Xia De, Miss Annette, Miss Bei Ya Si, and the Silver-Eyed One all entered the range covered by Sublimation Words.
Behind it, twin wings sprouted from its back, vines wrapped around its body, and the mutated monster roared at the sky in the twilight of the bloody sunset.
A bloody Greatsword appeared in its hand; it raised the Greatsword high, aiming it at Xia De, who had just managed to pull the longsword from his shoulder.
The construction of Sublimation Words was complete, and the bloody halo completely engulfed everything around, as if pulling everything into this bloody twilight of the sunset.
But strangely, the giant tree and the divine statue's holy emblem further away still existed, like another work abruptly spliced into an oil painting of a bloody sunset.
This made everything in front of them even more bizarre; the giant tree glowing with a faint blue light and the stone divine statue quietly watched all this under the bloody sunset.
A bloody glow erupted upwards from the blade of the sword in the tall Vampire's hand, as if to pierce the sky, and the sword cleaved down towards Xia De's position.
Xia De took a deep breath, his eyes reflecting the sky-piercing blood-red, but his heart was incredibly calm; he was already prepared:
"Raglai's Leap."
His figure vanished, and the bloody Greatsword, which seemed capable of splitting heaven and earth, completely missed its target.
The monster dragged the Greatsword and turned, the Greatsword carving an imprint on the ruined ground.
It saw Xia De appear in front of Miss Annette, and Miss Annette and Miss Bei Ya Si helped him up together.
The three stood firm in the ruins of the bloody twilight, the light of the setting sun shining on their faces; at this moment, it felt like the end.
After cleaving that sword, the out-of-control Vampire's power weakened significantly, but the Sublimation Words had not yet ended.
"youth everlasting leaf."
Xia De whispered, the wooden tendrils from his wounds almost touching his face.
"What?"
Miss Bei Ya Si asked, then immediately understood and stuffed the leaf, which she had temporarily kept, into Xia De's mouth.
He chewed a few times, and the leaf was crushed by Xia De and then swallowed.
A cold sensation spread from his esophagus throughout his body; the Ling consumed during the intense battle was completely replenished, and the wound on his shoulder tingled, while the wooden tendrils gradually receded.
The youthful immortality leaf itself has extremely strong healing effects; its power comes from the highest-ranked 【Tree】, so it can naturally suppress the power from lower-ranked 【Tree】s.
The World Tree, a tree higher than all trees in this world.
In the hands of the severely mutated Vampire, the bloody Greatsword cleaved down for the second time.
Xia De, who had fully recovered, wanted to stop it; wasting a drop of divinity to contend with 【Sublimation Words】 was not a great loss, but Miss Annette reached out at this moment.
She snatched the holy bell from Miss Bei Ya Si's hand and swung it forcefully, her fingers forming a strange posture, and a five-pointed star ritual array appeared above the three's heads, its purple light instantly suppressing the bloody twilight summoned by 【Sublimation Words】.
The Greatsword struck the five-pointed star, taking a full three seconds to shatter it.
During the brief delay, the three managed to dodge in time.
However, Miss Annette's face turned pale, and she spat out a mouthful of blood; Xia De reached out and touched her, and 【False Immortality】 took effect, as that blow had not been easy for her.
The bloody twilight continued, seemingly indicating that a Ring術士 in an uncontrolled state could maintain Sublimation Words for a longer time.
It roared, and amidst the swirling blood mist, under the bloody setting sun, the bloody Greatsword was raised above its head for the third time.
"I'll take care of it!"
Miss Bei Ya Si said loudly, taking the holy bell from Miss Annette's hand and shaking it gently, then biting her teeth and throwing the golden lightning from her right hand forward with all her might, but it was easily shattered by the bloody Greatsword:
"Is this the end?"
"Of course not."
Xia De shielded the two girls behind him, gritting his teeth as he watched the impending descent of the Greatsword.
But he still did not use his divinity, because a transparent, robed female figure suddenly appeared beside him.
It's not me; it's the person who was peeking at you in the tomb earlier.
The figure said nothing, merely handed a labyrinth candle to Xia De, then vanished again.
Xia De looked at his hand; it was indeed the labyrinth candle, which he had not known where it had fallen earlier.
"What do you mean... I understand!"
Raising the labyrinth candle in his hand, as the firelight shone, a stone brick wall labyrinth seemed to invade this dim, setting sun, abruptly appearing around Xia De and the two ladies.
But this was still not enough; the third sword fell, and the stone brick labyrinth shattered like foam.
The twilight of the setting sun became somewhat blurry, and the power of Sublimation Words could still support one last sword strike.
"Detective!"
Miss Bei Ya Si tried to pull Xia De, who was almost exhausted, behind her, but she tugged several times without moving him.
Miss Annette, whose vitality was maintained by 【False Immortality】, tried to raise her hand again, but she couldn't even summon her Destiny Ring.
Eerie bloody light flickered under the dim sky, and the raised sword did not immediately fall; instead, it paused as if accumulating power.
"Is there still a way?"
Miss Annette's weak voice sounded from behind:
"If there's no way, you go first; your spatial jump ability can avoid it."
"There's still a way."
Xia De said through gritted teeth, looking down at the labyrinth candle in his hand:
"You said that the labyrinth created by the labyrinth candle is similar in nature to a Mystic Lock."
Yes.
"Miss Annette, Miss Bei Ya Si, don't be too surprised in a moment."
He held the last youth everlasting leaf in his mouth, took the holy bell in his left hand and shook it gently, and grasped the necklace around his neck with his right hand.
In the Destiny Ring behind him, the little match girl's Ling light flickered.
Dropping the holy bell, he held the long labyrinth candle, and in the rotating Destiny Ring behind him, the little match girl Ling Rune suddenly burst forth with Ling light.
The phantom of the brick labyrinth reappeared, but immediately vanished.
The labyrinth candle in his hand burned fiercely, consuming itself at a visible rate.
"It really works! This labyrinth candle can enhance the Mystic Lock!"
Miss Annette and Miss Bei Ya Si were puzzled, but seeing that the labyrinth candle seemed to merge with Xia De's containment, they understood that the out-of-control labyrinth candle could actually help Xia De.
"What Mystic Lock?"
As she asked, she saw snowflakes drawing an arc and falling in front of her eyes.
"Snow?"
The two ladies looked up in surprise, finding that a part of the sky above them was no longer the terrifying bloody twilight, but a snowy night sky with a silver moon hanging.
The deep night sky and the blood-red twilight were stitched together, the distorted scene making them instinctively feel uncomfortable.
Looking down again, behind the three was a street with falling snow in the long night, and in front of the three, ruins in the bloody afterglow were spliced together.
"Mystic Lock, so that incident back then was..."
But even with the simultaneous blessing of the 【labyrinth candle】, the 【Judge's Holy Bell】, and the 【Ancient Magic Witches' Golden Necklace】, the Mystic Lock still couldn't fully unfold, only temporarily suppressing the last of Sublimation Words' power.
Instead, Xia De, with power far exceeding that of a One-Ring Arcanist, already felt his entire body about to burst from the surging Ling and elements.
The burning flame of the labyrinth candle supported the Mystic Lock - the little match girl, appearing on such a scale, but it would burn out completely in about thirty seconds.
But this was enough; under the large silver moon of the snowy night, Xia De finally understood where the hope of victory lay.
Behind him, Miss Bei Ya Si was somewhat lost in thought, countless past memories flooding her mind at this moment.
Almost instinctively, she reached out and placed her hand on Xia De's shoulder, golden power assisting him.
This was like the last straw that broke the camel's back; feeling the power in the bloody Greatsword that was about to fall, Xia De suddenly looked up at the night sky above, the high-hanging silver moon reflected in his eyes.
At this moment, the dream scene of standing on a field ridge and looking up at the silver moon seemed to perfectly overlap with the present, and very naturally, his right hand reached into the air, his eyes looking forward.
The tall monster gripped the bloody Greatsword with both hands, its power accumulated to its peak, and finally cleaved forward; this would be the last of Sublimation Words' power.
"Balance!"
Miss Bei Ya Si's voice sounded at just the right moment, golden fluctuations touching everyone present:
"Detective, it's your turn this time."
Snowflakes drifted past his face, and the figure of the little girl carrying a basket flashed past Xia De.
He once wanted to save the innocent, and now, what he had to do was still the same thing:
"This time, I will save you all too."
Feeling the blessing the Mystic Lock brought to his body, with the silver moon reflected in his pupils, his right hand glowed.
Miss Bei Ya Si and Miss Annette both felt the sharpness of that silver light, and even the monster wielding the sword was puzzled by the extreme light appearing in Xia De's palm.
After a brief moment, Xia De's right hand pulled out a pure silver hilt, sparkling with dazzling luster, from the air.
Shining, brilliant, sacred; the two ladies behind him could not find more suitable adjectives to describe it.
It was as if it were a holy sword used by an ancient hero in a fairy tale, or a divine artifact bestowed by a god upon mortals to slay demons.
The silver moon hung high above, and the blessings of five powers—the leaf, the holy bell, the necklace, the Mystic Lock, and Balance—temporarily freed Xia De from the constraints of a One-Ring Arcanist.
The bloody Greatsword in front of him had already cleaved down, and a momentary tremor made Xia De think of many things.
The sharp aura of the Thirteen Ring Sorcerer "Sunlight Greatsword," this Greatsword in front of him that seemed to destroy everything, the huge silver moon he gazed at while standing on a field ridge in his dream, the moon disk shining on him in the snowy night at this moment, and... her laughter.
Closing his eyes:
"Smile."
Her laughter appeared close to his ear, still so gentle, as if she was embracing him from behind.
Following his inner feelings, Xia De completed the construction of a brand new Miracle.
Tonight's long adventure would end here; everything was finally coming to a close.
Opening his eyes, he looked at the bloody light that was almost about to split his skull the next second.
His voice was deep and steady, but to the two ladies behind him, it was as if Xia De in front of them had transformed into a great mountain.
That sword was finally fully drawn from the air by him:
"Moonlight Greatsword!"
At the intersection of the bloody twilight and the snowy deep night, a silver light met the downward-cleaving bloody light.