Dark Hour

This is a world where the extraordinary and the mysterious dance together, where creators, pillars, the ancients, and the old gods...

The Third Era.

A time of disaster.

A terrifying war of gods erupted.

Darkness and lightning enveloped the entire sky, the sun fell, and depravity and hatred swept across the land. This catastrophe spread from the East Sonia Sea toward the Eastern Continent, killing ninety-nine percent of all living things along the way. The ocean became a forbidden land, and the earth became an abyss.

The traitor is eager to crown himself.

All for the sake of ascending to the throne of God.

Those who fall from heaven to earth die bearing all their sins, their eyes losing their luster, gradually consumed by madness.

Under the shadow of death, before the nightmare of eternal night, the Creator of all things, the omniscient and omnipotent God, the "Sun God" who transcends all deities, the "quasi-God," seems to sense some kind of gaze upon him.

He saw a grayish-white mist.

He saw the gaze of the spirit realm.

"Mysterious?"

This murmur, like a dream, seemed to carry some doubt. He felt as if some kind of chaos had occurred in space and time. When he tried to explore further, the golden divine blood in his chest drained away, and he was engulfed by endless darkness.

The sun god has fallen.

The glorious era has ended, and the era of disaster has begun.

The old order is broken, the world is inevitably in chaos, peace is always fleeting, and conflict is never truly over...

No ancient scholar, when tracing this history, would consider how many innocent people died during this period, as if the significance of those who were buried alive was nothing more than that in the face of the fall of the sun god.

The ascetics who worship the sun god all follow their sun, so who would care about a weak elf who has fallen in the storm?

...

"Cough! Cough cough!"

Overwhelmed by indescribable pain, Xia Ran clutched his shattered chest in a daze. He gasped for breath almost instinctively, inhaling large amounts of seawater. Caught off guard, he choked, causing an even more violent cough. By the time he realized he could breathe freely underwater, he had already swallowed an unknown amount of seawater.

If the seawater hadn't flowed out through the hole in his stomach, he might not have known how much longer it would have taken to regain consciousness.

"Am I Xia Ran? Xia Buran? Xia Ai'er?"

"I'm practically halfway to the underworld, how can you pull me back?"

"The world of Lord of Mysteries?"

Many memories flooded Xia Ran's mind.

In the mysterious worldview, there are 22 divine paths on Earth, and there are also some extra-divine paths in the starry sky. Each divine path has a complete ladder to godhood from sequence 9 to sequence 0.

Sequence 4 will enter the realm of demigods and gods, while Sequence 2 is called angel, and in ancient times it was called gods.

Sequence 0 is the true deity.

The archangels of Sequence 1 possess the uniqueness that symbolizes divine authority. By collecting three extraordinary characteristics of Sequence 1, they are qualified to become Sequence 0.

Above the sequence lies the past.

In addition to mastering the corresponding divine path, one must also integrate the source matter that represents certain symbols of the universe.

The closest thing to the ancient times on Earth is the ancient sun god.

He inherited one of the three pillars, God's legacy, and was connected to the primordial chaos sea from birth.

He destroyed the ancient gods of the Second Age and reclaimed and controlled the five powers: the Sun, the Storm, the White Tower, the Dreamer, and the Hanged Man.

He is the closest being on Earth to the Old Ones, and also the one who may eventually become the second generation of God.

But the first God didn't die completely, and the second successor met a tragic end.

The ancient sun god has fallen.

The storm, the sun, and the white tower have a new owner.

As Xia Ran recalled this information, her bruised and cold body gradually warmed up, and the blood that had long since drained from her battered body began to flow again with each heartbeat.

He smirked and gave a thumbs-up to the thinning gray mist beside him.

"The Celestial Venerable is awesome."

God wasn't completely dead, and another pillar-level Ancient, the Celestial (mysterious), was also clearly not completely dead, having left behind a contingency plan.

"So I wasn't reborn, but rather traveled through time?"

"Damn it, I can accept being the second one, and I can even tolerate not being an angel at the start, but couldn't you have precisely targeted one of the three paths belonging to the Celestial Venerable?"

"If this isn't the Celestial Venerable's method, how can I use the Celestial Venerable's essence? How can I enter the Gray Mist Space?"

After sorting out his thoughts, Xia Ran felt a lump in his throat. Remembering that he was in the sea, he gave up on his plan to pretend to hum.

In his previous life, Xia Ran had a happy family. Even after transmigrating, he ended up in an orphanage. He didn't care much. He even rebelliously gave himself the name Xia Buran, intending to use his first life experience to prepare early and stay away from the cutthroat competition.

Then the Earth exploded!

Xia Buran became Xia Ai'er, an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire.

Among those who tragically perished in the face of natural disasters was the Storm Path Sequence 5, the Elf Singer.

"Do you think you've done justice to all the hard work I put into skipping grades and getting into higher education?"

"I've only been guarding the reservoir for a few days!"

"I finally managed to catch this fish!!!"

When Xia Er thought about the fishing rod he had commissioned at great expense, and how his wonderful, carefree life had once again crumbled into ruin, he lost control of his emotions, and his hair stood on end in anger.

"So you're here to laugh at me?"

"I'm so sorry I didn't die."

He gazed at the floating corpses and vengeful spirits that had been affected by the power of the divine war and were now lingering on the seabed. These dead, sensing the presence of the living, gradually gathered around.

"Do you all want to be my experience pack?"

Shael smiled; the combat experience he gained from the elven spirit fragments told him that these were all trash.

His body was covered with a layer of translucent, illusory scales. His left hand manipulated the nearby water flow to slow down the movement of these undead creatures, while a bolt of lightning condensed in his right hand.

Even though it was her first time facing this situation, she felt no fear whatsoever. Perhaps influenced by the elves, Xia'er was absolutely ecstatic!

"Fried fish?"

A slight smile played on his lips as he unleashed a bolt of lightning from his right palm, which was covered in phantom scales. Before the lightning even hit its target, it exploded under his control, disintegrating into small snakes that spread along the surrounding seawater, resembling a silvery-white electric net from afar.

These lightning bolts were quite effective against the undead; the floating corpses and vengeful spirits that had gathered around were quickly turned to ashes after being caught in the net.

Xia'er sensed the changes in the water flow, confirming that both the quantity and quality were within his control. He moved his fingers like playing a piano, killing the monsters that were attracted nearby, and familiarizing himself with the extraordinary abilities wielded by the elven singer.

The elf's memories and perception of ocean currents allow Chael to roughly determine the sea area where she is located.

To the east of the Southern Continent, southeast of the Sunia Sea, in the sea area near the southern part of the Forsaken Lands.

This location is already far from the center of the battle. The original Xia Er probably never expected that he would still be affected by the God War while operating in such a remote sea area and running to the most dangerous environment.

Such a battle that destroyed an entire continent is something even the current gods have never witnessed a second time.

After clearing out these undead creatures that were less affected by the divine war and were generally weak, Xia'er looked in three directions with a deep gaze.

The nearest continent is the Eastern Continent.

The southern continent, which is a bit further away.

The farthest continent is the northern continent.

He can't go to any of them.

The eastern continent is already a dead land, and the impact there is far more severe than that on the sea.

Even if at this point in time, the true god, the real creator, of the Hanged Man pathway might be active in the Northern Continent, the land is not the same as the sea. Even encountering just one mad demigod-level creature would be very dangerous for Xia'er.

In the Southern Continent, or at this time, the God of Death had not yet fully mastered it, but the death of the ancient Sun God would definitely help the God of the Dead complete the ascension ritual and become the God of Death. It was just as dangerous there.

The Northern Continent is the most dangerous.

The elves once had an ancient god who wielded the power of storms.

In the eyes of the new Storm Lord, the elves who walk through the Stormpath are nothing more than remnants of the previous dynasty!

The option of searching for other spirits is also not advisable.

Although Xia'er believed in the Celestial's technology, this projection should have combined the characteristics of the three paths: diviner, thief, and apprentice.

Even angels with the ability to determine fate might not be able to see the problem, but what good would it do to find the other spirits?

Are we just waiting to be hunted down by the Church of Storms?

"Then, there's only one answer left."

Looking at the gray-white mist around him that had not yet dissipated, Xia Er did not hesitate or think much before calling out a name.

"Arods!"