At the same time that intelligence was received at the mountain peak, the Witches at the mountainside also learned that the sealing ritual would begin early.
“A powerful Ring術士 with a sword?”
The Witches did not choose to enter the mountain's interior to guard the seal, but instead waited on the cliff at the entrance to the passage. Aurora held the parchment scroll and looked at Grandma Cassandra in surprise:
“This couldn't be—”
“It should be.”
The Old Witch sat by the bonfire, with Sister Devlin on the other side. The burning flame was the Original Fire, and as long as this bonfire existed, the abnormality of the Gap could not affect them.
The Witches' followers and the Nuns of the Spiritual Cultivation Order were currently scattered around, preparing to meet the next wave of undead. Sister Devlin suddenly looked up at the sky, and the two Great Witches also frowned, looking upwards.
Vaguely, a huge black shadow above the thick fog became clearer and clearer, and then they saw that it was a skull like a Titan giant, composed of densely packed undead, looking at them.
The thousands of wailing souls trembled irregularly, and as the skull gradually became clearer, their terrifying expressions were reflected more clearly in everyone's eyes. Even the bravest person could not look directly at this terrifying scene, but the two Witches did not care at all.
Vaguely visible in the skull's brow was a human with a physical body. Aurora narrowed her eyes to observe, then snorted through her pretty nose:
“Joey Barton. How cliché, does he think that a accumulation of quantity can overcome quality?”
She raised her hands and clapped twice:
“Girls, get ready to move.”
She raised her right hand high and snapped her fingers, and twelve golden orbs rotated around her head; Grandma Cassandra picked up the cane from the ground and stood up, a huge and eerie shadow trembling at her feet; Sister Devlin reached her hand into the bonfire in front of her and pulled out the lime sword.
Standing up, as silver cold fragments floated in the air, she grasped the small scythe. If one looked closely, the shape of this scythe was exactly the same as the weapon wielded by the huge shadow behind Joey Barton when he used the “death Scythe.”
The Nun flicked her right hand in the air, and the lime shell on the surface of the angel-level relic, ashes, peeled off. As cracks appeared on her body and clothes, the afterglow of the First Fire flickered on both weapons.
The battle at the mountainside erupted earlier than at the peak and foot of the mountain. Perhaps in Joey Barton's view, the Witches were easier to deal with than the Orthodox Church. He was only a Ring術士, not even a core member of the Truth Society, so he naturally did not know what the Witch Council represented, nor did he understand what it meant when a Twelfth-Order Witch, also a Twelfth-Circle Arcanist, fought without restraint.
At the Natural Church at the foot of Sicar Mountain, Xia De was still carefully exchanging information with Iluna; on the cliff at the mountainside of Sicar Mountain, the Witch who inherited the power of the fifth epoch and the Nun guarding the Original Fire teamed up to fight against the appearing Joey Barton; around the large crack at the peak of Sicar Mountain, with rumbling sounds, the ancient souls hidden in the mountain were awakening under the summons of the Gap.
The thick fog permeated, like an illusory curtain about to be drawn. Xia De, by the bonfire, gazed at the flames in front of him, and in a trance, he somehow thought of the fourth-ranked death candidate mentioned by Luvia.
He had originally thought that the candidate, whose identity was still unknown, was a Vampire, and that Armand Bernhardt came to Middelburg to help him gain the status of a Chosen One. But now, it seemed that the Vampires' grand plan might truly have nothing to do with the Chosen One and the Gap. But even so, the fourth candidate, who had not yet appeared, might also show up in this final battle.
“The fourth-ranked candidate is almost unrelated to the description in the poem, so the inherited ancient god's power is almost imperceptible. But it is certain that he or she must also have some characteristics similar to the first-ranked Joey Barton. Could it be those eyes that see through death?”
If Luvia had appeared in Middelburg, Xia De would even think she might be the fourth-ranked candidate. Those purple eyes definitely had the power to see through death. But from the current situation, Luvia was clearly not.
“So who could it be? Has the other party already been involved in this matter, and do they know the contents of the ritual, as well as the need to kill a resurrected person before the ritual begins...”
He subconsciously turned his head to look at Iluna, and the seventeen-year-old girl also looked at Xia De, even winking at him playfully.
In the light of the bonfire, Xia De instantly saw her left eye glow golden. This was not Iluna's original eye; her true left eye had been sacrificed during the Balance Chosen One Ritual. Her current left eye was a gift given by Xia De with divine power during his first and currently last “burning divinity, transforming into a god.”
This eye was very pretty, and because it was a divine creation, it possessed many complex functions. And because that eye should have been sacrificed to the ancient god, the replacement eye could actually better exert the power of Balance than Iluna's own true right eye. Sometimes Xia De even felt that perhaps one day, Iluna would be able to directly see the traces he could only see with Blood Echo without using spells or Miracles.
Thinking of this, Xia De frowned:
“Luvia's divination with a coin at the time indicated that as of Iluna's arrival in Middelburg, there were at least four Chosen One candidates in the City. As of... Hmm. Could such a thing happen?”
He looked at Iluna. Although the seventeen-year-old girl was not as beautiful as the Witches, she was quite pretty among non-Witches. And because of her youth, she possessed a special innocence that Jialinna and Aurora did not have.
The Outsider still remembered the morning of his first encounter with Iluna. He had only been in this world for a few days and was about to go to “Goodman Peter's Pet Shop” in Violet Iris Lane, very close to Saint Delan Square, to pick up Mia, when he ran into Iluna at the shop's entrance.
At that moment, he felt as if all the surrounding light dimmed, with only a beam of light shining on Iluna. And the first Chosen One candidates he met after that, whether Darkness or Joey Barton, did not give him this peculiar feeling.
“Is there something strange on my face?”
Seeing Xia De staring at her, Iluna asked somewhat shyly. Xia De shook his head and continued to gaze at the flames in front of him:
“I thought of some strange things, just a guess... Anyway, let's solve Joey Barton's problem first.”
Twenty minutes of rest was enough for Xia De to recover his stamina and spirit by the bonfire. When he stood up again, he felt as if he had inexhaustible strength throughout his body.
He had wanted to wander around the church while there was still time. Just as he was thinking about how to persuade the High-Ring Sorcerers in the church to allow him to look in the basement, he heard a dull but clear bell ringing from deep within the white fog outside the church.
Everyone put down what they were doing and listened carefully; it was nine consecutive bell tolls. And after the bells, all the ritual items and ritual traces prepared for the sealing ritual inside the church began to glow golden. The holy emblem of the God of Nature—two overlapping leaves—hanging on the wall at the end of the main chapel, scattered Miracle elements into the church, and outside the church, the white fog became agitated.
“It's starting,” Iluna whispered.
Xia De frowned and looked towards the church entrance. His keen senses allowed him to perceive a further change in the Gap. The whisper element almost overwhelmed the Miracle element even within the church. And further away, he heard a sound like an ancient beast roaring, and the rumbling Vibration of the ground indicated that something was coming.
In the real Middelburg area, the great earthquake, which had been announced in the newspapers, arrived as scheduled. With the rumbling sound of Sicar Mountain as if it were about to collapse, Middelburg, covered by white fog, endured the devastation of natural power. Boulders fell from the peak of the real Sicar Mountain, black smoke billowed from the lake in the mountain mouth, the lake water was boiling, and the dormant volcano was being reactivated.
Lufu Lane, House of the Blind.
Sister Michelle stood by the window on the second floor, holding the window frame and feeling the Vibration of the building itself. Many people stood behind her; after Xia De left, quite a few Ring術士 came seeking help. Sister Michelle knew everyone's concerns, and she also had her own worries. Sister Devlin had prophesied what was about to happen, and she knew better than anyone how terrifying the coming night would be:
“This dormant volcano is finally going to erupt.”
Saint Carla Avenue, Cassandra Auction House.
The Old Witch's young apprentice, Lita Swift, was comforting the staff who had not left the auction house in the first-floor lobby and organizing the Ring術士 left by the Witches to prepare for the possible appearance of undead. The violent earthquake made everyone's faces pale, and at this moment, three strange figures appeared outside the auction house's door. They were three pale-faced middle-aged men: one holding a thorny scepter inlaid with a ruby, one wearing six colorful gem rings on his hand, and one holding black and white twin pistols. They all looked like nobles:
“Excuse me, are Grace White and Helen Black here? We have their invitation letters.”
South City Slums, Spider Tail Alley.
The flower girl, whose flowers Xia De had once bought all at once, huddled with her parents, brothers, and sisters in their dilapidated, drafty house, eyes closed, trembling in the earthquake. Outside the door was the howling wind, and deep within the white fog, something massive was slowly moving, casting a huge black shadow on the window.
This was the Middelburg slums, the dwelling place for the propertyless poor living in this City. No one could help them tonight, except themselves. Suddenly, a knock sounded from outside the drafty door. The scruffy, not-so-tall middle-aged man, holding the family's only cleaver, stood in front of his family:
“Don't be afraid, I will protect you, Mary, Jenny, Dennis, and little Harry.”
Sicar Mountain, foot of the mountain dense forest.
The Delarion Royal Army stationed in the Sicar Mountain area had already found their respective positions to guard in the mountain forest. Captain Rades's fifty-man squad was constructing defensive fortifications, responsible for protecting a silver stake erected in the forest. The silver stake was stuck in the mud like a nail, and the complex and intricate patterns on its surface made the young corporals constantly guess its value.
Captain Rades, wearing a cold-weather cloak, stepped on his leather boots, looked at the fog-shrouded mountain forest in the evening, and then looked down at the headless corpse on the ground.
He held the amulet Xia De had given him in his hand, and even the sudden earthquake could not disturb the middle-aged man's thoughts:
“I always feel that something incredible will happen tonight... The dead resurrecting? So the stories weren't lies, there really is magic as described in legends.”
Five Gods Church.
The earthquake did not disrupt the ritual that had been planned for a year. All the Ring術士 teams remaining in the real world were dispatched to clear the once again powerful undead in the urban area. Inside the church, with Old Priests gathered from various parts of the Old Continent, and local Ring術士, in the magnificent main hall of the church, dressed in unified white robes, participating in prayer, five golden light pillars pierced through the white fog from the church, extending high into the sky. The holy emblems representing the five Orthodox Gods appeared under the starry sky in the thick fog of the night.
The golden light enveloped the entire City, making the real Sicar Mountain seem as if it were illuminated by the City below. The sealing ritual, Holy Tree Mark, officially began.
And in the Natural Church in the Gap, ordinary clergy protected into the Gap were now praying in low voices around the bonfire in the center of the main chapel, while hurried Ring術士, holding casting materials and their respective relics, watched the constantly churning white fog from the doors and windows.
Hundreds of brass Destiny Rings appeared together, but the steam fog did not affect visibility too much. No one spoke; everyone waited quietly.
The main part of the sealing ritual was in reality; the church in the Gap did not need to perform too many additional ritual steps. What they had to do was to withstand the undead's attack on Death Door before the ritual was officially completed.
The final battle was about to begin.
