Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

It's obvious that they are hiding something.

However, Dino's silence did not last long. He glanced at his companions. Some of them avoided his gaze, some had hesitant expressions like him, and some frowned tightly.

Dino finally spoke.

"You are the sage, and you are also our savior, so I will not hide anything from you. In fact, we are here to find the 'Armor of Darkness'."

"Black Hell Armor?"

This term wasn't unfamiliar to Tricia—the message from the Queen specifically mentioned this "weapon," but the Queen herself seemed to know very little about it. Tricia only knew that the Black Nether Armor was the Seventh Organization's secret weapon, and that it resembled a girl with white hair and crimson eyes, clad in black armor and armed with several jet-black blades that hovered around her body...

A woman in magical armor? She'd gone mad for some reason, uncontrolled by the Seventh Agency? — Cassius Harvey had given very few clues, and Tricia had no concrete idea of ​​what the Dark Armor was. She simply sensed something unusual from the description.

In addition, the Black Nether Armor seemed to be out of control and very dangerous. Tricia originally planned to go to the imperial capital to check out the situation after the affairs in the north were over. She didn't want an irrational madman running around outside.

A pitch-black blade?

At this moment, Tricia immediately thought of the blade fragment found in the underground cave.

It seemed as if something suddenly connected - the weapons were several pitch-black blades, didn't that just match the characteristics of the mysterious man who appeared in the leyline cave?

The West Wind Brigade is Ryanfort's people, and the Seventh Agency lost the Black Hell Armor in the mountainous area north of the old capital, that is, in the mountainous area south of the Alba Mountains. This is why these people came here.

"What exactly is the Black Hell Armor?"

Tricia already had some guesses in her mind, and she wanted to go to the underground cave to confirm it. However, after thinking about it, she pretended to be ignorant and continued to ask Dino.

Dino shook his head. "I don't know either... I only know it's a very important weapon, completely black and wrapped in metal, with a white-haired girl in the center..."

As he spoke, he began to use gestures to describe the characteristics of the Black Nether Armor.

Dino had never actually seen the Black Hell Armor.

"Weapons..." Tricia thought for a moment, not paying attention to Dino's description. "So, you found traces of the Dark Armor here?"

"No, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten lost here... We wanted to go deeper, but we encountered a cold wave..."

Dino seemed to have thought of something and continued, "Oh, right, the Duke sent a lot of people. Besides us, the 6th Battalion of the 9th Infantry Division and the Wild Wolf Regiment of the Brigade have also come here. Her Majesty the Queen also sent the Eagle Chasers and the Knights here... Maybe they will have some clues..."

The 6th Battalion is the intelligence battalion of the 9th Infantry Division. It is also the only combat unit in the division that is directly under the Duke himself rather than the division commander. As for the Wild Wolf Regiment, it is actually the most elite intelligence and assassination unit in the West Wind Brigade, and is quite famous in the Eastern Province. In contrast, the Knights are the Queen's troops, but there are some new nobles mixed in them. Only the Eagle Chasers are the dark department trained by Her Majesty the Queen and formed in the past two years, so even Tricia doesn't know much about it.

It can be seen that after the events in the southern border, Duke Ryanfort and the Queen started a new round of competition in the Alba Mountains, and this time both sides paid enough attention.

only……

Tricia couldn't help but feel a little strange. If the fragments she and Elsa found were actually left by the "Armor of Darkness", then why would the Armor of Darkness appear in the underground cave connected to the dead land of the vampires' old land?

Those vampires are most likely the remnants of the Demon King's army.

But isn’t the Black Hell Armor a creation of the Seventh Organization?

Was this a coincidence? Or did the girl in the Black Nether Armor, in a panic, stumble into that cave? A cold wave, heavy snow, would cover everything in the mountains. The snowy mountains were indeed the best escape route, and the collapse of those caves was the work of the Black Nether Armor.

No, it didn't make sense—after all, finding that cave in the middle of a vast snowfall was a bit too much of a coincidence. Furthermore, the leyline cave that appeared in the dead of the forest had collapsed over a month ago. The timing didn't match, and the leylines hadn't been damaged anywhere.

Or was all of this premeditated? Was there something overlooked that was subtly connecting all of this?

So, can we assume that the Black Nether Armor is no longer in the cave at this time, but has passed through the Alba Mountains through the earth veins - even through the dead forest, and left from the other end of the earth veins?

Thinking of this, Tricia couldn't sit still anymore.

If the Black Hell Armor had any connection with the remnants of the Demon King's army, then it would have already fled far away. Now she had the only clue in her hands - the earth veins. Through the earth veins, the Black Hell Armor could only leave in two directions. One was to continue extending southward along the direction of Tricia and the others, and perhaps leave from somewhere in the Alba Mountains. The other was to go towards the dead end of the forest and continue moving forward. Tricia didn't know where the end was.

At this time, Aisha came over carrying a black object.

"I didn't see the others, but during the avalanche I found a body and I dug it out."

Elsa spoke calmly, but Dino and the others were shocked.

"But it seems that he is not one of yours."

As she spoke, Elsa placed the body on the ground, and everyone's attention was focused on the body. The body was wrapped in thick clothes, and although it was curled up into a ball, it could be seen that he was extremely burly when he was alive. His palm alone was bigger than Dino's face.

Only Tricia frowned slightly.

"No, this isn't a human at all—it's a demon. This is the corpse of a demon."

"what?"

……

------------

443. Dead Sea (4K8)

The corpse was that of a demon, but it was not very obvious because it was wrapped in thick clothes. However, it seemed that this demon had been dead for a long time, at least not in the last week or two.

This aroused Tricia's suspicion even more.

"Elsa, we have to go to the leyline cave now - I suspect we may have gone in the wrong direction, and this series of events may not be a coincidence."

Tricia said, and explained her guess to Aisha and Shirley - of course, avoiding the people from the West Wind Brigade.

"Well, without further ado, let's go and confirm it now."

Elsa suggested, looking past Tricia at the people in the West Wind Brigade.

"But we have to get them out of here first. Their physical condition isn't very good, and it might be dangerous for them to stay in this dead zone for a long time."

"Let me do it, Aisha. You take Charlie over first, and I'll be there soon."

Afterwards, Tricia teleported away from the snow mountain with everyone in the West Wind Brigade, while Elsa and Charlie returned to the earth vein cave. After investigating again and confirming that there were no other clues, Tricia rushed over, and the three of them entered the earth vein again and moved forward along the earth vein.

This time, however, they walked a long way until the leylines, which twisted and turned, began to rise and fall, and finally began to extend underground. The passages became wider, the branches became fewer, and the air in the leylines became thinner and colder. Tricia stopped and said,

"We can't go any further. We've already left the dead zone. Continuing forward won't yield anything. Rather, the earth veins have regained their vitality from here on out. Continuing forward is too dangerous."

Tricia didn't know when she had erected a blue magic barrier to protect her and Charlie, and a faint light was flowing around Elsa - that was the magical light produced by the powerful turbulent magic in the earth veins colliding with Elsa. In this magic-rich environment, even the lighting magic in Tricia's hand became dim.

"Does this mean that if the Dark Armor really escaped from here through the earth veins, it could only have escaped from the north?"

"That's just speculation. I'm more concerned about whether the person who destroyed the leyline was the girl known as the Black Nether Armor. If so, what's her connection to all this? And, what exactly is the Black Nether Armor... A girl, called a 'weapon of war'? I need to find Ryan Fort to find out."

Without stopping there, the three of them turned back along the way. This time, they headed straight in the direction they came from and soon returned to the snow mountain cave. They continued to move forward and walked a long distance before returning to the forest death cave where they first entered. They did not stop and kept moving forward.

This time, they also walked a long distance, but the difference was that as the underground tunnel began to slowly sink, what appeared before their eyes was cold water - seemingly calm water, but dark, blocking their way.

"How can there be water here? Is it an underground river?"

Elsa ran her fingers across the water, creating ripples, and brought her fingertips to her nose and sniffed.

"I'm afraid this is seawater."

Charlie also squatted down and used her hand to poke the water surface - the water was very cold, but at least it was much warmer than the snow-capped mountains. It was just that the dark water looked a bit scary. Although Charlie was a vampire, she actually didn't like the feeling of darkness.

Tricia looked at the water in front of her, thoughtful.

"Keep going."

As she spoke, Tricia squatted down and placed her fingertips on the water. The next moment, the dark water surged up as if alive, and was drawn away by a dark crack at Tricia's fingertips, disappearing until Tricia had drained all the water below. Then, Tricia used magic to freeze the surroundings, allowing direct passage.

In fact, Tricia didn't have to go through so much trouble. She had hundreds of magic spells that could allow her to move underwater, but the problem was that most of them required continuous use of magic power. But Elsa was here, so she had to use some relatively "clumsy" methods. At least, the ice left behind did not require magic power to maintain.

"Let's go."

The three of them moved on.

Finally, after walking and stopping several times, the three of them finally saw the man-made broken ground vein again - and this time, the cave they were in was buried deep under the water.

Or rather, the seabed.

——This was actually a cave buried under the dark seabed. Standing in front of the frozen fracture, Elsa could clearly hear the sound of the surging sea water and echoing in the cave.

Charlie couldn't help but cross her arms.

"It's so cold here... and it feels... so eerie..."

Charlie looked at the dark sea water behind her through the wall of ice crystals. She felt as if she was about to be sucked in. She subconsciously moved closer to Elsa.

"This sea is dead, otherwise it would be more beautiful than it is now."

Tricia said.

Elsa didn't say anything. She stared at the sea water that was like a black hole and didn't feel scared. In fact, in her previous life, Elsa still felt some fear when she saw the pictures of the deep sea. That was almost an instinctive reaction for most people. But now, she couldn't remember how long it had been since she had had such similar thoughts.

Elsa gently took Charlie's hand and observed the broken leyline at the same time.

Like the earth vein caves in the snowy mountains, there were also dense knife marks near the broken earth veins here. Elsa also found several fragments of black blades - it seemed that the girl in the Black Nether Armor also made great efforts to break the earth veins, perhaps because she was anxious.

"From the snowy peaks of the Alba Mountains to the underwater caves, is this the Black Hell Armor's escape route? — It's hard to imagine this is really a coincidence."

There are many things that cannot be explained if it is just a coincidence.

That can only mean that if all this was done by the Black Nether Armor, then the Black Nether Armor must have planned an escape route long ago, and someone was picking her up from the outside, and all this planning started at least a month ago, or even longer.

This is somewhat intriguing.

"I'm afraid we've already left the Empire and are now in the Kingdom of Belmont Freia. The Empire's west coast is at least ten days' journey from the forest, but the narrow northern coastline of the Kingdom of Belmont Freia is only three days' journey from the forest. Coincidentally, we've traveled almost that far."

As Tricia spoke, she squatted down, and the moment her fingertips touched the ice, the cave behind the ice fell into her control.

The sea water surged up and was quickly drained out, and the entire surface of the cave was covered with a thick layer of ice to prevent more sea water from flowing back in.

The three of them came into the cave.

The lighting magic showed the three people the cave frozen by Tricia's ice magic. The ice crystals reflected the bright spots of light, but if you look closely, you will find that there are large areas of seabed creatures buried under these spots of light - they are all corpses, and there are no large fish, only small fish and shrimps, shells and starfish or some strange reptiles and plankton. Because there is no sunlight, the seabed plants seem reluctant to come here, but some sponges can be seen.

Obviously, after the earth vein died, all the fish that were able to leave had fled here.

It’s just that... these little fish and shrimps look a little abnormal, pitch black, just like the dark sea water where no sunlight can be seen.

Elsa and Tricia cleaned up the cave roughly, and then they found that the cave here was different from any other one they had found before, because there were no traces of burning from the magic circle, and the way the cave was opened looked very rough. There were also fewer tiny tree root-like holes found on the ground veins than in other places.

Tricia sent out a spider-shaped familiar to continue exploring the earth veins. The three of them checked the earth veins inside and out, and searched the cave for a long time, collecting all the fragments of the black blade.

"There's no need to continue searching the ley lines. Let's go out and see if we can find any clues."

Tricia said, looking at Aisha.

"Elsa... can you dive?"

"I don't know. I haven't tried it," Aisha said frankly. "But it doesn't matter. I can hold my breath for a long time. You don't have to worry about my safety."

"But the water here is very cold."

"I'm not afraid of the cold."

……

——Outside the cave is a "dead" sea area, and they are currently at the bottom of the sea.

Charlie followed Tricia. Tricia's magic was very convenient, allowing the two of them to move freely in the sea water as if walking on flat ground - it looked like a big bubble, but unlike this rather funny appearance, this big bubble was a real high-level spell that could even take people diving hundreds of meters deep.

However, Charlie's face looked a little ugly - it was the first time for her to dive so deep underwater, or rather, it was the first time for Charlie to see the sea. However, the sea that Elsa described as romantic was completely different from what Charlie imagined. No, it was not romantic at all. Charlie just felt it was creepy.

The darkness encroaching from all sides made it hard for her to breathe.

Charlie didn't like the dark very much. Because of her experience a year ago, she was afraid of the night for a long time, especially the dark night in the dense forest where even the moonlight could hardly penetrate. At that time, she could only feel at ease by staying close to Elsa.

However, the seabed was even deeper and gloomier than the forest. When Charlie looked up, she saw a dark mass, like an inverted mountain range. Tricia told her that those were the bottoms of icebergs. However, the huge, dark, quietly floating icebergs looked so depressing as they blocked the sunlight.

The surroundings were pitch black. Even with Tricia's lighting magic, the distance that could be seen clearly was only a few meters. Within the range of sight, there were large numbers of dead marine creatures. Apart from that, there was nothing, nothing existed, only the dark, endless sea water.

The seabed was not silent. Eerie and low howls were heard everywhere. Charlie gritted her teeth, clutched her sleeves tightly, and followed Tricia.

"Don't be afraid, Aisha and I are here."

Tricia tried to take care of Charlie's feelings, but Charlie didn't seem willing to give in.

"I, I'm not afraid..."

Charlie said stubbornly, grinning, but her smile was a little stiff.

"I just never thought that the sea could be such a scary place... Or is it because this is already a 'dead sea' that it's so scary?"

"No, as you can see, this is the ocean. Although it lacks vitality, the danger of the ocean doesn't come entirely from the creatures living here. Charlie, your feeling is correct—countless people die in the ocean every year. The ocean is synonymous with danger and mystery, but the dead sea has magnified this feeling. Avoiding threats is human instinct, so it makes people feel afraid.

However, this fear is mostly due to the unknown, and exploring the unknown is human nature. If one day we can completely conquer the ocean, perhaps we will no longer feel fear.

As she spoke, Tricia smiled, and her laughter, like a clear bell, livened up the silent atmosphere.

"Besides, the ocean isn't always so dangerous, terrifying, or dark. If we have the chance, let's go to the South with Elsa. The beaches and islands there are truly beautiful. However, the summer temperatures there are extremely high, and even light clothing can be unbearable. The sun is scorching, perhaps for this reason, people there often dive into the water. I wonder if you'd enjoy that."

After all, Charlie is a vampire - although at Charlie's level, the damage that sunlight can cause to her has been greatly weakened, but as long as one is a vampire, there are very few who don't hate sunlight.

But Charlie didn't hear anything else, or rather, she heard it but didn't care. She only cared about the sentence "only wearing thin clothes."