Chapter 318 Shadow Plane
The world is dark, and the smell of pine and moss, mixed with a hint of chill, floats in the wind.
A pale mist rose from the black land, and the dark knights in the distance walked silently like ghosts among the gravel and trees, heading straight down the river valley, towards the light scattered like pearls.
There were many will-o’-wisps there, too many for Brian to count.
Hundreds and thousands of ghostly will-o'-the-wisps form a swaying band of light, accompanying the deep river, making it look as if two rivers are surging at the same time.
This group of skeleton knights ran down the ridge without raising flags or playing music. There was dead silence. They could only hear the gurgling of the river in the distance, the clatter of horse hooves, and the collision of bone armor.
“This is the plane of shadow.” Seeing the skeleton knight patrolling in the distance disappearing silently into the misty ridge, Caradna poked her head out of the ruins and couldn’t help but exclaimed in a low voice. : "Sure enough, you have to witness it with your own eyes to deeply understand what it means to be a dark place that resists light."
Although the sorceress said it lightly, Brian could clearly feel that she grasped it. The five fingers holding her arm, the slight opening and closing movements, may have already exposed her inner nervousness.
Brian nodded slightly, did not answer, nor did he point out her pretense at this time, but observed the surrounding environment vigilantly.
The landscape of the shadow plane is very strange and always looks very dark. It will never make people feel warm, and the cold atmosphere will never go away.
What makes people even more frightened is that when you are in the shadow plane, you can always hear many strange sounds, as if you feel that there is something dirty around you, but when you look carefully, you can't find anything. I keep feeling... Being watched by someone.
In fact, the shadow plane can also be called a shadow of the main material plane, that is, the shadow of darkness.
Anywhere on the main plane, you can find the corresponding projection in the world of shadows.
For example, if there is a mountain somewhere on the main plane, then this mountain must also exist at the same location on the shadow plane.
The difference from the other connected etheric plane is that the shadow world looks tangible and material, truly reflecting the world itself.
Of course, as a projection of the dark side of the world, the scene shown in the shadow plane always looks a little distorted compared to the prototype of the main plane.
Therefore, the projection of Guangze, which was originally full of rotting vegetation and full of green, looked like a large black swamp.
The place where Brian and Caradna appeared was Guangze's distorted projection in the shadow plane.
Same as the Great Swamp itself on the main plane.
Dense vegetation grows in this swamp, with countless streams flowing in the jungle, surrounded by cypress trees, a ground covered with shrubs, and dotted with small ponds covered with dense reeds. and waterways.
But the biggest difference is that the vegetation and rivers here are all presented in dark gray, black and white.
Because this is a dimensional space from which all colors except black, white and gray have been extracted. It is a dark place that resists light. The sky inside is a dark dome with neither the sun nor the sun. There isn't any starlight.
This world will never have natural light and will always be shrouded in unnatural darkness. Without the blessing of any gain magic, ordinary people can only faintly see things within 20 meters. What is beyond this range? Can't see it.
At this moment, although Brian and Caradna appear in the shadow plane projection of the fortress in the material world, they are no longer on the tower just now.
The surrounding area looks very similar to the fortress hall, but it is obviously not the same place.
To put it simply, where they are now is like the scene after the fortress hall is in ruins.
The doors, pillars and statues here are full of cracks, and the paint and surface look like they have peeled off to the ground.
Looking out from the larger crack in the wall is a dark night sky.
On the south side of the hall, there are two wooden doors on the left and right, and on the north side, like the previous hall, there is an iron door.
A gloomy, stressful darkness filled the air.
The three lanterns hanging in the room can only render the interior into a shadowy atmosphere, and the corners of the hall are even more dark.
In Brian's eyes, all the colors here have dimmed, changing to gray tones.
Looking at the shadow passage he just passed through, the Gate of Twilight, he found that the portal had turned into a white luminous sphere.
"Brian, have you noticed?" The sorceress on the side looked around and said her new discovery in surprise, "I remember very clearly that in the material world, there were clearly people in this hall. There are five statues, but now there are only three left, missing Queen Inkla of Asparin and Prince Paragrad of the Crown."
"You said it was in the material world, figure it out. Well, this is the plane of shadows, and no one will be surprised if anything weird happens.”
Brian stood up and left the ruins of the bunker. Caradna snorted, followed quickly, and asked, "Where are we going now?"
Brian was about to speak, but his footsteps stopped in place. Seeing his serious expression, the sorceress swallowed back the words she was about to say.
As the hall fell into an eerie silence, the two heard a dull footsteps at the same time, echoing behind a door on the south side of the hall.
At the same time, there were some horrible sounds of tearing something, and slight and fine scraping of something.
This immediately reminded Brian of some kind of scary scene in a movie.
Sure enough, without blocking his sense of smell, he soon smelled a faint smell of blood.
Brian motioned to the sorceress beside him to be silent. The latter nodded vigorously and unconsciously moved closer to him, almost pressing her soft body against him.
Thinking of the possible battle that would follow, Brian thought for a moment and immediately activated the Chaos Scholar's special ability: Chaos Surge.
In an instant, a pure and frantic energy spread around Brian.
When the sorceress Caradna, who was very close to Brian, saw this situation, her eyes widened in surprise, her nervous expression relaxed, and she quickly let go of her perception. Come and quietly feel this pure energy wave.
Brian wasted no time and gently rubbed his ancient ring to activate the attached special ability: Sword of the Stars.
With the pure and wild chaos energy rolling and surging in the air, in an instant, it all converged on a long sword that was condensed and formed in Brian's hand and shone with faint starlight.
In the blink of an eye, this translucent sword of force field energy turned into a dark purple lightsaber under the influence of chaotic energy.
[Sword of the Stars: When the wearer's personal level reaches level 15, he can activate this ability to create a shimmering translucent force field sword out of thin air. This creation is regarded as a + 4 magic weapons can enjoy various temporary or constant buff states. 】
Seeing this condensed long sword, Brian showed a hint of dissatisfaction, because with the blessing of "Chaos Surge", the power of this sword was only increased by 50%.
With a thought, he dispersed it, and once again used the chaotic energy surging around him to condense a force field sword.
This time he was lucky and received the strongest double blessing.
After adjusting the weapon, he immediately used the curse fire and gently stroked the blade of the dark purple force field energy sword. Then, under the influence of the curse fire, the sword shone with the energy representing the curse fire. blue-white luster.
After all preparations are completed, the sword in Brian's hand has become a +8 magic weapon. At the same time, with the blessing of curse fire, it has the characteristics of crushing and absorbing magic.
"What are you doing?" Karadna asked with a puzzled face: "Are you planning to become a melee mage?"
"That's right." After Brian got used to the feel of the long sword, he explained to the sorceress beside him:
"This is the shadow plane. When my best fire element magic is released, it is not only powerful but also powerful. It will be halved, and the release may fail, so if you want to deal with this group of soldiers as quickly as possible, or kill the ancient black dragon, this weapon is the most suitable choice.”
Fortunately. Fortunately for Brian, his curse fire is native magic energy and will not be affected by the characteristics of the shadow plane. Otherwise, his combat effectiveness will be reduced by at least half.
“That’s it.” Caradna nodded suddenly, her expression as if she had just remembered the characteristics of the shadow plane.
After checking the surrounding situation, Brian kicked the wooden door that made a sound.
Immediately afterwards, the foul smell of blood congestion and internal organs rushed towards his face, filling the air of this dark room.
Although Brian had been prepared, he was also overwhelmed by the strong smell, which made his stomach twitch again and again.
He forced himself to calm down and looked around.
This room appears to be the bottom of the octagonal tower of the fortress, with a decaying spiral wooden staircase leading to the upper floors of the tower.
In the room, several mutilated human corpses were hung with chains on the opposite wall behind the stairs, just like the pork hung by butchers.
A tall and powerful monster was shocked by the scene in front of him. He held a butcher knife in his hand and looked like an upright six-armed tiger.
Its body is covered in gray-black fur, and its face combines the characteristics of humanoids and felines.
“An outsider from the material plane?”
The butcher put away his surprised expression, placed the butcher knife on the chopping board, scratched his head, and showed confusion in his eyes. He murmured to himself: "Okay, it seems you shouldn't be here, but it doesn't matter, I just need fresh flesh and blood."
As soon as he finished speaking, Brian slashed with the sharp sword in his hand. Passing through the void, with dizzying speed, he accurately chopped off the head of the six-armed tiger, and blood gushed out under the squeeze of the chest.
"Awesome! What a sharp sword!"
Seeing this scene in front of her, the sorceress standing far outside the door, playing with a strand of hair hanging on her chest, couldn't help but exclaimed, "A The sword defeated a six-armed tiger whose strength reached the fourth level. It seems that your chaotic energy is not only pure, but its power has not weakened much."
Brian held the returned sword with an indifferent expression. He inserted it into the scabbard made of psychic energy to block the emitted light, and then shouted to the sorceress standing in a daze outside the door: "What nonsense, hurry up and follow."
Open What a joke, if a +8 magic weapon can't even break through the opponent's neck, which has the weakest defense, then his chaotic energy is too cheap.
No matter how you say it, he is also a strong man in the dual legends of arcanist and psychic. If he is still unable to kill enemies below his level like melons and vegetables, then they will simply be defeated by the time traveler family. His face was completely lost.
Seeing the dead butcher, Brian quickly looked around the room, leading Caradna across the pools of glimmering blood toward the stairs.
In the upper room of the tower stands a gleaming black marble throne.
Shadows surround it and flow slowly around the throne.
It seems that this room was once used as a stargazing room, observatory or watchtower.
Because the upper ends of the tapered ceiling and walls are lined with shutter-like windows, the surrounding walls are also decorated to look like a dark, starry night sky.
Looking up from the window, it was a pitch-black night sky, with darkness everywhere except for light in one direction, which was particularly dazzling in the dark world. On the south side is the hall that Brian and the two passed through before, and the light shines through the gap between the ceiling and the wall.
Following this meager illumination, Brian could vaguely see what seemed to be a ferry further south, with a ship parked on it.
And the place further away was shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to see clearly...
"You are probably planning to take a boat." He seemed to notice that Brian's eyes were touching Where, Caradna said with a slightly pale expression.
"Yes, we need to go to a lost monastery." Brian retracted his gaze and said thoughtfully:
"This is the shadow plane, filled with powerful shadow dragons and various undead creatures. In this desolate plane, if we want to complete the mission, we can only follow the traces of Shar's Church, otherwise, it will be easy to get lost here."
"Okay" Karadna said slightly. He nodded helplessly.
"What?" Seeing the other party's disgusted expression towards the ship, Brian said with a smile: "Don't tell me that you, a sorceress whose strength has reached the legendary realm, still have the funny shortcoming of seasickness."
"Are you kidding? How could I be seasick? You are overthinking it." Caradna defended with a slightly excited look: "I just hate taking a boat, it's not what you want at all." ”
Brian did not argue and led the sorceress out of the fortress.
Beyond the long-shattered outer wall of the fortress is a black swamp as gloomy as midnight. Black cypress trees and blue moss cover the entire exterior of the fortress.
The trees are not too dense, and not far away is a slow and quiet river, which surrounds the entire fortress into a small island.
A few dim lanterns were hung on the tops of the trees, faintly illuminating the path beneath their feet, extending into the darkness in the distance.
With the help of his vision enhanced by magic, Brian discovered that at the southeast end of the island were the ruins of the guard room, and the shape could barely be discerned.
There is a simple dock next to the ruins of the guard room, with a strange-looking ship parked there.
Viewed from here, the swamp shrouded in boundless darkness looked eerie and weird, and it always made him feel like someone was watching him.
There is a rickety wooden bridge on the river in the northwest corner of the fortress. The bridge is about 5 meters wide. Behind the bridge is a muddy path, but it can indeed be identified as a road.
This dirt road leads to the depths of the black swamp. I don’t know where it leads...
With an important mission at hand, Brian is naturally not in the mood to wonder where this road leads. Where.
"Look there." Brian was about to head to the dock. Caradna, who was standing next to him, noticed something strange and pointed to the north of the fortress.
The northern wall is even worse than the main building complex of the fortress. Only part of the northern wall is still standing, with a few thick wooden boards erected on it to form a shed.
Under the wall on the other side, there is a rough wooden cage, and a lizard man is sitting in it at the moment.
This place looks more like an outpost. Standing on guard is a scaly lizard warrior. His scales are as dark as the night sky, his eyes are burning with pale flames, and his body is surrounded by With a black flame-like shadow.
Bryan held the long sword, opened the psychic door, and pulled Caradna together to appear in front of the lizard warrior. He swiped his sword and solved it neatly.
Then, he opened the cage, and based on the dark green scales of the lizard man captive, he could tell that he was a member of the Sharptooth Tribe.
“Hiss~ There is a road on the other side of the fortress. Hiss, it is said that the village of the Shadow Scales is behind that road. Some of my comrades were taken there by the black priests, Hiss~ When they came back, their life fire was over, hiss! We tried to escape a few days ago, but failed. Hiss, I was imprisoned here, and my two companions were taken away by them two days ago. The road took them away. Hiss~ They haven't come back yet, probably the black priests haven't killed them yet."
The lizard man prisoner immediately began to tell Brian what happened recently, "hiss. , a terrible shadow demon lives in that tower, it is like a tiger walking upright. Hiss, those hairy villages without shadow scales all get on that boat, hiss~. A shadowy person drove the boat and took them away along the river."
"It seems that I guessed right," Brian said to the sorceress beside him, "I want to find the lost. The only way to reach the monastery is by boat.”
Caradna nodded slightly, agreeing with his view.
Brian informed the lizardman prisoner that the butcher living in the tower had been killed by him, and after pointing out to him the location of the Twilight Gate connecting the main material plane in the fortress, he walked towards the dock.
The river water in the shadow plane is very calm, almost still, and many dark gravels can be clearly seen underwater.
But the river was very cold, biting to the bone.
A bull's-eye lantern was placed on a high shelf on the pier, and the pale light beam extended toward the depths of the swamp.
Standing at the pier, Brian could vaguely see far away, and the end of the light seemed to be connected to the light from other light sources...
A simple pier was built quietly on the black water, and a keel boat that looked very inconsistent with normal people's aesthetics was parked on the pier.
The boat is about 10 meters long, with several rows of seats neatly separated by wooden boards on the inside. Four tall and burly minotaur skeletons sit quietly at the oars, wearing iron chains.
A small lantern is hung on the main mast and the bowsprit on the front side of the flat-bottomed boat.
After Brian checked the general situation of the ship, he and Caradna appeared in the cabin through the teleportation spell.
As soon as the two landed on the deck, more than a dozen roars sounded at the same time, and a group of shadow scale lizardmen appeared from the shadows, their eyes were red, and the shadow energy around them flickered.
At the same time, a tall and slender man appeared from the shadow of the cabin of this strangely shaped ship.
His skin looks dark gray, with black hair, which is particularly difficult to detect in the shadows.
He has eye-catching purple tattoos on his face, covering most of his face, and glittering metallic jewelry inlaid on his ears and nose.
At this time, he was staring at Brian and Brian suspiciously, and asked with an indifferent expression, "Outsiders, tell me, who sent you here?"
Brian He looked at Caradna and launched an attack without hesitation.
The Star Sword in his hand was the first to strike at the chest of the leader of the shadow descendants. Although it was blocked by two force field magics that appeared instantly, due to the characteristics of curse fire devouring magic, he still killed him with overwhelming force.
The sorceress on the other side threw a dozen energy missiles the size of fists, shining with dark purple luster, killing all the remaining shadow scale lizardmen.
The battle ended in an instant. While cleaning up the loot, Brian accidentally found a small dragon bone lyre with a piece of parchment attached next to it:
When you arrive at the Tree of Darkness , play at the guard to pass. ——Elsweyr
"Can you play the piano?" Seeing this note, Brian looked at the sorceress beside him.
Under the dim light, Caradna shook her head first, and then nodded quickly. Her cheeks, which were illuminated by the dim light and glowed dimly, unconsciously showed an eye-catching blush.
Brian laughed and threw the keel piano to her.
Then, he took out a scroll of "Charming Undead Creatures" that he had prepared in advance, and walked towards the four tauren skeletons sitting quietly on the oars, wearing iron chains.
A spell flashed.
The keel boat moored at the pier, with its bulging sails roaring, was driven towards the other shore at the fastest speed under the influence of Brian's wind-making technique.
The peaceful river meanders peacefully in the large, lightless swamp, and towering black cypress trees grow freely on the winding river channel, forming a thick natural barrier.
Brian stood on the bow of the ship. In front of him, a faint light flashed slightly in the distance of the night, and behind him, the light source that had just passed gradually disappeared into the night.
In this boundless darkness, everything is unusually silent.
There is only the dry and regular sound of the bones of the rowing tauren skeletons rubbing against each other, and the gentle sound of the river water lapping against the side of the boat.
Sometimes, a black shadow, or even a huge shadow dragon or dark veil monster, quickly passed over his head, or passed from the edge of his line of sight at a very fast speed. There was no time to see clearly.
Undoubtedly, none of the inhabitants of the Shadow Plane attempted to attack him.
Obviously, this Shar Church keel ship played a crucial role.
When the keel boat was about to arrive within the range of a tall and straight black oak tree, Brian immediately realized something and turned back to the cabin.
"Come out quickly, we will arrive at the Tree of Darkness soon." He said to Caradna who was sitting in the cabin and resting.
Under the dim light, although a dark purple cloak with a hood shrouded her tall and graceful figure, it could not hide the slits in her thin dark black gauze skirt, exposing just enough of her legs. Her snow-white legs exuded a flawless amber crystal luster under the light.
It could be seen that this legendary sorceress did not suffer from seasickness, but her slightly pale and pretty face made him a little confused.
A bone-chilling breeze blew by.
Bryan and Caradna appeared on the deck outside the cabin.
Just when the ship was about to reach the tall tree of darkness, Caradna immediately played the piano with a not very smooth rhythm.
As the intermittent sound of the piano floated on the dark and gloomy river, Brian clearly felt that unknowingly, a huge black shadow appeared on the bottom of the boat, walking quietly with the boat under the water.
"Don't be nervous, keep going." Seeing Caradna's playing hands shaking slightly and her face looking frighteningly pale, Brian used telepathy to comfort her softly.
He can keenly sense that the monster hidden under the boat is very powerful. In this dangerous shadow plane, he will naturally try to avoid fighting with it if he can avoid taking action.
As the sound of the piano gradually became melodious and melodious, Brian, who looked slightly nervous, finally saw a black shadow from a distance that looked both like a simple fortress and a village. .
At this moment, suddenly, a huge wave several people high erupted in the calm water in front of the ship, and a large group of Dark Veil Monsters flying through the sky let out ear-piercing screams and fled in all directions.
Brian was shocked to find that even a shadow dragon that was probably in adulthood was so frightened that after sensing the terrifying threat of the huge waves, it ran away with its tail between its legs.
Along with the roaring waves, a huge dragon turtle poked out its ferocious skull face from the deep and dark river water, and appeared on the water in front of the two of them.
The two huge pale will-o'-the-wisps dancing in the eye sockets of this dragon turtle exudes a breath of cold and negative energy, which looks extremely scary in the darkness and is frightening.
"Abominable stowaway!!!..."
The Shadow Dragon Turtle, filled with suffocating dark energy, let out a roar that shook the world, and raised a stick The sharp claws, like marble pillars, slammed towards the bow of the ship unstoppably.
(End of this chapter)