Arcane Journey

Chapter 319 Shadow Plane
The world is gray, and the smell of pine and moss, with a hint of chill, floats in the wind.

Pale mist rose from the black land, and the dark knights in the distance walked quietly like ghosts among the gravel and chaotic trees, and went straight down the river valley, rushing towards the light scattered like pearls.

There were too many will-o'-the-wisps there, more than Brian could count.

Hundreds of thousands of ghost fires form a flickering light band, accompanied by a deep river, it looks as if two rivers are surging at the same time.

The group of skeleton knights ran down the ridge without raising their flags or blowing their bells. There was a dead silence, only the gurgling of the river in the distance, the clanging of horseshoes, and the collision of bone armor.

"This is the Shadow Plane." Seeing the skeleton knights patrolling in the distance disappearing silently on the misty mountain ridge, Kara Dena poked her head out of the ruins, and couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice: "Sure enough, I witnessed it with my own eyes." Only then can I deeply feel what it means to be a dark place that resists light."

Although the sorceress said it easily, Brian could clearly feel that the slight opening and closing movements of the five fingers of her grasping his arm might have exposed the tension in her heart.

Brian nodded slightly, did not answer, and did not point out her pretentiousness at this time, but observed the surrounding environment vigilantly.

The landscape of the Shadow Plane is very strange, and it always looks very dark, never making people feel warm, and the cold atmosphere will never go away.

What's even more frightening is that in the shadow plane, I can always hear many strange sounds, as if I feel that there are some dirty things around me, but I can't find anything when I search carefully. being watched by someone.

In fact, the Shadow Plane can also be called a shadow of the Material Plane, that is, the shadow of darkness.

Any position on the main plane can find its corresponding projection in the shadow world.

For example, if there is a mountain somewhere on the main plane, then this mountain must also exist in the same position on the shadow plane.

The difference from the other connection to the etheric plane is that the world of shadows looks tangible and material, truly reflecting the world itself.

Of course, as a projection of the dark side of the world, the scenes shown on the shadow plane always appear somewhat distorted compared to the prototype of the main plane.

Therefore, the projection of the green Guangze, which was originally full of decaying vegetation, looks like a large black swamp.

The place where Brian and Kala Dena appeared was the distorted projection of Hirosawa on the Shadow Plane.

Same as the Great Swamp itself on the main plane.

Dense vegetation grows in this swamp, countless streams flow in the jungle, surrounded by cypress bushes, and the ground is covered with shrubs, dotted with small ponds and waterways densely covered with reeds.

But the biggest difference is that the vegetation and river here are presented in front of the two of them, all in dark gray, black and white.

For this is a dimensional space from which all colors have been drawn except black, white and grey, it is a dark place that resists light, and the sky within it is a pitch-black dome without the sun or the light of any stars.

This world will never have natural light, and will always be shrouded in unnatural darkness. Without the blessing of any buff magic, ordinary people can only faintly see things within 20 meters, and nothing beyond this range.

At this moment, although Brian and Kaladna appeared in the projection of the fortress of the material world on the shadow plane, they were 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.

Simply put, the place where they are now is like the scene after the fortress hall has become a ruin.

The gates, columns, and statues here are full of cracks, and the paint and surface look like they have peeled off to the ground.

Looking out through 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, is an iron door.

A gloomy, stressful gloom hung in the air.

The three lanterns hanging in the house can only render the interior into a shadowy atmosphere, and the corner of the hall is even more heavy and dark.

In Brian's eyes, all the colors here are dimmed, and they are constantly shifting towards gray tones.

Looking at the shadow passage that he passed just now, that is, the gate of twilight, he found that the portal had turned into a white luminous sphere.

"Bryan, have you noticed?" The female sorceress looked around and said her new discovery in surprise, "I remember very clearly that in the material world, there were five statues in this hall, but now There are only three left, without Queen Inkla of Esperin and Paragrad, Crown Prince."

"You said that you were in the material world. Now that you figure it out, this is the shadow plane. It's not surprising that anything unbelievable happens."

Brian got up and left the ruins of the bunker. Kara Dena snorted softly, followed quickly, and asked, "Where are we going now?"

Just as Brian was about to speak, his footsteps stopped on the spot. 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 footstep at the same time, echoing behind a door on the south side of the hall.

At the same time, there was the horrible sound of tearing something, and the slight and fine scraping of something.

This made Brian immediately think of a horror scene in some kind of movie.

Sure enough, without blocking his sense of smell, he soon smelled a faint smell of blood.

Bryan signaled the female sorceress beside him to keep quiet, and the latter nodded vigorously, before unconsciously moving her body closer to him, almost touching her soft body upside down.

Thinking of the possible battle that might happen next, Brian thought for a moment, and immediately activated the Chaos Scholar's special ability: Chaos Surge.

In an instant, a pure and frenzied energy permeated Brian's body.

Seeing this situation, the female sorceress Kaladna, who was very close to Brian, immediately widened her eyes in surprise, her tense expression also relaxed, and quickly let go of her perception, in order to quietly feel the situation. A wave of pure energy.

Without wasting any time, Brian gently rubbed his ancient ring to activate the attached special ability: the Sword of the Stars.

Accompanied by pure and frantic chaotic energy tumbling and surging in the air, all of them converged on a long sword with faint starlight shining in Brian's hand in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, this translucent sword of force field energy, under the influence of chaotic energy, turned into a dark purple lightsaber.

[Sword of the Stars: When the wearer's personal level reaches level 15, this ability can be activated to create a shimmering and translucent force field sword out of thin air. This creation is regarded as a +4 magic weapon, which can Enjoy various temporary or constant buff states. 】

Seeing this condensed long sword, Brian showed a trace of dissatisfaction, because under the blessing of "Chaos Surge", the power of this sword has only been increased by 50%.

With a thought, he dispelled it, and then used the chaotic energy surging around him to re-condense a sword of force field.

This time he was lucky and got the strongest double blessing.

After adjusting the weapon, he immediately sacrificed the curse fire, and lightly stroked the blade of the dark purple force field energy sword. Then, under the influence of the curse fire, the sword shone with a blue-white luster representing the energy of the curse fire.

After everything was prepared, the sword in Brian's hand had become a +8 magic weapon. At the same time, under the blessing of the curse fire, it gained the characteristics of shattering and absorbing magic.

"What are you doing?" Kaladna asked with a puzzled face, "Are you going to be a melee mage?"

"That's right." After Brian got used to the feel of the long sword, he explained to the female sorceress beside him:

"This is the shadow plane. When I release my best fire elemental magic, not only the power will be halved, but the release may fail, so I want to deal with this group of miscellaneous soldiers with the fastest efficiency, or kill the ancient Black Dragon, this weapon is the most suitable choice."

Fortunately for Brian, his curse fire belongs to the original magical energy, and will not be affected by the characteristics of the shadow plane, otherwise, his combat effectiveness will be reduced by at least half.

"I see." Kara Dena nodded suddenly, her expression seemed to be the same as just remembering the characteristics of the shadow plane.

After checking the surrounding situation, Brian kicked the wooden door that made a sound.

Immediately afterwards, the filthy aura emanating from the blood stasis and internal organs rushed towards his face, permeating the air in this dark room.

Even though Brian had been prepared, his stomach twitched repeatedly because of the strong smell.

He forced himself to calm down and looked around.

The room appeared to be the base of the keep's octagonal tower, and a decayed wooden spiral staircase led to the upper floors of the tower.

In the room, several mutilated human corpses were hung by chains on the opposite wall behind the stairs, just like the pork hanging by the 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 is a blend of humanoid and feline features.

"It turned out to be an outsider from the material plane?"

The butcher put away his surprised expression, put the butcher knife on the chopping board, scratched his head, his eyes showed a look of confusion, and murmured to himself: "Well, it seems that you shouldn't appear here, but It's okay, I just need fresh flesh and blood."

As soon as the words fell, the sharp sword in Brian's hand slashed across the void, and at a dizzying speed, he accurately and accurately chopped off the head of the six-armed tiger, and blood gushed out under the squeeze of his chest.

"Amazing! Such a sharp sword!"

Seeing the scene in front of her, the female sorceress standing far outside the door played with a lock of hair hanging on her chest, and couldn't help but exclaimed, "A six-armed tiger with strength reaching the fourth level was eliminated with one sword, It seems that your chaotic energy is not only pure, but its power has not weakened much."

Brian held the returned sharp sword indifferently, inserted it into the scabbard made of psionic energy to block the emitted light, and then shouted at the female sorceress who stood in a daze outside the door: "What nonsense, Hurry up and follow."

What a joke, if a +8 magic weapon can't even pierce the neck of the opponent's weakest defense, then his chaotic energy will be too cheap.

In any case, he is also a powerful Arcanist and Psychic double legend, if he can't kill enemies below his level like cutting melons and vegetables, it will completely embarrass their time traveler family.

Seeing the dead butcher, Brian took a quick look around the room, and led Kara Dena across pools of gleaming blood, towards the stairs.

In the upper chamber of the tower stood a throne of gleaming black marble.

Shadows swirl around it and slowly flow in circles around the throne.

It appears that this room was once used as a stargazing room, an observatory, or a watchtower.

Because of the tapered ceiling and the upper ends of the walls, there are shuttered windows, and the surrounding walls are also decorated to look like a dark, star-studded night sky.

Looking up from the window, it is just a dark night sky. There is darkness everywhere, and there is only light in one direction, which is extraordinarily dazzling in the dark world.

On the south side is the hall that the two of Brian had passed by before, and the light came out from the gap between the ceiling and the wall.

Following this little light, Brian could vaguely see a ferry farther south, with a boat parked on it.

And the place farther away is shrouded in darkness, and it is impossible to see clearly...

"Could you be planning to take a boat?" Carladna said with a pale expression as if noticing where Brian's eyes touched.

"That's right, we need to go to a lost monastery." Brian withdrew his gaze and said thoughtfully:
"This is the shadow plane. Powerful shadow dragons and various undead creatures are flooding this desolate plane. If we want to complete the mission, we can only follow the trail of the Church of Shar. Otherwise, it is easy to get lost here .”

"Okay." Kaladna nodded helplessly.

"Why?" 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 me? How could this lady get seasick? You're overthinking it." Kaladna argued with a slightly excited expression, "I just hate taking a boat, it's not what you think at all."

Without arguing, Brian led the sorceress out of the fortress.

Outside the long-shattered outer walls of the fortress, there is a black swamp as gloomy as midnight. Black cypress trees and blue moss cover the exterior of the entire fortress.

The bushes are not too dense, and not far away is a slowly flowing quiet river, which surrounds the entire fortress into a small island.

A few dim lanterns hung from the tops of the trees, dimly illuminating the path beneath them into the darkness beyond.

Brian discovered with the aid of his spell-enhanced vision that at the southeastern end of the island were the ruins of the guardhouse, and the shape could barely be seen.

Next to the ruins of the guardhouse, there is a simple pier, where a strangely shaped ship is parked.

Looking from here, the swamp shrouded in boundless darkness looked eerie and weird, and it also made him feel that someone was watching him.

On the river in the northwest corner of the fortress, there is also a crumbling wooden bridge. The bridge is about 5 meters wide. Behind the bridge is a path that can be recognized as a road although it is muddy.

This dirt road leads to the depths of the black swamp, and I don't know where it leads...

With an important task at hand right now, Brian is naturally not in the mood to wonder where this road leads.

"Look there." Brian was about to go to the pier when Kaladna, who was standing beside him, noticed something strange and pointed to the north of the fortress.

The northern wall was worse than the main building complex of the fort, only part of it still standing, and a few planks of planks were put up on it to form a shed.

Under the wall on the other side, there is a rough wooden cage, and there is a lizard man sitting in it at the moment.

It looks more like an outpost here, and a scaly lizard warrior stands guard. His scales are as black as the night sky, pale flames burn in his eyes, and black flame-like shadows surround his body. .

Holding the long sword, Brian opened the Psionic Anywhere Door, pulled Kala Dena to appear in front of the lizardman warrior, and slashed across with the sword, finishing it cleanly.

Then, he opened the cage, and based on the dark green scales of the lizardman captive, he could tell that the other party should be a member of the Sharp Tooth Tribe.

"Hiss~ there is a road on the other side of the fort. 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 Time, the fire of their lives is over, hiss! We tried to escape a few days ago, but failed. Hiss, I'm locked up here, two of my companions were taken from that road two days ago .hiss~they haven't come back yet, presumably the black priests haven't killed them yet."

The lizardman captive immediately began to tell Brian what had happened recently, "Hiss, a hideous shadow-demon dwells in that tower, and it looks like a tiger that walks upright. Hiss, those hairy ones Not to the village of Shadowfin. They all got into that boat, hiss~ a shadowy man drove the boat, and led them away along the river."

"It seems that I guessed right." Brian said to the sorceress beside him, "The only way to find the lost monastery is by boat."

Kara Dena nodded slightly, agreeing with his point of view.

Brian told the Lizardman captive that the butcher living in the tower had been killed by himself, and pointed out to him the location of the Twilight Gate in the fortress that connected to the main material plane, and then walked towards the pier.

The river in the Shadow Plane is very calm, almost still, and there are many dark gravels that can be clearly seen underwater.

But the river was cold, freezing cold.

A bull's-eye lantern was placed on a ledge on the pier, and a pale beam of light extended toward the depths of the swamp.

Standing on 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 quietly built on the black water, and a keel boat that looked very different from the aesthetics of normal people was parked on the pier.

The boat is about 10 meters in length, and several rows of seats are neatly separated by wooden boards on the inside. Four tall and burly tauren skeletons sit quietly at the oars, wearing iron chains.

On the mainmast and the bowsprit on the front side of this flat-bottomed boat, a small lantern was hung respectively.

After Brian checked the general situation of the ship, he and Kala Dena 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 shadowscale lizardmen appeared from the shadows, their eyes were red, and the shadow energy around them flickered.

At the same moment a tall, slender figure emerged from the shadows of the cabin of the strangely shaped ship.

His skin appeared to be dark gray, and with his black hair, he was particularly hard to see in the shadows.

He has bold purple tattoos covering most of his face, with metallic jewels adorning his ears and nose.

At this moment, he was staring at the two of Brian suspiciously, and asked indifferently, "Outsiders, tell me, who sent you here?"

Brian and Kaladna looked at each other before attacking without hesitation.

The Sword of Stars in his hand was the first to slash at the chest of the leader, the Shadowborn. Although it was blocked by the two force field magics that appeared in an instant, under the characteristics of the cursed fire devouring magic, he still slashed him with overwhelming force.

And the female sorceress on the other side even threw more than a dozen fist-sized energy missiles that shone with dark purple luster, killing all the remaining shadowscale lizardmen.

The battle ended in an instant. During the process of cleaning up the loot, Brian accidentally found a small keel lyre with a piece of parchment attached to it:

When you reach the Dark Tree, play to the guard to pass. — Elsevier

"Can you play the piano?" Seeing this note, Brian looked at the sorceress beside him.

Under the dim light, Kara Dena shook her head first, and then nodded hastily, a faint blush appeared unconsciously on her cheeks that were glowing yellow against the light.

Brian laughed and threw the keel piano to her.

Then, he took out a scroll of "Charming Undead Creatures" prepared in advance, and walked towards the four Tauren skeletons sitting quietly on the oars and wearing iron chains.

A spell flashes.

The keel boat moored at the pier, with its bulging sails rattling, was engulfed by Brian's wind-making technique, and sailed towards the opposite bank at the fastest speed.

The serene river meanders and flows peacefully in the lightless swamp, and the towering black cypress trees grow heartily on the curved river channel, forming a thick natural barrier.

Brian stood at the bow of the ship. In front of him, a faint light flickered slightly in the distance of the night. Behind him, the light source that had just passed gradually disappeared into the night.

In this boundless darkness, everything is extremely silent.

There is only the sound of the dry and regular bones of the tauren skeletons rowing the boat, and the soft sound of the river water beating the side of the boat.

Sometimes, a black shadow, or even a huge shadow dragon or dark mantle beast, quickly passed over his head, or passed by the boundary of his vision, so fast that it was too late to see clearly.

Undoubtedly, none of the denizens of the Shadow Plane tried to attack him.

Apparently, the keel ship of the Church of Shar played a vital role.

Just when the keel boat was about to reach a tall and straight black oak tree, Brian immediately realized what happened, and turned back to the cabin.

"Come out quickly, we will arrive at the Dark Tree soon." He said to Kaladna who was resting in the cabin.

Under the dim light, although a dark purple cloak with a hood covers her tall and graceful body, it cannot conceal her thin dark black gauze skirt with slits, and her two snow-white legs are just right exposed, in the light. Underneath, it exudes an amber crystal luster flawlessly.

It could be seen that this legendary female sorceress did not suffer from seasickness, but her slightly pale pretty face made him a little puzzled.

A chilly breeze blew by.

Brian and Kaladna appear on the deck outside the cabin.

Just when the ship was about to reach the tall and straight tree of darkness, Kara Dena immediately played the piano sound with a not-so-smooth rhythm.

Accompanied by the intermittent sound of the piano floating on the dark and gloomy river, Brian clearly felt that before he knew it, a huge black shadow emerged from the bottom of the boat, quietly walking with the boat underwater.

"Don't be nervous, continue." Seeing Kara Dena's hands trembling slightly and her face pale and frightening, Brian used telepathy to comfort her softly.

He was keenly aware of the strength of the monster hidden at the bottom of the ship. In this dangerous shadow plane, he would naturally try to avoid fighting with it if he could do nothing.

As the melodious and melodious sound of the piano drifted, gradually, Brian, who looked slightly nervous, finally saw a black shadow that looked like a simple fortress and a village from a distance.

At this moment, suddenly, the calm water surface in front of the ship burst into huge waves several people high, and a large group of dark curtain monsters flying across the sky let out piercing screams and fled in all directions.

Brian was shocked to find that even a shadow dragon, probably in adulthood, ran away with its tail between its legs after sensing the terrifying threat of the huge waves.

Accompanied by raging waves, a huge dragon turtle poked out a ferocious skeleton face from the deep and dark river, 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 tortoise exude a breath of cold negative energy, which looks extremely terrifying in the dark and makes people tremble with fear.

"Damn stowaway!!!..."

Surrounded by suffocating dark energy, the Shadow Dragon Turtle roared so loudly that it raised a sharp claw like a marble pillar, and slammed it unstoppably towards the bow of the ship.

(End of this chapter)