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The next morning, as agreed with Rafael, we arrived at her residence early to wait.
"Have you really convinced everyone?" Raphael poked his head out, glanced at me, and gave me a rare look of admiration.
"What else do you think?"
"I still clearly remember the scene a few days ago when a large group of them came to argue with me aggressively. Oops, it scared me. I thought they were going to tear down my tent."
Raphael patted his chest and made a frightened movement. According to my experience, acting accounted for nine points. I even believed that she was a slut who coaxed Artoria and the others back one by one.
"We were too impatient the past few days. We hope Elder Raphael will forgive us."
"I was wrong too."
"I am also involved in this matter. If you want to punish me, punish me too, but don't tell Tia, okay?"
Artoria, Benzina, and Tamoa all stood up and apologized sincerely.
"Look what you said, I was just joking. I know you care about Xiao Xiao Wu, and I'm not happy enough." Raphael narrowed his eyes and smiled meaningfully.
Arturia accepted it calmly, Tamoya smiled and nodded, and Princess Nana... was very embarrassed, indicating that she had been tricked.
"I ask again, are you two really ready? Don't remember that you forgot to bring something when you get to the hell world." After teasing the girls, Raphael stopped joking and solemnly confirmed to us again. .
"No problem, everything is ready." The little fox, who checked again and again last night, responded with a relaxed look on his face and without hesitation.
As for me... let me think about it. What else have you forgotten?
"Well, let's go when you're ready."
Hey, are you going to ignore my existence? !
Under the leadership of Raphael, a group of us walked towards the teleportation array. It seems that the entrance to the hell world is not in Rogge Camp.
"Where is the entrance? Can you tell me now?" I asked impatiently on the way.
"Shh, you can't say it. We agreed not to say it out loud, in case the hell clan hears it." Raphael lowered his voice. He glared at me and quickened his pace.
You must be too cautious. How could the Hell Clan lurk in so easily?
I muttered and followed him, stepped into the teleportation array, and followed the white light to...the Demon Fortress.
It turns out that the entrance is here. Indeed, the environment of the Demon Fortress looks most similar to hell. I should have thought of it a long time ago.
The teleport station of Demon Fortress is located in Temple Square, exit from the teleport station. Raphael took us directly into the temple, and after pretending to walk around a few times, he met a mage mysteriously, acting like an underground organization.
Later, under the leadership of Raphael and the mage, we arrived at the hinterland of the Demon Fortress.
Yes, it's the hinterland. As we all know, the Demon Fortress is built on a steep peak thousands of meters high. The slope of the peak is almost vertical. From a distance, it looks like a pillar thrust into the sky. There is only a dangerous road like a chasm to go down from the Demon Fortress.
At first glance, such a place seems easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is a natural defensive fortress, but in fact it is not. You must know that this is the Dark Continent, a world of high martial arts dominated by powerful magic and martial arts. Think about it, if the big pineapple comes, will it have to think hard about how to climb up the steep and dangerous road to attack the demon fortress? ?
No need, even a mortal with my IQ can figure it out. The simplest way is to knock down this giant cylindrical mountain like cutting down a tree. The demon fortress above will naturally collapse and collapse without attack.
Although this mountain peak has been reinforced by the magic arrays of countless mages for tens of thousands of years and has become indestructible, I don’t believe that with the strength of the three demon gods, it will be impossible to overthrow it. Therefore, I have always felt that the demons Is the existence of the fortress necessary? At least the demon fortress in the third world. I don’t think it is necessary. It will only increase the danger.
Now it seems that I have found the reason why the Alliance insists on building the Demon Fortress here. Apart from the previous external explanations, the most likely reason is to protect the only entrance to the hell world here.
Under the leadership of Raphael and the mage, we followed the secret passage of the temple and went all the way down. The spiral ladder turned so fast that I almost felt dizzy, so I am very sure that the location we are now is under the demon fortress. In the hinterland, if this mountain peak is regarded as a giant, then we are probably in the giant's belly, or...well, three inches below the navel.
On the bottom floor, we saw a hall hundreds of square meters with nothing in it. What illuminated the place was the most primitive torch. The flickering light gave the place a mysterious color.
Under the dim light of the torch, you can see a huge magic circle carved on the floor of the hall. The center of the magic circle is a groove, and floating on the groove is a diamond-shaped crystal as tall as a person. The light of this crystal is very dim. It was even covered up by the torch. If you hadn't followed the magic circle to look for it, you wouldn't have noticed its existence at a glance.
Our eyes were attracted by this unusually dim crystal. Experience and intuition told us that the passage to the hell world was probably related to this crystal.
There are irregular sections everywhere on the surface of the crystal, as if someone had cut it into this shape one by one with a knife. There are even clearly visible cracks on the section. Various inferences tell us that this crystal seems to be made from a whole. When it was separated, there were cracks everywhere, and some even had tiny traces of stickiness, as if it was broken into pieces and then put back together piece by piece.
Not only that, it looks very familiar, like...like...
"World Stone?" Perhaps because I often travel between the three worlds and have seen the most, I was the first to shout out.
"It is indeed very similar to the World Stone. Apart from its size, it also has a too dim light." After my reminder, the girls also reacted and nodded in agreement, and then all their eyes fell on Raphael, waiting for her answer. .
"Yes, it is the World Stone. To be precise, it is part of the World Stone." In the dim light, Raphael's expression was confused and solemn.
"Back then, in order to prevent the hell army from pouring into the third world, an unknown warrior sacrificed his own life to break the World Stone of the third world. This story should be familiar to you."
Everyone nodded in unison, it couldn't be more familiar, that is until now. We still don’t know who this unknown warrior is.
"After the World Stone shattered, it turned into meteors and scattered. Most of them were blocked by the Hell Clan, and a small part of its core fell here. It took root in the heart of the mountain under the Demon Fortress."
"That's why we built the Demon Fortress here to hide its existence, right."
"Not bad, Xiao Xiao Wu. Finally got some wit." Raphael glanced sideways slightly, seeming to have changed his view on me.
"Hmph, it's scary even when I use my brain."
"Foreword withdrawn."
"Why are you withdrawing it? Did I say something wrong?!"
"It's not a big deal, I just can't see Xiao Wu getting carried away."
The problem is huge, okay, Boss Raphael, just make it clear. What are the unresolved grievances and grudges between us?
"Is this crystal the core?" Ignoring my resentment, everyone continued to discuss the crystal.
"It's not that simple. That core fragment alone is far from opening the door to the hell world. After discovering this core fragment, we built a demon fortress on the mountain as a cover and spent thousands of years collecting other scattered fragments. It took thousands of years to connect the fragments of the World Stone with magic arrays. Only then did we have this relatively complete remnant of the World Stone."
"It's amazing." Even a heartless person like me couldn't help but marvel when I heard it.
It’s not just that it took two or three thousand years. The World Stone has always been a tall existence. Even angels have never stopped studying it. It has a kind of "Brother has always existed. But it has never been understood." "Super cool.
But at that time, the alliance managed to piece together the fragments of the shattered World Stone like building blocks, and it actually succeeded. This was simply unbelievable. It used the aura of the protagonist and borrowed the brain of God to describe it. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I can’t even imagine how much effort and brainpower went into this creation.
"Yes, the potential of intelligent life in our continent is really incredible. Now that I think about it, how did those predecessors do it? It feels weak to describe it as a miracle. If this fragment is removed, I am afraid it will give us a Even in ten thousand years, we may not be able to put it back together again." Raphael also sighed. She is a mage, so she can say this most convincingly.
"Are there any other remaining World Stone fragments on the continent now?"
"There should be no more. We have never given up looking for these fragments, but we have never found them again. Maybe it was because all that could be found at that time had been found, and the rest were in the hands of the Hell Clan."
"Based on this, at least nine-tenths are in the hands of those guys." I compared the complete World Stone and sighed with dissatisfaction.
"Isn't it? Fortunately, we got a core fragment. No matter how big the World Stone fragments in those guys' hands are, they can't reproduce the functions of a complete World Stone. Otherwise, a steady stream of hellish armies will pour in. Come on, our mainland has long been unable to resist."
"The remnant body we have now can only lead to the hell world in one direction. It can't specify the landing place, and it can't come back, right?"
"Just be content. If you can use it, you should kneel down and thank your ancestors with tears in your eyes. And it's not impossible to come back, but the conditions are a bit harsh."
When Raphael said this, he paused. Suddenly, a gleam of light appeared from the dark depths of the hall where the torch could not reach.
A dazzling and holy white light.
"Raphael, I didn't expect you to have the patience to explain like this. It really surprised me."
A four-winged angel slowly walked toward us from the dark depths.
Four...four wings?
No, it should be a quasi-four-wing, but the size of the second pair of wings is very close to the first pair of complete wings. At first glance, I thought it was a four-wing. Of course, I am afraid it is almost close to breaking through the four-wing.
I can't beat this guy!
The first time I saw the angel, I had this thought in my mind. It was right when I thought about it. How could such an important thing not be protected by a heavyweight? But I didn't expect it to be an angel.
"Phelps, I didn't expect your patience to suddenly become so bad. Don't you know it's rude to interrupt someone else's conversation?"
Raphael seemed to be very familiar with this angel who was infinitely close to the four-winged level, and his words were not polite at all.
"Sorry, I'm a little impatient. I want to meet the genius boy you mentioned."
"Hey, hey, I didn't say he was a genius, he was just a fool."
Ignoring Raphael's protest, the angel named Phelps turned his eyes and landed on me. His eyes were gentle and wise, making me feel like a spring breeze. He was obviously being scrutinized and judged by these eyes, but... There was no feeling of resistance at all.
"Indeed, outstanding."
Its eyes fell on the girls behind me, and it exclaimed again.
"Raphael, I seem to see a magnificent picture from these children. The moment for the Dark Continent to rise again has arrived."
"Humph, you don't have to tell me, these are the talents that I, Raphael, like."
This princess of hundreds of tribes shamelessly takes credit in front of us, as if we are all the talents she has discovered.
"Here, let me introduce you to Phelps, an angel whose gender is unknown. He has been guarding the remains of the World Stone here since two thousand years ago without ever taking a single step."
Although Raphael's introduction is extremely simple, it does not prevent us from being in awe of the angel in front of us.
"Salute to you, Lord Phelps."
"You're welcome, just be like Raphael. To be honest, I've almost forgotten what angel etiquette is like." Phelps smiled slightly, turned around and walked towards the center of the hall, and we quickly followed.
"My mission is to assist the alliance in guarding this gate to hell so that the devil's conspiracy cannot succeed. I will not interfere with your purposes and plans. So, children, are you ready? The gate to the hell world is about to open. You open it."
Phelps came to the center of the hall, in front of the remains of the World Stone, and asked us.
We looked at each other at the little fox, then looked back at the girls, and we answered in unison: "Mr. Phelps, we are ready!"
. . . (To be continued.)
PS: The update is late, because I want to finish this part in one go and open the hell dungeon quickly, so there will be another chapter later.
