Chapter 3206: The Shadow of

The man kicked over by Xia De collapsed to the ground and dissolved into black foam. Xia De did not search for him, but instead looked at his own right hand. The pocket watch that had been in his hand a second ago had abruptly vanished, and in the right hand of the one-armed man who had reappeared from behind that enormous bronze dial, the pocket watch was now held.

The pocket watch is the true body of the bronze dial; this seems to be some kind of fate-type relic.

"Spatial power?"

【No, the relic's nature causes it to return automatically.】

"She" reminded softly. Seeing Xia De raise his hand, the one-armed man spun the dial once more. The attack from Miss Reinhardt had been absorbed, so Xia De did not seize the chance to strike again. By now the witch, more than ten meters away, had already supported the man-dressed woman and told her to leave the area. As the witch walked toward Xia De, the dial stopped spinning for the second time, and this time the spine-bone pointer still pointed at the "smiling face."

The one-armed man was very satisfied with the second result. He aimed the pocket watch at Xia De:

"Perhaps you are very strong, but the Spinning Wheel has already foretold that this operation will not fail. As long as this dial exists, no matter how strong you are, a power stronger than you will always appear. This is the fate that will surely descend tonight—unchangeable. Since time-stopping cannot deal with you, then let us see a more powerful force."

As his confident words fell, the light spewing from the grinning mouth of the smiling face once again landed on the pocket watch.

The man lightly pressed the pocket watch, but as Xia De and the witch warily took defensive stances, time did not stop again—or rather, nothing happened at all.

The puzzled man looked suspiciously at the dial, confirmed by moonlight that the spine-bone pointer had indeed stopped in the smiling-face zone, then looked at the pocket watch in his hand. Then he noticed fine dust drifting from his palm. He blinked in confusion, and realized it was not just his palm—his entire body was shedding dust outward:

"How—"

The sentence was never finished; his whole person was scattered by the night wind passing through the alley like a clump of ash.

"What's going on? Did it trigger the relic's negative effect?"

Miss Reinhardt frowned as she walked to Xia De's side and asked. Xia De was not sure either. He did not pick up the fallen pocket watch, nor did he observe the dial that still had not vanished. He turned his head to look around. Although there was nothing in the darkness, he still had a strange feeling:

"Feel my chest."

"What?"

The witch was startled, then said somewhat angrily:

"How can you say something like that?"

"I'm not joking with you."

Xia De very seriously grabbed her hand and placed it on his clothes:

"Isn't my heartbeat very fast?"

"It is. Why is that?"

"I don't know either. I just have a feeling of impending disaster, like I can't catch my breath. Strange—the enemy isn't already dead?"

*Tap*—a single footstep. In this snowy night, though faint, it sounded like a thunderclap beside Xia De and Miss Reinhardt's ears.

The two looked toward the depths of the alley before them. Moonlight illuminated half the alley, and in the darkness beyond the moonlight—so thick it could almost not be dispersed—something had already appeared, and was standing there watching the two of them.

The witch, not yet realizing something was wrong, raised her hand to summon light to illuminate that darkness, but was stopped by Xia De, who frowned deeply and pressed her hand down.

She then looked with growing curiosity toward that deep darkness. At first the darkness was just a chaotic picture, but gradually she actually caught lines forming a human shape within that chaos.

And once imagination sketched out the form of a person in the darkness, the mind could not help but try to sketch out what exactly was standing in the darkness, watching them from afar.

She did not notice that something was wrong with her at this moment, still craning her neck to look that way, even involuntarily beginning to walk forward.

So the existence within the deep darkness grew clearer. It was a man wearing a black top hat, thin of build, with a monocle over one eye. Ta stood there, toying with a deck of cards in the right hand, yet it also seemed like a die, and on closer inspection was clearly a pendulum pendant. And upon noticing the witch's gaze, the existence in the darkness, toward her—

"Get behind me!"

Xia De's voice pulled her back from that fog of consciousness. And when her awareness returned, the first thing she felt was not the panic of her back being soaked through with sweat, but that her hand was being gripped by Xia De's large hand like an iron hoop.

Before she could understand what had happened, Xia De, with unreasonable force, forcibly shoved her behind him. And when Claire Reinhardt hid behind Xia De, she felt his back like the thickest wall, shielding her from the "gaze" coming from the dark end of the alley.

【Outsider, you have felt "Blasphemy."】

"What is that?"

She opened her mouth to speak and realized her voice was trembling, but Xia De was very calm—after all, the "Divine Remnant" state hadn't even emerged yet:

"Once that dial of smiling and crying faces turns to the smiling face, it seems it can summon an existence stronger than the enemy. That dead cultist probably really did strike it lucky, but fortunately the basic rules of this world aren't so easily broken. Even though he was completely sacrificed by the relic, this relic couldn't possibly summon an existence of that level."

The witch understood Xia De's "hint," and was practically clinging to Xia De's back:

"You mean he didn't summon a powerful Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi, but rather—"

"I can't describe with any precise definition what is standing in the depths of the alley, but please rest assured, what is watching us right now is certainly not what you're thinking. Perhaps it's only a hazy shadow in someone's memory, perhaps it's something like a divine statue—infinitely close, but absolutely not the real thing."

She lay on Xia De's back, feeling his heart pounding *thump thump thump*, but then quickly realized that was probably her own heartbeat:

"So we're safe?"

"No, we're in danger. Even if it isn't real, if that thing continues to exist, I worry it will truly attract the gaze of 'the High Places.' We don't know who it is, nor do we know its associated—it's moving."

Xia De's voice was very steady, but the platinum-blonde witch still trembled. Even if it wasn't real, toward that kind of existence, mortals instinctively fear.

But she wasn't the sort of Miss who truly couldn't take a fright. Hearing Xia De's words, she still forced down her fear, wanting to face it together with Xia De, and reminded herself in her heart that it was fake.

She tilted her body slightly, letting her head and half a shoulder peek out from behind Xia De, and indeed saw that the black figure in the darkness, of which only an outline existed, seemed to have moved closer to the moonlit area than its previous position.

She instinctively grabbed Xia De's arm, and only let go apologetically after Xia De quietly reminded her, "Gently":

"What do we do now?"

She felt Xia De seemed especially experienced with this kind of situation. Turning and leaving now definitely wouldn't work—she was almost certain that the moment she turned around, the other's movement would no longer be just a small step forward.

The witch's pale-gold eyes lit up with an uncontrollable faint glow; the power inherited from the ancient gods was being passively activated at this moment. She was still peeking out from behind Xia De, and Xia De had already thought of a plan:

"Leave everything to me. If it's only the current situation, there are actually many ways to handle it, but the misfortune-bringing cultist really did bring misfortune... Has your friend left this alley?"

"Yes, she's left."

"Good. The worst strategy is to wait for the relic's effect to fade. The relic's user is already dead, so theoretically speaking, unless it's a permanent-type relic, it can't exist forever. But this kind of waiting—no one knows how long it will last—"

*Tap*—

The two of them watched together as that figure took another small step forward, as if deliberately teasing their nerves.

"The usual strategy is for you to grab me, and I'll use spatial power to take us away directly."

"But it will catch up."

Miss Reinhardt now switched to gripping Xia De's arm; she could feel his taut muscles.

Xia De had also thought of this point:

"So what I'll use isn't ordinary spatial power. I'll take you across half an Old Continent, to my home. It's very special there—maybe it can't catch up, or maybe even if it does catch up, it will be affected to some degree."

Xia De took a deep breath:

"But it's also possible it could cause permanent effects and damage to my home. I can't be sure what the consequences would be."

The witch pressed her lips together, unsure what to say. This method was better than the previous one, but she couldn't bring herself to tell Xia De to lead that thing back to his house.

Still, she was curious — what was so special about this outland traveler's home? Was it an ancient estate hidden in the wilderness, an old-era ring sorcerer's tower concealed among the hills, or perhaps a solitary dwelling outside some remote little village, unknown to anyone?

"Then what's the best method?"

She asked in a low voice, but the moment the words fell, both of them saw the shadow in the darkness take another step forward. The sound of *pat—* rang out like a clap of thunder. Right now it was only one step away from the moonlit patch of the alley — or rather, it stood right at the edge between light and shadow.

Even Xia De instinctively took a step back, and the witch behind him pressed even closer against him. Xia De didn't actually think he'd lose if he really fought that thing; what he worried about was that a fake might draw the real one here.

Their conversation paused for the moment, both pairs of eyes fixed on that spot where light and shadow met, watching to see if it would truly step fully into view. The city beneath the night had now gone completely silent — even the night wind had stopped at some unknown point.

The pounding of the witch's heart behind him was far too obvious, and Xia De also felt a drop of cold sweat sliding down his forehead.

The Blasphemy Element was growing ever denser, and the more people didn't want something bad to happen, the more it tended to happen. Claire Reinhardt had already exposed only half her face and a single eye to watch the situation ahead, and so she saw that after that previous step and pause, the faintly visible outline in the darkness actually took another step forward — and this time, it was about to appear in the moonlight, truly arriving before the two of them.