CH 126

Rode came to the top of the fortress surrounded by everyone. Each soldier hugged them once, and then Aig turned into white smoke, wrapping them up and plunging into the darkness.

Thick black mist rushed towards them, and the faint light around their waists could only dispel the darkness around them.

As the shining fortress receded and disappeared into the vast darkness, Rode had a feeling of leaving heaven and falling into the abyss.

Bach used the star disc to determine the direction. This magical crystal compass ensured that they would not get lost in the boundless darkness.

Aig wrapped them up like a white cloud and flew towards the depths of the wasteland of corpses.

On the originally empty wasteland, monsters that emerged from the dark tide could now be seen everywhere. Most of them were cowards and ghouls, with red eyes, rushing in all directions in a disorderly manner.

They had no reaction to the three people flying overhead.

But the sky was not completely safe either. There were flying blade demons, wandering evil spirits, and some strange unknown creatures.

Rode tried to command Aig to avoid them, but Aig, who couldn't see anything due to frequent changes in direction, was a little unhappy.

"Hey, flying like this consumes a lot of my spiritual power."

Rode hesitated for a moment and asked, "Should we kill our way through?"

Bach shook his head and said briefly, "Hunting, not extermination. Hide yourself."

Rode didn't quite understand this sentence until he looked up and saw an incredibly huge existence passing through the cone of light in his line of sight above the thick black mist.

Everything went black, and Bach covered his eyes.

"No, don't look at the sky... It's too high, you'll go blind."

Rode lowered his head, and Bach's icy hand moved away from his eyes.

At this moment, Rode felt tears streaming down his face, his eyes stinging, and something jumping in his mind.

A sense of fear rose from his heart. If he had looked for a few more seconds, he might have really gone blind.

"What... what is that?" Rode couldn't help but ask.

Bach shook his head, still speaking briefly.

"A terrifying existence in the darkness, indescribable. Don't explore, don't approach, otherwise, misfortune will come."

An incomprehensible fear rose from his heart. The confidence and dreams that had been built up during this period of time were shattered in an instant. Rode felt that his understanding of this world was only superficial and extremely shallow.

He thought of many things all at once and couldn't help but ask, "Have you encountered this kind of existence before? Have you... defeated it?"

Bach stared at the star disc and remained silent for a while before answering, "What you said, I don't know. We have defeated many incredibly powerful enemies, but we have never encountered the unknown existence in the depths of darkness."

Aig couldn't help but interject, "In Thalorian's history, there have been several major ruptures. Many scholars believe that the rapid expansion of the royal city at that time touched upon the indescribable existence in the darkness, leading to a great extinction."

Rode found it hard to believe, "And they managed to develop again after the extinction?"

"It is said that the flame of civilization was preserved, and the remaining humans hid the sacred flame underground. After the disaster passed, the sacred flame was reignited, and it took hundreds of years for them to rise again. However, many precious historical records in the Great Library were lost, making it difficult for us to know the history before that."

Rode asked in a daze, "If the flame of human civilization is so fragile, why do we go to such great lengths to protect it?"

Aig laughed, "Of course, we are protecting ourselves, our beliefs, our homeland, our loved ones, everything we love. Existence itself is meaningful. We don't have to keep looking back. Withered flowers cannot bloom again, but the flowers that remain can bloom in a hundred different ways."

Bach also smiled rarely, "Our flame will not be extinguished."

"That's right." Aig shouted, "We will definitely succeed in this mission, kill the evil spirits, stop the dark tide, and return to the royal city, growing taller!"

Rode let out a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, your wish is just to grow taller, not to get married in your hometown.

This time should be stable.

Not long after, Aig landed with the two of them at the foot of a hill.

"Is this the place?"

Aig glanced at the hill, which was bare and had nothing on it.

Bach shook his head.

"It's below."

He circled around the hill and quickly found a narrow passage.

"Let's go."

He only said one word and led the way into the passage.

The passage was pitch black, and rotten black fluff covered every inch of it.

All three of them activated their spiritual vision and quickly followed Bach deeper into the darkness.

Silence pressed against their eardrums. The further they went, the more wreckage Rode saw. Most of them had already decayed to the extreme, only maintaining their original form over time. Any slight disturbance would cause them to collapse rapidly.

This didn't look like a man-made tomb, but more like a den dug out by some kind of beast. These remains were the leftovers of the bodies it had eaten.The number of remains increased, and a large number of broken armors appeared. They were not too decayed in the black mist, and their original appearance could still be vaguely seen.

Most of these armors were made of brass, with an ancient and heavy design. The damaged parts were all marked with claw and bite marks. The bodies inside had long turned into black fluff, flowing out with their footsteps and collapsing to the ground.

Rode couldn't help but ask, "Are they the Twilight Legion?"

Bach nodded silently.

"How many years ago was this? Why don't we have this legion now? Has their organization been disbanded?"

Egg answered, "They are the legion of the Third Era, and they have nothing to do with us."

"What is the Third Era?"

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Egg looked at him strangely and said, "The Third Era is the era of fire. It is said that in this era, the light of fire illuminated the world, and human cities covered the earth. Brave warriors hunted monsters in the darkness, and darkness could only occupy remote areas and a small piece of land. But I don't know why it was destroyed later."

"What era are we in?"

"The Fourth Era, the era of the fading fire, also known as the Dark Era. Humans are left with only a few fire king cities. The holy fire cannot even shine outside the king cities. Darkness covers the land, and monsters and demons roam freely. We can only shrink behind thick city walls and survive under the protection of the holy fire. According to our calendar, this is the Teslivian Gregorian calendar... 1325."

"1325?"

"Yes."

The weight of history hit him. The bodies here existed over a thousand years ago.

According to common sense, they should have turned into a pile of bones long ago, and the armors should have corroded into ashes.

Clearly, this was all due to the influence of the black mist.

Rode couldn't help but ask, "What about the First and Second Eras?"

Egg calmly answered, "The First Era is a conceptual era, which we generally refer to as the Chaos Era. Everything was chaotic before the appearance of civilization."

"The Second Era is called the Era of Gods. It is said to be the era when gods and mortals coexisted. It is said that there was no black mist in that era, but it is too far in the past and its exact timeline cannot be determined. There is a group of people in the king city who specialize in researching this era, but I'm not very clear about it."

Rode asked again, "Do we know where the black mist comes from?"

Egg smiled bitterly and said, "The academic materials derived from this topic can fill the entire Sword Pass. I can only tell you that this mist, full of evil and curses, suddenly appeared one day and enveloped the entire world. Monsters survive, lurk, and grow in the black mist, while humans gradually lose their sanity and turn into monsters. The same goes for other creatures."

"Only fire can dispel it."

He touched the lamp at his waist, which contained residual light, and added.

"And the power derived from fire."

Rode asked, "Where do our current animals and plants come from? I heard that we still have the Beast City, the Wood City, and the Mushroom City."

Egg said discontentedly, "Why do you have so many strange questions?"

"Some of them are preserved seeds."

Bach unusually answered Rode's question.

"Some of them are remnants we found and put into the Holy White Tree to derive."

Rode was surprised, "The Holy White Tree has this function?"

Egg showed a proud smile, "You don't know much. If you have time, go to the urban botanical garden and you will know why it is called the Tree of Life."

He relaxed a bit, as they had been walking for a long time without finding any abnormalities. Even Rode couldn't help but suspect that the higher-level evil spirits had already fled.

Suddenly, Bach raised his hand and stopped them.

"What's wrong?"

Rode became alert in an instant, scanning with his Soul Eye, but still didn't find anything unusual.

Bach calmly said, "I smell decay, death, taboo, and devouring. It's right ahead."

It was the first time Rode had met someone whose nose was more sensitive than his eyes.

"What should we do?"

Bach said concisely, "My ability has reached six fireworks. I can use a very powerful attack once."

"If we kill it, Egg will take us back to Sword Pass."

"If we fail to kill it, Rode will use the Psychic Cannon."

After saying that, he closed his mouth.

Rode felt something was wrong and was about to ask, but Egg suddenly interrupted and asked, "Mr. Bach, your very powerful attack must come at a cost, right?"

Bach glanced at him and calmly answered, "My ability will decrease by one level."

Egg breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good."

Bach continued to walk forward, and Rode could only follow behind.

The number of corpses increased, the space became larger, and the smell of decay rushed to their noses. The sound of collapsing came with their footsteps, and piles of corpses fell down one after another, scattering armors all over the ground.

Suddenly, Bach stopped.

"This is a corpse eater.""What?" Rode looked around, but saw nothing unusual.

The physical barrier in the passage was too thick for him to see far.

"Stench, greed, ancient, it has been digging and devouring the bodies of the twilight knights here for hundreds, even thousands of years."

Rode and Aeg became tense, "Isn't our enemy a high-ranking evil spirit?"

"Yes, a high-ranking evil spirit is being born from the body of a ghoul. The ghoul has eaten countless bodies and gathered countless resentful spirits of knights. They have been gathering and nurturing inside the ghoul's body, undergoing multiple metamorphoses, and have become a powerful high-ranking evil spirit."

"It is about to break free from its body."

Aeg exclaimed in shock, "What should we do? Should we hurry up and kill it?"

Bah did not answer.

He continued to move forward, but his steps were much more cautious, his nostrils constantly twitching as if sniffing the scent in the air.

"Regret, resentment, hatred, besides hatred, there is only devouring and killing."

"A strong soul-corroding field, it has a special connection with the evil spirits on the wasteland, it is devouring their souls."

Rode suddenly thought of when he was hunting evil spirits on the wasteland, their souls were particularly few, and their spiritual bodies were full of holes.

At that time, he thought it was natural, but he didn't expect it to be corroded.

Bah continued, "Its metamorphosed shell is driven by it to hunt fresh living beings and souls."

Rode instantly associated this with his experience of killing powerful monsters twice without gaining their souls.

Was it its shell?

Such a powerful monster was just its shell?

For the first time, Bah's tone became anxious:

"We need to hurry up, one of its shells is returning, its spiritual body is emitting a scent of hunger and impatience."

He quickened his pace, and spiritual energy rose from his body, quickly gathering.

Rode and Aeg followed him nervously, suddenly their feet felt light, the entire ground collapsed, countless corpses and broken armors underneath collapsed into a pile.

In Rode's line of sight, he saw an unprecedentedly huge spiritual body.

------Author's Note------

Sorry for the delay, the plot about the sword will be over soon, my manuscript is catching up, and the updates will be faster soon.