The story of the black silk female knight

In this situation, Tia rarely had time to meet Valensa, and even when they did meet, Valensa would usually do everything herself... Tia didn't even want to waste their time on dates, and would lie down and read books, study spells, or make strategic plans while Valensa was doing her thing.

Valensa was certainly somewhat resentful about this, but she also knew very well that the hard work and busyness she was doing now were for an easier future.

The very poor win rate in the simulation battles clearly put a lot of pressure on Tia.

Now that Tia has become the commander of the Allied Forces, she can be said to be carrying the expectations of many people on the entire Frenoia continent, and she certainly cannot afford to be lazy.

Influenced by this, Valencia also became more diligent.

It's time to continue what was previously delayed due to the selection of coalition commanders.

Revisit the northern ice plains to unravel the secrets of the Netherworld.

To unravel the secrets of the Underworld, the help of the Great Witch Friggia is indispensable.

Because both known clues related to the Ghost are connected to the ancient Eve civilization.

First, there's the ghost itself.

To the average person, the Netherworld Ghosts have an appearance similar to humans, but their true core or essence is actually their spinal cord, a technological achievement of the ancient Eve civilization.

This is also a nanoscale technological product, but it is not a purely technological nanorobot like the Fog Demon Nano Mist. Instead, it is a nano-semi-mechanical and semi-biological creation that also incorporates runic literature.

These nanoscale creations can enter the human body without anyone noticing, using rune effects and biochemical technology to simultaneously modify the body, turning people into zombie-like beings... This is the various disasters that the Ghosts have caused in America.

However, the ancient Eve civilization did not create such a thing as a biological weapon, but rather to save itself.

At that time, the energy of the entire universe was rapidly depleting. The ancient Eve civilization simply wanted to find a way to continue its civilization without consuming energy, and the undead transformation of the entire race was one of its ideas.

Unfortunately, after conducting numerous experiments, the ancient Eve civilization had to admit that even the undead, who seemed to be able to survive without food or water, still needed energy to maintain their movements... Undead that could move without relying on energy simply did not exist.

Therefore, the plan to turn the entire race into undead was ultimately abandoned by the ancient Eve civilization.

However, something happened to this abandoned project over the next few thousand years, and it turned out to be one of the three great calamities on the continent today: the Netherworld Ghost.

The ins and outs of this matter can probably only be understood as soon as possible with the help of the great witch Friggia, who knows the ancient Eve civilization best.

Moreover, another clue is also closely related to the Great Witch Friggia.

The clue naturally leads to the mysterious anime-style girl in military uniform on the ice plains—the one Valensa and Tia beat up when they went hunting ghosts there last time.

Based on Valensa's description of the anime-style military-uniformed girl's appearance after her return, Friedeja believes that she is likely a girl named Qingyi, Friedeja's old friend, and one of the false gods artificially created by the ancient Eve civilization. She is considered an experimental product in the creation of Friedeja, and her prototype is a super popular game character.

But Friggia also remembered very clearly that the false god Qingyi of the ancient Eve civilization had already perished in that cosmic catastrophe. His divine body was destroyed and his divine soul dissipated, so it was impossible for him to still be alive.

However, the mysterious girl that Valensa and Tia encountered on the ice field was very similar to Qingyi in both appearance and ability, even exactly the same, which was very strange.

Even the great witch who once achieved pseudo-omniscience and pseudo-omnipotence had to go to the icy plains to see for herself to know the answer.

However, Friggia was sealed away by the artifact for over 1700 years, and her body is too weak to be nourished. It will take at least another hundred years to recover.

Currently, Friggia has no way to absorb magic power from the outside world on her own... In such a harsh environment as the icy plains, a delicate witch without magic power can hardly move an inch.

So before setting off to explore the ice plains, Valensa had Friggia help her organize all the current clues about the Netherworld Clan, and she also personally replenished Friggia's magic power... in Friggia's preferred methods and positions.

This exploration of the ice field will most likely take us deep into the ice field or even to its center, a place where those below the Radiant Rank can not easily survive.

With that in mind, Valensa didn't plan to bring too many people... Tia was too busy with the Allied Forces to leave, and Chiba wanted to go but Valensa refused.

Lily of the Valley is also very interested in the secrets of the Netherworld Demon, while Gina believes that the environment of the Ice Plains will be very helpful for her training in the Glacier Demon Eye and also wants to go, but Valensa also refuses her.

The reasons for their refusal were all the same... Whether it was Lily of the Valley, Thousand Leaf Grass, or Gina, they were all still not at the Radiant Rank, and venturing deep into the Ice Plains was too dangerous.

Ultimately, the only one who will follow Valensa deep into the ice plains is Friggia, who spends most of her time hiding in her shadow.

After making all the preparations, Valencia quickly set off from the capital of France and arrived in Arland, the political center of America.

Continuing north from here, it would be less than half a day's journey to the ice field. However, Valensa did not immediately head north to begin exploring. Instead, she first went to the local cathedral to visit some old friends.

They were a father and his two sons who had a very good relationship but each had their own unique personality. They were the old Winston, the big Winston, and the little Winston who were hired by Valensa and Tia as guides on the ice field.

Valensa's encounter with the mysterious anime girl and her escape from her clutches were all inextricably linked to Winston and his two sons.

Due to some incredibly dramatic coincidences, although Winston Jr. is the youngest son of Winston Sr. and the younger brother of Winston Big, he also possesses half of the Wraith bloodline and can even connect to the Wraith's mental network to sense the Wraith's existence within a certain range.

This made the Winston father and his two sons famous top hunters and guides, but they were also repeatedly hunted down by a mysterious anime girl. They were even forced to abandon their employers during a job to protect them, resulting in their disgrace and a significant drop in their standard of living, until they were hired by Valensa and Tia.

After that, Valensa and Tia discovered the secret of Winston and his two sons, and through Valensa's introduction, they cooperated with the Church of the Sun, and life got better again.

Especially as the Sunflower Duchess's reputation grew, the Winstons's treatment also rose to a certain extent, even easily surpassing their former status as top guides.

Fortunately, the Winston father and his two sons have lived up to expectations, actively cooperating with the Church of the Sun in research over the past few years to explore the secrets of the ghost and the mysterious two-dimensional girl.

For this reason, they often went into the icy plains with the paladins and priests of the Church of the Sun to hunt ghosts and fight against that mysterious anime girl.

Although there were no groundbreaking discoveries, there were quite a few smaller ones, which will be of great help to Valensa's exploration of the ice field.

The research findings were quickly compiled into a report and presented to Valencia.

Most of them are small achievements related to the mysterious anime girl.

There are few findings about the Spectre itself, and they are of little help to Valensa... Basically, they only confirmed that Winston Jr. does have the ability to sense the Spectre within a certain range, and that the Spectre's spinal cord is the Spectre's true form.

However, many of the small findings regarding the mysterious anime girl have proven quite useful.

First, the church's research team has determined the pattern of appearance of anime girls.

Whenever Winston ventures more than 174 kilometers into the ice field and stays there for more than 90 hours, the mysterious anime girl appears and hunts him down until Winston escapes the ice field.

During this time, if other people keep a certain distance from Winston and do not show hostility, the anime girl will not attack him; she will only target Winston.

However, if anyone unfortunately appears in her pursuit route or obstructs her pursuit of Winston, she will swiftly and decisively kill them.

The mysterious anime girl's fighting style was so bizarre that even though the research team made all sorts of preparations in advance, there were still casualties in many experiments.

Two priests were killed by the anime girl's gun, including a priest with Star-level strength, and more than 10 others were injured.

"How could there be casualties? And even a high-ranking priest?"

When Valencia reached this part of the report, she showed obvious annoyance. Her deep blue eyes were fixed on the head of the research team, like a vortex of abyss about to engulf him.

"Didn't Winston and the others provide a very effective countermeasure? All you need is an ink ball as cover to escape from her... You can't even prepare this?"

“No…that’s not how it is, Lady Valensa.”

The research team leader, who had the appearance of a young man but was actually old enough to be Valensa's grandfather, was now stammering and fidgeting, like a schoolboy being scolded by his teacher, rubbing his trouser legs:

"I...I...we just wanted to study the secrets of the target further, so...so we just...so we made some attempts, but...we didn't expect...sigh."

"...Get to the point! What exactly happened?"

Valensa glared at the person in charge again, but knowing that sometimes taking risks to explore certain truths was necessary, she suppressed her anger and switched the top and bottom of her black-stockinged legs, which made the research team leader breathe a sigh of relief.

"Is such that……"

After recovering from the tension, the research team leader no longer stammered and recounted the events fluently and clearly:

"The information you personally provided to us at the beginning, and the numerous tests we conducted ourselves afterward, have all proven that using ink to cover the ice surface is a very effective method."

This led us to further speculate about the target's abilities... We speculated that the target's abilities might be some kind of conceptual power or a special curse-like power, requiring her to personally strike our reflection on the ice to cause us any real harm, and we conducted experiments to test this.

"This experimental approach is correct..."

Valensa first acknowledged this point, then frowned slightly:

"And then what? What unexpected thing happened during the experiment?"

"Our initial idea for the experiment was to use invisibility spells... Invisibility spells make one invisible to the naked eye and naturally leave no reflection on the ice. We thought this might be able to deal with the target's attack... Of course, the test subjects also carried ink bullets for emergencies, but we didn't expect there wouldn't be enough time to use them."

The research team leader wore a wry smile:

"The invisibility spell seemed to be completely ineffective against the target. Even though the test subject did not leave a reflection on the ice after activating invisibility, the target fired without hesitation after thinking that the test subject was an obstacle... She aimed at the very spot where the test subject should have left a reflection on the ice."

We never expected the invisibility technique to be completely ineffective, and we were caught off guard when dealing with this unexpected situation... As a result, not only did the test subject not survive, but several of our rescue team members were also injured by the target.

"How stupid!"

Valensa muttered another sarcastic remark, her brow furrowing deeply:

"However, from this perspective, the principles of target observation... or visual perception should be completely different from ours."

"Yes, that's what we think too."

The research team leader nodded quickly:

"The invisibility technique can only eliminate the images and reflections on the ice that we can perceive. But the objective images and reflections on the ice are always there, and the target's perception is unaffected by them... What we perceive as her firing at an empty spot on the ice is actually still in her own eyes, where she is shooting at the reflection of the test subject."

"Ah."

Although saddened by the casualties during the research, Valensa acknowledged the research team's findings:

"This means that using methods similar to invisibility to eliminate reflections on the ice surface is probably useless. The best way to deal with a target attack is to use something like ink to prevent the ice surface from reflecting reflections, which will make the target lose its target, right?"

What about that Ranked High Priest who sacrificed himself? He couldn't have been the one conducting the invisibility experiment, could he?

"The sacrifice of that senior... was something we hadn't expected either."

Upon hearing this, the head of the research team gave another wry smile, and after glancing at Valensa's gleaming, magnificent silver armor with a complex expression, he said:

"It was still an experiment to study the nature of the target's ability... The plan for that experiment was to use a powerful divine spell to destroy all the surrounding ice in an instant."

"A divine spell capable of instantly destroying the surrounding ice surface... it can only be the Yangyan Divine Spell. Is that why a high-ranking priest of the Shining Rank needs to personally participate in the experiment?"

Valensa took a deep breath:

"And what was the result? This method also failed?"

"No, the method is effective. The sacrifices occurred because of an unexpected event... and it was this unexpected event that gave us a better understanding of the target's capabilities."

The person in charge glanced at Valensa's silver armor again and said with a wry smile:

"After the high priest used his Blazing Sun to melt away all the surrounding ice in one breath, the target did stop attacking him. We all thought the experiment was a success, but we never expected that... the target did need a reflection to attack us, but it wasn't just the reflection on the ice."

"It's not just a reflection on the ice?"

Valensa frowned again, thinking about the two times the person in charge had spied on her before... She had initially thought the person was just looking at her hot body, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

"Is it possible..."

Valensa immediately had a guess.

"It seems you've already thought of that."

The person in charge nodded, then sighed:

"The reflection on the paladin's gleaming silver armor could also be used by the target... So the priest was initially unharmed, but when the other paladins in our group went to him to take measurements, his reflection and the target's reflection appeared simultaneously on the paladin's silver armor, and then a gunshot rang out..."

"That senior priest was killed with just one blow? Was there no attempt to save or treat him?"

Valensa asked quickly.

"Just one strike."

The person in charge looked very solemn:

"The priest had no visible wounds, and even under the detection of healing magic, his body was still in good health, yet he was still dead."

"This... um?"

Just as Valencia was about to ask something, she seemed to suddenly hear someone's voice, and tilted her head to listen. The research team members did not dare to disturb her.

After a moment, Valensa looked at the head of the research team again:

"Since that senior had no wounds when he sacrificed himself, his body should still be well preserved, right? I'd like to see it."

"No problem, sir, please come with me."

The head of the research team immediately led Valensa into the depths of the cathedral.

In the Church of the Sun, there is no concept of cremation, so the remains of sacrificial clergy are preserved in crystal coffins... unless there is no trace of the body, in which case a cenotaph is used.

In the mortuary area deep beneath the cathedral, Valensa was able to see the fallen Star-level priest smoothly after completing the visitation procedures.

When they were preparing his body for his funeral, the other clergy members did their best to make him look as peaceful as possible, but Valensa could still vaguely see a hint of surprise on the face of the deceased… This priest clearly did not expect to die like this.

"...I want to see him by myself, you all go out first."

After staring at the body in the crystal coffin for about half a minute, Valensa said this again.

"This……"

The head of the research team and the administrator of the mortuary area behind her exchanged a glance, both looking somewhat embarrassed.

Because, apart from the deceased's immediate family, it is generally not allowed for others to be alone with the deceased's body here.

But the Sunflower Duchess's fame is now too great, and everyone in the church knows how blessed Valencia is... so this little bit of flirting doesn't seem to matter.

After exchanging a glance, they shrugged and sighed. The head of the research team and the administrator of the mortuary area left together, obediently closing the door behind them.