A stroke of absolute luck, won from the gambling god, now took effect. The dice tumbled in the air, and when they landed in his palm, the upward-facing side was exactly twenty points.
Xia De raised an eyebrow, waiting for luck to provide the final push for the Mystic Lock to form, just as he had turned back to save the little girl at the door of the house about to be taken away by a god.
The Mystic Lock could isolate the power that the Darkness Domain gave to Darkness. Combined with the optimal state of Divine Radiance and the gradually recovering Iluna, he believed he could defeat his opponent. After all, when the previous Mystic Lock formed, he had directly forced back the gaze of an evil god.
But this time, luck did not seem to manifest in obtaining the Mystic Lock Miracle, because after the dice landed in his palm, Xia De felt nothing. After half a second of astonishment, two voices spoke simultaneously:
“Look at your chest.”
“Xia De, your chest is glowing!”
Tifa struggled to grab his arm and reminded him, so Xia De took out the poetry manuscript paper from his chest. It was glowing because Saint Byron's Comprehensive College had sent a notification.
“Xia De Hamilton, can you now receive the ‘Dream of Saint Byron's Comprehensive College’?”
“Ah? Why is it this? Not the Mystic Lock? Oh, I remember now, today is Saturday, and the college said they would send it on the weekend.”
Xia De pressed his finger on the glowing word “Yes”.
The paper glowed, and a palm-sized, intricately enameled snuff bottle fell into Xia De's hand.
The bottle was generally cerulean blue, adorned with bright yellow sunflowers connected by golden lines, making one involuntarily recall the joyful summer times.
Darkness was close at hand; the completely demonized Darkness extended his claws towards them.
Under Iluna and Tifa's surprised gazes, Xia De opened the lid of the snuff bottle.
Last time, it was opened by the doctor, and the snuff bottle immediately took effect, releasing colorful smoke that allowed him to see Saint Byron's and its basic situation in a dream.
This time, Xia De's hand opened the lid, but what wafted out was a fragrant, reddish-gold, warm mist.
Time truly stopped at this moment.
The Darkness solidified, the demons surrounding them on all sides solidified, and the gurgling pus on the ground solidified.
The reddish-gold mist enveloped the three, protecting them. Within the mist, the three simultaneously heard a voice, a woman's gentle voice, asking a question.
Although Tifa and Iluna could only understand a few individual words in the language she used, both of them coincidentally thought of similar scenes.
Tifa seemed to return to her thirteen-year-old self, listening to nineteen-year-old Jialinna explain the basic rules of a witch's power in front of a small blackboard; Iluna, on the other hand, seemed to return to her training days at the Papacy, in that tiered auditorium, bathed in summer sunlight, listening with friends to Old Father's monotonous lectures.
Xia De understood the question:
“In the Thousand Tree Forest, what was the last lesson I taught you?”
The voice seemed to whisper close to his right ear, as if that witch was currently in the Darkness behind Xia De.
Xia De felt a moment of trance. At this moment, he was also standing side by side with two ladies, also facing the encroaching Darkness. Time seemed to rewind decades ago, back to the moment he parted ways with the two witches.
The Chosen One's Dark Talent inherently communicated with history. Darkness used his dark talent to unveil the curtain of history and summon demons, and at this moment, the reddish-gold warm mist drifted in through a corner of this curtain. Xia De truly felt the ancient breeze from the past, blowing against his cheek.
The power of the Old God crawling darkness inherently included history, and history and time have never had boundaries. He took a deep breath, and the Miracle 【Breath of Years】 touched the power within the snuff bottle. He simply rewound the snuff bottle by one second, and all of this became extraordinary due to the touch of time's power.
The boundaries of time were blurred by Darkness's wanton manipulation of power; he should not have used this power so irreverently.
“No matter what Darkness you face in the future, you must always believe in your own light.”
“She”'s voice whispered close to Xia De's left ear, giving him a hint, but Xia De could never forget what the witch said:
“That is the purest power we possess as extraordinary humans.”
Time flowed again, the light under the tree completely extinguished, and everything plunged into Darkness, yet everything was eerily quiet, even the overwhelming roars of the demons were gone.
Because in this Darkness, that gentle voice softly said:
“Answer, correct.”
Iluna and Tifa froze in place, initially thinking the Darkness would completely engulf them, but suddenly, warm, sun-like golden light emanated from behind them.
That warm halo spread out, forcibly creating a hemispherical area under the tree.
They both heard “Answer correct” spoken in delarion common language, and this voice actually came from behind the three of them.
A transparent hand, shimmering with golden light, rested on Xia De's shoulder. Xia De had completely forgotten about the Mystic Lock. He breathed heavily, and following this hand, he trembled and turned his head to look behind him.
Reflected in his eyes was the witch, wearing a hooded robe emanating holy white light, with skin as fair as milk, and golden long hair that was exceptionally dazzling, still looking only twenty-three or twenty-four years old.
Her golden eyes looked gently at Xia De, her beautiful face showing the charm of youth, and her eyes seemed to be able to see directly through his soul:
“Long time no see, Xia De.”
Mana Feilianna stood in the sixth epoch 1853, smiling as she spoke. (Valley)
Xia De, trembling all over, controlled his emotions at this moment and responded with a somewhat hoarse voice:
“Long time no see, I really didn't expect that in my lifetime, I would have the chance to see you again. Teacher Feilianna.”
Iluna, who was illuminated by Feilianna's light and whose physical condition was gradually recovering, was startled:
“Feilianna?”
Tifa's mouth dropped open in surprise, but years of maid training quickly made her cover her mouth.
“Meow~”
Mia, who had jumped onto Xia De's shoulder, was still a little afraid of the surrounding environment, but still greeted the witch. She had seen the other party before and knew that she was very powerful.
“What kind of expression is that? Xia De, are you surprised to see me?”
The witch said with a smile, a towering golden light, like a pillar of light, rose from her, breaking through the Darkness above their heads, piercing the dense tree canopy, and directly breaking through the sky of the Darkness Domain.
Within the Darkness Domain, all Ring術士, no matter where they were, looked up towards the core area of the domain. Just now, they were still preventing the spread of the crystal, but at this moment, everything stopped.
They all saw that extraordinary golden pillar of light, and this power seemed not to belong to this era, nor to Ring術士.
The pus on the ground rippled, and all the surrounding crystals cracked. The demons roared, filled with resentment, anger, and fear; they sensed this terrifying power that should not have appeared here.
“I truly didn't expect to see you again.”
“I also didn't expect to see you in your era. What I originally left for you was just some Ling and Knowledge that could be absorbed, but Darkness and Breath of Years communicated the present and the past, and the nature of this special area made time unstable, so I appeared. Specifically, I think I'm dreaming.”
She looked up at her surroundings, seeming curious about everything:
“So many demons, truly rare. My student, Xia De · Su Lun · Han Mi Er Dun, it seems you've encountered a small trouble again.”
She suddenly smiled and looked at Iluna. The seventeen-year-old girl, very sensibly, took a step to the side, allowing the golden transparent figure to move from behind Xia De to his side:
“I'm very happy that you still remember what I said. So now, let me fulfill the responsibility I couldn't complete in the past and truly teach you something.”
She stood in the golden pillar of light, extending her left hand towards the sky, and Xia De, breathing heavily, also extended his right hand towards the sky:
“Get ready, my students, I'll call out.”
Everything seemed to truly return to the past, back to the Thousand Tree Forest.
But this time, it was slightly different, because before the countdown began, Feilianna's raised left hand grasped Xia De's right hand. Her palm pressed against the back of Xia De's hand, her thumb, middle finger, ring finger, and pinky held his hand, and her left index finger overlapped with Xia De's right index finger.
Tifa continued to maintain her expression of surprised amazement with her hand over her mouth, while Iluna pursed her lips, holding the scales, and looked at Xia De suspiciously.
“One!”
She said softly, and the golden light from her fingertips overlapped with the silver Moonlight from Xia De's fingertips.
“Two!”
Not only did their fingers meet, but parts of her transparent golden arm overlapped with Xia De's arm. Her golden hair lightly brushed Xia De's cheek, reminding him that this was not his dream.
“Three!”
A golden-silver halo rose from their fingertips, and Xia De suddenly heard the sound of a water drop. A drop of water fell into his heart. This momentary touch finally allowed him to touch the light after fear infection, Darkness oppression, Priest Augustus's understanding of Darkness, and everything he had experienced over the past few months.
That was Felianna's Witch Light, like a bond, inheriting the power of the past.
“In the dark forest where Darkness permeated, gathered around a bonfire under a tree, you met Him and Them. Spanning history and Breath of Years, when you touch this light again, you understand that this is her dream, but this is your reality.”
“Outsider, you have touched The Witch's Light of the fifth epoch, connecting the fifth epoch and the sixth epoch, traversing the long river of history and Breath of Years, and you have inherited the inspiration of past Breath of Years.”
The halo erupting from their overlapping fingertips was not bright, but exceptionally firm. The demons were in fear, roaring, and before sensing their impending doom, they charged towards the people in the light.
The light from their fingertips, Divine Radiance, and the brassy spiritual light from the automatically appearing Destiny Ring illuminated their surroundings. Amidst the gushing steam, the light erupting from their fingertips merged into the Destiny Ring.
This was the power of light, a power that should absolutely not appear in this era. That strange light converged to a point on the Destiny Ring, and as the Destiny Ring's rotation gradually slowed, Xia De's eighth Ling Rune appeared.
“Outsider, you have inscribed the Brass Enlightenment Ling Rune - The Witch's Light.”
“Outsider, you have obtained the Miracle - Felianna's Witch Light. A power not belonging to the sixth epoch, the spreading light melts everything.”
So, in this open space surrounded by overwhelming demons, amidst the long intertwining of Darkness, fear, and eerie pus, Xia De called out his brand new power:
“Felianna's Witch Light.”
Standing in the Darkness, he raised his arm and looked up at the twisted mass of demons, as if facing the entire world of Darkness.
The golden halo made their shadows sway on the ground, and the girls reached out and grabbed the back of his clothes. In this rather oil-painting-esque scene, that light began to spread.
