Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

“My situation is a bit special, you can just bring it over.”

"Alright, alright, you're Lord Ash, you decide... Let me see. Based on your progress, I have a total of 42 weapons here, including common daggers, straight swords, greatswords, and so on, as well as some spellcasting tools such as wands and spell gloves. Are you sure you want to take them all?"

Clearly, neither Xiaoyan nor Zhi had expected to have so many weapons. They exchanged a glance, and Zhi gave an awkward smile, thinking that Xiaoyan couldn't carry that many things, but Xiaoyan still nodded.

"That's right, please give me all the weapons."

"Hehehe, then you'd better keep it safe."

With a whoosh, no one knew where the old woman had hidden all these things in the first place, but now Little Flame's feet were covered with a jumble of weapons: ordinary daggers, armor-piercing rapiers, scythes, thief's short knives, short swords, longswords, broadswords, Astra's straight swords, Lothric knight's swords, Irithyll's straight swords, greatswords, fire-type greatswords, hand axes, wooden clubs, and so on.

Then, without hesitation, Xiaoyan, under Zhi's astonished gaze, stored all 42 weapons into her shield.

"Hey, how much stuff can you put in your shield? And it's ridiculous that you can even fit this ridiculously large wooden stick in there."

Seeing Homura effortlessly stuff the large wooden stick into the shield, Ori could no longer remain calm. Homura's abilities must be cheating!

"What's so special about something this size? I once stuffed a Tomahawk cruise missile into it."

"GM, someone's cheating here, are you going to do anything about it?" QAQ

Therefore, there are no GMs in the world of Fire, and even if you use cheats, you will still suffer when it's time to suffer.

"I think your magic eye is truly amazing... Alright, everything's packed, let's go."

The two returned to the main hall of the sacrificial site and found that the three boys and girls had left, leaving only Granny Wolf lying there dead.

"By the way, before you set off, let me remind you that the few madmen who caused the changes in this world have started to become active again recently. Be careful when you move around. If you see any spirits, whether summoned by talismans or invading, suddenly become physical, run away as fast as you can if you don't want to be traumatized."

"..."

Before they left, Granny Wolf gave them a warning, but they were met with deadpan stares in return.

"Uh, you haven't already encountered them, have you... Well, you won't die anyway. Just be careful not to let those lunatics drag your emotional intelligence down to the same level and go crazy with them. Or if you're really worried, just bring the oath of the Blue Cult."

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Back at the campfire at the end of the dilapidated bridge, the two officially embarked on their journey to the location of the Cursed Tree.

"Although I haven't personally fought the Cursed Tree, I have heard Teresa analyze some of its fighting methods. It is said that this tree was twisted into this form because the villagers of the Undead Settlement kept sacrificing the wandering souls they had disposed of to it in order to break the curse."

Zhi scratched her head, trying to recall the knowledge that Teresa had previously shared with her. Because she hadn't paid much attention to the affairs of this world at the time, and didn't know anything about terms like curses or wandering spirits, she ended up not saying anything useful for the battle.

"Anyway, according to Teresa, fighting it is full of malice towards men. I don't know why she emphasized men, maybe it's just that fighting it would be disgusting."

While pondering information about the BOSS, Zhi clearly forgot something important.

"It doesn't matter. We've encountered enough accidents already. At worst, we'll die a few more times and figure out its patterns. Anyway, once we defeat it, I'll get a chance to return to my own world. I don't care about a little more time."

As Xiaoyan said this, when they crossed the broken arch bridge and encountered the executioner, she smashed him to death with a large club. It was clear that she was not as calm as she claimed. This was a true killing, because Xiaoyan's current strength was not enough to use this thing, but that did not stop her from taking out the wooden club and throwing it directly at his head.

"Alright, once we cross this cemetery and go behind that wooden house, we can circle around to the path leading to the temple."

Zhi led Xiaoyan through the archway in front of the cemetery. When she saw the cemetery with its dense rows of tombstones, yet which gave her a sense of emptiness, she felt once again that she had missed something.

"what's wrong?"

Xiaoyan didn't stop and continued walking inside. Zhi, while pondering, followed Xiaoyan inside.

"I feel like I've forgotten something... Wait, that white birch tree! Xiaoyan, lie down!"

She finally remembered what she had been forgetting: the giant shooting arrows from the tower. Although there weren't any of the large arrows she remembered being thrown at her in the cemetery, the corpses of the villagers scattered all over the ground meant that this place was not so easy to pass through.

But her reminder came too late, or rather, even if she had lay down, it wouldn't have made a difference.

The next moment, an irritating tinnitus filled their brains, and she saw that Xiao Yan in front of her, upon hearing her warning and lying down, was suddenly pierced with many thin, red, sharp spikes that looked like congealed blood.

She tried to reach out and catch the fallen Xiaoyan, but the next moment she found that blood-red spikes had also appeared on her body.

The tinnitus persisted, and my mind seemed to be slowly polluted by my frantic thoughts.

Finally, a frantic surge of thoughts rushed into my brain, and my consciousness was completely overwhelmed by chaos.

They were unable to react before their vision went black.

YOU DIED

"So, how did we die this time?"

Strictly speaking, I don't know either.

"Is this a situation you've never encountered before?"

“Similar situations have occurred before, but I forgot… cough cough, it’s definitely a situation I’ve never encountered before. I don’t even know how this attack killed us.”

"...It felt more like a mental shock than actual physical damage. At that moment, my consciousness seemed to be in chaos."

Having already been tricked by Zhi many times, Xiaoyan didn't want to discuss the reliability of her anymore.

“I roughly know where the attack might come from, but just to be safe, let’s go and try again. This time, we’ll both activate our Magic Eyes—that is, the kind of ability you have to see the ‘past.’ That way, before we die, we can determine whether the attack is coming from the location I remember.”

Chapter Forty: The Final Obstacle

In the graveyard of the Undead Settlement, Xiaoyan and Zhi returned once again. In order to explore the truth behind that unknown attack, this time, they rushed into the graveyard one after the other. Xiaoyan even activated time acceleration and physical enhancement, while Zhi, having a general guess about the direction from which the attack came, kept her Mystic Eyes activated while running, keeping an eye on the location of the tower.

Sure enough, the Demon Eye relayed extremely dangerous information from that direction, but she could only know the source of the attack and could not see its trajectory at all. At this moment, Little Flame in front of her had already been attacked.

The annoying tinnitus has returned.

It was still those sharp spikes, like congealed blood, appearing on Xiaoyan's body as if they had always been there.

By observing the location of the attack, Xiaoyan roughly pinpointed the direction from which it occurred. As soon as she turned her head, the tower she had just visited came into view.

With her abilities activated, she endured the pain of foreign objects piercing her body and the frantic thoughts rushing to her brain, trying her best to watch the history of the attacks.

More spikes came piercing her, and before her frantic thoughts finally overwhelmed her consciousness, she finally saw the attacker—a huge, disgusting eyeball, like the evil eye in legends. Just staring at it caused her mind to churn with chaotic thoughts.

The next moment, Xiao Yan went completely mad after seeing this thing and died.

YOU DIED

Having confirmed the direction of the attack, the two stopped wasting time and headed back to the tower. They cleared away the rats in the sewers along the way and arrived once again at the battlefield where they fought the "Undead Settlement Against the Flame Demon Expedition."

The scene was still a mess, with villagers lying dead everywhere. They could even recognize the fatal wounds they had inflicted. It seemed that even though they had lost contact with Anri, the expeditionary force here had not been able to revive. Moreover, the arrogant knight Ego, who had been carrying a large hammer in front of the gate where Anri had rescued the saintess, had also disappeared.

Only three executioners remained, chopping up the corpses on the battlefield and stuffing them into the large vats they carried on their backs.

They dealt with the executioner and entered the tower.

The method to get to the top floor has already been explained by the Onion Knight. It's really surprising that after defeating the demon, none of them thought to go to the top of the tower.

After taking the upper part of the elevator, they passed through the place where they had jumped down to fight the fire demon. From the balcony, they glanced quickly and saw that the Onion Knight's particularly conspicuous figure in the plaza destroyed by lava was also gone.

They remained silent the whole way. Zhi knew that the unreliable label that Xiaoyan had given her was probably impossible to remove, so she could only scratch her head and smile foolishly when Xiaoyan occasionally glared at her.

Fortunately, the elevator quickly reached the top of the tower, and Zhi no longer had to endure Xiaoyan's gaze. She hurried forward, but stopped at the top of the stairs when she remembered the strange characteristics of the enemy she was facing this time.

"If what you saw is correct, Xiaoyan, this big thing that looks like an eye is very likely to attack directly through its gaze. In that case, we can't rush in so recklessly."

"What kind of unreliable plan do you have this time?"

"Ahem... I think most of my plans are reliable, but because too many unexpected things happened during implementation, they appeared to be unreliable."

Zhi felt that if her image could be salvaged, it would be better to try to salvage it.

"What you say makes sense, so let's talk about your plan."

Xiaoyan also understands that now that the world is beginning to change, relying entirely on Zhi's previous information is unreliable. So although she keeps emphasizing Zhi's unreliability, it's mostly just a joke. If Zhi can come up with a plan, she is still willing to follow it. After all, even if it fails, it's just another death.

"When I came here before, there was a giant at the top of the tower, and in the previous cemetery, I was attacked by giant arrows shot by the giant. It's not difficult to break through, because the giant can communicate. Once you reach an agreement with him, he will not attack you intentionally."

"So I went up there back then. The top of the tower is a platform with a dome on it. There are several supporting pillars under the dome. According to what you saw in the past, the big eye should have been hanging right under the dome. In other words, we could have used the pillars around us to avoid the big eye's line of sight."

"I understand. When we rush up, we'll take turns hiding behind the pillars on the left and right, and then each of us will draw its attack. While it's focused on one of us, the other will attack it."

Xiaoyan immediately understood Zhi's tactics. In fact, Zhi's plans were always very executable. Although they lacked the precision to calculate everything, they still had a good grasp of the terrain and the characteristics of the enemy. In the end, for Ash, as long as there was a way to reduce the death rate, it was worth trying.

"I'd like to add that after we separate, I'll draw the attention of that big eyeball, and your attacks should be able to cause more damage. As for me, using time reversal will allow me to easily escape its sight."

"...Well, in the end, all I can do is become your sword."

"You've been reading too many knight novels. I'm not a princess who needs protection. Besides, we're companions. When it comes to fighting, we should each bring out our own strengths."

To retract the foreword, it's true that Zhi is surprisingly naive in some ways.

"Don't worry about it, don't worry about it, it's just my pointless sentiment."

With the plan in place, the two rushed out of the stairwell and began its execution.

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Just as the intelligence report stated, there was a dome on the top floor surrounded by pillars, and even the giant mentioned in the report was present. However, that poor giant had now become nourishment for the Evil Eye.

He lay beneath the dome, his body connected to the evil eyeball by disgusting tentacles, housing this part forged from some twisted and evil being, becoming a pathetic test subject for a visitor from the other side of the abyss.

Its eyes were fixed on the exit of the stairs. It seemed to have sensed the arrival of the intruders and immediately set its sights on Xiaoyan and Zhi when they appeared.

The blood-red spikes, accompanied by a violent ringing in their ears, immediately pierced into the bodies of the two women. However, after they split up and ran in different directions, the evil eyeball was unable to pinpoint a target and drive her to her death alone.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the two rushed behind the pillar and pulled out the spikes that had pierced their bodies.

Fortunately, the spikes themselves are not very harmful; they are more like a manifestation of a frenzied mental attack. What actually causes damage is the mental pollution that keeps drilling into their heads.

After regaining her composure, Xiao Yan fired a signal to Zhi, who was hiding behind a pillar, and then immediately rushed out.

The structure of the strange eyeball seemed to be quite similar to that of an ordinary eyeball, and it immediately flipped over after Xiaoyan left the cover.

"Tsk, it's not that simple after all."

The extremely fast flipping speed caused them some trouble. Little Flame had to endure its gaze for a while longer before it could hide behind the pillar after the attack was completed.

Blood-red spikes multiplied on her body. She finally held on until blood splattered behind her large eyeballs. She immediately reversed time and returned to behind the pillar.

"vomit……"

Although this frenzied mental pollution didn't kill her outright, the dizziness she felt made her vomit.

"Xiaoyan, are you alright?"

Xiaoyan wasn't the only one who noticed the unusually fast movement of the Evil Eye. Zhi, after successfully launching her attack, was also observed, but fortunately, she hadn't intended to greedily strike, so she wasn't severely corrupted by the frenzy. Before she swung her sword, she saw Xiaoyan hold out for a relatively long time.

"He's not dead yet!"

Taking another breath and suppressing the rampant pollution, Xiao Yan charged out again.

However, this time the tinnitus did not occur. She looked back and found that the evil eye was completely ignoring her this time, and was staring straight in Zhi's direction.