Part 5 The Red Priest Chapter 170 Familiar Gaze
”Shepherd,” Lovia responded instead, making Joshua even more wary as he glanced at the other quest team members and asked eagerly:
”Did you guys hear any unusual footsteps?”
Derek, who was carrying the “Thor’s Roar” hammer and straight broadsword, shook his head in the negative after a few seconds of recollection, and Heinem, who was holding the “Darkness-less Cross”, glanced at the seal whose light hadn’t changed, and opened his mouth to respond:
”Perhaps you are hallucinating?”
”No, I heard it clearly.” Joshua, who wore crimson gloves, frowned and expressed his opinion.
Hearing these words, Colin, the “Demon Hunter” who was at the front of the line, half-turned his body and commanded calmly:
”Heinem, Antilna, check Joshua’s status.”
”Yes, Chief Sir.” Heinem immediately went to Joshua’s body and placed the “Darkness-Free Cross” made of pure light against his teammate’s forehead.
The seal did not change.
Immediately after that, the burgundy-haired female warrior Antilina also came to Joshua’s side and raised her left hand.
A pale golden bracelet was attached to her wrist with three small bells covered in gold scales dangling from it.
A tinkling sound followed, echoing around the area, settling Joshua’s mind, making it less tense and anxious.
”No problem.” Antillina turned her attention to Chief Colin Iliad.
Colin’s eyes were already highlighting two dark green complex symbols, he looked at Joshua for a few seconds and nodded:
”It may not be a hallucination, but you should always be aware of any abnormality in yourself.”
Seeing that the Chief supported himself, Joshua secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said:
”Okay.”
Putting aside their doubts for the time being, the Silver City Exploration Team continued to descend down the huge staircase sprinkled with dusk rays, one level after another.
Suddenly, everyone heard a muffled grunt.
Out of the corner of his eye, Derek Burger saw Joshua raise his hands and tighten them around his own neck.
Because he was a “Knight of the Dawn”, his own strength was extremely strong, just as the muffled grunt was issued, his hands pinched the neck bone with a click.
Joshua fell down with a gloomy and twisted expression, his eyes full of disbelief:
The one who killed him was actually himself!
”…… “Derek and the others didn’t react in time to what had happened, but the training they had received for so long and the experience they had gained from groping in the depths of the darkness allowed them to instinctively form a battle formation and be alert for any subsequent attacks that might come their way.
Then they heard a muffled grunt.
It came from Lovia, the elder of the Shepherds.
This lady with long silver-gray hair’s face muscles tightened, and there were obvious twitching and writhing, as if she was growing another face.
She fell to her knees on the wide steps with a plop, her pain overflowing.
Slowly but inexorably, her hands rose and cupped her neck.
Just as Lovia was about to lash out, two straight swords coated in silver-gray ointment reached out and picked each of her palms apart.
Colin the Demon Hunter, who had been prepared, reacted in time.
Lovia’s whole body convulsed, her head buried lower, her mouth opened, and she spat out piece after piece of broken flesh and incomplete organs.
She exhaled and seemed to have finally slowed down, then supported the ground on her elbows and crawled forward a step, crawling and swallowing back piece after piece of the blood, flesh, and organs that she had just spat out, reverently and humbly.
Colin the Demon Hunter, who had several old scars on his face, quietly watched this scene without stopping.
Finally, Lovia raised her head, her pale gray eyes unfocused:
”It’s the fall.
”It’s the fall that everyone has.”
”Do you have a solution for that?” Colin asked with no change in his tone.
Lovia nodded without hesitation:
”There is.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she had taken hold of her left index finger with her right hand and snapped it, pulling it off hard and stuffing it into her mouth with blood and bone, chewing on it as she chanted in a low voice:
”The Lord who created all things;
”The Lord behind the curtain of shadows;
”The fallen selfhood of all living things ……”
The name of the “True Creator” …… Derek’s eyelids fluttered as he listened, suddenly feeling as if something subtle had changed around him.
The orange-red twilight glow was a little thicker, closer to the color of blood.
Above the gray fog, “Fool” Klein’s expression also instantly became grave.
Although he could not see anything through his “true vision”, he could vaguely perceive that there was a gaze cast from a distant place, so much so that it interfered with his own observation, resulting in a weakened degree of clarity and size of the range.
In addition, that gaze gave Klein a strange sense of familiarity.
It’s hard not to be familiar with it, the first half of my life after crossing over has been dealing with k – k’s divine son, k’s divine messenger, k’s credentials that want to descend, k’s believers’ residual items, k’s crazy ravings, k’s various murals related to k. …… At this moment, Klein was completely At this moment, Klein was absolutely certain that it was the “Real Creator” who had begun to watch the Silver City exploration team.
Frankly speaking, when Lovia began to chant the name of that person, Klein wanted to directly give her a “lightning storm” to eliminate the problem before it appeared, but he finally resisted this impulse, because he was not sure that he could kill that “shepherd” in one blow! –The evil spirit that Lovia was herding was supposed to have a Sequence 3 personality, and even though it had died long ago, it still had a Sequence 4 level of overall strength, so it would not be a problem to support it for a while in the “Lightning Storm”, which was close to the angelic level, but had not yet reached it.
Once the “Fool” can’t kill Lovia simply and easily, then in the eyes of the “Demon Hunter” Colin, it would be considered to show his cowardice.
In addition, Klein believes that Colin Iliad is happy to see the “Shepherd” elder Lovia chanting the name of the “True Creator”, and he would like to use this as a counterbalance to Mr. Fool to strike a balance. He wanted to check Mr. Fool and strike a balance.
This is actually a disrespectful behavior in front of the gods, and it is easy to annoy the great beings, but Colin Iliad had no choice, he would not and could not believe in the Fool and the True Creator so easily, but he could only try to maintain it, and try on the edge of the precipice. He could only try to keep it up, to stay on the edge of the precipice.
Only in this way, Silver City will not be suddenly destroyed, like those who have been buried in the depths of darkness, covered with the dust of history.
Unfortunately, if I had the Darknessless Cross in my hand, I would have been able to mobilize the power of the mysterious space above the grey mist, and I would have been able to instantly kill the Silver Knight’s Evil Spirit. …… This is a natural restraint… …Klein sighed wordlessly twice and could only accept this development.
–He hadn’t noticed anything unusual about Joshua until the crimson gloved Silver City warrior grabbed his own neck, and then he saw his opponent’s spirit turn gray and somber.
As the “shepherd” elders said, this is their own “fall”, not much different from losing themselves to money and beauty, and it is difficult to be detected by external forces.
”That section of the ladder should have the remnants of the divine power that represents the ‘fall’, blended into the environment, difficult to find, difficult to fight against …… The stone people before had no intelligence and no spirituality, but instead were not affected by it. …… From the honorary name, the ‘True Creator’ has the power to reign in the fallen selfhood, and merely gazing at it can cause the corresponding power to subside …… “Klein Adjusting his mind, he continued to observe the subsequent developments.
During this process, he couldn’t help but ponder a question:
The “Real Creator” is now also like himself, in k’s God’s Kingdom to watch the actions of the Silver City exploration team?
…… On Earth, this is called to watch the same live friends …… If I “reward” a little, “real Creator “Will the “Real Creator” reward me more? Klein relieved the tension and worry caused by the gaze of the “Real Creator” with a flirtatious and sarcastic thought.
It was a real deity, and neither Adam nor Amon was equal to K!
By now, Lovia “The Shepherd” had risen, and the missing index finger of her left hand had wormed its way out.
She looked to Chief Colin Iliad and said:
”This area is no longer fallen.”
This also meant that the ladder location was less dangerous.
Normally, the exploration team would not bother with Joshua’s body at this time, whether it was moving forward or backward, they could not waste time and stay in an unusually dangerous area for too long, which would lead to accidents for other team members as well, however, since Elder Lovia of the “Council of Six” said in a certain tone that there were no more problems in the vicinity, it was fine to take a short break and deal with it. However, since Elder Lovia of the “Council of Six” said that there was no problem in the neighborhood, it was possible to take a short rest and deal with it.
Derek put down Haim’s broadsword, walked to Joshua’s side, gazed at him for a few seconds, and bent down to pick up the other party’s crimson glove and put it on his left palm.
He still remembered how Joshua always flaunted this magical item obtained in the quest, and could also clearly recall when he walked out of the afternoon town camp earlier, the other said that at the end of this quest, he would be forced to arrange a marriage, and he didn’t know who his wife would be, and an hour later, this teammate turned into a cold corpse.
It was everyday life for the Silver City crowd, no one cried or broke down, just welled up with a certain emotion that had gotten into their marrow and blood, heaviness mixed with grief.
They watched as Derek raised his left hand and aimed his palm at Joshua’s body.
A blazing ball of flame flew out, covering their teammate who had fought side by side just moments before.
After cauterizing, Colin “The Demon Hunter” put away the extraordinary properties that had precipitated it, while the rest of the team grabbed a handful of ashes each and put them in a hidden pocket of their clothes.
In silence, they continued their descent to the bottom of the staircase, where an imposing palace bathed in the light of dusk stood, backed by corridors and stairs that led to other areas.
The door to the palace was open, and inside it was pitch black, with no light shining through.
”Demon hunters,” Colin said after scrutinizing it for a while:
”It’s the same as in the outside world.”
By this he meant to keep the light on by all means, and not to let himself be plunged into absolute darkness.
So, Heinem activated the light of the Cross of No Darkness and let it cover all the teammates, while Antilina lit a horse lamp and carried it in her hand to prevent the cross from suddenly failing.
The group entered the palace, walking through what seemed to be an unusually empty hall, their footsteps sounding far away, none of them returning.
As they walked, Derek suddenly felt his eyelids grow heavy and a strong urge to sleep arose.
It was at this moment that he heard the Chief’s low growl:
”Don’t fall asleep!”
Derek jolted awake, shaking off that exhaustion that prevented him from opening his eyes.
At that moment, a female warrior’s body went limp and she collapsed to the ground, seemingly falling into a deep sleep.
Then she vanished into thin air, just like that, right in front of everyone.
Colin “Demon Hunter” and Lovia “Shepherd” scrutinized the situation for a while, both shook their heads, and led the group to continue on their way.
In the process, they hurt themselves from time to time, exchanging pain for sobriety.
Finally, they passed through a series of arches and saw that the darkness ahead was no longer unbreakable.
With the help of the light from the procession, they discovered that it was a hall depicting countless murals, and in the center of the hall was a long, dark red table surrounded by a handful of intricately patterned, high-backed chairs.
This …… Derek inexplicably felt that this was a bit familiar.
He whirled around and realized that it was somewhat similar to the scene of the Tarot party!
Suddenly, a mass of light lit up, and the sound of whispering resounded around them.
Around the hall, on top of a stone pillar that was erected but not supporting the dome, crimson flames were lit one after another, illuminating the surroundings in a magnificent manner.
The whispering voices gradually grew louder and louder, as if they had finally traveled through a long and distant time and space to reach their destination, making the hall lively as if it was holding a party.
Around the long dark red table, a blurred and illusory figure suddenly rose up and sat on different high-backed chairs, eleven in total.