The beginning of civilization was the spark burning in the campfire of the wilderness.

In the first millennium after the Initial Fire ignited chaos and revealed order and the world, the ancient human race was born in the plains without forests, and this newborn race walked between the nascent heaven and earth, watching everything with curiosity.

At that time, there was no name for everything.

Because they hated the darkness, they imitated thunder and lightning, lit the fire of the barbaric age with solid stones and dry wood, and used it to illuminate the dark night without light.

Gradually, accumulating, using simple language, human beings summarized the laws and logic, and developed the civilization of the Age of Enlightenment.

Then, the torch was passed down from generation to generation, and it continues to this day.

Starfall, December 11, 831, night.

Four days after the siege of the Kuroshio.

The cold wind constantly blew the fortress that stood among the snowy forests, and the soft white snowflakes like goose feathers fell to the ground and condensed into a thin frost. Like a silver plate, the new and smooth double moon hangs high in the sky, and the bright moonlight is like flowing water spread on the entire bluestone plank road.

The black-haired man led his horse through the streets of the night, silently following a silver-haired maid.

Looking around the fortress, the young lord's gaze seemed to be able to see through the endless darkness and cold, solid walls, and see the flickering flames of life. His young head maid looked curiously at the star-studded night sky, and whispered an estimate of their number.

The girl's elegant voice echoed through the silent streets, while Joshua was attentive to her surroundings.

Now, they were at the back of the fortress, lined with similar houses lined up on both sides of the street. However, some of the houses are now uninhabited, there is no firewood smoke wafting out of the chimney, and there is no trace of the owner's activity behind the window.

In the past few days, the Kuroshio seems to be over, and there has been no movement, even if the warriors themselves enter the Black Forest to investigate, they can no longer see the group of wild beasts rushing like a black tsunami. Under the sunlight, the purple mist gradually dissipated, and the black jungle returned to its former tranquility.

In this case, after determining that this was not some kind of conspiracy, the fortress resumed normal operation, with a steady stream of dragon chariot caravans coming from the main city to transport much-needed food and equipment, and in order to perform a requiem ceremony for the fallen soldiers, the priest of St. Lauren's Cathedral even braved the bitter cold of this winter and brought his two apprentices to the Black Forest fortress with the convoy.

The team led by the archbishop to the Holy Mountain of the Far Sea had not yet returned, so he was the only one in the entire Moldavian territory who had the ability and qualifications to preside over the ceremony, but this morning, after burying the people who died in the Kuroshio in solemn silence, the white-haired priest set out and did not stay in the fortress for long.

But before that, he deliberately found Joshua and said a word to him.

"Now is the time."

The old butler's old friend said to Joshua, his eyes calm: "Go and see your father and Fan...... I don't know why, but before leaving, he asked me to tell you about this after you became a lord for a while, and said that you should understand what it means. ”

Joshua certainly knew what that meant.

On the eleventh day of December, so much time had passed, almost two months had passed since his father had died, and the old butler had left, and since he had arrived at the fortress, it was indeed time to see them again.

So in the middle of the night, he put on a coat made of white wolf skin, simply walked out of the door, and strolled through the winter fortress with his maid and war horse.

It was a cold and regular city, and by the spells of the mages, the gray-white walls that had been roughly repaired once again separated the mountains from the plains, and the sturdy towers towered majestically behind it, while the gray-green needles of the pine trees on the roadside rustled in the cold wind.

The wide avenues, the winding side streets, and the stone huts lined up on either side of them, with the forts and barns embedded in them, were lined with a small number of patrolling warriors walking up and down the stone paths, and the ever-bright lanterns made of pyroxene in their hands emitted a faint white cold light.

Joshua's destination was a quaint church on the edge of the fortress.

After a few more streets, Joshua came to the door of the old building, and he looked around, but found nothing, which unexpectedly caused the warrior to show a rare look of bewilderment.

"What's going on? Isn't it here? No way. ”

Shaking his head, he left Kuro outside, then led Hotaru to push open the unlocked door and enter the church.

"Huh."

As soon as she walked into the hall, the silver-haired girl exclaimed softly, she looked around with some confusion, and then frowned and said, "Master, this place ...... It feels a little weird. ”

The church was not large, with less than forty seats in the prayer hall, covered with a layer of gray dust that seemed to have not been cleaned for a long time. And at the front of the hall, behind the altar, the place where the statue of the emblem of the god was supposed to be placed was empty, and there was nothing.

But Joshua knew very well that Hotaru was not referring to this, because he also felt that since he entered the door, there was a strange force surrounding his body, which seemed to welcome him and seemed to guide something.

Faintly, Joshua could even hear a voice echoing in his ears.

"Let's move forward."

Unable to answer his maid's question for the time being, the warrior who was also puzzled could only say: "Although it is a very young memory, it is very impressive, and I can be sure that it is right here, but I don't know where the problem is." ”

So the two of them walked slowly forward.

As he walked, Joshua could clearly feel that there was a strange energy in this church, which repelled any ineligible power, even the ubiquitous elemental and magical powers, which were completely imprisoned and unable to form spells.

Forbidden Demon Domain.

Even in his previous life, Joshua had rarely encountered such a situation, and with the exception of some natural areas of dead magic, he had hardly ever seen magic that had been suppressed to such an inertia.

But the forbidden magic realm in this church is different from the dead magic area in those extreme environments, the magic here is not so much suppressed as sealed, they are not able to form spells, but they cannot form spells freely.

As long as you meet the conditions, you'll be fine.

As we got closer, we could sense that this oppressive power was gradually getting stronger, and the source of that power was the square altar made of silver metal.

Before walking to the altar, Joshua subconsciously looked at the center of it, in the religious code of the Continent of Discord, when there are believers praying, the altar should be placed with sacrifices to the gods, and when there is no one, the emblem of the gods should be placed, in short, no matter what, it should not be left empty.

But there was nothing in this altar, neither the sacrificial nor the emblem was missing, only a concave mark like a handprint.

“…… Don't? ”

Looking at his hand, Joshua didn't hesitate for long, he simply pressed his hand into the groove of the altar, and then wanted to see how it would react.

As if sensing the arrival of his long-awaited target, a gray-blue light lit up from the bottom of the altar, and it spread like ripples quickly, sweeping over Joshua's entire body in an instant, even the Hotaru who was following him was also swept by this light.

"Bloodline confirmed...... The Radcliffe family is directly bloodlined, has a divine contract, and is eligible. ”

The voice that had been surrounding Joshua's ears finally became clear and audible, and a stream of thought passed out of the altar, carrying a large amount of information into Joshua's mind: "Permission granted, the passage opens." ”

"Born from fire, born from steel, wisdom is immortal, and order is eternal."

With the trembling of time and space and the ancient praises, the magic that had been sealed began to come alive, and a dark blue door slowly emerged above the altar in silence, and it was faintly visible that there was a black earth behind it, and countless stone tombstones were erected in it.

Around each of the tombstones, there was a weapon stuck upside down in the ground, and among them were knives, guns, and almost all the weapons used by humans could be found in them, and they looked extremely broken, and each one was greatly damaged.

“…… I see, I said why I didn't see it outside, I remember it was adjacent to this small church, but there was nothing around. ”

Joshua, who was staring at the space-time gate that was slowly expanding, understood all the information through the thoughts in the altar, and whispered, "It turned out to be here, and it was actually here...... No wonder the secrets of the Divine Machine and the Seal Keeper have not been discovered for so many years......"

With this exclamation, the Radcliffe family cemetery, hidden between the narrow passages of time and space, completely appeared in front of his eyes.