Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 528: The Uncontrolled Box of Darkness

"Ah!"

Shard and Iluna had just steadied themselves when they heard a scream that almost pierced their eardrums coming from ahead.

Daknis took a step back and leaned against a stone pillar. His right hand, which had swollen into a demonic half-form, deflated like a leaking balloon and reverted to its normal arm. Although it still absorbed darkness through the large mouth in its palm, the absorption rate had noticeably slowed down.

The Weak Angel Potion was effective.

"Sunlight Gun!"

Iluna took a deep breath, shook the Holy Bell in her left hand, and ran forward on the black crystal ground, throwing the Sunlight Gun once more. This time, the Sunlight Gun directly hit Daknis's chest. He grunted as his chest burst open and he almost slid down the pillar behind him.

Ding-dong~

The clear sound of the Holy Bell spread out.

"Sunlight Gun!"

Iluna, holding her right hand up:

"Don't give him a chance, Shard. Move now!"

Golden Thunder stabbed towards Daknis's throat. Painted in the golden hue of the Golden Scales at his back, his body shimmered brilliantly.

"Moonlight Greatsword!"

Shard appeared from high above, wielding his sword with both hands as he slashed at Daknis's head, his body enveloped in the aura of Silvermoon.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment. The man shrouded in darkness helplessly looked at the golden and silver figures before him.

HIs eyes suddenly widened:

"You've been fooled!"

His previously shriveled right hand instantly swelled and corroded the right half of his body, transforming back into its Human Pus form within half a second. The giant black hand swept forward, hitting both Shard and Iluna who couldn't evade it. Both the Golden Thunder and the Silvermoon Greatsword shattered, and they were violently thrown back.

But the Weak Angel Potion was definitely not useless. Though Daknis took advantage of his feigned weakness, it also exposed the extent of his injuries.

The sweeping force, although strong, was far weaker than before. The intensity of the Human Pus form demonstrated in the Merman Temple would have certainly smashed Shard and Iluna into a pulp, but now it merely threw them back, causing Shard to roll over a few times, his eyes shut, but not grievously wounded.

The Priest's potion wasn't very effective against a demon that had absorbed too much darkness, but it definitely hurt his core.

Shard rolled on the ground several times before stopping, feeling some internal injuries but holding up. His self-sewn backpack was still sturdy, the straps had not broken, but the God's Gift Box had flown out of the backpack, even the sliding lid had cracked open a bit.

Shard endured the pain in his body and turned to pick up the box, but at the same time, he faintly heard a cat's meow coming from inside.

"What?"

Without time to check, he hurriedly stuffed the box back into his pouch and helped Iluna up. Daknis did not attack them. He was reaching his limit. Blowing them away was just to buy time.

The man leaning against the crystal pillar was laughing manically, his laugh eerily similar to that of the demonic right hand:

"I've won!"

The man possessed by the demon raised his right hand and quickly finished the sentence he hadn't completed before:

"Please, Ancient God Crawling Darkness, witness me as I devour the darkness to reveal the past and forge the future!"

An ancient rune appeared in the middle of his black robe's phantom image, and Shard tried to decipher this rune. The severe dizziness and discomfort almost made him collapse.

The rune's name was "Darkness."

In that moment, Daknis's Dark Sword in his left hand began to undergo a metamorphosis, tinted with a golden glow.

Plunging the sword into his own heart, the man possessed by the demon closed his eyes, leaning against the crystal black pillar. The hilt of the Dark Sword, merging with his body, was slowly absorbed.

The light radiating from his body grew more pronounced, the Brass Life Ring of a Six Rings Warlock gradually merged with the black robe, its metallic surface flaking off to reveal a golden luster.

Eerie white heavenly light pierced the darkness above, shooting down from high above, enveloping Daknis. Whispered singing by an ethereal female voice reached their ears. At this moment, everyone in the Dark Realm was captivated by this strange heavenly light, and the situation in the center of the Crystal Forest grew increasingly dire.

The Human Pus form faded; Daknis spread his arms, laughing in the darkness. A ritual halo composed of thirteen different colored light spots rose slowly from the ground beneath his feet towards the sky.

Based on Iluna's awakening last time, once the halo completely passed through his body, the ceremony would be considered a success.

"Melt into the darkness!"

The floating Chosen One stretched out his arms, and a wave of dark energy imbued with golden light swept forward, leveraging the power of the Ancient God for a moment upon the success of the ritual, turning the air almost into black crystal stones.

Iluna suddenly stood up in front of Shard, knelt on one knee. The Ring of Fate transformed into the Golden Scales, blazing brightly like an isolated island in a river, forcibly splitting the surging dark power.

But she was only a Three Rings Magician, and after holding on for two seconds, she stepped back, the color of the Golden Scales suddenly dimmed.

Shard supported her from behind as the darkness surged forward. He wanted to cast the dice, but another figure blocked their path.

It was Tifa. The black-haired girl surprisingly held the Sunlight Greatsword that had been knocked away, blocking in front of them, her swing steady and calm.

This swing, plain and simple, seemed as if it could split the sky to reveal the sun. In an instant, the great sword in her hands dissipated, the wave of darkness completely parted, but the sword light split the darkness in front of her, charging directly towards Daknis in the heavenly light.

But the strike that drained the last of the Sunlight Greatsword and Tifa's strength dissipated eerily around Daknis's body. The Chosen One Ceremony contained the power of an Ancient God; Daknis had absorbed both the darkness and the past demon's power, and the ceremonial power protected him.

At this moment, only the power of a deity, also known as the power of The Chosen One, could influence him during the ritual.

Like a tide, the darkness surged once more, and Tifa continued to resist at the forefront, but without the identity of The Chosen One, her resistance was even shorter. More seriously, the \\"Box of Darkness\\" she carried on her back had become completely black under the wash of The Chosen One's power.

The two people behind her widened their eyes in shock because the gear mechanism box, which had turned into a black steel material, started rotating its gears on its own without anyone touching them, and then the box lid quietly deviated from the body of the box.

In the already thick darkness around, rolling black mist gushed out, lashing out like waves in all directions. The \\"Box of Darkness\\" melted through the backpack and dropped onto the crystal ground, and Tifa could no longer withstand it, collapsing into the black mist.

\\"Relic Containment Out of Control.\\"

\\"I know, it's not like I haven't seen it before,\\"

The gushing black mist then completely swallowed the three of them.

Shard held Tifa's hand with his left and Iluna's arm with his right. If there was some visibility before, now the surroundings were completely pitch black, as if a layer of black ink had been applied in front of his eyes. In the darkness, a feeling of fear unconsciously appeared and grew increasingly intense, causing Shard's body to tremble subconsciously.

This made him think of the Horror Fortress again, recalling the darkness beneath the trees that night.

In the world where darkness descends, the sense of direction also completely vanishes. Shard felt as though he was plunging into the most terrifying abyss, cursing the Old Gods as thieves, the hatred and resentment whispering voices of a million people overlapping each other grew more intense, and his body and soul were doubly assaulted by fear. At some point, he even believed he was being watched by some vast, indescribable entity within the darkness.

But the Outlander was no longer the person he was at the beginning; he knew what was the most rational thing to do at this moment.

\\"Don't listen to these voices,\\"

Shard quickly reminded, and although Iluna was not aware of the consequences of Relic Containment loss of control, she still said:

\\"Be careful, this area amplifies all emotions. If you get lost here, I fear...\\"

\\"Be careful.\\"

Something penetrated the dense black mist flowing from the \\"Box of Darkness.\\" Shard looked ahead, and Daknis, unconcerned with the ongoing ritual, had his right hand, imbued with demon power, elongating like slime, directly entering the out-of-control area of the \\"Box of Darkness.\\"

The right hand, adorned with the Fish Training Ring, shot towards Shard's face with a maniacal laugh, but Shard turned his head, and the mouth in his palm bit straight into his shoulder, causing excruciating pain and numbness that nearly made Shard stumble and fall.

\\"No matter who you are, this time, I must devour you!\\"

In an instant, it felt as if his entire body and soul were rushing towards the mouth on his shoulder. But the reality of the illusion was that Shard's spirit flowed first, followed by the nutrients of his body.

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Even the black mist produced by the \\"Box of Darkness\\" going out of control was flowing towards Shard's shoulder. That mouth not only tried to devour Shard but even intended to take the power of the \\"Box of Darkness\\" through The Chosen One Ceremony.

The surrounding mist suddenly thinned out, and the darkness of the \\"Dark Realm\\" began to reclaim this area again.

Just in a moment, the extreme emptiness and hunger in Shard's body hinted that his body was nearing its limit.

But this area itself could amplify negative emotions, and when the mists filled with resentment surged into the wound on Shard's shoulder, along with the further emotional turmoil caused by the touch of the Human Pus Demon, the resulting frenzy brought about another consequence.

The bell tolled!

Behind the body wrapped in silver moonlight, the white steam in the dark space seemed to be dyed with a silver hue.

The whistle shrieked!

The distant Space-Time echoed with an inexplicable sharp squeal, and the profound darkness was vibrated by it.

The great hammer!

Emerging from the depths of steam and darkness, the Brass Life Ring appeared behind him in a high-speed spin, scattering sparks into the dark.

The "Gluttony" Spirit Rune, the power grasped from the first drop of Divinity absorbed from Shard, flashed violently in a frenzied luminescence. The spirit within slowed its rapid flow toward the shoulder, and in a moment, overwhelmed by hunger, Shard seemed to perceive the Wrath of the "Lord of the Blood Feast" as he devoured his power.

This empathy, compounded by a soul influenced by negative emotions. When devouring the flesh of "Desire", the black lines that had once appeared on his body flashed past, and the figure of "Desire" seemed to reappear in Shard's eyes, the month-long influence period had not yet passed:

"Great Sin Chain!"

The moment his consciousness regained clarity, his hands left the two girls beside him, grasping the extended wrists of Daknis with both hands.

Black Rune Shackles flew out of the sleeves, wrapping around the other's arms, firmly fixing the two together.

The shackles Shard drove into Daknis's arm emerged on the other side, wrapped around, and plunged in again. On the dark shackles, the "Gluttony" Rune written in runes from different eras flared with silver spiritual light.

Though the "Great Sin Chain" possessed no inherent offensive capabilities, at this moment, responding to the power of "Gluttony", it actively began to siphon power from Daknis's arm as it was driven in. The black material of the chain deepened, seemingly well-suited to the power being absorbed at the time.

"What? You have seen 'Desire'?"

An incredulous voice erupted from the mouth on his shoulder, the demon's language ringing closely in his ear, only intensifying Shard's inner desire to devour all.

Not just the power from Daknis's right arm was flowing towards Shard, but even the surrounding black mist surged violently into the wound on his shoulder. After entering the Demon Mouth, it was then devoured by Shard through the spiraling Rune Shackles pierced in his arm.

Resentment, hatred, coldness, emptiness—the power of the Relic was not meant to be touched by normal humans, let alone the Human Pus and the power of The Chosen on Daknis. Absorbing these, Shard felt himself plunging into the abyss once again in an instant.

His soul, sensitive to the completely incomprehensible power, felt a million hands reaching out from the bottom of the abyss, trying to pull Shard towards Hell.

The spirit inside his body drastically increased, but the feeling of his soul "descending" was becoming increasingly irresistible. However, before he completely fell into darkness, the blessing given by Priest Augustus, those cold currents, suddenly stirred.

Two forces met on Shard's shoulder, where the cold blessing froze and nullified all the negative emotions in the black mist. Although it did not reverse the situation of Shard's body being corroded by dark power, it at least terminated the absorption and transformed the power already absorbed into pure spirit injected into Shard's soul.

As a price, this power that had protected Shard along his journey was finally completely depleted at this moment.