Beyond the open grayish-blue door, a flight of stone stairs led to a sea that glowed with golden light. This, along with boundless light, once again entered the eyes of the residents of the City of Silver such as Liaval and Candice.
As members of the former expedition team, this wasn’t the first time they had seen such a scene. Even so, their souls remained deeply shocked as they subconsciously held their breaths.
With the Thunder God’s Roar hammer in hand, Derrick stood at the front with his two-meter-tall, wide-shouldered build. He was silent.
Nearly a minute later, Liaval probed, “Elder Berg, when are we leaving?”
He was a Sequence 5 Guardian who stood at nearly 2.5 meters tall. This made his limbs’ physical proportions slightly abnormal.
Derrick stared at the sea that was rippling with golden spots for a few seconds before saying, “Wait a while longer.”
At this moment, several days had passed since he opened the door. He had led the expedition team back to the City of Silver with the ashes of the Chief and Elder Lovia, as well as their characteristics and Sealed Artifacts. He had also used the secret to obtain the trust of the current Chief of the six-member council, Waite Chirmont.
This time, Derrick led the twenty City of Silver Beyonders to do reconnaissance so as to find a safe passage to confirm the situation of the outside world.
On this matter, he had rejected Mr. World’s suggestion of using the Staff of the Stars to directly transfer the entire City of Silver from the Forsaken Land of the Gods. He wanted to use his feet to take in the path of hope. He wanted to remember what the “light” that the City of Silver had finally found after experiencing two thousand years of persistence and sacrifice was like.
Upon hearing Elder Derrick’s answer, the members of the expedition team, such as Liaval and Candice, didn’t say much. They all took a step back and continued enjoying the scenery.
They still didn’t trust Derrick Berg much. After all, he had a close relationship with outsiders. And the Chief and Elder Lovia had both died during the previous expedition. Only this Unshadowed and that outsider had survived. If not for the six-member council choosing to believe him, they would definitely be hostile and wary.
After an unknown period of time, the shimmering sea was suddenly enveloped by darkness.
Deep in the darkness, they could barely make out a thin fog. In the fog, there was a black pointed cathedral with all sorts of buildings. It gave people the feeling that it was both real and illusory.
Derrick and company were no stranger to darkness. He instinctively glowed, while those who needed to light up candles did so. They did it hurriedly without any signs of turmoil.
After the twenty-one-strong team was protected by light, they looked with curiosity at the town and fleeting pedestrians in the fog, unable to understand what was going on.
This wasn’t the darkness they were familiar with.
At this moment, the naturally glowing Derrick raised his left hand and said in a low voice, “Let’s set off.”
Without waiting for his team members to respond, he took the first step through the door and followed the stone steps outside, taking one step after another into the darkness.
Everyone exchanged looks, then gritted their teeth. Without falling behind, they followed the newly-appointed six-member council Elder, Derrick Berg, out of the Giant King’s residence.
In the rich darkness, as they walked down the stairs, their eyes suddenly lit up. They saw an orange glow and a row of black cloister-like buildings.
“Is this the outside world?” Candice looked around warily and curiously. She realized that all of them had unknowingly walked to the opposite side of the Giant King’s Court and were separated by a sea of orange-red from where they were.
“No.” Derrick compared the current environment to Mr. World’s and Ma’am Hermit’s description. He nodded slightly and said, “We still need to wait here for a while. Feel free to find a spot to rest.”
This Unshadowed, who no longer had any hint of adolescence, calmly arranged everything.
Liaval looked at the tightly shut black cloister and asked in puzzlement, “Is there no need to explore this place in search of an exit?”
“There’s no need.” Derrick shook his head.
The members of the reconnaissance team didn’t ask further, nor did they rest. They remained standing in their spots and waited patiently.
As time passed, blinding sunlight suddenly shone into this world, turning everything bright and white. It then dimmed and vanished.
Everyone subconsciously looked around and saw the golden sea once again. They felt a terrifying aura that daunted them from looking straight at.
However, unlike before, they were already on an island. Behind them were huge patches of golden strange plants with smiling faces. They didn’t seem to have any signs of degeneration or abnormalities, making every member of the City of Silver’s reconnaissance team experience the joy of life.
We’re really outside… It really is a different world… Liaval, Candice, and company found it impossible to contain the amazement in their hearts.
They immediately confirmed a fact:
Elder Derrick didn’t betray the City of Silver. His cooperation with the outsider really had the goal of leading everyone out of the cursed land.
“Elder Berg…” Candice stammered. “Thank you.”
Derrick nodded slightly, his back straight.
Instead of expressing the apologetic feelings in his heart like Candice, Liaval looked around and asked, “Elder Berg, how should we leave this place? Build a boat?”
The term “building a boat” was only limited to the words in their history books, so it sounded rather odd.
“There doesn’t seem to be any materials here that we can use to build a boat…” Candice and company immediately inspected the small island, but they couldn’t find any trees or plants.
Derrick shook his head again.
“There’s no need. Wait a little longer…”
Before he could finish his sentence, he saw a black shadow loom across the horizon.
The shadow grew bigger as it quickly followed the safe sea route between the golden spots of light.
Not long after, the shadow revealed its outline. It was a hybrid ship with smoke spewing out from it. With all its sails up, the ship hung a blue sea serpent flag.
“A boat?”
“That’s a boat?”
…
As Liaval, Candice, and company kept their vigilance up, they posed questions.
Derrick had received some general education at the Tarot Club. He was an experienced person who had seen pictures of various ships. Upon hearing this, he nodded slightly and said, “That’s right.”
As they spoke, the ship approached, making the figure standing at the ship’s bow gradually become clearer.
It was a black-cloaked man with yellow eyebrows and dark blue eyes. He jumped onto the masthead and spread his arms slightly to the people of the City of Silver.
Upon seeing this scene, Derrick, who had been maintaining his stern attitude, secretly heaved a sigh of relief. He knew that everything was as he had expected. No accidents had happened.
Danitz originally wanted to jump off the ship and walk in front of the believers of Mr. Fool to announce that they had been saved, but after glancing at the height of the people from the City of Silver, he silently held himself back.
Standing on the masthead, he completely widened his arms and said to Derrick and company with a reserved smile, “Welcome to the world of light promised by God!”
…
In the ancient palace above the fog.
Klein sat on the high-back chair belonging to The Fool. Through the crimson star that symbolized The Sun, he watched the entire process of the City of Silver’s expedition team’s progress. He was constantly prepared to deal with any accidents.
When the “history,” which had been sealed for thousands of years, had combined with the “present,” with them boarding the ship that originated from the new government of the Rorsted Archipelago, and leaving the most dangerous, core region of the ruins of the battle of gods was over, he heaved a sigh of relief. He put down the Staff of the Stars and beckoned for two items.
They were the Miracle Invoker Beyonder characteristic that had seeped out of the “curtain,” and the Worm of Star from Saint of Secrets Botis.
After some thought, Klein reached out his left hand and grabbed a large blob of a dark red liquid from the Historical Void.
This was Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar’s blood. There was exactly 300mls of it, and it was the core supplementary ingredient of the Miracle Invoker potion.
Of course, as a supplementary material, it only had one purpose—to reduce the negative effects of the Beyonder characteristic and reduce the corresponding mysticism influence. Therefore, it didn’t matter if it was a historical projection. After all, as long as it could play its role during the potion’s concoction and consumption, Klein would have either succeeded or failed in his advancement by the time the historical projection expired. If he failed, he would’ve broken down into a monster. If he succeeded, he would’ve become a Miracle Invoker and gained initial control of the Beyonder characteristic. There was no need for the supplementary ingredient’s effects.
Following that, Klein took out something from the fog of history.
It was a ringed Worm of Time.
As he had a strong psychological trauma towards Amon, Klein had chosen to summon a Worm of Time that Pallez Zoroast had once given to him, lest anything unexpected happened.
After preparing the materials, he conjured a metal pot and threw the 300mls of blood from Dark Demonic Wolf into it. Then, he placed the Worm of Time and sparkling Worm of Star inside, one after another.
The black and red liquid in the cauldron turned dark, its surface becoming translucent and clean. Deep in the cauldron was a dark vortex.
Without any hesitation, Klein picked up the Miracle Invoker Beyonder characteristic.
It resembled a heart, transparent like a crystal, but there were tiny bubbles emerging from time to time. Every bubble seemed to contain an illusion.
When the Beyonder characteristic came into contact with the liquid in the metallic pot, it immediately merged into it, causing the darkness to instantly deepen, making it seem as though countless eyes were opened at the same time.
After staring at it for a few seconds, he poured the concocted Miracle Invoker potion into a glass bottle, and he used the bestowment ritual to bring it to the real world.
On an uninhabited island in the Sonia Sea, Klein, who had “Teleported” over, looked at the potion in his hand. He suddenly felt a little hesitant. This was because once he became an angel, his body would inevitably be affected by the Beyonder characteristic. He would become colder and crueler, becoming more and more indifferent towards life. He needed sufficient anchors to maintain his humanity.
This wasn’t something that could be avoided by completely digesting the potion using the “acting method” he grasped. Back then, Emperor Roselle went through the early stages smoothly, but when he became a Sequence 2 angel, he nearly mutated, almost losing control.
As for the angels that he knew, they looked normal on the surface, but he had no idea what they were like when they were hiding behind the scenes.
If one could obtain a long life at Sequence 4 and Sequence 3, allowing them to live for more than a thousand years, a saint really didn’t have much motivation to become an angel.
Combined with the saying that the higher one’s Sequence was, the closer one was to the Primordial One, he suddenly understood why Demoness of White Katarina only rose from Sequence 4 to Sequence 3 in a thousand years.
But I have no way out… After a brief moment of silence, Klein sighed silently.
Nearby threats like Amon and Zaratul, and the approaching days of the apocalypse, as well as the fact that he was previously unable to interfere with the war, these all pushed him towards becoming an angel. He didn’t want to simply contribute his strength through donations.
His eyes flickered for a few seconds before they returned to their calm state. He picked up the potion bottle and poured the liquid inside into his mouth.
