Chapter 514: Eternal Darkness

Carrying the metal box on his back, Xia De took a carriage at St. Theresa Square to the southern edge of Tobesk, transferred to a carriage that could leave the city, and spent a large amount of money to persuade the coachman to set out toward the countryside further south.

From the map, although the area of the 【Darkness Domain】 had expanded a lot overnight, there was still a considerable distance to the Tobesk city area. After comparing with the woman's voice in his heart, Xia De decided to head to Bode Village in the south of Tobesk first.

It was not because that village was closest to the disappeared area, but because from the terrain, he would encounter the Orthodox Church's sentry post if he went further forward.

Due to the characteristics of the 【Darkness Domain】 and the fact that the matter had only happened for a morning, the disappearance of such a large area did not attract the attention or awareness of the locals.

Whether in the city or outside the city, everything showed that this was a very peaceful Saturday morning. Before the darkness struck, ordinary people couldn't perceive anything. Xia De even chatted with the coachman for a few sentences. The coachman, who claimed to have lived in the South City for thirty-two years, didn't perceive the changes in the terrain outside the city, or the loss of a large area in his memory at all.

This change in cognition was terrifying.

The coachman dropped Xia De at the entrance of Bode Village, and the visit of a stranger to this inconspicuous village naturally aroused the curiosity and vigilance of the villagers.

This village was plain and unremarkable, with low houses connected in pieces, constructing a simple human settlement. The buildings were mostly made of earth gray, stone, and straw, and compared to the city only half an hour away, time here seemed to have been pushed back to before the steam age.

But saying so was actually not right, because Xia De still saw traces of steam pipes and gas pipes. But the two pipes only distributed along the central axis of the village and did not fully penetrate into the village, which explained that in this village with over thirty households, only a very small number of people could enjoy the convenience of steam and gas.

There was a local sheriff in the village. Hearing that a stranger had come, he was very responsible and came to inquire about Xia De's purpose for coming here.

Xia De originally wanted to fool the sheriff about his identity and then leave the village to walk south on foot. But thinking that going from Tobesk city area to further south would likely pass through this village, he introduced himself as the writer John Watson, and then pretended to be casual and asked the bearded sheriff:

"My friend set out a step ahead of me; he should have also passed through this village. May I ask, have any other strangers passed by this vicinity from this morning until now?"

That sheriff with a police star pinned to his chest, although curious about the writer in front of him carrying a metal box to collect material, still answered the city person's question enthusiastically:

"Sorry sir, from this morning until now, no outsiders have passed through the village. However, after eight o'clock, the little boy of the Osas family saw a large carriage of the Peace Church pass by on the dirt road outside the village while peeing in the field. Is your friend with the people of the Orthodox Church?"

This way Xia De understood. The uncontrolled 【Darkness Domain】 should have happened around seven o'clock this morning, because it was just an hour or so from the city to this vicinity. And the appearance of the Orthodox Church's team represented that the uncontrolled relic was barely still within the controllable range, so there was no need to worry that the darkness would swallow Tobesk in a few hours.

"It seems the god-descent event last time still had some benefits, at least making the Orthodox Church more vigilant."

After leaving Bode Village, Xia De continued south, running a long distance on the dirt road in the uninhabited wilderness with the metal box on his back. The area swallowed by darkness, although it had disappeared, could be entered through specific ways. And if ordinary people strayed into it, wanting to come out again was almost impossible. Luweiya had long ago found out the way to enter the relic, and what Xia De truly needed to worry about was actually being discovered by the church.

18 minutes after leaving Bode Village, he saw from afar a small team of cavalrymen wearing Royal Army uniforms and riding horses. After detouring to avoid them, he continued forward, and not long after, he encountered a small team of about 15 infantrymen, carrying long guns and patrolling along the dirt road.

Still detouring to avoid them, and relying on 【Echo of the Past】 to learn that the Tobesk City Hall had closed the nearby area on the grounds that the Royal Army was testing new steam cannons ahead, prohibiting anyone from breaking in.

This again showed that everything was still under control, and the short-term loss of control of the relic was likely an accidental phenomenon triggered by the appearance of the Chosen One.

Xia De's luck today was not bad. After encountering the patrols for the second time and continuing forward for half a mile (about 800m) to reach the edge of the 【Darkness Domain】, he only found traces of divine art rituals, but did not bump into the Orthodox Church's team.

After all, the perimeter of the disappeared area was so large, even if the church gave up defending the city and went out in full force, it would be impossible to achieve a sentry post every ten steps.

"It should be about this vicinity."

Far away from the city, he was also far away from the thin mist above the city. The sunlight at noon in late summer was equally dazzling. Xia De flipped through the map in his hand, compared the meaning of the divine art ritual runes on the ground, and confirmed that he hadn't walked the wrong road.

Standing on the country road where cow dung still lay, he couldn't see any darkness around at all. But in fact, this small road should have branched off at a position about five meters under Xia De's feet, rather than being a straight road like it was now.

"Well then, the adventure is about to officially begin."

Xia De held the shoulder strap with both hands, the life ring slowly emerged behind his back, and the 【Space-Time】 core spirit rune bloomed with brilliance:

"Space Stability Halo!"

The invisible fluctuation spread toward all directions with Xia De as the center. Using the strange art with the life ring fully displayed, the effect of the strange art was exerted to the maximum.

And with the flow of spirit in his body and the fluctuation of elements, fluctuations gradually appeared in Xia De's field of vision, just like the scenery reflected in the water, becoming blurry because the water surface was stirred.

Some black mist was finally perceived. Xia De knew that such a reluctant interference with an angel-level relic was already his limit, so he didn't continue to use the strange art to try to drive away these unstable spaces, but ran forward quickly, and then jumped forward sideways—

Crack!

He felt as if he had smashed a mirror that couldn't be seen, and then his whole person jumped from under the sun into an ice cellar where ice cubes were stored.

But what was more serious was that the darkness surged up, covering all the scenery in front of his eyes. Xia De, who had lost his vision, couldn't immediately perceive the existence of the ground, so when he landed, he mistakenly thought he had jumped into an abyss. He couldn't control his balance and fell to the ground.

First perceiving the ground by touch, and as the silver halo on his body scattered bit by bit, he finally barely illuminated the solid earth beneath him. And the bone-chilling cold also flowed toward his whole body at the same time.

This was the power Priest Ao Gu Si gave to Xia De. Although he still didn't know the source of the priest's power, the chill from the priest's fingertips entered Xia De's forehead, making him almost unable to help but tremble because of this creepy chill.

【Outsider, you felt a "whisper."】

【This is the power of death. Such brilliant, such beautiful, such dazzling death.】

She whispered softly, as if singing.

"Okay."

The fingers were withdrawn, and Priest Ao Gu Si said in a weak tone.

Xia De opened his eyes and saw the priest sitting on the sofa with a pale face, supporting himself.

"Priest, you are..."

"I'm fine."

The old man waved his hand with difficulty, the wrinkles on his face more obvious than ever before, looking no matter how you looked at it like he was not fine:

"I am too old, Xia De, there is no way to go with you. The blessing just now doesn't have much effect, it can only let you be free from the influence of those darknesses after entering the relic's influence range."

Xia De hadn't received the special amulet from the church yet. He had originally wanted to rely on divinity to resist the relic's influence like he did when he went deep into the 【Fish Bone Pirate Ship】. He didn't expect the priest to give him convenience.

"Are you really okay?"

"Really okay, I just need to rest for a while. My age is truly too old, I can't compare to you young people."

His tone remained weak. Seeing Xia De wanted to treat him, he waved his hand again:

"I am just exhausted, not injured. Go quickly, Xia De, must be careful, don't think that just because you have the blessing I gave you, there will definitely be no danger.

You must remember, defeating darkness relies on courage and power, not some light. Light and darkness are one, and darkness is also power; darkness is never equivalent to evil."

The priest instructed. This kind of rhetoric was very consistent with the identity of an old priest of the 【Church of Light and Shadow】.

"I remember."

Xia De nodded, turned around and closed the lid of the 【God's Gift Box】 on the coffee table, and then put it into the cloth backpack he had sewn himself.

Priest Ao Gu Si obviously didn't know what this was.