Chapter 185: Prayer

Chapter 185: Prayer

Gone?

Complete darkness?

Faced with the sudden change, Derrick’s first reaction was not panic. Instead, he clasped his hands together and pressed them before his mouth.

One clear, bright wave of light after another rippled out from his body, driving away the deep darkness around him and illuminating every corner of the basement.

In the environment Derrick lived in, night was the most terrifying existence. Once they left the City of Silver, they had to keep themselves constantly under light. Even if it disappeared briefly, the interval could not exceed five seconds.

Back when Derrick had first joined an exploration team and lacked experience, he had nearly made a mistake because of that and lost his life. Fortunately, the Chief had been standing not far away.

The light slowly and continuously rippled outward. Derrick lifted his right hand, tightly gripping the Axe of Hurricane, and carefully examined his surroundings.

He discovered that not only had Heinm and Joshua—his two teammates who should already have followed him into the basement—vanished, but the large patches of blackened marks on the flagstones and walls had, at some unknown time, turned blood-red. They were wet and glistening, as though fresh blood had just been splashed over them.

Derrick, having studied the exploration textbooks thoroughly and having calmed down, could not help thinking of one possibility: the ones with a problem might not be Joshua and Heinm, but himself!

“I only approached that altar and silently read out those three names… Normally, even an angel must have a complete, accurate honorific name in the proper format before They can receive ‘prayers’ produced by recitation or copying. And it’s said there are range restrictions as well… I don’t know whether Kings of Angels are also bound by that…

“Uh, perhaps one of those three names is the key to activating the altar’s hidden power, and because I silently read it in Jotun, which can stir nature, the problem was triggered? No, that isn’t right. It would have to be spoken aloud to take effect. Even if these are the true names of Kings of Angels, nothing went wrong before…” Confused and somewhat uneasy, Derrick turned around and returned to the altar, back to the stone table.

He was astonished to see that the words and symbols on the stone table had become much clearer and more complete than before, as though the host of the ritual had only just finished carving them.

These words were divided into three kinds. One was Jotun, one was Dragonish, and the last was a language Derrick did not recognize. However, he suspected it was the ancient Hermes that Mr. Hanged Man and Miss Justice had spoken of, because during Tarot Club exchanges in this period, he had gained a preliminary command of a few words, and those were quite close to the language on the stone table.

The contents expressed in Jotun and Dragonish were entirely consistent. They were repeatedly stating the three names and their corresponding titles:

“Angel of Fate,” Ouroboros;

“Red Angel,” Medici;

“Dark Angel,” Sasrir.

Following the titles and names was a phrase Derrick knew very well:

“Rose Redemption”!

So Sasrir really is a King of Angels, called the “Dark Angel.” He, together with the Angel of Fate and the Red Angel, founded Rose Redemption? I wonder what Mr. Fool knows about Him… Mr. Fool definitely knows a great deal… The ancient Hermes should mean the same thing… In Afternoon Town, which had already converted to the Lord who created everything, there were residents secretly worshiping the three Kings of Angels beside the Lord… Thinking to this point, Derrick suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He felt as though he had brushed against the edge of the truth behind the Creator’s abandonment of this land.

He raised his head again and saw that the walls and floor were still blood-red. Heinm and Joshua were still nowhere to be seen.

Silently reading the names again has no effect. Perhaps it never had an effect in the first place… Derrick inhaled, lifted the Axe of Hurricane, and cautiously walked toward the basement entrance, hoping to find the root of the problem and confirm which side was truly abnormal.

One step, two steps, three steps. Like a giant candle, he moved back into the hall above.

The shadows here were thick. Everything was gray and quiet. Rotting chairs and the remains of stone tables stood silently in place, no different from before.

Derrick still found no trace of Joshua or Heinm, so he had no choice but to walk toward the window with his nerves highly strung, hoping to see whether he might encounter other members of the exploration team.

Tap, tap… Amid his soft footsteps, he approached the large hole where a window frame should have been. Leaning forward, he looked outside.

Countless gray buildings stretched tightly across the town, some high, some low, climbing upward in layers.

The frequency of lightning in the air was very low. At many windows, points of candlelight shone out, dim yellow and swaying, burning steadily without going out.

This… Derrick could not help swallowing. He had the feeling that Afternoon Town had never suffered any great catastrophe, that its residents were still calmly living here.

…

Holding a lantern made from beast hide, Heinm passed through the basement entrance without needing to bend. Amused, he said to Joshua beside him, “This house definitely belonged to humans, but their family must have possessed Giant blood. They were probably about as tall as I am. Tsk. In that ruined city we visited two missions ago, I had to lower my head just to enter the front door!”

“Giant” bloodline did not necessarily mean one had giant ancestry. Rather, it represented bodily traits passed down to descendants after taking potions from that pathway. Great height was the main manifestation.

Joshua looked up at Heinm and snorted.

“That was you. I didn’t need to.”

“But before long, you should be able to advance too. By then, you won’t be much shorter than me.” Heinm smiled as he spoke, while watching Derrick approach the altar from the corner of his eye to guard against accidents.

Joshua thought for a moment and said, “Actually, I find something very strange. The Chief is a Sequence 4 Demon Hunter. He should be like a normal giant, three or four meters tall. Why does he look so normal, only half a head taller than me?”

Heinm instinctively looked around.

“It’s said the Chief has a giant form.”

“A giant form? After he turns into a giant, won’t all his clothes be torn apart?” Joshua asked with a laugh.

“Unless his shirt and trousers are mystical items.” Heinm and Joshua looked at one another and smiled.

They were just about to share the joke with Derrick. But when they turned their heads, they discovered that the youth had vanished!

Derrick, who should have been in front of the altar, had vanished!

Heinm and Joshua’s expressions instantly turned solemn. One raised his broad, massive straight sword, while the other extended his left palm wearing the crimson glove.

They carefully approached the altar and inspected it closely, but found no suspicious traces.

Joshua was about to try identifying the remaining words on the stone table, but Heinm patted his shoulder and said, “Don’t look. I just recalled that Derrick was looking at the words above it before he disappeared.

“We’ll go find the Chief.”

“Mm.” Joshua nodded.

He did not leave in a panic or in haste. After looking around once more, he rubbed his thumb and middle finger together and lit the remaining stub of candle on the altar.

This would protect Derrick, preventing him from falling into true darkness!

The exploration teams of the City of Silver had encountered similar incidents in the ruins of city-states: one team member would appear to vanish suddenly, but in truth, they had only been hidden by some power and remained where they were. Yet the teammates nearby, anxious to seek help, hurriedly carried their lantern away from that area. As a result, that poor fellow was swallowed by the true darkness and could never again be found. If another team member had not later fallen into the same situation and been lucky enough to be rescued on the spot, no one would even have known the exact cause of the first person’s “death.”

The candle lit up, its dim yellow flame spilling across the surroundings. Heinm and Joshua then left, entered the alley, and released the spiritual signal every team member carried.

They did not wait long before Colin Iliad leaped down from the roof of another building and landed steadily.

“What happened?” the Demon Hunter asked in a deep voice.

The silver straight sword in his hand had already been smeared with a layer of pale-gray ointment.

Heinm immediately gave a brief account of what had just happened. At the end, he said, “We were unable to discover the reason behind Derrick’s disappearance.”

“Derrick…” Colin nodded thoughtfully, passed the two of them, and entered the corresponding house first.

…

Outside, candlelight shone point by point, dim yellow and warm. Yet Derrick felt as though he had plunged into a so-called ice cellar. A chill constantly seeped out from the depths of his heart.

He tightened his grip on the Axe of Hurricane, withdrew his gaze from the town, turned around, and returned to the basement, standing once again before the altar.

He was now basically certain that the problem lay with himself!

However, he had no urge to explore this strange Afternoon Town. He did not even dare open the door.

Derrick was not especially nervous, nor did he show any obvious panic, because he did not think he had encountered a truly serious problem.

As long as danger did not erupt directly, it did not count as serious… Derrick silently inhaled, lowered his head slightly, and devoutly whispered:

“The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era;

“The mysterious ruler above the gray fog;

“The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck…”

Klein, who had been standing by the window admiring the scenery of the divine-war ruin, had no choice but to enter the washroom again. After placing the interference items, he took four steps counterclockwise and arrived above the gray fog.

He sat in the high-backed chair at the seat of honor of the bronze long table, extended his right hand, and let his spirituality spread out, touching the crimson star symbolizing Little Sun.

Abruptly, the sound of prayer became exceedingly clear, and the corresponding image appeared before Klein’s eyes.

First, he saw Little Sun, still somewhat blurry. Then he discovered that the environment around him was a little wrong!

Around The Sun flowed indescribable darkness. Within that darkness, eyes of different shapes silently watched him.

Those eyes were densely packed, faint and indistinct, deep and restrained, like uninvited onlookers. Little Sun was entirely unaware of them.

Afternoon Town is that dangerous? Klein was very familiar with what Student Sun had recently set out to do.

After thinking briefly, his intuition told him that the darkness was extremely strange and not real enough. Therefore, he abandoned the option of responding to Little Sun with the Sea God Scepter and instead chose to pull him above the gray fog.

Klein extended his spirituality, but he felt that the crimson star seemed to have sunk into a swamp, making the action of pulling someone up quite laborious.

Has he provoked another King of Angels? As the thought flashed through Klein’s mind, he made the gray fog below and the mysterious space itself ripple and transmit power over.

After advancing to Sequence 5, even without relying on the Black Emperor card or the corresponding ritual, he could slightly leverage the power above the gray fog!

Silently, Klein easily completed the summoning. The figure of The Sun Derrick immediately appeared in the high-backed chair belonging to him.

At the same time, Klein vaguely saw the strange darkness flowing around Little Sun’s body shatter.

…

Highly alert, the Demon Hunter entered the basement, followed closely by Heinm and Joshua.

Before the dim yellow candlelight, they saw Derrick Berg’s figure rapidly outline itself, like a picture being drawn into existence.