Chapter 528

"Ivan Darkness, no matter what, you cannot escape. The Sun Greatsword will return soon, and there are more high-tier Ringed Shushi arriving from other dioceses to surround the Dark World."

Mr. Pirote stated the facts, looking directly into Darkness's eyes:

"Just as I mentioned at Yodel Palace, surrender, and I can guarantee you'll live for at least another 20 years."

"Power is right at my fingertips. You want me to stop?"

Darkness laughed. Compared to his fanatical tone, his current state was not good:

"Once I become the Chosen One, what are you people then?"

"The lady behind me is a Chosen One. Although she can suppress you, do you think she is very strong?"

Mr. Pirote stated another fact.

"I am different from her. She only has herself, but I have this."

Darkness shook his right hand at Mr. Pirote, letting his center of gravity lean completely back against the pillar. That pillar was thicker than the giant trees Xia De had seen in the Thousand Trees Forest, but it grew sharper and thinner as it went up. It was the largest black crystal itself, and even Xia De dared not look directly at it from his current position.

The corners of Darkness's mouth were trembling. His pale complexion looked nothing like he was devouring power, but rather like he was devouring raging fire. His right hand absorbed the terrible darkness that kept surging in, and the shadows patrolling the air were slowly absorbed into the Demon's Mouth, 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!"

When he spoke, his body was trembling; it looked nothing like the way Iluna had performed the ritual back then.

"I ask the Ancient God 【Lurking Dark】 to witness, I shall devour the darkness, having witnessed..."

Behind him, between the faintly emerging golden Fate Ring and himself, the phantom of a tattered black robe was slowly appearing; this was the symbol of the Ancient God of 【Darkness】.

"Witch, what are you still waiting for?"

Mr. Pirote suddenly said. The red-haired witch leaning against the crystal opened her eyes, and the eleven-ring Fate Ring behind her appeared, overlapping with the Golden Staircase. Her right hand traced an exceptionally complex gesture, while her left hand pulled on her golden necklace:

"Law - Stop!"

The flowing darkness stopped abruptly, and Darkness froze in place. But as the price for stopping the darkness flowing throughout the entire 【Dark World】, black crystals spread rapidly over Miss Miss Jia Lin Na's body.

She tore the necklace from her neck and threw it behind her.

"In the name of Huang Tong, steam is with me!"

Mr. Pirote leaped high into the air.

Behind him, a brass-colored radiance erupted from the flowing darkness, momentarily illuminating the entire clearing in the crystal forest. Within that light, the phantom of a city slowly emerged. Huge steam machines floated in the sky, steam pipes connected the entire skyline, and the color of metal enveloped the whole city.

This was the true steam city in his heart, and within this huge city phantom, a massive ball of light gathered from brass-colored radiance, carrying steam, plummeted toward Darkness like a falling steel cannonball.

This power even distorted the space of the Dark World, causing ripples to spread through the static darkness. Xia De, who was exceptionally sensitive to space, even felt terrifying cracks appear in the space through which the light and steam passed.

The intense wind pressure made it impossible for Xia De to even lift his head; just seeing this scene was enough to feel its terror. If this strike were to succeed, Xia De even suspected that the giant pillar of darkness formed from the ancient demon's corpse would collapse as a result.

A dark vortex appeared around Darkness, but his body, fixed by the intense pressure from above, could not move at all. He wanted to invoke the demon's power, but Miss Miss Jia Lin Na had used an unknown method to obstruct his connection to the Demon's Mouth.

Under this strike that seemed to destroy everything, that right hand wearing the Fish-Training Ring moved on its own.

The wriggling muscles deformed, first transforming into the form of a half-body demon, and then from the half-body demon form into Human Pus.

But because Darkness's main body was severely injured, the Human Pus demon had not absorbed enough power to restore the ancient demon's prime period. Even in the Human Pus form, Xia De did not think it was a match for a 13th-tier Ringed Shushi.

"It's about to end, the Zhengshen Sect has won!"

Xia De thought excitedly, but just as he thought it was all finally going to pass, the pitch-black right hand, which looked like a giant tree, suddenly whipped toward the sky.

A large mass of pitch-black pus detached from the Human Pus main body and transformed into a giant pitch-black spider in the air.

The spider collided with the ball of light. In an instant, the explosive fire made Xia De have to squint, and the violent sound in his ears made him suspect that this Angel-level relic was about to collapse.

In the firelight, the giant black spider seemed to absorb the full force of the explosion and expanded rapidly, but before it could expand and burst, it fell back into the black vortex below.

The next second, the roar of an explosion came from far away in the southeast. It seemed a mountain had collapsed in the distance, and the sound was actually able to penetrate the dense darkness.

The terrain in the Dark World was affected by the darkness and was harder to destroy than the outside world. In other words, if Mr. Pirote's strike just now had been in a normal place, it would have been enough to easily wipe out all of Tobesk and the surrounding areas.

With the strike failing to take effect, Mr. Pirote tried to change direction in the air. But Darkness, vomiting blood from his mouth, suddenly pointed a steel needle toward the sky with his left hand while waving his right hand in the air.

Under the effect of the relic 【Murderer's Steel Needle】, the 13th-tier Ringed Shushi's movements froze for half a second. But in that half-second, vortices appeared on all six sides—above, below, left, right, front, and back. The vortices closed inward, and Mr. Pirote fell into the darkness, not knowing where he had been transferred.

"I can't beat you, but don't I have other ways to deal with you? There's only one last step left; as long as I perform the ritual, only the ritual remains..."

"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?"

Miss Miss Jia Lin Na, whose face was already half-covered by crystals, asked with a frown:

"Another talent of darkness, this is truly terrible. You've obtained 'History'?"

"Yes, Witch. I have understood more things in the 【Dark World】. Fate is favoring me; this is the evidence. I obtained new power at the most critical moment."

Darkness spat out a mouthful of blood with difficulty. The blood was pitch-black and steaming on the crystal ground. When he looked up again, the witch was also completely covered by black crystals:

"Now only you remain, Miss Chosen One. Are you sure you want to disturb me?"

He smiled again and looked at Iluna. Iluna's expression did not change:

"Do you believe in fate?"

The light in her left eye flickered like a flame.

"If there were no fate, even if the Weeping Blood One Hermons had sacrificed so many people, it would have been impossible to send me here."

Darkness said, panting heavily. Even though he had used the power of other demons to take that strike head-on, it did not mean he was truly unscathed.

"You believe in fate, and the Church also believes in the fate of the Chosen One. Everything is still according to plan. The Church anticipated the worst-case scenario. Now, the Sun Greatsword still has 12 minutes to return, and I don't know how much longer the Steel Right Hand will take to return, but I don't think it will be more than fifteen minutes. I am still here. A Chosen One against a Chosen One; the Church did not fail to anticipate this point."

Her left hand slowly inserted into the darkness beside her, and then, a golden giant sword flashing with thunder was pulled out by her. Xia De's eyes widened, but then he realized this was not Iluna's own miracle.

Darkness was equally surprised:

"Sun Greatsword? That 13th-tier Ringed Shushi actually gave this sword... Chosen One against Chosen One..."

Xia De's Moonlight Greatsword could not be transferred to others to use, but the Church's 13th-tier Ringed Shushi could.

Darkness steadied his mood and took a deep breath, his scarlet eyes staring fixedly at Iluna:

"I, Ivan Fris Darkness, hereby declare!"

He breathed heavily, and pale golden light spots radiated from his body. The sound of prayers with thousands of voices overlapping came from nowhere. The thick darkness that kept surging in flowed madly into the Demon's Mouth, and a manic wind came from nowhere.

The ritual had begun.

"Don't even think about it! Sun Spear!"

Iluna struck suddenly, and a lightning spear leaving golden arcs of electricity in the space shot toward Darkness, who was absorbing the dark power, but with a casual wave of his giant right hand, the golden thunder vanished.

The girl with brown long hair ran forward, while Xia De poured all the 【Weakened Angel Potion】 into his mouth, dropped the frog legs, and then ran over as well.

Difa, holding the 【Dark Box】, did not stop him.

"I ask the Ancient God 【Lurking Dark】 to witness, I shall..."

"Balance!"

Golden ripples spread, and Darkness, who was swallowing the endless stream of darkness, suddenly looked up at Iluna. The girl, holding the Sun Greatsword with both hands, leaped high. Behind her, it was not a Fate Ring that emerged, but a Golden Balance. At this moment, 【Balance】 opposed 【Darkness】; she seemed like the legendary hero guiding the light to cut down evil:

"Sun Spear!"

Golden thunder attached to the greatsword, and the miracle 【Sun Spear】 was actually used by her with the sword in her hand.

The power of this strike was far stronger than before. Now, leaping from a high place with the greatsword, the violent thunder was bound to the sword body by her, as if it could pierce the earth in the next second.

"Chosen One!"

This was the demon's language; it was Darkness's right hand speaking.

That right hand transformed from the Human Pus form into a half-body demon almost instantly. It was unclear whether Darkness was manipulating it or the demon was controlling part of his body. The half-body demon looked up at Iluna, and black thunder shot out from its scarlet eyes, but all were deflected by the golden light around Iluna's body.

The golden light made Iluna look like a sun in the sky, and Darkness was clearly cowering.

But the demon was not. It opened its big mouth, which was still devouring darkness, and as that right hand extended, the Demon's Mouth instantly expanded to a degree sufficient to swallow the descending Iluna and the greatsword in her hand.

Feeling that intense suction, Iluna could only project the Sun Spear with the greatsword in her hand in advance. The golden thunder shot into the Demon's Mouth, and it roared and trembled, the giant mouth immediately retracting. Although it swallowed the strike, it was definitely not uninjured.

Iluna gritted her teeth, and the two-handed greatsword slashed downward—

Boom!

The half-body demon actively transformed back into Human Pus, and the giant right hand, dripping with pus, blocked the Sun Greatsword in an almost broken way. With a violent whip, Iluna was sent flying, and the greatsword in her hand was even stuck diagonally into the ground further away.

"Tr... truly impressive."

Darkness's voice was trembling as he spoke. The Human Pus right hand transformed back into the demon half-body due to the injury, and the demon was laughing wildly.

"This is the 13th tier. If it wasn't you holding the sword just now, but the original owner of the sword, I'm afraid I would have already been smashed to pieces. But... do you know why I was able to block it?"

This was Darkness speaking.

"Why?"

Iluna climbed up with difficulty, supporting herself on the ground, and suddenly covered her chest, also spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground. Crystals spread toward her legs with a crackling sound, but with a fierce hammer from Iluna's right hand, those crystals burst open.

"Because I am not—"

Scarlet light bloomed in his eyes.

"Alone!"

The demon's words overlapped with Darkness's words, and the demon half-body stretched out like mud, biting toward Iluna's head.

Iluna said with a smile:

"Actually, I am 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 debris splattered everywhere.

"I knew it was you!"

Darkness held the dark sword reshaped by the power of Human Pus in his left hand and collided with Xia De's Moonlight Greatsword. Both pressed forward, making the blades of the two swords stick together.

The faint light of the Moonlight Greatsword illuminated Xia De's face, which was gritting its teeth, and also illuminated Darkness's pale face. This was the first time Darkness had seen Xia De's true appearance; he opened his eyes wide with a furious expression on his face:

"It was you in Coldwater Port, it was you at Yodel Palace, and now it's you again. I knew it, how could it be such a coincidence? How could I run into a Ringed Shushi proficient in both space and moonlight wherever I go! You really came again. So that's it, this face, you are Lei Jiede's..."

He said viciously, the saliva spraying from his mouth almost hitting Xia De's face. Holding the sword with one hand, in his current state of severe injury, he still suppressed the greatsword Xia De held with both hands by strength alone, and the Demon's Mouth on his right hand also bit toward Xia De.

Even though it could have bitten off Iluna's head almost immediately just now, it still withdrew. It seemed that in the eyes of Darkness and Human Pus, Xia De, this guy who could almost be called a nemesis, was even more troublesome than the Chosen One of "Balance."

"Letting you see my face is because today you absolutely cannot leave alive!"

Xia De, with his cheeks puffed out, slightly opened his mouth and said, finding it hard to speak while holding water in his mouth while exerting force.

As a 2nd-tier Ringed Shushi, even wearing Miss Miss Jia Lin Na's necklace, he could not compete with the power of a 6th-tier Ringed Shushi at all. Not to mention pressing the sword toward the opponent, he couldn't even pull the sword away right now.

But it didn't matter, because facing the Demon's Mouth that was about to swallow his head, Xia De puffed out his mouth, and just as the Demon's Mouth was about to cover his head—

Pfft!

The 【Weakened Angel Potion】 held in his mouth was sprayed out by him. The potion, which turned into a water mist, along with Xia De's saliva, was not wasted at all, and along with the huge suction, entered the demon's mouth together with the tide of darkness.

He didn't think he could beat the opponent at all. Before the Church's strongest combat power returned, this was the method he had long thought of to get the 【Weakened Angel Potion】 into the opponent's body.

"Priest Augustus said that as long as the potion can be poured completely into the demon's mouth, even if the opponent doesn't die, they will definitely be finished! This is even simpler than I thought."

Thinking this in his heart, Xia De immediately took a step back and then appeared ten meters away across the darkness. He reached out to help Iluna up and stuffed the leaf that originally belonged to Dorothy into Iluna's mouth.

The girl, who had been fighting for a long time and was severely injured, immediately chewed the leaf and swallowed it. She stood up with Xia De's support and kissed Xia De's cheek affectionately with a smile:

"I knew you would definitely come."

The Chosen One of Balance had returned to her peak state once again.