There were always some sceneries in this world that were daunting to look at.
Everyone raised their heads and looked ahead. In front of them was the Western Wilderness shrouded in endless darkness. Light and darkness, black and white, at this moment, seemed to be separated by an invisible wall.
Standing on the ground, everyone could clearly feel the warm sunlight shining down from the sky, sprinkling down on their bodies and releasing a warmth.
The dazzling light shone in the blue sky. When one raised his head and looked at the sun, the light was dazzling.
But when they lowered their heads and looked ahead, they witnessed the sunlight being cut off by an ice-cold, invisible wall.
Darkness shrouded the barren wilderness. It was as if what was unfolding in front of them was not a piece of land, but a tall, pitch-black secret chamber that could support the heavens and the earth.
Even though everyone was mentally prepared for this, they couldn't help but grimace upon witnessing this scene.
After all, hearing about it was one thing, and witnessing it with one's own eyes was another.
Facing such a large scale of darkness, even the holy knights put on a solemn expression.
After all, such mysterious incidents were rare ever since the establishment of the Klein Continent.
Carter pulled a long face and gestured to one of his subordinates beside him.
Upon witnessing Carter's gesture, the adventurer let go of the rope and whistled abruptly.
Upon hearing his whistle, a black hound darted out from the adventurer's side, barking wildly, and dashed into the darkness.
Everyone witnessed the hound's tiny figure shuttling back and forth in the darkness before vanishing entirely.
Looking at this scene, the adventurer was taken aback. Then, he hurriedly whistled a few more times. Shortly after, in a series of growls, the hound appeared before everyone once again.
But unlike before, this hound seemed to hesitate in the face of its owner's call. Its eyes were bloodshot as though they were filled with blood as it stared at the group before it. At the next moment, the hound suddenly let out a ferocious roar, opened its fangs, and pounced on its owner.
"Argh!"
The adventurer apparently didn't expect his hound to turn on him instantly and couldn't resist in time. All he could do was watch as the hound gnawed at his neck.
At this moment, Carter, who had been silent all this while, suddenly attacked. He punched the hound's body and sent it flying.
The hound rolled on the ground for a few times before coming to a stop.
But even so, the hound didn't seem to have any intention of waking up. On the contrary, its fur stood on end, staring at everyone in horror. At the next moment, the hound turned around and leaped forward without any hesitation. In the blink of an eye, the black hound crashed into a boulder at the side and its head cracked. It whimpered for a few breaths and went completely silent.
"Ssss …"
Looking at this scene, everyone sucked in a deep breath of cold air. In fact, the reason why Carter released the hound was because he wanted to see if the rumors of those who entered the night would go crazy were true.
But even he didn't expect that the effect would be this strong. The hound that was loyal to its owner turned around and didn't recognize its owner anymore. Not only did it attack them, but it also committed suicide by smashing its head against the boulder after realizing that it couldn't escape. What exactly did it encounter in there to scare a hound to this extent?
In an instant, everyone fell into silence as they gazed at the dog's corpse. Then, they turned to Jonathon. It was apparent that this Saint Knight was the only one who could make a decision for them.
"Please rest assured."
Facing the crowd's gazes, Qiao Sen smiled.
"The Holy Church has long prepared for this … We don't need to worry about this problem."
As he spoke, Jenn gestured to the cardinals sitting in the first carriage. Seeing Jenn's gesture, one of the cardinals immediately stood up, took out a bright red flag with golden edges from the carriage, and inserted it into the groove next to the carriage. Then, he closed his eyes and lowered his head, muttering something in a low voice. Soon, everyone felt a faint golden halo suddenly emerge from the flag and spread to the surroundings.
Immediately afterward, everyone felt refreshed. The anxiety and worry they had before had subsided greatly.
Looking closely, they could even see a barrier emitting a faint white light spreading in all directions, completely enveloping everyone.
"This is … the Holy Wings Flag!?"
Carter wasn't a fool. After traveling around for so many years, he had some knowledge of the holy relics of the Holy Church.
Not to mention, he had been a decorated noble for many years, so he naturally had some understanding of the holy relics of the Holy Church.
At this moment, seeing the bright red flag, he immediately couldn't help but scream.
Even Jenn, who was silent at the side, raised his eyebrows at this moment.
The Holy Wings Flag was a product of the First Great War, and it was also the army flag used by the gods at that time. It was said that these flags had the blessing of those gods, which could protect their subordinates from being invaded by evil, and also prevent them from losing their will to fight.
They also had all kinds of unique effects. There were a total of 23 of these flags in the Holy Church, corresponding to a total of 23 paladin orders.
Only on the grandest occasions of celebration could people have the honor of seeing these holy relics.
It was just that this time, the Holy Church actually spent so much money and even brought out these things.
Only a ghost would believe that they were just looking for an ordinary priest.
"Yes, this is the Holy Wings Flag."
Hearing Carter's exclamation, Johnson's face showed a little pride for the first time.
"This is the flag of the Knights of the Wings of Light, a battle flag personally bestowed by the Sun God Amon. Under its protection, we can block all the erosion of darkness."
"Knight Johnson, is this flag really that powerful?"
Carter retracted his gaze from the Holy Wings Flag and looked at Johnson in disbelief.
"Under the protection of the three cardinals, this flag can release a protective halo with a diameter of two kilometers. Within this halo, we will not be affected by any dark magic.
And everyone will receive divine blessings, so even if we accidentally leave the protective range of the halo, as long as we return to the flag within 12 hours, there will be no problem. "
Hearing this, everyone felt a lot more at ease.
In any case, such a protective barrier was indeed quite powerful.
After all, with the credibility of the Holy Church as a guarantee, no one would think that they were talking nonsense. Therefore, the adventurers who were originally a little shaken also calmed down at this time.
Then, the convoy set off again.
Darkness came as expected.
The moment everyone stepped into the darkness, the light in front of them completely disappeared, and only the faint light emitted by the carriage lights and the Holy Wings Flag remained in front of them.
Even under such light, everything around them seemed quite dim, as if they were under a kerosene lamp.
But soon, the experienced adventurers lit torches, and the mages at the back also activated a Illumination Crystal, finally brightening up the entire convoy.
But among them, the most conspicuous was Jenn's carriage.
This carriage was originally a product of the underworld, and the Demons' extreme desire was second to none in any place.
Zayen's carriage did not look very conspicuous from the outside, but now that it was in the dark, Zayen's carriage showed its unique and gorgeous side — the four headlights hanging at the top of the carriage emitted a soft white glow that dispelled the darkness, and on the pitch-black body of the carriage was the luxurious, azure blue family crest and imprint.
It made the whole carriage look dreamy, luxurious, and elegant, and everyone was amazed.
Even the few mages who were usually indifferent showed envy and jealousy in their eyes.
They could not be blamed. Others might just be watching the show, but as mages, they were very clear about the value of this carriage.
Putting aside the fact that the four headlights were made of the finest Luminous Ore, even the material used to etch the family emblem and patterns on the body of the car was of great origin. It was Azure Silver, a magical material that could automatically absorb the wandering magic in the air and store it.
In the eyes of the spellcasters, this thing was worth tens of thousands of gold coins. If a magic staff had a piece of Blue Silver the size of a fingernail, it would be enough to make high-level mages go crazy.
But the patterns and family emblem on Jenn's carriage were actually etched with Blue Silver, and the mages' eyeballs almost fell out of their sockets.
One of the biggest characteristics of Blue Silver was its ability to concentrate and absorb magic. A piece of Blue Silver the size of a fingernail could store as much magic as a low-level mage in a day.
From this, one could see how valuable this magical metal was. Yet, Zayen was only using it to absorb magic to supply the carriage itself. To the mages, this was like using a nuclear reactor to power a bus. Such an "extravagant and wasteful" method really pained them to death.
Fortunately, these high-ranked mages were still clear-headed. They knew that a family that could use so much Blue Silver to decorate their carriages was definitely not someone they could afford to offend. Moreover, they still retained a little bit of rationality. Otherwise, someone might have sneaked over to Zayen's carriage and scraped some off.
But Jenn obviously did not care about how envious and jealous they were. In fact, he was currently in the carriage, leisurely drinking tea with Tinidale.
He had to admit that the Dark Fairy Princess was not a good traveling companion. She did not usually speak, and even if he spoke, there would be no response. In fact, Carter and Johnson had tried to strike up a conversation with the princess, but were ultimately defeated by the wall of silence in front of Tinidale.
But Jenn didn't mind. In fact, he was already used to this way of getting along.
"I didn't expect Enoya to fail. What a surprise."
Jenn said to Tinidale while sipping on the black tea in his cup.
Upon hearing his words, Tinidale blinked and didn't say a word.
Jenn's sigh wasn't without reason. After receiving his orders, Enoya brought Elise and Sophina to the temple of the water goddess almost immediately.
The results were beyond her expectations.
She brought the two of them along with a group of dark elves and thousands of Chaos creatures to search the entire temple of the Goddess of Water. In the end, Enoya could only helplessly report to Zayen — other than a few corpses, there wasn't even a ghost in the temple.
And even the corpses didn't belong to the people of the temple. They were more like outsiders.
According to Enoya, they must be hiding, but she didn't know where exactly.
Although Enoya tried to find clues from the corpses, she didn't find anything useful this time.
However, Enoya still dug out a rather interesting piece of information from the corpses.
That was, before the mutation began, the believers of the water goddess' temple seemed to have known that danger was coming.