Chapter 401: The Intervening Third Party

Chapter 401: The Intervening Third Party

The moment Oss finished speaking, the place they were in plunged completely into darkness. The area covered by the darkness was extremely vast. Not a single shred of light existed in this environment, completely sealing them here. Even the weakest among them, Oss and his group… well, in this team of no more than thirty, it was absolutely true that Oss and the others were the weakest!

As the weakest ones, Oss and his companions clearly felt their Life Force draining away rapidly in such an environment. In no more than twenty seconds, it would be enough to suck them dry!

“Hmph!” Oss grunted. The Blood Essence in his body boiled, forming a layer of blood mist that tightly enveloped his body, blocking the erosion of the Dark Element from the dark surroundings. Then, the blood mist began to spread, preparing to divert a portion to help his teammates isolate the external influence.

As for what consequences using this method under the watchful eyes of many strong members of the Sanctuary Church might bring, he could not afford to care anymore!

“Put away your disgusting little tricks!” A cold snort came from outside the vehicle. It not only shattered the blood mist Oss had diverted but also expelled the Dark Element that had rushed into the vehicle. A faint glowing shield enveloped everyone, blocking the effects of the dark environment.

Oss saw clearly who had acted. It was unmistakably that middle-aged man whose aura was sharp like a blade. Compared to Achille’s style, which was more accepting of new things, the middle-aged man represented the other extreme. In his view, a cult was a cult. Even if the Demon Sword Sect was an exception, it was still a cult, something to be eradicated!

Back when The Church conducted that Magic Weapon Evil God experiment, he had been the most resolute opponent. However, the experiment ultimately proceeded and was quite successful. He went to see the successful result… Of course, as a powerful individual, his will was not so easily shaken.

Even though the aura emanating from that Magic Weapon Evil God was completely different from an Evil God’s, even holy, it was still an Evil God. No matter how benevolent it appeared, it remained so!

After resolving Oss’s predicament, the middle-aged man waved his hand. His power condensed into a Light Sword and slashed toward the sky. But the entire dark environment only trembled slightly before returning to normal. His attack had produced no substantial effect, which made a trace of surprise flicker in the middle-aged man’s eyes!

Was the Dark Church insane? They actually used such a grand move all at once, and precisely while they were tracking the Undying Witch. If there was no connection between these two events, he would be unworthy of his position. The most likely scenario was that the Undying Witch and the Dark Church had struck some deal, making the latter willing to employ such a massive operation against them!

The Dark Church had always been the perennial second-place, its strength far inferior to the Sanctuary Church’s. Yet, the Sanctuary Church found it extremely difficult to successfully annihilate them—harder even than killing a Witch. Although their power was less than the Sanctuary Church’s, it didn’t mean the Dark Church lacked deep resources. The Sanctuary Church acted by rules.

The Dark Church, however, had no such reservations. This inevitably led to collusion between them and Witches. As for why they were willing to exert great effort during Witch Hunts?

Simple: because the benefits were sufficient! Plus, the Witches at that time weren’t affiliated with them, so why not act? As the second-place, if they succeeded that time, the benefits they could gain would be enormous!

So what exactly had the Undying Witch offered this time to make the Dark Church act this way? One must know that the Undying Witch had also frequently troubled the Dark Church in the past. For them to set aside their grievances and help, the Undying Witch must have offered something the Dark Church could not refuse. With premeditation against unpreparedness, after the middle-aged man made his move, he was already certain that this dark barrier could not be easily broken.

“Prepare to attack together. We cannot afford to waste too much time here!” the middle-aged man said decisively, but Achille stopped him. He wasn’t angry, just looked calmly at Achille. This young man in his eyes had a different style of doing things, so the two hardly intersected. However, he wouldn’t subconsciously oppose him just because their styles differed. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been him who acted to resolve Oss’s predicament earlier, but someone else.

“Reason.”

“The disturbance from your earlier attack was too subdued. If we attack together, we might fall into the enemy’s trap,” Achille analyzed. That the enemy could set up an ambush here clearly meant they knew what they were planning to do. So, while laying the ambush, they likely exploited their urgent mindset to scheme against them. This wasn’t strange. Achille would do the same against his own enemies. It was a kind of semi-open stratagem!

If you realized this and chose to hold back, resolving the restriction in a safe way would inevitably waste a lot of time. If you used reckless means, the enemy would be more than happy. Although hindering them was the goal, if the hinderers were eliminated, wouldn’t that still achieve the goal of hindrance? It might even eradicate the problem permanently. Would the Dark Church miss a chance to significantly reduce the Sanctuary Church’s high-end combat power in one go? Obviously not!

“Then what’s the solution?” the middle-aged man asked after listening to Achille’s analysis, temporarily abandoning his plan to attack. No matter what, they should not be wasted in the Dark Church’s scheme as the intervening third party.

“First, we need to figure out exactly what Magic is covering this place…” Before Achille could finish, the middle-aged man’s brow furrowed again. There were Spellcasters in the team, but the influence on perception in the dark environment was extremely severe. Looking from the outside, one could quickly discern what this Magic was. But now, trapped within, it was like being in the mountains and failing to see their true shape.

“Of course, that would take too much time, and we might not even get a result…” As he spoke, Achille took out the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. This thing was also incredibly awesome; even in such an environment, it remained undisturbed. Opening the Magic Weapon Forum, he entered the pinned post by the Seven Luminaries Magus, signaling the Spellcasters present to quickly gather all collectable information and consolidate it into a message.

“…Will the other party solve it?” the middle-aged man asked, his brow still tightly knit. He did not possess a Magic Weapon Summoning Book and currently had no intention of obtaining a Magic Weapon Contract. He always felt this thing wasn’t reliable. However, not having a Magic Weapon Contract didn’t mean he was unaware of its contents.

“Generally, no,” Achille shook his head slightly. He had also observed the Seven Luminaries Magus’s posting style. For normal exchanges, she would definitely reply. If not marked for confidential reply, then it was a normal reply visible to all. If marked, she generally wouldn’t reply publicly either; it depended on the situation.

Anyway, normal exchange messages wouldn’t be ignored by the Seven Luminaries Magus. But for things like cracking something, the chance of her ignoring it was high. Especially when some people, encountering protective Magic while excavating ruins, turned their attention here. Under the guise of exchange, they actually sought ways to break the ruins’ Protection Magic. Such messages, she mostly ignored!

“However, she seems to have some grudge with the Undying Witch. So, if we clearly describe the situation here, the chance of a reply is quite high.”

“Oh!?” Hearing this, the middle-aged man showed a thoughtful expression. “Is this person also a Witch?”

“Most likely,” Achille nodded, then shook his head. “But she uses a fake ID. Her identity can’t be clarified, nor can we directly learn about her through the Creator.”

Mentioning the Creator gave the middle-aged man a headache too. Regarding the existence of the Creator, the Sanctuary Church could be said to be the most concerned. After all, through the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, the other party had reached a level of indirectly manipulating the ‘world’. Although it mainly affected people, currently, any mischief could cause harm no less than several Witches wreaking havoc together!

This influence was still growing daily. Meanwhile, recently, the other party seemed to have realized something, slowing down the update speed of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book’s content. It had been a while since any new content was added. This disappointed some members of the Sanctuary Church’s special task force targeting the Creator. Maintaining the previous pace would have soon stirred ‘public anger’. By then, uniting all forces that directly perceived the threat to act together would have greatly increased the chance of uncovering the Creator.

However, the other party had already stopped. The development originally trending toward ‘benefits’ immediately receded. The only vulnerability the Creator had exposed from the beginning to now vanished without a trace, and the foundation was completely solidified. This wasn’t good. The greater the Creator’s influence, the harder it would be to touch in the future.

If the other party was a good person… that would be fine. But if it was an evil individual with sinister motives, the harm would be truly immense. Considering how the other party had remained hidden all along, even if good, it wouldn’t be the thoroughly good kind. Given the current influence of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, the Sanctuary Church actually hoped the other party was an extremely, thoroughly good existence.

“Dark Curtain with an attached Backlash Curse… as expected.” Perhaps because the information provided in the message was too scarce, the Seven Luminaries Magus’s reply wasn’t fast. Before the reply, the team’s Spellcasters continued observing traces in the dark-covered area, providing new information. Even with their utmost efforts, the information provided remained limited. And this was under the premise that their abilities were all sufficiently excellent. Ordinary Spellcasters coming here would be utterly clueless, unable to analyze anything useful—only able to guess wildly!

Guessing right was fine; guessing wrong was a matter of life and death. For example, regarding the Seven Luminaries Magus’s reply about the Dark Curtain… some Spellcasters in the team had guessed it. But the attached element wasn’t something one could guess—the Backlash Curse. Used well, most people present would die!