My name is Akatosh,

The black drop is a complete mess of paste.

—4E, 201, Moon of Fire, 19th, 16:53 -

The darkness falls, the underworld of day and night.

As the adventurers move farther and farther away from the Twilight Zone, their surroundings gradually change, as if they were evolving from a sunny noon to a low-light dusk or even a dark night.

"Ahead is the 'Dark Regions', and I only vaguely hear that the snow elves seem to be very afraid of this place, and the name 'Zacta', I don't know why." Jane Lassay said, perhaps because she was far enough away from the Black Sun that she didn't have to keep in touch with Arthur to keep herself, which made the atmosphere of the whole team relax.

"Unbelievable." Sophie's eyes widened as she hugged the rabbit.

Ahead, bounded by a shallow underground river, the light coming from the direction of the Twilight Zone came to an abrupt end, and although the water was still clean and transparent from the splash, the dark riverbed made the whole river look as if it was flowing with ink.

As Jane Rasai suggests, the other side of the river is a completely "dark area", and it is completely impossible to see what is going on from the light here, and only a few of the glowing mushrooms that are closer can be faintly detected by the people on this side of the river.

"Heh, sure enough, that's the black drop I know, here, it's too bright." Without hesitation, Septin stepped across the creek that served as the dividing line.

"Well, I can't stay here any longer." Arthur looked at the few Zerus who seemed to want to chase after him in the distance, but were a little afraid, "Thanks to them, they haven't had much rest in the past two days—it should be two days, right?" ”

"A day and a half, to be exact," Ella shot a few arrows at the giant beetles to push them back, "they start spitting as soon as they stop to rest, I've never seen such a disgusting creature." ”

"If they don't dare to cross the border, we can camp and rest after we cross the river." Ladia nodded at Arthur, shield raised and dashed into the darkness.

"Ah, Rabit—" Sophie's rabbit leaped to the ground, and then rattled across the river, and the little girl hurried after him.

"Looks like there's one across the street from Scarlet Neengen." Arthur said a casual remark, and then rushed into the "Dark Regions" with the rest of his companions.

——17:01——

"Hmm...... We've probably had a fake black drop before. ”

After Arthur crossed the underground river, his eyes were temporarily dark, and after a short period of acclimatization, the "starlight" in the sky illuminated the surrounding scenery for him, the nearby cave walls, stalagmites, ghostly plants and dwarven ruins were the same as always, but the things in the distance could only see the dark outline, under the dim starlight, people unconsciously felt mysterious and weird.

Septin implied standing on a boulder and looking around, while Ladia looked around for a flat ground to camp on, and Rubbitt was unsurprisingly nibbling on the red Neengen, even though Barbas kept barking at it.

"I felt something spilling out of my body, but it just disappeared into thin air, like, uh, that ......" Jane Rassay held up her arm to observe, but couldn't find a specific adjective to explain it for a moment.

"It's probably something that [Twilight] uses to control the inhabitants, there is no sunlight from the 'Black Sun' here, so the failure is gone," Septin impliedly glanced at the dark elves: "Don't worry about it, we're in trouble now, it's slightly bigger." ”

Crunch squeak - knock! Boom!

In the darkness not far away, the grinding of dwarven machinery and the tremor of heavy monsters trampling on the ground could be heard.

"Spherical guards and ...... Small centurion? Ella listened and asked, a little confused.

Squeak - squeak!

The first figure to come out of the darkness was indeed the spherical guard he had seen before, but it was in a state of "unfolding", and after seeing Arthur and the others, he immediately swung his dwarven metal sword at the nearest Ledia.

Choke!

Halfway through the swing of the spherical guardian's sword, Ladia took the initiative to meet it, raising her shield and smashing it, interrupting its attack and knocking the sword flying at the same time, and then charged at the spherical guardian who had lost its weapon, and before it could make any contingency measures, the entire hollow body structure deflated.

Well, let's just say that a previous journey had made Ladia very good at dealing with the spherical guards, Arthur drew his sword and walked over to the guards to look in the direction in which the spherical guards appeared.

Knock, knock. "Ga ——!"

As heavy footsteps approached, a large figure appeared in front of them, a snow elf in heavy dwarven armor - a very emaciated mutant survivor with eyes that could not be opened, and after somehow noticing the spherical guard who had fallen to the ground and was smashed, it rushed over with a loud roar.

"[Stop]!" "Catch it alive!"

Septin's implied cry and a strange mechanical sound rang out at the same time.

The snow elf in armor froze in a daze, and Arthur, whose sword had already been swung out, had to temporarily change his slash to a beat, and hit the dwarven metal armor at the same time as Lydia, who was wielding his shield on the other side, knocking him directly to the ground.

Ella and Jane Rasai, who were about to release the cold arrows, put away their bows and rushed over to tie up the snow elf, the rope was made of those fluorescent plants, and it was strange and ridiculous to be trapped in the same shiny dwarven metal armor.

"Giggles!" The mutant snow elf didn't struggle, and fell to the ground and roared repeatedly.

"Hmm," Septin implied jumping off the boulder and walking over to the captive to take a closer look, "I thought all the snow elves had been co-opted by that king, but were there any fish that slipped through the net?" ”

"If there's something wrong with Twilight, it doesn't look like orthodoxy." Arthur said, "Also, who shouted 'stop' just now?" ”

"It's me. The chest of the snow elf's dwarven armor made a mechanical grinding sound, and a calm male voice came out.

"Huh-" Ella uttered an onomatopoeia.

"[I am Paladin Gleb, the last remaining ancient snow elf,] the voice preemptively said before Ella asked, "Who are you?" 】”

"Whew-h

"Hmm...... Septin Inspiration Master? Arthur looked at the old mage.

"Originally, I just wanted to see if I could communicate with it, but after confirming this, it didn't hurt to not have to restrain him." Septin nodded implicitly.

After the "Gollum ......" was released, the Snow Elf muttered a few times in front of the smashed-out orb guard, looked up and signaled to the adventurers before heading out into the depths of darkness.

——17:37——

Unlike the regular roads in the Twilight Zone, the paths in the "Dark Areas" are fragmented, sometimes just a few broken bricks, and the darkness is even more shadowy, the "starlight" in the "sky" can barely illuminate a few meters in front of him, and there are flashes of scarlet eyes in the darkness to watch here, and Ored is familiar with Arthur and the others to walk into the depths.

While Arthur wasn't unaware of the traps ahead, the eerie and dangerous environment felt much more at ease than when approaching the Twilight Zone, which was a little too unreal.

Seemingly saddened by the damage to his mechanical companions, the Snow Elf named Oride is depressed and ignores their inquiries.

"Mr. Gelleb, are you the leader of these snow elves? What is the purpose of coming to us? And why is it completely different from the Twilight neighborhood? Egged on by his companions, Arthur turned to speak to the "voice of the armor".

"[It's always a bit rude to talk about those topics if you don't talk face-to-face, but it's okay to introduce the 'Dark Regions' a little bit.] Gelleb's voice came from the armor.

"[At present, there are roughly three safe entrances to the Black Fall, namely the 'Eltanvod' in the center, the 'Jincha Ruins' in the northwest, and the 'Radbar' in the southeast, and there may also be other unexpectedly connected relics, but there are no specific statistics. 】”

"[The 'Twilight Zone' controls the central and northwestern entrances, and occupies the 'Eltanvod Cathedral', the 'Ruins of Silence', and the 'Zincha Square', basically mastering more than two-thirds of the black fall. 】”

"[As for my words, although it occupies the former urban centers of 'Radbarhei City', 'Stinking Tower', 'Power Pumping Station' and 'Zak Tower', due to the failure of most of its functions, it can only control the remaining one-third of the eastern side of the Black Drop. 】”

Oh, "Zactar"? Arthur looked at Septin and saw the old mage nod and shake his head, perhaps to say "It's there, but don't mention it now."

"[Since you've been close to the 'Twilight Zone', you should have seen the defenses there, either Zerus or the ordinary Forge Mechanism, of course, because all the mechanical guards and fabrication workshops are under my control, which is why I have been able to hold out until now and have not been defeated by the 'living dead'. 】”

"The Living Dead?" Arthur asked suspiciously, and at the same time looked at his "Oath and Sword of Victory", if [Twilight] is full of undead, then the advantage will be great.

"[We can talk more about the details in the tower,] Gelleb paused, "[There should be the 'Stink Tower' ahead, but you can rest assured that although it got its name because it was responsible for disposing of the garbage in the city, that work has been stopped for thousands of years. 】”

Well...... Understand, just like we can't find any shops in [La de Balhei], but as expected, the [Power Pump House] should still be functioning.

Arthur thought as he looked at the dwarven building that was gradually appearing in front of the team, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, in the shape of a vertical tower.