Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

Madeleine gripped the holy sword tightly and glanced at the sky. In just a few minutes, the originally thick fog in the forest became visibly thinner.

"However, Heloise Serra and those people in white are not on the same side. She is from the Federation, while those in white are from the Esoteric Cult..."

Timmer seemed to remember something and continued.

Madeleine frowned slightly: "Secret religion?"

"Yes, they are a heretic. I don't know when they appeared in the Federation... They were once wiped out by the Church, but it seems that they still left a spark somewhere..."

Madeleine didn't ask any more questions.

In fact, she was not interested in any of this, nor did she care. She only knew that there were two choices before her.

One option was to wait for the fog to completely dissipate, so that she could clearly determine her current location and find a way to escape from the forest. However, by then she would be completely passive - without the white fog that could block out sound and magic, the men in white would quickly find her.

The second is to take the initiative now. Although she knows that there may be a trap ahead, Madeleine would rather hold the initiative firmly in her own hands than be pushed forward little by little and wait for slow death.

"We'll soon find out what's here."

Madeleine wrapped the strips of cloth tightly again layer by layer. It was said that the previous generation of heroes could freely restrain the brilliance of the holy sword by controlling their magic power, but unfortunately, Madeleine could not do it now. It would be better to say that most people could not do it, unless it was a holy relic like the Grey Wind Swordsman's weapon, the "Grey Wind Greatsword·Dogan", which did not emit magical brilliance. Otherwise, when sneaking, they could only use this stupid method to avoid the brilliance of the holy relic attracting the enemy's attention.

She walked lightly and smoothly approached the light. Sure enough, several soldiers in white were on duty here, and the light was emitted by torches - they were facing the outside of the canyon. Although they looked cautious, judging from their posture and expressions, they seemed to have been here for a long time, so much so that even they, as elite warriors, showed slackness.

Madeleine walked around from the side, tightly gripping the holy sword wrapped in cloth. With a bang, one person fell to the ground, and before the others could react, blood splattered, and the gleaming sword edge had pierced their chests, along with the sturdy armor.

At the same time, Timmer's magic bow and arrow pierced the throats of the two men.

Madeleine glanced at Timmer and swung the holy sword in her hand again - in just a blink of an eye, the lives of the men in white were easily taken away, leaving only one in a coma.

Madeleine glanced around, wrapped the cloth of the holy sword tightly again, and came to the unconscious man in white. She picked up a dagger from the corpse beside her and pierced the man's vocal cords with one knife. The intense pain woke him up, but he could not make much sound because the dagger was already stuffed into his mouth.

"I advise you not to try to call for help, otherwise you will die miserably. Tell me, are the ruins and the holy relics here? Where are the rest of you? How many are there? Are there any other eight swordsmen besides Heloise Serra?"

Madeleine cut off a piece of his finger and signaled him to write on the ground with the severed finger. He almost rolled on the ground in pain, but at this moment he could only endure the pain and tremblingly wrote a line of twisted words.

……

When Madeleine reached the depths of the canyon, the white fog around her had thinned a lot. Before, she could only see trees within twenty steps, but now she could barely see the scenery dozens of meters away.

Because of this, Madeleine could roughly see the building in front of her - it was a building with most of its walls and stone pillars buried under the rocks. It looked like a palace. The huge arch of the palace was tilted, and inside was a stone staircase extending downward. It was pitch black below. It seemed that the internal structure of the palace seemed to extend downward rather than the common castle-like stacking method.

The temple gate was surrounded by broken stones, and the thick walls seemed to have grown out of the rock pile. Although only the main entrance could be seen, one could sense the heavy and ancient atmosphere and the rich magical fluctuations emanating from the dark archway at a glance.

"Is this... a relic?!"

"To think such a place really exists... Our intelligence was correct... This is definitely a ruin! Could the sacred object be down there?!"

The soldiers' expressions were different. Some were full of emotion, some were excited, some were a little worried, and Timmer's was extremely complicated.

Around them, the bodies of more than a dozen men in white were lying in disorder. They were all the guards here, but they were quickly defeated by the sudden attack of Madeleine and the soldiers.

"Master Brave, shall we go down?"

A soldier asked, looking a little worried.

"It looks like this place has already been discovered by these people in white. Even if the holy relic is here, it might have been taken away by someone else..."

In other words, if those men in white couldn't take the holy object, then they probably wouldn't be able to do anything with their limited manpower.

Madeleine didn't say anything, but squinted her eyes and looked around.

She found some very strange places - the piled stones, the ground, and the rock walls were full of holes, like rotten wood eaten by insects. Everything here had this strange feeling, except for the palace sunk in the rubble, which was intact and very worrying.

"That's why we can give it a try—you don't want to die here, do you?"

Someone else said.

At this time, the white mist in the sky became thinner and thinner, and in the distance, there was a faint sound of a large number of people approaching - their previous battle had attracted attention.

"Deal with it, let's go in."

Madeleine said.

The soldiers took away the space equipment, or food and water, from the corpses and entered the palace.

The moment she stepped into the palace, Madeleine felt a strange feeling of palpitations. She frowned slightly and looked at others, but no one reacted at all.

Madeleine took another look at the canyon outside the palace, gripped the holy sword tightly, and continued walking down the stairs.

"Torches."

Someone lit a torch, but although it was a bright torch, it could only illuminate a very narrow area. Timmer cast the illumination spell, but there was no change - the area they could see was only a few steps in front and behind them.

This is strange.

"No wonder it's so dark here... It seems to be filled with something similar to the white mist, not only blocking the light, but also hindering the flow of magic."

Madeleine discovered the specialness of this place.

But with the appearance of light, everyone saw the steps under their feet and the stone walls on both sides. There were exquisite patterns and words carved everywhere. The long and narrow corridor seemed to be recording something, but no one present could understand the meaning contained in those distorted words - unfortunately, even the elves and ancient dragons with long lifespans could not read the ancient characters. It was a completely discontinued civilization.

"It seems that this must be a relic..."

A soldier said, and the voice quickly disappeared - it was clearly an open place with walls on both sides, but there was no echo.

The stairs extended underground. The air became thinner the deeper they went. The cold air gradually condensed into frost on the ground and walls, but this was still something the well-trained soldiers could overcome. No one spoke, only their increasingly heavy breathing could be heard faintly in the air.

Madeleine didn't know how long she had been walking. The stairs seemed to have no end, but she intuitively felt that the distance seemed very short. This feeling was very strange and she couldn't describe it.

What struck her as most odd were the surrounding walls and steps.

The part of the ruins exposed outside the stone pestle in the canyon was not damaged at all, but the further they went down the steps, the more "unusual" the walls on both sides and the steps under their feet became - as if they had been worn down by time, and everything here became dilapidated and decayed as they went deeper. Cracks began to appear on the solid steps, and signs of erosion began to emerge. The pictures and texts on the walls became blurred as if covered with mud and sand.

Every step down felt like crossing a long period of time, giving everyone a strong sense of incongruity.

Madeleine looked back and the passage seemed very long and yet very short.

The soldiers seemed very far away, yet very close.

The holy sword in her hand gradually emitted a dazzling light.

They didn't know how long they had walked, but the stairs in the corridor were almost out of shape, and the walls on both sides were already covered with mud. It was like they were walking from a palace into a cave - and at this moment, Madeleine stopped.

In front of her, a huge underground space slowly appeared.

It was a "cave" - ​​Madeleine could vaguely see the outline of what it once was. It should have been a very spacious and majestic palace, but now it was covered with stalactites. The ground under her feet and the surrounding walls had long lost their former glory. Everything was broken and there seemed to be sculptures standing on both sides, but they had long been weathered beyond recognition.

There's obviously no wind here.

All in all, the scene was dilapidated everywhere.

Except for one thing - a pitch-black sword that was stuck straight like a pine tree on the weathered stone platform in the middle of this space. It was out of tune with the dilapidated and corroded surroundings. It still looked so sharp that even standing a hundred steps away, Madeleine seemed to still feel the cold touch of the sword cutting her face.

Madeleine knew that it was the unique pressure of the holy object, but it posed no threat to her who held the holy sword.

Madeleine stared at the sword with a frown.

"Is this... the holy object?"

Madeleine sighed, but suddenly realized something was wrong - she turned around suddenly, only to see that the soldiers and Timmer were standing still very close to her. They maintained the downward movement, but were strangely still, as if they had been deprived of time.

Madeleine's heart sank. She tried to call out, but there was no response.

She approached them, but found that she could hardly take a step forward - as soon as she went up the stairs, starting from her toes, her blood quickly coagulated, or rather, blocked and could not flow, and her muscles also became numb, as if she had stepped into a quagmire, or as if only the part of her body that had stepped forward was frozen, as if it no longer belonged to her.

She was startled and quickly took back her steps. Everything returned to normal, except that the sudden rush of blood made her feel briefly dizzy.

"They are no longer at the same time as you. I advise you not to try and force your way to them. You might end up dead."

A sinister voice suddenly appeared in Madeleine's mind. She gripped the holy sword tightly and turned slowly.

There is nothing in front of me.

"Who's there? Come out."

Madeleine concentrated her energy on mobilizing the power of the holy sword. The destructive light shone through the gaps in the cloth, dispelling the cold for her - but she did not notice the owner of the voice.

At this time, the voice appeared again, coming from all directions, and it seemed to appear directly in her mind, making her unable to tell the direction.

"Hey, don't get excited. I don't mean to hurt you, otherwise I wouldn't have let you come here. Eh? You look hurt? Ha, I said I would bring you here intact - never mind, I'll settle the score with them later."

The voice began to talk to itself.

"But honestly, you look really weak. You're the chosen master of the sword, yet you're already this weak? Has a lot of time passed outside while I was gone?"

Only then did Madeleine notice that the language spoken by the voice was not any language she knew. She could not even tell the timbre of the voice, nor whether it was a man or a woman. It sounded like talking, but also like the clanging of steel, the rustling of grass, waves, and a gentle breeze.

But she just could understand.

Very strange.

She glanced at the black sword on the platform in front of her, and her eyes quickly searched the surrounding darkness for the person who made the sound.

"You asked me to come here? You planned all this conspiracy? Are you a member of the secret cult?"

Madeleine tries to extract valuable information.

The enemy was very strange, which made Madeleine particularly cautious - she knew that this trip would not be easy, but she had thought that it would not be as difficult as facing Heloise Serra of the Eight Swordsmen. But now it seems that the danger here is probably no less than that of the gray-haired man.

However, the other party did not seem to be in a hurry to take action, and Madeleine did not mind collecting more information.

"What is 'esoteric Buddhism'? I don't know anything about it."

The voice seemed to remember something.

"I thought you were Sabrina's followers—by the way, could the Holy See no longer exist?"

This statement was strange. Aside from the ancient dragons, the esoteric cult, and the demons, was there anyone in this world who wasn't a believer in the goddess Sabrina? Furthermore, addressing the goddess by her name was truly disrespectful.

Madeleine narrowed her eyes, hesitating whether to answer or not - this person gave her a really weird feeling.

Her eyes were fixed on the black sword in front of her.

The black sword must be a holy object. Although the other party did not take the black sword away, it meant that the black sword must be as difficult to control as the Throne of Light, Grame, but Madeleine must also protect the black sword, at least to prevent the other party from succeeding.

Perhaps it is because of the existence of the black sword that she and the other party can now maintain such a brief peace.

But the voice's next words left Madeleine somewhat confused.

"Forget it, I won't waste my time arguing with you. Anyway, Gramer's contractor, please come to me. I don't have much time, and you're too weak. I have to find a way to make you stronger."

"You there? What are you talking about?"

Madeleine raised an eyebrow.

The voice sighed.

"See, you're really weak. You can't even determine my location. You've come to my world, but you don't even have this little sense. Anyway, just do as I say. Do you see the platform in the middle? Do you see the black sword? Come over here and draw your sword."

The voice said.

Madeleine narrowed her eyes and snorted softly.

"Oh, you tell me to pull it out and I'll pull it out? - You'd better let go of my companions first."

If the enemy can't pull it out by themselves, the sword will definitely not be easy to deal with. Even though Madeleine had obtained the recognition of the holy sword, it took her a lot of effort to finally hold the holy sword in her hands - the more powerful the holy object, the more difficult it is to establish a contractual relationship.

"..."

The voice paused noticeably, and as a weak breeze blew past, a voice came from behind Madeleine.

"Your Highness, the Brave One!" Timmer was the first to rush forward. "How could you, how could you suddenly disappear... I'm so glad you're okay..."

"Your Highness, this is..."

Then everyone's voices became lowered - they all saw the black sword on the platform, and the surging pressure brought an unparalleled sense of presence.

"Is that... a sacred object?"

"Can you come over now?"

Madeleine heard the voice again and looked at everyone else. It seemed that no one except her noticed anything unusual.

"You wait here—watch out for the enemy chasing you from behind."

Madeleine said, taking a step forward but not moving any closer.

"I'm curious, who are you? If you're not from the Esoteric Cult or the Kingdom of Levis, how did you end up here?"

The voice paused again, then let out a strange laugh.

"Hehehe," the laughter revealed arrogance and pride, as well as an indescribable sense of satisfaction. "According to your words, you can call me 'Star God'."

"'Star God'? Playing tricks."

Madeleine was very disdainful.

She had never heard of this name.