Lightning was flying over the Concealing Forest.
In her eyes, the world seemed to have become smaller. As far as her eyes could see, the details disappeared one by one, leaving only patches of color. Brown was the earth, gray was the mountains, green was the forest, and blue was the river.
Green occupied the majority of her vision.
Unlike the bright green grass of Border Town, the green here was a mixture of gray and black, deep and thick. Whether to the west or to the north, she couldn't see the end of this dark green. If she looked at it for a long time, she would feel like she was falling. Lightning had to look up at the sky from time to time, dispelling the growing sense of restraint.
Behind her, the gray clouds were very low, covering the peaks of the Impassable Mountain Range, shrouding Border Town in rain and fog.
At the moment, she was looking for the ruins of 450 years ago in the Concealing Forest, which was undoubtedly a great adventure. Half a month ago, when she heard the task Roland gave her, Lightning immediately patted her chest and agreed. Unlike the snake magician Cara who didn't want to let go of the ancient book, His Highness Roland repeatedly told her that this drawing could only be used as a reference, and told her to pay attention to safety, it didn't matter if she couldn't find it. This made the little girl very happy.
She knew that what His Highness said was right, even if it was a castle, after more than 400 years, it would be swallowed up by the plants growing everywhere, gradually turning into a pile of dust. But she still wanted to find this place – determining the position of the six-pointed star was equivalent to determining the position of the Holy City of Taquila. After hearing the ins and outs of the matter, Lightning naturally understood what Taquila meant.
There, she was likely to help His Highness discover the real reason why the Church broke out with the demons.
This was much more exciting than her father taking her to explore the route!
In accordance with the method of making a nautical chart, Lightning drew a square piece of parchment full of equidistant grids, and then based on the distance she flew over a period of time, she simply calculated the contents of the grids to be filled. When the squares were filled, almost the entire area was searched.
Now she had filled half of the squares.
The rain clouds were approaching faster than Lightning had imagined. The little girl could even faintly hear the rolling thunder in the clouds. She lowered her altitude and flew towards the forest below.
At this moment, a greyish-white shadow flashed past the corner of his eyes.
Startled, she pulled her body to a stop and floated in the air. She turned around and scanned the area she had just passed.
Nothing was found.
Was it an illusion? Lightning thought about it and decided to fly around the area again.
This time, she lowered the height even more. The forest was no longer a block of green. Mottled tree trunks, forked branches, and leaves of different shapes … Details separated from the color blocks and once again returned to Lightning's eyes.
Dozens of breaths later, she suddenly saw a small portion of a white stone pagoda hidden beneath the layers of branches. The entire top of the stone tower had been cut off, causing the tower to be covered by the forest. It was very difficult to see it from the sky. If she hadn't been hiding from the rain clouds, she might have missed it.
Lightning's heart beat violently. Was this the location of the ruins indicated on the map?
She circled around the stone tower and didn't find anything unusual. She decided to get closer to see what was going on.
After landing, the little girl found that it was not appropriate to call it a white stone tower.
Its surface was covered with vines and moss, and when she looked closely, it had turned into a greyish-green color. The tower was slightly tilted, as if it had been hit by a huge force. There were scattered stones around, which were similar in material and color to the stone tower. They should have come from the broken top of the tower. She could still see traces of the larger ones, but the smaller ones were probably buried in the weeds and mud. The whole stone tower was quite large, and the area of the bottom of the tower was comparable to His Highness Roland's castle. A man-made object like this would usually have a basement.
Logically, at this moment, she should record the location of the ruins and then return to Border Town.
The various adventure stories in her mind also reminded her that it was not a good choice to break into the ruins that had been dormant for hundreds of years. Even the gas sealed underground could kill her.
But Lightning found that she couldn't move her feet at all. Her curiosity kept nagging in her ear: Go in and take a look, just take a look. She looked up at the sky. The originally clear sky had now become gloomy and dark. Obviously, a heavy rain was coming.
She told herself that it would be very uncomfortable to fly when it rained. I'll go to the tower to take shelter from the rain and take a look. If I find the basement, I absolutely won't go in alone.
After thinking about it, Lightning could no longer restrain her curiosity. She walked to the entrance covered with vines, pulled out a knife from her waist, cleared a small hole for her to pass through, and climbed in. The wooden door had long been corroded, and she smoothly entered the tower.
Because the top had been lifted, she could see clearly without a torch. Lightning circled the bottom of the tower, but found nothing. Obviously, the exposed items and traces had been erased by time. Except for the broken walls, there was nothing left on the ground. She also found a gradual hole in the wall, which should have been used for a staircase, but the staircase itself had disappeared.
The passage to the basement was very conspicuous. It was in the southwest of the first floor, facing the entrance of the stone tower. Lightning suspected that if she followed this direction toward the Barbarian Land, she would find the Holy City of Taquila recorded in the ancient books.
At this moment, tiny raindrops fell from the sky and dripped on Lightning's nose. She slowly walked into the underground passage, turned a corner, and a wooden door appeared in front of her. Although it was not completely corroded, it looked so broken that it would fall apart at the slightest touch.
Soon, the light rain outside became a downpour. The pitter-patter of the rainwater hitting the ground gradually became one, from chaotic to inseparable. Although there was no rain in this place, the water quickly flowed down the stone steps. In order to avoid getting her shoes wet, Lightning let her feet off the ground and slowly floated up.
Suddenly, she vaguely heard a shout, mixed with the sound of the rain, it was almost impossible to distinguish.
This sound suddenly made her hair stand on end. The little girl panicked and looked around. In the narrow passage, except for a few scattered withered vines, there was nothing else. With the faint light from the outside, she opened her waist bag and took out a portable torch and flint, wanting to light a fire to take a closer look.
But at this time, the shout sounded again, this time it seemed to come from the wooden door behind her. Lightning could not help but tremble and quickly turned around. The torch slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground, splashing water everywhere.
This time the voice seemed a lot clearer. She could vaguely distinguish that it was a woman's voice.
Was there someone in the basement? This thought made her back break out in a cold sweat. How could this be! The stone tower should be a relic left behind more than four hundred years ago, and it was located in the depths of the Concealing Forest. Besides herself, who else could reach here?
"Help me …"
When the third voice sounded, it was very clear. The voice did come from behind the wooden door, and it sounded like a cry for help. Lightning swallowed a mouthful of saliva, carefully put her hand on the door, and gently pushed it. The wet and slippery wooden door fell backward and hit the ground with a muffled bang.
A tall figure suddenly appeared in front of her!
Lightning felt the blood in her body solidify. The figure's appearance was the same as the Devil in Soroya's painting! In the dim light, the Devil seemed to be staring at her. Its huge body leaned forward slightly, holding an axe in its hand with only three fingers. The body of the axe reflected the dark red stains of blood. In a flash, the bloody scenes of these brutal people killing the Witch Cooperation Association's sisters all came into her mind.
"Ah –!" She burst into a scream, threw the flint in her hand towards the other side, turned around with the fastest speed and rushed out of the passage. She flew directly into the rain and fled in the direction of Border Town.
Lightning did not notice that the flint hit the Devil's chest, making a crisp sound. The place where it was hit had a circle of fine cracks, and then quickly spread until it covered the whole body. The Devil's body collapsed under these more and more cracks, turning into a burst of white dust that disappeared with the wind.
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