time, but I don’t think it will be more than fifteen minutes. I am still here, Chosen One against Chosen One; the Church did not fail to anticipate this.”
Her left hand slowly plunged into the Darkness beside her, and then she pulled out a golden greatsword shimmering with lightning. Xia De’s eyes widened, but then he realized that this was not Iluna’s own Miracle.
Darkness was equally surprised:
“The Sunlight Greatsword? That Thirteen Ring Sorcerer actually gave this sword… Chosen One against Chosen One…”
Xia De’s Moonlight Greatsword could not be transferred for others to use, but the Church’s Thirteen Ring Sorcerer could.
Darkness calmed himself and took a deep breath, his crimson eyes fixed on Iluna:
“I, Ivan Fris Darkness, hereby declare!”
He breathed heavily, faint golden specks of light emanated from his body, and prayers with myriad overlapping voices came from who knew where. The continuously surging thick Darkness poured frantically into the Demon’s Maw, and a turbulent wind came from who knew where.
The ritual had begun.
“You wish! Sunlight Gun!”
Iluna struck suddenly, a lightning spear leaving golden arcs in space, shooting towards Darkness, who was absorbing dark power. But he casually swatted it away with his massive right hand, and the golden lightning vanished.
The brown-haired girl ran forward, while Xia De poured all the Weak Angel Potion into his mouth, discarded the frog leg, and then also ran over.
Tifa, holding the darkness box, did not stop him.
“May the ancient god, the crawling darkness, bear witness, I shall…”
“Balance!”
Golden ripples spread, and Darkness, who was devouring the endless dark streams, suddenly looked up at Iluna. The girl, holding the Sunlight Greatsword with both hands, leaped high, and what appeared behind her was not a Destiny Ring, but a golden scale. At this moment, Balance confronted Darkness; she seemed like the hero from legends who guided light and eradicated evil:
“Sunlight Gun!”
Golden lightning attached itself to the greatsword, and the divine art, Sunlight Gun, was actually used by her with the sword in her hand.
The power of this strike was far stronger than before. At this moment, holding the greatsword, she leaped down from a height, the violent lightning restrained on the sword, as if it could pierce through the earth in the next second.
“Chosen One!”
This was the demon’s language; it was Darkness’s right hand speaking.
That right hand almost instantly transformed from the Human Pus form into a half-demon. It was unclear whether Darkness was controlling it or if the demon had taken control of part of his body. The half-demon looked up at Iluna, black lightning shot from its crimson eyes, but they were all deflected by the golden light around Iluna’s body.
The golden light made Iluna seem like the sun in the sky, and Darkness clearly flinched.
But the demon did not; it opened its large mouth, which was still devouring Darkness. As that right hand extended, the Demon’s Maw instantly expanded enough to swallow the descending Iluna and the greatsword in her hand.
Feeling the extremely strong suction, Iluna could only project a Sunlight Gun with the greatsword in her hand in advance. Golden lightning shot into the Demon’s Maw, and it roared and trembled, its huge mouth immediately retracting. Although it swallowed the blow, it was certainly not unharmed.
Iluna gritted her teeth and slashed down with the greatsword in both hands—
Boom!
The half-demon once again actively transformed into Human Pus. The massive right hand, oozing pus, blocked the Sunlight Greatsword in a nearly broken manner. With a sudden flick, Iluna was flung away, and the greatsword in her hand was embedded diagonally in the ground further away.
“Rea…really powerful.”
Darkness’s voice trembled as he spoke. The Human Pus right hand, due to its injury, transformed back into a demon half-body, and the demon laughed maniacally.
“This is Thirteenth Ring. If it wasn’t you holding the sword just now, but the sword’s original owner, I’m afraid I really would have been shattered. But… do you know why I could block it?”
This was Darkness speaking.
“Why?”
Iluna struggled to get up, supporting herself on the ground, then suddenly clutched her chest and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground. Crystals crackled and spread towards her legs, but Iluna slammed her right hand down hard, and the crystals exploded.
“Because I am not—”
Crimson light bloomed in his eyes.
“Alone!”
The demon’s words overlapped with Darkness’s words. The demon half-body stretched like mud, biting towards Iluna’s head.
Iluna smiled and said:
“Actually, I’m not alone either.”
“Who?”
The demon half-body immediately retreated, because the owner of this right hand, Darkness’s body, turned in another direction.
Clang!
Moonlight fragments splattered.
“I knew it was you!”
Darkness, holding the dark sword reshaped by the Human Pus power in his left hand, collided with Xia De’s Moonlight Greatsword. Both pressed forward simultaneously, causing the blades of the two swords to meet.
The faint glow of the Moonlight Greatsword illuminated Xia De’s gritted teeth and strained face, and also illuminated Darkness’s pale face. This was the first time Darkness had seen Xia De’s true appearance. His eyes widened, and his face showed an enraged expression:
“Coldwater Port was you, Yodel Palace was you, and now it’s you again. I knew it, how could it be such a coincidence? How could I, no matter where I go, encounter a Ring術士 who is proficient in both space and Moonlight! You really came again, so that’s it, this face, you are Thunder Jeed’s…”
He spoke fiercely, saliva almost spraying onto Xia De’s face. Holding the sword with one hand, even in his severely injured state, he still managed to suppress Xia De’s two-handed grip on the greatsword with just his strength. The Demon’s Maw on his right hand also bit towards Xia De.
It had almost bitten off Iluna’s head just now, but it still retreated. It seemed that in the eyes of Darkness and Human Pus, Xia De, this almost arch-nemesis, was even more troublesome than the Chosen of Balance.
“Letting you see my face is because you absolutely cannot leave alive today!”
Xia De puffed out his cheeks and spoke slightly, finding it difficult to speak with water in his mouth while exerting himself.
As a Second-Circle Arcanist, even with Jialinna’s necklace, he could not fully contend with the power of a Six-Ring Arcanist. Not to mention pressing the sword towards the opponent, he couldn’t even draw the sword and leave now.
But it didn’t matter, because facing the Demon’s Maw that was about to swallow his head, Xia De puffed out his cheeks, and just as the Demon’s Maw was almost covering his head—
Pfft!
The Weak Angel Potion he held in his mouth was sprayed out, turning into a mist. The potion and Xia De’s saliva, not a drop wasted, entered the demon’s mouth along with the immense suction and the dark current.
He didn’t think he could defeat the opponent at all. Before the Church’s strongest combat power returned, this was the method he had long thought of to get the Weak Angel Potion into the opponent’s body.
“Priest Augustus said that as long as the potion can be completely poured into the demon’s mouth, even if the opponent doesn’t die, they will definitely be in critical condition! This is even simpler than I thought.”
Thinking this, Xia De immediately took a step back, then crossed the Darkness and appeared ten meters away. He reached out to help Iluna up and put the leaf that originally belonged to Dorothy into Iluna’s mouth.
The girl, who had been fighting for a long time and was severely wounded, immediately chewed the leaf and swallowed it. She stood up, leaning on Xia De, and smilingly kissed Xia De’s cheek intimately:
“I knew you would come.”
The Chosen of Balance had returned to her peak state once again.
