I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

The three people stood in front of the boundary line, and none of them spoke.

The wind blew from that dark land, carrying an almost ethereal aura, as if something had sucked all the moisture and life from the air.

Lynn stared at the dark earth, a sense of unease rising within him.

Anna hesitated for a moment. "This place isn't marked on Vera's map."

"This suggests that this annihilation zone may have appeared only recently."

"Or rather, it has only recently expanded here."

Lynn looked at the endless expanse of black ground and suddenly smiled.

"I thought things would be smooth sailing once we got past the canyon, but I didn't expect there to be other experts out there."

Lynn raised his right hand.

A tiny flame flickered in his palm, then he stretched his hand forward a few centimeters, across the line.

The flame went out.

"Fuck."

Lynn withdrew his hand and looked at his palm. He could clearly feel that the moment he crossed that line, all the magic power in his body turned into stagnant water.

It's not blocked.

Instead, it's as if it doesn't exist at all.

"That's a bit outrageous," Lynn muttered to himself.

Then he tried to communicate with the Sirens.

There was no response.

Lynn then tried the Winged Angel and the Temple Guardian, with the same result.

He sighed. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit Unicorn was not affected by the Annihilation Zone, otherwise it would have lost even its mount.

"How is it?" Lisa asked.

Lynn was silent for two seconds.

"Nothing is usable."

"I'm just an ordinary person at level 55 right now."

When Lynn said those words, he himself felt they were a bit absurd.

An ordinary person at level 55.

If you disregard all spells and summoning abilities, his physical strength is indeed much stronger than that of an ordinary person, but it's not very useful.

"Anna, how are you?" Lynn asked, looking at her.

Anna shook her head.

"Just like you."

Lynn looked at Lisa.

"What about you?"

Lisa extended her right hand, and a faint light flashed in her palm.

"Holy Light is usable, but only a small portion of it. I tried it out, and I can still barely cast Holy Light Protection and basic Retribution spells, but the power is only about 40% of normal."

"Why are you able to use it?" Lynn asked, puzzled.

“Because part of the power of the disciplinary nun does not depend on external magic,” Anna answered for Lisa. “Lisa’s holy light comes from faith itself, not from elemental or environmental magic. The power of faith is generated from within. The annihilation zone can weaken it, but cannot completely eliminate it.”

"Let's take a detour."

Lynn said this without any hesitation.

Lisa and Anna both looked at him.

“I know it’s faster to go through.” Lynn took out the map Vera gave him from his spatial ring and spread it out on the unicorn’s back. “But my biggest trump card is my summoning ability. If I enter this area and encounter something, I won’t even be able to protect myself.”

He gestured with his finger on the map.

"At that time, out of the three of us, only Lisa will be capable of fighting."

"Besides," Lynn put away the map, "the unicorns don't want to go in either."

The three looked down at the white unicorn.

It stood a meter behind the boundary line, refusing to move forward an inch no matter how much Lisa pulled on the reins.

“Even it doesn’t want to go in.” Lynn patted the unicorn’s neck. “I think that says a lot.”

Anna did not object.

"Show me the map."

Lynn handed over the map, which Anna took, spread out on her lap, and scanned it several times.

“The problem is that we don’t know how big this annihilation zone is,” Lisa pointed out the key point. “It’s not marked on Vera’s map, and we don’t know where the boundary is.”

"So we can only go along the edge and find a way around it."

Anna drew a line on the map with her finger.

“According to the route Vera marked, Holy Song City is due south, and this annihilation zone is blocking our way to our destination…” She paused for a moment, “If it’s not too large, going west might be faster.”

Why the west?

“Because the Sky Mountains are to the west,” Anna said. “Annihilation zones usually appear in plains and hilly areas, and there are very few records of their distribution in mountainous areas. If we go west along its edge, we should be able to find the end soon.”

Lynn looked at the map and nodded.

"In the worst-case scenario, how many more days would it take?"

"The worst-case scenario is that the area of ​​this annihilation zone is larger than expected, and we will need to take a detour for two to three more days."

Two or three more days.

Including the previously estimated three days, the journey may take almost a week in total.

Lynn calculated their supplies.

Water and food were not a problem; he still had plenty of dry rations and water bags given to him by the villagers in his spatial ring. However, taking a longer route meant more uncertainty, as this was a country in the midst of civil war and plague.

“Okay.” Lynn folded the map. “We’ll go around to the west.”

He climbed onto the unicorn, Anna sat in front, and Lisa walked beside him holding the reins.

The unicorn began to travel westward along that boundary line.

The sound of hooves pounded on the normal ground. To the right were scattered shrubs and weeds, while to the left stretched an endless expanse of darkness.

The clear boundary between the two worlds reminded Lynn of something.

"It's a bit like a game bug!"

“What?” Lisa turned to look at him.

“It’s nothing,” Lynn shook her head. “I mean, it looks very unnatural.”

The three walked along the edge of the annihilation zone for nearly two hours.

The boundary line still extends straight westward, without any sign of narrowing or bending.

This isn't right.

According to Anna, although the Annihilation Zone has expanded rapidly in recent years, the area of ​​a single region is usually not very large. The largest one on record spans no more than thirty kilometers.

Since they discovered the boundary, the unicorn has traveled at least fifteen kilometers.

If it were a normally sized annihilation zone, they should already be able to see the edges curving, but the dividing line in front of them is like an infinitely extending wall with no end in sight.

"Something's not right," Lynn said.

Lisa stopped and turned to look at the dark earth.

She extended her left hand, a faint holy light gathering in her palm, and then gently pushed it towards the annihilation zone.

The holy light drifted out about half a meter, and disappeared silently the moment it crossed the boundary.

“This is too thorough.” Lisa withdrew her hand. “A normal annihilation zone would have a transition area where the magical suppression at the edge wouldn’t be this strong, but something is clearly wrong here.”

"What do you mean?" Lynn asked.

“That means it may still be expanding,” Anna replied.

"When the Annihilation Zone expands, the magical suppression at the edge is the strongest because it is devouring new land. The faster it expands, the stronger the magical suppression at the edge becomes. Once it stabilizes, the suppression at the edge will become much weaker."

"Should we continue westward?" Lisa asked.

Lynn took out the map and looked at it again.

The Sky Mountain Range runs from north to south, like a spine traversing the western part of the Duchy of Toussaint. If they keep going west, they will eventually reach the foot of the mountain.

“Keep going west,” Lynn said. “If we still can’t see the boundary after two more hours, we’ll change course.”

"Where should we go instead?"

"Take the mountain path."

Lisa was taken aback. "A mountain road?"

Lynn pointed to the mountains on the map, "Anna said that the Annihilation Zone rarely appears in mountainous areas. If we can't get around it on the plains, we'll go up the mountain for a while, bypass this area from a higher altitude, and then come down and continue south."

Lisa thought for a moment and nodded.

The three continued westward.

We walked for almost another hour.

The sun was beginning to set in the west, and Lynn estimated that it would be dark in another two or three hours.

Camping in this environment is not a pleasant option, especially since there is a dead zone fifty meters to the left that renders all magic ineffective.

“Anna,” Lynn spoke again, “you said this thing is over two thousand years old, has anyone studied how it was formed?”

Anna hesitated for a moment.

"There are three main theories. The first is that the earth's own magic has been depleted. All the magic on this continent comes from some kind of power deep within the earth, and the Annihilation Zone is where that power has stopped flowing."

"What about the second one?"

"Some scholars believe that the Annihilation Zone was the battlefield of the ancient war between gods, a void left after the gods wiped each other out."

"The third one?"

Anna paused.

"The third one... is the doomsday theory."

Lynn raised an eyebrow.

“Some believe that the Obliteration Zone is not a sign of depleted magic or the remnants of war, but rather evidence that ‘the world is dying.’” Anna’s voice was calm. “The magic on the continent is decreasing day by day, and the Obliteration Zone is a preview of the final outcome. When all the magic disappears, the entire world will become barren.”

Chapter 114 The Dwarven Forge (Part 2)

Another hour passed.

The sun was almost touching the western mountain ridge.

The good news is that the boundaries of the annihilation zone are finally starting to bend.

Although not very obvious, they are indeed shifting south, which means they are approaching the western edge of the annihilation zone.

The bad news was that the Sky Mountain Range ahead was getting closer and closer, and the terrain at the foot of the mountain was becoming more and more complicated, with boulders, broken rocks and dead bushes interspersed, and the unicorn's speed was obviously slowing down.

"Let's camp at the foot of the mountain tonight," Anna suggested. "We won't climb the mountain tonight."

Lynn had no objection.

He was about to nod when the unicorn suddenly stopped, its mane standing on end, and a low warning emanated from its nostrils.

About two hundred meters at the foot of the mountain, there was a huge group of rocks. The shadows of the rocks were stretched long in the setting sun, and something was moving in those shadows.

Lynn looked closely.

The grayish-white figures were huddled in the shadows of the rocks. They were not large, about the height of a person, but they were in different postures. Some were hanging upside down on the rock face, some were curled up in a ball close to the ground, and some were stacked on top of each other, making a soft hissing sound.